I walked through the grocery store yesterday and realized that I couldn't eat the vast majority of the foods in it. There are whole aisles that I never go down anymore. It was a weird feeling looking at all those shelves and realizing that the contents were irrelevant to me. They're just pointless aisles, like the miscellaneous useless crap aisle in the middle of the store. I make brief forays into aisle land for nuts and dried fruit, but mostly I'm hanging out in produce and the tiny organic section with its even tinier gluten free shelf. Which is near to the shelf of the one acceptable non-milk milk I've found.
I could shop at a much smaller store.
Of course, JD does most of the shopping, so I'm not including the places he goes, like the meat place and the frozen veggie place. And even those have to be carefully inspected for wheat, largely because of soy sauce.
At least my food selection process is simpler, if not easier.
This weekend I hit new personal bests at my local playground (i.e. the closest national park). I achieved my fastest time for a circuit, and my longest distance hiked there. Both on the same day. And although I was tired-ish, and wouldn't have minded a nap, I took a shower and then JD and I headed downtown to meet friends for alcohol and hilarity. And meat, because I was freaking HUNGRY after all that, even though I ate snacks while I was hiking. I pretty much destroyed a bunless burger and a side of fries. And a whole bunch of hard cider, because regular beer is verboten and gluten free beer wasn't on tap. I could not have performed this sequence of actions in the past.
I wonder if my current reasonably healthy state (not counting my back, or my inability to digest gluten) is to be laid at the feet of my diet. I still get sick sometimes (like anybody else), but generally I feel better in under 24 hours. Which is way better than the 2 weeks that a cold or flu usually takes. And I have more energy than I can remember having pretty much ever. And also both my speed and endurance have improved measurably. Perhaps it's just my time (WOO 42!) or maybe it's something else. Because you know it's not like I've been slacking all these years. I've been out there chugging away, working out and hiking and doing yoga and just generally trying my hardest. And still being generally slow and not very strong. If a simple (yet annoying) dietary change is responsible, well.. Okay honestly I'll be irritated, because I could have done this fifteen years ago and been much more awesome in the interim.
My folks raised me to respect hard work, and to do my best. And I don't ALWAYS do my best because I'm not a saint, but I try very hard almost all of the time. My job, my health, my fitness, my relationships, my dealings with anybody and everybody. I try. And I don't give up easily. Which has made the last 20 years of being a steadfast but deadly slow hiker just a wee bit frustrating. I'm trying, man! That has been my refrain. It's hard to tell without other hikers around, but I think that I might finally be approaching the hiking speed of a normal person. Not a normal hiker, mind you, just a normal guy off the street.
I went to a followup appointment with my new GP today. He reviewed my various lab results and said that if you just went by my test results, he would have to wonder why I'm wasting his time in the office. I'm perfectly healthy, blood-chemistry-wise. Blood chemistry like a boss! He suggested I make sure I get my heartrate to 70% of my maximum for 30 minutes several times a week to maximize my results from exercise. But then I went and looked up what that heartrate is, and I'm pretty sure I already do that. At least, I do when I'm on the bike at the gym. But JD is going to lend me his heart monitor thingie so I can check.
The doc also suggested that I am perhaps obsessive about my exercise and health, and he is of course correct. Trying to do my best all the time includes working REALLY HARD at exercise and paying close attention to my health. Apparently keeping copies of my own records and checking to make sure that my cholesterol isn't trending upward over a several year period counts as not quite normal. But then again, I kept the natural gas and electricity records tabulated for the first ten years I was in my house so I could see if my energy saving changes were working. So at least I'm not just a hypochondriac. I am an equal opportunity obsessor.
I assume you stopped reading several paragraphs ago, because the minutia of how my mind works aren't that interesting. If not, congratulations! You get an A in blog reading.
Before I forget, I saw a physical therapist to be evaluated for leg length today, and my new nickname will not be Stumpy. My legs are fine. Apparently the break when I was six healed perfectly, lengthwise. However, my pelvis was not fine. The right side is tilted, likely as the result of a really nasty fall off Pluto several years ago. Nothing was broken in the fall, but I crushed my sacroiliac a little bit and it hurt like hell at the time. It was breathtakingly painful. The only thing in my life that even came close was when I was kicked in the back of the head by a horse and crushed a nerve that was close to the surface at the base of my skull. Both injuries produced the sort of paralyzing, all encompassing electric pain that goes far beyond tears and directly to inhibiting important bodily functions such as thinking, breathing, and moving.
When that healed, it apparently healed tilted forward, where it has remained ever since. My chiropractor adjusts it often, but it goes back to its wrong position. However this PT, bless her, has showed me two things. 1) A way to put it back myself, and 2) exercises to help it stay in the correct position. I look forward to a less painful back / SI joint. And to a more balanced riding position. Pluto had been complaining that I wasn't balanced, but I didn't know why or what to do about it. Now I know.
Also I know that it's ALL HIS FAULT. But I'm not holding a grudge. Really.
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