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I managed to get in one more day of skiing today.
I took the afternoon off and along with my co-worker Don, we went up to Mt Spokane and skied.
It looked like a beautiful day when I checked the webcams but the clouds had moved in by the time we got up there at 1:00PM.
Nonetheless, a bad day on the slopes is better than a good day at work.
We skied nine runs and pretty much covered the whole hill.
The back side was the best snow but the B-29 on the waaaay front side was very enjoyable as well.
Here is a picture that Don took. His camera has this cool panoramic feature that stitches several photos into one.
When they told us last run, Don and I hiked up to the Vista House at the very top of the mountain and drank a couple of beers he had brought along. I have not had a beer in several weeks and I was a little reluctant to have one. But I decided that two beers are not going to bring on the gout, and if they do, I really need to know that.
They tasted really great...especially that first sip.
After the beers and the view, we made our last run on the B-29. I do not know why, but it is my favorite run on Mt. Spokane. It represents some distant, childhood fond memory that I cannot explain. I have always enjoyed the B-29. Perhaps it is a subconscious love of old war planes.
Now that I am home, it is time to hit the hot tub and try to soothe the aching muscles.
Made it in to Planet Fitness tonight. My workout was not as good as Monday night. However, I worked out and that is a win.
I'm still weighing in at 219 so there is not a lot of weight loss going on. However, stamina is improving and I'll take that over weight loss at this point.
Today was the first workout I have had where I felt like I actually worked out. I'm starting to see some progress in my performance. I was on the Elliptical machine for 30 minutes and I maintained a four mile per hour pace.
Last week, that was a goal that felt way off.
I think my weight is about the same as last week. I got as low as 216 but popped back up to 218 this morning.
I'm still working out this eating thing, staying away from grains and sugar. I've had some slips. Ice cream is really good.
Still, I need to make this happen for my own self interests...being healthier. Not having to cancel ski trips because of gout.
On the gout front, it's knocked out and I'm just finishing up a steroid pack that Dr. O'Connor prescribed for me. It knocked the gout out good. However, I'm feeling a weakness in my knee that wasn't there before and I'm hoping the gout hasn't caused actual damage.
I can't workout tomorrow due to a meeting at church but I'll be back on Wednesday.
I am fed up with gout. It is taking away too much from my life. I feel miserable when I've got it and I am going to use this misery to make sure I never get it again.
To that end, I am starting today on a quest to lose 18 pounds. That will put me at an even 200 and I think I can maintain that weight. Gout effects people who are overweight and eat rich foods. So getting the weight off will be helpful to keeping gout away, and probably will benefit me in numerous other ways.
I have given up beer but look forward to enjoying an one occasionally once I make my goal. During the quest, I am off alcohol altogether.
The diet I'm going to follow is by a guy named Vinnie Tortorich. He appears on Adam Carolla's podcast all the time and a couple of people on the podcast have followed it and are very happy with the results. I know I'll be avoiding carbs and eating lots of protein. Beyond that, I don't know much more.
I'll be filling in the details as I learn them.
We have returned from our annual ski trip to the Silver Valley. We drive over to Wallace, Idaho which is just a couple of hours and ski at Lookout Pass.
We spend the night at the Hercules Inn and generally have a wonderful time.
My unfortunate beer drinking on Friday night kept us from enjoying any skiing. There was no way I was going to be able to get on to a chair lift, let alone ski.
We still drove over to Wallace and actually went on up to Lookout. I had purchased our lift tickets in advance and I wanted to be sure we could change the date. We were successful in that regard. The sad thing was that it would have been an excellent ski day. The snow was great and it was clear although cloudy.
I still have a great deal of stiffness in my knee but it is getting better. I have been taking my drugs and drinking a lot of water so I'm hoping I can get back to normal soon.
However, as noted in the last post, beer is going to be something that is verboten in my diet. That really sucks because I just made a new batch of beer a couple of weeks ago and it is ready to be kegged. I will probably have to bottle it up and give it out to anyone who likes free home made beer.
I think it is time to face up to a very difficult reality. I have to stop drinking beer. My old friend is killing me.
I shared a pitcher with Mark last evening and I had a couple beers the day before. Today, the gout is back with a vengeance. My right knee is inflamed and I can even feel a twinge of soreness in my right big toe.
This does not bode well for our plans to go skiing tomorrow. I discovered from our last venture to the mountains that the worst part of skiing with a gout knee is getting on the chairlift. You have the heavy boot and ski that naturally want to follow gravity and cause a severe bend of the knee. A bend that the knee suffering from gout is not very happy about. And then that causes me to not be very happy.
I'm back on Cholchicine and I will be drinking a vast amount of water today.
I enjoyed a rare event this morning.
I was able to sail off the freeway and onto my exit at Liberty Lake at seventy miles per hour. This is a notable experience because it is often inundated by the inattentive dullards that orbit my commuting universe who start to slow down to 50 mph half a mile before they hit the exit.
This is especially infuriating (as I have chronicled here before) because the run up to the exit is a half mile straight shot and the exit itself is a half mile long straightaway as well.
And yet, I am often slowing down to 50 a quarter mile before leaving the 70 mph freeway.
So it's a pleasure when the exception occurs.
Prior to going out for my birthday dinner and watching Gonzaga in the WCC Championship game against St Mary's, I worked out.
I finally made it 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Now that I have reached that goal, the next one is to maintain a 4 mph pace.
I know that doesn't seem like much, but it's a lot for me in my current condition. You know...old.
Here is what I hate about Facepage!
Everyone with whom you have befriended or even have had a casual passing with, clicks on the icon to wish you a "Happy Birthday".
Because I was raised correctly, I feel compelled to respond. To EVERYONE. And apparently, I'm really popular!
However, I do not spend enough time on Facepage to know how to navigate around it or create a blanket message to send out to everyone.
So I will be spending the next several hours here at work writing personal notes of thanks to everyone who clicked.
I think I have alluded to this in a previous post but today I really mean it. I finally realized this morning that the gout in my right knee has finally abated.
It's taken forever. More than a month, I think. There is just the ever so slightest twinge of pain when I move my knee. It's almost as though it's a phantom pain that makes me cringe out of habit more than any actual pain it causes me.
I have taken myself off the Cholchrys that I have been taking and switched to Allopurinol. That is the medication that helps to keep gout from developing whereas Cholchrys pounds it into submission when you have an outbreak of gout.
I managed to avoid Planet Fitness all last week. I cannot do that this week. I plan to be there tomorrow and Tuesday, and then hopefully again on Thursday.
I don't know how much good it is doing but I know it is not doing me any harm to be exercising.
