100-100: Frustration Revisited

This morning, 212. I think breaking below 210 will be a major milestone... if and when it comes. I've been at 212 several times before, and at 211... once. 

As I write this it's 11 AM; I've been working since 8, but it's only office work. And I've consumed 280 not-the-healthiest calories (a Lean Pocket and a 100-calorie pack of Cheez-Its). I have a few more things to write and send... like this blog entry. Then I'm going out to exercise. 

I've only had one 12-ounce can of Diet Dr. Pepper. Mostly, it's water to drink these days (more overleaf if anyone cares). 

I think exercise is a neglected but core element of my recovery. It's easy to put off, easy to get out of the habit, and hard to get in to it, but it's absolutely vital. I am still walking with hand-weights but walking very hard, mostly with the five-pound weights. Today I think I'll use the eight-pounders. 

Kinda makes up for the fact I'm not 260+ pounds any more. Heh. And I feel it in my arms (it's all good). 

The Dr. Pepper thing is another issue. I am a near-lifetime addict to the stuff. In college, I put on weight and in the Army changed from the regular to the diet -- or as I usually put it, from high-octane to unleaded. But with zero calories in the diet stuff, I drank more and more of it. My habit probably peaked at five to six a day -- not 12-ounce cans, but two-liter bottles. 

To put things in perspective, a 12-oz. can is 355 ml. so that my old habit was equivalent to about 34 cans a day!

But even though that contained no calories, the cafffeine in it was tripping me up. I almost missed my 2002 tour of Afghanistan due to a hear arrythmia. I had to have a Bruce protocol stress test, and then when that came back with further arrythmia, a nuclear stress test. The Mass. National Guard, which doesn't make much of an effort to take care of its troops, wouldn't even pay for that which was around three thousand dollars. 

Thanks for serving your country... chump. 

It was kind of neat to see a 3-d color model of my heart. No ischemia (blockage) was found. 

Anyway, this year my regular physician recommended an EKG and a Bruce protocol stress test (this is the one where the treadmill gradually speeds up until the technician gets tired of watching you sweat) and I knocked off the Dr. Pepper en avant de the test. 

Lo and behold, no arrythmia. I got the idea from reading about heart conditions online and in some old medical books I've scrounged. Overexposure to caffeine (which varies from person to person) can cause a temporary arrythmia that departs when the patient discontinues caffeine. 

So I'm gradually weaning myself off of what my family calls DDP (I guess to make it sound like DDT... they may have a point). I find I enjoy the tast more if I ration it anyway... if you're slamming drinks, you don't taste them. 

I've also discovered, or rediscovered, really, an old childhood favorite: root beer. IBC and Polar both make a tasty premium root beer that comes in bottles. It's available regular and diet, and neither one has a drop of caffeine. I like the taste of IBC a hair better, but the bottles can't be returned in automated machines, and Polar's can... I also like supporting a small local company, that's been in the same family since 1882, with my purchases. (I sure wouldn't throw money to Pepsi, whose CEO, Indra Nooyi, hates America). So I have maybe one root beer, Polar Classics Premium, a day. You should, too. 

The rest of the time I drink water. Tap water usually. It's what the organism really needs.