Arrggggghhh, just wrote this long blog post and it crashed while saving, so I will try and write it again.
Just finished my big and long job, and have a few days off before the next one starts. And I realized 12 hours a day 6 days a week is just too much for me. I was getting too tired and too irritable working those long hours, so about half way through the job had to cut back to 11 hour days and 5 days a week, which helped, but I was still pretty exhausted overall. Quite a stressful job too. Glad to be done. And I was starting at 5:30 AM, and eating lunch at my desk so I could leave at 5:30 PM, and I kept that up after cutting down hours so I could leave at 4:30 PM and get home a little after 6. Just a long day, especially with getting up around 3:30 AM after going to bed around 10:30 PM.
And the worst part is that with the long hours and stress I stopped losing weight, and even went back up to around 245. And it didn’t help that I sprained my left foot half way through the job and stopped doing my 2.1 mile walk, just doing the subway (still a long walk and about 15 flights of stairs). Now I have since managed to get back down to 242, but was down to 238, so I really need to get losing again. And I am still doing the 8 hour diet, even if I did break it some days (the bagel friday was hard to turn down some weeks).
Have actually been seeing more on intermittent fasting, and there is now a 5:2 diet, where you eat normally for 5 days and then eat only 500-1000 calories on 2 days a week and will lose weight. I am actually thinking about combining the 2 diets and seeing what happens. Of course I also eat as many salads as I can for meals, many days eating salad for lunch and dinner.
Actually the most impressive thing has been not getting sick. Before surgery I got sick a lot. I caught everything I came in contact with. And this is actually going back years, and even asked my cardiologist about it, but he didn’t think it was connected, but this last job I think has proved that it was. I mean this was the most stressful job I have done in a long time with the longest hours, and I was in close contact with sick people and I DID NOT GET SICK! Before even without running into sick people I can bet I would have been sick, and i did not. I wonder if anyone else post Septal Myectomy has noticed the same thing? This is a huge change, and I love it!
As for energy, I do have so much more energy than I used to. Kelly and I went on a long hike a couple of weekends back and it was not a problem other than my excessive sweating, and the fact that my hiking boots caused a huge blister. Still I could do it, and that is huge. Now I just need to lose 50 more pounds and get in as good shape as I can for my age, but no matter where I am going I am in better shape than I have ever been, just need to get my body to catch up now that I have a heart that works right.
My scar is about the same.
As you can see it is still pretty red and has not turned white as it should before it can see sunlight (no swimming for me). I think it has been kept pretty irritated by my carrying 3 big bags to work every day, with 3 straps rubbing on it. So I still try and use my pillow in the car when I can (when it is not too damn hot, which is pretty often in Los Angeles summer).
So back to work next week, but closer to home and direct response so should not be quite so much stress as the last job! Looking forward to it.