Toothache from hell and pictures from my day

I woke up this morning thinking I either have bronchitis or maybe pneumonia. Every time I cough, my lungs burn and hurt, and my throat is raw from all the coughing. I even thought about canceling my delivery aircraft flight but since it was very last minute, and it's considered a great opportunity and an honor, I took a shot of DayQuil and headed off to the office. I skipped the gym because just showering and getting dressed pretty much sapped all my strength.

The day was sort of fun. We took a bus from Sea-Tac up to Boeing Field. We were able to take pictures of our brand new aircraft, and we took off for an hour and a half sightseeing flight around Puget Sound landing back at Sea-Tac. It was cloudy but there were patches of open sky.

The best part of the day was when we got to 15,000 feet they let each of us take a turn sitting in the Captain's seat with our hands on the "steering wheel" (I think it's called a "yoke" but I'm not sure). Then the Captain took our picture. That was really cool. Unfortunately, we were warned to NOT post the pictures on the internet. I'm not sure why exactly, but we were told it wasn't allowed.

The only pictures from my day where you can't see the name of my company (!):

Me holding up the aircraft

A view from the window. Notice the sunshine on the engine, where it was

sparkling clean and shiny. The entire aircraft had a new car smell, or I guess,

a new airplane smell.

The toothache from hell
Tonight I have major, excruciating pain in a lower molar. I had my first crown about a year ago, and it's hurt from the beginning. Tonight it started throbbing and the pain kept getting worse. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is when you would rather just die than to keep feeling the pain, about an hour ago it was at least an 8. I'm a wuss when it comes to pain, but boy does this ever hurt! I've taken two aspirin and two Vicodin and the pain is now down to about a 7. I hope I make it to the morning when I can get in to see the dentist.

The only positive here is that I have no desire to eat. None. The thought of trying to chew anything makes me cringe. I can't remember the last time I had a toothache. Probably when I was a kid. I never had tooth pain, until this crown, which was probably the biggest mistake I've ever made. The darn tooth didn't even hurt until the crown. I forgot what tooth pain felt like, and let me tell you, it is miserable.

At least the Vicodin fixed my sore throat and cough. Its weird it's not doing much for the toothache.

Weight this morning...183.4. Not good. Working on it the best I can, but with the cold and now a toothache, I haven't been in the gym in four days, nor have I been tracking my food. Hopefully I'll be well soon and get back on track. I haven't given up and the Big Climb in in 29 days!

Fruit Compote with Honey Yogurt

(makes 4-6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 3 cups unsweetened apple juice or cider
  
  


• ½ cup plain, low-fat yogurt
  
  


• 1 tbsp honey
  
  


• 1 slice (about ¼”) fresh ginger
  
  


• 2 ripe pears
  
  


• 2 Golden Delicious apples
  
  


• 2 tbsp sliced almonds
  
  


• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  
  


• ½ cup dried apricot halves
  
  


• 6 pitted prunes
  
  


• Julienned strips of lemon zest
  
  

Preparation:

• In a large heavy saucepan, Combine apple juice and ginger and bring to a simmer.
  
  


• Peel, quarter and core the pears and apples and toss with lemon juice. Add to saucepan. Cover and cook over low heat for 10 minutes or until pears are just tender.
  
  


• Add apricots and prunes and then cover, cooking for 5 minutes on low heat.
  
  


• Transfer the fruit to a serving bowl.
  
  


• Increase heat and boil the apple juice mixture, uncovered until it reduces to 1-¾ cups. Cool liquid slightly then pour over the fruit.
  
  


• Stir the yogurt and honey together in a small-sized bowl and set aside. Toast the almonds in a small skillet over low heat about 2 minutes or until golden
  
  


• Drizzle the fruit with a spoonful of the yogurt and honey mix. Garnish with strips of the lemon zest and sprinkle with the toasted almonds.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (274 g)): 206 Calories, 3 g Protein, 47 g carbohydrates, 5 g Dietary Fiber, 2 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 1 mg cholesterol, 21 mg sodium

Day 43: Last night I vlogged about a few things...

I mostly blog about my weight loss efforts here, but sometimes I like to talk about the things going on in my life. I made a vlog last night about a few things I've been busy with. I thought I would share here since it's part of my journey. My natural reaction to stressful things is eat, but when I started to write, I found the substitution I needed so I wouldn't be eating my stress. Writing has been a wonderful outlet for me, and has saved me many calories. :)

Citrus, Ginger and Green Tea Sorbet

(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
  
  


• ¾ cup water
  
  


• 1 green tea bag
  
  


• 1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
  
  


• ½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  
  


• ½ cup water
  
  


• ¼ cup honey
  
  


• Snipped fresh mint for garnish (optional)
  
  

Preparation:

• Add the ginger and water in a small-sized saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat then turn off. Add tea bag and allow to steep for 2-3 minutes. Using a fine mesh sieve, strain the liquid into a freezer-safe medium-sized bowl (non-metallic) and discard the solids. Let cool for 30 minutes.
  
  


• Stir in the orange and lemon juices, water and honey and mix thoroughly. Cover and freeze for about 3-4 hours.


• Using a wooden spoon, break the semi-solid mixture into chunks. Pour the mixture into a medium-sized mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour back mixture into freezer bowl, cover and chill for 2 hours before serving.
  
  


• Use an ice-cream scoop to serve the sorbet topped with fresh mint.
  
  

Make 6 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/6 of recipe (78 g)): 68 Calories, 0 g Protein, 18 g carbohydrates, 0 g Dietary Fiber, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 mg sodium

Rising from the ashes

Where have I been?
I've been right here, even though I've been away from my blog for over a week. It wasn't a planned or intentional time away. It just sort of happened.

It started out with thoughts that maybe I was becoming a little too obsessive about my food and exercise. I was tired of constantly worrying about it, thinking about it, and condemning myself for my bad choices. I was even more tired of writing about it. Surely this couldn't be of any value to anyone who might read  this blog. Failure after failure. It was disheartening to say the least.

I decided to "relax" a little on the food front. That didn't mean I would go crazy, eating whatever and whenever I wanted. Instead I thought I could take a step back and try to figure out exactly what was wrong with me. Why do I have the compulsion to overeat?

I stuck with the exercise all last week, but Thursday and Friday were difficult days. I had to really push myself at the gym. When I was on the StairMaster Friday morning I felt like my legs were stuck in mud. Every step was torture. My lungs felt like they were on fire and going to explode. It felt about ten times worse than ever before. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. Late Friday I knew what was causing the problem. I had a cold.

It's not the flu, and I don't even have a fever. It's just a simple cold. Sneezing, painful sinuses, and coughing, and I feel like hell. Today is day three so I'm started to feel a little bit better. It's the first day I actually got up, showered, and put on real clothes.

I felt a little better after the shower, but now I'm exhausted and just want to crawl back into bed. I'm going to try to stay awake for most of the day because I had a terrible night of trying to sleep last night. Apparently my body had enough bed rest. At 1 a.m. I was tossing and turning, going in and out of various nightmares. It was a very bad night.

Zicam doesn't work for everyone
I tried Zicam for the first time because my girlfriend said it wonders worked for her. Every three hours for the last three days I've put one of those icky mint Zicam melt-away lozenges on my tongue, let it melt, then waited fifteen minutes before I could have a drink of water. Each time I was practically gagging at the chalky, icky, sickly sweet mint taste. I can't tell that I felt any better. In fact, I almost think waking up every three hours to take the lozenge may have made me feel worse. I expected a miracle. I didn't get one. I was still just as sick as the last time I had a cold.

A&E Heavy and rising from the ashes
This morning I watched two old episodes of "Heavy" On Demand. These were episodes I had missed. There was one line that has stayed in my head. One of the guests on the show, Sharon, said she realized she'd "have to be stringent about what she put in her body for the rest of her life".

I realized that's me. I'm not being obsessive when I track my food and worry about what I'm eating. I'm just trying to be healthy. There's nothing wrong with being "stringent". Because of my past and my compulsive tendencies with food, I have to try to be in control all the time.

It's really not such a bad thing to be vigilant about what I'm eating. Not everyone has to live like this, but just like the crack addict or the alcoholic, I have to be careful of what I'm putting in my body.

Stringent: rigorous: demanding strict attention to rules and procedures.

That pretty much defines what works for me. Following the rules, paying strict attention to what I eat. As far as what's driving me to overeat, I know what it is but it's not something I want to share here, at least not yet. It's deeply personal, and a little sad to admit. For now, I prefer to keep this part of myself private.

Even though I know why I overeat, it's still a challenge to stop it. It's something I've been doing for a very long time, and changing an old behavior is difficult, but not impossible.

My plan for my week is to gently ease back in to exercising tomorrow. It's been three days, and I'm itching to get back to the gym. Tomorrow morning will be a light workout.

On the food front, "stringent" will be my keyword. Weighing, measuring, tracking every bite. It's really not that hard. I've been doing it for over three years now. What's another twenty or thirty years? :)

Fun day tomorrow
Tomorrow I get to do something fun at work. Most of you know I work for an airline. Tomorrow I get to ride on a brand new Boeing 737-800 as it's flown from Boeing Field to Sea-Tac airport, and the airline takes delivery of the new aircraft.

We usually get a few new aircraft each year. This year there will be three new 737-800's added to the fleet. It's a very big deal when we get a new aircraft. The price is somewhere in the range of $80 million, and there's a lot hoopla surrounding the delivery. It means the company is doing good and growing. 

As a special treat for working on a difficult project, myself and 107 of my closest coworkers (kidding, I only know a few of them), will get to ride around for a couple hours, sightseeing Mt. Rainier and the Cascades. Of course, after two gorgeous sunny days here in the Northwest, the forecast is rain for tomorrow (darn it!).

It will still be fun to fly on a brand new aircraft and be part of the festivities. After 28 years with my company, I'm still very excited about a new aircraft.

Weight Loss Before After

"Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can." ~ Lowell Thomas

"Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out." ~ Robert Collier
"Impatience never commands success." ~ Edwin Chapin
"To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first." ~ Shakespeare
"Just Do It!" ~ Nike
"Do it or not. There is no 'try'." ~ Yoda
"Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." ~ Jim Ryun
"Nothing was ever achieved without enthusiasm." ~ Emerson
"Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration, and inspiration." ~ Evan Esar
"Nothing happens until I make it happen." ~ Scott Wilson
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." ~ Walt Disney
"People rarely succeed unless they have fun in what they are doing." ~ Dale Carnegie
"Happiness is more a state of health than of wealth." ~ Frank Tyger
"A desire can overcome all objections and obstacles." ~ Gunderson
"One way to get thin is to re-establish a purpose in life." ~ Cyril Connolly
"More die in the United States of too much food than too little." ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

Keep up the hard work. Who knows the next before and after picture might be yours?
Click here to return to the Weight Loss Before And After article.

Citrus Cheesecake

(makes 12 servings)

Ingredients:

• Non-fat cooking spray
  
  


• 2 tbsp brown sugar
  
  


• 1 cup graham cracker crumbs
  
  


• 2 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
  
  

Ingredients for filling:

• ⅔ cup sugar
  
  


• 1 tsp vanilla extract
  
  


• ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
  
  


• 2 (8oz) packages non-fat cream cheese
  
  


• 2 medium eggs
  
  


• 3 medium egg whites
  
  


• ½ cup 1% low-fat milk
  
  


• ⅓ cup non-fat sour cream
  
  


• 1 tsp lemon peel, grated
  
  


• 1 tsp lime peel, grated
  
  


• 1 tsp orange peel, grated
  
  


• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  
  


• 1 tbsp fresh lime juice
  
  


• 1 tbsp fresh orange juice
  
  


• ¼ cup sugar
  
  

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
  
  


• Prepare the crust: Coat a 9” springform pan with cooking spray. Mix crumbs, butter, and brown sugar in a medium-sized bowl, then firmly press mixture into bottom and 2” up the sides of the pan.
  
  


• Prepare the filling: In a large mixing bowl, combine flour and sugar then add cream cheese, vanilla, eggs and beat until smooth. Add milk, sour cream, citrus juices and peels and beat until smooth.
  
  


• In a separate mixing bowl, using clean and dry beaters, beat egg whites at room temperature at high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add ¼ cup sugar, 1 tbsp at a time and beat until stiff peaks form. Gently fold egg white mixture with cream cheese mixture.
  
  


• Pour into prepared crust and bake at 300 degrees F about 1 hour or until set.
  
  


• Remove from oven and let completely cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill for 4 hours or overnight.
  
  


• Sprinkle with lime, orange zest, and grated lemon before serving (optional.)
  
  

Make 12 Servings:

Weight loss recipes Amount Per Serving(1/12 of recipe (89 g)): 118 Calories, 9 g Protein, 16 g carbohydrates, 0 g Dietary Fiber, 2 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 39 mg cholesterol, 285 mg sodium