New year, new me.

   It started in October 2019, I noticed a new "burning, numbness" about the size of a softball above and just to the outer edge of my left leg, just above the knee. Prior to this new sensation, all of my nerve damage and troubles have been limited to my right leg as a result of my initial injury (2015). This new pain, was something different entirely. At first it was fleet, and passed quickly. Shortly after I realized that it happened as I sat, rather than when standing or walking. For me, this was troubling, as when I stand and walked for any length of time my right leg would ache, and get cramps (my nerve issues) and I would sit down to relive that pain. Now when I sit for more than a few minutes at a time I developed this softball sized numb spot that eventually felt like a hot pan was sitting on my leg. I think the best way to describe it to someone is as if you had a bad sunburn, and couldn't get out of a hot shower. No matter what, it burned and was extremely uncomfortable and would linger, at first for 10 or 20 minutes, and eventually it was burning for hours at a time. Once I was overwhelmed with this new pain from sitting, I would then stand again and begin walking around, only to have my right leg get crampy and achy again. Such was my life for about the next 10 months or so until my surgery (which was delayed several times due to the covid 19 pandemic).

     I had my second back surgery, this time a L5S1 tlif. Basically, it means that I now have a fused spine at my lowest vertebra. Two titanium rods, four screws, and a nice big 4-5" scar.

     All accounted for, I lost close to 75 pounds in preparation for my surgery, hoping for the easiest way to recover. I figured if I lost weight it would be a lot easier for me, not to mention I needed to get my weight under control. I was ballooning and approaching 300 pounds when first noticed my new neurological symptoms. I seem to remember seeing the scale top out at 287, but distinctly remember stepping onto the scale and realizing what has been obvious all along. I was obesely overweight. I decided the week of Thanksgiving 2019 to go on a diet, while I started looking for a new doctor (We just moved to Gainesville that August and I didn't have a local doctor yet). Due to the fact that I was unable to do very many physical activities at all with my levels of pain, I decided to do intermittent fasting, during which I would only eat between the hours of 12p and 8p, giving my body 16 hours between my final meal and my first meal the following day. This alone allowed me to medically document and lose a total of 65 pounds before my surgery. My first doctors appointment was January 2020, in which I now weighed in at 264 (first official weigh in). I lost roughly 20 pounds in the month and a half since Thanksgiving, which I don't include in my totals, simply because it was never documented. On the date of my surgery, October 8th, I weighed in at 212. Again, this was only with intermittent fasting as my method of weight loss. My goal was to maintain or gain a little bit of weight after surgery by ensuring that I had plenty of nutrients and protein for the fastest recovery possible. So since my surgery date I gained about 7 pounds and weighed 219.

     Now, a little over 3 months since my surgery I am again on the path to continue to lose the weight and get my life back into my own control. I was able to do a little warm up jog during one of my physical therapy sessions last week. I mentioned to my physical therapist that I wanted to incorporate jogging into my weight loss plans for this year. My physical therapist and his team agreed that it would be beneficial for me to continue to lose weight as long as I eased into jogging. They started me off with a nice little slow paced 6 minute warm up to see how I'd feel. I only jogged for maybe 2 minutes of that time. I was extremely nervous about how my back would feel after pounding up and down running, but surprisingly to me, there was no pain to follow. Now for my physical therapy sessions, I do my warm up on a treadmill.

     As a result, I'm introducing a couple of jogging sessions per week. I'm limiting myself at 1 mile, so that I can continue to monitor my bodies response to the movements of running. I'm told that it will still take me another 3-6 months for my bones (that were fused) to finish growing and reach their final strength. So I am being extremely cautious. In addition, I am in direct communications with both my doctor, and physical therapists as to my activities.

     Maybe this will last, maybe not, either way I'm able to do something I thought I would never be able to do again, run.

     Here is to a new year and a new me!

     Here is today's lunch and dinner menu. I had a nice quick lunch that I had laid out all of the ingredients to before hand. It made for a simple 5 minute juice and clean up and I was ready to drink!

     

1 cucumber
4 carrots
5 stalks celery
1/2 lemon peeled

     

    

Final product!!! Delicious juice!!!

     

     For dinner I prepared myself a delicious juice while I was starting dinner for the rest of my family. Since my wife is earning her PHD at FSU I have to get dinner on the table for our three daughters several times during the week. I find that if I have my juice while cooking their meal that I don't have naar as much cravings to break down and pig out on other things. I'm in this to get healthy folks. with that said, here's my dinner!

5 kale leaves
4 carrots
2 beets
1/2 lime peeled

     

Final juice!

     

     All this juicing makes for quite beautiful compost for the compost bin for our garden!

Add this to your compost bin for a boost of nitrogen!

          So far since I've been tracking my weight I started at 249.6 lbs. So far I'm down to 246 in just a few days! All while basically doing nothing physically because of a back injury I've had at work 2 weeks ago that I'm still nursing. Once I am healed I'm planning on starting to ride my bicycle on a regular basis. Hopefully I'll be starting to commute to work again like I did 2 summers ago. I'll start updating my weight loss on a more regularly as well

Happy juicing!

Bobby

     Another good day of juicing so far. Breakfast was my carrots and orange juice. I made more than usual since my mother in law and sister in law were in town and I figured they would want some. I was right. They liked it as well. Here is what I had for lunch.

4 leaves kale
1 cucumber
3 stalks celery
2 granny smith apples
1/2 lemon and lime peeled

     The finished product.

Delicious Juice!

     It was very fulfilling and delicious to boot!

     I discovered that with my juicer that if I feed the greens at a slow pace I get more of a yield of juice than just shoving it down. A higher yield will help me save money over time because I wouldn't have to use quite as much to get enough juice for a healthy sized serving.

     Here's a good tip of what to do with your remaining pulp, because you will have lots of pulp once you start juicing. Use the vegetable pulp to make vegetable stock. You can also use the fruit pulp to blend in with smoothie's to add some flavor and fiber.

Happy juicing!

Bobby

Juicin' and lovin' it!

     Here I am, day 5! Had a few slices of pizza last night. Figured I would allow myself to be rewarded. After all, it was pizza Friday!

     Now that its a new day it was back to juicing. To start this morning I had what has become pretty much a staple breakfast juice. It consists of 3 large carrots and a large orange. I don't have any pictures of it but I can tell you it tastes of carrot and orange goodness! Actually I posted a picture of it just my last post I believe. Only then I did 2 carrots and 1 orange. I decided to up the carrots by 1 just to get a little more juice for my morning start.

     Lunch was a little different. I did some kale, lemon and finished off the carrots along with a cucumber. It was pretty good, no picture though. Made about half of a large glass. I did get a little hungry between lunch and my dinner juice, which came early. I figure "what the hey, if I want juice early I can have it early. If I want more tonight by golly I'll just make another batch"! Besides, tonight's juice was amazing again as well.

Recipe

*handful of beet greens (5-6)
*4 leaves kale
*1 beet
*1 cucumber
*1 green pear
*approx. 1/2 cup mint
*half a lemon peeled

Original fruits and veggies before juicing!

Final delicious juice!

     I have a Waring Pro juice extractor. It's not the best for the greens (cold press juicer) but it does a pretty good job.

     We loaded  up on some more juicing supplies from the local farmers market today. Cucumbers, kale, spinich etc...

Happy juicing!

Bobby

Day 3 of my juicing challenge!

     Day 3 is already here!  I'm quite surprised how easy it has been up to this point.  I thought that it would be very difficult and I would have cravings all of the time. I've read on other peoples blogs that they had a hard time with hunger pangs and withdrawal symptoms made it difficult. Thus far, I have had smooth sailing.

     With that said I did try a new recipe today. One that I've had since the beginning but did not want to do. I kept putting it off. It's called Mean Green. Who would name a juice made with vegetables Mean Green if it wasn't going to be hard to swallow? Turns out, it is probably my favorite juice to date!

     Here's the recipe.

4-5     leaves kale
2         grannie smith apples
1         cucumber
2         stalks of celery
1/2      lemon peeled

      Here are the ingredients minus the lemon (I forgot to put it with the rest)

Fresh fruits and veggie's for juicing!

     Here is how it looked as a finished juice. Never mind the onion and tomato's. I just added them to the picture because they looked nice.

Delicious juice!

     I hope everyone is having as good of a day as I have.

Happy juicing!!!

Bobby

Juicing!

     It's been a long time since I've made a post.  Not much has happened in the meantime with the exception that I again fell off of the dieting wagon and gained more weight.  I'm now up to 249 lbs.  Depressing.

     I came to the conclusion that I cannot control my own body, and that I am destined to be fat.  My grandpa was fat, my mom is fat (sorry mom), my sister is fat (sorry sis) and I am fat. One can say that fat runs in the family.  I had given in to the fat destiny that I am bound to inhabit.  Then I got hurt, again.  I've had back problems since I have been 18 years old.  I was in good shape at that time, but I hurt myself pretty badly. Ever since I have had back issues.  I caulked it up to my initial injury still haunting me to this day.  My wife recently told me that I'm using that as an excuse and that my back issues are due to my weight.

     She then turned me on to a documentary, called Hungry For Change .  That really got me thinking about what I put in my body.  Sure we try and be healthy at home by using organic fruits and vegetables when we can.  We even grew our own garden last year and have started a garden this year just to be sure on where and how we were getting our food for the family.  However, more times than not, its usually bad food.  Things with high carbs or high in sugars, such as pasta's, breads, various coke beverages etc.... The list could go on and on.

    Anyways, several people interviewed in the show are doing what is called "juicing."  Juicing is when you take healthy fruits or vegetables and put them into a juicer to extract the juice from the pulp of the food item.  The juice is very high in both vitamins and minerals and is the easiest form for your body to digest.  By replacing a poorly chosen meal with a healthy juice alternative you will become a much healthier individual.  By eliminating the "empty calories" meal (with little to no nutritional value) and replacing it with a vitamin and mineral loaded juice you're treating your body to what it really needs, nutrition.

     I could go on and on, but that will be the purpose of this blog.

With that being said.  Here was my breakfast this morning.



Two carrots and a peeled orange.  I'll try and upload pictures of the juices I create, with ingredients.  I'll even be trying to make the pictures pretty.... We'll have to see how that goes.

Gardening

  We spent this past weekend working on our garden bed getting it ready for this spring.  We harvested the remaining broccoli and lettuce and dug up the soil again. We also added fresh compost from our compost bin in order to provide necessary nutrients for this season as well.  I have a brief summary of how I made the compost bin on my hubpage.

  We also acquired several chickens over the winter months. It's great to have fresh eggs in the mornings! My wife, Kim, especially loves them. My children have all, of course, named them.

Sonny- the rooster
Lucy- a hen
Silver Pooper- a hen (don't ask)
Mickey- a hen
Lucky (I think)- also a hen

  We had a very successful No Wast Summer this past summer, in which we created zero landfill waste and we recycled or composted everything. If it wasn't able to be composted or recycled we didn't buy/eat it. We were even invited to present at the Tallahassee Sustainable Living Summit this past winter. It apparently went so we we bumped into the lady that ran it at the library just the other day and she said people are still talking about us and she invited us to speak at more events. She said they would even pay us! Sweet!