Tranquility Computers

Well if this image isn’t enough to motivate someone to brush and floss regularly I don’t know what will. Yesterday I had 4 teeth removed in one sitting (including one wisdom tooth). I left so much of a hole in my mouth that they needed an artificial bone graft for my lower jaw. Now I’ve lost 3 days of work and am on a steady diet of vicodin and Ensure. At least I’ll probably lose some weight in the process!

Actually it wasn’t that great –but it sure was good for my health! I sure am glad I had health insurance through all of this. I don’t know if we would have had to pay all of this but I can’t immagine what it would have done to us otherwise. I think we still wound-up paying around $1000 for doctor’s bills and the like over time but it sure beats $100,000!!

Well it’s been a few weeks now since both my “Appendix near-death experience” and my lower back problem. Once I felt I had fully recovered from my time in the hospital, I decided to start getting back into shape. The first place I thought of was the racquetball courts. Well all it took was 10 min in the courts and my lower back was killing me. I couldn’t even lean over to tie my shoes after that! Two days later my wife finds me in the office on my hands and knees -I can’t get up! I spent the next 2 weeks in bed and slowly started healing…

Well now I’m fully recovered from BOTH bad physical episodes and I’m overjoyed. I have been back to playing racquetball 3 times a week now and it feels fantastic. I’m finally doing something about my health and I am just amazed at the rapid transformation I am experiencing. From a completely sedentary lifestyle, to being totally immobile for weeks at an end, to be able to play sports again is simply amazing. I only pray that the circumstances in my life continue as they are so that I can keep this up.

I know a lot of you are wondering where I’ve been on this page for almost a year. I’ve been very busy -but that’s all changed. I thought I’d save a lot of you the time of another long phone call by just posting what happened to me over the past 3 weeks here. I’ll be posting some pics of me at the hospital as they come in. Not that many were taken but I think my mom sneaked in a couple while no one was looking. so, here goes… Continue reading »

I’m still up above 215. As of this morning, I weighed in at 217. But I know that it’s still not a bad situation. I DID go to at least 2 parties this weekend (where…uh…food…it was served). I also haven’t changed my diet yet. On a good note, this past Friday while walking, I realized that my body had gone through a change. With only one week of daily walking (with the exception of Wednesday), I no longer felt pain and a swelling of my hands while out there briskly walking. In fact, it felt good! It felt like it used to when I was in shape and got my heart rate, breathing, and sweating up. Not too bad for a 34-year-old with only one week of regular exercise under my belt! Then again, watching the show “The Biggest Loser” did inspire a little this past week.

This week I start my 5 daily meal diet. I want to thank Widgetchick for her suggestions last week. We hit up the grocery store armed with a new list of items. I’m drinking straight water this week (I normally like drinking half water and half soda at room temperature). I was pretty amazed at just how cheap those budget gourmet meals are! We got 10 for $10 at our local (overpriced) Albertson’s in Rosamond. Amazing; lunch for one dollar! I think this is going to help me lose weight and save money at the same time.

So even though I’ve not seen a massive plummet in my weight as of yet, I’m still pretty excited about the changes I’m going though. I’m also grateful for my wife who is sooo supportive of my decisions lately. Not only with my desire to start my own business, but with this weight loss plan. Even with our tight finances this month, she’s willing to do whatever we can to make this plan work -and for that I am very grateful.

Up to 217 now. And I walked for my entire lunch hour yesterday. I had an accelerated heart rate and the sweat and everything! Oh well. Maybe I’m just building muscle at the moment. Well at least I KNOW what’s going on with my body instead of not caring. I DO care now -and I’m going to do something about it. I will be 150 lbs. by the end of the year…

Oh yes, I will be 150 in 2005

Well it was looing good for a couple of days there and then today I’m actually over 215 lbs (by 0.5). I didn’t eat dinner last night, and walked for 40 min. straight through my lunch hour. I drank a lot of fluids and had two apples and a banana for lunch. Here’s where I probably went bad: Breakfast was McD’s 2 sausage and egg McMuffins. I had two doughnuts when I got to work (the Friday tradition) and some choc. chip cookies at the movies at around 9pm. Still, I was hoping that the physical exercise would help yesterday but I also know that I took in a LOT of calories from bad sources. I will note though that my diet isn’t normally as bad as it can get on a Friday. Still I think I’m going to start drinking just water during the week (if I can stand it) and working on my 5 daily meal plan.

Yet, I’m not worried. I know there will be fluctuations and that my two-day “downward spiral” couldn’t last!

Well I pulled out the bathroom scale and wiped the dust off (and misc. other things) and managed to step on to it this past weekend for the first time in about a year. I am now a full 215 lbs. at 5′-5″ tall. That’s a 15 lb. gain from last year. I’m so depressed about that. I actually hadn’t thought that I gained much this past year but I was surely wrong. 15 lbs. is more than my new laptop weighs! It’s like I’m carrying it around all day long. That’s crazy. So I definitely need to lose about 70 lbs. this year. I’m going to start by drinking a lot more water and eating more frequently and in less portions. I need to research a little about exactly WHAT those small meals should be but once their in place I should be fine. I’m also planning on exercising at my lunches and in the evenings when I can by either walking for 30 min. during lunch or using my exercise machine at home in the bedroom. I am determined to lose the weight this coming year. I’m tired of back problems, acid reflux, knee problems, and even little things like the difficulty with tying my shoes. I want to have to get new clothes because I am too SMALL for them now rather than the problem I’ve been having.

Changing my work schedule should help with this as well.

Last night my right ear started hurting something terrible. It was already itching on Saturday but come Sunday afternoon, the pain became just unbearable. There was little I could do about it considering I wouldn’t be home until late that night so I just had to grin and bear it. I think the pain came from all the nose blowing I’d been doing over the past few days. Towards the end, I could feel and hear my eardrums poping and blowing out from the nose blowing. I think that started an infection or something so it’s off to the doctor on Monday morning. I think this is a record for me of missed days at work. I’ll be pretty surprised if I don’t have a talking to when I get in.

On a positive note, a lot of the pain and pressure of the past few days has subsided a little so at least life is worth bearing now. I also managed to get a few hours of work done on the side so I’ve managed to make a little bit of money while being out of my main job!

Got to watch the debates completely (while being in utter illness myself). I’ll admit I was pretty surprised to see a fairly small amout of political rehtoric and BS answers coming out both their mouths. Instead, I saw a pretty clear answer to where each person stands (at least regarding Iraq). That I think made for a fairly positive debate (which I just wasn’t expecting from either side). As several reporters have put it, it’s not that one side won over the other as much as the VOTERS won in that first debate. Now I get to wait and see what the next few debates do…

Last night was just terrible. What is it about Sunday nights? Is it that my body knows that I’m going to have to get up early and go to work the next day? Is my body “rejecting” the commute and the work? Should I listen or beat it and make my body my slave?

Last night I awoke around 2am to the wonderful feeling of throwing up and having that wonderful stew not make it out of my mouth but into my lungs! Spent the next few hours coughing, spitting up junk, and dry heaving. My eyes kept tearing and my nose kept running too. That was just wonderful. I could barely breathe -and then I started sneezing -oh joy! When my body finally calmed down and I felt sleepy again, it was 5:30. Screw it! I’m going back to sleep. I managed only to be 1 hour late to work as a result but I’m not a happy camper here. I still have junk in my lungs and feel just aweful. My whole body aches from all the coughing and I can barely talk from the sore throat thanks to a lot of “acid traffic” there. I think I ate too much before going to bed (and doing other things once there). One thing’s for sure: I definitely need to lose my gut. I’ve been told that my acid reflux is due in large part to the pressure on the valve at the top of my stomach. Going to do a little research on that one in the web today -and see if I can find out what happened to me last night too.

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Well I finally realized I’m old this weekend. I finally slipped in the bathtub and landed right on my hip at the edge of the tub. OOOOOWWWWW!!!! A few more years on me and that baby would be broke (my hip, not the tub). I’m now off to get a bath mat for the tub. Don’t want that happening again!

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Laptop’s workin’ just great now. I delivered it yesterday and the client is just fired up to have an aquarium screen saver! I think that made the nearly-$900 purchase all worth it for him!! Now I’ve only got one more PC to rebuild before my table is clean and ready for more. Gonna need some more work soon to help support my own geeky addiction…

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Looks like the vacant lot next to my house is up for sale! I’m going to see today if I can afford it. If so…YEA BABY YYYEEEAAAHHH!!!!!

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Did I mention that it’s awesome having airconditioning in the home?!