Blood and even more blood...

I haven’t been blogging much lately. I know. I've generally been very busy with work, the house, my social life. I’m not complaining though. It’s been fun. In an even weirder note, I've even enjoyed having to work over the weekend. It’s nice to be productive and creative on something that you don’t mind doing…


Anyway, starting with the most major news of the last weeks, I met the doctor of my heart! I can’t really remember his name but he’s a nice gentleman from the NHS that acted as my medical and cardiac consultant! He’s the kind of doctor of that age that took notes with an ink pen and my blood pressure with an old style manual monitor. It was adorable. And what made it even better where the wonderful news he brought me.

Apparently the diet worked! Shedding a bit more than 10% of my body weight and watching my diet decreased my cholesterol levels. They’re still higher than normal, but fell quite a lot. So, the bottom line is that I’m under surveillance and will go back in 2 and again in 4 months, but at the same time I won’t start any medications or other treatments. Hoorah! That's the first part of my news associated to my own blood.



In a way to celebrate these news, I took JJ to his ever first Ancient Greek tragedy called ‘Medea’ by Euripides in the National Theater, produced for the first time in 431 BC! The adaptation had somewhat brought Medea to contemporary times. I can’t say I was entirely thrilled with that (being a Greek snob) but I’m glad to say that JJ liked it. I quite enjoyed it too.

The actress playing the main role was simply amazing though. It’s not an easy role to play. She wants to plot her revenge over the husband that abandoned her, but at the same time to portray an inner conflict and struggle over her hatred and whether it’s the right thing to do. For such an ancient play the subjects analysed are quite modern; foreigners versus natives, men versus women, power abuse and the subjective sense of rightfulness. In all fairness however, the Ancient Greeks really knew how to put curses on one another.

Yes, as promised, more blood at the end...

Various News Update

It’s been almost a month (minus a days) since I started my new eating habits. It’s been going generally well and it’s been much easier since JJ is doing a diet with me. I’m proud to say that the amount of delicious bad stuff like red meat, bread, cheese, chocolate, fried stuff and sugar I had during that month was kept to an absolute minimum. When you start looking for it, you can see that substances like sugar is basically everywhere! You can’t help it. But at least I've stopped the full fat cappuccinos with extra brown sugar. I used to have 2 to 3 a day. That should count, right? Overall I've lost about 5 kg in the last month, which I have to say I'm quite happy with. Now, my BMI is 24, down from 25.7, although I believe that the whole BMI as an indicator is a bit flawed. And that was only the first month.

On another medical issue, since my half marathon last March I've been having some issues with my right knee. I noticed it during my first recovery run after that race. I went to a physio and he said I have ITBS. It has to do, I assume, with the amount of running I do over tarmac, the sudden increase of mileage and maybe lack of post running stretching. Since then I tried to rest it but had to keep on training since I have another half marathon this Sunday in Hackney (RunHackney). Unfortunately the pain didn't go away and I had to cancel my race for this Sunday. I’m a bit disappointed because I would have ran it with JJ and it would have been great to run between the buildings of London’s Olympic Park. But alas, I won’t. At least I’ll go take photos and cheer for JJ and another friend who’s doing the same race. I’ll try to do it next year. At the moment I’m waiting for NHS to be properly referred to a clinic to get treatment.

So overall I can say that dieting is going great but exercising not so well. At least I still have my personal trainer at the gym.

Not sure about the sun during the English summer, but the rest...

Changing subjects, I can also now say that I became an IT team leader! I used to belong to the team that I now lead, so I have experience of what we do and how. However, I've never had a similar position and it might prove challenging, but at least for the moment it’s going well. Although I have noticed a couple of days ago some grey hair on my ‘fringe’. Could they be new?

Anyway, I’m at the process of recruiting for my old position in the team. That is way more time consuming than I thought it would be, but can at least be fun. I can now easily say how NOT to write a CV. The things I've seen… For example starting your CV by demonstrating your hobbies is not a very good idea! Is that the most important thing you can offer to the role? Especially if your hobbies are online or ‘live’ poker! Yes, these are genuine pastimes (who am I to judge?) but at the same time if they are the first thing I read about you, I can’t help but think ‘possible gambling problem’. At least he didn't add porn or illegally downloading copyrighted material. Adding that you've worked for a serious IT company for only 9 whole days including a weekend, is also not a good personality indicator.

And the diagnosis is in

Familial hypercholesterolaemia. Doctors love to use long words, don't they? Even if it is for something simple that could be described as hereditary cholesterol. But the GP couldn't say that, could he? He had to use the slightly more complicated wording, probably just to confuse me, so that I had to ask (slightly terrified) 'what'? Anyway, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself.

Since we moved to our property I had to register to a local GP. JJ was pushing me to do that for let's say some weeks (months) and I finally gave in. I don't really like going to the doctor's and to be honest if I can postpone it, I will. To give you an idea of how bad it was, the previous GP I was registered to, was close to my third from last address! I kept saying that since I will soon move again, what's the point? But now that excuse doesn't work since I’m no longer renting and I plan on staying put.

Doctor?

So, the week before leaving for Greece I visited my local practice and one day before leaving for my holidays I took some blood tests. While I was on holidays, a nurse left a message on our answering machine. That was quite funny. She had a thick Eastern European accent * and without being able to pronounce my name (that wasn't her fault) she said I should arrange a meeting to discuss my 'leakage'. JJ played that message to me a couple of times on the phone. He was scheduled to come to Athens the following day and meet me there, so he was still in London when we got the call. She wasn't being very clear, but the word used came strongly as being 'leakage'! JJ suggested ordering a handful of diapers just in case. They were on offer online.

Anyway, after coming back I met with a GP. He then told me 'familial hypercholesterolaemia'. All my other vitals are perfectly fine including my triglycerides. But my 'bad' cholesterol is 8.1 when it should be around 5.5! My 'good' cholesterol is also high. In UK they use a different metric system for that as well! In Greece I used to know around 200 to 210 the normal value and everything above that to be bad, but not in the UK. I think equivalent I'm in my 310s. I know that I'm slightly overweight by a few kilos, have some stored fat around my belly and I'm not eating as many fruits as I should. But I do regular exercise, eat my salads and I'm relatively young to have that high LDL. That can only be explained by my family bad history when it comes to heart disease. I had some signs that FH could be the case since it’s not the first time I was blood tested and had slightly higher cholesterol, just not by that much. So, something needs to be done.

That's the enemy

Since my diagnosis, I'm in the process of changing my eating habits. I know it’s still very early to say that I've successfully changed them but at the moment I'm trying to lower my fat and calories intake. I really hope that even small changes like swapping cappuccinos to black americanos without sugar or only having cereal for breakfast instead of toast with cheese might help. If I combine that with avoiding fried stuff altogether and fatty food, I might be able to lower my LDL in the long term. I've been doing that for a week already and I’m feeling confident on keeping on. Already I weight a bit less than before. Although I know that the real test will be in a couple months down the road or when we go on holidays. Will I still be able to keep up? I pray I will.

At the same time, I’m being referred to a hospital for further examinations. My GP said he will arrange the documents and post me the referral soon. It could be I have insulin intolerance caused by a gene deficiency. We'll see. My best hope is to consult with a dietician and avoid start taking medications. I read online that after you start taking stuff like statins, it's very difficult to stop. I know that I need to lower my LDL by about 30% though! That will not be easy and will take some time.

That wasn’t the nicest of posts, I know. But it's something that's on my mind and wanted to write about. I could have written about my visit to Greece, which was amazing by the way, but I couldn't. Suffering a heart attack or a stroke is not a very pleasant conversation subject. Now, I really need to convince my brother to go get tested.

* having a heavy Greek / Mediterranean accent myself, I can make fun of people with funny accents. We now believe she was trying to say 'liver' that came up as 'leakage'.

I'm back

It's been some days since we came back from holidays! We had a really nice time and also some adventures. Hopefully, I will tell you all about it. However, I fear that my body wasn't ready for the temperature drop of the return journey! In Italy temperature reached 42 degrees during the day! We were sleeping with the air conditioning on.

However, when we landed back to London we returned to the lovely summer British weather! It was raining and the temperature wasn't more than 15 degrees! So, I instantly got slightly sick. I'm not going to share the details with you, but I'm at home today, with a heavy head, watching morning television with a bucket of tissue next to me, anti coughing syrup and all the rest. It's not that bad. I'll try to drink lots of fluid, stay indoors and warm. I'll be fine soon.

Till then, that's a photo of a healthy me some days ago:

having an espresso in Sardinia by the beach

Online diagnosis and various other thoughts.

Lately I’ve been thinking issues related to my health, wellbeing. Hopefully, this is not related to the fact that I’m getting older! I was actually asked a couple of weeks ago that since now I’m over 30, if I’ve noticed changes to my body or metabolism because of old age!! I ‘grrrr’-ed back and refused to answer.

My burnt hand’s getting better. I poured boiling water over it 10 days ago. For days it was stiff and brown. A few days ago it started peeling, revealing some new pinkish skin and it is much better now. But it is still not completely healed. There are some patches of burnt skin (dark), new skin (red) and the dry areas that are still peeling. I could probably scare a child with it, so I will not share pictures with you. I’m no Freddie Krueger though. Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll be fine.

On a different health topic, I have been noticing on my skin some kind of marks that itched but never lasted long. They look like mosquito bites and they are the same colour as the skin surrounding them. They itch and normally appear in batches around my torso or legs for a very short period of time, like 20 minutes and then disappear. Because they don’t appear every day and they always go away after a small period of time I’ve never actually done anything about them. I have been seeing them for a couple of years though.

JJ’s noticed how I scratch myself sometimes and we laughed how I might be allergic to sex, because these marks appeared or we noticed them while or after sex. It’s easier to see these marks with no clothes on. What I had to do is take some pictures and see a dermatologist. I don’t believe I could ever go to a doctor and by coincidence have them at the same time. However, being a guy that will not easily go to a doctor JJ started looking online of what this skin condition could be.

I don’t generally believe in online diagnosis. If a doctor doesn’t properly poke you, you can’t be sure about what you find online. Yes, there are some legitimate online sources, but still, so many symptoms do look alike. However, what he found online looks accurate enough. I simply get (?) hives in the simplest form that doesn’t last long. I believe that a normal allergic reaction to something whether it was food, soap, detergent, animal or something else would have a more persisting reaction. In any way, I’ll look a bit more into it. At least, checking things online I can exclude more serious skin conditions.

Leaving the slightly disgusting health issues aside, I’m looking forward to going to Greece next week. I fly really early in the morning Thursday to return the following Wednesday afternoon. It will be almost for a whole week of sunshine (it’s 25 degrees there now), food and politics! It’s been raining almost nonstop for the last two weeks in London and it’s getting to a depressing level. Greece will be a nice escape.

By pure coincidence, the weekend I’ll be in Greece, the national elections will take place! These will be the first elections taking place after the major financial crisis occurred. The time is crucial and the outcome of this very important. The people look really divided and none of the major political parties receive more than 20% of the public approval in any polls I’ve read. I believe that a coalition is inevitable. It is unlikely that a government will be formed in the first round of elections, so my vote will not really make a difference. I’m not even sure who to vote!

However, I always enjoy a healthy political debate. It’s in my genes I think.    

Yoga class and Easter weekend

So, last Friday afternoon I left work a bit early to go meet my friends for my very first yoga class. Working in a stupidly male predominant, geeky, antisocial, sexist IT environment, I did hear some comments about that session. Someone even mentioned that I would leave my genitalia in the locker room and start growing a vagina (ha ha)! That was his attempt at being funny! I didn’t even feel like it deserved a reply. This is a big serious discussion I’m not going to comment on now. Some people are simply really ignorantly stupid!

Anyhow, I met my friends and we headed to their ‘health centre’. As I mentioned before, I was going to use a free pass to go with them so that I’d lose my yoga virginity with friends and not alone. Apparently, a ‘health centre’ is the posh way to say gym! I didn’t see any difference between that and my gym. The receptionist was very polite though.

After changing into simple shorts and t-shirt we moved to the class room. There was only one girl already there and I thought that it would be an almost private session. However, other people arrived soon afterwards. Overall, there were around 9 of us excluding the teacher, 4 guys and 5 girls. The majority of people were young and looked like they belonged to the class. Then the yogi (?) came. He was tall, very thin and looked to be in his late 30s. He talked in a soft voice, prolonging all words in calmness. He did say gooooooood many times during the hour that followed. At first I couldn’t make out what he was saying, but then I got used to his soft low voice and we started by telling us to gather helping blocks and belts and by asking who’s new at yoga (me, me!).

At first I felt a bit lost. The yogi wasn’t actually doing everything he wanted us to do as I thought he would at least at the beginning, but he simply gave us instructions. However, for an inexperienced ear like mine, I couldn’t follow him. He was also using yoga terminology that I was completely unaware of. What’s the warrior 1 or warrior 2 position? What’s the fish? Cobra? Huh???? So, I decided to start looking what other people were doing and mimic them. It’s not that simple to observe other people, try to link it with the instructions and keep the difficult positions at the same time. I fought some building frustration and decided to go with the flow.

Soon I was really enjoying it. I sweated a lot which I took as a very good sign. The yogi was walking around us, fixing our posture (which translated in feeling more pain), saying things like ‘gooooooood and ‘breeeeeeathe through the stiffness’. He was generally nice with us, the newcomers. He explained how we could use the blocks or belt to do some exercises better or explained how to add a little bit more difficulty to the experienced yoga goers. Overall, I enjoyed my class a lot. Yoga would be something I’ll gladly try again. As a matter of fact, I’ll try Ashtanga yoga tomorrow. Let’s see how this turns out.

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

Changing the topic, last weekend was the Christian Orthodox Easter. Apart from talking to family and friends about it on whatsapp and on the phone, I didn’t do remotely anything about it. On Saturday evening I had sushi for dinner, a DVD for company and stayed in, which as you can imagine is not very traditionally Greek. All the people I know in Greece went to church around midnight and had magiritsa (μαγειρίτσα) for dinner afterwards. On Sunday during the day when the whole nation has lamb spit roasts I had healthy vegetable stir fry and I even managed to burn my hand. I poured boiling water over it, a moment I am not very proud of. I don’t even like  μαγειρίτσα (it stinks) and I do feel bored at the family gatherings, but with the pain of my burnt hand I did feel a bit homesick.  My hand’s a bit red still, but hopefully it will heal soon. I’m also going to Greece beginning next month, so I’m fine now. It was just a weak moment that passed.

New things

A couple of weeks ago I was in the pub after work. The weather was brilliant. It was during the time when summer briefly and suddenly hit London. We were sitting outside, in a wharf next to the river, enjoying the sun, drinking our pints and having dinner. Two of my friends that were there mentioned that they joined a health centre and that they started a yoga class!
They explained to the rest of the group things they were doing, or tried to do at the class. We did laugh a lot. Maybe it was the beer or the way they were explaining the difficult positions or exercises included. However, as I had mentioned in the past, I always wanted to try yoga. I believe that it would be very beneficial to me. I’m not very flexible (I can’t even bend to touch my toes) and my balance is very bad. I need to tone my core muscles and get rid of my belly. I believe that yoga will help me in all that. I imagine yoga trained people to be really fit and toned.

So, yesterday, one of these friends called me to tell me that she has an extra pass to the health centre and if I wanted to join them in the yoga class! I immediately said yes! I am a bit apprehensive of what I’ll find there. Unfortunately, I’m still a bit stiff from my PT session on Wednesday (mostly triceps and shoulders) and I fear that I might find it even more difficult than normal and ridicule myself. But that hasn’t stopped me in the past! I don't even know what type of yoga I'll be doing!

I’ll let you know how it went.

Worlds AIDS day

I've mentioned GMFA before on this post.
GMFA is the UK's leading charity dedicated to gay men's health. Their mission is to improve gay men's health by increasing the control they have over their own lives. Towards that goal I was contacted by them to post a video that promotes the service. Please see below:

Speaking of GMFA, today is 'Worlds AIDS day'. It's the day of the year that AIDS should be talked about. Of course it shouldn't be the only day of the year that we must remember our sexual health. However, this day gives a nice opportunity to do that. 


Think about some simple questions:
Do you know your status? Do you use condoms? Do you put yourself in jeopardy? Do you know how HIV is spread? 


It's very easy to get tested and learn your HIV status. Especially in the UK there are lots of places where you can get tested anonymously and quickly. Is there a reason you keep postponing it?


I felt like I needed to make a contribution towards that cause. So, I became a volunteer for GMFA. I've been a volunteer in the past but then I only did administrator work. Now, for GMFA I wanted to do more. So, I took the public facing training last week and today was my first time contributing. So, I met a fellow member from GMFA and we went to a night pub called 'Royal Vauxhall Tavern' to talk to people and raise money for the cause.


To be completely and utterly honestly honest I'll start with the 'bad' of volunteering. The whole thing was not very well organised. The person I was supposed to meet wasn't there. The t-shirt I was supposed to be given to wear wasn't there. The bar manager asked me for an ID that I wasn't told to bring and almost kicked me out. Finally there weren't many freebies to give to the people donating money or even a second money bucket.


The good: After putting all these bad things behind me, I truly enjoyed the experience. My fellow GMFA member was a veteran and knew how to talk and mingle with people. There were people donating money and thanking us for the work that the charity does. I was surprised to find out how open people can be and how generous. At the end of the night I felt very good about myself and proud. I didn’t do much but at least I did something…

GMFA

I was recently contacted by a member of GMFA mentioning to me their new service. Without a second thought, I was sure this was something worth spreading.


GMFA is UK's leading charity, founded in 1992, dedicated to gay men's health. Their mission is to improve gay men's health by increasing the control they have over their own lives. They believe their role is to provide gay men with accurate and credible information, and with the skills that enable them to make informed choices and exercise control over their own actions.


Unfortunately HIV remains the most serious sexually transmitted infection (STI) for gay men, so you'll find lots of info about it on their website, but you can also contact them and they'll answer your questions on other STIs and give you information and advice on how to make your sex life healthier, happier and hornier.


In order to battle these fast spreading STIs, they’ve recently created a new service that I’d like to mention, a Sexual Health Messaging Service:

“In April 2011 GMFA launched a major UK-wide scheme to notify partners of gay men diagnosed with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The Sexual Health Messaging Service has been developed in collaboration with GU clinics, the gay dating websites Fitlads, Gaydar, Manhunt and Recon and the dating app, Bender. The new service is funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation and aims to reduce the number of men with undiagnosed STIs, including HIV. Men who are diagnosed with an STI can notify previous sexual partners via an online system, so the partners can get tested and, if necessary, treated.”

It’s of course better to be personally notified by your sexual partner of the fact that he’s been recently diagnosed with an STI. Unfortunately, however we all know that doesn’t happen that easily. Lots of people simply choose to ignore a problem than face it. That is why GMFA created this automated service. In an ideal world this service would be needed, but we all know that this world simply doesn’t exist.


For even more information on the service and how to give your permission to receive notifications on Fitlads, Gaydar and Recon you can find it here.

Also, you might find interesting:

GMFA: Find out more about GMFA, volunteer or donate at www.gmfa.org.uk/aboutgmfa

Sex & sexual health: Information and advice on HIV & STIs at www.gmfa.org.uk/sex

Services for gay men in London: Resources & sexual health services for London’s gay men at: www.gmfa.org.uk/londonservices

Positive: Information for HIV positive gay men at: www.gmfa.org.uk/positive

Sports and social groups: A guide to sporting and social activity groups for gay men in London at: www.gmfa.org.uk/theguide

Registered charity no: 1076854
Company limited by guarantee: 2702133

Thoughts on nutrition, exercise and my future…

When I was a small boy I was very skinny. You could count all my ribs without a problem. I was like a living X-Ray. My mother was worried that there was something wrong with me. What I remember from that time is that I believed sitting down for dinner was a huge waste of time. I didn’t almost any of the food offered and staying still for a period of time to eat, was a torture for a hyper active child like I was.

That all changed when I hit puberty. From very skinny I became chubby. I discovered the pleasures of chocolate, fries, eggs and other unhealthy things. My mother was all too happy to see a healthy appetite in me, so she encouraged me. For a Greek mother, stuffing her son is pure bliss. She feels a worthy member of the mothers’ community.

I did play tennis and I tried swimming as well. I even periodically joined a local gym. However, my weight fluctuations had tendencies to go up. Even now, I’m more comfortable reading a book and doing other static activities than exercise. Especially in Greece, massive feasts with friends is a favorite pastime. Christmas, birthdays, Easter, national celebrations are all excuses to eat and eat some more.

Fortunately, that changed recently. I am amazed to find myself a constant member of a gym with a personal trainer for more than 2 years. I also have a series of medals to prove some races I’ve managed to finish. I’m even thinking of trying other activities like wall climbing, yoga or swimming.

Many years of bad habits do not die easily though. I like good food. I like having friends for dinner and I always cook for more than the actual number of people invited. My weight constantly goes up and down. I haven’t been able to maintain it properly. I always fashion a hairy belly, not from drinking beer but from eating. That belly in some cases does go away during summer but always comes back in winter. I’m a bear (excuse the pun) accumulating fat for the cold season…

I also know that I could never be a vegetarian. Have you seen in ‘My Big Fat Greek wedding’ the scene where John Corbett says he’s a vegetarian and how everybody else reacts? Exactly that. Some jokes in that movie are so real!

Since, I’m turning a bit older and I am (more or less) making some progress, I’d like to take it to the next step and start monitoring how many fruit and vegetables I eat and how much water I drink. My family’s history of heart disease, high cholesterol and bad genes is not helping. I can’t remember the last time I had all 5 of my ‘5 a day’. And there is no way I had many days in a row, all 5 portions of fruit and vegetables.

Since, I’ve been showing some signs of persistence (writing this blog, going running etc), I do hope to have for the first time in my life a healthier body and a flat stomach… It's mostly about being healthy. Yes, sometimes I am insecure regarding my weight but I am not getting any younger and I don't want to follow my family's history.

How many of your 5-a-day, did you have today?

All these thoughts came to me when I was checking 'Cancer Research UK' web site. I've registered for another run and I might choose to fund raise for them. In their website, among other things they have some tips on healthy living. There's an easy test regarding life styles here. Of course it's not something I didn't know before, but it made me wonder...

Anyway, that's enough deep thinking for a Friday afternoon! Have a nice weekend...
xxx

Foul mood…

I haven’t slept well at least the last two days. I simply can’t seem to relax and let god Morpheus take me. I don’t know why he might be upset with me. I don’t know what to do to please him and accept me…

The truth is I have many stuff in my mind at the moment. I feel pressured from all the things I have to do and failing to accomplish in the degree I’d want to. There is of course no one to blame but me. I have stuff at work, that are delayed and I’m struggling to finish. I have lots of studying to do and failing is not an option for me. I also have arranged running for Cancer Research the Sunday of the 17th October, the day after the final course, and I want to train for that as well. In the meantime I am applying for new jobs, trying to sort out my finances and go to the gym regularly with my personal trainer which leaves me in pain the next day(s).


Of course, a logic person would tell me to stop training and going to the gym, sort my priorities and stop worrying for things that are not mine to control.
Heh!
I disagree… Running is something I love doing. I am not that great (yet) at it but I love how it helps clear my mind. I love that I am increasing my mileage, that I my average speed is also increasing and the feeling of accomplishment it is giving me.


I simply need to put myself together. Arrange a studying schedule that can be followed and accept the fact that some sacrifices (cinema, going out) need to be made in order to accomplish some of my goals…

Anyway, enough whining. I’ll be fine, I know it. I feel already just by writing these things down. A very strong shot of caffeine will make me so much happier now. Maybe some chocolate? And I’ll definitely find how to please Morpheus. Maybe a nice chamomile or warm milk tonight?

Having dinner in KFC before cinema

So, I was sitting in a KFC restaurant (?) with ‘JJ’ enjoying some nice greasy food when he looks me in the eyes and tells me:
JJ: I think I’ve found what’s wrong with me.
Me: Many things are wrong with you. Which one are you referring to now?
JJ: I thin I have GAD.
Me: What’s that?
JJ: Generalised Anxiety Disorder.
Me: Is that new? They always come up with a new disorder each week. I have trouble keeping up with them.
JJ: It means that I get stressed easily and sometimes I worry for unimportant things too each. I can make something small seem serious.
Me: Hmm... You know you’re doing it again, right? Just because you worry sometimes too much, you have all of a sudden a disorder?
JJ: You think I don’t?
ME: Yes, sometimes Google is not good for you.

OK, I know that sometimes I sound condescending. However, that’s the way that some conversations go between me and JJ. He’d say something totally out of the blue and I would try to rationalise it. I’m the person with the square logic and he’s the artist. I’m the boring one and he’s the exciting one. Anyway, he wasn’t totally being serious about it and I did try to play along. We laughed a lot about it.

Anyway, after I tried to talk him out of having a disorder (as fashionable as that may have been), I started thinking about how many disorders there are. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to talk about the serious ones. I’m talking about the silly things. For example, I read on the paper (not a very serious one) the other night about how Kendra Wilkinson has a pizzaphobia! And it’s not just the celebrities. An acquaintance of mine I met on twitter (for the short period of time long ago I was into it) told me that he had a phobia of telephones! At the beginning, I thought he was joking, but apparently he wasn’t! He simply can’t use a mobile phone! He’s actually scared of holding one.

There must be now a disorder, phobia or mental axiom about everything these days. What did it all come down to that? Aren’t there enough serious problems in the world that we try to find and make new ones? When is it politically correct to just say to some people to simply stop whining and deal with the problem they think they have! Or am I just being obnoxious?

Reading (totally different kind)

Lately, I’ve been worried a bit about the increase of my waistline so I decided to do something about it. I totally blame JJ (and he knows about it)… My housemate and sister are members of the weight watchers and they’ve been quite successful dropping off some pounds each. So, I decided to do something similar by buying myself a good scale to keep track of my weight weekly, trying to see the numbers go down.

So, I visited my local branch of Argos to see what’s on offer. I’ve found a really nice, flashy white scale with lots of buttons and memory that calculates weight, body fat, muscle mass, body water and BMI in a few seconds! Apparently it lets small electricity current to run through you to check all these different things. (Yes, I’ve even created a small excel chart for every one of them – I am that geek)!

Although I am happy that I drop a few kilos (the first ones are always easy to lose) I can’t exactly figure out the rest of the numbers. Take the body fat for example. I weighted myself two days ago. Since then I ate a burger at a nice restaurant (bad) but I went to the gym (good), ran 6 miles (good) and only had a salad with tuna in brine for dinner yesterday (very good). As expected, my weight was down for almost half a kilo (I don’t expect miracles) but my body fat had increased by 4%! Why? In such a rate the majority of me will be only fat! At least I’ll float better when I go swimming…


On a very different matter but still in the same category, I visited the doctor the other day. I wanted to check about the muscle pull I have. It’s been three weeks and it is still causing me some discomfort. The (very good looking) doctor told me that there is nothing to worry about. He told me that it could take up to 6 weeks to heal. Also, if I had any problem with my ribs I would definitely know. He fell down the stairs (poor thing) and he cracked 4 ribs. He could move for days…

Anyway, while I was there I had a brief health check. Frau Freida (the nurse) checked my pulse and blood pressure. Unfortunately, the reading of my blood pressure was very high that frau was very surprised. I expected it to be high (it runs in the family) but not that much. Since you can’t really tell from just one reading, I will go again in a couple of days to double check.

I have to admit that I am slightly troubled. The past year I’ve been living quite an active life, I don’t add extra salt to food, I don’t usually eat red meat (excluding that burger I had two days ago) and I like my veggies, fish and fruit. The only sin that I can admit is my love for feta cheese. For those of you who haven’t tried it, feta is a quite salty goat cheese. It’s good for the bones though...

Accident prone…

It came to my attention that I have been regularly mentioning accidents happening to me. I can’t help but wonder whether their number has increased recently and try to find the reason why. The good thing is that I have been much more active the past few months which slightly excuses the situation and makes me feel better.


So, the latest story is that I was having a session with my personal torturer at the gym and while doing some leg presses, I felt an acute pain on my upper abdominals. He (the torturer) told me that I’ve most likely pulled a muscle, an explanation that I liked since it implies that I have abs (hidden) to get pulled! However, it’s been a week now that I have a minor pain / discomfort right below my ribcage. Some people suggested that I cracked a rib which I don’t believe. Having a cracked rib is for people like Mel Gibson or Bruce Willis.


I tried to refrain from most physical activities and I was starting to feel better until Tuesday. That was the day of my scheduled second trial dive. I had already booked my diving referrals and diving in a nearby lake to receive my proper open water diving certificate and I didn’t need a second trial dive, however my housemate wanted to give it a try and I agreed to accompany her. I have to admit that I enjoyed that dive as much as the first one.

However, the pressure and weight of the BCD made my ab (singular) sore again and I am once more in healing process. I haven’t been running or went to the gym for a week and funnily enough I feel weird / sad about it. I never thought I’d say it but I missed exercising (my old self can go and die now).

Being home though I managed to do some stuff that I haven’t done in ages like getting some rest, watching brainless telly or studying. I was also able to arrange my surprise for ‘JJ’s birthday which is at the end of next week (I’ll keep you posted).

Have an amazing sunny weekend all!!! C U next week.