Wednesday Weigh-In 20130424

I don't have much appetite after my five-day fever of last week. Nowadays, eating serves to take away hunger, not fill me up.

Waist = 37.0"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Low Normal Body Temperature and Hypothyroidism

Chronic low body temperature is related to many syndromes and symptoms, including: allergies, apathy, chronic fatigue, "brain fog", "personal failure", depression, dizziness, hypoglycemia, lethargy, passive/aggressive syndromes, skin and joint conditions, sleep disorders, sexual dysfunction, past sexual abuse, yeast problems, porphyria, and many other poorly-defined chronic low health states.

from http://www.diagnose-me.com/symptoms-of/hypothyroidism.html

I became interested in the topic of low body temperature last week.  I felt feverish, but my temperature was barely 99.1F, which is considered a low grade fever.  However, I felt that my fever was stronger, higher than that.  My normal body temperature is 1.8F lower than the 98.6F that's considered normal.  So I wondered if I should consider my personal fever to be 100.9F, or 1.8F more than the actual reading of 99.1.

It took five days for the fever to break.  I started to feel better (as in "less bad") over the weekend, so I did some research on body temperature.

I've had low normal body temperature all my life, yet no doctor or nurse has ever commented on it.  Body temperature is one of our most basic measures of health, and mine was ignored. If someone had bothered to take an interest in my low readings, I might be in much better shape today.  Instead, my doctor complained about my high cholesterol, putting my on Vytorin.  "I'd rather find out why my cholesterol is high and correct that condition," I'd say.  "It's genetic," was always his reply.

No, that's not entirely true, Doctor.  If you paid attention to my consistently low body temperatures of 96.8F and followed the diagnostic guidelines for Wilson Syndrome, you'd treat me for hypothyroidism, which can explain my high cholesterol and my many other problems!

Wednesday Weigh-In 20130417

This is a "virtual, interpolated" weigh-in. I was actually sick this week, so the values in this post are halfway between last week's and next week's.

Waist = 37.25"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Key to the Past

I'm about to open a briefcase that I haven't opened in over twenty years.

It's a briefcase that has stewed in the juices of my childhood.  It served first as my brother's school bag, and later, mine after he got too cool to use one.  If this briefcase could talk, it would reminisce about former teachers, bullying on the school bus, the numerous girls I've had fleeting crushes on.

In a sense this briefcase can talk -- it contains over one hundred memo pads, dating back to when I was thirteen, that I used for my Diary.

Wow.

And when I dig up old stuff like this, feelings of foreboding and dread fill me.  And mostly Sadness.

The motivation for this expedition is to find some old poetry that I wrote but don't fully remember.  I want to publish it, but not here.

The first step was finding this key, which could very well be older than me.

Dream: Bicycling Alongside the Highway

I'm bicycling with two friends on a path alongside a highway, which is on my left.  I'm in the lead.  It is nighttime.  I go under a bridge, but my friends have gotten stuck under the bridge by a concrete wall that lowered, which is serving as traffic control in place of a traffic light.

At first I decide to continue on, but a bit slower -- they'll eventually catch up to me.  But then I pay more attention to the wooded area on the right side of the path.  The dense undergrowth comes right up to the edge of the path.  There could be a dangerous animal stalking nearby, or, worse, a human.

So I make a U-turn and head back.

We're riding along.  Again I'm in front, but the others are close behind.  We come to yet another underpass, and, again, the traffic control is forcing us to stop.  I'm tempted to blow through it, but I decide not to so that I won't leave my friends again.

Wednesday Weigh-In 20130410

I think the increased sunlight tells my body to eat more and store fat. I tend to gain the most weight in the summer and lose the most weight in the winter.

Waist = 37.5"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.

Dream Collage

I'm on an Indian Reservation, in a large hall or rec room.  I'm sitting on the floor against the wall with a young woman to my right.  We are among the general hubbub of children playing and chasing each other, and older people sitting at tables conversing.  She is Native American and slightly resembles Marilyn Whirlwind more in affect than in appearance.  I am white, yet somehow I'm part of the tribe, and I'm learning and following their customs.

It was arranged that the woman and I would marry.  She tosses a blue, wooden, heart-shaped ball onto the floor in front of us.  As I reach to pick it up, she says "Oh, don't pick it up."  But I do, anyway.  "Now you have to marry me," she says.  I'm not attracted to her, but I've decided to commit to the marriage to appease the elders.

----------------------------

I'm driving southbound on the main drag in my old neighborhood.  I've just moved here.  It's the start of a new, single life for me.  I pass by the street my boyhood house was on.  All the store fronts are different.  So even though it's an old place, it's also a new place.  There are many clean, respectable-looking bars.  I'm looking forward to checking out these places.

----------------------------

I'm in my apartment, near the front door, which is open.  I have a view of the street.  But the door closes slowly on its own.  And I see through gaps in the blinds and through the small window in the door that the UPS truck drove up and parked in front.  My delivery is here.

My pants are open, so I hurry to try to close them before the driver gets to the door.  The driver enters and brings the shipment inside.  It's a collection of different-sized blue semi-precious polished gemstones formed into various shapes.  One that catches my attention is about the size and shape of a baseball, except that it has a face with a carving in it.  There are rod-shaped ones, too.

Wednesday Weigh-In 20130403

I've been adding coconut oil to my tea and coffee. I do this to benefit from the anti-microbial properties of coconut oil, and to make me feel more full. But coconut oil has the effect of bloating me, so that's why my waist size has increased.

Waist = 37.75"
Height = 5' 9"

References:

1. Wikipedia BMI page
2. Tanita Scale with Body Fat monitor
3. Javascript must be enabled to view the data.