callmetj's InkSpot
Perpetual Ruminations
#1104119 added December 21, 2025 at 5:48pm
Restrictions: None
Restrictions: None
What Shape?
| Yes, I'm talking about shapes, but in reference to one's own body. While I have always been in good shape, the shape of my body hasn't always been the healthiest. Even though I was breaching the three-hundred-pound mark for a spell, I could still hike for miles up and down hills, I could still kayak, although I couldn't use my sit-on-top because I was fifty pounds over capacity, and it would roll over with the slightest movement. I could do most everything I did before my weight shot up that high. I do admit that putting on my shoes and socks was more difficult, but I managed. The weight shot up because I was used to working in a sawmill. Not only was it very active work, but some of the green wood I'd handle was in excess of a hundred pounds; logs and timbers I tossed around daily for eight hours a shot. This burned calories like they were kindling. But when I quit working this kind of work do to a severe hernia, I quit burning three to four thousand calories a day, but my appetite didn't diminish. Then there was the surgery and the large patch they stuck in me to fix the hernia. For a month, I was inactive, and for the next month, only slightly active. After I healed, I took a job working security. I was on my feet a lot, but it was nothing like sawmill work and only a bit more active than when I was doing office work. So, the weight piled on relatively fast, but as many know, it never goes off as quickly as it goes on. Fat cells are like obnoxious relatives who come to visit even though you prefer they don't. All it takes is a few minutes for them to drag all their luggage in and get settled, but it takes a small miracle to get them back out of the house; fat is the same. Anyway, I did manage to lose weight and get back down to the mid-two-hundred-pound range, but it stayed there, and I've tried for years to get back under two hundred. Last spring, when I went in for the endoscopy that revealed my cancer, they weighed me at two hundred and sixty-seven pounds. This morning, our digital scale, which is spot on with the hospital scale, indicated I was now at one hundred and ninety-five pounds. It's a good thing I had the extra weight to see me through the chemo and surgeries, or there wouldn't be anything left except a stick man! So, the weight I do not miss, but unfortunately, it wasn't all fat that I disposed of; I also lost some muscle through it all. I now have a difficult time carrying in and loading the water softener with salt or scooping and throwing snow. I knew I lost some muscle, but I didn't realize how much until today. We took the dogs to a state park south of us and hiked just under seven-tenths of a mile. It was a pretty level trail, partly covered in packed snow and a bit of ice, but easy walking. The first half was easy, anyway. The second half was a cross-country ski trail, and the last tenth of a mile back to the parking area wasn't on the trail. Yes, my wife and I went off-road through the foot-deep snow. I was huffing and puffing, but still determined to go over the snow bank (about five or six feet high) at the end of the parking lot. My wife, being the smarter of us, went around. Even my Husky was smart enough to go around, but I was going over. I wanted to limb it as I did as a kid; king of the hill! Last winter, I would have scrambled my much fatter self up that little snow bank with little effort, but today, I had to use my hands to get up it; my legs were not strong enough and too fatigued from the hike! I have a hell of a lot of work to build up my muscles, and it's the wrong time of year to do it; it's much too cold for me most days to go out and really work my legs. I can do some weight lifting at home, I have a weight bench and weights. I've just been feeling too sick to do much. Now that I'm feeling better most days, I could spend some time pumping iron. I'm also going to be joining a gym/fitness center after Christmas so I can use their equipment to work my core and legs; it's time to get back into proper shape. |
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About The Author
My writing doesn't follow any set genre, it's interdependent of my mood and all that's taking place in life. I'm still finding myself, what I write constitutes the markers along the path of that journey. With time, many things will manifest in my work and perhaps I will pursue one or two genres. For now, it's not, "What type of writing is my passion?"
"Writing is my passion."
