h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Today... for W... - he eventually decided to join, towards the end of last week; afterall he was turning up with me, to the gym, each time, and reading his kindle whilst I did the stuff... so he joined up too
haa.... he's got some way to go to catch up with me... but hopefully I'm helping him ease into it gradually, so not as to scare him off.... - I can still very easily remember how hard some of the equipment and exercise was for me, when I first started, a few months back......

So we both went today, and headed to the cross trainers/ski machines...

W set me up on mine, then set his up, which was next to me.... but... he seemed to be really struggling....... eventually we went found my PT who was in the weight room, who helped us.....

'd never have guessed what W was doing wrong - he was peddling the cross trainer.... backwards Nope... I cna't qutie get it either, but instead of moving feet forward, and over, was I guess doing the essentially same thing as 'back peddling' on the bike... - I know you can do this on the cross trainers, as it works a differnt muscle set, but I think to get th ething going, it wants you peddling the right way round...

I was still feeling very sore, and full of cramp etc, from the two hour long MRI scan yesterday (and I assume still full of th e contrast die and/or its breadown products), so I really struggled, no helped by the noise in there today, the music was particularly dredful, and loud, plus there were a few mor epeople in the gym than useualy.....

W got to about 1 KM I think, maybe 10 minutes, before he decided he was too exausted....- and his legs were aching... - I recall that, from when I started on it, although now I rarely notice any ache from it in my upper legs at all...

I was so exausted though... I assume from the MRI.... but kept going.... got to 30 minutes somehow and clocked in about 6 KM

Then got W to get us to the exercise bikes, and we got them set up and W again got to about 10 minutes, and I went on and did 15 minutes; the last two at full pelt, in order to travel 'far enough' 6 KM or just over in 15 minutes, which works out roughtly at 15 MPH

We were a bit later getting to the gym today, which was probably why it was busier, and by the time we got home it was lunch...

Tuna, coleslaw, and avocado, with cucumber, in a wholemeal wrap and I had a bananna and a peach for after that too
I showered, and w went out in search of tea supplies, we were getting dangerously low again on punjana tea 240 tea bags duely purchased (three of the four boxes of 80 they had in the CoOp) so we have tea for next week now
after lunch I showered, and then took my multivitamine and citmaine C, and then, a few hours later took the antibiotic, and we went for a nap about 5 PM (would hav e been earlier but my Brother phoned).

got up just before 7, and after and listening to the wireless, a while, I prepared and cooked dinner....

thin strips of pork steak, thin strips of a whole red (bell) pepper, and an onion cut into thin strips, with a pack of noodles.... some sessamae oil, sessamae seeds, and soya sauce. once preped cooked up in only a few minutes
breakfast was bacon and grilled mushrooms, with brie in the mushrooms
Breakfast about 280 KCal.
Lunch about 400 KCal,
and dinner was just over 400 KCal, plus I had the two bits of fruit earlier
doubt we'll do much tonight, looks like it might rain out there... ansd we're off out tomorrow night, to an LGBT thing at the pub (and I get to wear my new gingham dress... with pig tails if W will let me )

oo. we've discovered a new pepper nextdoor at the shop.... 'white pepper', its a little bit shaped like a 'ssweet pointed pepper', and has a cream or white coloured skin, and a fabulus flavour... somewhat sweet like a regular red bell pepper, but slightly spicey/hot in the back of it, somewhere, and, the weird, but gorgeous bit, a kind of lemon, or lemon grass taste to it too

used some last night, with diced pork, onion, mushroom, garlic in a bulghur wheet pilaf which was fabulus.... W went nextdoor today and got some of them again, whilst they've got them in

Gym yesterday.... didn't do very well... only managed 25 minutes on the cross trainer; I was feeling oddly light headed, kinda dizzy, which as it can be a sign of impending adrenal crisis, can be a bit more serious than just overdoing it a bit... no idea what though.... recovered quickly after stopping, so then did 15 minutes (6 KM) on the cycle before coming home, and popping an extra 1 MG prednisolone, just in case I was low on steroid for some odd reason - actually felt somewhat better after lunch, so maybe was low BG...
Dont' quite feel right doay though.... nothing I can exactly put my finger on, just 'not right'....
went into town earlier, with W, just to browse a few charity shops, but I didn't see anything noteworty, so didn't get anyhting
did a long walk day before yesterday again.... by the river... which I may have already mentioned and off again to gym tomorrow hopefully
Popped out to the pub briefly last night... and got acosted by the landlady...
"I want that dress!" ... I did have to point out it was my dress and she coudln't have it, but I exchanged with her where I got it, and what make it was etc (Joanna hope, velvet and choclate brown matterial, knee length, and has two side pockets ) (I got it from EBay )
notthing planned for the rest ot today... just feel tired and a bit out of it hmm. not tired, just fatigued I think...

That was an interesting tactic, to take more prednisolone later in the day even though you recovered from the dizzy spell quickly and did more exercise after that.

It seems to me from where I'm sitting over here (so I could be wrong) that it is a pattern that you feel tired and out of it the day after you have taken an extra dose - is that something you've noticed?

Sounds fun that you and W are working out side by side now - great that the equipment allows you each to go at your own pace, so you're not running off and leaving him alone while he walks backwards instead of forwards

I had to move 42 massive concrete garden tiles today. That's gotta count for something

hmm... maybe, maybe it is the day after the extra dose thing... though often if I'm doing the gym, and if* I remember, Ill take 2 MG rather than 1, in the PM of the day before; so the 3 MG I take in the mroning, before the gym, is coming on top of more residual leftover steroid from the day before... not sure if that makes a huge differnce though; and as each day has a differnt requirement for steroid anyhow, its a bit of a guessing game... 4 or 5 MG a day seem fairly OK, and quite simular a dose to me; 6 MG a day I notice I've taken way more than I need (assuming I'm not actually ill)

ahh!; now, yesterday; took 3 MG AM, like normal (a 1 MG dose PM before), then took the extra 1 MG after the gym, mid afternoon, and I think* last night PM dose I took 2 MG (just to finish off a strip of the tablets), so that was 6 MG over the day, and today I feel quite a bit 'out of it'... took 3 MG AM today, no mid-afternoon extra dose, so will take 2 MG tonight, and then see how I am in the AM hmm... or take 1 MG tonight, not 2....

yes, - plus using the equipment alongside W, I can insure I always do further or faster than he does not that I'm competitive or anything - must try introducing him to weights at some point; oddly the one thing he's noticed from the cross trainer is his arms hurting afterwards, and I think he's never particularly had much upper body muscle strength, so he'd benifit from that... using less weight than I do of course, to start with, maybe just on some free weights, curls, presses, upright rowing, verticle raises etc...

oo; how big were the concrete slabs?: I recall moving some huge ones my Dad got years ago, must have been 3 foot by 4 foot, and they weighed a rediculus amoutn! no giving yourself a hurnea now!

I had my hernia fixed a couple of years ago and these slabs were only 50 times 50 centimeters so I wasn't worrying

tiny baby slabs then! actually... that's still kinda large! had a short 30 minute walk out this evening... well it is* summer here, and its so nice out... just a coincidence the walk ended up taking in a gorgeous local pub and two pints... still just about inside the right side of calories for the day though still annoying I don't seem to be losing weight anymore... despite all the gym, plus often only about 1300 or max 1500 Kcal a day including beerr intake... - back before steroids I'd be losing weight on 1700 or 1900 Kcal a day not sur eI can go safely any lower on calories, and not sure how quickly I can increase exercise duration or intensity, without riskimg rupturing the anneurysm

Aha, that's good analysis of your dosage situation

I saw a meme the other day, about someone who weighed X stone, then took to exercise and by the time she was fully toned, her weight was X again. However, her bodyshape was very different and she had much more muscle. Typically, I can't find it now I'm looking for it...

Oh... exactly... I'm kinda hoping not to 'bulk up' too much, as goes muscle building just 'tone up', as it were... more core and stuff as much as just arms and bicepts and suchlike At the moment I'm still over 14 stone, and I need to be under 13 to get my B BMI back into a safe area, closer to 12, (80 something KG) would be better mind

Don't rely too much on BMI to determine your ideal weight. The BMI works well when looking at populations, but can be problematic for individuals. For example, I don't fit the BMI standards as I've got a long torso but rather short legs. While I am definitely overweight, I'm not "morbidly obese" as the BMI would suggest. When I was in college, before I started putting on the weight, I was 174 lbs. I was taking a "kinesiology" (PE) class and we measured our percentage body fat. I was at 7%. At 5'9" that put me into the overweight category with a BMI of 26. 7% body fat is a low percentage for athletes!

I consider the BMI to be BS.

If you subtract 100 from your height in centimeters, you get a fair idea of how much you are "allowed" to weigh. I am 180 centimeters (5'11'') so somewhere around 80 kilos (12.6 stones / 176 pounds) is okay for me

That doesn't work for me either. By that calculation I should be at just 6% body fat. That's not healthy.

Both these methods put too much emphasis on height. I'm a very tall person sawed off at the knees. I have a friend who's 6'4" and when I once drove his vehicle, I had to raise the rearview mirror. I'm taller than he is from the waist up.

The BMI squares the height further exacerbating the issue.

I think the BMI is kinda about right for me... it rouly tallys in with the other way, just using height... - I'm about 5 Ft 11", so err... about 183? something like that; 83 KG (and under), gets my BMI into where it oughta be; and due to the ostioporosis, its benifical to not have BMI too* low below 18 or 20 I'm not solely driven by BMI, in the same way I'm not solely driven by weight, its a lot more body shape, and just how I feel 'in movement' if that makes sense.... - you kinda know you need to lose a bit more belly fat, when you fan't do certain bending over things properly - mind, due to the steroids, and the central obeaseity they cause, I'm unlikely to entirely lose the bit round the middle wahtever i do - having said which I've alreayd lost most of th e'moon face' that one gets with steroid use

I've heard that a person's "equator" is the most accurate indicator of how much you should weigh. Numerous tests are said to show the same outcome. And this should even go for dwarfs and giants too. But what do I know?

This is one explanation I found and tried to translate:

How to measure your waist correctly:
1. Stand with your stomach relaxed and 25-30 cm spacing between the feet.
2. Locate the upper part of your hip and the bottom edge of your ribs. Your waistline is midway between the two points, whether your navel is above or below.
3. Measure your circumference with a tape measure after a relaxed exhalation. Make sure that the tape measure is horizontal and aligns evenly to the skin.

Mens circumference ("equator") should be 94 centimeters or below

Ah...


That's what I suspected, I'd just never heard "equator" in that context before.

- in that context, I think I only need to lose about another 7 CM! mind, not sure if thats the exact position they measurement me at the hospital, as they go by the 2" above the belly button location... though I've a feeling that is about the right position for me... I'll have to try measure it again some time soon.... - they're measuring me there, and my hips, to monitor 'core body fat', for the criteria for contineueing with GH injection funding... at the moment I've already done enough reduction mind, to qualify for continueing fundin, both on the physical measurements and I think also fon the QOL questionaire criteria too plus the weight loss itself

Yep, if you're not in proportion to yourself, have a high proportion of muscle mass, or are a child, BMI is total BS (as opposed to just kind of). Unfortunately, none of those apply to me Trying the centimeter thing gives me roughly the same weight answer (still have roughly 2 stone to lose...). Had a checkup with a new doctor, and he added TSC and (I think) T4 to the bloodwork, because my "neck looks full". Found my results online, and my levels are inhe ideal range, though a little on the lower part of the range. As I suspected, my "full neck" is most likely a result of a BMI of 29, instead of my BMI being a result of my full neck (Though, looking at hypo symptoms, it would explain a lot of things...)

that'll be TSH and T4.... Thyroid stimulating hormone, and T4, which is the storage (main) form of active thyroid hormone, thyroxin.... - its a weird relationship; being even a bit overweight can lower thyroid hormones.... and being a bit low on thyroid hromones, can increase one's bein g overweight! so long as your TSH isn't way way high, you're unlikely to have a thyroid problem (if the thyroid isn't working well, the pituitary kicks in and releases more TsH to make the (unresponsive) thyroid gland make more thyroid hormone)... 0- assuming your pitutiary is working which is a fairly safe bet, in most people cept me of course - pity they'd not done T3; the active form of thyroxin (triodothyrinine) which is the one version of thyroid hormone, which actually makes tuff happen in the body (T4 is the storage version), as that can be useful to see if your converting properly from T4 to T3... but... yeh... thyroid is but only one reason for being overweight, and probably isn't the most obvious to look at, until other factors have been addressed, like exercise and eating... well, I'm sort of making no thyroid, hardly, but still lost weight... about 2 and a half stone so far (at least one stone left to lose I think ) if your T4 is anywhere near the middle its a fairly good indication that isn't not at fault at all.... the lab ranges vary so wildly though.... Mine as I now know was at about 14 back in 2014, before I was ill, was 10 or 11, before I started thyroid meds, then crept a little higher, and now is less than 10 (but I feel fine) - TBH itall seems a bit random to me at times, and doesn't necessarily make much sense - normally when my TSH has been higher, recently, my T4 and T3 is lower... which is... basically the wron gway round - but its still a possibility I now have both thyroid disease (due to radiotherapy), and th epituitary disease too, both affecting TsH an d T4 and thereby T3 also - not to mention reverse T3, and problems with conversion which I've still yet to make them measure and test fasinating stuff though... makes me reminded of why I found endocrinology so interesting when I was studying bits of it, at uni