Losing Twelve Pounds the Hard Way

Over the past few weeks I found out my diagnostic skills, at least on myself, need a little work. An overlooked appendix almost killed me and made me more grateful than ever for becoming fit later in life. 

A few weeks ago, after a full day of work, gym and even a date (during which I felt zero pain—hormones are amazing), I decided to admit myself to an emergency room in Midtown Manhattan for what I thought was “food poisoning.” Since about 3 PM I had been having bouts of extreme pain around my abdomen, something that had happened a few times across the past six months. At 10:30 I had had enough and made myself get dressed and head to a local ER. Almost from the start, the intern thought it was my appendix. I told him “no, no, I have ruled out appendicitis.” A few CAT scans and a lot of moaning later, I got the word—I was not going home—I had to have an appendectomy STAT. About 18 hours later I was consulting with a surgeon and a few hours after that awoke to find myself one bloated appendix lighter. 

Very few of my clients ever follow my orders for care, and as a result I am an ideal patient. Despite my rigid adherence to all of my recovery rules,  the past few weeks afterwords have been up and down. I will have a good day or two, hop back into work and then hit a wall. My recovery is slower than I would like but it sure beats the alternative. So my workouts, with the exception of a few runs and a modified weight routine, are not taking place. So much for a six pack by my birthday. 

Happily, my weight has stabilized and actually declined over the past month. I weighed myself the morning of January 8th and was 220 pounds. I had a heavy weight day and running the day before and weight lifting typically increases my body weight the day after a hard workout. That night I was admitted to the ER and missed my 5 am weigh-ins until the 12th, four days later. I had been weighing myself daily for so long I did not know what to expect when I hit the scales that Friday. My weight was up—223.6. 

An M.D. friend of mine had told me that I would see a rapid decline in weight as my recovery continued and he was right. For most of the next week I lost at least a pound and sometimes two pounds a day. Not working out, consuming 1900 calories and 200+ grams of protein daily but the weight dropped and dropped even more. I had a few workout days and those are the days you see weight increases. But on the whole the past thirty days has been amazing, with my weight on February 3rd (212.6) being the lightest weight I have ever been.  

If you look at the chart, you can see I was actually the 

lightest I have ever been as an adult on February 3rd

Thursday morning before I left the hospital, one of the residents was looking at my incisions and was amazed at how well I was doing. He praised me, say that the only reason my recovery was so rapid was that I came to the hospital in “tip-top shape.” Those words have been echoing in my head ever sense—tip-top shape. It’s hard for a former fatty to digest the idea (pun intended) that I am no longer who I have been my entire life. Despite the amazing daily weigh-ins and the slim-fitted suits and the “likes” and “winks” I get on dating apps, a part of me still sees a fat guy where one used to be. That resident’s comment, said in passing as he continued his rounds, gave me one more reason to stay the course. 

Being in control of my eating puts me in control of my life. 

David Ezell is a life coach and therapist, with clients in Connecticut, New York and around the world via the Internet. If you want to make a change for the best, make an appointment for a consultation by writing him at Info@DavidEzell.com or calling 347.302.2585. 

Where Have I Been? Sick… :(

Food poisoning has kept me out of sorts for the past week so blogging has been on hold.

I got a few really nice notes asking where I have been. And the answer is right here, flat on my back sick. I will be writing a post about what I learned from severe food poisoning, but right now I’m going to join friends for Thanksgiving in lower Manhattan.

So have a great day off, as will I, and I’ll catch up with you guys tomorrow.

Should We Stop Checking for Prostate Cancer?

I just read in the New York Times that the US Preventive Services Task Force is suggesting the general population no longer have prostate cancer screenings. They say the detection of potential cancer has led to an enormous amount of unneeded treatment and life-long side effects.

I work with people living with cancer and host a support group for men living with prostate cancer. I am curious to hear from men who feel they may have been treated unnecessarily as I am familiar with the potential for detrimental long-term side effects. I can only imagine how I would feel if I had had the surgery and then read this report. 

Science grows via analysis and "facts" change over time. I suppose the next step is enhancing the ability to differentiate between growths that are deadly and those that can be left alone for decades. I wish this had been recognized years ago.

Getting Mental Health Care With No Money

I just read this wonderful article on treating mild to moderate mental issues with little or no money. Since so few Americans have little or no mental health coverage, I think this topic will become increasingly important, public option or not:

Click here for the article from The New York Times.

Happy Saturday!

Vicarious Trauma at Fort Hood?

(talk of trauma) + (talk of trauma) + (talk of trauma) = vicarious trauma

In the media's scramble to understand the "whys" behind the Fort Hood tragedy, a great deal of discussion is being paid to the fact that the apparent shooter was a Muslim. While I am unsure of how, if in any way, his faith played a role in what happened, my thoughts go in a different direction. I wonder about the vicarious trauma that he must have faced counseling at the largest military installation in the U. S.

While more people are aware of how trauma effects humans than ever before, most don't understand the communicable consequences of this kind of trauma. Vicarious trauma is, per the Headington Institute, "the negative changes that happen to humanitarian workers over time as they witness other people’s suffering and need." While there are a variety of benefits to providing therapy this can be one of the darker aspects of the work of helping others.

Sitting and listening to patients day in and day out, especially in the pressure cooker environment of a major military base, full of veterans from two wars, has to be overwhelming. Combine that with how under staffed and under budgeted the military is with regard to mental health services and the fact that most men are loathe to talk about their feelings due to the stigma--wow! I am feeling overwhelmed thinking about the challenges men and women in military mental health must face.

Just two weeks ago Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said that many military personnel fear a stigma if they seek help for psychological injuries. He openly criticized a government and military bureaucracy that is “frustrating, adversarial and unnecessarily complex." When the top man is that candid about the problem, it must be quite profound.

There are a variety of ways that vicarious trauma can be avoided and I want to know if any of those systems were in place, and how efficiently they were implemented, at Fort Hood. According to an excellent article from The Journal of Counseling & Development (email me for a pdf if you are interested) by Trippany, White and Wilcoxon, there are a variety of way that trauma of this sort can be kept at a minimum. Among the recommendations are keeping caseloads at a manageable level and providing therapy for therapists via peer supervision.

As this conversation continues, it will be interesting to see how those systems worked, and to what degree they did not, at Fort Hood.

Headington Institute

Gates comments on stigma

New Link Between Depression and Heart Disease?

 (mind) + (body) = mody

Apparently so...while this is a preliminary study, the research design and the results are impressive. More proof, as if we need any, that the mody is the new way to see ourselves.

Read about the research here.

Health Care is Not a Luxury

(healthy body) + (healthy mind) = healthy nation

I just heard a podcast which I think, at the end of the day, is as eloquent a statement about the problems we have with health care in this country as any I have heard.

It is from a woman fresh out of college who has no health care and cannot afford any. If anything happens to her, large or small, she either cannot access care or has to do so through an emergency room at a much higher cost for the hospital, her, and all of us.

The very concept that everyone does not have health care in a nation of our stature is a joke. I have little patience for politics and find the arguments exhausting. But the object of this blog is to discuss the side effects of living. And I think the side effects of not being able to access a GP, or a dentist, or a therapist (which by the way, is not being offered under any proposal), when you need one, are monumental.

Can we put politics and special interests aside and take care of our own? Doing so would, in effect, benefit each and every one of us with a more productive, and healthier, population. That is truly money well spent.

Listen to Molly Adams' podcast here.

Healthy Street Food in New York City

I talk to my clients about defensive eating with great regularity, as there are hidden traps in almost every meal you have.

Today let's consider one of my favs--street food. New York city is littered with food carts selling meals that average about five bucks, and a lot of calories, many twice what one meal should be for an average diet.

So how to make one of the cart meals congruent with fitness goals?

• NO FRIED FOOD--that means falafel, aka Arabic hush puppies, are a no-no. Street vendors love to stuff dishes with fried tidbits. Tell them no....and watch closely as many will try to sneak them in "for flavor."
• SAUCE--there is an overwhelming desire amongst street merchants to slide in sauces of all sorts. Whenever I ask what "that" is, they say "sauce." My advice--light on the sauce or no sauce at all.
• BROWN RICE--always ask about rice options in advance and never do white rice, which is the grain world's version of shredded lettuce. Golden rice may also be available and a good option.
• VEGGIES--some guys will have all sorts of toppings for your dish--tell them yes to everything, with a few exceptions. If you are being mindful of the calorie count, say no to cheese (I do) and black olives (I do most of the time).
  
• WHITE SAUCE--I know I just talked sauce. But this one, the most egregious of the street sauces, deserves its own bullet point. NO WHITE SAUCE. It is dairy based and packed, packed with calories.

So what do you eat Dave? I get chicken and rice with salad. I only get TWO scoops of rice, as a scoop is about one cup of rice, which equals 218 calories (or thereabouts). So an extra scoop can take your dish into the high calorie zone quickly. No sauce except for "hot sauce," which usually is vinegar or tomato based. I always say no to the previously mentioned white sauce and also barbecue, which can have lots of hidden calories as well. Total calories? About 665, but that is a rough estimate as one cart's calories can vary vastly from another.

What do you do if they won't listen to me or can't understand my questions, instructions or pleas for help? As Dionne Warwick sang so long ago, "Walk on By," there is another one a block away...and you'll get a little extra exercise in to boot.

Bon apetit mes amis.

What Do You Get From Exercising JUST ONE TIME?

I have felt this oh so many times before, nice to see it proven...the very act of exercising can make you feel better about your body.

Lowering Your Anxiety Without Medication

 
(mind) + (body) = mody


We are all a product of our ancestors and since that is true, we inherited a variety of wonderful, and some less than wonderful traits that do not play so well in the 21^st century.  On of those is our response to stress. In ancient times, and in some cases today, our instinctual desire to fight or run away comes in handy (ever cross paths with a grizzly bear?). But most times these responses won’t work at the office or in an airplane on the tarmac. So understanding how you can naturally change the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream is an important tool in managing your anxiety. 

We breathe, on average, twelve to fourteen times per minute; a slight change in respiration, say two additional breaths per minute, can drastically change the oxygen content of your blood. And that increased oxygen send signals to your body that something is wrong. As a result a variety of symptoms may occur—faster heart beat, a feeling of being cool or hot, tingling feelings, Goosebumps or a feeling of dread.

To counteract these symptoms, we have to take control of something we normally do not—the rhythm of our breath. One method is placing a paper sack over one’s mouth. In doing so, we breathe in our own carbon dioxide and lessen the oxygen we take in.

However, the bag may not be handy or may be a tad obvious during a job interview or having dinner at the in-laws. And that is where square breathing comes in handy.

It is called square breathing because it is four sided and each side is the length of the other three.

1.   Breathe in to a count of four;

2.   Hold that breath for a four count;

3.   Exhale for the same count;

4.   Then hold off from breathing for one more count of four.

Do this over and over. It may be difficult at first but in a few moments you will begin to feel the benefit. The oxygen will level off and the symptoms, as well as the feelings will subside as a result. Over time, as you get more proficient, extend the count to six or seven, just as long as it feels comfortable for you.

Who would have thought being square would be so cool?

My Exercise Class is (Temporarily) Full

I dread this time of year at my gym or any gym for that matter. Why? They are packed. Packed full of the usual gym bunnies and gym rats and other animals, but also one other species that tend to appear on a less frequent schedule than most mammals.

These are the creatures that come with very high-minded notions, good intent and shortsighted goals—the short-term jock (jockus temporous). They huff and puff, don't stretch properly, exercise with bad form and hop on the scales over and over. And once they discover they did not lose 27 pounds in three days, they hibernate until their birthday, or until they lose a girlfriend or catch a nude glance in a full-length mirror. These mysterious creatures are very common and not very well understood.

All kidding aside, this situation is a sad one, as these are folks who can’t succeed in the gym. They have good intentions but no clue on how to incorporate fitness into their lives. As a result they suffer not only from a variety of physical health issues, but also the emotional effects of a sedentary life. I work with some clients on issues relating to their bodies and exercise. And there are a few common threads that seem to always appear.

First, they have very high expectations. They expect to undo years of damage—muscle loss or high body fat—in a few days. And these high expectations put them at risk for failure.

Another common problem is they over indulge, just as they did with eating and the other bad habits that motivate them to join the gym in the first place. And just like the problem of expectations, these indulgences create a dynamic that insures they won’t be able to enjoy the long-term fruits of a healthy lifestyle.

As I mentioned above, this is one area of expertise I have as a life coach, helping people either reconnect with their body or discover it for the first time. So if you'd like to find out more about how I can help you unlock your "inner jock," just drop me a line.

Now I am gonna go wait in line for a Stairmaster...at least for another week or so... :)