If you don't mind falling asleep, I'm more or less video blogging its progress from zero to working computer. https://peertube.mastodon.host/video-channels/7def09dc-da27-4fb4-afa6-3af7f0bc835c/videos is the video channel I'm maintaining for this purpose. I have a 3rd episode recorded and is waiting to be uploaded; I just ran out of time today. I'll try getting it uploaded later tonight after work.

I beat diabetes.

Last Nov, in time for Thanksgiving, I learned I had diabetes. I put myself on a diet to reverse it.

Last week, the results of the blood work performed that week came in, and I kicked its ass. I'm so not diabetic now.

I went from 230 lbs in Nov to 160 lbs now, and I do feel considerably better.

That's a HUGE achievement. Congratulations.

I lost nearly 100 lbs. It's NOT easy.

Thanks, all.

It's a test of one's willpower, to be sure. At the office, Friday is bagel and donut day, and I had to smell that every time I walked into the breakroom, testing my will to resist it, heh.

Funny thing is, I could safely eat those now, but I intend to continue avoiding them. I think the tricky bit, at this point, is figuring out how much I can properly eat without losing or gaining weight.

Congratulations! That is definitely not a small achievement.

My small achievement, on the other hand, is that I signed up for a gym where the personnel there actually take the time to train you. Like everyone's heard of using rollers to roll out muscle tissue and working out kinks and stuff. How many people actually spend an *hour* doing that, in pain, with tears welling up because it hurts so much? It's cliche; it reminded me of those kung fu movies where they hyper-stretch new students, but at the end of it all, it was worth it and required. My legs are sore from just the rolling, but hot damn if the coach wasn't right -- they are far more limber than they were before, and overall I feel substantially better.

(He says, at this gym, average new-comers spend about a month just learning how to properly roll and for the pain to subside as the body gets used to the process. *NO* 24-hour fitness ever told me any of these things.)

Huh... that sounds interesting, kc5tja.

I don't know if we have a gym in the area quite like that. But then, knowing the people in this area, it'd only get abused somehow. The folks here aren't the nicest individuals you could have as neighbors. When I retire, I definitely will move from this place.

"Rolling"? Is this some form of massage?

Foam rollers. Particularly useful for the iliotibial band.


Body weight massage is helpful the same way. There's a technique where you can put most of your body weight on your elbow, and use that to massage your partners gluetes/hamstrings/IT band. Builds lots of pressure.

Rolling, in this case, was not on foam, but on PVC pipe covered in a thin carpet. These were definitely quite hard. It also relies on body weight, not just for calves, but thighs and back as well.


I also learned yesterday some neck stretching using the same roller that frankly almost put me to sleep snoring. I walked into the gym with a migrane, and walked out without one. (Though it came back later in the day.) That's how effective those stretches and rolls were. No doctor has helped before.
No chiropractor. No diet (save for the keto diet). Nothing.

I'm quite pleased with this gym. For the price I thought I was paying the typical bay area rich-part-of-town tax, but I can see that they're worth more than I had expected.

Oh my ... you live in the SF Bay area? How do you afford to eat?

Huh... I didn't think of that.

Move to the SF Bay area for an enforced diet.

I have a job?

Well yes, but I keep hearing that the cost of living in that area exceeds the income of all except the ultra-elite.

Oh, and also that people poop in the streets. But that might just be hearsay.

Grats on finding work, kc5tja!

2018-07-21 19:26 from IGnatius T Foobar
Well yes, but I keep hearing that the cost of living in that area
exceeds the income of all except the ultra-elite.

True only if you live in San Francisco proper. The suburban areas (e.g., Hayward, Oakland, etc.; but don't tell them I call them that) are substantially more affordable. Still expensive, mind you, but you can get by.

That said, if your idea of a good job is working at the local OSH, you're either retired from normal work-a-day stuff anyway, or a teenager still waiting to hear back from Stanford University or Berkeley on admission status. If you really hit rock bottom, you end up moving into the red regions of California, where cost of living is extremely affordable, but you then have to put up with rampant crime, every other home being a meth lab, etc. Basically, the further east you go in California, the cheaper it becomes, up until you reach the Nevada border, where again prices rise due to it being a campers mecca.

Oh, and also that people poop in the streets. But that might just be

hearsay.

That also happens in SF. Not *as* much in the outer cities. Most of the homeless folks that I've spoken with seem to be ex-military, however. There are a few technical folks that have lost their homes, but they're relatively rare.

I may be looking again soon, depending on how the company's recent take-over pans out. Comes with the territory though.