I've Got Carabiners Under My Computer

Really, who ever heard that line before? Anyone? I had a few carabiners in my tack room and brought them into the house intending to attach them to our climbing wall. It's not like Fury would miss them. They're sitting on my desk and somehow ended up under one of the laptops. Hence "I've got carabiners under my computer."

I'm a little goofy today. My colitis pain has receded a little more (it comes and goes) and it's almost the full moon. I get loopy on a full moon. After a 2 1/2 day fast of protein shakes and fresh vegetable juice (I hit over 1200 calories both days) I'm on a refeed of approved foods only and had 4 ounces of hamburger and 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes for breakfast.

I don't care about a clean diet right now. Low carb has been shown the door and sent to Dolphin Bay for a spa week. (Did you all catch the episode of Workout set there?) I'm focusing on a high protein diet that will heal my colon. For now, it's low fiber, "soft" foods including most meat, white potatoes, other soft carbs, fats, cheese (the lactose is removed during the process of making cheese), and soy protein shakes (whey and casein are out for now).

Foods to avoid to get over a flare and to prevent flares include anything with fructose, (many people with colitis and other digestive disorders have fructose intolerance), no fruit, lactose, high fructose corn syrup, corn, nuts, seeds, beans, nothing high fiber including vegetables (some people cannot tolerate wheat). Normally I can tolerate fiber, and the occasional serving of nuts and beans, but after a flare I have to toe the line awhile.

I love my climbing wall and I've been given an assignment to take a Sharpie and mark where I want holds. Jerry will install them wherever I want. Yippee! We had too much fun this weekend. Check out my video below of Bruno climbing the wall and sliding down into his pool. That slide is nearly vertical and notice that he's climbing the wall barefoot. Kid is a daredevil.

To see footage of mom and dad climbing check out the video in my last post. For photos of construction of the wall see previous posts.

You're Driving Me Up The Wall!

Video of The Bardelli Family Backyard Climbing Wall - Day One

All three of us took turns climbing. We're not done with the wall yet, Jerry's going to add more holds later.

Climbing Wall Construction-Screwing Around On A Saturday Morning

I thought of about a dozen suggestive titles for this post...

How about "Jerry really knows how to screw."

The Newest Bitch Sister & The WALL

Jerry scored me a free Weider 8530 Four Station Weight Machine with attachments earlier this week on Craig's List. Today was the first opportunity I got to take photos of our newest Bitch Sister. She's in almost new condition. I haven't had a chance to do a real workout on her but we tried her out. The other two weight machines - known as The Bitch Sisters - are here to stay but now all three of us can workout at the same time.























































I'm still fasting, on day two, because the colitis pain is still up there. But it's better. Seems like it takes me longer to get over a flare as I get older. I've got to be more diligent about what goes in my mouth (no nuts, seeds, beans, corn products, and particularly no high fructose corn syrup). The real problem is when it gets this bad nearly any food going through is an irritant including fruits and vegetables because of the fiber content. Hence the fasting.

An odd side effect of my six day lay off from weightlifting is a reoccurrance of tendonitis in my shoulders. (I've had intermittent tendonitis in various joints since 1980). One of the corrective therapies for tendonitis is working out, and for these shoulder tendons (for me, I'm not recommending anything to anyone) is pull ups. Pulls ups stretch out the tendons and they realign. Cerebral Palsy tends to tighten things like muscles, tendons, etc.

I found this out totally by accident. I had horrid tendonitis in my left shoulder for about a month when I received my Power 90X DVDs last May. After a few weeks of waiting for an improvement (my usual routine of infrared Light Therapy, heat, ice, Capzaisin rub, and Shiatsu massage were not cutting it. We're talking a bad ass case of tendonitis). I said "F It! It can't get worse." And I started P 90X. The first day is 'Chest & Back' with 8 sets of maximum repetitions of pull ups (for me it was 12-20 reps a set then). I did the pull ups on my Total Gym on an incline. Almost immediately the pain receded and the next day I was pain free!

Now if I can just talk my colon into doing pull ups...

Construction of The Wall.



























































More photos are coming of our newly built climbing wall...I need to resize them. Jerry's still installing climb holds including real ones like these. (Thanks Don!) And he's experimenting with wood, real rocks, and there's a climbing rope. I got halfway up but the holds don't stick out much because Jerry carpeted the wall so we wouldn't get splinters. Good thing as I ended up hanging by my hands with my feet dangling in the air at least two feet off the ground and my body slapped against the wall. There was no mattress beneath me so I hung there - maybe 5 seconds - until Jerry lifted me down. More on the wall in my next post.

Slowing Down & Fasting

I'm stepping off the merry-go-round this weekend - photo taken 05-11-08 at Mills Park, Carson City, Nevada.














I'm doing a liquid fast today. Protein shakes, fresh homemade juice from my juicer (store bought juices are mostly sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and water), and water with lime. This fast has absolutely no connection to weight loss. (Although weight loss can be achieved through long term fasting you will lose valuable muscle as well thus lowering your metabolism). And I'm only fasting for about 24 hours and being careful to meet my protein and fat requirements.

My goal is to rest my colon - see last post on my recent colitis flare - because it's still driving me up a wall and unfortunately not a climbing wall. This fasting ordeal - really it's not that bad particularly when it lessens pain - has helped before. Most of the nutrition I take in liquids don't reach the affected area of my digestive tract. So it's like sending my colon on vacation to the sunny carribbean for a siesta.

In other news, we scored two heavy duty vinyl 70 X 20 foot flatbed semi-truck tarps in good condition for $75 a piece on Craig's List. Jerry will go to Sparks, NV after work to pick them up. They run around $400 apiece new and will be just the ticket to cover our two 10 x 20 foot garage frames we scored a few weeks ago. One tarp will cover the frames once they're put end to end to make one 10 x 40 foot storage unit. One tarp is supposed to also cover my back yard exercise 'room' as well.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend. I plan on getting some rest on this one. (Crossing my fingers). We plan on staying home, Jerry is planning on working on our outdoor climbing wall, and Bruno will probably help him. I probably will post as I'm going to be home. We have a lot going on so there's plenty of stuff to cover.

Links:

The dangers of fasting and liquid diets

Healing Chronic Digestive Problems

Indoor Garage Climbing Wall

Hebrew National Reduced Fat Hot Dogs Review, Climbing Wall Coming To My Backyard, Contest Over & This & That

Hey folks, I'm not a food stylist...














I bought two packages of these Hebrew National Reduced Fat Beef Franks because unlike most hot dogs they're relatively high protein. Hot dogs are usually mostly fat, and like it or not, fat does not build muscle. Also I prefer to get my fat from sources like Omega 3 margarine, olive oil, flax oil, and fish oil. It's easy to get enough saturated fat but with Omega 3s it's harder to reach your quota.

These Hebrew National Beef Franks are Kosher (if you're not Jewish this is still a great choice for quality) and unlike most dogs made of premium beef cuts not formed meat. They're delicious and only 45 calories a hot dog with 7 grams of protein, 0 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fat. If you're watching carbohydrates, or going the low fat route, these are just the ticket. I've eaten them on 100% whole wheat buns (not in the photo as I ran out and used Jerry's white buns), or you can pair them with sour kraut for a low carb meal. You'll feel like you're cheating!

Personal This & That

My calves are sore as hell. Too many rides on the Merry-Go-Round a mere few days after a leg blaster resistance workout will do that. Those frigging steel stirrups on those merry-go-round horses are killer. There's no padding like a real English saddle stirrups and I wore thin soled sneakers not riding boots. Besides I usually ride Fury with a bareback pad and don't use stirrups.

Jerry says the carnival counts as a workout, it wore us all out. Bruno fell asleep early Sunday night, not like him at all. If you haven't checked it out there's a short video in my last post of Bruno bungee jumping. He wants us to build a bungee jump in the back yard now. We're currently constructing a climbing wall - the homemade ones are called Woodies - like this one below. Ours will be homemade and expandable. When it's done, or at least phase one is, I'll take photos and video.











My first experience rock climbing was in high school. I took a class similar to Outward Bound and we had a nutty teacher named Mr. Armstrong who's sole goal in life was turning young people on to adventure. After that first experience I didn't get a
chance to climb again until I moved to Nevada and around 1996 I climbed part way up the Pyramid at Pyramid lake. At the time, you could walk up to it. A drought had lowered the lake's water level. (I'll look for the photo Jerry took and scan it in). But that's my total experience at rock climbing. I've wanted to try again since rock walls became popular but never got around to it. Soon I'll have one of my own!

The Pyramid at Pyramid Lake, Nevada


Contest Update

My latest DVD & Video contest give-a-way is over - nobody won. The answer was The Proform BioVibe.

Lately I can't give stuff away. Nobody seemed interested in the contest although I average 250 readers a day. You'd think with the economy downturn people would love give-a-ways and freebies. Maybe the contest was too hard? Oh well, I can sell the duplicate items and buy other stuff. I love shopping! Or maybe I'll have a no strings attached give-a-way? Anybody got an opinion?

More Woodies Than You Can Shake a Stick At! Thanks Don!

More Woodies on Video

Home Gym Climbing Wall



Crazy Closet Climbing Wall



Garage Bouldering Wall







Warning - Foul Language