D.J. Coffman - Sequential Artist, Thinker

Late late start today. I’m sorry internet. It won’t happen again, sir!

So the wife and I went to the gym this morning to do the initial screening thing. Turns out my home scale is WAY off, which made me feel so much better. My wife is always shocked or disgusted that my blood pressure is perfect, and generally I’m about average for my age in all the little tests.

My one big problem is my back, it’s “tight” as the instructor said, and they gave me tips on stretches and stuff to loosen that up, she warned that if I let it go, it only gets tighter with age too. I pictured myself at 50 looking like a statue, stiff as a board. I don’t notice the stiffness unless it’s an excercise that is requiring me to, and it’s not that it hurts, but it just won’t bend or move! I finally figured out what it kind of feels like, put a small barrel around your waste and try to do a sit up. It ain’t happening.  I attribute this to the fact that when i was 19, and unloading trucks at UPS overnight, i got pinned down, right into the back by a BIG metal like axle. Trapped in the truck, I had to wait for someone to walk by to see me pinned, yelling for help wouldn’t matter much as you couldn’t hear anything with all the noise. Of course UPS made me sit in an office an hour after my shift until the supervisor asked if I was okay, I could have been crippled— they sent me home without an accident report. How awesome of them!– the next morning? I woke up and could not move! I was in so much pain, I couldn’t walk, I had to lunge myself out the side of the bed, and crawl to the phone, pull it down off the mantle and call my friend to get me to the UPS company doctor pronto. Hey, what do you know? He said I was fine and probably just pulled something. They did no x-rays, nothin, just simple, move this way and that, where does it hurt, etc…

I haven’t had back problems chronically or anything since, but every now and then if I’m doing heavy work or moving things, i’ll feel it creeping in and I remember that day, lunging myself out of bed, cringing in pain. It’s never been THAT bad again, but close a few times. So, back the gym…  I think it’s possible that all these years my body or mind has kind of protected myself from any further back injuries by remaining “tight”, self defense mechanism. Makes sense. But ironically, having a tight back like that can increase the risk of more back injuries, etc. So I was encouraged to hear that I can regain some of that back by stretching, etc, working out slowly to build up.

But here’s the rub. That whole gym thing? I just don’t feel comfortable in the main packed area. I’m a friggin hermit. I think I’d gladly exert myself in private. I don’t even care that I have feeble upper body strength and they’ll probably laugh when they see that I can’t lift something that the 70 year old guy next to me can. I couldn’t do ONE pushup today. Not one. I can do modified pushups, and YES, I can do that stuff at home. Anyways– I have an appointment with the physical trainer on Monday morning at 9:30am. She’ll give me a workout plan that I’m supposed to do for 4 weeks, then we change it up. Fine. But I’m just not “feeling” the big room with a bunch of sweaty strangers. I might try to FORCE myself to do it, just because. But i have a whole weekend to talk myself out of it now. I don’t know if I can change my routine here.

On the plus side of health? I have been eating better, and staying away from excess crap. Fried foods, carbs, sugars… MEH. No soda. In fact, i think it’s CRAZY to drink that stuff now. I don’t crave them at all. Every now and then, I’ll have a bite of chocolate, just for energy boost, but its few and far between. If I DO have a coke, it’s a cherry coke zero, but thats even rare– My main main problem with diet is, I forget to eat. I know what to do… I just forget to do it, or do it at the proper times. It’s hard when I’m a workaholic like that– i get up, wake up and go right to work all day– multitasking. Sometimes I’ll have some oatmeal in the morning with coffee, but I am just NEVER hungry in the morning, so you have to sort of force yourself to do it. Same with lunch. I’ve been having some turkey sandwiches for lunch here and there, and that is RARE. And the weirdest thing? There are weekends where i just say “F*ck it” and eat whatever I want… football playoffs, etc.. pizza night— then I check the scale on monday, I lost weight. It’s insane. But see, I think it’s just a mix of that eating more, more often in smaller doses and bumping up your metabolism.

So now, it’s water… drink more water. I know they say if you’re hungry at night, have a glass of water, because most humans don’t know that they are actually THIRSTY and not hungry. So I’ll try that too. But food is more delicious after a long day of thinking and working. To sit down and watch Chuck or something else and have a snack and relax.

Oh well…. today was a HEALTH bloggy talk. Back to the ol’ drawing board for me.