Uhhhh Headaches Suck

I woke up this morning with one of the worst headaches I've ever had.  One of those that hurts all over and the more you move the more it hurts.  Why of all the things God created, did he have to give us the gift of headaches??  It hurt to even open my eyes.  I  got up with the intention of going to work.  I went straight to the shower in hopes that it would help make my throbbing head feel better.  Nope, not even close.  I walked into the living room, kids were ready for school, wife was making lunches, and I was pretty much useless.  Sat down in the recliner and then came the nausea.  I haven't thrown up in a long long time.  Now I just felt like major crap.  When your head is throbbing and your stomach proceeds to push a 1000lbs of pressure upward toward your head, the pain is intense.  I was done for the day.  I grabbed blanket, sent a text to Dan saying I wasn't coming in, said goodbye to my wife and kids as they walked out the door and I'm guessing about 20 minutes later, I was out.   Then as usual, my phone rang.  It was nothing big, but it ruined a good nap.  I must have slept for about an hour.  I was freezing when I woke up so I got up to put more wood on the fire.  Huge mistake.  That sent me hobbling back into the bathroom trying not to puke.  I think I turned my stomach inside out cuz nothing came up but it hurt like heck.  So back to the recliner I went, covered up, and went nighty night again for the second time.   All  of this before 9 am.  Needless to say it was a rough morning.

With all that said, my 5th-6th grade basketball team had their biggest game scheduled today.  We were to travel to Sun Valley (little private school) to play a team that really excels at basketball.  We won our first two games, but this one was going to be a major challenge.  It was all I could think about.  Who was going to coach in my spot?  Nobody knows these kids like I do.  Nobody knew what position each kid played.  I really didn't want to miss this game.  Win or lose, I wanted to see these kids give it all they had.  Fearing that I would puke either driving over or even worse inside the gym, I proceeded to prepare some 3x5 cards for whoever they sent in my place.  Some were notes about positioning but some were personal notes to the kids.  "Don't be afraid to take a shot", "slow your offense down", "work the corner if you can"......each note was for a certain player.  I didn't want them  to forget anything we had worked on at practice. 

I'm so busy at work that I usually find myself complaing about having to go to practice.  What I realized today though is that I have really grown to love this team.  I love this group of kids.  I'm sure that all they were thinking is that they got to leave school early today, but all I was thinking is that I didn't want them to go into this game without their coach.    I go through this everytime I coach a team.  Whether it's baseball or basketball or whatever,  it's the growing that you do together that makes it all worth it.  Try too or not, relationships are built and quite often those relationships last a long time.  Coach John Wooden said, "coaching isn't about teaching a sport, but instead it's about mentoring young men".  That is so true. 

Anyway, back to being sick and our team having their biggest game.  About 11:30 a text comes across my phone.  The game had been postponed due to the 5th6th grade coach being sick!!!  Holy Cow!! What a blessing.  The other school agreed to move the game to Monday.  How cool is that??? 

The headache is slowly going away (as long as I don't move my head:)  )  .  I'm feeling like a cup of coffee but I'm going to go make me some hot tea.  Kids are home from school now so it's chore and homework time.  Hope you all have a good day. 

Uhhhh who taught this guy how to add??

It was brought to my attention that a few of the weigh in percentages were posted incorrectly.  When I got to work this morning I went through all the updates you guys have sent in and all I can say is,  "man, I'm such a dork!!!!"    To all of you who's numbers I messed up, I'm super sorry.  In order to keep from completely embarrassing myself, I won't mention the names of everyone I had to update, but if you check the standings now, some of you are going to be pleasantly surprised at your percentages.  I sure wish one of the screw ups was with my percentage but noooooo, I'm still straggling behind. 

Busy day today so I've got to go for now.  Have a super day.

Shout Out to Big Mamma

Since I'm not posting actual weight losses, but instead only posting percentage of weight lost, it's hard for anyone (except myself) to see how much weight is really being lost.  Big Mamma, you are doing an amazing job!!   You make me feel like such a pansy when it comes to trying to lose weight.  I'm back to 172 lbs!!!  My goal is to reach 165 by May and for some reason I can't even get below 170.  I say "for some reason" but I know the reason.  My lack of commitment has been horrible.  Big Mamma, SnowWhite, Sexy42011, WideWife, Wiggly, Andi, and the rest of you have been a real inspiration.  The numbers you guys have sent in have been nothing short of impressive. 

Speaking of Committment, I hired a new delivery driver last week.  For now I'll just call him JF.  Him and his wife are doing the HCG diet.  First, I have to say that I could never even think of being successful with this diet. I don't know much about it but I do know it limits you to 500 calories a day.  Are you kidding me???  My morning coffee has that many calories.   Anyway, with all the food that has been coming into the office, JF hasn't wavered.  He's been faithful to his one piece of fruit in the morning and his 3.5 oz of chicken for lunch.  The cool thing is, JF has lost 16 lbs!!!  I have my doubts as to the possible health effects of the HCG diet, but if it works for someone than so be it.  In the morning I'm going back to my "anticancer" diet.  Back to no sugar and white flour and lot's of green tea. 

I had my yearly physical today.  Doc says I'm going to live to be 100.:)  I highly doubt that, but it was nice to hear.   Doc asked me how old I was this year.  Knowing what he had in mind, I said 39 (I knew I'd be 40 in August but I knew before he even asked, I was going to say 39).  He proceeded to tell me that starting at the age of 40, all of his male patients get the good ol "finger".  The good ol prostate check.   Working with cancer patients all day, I should be more open  minded to early screening, but I just wasn't mentally ready for anything beyond my usual physical.  So now I've got about 365 days to get my mind around having something put where God never meant something to be put:).  Sure  hope that makes sense.  Man it sucks to get old.    With all the medical procedures I've had done in the past, I'm not sure why anything should bother me.  Heck if Katy Couric can have a colonoscopy done on live TV, surely I can deal with having a prostate exam.  I sure hope he doesn't check my blood pressure on the same day, cuz I know it's going to be through the roof.   Oh well, I've got a year to think about it. 

Well I gotta get up early and head to the lovely towns of Carrizo and Cibecue.  Hope you all have good night and super day.

First outdoors ride of 2011.

After a month of freezing cold weather, I finally decided it was time to take the bike outside.  It wasn't exactly balmy outside, but it was above freezing.  In fact after this past week of having temps hover in the low teens to windchills that were sub zero, anything above 32 degrees was appealing.  The downside to riding in the cold, is the time it takes to get ready.  In the summer you can throw on a pair of cycling shorts, a jersey, and your on your way.When it's cold though, you have to be a bit more picky about what you wear. If you wear too much, you will sweat your butt off, then freeze to death once your sweat starts to chill (doesn't that just sound gross). If you wear too little......well your miserable from the start and it doesn't get any better. If you're a little cold when you start, typically you will be just right once you warm up into the ride.

Here's the clothing list for todays ride. Riding pants, Riding Shorts (they're padded, the pants aren't), Jersey, Windshell, Toe Warmers (these go over the toes of your shoes, they're great), Insulated Socks, Head Sweat (bad name but it keeps your head and ears warm), Cycling Shoes, Helmet, Glasses, and of course the ever so necessary Ipod.

  I rode from my house (which is near the hospital) up to Hondah Casino.  Of course it's mostly uphill up to Hondah and today it was uphill with a tail wind.  That made the ride up, very comfortable.   Not so much on the way home though.  That tailwind that I so enjoyed at my back for 11 miles, was in my face and blowing very cold on the way back for the other 11 miles.  My fingers and my ears were feeling the pain, but all in all it wasn't too bad.   In fact it was great to be outside.  I wanted to make it at least to McNary, but there was just too much ice on the shoulder of the highway and ice and skinny tires just don't mix.   Being that it's early February  I'll take whatever I can get.  I'd much rather ride 90 minutes outside than 15 minutes inside.  It was good to feel the burn in my legs.  Nothing beats a good workout to clear the lungs and the head. 

I'm definitely out of shape. Today my heart rate averaged about 144 for the entire ride.  When I'm in shape, I can maintain that heart rate all day long.  Today was a struggle.  It took all I had to even hit a rate of 157 and even then it wasn't for very long.  When I ride the Ironhorse in May, my heart rate will never go below 160.  Needless to say, I have a lot of work to do. 

I'm sure most of you saw the Super Bowl.  What a great game!  I'm a big Vince Lombardi fan so of course I was going for the Packers.   Either way though, it was a good game.  At least it wasn't a blow out.  Close games are always much more fun to watch. 

It's getting late and everyone is asleep.  Gonna throw in one more load of laundry then I'm hitting the sack.   Have a good night. 

Tights and Socks

Oh it's finally Friday!!!! This has been a super long week and I am so far behind (not that I'm ever caught up).  We're doing our last interview today for Janelle's job.  It will be good to at least make a final decision.  My big goal for the day though is to find my desk.   You would never believe it by looking at my desk, but clutter drives me nuts. 

This is what my desk currently looks like.  The small  cleared out piece is only because I pushed everything from one side to the other.   I'm in and out of the office so much, I just run in, throw paperwork down then head back out.   It will look better by the end of the day.  I try to live by the notion of "touch everything only once", but so far I have yet to master it.  Typically all I end up doing is moving piles from one place to another.  They are still the same piles, just sort of relocated.  :)   BW, if your reading this, don't give me heck!!  Oh and hey!! Do I get your kid on my LL team this year?? 

So is everyone cheering on the Packers this weekend??  Dan has proceeded to teach my 2 year old to say "Go Steelers".  I've tried teaching him Go Packers, but so far no luck!   I'm not a big Rothlisberger fan so I'm for the Packers all the way.  Lombardi will be looking down from heaven and cheering on his hardworking Packers. 

I'm going to weigh in when I leave the office today.  My goal by the end of the weekend is to lose 3 lbs. Uhhhh ya whatever. It's SuperBowl Sunday!!!  Ya can't watch the SuperBowl without food.  Maybe I'll just eat a lot of celery sticks.:)  I'm feeling pretty chubby lately so I need to get serious about this.  I can't let all these women kick my butt at losing weight.  Heck, even Speedo Sporter and The Man are working me over. 

Oh and here's a final thought that will make you all nausious.   We all know it's been beyond freezing this week.  Well I've only got two pair of long johns.  Seeing as how I'm not going to do laundry every other night, this morning I decided to wear a pair of my cycling tights under my pants.  Now if your on a bike, nobody really seems to say anything about how unattractive tights are on a guy, especially a guy with wimpy girly legs like mine.  Well it was another one of those mirror moments.  I was getting dressed, first the tights then the socks, and then the mistake of looking in the mirror.  Dear Lord, I looked like a complete idiot.  I'll be 40 years old this year and things are starting to look that way.  I want a six pack!!!   No, not of beer, but I want some abs!  Not that I'm stuck on looks but if I could just lose this little saggy gut (doesn't that just sound wrong) I would be much happier.  I doubt though that no matter what I do, nothing is going to make me look better in just tights and socks:)    (maybe a blindfold)

Is it cold yet?

So how is everyone liking the balmy weather???  It was -8 when I left the office last night and amazingly it was -8 when I got back this morning.   This is crazy!!  When I checked the weather on my phone this morning the windchill was -18.  This is Arizona not North Dakota.   I've lived here my entire life and don't remember weather this cold. 

I had my shoulder looked at on Monday.  First the doctor injected the joint under fluoroscopy.  The joint looked good but he said the muscle looked funny.  We then went to a different room where he looked at the muscle with ultrasound.  As the tech was moving the probe across my shoulder he says "wow"!!  I'm like, "uhhh what"???   He then tells me he's never seen that much fluid under a muscle like that.   I have no idea what a normal and abnormal ultrasound looks like but his "wow" didn't make me feel too comfortable.  The Doc walks in and is impressed with the swelling and proceeds to put a needle in my shoulder to pull out the fluid.  Now that was cool to see.  I could see the swelling literally go down on the ultrasound.  After that he put a little cortisone where the swelling was and I was good to go.  Lo and behold, my shoulder is 99% better.  Thank God for modern medicine.

I'm not back to doing P90X yet but hopefully soon.  I've only ridden the trainer 2x this week but I'm hoping to have more time soon.  I've been working late putting new software on the work computers on top of coaching and going to physical therapy.  Speaking of physical therapy, it's progressing slower than I had hoped.  I realize my problems didn't happen overnight so I should expect a miracle cure.  One thing that I have learned over the years is that if you ask 10 therapists the same question, you re going to get 10 different answers.  Everyone has their own opinion on what treatment is best.  My degree is in human physiology so I'm not completely clueless when it comes to what needs to be addressed.  I'm just going to take is slow, put in my 2 cents and hope for the best. 

Well I've got to go see my first patient at 9am so I best be going.  Hope you all have a super day.

Update

Holy Cow, some people are turning in some super impressive numbers!!!  Frenchie has taken the lead with SnowWhite and  Sexy42011 not far behind.  I am both so humbled and so impressed with everyone.  I realize you guys see only percentages but I know how much poundage each of you have lost, and it's amazing.  Big Momma, Andibean (where did you get the name), Team Sexxercise, and many others, wow!!!  I'm impressed.   I should be trying to keep you motivated but instead your doing a darn good job at keeping me motivated.  

Feisty has finally figured out how to post on the forum so now all of you will see how mean she can really be:)    I think at one time she was probably pretty nice,  but hanging out with Spuds has made her borderline psychotic.  If you've ever met Spuds, you would understand why.  

Andibean, can you explain the meaning behind the name.  I've tried making sense out of it but I'm clueless.  And where is Sexy42011???  She's needs to up the instensity and put Spuds in his place. 

Everyone keep it up.  Another give away is coming soon so stay tuned.