Cord's Quest

Hey there, just wanted to pop in and see how all was going. I hope your struggle with the bike doesn't stop you from riding. I think its awesome that you got on the bike after so long of not doing it. Focus on the positive facts... you got up... you rode... you survived!!! Hallelujah!!! :)
I also suffer with over pronation of my feet and I went through many running shoes until I finally went for a professional fitting. Huge difference, I didnt realize how little support my shoes gave me, until I actually felt what a properly fitted shoe felt like.
I can't run *yet* but hopefully in my near future.
Keep up the great work, and...hope your Ass feels better soon..lol
Michelle
 
Mike - yeah, the bike is better cardio than the stationary bike, fer shure. Gets a lot more of your body involved.

Kori - yeah, I thought the stationary bike was supposed to get me ready for the real thing! Not even close. Totally different when the pedals are resisting with your body weight (which I have plenty of). Been quite a while since I was on an actual bike.

Cabbie - welcome to my space! I'm hoping to get decent shoes on Friday. I know they will be expensive, but my health and feet are worth it, I think.
I'm not too worried about the bike seat - it is always going to hurt the first few times, until I get used to it.
And yeah, gravity gets me down. :)

Michelle - thanks for popping in. I intend to keep riding, for sure. Today I wanted to see what the first time was going to feel like. I hurt all over right now. But that will get better - my technique will improve, I'll get more strength and stamina.

As for running - that's a long way off, I think. Between my current difficulty with high-intensity cardio (even jogging is high-intensity for me right now), and my bad knees, I'm going to wait until I am quite a bit smaller before I start trying to run. I'm thinking maybe when I hit 250 I'll give it a shot.

On Father's Day there is a 10k run in Williams Lake. I'm going to walk it with a buddy of mine. It'll be my Father's Day present. I'm going to take the day off work for it. Should be fun.
 
Too much to do today to take a lot of time here, but I wanted to post the results of this week's weigh-in.

290lbs - down 2.

Pretty happy there, given that I felt extra slump-y this last week.

Hope everyone has a great day today!
 
Hey, I'm back.

We went for an overnight shopping trip to Kamloops (3 hours away from where we live for you non-BC types).

I ate restaurant food, including fries and all, but I did so with a clear head and with a clear conscience. A day isn't going to kill me, and we wanted to just relax and enjoy ourselves. I did continue to avoid pop, and there were no refills on the fries or anything. I'm at peace with it. Back on track today, though.

While there, I went to a specialty running shop, and had the guys there look at my feet, my gait, talk to me a lot, and generally figure out what shoes were going to be best for me.
This was a new experience for me. I've never dealt with someone who _really_ knows shoes before. And these guys especially know athletic shoes.

My initial online research led me to think that a motion control shoe was the way to go, but the guys at the store checked me out and recommended a stability shoe instead - a little less extreme than the motion control shoes.

It took almost an hour, and I tried on four different shoes, but the first pair I tried were the ones I kept coming back to.
I got a pair of Saucony Progrid Hurricanes, $159.99 + tax. $180 total.
Great support, make my feet feel snug and safe, and they look good too.

I'm going to take them out for a spin later this morning.

Hope everyone was doing well in my absence.
 
hey cord,
glad to hear you had some good relaxation time...we all need a rest every now and then to help us recharge.

and glad to hear you got some good shoes too, you can't put a price on quality so that $180 will definitely go a looong way...the part i never quite like is the whole breaking them in thing because i always end up with blisters....but sounds like the store you went to they definitely knew what they were doing so hopefully you won't have to go throught that.

otherwise thanks for passing by my diary...i always say i wouldn't know what i'd do without the forum...it's a major reason why i haven't fallen off the wagon and hope to keep going till one day i can actually post my before/after pics.....WE CAN DO THIS!
 
I'm sick. It sucks.

On the up side, I'm staying home from work.

On the down side, It's been so long since I got any significant exercise that I am turning back into a lump.

It sucks.
 
hey cord,
sorry to hear your not feeling well...well about the working out you've been doing great so a few days off won't do major damage...as long as your determination is still there is all that matters. it means you'll be able to rise up again and start kicking butt! all the best xoxo

Cord the Seeker said:
I'm sick. It sucks.

On the up side, I'm staying home from work.

On the down side, It's been so long since I got any significant exercise that I am turning back into a lump.

It sucks.
Click to expand...
 
Cord the Seeker said:
I'm sick. It sucks.

On the up side, I'm staying home from work.

On the down side, It's been so long since I got any significant exercise that I am turning back into a lump.

It sucks.
Click to expand...

Takes longer than a day or two...

BTW, I know the feeling, I do it to myself all the time. I hate it when I have to take a non-scheduled exercise day off.
 
Yeah, except it has been 6 days now, with only one day of exercise in there.

Went to the doctor today - I have a bacterial infection in my throat and sinuses. Swollen tonsil, big lymph nodes, the works. Got a big ol' bottle of antibiotics.

I also told the doc about my health initiative, and he was quite pleased. Always nice to give a doctor some good news - usually all they get is people coming in in poor health.

He checked my BP - 126/80 - awesome.

And I used the scale while I was there.
287 - down three more pounds. I guess you burn calories fighting off disease, and probably I'm also not eating as much.

Not that I'm recommending illness as a weight loss method. :)
 
Hope youre starting to feel a bit better. I reckon the body is getting enough exercise trying to fight off the thugs in your system, don't fret too much over missing a few days. Remember this is a long term thing, so there's no rush, a few days ain't gonna ruin it all.

Milk it for all it's worth and play the sympathy vote and get waited on for a couple of days :sifone:
 
Feenix said:
Hope youre starting to feel a bit better. I reckon the body is getting enough exercise trying to fight off the thugs in your system, don't fret too much over missing a few days. Remember this is a long term thing, so there's no rush, a few days ain't gonna ruin it all.
Click to expand...

Yeah.
I'm not fretting too much. Honestly. :)

I just find it hard to eat right when I am sick. In particular, I tend to avoid vegetables and eat mainly fruit and protein. Breakfast right now is a small steak and a slice of toast with almond butter. I think my body is craving protein as raw materials to fight the bugs.

I am going a little stir-crazy. I'm used to getting outside every day and walking around. Doc says no strenuous exercise for a week, lest the infection spread into my lungs. Doesn't mean I can't go for a nice easy walk today, though, and it looks like a warm day out there.

It is sometimes hard to stay in the mindset that this is a long-term, even lifetime process. It still feels in my head like one bad day will ruin everything, when logically it doesn't. I know that this isn't really a setback. I know that when I am better I will return to my regular lifestyle - my new regular lifestyle, that is.

Edit: Have been wanting to measure my progress by something other than just the scale. I'm taking body measurements monthly, and I ordered a set of Accu-measure calipers that should be arriving in the mail today, hopefully.
I tried using the body fat tester at the pharmacy yesterday, and it said 34.9% BF. No idea how accurate that may or may not be.
 
Last edited:
Okay.

Feeling a bit better, taking antibiotics, throat still pretty rough.

Back to work today, though - I had the doc sign me off as good to go for today, so I can't really stay home yet another day.

Not supposed to do any strenuous exercise until I've totally licked this thing, but I don't consider walking to be particularly strenuous so I will go for a walk today before work.

I know I haven't posted my food log for a while - that is because I haven't been really keeping one while sick. I should have, but I didn't. Yesterday was probably my worst day, because it was Dairy Queen day with my daughter's Sparks group, and I broke down and had a sundae, a tiny chicken wrap, and half a small fries. Certainly a far cry from what the old Cord would have eaten (large Blizzard, please), but still not part of my plan for the day.

I'm going to attempt to reconstruct my diet for the last week, but I will resume proper logging as of now.

Breakfast - 6oz steak, 1 thick slice ww bread w/almond butter, 1 cup milk.

I ordered an Accu-Measure fat caliper and it came in the mail yesterday. Been fiddling with it, trying to figure out how to use it properly. As far as I can tell form the instructions, which say to measure the suprailliac, I grab the second big roll of fat from the bottom of my belly and measure that. I got some variable results yesterday, but this morning I got four consistent results, all of which put my body fat at 33.6%.
I really have no idea if that is accurate or not. I don't even know if I am doing it right, and I can't imagine how to find out one way or the other. Perhaps as long as I measure consistently the same way, the important thing is to see the number go down. Maybe the exact number is not as important?

The pharmacy at Save-On has one of those hand-held impedance testers, and I used that this morning after dropping my daughter off at school and it gave me a reading of 36%. I like the more pessimistic value - I always assumed I was like 75% body fat or something, to look at me. :)
Since I weigh myself once a week at the doctor's, maybe I should just stroll on over to the pharmacy afterwards and check my body fat at the same time.

I'm going to use both methods for a while at least, until I decide which one is more useful for my purposes.
 
For what it's worth, I got measured at school in the athletic dept by both electrical impedance and skin fold measurement for a class las semester. I'm 6' 8", was about 315 lbs at the time (sorry to say I have not gone down from that), and a pretty regular work out type. My BF% came in at around 33% give or take a little change either way depending on measurement system.
 
Cord the Seeker said:
On the down side, It's been so long since I got any significant exercise that I am turning back into a lump.

It sucks.
Click to expand...

This happens to me too:(

I see you post in a few peeps diaries i know and i notived your from williams lake, cool, cool:)

Im in Vancouver, good job on your weight loss so far:)
 
cinderelly said:
This happens to me too:(

I see you post in a few peeps diaries i know and i notived your from williams lake, cool, cool:)

Im in Vancouver, good job on your weight loss so far:)
Click to expand...

Hi, and thanks for dropping by!

I've been up "north" since 1997 (Prince George and Williams Lake), but I grew up a PoCo boy.
 
Tale of the Tape

Once a month I've been getting out the ol' tape and doing my measurements. That time has come again.


-------- 02 April -- 30 April -- 29 May
Chest: ---- 55 ----- 52 ----- 51
Waist: ---- 53.5 --- 50 ----- 49.5
Hips: ----- 52 ----- 51 ----- 50
Upper Arm: 17 ----- 16 ----- 16
Forearm: --13 ----- 13 ----- 12.5
Thigh: -----31 ----- 30 ----- 29
Calf: ------20.5 --- 19.5 --- 19.5
Neck: -----17.5 --- 17 ----- 16.5

Current weight: 287 lbs (starting weight 311 lbs)
Body fat: 36% (using the most pessimistic of several measurements, and rounding to the nearest 1%)
The body fat is a new measurement for me, so I don't know what my starting value was.
 
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