Would you rather?

What would you rather watch? The finale of "Celebrity Apprentice" or "In Her Shoes" starring Cameron Diaz and that beast that played the mom in The Sixth Sense? Apparently those are my only choices tonight and "In Her Shoes" is winning. Kill me now.

Minisize Me Update

As you may have guessed from the infrequent posts that I have been really busy at work and haven't made the time to blog. Good news, though...I am still soda and fast food free after 16 days. I have only lost a pound and a half, partly because of my lack of activity, and partly because I have been invited to taco night and have eaten my fill two weeks in a row. There have been some interesting changes though. I am sleeping a lot better, for one thing, both how quickly I fall asleep and the overall quality of sleep. I also no longer get the afternoon crazies where I have to have something sugar filled.


So my lack of activity is driven by my hip. I finally got in to see an orthopedist, and last week I had an MRI on the hip. The doc is looking to confirm or rule out femoral-acetabular impingement. If you look that up you'll see that it's no easy fix. I have a review this coming Friday to see that the MRI says. I've seen the images but other than knowing that I am looking at the femur and hip socket I have no idea what any of them mean. The fixes range from physical therapy to open-hip surgery.

As for the knew pain, my knee caps are not tracking right and my right knee is worse than the left. This is called patella femoral syndrome and is also known as "runner's knee." The prognosis here is much better. The root cause is generally overtraining and can be made worse by overpronation, from which I also suffer. The fix is generally just physical therapy and strengthening specific muscles.

That's it for now...I'll try to get more updates in this week.

Since starting "Minisize me" five days ago I have not been out for fast food. I have had pizza, which in moderation is not bad for you. In moderation.

I also have not had any sugared soda. I never said anything about beer - I have had a couple of those!

So how is it going so far? One of the things that has struck me is how often my thoughts default to fast food. I'll ask my wife what we should have for dinner, and immediately I think about the Good Times teriyaki chicken sandwich, or the Carl's Jr Santa Fe chicken (both better choices than their burgers, but when you add the fries and the coke, that's where you pay the price!). So we have been cooking dinner rather than going for the McDinner and have actually eaten all of the left overs, which we seldom do. So far, so good.

Where I've faced the bigger challenge is in the cravings department. Even though I had cut back to one soda per day, that one soda has a hold on me. At about two or three in the afternoon I start jonesing for a can of coke. I've tried drinking some diet sodas but they all taste like ass, and not in the good lets-try-something-new way. The only one I've found palatable is diet 7Up, but even that doesn't feed the beast. Monday at work I found myself wandering by the vending machines against my will, shaking and scratching at an imagined itch on the inside of my elbow, thinking "I could buy one and only drink half. That's still good, right?" I held out though...primarily because I didn't have enough cash and walking to the ATM seemed too desperate, like sneaking out to see my dealer or something. And I also have a horrible sweet tooth. After dinner each night I get the urge for anything sweet, preferably chocolate cake. Sugar free jello with a squirt of canned whipped cream (total calories: 80!) seems to do the trick on this one. And an apple is always a good sweet treat.

Anyhow, I'm still fast food and soda-free after five days and have been getting reacquainted with a couple of old friends called fruits and vegetables.

More to come...