Getting Older Is No Fun

 I haven't been to the gym in a few days. Not by choice, mind you, but because on Thursday my sciatic nerve decided to let me know it was there. I was going for a run in the JMU Arboretum around lunch time when I started to get a pain in my lower back and the backs of my thighs while I was running up a hill. I had to walk a little bit, then tried running again once the pain subsided some and it just came right back. So, I ended my run at this point and walked out the rest of my time. 

Me dying in the Arboretum as I walk for a bit,
though my face doesn't quite display the pain. 

Unfortunately, I did not do all of the things at that moment that would have probably been best for me, but I did try to take it easy the rest of the day after a hot shower. That night the pain became so bad that it woke me up at 2 am. Well, that morning was supposed to start off in the gym with some trap bar deadlifts. That isn't happening when you are dealing with lower back and thigh pain. So, I alerted my coach and said "hey, I'm taking it easy, walking and yoga for now and will continue to monitor."

So I went for a walk around my area for a little over two miles. I felt decent while walking, but when I had to jog across a street the pain just shot up my legs into my back. When I got home I did some digging and discovered what I had suspected, that it was most likely sciatica. So, I told my coach, we agreed to make the coming week a recovery/yoga week, and reassess as we go on. So, here I am, sitting in the living room when I am usually lifting heavy things and putting them down. I don't do idle well, but that I am now being treated for my ADHD (another story I will get into later) I am doing much better than I would have. 

Moving forward, I am going to try to make Sunday an update day for this blog where I talk about how my fitness journey is going. I use a Garmin watch and the Connect app they have (I am a proud League of Garmin member!) so I have all sorts of fun data. But let's look at weight for right now. 

Those are my daily weigh-ins for this week. Now, you can see that I relapsed a bit during this past year when you look at this graph. 

This is one of those times when I would tell anyone who thinks having weight loss surgery is the "easy way out" or the "lay way" that they are very much misinformed. This is a process and WLS is a tool, nothing more. It certainly helps that I can only eat a fraction of what I once could. The idea of going to a Chinese buffet and housing three plates while drinking three or four glasses of water is non-existent today. I ate 3 oz. of chicken, a half-cup of broccoli, and 3.8 oz of rice (half of a Bibigo rice bowl) and I was uncomfortably full for a good 45 minutes afterwards. I track everything I eat (most of the time) and I am putting in the work in the gym and on the track (or the trails, or streets) as well. It is a never-ending process.

Anyway, the weight gain is because the "bers" got me good, and it's because I was cocky about it. I came into it thinking "nah, I am fine during the fall, I love this season, it won't get me" even though my coach was warning the whole group about it. I was wrong, and now I have to make up for that. I need to get back to where I was and I am taking the steps I need to, figuratively and literally.