Update:
After my 10.3 mile bike ride on Wednesday, I noticed
that I had lost weight from the previous weigh-in for the Biggest Loser, so I
immediately went and weighed-in a day early.
I had an appointment on Thursday that would make it difficult to ensure
that I had gotten a long bike ride in before I weighed; so I struck while the
iron was hot. That takes pressure off of
me on Thursday. Several of the guys were
giving me grief about being in first place in the Biggest Loser
Competition. “Chaplain, don’t you feel
guilty being in first place?” My answer,
“Nope. Surprised--yes, guilty—no.” After that they tried to entice me to eat
sweets and junk food. They are both in
the competition too, so it would help their standings if I had a setback or
two. Oh, the fraternal brotherhood! The teasing was all in good fun and I gave it
back as good as I got. This has been a
great motivational help and given me a good start on my weight loss goal; I am
glad that I joined in this time.
On my bicycle ride, although my MPH hasn’t
substantially changed, I noticed that I am stronger and getting up the hills a bit
easier and riding against the wind with a bit less effort. My goal has been to ride for an hour six days
a week. Burning that many calories,
exercising my legs, and getting my heart rate/respirations up for that length
of time is beneficial to me. Along with
my exercises, I continue to burn the fat off even if I show little or no weight
loss—I am getting healthier.
On Thursday, I had my first appoint with my
prosthetist in 3 1/2 weeks (new record for me).
She added another layer of leather
in the knee area and more padding on the right side of my knee because it has
grown smaller and needed to be tightened up to provide more stability when I
walked. I noticed an immediate
difference in how stable I felt when I walked.
I received two more liner-liners to wear on hot days (especially when I
exercise). In the past, I’ve mentioned
all the sweat that accumulates in my silicone liner when I am riding my
bike. The liner-liner helps take care of
that problem. It is a sock that goes
against my skin, then the silicone liner goes on top of that. The liner-liner absorbs and wicks the
moisture away from my skin making it a much more comfortable time. I already have one liner-liner so additional ones
will allow me to wash the dirty one and allow a full 24 hours drying time while
I wear the second one. The angle of my
foot had to be adjusted; I found that I was walking on the outside edge of the
foot. When you first start walking with
a prosthesis, you tend to walk with your feet spread apart for added
stability. As you grow more familiar
with walking, your feet move closer together like you used to walk with two
legs. So the angle my foot was set at
had to be changed to accommodate my new walking style. Leah also added another pad in my shoe to
adjust the height of the prosthesis a tiny bit.
Apparently I’ve settled into the prosthesis and so I was dipping a bit
on my left side when I walked.
I dropped off all my too-large-for-me clothes at Hope
Bargain Center today. It was an
interesting time for me to get them loaded.
They were on the second floor in a huge pile so I used kitchen trash
bags to bag it all up. Now I had a dozen
bags that were too heavy for me to safely carry down the stairs; I need my
hands free to use the rail and my cane.
Not having any other help readily available, I threw the bags down to
the landing on the stairs and then all the way down to the first floor. There are stairs on my deck outside of the
front door to the sidewalk, so I threw the bags over the rail towards the
truck. From there I loaded them into the
back of my truck. It worked and no bags
broke during the process.
My son helped me modify my wheelchair. I have anti-tip arms on the back of the
wheelchair so going up a ramp, I can’t tip over backwards. I found that the ones on my wheelchair seemed
a bit low and so they would drag when I went down a ramp. So Jon and I got out the saws-all and the
drill and shortened them up a bit (If I took a bit more off I could get the
chair to stand up in a wheelie—it is almost there; but not quite). Afterwards Jon wanted me to try it on the
ramp and it worked perfectly. I made him
ride the wheelchair down the ramp and then power himself back up the ramp. He said going down was fun and he was
surprised at how difficult it was to power himself back up the ramp. Now he knows the work that I’ve been doing!
On Friday, I have a meeting that will last the
morning and then I need to be at the church to finish my sermon and help out at
the Red Cross Blood Drive that our church is hosting. I’ll probably give blood too. If you are in the area and available between
noon and 6 p.m. please stop by.
With everything I had happening on Thursday, I never
got my update posted—so that is why I combined Thursday and Friday’s Update.
I didn’t get much sleep on Wednesday night so I am
heading to bed soon. I was out with the
police and didn’t get home until after 1 a.m.
Then it took me over 30 minutes to get ready for bed (washing my liner,
the various socks, and my leg and foot).
I am not used to staying up late anymore since my operation. AND the 4:30 a.m. alarm went off way too
early for me. After Karen left for work
at 6 a.m., I caught a couple hours more sleep later, but it wasn’t enough. So after I post this I am headed to bed so I
am refreshed and ready to go on Friday.
Thought for
the Day:
“Life is full of problems, and we might as well be
prepared for them. There is no such
place as a trouble-free area and no such person as one who knows no
problems. And Christians aren’t exempt!” [John Maxwell, How High Will You Climb?
Determine Your Success by Cultivating the Right Attitude].
2 Corinthians
4:8-9 “We are pressed on every side
by troubles, but not crushed and broken.
We are perplexed because we don’t know why things happen as they do, but
we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted
down, but God never abandons us. We get
knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.” (TLB).
I love that scripture passage because it reminds me
that even the great men and women of the bible faced difficulties and
trials. Somehow in our culture we’ve
come to believe that constant ease and happiness is an inalienable right. We might be able to pursue it; but it has a
way of running fast enough to often elude our pursuit.
Something that each one of gets to choose is how we
will view our lives. Some might view
their glass as half-empty and become bitter, complaining about every little
things and sniping at the attempts that others make. Others choose to view the
glass half-full and find the positive in everything around them. Their lives are perfect; but they count the
blessings that they do have and don’t dwell on the negatives.
One of my favorite childhood songs was by Roger
Miller entitled, “You Can’t Roller Skate in a Buffalo Herd.” It is a silly song with lots of impossible
situations like “You can’t go swimming in a baseball pool” but after listing
all of these things that you cannot do, the chorus is a simple one line, “But
you can be happy if you’ve a mind to.”
There is no denying that some people don’t seem to
get a break and the cards that life dealt them stink; but ultimately we are
only as happy as we choose to be. Our
happiness doesn’t depend upon our circumstances unless we choose to make it
depend upon them. I’d rather snatch
whatever happiness that I can out of the day and enjoy what I’ve got instead of
giving in and remaining sour because things go wrong as they certainly
will.
From Wikipedia: Carpe diem is
an aphorism usually translated "seize the day", taken from
a poem written in 23 BC by the Latin poet Horace… A more literal translation of "Carpe
diem" would thus be "enjoy the day" or "pluck the day [as
it is ripe]"—i.e. to enjoy the moment; however, in its modern-day usage,
the "diem" usually gets abstracted as "opportunity."
I’ve modified this oft used phrase, putting my own little twist on it:
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