triwithms

Wow, it's been a while since I've looked at this blog!

I guess since I wasn't doing any triathlon training anymore, I had kind of abandoned this blog (but I did renew it).

The last year has been pretty disappointing from an exercise point of view as I haven't been able to do much, and every time I tried to start to get going something would stop me in my tracks whether it be fatigue from MS/Tumor, or injuries, etc.  My weight has gotten out of control, which might be be a problem with my thyroid from the tumor OR most probably it's just all the junk food I've been eating while being velcro-ed to the couch. :D

The good news is that the last couple of years my brain cancer hasn't grown significantly and for that I'm thankful and very lucky.  My neurologist echoed that sentiment saying that I've been lucky that it's been very slow growing.

So after many, many failed starts I've decided not to totally quit on the exercise and give it yet another shot to get going again.  I kind of feel like a fly on sticky tape, where the memory of the freedom to fly still gives me hope for now that I can once again break through from the bondage.

I was just chatting with my friend and old triathlon coach Brett and I ended up reaching out to him for some help on the motivational side to help me get going.  Perhaps some changes to diet, and some light exercise along with the motivational help will be enough to help my body respond positively to exercise again rather than knocking me out on my ass.

After Brett made sure that it was okay with my doctors to exercise he said, "And if you fall over and seizure, I have no idea who you are. ;)".  I almost fell out of my chair laughing. :D

Anyway, as always after chatting with Brett, I had some renewed hope and motivation and hopped on the treadmill in my cool basement to see how bad the damage was.  I had to put new batteries in my Polar watch, HR Strap and footpad to give you some indication how long it's been sind I've used that gear.

My plan was just to do a mix of some very light jogging and walking. I'd see how my HR responded/recovered and get some base line values to give to Brett.  Perhaps I'd keep going with the workouts send the data over to see if I was adapting positively.  As you can see from the graph, the current situation is dire but not without hope as I was able to jog, even though my HR sky-rocketed from the lightest of efforts (aka - Old, Out of shape, fat bastard ;D):

 

Juice Fast - Day 9 - Green Juice with Angel Juicer

  

Day 9 of my juice fast

This is a video of me making a green juice with my Angel juicer.  The video is a bit long, but I wanted to give people a good sense as to the actual amout of time it take to make a juice with this juicer.

Green Juice Recipe:

-2 Green Apples
-4 Stalks of Celery
-10 Purple Kale Leaves
-1/2 Lemon (in the video I used 1 but tasted too strong)
-1 Large Cucumber

 

In terms of an update on how I'm feeing, I'm mostly over my cold or detox reaction and I'm actually starting to feel really good now.  I did have a couple of hiccups along the way on the juice fast so far and actually ate dinner a couple of nights when I thought that I was done and it was going to be my last day.  Instead of beating myself up about it, I just woke up the next day and got back on the juices.  I did have the ocassional piece of fruit or veggies as I was cutting them up to juice, since I was thinking it would be good to get a bit of fibre in my system and again I think that's okay.

I appologise if my previous post sounded very depressing or if it sounded some alarms that I really was suffering emotionally and mentally, I just had decided to post an update to the blog in case anyone was wondering what I've been up to and let people know what happened.  My frustration was mainly about how I was feeling physically and I had just woken up in the middle of the night feeling sick and I didn't think the juice fasting was going to give me the relief I was looking for.

I'm glad I did write the post now since I did hear from my old triathlon coach Brett (@ZenTriathlon http://www.zentriathlon.com/) and Rich Roll (@richroll http://www.richroll.com/) who is a really inspirational ultra-endurance athlete.  I really appreciate their concern and the nice messages they sent.  

In fact, I woke up the next day and my cold wasn't as bad and I was feeling good enough not only to walk, but I went for a light jog for somewhere around 3-4km.  I could hardly believe it!  The juice fast is working and inspiration from those guys does wonders as well.  Check out their websites if you're not familiar with them.

Anyway, I promised some more posts and by the way I did go ahead a renew the Blog for a few more years for my 3 readers! ;D

Thanks and make this an outstanding day!

Rob.

Brain Cancer Diagnosis

Soon after that previous post last year I got injured training for Around the Bay 30km race.  I ran up against the 10% rule and lost, my body fell apart with injuries (sore knees, back and neck).  I stopped training soon after and was only going to start up again after my injuries subsided, but they weren't better by summer.

In fact, in the summer I had my next MRI for monitoring my multiple sclerosis and unfortunately it revealed that I had inoperable brain cancer.  The rest of my year was pretty much consumed with dealing with that and I didn't do any exercise and put on about 25lbs with my waste going from 33 to 38 so it was pretty much all around my midsection (the biggest ever in my life).  The doctors are just monitoring the tumor and when the time comes that treatment is required, then the chemo or radiation will happen.  Until that point there is only living each day as it comes.

Listening and going to see Eckhart Tolle and living in the now pretty much ended the emotional suffering of dealing with diagnosis, but physically I still felt awful.

This week it's a big deal that I got out walking everyday which is what I'll have to keep up until/if I feel well enough to do some light biking or running, we'll see.

Chances are this blog is going to disappear soon since I didn't pay the renewal fees a while back and they are probably going to pull the plug soon, so for the 1 or 2 people (including me) that read this last year and before, thanks.  Maybe I'll do a few additional posts until it's gone, like the Captain talking while going down with his ship.

I actually felt so poor physically that I decided to try something a bit extreme to try to give my body a break from digestion in hopes that I could detox a bit and have some energy return.  So I'm giving a juice fast a try with my new juicers, typically making green juices with combinations of just about every fruit and vegetable you can imagine with mostly devastating results from a taste perspective.  I got a bit motivated by the movie, "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" (http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/), which is a documentary similar to Super Size Me except this time it's going the other way following someone getting healthy by doing a 60-day juice fast and starting to exercise.

Since I wasn't feeling good I called my doctor before I started and yesterday I went in for a battery of blood tests, ECGs, etc. etc.

Today I'll be starting day 5 of the juice fast and I must be starting to detox since I have a headache, a bit of a sore throat, and am stuffed up.  Apparently there are 2-3 days where you don't feel so hot before you feel much better, but I'm not sure if I'll make it through this phase.  I'll take it day by day.

Till next time...maybe.  ;D