Reading

I was and still am never much of a reader. I've read some complete works in my life, eg. Sherlock Holmes and many books in the works of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, etal., and my latest was the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo this last summer.

But mostly I'm a researcher reader. I read what I need learn or know about something or read about the idea, logic or theory about something to understand the background of it, some issue or whatever, and then get back to work.

I've always felt bad about this since Mom was a prolific reader, but mostly consumer or romance novels. She read a lot for work, mostly legal and/or insurance material (she was a senior insurance adjustor negotiating large lawsuits), but otherwise, she rarely read other than novels.

I never saw my father read and I doubt he read more than he needed to know about something. When I look back I'm often surprised how much I have read about a subject because I criticize myself for not reading enough, even newspapers.

I just to read 2-3 newspapers 4-5 days a week and always the Sunday papers. I still buy the Sunday New York Times, Seattle Times and Tacoma News Tribune and spend Sunday morning into the afternoon looking at every page and reading many articles. Nice way to spend a day.

Anyway, the point is that listening to an interview with Nancy Pearl, the former Chief Librarian for the Seattle Public Library, talking about recent books to read and where she says that the she starts ten books for every book she finishes.

She says she stops somewhere in the first chapter in those books because they don't interest her. And one in 10 or 11 books captures her attention and interest to read it through. That's nice to know about reading.

So don't feel bad, just keep reading until it holds your attention. I'm still looking for the next series to read the complete works. Someone suggested the Hunger Games. I love the Dragon Tattoo series and the movie doesn't hold a candle to it.

Weight

When I graduated from high school I was 5' 9" and 105 lbs, really, a very skinny kid. A year and half later when I enlisted in the US Air Force I was 5' 11" and 115 lbs, under the minimum weight they accepted enlistees but they agreed to take me if I gained weight in basic training.

I did and came out of basic training weighing 135 lbs, going from a 28" waist to a 32" waist. When I turned 30 I weighed 155 lbs. By age 40 I was 165 lbs, by 50 I was ~175 lbs and by 60 I was ~185 lbs. A year ago I weighed 188 lbs.

And today I weigh 165 lbs., losing all of it from walking 1,450+ miles so far this year (Jan. 1 to Nov. 29). My goal is to get down to 160 or less by spring, which is the rest of the fat I've carried on this body for too many years now.

I'd really love to get down to around 150 lbs again, but I'm one of those people who's genetic predisposes them to carry a certain amount of fat and twice in my live at 28 and 40 when I was the fittest I could be, I still carried a few extra pounds around my middle.

I know now this is my last best chance to get really fit for the rest of my life. To return to running, normally an 8 minute per mile pace runner for 3-5 miles (only did one 12K), and hiking when I hiked 8-12 miles with a 30+ lb (day) backpack for photography, is still my goal in a year or so.

Right now I'm up to 12.5-15 lbs in the backpack before my lower back reminds me later in the day what happened in July 2011 and July 2012 when I pinched my Sciatic nerve, the latter leaving me flat on my back for 4+ days.

So the idea now is to get down to under 160 when my fat is at its minimum and get surgery to get it removed (aka liposuction) so it never comes back no matter what happens. And they work to get to 150 or as close as my body will allow without problems.

And all of this will take another year to achieve, another year of walking 1,500+ miles to work on adding running and hiking with some weight training again. This is coming against the advice of almost everyone who are telling me it's ok to be a little fat and to take it easier when you're older.

Everyone except my physician who is for it because it makes my fitter, healthier and better. And what's not to like about that about yourself. At 64 I'm not going out of this life a fat, old man.

More on Walking

Well, I'm still walking, which is good since I'm not known for being dedicated for anything this long except running which I can't do again, yet anyway, but I'm getting close. Running is still in the plan but I still get shin splints (left leg) in the first mile or two and don't want to pound my Sciatic nerve from running.

The point here is that after 4-plus months of walking 8 miles, and testing walking 8.5-9 miles, I seem stuck at 8 miles. There are places on the walk to town and the walk back where I can cut or add miles on the walk, and especially add hills.

I normally now walk 4.5 miles to town and 3.5 miles home. I can cut the walk to town to 3 miles or increase it to 5.7-6 miles and can cut the walk home to 3 miles or increase it to 4-4.5 miles. I add miles to 8.5-9 miles total 1-3 days a month but not consistently.

I've been waiting for my body and legs to consistently tell me 8 mile walks are too short and too easy, where the walks up the hills are too easy, meaning the legs feel strong and I'm not breathing harder, but I only get these days once or twice in the 5-6 days of walks each week.

So for now I'm adding days instead of daily miles. More days is more exercise and burns more calories over the long haul, which is proving better so far for improving the body, aka, toning muscles and losing fat. The question is where is the limit.

My original goals was walking 8 miles16 days a month for 120 miles with occasional additional miles or days. Then it was 20 days for 160 miles with occasional miles or days. The goal for October is 25 days or 200 miles.

My not sure why yet but the more days I walk, the better I feel mentally. I can't say as much physically as often later in the day the legs are sore or feel tired, but they always seem to feel better once I start walking the next day.

Anyway, that's the news. I'm just over halfway to the October goal, so I'll have to keep you posted if I get there.

No Wheat

I'm on a restricted wheat and really grain diet. Restricted meaning I can have some with foods which don't have an adverse effect on the digestive system, but that's only a minor issue with a little wheat. So last week I started a no wheat diet, losing the Ritz Crackers and some other small wheat-based treats.

The problem I found was replacing the crackers because the vast majority are made with wheat as the main or secondary ingredient. Rye and other grains are also off limits which leaves corn, oat and rice in flour form for crackers and oats in cookies.

In the research at a handful of grocery stores I found rice flour to the only other real choice for crackers by itself or in combination with other non-grain flours, such as corn, soy, types of nuts, etc. I found many of rice flour only crackers are effectively tastely and useless.

So far I've found two crackers, one with rice and corn (crispbread) and the other with rice and chestnut (also crispbread) flours to be good replacements and tasty with a variety of foods, such as ham, bacon, cheese, vegetables, PB&J, etc., which are my mainstay meal for sandwiche-like meals.

What I didn't anticipate was the adjustment the digestive system has to make with rice flour. Yeah, one of those types of adjustments. Lesson learned, eat small or sample-sized quantities first. Now if I can find oatmeal/flour crackers.

I'm looking at non-wheat oatmeal cookies recipes or ready made cookies. On that I'll keep you posted.

Good pain

I haven't decided if pain is good or not. Over the last two or so weeks the right knee and shin, which have been totally numb since July 2012 when the Sciatic nerve dropped me to the floor for 4 days, has been giving me pain, so I haven't decided if it's the nerves coming alive or real pain since it's just nerves.

The other pain is the muscle in both legs when and where the pain varys with the walk and later in the day after the walk. Some weeks I don't get shin splints during any of the walks that week and some weeks I get them for the first one to two miles into the walk for two or three consecutive days.

The last pain is the lower back. It fades in and out over the weeks from the normal mild pain from sitting too much later in the day or too long in one position too long at a time to the moderate pain where it hurts in the first few steps of walking but then fades with walking.

What I have noticed is that whatever the back pain, it always goes away during the walks, and only returns after the walk. I also noticed that during walks I noticed I can't stop for more than a minute or so because the legs feel tired and sore when I start walking again, and sometimes it fades with walking and sometimes not for the rest of the walk.

So I haven't figured out if the pain is just my body communicating with me for a variety of reason and it's not really pain as just noise or whining. At my age, some days that's all the body knows what to do, whine, and you have to tell the nerves whining and more so yelling doesn't help the conversation.

Other than the pain, I balance problems with both legs but especially the left leg, fades and returns, but overall is getting better. Not what it was before the Sciatic nerve problem by any measure, but better after all the ups and downs of it.

Anyway, that's it. It still sucks as hiking didn't happen this year and likely won't until next spring or summer. I'm still limited to 8+ miles where the legs hurt too much later with longer walks and 15-20 lbs with the backpack and even then there's back pain later.

On the plus side, I've lost much of the fat around the body and am slowly losing it on and around the abdomen, albeit slower with this fat, but it's better than a year ago. And no, I don't weigh myself to know if and how much I've lost. I'm trying to find a place (clinic, etc.) to weigh myself for free.

That's it for now.