Half A Pat

Its June 18th and today would have been my Dad's 84th birthday.

At the end of March this year, Dad had what would be called in medical terms as a "respiratory incident". In layman's terms, his breathing had gotten weak and stopped. His care-taker, called an ambulance and paramedics performed CPR and suctioned the mucus out of his airway. They brought him to Hackensack Medical's ICU unit where he was placed on a ventilator.

The next day, Friday. His breathing got better and he was able to breathe without the ventilator. He wasn't fully conscious. But at least he was progressing and breathing on his own. They then moved him out of the ICU and he was placed in his own room.

Let me give a little background here. In 1999, Dad had an aortic aneurysm. Over the last nine years, he had gone from a very independent, active 75 year old, that was getting around on his own to gradually progressing to a cane, then a walker, then a wheelchair, then to being bed-ridden and being taken care of by my sister in her house in New Jersey. Over that period he was getting strokes and falling. With each "medical episode" the overall state of his health would go down a notch. Over the last several months, he would be more reactive than interactive with the surrounding world. The days where he was interacting and conversing were becoming fewer and further between.

That Saturday was surprising. I was the first one to arrive and visit him that day. I had been running late as I was dependent on public transportation to get from my apartment to New Jersey. I arrive at his room and there he is, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and awake. As I enter the room he regards me with scrutiny and says: "Hey Stranger! Long time, no see. What? Did you join the army or something?"

I think those that know me can immediately tell where from that statement, exactly where I get a very very large part of my personality.

It was a very uplifting day. I was able to talk to him as well as my mom when she arrived. He was even on the phone with my aunt and had an extended conversation with her as well. The nursing staff told us that he had been up since seven in the morning and was talkative to the point of flirty to them.

Sunday came and it was as if a switch was turned off. He stopped interacting and talking and only would move to respond to pain or discomfort. He would lie in the hospital bed and be in a state of what looked like half-sleep. He was still breathing on his own, but it was as is he just shut down.

This continued for a week. He still did not come back to a level of activity that he had gotten to on that Saturday. He was then moved to Hackensack's hospice wing, where there is no heroic resuscitation measures, but there's focus on patient comfort.

Dad was in hospice for a month. I would spend the weekend travelling over to New Jersey to bring my mother over there and to visit for myself.

On Saturday April 26th at about 4pm. Dad died quietly in his sleep while my mother and I were saying prayers by his bedside.

Its been almost two months since that day. I miss him. Happy birthday Dad. I hope you're enjoying some Johnny Walker Black and having Lechon at some mah-jong game looking down at us and making everyone around you laugh.


So dear reader, I hope that adds a little bit of clarity on why its been a little dusty around here. Since then, life has been tied up with arrangements and dealing. At first, things were tough for me because Sarita and I scheduled a break in our workout for a couple of weeks that coincided with this point in time. I say that it was tough, because the workouts were the only points during this period that were for me and me alone. There wasn't any worries or issues except for the current problem in front of me during the workout, which was usually a kettlebell, the end of a weightlifting repetition, or a kick/punch combo. Not having something like that to focus my brain on, keeps a person inside their own head. Talking to people helped, but beating up my trainer with kickboxing combinations was a really great outlet.

At this current moment, I am in preparation for our family's trip to the Philippines to bring his ashes back. I'll resume with more posts and plenty of pictures.

I know that I haven't updated this blog in a couple of months. I apologize to you (all three of you reading this). But there is a very good reason. I'll have a big post soon. I promise.


Pat

Its 7:30 on Saturday morning, I'm waiting for the gym to open before I spend the weekend doing stuff that's not for me.

I just saw a great motivational post I wanted to share from the dumblittleman blog:

"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." - Edward Stanley

Pretty fitting....I'm off to get a quick sweat in.

One of the things that have been the toughest to change is my eating. I know that I'm not alone in this regard. In fact the diet industry is a zillion dollar business. I feel that I have changed my dietary habits and what I put into my system.

But its still really tough. I don't cook enough and I eat out too much. I have however cut out (mostly) my drinking (really!) and the post-drinking meals that went along with it.

Sarita wants me to limit my eating out/take out to twice a week. This is going to take some planning. Its particularly hard for me because my worklife is on the go. I need to figure out foods that are light enough to carry around while I carry around a 35 tool bag and gym bag around town.

I need to go to the supermarket.....

It actually has been a little hectic for me as of late. I apologize to all four of you readers out there for not keeping up this blog as often as I should.

One thing that I have learned going through this current round of craziness is that the workouts have become even more important to me. This is the only part of my day that is absolutely and equivalently for me. Its a part of the day that I don't have to think about my family, my job, my finances, my friends, or anything at all.

All that there is, is what is in front of me, be it a kettle bell, a weight bar, a treadmill, a rotating stair or even an imaginary hill on stationary bike. Its about just the next task in front of me and overcoming that next obstacle or rep. Its the only place where I can focus all of my energy and the results are all mine. And little by little things progress.


More on the craziness in future posts. I'll be a little more frequent in posting...I promise.

Friday March 14 was Patrick's birthday. Of course he didnt let me know until today that he turned 36 on the day of our last training session...maybe because he thought I would have planned something especially evil for his birthday? Patrick, thats so rude...I would never do that!

Anyway despite not knowing in advance that it was Pats b-day, today Pat shared with me some of his birthday surprises. As it turns out, Pat has nearly accomplished one of his goals. More specifically, he now fits comfortably into one of his brothers old jackets. Also, after recent weigh-ins we have found out that he is far from the plateau he had reached a few months ago, and is about to break the 260 mark. Thats right, we are getting closer to having that 240 party (start shining your bocce balls)!!!

Lastly, in an effort to further improve his health status, Pat told me today that he is going to try once more to give up smoking. His method for success this time you ask???? The answer (and I quote) is to have "an oral replacement". I had my own ideas of what that replacement might be, and when I stated what I thought it was, there was instantaneous blushing on Pats part.

Viewers: if you care to wager a guess as to what Pat might consider an appropriate oral replacement for smoking, please comment here.

The Wednesday and Friday workouts were.... well... sweaty...real sweaty... I know that the point of going to the gym is to physically exert yourself. And in doing so, the body is going to try to cool itself down through the process of sweating. If you don't sweat, you're probably not working hard enough.

But these workouts were particularly sweaty. Wednesday is our usually break from lifting weights and we start our workout with kick-boxing. On Friday, we started off with an intense circuit. Each circuit was made of me jumping up and down for two minutes as if I'm jumping rope (cause I can't get the motion right for jumping rope yet), a push-up set, 20 kettlebell swings, and 10-12 bent over rows with kettlebells. I was tortured for four circuits.

Hmmm. Looking at it now, I guess that was a lot of work. I also spent the rest of the day as well as the weekend with my chest and butt sore with a little tenderness from my abs.

On a bright note, I noticed the my face seems to be getting leaner. Its either because of the sweating or because I finally trimmed my beard.

As soon I get it, I'll put up a new picture, Trimmed and all!

I was nosing around the information part of the intrawebs yesterday and had found this.

It's and interview with Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals talking about his new book In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

In the interview he talks about the lack of government regulation over the food industry and how the industry itself has taken cheap whole food elements such as corn, soy, oats and has to process it into overcharged food-like items.

Rolled oats only cost 47 cents a pound, but if you mill the fiber out of it, enrich it with vitamins, put preservatives in them so that they have a one year shelf life, you can roll them into tiny little Os and sell it for 5 bucks a box.

Its definitely a good read and a subject that I'm going to investigate more. Pollan goes into how the industry has created government policy towards food and the consequences on the public.

Its not exactly exercise related but it is fitness related. I know that if I had been really strict with my diet, I'd probably be down 125 pounds by now. But I'm happy with what I have done so far and that this is a lifestyle change, not a conversion into monk-dom. There's going to be ups and downs as well as lapses that have to be made up for. After 35 years of looking at food one way, its going to take a while to change totally but at least I'm headed in the right direction.

I'm really not used to shopping in regular places. Click here for more my past thoughts. So when the time came around for me to buy a pair of jeans from a regular clothing store, I really had no idea about where to go.

I'm not a shopper....What can I say? And even though there is a mall in Manhattan, as well as Manhattan island itself turning into a gigantic mall, the thought never occurred in my mind to schlep up to the mall on 34th and Broadway.

The first thing that came to mind was the Levi's store on Broadway and Prince Street. Since the gym is only a block away from this location and two of my clients is next door, I thought,"Hey! I need jeans, there's a jeans store!" I strolled uptown on Broadway on a cold Saturday.

I walked in and was looked every model of jeans. I had no idea that there all these models of Levis jeans. I scanned the wall on the side and saw 501s... 505s... 507s... 514s... 560s.. 720s... 180s... 360s... 3.14159265358979s... All of each model, then separated in cut, classic cut, relaxed cut, boot cut, straight cut, lo-rider cut, Urkle cut, robot cut, tutu cut.....

I looked at the sizes on the wall and saw the 501s. I've never owned a pair of button fly jeans before and had always wanted a pair. It seems like such a small thing, but when you've spend your high school years wearing dress pants or jeans with "hidden elastic expandable waistbands", button-fly jeans are a figment of the imagination (or advertising).

Instead of grabbing a pair one size below the size that I was currently wearing, I got a two pairs two sizes below from the shelf. One pair a boot cut and the other a straight cut and marched into the dressing room....

....And they fit! I was actually able to close each button! I actually had to choose between the two cuts to see which one fit my body better.

It wasn't until about five years ago did clothing manufacturers accepted the fact that big and tall sized people may need different cuts in a size to have the garment look flattering on the body. Before that point we were relegated to just being happy that they made a size that covered our bodies.

I walked out of the dressing room quite happy. And then I looked at the price....

I was happy to be finally free of having to not pay the premium for clothing and here I was, ready to shell out for these jeans at whatever the store wanted. I asked myself, what the hell I was doing? Where was the advantage of being able to shop anywhere I chose?

I walked out of the store a little disgusted at myself. I did want a pair of button-fly jeans, but I figured they could wait a little while longer, there were better things that I could spend the money on, like for instance, chipping in with Ben and Renee on a bike for Renelle's birthday.

As I walked home, I saw that there was an Old Navy just down the block. For the same price, I was able to pickup a pair of jeans as well as five sets of boxers for myself.

Maybe I'm more of shopper than I care to admit.... At least now, I'm not limited.

Something was puzzling me about this weeks workouts. Each one seemed to fly rather quickly. It didn't feel like an hour even though I know that we had worked for an hour. As much as we have "fun" during the hour, Sarita keeps me in line and we don't seem to stand around taking breaks as long as I see other trainers and clients (at least, I think we don't).

I think that I'm working hard. The amount of sweat soaking through my shirt seems to indicate I'm working hard. The soreness in my legs and arms make me feel like I'm working hard. The heaving of my lungs and my heart rate monitor also indicate to me that I'm working hard. Yet, it seems that the time is screaming by too quickly.

At the last workout, another gym member had said to us that he couldn't do the workout that we were doing. I found that difficult to believe and I told him that. And from what I could tell, he looked built and more fit than I did.

Sarita then said something to the effect of "Maybe its because you're in the best shape than you have ever been?"

I thought about that this weekend and came up with a short list of physical things that I could do now that I know I couldn't do before I started training:

Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to start running. Its been something that I have always wanted to incorporate into my regimen but I'm concerned about injuring my knees and ankles. I did feel like pushing myself.

The view wasn't too bad either. (haha)

The next workout _was_ better. I knew that it was good by the fact that I couldn't stop sweating until two hours after. I could feel my entire body radiating heat for those two hours.

It was similar to being hooked up to a morphine drip box. The main difference was that after exercising there wasn't a sleepiness or lethargy. The days I don't sweat through working out or through cardio work, I feel the difference. I don't feel as energetic and definitely don't feel like my body is burning fat.

I guess sweat and getting your heart rate up (no matter how your method) is a good thing .

Recently Patrick has decided to switch up his warm-up by adding a little bit of running to his repetoire. Since his warm-up is something that Patrick does on his own, I am generally not there to watch. However, I wanted to take a look at his gait and speed to see if any alterations needed to be made. So I decided to have him do a little bit of running during our session.

...So we choose a treadmill, Patrick groans about not wanting to run as he gets on the treadmill, and then we start the belt. Patrick graons some more as he imparts to me his displeasure at having to run again. As Patrick approaches an initially slightly uncomfortable running speed, the girl on the treadmill in front of him removes her shirt to reveal a very (very) small sports bra, which leaves not much to the imagination from behind (she is also wearing very tight, somewhat transparent spandex workout pants).

Suddenly, Patrick is in no rush to get off of the treadmill. He claims that he is willing to run longer in order to "challenge himself". Yeah, right! Im sure all of your friends know you a little better than that.

Anyway, if we can get the timing right and get on a treadmill behind this girl during every workout, Patrick might have the potential to become a marathon runner. What better motivation to run than running after the semi-naked girl in front of him???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

I know the day is almost over, but I have to shout out to my big sis' Renelle!

Thanks for your motivation and all your sisterly love.

Thanks for you pride in me.

Happy Birthday!!!

P.

Ouch!

That's what I felt this morning when I woke up. My chest, arms and abs were killing me. I would stretch my legs and felt my joints crack.

Normally Tuesdays are days when I torture myself. Two days during the week I go into the gym and without Sarita cracking the whip behind me, I make sure that I torture myself on the treadmill, rotating stairs, and/or the arc-trainer.

It wasn't happening today. I was in such pain that I thought I coming down with the flu.

Tonight, I thought about it. I hadn't had workout that beat me up like that in a while. And after the pain goes away, I'm much stronger afterward. All the parts that hurt me right now, I've massaged to ease the pain. I've realized that "wow these are actual muscles popping out" and "these are actual lean parts of my body".

I can't wait to get up tomorrow and wreck some more of 'em

I haven't bought jeans since the party in September.

All my jeans before then had been at least a size 50 or above. When I first started training, I was a size 54. The largest size ever that I remember being was a size 60 or 62. When the weight started to come off during the training, I would wait for the jeans for the jeans to become really baggy and almost falling off before going out and buying new pants.

Mainly, I was being cheap. Being a person that has always had to buy from the special section his entire life, I can attest that the prices of clothing are more expensive. All the way from the husky kids section to the Casual Male Big and Tall stores, it seems to be a little more pricey for brands that are unheard of outside the plus size section.

But I digress....

When I bought those jeans for the party in September, it was quite a shock. I found that I could fit in a size 44. It was the smallest size that I could remember fitting into since high school. I remember picking up this new size jean and noticing how much smaller lighter they were in comparison from the pair I had worn going into the changing room. It only makes sense of course, the smaller the amount of body you have to cover with clothes, the less clothes you need!

The real cool thing was that this size was the smallest of the pant sizes usually carried by big and tall stores. My shirt size had gone down to the small 2XL/large XL range at this point.

I was finally free from having to shop at "plus size" specialty stores!

This week I noticed that those jeans I bought in September were baggy. When I had first tried them on, they were skin tight, I felt that they were form fitting. The fact that they were loose was a little perplexing when you consider that I have been at plateau in terms of the weight.

So I'm off to Old Navy. I've never been able to shop there before. I'm actually within the sizes that they have in stock. It will be nice to not have to pay sixty bucks for a generic pair of jeans.

First off, I'd like to thank everyone that has taken the time to make comments to these posts. Its been years since I have seen some of you. The words of encouragement are fantastic.

Those words of encouragement really came in handy at the end of this week. Because of job I was working that took place in Westchester, I had to change the regularly scheduled beatings, err, I mean sessions with Sarita, to 7 in the morning, for both our Wednesday and Friday sessions.

For me it meant getting up at 5:30 to prep for the rest of day and to arrive early enough at the gym to do my pre-beating warm-up .

I know that I'm spoiled. Spoiled rotten. There are a lot of people that have to get up at that hour on a daily basis, namely Ben and Renelle. I'm in awe of those two, especially since they manage to get up and be functional at a time before the sun rises and have doing so been for years. Like most Manhattan residents, if I'm not working out, I can get up a half an hour before work, take a quick shower and arrive on time (provided that I don't get shafted by the subway) .

At that time of the morning, the vibe at the gym is very very different. There are less people and it seems less intense and scene-y. It was actually easy to get a treadmill. Looking out of the gym windows over Broadway I saw that the streets and sidewalks was practically empty. It seems more active in that area at 4 in the morning than it does at 7.

Those comments really helped me lug my butt out of my dark bedroom at that hour. They also made me feel better about getting my butt back into bed at 11 that evening so I could get proper rest instead of staying out. Thanks again to all!

Its the maid's day off and the blog's not quite where I want it to be.
The blog layout is going to be continually shifting until I find a layout that I like. But we're going to invite guests to take a look.

Feel free to look and read. Please, please, please post your comments. You know that I'd have something to say....

So forgive the mess and mind the furniture on the floor.

P.

Pat and I had a great session today. A little something new in the way of kickboxing, and a little improvement in the kettlebell department. Today i've discovered that Pat actually functions better when given more difficult work. This is information that I intend to use widely!

More importantly, Pat weight in yesterday at 265 1/2. Thats aboout 6 lbs lower than the plateau he had been recently stuck at. Keep up the good work. Next stop is 240...then you'll be allowed your gin and tonic in a pint glass (that is, for one night only, of course)!

This was me in 1997. I'm at a barbecue in Astoria for Stacey's graduation. Directly to the left of me is Mike (who still is Mike but now Stacey's husband) who has put up with me since college. I was well thrown out of college at the time of this photo and in the midst of placing 12 to 16 hour at days altar of video production.

Around this time I was known at the bar across the street from the office as "Dr. Bombay". Katie the bartender used to pour me a gin & tonic in a pint glass.....Actually, it was more like a gin and ice in a pint glass while she whispered the word "tonic" over the glass.

This was me in 2002. I'm with my family at a Filipino restaurant in Queens. For those of you who don't know, the cuisine seems to be real, real, real pork-centric. As I tell people,
the national bird of the Philippines is the pig.

I was full into my corporate job at the Times. I was definitely living high on the hog as they say. This was my whiskey phase. I had an impromptu 5pm bar in my office and would lead the office to watering holes using(or rather abusing) our division-wide email distribution list. At this point I was working a more sane 8 to 12 hours a day.

This was me in 2005. I'm out shopping with my cousins and their friends. My cousin Gil is taking the picture and directly to my left is my cousin Cecile. This shopping trip took place in the outer districts of Ho Chi Minh City (or SaiGon if you prefer)

I came back from this trip in great mental and physical condition. Three months of walking around in the south-east asian heat and humidity can do wonders for you. The food...sweet Jeebus the food...all fresh,un-processed, hormone free and dirt cheap. A fresh kilo of prawns by some of the most beautiful white sand beaches could be had for only three bucks American. Also during this time Sheridan's pub in Saigon was my second residence in Saigon(the first being my cousins' house). The Sheridan's staff gave me a bar-nickname so they could keep track of my tab.

This was me in December 2006. Ah...the full joy of Karaoke and all the liquid courage necessary to grab the mic and butcher, err I mean sing, your favorite melodies. Directly to my left is Angelo. His girlfriend can actually sing. Me, on the other hand.....

I had already been a gym member for a year at this point. I had already let my attendance lapse for several months and realized that I wasn't in the then great shape that I was when I had come home in 2005. I actually had the thought that the clothes dryer in the apartment was shrinking my clothes. At the end of November, I had decided to go back to the gym to get weight off that I had gained since the beginning of the year.

It was during this point, Sarita had approached me about signing up for personal training with her instead of the straight up cardio exercises that I was doing by myself.