I haven't said much lately on the personal front as far as diet and exercise. For one I've been busy writing, working on articles for The Examiner and rewriting my Protein Edge Cookbook and this poor little blog got the short end of the stick. I had that head cold last week but seem to have licked it. The other reason I've been fairly quiet is after I shook the colitis flare I had in July I managed to develop a nasty case of back arthritis.
I've had this condition before and usually manage to workout anyway. This time it's more severe and the workouts are trickier. I'm mainly shooting for maintenance and avoiding aggravating my frigging sacroiliitis.
What's weird is in the midst of this one of my health newsletters had a featured article on how sacroiliitis is associated with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease! Apparently sacroiliitis, migratory polyarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis are extraintestinal manifestations of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
Here I thought it was old age.
So my pain levels are up and down, I'm having an affair with Icy Hot, Capzaisin, and Flex All. And we're into threesomes with ice packs and the Light Relief infrared machine.
Movement actually seems to help. Unfortunately my jobs require a lot of sitting at the computer. I splice a lot of chores into the schedule and that helps. But getting up is an exercise in agony. I'm walking on the treadmill an hour a day. And I'm doing briefer, isolated resistance training including isometrics and upper body work on my weight machine to minimize the stress on my lower back.
But I'm just itching to try out my new Tony Horton One On One Workouts.
I haven't tracked calories, carbs, or anything for several months, but I do stick to portion sizes and stress protein. I rarely eat more than a cup of food total at any meal. Sometime I'll photograph some examples.
My scale weight is holding steady at 118 pounds (ever since my last mass building stage peaked me out from 112 to 118 in the Spring), my body fat percentage is hovering between 19 and 21. And Bruno's kids jeans still fit me after I washed them. They're actually quite comfortable and a bit loose. Oh, how sweet the little victories.
My latest article at The Examiner takes on the "Sweet Surprise" high fructose corn syrup campaign. Check it out.
