Tests = nothing

Well I finally went back to the doctor to find out what my blood tests showed, and the answer was a resounding... nothing. My blood and all the things running around in it are fine. Which would be great if I didn't still feel sick. So the next step in the evolving process of working out what's wrong with me (other than the many obvious things :) is to get a camera tube shoved down my throat. Maybe this time I'll get an answer...

The next dietary step I've been considering is going vegetarian. I haven't had any red meat for over 18 months anyway, and very rarely eat chicken, so it would only involve cutting out the third of my meals each day which is tuna. I'll wait to see what the gastroenterologist finds first, but if he finds nothing "mechanically" wrong I'm running out of things to remove from my diet. Animal protein is harder to digest, and so the vege option has advantages anyway, but if I'm not adding back in some gluten-based products at the same time I cut out tuna it's pretty restrictive.

Ricky Gervais podcast

Sunday-Tuesday evenings this week, my hour long walk was made infinitely more enjoyable by listening to this hilarious piece of British comedy as I walked. If you enjoy The Office, I think there's a good chance this will speak to you.

Basically, it's Ricky Gervais, Stephen Merchant (co-creator of The Office) and Karl Pilkingon, rabbiting on about nothing in particular. While Monkey News is obviously a segment they've been running into the ground long before this podcast series started, Karl's Diary made me laugh harder than I have in years. If my diary had been 1% as interesting to me, I would not have let it die a natural (if overdue) death last year. Recounting my days events and thoughts purely for my own benefit lost its appeal soon after this blog began.

[Book] The Green Hills of Earth

Originally published in 1955, this collection of short stories from Robert Heinlein is waaay dated. I only got through the first two stories, the second of which ended with the following:

"Pemberton came out of the booth whistling. Good girl, Phyllis. Staunch. He wondered why he had ever doubted her."

which perfectly sums up the antiquated gender balance of the preceding 35 pages. That was enough for me to cut my losses and not read any further (and I don't set aside books lightly).

More walking

I'd gone 6 days without any more evening walks, and was really missing them, so tonight I finally got back to walking. This time I took some photos, the start of a Walking set which will hopefully grow as I vary my path.

I'm 2 days into a self-enforced 6 day break from work, because my fatigue has just been too frustrating, and even short work days have exhausted me. Ironically, given my tiredness, I haven't been able to sleep, which hasn't done my health any favours. So my hope is that a slightly extended break will give me the energy reserves I need to power (rather than limp) through the remaining weeks till my April off. Certainly trying to push through the fatigue by continuing with normal work hours wasn't getting me anywhere. Yesterday morning I went for 7.30am blood tests (I had to fast for them, so wanted to get them done as early as possible, removing the barrier to breakfast). Hopefully the results of the tests will show something which I can work on to improve my health. There has to be more than just my dietary problems going on, 'cause it's been 4 weeks since I had some bread with yeast and if that was all that was wrong I would have been better within a week.

These knees aren't made for walking

Rather than remaining a victim to my latest spell of ill health, I've tried to continue the exercise kick I started last year with a return to weights. While I haven't been able to do any weights for the past few weeks, due to a shoulder/neck problem, I have taken to long evening walks. From last Tuesday night till last night (Sunday) I had 6 consecutive days of walks purely dedicated to exercise (rather than just my usual wander to the Mall for groceries and second-hand CDs). 4 of those walks were for an hour or more, and I even managed a half hour on Friday night when I felt like absolute crap for the entire day.

So what has all the walking gotten me? I had hoped I would magically sleep well, but that hasn't eventuated, even with cooler temperatures returning. I do feel that it's helping me manage stress a bit better, although I still have plenty of work to do in that area. Surprisingly, I quickly started to look forward to an hour of walking, spending the day on Saturday keenly waiting till the sun was almost down (around 8pm) and really enjoying the walk. I even covered 50% more ground in the same time than I had on Wednesday (which was encouraging). I'm hopeful that continuing with the walking, returning to weights and supplementing with a little backyard basketball will continue my weight loss, fitness gain, base health improvement, and that it will translate to better health eventually.

Just some more (literal) steps on the path to action :)

Creativity has a home

I've been planning for a while to create a dedicated blog home for any creative stuff I do, and rather than over-thinking yet another aspect of my life, I've just gone ahead and created Bertie's Media Empire. I'll hopefully keep adding stuff here too (it's not like I'm going to run out of things to complain about, or impressive weights graphs to display) but I like the idea of having a spot whose clear and only purpose is for me to do creative stuff.

If trying to maintain an interest in this blog isn't already waaaay too much for you, check it out!