My gout has finally settled down to the point where I was able to go for a ride this morning before it got too warm. I rode just under 4 kilometres; not a lot but better than nothing.
So much for my commitment to cycle at least a short distance each day. Yesterday, towards evening, my gout and arthritis started to flare up. Cycling then became an impossibility as just shuffling around the house sent waves of agony radiating from my right big toe joint and left ankle. My back was sore too, as was my right elbow and thumb joint (hello RSI). I took some Cataflam and went to bed. Being immobile helped the pain but it took me a while to fall asleep. Although I wasn’t uncomfortably hot (the fan helps) it felt as if I had waves of heat radiating off my face. Thinking I might have a fever it crossed my mind to take my temperature but the thought of getting upright on my sore feet again to go to the bathroom for the thermometer put paid to that idea.
This morning I am still sore but thankfully not as bad as last night. I have somewhat blocked sinuses and a post nasal drip so I probably have some virus that is causing all this to flare up. I’ll do my usual of trying to ride it out but if the gout persists without getting much better I’ll go along to the doctor on Tuesday or Wednesday for a Voltaren shot; that always does the trick, giving rapid relief. In any case, it seems my cycling aspirations are on hold for at least a day or two.
Image from Wikipedia Commons, is a 1799 cartoon depicting gout.
If you’ve been following this infrequently updated blog for more than a few years, you’ll know that I have a serious weight problem. You may remember a time when I followed a weight loss, or lifestyle modification plan; losing 30kg before falling back into old habits. I have been steadily packing on the kilos since then and am not quite sure what I weigh now as I passed the 150kg limit of our scale some months back; my guess is I’m somewhere around 170kg now. I get very little exercise and am extremely unfit. A walk to Pick n Pay at lunch time invariably ends with me out of breath from the slight uphill slope on the way back. I almost always enter the building through the basement parking entrance and use the lift rather than continuing up the slope and climbing the single flight of stairs.
I’ve been well aware that I need to stop this cycle of weight gain and diminishing health but as one does I’ve always put it off for another day. Today is that day. Sitting in the waiting room this morning while Mela had an ultrasound, I picked up a cycling magazine and found an article about Scott Cutshall. Scott is an American that was in even worse shape than I am when he turned his life around. He weighed 238kg at his heaviest and doctors had given him just six months to live without having bariatric surgery; even that was no guarantee as he had just a 50-50 chance of surviving the surgery. Sitting at his window one day he spied a man swooping through traffic on a bicycle and was inspired to begin cycling. After some trouble finding a custom cycle builder that would take him seriously he had his new cycle, one that could support his bulk, and started cycling daily. As you can imagine this was no easy feat but he persevered and aided by a meal plan of his own design, the weight started to fall of. Today he weighs just 78kg and continues to cycle many miles per day.
Reading this article was a tremendous inspiration to me and I told myself that I will follow his example and begin cycling every day. This evening I began, dusting off the bike that I haven’t touched in at least three years and getting out for a short ride around the neighbourhood. I only rode 2.74km today but it’s a start. As I increase my fitness I’ll increase my distance too. We are already makign a point of modifying what we eat so that will help too. If Scott could do it, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to do it too.
I think I’m coming down with my first dose of flu for the year. Was feeling really tired yesterday and just managed to stay awake through CSI last night, then went to bed at 10h00. Never even touched my computer. Woke up vomiting around 00h40; but it wasn’t serious, here comes last night’s dinner kind of vomiting, but just a small amount of clear, acid fluid. I’m guessing it was probably phlegm from a post nasal drip or perhaps some kind of gastric reflux. I eventually dragged myself out of bed at 06h50 this morning with a sore throat and still feeling tired. By the time I’d had a shower and eaten some breakfast the throat was feeling better so I took an Advil for the stuffy head and brought a bottle of Andolex throat spray to work with me lest the sore throat return. I suspect that this will get worse over the next few days. The rest of the family seem to have some kind of bug too, and with all the benefits of central air conditioning at work, this will undoubtedly be shared with my colleagues; mind you that might be where it came from in the first place.
We went to get weighed after our first week on our Sure Slim programmes. The results were very encouraging. I have lost 5.8kg in mass and 3cm off my waistline. This, combined with the fact that I’m quite enjoying the meals I’ve been eating makes me pretty confident that I will make it through this programme and get to my goal weight.
Years ago I promised myself that if I ever got down to my goal weight I would buy myself a leather jacket, and I’m thinking that it’s a bit pointless to have a leather jacket if you don’t have a motorcycle to go with it. 
I am almost through the first week of a weight loss plan that my wife and I are undertaking. So far it has been really easy for me. I am getting more than enough to eat and haven’t felt hungry at all. I have a long way to go, having to lose 66 kilograms, which they tell me will take about a year.
This is most of what I had for breakfast today. Cheese, onion, tomato, red pepper, kiwi fruit, nectarine you see here, and I also had one Ryvita biscuit and five almonds.
This morning I took the first step in the long road to getting my body into a reasonable state of health. I got up at 5am and went for a ride on my bike, down along the beach front. I did just under 9km and was feeling pretty knackered doing the last 2km back home. Still, considering I haven’t ridden since last summer, and then only once or twice, it wasn’t too bad. Now I just need to keep it up, and cut back on my food intake and my weight should slowly start dropping towards what it should be, but that is a long, long way off.
