July 15 2010
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired about my weight, living under the guise of “Fatboy” and resting on my laurels from last summer.
No more!
As an avid listener of Dave Ramsey, who says “If I can control the man in the mirror, I can be rich and thin!” I have to take the same approach to my life and get me under control so I can be rich, healthy, and fat. Same principles apply: control yourself, don’t go with the flow. No more preaching from my soapbox about what I did do or what others can/should do to improve their lives. This is “go” time again for me, same as it was last spring.
What is the State of the Fatboy?
Sadly, I went from 135 at the end of the summer in 2010 down to a weigh-in of 103 a couple of weeks ago. That was the straw that broke my back this year. 103! The last clinic knew, I was 116 in April when I said I was dying because I was so exhausted and losing weight and coughing constantly. The doctor amusingly looked at me, saw and verified that I was non-compliant because I was working my butt off on both ends of the candle (you know the saying) and needed to do my darn treatments and take a break.
Attending the conference in Chicago opened my eyes to successful people who have offline zones and times. Sure, we were almost all social media junkies, but there is a time and a place to just BE. Now, rather than immediately checking my e-mail before getting out of bed and then spending the next 10 minutes on Facebook and Twitter in the bathroom while my digestive system comes to life, I go downstairs and get my nebs in order and start my doses. I don’t connect to e-mail or social media for the first 30 minutes each day.
What is the plan?
Yesterday, Beautiful and I were having a discussion that finally led to reason after we sorted out our emotions over the state of the business, our finances, and my attitude being generally “off of center” for a while. Chicago was supposed to recharge me and bring me back invigorated to take on the world, but I’ve been pretty “blah” for 2 weeks. The discussion landed us on some key points that we need to hit on more often than not in order for me to get control of the man in the mirror.
- Get back to having a routine. I used to hate getting up every morning at 5am, in the office at 7am, breakfast, lunch, go home, dinner, TV, games, bed at 11pm, rinse and repeat. I hated it! Now, I think I need it. It added structure to my life that I needed, only this time, I am living my life’s dream, Beautiful is here with me, and we can set the schedule how we want! Brilliant! I’ll detail my routine later.
- Get back to being totally compliant. I’ve gotten lazy in one area of my life: nebs. Now it’s in my schedule to do them, so I do them. In fact, I just finished my night-time nebs, so I’m good to go and do whatever for the rest of the evening.
- Get back to spending more quality time with Beautiful. Monday, for her birthday, I planned the trip to the beach (just so) and stayed with her without being off on Twitter and stuff on my phone unless we were both doing it or she was sleeping. I even took a nap myself.
- Get back to getting my stuff done. I’ve got lingering projects. Sometimes I can do a whole project in a week or so, but I’ve got some that are much longer than that. Some just need to be paid up on, while others are a communication nightmare, but I need to take control and wrap them up and get the money in the bank and lower our stress level.
- Get back to not being down on myself. I was uncharacteristically negative this week and I think it freaked her out more than a little bit. Today got some stuff done and the new schedule is looking up, so tomorrow is a new day with no-no negativity. I am successful.
I have projects like never before coming up this summer that I want to be sure I don’t drop the ball on, but I also have to take care of myself, first with vacation and then with sinus surgery in June.
Fatboy’s schedule
Here’s what we planned out yesterday:
- 6:00 – Wake up. Bathroom, no social media or e-mail, go downstairs.
- until 7:30 – Nebs, Vest.
- 7:30 – 8:00 – Breakfast and vitamins
- 8:00 – noon – Shower optional (hey, it’s just us), work at my computer. Start w/ e-mail, social media, catch up on industry news, and then start my most pressing or closest to finished project – try to finish something before lunch.
- Noon – 12:30 – Lunch downstairs. No e-mail unless my phone indicates important workflow e-mail from an open project.
- 12:30 – 1:00 – Read on the patio or nap or play WoW.
- 1:00 – 6:00 – Work at my computer and bury myself in code and design for the long afternoon session.
- 6:00 – 6:30 – Dinner downstairs. No e-mail.
- 6:30 – 7:30 – Nebs. Vest.
- 7:30 – Beautiful passes out – Quality time: TV, talking, going out on an errand or trip, or blogging like now.
- until midnight – Whatever I choose to decompress, including work if it will clear my mind to sleep. Other options: TV, movies on Netflix, WoW, read more on industry news, and Twitter.
The schedule seemed to work today, even though it’s Saturday. I got stuff done this morning and then was able to take the afternoon to work on the car before our road trip to see the second to last shuttle launch very, very early Monday morning.
Initial success
I’m up to 117lbs tonight after getting a refill of Megase for our trip to CA for a week of pigging out. I wanted to be sure it was a reason for my weight gain before trying to explain to the TSA why I have 8oz of milky fluid in my carry-on. I can assure you, it works as good as it did last year. I weighed 114 yesterday, but after eating all day today and then having a Hamburger Helper Italian Penne w/ 2TB extra olive oil and 1 cup of mozzarella cheese, a Boost Plus, and 16oz of sweet tea (2350 kcal), I topped out at that 117 in a great trial run of the Megase.
Man, I wish that stuff didn’t give me man-boobs from long-term use!
So, I’m onward and upward to 135 and beyond with a goal to rest at 145 this time. I’m going to need your help to hold me accountable to eating like a pig and keeping to my schedule so everything else works. We’re all in this together.
Okay man you have motivated me to get back to a schedule the other way. I REALLY need to lose 20-30 lbs for my health & the computer obsession is why I’m not exercising and am eating badly. You gain, I lose. I’ll be checking back in.
Deal! It’s a common reversal in my position, but I have already accepted a similar goal with another friend, one whose relatives have CF. He’s going to get down to a certain weight by the time I hit 135-145.
Excellent. If it were just for looks I’d say no deal but my health and yours are on the line so deal. Glad to know you Jesse and this is a good incentive for me. I’m 182 now and want to be 155 so my blood sugars etc are good. Game on!
That’s an even field. You’re on, too. I am using DailyBurn on my iPhone and my Wii Fit to track my weight. You may weigh in the morning, I weight at night. 😉
Kudos to you for being honest about your non-compliance. I think it’s a difficult thing for our community to admit, although I think 99% of us get lackadaisical every now and then. That said, even more kudos for getting back on track!
Thanks, Jenny. Doing my nebs now and just checked e-mail after 42 minutes of being up. Could there be a better number? I think not.
You ARE successful! And… I love the no email zones. 🙂
I love you, babe! I will remember your reaction to me leaving my phone at home when we went to the pool for a long time.
Jesse,
If they ask you about the milky fluid in your carry on just tell them you are a courier for a cattle breeder…… Hey keep up the gains and look to the future! I keep to a regular schedule (up at 5:00) too but add a daily hot shower (gets things movnig) 15 minutes fo bible or prayer time when I do my meds/colisitn/cayston. I find fig newtons very fattening! I weigh 165 and am only 5′ 7″. You can call me the CF plumper.
I’ve got a pack of strawberry Newtons and Double-Stuf Oreos at my desk. 😉
I need to rearrange my schedule to include the community center gym.
Psyched to see Fatboy back on the saddle (Jesse just wasn’t doing it for me). What’s nice about working from home is you have nobody/nothing else to blame about being non-compliant. And may I make a suggestion? What about sneaking in another treatment in that 12:30-1:00 timeframe? You only get one shot at this life, might as well be your best.
It’s good to be back, though my jeans have started to chaff ALREADY!
The only dose rx’d for 3x is colistin every other month, but I could do a Vest then. All my other meds are 2x anyway.
I assure you that doing albuterol/atrovent or whatever bronchodilator you use wouldn’t hurt 3x a day. What about 7%? Also, what the prescribe should be the minimum amount of what you do – you’re way more invested than they are 🙂
Yes. I am on basically the same except I do the Cayston 3 times a day. It can be irritating and I know it varies between 2 and 3 times a day for most of us. I don’t do the hypertonic or the vest at this point. I hope to add those when I retire from my Finance/Accounting job. Back to the travel thing…the last few times I have flown I have had no problems going through security. Pari Trek, Alerta and meds including liquids. Jesse you say you run. I wanted to pass on something from an old retired Dr. who told me that if I ever had a case of hemotpsis to carry in a little plastic pouch with 3-4 (20 mg prednisone’s) and (3-4 vitamin K tablets). I actually had to use it twice over a 20 year period. Once I was 20 miles away on a bike ride in the country and once at work after a bad bleeding episode. I popped the prednisones and the 4 vit K’s and within an hour the bleeding had stopped. My little emergency pack is about the size of two stamps.
Hahha, man boobs. You are hilarious. Pre-tx I was taking a lot of domperidone to help me eat and I actually started *lactating*. That was bizarre.
You should give yourself some real credit Jesse, you have way more on your plate as a CFer than other guys. If I were you I’d be damned proud of the guy in the mirror. Maybe our bodies subconsciously make us a bit less motivated or “off” now and then to take care of business going on that we don’t know about. Who knows what potential infections or illnesses you may have avoided by using up the weight you had gained last year?
In any case–not that this is what’s going to go on with you– you should read this hilarious link, about getting motivated after a period of “laziness”..this girl is so funny:
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/06/this-is-why-ill-never-be-adult.html
Also, I strongly recommend reading the post on “A better pain scale”. As a CFer you’d get a real kick out of it.
Be well and happy,
Chris
I’ll check out the link today, thanks. We almost always joke about the pain scale when I’m in the ER with a blockage b/c my face isn’t on the poster.
Okay Jesse checking in. I was 177 this morning, down 5lbs. Using visualization and cutting out wine on week nights. Didn’t exercise all that much as was sick most of the time (that made me eat – not the opposite). How are you doing?
Good job! My latest Facebook update on my weight: Lost 3 lbs yesterday.. blew through 120lbs today after lunch with a 4lb gain so far today, a 1.7lb increase from Wednesday night! Thanks for all of your concerns yesterday.
That makes a gain since I started with this post just shy of 5lbs, too.
This is how I felt all of last summer: FULL! I must be doing something right again.
Awesome! I actually hope you win the race lol but happy to have someone motivating me!
And I feel a bit hungry which is what I need I guess….
You need not feel hungry if you do the paleo diet. We did it when Beautiful was de-allergizing and she munches all day long and got to her true weight that she hadn’t seen since high school. Have you been to her site to check out our recipes? Cutting out processed foods and starches will make you feel like crap for 3-4 days while your body craves, but after that, you will truly be amazed!