Day 448 - Treadmill Elevation

Since I really cannot go any faster or longer on the treadmill, my only other option available to me is to start raising elevation on the machine.  As far as I can tell, my knees can stand having 1 more degree of elevation added.  Or they've been holding up for the past 2 days.  I think I've just found another way of adding adding challenge to my exercise.

116/74/64 170lb 74 mg/DL

Day 447 - End of Week 64

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

10-30-2011 Front

10-30-2011 Side

I started playing World of Warcraft again, if only to get the new holiday pets (Creepy Crate), and another yearly effort of getting a holiday mount for my main character.

Technically with today's weight-in, I'm below 25 BMI again (with me only being 5'9").  I've also lost 160 pounds.  However, with me still suffering the residual side effect of percocet,  I'm not sure what number I should be looking at.

Found this cat video over @ Cute Overload

Very appropriate for this time of the year.

120/82/68 171.4lb 79 mg/DL
Week to Week 4lb

Day 446 - More Clothing Purchase Year 2

I don't like buying clothing.  For one thing, I almost never find what I'm looking for, and what I'm looking isn't all that exotic.  With the cloth switching coming, I figure it's time to get clothings that fits better.  I've already taken cared of the pants last week, this week, I tried to address some of the other area.

I last bought newer underwear back when I'm wear waist size 40 and shirt size L.  I've since shrunk beyond those sizes.  So instead of fighting parking at the mall and getting into Nordstrom, I went to Nordstrom Rack across the street at the strip mall.  We'll see how they fit.

In terms of T-Shirts with pocket, once again, I was looking for darker colored shirt with pocket.  The only store that I know that reliably stock those are Old Navy.  Unfortunately, I only found 3 shirts.  Well, it beats zero.

The last thing I bought while looking for long sleeve shirts with pocket at Wal-Mart & Target.  Both places' didn't have what I want, but I was able to pick up 2 pair of sweat pants for home use.  It's getting cold enough that shorts at home isn't practical.

I still cannot tell whether my vision is improving or not.  We'll see in 4 days.

112/74/74 169.6lb 84 mg/DL

Day 445 - Breaking Out Long Sleeves

Today is the last nominal week of October, and this year's Santa Ana wind driven heat has been a great disappointment.  At least the weather feels cooler than last year.  I usually switch to long sleeves shirts at the start of November, and today, I'm wearing my Friday casual pocket t-shirt, but wearing a hoodie sweatshirt due to the weather.  The hoodie took cared of two problem at once, warm my body, and cover my head.

Last weekend, I decided even the size 36 pants weren't doing its job, so I broke down and bought 2 pairs of size 34 from Costco.  It's been so long since I actually wear correct size pants, it's difficult for me to describe the sensation.  I think size 34 is my limit, since that's about the size of my hip bones.

On the vision front, still no dramatic improvement.

113/70/71 169.6lb 75 mg/DL

Day 444 - Look At That Number

The desk pushups that I did 2 days ago at the support meeting is currently making itself felt.  Both of my bicep muscles are quit sore, letting me know that the pace and the amount that I did probably exceeds my current limit.

I had my second follow up yesterday.  While the doctor was happy with the rate of the healing my corneas have achieve, we're both still frustrated with the recovery of my actual vision.  Today one of my co-worker who have similar procedures done did say that it could take up to a week for full vision recovery.  Tomorrow will be a full week, and I doubt I'll get my vision back. 

111/78/65 168.4lb 75 mg/DL

Day 443 - Breaking out the Heater

Not wanting to spend another cold night sleeping, I plug in the space heater and let it run in my room while I sleep.  It make sleeping a whole lot easier.

Today is also the first day back in the office.  As far as I can tell, my eyes still hasn't adjusted enough to take the florescent light tubes that the office uses.  I'll ask about that on my follow up today.

115/77/63 170lb 72 mg/DL

Day 442 - Adding New Exercise Routine Fails

Two days ago, I decided to add sit-up as part of exercise routine.  I did about 15 of them, and I'm not even trying very hard.  Today, the results are in, I'm not ready for even that amount.  I guess I'll try them again, only take it even more slowly.

Inspired by a post from Erin, here's something similar.  A comparison between a year ago and recently.

October 24 2011 272lb

October 23 2011 171.4lb

I don't quit remember what the temperature back last year around this time was, but it has come to a point where I'm ready to change to winter clothing and break out the heater.

My vision hasn't improved to 20/20 yet, but it's well enough that I can drive safely.  Just don't ask me to go anywhere I haven't been before.  The doctor actually suspend my use of both percocet and the numbing eye-drop.  What I have to take instead is Prenisolone Acetate Ophthalmic Suspension.  Quit a mouthful, but it's basically a steroid based ophthalmic solution design to help assist my current healing and reduce swelling.  The minus side is that I have to take it every 4 waking hours.

121/80/59 168.2lb 76 mg/DL

Day 441 - Lasik Recovery Day 4

I had my first follow up this morning with my ophthalmologist regarding my recovery progress.  He was most please with my recovery.  It would seem that massive dosage of vitamin C is helping.  Although ice pack on the eye help, it also introduced weight on the eye, which is annoying.  I've stop taking percocet, which I detest due to its many side effect, not to mention narcotic addiction property.

The actual procedure is call Photorefractive Keratectomy.  According to the log, the actual laser time on my right eye is 40 seconds, and 53 seconds on my left.  As of this morning, I feel well enough not to have to use pain medication, and the doctor have removed the non-corrective contact lenses.  I can almost read the monitor without squinting...

124/84/61 168.2lb 76 mg/DL

Day 440 - End of Week 63

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

10-23-2011 Front

10-23-2011 Side

I was only slightly kidding about my appointment with agony.  The lasik surgery itself went without much drama.  I really didn't start feeling pain until the numbing eye drops wears off.  And at the end of the first day, I got some really adverse reaction to percocet with nausea and throwing up sensation leading the charge.  The second day went a bit better on the side effect front, and I was well enough that shopping trip to Costco went well, with me wearing the cover-all sun glasses.  However, I'm still fighting the other side effect, and one that I'll probably not win until I get off the medication, constipation.  Lets just hope that I'm well enough to get off med by Monday and I can actually read without squinting.

One thing I keep on doing even though I'm not wearing glasses is me trying to adjust them unconsciously.  I find this mildly annoying and amusing.

130/60/71 171.4lb 79 mg/DL
Week to Week 0.8lb

Day 439 - Lasik Eye Surgery Aftermath First Day

Yesterday morning, I had the lasik eye surgery performed.  The procedure itself is relative straight forward.  I had my eye ball mapped, and then given valium to help with anxiety.  Surprising enough, the only anesthesia I was given were just numbing eye drop (at least those are the only one I recognized)).  I lay upon the operating bed, with my eyelash taped, and my eyelid secured in place.  The doctor put in some sort of fluid and then clean my retina.  The actual laser firing  took 45 seconds as the machine goes through its sequence.  Same thing was performed on the other eye, with the exact same sequence.  Afterward, the doctor place a pair of non-corrective contact lenses to assist in healing process.  I spend less than 30 minutes inside the operating room.

I was given percocet and the same numbing eye drop liquid for pain control.  However, the doctor did advice to rely on ice and percocet more for the pain control.  The pain itself is not as I feared.  I'm not bouncing off the wall, like I had in the pass with tooth ache.  However, I'm not sure if that's due to percocet or not.  The first 4 hours post procedure went fine, if somewhat annoyingly with incidental background pains and discomfort.  However, after my third attempt at trying to catching up on sleeping failed, I awake with more pain, and was adviced by my doctor to go ahead and use percocet with more frequency.  Now, the side effect of percocet finally kicked me in the stomach.  Nausea, dizziness, and wanting to throw up.  All of this is described in the literature.  This is somewhat unexpected.  I've never had percocet before, but I have plenty of experience with codein and codein with Tylenol.  I've never had any of these reactions before.  


I went back to the doctor for an impromptu meeting about an episode of almost uncontrollable tear shedding.  The doctor conform that's normal as part of the recovery.  My recovery appears to be on course.


117/7768 171.4lb 79 mg/DL

Day 438 - Shorter Notice

The next couple of day's post will probably be delay as I recover.

128.88/57 172.6lb 77 mg/DL

Day 437 - Short Notice

Less than 24 hours until I go temporary blind.  So today and tomorrow's post will be this short.

115/76/68 172.8lb 85 mg/DL

Day 436 - Waiting

The new tires for my car finally came in. When I got to Costco, I was told that it'll be 2.5 hours until they finished installing it. I took that as a sign that I should walk a couple of lapse in that store while I wait. All the while, this song pop into my head:



After a couple of chapters of Mistborn: Hero of the Ages, and a couple of minutes of semi-dozing off, I walk back to the tire center, and much to my surprise, they actually finished it in 80 minutes, instead of 140 minutes.  There's still a couple of things wrong, but I'll live with that.

113/80/57 173.4lb 91 mg/DL

Day 435 - Blood Donation is Not How To Loose Weight

Today is the 3rd day since I donated blood. As expected, my weight took an immediate dive the day after the donation. However, every day since, my weight have been creeping back up as I re-hydrate myself. I also encounter a slight dizzy spell yesterday morning. But with aggressive water in-take all day yesterday, I think I got that taken cared of. So I won't be surprise if my weight go back to Saturday's number by this weekend.

110/69/64 172.6lb 94 mg/DL

Day 434 - Countdown to Agony

Well, I paid for the surgery today. 4 more days until my appointment with agonizing pain. But it should be worth it.

Today is also the first day I have at the office with me logging everything with the food journal. I'm just a bit surprised at how much more protein I'm supposed to be consuming according to what I record. Lets see how it goes.

105/64/45 172.4lb 90 mg/DL

Day 433 - End of Week 62

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

10-16-2011 Front

10-16-2011 Side

The weight today is bit of a stretch.  I donated one pint of blood yesterday, so I loss roughly 1.2 pound of body mass from by blood loss itself.  I won't be using blood donation to achieve my goal.  I just donate blood because it's the right thing to do.

Five days until my appointment with excruciating pain.


115/67/54 172.2lb 95 mg/DL
Week to Week 3.6lb

Day 432 - Goal One Reached

I had a bout of sleepness this morning when I awake at 2:30AM and never could go back to sleep.  Instead of fighting it, I just opted to start my day a bit early.  Usually I sleep in a bit without the alarm clock waking me at 4:30AM.  So instead of doing my exercise routine at 8AM on the weekend, I finished mine at 6:30AM today.

It's also been a week since I start wearing the new shoes full time.  The result has been interesting.  I've also dial my walk back up to 4MPH, and with the new shoes, it seemed much easier pace to maintain.  I started using the Losit.com app & webpage to further track both my meal and exercise.  Recording my Chinese meals will be a hit and miss proposition.  I haven't been counting calories religiously up to this point, doing it now will be interesting.

This morning, I also reach my first goal of 174 pounds.  Based upon my previous assumption, that should put me squarely in 25 BMI.  However, it would seem that I've gotten an inch shorter, so I won't reach that goal until 168 pounds.  If I stick to my current routine, I should get there by January.

Slight update:

After I made this post, I donated my 1 pint of blood to American Red Cross.  With the amount of blood test I've been having in the past 11 years, I've always joke that I would make a terrible IV drug abuser since my vein is always hard to find.  Today's drawing was entirely without hiccup.  The technician find and tab on the vein in the first shot, and the actual drawing of the blood took 10 minutes, but the paperwork itself took 40 minutes.  At least they took the blood this time.  Here's what I look like 4 hours later:

117/72/61 173.8lb 99 mg/DL

Day 431 - Tire Trouble

I took my co-workers out to Emon Japanese Restaurant for lunch today.  As expected, they're very satisfy with the food.  However, on my way back, the rear tire blown out, and the co-worker was kind enough to get the temporary tire on.  I managed to drive slowly to a tire store and get a replacement tire.  On my way home, I bought 3 more tires from Costco, which will arrive sometime next week.  I didn't know it, but the old tires were 3 years old.  Guess I really should check them more regularly.

I also had the company sponsored bio-metric checkup today, and the only number which I couldn't measure myself is cholesterol.   That came in in flying color as expected, 152 total, 57 HDL, 95 LDL.

121/61/51 177.4lb 94 mg/DL

Day 430 - Rest in Peace Dennis Ritchie

Last week the world mourn the passing of Steve Jobs.  This week, most of the world have no idea who Dennis Ritchie was and how he literally made my world.  I'll highlight the three greatest contribution to humanity that Dennis Ritchie have bring: Unix, C Programming Language, and The C Programming Language.

Without Unix, there's no BSD, which means no FreeBSD, no NeXTSTEP, thus no iMac and iPhone.  Without Unix, there's no Linux, which is the current dominate Enterprise operating system by a wide margin.  Also, there won't be Google and no Android phone.

For most people of my generation, the first real useful programming language we learn is C.  I shudder to think just how much of our automated world is coded in C and what a different place it would be without it.  Likewise, the first useful book on programming language we have is the simple book written by Kernighan & Ritchie.


We stood on the shoulder of giants in achieving our dreams.  We should both mourn passing and celebrate the life of one such giant.


116/75/55 174.8lb 87 mg/DL

Day 429 - eBook

I haven't bought any physical books in a while.  Ever since I got the Kindle last year, other than comic books and manga, I've been buying all books either in Kindle or in WebScription service from Baen.  Well, this current Kindle will be replace by the two new ones Amazon is putting out next months.  I can't wait.

116/75/54 175.8lb 88 mg/DL

Day 428 - Antenna Ball

When I look for my car, I used to be able to differentiate it from the rest of the parking lot by the antenna ball I put in.  It served that purpose for more than 4 years.  Earlier this year, it finally was washed out by the car wash machine.

So I spend the lunch time today searching for the replacement at the store.  Mind you, the ball is $2.  I end up spending $181.  Guess that store is unhealthy for my financial health.  I did pick up another leather jacket and 2 hoodie sweatshirts.

118/74/46 175.6lb 90 mg/DL

Day 427 - Columbus Day 2011

No, this post have nothing to do with Columbus Day.  But it is a good title for a post that contains almost no content than my usual measurements.

126/77/60 176lb 91 mg/DL

Day 426 - End of Week 61 and Fourteenth Month

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

10-09-2011 Front

10-09-2011 Side

This is both the end of Week 61 and the 14th month.  For the most part, my weight hoovers between 182 and 180.  I've had episodes of these stalls for me to be unconcern by it.  With the exception of the last 4 days, I've been at a fairly stable weight.  These past 4 days however, do see a dramatic drop in weight.  I am drinking un-caffeinated drinks at an elevated pace.  I've also switch over to using the new shoes, which does seem to help.  Perhaps I should wear that shoe full time?

111/71/50 175.8lb 94 mg/DL
Month 14 5.6lb
Week to Week 4.0lb

Day 425 - New Pants Part II

I got a bit tire of the pants I bought 6 months ago.  They're about 2 sizes too large.  I went to Nordstrom and Target.  The pants in Nordstrom is $145 per pants.  The pants in Target is $15 per pants.  You can guess which store got my money :)

117/75/53 175.4lb 89 mg/DL

Day 424 - Picture of New Shoes in Action

Back on Monday, I posted that I'm trying out new shoes.  It isn't exactly dress shoes, but our dress code relaxes a bit in Casual Friday, so I decided to wear it in the office the whole day.

This is what it looks like in the kitchen.

I suppose it works, at least for this day.

117/74/56 176.4lb 94 mg/DL

Day 422 - On Steve Jobs' Passing

Knowing the kind of condition he was in, and the pain he had to endure, at least that part is gone.  Rest in Peace.

119/77/46 179.8lb 90 mg/DL

Day 421 - Recovering

I got a lot of sleep yesterday.  Well, the sleep helps.  However, now I have slight muscular ache on my forearms.  I'm going to have to monitor how much water I drink.  Lets see what happens.

117/77/52 180.8lb 87 mg/DL

Day 420 - Trying New Shoes

Back in June 18, I bought a pair of ECCO Track II Low size 43.  At the time, it was very tight fitting, and I have to get my feet used to this new size.  Yesterday I bought a pair of Vibram FiveFingers Bikila LS shoes for treadmill use and possible office use.  I'm also bringing my old shoes with socks if it isn't acceptable for office use.


The clerk at REI brought me size 41, 42 and 43.  Size 41 is slightly too tight.  Size 42 has just a bit of spacing, and size 43 is really too loose.  Mind you, I don't wear socks with these.

Last night was a bit of struggle getting asleep.  For some reason, I have higher heart beat rate than usual, and I really cannot tell when I finally get to sleep.  Still wake up at the same time.

118/70/71 181lb 91 mg/DL

Day 423 - 150 Pounds Down

After this morning's exercise, my weight in comes to 178 pounds.  Which means I finally hit 150 pounds lost.  Still have about 4 more pounds to go to my current goal of 174.  This last 10 pounds took 69 days, or almost 7 weeks.  Lets see how much longer that last stretch will take.

113/72/44 178lb 89 mg/DL

Day 419 - End of Week 60

08-07-2010 Front

08-07-2010 Side

10-02-2011 Front

10-02-2011 Side

As I sat in front of my computer, eating the breakfast (3 eggs easy, with guacamole and Latte) the trouble of the world seem distant.  Tomorrow starts my week long on-call duty, so I'll enjoy today.

114/80/57 179.8lb 98 mg/DL
Week to Week 1.2lb
Total Weight Loss 148.2lb
BMI 25.80

Day 418 - On Debit Card Monthly Fee

I've posted about my personal financial religion before.  The main gist of it is not paying for anything that isn't necessary.  With the passage and implementation of the Durbin Amendment today, I guess the secondary clause of Rule #1 will be expanded.  Both Bank of America and CitiBank (and probably every other banking institution other than Credit Union who are exempted) will institute some form of usage fee upon their customer on debit card use.  I fully understand why the fee are there.  I also don't expect to be using debit card ever again.  Thank you Senator Durbin for your contribution to the financial regulation.

118/79/66 180lb 94 mg/DL