Health Update

Today was one of my less than productive days. This morning after checking my email (and blog comments), Jeff (one of the blog readers) mentioned that the pain I've been having in my groin area might be the start of a hernia. After checking a couple of medical websites, I started to stress out (something I do very easily). I finally called my health care provider. The earliest slot was a Monday "walk in" appointment. The next step was for me to cancel my rowing lessons. I was prepared to "try it" and see what happens, but with the idea of a hernia operation (involving surgery) firmly planted in my head, I was in no mood to risk any physical activity. I cancelled because I would be missing the first lesson and with a waiting list, I didn't want to hold a spot that someone else could use. I can always sign up at another time. Anyway, after cancelling the lessons, I was a bit depressed, so I didn't do much else for the rest of the day except watch a few YouTube videos, clips, and slept the day away. I finally got out of bed about 4pm.

I was hungry having not eaten anything all day. I only had a cup of water and a vitamin. The problem was that I didn't have much in the way of fruit. I've been able to fill up on fruit, but not the vegetables. I'm going to have to moderate my fruits much better. I went through about $40 dollars worth of fruit in a couple of days. I have a big appetite and I would usually have a full plate of food. Now on this liquid diet, I've been trying to fill up a stomach that is very, very used to being very full. the other problem is that the vegetables are not really tasty. My so-called liquid diet has been a bit out of balance with me consuming much, much more fruits Not even a little. Spending decades on sugary, fried, salty, and greasy foods, it will be a while before I can tolerate a vegetable drink. Today, with 3 apples and a handful of spinach made the drink somewhat tolerable, unfortunately, it only produced about 8 oz of juice.

Dietary Changes
I'm adding whole fruits to my diet(as in eating not just juicing them). Considering I haven't been totally on a liquid diet this week. I cheated with eating grapes, peaches, pineapples, and raisins, so the "addition" isn't a big change. Next week, I'm adding oatmeal and cream of wheat to my diet. I will continue with drinking ENSURE to fill up, but I will have to drink much less. I went through a couple of six-packs in two days. I also need to add plain tea to the diet. I should have been drinking tea (as part of the liquid diet), but I got lazy with boiling water. I will dust off my double-insulated thermos -- I might have mentioned it in a previous blog entry (months, or years ago). With the double-insulated thermos, I only need to boil water once, and it will keep it pipping hot for about 6 hours (and keeps cold drinks ice cold for 12 hours). It also has a convenient pump on the top.

I think that's about it. Below is a slideshow I made of the photos of my juicing machine. I don't know if I gave a review of the machine, but if I didn't here it is:

I really like the machine. I like the idea that I can get a good dose of vegetables on a daily basis (something I haven't really been doing). I also like that the machine is relatively quiet. The blender is much, much noisier. The cleanup of the juicer is fairly easy. I originally timed the cleanup of the juice at about 16 minutes. Today, the time was closer to 12 minutes. The half of the time clean comes from cleaning the shredding/strainer disk. The cheap brush provided really isn't doing the greatest job. I'll probably have to use one of my extra toothbrushes to clean the shredding/straining disk. Oh, I noticed that the juicer really should be clean soon after using. Today, I wanted to go to the store. I was smart enough to leave the shredding/straining disk soaking, but leaving the machine with the pulp in cause condensation of the pulp juice into the area under the pulp-collection basket and spinner. I think the juicer is fairly easy to clean if you don't let the food sit in it too long. I can see it becoming a nightmare to clean if the food hardens and dries out.



Post Date - Saturday, July 10, 2010. 1:08AM

Quick Entry

Let's see if I can be brief. I haven't blogged for a few days (not including the posting of slideshows). My original plan was to do a day by day journal entry of my summer of change. Well, those of you who have been reading awhile, know me pretty well by now. That didn't happen.

Monday
My plan was to start on Monday with my liquid diet. My plan was to spend this week getting my body used to the liquid cleansing, and to clean my apartment. That didn't happen.

Having passed on several invitations to meet a new epal (electronic pen pal) due to me cleaning and packing up my classroom for the summer, I finally agreed on a Monday meeting. I resisted the urge to do yet another "I'll start tomorrow" excuse for my diet. I brought a quart of vegetable juice for breakfast, and drank water for most of the day. The meeting? It was nice. We met at 10am in the Bronx. About 7:30pm, my epal had to return his sister's car. I stopped off at the store to buy some more vegetables and fruit (determined to start the diet tomorrow) before returning home.

Much to my surprised, I resisted the urge to "start the diet tomorrow". I settled for an 8oz. bottle of ENSURE (a health shake) and called it a night. The downside was that I managed to aggravate an old injuring. I banged my toenail causing it to bleed a bit. For awhile, that toenail has been growing up instead of out. Now, it is in a very delicate position. Any bang will most likely cause it to come off. There's more.

Also, (probably due to pushing, pulling, and lifting heavy boxes and things in my classroom, I might have sustained a groin injury. I thought if I just rested, it would get better, well it flared up on Monday, but lucky it did get better. Yes, I know I do need to see a doctor. I have already made an appointment for August 5th, but I probably should call to reschedule my appointment as a possible "it can't wait until August 5th" change. I have HIP, so my options can at times be limited. The downside is that the injures (mainly the toenail) has put me in a lazy mood these last couple of days. I haven't been out for the last couple of days (not including my brief walk to play the Lotto. I also haven't eaten anything since Sunday. The problem is that I haven't done any exercising. As a result, I haven't lost any weight (probably because my body is in starvation mode).

Wednesday
Well, today, I finally got around to unpacking the juicing machine. After washing it, I tried it out for the first time. I like it. I hated the carrot juice, but I like the machine. It took about 16 minutes to clean --the strainer basket with the attached shredder took about 5 minutes of those minutes to scrub (yes scrub) clean. I made a carrot and apple juice mix. Yuck!!!


Post Date - Wednesday, July 7, 2010 10:12PM

This and That

A New Diet
Starting tomorrow (I hope), I will be starting a new diet. I'm going to try a liquid diet. Originally, I saw a news report about a liquid diet. When I visited the site, they had a 3 day diet plan that cost $58 per day. I actually considered it, but considering my financial situation at the moment (college, credit cards, etc...), I changed my mind. I decided to buy a juicer, and try making my own juices. The plan is to try 3 ~ 7 days of a liquid diet. I also joined up for 8 lessons in rowing. I also have my unused membership to the local YMCA (due to expire in November).

Reading
I recently finished reading, "Star Trek Voyager - Unworthy". I'm not sure what novel I'll start with for my summer reading. Over the past few months of feeling a bit stressed, I'm been buying and collecting books, but not reading them. On my bookshelf at the moment are the following possible choices for my summer reading:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
2 of 3 books from the boxset of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians
Book 2 - The Sea of Monsters
Book 3 - The Titan's Curse
2 of 3 books from the second boxset of Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth"
Book 5 - Soul of The Fire
Book 6 - Faith of the Fallen
Book Five of The Age of Fire "Dragon Rule E. E. Knight
Legends of the Dragonrealm by Richard A. Knaak
Into A Dark Realm by Raymond E. Feist
Ananzi Boys by Neil Gaiman
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Recent comic book purchases:
Incredible Hulk #610
Hulk #23 "Who is the Red Hulk?"
Brightest Day #2 "Dead Sea King"
Brightest Day #3 "Why Have They Returned?"
Brightest Day - Green Lantern Corps #49
Amazing Spider-man #621
The Invincible Iron-Man #27
Avengers #2
Fantastic Four #580

Jigsaw Puzzles
I keep saying I would try to complete one, but I have yet to try. I just had a thought of modifying my social networking group to include jigsaw puzzles. I have this felt roll that would let me transport incomplete jigsaw puzzles.

Social Networking
I will be trying to plan activities during this summer that will force me to learn to socialize more and try meeting new people.

Well, I think that is about it for now.