318.0 . . . Or . . . Be careful what you wish for . . . .

OK, so one of my little goals was to be below 320 before we left for Vegas next Thursday. This morning weighing in, I was a 318.0. Woo hoo? Well this isn't exactly the way I had wanted to get below 320. By being sick for 1.5 weeks. So after the results of my CT scan earlier this week, it turns out I have Divirticulitus and not appendicitis. It is basically an irritation in your large intestine that causes pain. It's treated with anti-biotics and in extreme situations surgery. So far I've been on the antibiotics for 5.5 days now and don't feel a whole lot better. Definitely better, but not a whole lot. I'd say the pain is 50% of what it was, but I still have no appetite and well . . . . we'll just say . . . nah, don't want to gross you out. So be careful what you wish for, it just may come true.

29 Apr '07 - 09:36 | John | General | No comments yet | Permalink

322.5 . . . Woo Hoo!

OK, yes, I'm still sick . . . but seeing 322.5 on the scale this morning was AWESOME! The lowest I've been in I don't know how long.

Doctor Update
I went to the doctor yesterday for my abdominal pains . . . after poking around for awhile he looks at me and says "I'm going to order a CT scan for you as soon as possible." WHAT? CT Scan, that sounds serious! I thought I had the flu! Apparently he thought it may be appendicitis (sp?). I mention to him . . . you know, I'm getting married in 13 days . . . he replies with "Not if your appendix bursts your not." . . . Oh great . . . Teri is going to love this. I say "well if the CT scan revelas that it IS appendicitis and we decide to have it yanked out, how long is the recovery" he mentions that if they get to it before it explodes in your abdomen, the recovery is only 24 - 48 hours. WHEW! OK, lets go for the CT scan. So they set the CT scan up for 2:30 that afternoon. I'm not to eat or drink anything 4 hours prior. Since it was already after 11, no eating or drinking. I hadn't eaten since 7:30 the prior evening and was starving. The sit me down with the phlebotemist (vampire) and do some blood work. She and I are on a first name basis and I have absolutely no problem with needles and it's always very pleasant. She's a good vampire and never bruises my arm and hits the vein on the first shot. After that I head out.

So I call Teri and give her best case (some bug) and worst case (exploded appendix, lights and siren to the hospital, hope I don't die and we postpone marriage for a couple weeks). She's uber thrilled. She calls back a little while later to say she's taking the rest of the day off to take me to the CT scan. I go to the pharmacy and fill my prescriptions (in case of bug) and wait for her at home. After she arrives, we head over to Tacoma for the CT scan. On the way there Teri asks "Did they have you drink any contrast?" . . . "No" I reply . . . great . . . medicinal drink. Pills, needles, bring em' on. No issue what so ever. If I have to swallow any liquid that even has a hint of medicine in it, I start looking like a cat with a 20 year old hairball. Gagging, choking, etc.

We arrive at the CT scan place 30 minutes early and the receptionist asks "Did your doctor give you any contrast to drink?" "No" I reply. "OK, we'll get you some, is vanilla ok?" . . . "Fine". After I sit down, she brings out my "smoothie" and so commences the kitty hairball incident . . . in a lobby full of people no less. It actually didn't taste that bad, but I think it's psycho sematic. My mind knows there is medicine (Barium Sulfide in this case) in the drink and rails against it. I managed to get it down and inform the receptionist. It has to be in your system for an hour before they can take the scan. The whole time I was sitting there, I wanted to puke. But didn't want to drink another one more . . . so I kept it down.

Going into the CT scan, I was informed that I had to drink more contrast. The first one was for my bowels, this one is for my stomach. So I choke down another couple of swallows of it. He brings me over to the "bed" and I lie down. He inserts an IV (great now I have holes in both arms today) and starts a saline flush. I immediately smell and taste rubbing alcohol. Weird. We chat about the effects and he mentions, "just wait until I start the contrast, then the fun really begins". So the oral contrast is for your stomach and bowels, the IV contrast is for everything else. He proceeds to tell me that when he pushes the IV contrast, I may experience one or more of the following: Hot flushed feeling, metallic taste in my mouth, or the sensation that I'm peeing my pants. He further goes on to say "Don't worry, you're not peeing your pants, it'll just FEEL that way, so don't jump up and say I'm Peeing!" I thought that was kind of funny. So the scan begins and they start the machine and you slide into a donut. Once in the donut a voice (God?) says "Inhale deeply" then "Hold your breath" and the donut starts spinning and you start sliding out. On the way out you see a countdown timer and when it hits zero, God comes on again and says "Breathe". After a couple of those, God informs you that they'll be pushing the IV contrast now. When they did, I felt hot and flushed, but none of the other sensations. After a few insertions and extractions from the donut and appropriate instructions from God, you're all done.

Based on the MRI's I've had done recently, I'd bet the total bills for yesterday will be in the neighborhood of $1,200. Thank God (CT Technician?) for health insurance! After the scan Teri and I went to Quiznos where I had a sandwich and some soup. First meal in 20 hours and it was . . . OK. Got a call from the doctor late yesterday saying that the preliminary results of the CT scan don't show appendicitis, but if I feel worse at all to head to the nearest emergency room. Should have the full and final results back today. Still feel like crap, but I've got some work to do, so I'm at the office.

Oh yeah, and did I mention the scale said 322.5 today? :-)

24 Apr '07 - 10:06 | John | General | 1 comment | Permalink

Don't think this counts . . . but . . .

So when I weighed myself this morning it read 324.5 . . . or about 1/2 pound above my low the past two years. I'm pretty dang excited about that. However, I'm not sure it counts. See since Thursday evening, I've been having severe abdominal cramps and decided yesterday morning that I had the flu. Of course this happens the day I'm supposed to ride 40 miles with Brandon, Steve, and Carl. So no ride for me yesterday. Yesterday was spent alternating 3 hour blocks on the couch with 3 hour blocks in the tub. My entire intake for the day yesterday was Two Apples, Two Fiber one bars, 64 ounces of gatorade, and 6 ribs left over from dinner Friday night at Famous Dave's. So again, I don't know that this is an official weigh in, but I'll take it! 319 by Wedding Day? Interesting prospect! Hopefully I'll feel better soon . . . this sucks.

22 Apr '07 - 08:57 | John | General | No comments yet | Permalink

Dam2Dam Thumbs Up! Bike Ride 2007

OK, so last year you may remember that I bought a new road bike with the intent of eventually being in shape to ride the 204 mile Seattle to Portland bicycle ride. I've done a few rides of 20+ miles so far and this weekend, Brandon, Steve and I are heading out for what is looking like 40 miles.

Last year Steve signed up for a ride to support the Mike Utley foundation and Spinal Cord Injury Research called the Dam2Dam Thumbs Up! Bike Ride. It's a ride of 25, 50, or 100 miles and the route takes you between two Dams in Eastern Washington, hence the Dam2Dam moniker. So being inspired by Steve (who is training to do the STP this year in ONE DAY!) I've signed myself up to ride in the Dam2Dam in September. I'm going to do the 50 mile event, unless something crazy comes up and I feel like superman and decide last minute to do the 100. (You never know)

So, one component of doing this ride is fundraising. So, if you enjoy reading my blog and would like to support my cause, I've set a goal of raising $3,000 in support of the Mike Utley foundation. I'd really appreciate it if you'd show your support for my blog and my commitment to losing weight and getting in shape by making a donation. The Mike Utley foundation is a 503.c organization and as such, your donation is 100% tax deductible.

If you'd like to donate online, you may do so at the following link:
http://www.mikeutley.org/shop/product.esiml?PID=4

Just be sure to put my name "John Hurlbut" in the Rider's name box. I will be eternally grateful!

More about Mike Utley and the Mike Utley Foundation: (more)

True . . . True . . .

So one thing I forgot to mention about yesterday's ride was that when we headed back from the half way point, I heard a "tink, tink, tink" in my front wheel . . . not a good sound. I looked down and a spoke had come loose. I had noticed that the wheel was coming out of "true" throughout the ride. By the half way point, it was pretty pronouced. (CRAP!) I stopped, reached down and thankfully the spoke had not broken. I popped the spoke back into the hub and hand tightened the "nipple". When we stopped again on the way back, I again tightened the nipple and was able to make it all the way back to our cars without incident. The wheel was pretty messed up however. I was bummed that my little multi-tool did not have any spoke wrenches on it.

So after cleaning up and heading out for the day, Teri and I stopped at Performance Bike in Tacoma (BTW, I love Performance bike, but the Tacoma store has HORRIBLE HORRIBLE customer service. I've never once been asked if I needed help in the dozen or so times I've been in there. By contrast, the Bellevue store is AWESOME! Worth the 30 mile drive even!) and I picked up a set of spoke wrenches. We then headed over to REI, where I purchased a Crank Brothers Multi 17 Multi tool and a bicycle maintenance book as well as a host of other products that I couldn't live without. (I LOVE LOVE LOVE REI!)

This morning, I headed out to the garage to see how badly out of true my wheel was . . . oof . . . it was ugly. So using the concepts I learned in the The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance and Repair: For Road and Mountain Bikes I began to true my wheel. Now I don't have a truing stand, I was just using the brake calipers as a guide. After about 1/2 hour, A) all my spokes were tight again and B) the wheel was about 99% "True" . . . I still have one tiny, tiny wobble in it . . . but it's WAY better than it was yesterday. And the bike is rideable again. All good things.

I've decided that to be doing any serious biking at all, I'm going to need a bike maintenance stand, a full compliment of tools, and likely a truing stand. The one thing I heard when I was buying my bike is that since I'm such a big guy, I'm going to give my wheels a lot of abuse. Well I've got about 84 miles on my bike now and I can see that this will be a fact of life. So the couple hundred investment into a good set of tools will save me in the long run by not having to take my bike in for costly repairs and truing of the wheels.

Happy!

OK, so last Saturday I posted my weight as 336.5 pounds . . . and I was frustrated that after 2 weeks on Slim in Six, I had only lost 3 pounds. Well I moved up to the "Ramp It Up" workout this week and only managed 3 days of it. However, when I stepped on the scale this morning, one week later, my weight read 330.0 . . . only 1/2 pound from the 320's I've been shooting for this week. And it means I'm down about 9.5 pounds for the first 3 weeks. My belt is up a notch or two, so that's cool. I fit into booths at restaurants better, and I'm holing my head higher. It is working, it will take time, I just have to be patient.

In other news, Teri bougth a bike this week. A nice Trek 7000 comfort bike. I've been on her since I bought a bike to buy one too . . . she finally broke down and did it. I think she really thought she'd hate riding. We went out on Wednesday night for a quick 2 miles around the neighborhood and she seemed to like it well enough. I didn't have to sit site today, so we decided to head down to the Orting trail and give it a real test. We originally planned to do 5 - 10 miles as Teri wasn't sure how she'd like it. After 5.71 miles out, she wanted to keep going and we went all the way to the South Prairie City Limits from the McMillan trail head. 10.13 miles! I was really proud of her! We did 20.26 miles round trip according to my cycle computer. I'm really hoping this is something we can do together throughout the summer and well into the fall. I really enjoyed it when we were first dating and we often met at the YMCA for a workout. It's nice to be able to workout together. Even though we're both doing the Slim in Six program, I do it in the morning, and she does afternoons. So I'm hoping that by the end of the Summer she'll want to do the Dam2Dam Bike ride with Brandon, Steve and I . . . Steve wants to do the 100 mile one, Brandon and I want to do the 50 and I'm trying to convince Teri she can do the 25 with no issues. Now if we could get Liz (Brandon's wife) to agree to go along with her . . . I think we'd have a blast!

Frustrated . . .

So I've been working my ass off with the Slim in Six workouts for two weeks now. 6 days last week, 5 days this week. I'm taking today and tomorrow off mostly because I got blisters so bad on the backs of my heels yesterday playing golf that they bled. But also because physically, I'm exhausted.

In addition to the workouts, I've eliminated more than 99% of the soda I used to drink and replaced it with 100 or more ounces of water per day. I've been eating breakfast at home and NOT going through the drive through. In fact, I have not been to Jack in the box for breakfast at all this week. I've been making better choices at restaurants (not including outback the other night) and overall my food intake is down from what it was . . . and in my mind, it's a significant amount.

Getting on the scale this morning, my weight was 336.5 . . . when I started Slim in Six Monday of last week, I was 339.5. Yes, it's still 3 pounds I know and am somewhat happy about that. But earlier in the week it was down to 333 . . . and I was hoping that by today I could crack the 330 barrier. Well now I feel I'm a world away from it again and I'm frustrated. Next week I'm going to switch from doing the "Start it Up" workout at 25 minutes to the "Ramp it Up" workout at 45 minutes. That will add 20 minutes per day at 6 days a week an extra 2 hours a week working out. It's going to be tough to be sure. I'd better see some LBS dropping then . . . Do I feel better, yes. Do I look better? To me, no, to Teri, yes. So I guess it is doing SOMETHING if not dropping weight. I just can't believe that all this working out is building so much muscle as to offset any fat loss. Maybe it is.

Teri informed me the other day that since we moved into the new house (May of '06) she's dropped about 50 lbs. She looks phenomenal. She's going to look terrific on our wedding day. If only I can convince the photographer to take pictures of just her, we'll be fine . . . .

Huevos Rancheros Rollups - Revisited

A couple weeks ago, I posted a recipe that I had found in Men's health for these Huevos Rancheros rollups. I had modified it a bit by adding some sausage and sour cream, but today I jumped on Weight Watchers to see how much these things were worth points-wise. So anyone that's done WW knows you get alloted a certain amount of points per day, when they're gone, you're done eating for the day. (Yes, I know about flex points, yadda yadda, but no need to explain the whole system here) So this morning I made my rollups with egg beaters instead of whole eggs. WOW! Huge difference in points values. So 1 cup of Egg beaters = 4 eggs, enough for two rollups. 4 real eggs is 8 points on WW. To put that in perspective, I'm allowed 33 points per day. Teri is only allowed 23 or 24 points a day . . . so for me, just those 4 eggs would be 25% of my daily allotment of points. 1 cup of egg beaters? 2.5 points! HUGE difference! So even modified, here is how my rollups work out on WW:

1/2 cup Egg Beaters - 1.25 pts
1 Whole wheat tortilla - 1 pt
1 tbsp sour cream - 1 pt
1 tbsp salsa - 0 pts
Green onions - 0 pts
1 oz Pork Sausage - 3 pts
Sprinkle of Mexican Cheese - 1 pt
Total of 7.25 pts

Or with two, 14.50 points. OK, still a lot of points for breakfast, I know (probably time to eliminate the sausage) . . . now lets contrast that to my normal Jack in the box meal for breakfast . . . 1 Extreme Sausage sandwich - 17 pts . . . 1 hashbrown - 3 pts . . . 1 gigantic coke - 10.5 points . . . so for breakfast I WAS having 30.5 points . . . or almost all my daily allotment . . . WOW!

(edit: forgot the cheese, so added that back in to give a true points value, sorry about the omission)