I am totally into my fitness program now and I’m really glad to say that none of it is linked to any New Year’s resolutions. In fact, the only New Year’s resolution that I made this year was not to make any New Year’s resolutions. My success rate with them in the past has been 0%, so I wanted to avoid confusing myself and my intentions with some flaky cultural norm of thinking that starting something in the New Year makes it all that much more meaningful. When someone asks me about my new lifestyle I tell them that I automatically got more fit when I moved out here in retirement in 2020 and started working around the property every day. Naturally, with the passage of time and inattention to my diet, I backslid, not entirely, but perhaps 60% over the ensuing five years. As 2025 began I had no particular resolve for improving things and when I went to see my doctor for my semi-annual visit in April, I did what I had been doing for some time, which was to discuss my blood pressure meds (which were up to five separate medications in some strange cocktail taken twice daily). The impact of that was a controlled and reduced diastolic, a systolic that wouldn’t go below 140 no matter what, and a pulse rate that was getting simply too low at 47 or so on a resting basis. I had joined LA Fitness a few years ago (post-COVID) and gone swimming a few times a week and did mild training sessions twice a week. It was all pretty lame and uninspired and had no real impact on my well-being. The best thing I did physically, was start a Stretch-U regimen of twice per week about two and half years ago and it made my hips and shoulders feel so much better that I have kept it up quite religiously.
Then, when we went to Tuscany and Malta in the late spring, I sort of hit the wall. The cause was that nasty edema in my ankles that had spread from my right leg to my left and suddenly got worse with the emergence of an edema sore that wouldn’t go away. I did that whole European trip with a bandage on my ankles and a seeping wound that was not painful, but was very troubling nonetheless. It was on my return from my 50th college reunion in early June that I decided it was time for action. I suddenly felt the need to take charge of my own health, both medically and in terms of diet and exercise. It was as though something had snapped. When I managed to fix my edema by getting my doctor to change out my diuretic and by going to a wound clinic and starting to wear the right kind of compression socks every day, I was surprised at how easy it was to address a longstanding problem in a decisive manner. I had nothing short of miraculous results in 10 days. My weight was down 20 pounds and the edema was gone…and I felt appreciably better. The results spurred me on to think I could and should do more for myself.
I went to my doctor and yet again told her that I wanted to start Zepbound and that I had done the research and would pay my own way rather than wrangling with insurance over it. Obesity is a disease that should warrant a covered prescription, but I know enough about the woes of the insurance industry to know that it was silly to leave my health in their hands, so I signed up with LilyDirect and got my doctor to enter the needed prescriptions. For about as much money as I normally waste in a week, I could buy the monthly Zepbound shots for myself and have them delivered to my door ready with syringes. I have now done three months of Zepbound, have lost about 40 more pounds and am only starting the 10mg dose level, which means I have three months to go until I am at full strength of 15mg. It’s imperceptible how much the monthly 2.5mg bump-up in dosage affects me, but I’m sure that for now, more is better, so I’m happy to gradually increase it from here for a few more months.
Starting about a month ago, I decided to institute a walking program, so I dusted off the garage home gym I had set up but barely used before and started up on the treadmill. I now am on that treadmill (I had bought a good one earlier in the year) almost every day unless I am out on the neighborhood roads walking with Kim and Buddy (something we are about to go out and do right now). We are now back from a 45 minute walk that included a meaningful hill climb. We did it with several neighbors, who now call us to walk almost every day…its a nice club to be joining and it becomes a significant social vehicle for us neighborhood retirees. The next step was to engage a PT and trainer, who now comes over weekly to give me a one-hour workout (the full sweat program). For the other six days I try to do some form of exercise on a rotating basis from the list of 30 or so exercises (none using more than 15 pound dumbbells or a 12 pound medicine ball at this stage). One of the big things now is to do full-body workouts without machines or a lot of heavy weights. It certainly is quite doable and still quite muscle building despite the absence of heavy metal. And today I have gone yet one more step and signed up for an app-based daily tai-chi program that apparently tracks my weight, my fitness, my BMI and all my workouts. The program is called Mad Muscles. It links to my Apple Watch and iPhone such that all the fitness and health items are now fed into it to remind me how I’m doing and chart my progress.
I know what many of you are thinking…this is like me discovering the toothbrush and extolling its virtues to you. Let’s face it, nothing I have described is new news to most of you. The only thing extraordinary about it is that I’m doing it and that I am in shock an awe about all that I am discovering. When my friend Chris asked me yesterday what my goal was (that would make him the 1,000th person to ask me that), I said it was to get to a point where when I get on the scale in the morning I do not hope or expect to see it go down. That is when I know I will have reached my goal weight. I do want to get to a BMI of 28, which is what is recommended for an old cocker like me. That seems to be about 6-7 months away at best, which is fine. I am in no rush with this. Part of the mantra is to not be in a rush. This is just how I’m choosing to live my life from this point forward. I’m smoothing out all the peaks and valleys of life as the metabolic process slows to a steadier pace. I want that metabolic rate to be as high as it reasonably can be and that’s where the Mad Muscles program is most important, as everyone knows. I took my readings today and my BP is way down and pulse is up close to 60 finally, so I think its working. January is my month to lock down the exercise program into a routine and make those muscles just a little bit less mad at me.