The Electric Chair

A Decline in Health

A little over a year ago I posted about trying to get in shape.  I considered my options, and began a program of P90X, as I had seen so many of my friends be successful with it.

Things started off well, and I got through the first month.  Summer approached, and we started our summer vacation with a trip to California to visit my family and friends.  While there I attempted to keep up with the workouts, but struggled to find the time.

Upon returning, I found that I could not get through the workouts anymore.  I started feeling *really* bad, and it was as if I had never started the program, or even worse, it was like I had degraded.  Obviously this was more than frustrating, it was demoralizing.  I attempted to restart P90X several times, all with resounding failures.

I wasn’t sure what was wrong, and went along this path for several months.  During this time I noticed my energy level dropping severely so that even a walk up the stairs would drain me.  I rapidly gained weight (10-15lbs in the course of 3 months), and generally felt like crap.

Then it was time for my annual physical and checkup.  I went in, and didn’t really tell the doctor that I was out of energy or anything, as I just felt like I was getting older, and my lack of drive was my own fault.  I felt like if I tried hard enough, I could overcome it all, but I was having a hard time getting the motivation.

Discovery

The next week my doctor calls me and says everything checks out ok, except that I might have “Hypothyroid” disease.  This actually rang a bell since my mother and sister (and it turns out many people on my mothers side), have the same problem.  All I really knew about the disorder was that it affects mostly women, and that it can cause rapid fluctuations in weight.  Notably I’ve seen this in both my mom and sister.  I never expected I’d end up with the problem, however, and never learned much about it.

After doing my research, I discovered that almost all my ailments, including a developing high anxiety, could be attributed to the problem.  My body attacked my own thyroid gland and was no longer able to produce a much needed hormone, and the imbalance was causing all sorts of awful side-effects.

After another blood test to confirm, I started hormone replacement.  At the same time the anxiety peaked.  This was something I had *never* experienced before.  It was so bad that I ended up having a full heart workup because I felt like my heart was going to burst out my chest.  After everything checked out ok, and spending about 6 weeks on the medication, I started to feel a *lot* better.

My weight gain stopped, the anxiety disappeared completely, and some of my energy returned.  The fact that I hadn’t done much and weighed a good 15lbs more still affected my overall energy level, and I knew the only way I could get back to something close to normal was to start exercising again.  I knew I needed to start slow.

A Failed Goal revisited

I started borrowing my sons bike and taking regular bike rides.  This was good, as I could push myself a little, and enjoy things around me.  I’d start taking rides to the store, or just around, evening visiting a few roads I hadn’t been on before.  Unfortunately the weather didn’t always agree, the amount of road that was safe to travel on was small, and my son wasn’t always willing to give up his bike.  I began to wonder if I wanted to buy my own bike suitable for exercise (I do own a wonderful bike, but it’s a vintage style “cruiser” that Candy bought me).  In the end I decided against it.

Then a Tae Kwon Do studio opened up a few miles away.

A little background:  When I was a pre-teen living in Utah, I joined a Tae Kwon Do Club.  For a couple of years I practiced and progressed quite well.  I found something I really enjoyed, and was good at.  By the time I left I was often teaching part of the class for my teacher while he taught some other students.  But then we had to move to California.  Leaving Tae Kwon Do was probably the worst part of the move for me.  When we arrived in California, we temporarily lived in Atascadero, and I found a studio in Morro Bay that I attended for a short time.  But then we moved to a ranch in the hills of Santa Barbara, a minimum of 25miles from any studio.  I tried a few, but I was still too young to drive, my mother doesn’t drive, and my father was usually too tired from working to want to drive, wait for me to do the class, and drive back.

Long story short, my Tae Kwon Do path was over.

When I got into college, I joined a TKD club there in my last year when one was created, but that didn’t last either.

I don’t have many regrets in life, as I always figure the paths we chose, right or wrong, got me to where I am today, and I’m happy with most things.  I have always felt a deep disappointment that I never achieved any real goals in my TKD life.  I never got my black belt.  I failed myself.

Back to present day…

I checked out the TKD studio, and found that I enjoyed it.  I started going to the basic class as I was determined to start completely over and see if I could hack it.  Fortunately a lot of it came back quickly.  The workouts were very hard at first (the first one I thought I was going to vomit), but my restored health was serving me well.  After a few months it was time for my first belt test, and I was promoted back to a Green Belt, which is close to where I left off.  I’m still doing quite well, and have joined the “Black Belt Club” which puts me on the path to actually getting my Black Belt.  I know it will not be an easy task, but this is one goal I’ve regretted not completing in my life.

Tae Kwon Do also teaches a balance in life that I’ve struggled with for years.  The tenets of Tae Kwon Do (Courtesy, Integrity, Self-Control, Perseverance, Indomitable Spirit) are things I very much need to work on.

During this time, I’ve lost 10lbs of what I call the “thyroid weight”, and generally feel a lot better.  The years have caught up to me a bit, and my knee does cause me some trouble, but otherwise I’m doing well.

Unfortunately this training isn’t without cost.  This studio is not cheap, and I do feel guilty about spending so much money… I’m afraid my family doesn’t understand my need to try to fulfill this long-time goal, but I’m hoping they’ll grow to understand.  Two other times in my life I’ve said “I have to do that” (the first was when I heard a Jazz band play, and I decided I had to play in a Jazz ensemble.  The second was when I saw swing dancers dance for the first time and said “I Have to do that”. ) This third time is a bit different, in that I saw the goal: Getting in shape and getting my black belt.  I have to do this, not only for myself, but to get myself in shape so that I can be happy and healthy for my family.

So that’s where I stand.  At the beginning of something that will take 2-3 years to complete and will be a lot of hard work. Wish me luck, or better yet, wish me strength and perseverance…

Over the past few years I’ve been growing more and more disgusted with myself as I’ve grown lethargic and just plain grown. I used to have dancing and youth to keep me in check. Youth has turned into middle age and there just isn’t as much time and inspiration for dance. Not to mention that a song or two leaves me incredibly winded.

I’ve watched as a number of friends and dancers have got themselves into shape again, and met people older than me who look (and I’m sure feel) younger than me. Longtime friends of mine are even fitness gurus (experts on cross-fit).

A need to get back into shape, gain some muscle tone and improve my energy level has overcome me. Any sort of exercise would be an improvement, but I’ve seen a lot of my friends do P90X with great success. Despite my cross-fit friends recommendation that I follow a cross-fit plan, I decided to try a session of P90X for my initial transformation into fitness.

I chose the path for a few reasons, with the biggest of which is that I have multiple friends going through the program at the same time, so I have a support system that I can use. Getting through a few weeks and making exercise a habit is my highest priority besides getting into shape. After I finish the program I will move on to a regular workout, and hope to get some good advice from my cross-fit guru friends, as I see how it’s worked for and become a lifestyle for them.

So I began the program a week ago. Going from zero exercise to an intense program like P90X is not necessarily the smartest thing to do. Day one was difficult to get through. When I finished the first part (chest and back), I felt like I was going to puke. The ab ripper portion went painfully as I have absolutely no stomach muscles it would seem.

Day two started off with me being pretty sore, but I made it through the plyometrics workout without getting sick. By the time day three rolled around I was so sore that I was unsure I could do another workout, but once I began warming up I knew I was able to get through it. I continued on through the week doing pretty well until I had a slight pull up bar accident and fell on my tailbone. Since then a few exercises have been out of the question, most specifically the ab workouts and anything involving jumping.

I’m now into my ninth day, and I’m feeling the results. Despite a few minor setbacks in the diet (i.e. a memorial day BBQ), I’ve lost a pound or two and generally feel better. I can’t expect to *see* any results in the mirror yet, but I’m looking forward to the day I can. Each workout is getting a bit easier to make it through, even though I still don’t feel like I’m keeping up. I’m realistic enough to know that 90 days isn’t going to bring me a miracle transformation, but it will put me into the best shape I’ve been in years.

The diet is the hardest part. I’m not following the P90X nutrition plan (though I should), instead I’m making general smart choices like lowering my portions, eating snack between meals to keep my metabolism level, and skipping high fat and high calorie foods. No more fast food, no more sweetened drinks, and a lot less bread, red meat, and sugar for me.  Oh, and I’ve all but eliminated beer from my poker nights… talk about rough!

All I have to do is make this a new lifestyle for me, where everyday consists of better food and portion choices, and every day includes some form of exercise. This public declaration of my plan is my attempt to commit to it so that should I feel like giving up, there will be a bit of shame and guilt keeping me going. My hope is that after establishing all of this as a new lifestyle it will stick and I can continue to make improvements in my nutrition and health.

Stay tuned because if I do stick with it, and there are noticeable results I will certainly share the embarrassing before pictures, and proudly share the after. For now, however, the before/current shots stay safely tucked away.

If you try, you can look at a situation academically without getting fully tied up in idealism.  Sure it’s almost impossible to get your politics out of the equation, but if you try, you can at least consider the facts and arguments that people make.  At that point, one should at least try to empathize with those arguments before completely dismissing them.

For me, this is such a reasoning, and my hope isn’t that you simply agree with the conclusions I may draw, but understand how those conclusions might be made.  For this “study” we are going to consider a term that’s been thrown around a lot lately — socialism — and a new term that I’m making up called momoism.  We’ll start with a definition.

Socialism is defined as “a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.”

There have been a lot of claims that our current administration is moving us toward socialism.  While that’s certainly hyperbole, it has an element of truth.  (This is where you must consider facts, and be logical, not emotional).  To restate the definition, Socialism is the ownership of entities by the government. These entities control production, and distribution of both capital (money and products) and land in the community as a whole (the Country in this case).

Are we socialist?  No.  We are primarily a privately run country.  Almost all our goods and services are produced by private companies.  One could spend hours talking about all of the privately produced and distributed capital, and all of the land owned privately.  We are still a regulated capitalist country in terms of the economy.

But of  course, the element of truth regarding socialism *does* exist.  The Government has owned many entities such as Social Security and Medicare or years.  While these entities are completely owned by the government, the industries they are in are not.  Social Security is a division of financial insurance, a sort of life insurance, and Medicare is a division of Medical insurance.  To some these partial ownerships are “steps” toward socialism.  That’s certainly valid, as the invention of Social Security is certainly closer to Socialism than without it, but it’s a pretty minor leap if one is honest.

Recent events can also be seen moving closer to socialism.  I’m obviously speaking of the health care reform just passed.  But before we get to that obvious piece, there’s *more* socialism in addition on to that bill that was added last minute: Student Loans.  Prior to the passage, student loans were not completely controlled by the government, but now they are.  One could look at this two different ways: Student loans as an entire industry, or student loans as part of the overall loan industry.  Either way, the step towards socialism exists, but once again it’s minor.  The fear, of course, is that each of these minor steps add up.  That’s hard to argue against. And to bring it back to health care, the reform aims to improve coverage by in part adding more people to the government systems.  A very minor step only in terms of numbers.  Otherwise there really isn’t much in it towards the academic definition of socialism.

The definition of socialism also mentioned land ownership. Did you know that as of 2008, the government owned around 30% of all land?  Further, that 30% is primarily land that contains natural resources (oil/gas/mineral).  (http://blog.heritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/federally-owned-land.jpg). Further, the current administration has been making plans (and indeed has been) buying up land.  (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/02/white-house-land-grab/)

That brings us to Momoism.  Yes, it’s a made up word.  I will define momoism as “a system of government, led by an executive with complete power over industry, and commerce, while suppressing opposition”.  First notice that I don’t mention government ownership, rather control.  In momoism, the government seeks to control and regulate all industries, while leaving them under private ownership.  The executive, of course, is either the leader or the “administration” and has ultimate power.

A fictitious country, let’s call it Momoland, would be under the control of  the “Momo”.  The Momo would regulate industries like Heath Care by controlling who gets what, how much companies can charge.  Even though Momoland might have other branches of government, they would largely be controlled by the Momo.  Such power would inevitably lead to the government controlling other aspects of life, and could end up up with the government controlling speech, religion, and other apsects of everyday social life.

Now obviously Momoism is an extreme situation, and I bring it up to make a point.  While there certainly are people who believe Socialism is a valid government, others think it’s evil. The truth is that all governments have their strengths and weaknesses, and I’m not here to debate that.  Momoism, though, is evil in the way I’ve described it.  Full control over your life, while ceding ownership to citizens is akin to Socialism.  Both systems control industry, though momoism does it through law and regulation, while Socialism is more honest about it and gives the industry to the “people” (government).  Socialism is usually democratic, still giving the people the opportunity to elect it’s officials, who then in turn enact laws.  Momoism pretends to do that, but ultimately cedes power to the Momo and his branch of government.  While the people may elect other Momos, and even sub-Momos, ultimate power still lies at the top because the top controls all of the private companies.

Yes Momoism is an extreme, and certainly no modern government participates in full-on Momoism.  Yet, there are some similarities between Momoism and Socialism.  I already alluded that whether the government controls or owns an industry, the end is similar in that the industry must act according to the governments rules.  Socialism takes a lot of control away from the people beyond elections, but Momoism takes it to the extreme.

Now let’s say everyone was arguing about our government heading towards Momoism instead of Socialism.  I, of course, would say the same thing: It’s a hyperbolic argument that only has elements of truth.  The recent Health care bill, of course, adds more regulation to an industry going so far as to tell private companies that they must cover people regardless of condition.  In the insurance industry, that’s difficult to overcome.  I don’t wish to get into that argument here, so it should be sufficient to say that each step taken towards telling an industry what to do, leads us closer to momoism.  Further, each time the Legislative branch gives the Executive branch more power, as was given countless times under the Bush Administration (eg. the Patriot Act which was recently extended under the Obama Administration) leads us closer to Momoism.  Even more of a step towards Momoism was the recent bailouts of multiple industries.  The bailout of GM, for example, led to the government getting more of a say what a private company can do. Once GM took the bailout they were obligated to fire their CEO (regardless of what the company and it’s investors wanted), cut entire lines of cars (again regardless of whether they were moneymakers or not).

And of course, recent talks and attempts by the government to regulate the internet (Net Neutrality) and the airwaves (The Fairness Doctrine — Renamed to include the use of “diversity” and “local”) which essentially tells us that even though we can say what we want, we have to make sure someone else will say the opposite, in equal time, before we say it.  But there I go again, getting dangerously close to idealism.

The point of all this is that we have taken steps toward both of these “isms”, and there are those of us who think both “isms” are not good for a lot of legitimate reasons.  It’s much too simplistic to simply say “Obama is a Socialist” or a “Obama is a Momoist”.  Neither are true, but the actions taken by this government, over a long period of time (decades) have moved us closer towards both and further away from our roots.  One can argue that it’s a good thing, but certainly one can argue the opposite, and have good reasons for doing so.  Pure forms of both are not good for America.

Now, one final thing.  Perhaps you were smart enough to make the connection.  While I said “Momoism” is made up… it actually is not.  Please replace the word “Momo” with “Dictator”, “Momoland” with any number of countries in the WWII era, and “Momoism” with Fascism.  Do *NOT* replace Obama with Hitler, as that’s a non-starter for me, but do recognize that the term “Natzi” is a the shortened verson of “National Socialism”.

Of course when we bring any of those terms up one immediately conjures up “Hitler”.  It’s a false immediate comparison, and in Academic terms, should not be tied to each other exclusively.  If suddenly you are offended, and think that I’m part of the crazy “Obama is Hitler” wacko fringe group, you don’t know me, and never will.  I would ask you to not read my blog, and sever any ties to me… we have nothing more to discuss.  Seriously, I feel that strongly about it.  Otherwise, I simply ask you to consider why *some* people bring up fascism and socialism, as it’s a legitimate concern to them.  History has not been kind to either form of government.  Let’s leave the hyperbole out of it, and recognize the arguments for what they are: Legitimate debate.

If I bore you with my story, skip to the bottom for “lessons learned”, because I can find politics and debate in anything.

On Sunday, October 18th, I headed to Decatur to DJ at Atlanta Varsity Showdown.  I wasn’t feeling that great, and had a scratchy throat.  I sucked it up, picked up a red bull and fulfilled my obligation.  At that point, I really just figured I was tired and run down.  During the drive home I quickly changed my mind.  That night I felt awful, and couldn’t sleep.

I took the next day off work, and rested… hoping that a day of rest would make me feel better.  So Tuesday I attempted to carry out a normal day, and for the most part I did, but I certainly wasn’t feeling great.  On Wednesday I felt a bit better, and I felt I was on the road to recovery.

How very wrong I was.  On Thursday I felt like I had been in a hit and run, and a serious cough had developed.  I took Thursday and Friday off of work, figuring I’d use those days, and the weekend to recover.

by Monday it was clear I was not getting better.  My symptoms were night sweats, completely achy body, headaches, congestion, intense coughing, and lack of sleep.  By this point I had already concluded that I had the flu, and not only that I had H1N1 (Swine Flu).    I decided this because about 3 weeks before I had the “Seasonal” Flu shot.  I wasn’t scared, as I watch and read the news *a lot*.  I knew that H1N1 wasn’t any more dangerous to the average person than any other flu, and I’ve certainly survived many a flu.  So I called the doctor, and went in that day. He said I probably have Swine Flu (no, I wasn’t tested). He told me to take Mucinex DM, and gave me an antibiotic, because I had developed Bronchitis (This is standard with me… every time I have any sort of respiratory infection, it almost always develops into bronchitis… this has been the case ever since I chose to go on the skiing trip with Krista and her family when I had a cold/flu when I was in High School.  By the way, my wife immediately quarantined me from the rest of the family.

The Musinex did nothing for me (I hear you all gasping, as apparently the entire world thinks this is a miracle OTC drug.  Well it sucks for me!), and my cough got much worse.  My coughing fits got so bad that my body would rebel and I’d start throwing up.   On Thursday I called the doctor back, told him my symptoms were worse.  He agreed to see me again.  He tested my lungs, gave me an inhaler, changed my antiobiotic to Levequin, and gave me TussionEx for the cough.

That helped.  The TussionEx is beautiful, it really slowed down the cough and helped me get some amount of sleep.  I eneded up taking the entire next week off of work to recover.

I began working on Tuesday of the next week (this week), but I’ve still been pretty sick.  The cough won’t completely go away, and I am very weak as my appetite has not fully returned, but all in all I feel dramatically better.  The Quarantine has partially ended, but I still sleep alone as I’m not pleasant to be with at night yet(the night sweats are terrible, and the coughing is still sporadic and annoying).

Lessons Learned

So that’s my story.  There are some lessons to be learned from this:

There are a lot of misconceptions about the flu and swine flu.

1) 90% of flu cases being diagnosed right now are H1N1.  If you think otherwise, you are fooling yourself.  There’s really no reason to test for it because it’s the flu, and you treat it the same way regardless of the strain.  For most people there really is no difference between H1N1 and any other strain.  It is true that they have noticed that children and pregnant woman are taking it a little harder than other people.  The theory is that H1N1 is showing worse symptoms for people who have strong immune symptoms.  Perhaps that means I have a strong immune system, or perhaps the Seasonal flu shot I had this year actually made it worse.  Or maybe I’m just getting older and things are hitting me harder.

2) I made the mistake of saying “H1N1″ is the seasonal flu this year to a number of people.  What I meant was that “the current season of flue is Swine Flu”.  Flu season usually really starts in January, and it’s very possible that a new batch of flu illnesses will hit the public. I still stand by the idea that if you have the flu right now, i’d bet money it’s H1N1… it’s “in season”.

3) People are terrified of the Swine Flu.  I was in the pharmacy when a woman walked up to the counter asking for the season flu shot.  The pharmacist said their store, and most of the others were out.  I interrupted and said I had the shot, and it didn’t do me any good.  The other woman’s eyes got wide as she asked me “You have the flu?”.  I said “yes”.  She said “What kind?”.  I said “You can only guess”.  She bolted from the store, while the pharmacist was happy to continue to talk to me at a few feet length.  The bolting lady wasn’t even within 20 feet of me as I was talking to her.  I understand not wanting to get sick, but that kind of fear is unjustified, and rather ignorant.

4) There’s a lot of debate about immunization, and frankly it surprises me.  Bill Maher (not my favorite person), questioned the entire science behind it.  In fact, he said something that I found quite hypocritical. (Links to video at the bottom) On his show, Chris Mathews, a guest, asks Bill “Why are fighting this fight”.  Bill responded “Just to say we need a debate about it, just to say that the science is not settled … this is not settled science like global warming”.  *Groan*  Global warming science is *not* settled, and when anyone says it is, grab your wallet, because you’re being taken for a ride.  At any rate, there is something to what he said despite his ignorance and being completely wrong in his reasoning.  Immunization for diseases that don’t mutate every year is different than seasonal and commonly mutable diseases.  I got the flu shot this year for the first time ever in order to hopefully prevent my baby from getting the flu, and having to get the shot himself.  Turns out that was at best possibly a useless gesture, and at worst made my H1N1 case worse.

5) Almost everyone I told that I had swine flu was surprised and concerned in a way I know they would not be if it had been regular flu.  It seems that people only listen to the scary details about H1N1 and don’t listen to anything else.  I encourage everyone to head over to the CDC website and read what they have to say. (http://www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm).

This is the video that Bill was responding to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB5DLf1Qt78

This is the video I referenced: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPrLCIoxe8Y