Well now....I was out of the Navy and didn't have any more of a direction in my life than before I went in. I did have a G.I. Bill. This was the old G.I. bill and it had a sweet deal if you wanted to go to college. They would pretty much pay for it and you could have around $500 or so a month to live on while you were enrolled. Just what a budding drug addict needed; no responsibilities, steady income, and not having to do anything with your time other than go to classes.....and you didn't have to actually attend any classes, just enroll in them.
Naturally, I spent semester after semester skipping classes and getting stoned. There were a few that I found interesting and put in some effort, but for the majority of them I just quit going after a couple of weeks. My transcript was all over the place, either A's or F's....mostly F's since I wouldn't even bother dropping the classes to get an incomplete grade. I pretty much wasted a great deal for getting my education because I was far more interested in working on my addiction.
...and it was coming along fine
I think this was about the time that I started to wonder whether I may actually have a problem with drugs. Outwardly, it didn't seem like it. I was having fun, had lots of friends, was young and felt I could do anything and had all the time in the world to do "grownup" stuff , like have a job and a direction in my life. But inside....inside I started to get the feeling that I may be in trouble.
...and I didn't have a clue what to do about it. So I got high and tried to stay that way anyway I could.
For the past couple of weeks....that's TWO WEEKS boys and girls...I've been fighting off some kind of cold, virus, flu, or whatever. Everybody calls it the more general term of "the crud". It's been going around where I work and since I usually have contact all day with people through talking, handshakes, or hugs; I naturally picked up the bug. I also brought it home to share with my wife, for which she is not at all grateful. The really hard thing is that it seems to be taking forever to shake this damn thing. It's mostly respiratory. I'll feel horrible one day. Feel better the next few. Relapse to coughing and sneezing. Just sick enough to feel like shit but not enough to take off several days from work (gotta eat and pay bills).
How does this effect my training?
Pretty much wipes it out. Lemme paint you a graphic picture.
My sinuses are all clogged up until the inevitable and unpredictable sneeze which blows great big blobs of booger juice on everything within five feet. Fellow gym goers tend to freak out when I saturate either the equipment or themselves. A "bless you" doesn't cover something like that. Then there's the coughing. Going around hacking constantly is also something that will not make you very popular in a gym. Add to that every bone in your body aches, you are fatigued because you can't sleep very well and are loaded with DayQuil, you're running a fever, and there's that occasional attack of diarrhea.....it's hard to focus on getting that PR on the bench press.
So yes, I skipped going to the gym. The problem with being sick when you are within spitting distance from being in your 60s is that you don't recover as easily from colds and flu. It's kind of a strange hand off; I rarely get sick, certainly much less so than co-workers a third my age who seem to call in sick every other week; but when I do catch a bug, it's like getting hit with the Black Death.
But I'm feeling pretty good. Still have a slight cough every once in a while, but I think it's mostly cleared up. Just in time to pull a couple of long shifts for the weekend. Then I can hit my training again on Monday and see how much gains have gone down the toilet.
It's only a failure when you quit.
I like to wear headphones when I work out. I've got my phone set up with an app for music which helps me keep up a pace and gives me energy. We're talking heavy metal here boys and girls....none of that namby pamby sentimental shit that passes for music these days.
It just makes training more enjoyable. When I am playing music through my little earbuds....I'm focused. I don't care about anything or anybody around me. I'm centered on the task at hand which is either shooting for that extra mile on the elliptical or another two reps of weight over what I did the last time. The one thing I do not want to do is have a conversation with some other person in the gym!
It invariably happens that, right as I get into a groove with my workout, right when my selected song hits a good spot where I can really push hard....some dumbass comes up to me and starts yammering. I look up and see their lips moving but can't hear a word, so I put a screeching halt to whatever I'm doing and yank out the earbuds. I mean, it could be an emergency; like the gym is on fire or a rich dude is throwing hundred dollar bills around in the parking lot.
It's never important. It's always some type of mundane chit-chat. "How long ya been working out? Do you want a spot? Some weather we're having, eh?" Crap like that. Why some people feel an obligation to have conversations with people that have no interest in talking is something I will probably never understand. Maybe they're lonely. Maybe they think I'm lonely. Most likely they are just self centered inconsiderate boobs who love to hear their lips flapping and figures everybody else does as well.
Or....maybe they don't even realize I'm listening to music to help my workout. They may just see me staring in their general direction across the gym and figure that I want to start up a conversation. The earbuds are kind of small. Perhaps they are too subtle...and I need to upgrade to something larger and more obvious.
I really hate it. About four times a day I have to check my blood glucose level various times a day to make sure it's not getting too high or too low. I hate it....but there really is no way around it.
What it consists of is taking a little needle-like doohickey and stabbing it into my finger to get a drop of blood. It actually doesn't hurt....well....not much most times and when it does, it's only for a second. Still, it's not very much fun. My fingers have toughened up with the thousands of pokes over the last few years which, strangely enough, makes it harder since I have to jab the needle deeper to hit blood.
So why am I whining about this? Just a reminder to all that haven't developed Type 2 diabetes yet because of their lousy lifestyles. Change! Now, before it's too late! It's not too late for me as in losing weight, getting fit, and changing the course of the more deadly consequences of diabetes; but it is too late to avoid being diabetic. I will have to check my blood sugar every day for the rest of my (hopefully) long life. That sucks, believe me. You don't want this.
So how do you avoid the routine of making yourself bleed a few times every day? Well...you probably know. Eat right. It's not rocket science, most of us have knowledge what is good for us and what is garbage. Avoid processed foods. Avoid tons of sweets. EXERCISE regularly and with consistency.
And finally, the one thing that most of us should do but put off and that is getting a regular medical checkup. There are several symptoms of diabetes but their onset is so slow and gradual that it's easy to pass it off as just getting older. Plus, there is the resistance to finding out that all your bad habits may be coming home to roost....of being faced with cold, hard reality rather than assuring yourself that you'll take care of it later....you'll start that diet next Monday....you'll start using that gym membership when you get through this tough month at work.
Denial is a killer.
I'm still a bit dizzy. My eyesight is still a little blurry. I'm also pretty sure that there are contact burns down my sinuses.....all because of some lady at the gym that had on waaaaaaaayyyyyy too much cologne. Some type of cross between patchouli and diesel fuel and powerful enough to knock a buzzard off a shit-wagon.
Here's a tip. Sweat doesn't stink. It's just salty water. What makes body odor is the bacteria living and pooping on your skin. It takes a while for that poop to accumulate so, if you bathe with anything approaching regularity, BO will not be a problem unless you are a particularly nasty ass.
In any event, regular body odor is natural and there is really nothing at all wrong with smelling like a human, especially if you claim to be one. Cologne does not kill body odor. Cologne has a smell all it's own which is about as natural as Justin Bieber fans...which is why most people have various allergic reactions to colognes such as gagging, retching, vomiting, clawing out their eyeballs, etc.
If you are one of these people that bathe in cologne before you go to the gym to workout...stop. Don't be afraid of how you smell. We are all sweaty and nobody is going to get that close and intimate with you to snort your armpits while you are running on the treadmill. Shower afterwards and you'll be fine for polite company the rest of the day. If you are unfortunate enough to be around somebody at the gym that uses cologne by the gallon, try some of the suggestions listed at the top. If none of them work....yell "fire" and dowse them with a hose.
You'll be doing everyone a favor.
As I mentioned....most of my time in the Navy is a blur. Drugs were becoming a major factor in my life and, once I went overseas, pretty much became my life. I saw fascinating places and cultures that most people can't even dream of. And drugs...oh my....cheap and plentiful. In the far east I was introduced to types of weed that made the stuff in the U.S. seem like uncle Joe's Prince Albert pipe tobacco. Hashish, thick and sticky like fudge that would get you so stoned you could hear colors.. Acid of a strength that would not only let you see God....but have days long conversations with him. Cocaine so pure your nose would bleed just smelling the stuff. Opium, that milk of Kubla Khan's paradise....
....and heroin
oh my
The first time I tried heroin it gave me the most incredibly wonderful euphoric feeling that seemed to last for at least a half hour. It actually lasted most of the day as my shipmates told me that I was standing transfixed on at the stern of the ship for about five hours with a big goofy shit eating grin. It absolutely transported me to another realm and completely eradicated all worry, all pain, all thought. This was chemical zen.
I liked this stuff. I wanted more.
Then I left the Navy.
I don't mean to just skip over a big chunk of my life, but I wasn't kidding when I said it was all a blur. I think I stayed high until the time I was discharged because my next clear memory was being picked up by my parents at a Texas airport. Newly discharged into civilian life and no clue what to do.
to be continued......
Sodium Chloride. A combination of an explosively reactive metal with a corrosively poisonous gas that joins in ionic bonding to make delicious salt.
Salt is good stuff. It's one of the things we can readily identify by taste because it's hardwired into our brains driving us to lap the stuff up when we come across it. It's a critical substance needed for all kinds of bodily processes. We need it to survive. Trouble is...too much can kill you just as well. Salt has a tendency to raise blood pressure and when the pressure on the arteries and vessels is consistently high year after year, something will eventually blow. That's usually manifested as a stroke or heart attack. So the sound medical advice is to cut back on salt intake.
Easier said than done.
Salt is friggin everywhere! Meat and dairy is loaded with it naturally. Any processed food, which is everything in the grocery store south of the produce aisle, has tons of salt....and I mean tons. An example; a small bowl of pudding has a quarter of all the salt you need for one day, a typical frozen dinner has roughly half, a small bag of chips will give you enough for a couple days. The recommended daily allowance for salt is around 2000 mg. per day....that's the upper limit, it is actually recommended to take in less. Most Americans easily take in three to four times that amount daily....and that's before even reaching for the salt shaker.
So what to do?
First thing is get rid of that salt shaker. With as much sodium in foods these days there just isn't any wiggle room to be adding extra at the dinner table. Next is to eat as many fresh vegetables and fruits that you can while avoiding anything processed as much as possible. Meat is naturally high in sodium, so that's another good reason to eat reasonable portions. Milk and cheese is super high with sodium...so use sparingly. This last is especially hard for me because I am extremely fond of all types of cheese.
The most effective thing though is to be a label reader. Read and compare sodium levels and try to opt for the brands that offer the lowest. At first it may suck in that you might feel your food is not seasoned properly. I do promise you though, after you get use to a low sodium diet, you will not be able to choke down any thing that most people would call normally salted. Your taste buds will adapt, especially if you concentrate on flavors in food rather than saltiness. My best strategy is to look for other spices to zip up your food. There are loads of them out there. Experiment. I like hot sauce and Sriracha is my number one go-to seasoning for just about everything.
Careful though.....Sriracha has sodium too.
ya can't win
