This is one that I’ve been working on for a while and found that the Gouda cheese and heavy whipping cream makes all the difference. I used my big blue 13.5×9.5 baking dish for this one so it’s large enough to feed about 8-10 people. I don’t do a lot of measuring but I just kinda spitball the size of the ingredients. Here’s what I used.
12-ounce bag of cleaned crawfish tails
1-2 cups of small cooked deveined-tail-off shrimp
1/2 stick of melted butter
1&1/2 cup of chopped sweet onion
3 cups of macaroni noodles
1&1/2 cups of shredded gouda cheese
1&1/2 cups of shredded Colby jack cheese
1 four-ounce square of cubed Velveeta cheese
1 tbsp. Seafood Magic
1 tsp. Old Bay seasoning
1-pint heavy whipping cream
salt and pepper to taste
1 box of the Frenches fried onions for topping
First, I boiled the macaroni noodles and drained them. While the noodles were still hot after draining, I put the noodles back in the boiling pan and mixed in about 2 tablespoons of butter to the noodles and then put the shredded cheese and Velveeta cheese in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. I put the hot noodlwes on top of the cheese to help the cheese melt.
In a frying pan I melted another 1/4 stick of butter and sauteed the onions, then added the crawfish tails and seasoning. I let the crawfish cook for about 5 minutes with the sauteed onions, then I drained the crawfish and onions before adding them to the macaroni and cheese mixture in the bowl. I stirred the mixture until a lot of the cheese melted and then folded in the whipping cream. salt and pepper to taste.
I put the mixture in my big blue baking dish and topped with the Frenches fried onions and covered. I baked the mixture for 30 minutes covered and 10-15 minutes uncovered at 350 degrees. I removed it and let it cool for a couple minutes before serving.
It’s been a minute since my last post, so I thought I’d write a little this afternoon. Last week I had a couple doctor’s appointments, and I have a few more scheduled for this week. Tomorrow I’m seeing a spine surgeon from Peachtree Orthopedics, and he should be able to tell me the best route to take with my spinal issues. I’ve had quite a few injections in my cervical spine as well as my lower back, before I had spinal surgery about 10 years ago, and I’m hoping that we can take that route with the latest issues. The headaches, dizziness, vertigo and increased tinnitus problems could all be stemming from the spinal issues according to my ENT doctor, but I still need to start Physical Therapy for the vertigo and dizzy spell this week. It’s been kinda hard to keep the headaches in check while managing the pain killers, but I’ve reduced the pain killers to a few 200 mg Motrin a day. Getting back to regular bowl movements while managing pain has been an issue also, but I think I’m back to normal now. My weight this morning after the long holiday weekend was better than I thought, and after my walk this morning, I weighed in at 196.5. Not as bad as I thought but I’m probably going to try another 3-day water fast very soon. I need to keep losing but it’s going to get harder and harder as my body is getting used to a 4-5 mile walk every day. I may try and shock it a bit with adding 30 minutes on my elliptical machine a few times a week. The elliptical machine gives me a full body workout because it has the handlebars for the arms so I can get more of a core workout. We’ll see how that goes soon.
I’m continuing my work on the manuscript for my autobiography and I’m still on track for an October 5th release. I haven’t settled on a publisher yet and I’m still working to find a good fit for the book. All three parts of the book have been created as well as the bonus recipe chapter. Right now, I’m in the process of building the story of “Twenty years on Lanier“. It will be the longest of all the short stories in Part One upon completion. It covers a lot of what I learned along the way. It may shorten the learning curve for beginners just starting to fish Lake Lanier, written by someone who gets to wake up every morning with the lake right outside the window and fish the lake almost every day for years. I can honestly say that there wasn’t a lot of fishermen who fished the lake more than I did in those 20 years.
Part one is called “Fifty Years of Fishing” and it will take the longest because of the time span and the information covered on Lake Lanier. It will be at least another week to complete that chapter. The rest is just short stories about fishing during my life and is dedicated to Lucky, Oscar, Jerry and Steve. They were four of the best fishermen and friends I’ve known along the way.
Part two covers my Navy career, called “Twenty Years of Service” and that will probably take a few weeks to complete, but most of the short stories are ready to go. I will need to add another chapter covering the ugly part of the job. Dealing with death in the military came quick for me and I’ll cover some of the sailors and Marines I didn’t really know as well as friends that lost their lives along the way. You’ll get a raw look at the ground side of life in a few fighter and fighter/Attack squadrons.
Part three is called “Finding my Faith” and it’s also in the works and will be the last part to complete with a deadline of late August. It is another part that will take some work. It’s basically my autobiography as it pertains to my journey through faith and an inside look at some of the unexplained occurrences as well as my course changes and corrections throughout life.
Lastly, part four is the good stuff and twelve of my favorite recipes to add to the end of the book, so if you’re not into the fishing, Navy or faith stuff, maybe a few good Cajun recipes may interest you. Hopefully, there will be a little something for everyone in the book and I’m looking forward to the release.
It’s still a long way off but I fooled around with AI and between AI and Canva editing over the weekend. Here’s a sneak peek at what the cover may look like. This will probably be tweaked and adjusted before the final product goes to print, but it can give you a general idea of what the cover may look like. The cover is probably the furthest from my mind right now as the actual writing has a long way to go before, I really focus on the cover. I’ll post again at the end of my week, and hopefully I’ll know a bit more about my neck and spine issues.
Diet: Fish, cottage cheese for dinner, banana for dessert and 1 protein bar for breakfast
I did the exact same distance as I did yesterday to see what the difference would be and there wasn’t much, as far as the distance, but I did plan to push a little harder today since it was the end of the week and I could rest for a day or two. My body definitely needs it. My left foot has been the work horse for the last 3 weeks, mainly because I’m still recovering from the right knee replacement and the weight shift has been to the left side. You can tell a lot by looking at the bottom of your shoe and analyzing the pronation wear. Normal pronation should show shoe wear somewhere near the big toe on the sole, or the inside toe area of the shoe. The heel should show normal wear on the heel, just to the outside a little. If you are walking or running normally, the wear should be even from the left shoe and the right shoe. If there is a weight shift, it should show on the sole as more wear on one shoe compared to the other. It usually takes some mileage before the wear starts to show, but it’s a good idea to check your soles from time to time, so you can tell if things are correct in pronation.
Today I dropped to my lowest weight yet. Last week when I came off of my fast, I weighed 196.4 and under a normal diet with no fasting, I dropped down to 196.2 this morning. A few of the things I’ve been doing this week to drop weight was to stay away from any greasy stuff, very limited amounts of sugar, no chocolate unless it was in a protein bar. No fast food and no beef! Obviously, no soda, unless it was Fresca, but I didn’t have a Fresca this week. I did start drinking Gatorade to supplement the electrolytes for hydration during recovery. I like those little Honey Stinger energy chews during my walks. I just pop one in my cheek and let it slowly dissolve while I’m walking. I usually have about 3 chews while walking.
Once I got home there were some guys working down at the dock and I needed to chat with them. I wound up making 3 trips up and down the hill to the dock which is about 72 steps from the back door to the dock, so I hit 10k steps before lunch today. Usually, it’s mid-afternoon. I can also count those 3 trips down to the dock as hill work this week because coming back up is a lot rougher than the trip down.
All in all, it was a good week and there were definitely some noticeable improvements in appearance and energy this week. Diet and exercise go hand in hand for weight loss. Have a great weekend!
Diet: Chicken, asparagus, rice and soup for dinner and 1bagel and honey for breakfast
According to the trail, the milage was just shy of 5 miles but the watch said somewhat less. My gut and my sore feet said it was close to 5 miles, so I’ll go with that. I went a little further than anticipated but I wanted to see what was ahead of my usual turnaround point. When I used to run the trail years ago, I would go quite a bit further than my walks have taken me, but when I got just past the 2.2 marker the trail ended with a gate across the trail. Distance-wise, that was probably enough for one day. I really liked the time splits because my 4th mile pace was almost as fast as the first mile pace. That tells me that I hit the runners high after a couple miles which is typical for a distance runner. I think I’ll work with the distance I’m going now and work on increasing the speed a bit. The way I always increased my speed as a distance runner was to work on my gate, do some intervals (fartlek training) and the dreaded hill work. One way I can accomplish this is to do some up and downs on my steps going down to the boat dock and back. That will work on the hammies, as well as strengthening the muscles around the knees. It will also work the ligaments around the knees in prep for some soft runs later on.
I did a little bit of soft running this week and it was brutal on the knees. Just when the knees settled into a soft running pace, I went back to walking and I could feel the knee confusion. A lot of that was due to weight so I need to work on that a little more. I’m probably going to do another fast next week. My last fast was very successful, and I went a total of 60-65 hours with a water fast.
One thing I know about my body is that it is very smart. After a few weeks of walking, my body thinks this walking thing is the new norm, so the metabolism freakout is over and it starts to slow again. That would explain the slow-down in weight loss over the past week. I always need to combat the metabolism slow-down with new surprises. I may need to incorporate some light sculpting weight training or maybe hit my elliptical for a few hours a week. The elliptical machine is a great way to combat a metabolic slow-down but it has its dangers too. If you’re not careful you can overdo it and hurt yourself when introducing new stuff to confuse the body and tap into a few new muscle groups. I need to take it slow and trust the process.
Tomorrow is the last day to hit the trail this week unless we do something with the twins on Saturday. We’re baby-sitting the twin 2-year-old grands Saturday afternoon and evening, so I’ll get a pretty good mental and physical workout from that. They are like half spider monkey, half octopus, all jacked up on expresso with at least eight grabby hands, but best of all, there are 2 of them to chase around. In all honesty, I wouldn’t trade any of my grands for the world. I’ve been blessed and looking forward to tomorrow.
Diet: Chicken, asparagus, rice and soup for dinner and 1bagel and honey for breakfast
This entry covers yesterday and today but I only timed todays walk. Also, the mileage on my watch and the data above doesn’t really match what’s marked on the trail, but the real mileage was about 4.2 miles total today. Yesterday was a three mile walk.
Yesterday, I invited one of my favorite people out for a walk. It was the first time my neighbor, David, and I walked together after fishing together for the last 10 years. I have been his mentor in fishing so he can take his grandkids out on the lake and be successful or at least have a clue about what to do. That’s very important to me because grandpa needs to know where the fish are and how to catch them when the grands come for a visit. In return, David has been my spiritual mentor, and I have learned so much from him over the years. David and his wife, Ann, have authored at least two books, and I wanted to pick David’s brain a bit about a couple of aspects of writing, as well as some spiritual guidance on my new endeavor. I got both from him; but more importantly, I got the encouragement I needed to keep going.
It’s kinda funny in a way, but David asked me what the folks around me thought about me putting down the fishing rod for a while and writing a book. I had to crack up a bit because they have busy lives and really don’t read my blog, but that was all okay because that’s what gives me the fuel I need to keep going. It’s like I shouted, “Hey, guess what fam? God told me to write a book!” This is a good pictorial depiction of the expected response….
Man, I love that picture and sometimes I crack myself up looking at it. It’s like I just told a raunchy Navy joke or something.
I told David that I know it sounds weird, but I no longer had the slightest desire to fish, and the book is what I’ve been tasked to focus on. So, David and I walked on, and then David put his hand on my shoulder as we walked along, and he prayed for me aloud. People were walking by, and here we were, David and I walking in prayer. It was David on my left with his hand on my left shoulder praying, and Noah was on my right with his hand on my right shoulder, saying, “Welcome to my world, Jim.” After our prayer, David said, “If there’s anything I learned about you over the course of the last ten years, it is that you have an uncanny dedication and devotion to your interests, whether it was training for a marathon or learning to improve your fishing skills.” I wasn’t looking for technical help in my writing skills or suggestions from David as much as I was looking for encouragement, and he did just that.
This is my third week of walking the trail, and one thing that I get from spending this kind of time by myself—whether it’s fishing, running, or walking a trail—is clarity. It may be the extra oxygen from being outside, but for some reason, I can sort it all out and come up with a plan. Remember a few entries ago when I talked about always setting goals for yourself? One goal I set for myself is to get down to 175lbs and see if it’s possible to run again on two replaced knees. But another goal for now is to finish my writing over the course of the next few months. Here’s a sneak peek at the layout and title. The title is explained in the preface.
The book has three sections of short stories, and the name of the book is “The Shadows of October” (Stories of Fishing, Freedom, and Faith). Each section has a number of stories from my life.
The fishing section is called “Fifty Years of Fishing” and will interest the Lanier fishermen because the first story is called “Twenty Years on Lanier” and that encompasses a lot of what I learned in those twenty years and some of the fishermen around the lake that were an influence on me. There will also be other stories from some of my fishing adventures over the years.
The second section is called “Twenty Years of Service,” and it will encompass 20 years of service to the Navy and this country in short stories. There are a few stories from the blog that will be included in this section, but there will also be some stories that I’ve not shared with anyone. There are some things that I experienced in the Navy that I don’t talk about much, but some people ask about them. You can’t work in the environment that I worked in and not see some gruesome things over the years, so I’ll share a few of the more heinous incidents that used to give me nightmares, as well as a raw look at what it’s like for us maintenance folks in fighter and fighter/attack squadrons.
The third and last section is called “Fishing for Faith” and is about faith as it pertains to my story and my journey through Christianity. This section will be devoted to my grandchildren so they can have a tangible look at their grandfather’s life (so far). There are stories of some unexplained events and explanations of how God has been a factor in my life and has given clarity to the unexplained. I’ve said it before in the blog, but my grandfathers were great men and significant influences in my life in their unique ways. I just wish someone would have written a book about their lives because all I have left of my grandparents are the pictures and the memories, and they are fading fast.
My plan is to release the book on my dad’s birthday in October which gives me about 3 months to finish my work. We’ll see how it goes but eventually this blog is going to go away, either by a hacker or myself, but I’m going to extract everything I’m going to use in the book very soon. Most folks don’t know this, but my blog was already hacked, stolen and sold off without my knowledge once, but it was recovered. The next time I might not be so lucky.
Song of the day. Not the original but an awesome rendition.
I didn’t really exercise for the last 4 days, and I guessed that my weight would be around 203 this morning, but it’s not as bad as I thought. After my walk this morning, I checked the scale and it was 201 even. Lisa and I went to the Braves game on Thursday evening and had a great time. I found two last minute discounted tickets on Stub Hub and they were front row seats, field level. Best seats I’ve ever had, and we were right next to the action. The Braves beat the Mets, and I got to watch Juan Soto play for the first time. For some reason, we were surrounded by Mets fans and after the Braves jumped out to lead the game, things got awful quiet in our section and the only sounds being made was me chattering it up, like I was still a first baseman back in the day.
I joked with a buddy on Facebook, that I may have to fight our way out of the section we were sitting in, which prompted an old friend of mine to like my comment. His name was Oscar Tellez, and I knew he got a big chuckle out of my comment because he and I had to fight our way out of a section at a San Diego Padres game some 33 years ago. I was a Cincinati fan at the time and I was wearing an Eric Davis jersey at a ball game between the Padres and the Reds. Eric Davis played for the Reds back in the early 90’s, and he was a favorite of mine. The Padres were winning the game till the 8th inning when Eric Davis came up to bat with ducks on the pond. The Reds were down by two and I was receiving a lot of flak from the Padres fans in our section where Oscar and I were sitting. Oscar was wearing a Tony Gwynn Padres jersey, so he wasn’t catching as much flak as I was getting. Eric Davis hit a 3-run home run, and I stood up in my seat to cheer as the Reds took the lead. When I did, a couple of drunks from a couple rows above threw a beer and hit me with it. It splashed on Oscar also, so it took us about 3 seconds to grab a couple drunks and go to town on their cabeza’s. That prompted more drunks to join and get involved and then these knuckleheads tore my Eric Davis jersey. That’s when it became an all-out brawl which involved several fans and several security folks. We were blamed for the scuffle and Oscar and I were escorted out of the area in the end. They let us watch the rest of the game in a breezeway far away from where our fight went down. Oscar was a Padre fan but when it came to sticking up for me and fighting these guys, he was right there with me.
I got a call from an old Navy friend on Saturday morning to tell me that Oscar passed away suddenly the day before and that really hit me hard. Oscar was one of my best fishing friends out west and another one of our fishing crew that is now gone. If you’ve read my story, “Mooning the Lincoln”, you’ll read about myself, Oscar and the passing of our fishing friend Steve and Lucky, both of which has passed from our old crew. It’s pretty much down to Frank and me now. I know for a fact that Oscar got a chuckle out of my comment about fighting my way out at the ballgame and I almost made a comment about our fight years ago. I’m going to miss you buddy. RIP till we fish again my friend.
Lisa and I took a little road trip up to Ruby Falls and Chattanooga to checked out some stuff up there last week. We had to stop at Buccee’s on the way up and the way back for some of their delicious food and a few snacks, so I decided to break from my diet for a few days. We ate our meals on the road and at restaurants once we got to Chattanooga, but I tried to eat semi-healthy when I could and stay away from grease and chocolate, my two favorites. If you’ve never been to Ruby Falls up in Chattanooga, it’s worth the 2-hour drive to get up there for a visit. We stayed at a nice hotel on the river and had dinner at a nice place Friday evening before heading back home on Saturday morning.
Yesterday evening I threw a couple blackened red snapper filets on the Blackstone and put them on a bed of pasta to end my weekend and get back on my weight loss plan this morning. Party’s over but it was a fun four days off the diet. Back to the trail and back to the diet.
Song of the day. The first time I heard this song was while I was on my latest trip to the big easy for some red snapper.
Diet: 1/2 chicken breast, cottage cheese, crawfish pie for dinner and 1/2 bagel for breakfast
One thing I learned today was that the distance meter on my watch is way off. My walk today was a total of 4.4 miles according to the markers on the trail, but my watch only showed 3.58 miles. That’s a major distance difference so I’m going to try a different app on my iPhone to see what that says. I’m not sure what the watch uses as a reference for measuring distance but I’m wondering if there is a drop in service along the trail if it’s using GPS type data. We shall see. Today I felt great on the trail and pushing my distance was pretty easy. I put a half a bagel with honey in the gas tank this morning and I think that helped. I also had a scoop of mushroom coffee mix this morning, which usually gives me an energy boost. Dropped closed to another pound this morning but my left foot is taking a beating. This is what distance runners deal with, so it’s just like old times for me, minus a few toenails falling out. Mind over matter means no pain, no gain. Sorry, for the graphic photo if you’re squeamish!
A week ago, I had to have some work done on a bone graft placed in my jaw three months ago for a permanent replacement canine tooth. It was pretty painful, so I’ve been taking some pain meds off and on as needed. The pain meds cause constipation and sometimes I need to take some drastic measures. Back when I was competing in marathons with the Navy, I was very conscious about my weight right down to the last pound or two in my colon. On race day I always wanted to run with as little weight as possible. This was me at 38 years old at the 24-mile marker during the Blue Angel marathon. At the start of the race, I weighed 152 pounds and at the end, I was probably in the mid to low 140’s. Just a pound or two of extra weight means a lot when running 26.2 miles and you definitely don’t want to have a colon blowout during the race. Trust me when I say, that’s not a good look for the finish line pictures.
Just to give you an idea of colon weight, when I came in from the trail this morning this is what I saw on the scale.
After one tablespoon of this tasty stuff and two hours later, Boom! Race ready!
Meal deal of the day: I’ll let you guys in on a little secret of mine. I’ve mainly been eating Chinese and for about 21 bucks I can split it up and get three meals from the Chicken and asparagus entree, fried rice and a large egg drop soup. That’s about seven bucks for my dinner and it’s the perfect size so I don’t overeat. Not sure where they get their asparagus but it’s always fresh and crisp.
Recipe of the day:*Hard work, pain and determination are the three main ingredients to achieve a higher level of success. –Jim Farmer
Diet: 1/2 chicken breast, cottage cheese and pineapple squares
I had to split my walk today because I accidently reset my watch when I turned around to head back to the trail head where I started, so I have 2 different recordings today. The second half was a little less because it took a few steps before I realized what I had done. This fitness watch does a pretty good job though. I wish I would have had something like this 30 years ago. I knew I was going to be close to breaking 200lbs this morning, so I pushed just a little bit more and it paid off. I dug through my closet this morning and found a pair of unused New Balance 613 cross trainers that I had rat holed a few years back. New Balance shoes have always been the Cadillac of running shoes for me but the 613 isn’t really ideal for distance running. No further than I was going walking today, it wasn’t a big deal and the shoe is definitely lighter weight than those Asics I’ve been using. Feet are just about always an issue for distance runners. I can’t ever remember training for and running a marathon without a few blisters on my feet and dropping a few toenails along the way. It’s just part of the deal and pain tolerance is very important because you will experience pain if you’re going to train for marathon distance. I wrapped my big toe with the giant blister this morning, but little did I know that the big Band-Aid I used was rough and rubbed a blister on the toe next to it, so I wound up with another bloody sock today.
I gotta say that those blisters were all worth it when I weighed myself and saw that 199.2 on the scale so I decided to celebrate with a slice of my homemade crawfish pie for dinner this evening. Great morning out there on the trail this morning and I even stopped to have a quick chat with momma deer. She stayed around while I chatted with her for a little while and she said that she liked my shirt, before trotting off.
Just pulled the crawfish pie out of the oven and it will still be warm for dinner! It’s awesome with a dab of sour cream on top. If you’re interested in making a crawfish pie, my recipe is in the recipe section of this blog.
I was back at it this morning after taking yesterday off and taking the tribe to the Braves game. I knew this past weekend was going to be a wash and I was hoping the damage would be minimal when I weighed myself this morning. I was a good boy Friday evening and had some egg drop soup again for dinner but Saturday we went to a fish fry, and I couldn’t help myself, so I let it go and indulged in fried crappie, my southern style Potato salad, my crawfish corn muffins, some mac and cheese and banana pudding for dessert. All of it was good and I enjoyed every bite.
(*Recipes for the southern style potato salad and crawfish corn muffins are on my recipe page here on the blog.)
Yesterday is where that catchy title comes in. We took three of our grands to the Braves game yesterday afternoon and once again I let it go and when we got to the game, I decided one of those sweet looking double cheeseburgers with curly fries might hit the spot. Everybody in our crew grabbed something to eat and drink and we found our seats for the game. This was our view.
I knew I probably screwed up when I saw all that greasy cheese melting down the side of the double cheeseburger, but I still tore into that grease ball like a rat tearing into a freshly discovered Cheeto. I also had that order of curly fries in the burger box and they were just glistening in the afternoon sun, calling my name. When I pulled that first succulent curly fry out of the box and stuffed in the old cake eater, another curly fry fell out of the box and tumbled onto the concrete under the chair in front of me. I couldn’t reach it to pick it up, not that I wanted to, so I just left it there and went back to eating. Once I finished the burger and started on the curly fries, I looked down at the curly fry under the seat in front of me and I noticed a grease stain starting to form under the curly fry on the concrete. The first time I looked, the grease stain caused by errant fry was about the size of a dime but a few minutes later and after I consumed a few more fries, the stain had grown to the size of a half dollar. I started thinking about how bad that grease stain would have been if I dropped that greasy burger down there. That one little curly fry formed a grease stain on the concrete with the circumference of a tennis ball within 20 minutes. I couldn’t reach it to kick it away and I couldn’t unsee the grease stain for the rest of our time at the game, so I finally just quit looking at it, but the damage had been done. I knew I had blown up everything I worked for over the last week, so I said “what the heck and ate one of Lisa’s left-over chicken strips she brought back home from the game.
This morning, I was back out at the Big Creek trail and ready to push it a little more since I pigged out all weekend. I was thinking to myself that hopefully I could burn off some of that mess from yesterday, so I stretched my gate and quickened my pace to just shy of a power walk. I popped a bleeder in my left big toe after the second mile and that slowed me down just a bit. I know this sounds weird, but it actually felt pretty good since I haven’t had a foot blister in years and when I pulled my sock off and saw the blood stain, I actually got a bit giddy. I probably need some new shoes since these old Asics are probably 10-15 years old, but they still had good tread, so I’ve been using them. They also feel like I’ve got iron lungs wrapped around my feet, and I’d almost bet running shoes are lighter weight by now. I’ll probably make that adjustment and purchase some new shoes soon. After finishing my walk this morning I decided to weigh myself and see how bad the damage actually was. I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon and they always weigh me, so I wanted to get it over with before I get to the doctor and see the damage with a nurse looking over my shoulder.
Anyway, when I jumped onto our bathroom scale after my walk this morning, I had to take a double take as it was just a curly fry or two above 200lbs and it read 200.2! That tells me that my metabolism has shifted gears and barring any other grease binges by me in the next 24-48 hours I should see my scale reading below 200 for the first time in the last 10 years. Stay tuned!
It’s the Friday the 13th edition. I was hoping my awesome shirt would get a few smiles this morning on the trail and it did with three runners! Yesterday was a wash so no journal entry. Yesterday I had some work done on a bone graft in my jaw so I can get a permanent k-9 tooth. They jacked me up on valium and gas which made the procedure much more fun. That oral surgeon was flexing on my jawbone yesterday, but I didn’t feel a thing. As soon as he started, I started praying and I didn’t finish till he finished. To be honest, I haven’t felt a bit of pain yet. He was scraping, drilling and poking at my jawbone yet it was completely painless. Thank the Lord for that!
Afterwards, no solid food for a couple days and a regiment of pain and antibiotic pills for a few days. I didn’t think today would be a good day but to the contrary, it was pretty awesome. I felt no pain anywhere this morning, with the exception of a blister on my big toe. I stretched it out a little more today and went a little further. Prior to yesterday’s procedure, I had a little bit of solid food after my water fast on Wednesday, and I think that helped with me feel a bit better in spite of the drugs I had to take yesterday. Today I’m fine and so I’m probably going to stay on the soup, chicken and asparagus diet till tomorrow. Total weight loss since last Friday is 11lbs and I’m closing in on 200lbs fast. I don’t think I’ll get below 200 for another week, so but that’s my short-term goal.
Speaking of goals, I believe they are very important, not just in fitness, but for life in general. I’ve always believed in continuously setting new goals for myself because that’s how you grow in life. Succeeding in your goals also leads to self-worth and self-motivation. I also believe that you should ask where you see yourself in 5 years. I believe you should fill your life with short term and long-term goals. Setting goals is how I became a better distance runner, and I always pushed myself to do better. I never got complacent in my training, and I always strived to improve my time. If you have to re-invent yourself because you’ve run it off in the ditch, no worries, make a plan, set some new goals and better yourself. I’ve done it and to this day I’m thankful that I did.
I picked up a health and fitness wristwatch yesterday and I should be able to monitor and record more data starting next week. Right now, my goal is just to keep pushing and losing more weight till I get down to a healthier weight, then I’ll start on some toning and lite running exercises. A lot needs to happen before I get to that point, but it seems like my body is responding well to what I put it through this week.
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