Non-alcoholic Stress Relief

I have had exactly one drink in the last three months since starting my liver-healthy diet. I had an especially bad day yesterday. Not really bad in the grand scheme of things, but bad in my own head. Too many unplanned things happened in too quick succession which left me feeling under attack and over-whelmed. A few hours later things looked much better and I was able to process everything. ...

October 18, 2018 · Chuck

The number starts with a '2'!

I’ve made it below 300 pounds! Yesterday I weighed in at 295 pounds. I am officially lighter than my driver’s license (which was a big fat lie for the last 8 years, anyway) Carrie lost 5 pounds and Ashley lost another pound last week. The three of us have not had bread, sugar or pop for almost a month. We spend our evenings talking about non-scale victories like fitting into old clothes or no longer having the after-dinner bloat. We’re saving money by not buying high-carb, high-sugar snacks at the movies (or anywhere else). ...

August 27, 2018 · Chuck

Fat, Sick and Dying

“I’ve decided to lose weight.” I’ve dreaded making one of these posts because if I don’t follow through, it’s just a documented example of my failure. My liver enzymes came back really high this past month and I had to have an ultrasound to find out I’ve got nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. It’s early in the disease, as stages go, but as Carrie has said - it’s the first hard evidence we have to make some changes. Up until now it was easy to cheat or go back to old eating habits because while I was fat, I was sort of healthy. I mean, I had no heart problems or blood pressure problems. But this diagnosis means that the last few years of joint pain and poor sleep and no activity is not just a sign of getting old. I’m wearing out. ...

July 7, 2018 · Chuck

Walking

Today is the 10th day of walking, and I’m wondering if I’m going to die in my chair. This is the end of my second week of walking everyday. I set a reminder on my calendar to walk at 4pm on weekdays. I walk around the pond behind the building across the street. The whole walk is about .35mi. It takes about 10 minutes (or two songs on my phone). By the time I get back to my desk I feel a little bit like I’m dying. Just a little. My hips hurt, my thighs ache and I’m winded. ...

May 25, 2018 · Chuck

It's no wonder I'm fat

November 21, 2012 · Chuck

Headache Day #1,378

Ok, so I’m about eight hours into one of my all-day-headaches. I get a headache of some sort almost every day, and usually a couple Excedrin in the morning gets me right for the rest of the day. This is not one of those days. I think I dreamed myself into this headache because I woke up with it. Or rather, this headache woke me up. I remember having some kind of complex dream about work. I’m trying to integrate a database and some existing documents to generate documents on-the-fly for one of the departments and with the deadline fast-approaching, I’m stuck on where to begin. Nevertheless, it’s enough to give me a headache when I’m awake, let alone in a dream. ...

October 26, 2005 · Chuck