July 27, 2018

I lost the past couple days of my challenge because of circumstance at work.  I was at work for 15 hours, and then came home and had a broken up sleep for 2 hours, then went back and was there for 16 hours.  

Although the time restricted eating thing wasn't really a problem, I didn't care that it was my last day of this challenge.  After putting in this crazy little stretch of work I decided to say, "Fuck it" and got a Dairy Queen cone.  

(Still no plastic!  No new plastic was easy.)

The first thing I noticed when I pulled up to my home was a garden of dying sunflowers as it has been hot and I hadn't been able to water them because of my time at work.  Damn!

I didn't get right at that though because first thing is first:  Go get in the river!

When I came up from swimming I got right at watering my garden.  The poor bastid has taken a beating.  (Elk and deer have been eating several of my sunflowers.)  I don't have a tap at my house, so I can't water with a hose.  I have to fill water cans in my bathroom tub.  For a garden that dry and dying, I had to soak it pretty well, which means a whack load of trips in and outta my home.

I was so exhausted when I was done that I decided to kick back in my reclining gravity lawn chair.  (Or whatever you call it.)  I was sinking into it nicely under the sun on my deck.  It felt good to stretch out, mellow out, and take a load off.  My plan was to pass out if that's what happened.  I was hoping for that at least.

Right when I was hitting that stride of bliss I got bitten three times by hornets.  Even while I was getting beat up by those lil' fuckers, I was realizing that they must have been building a nest inside the piping of the chair.

After the swarm mellowed out a bit, I flipped the chair over and sure enough, the army was alerted and a big-ass swarm of hornets followed.  When I saw that I started thinking of the walk with the hornet-y chair down to the river to throw it in and sink it for enough time to sort that problem.  I'll do that soon enough.  The new topic for the moment was to cut my grass.

I gassed up my lawnmower and got right at it.  Within the first minute of cutting my grass I ran over something I didn't see even though I was looking right down where I was cutting.  It was right beside the wall of my home, and was nothing I hadn't cut over and over, so I was a tad baffled as to what it was.

I just heard the noise, but didn't see anything, so I kept on going.  A few strides later I started feeling a sensation in my foot, so I looked down and saw a drop of blood.  It was nothing...just tiny.  I kept on going.  

It was really windy, so I thought perhaps whatever it was blew into my path.  I looked down at my foot again and was kinda impressed with how it happened as whatever it was launched up through the bottom of my foot through my sandal...perfect timing in my stride to be hit the way I was.  Some rain started coming down sideways to accompany the wind, so I put my lawnmower away and came inside.  

I promptly crawled into bed and passed out.  When I woke up my foot was totally fucked.  I didn't care about the walking part.  I can deal with being all gibbled just fine.  The only thing on my mind was not being able to ride my bike, because there is no way I can do it right now.

It feels like whatever it was that I ran over with the lawnmower pierced through and hit the big  plantar fascia ligament in the bottom of my foot.  It's like a perfect strike to a pressure point that has caused a rippling effect in my foot.

I'm limping and can't walk on it properly, but that is fine for me.  I can't stand on ball of foot on tip toes, etc, which is exactly how riding is done.  My already slow-ass running speed will be chopped down at least 50%, but probably more.  I'm pretty choked right now at the thought of having racing disappear just like that.  Gotta figure out how to see if I can heal it fast if I wanna chance to get out and give 'er.  

I'm gonna write more about what this means for the racing I had shaping up, and also to sum up my 31 day challenge for myself.

I have been altering my fitness program as I have gotten deeper into this challenge.  Yes, I had a few stumbles because of what my body has thrown at me, but I'm still cruising along really well.

I'm still keeping the weight program at 5 sets consistent across the board.  My hill charges have mostly stuck at 4 reps, but sometimes I do one or two more.  I started out really struggling with push-ups, but now those are feeling pretty good.  Instead of doing a target goal of 42 a day I have pushed that up to 50+, so it's nice to have some more thrown in there.

My bike has climbed up quite a bit.  My original schedule started me off at 7 minutes on my trainer for a few days, and then working my way up to 30 minutes.  I have blown past that by 25% by riding 40 minutes in a gear higher, so it burns some more for longer.

I don't really like riding on my winter trainer.  It doesn't take long for it to start hurting me a lot.  My feet and butt all get so sore and go completely numb.  When I am out on the road I can at least coast and shake off my feet every now and again; and for my ass, I can stand up and pedal.  You can't do that on a winter trainer, so it's pure suffering.

Of course, my quads get chewed up too.  When everything is going numb and unbearably sore, the thing I think about most is Travis.  A lotta local people know who I am talking about, but for those who do not, the easy thing to say is that he is a real good friend of mine.  The place I draw inspiration from him though is the way that fucker charges on a mountain bike.  Two easy examples:  

In 2011 he got sponsored to go down to Costa Rica to do the La Ruta.  It is a 4 day stage race that I believe is the hardest in the world.  Travis made the podium in his age group.

Travis charging in Leaders Jersey - La Ruta  (2011)

Yesterday (July 21, 2018), he just won his category at the Canadian XCO Championships in Canmore, Alberta.  Here is the link to his results:

zone4.ca/race/2018-07-21/2820e144/results/f41eba52/

Travis at the Canadian XCO Championships
(Photos by  John Gibson:  gibsonpictures.com/ )

I know how much time he puts in on his bike...in groups, or on his own.  He does insane shit like it ain't no thing!  In order to do what he does, and as well as he does, you just know he charges straight into the burn head on...looks at adversity straight in the eyes and punches it right in the mouth, and then rides over it.

(He really should be nicknamed, "Podium!")

So, when I am on my winter trainer and everything is feeling shitty and falling apart it is inevitable that I will get flashes of Travis pass through my mind.

I need to get my bike out on the road soon to see how my hernia reacts to riding proper.  I'm hoping that there will be a big difference now that I have put in the time I have into my body through this fitness end of my challenge.  

I wanna feel the roll on the road!  
I wanna stand up and charge!
I wanna dig into some hills!

I've decided to extend my 31 day challenge longer, at least until August 16th; but when the initial 31 days are up I will be pulling my bike off my trainer and getting it out on the road, because I need to put that time in.

I haven't just increased some numbers within the exercises I have been doing, I added a new element too:  Treading water!

The river has finally warmed up enough to properly get into it, so I have gotten straight at treading water.  I'm only in the beginning days of that, but I started with about 12 minutes, then 16, and increasing from there.  The water is still cold enough to leave me feeling it by the time I get out, but it is nice for the hot sun as it really drops my core temperature.

I will start swimming any day now as well.  I am feeling a lotta pressure to get on top of that because I am running out of time to do so.  It is definitely on my mind though, because I have tried a bit, and my right shoulder is really messed up.  I have to figure out how to modify my already limited stroke so I can swim most efficiently for how screwed up I am.  I just need to put the time in and then I will find my way through the pain.  I always do.

The reason for the pressure I have been feeling from swimming, and that firm date of August 16th that I mentioned above is because I have just signed up for a weekend of racing in Penticton from August 17-19.  I will be doing all three days.

The Super League Triathlon in Penticton is a new one since my last days of racing in 2012.  It is on the same weekend of the legendary Kelowna Apple Triathlon...most often our National Championships!

(The Super League event in Pentiction:  superleaguecanada.com/ )

I was looking to do the Apple when I started thinking about racing again not too long ago.  When I went on the Tri-BC website for the first time since 2012 to check it out, I saw this Penticton 3 day event!  Shiiiiiiit!

Even though the Apple is hosting the National Championships again on the same weekend, I wanna charge three days in Penticton.  Why do one day when I can do three?!  I can do the first two in Penticton and then go up to Kelowna for the Apple, but I wanna complete the whole Penticton race.  Besides, even though they are the same distance over all:

Swim 1500m
Ride 40km
Run 10km

I like the format in Penticton of doing back to back Sprint Triathlons:

Swim 750m
Ride 20km
Run 5km

I'm also interested to see what the course is like in Penticton.  When I raced the Peach there, the run had a crazy long uphill after a flat to warm up the legs.  The ride was nice and rolling too.  The Peach was a full Olympic distance though, so not sure if the course will follow the same basic routes for a double Sprint.  I am curious for sure!

There is also a beautiful thing about Penticton with triathlon.  Yes, the National Triathlon Centre is in Victoria as is the home of 3 time Kona (Ironman Hawaii) winner Peter Reid, and Simon Whitfield lives on Saltspring Island and trained out of the pool in Sidney BC (The Commonwealth Pool from the 1994 Victoria games.), but anyone who knows anything knows that the Okanagan is the beating heart of triathlon in Canada.  That was always anchored by the Ironman Canada which was held in Penticton for 27 years until it moved to Whistler in 2013.

Regardless of the move, when you go to Penticton, the thumbprint of Ironman is all over the place, especially at the park where the transition zone is and racing is competed from.  I absolutely loved racing there.  

There's something about those ghosts of years past.  It's a real special feeling racing in Penticton.  I don't even give a shit that I finish last place, all that means is I get to be out on course soaking it up for longer than anyone.  In a strange way I always looked at the winners as the poor bastards who got to have fun for much less time than I did.  I never liked finishing races because it just forced me to stop having fun.  

I left my racing life behind on a sour note, and I am starting to feel that there is no more fitting place to get back out there than this three day event in Penticton.  I have no idea how my body will respond to it, and I know my body will be nowhere near where I would like it to be, but I don't care 'cause I'm goin' for it!  

Rest assured, when the pain sets in, that speedy lil' fucker, Travis will float through my mind.  It will make me smile and dig in even more!

Racing in the Okanagan again will feel like coming home, and just through the process of writing this just now, I have realized how much I can't wait to get back out on the track again!
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Just got back from treading water.  I don't really time myself traditionally.  I count in blocks of 100.  I timed how long it takes me to count to 100 at the general pace I do, and it is just over 2 minutes.

Today I did an 1199 count.  Screw 1200!  I wanted #99 (Wayne Gretzky) and #11 (Mark Messier).  Divide Gretzky by Messier and you get Gordie Howe and The Rocket!  (#9).  So...I'll take Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Elbows and The Rocket over 1200 any day!

Around minutes 15-16 (between the 750-800 count) I really felt my ankles getting very sore, so I had to kick much less.  Shortly after that I felt a slight pull in my right lat muscle...the same one I have been having problems with from push-ups.  I don't really mind those kinds of injuries though.  They feel like home to me, so I just suck it up and go longer.

When I was done I did a bit of floating and splashing around on my back gigglin' in the sunny water.  Then I went for a quick toot around on my paddle board.

My hernia has been hurting so badly that I have had to take a break from the fitness side of my challenge.  Daniella actually caught me crunched over my desk at work wincing and groaning in pain because of it.  It takes a lot for that to happen.  She didn't really like seeing me like that.

I am not good at doing anything except lying down while putting pressure on the lump to hold it in.  If I am upright it really fucks with me quite a bit.

The nature of the matter has slowed me down with my fitness challenge.  I can handle the pain, that’s not the real issue.  It’s not the same as something like arthritis.  That shit’s no big deal for the most part.  Yeah, it hurts like crazy, but it doesn’t really injure me so-to-say.  I just gotta toughen up, and then keep going.  

Of course my body has the ultimate veto on everything with my arthritis-y stuff…or anything for that matter.  Having lost so many years worth of time, I know that as well as anyone.  I can push through unimaginable depths of that pain and limited function though.  It isn’t even that hard even though it takes everything in me to do.  A hernia is different though.  I know that with a hernia I can easily rupture or burst it, and if that happens I am in trouble.  If it bursts I’ll have shit going all over the place inside that shouldn’t be there and it can cause all sorts of problems.

Having my hernia hurt bad enough to have me crunched over my desk at work wincing in pain told me I should slow it down a bit with my fitness stuff.  I wasn’t happy about that at all.  I have had really great momentum and it has been feeling good, not just in my body, but also in my mind.

I was on hold for several days.  I was pretty upset about it at first, especially having lost a bit of time early on and having to work so hard to crawl outta the holes I put myself in.  

I was psyched to get myself back level with everything, so falling back down even worse was not something that felt good.  I’m so hard on myself too that I instinctively started beating myself up for failing myself.  It ate at my mind and ate at my mind; and the more it did the more I got pissed off and let down.

Every time I would move around my pain would just elevate and elevate.  It took over my conscious because of not just how it felt, but how it was sabotaging my challenge.  I was pissed!

The fitness end of my challenge has been eating all of my time though.  It has been the only thing I do at home when I am not at work.  I have definitely neglected a few home life chores and such because of it.  One thing I did do, even though it kicked my ass, was cut my grass.  I had to do that with one hand on the lawnmower and the other holding my guts in.  It was a tough one, but I got ‘er done.

The extra time that freed up though gave my mind a bit more freedom to think of other things.  This inevitable caused me to go into a bit of reflecting upon the beginning of my challenge and the quick changes I experienced, as well as all the unforeseen little lessons…like how removing plastics can drastically reduce sugar from ones life.

I started to look at the time when my right hand and wrist were going through the changes to inevitably end up with permanent damage.  When that was happening, I was desperately trying to do a single push-up against my kitchen counter while standing.  Not a chance!  I bought a 2lb dumbbell to try to do some curls, and I couldn’t even come close.  The frame of my wrist was so bad I couldn’t handle two stinkin’ pounds!

It is in times like this that I can use the history of my body to show me where I am at and appreciate what I have in the simplest form.  

Yeah, my busted up guts have slowed me down and hurt, but I’m still so much further along than so many times in my life.  That should be worth something to be OK about.  

Thinking about that I started to ease up a bit on myself rather than being so hard on myself.  My concern then became whether I was using this as an excuse to justify taking a break because of the pain.  I didn’t like that thought though because I felt it did have some merit to it and began to hold some weight in my mind; so now I was faced with how to proceed.  How was I gonna make everything OK?  

I wasn’t about to stop the fitness end of my challenge, but my belly was so sore it was hindering everything.  The option I came up with is to mellow out in my mind a bit, and do the best I could for what I could do.  After all, it is my challenge!  Who said I have to stop anyway?  I can just keep going past the 31 days.  I can do whatever I want!  

I decided to alter my perception within it all and just look at all of this as a kind of learning experience to begin the shift of a lifestyle change!  Most of that came within the plastic realizations and the time restricted eating.  The fitness end of things will never leave me.  It has been at the root of who I am longer than anything else in my life.  I will never let go of it, nor will I ever move on from it.

With this in mind I figured I’d just get back at it as soon as my body felt kind of OK, and do what I could.  I mean, can I really ask any more of myself?  I will pull what I can out from within.  I’m pretty good at that, so that’s what I’ll do, and have to be good with that!

My hernia is obviously right front and center of my mind.  I want to get it fixed at the end of September so I will have enough time for it to be fully healed by the time I have to start shoveling snow.  I could get it done before then, but I don’t want to infringe on my swimming season.  I wait for this every year.  It is only a short two month window, and I don’t wanna lose any of it…not even for some shitty pain.

After my trip to the hospital and seeing that doctor about my foot on Saturday, I knew right away that he didn’t have a clue what he was talking, so I went in to see Dr. Link at the walk-in clinic yesterday.  (Monday)  I wanted to see what she had to say about my foot and get a move on my hernia.

Dr. Link is amazing!  I have seen well over 200 healers in the 25 years my body has been all messed up.  There is a reason she is the only medical doctor I trust.  I have been with her for I think 16 years.  The only time I consider anyone else is like the other day when I went to the emergency room on the weekend.  Talking to that doctor reaffirmed me once again as to why I have long taken the stance I have in regards to Dr. Link.

We started talking about my hernia.  She brought up my file as it has been a persistent thing from a botched operation by Dr. Schumacher in Trail in April 2016.  She said the first time before my original operation it was as big as a grape.  The last time we spoke about it last summer when it came back, it had grown and was as big as a plum.  This time was different.
 
As soon as I lifted my shirt, Dr. Link’s eyes widened and she was half shocked at how large my hernia had become.  She immediately grabbed a tape measure at first sight of my belly.  The combination of her expression, grabbing the tape measure and what she was saying about the size of it gave me a greater glimpse into the situation.  It was worse than I thought.  It is 6 or 7 centimetres…enough to cause the reaction it did from her.

We got right into talking about it, and how I wanted to go about things.  I told her my timeline I preferred, and told her with 100% certainty that Dr. Schumacher was not gonna be the guy.  

“He had his shot and blew it…he’s not getting a second chance!”

Dr. Link took notice of that and said she would send me to someone else.

The next thing she asked was my weight and height.  She said I looked like I had dropped weight, which was good.  Last summer I was carrying too much weight to get operated on as they don’t like you to be too big for that kind of operation.  I told her my rough weight and height.  (My frame is 5’7”, but I can’t stand up straight anymore, so I am currently around 5’5”.)  She said my BMI is at 29, which put me inside the window of weight where they wouldn’t bug me to drop more.  I assured her anyway that I would drop more by then for sure, and told her about my 31 Day Challenge.

Dr. Link was funny about it.  She seemed to try to think of every way she could to get me to eat treats.  “…but high end chocolates come in paper wrappers,” she said with a big fatty excited smile on her face.  It was pretty excellent!  I freakin’ love her!

After we finished with my hernia stuff, she asked me if there was anything else.  I simply showed her my foot without saying anything.  She got right into that.  As she finished talking I told her I had gone to the hospital on Saturday.  When I told her that, she asked me what they said.  I simply gave her the prescription, to which she immediately said it was the wrong thing.  Once again…Dr. Link crushing it!  The other guy in the ER was so transparent with not knowing what the hell was up with my foot, and Dr. Link was all over it.  She gave me a new prescription (more plastic), and in one day my foot is already showing signs of getting better.  Just like that!

If you need a doctor in Nelson, go see Dr. Link at the Walk-in Clinic!  She is amazing!

On my way out of her office I put myself on the scale.  Turns out I haven’t lost too much weight at all since I began this 31 Day Challenge.  That is because I am building muscle at basically the same rate I am dropping fat.  It shows the flaws in the BMI (Body Mass Index) reading as well as the serious flaw in simply reading a scale.  The proper determination of the ideal way to be has to factor in muscle mass vs body fat on top of body weight and height…then you have resting heart rates and VO2 Max, blood pressure, etc.  A full well rounded picture to measure the state of ones body takes many things into account.  Simply stepping on a scale and putting that next to your height is very limited and therefore flawed, of which I just showed yesterday.

One of the girls I work with just randomly told me this morning that I have lost weight.  I was armed with my up to date knowledge that I hadn’t really because of the muscle building thing, but it was good to know that I have been dropping away the sludge from my body.  I can’t really tell, but apparently it is noticeable to others.  All I care about though is getting back on track with my challenge even with the lost time, and newer outlook within it all.  I’ll keep charging along, and whatever results will take care of themselves!

The new bonus is swimming as the river has finally warmed up somewhat.  I can tread water OK, but it hurts my belly too.  I tried swimming a few strokes and it tore my right shoulder apart.  That pissed me off though as I am still looking ahead to doing some triathlons at the end of August.  I am not sure how I can do that though with my shoulder in the state that it is in.  I know I won’t be able to get into my wetsuit by a long shot, but I will simply have to toughen up to the water.  My shoulder is the only real concern…possibly my belly on my bike, but I can’t make a call on that until I get back out on the road and off my winter trainer.  I will do that in August.  Once again…Time will tell!

Time restricted eating has been pretty easy.  Once I busted through the first couple days of my body adjusting, the rest was pretty smooth sailing.  My fitness thing has hit some walls, but I will address that later.

No new plastic has been the easiest part of all of this.  Sure it has cut back on some things I like, simple things such as the bananas and avocados that I keep mentioning, but overall it isn’t too challenging at all.  I do know I will be bringing plastic once this is all done obviously, but I will address that at the end of my challenge.  I was, however, forced into breaking my no-plastic thing for an unavoidable reason:  

My Foot!

Something strange has been happening with the top of my right foot.  It was like a little burn or something that kind of lingered.  Nothing noticeable happened to kick it off.  I didn't hit it on anything, didn't get bit by a spider or whatever, no scratches, or burns...no nothin'!  It just appeared from outta nowhere.  It would always start healing itself up by the end of my weekend as I walk around barefoot all weekend.  It’s when I would go back to work and have to put on footwear again that the healing it was doing would become undone.  

I hate wearing things on my feet as it is.  I also have a hard time reaching my feet for years now because of the chaos in my spine and pelvis.  Putting on socks and shoes is a real challenge for me.  I am a flip flop kinda guy anyway though…even in the snow.  I wear those fuckers year ‘round!  Yes, I am a beach guy, but they are also comfortable, and easy on, easy off to wear too.

Luckily, I get to wear flip flops at work.  I have them kicked off and go barefoot in my office for the most part unless I have to get up and answer the door or leave the office.  I like that.  Even still, having to wear them that much would always hinder the progression of the healing of the little spot on the top of my foot that didn’t wanna seem to heal properly!

At first I was using a herbal salve that worked great.  Soon it didn’t really have any affect.  The wound got a bit bigger and felt like a healing scab, so I started putting on some hydrogen peroxide that I had.  That seemed to be helping too for a bit.  On Friday though, when I was floating in the water I noticed that it had just exploded in size.

The wound was indented like a little crater, and was pretty symmetrical.  It seemed to be expanding outward from the middle.  After seeing it like that in that angle of the sun with the water on it, I knew something was up that had to get checked out, so I went to the hospital yesterday.  

Of course the doctor had never seen that kind of wound before.  I am used to that.  I’m just that guy that doesn’t just have so much different shit wrong with him, but always things that are rare that doctors haven’t seen or say there is nothing that can be done.  This was just another one of those moments!

He gave me a prescription and told me if it didn’t get better in a week that it would need further investigation.  It was the first prescription I had gotten in many years.  I was given a prescription for pain killers when I had a hernia operation in the spring of 2016, but I didn’t need them and gave them away.  Other than that though, I can’t remember the last time I have gotten a prescription for myself…It might be close to 20 years…at least 15!  I’m pretty natural that way!

The cream that the doctor gave me came in a plastic container though, so that was my unavoidable moment of breaking my no-plastic part of my challenge.  I don’t feel horrible about it though considering the nature of the reason behind it.  My foot is gnarly and it was the first time in 15-20 years that I have gotten a prescription to use.  

Other than that, the no new plastic thing has been a breeze.  It has also been a real eye opener towards how much plastic we really bring into our lives on any given day.  I’m starting to walk through the stores and look at products differently.  Even when I am in a line-up to pay for something I see what everyone else is getting too.  Maaaaan…that shit is everywhere!

I went to the Kootenay Country Co-Op today.  I hadn't been there for awhile.  I thought it was time to go grab some food there as I have been to the Wednesday Market, Evergreen Natural Foods, and Safeway in Nelson.

The Co-Op has recently moved locations to their long anticipated new building.  It is much, much bigger than it was before, offering much more selection of goods.  I was psyched to see what I could get there as I have been on a pretty limited grocery list for my diet.

I was in there early in the morning, which was nice as it wasn't too busy.  Long ago, I used to have a self imposed rule to never go there on a Friday afternoon as it would be so busy I would just bail on what I needed and try again after the weekend.

I was quite surprised by the limited amount of produce available to me.  They had plastic tags and stickers on so much of their stuff too.  Although this no new plastic thing is much easier than I anticipated going in, I kinda can't wait for it to be done so I can eat some damned bananas and avocados again.

Right out front of their door was a display of peaches that I wanted to get.  They were in the Pulp Fibre cartons.  I was psyched.  I grabbed a pack and had a fatty smile on my face.  Then I remembered that my time restricted eating schedule was for when I was at work.  

I immediately started picturing myself eating peaches at work and knew that sticky fruit hands were not gonna be at all conducive to my work environment, so sadly I put them down.  I might go back on Friday to get some for the weekend, but can't say for sure as I might just go somewhere else instead

I poked around the produce and got some stuff that would be good for me and that I could bring to work.  Before I left I needed to grab some more rice as I was out.  I also decided on a bit of elbow pasta too.  I got the ultra-hippy kind too:  Quinoa-Rice pasta elbows!

I brought the worng lids to the containers I had with me, and couldn't get new ones, but I did have a couple old bags that I have used for a long time.  **I only bring a few new bags into my house per year as it is...just reuse the crap outta them.

Once I had the rice and pasta, I was set enough for myself, and headed towards the checkout.  On my way there I passed by the salad bar cafe stands.  They didn't have much out for serving yet because it was so early, but they did have something that caught my eye:  Enchiladas!  

Those fuckers looked good.  Before committing to getting some in my mind I had to check on the packaging.  They had the hard papery recyclable take away packaging, so I was goin' for it.  They weren't too big, but I only grabbed a couple.

Now, armed with those, I was ready to make my break to the checkout, pay for my food, and get the hell outta town so I could crawl into bed for some sleep.

I unloaded everything to get rung through, then walked around to the other side of the till to start packaging up.  Once the girl was done with my stuff she leveled me with the bad news:

$72.54

In my head all I was thinking was, "Are you fuckin' kidding me?!  SEVENTY TWO FREAKIN' FIFTY FUCKIN' FOUR!  Who in their right gawd damned mind thinks this is OK?!"

I was looking at the food I had.  Here is the list:

-Some Sprouts
-A little bit of Carrots
-A small amount of rice and elbow pasta
-2 Zucchini's
-2 Heads of Broccoli
-1 Bunch of Celery
-2 Bulbs of Garlic
-3 Small Red Onions
-5 Beets
-10  Potatoes
-2 Small Enchiladas from their Salad Bar thing

No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how this small amount of food could cost this much gawd damned money!  These people are outta their damned minds if they think this is acceptable.  There's no need to wonder why people can't afford to shop and eat at this place.  I was just glad I had some cash left over from a Gift Card thing I bought as a fundraiser one of my friend's kids was doing.

I'm all for supporting local business and stuff, but this makes ridiculous look awesome!

Many years ago, when I was on a small disability of about $450/month after my rent portion I was able to shop exclusively at the Co-Op.  Now I bust my ass workin' like a mutha-fucka and I can't afford to shop here exclusively.  The new Co-Op is outta freakin' control with this kinda shit goin' on, that's for damned sure!  I'll keep goin' there for the odd thing I can't get elsewhere in town, but for staples, this place can go to hell!  They sure talk a lot about being community oriented, but this says the exact opposite.  My goodness!

(This was actually Day 10, but for some reason I cannot change the title.)

I put in another long night at work, and instead of leaving at 7:00am, I walked out of there something like 1pm.  When I got home I knocked off my push-ups straight away.  I was tired, but it was pretty warm out and mid-afternoon, so I finished blowing up the recliner water float-y that I had started blowing up a couple weeks ago and never really got around to finishing as I'd use my Stand Up Paddler instead of lounging.  

Now, with this challenge of mine I haven't had any time to do anything else.  Today I said, "Fuck it!", and finished blowing the thing up.  (Yes, I know it is plastic, but it falls in the loophole of no new plastic...I bought it last summer, and have had it sitting on the floor half blown up for awhile.)  

I took it down to the water to lounge around floating for a bit.  La la laaaa..

I've started noticing that my swim shorts are startin' to smell like old stank-ass hockey gear that hasn't been cleaned for a season.  it is nasty, but warmly embracing.  I really do love the gnarly athlete within me where things like this hold a beautific essence in my mind.  Blood, sweat and beat up injury is the place I feel most at home...that and Grateful Dead shows!

(Speaking of Grateful Dead shows...  A real close bro of mine from Dead Tour days, who I haven't seen since then, just had a baby.  I'm so happy about it that I kinda can't believe it.  There has always been something different about people I did Grateful Dead Tour with.  I was living in Toronto, Derek was from outside of Detroit, and we met in Ohio.  We clicked right from the moment we met, and have been lifelong bros ever since.  Shortly after Tour ended when Jerry Garcia died, Derek moved west to just outside of Vail, and within weeks, I headed west to British Columbia.  When he had his baby the other day I had a rush come over me.  I'm just so happy about it.  I fuckin' love that guy!  Grateful Dead...bringing worlds together!)

It was nice to float for a bit, but I was exhausted and needed real siesta time, so I packed 'er in and went up to my place and crawled into bed despite it being mid-afternoon of a beauty day.

LaRae is pretty amazing!  She's always living life right to the max.

I had some thick cobwebs when I woke up, so I spontaneously took my doggie for a hike to the waterfall nearby.  I've had it in my head for a few days since I messaged LaRae about it when she was looking for local hike recommendations.

It was a nice walk.  The water isn't rushing as hard now, so i could walk out onto a nice slab rock right at the base of it.  There was a stiff wet breeze blowing off from the spray.  It was super refreshing.  I enjoyed that for sure. 

I stood there thinkin' about and sendin' out some huggy-smiles across the air to another friend who has been feelin' down lately.  I didn't stay too long though 'cause dusk was waking up for another night and I wanted to get home and do my hills.

when i got back to the bottom after my second hill i noticed my heart and chest doesn't feel the same pain doing the hills, so instead of just walking quickly...my version of quickly...I ran the third and fourth ones tonight.  I felt good, and more reveled in doing it barefoot in the dark...although I always do it barefoot.  

It's nice to feel progressions, even just small victories.  You know how it is when you string together and add up a bunch of small victories, you end up with something special.

The one thing I am looking at in my mind though is that it is 10:00pm as I write this and I have only completed my push-ups and hills so far.  The big hurdle in this moment is the chunk of time on my bike, especially with my legs all chewed up from hike and hills.  Once I get through that the rest is smooth sailing.  I just know it is gonna be a long night though 'cause I need to sit down for awhile though before I crack into any more of this.

Today I filled in a lot of holes I found myself in from Days 2 and 3.  I got myself caught up on my backyard hill climbs, my seated rows and my leg extensions.  I am now +1 on my calf raises, and yesterday got myself up +5 minutes on my winter trainer bike riding.  So, for all of those, I can settle into routine.  I've made up a lot of ground on my chest, arms and upright rows.  The biggest breakthrough came in my push-ups.

On the first day I struggled with the first three.  They were wreaking havoc on my shoulders and draining the life out of my arms.  As I wrote about them earlier in the challenge, "I had some reservations about those that was bordering on anxiety," it was somewhat daunting looking at completing all of this over 31 days.  A few days later I started making some progress, and my totals went up which was encouraging.  Then today happened...

Only a week ago I struggled to do the first 3 of the 42 push-ups I had to do, and then I fell in massive holes putting me down to -78 push-ups.  I clawed my way back though, and today I crushed down 81 total push-ups, bringing that -78 deficit to a +3.  I feel a bit of a strain on my right lat, but I expect that stuff to happen and will fight through it like always.

Even under such layers of fat, I can feel the changes in the fibres of my muscles.  It feels great, despite my tired body, but the feeling of how quickly I could turn around and leap forward with my push-ups is somewhat intoxicating.  Maaaan that shit feels good.

The last real holes I have to get a handle on are my stretching and focused breathing.  Those are easy though.  I made the conscious choice to sacrifice them a bit for now so I could grind out the real tough hard grunt work, and then settle into those two relaxing exercises as my reward for bustin' my ass with the tough stuff.

Thinking about yesterday and my observations with the indirect removal of sugars and how fast my body acclimatized to it, and then where I got myself to with my physical aspects of my challenge, I'm left once again fascinated by the capacity of the human body and the positive changes it can adapt to if some discipline and love is put into it.

I've spent more than half my life in a very pain filled messed up body, and have had most everything I love ripped away from me without choice.  (25 years this upcoming September 8th)  Through everything my body has been through, and what I have dragged it through despite it all, I have never lost fascination with the human body.  It is nothing short of remarkable.  I know what my body means to me, and unfortunately it took devastating loss in the snap of a finger to find out the real truth about that, but it's days like today that keep me grinding forward because even with all the pain and loss, I'm still able to pull off some bad-ass shit!

I saw these recent 'after' photos from one of Aszjeca's live videos she did.  This is absolutely amazing!  So, here I am spontaneously putting them up here as a little follow-up to the post I wrote about her at Christmas time titled, "The Many Faces of Aszjeca"

www.stevearchdekin.com/home/the-many-faces-of-aszjeca

Aszjeca has been absolutely crushing it with everything she has been doing.  I saw a part of a video she posted not too long ago kind of summing up everything she has going on.  It was crazy how much happy and excitement she packed into every square inch of that video.  I love seeing people thriving in whatever speaks to their heart, and the pure joy it brings them in the process.  It is really something to observe, and that was everything that spoke out from that video.

There's no doubt about it:  Aszjeca is bad-freakin'-ass!

Here's all the different ways you can find your way into her world.  

Aszjeca's page on Younique Beauty Products.  (She has been killing it with this stuff!): 
www.youniqueproducts.com/alb/products/landing#.Wz2A2bgnY2x

Facebook:
www.facebook.com/aszjecalorraine/about?lst=100008878053023%3A717307491%3A1530755378

Instagram:
​www.instagram.com/alburden/

Pinterest:
www.pinterest.ca/alburden/

Youtube:
www.youtube.com/channel/UCqtViuB09v_xE1XstwwPfJw

Aura Spa & Salon at The Hume Hotel in Nelson, BC, Canada:
www.humehotel.com/spa

(I'm gonna put photos of my menu tonight throughout this, but food list is at the end.)

I'm still making up some ground on my fitness end of things.  I can also feel the changes in my body starting to take hold as well.  My muscles are tired, but they are really tightening up a lot faster.  I had been working out for awhile now, but not like this.  Typically, one or two rest days a week are ideal to rest my body and let my muscles breathe so-to-say.  Going hard every day is definitely a change, but it is not what I am writing about today.  My topic of the day is "sugar!"

This was a surprise thing I never really thought about.  Eliminating all new plastics really altars what one can eat.  Pretty much everything in a package is gone; and then there are things like bananas and avocados that disappear from the menu as well because of the simple little stickers put on each of them.  (I will keep mentioning those because I really miss them already.)

Rosemary, Garlic, Ginger, Seasoning swimming in hot Chicken Stock

When you remove all plastics, the food that is left over is just natural fresh produce as well as grains.  Meats all come in wrappers of some sort...even the film on the inside of the paper meat gets wrapped in is a disqualifier.  Even though I don't eat too much meat, I do find myself missing chicken just because I can't have it, not necessarily because I want it.

With only fresh organic food on the menu, I was sure my tolerance for sweet, sugary things would really disappear.  I didn't realize how much until this morning.

I went into Safeway immediately after work as I was dropping something off at a friend's who lives nearby.  I was on the cusp of my restricted eating time, so I went there to see if there was anything available to me.  (I was hoping for some fresh bread from the bakery)  Turns out that pretty much the entire store is off limits, even their little bit of organic produce.  (The Safeway in Nelson has a really hurtin' organic department as it is.  Save-On-Foods is quite literally 100 times better with abundance in selection for organics and bulk foods...possibly even 200 times.  You can tell SOF actually listens to their customers needs and is aware of their demographic.  Safeway has their heads up their asses in this regard.)  Plastic everywhere!

When I went to the bakery, I was immediately eyeing up the bread in paper bags.  It was all off limits too as every one of their paper bags had a thin plastic window in them.  Bummer!  All that was left was the bulk bakery stuff.

I scanned through what their bulk selection had.  I grabbed 4 bagels.  When I left, I caught a glimpse of the doughnuts and figured it was my only chance, so what the hell.  I grabbed a couple chocolate dipped ones.  

I had them all in a paper bag, but although it isn't plastic, I still didn't like bringing that home as I am kinda getting into the non-existent waste effect all of this is having.

I started digging into the doughnut before I even got outta the store.  I instantly regretted it.  The sugar was so overwhelming my body didn't seem to know what to do.  My taste buds were on the front lines and were totally horrified.  I got a glimpse of light headedness too that took no time to show itself.  I could feel it travel right down my throat, leaving a thick sludgy residue behind.  I didn't get heartburn, but a shitty feeling did emerge

Aside from the obvious overwhelm, I was actually fascinated by how fast my body acclimated to the effects of fresh, natural organic produce, rooted mostly in rich greens like kale and broccoli.

Even though the doughnut made me feel like shit in numerous ways, I am glad I had it, because it really showed me something.  Yes, the terrible effects it has on my body, but also opened my eyes to the effect of how removing plastic can severely alter one's diet for the better as a whole.  It was like a minor epiphany that I won't soon forget.  I never really gave thought to the way plastic influences so much of our foods we eat and that are available to us.

I'm definitely not trying to be a condescending prick or anything, and I'm definitely not saying I won't eat sugar again., but this is just a simple observation for what I have experienced so far...and it happened in no time at all.

With the doughnut behind me, it's back onto the regular program...with a touch vigor.  (The bagels, by the way, I gave most of them to my dog.)  On the menu for tonight is my favourite thing to make...my one-pot meal I make in my skillet.

I have made this for Jana a couple times and she loves it!  It's just a lotta different vegetables, a sauce or stock, and usually boneless skinless chicken breast.  (No chicken tonight though!)

My ingredient list for tonight:

-Chicken Stock that I made on Day 1 (from the leftover roast chicken I had)
-Fresh Rosemary
-Garlic
-Ginger
-1 Yam
-7 Small Red Potatoes
-1 Beet
-2 Celery Stalks
-Lots of Broccoli
-Some Red Onion
-Zucchini

Toss that shit in a skillet, put a lid on it, and throw 'er in the oven for 40-50 minutes.  Stylin'!  The only bummer is I can't eat it hot outta the oven as I have to wait til I go to work dammit!

Day 6

I got a jump on things before I left for work.  I was tired and beat up, but I did 6 sets of hills and some push-ups.  All night at work I was beat to shit.  It was a busy night too because we had a lot more going on with Canada Day that never happens on a Sunday night otherwise

I'm not proud of much, but Canada (and being Canadian) is one of them.

It was all worth it when I got home and was ahead in thee game for the day...even if just a little bit.  It was the opposite of what I had been feeling from having fallen behind so quickly on days 2 and 3.

I knocked off a couple more sets of push-ups before I crawled into bed so I would have a bunch done by the time I woke up for my afternoon.

When I did wake up I knocked out some more push-ups and then got on my bike straight away to get that behind me.  My bike is the biggest solid time chewer I have to deal with.  I put in another 25 minutes on my bike, which has put me ahead of schedule.  It felt good to be up on something rather than behind.  By the end of today I will be caught up with my calf raises, and tomorrow I will be caught up with my hills as well, so I’m showing some good signs of progress.  The biggest picture of optimism though, is within my push-ups. 

My push-ups started out really rough.  Sure I knocked off the 42 I needed to get done the first day, but it devastated my arms.  Sucked the life right out of them and shredded my shoulders to pieces.  That left me feeling weary and like I was a tad too ambitious with the path I chose for myself.  I was committed though, and I know how I am, so I couldn’t let myself down because I would mentally beat the shit outta myself in a very devastating and destructive fashion.  I hate that feeling and I will fight really freakin’ hard to keep it at bay…defend my mental ground in my fight against myself.  The next day was devastating for that thought.

On day 2, because of how messed up feeling I was, I only did 6 push-ups.  That quickly put me at -36 completed.  I was so mad with myself, and I was also rattled with how things were gonna turn out with the rest of all of this challenge.  That wasn’t the worst though.  Day three happened where I lost the entire day due to my work.

When I lost that third day, I didn’t know to do just on the push ups alone.  I mean, they were draining me and tearing my shoulders to pieces when I was fresh.  How the hell was I supposed to get through the next 4 weeks when I have that as my foundation and was sitting at -78 for my push-up total?!

Even with the bars, I have a real short range of motion in my wrist, so it impedes in a certain way when it is strong and stable enough to let me bang some out.  The good thing about these bars is that they let you go deeper into the movement than just on the floor.

To answer that question I turned to the same page in my book I always rely upon when I am beat down with the walls caving in and everything in my body and circumstance trying to impede my progress:  

Toughen up, suck it up, and go for it!

Thinking about it doesn’t help.  That just eats at your mind.  Giving up is not an option, so that choice is out the window!  The only thing left is knowing that, in this instance, the push-ups aren’t gonna complete themselves, and the more time I waste, the deeper of a hole I will fall into.  So what do I do?  

Dig the fuck in!

So, that’s just what I did, and here are the results…

-On Day 4, even though I felt like shit, I banged out 54 of them…bringing my total to -66.  
-On Day 5, I banged out 52…bringing my total to -42.  
-Today, on Day 6, I filled a little bit more dirt into the whole I dug for myself by banging out another 54 push-ups…bringing my deficit to -30 in total.

I can do more, but I’m being smart about it.  I don’t want to sacrifice the rest of my daily fitness challenge in terms of losing more ground on several other elements of my challenge, only to make up ground on one.

Although I still have a good sized deficit, I have shed any sense of doubt or trepidation in my mind about the rest of the month.  That shit’s gone.  The fight came in my mind early on and I whupped its ass as needed.  Holes are being filled and ground is being covered.  Better than that though, I have that mental challenge behind me already at Day 6.

My mangled hand.  Only my index finger works properly...but he's a workhorse and I make that shit work!

Even with this full turn around, I know my body is gonna go through some shit.  I’m way too beat up for it not too.  I have far too much experience in this kind of realm not to realize that.  Sporting injury has never been a big deal to me.  It isn’t real pain.  I live with something far worse every second of every day.  Sporting pain and injury is actually comforting to me.  It’s like a security blanket that comes with me that I don’t have to carry.  It’s such a familiar feeling, and comforting in the fact that I know I only feel that way because of doing the things that I love.

There’s no better feeling than pursuing a full faceted test of one’s self.  Testing the mind, body and spirit simultaneously!  The mental games and wars to elevate your body to transcend the impossible for yourself is pure bliss to overcome.  It’s an absolute drug.  Not many people seem to understand that the way it runs through me because of how often I get questioned as to why I challenge myself like this when I can.  Far too many people have told me they don’t understand why I do things like this the way I do, and will often go as far as to tell me what is best for me, even encroaching on telling me it’s stupid of me to charge like I do, especially in my broken body.  I’ve never changed my attitude towards them:  I feel sorry for them!  If they only took the chance to really test every aspect of themselves all at once, to face deep, deep adversity within as well as with everything around them, only to fight the mental and physical battles to transcend and persevere, my goodness…a whole new world opens up. 

A GAWD DAMNED BEAUTIFUL ONE!

I never really feel the urge to explain myself to those who question what I do.  For the most part they don’t want to understand, even if I could explain it properly.  If anything, it fuels me to go even harder…to dig in even more, to get my fix of the drug I love.  I don’t do that to prove anything to anyone, or even to myself, I do it just out of pure love for what I do.  

The bottom line though is something I believe deep within, the only way we can find out what our true potential is, is to have the courage to imagine the impossible for ourselves, and use that courage to go for it.  Sometimes you make it, sometimes you don’t, but there’s only one way to find out.  That falls into the realm of how I often look at failure.  I don’t look at failure as the lack of success, but rather the lack of trying.  

Not trying is an internal torment that hurts worse than any pain.  I hate it.  It’s almost like a fear of that internal torment is what can often drive me to fight and claw so hard to battle with everything I got when I find myself looking into the face of everything trying to tear me down.  The worse it gets, the harder I fight.  If I go down swinging, I go down swinging, but at least I’ll know I gave it everything I had, and that is all that matters to me.