Because they are beating me up this year. My nose is constantly plugging and drying out, my mouth and lips are dry, and I have a semi-permanent glob of stuff caught near the top of my throat.
Today, my stomach turned on me, possibly because the nasal spray I used to clear the stuffed nose may have gotten into my stomach, where it is far less effective. Or maybe it was something I ate. Or stress. Or aliens.
Anyway, I can never remember how long the symptoms persist, but other than nasal spray offering immediate, if temporary relief, it seems like none of the other miracle drugs do much.
Which is not a phrase I get to type out every day.
But today I do, because a visit to the urologist has resulted in a referral to get an ultrasound. From there, plans will be made (or not) for a camera that would further probe my innards.
You can probably guess what outcome I’m hoping for here.
February was the month I spent recovering from battling a kidney infection for much of December and January and I clearly sought solace in food, specifically:
Frosted Strawberry Pop Tarts
Cookies, cookies, cookies
Potato chips
Crackers
Cheese
Crackers with cheese
Anything with cheese
Basically, if it was edible and tasty, I ate it
This resulted in a rapid gaining of weight, which I could not shed. I course-corrected near the end of the month, steering my metaphorical ship about from the fatberg, but it was too late to make a difference. It didn’t help that I also jumped up another 0.5 pounds on the final day of the month (today). I started the month at 167.3 pounds, which should have been an easy target to beat, and instead ended at 170.7 pounds. Sigh.
Despite this setback, I do think I will begin losing weight again. I am back to running and my health seems at least OK for the moment. Also, my muscle mass increased by 0.4 kg (0.88 pounds), so it wasn’t ALL fat. Just mostly fat.
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 170.7 pounds Year to date: Up 3.9 pounds
February 1: 167.3 pounds February 28: 170.7 pounds (up 3.4 pounds)
Body fat: February 1: 25.8% February 28: 26.3% (up 0.5%)
Skeletal muscle mass: February 1: 29.8 kg February 28: 30.2 kg (up 0.4 kg)
This was today’s advice from Arnold Schwarzenegger1 I almost spelled the name right on the first try.
It’s not bad advice. Turkeys are fine, but they can’t fly. Eagles can fly, look cool, and one tried attacking Donald Trump1.
I think I’m more a turkey-eagle hybrid, though. A turkgle. I can fly like an eagle, provided I’m in a plane, hot air balloon or the clutches of a California condor, but I’m generally ground-based like a turkey. Also, like a turkey, we have a similar amount of hair on the head. I think I wear my lack of hair better. No offence to any turkeys reading this.
I’m not entirely sure, but I feel like it’s been so long since I ran outside (December 30, or 50 days) that I’ve become accustomed to it and am kind of avoiding running now.
For example, today is Wednesday–a run day! The snow is gone, the temperatures are mild, but the forecast calls for light rain, and I think, “I can’t run in that” like I’d melt or something.
But maybe if I just change into my running clothes and go out without a formal goal, I can test the waters, so to speak.
I will report back later with my success or lack thereof.
Also, filing this under “Health” since I may not actually do any exercise.
As I’ve reported before, my trusty Garmin Forerunner 255 has been reporting that I have been under a great deal of stress, experiencing high stress while sleeping and generally having Very Stressful days for about two months now. At first, I thought it was misinterpreting my kidney infection as stress and acted accordingly. But I’ve been off the antibiotics for a few weeks now and haven’t seen any return of symptoms, yet the Very Stressful reports persist.
So, I thought, maybe it’s something else. What else has coincided with the infection over the past few months?
I have basically stopped running. This isn’t permanent, I took a break after tripping and hurting my hands on my last run on December 30, then got hit with resurgent infection, finally seemed to recover from that and now there is snow on the ground. But I will run again.
Dealing with the infection and aftermath (there are more tests forthcoming for other things discovered that may be innocuous or could be more serious).
I have done little in the way of creativity: few drawings, no work on the game. I have been writing, but it’s mainly been the nonsense you’re reading on this blog right now.
Dealing with condo/strata stuff, as we restarted our efforts to shed the current council and management company (the latter of which specifically started harassing us last summer).
So, that’s a lot of stuff. Some I can deal with easily. I can fix not running by running. I can fix not drawing by drawing. The health stuff I just need to put aside for now. I feel fine and there’s nothing else to be done at the moment.
But the condo stuff, this got my attention this morning when I realized something: My mind wanders over to it constantly. When I say constantly, I am not engaging in hyperbole, or even just regular bole. Multiple times this morning, I caught myself thinking about condo stuff. It just comes up, unbidden, in my mind. Really, it’s kind of weird. It’s like my brain has adapted to just slotting in thoughts about the condo/strata whenever I’m not focused on anything else.
I think this may be a large part of my Very Stressful days.
Now, I do and will have to deal with strata stuff for at least a few more months, so there is no escaping it. But I don’t need to be constantly thinking about it. So my goal is to somehow train my mind to not think about it or if I do, to quickly divert to some other thought, such as:
Kittens
Puppies
Pop Tarts (just thinking, not eating)
Grassy meadows
Summer
A nice relaxing bubble bath
Walking alone among sequoias
Etc.
Basically, anything that will focus me away from strata and onto something relaxing.
I’ll see how it goes and report my findings soon, in the name of science and possibly my sanity.
It was close, but in the end, I was up a bit this month–0.4 pounds, thanks to a whole lot of comfort food indulgence as January was a very bad month (see previous post) and I sought refuge in yummy food when I had an actual appetite.
The one concerning stat is body fat, which climbed a full 0.7% over the course of the month–not a good trend.
I make no predictions for February, but barring calamity (and this year, calamity always seems like a possibility), I expect these stats to all start improving as I resume some exercise and eating better, healthier food.
Stats:
January 1, 2025: 166.8 pounds
Current: 167.2 pounds Year to date: Up 0.4 pounds
January 1: 166.8 pounds January 31: 167.2 pounds (up 0.4 pounds)
Body fat: January 1: 25.3% January 31: 26.0% (up 0.7%)
Skeletal muscle mass: January 1: 29.8.0% January 31: 29.8% (unchanged)
Sometimes I am glad a particular month is over. Sometimes a month was mostly fun or rewarding.
And then there is January 2025, the start of a new calendar year and a month that was just kind of horrible, mostly due to health issues. Let’s look:
I did not run. The month began two days after I mangled the heels of my hands on my last run, due to tripping and falling hard on a sidewalk. Technically, I could still run today, but that is unlikely. Running is something that keeps me centered and focused. Not running does not help me achieve these things.
Any month I get blood taken three times is not a good month.
One day I logged 190 steps because I was bedridden, feverish and in a kind of delirium thanks to an infection.
Said infection plagued me for more than the first half of the month.
11 days of outpatient IV therapy.
Having to shower, sleep and exist for those 11 days with an IV in my arm (five days left, six days right).
Still awaiting tests, including my first-ever MRI scan, for possible follow-up issues.
Speaking of firsts, I had my first CT-scan.
And all those IVs? The first one was also my very first.
Strata nonsense added greatly to my stress. I still haven’t found an effective way to deal with it. The stress, that is.
My camera stopped working, though technically that happened before January.
I leaned into comfort food a lot. I had Pop Tarts. Surprisingly, I was only up a modest 0.4 pounds for the month.
My sleep scores have been generally terrible–too much stress, generally not enough of everything else. I had one score of 81 (rating: good) shortly after the IV therapy wrapped up. It feels like a dream now.
No drawing. My last was at the end of December.
Blogging was down and I spent a lot of time staring at a blinking cursor.
On the plus side:
I got Jeff red velvet cake for his birthday and it was yummy, the perfect indulgence.
It didn’t snow (that may change in early February, sadly).
