Month: April 2013

Dieting and Dining Out

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Food, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

beef broccoli

Dieting and dining don’t usually mix too well because let’s face it, restaurant food is fattening and high in calories.  Chinese food is especially bad because of all the salt that goes into the sauces they pour over the food.

Last night my partner decided that he wanted to go to Rice Bowl because he was hungry for some Chinese food.  It caught me off guard because I was just about to put a Weight Watchers Smart Ones meal in the microwave.  He isn’t really trying as hard as I am to lose weight, so to him going out to eat isn’t that big of a deal, but I’m really focused on it and don’t want to do anything to sabotage myself.  I did agree and we went.

I looked through their huge menu for something that I thought might be low cal and practically everything they had was bad for you.  I usually always get something with chicken, but even their chicken is high in calories because of the sauce and because of how it was cooked, so no matter what I got, it was going to be bad.  I did get steamed rice and Beef Broccoli.

I had my phone with me with the Noom app loaded so that I would be able to find out how many calories everything had and to see whether it was red or yellow (let’s face it, nothing is going to be green lol).  I did find that the steamed rice and the beef broccoli were both yellow so I knew they were okay.

As we were waiting for our food, I saw a waiter bring another table their food.  My jaw was nearly on the floor because of how high the food was piled on each plate.  I was thinking that it’s no wonder people are so fat.  I mean, you don’t need that much food.  Your stomach is the size (or should be) of your fist, so you really shouldn’t need any more than that.  Peoples stomachs are maybe 4 times the size of their fist from being stretched over time, so they can consume that much food and probably still be hungry.

I was happy that my plate wasn’t as high.  I probably only ate a quarter of my food before I started to feel full, and that is how it should be.  Thanks to eating smaller portions, my stomach has shrunk so it is indeed now the size of my fist so I can be satisfied with a normal amount of food.  I felt uncomfortable just sitting there watching my partner eating, so I nibbled on more of my food just so it didn’t look like I was rushing him.  We took the leftovers home and I had half of what was in the box for lunch and I will eat the rest for dinner tonight.

It’s nice to be able to go out once in awhile, but my goodness, that’s a lot of food.  I wish they had a diet menu for people who are trying to watch their calories and portions.  Not everyone wants to eat 4 times of what they should be eating.

When I was a kid, my mother would guilt me into eating everything that was on my plate, that’s not a good thing to do in this day and age when everyone is so heavy.  People need to be responsible for their own health and limit their portions to what their stomach should be able to handle and take the rest home instead of cleaning their plate.  You can’t just blame people for being so heavy when the restaurants are serving such big portions.  People are responsible for their own actions, but restaurants have to take on some of that responsibility as well.

People are so focused on blaming McDonald’s for obesity when they are forgetting that fast food is just a tiny part of the problem, they should also be focusing on casual dining restaurants as well.  A Big Mac and Large Fries are tiny compared to the amount of food that was being consumed in that restaurant last night by each person.

I am just happy to know that I have the sense enough to know my limit now and am taking responsibility for my body instead of doing what other people expect me to do.

Mega Lace Lanyard

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Noom2 Comments

mega lace 2

I recently blogged about the lanyard keychains that I’ve been making out of boredom, and I also mentioned the thicker lace.  I said I didn’t make anything out of the thicker lace because it was too difficult to work with, but yesterday I decided to give it a shot and I actually love working with it more than the regular gimp if you can believe that.

So I have 4 different colors.  There are the 3 you see in the image above, the orange with black patterned, the green with spots and the solid black behind it all.  The black was already cut up to make a keychain and not wound up.  There is a 4th color, but I don’t have a roll of it, instead what you see is what I used in the keychain in the picture above between the 2 rolls.

I couldn’t start with a key ring, but I knew that once I was finished, I could slip a key ring into the bottom.  I just started making the keychain the same way I would make it with the regular gimp and it turned out great.  I decided to make a green and black one, but I went a bit overboard and made it really long.  My partner told me that he didn’t like the orange because he sees it as fluorescent and he hates fluorescent colors, so I gave him the green and black, but it was too long for him.

As we were driving home from the doctor’s office today, it was hanging from his car keys which were in the ignition, and the end of the keychain was tickling his leg lol.  I made him a smaller one so it doesn’t do that.  I didn’t make it as long as the orange and blue one because I didn’t want to make it too long, but it’s nearly the same length, but short enough that it won’t bother him while he’s driving.  I hope…

mega lace

I really like how they look.  They aren’t too thin like the regular lace, or gimp.  They actually fit in the palm of my hand and is comfortable enough to hold my keys from the keychain instead of just holding the keys in my hand.  Not that it would matter how I hold my keys, but it just feels good holding.  I just like how they look in general.

Of course I am using the long green and black, green for Noom.  What will I do with the orange and blue one?  Well, I guess it will go with the rest of the keychains that I am making for no reason lol.

Making these is really fun and I’m glad that I am finally using something that I bought many years ago instead of letting it collect dust in a drawer.  I just wish that I knew how cool the mega lace was when I bought them instead of thinking that they were a waste of money.  Better late than never, eh?

Lanyard Keychains

On By Michel McDonaldIn craftsLeave a comment

noom keychains

I got bored so I started making keychains.  I honestly don’t know why I started making these again.  I think that I just needed to get my mind off of my weight loss and start focusing on something else for a change.  I literally have a worry that if I focus too much on my weight loss, I might put too much stress on my mind and my brain will release Cortisol, a  chemical which will stop the weight loss and actually make me gain weight.  I read about that.  I’m edumacated.

I decided that I want to focus my keychains on the color green for the Noom app.  Don’t ask me why.  I have a lot of the “Gimp” (as I heard it being called today) so I will be busy for quite a while.  What do I plan to do with these Noom colored keychains?  I’m not sure.  I will have to get back to you on that one.  This will give me enough practice that I will become a pro at making keychains at least.  Look at my supplies…

rexlace Can you say hoarder?  I bought these in 2004 when I was nostalgic for my childhood when I was in the cub scouts which is where I learned how to make the lanyard keychains.  Who knew I would be so nostalgic that I would buy this many?

We went to Michael’s again recently and I went to the aisle that they have these on and they were only .99 cents for the small tubes and the big ones like the black you see here were only $2.99, so they are really cheap and last a long time.  I think that when I bought them, they were half the price, but it was so long ago that I really don’t remember.

So as you can see from the ones I’ve already made, I am doing a square and a round one for each color combination.  Green and black, green and patriotic (red, white and blue), green and yellow, green and white, green and glow in the dark… etc.  I have so many colors that I could literally just keep making green and whatever color until I’ve run out of colors.  I’m sure the green won’t last that long, so perhaps if I run out I might just use random colors.

Again, I have no idea what I’m going to do with all of these keychains.  I will most likely give them away to anyone who wants them, or I might just ship them off to Noom in New York.  I’m sure they would just love that lol.  Here you go, have all of the things that I’m hoarding lol.

A long time friend of mine suggested that I learn the triangle pattern and even sent me a YouTube link.  I tried it, it didn’t work out.  It doesn’t look as fluid as the ones that I know how to make.

Even though I didn’t like the triangle one, learning it did come in handy because one of the patriotic ones (the square one) messed up as I was finishing it off; one of the green strands of gimp broke.  Just as I was about to toss it in the trash I thought, “when life brings you lemons, make lemonade,” so I used the triangle method to finish it off.  Although it looks horrible, but it’s doable.  The green is sticking out so I will have to super glue it.

Some of the gimp that I have are wider than the normal gimp, and I have tried making them into keychains, but they are difficult as heck to make.  I have solid black, green with a pattern on it and an orange with a pattern on it.  Since the green is almost the same color as the Noom green, I might see if I can make it with the black and the green and orange.  I will attempt it, but I can’t promise much.  It would be cool to see how it would look though, so I want to try it.  I might try it soon.

So that’s my “Gimp” LOL I don’t like calling it that.  The box calls it Rexlace.  I like to think of it as just lace or plastic lanyard lace.  Whatever, gimp is fine.  It’s just that when I think of the word Gimp, I think of my photoshopping program lol.

There is a YouTube channel called Laneyards and they have a video for making a hexagon keychain which uses 6 colors.  OMG!  I thought the triangle was hard, I can’t imagine making one with 6.  I actually tried it last night and failed miserably.  I would like to learn how to do it though so I can make a rainbow colored keychain.  That would be really cool.

You know, I was starting to think that I was doing something that was too juvenile or childish, but seeing that guys videos made me realize that it’s not.  I mean, if this guy is making lanyard keychains, and I’m sure many other adults throughout the world are making them, then it’s not so childish after all.  Although, the simple ones I make are probably a bit childish since they are the easier ones that children start out learning, but hey, it’s all I know how to do.  I will try to get better at it though because I want that rainbow hexagon one now lol.

10 More Pounds!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

noom 210

Saturday, April 27th was my weekly weigh in day and I weighed in at 210.4 which brings my weight loss to 52.6lbs.  This has been a very rough week because I couldn’t shake the feeling that I would end up weighing in at the same weight as I did last week, as if I had already hit a plateau.  I weigh in every morning just to see my weight and practically every morning I weighed in at 212.

Some people might say that by weighing in everyday, I am putting stress on myself, and stress releases a chemical in the brain called cortisol which will halt the weight loss process.  I know I probably shouldn’t  but it’s a natural curiosity to want to weigh yourself constantly when you are trying to lose weight.  When you see that you have lost weight, I think, I’m not sure, but I think it releases endorphins in the brain and it makes you feel good.  (Correct me if I’m wrong in the comments)

I have been consistent since January and I knew that by bragging about how consistent I have been, I’d probably sabotage myself.  Perhaps the stress of thinking (and over-thinking) that I was going to sabotage myself, might have actually sabotaged me.  However I didn’t actually sabotage myself so that makes me feel good.

I have to get my mind off of over thinking this whole weight loss so that I can actually lose weight, so I’ve devised a plan to distract myself by making lanyard keychains with the Noom green color along with another color.  I know, stupid, but effective because I get so focused on the keychains that I’m not even thinking about anything else, despite the fact that I am talking about what I’m supposed to be distracting myself about lol.

Well, until my next weigh in…

Those cookies were how many calories?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Food, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

cookies

We all know that cookies aren’t the best things in the world to eat and that we should eat them as a treat and only in moderation, right?  My mother used to give us 2 cookies at night before we went to bed.  We always wanted more, but she insisted that 2 were enough.  Now I know why.

One of the reasons I got so fat was because I didn’t care how many calories were in my cookies.  We would buy 2 bags of Albertson’s cookies when they were on sale for 2 for $5 because that’s a pretty good deal right?  We each had our own bag and we would both finish our respective bags by the end of the day.

In the words of Julia Roberts from Pretty Woman “Big mistake, big, HUGE!”

One single cookie is 130 calories and even though 130 doesn’t sound like a lot, can you imagine eating a whole bag in a single day?  Those calories add up.  I can see eating 2 cookies for 260 calories and that should be the limit, right?  Oh no, we ate THE WHOLE BAG!  That whole bag of 18 cookies at 130 calories per cookie adds up to 2340 calories.  In ONE day!

Using the Noom app, I have learned that to lose weight you must eat a limit of 1400 calories, that is depending on if you are exercising, those days the Noom app lets me eat 1700 – 1800 calories.  But if I’m not exercising because A.) I’m too lazy or B.) my back and my still broken, but healing arm are in pain, then I should really stick to 1400 calories.  That is how I have been so successful that I have lost 50lbs in less than 4 months.

What brought this up is that we bought a bag of cookies yesterday because it was on the reduced (stale) rack for $1.99 and we figured that we haven’t had cookies in a long time so why not, right?  Well, last night I had 2 cookies and even though it was very good, I knew that 2 were my absolute limit.  I looked in the bag today and there are only 3 cookies left.  My partner is also trying to lose weight, but apparently he isn’t counting as many calories as I am lol.  I think that is okay for him because he isn’t really taking it too seriously, but I am very strict with myself, so if he wants those last 3 cookies, he can help himself because I don’t want them.

I have to practice complete self control at all times otherwise I am going to fail.  Without self control, who knows where I would be today.  I might still be 263lbs or who knows, I might be 270 by now.

Cookies are a great treat once in awhile, but I try to stay as far away from them as I can because as far as I’m concerned, they are a diet killer.

Tomorrow is my weigh in day so I am hoping for some good results.  Until then…

Scrabble Word Finder

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of suzilove for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Who doesn't love playing Scrabble or Words with Friends?  Who hates it when your friends are picking the most obscure words that you never even though existed with just a few letters?  People used to get the dictionary out, but I mean come on, it's like finding a needle in a hay stack.  Who has the time for that?  Just use this Word Finder Widget instead.  Type the letters that you have and let it find you some words.

The widget is also in my sidebar, so feel free to come back any time and spend as much time as you'd like.  I don't mind.  While you're waiting for your friend to respond with their word, click the chat box and say hi.

Visit Sponsor's Site

My Noom weight chart from the beginning

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, Noom, Weight4 Comments

weight chart

I have been blogging about my weight loss over the last few months, and I have been updating my Noom page every week to show my current progress, but I thought I would share the full weight chart.  I have wanted to create this chart, but it took me a long time to figure out how I was going to do it because I had to take multiple screenshots on my phone and then blend them together layer by layer.  The thought bubbles were overlapping each other, so I had to erase them and put them back in, some upside down, and then manually type in the weight with the date (minus the day of the week for space issues).  I finally did it and here it is.

As you can see, I have not gone up throughout my entire process, it’s all down.  There were some weigh-in’s where I had only gone down maybe 1lb or 1.8lbs, but I didn’t mind that because at least I didn’t go up.

I started out at 263lbs on January 5th 2013 and my last weigh-in shows 212.6lbs in less than 4 months.  That’s 50.4lbs.  My first weigh in was on a Saturday, but the first week the app asked me to weigh in on a Wednesday, then again and for some reason I got confused and started weighing in on Wednesdays.  I decided after a few weeks that I wanted to go back to weighing in on Saturdays at the end of the week instead of the middle, so that’s why there are some oddities in the chart.

They say that bragging about something is going to make it stop, and normally I would agree, but I just can’t help it because I am so proud of myself.  I know it won’t stop because I am going to continue to work as hard as I have been to get this weight off of me.

I just have 12.6lbs to go to meet my goal of 200lbs, and then I will extend this goal so that I go down to 170lbs.  Once I reach that goal, I will continue this hard work to maintain my weight.  I would hate to work this hard to lose all that weight just to end up  back where I was by going back to my old eating habits.

This is a lifestyle change which I will continue because I don’t want to end up as fat as I was, or fatter.  For me it’s a health issue because I had sleep apnea and type-2 diabetes.  I say had because I am no longer at risk for diabetes and I am hoping that the weight loss will reverse or end my sleep apnea.  I’ll admit that I haven’t been wearing my bipap mask the whole night every night like I should, but the reason is because some nights I have trouble falling asleep with it on, so I will take it off after an hour.  I can usually go 2 days without it before I start waking up with acid reflux and then a few more days before I gasp for air, but I haven’t been going through that.  I think that I might be in the safe zone where I probably don’t have sleep apnea anymore, or it’s going away, but I’m not a doctor so I can’t say that for sure.  I will probably need to get a new sleep study to find out.

The responsible adult in me should warn that if you have sleep apnea, DO NOT go a single night without your mask, even if you can’t fall asleep.  Sleep apnea could cause death from heart attack or a stroke and is a serious matter, so make sure you wear your mask.

I remain positive because that is the only way to be successful.  I couldn’t be more happy with my progress and I look forward to my next weigh in on Saturday.

My 50lb Weight Loss – Before and After Pictures

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, Noom, Pictures, WeightLeave a comment

weight loss before and after 50lbs

So yesterday was what I consider to be a milestone.  I weighed in at 212.6lbs which brings my weight loss total down to 50.4lbs lost since January 5th 2013.  So yeah, I feel like bragging lol.

Last night we went to a local event where a woman named Erin Davies is driving cross-country to show her documentary called FagBug and talk about her experiences with vandalism and homophobia and to raise awareness on the subject with her car called the “fagbug.”  When I heard she was coming, I knew I had to go because I wanted to see the car and have my picture taken with it.  And since it would be the first picture of me with 50lbs weight loss, I thought it would work as a great sort of after picture, even though I’m not finished with my journey.

Anyway, so let me give you a rundown of the images you see above.  Top left was from Christmas 2004.  I am actually not positive what my weight was back then, but I’m pretty sure it was 230 give or take.

The second picture on the top is a picture that was taken at Hearst Castle in Colorado in 2005.  It is also the picture that I used as my author picture since it was the best picture I have ever taken.  I hate taking my picture as a fat guy, but love pictures when I’m skinny so perhaps I will be taking a lot more photos when I am finally down in weight.

The bottom left picture was taken last year in May at a PFLAG meeting with Robin Tyler.  I had no idea until after the picture was taken that my stomach was actually that big.  I was beyond mortified, but kept it because I didn’t want to delete the only picture of me with Robin Tyler.  I mean, she’s Robin Tyler!

The bottom right picture is my before picture.  That is the one I took at the IHOP that we went to on New Years Day just before I made the decision to go on this weight loss journey.

Finally, the picture on the right is how I look today.  You can certainly see the difference in my neck and my face.  You probably can’t tell with the black shirt, but believe me, it’s thinner than all those before pictures.  My stomach (waist) was 50” and now it is down to 43”.  So yeah, it’s thinner.  Also my thighs are really skinny now too.  I didn’t think to measure my thighs at the beginning or every week because the Noom app didn’t ask me to, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have still kept a record.  It doesn’t matter because they are thinner now.  Oh and thank you photographer (my partner) for taking the picture with me talking instead of smiling lol.  That was sarcasm of course.

My total weight loss since January 5th is 50.4lbs.  My goal is to lose 63lbs, so I only have 12.6lbs to go.  Although, once I meet my goal I will adjust the Noom app so that I will go down to 170 because 63lbs was just a small goal to get me started, my true goal is much higher than a measly 63lbs.  I was afraid that if I set too high of a goal, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.  I think that I have proven to myself that not only can I meet this goal, but I can keep going until all the fat is gone.

Look out world, here I come!  My next picture will be when I have lost 63lbs when I weigh 200lbs or less (if it’s like 199.8 or something).  See you then…

My Eating Disorder

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Food, Health, Noom, Restaurant, WeightLeave a comment

overeating disorder

When I was a kid, I had a huge appetite, but I never gained any weight because, well, I was a kid and kids back in the 70’s and 80’s were more active than they are now.  As a kid, I was always riding my bicycle, roller skating or doing who knows what.  As a pre-teen and a teenager I was busy working with my step-father in the apartment building painting vacant apartments or doing whatever it was that he made me do, so I was constantly burning calories.

I was actually very fit throughout my entire childhood and through my teen years and even through most of my twenties.  I was also a smoker from age 15 to 26, and that’s when it all went downhill for me.  As soon as I quit smoking it was like my taste buds were brand new and everything tasted awesome.  My partner hates it when I say this, but everything new was like having an orgasm in my mouth lol.  I kid you not.

When I quit smoking in 1996, it only took maybe 2 months before I went from 150lbs to 200lbs, it was that quick. The reason was that I was eating sunflower seeds from the minute I woke up until the minute I went to bed.  I was told to keep that hand to mouth going to keep me from wanting a cigarette, but nobody told me how fattening and salty sunflower seeds were.  It wasn’t just that, I also discovered something I rarely ate throughout my life except for those certain special occasions.  Twinkies, ice cream, cake and doughnuts.

You know when you are so proud of yourself for accomplishing something that you want to reward yourself?  Yeah, don’t do that.  I was so proud of myself for quitting that I was literally eating Twinkies and ice cream everyday.  EVERY DAY!  We had a Winchell’s down the street from us and we were constantly going there and buying a dozen and splitting the box and we both would just sit there eating doughnut after doughnut until the box was empty.  Not good!

We would go to McDonald’s and buy one of their birthday cakes and we would literally eat the whole cake by ourselves.  Holy crap!  It was good though.  We didn’t really have a grocery store near us, and the little markets didn’t sell cakes so that was the only place for us to buy cake.  Plus it was really cheap so that’s why we bought it there.

We went to Sizzler in Hollywood and we discovered that they had an all-you-can-eat salad bar.  We took advantage of that because it wasn’t too expensive and we would keep going back until we were full, which you know you shouldn’t do, but you do it because you feel you want to get your moneys worth.  Then one time we went and decided not to get the salad bar, but to get some actual food, so I got Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken.  That was the very first time I had ever had that.  My mother never made it when I was growing up and I never even heard of it before that day.  OH MY GOD!

As the years went on I was getting fatter and fatter.  We discovered Hometown Buffet and Golden Corral.  We couldn’t leave the place unless we were both so full that we literally couldn’t swallow another drop or eat another bite of whatever.

My hunger went off the charts at home.  I would eat a big breakfast and within an hour I was hungry again, so I would eat something.  I would have lunch and the same thing would happen again, I would get hungry, but this wasn’t just a hunger, this was a demand from my stomach.  My stomach would literally hurt, that’s how hungry I would get.  My stomach would grumble and I would feel pain and my hands would start trembling like I was a drug addict and I needed a fix.

I couldn’t just eat a sandwich for lunch, If I did have one, I would still be hungry so I’d make another and I’d probably still be hungry so to have something different I would put 4 hot dogs, yes, you read right, 4 “four” hot dogs in the microwave.  Guess what?  I’d be hungry again an hour later.  My stomach would hurt again and I’d get the shakes.

Whenever we would buy pizza, we always got 2 large pizzas with 2 toppings each, but they had different toppings so we had two choices.  I would usually (to be polite) put one of each on my plate and eat them, but then I’d go to the kitchen and as I was “putting the boxes away” I would eat two more slices, one of each.  In an hour I’d come back to the kitchen and grab one more, then another and another.  We always had enough pizza for lunch the next day, but only because I felt guilty about eating so much so I was saving those last slices lol.

I was going to the grocery store every day to buy our dinner, but I would always leave with an extra goodie that I would eat on the walk home.  Then I started getting greedy and would buy a couple or a few goodies.  I was snarfing a package of Twinkies and a candy bar or two.  I can just imagine what people were thinking as they were passing me while I was holding the grocery bag(s) with one hand, and stuffing my face with the other.

Suddenly I was no longer just 50lbs overweight, I was more than 100lbs overweight and I couldn’t stop my hunger from controlling my life.  I had type-2 diabetes because I was eating so much food and sugar.  I was trying to control my diet by cutting out the sugar, but I was still eating bread and pasta which we all know turns to sugar, so I wasn’t really controlling it like I thought I was.  The hunger, the stomach pains and the shakes were still there, still controlling me.

I want to say it wasn’t my fault because I take medication that has that side effect, but I also had an addiction to food, so I can’t just blame the medication.  When most people think of an eating disorder, they typically think of people who either don’t eat or they eat and then puke it all up, but they are unusually thin.  I have the opposite.  Sorry, I had…  I have to correct myself because that was the old me and I am not that person anymore.

I will be 43 in less than 2 months and I am just now learning how to eat properly.  I mean, I’ve always known, but I ignored it because I wanted to eat poorly because I was selfish and stubborn and stupid.  I didn’t care until I noticed how bad it was getting and how horrible the pain was.  I now know what I have to do to live a healthy lifestyle and I am never going back to that unhealthy place again.

Thanks to the Noom app on my cell phone for helping me to learn what is right to eat and what is wrong, I now can eat healthy food so I can avoid the mistakes I made before.

Since January 5th, 2013 I have lost 50.4lbs officially as of today, April 20th, 2013.  I couldn’t be more happy with my progress.  I feel so much better about myself and I am no longer starving all the time.  I can’t tell you how good it feels to be able to eat a normal portion of food and be satisfied with it.  I don’t live to eat anymore, now I eat to live.

I have set the Noom app to lose 63lbs and according to the estimated end date, I will be finished by June 3rd 2013, but that date changes weekly.  It is so close I can feel it.  I know I will reach this goal and then I can continue to lose more weight.  I don’t want to be fat and unhealthy anymore.  I quit smoking and I don’t drink or do drugs so I don’t have any actual addictions, and now I have kicked my eating addiction so I am officially addiction free.  Well, I am still addicted to Facebook, but I mean come on, who isn’t?  Right?

So… until next week. 🙂

My broken arm is on the mend

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

cartoon mike healing broken arm

I am very happy to report that my arm is healing and I can finally go back to my normal routine.  I’ve had a great vacation from my chores for the last month, but it’s time to go back to work.

Well, the truth is, I’ve been doing certain chores like laundry and doing light cleaning here and there, it’s dishes that were too difficult to do.  I even mowed the lawn 2 weeks ago with just one arm lol.  I didn’t do it last week or this week because, well, I’m lazy lol.  I did the dishes today with both arms and laundry yesterday with both arms and it did hurt a tiny bit, but it didn’t hurt so much that I had to stop.

It’s funny how you think that you want to not have to do things, but after awhile you start to miss it.  I know that sounds odd, but it’s true.

I am still wearing the sling when I walk the dog or when I’m just fartin’ around the house because it feels uncomfortable to just let it hang, it even hurts if I’m not holding it up, but when I’m just laying in bed or doing dishes or laundry I can take it off.

The part of my arm that broke is still in a bit of pain, but what is causing me the most pain is the middle of my arm because my arm is bent 24/7 and I guess it just needs to stretch after awhile.  You know how when you are in the car for too long and it’s nice to get out and stretch your legs?  Well, it’s basically the same thing.

The E.R. doctor said it would take 6 to 8 weeks to heal and it’s been 4 1/2 weeks and I can tell that it won’t take a full 8 weeks.  I’m sure I still have another couple of weeks of wearing the sling, then I can probably take it off for good.  Although I can’t predict the future, but I’m sure I’ll be good soon.

I’ve never broken a bone in my body in my whole life so I’ve never experienced this and even though it was torture for me, I’m glad it happened because I finally got to know what it was like.  I know that sounds silly or strange, but it just seems like something I should have experienced at least once in my life.  I don’t have a bucket list, but I think if I did, breaking a bone would have been on it.  That’s not to say I want to experience it again lol.  I can’t imagine ever going through that again so I’m going to have to be really careful from now on.

Anyway, I can’t wait for my arm to heal completely so I can go back to normal, whatever normal is.