I received the results my bloodwork yesterday and they are much improved over the last two. My cholesterol is at 190, which is pretty normal for the most part. It was at 278. My triglicerides are still high, at 221, but it definitely beats the 800 or so that it was in May. So my food choice and the meds I was on have made a difference. I am grateful that I have somewhat normal readings, and will work to get the trigs down to a more acceptable level. I am sure more meds are on the horizon but I am hoping that I won't have to take them indefinitely. I don't like meds, not even tylenols, but in this case, the walking ticking time bomb had to be defused.
The good news is the South beach Diet is working. It really is more of a lifestyle choice in what you eat and how you take care of yourself. And for me, it is working. I am going to stick with it. I don't want to lose any more weight, but rather I'd like to maintain my body weight at what it is given my small stature. So I am going to work on getting the body that I had when I finished high school. Surfing will do a lot of the upper body work, I am not worried about that. I need to focus on the cardiovascular and leg work, that is where the tennis comes in. We'll see. Josh and Jeremy are leaving for Hawaii Aug.1, so it'l be just me and Jovi, and of course Kimo until the 12 when we take off and meet up with them in Kona. Jac seems to be pretty excited. My tita Andeng and my tita lillian will be attending the wedding as well. tita lillian is like Jac's mom or at least like her older sister. I think that is why she invited her to attend as well. But she is getting old and traveling from the Philippines solo has got to be hard. Perhaps she should start thinking about bringing a companion along as well, somebody more mobile and younger to help her out.
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Surf the web
It has been about a week since I last went surfing, mostly due to the fact that it has been flat, which pretty much sucks. When there is a swell you ride it, but when there is no swell what can you do?
Anyway, the US Open of Surfing is going on down in Huntington Beach this week. I went down today and will probably get press credentials so I can write a story on the streaming technology they are using to stream the event over the Internet.
Isn't the Internet cool? Everyday it really makes me be thankful that such an invention enables a lot of folks to do a lot of things. It brings people together in some respects, while for others, it makes folks money. It is truly a commerce machine. You can communicate with people all over the world, email pics and even watch porn straight from your computer.
One of the coolest sites on the Internet is Surfline.com. Yep, it is a site set up with webcams at some prime surf spots in the United States and select spots around the world. You can check the surf to see if its any good at your local break, and you can check it in a place like South Shore Hawaii, which streams video of Bowls, my former stomping ground when I lived there back in 2000. I've seen Bowls absolutely going off and just wished that we didn't move back to California. Surfline.com is one of the few subscription based sites that might be worth the money. It was free back in 2000 but today they charge a fee to see the live streams. But they do offer a written report and a still image of your favorite surf spot, as well as a wealth of information regarding surf, weather buoys, swell direction, tides, etc.
I should have become a marine biologist, that way I could be in the water all the time. I remember back in the early 1980s, there was a story in Surfer magazine written by a marine biologist who had a job studying the reefs of the Philippines. Pollution impacts as well as dynamite fishing, that sort of thing I think. The guy got to travel all over the Phils for two years or so, and he happened to be a surfer. Imagine, being able to have a job like that. I could travel all over the country and surf some of the killer breaks they write about in the surf magazines. I had one of my friend's over for dinner the opther night. He has surfed all over the place, Panama, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Tahiti, but he wants to surf Cloud 9 in Catanduanes. He is married to a half Filipina/half German American girl who was my former co-worker. We were talking about Cloud 9, and I was telling him how the break was named after a Philippine chocolate bar. Those candy bars are surprisingly good for Philippine candy, actually, that is one of the things that I ask my aunt to bring me when she visits, that and Bench and FHM Philippines. The thing is the last FHM mag that she brought had Halle Berry on the cover, and Halle just doesn't do it for me. I really wanted to see a filipina on the cover, but WTF. No worries. I'd trade a box of Nestle Whites for a box of Cloud 9's any day.
My auntie Jacqueline is finally getting married. She has been dating her fiance for more than 10 years, and finally they are getting married. The guy is 50 and according to my mom, he has asked her to marry him many times over the years and she had said no too many times. I wonder what spurred her to say yes. My mom didn't approve of him when she first met him (long hair in a pontytail, leather jacket), and Jacq I think took it personally so she never brought him around. ver the last 10+ years they have been dating, Anthony has probably been to a handful of family gatherings. Seriously. Jacq is the half sister of my mom, and I guess she didn't want to disappoint her. Me? I always did my own thing, regardless of what my mother said. I was always opposed to her "meddling" but that is my mom, and her "meddling" didn't change Jacq's mind, she is marrying him. The wedding will take place on the Big Island, at the Hilton Waikaloa Village in August. So I am happy we are going back to Hawaii, if at least for a vacation. After the Big Island, we are going to O'ahu and will stay in our house in Manoa for a week. Jodi is worried about the tenant who rents my portion of the house, but WTF, he is a tenant, and if he wants to move out, he can. Then we can double the rent. I am fully looking forward to Hawaii. I just hope there is a swell when I am there. I have a couple of boards there. I've got like four boards there, five boards in my garage, and I've got another board (hopefully) at my aunt's house in the Philippines. That thing is ancient. But the last time I rode it, it worked. I just didn't get barreled.
Anyway, the US Open of Surfing is going on down in Huntington Beach this week. I went down today and will probably get press credentials so I can write a story on the streaming technology they are using to stream the event over the Internet.
Isn't the Internet cool? Everyday it really makes me be thankful that such an invention enables a lot of folks to do a lot of things. It brings people together in some respects, while for others, it makes folks money. It is truly a commerce machine. You can communicate with people all over the world, email pics and even watch porn straight from your computer.
One of the coolest sites on the Internet is Surfline.com. Yep, it is a site set up with webcams at some prime surf spots in the United States and select spots around the world. You can check the surf to see if its any good at your local break, and you can check it in a place like South Shore Hawaii, which streams video of Bowls, my former stomping ground when I lived there back in 2000. I've seen Bowls absolutely going off and just wished that we didn't move back to California. Surfline.com is one of the few subscription based sites that might be worth the money. It was free back in 2000 but today they charge a fee to see the live streams. But they do offer a written report and a still image of your favorite surf spot, as well as a wealth of information regarding surf, weather buoys, swell direction, tides, etc.
I should have become a marine biologist, that way I could be in the water all the time. I remember back in the early 1980s, there was a story in Surfer magazine written by a marine biologist who had a job studying the reefs of the Philippines. Pollution impacts as well as dynamite fishing, that sort of thing I think. The guy got to travel all over the Phils for two years or so, and he happened to be a surfer. Imagine, being able to have a job like that. I could travel all over the country and surf some of the killer breaks they write about in the surf magazines. I had one of my friend's over for dinner the opther night. He has surfed all over the place, Panama, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Tahiti, but he wants to surf Cloud 9 in Catanduanes. He is married to a half Filipina/half German American girl who was my former co-worker. We were talking about Cloud 9, and I was telling him how the break was named after a Philippine chocolate bar. Those candy bars are surprisingly good for Philippine candy, actually, that is one of the things that I ask my aunt to bring me when she visits, that and Bench and FHM Philippines. The thing is the last FHM mag that she brought had Halle Berry on the cover, and Halle just doesn't do it for me. I really wanted to see a filipina on the cover, but WTF. No worries. I'd trade a box of Nestle Whites for a box of Cloud 9's any day.
My auntie Jacqueline is finally getting married. She has been dating her fiance for more than 10 years, and finally they are getting married. The guy is 50 and according to my mom, he has asked her to marry him many times over the years and she had said no too many times. I wonder what spurred her to say yes. My mom didn't approve of him when she first met him (long hair in a pontytail, leather jacket), and Jacq I think took it personally so she never brought him around. ver the last 10+ years they have been dating, Anthony has probably been to a handful of family gatherings. Seriously. Jacq is the half sister of my mom, and I guess she didn't want to disappoint her. Me? I always did my own thing, regardless of what my mother said. I was always opposed to her "meddling" but that is my mom, and her "meddling" didn't change Jacq's mind, she is marrying him. The wedding will take place on the Big Island, at the Hilton Waikaloa Village in August. So I am happy we are going back to Hawaii, if at least for a vacation. After the Big Island, we are going to O'ahu and will stay in our house in Manoa for a week. Jodi is worried about the tenant who rents my portion of the house, but WTF, he is a tenant, and if he wants to move out, he can. Then we can double the rent. I am fully looking forward to Hawaii. I just hope there is a swell when I am there. I have a couple of boards there. I've got like four boards there, five boards in my garage, and I've got another board (hopefully) at my aunt's house in the Philippines. That thing is ancient. But the last time I rode it, it worked. I just didn't get barreled.
Friday, July 08, 2005
Pollutted Waters
yesterday I was sick with a flu. I went surfing early in the morning and I noticed the water was dirty. It was Red Tide, which is a condition in the water when microorgranizms, dinoflagellates, die off, leaving the water a dirty brownish red color. Stupid of me, I surfed and inadvertently swallowed some water. When I came home to finish a story I was working on, I started to get the chills. I had a glass of lemonade that Jeremy made for me and proceeded to lay down on my bed, pulling the covers over and just shivering for the rest of the day.
By evening, I was feeling a bit better but not quite 100 percent. Later that night I had a serious bout of number 2, which wa as if a faucet was turned on it was so bad. But today, I came out of it Ok and feel a bit better, maybe 80 percent. Which brings me to some assumptions. How did I get sick with stomach flu? I am betting it was from the water, becauser I can't think of anything else that would have caused me to have a fever of 101 for such a short duration. The water off Newport was iffy and I went for it anyway. Big mistake. If anything is iffy, be it the food, the water, or a potential lover, forget it. Don't do it. I seriously think the water was polluted and I ingested some seriously foul water that caused me to get sick. What else could it have been? The lemonade? The lemons jeremy used were off our tree in the back yard and they might have been over ripe, but do over ripe lemons pose a risk that could cause me to get as sick as I was?
By evening, I was feeling a bit better but not quite 100 percent. Later that night I had a serious bout of number 2, which wa as if a faucet was turned on it was so bad. But today, I came out of it Ok and feel a bit better, maybe 80 percent. Which brings me to some assumptions. How did I get sick with stomach flu? I am betting it was from the water, becauser I can't think of anything else that would have caused me to have a fever of 101 for such a short duration. The water off Newport was iffy and I went for it anyway. Big mistake. If anything is iffy, be it the food, the water, or a potential lover, forget it. Don't do it. I seriously think the water was polluted and I ingested some seriously foul water that caused me to get sick. What else could it have been? The lemonade? The lemons jeremy used were off our tree in the back yard and they might have been over ripe, but do over ripe lemons pose a risk that could cause me to get as sick as I was?
South Beach
Finally something good comes out of Florida! Since I've been on this modified South Beach Diet, I've gone from a weight of 167 to 155 lbs, and a waist size from 32 to 30. I've lost a considerable amount of weight and have lost the cravings that I had previously. I don't pine for the chocolate bars and all the sugary sodas anymore, though I did eat some strawberry and banana cream pie from marie Callender's over the 4th of July weekend. I am going to stick to the diet, which the author of the book calls a lifestyle. Jovi has also lost a considerable amount of weight in her support of me. She is really the catalyst that provides for all the cooking of the food. Rather than the creamy fattening tasty stuff she has been cooking over the last 15 years, she is now cooking up low fat, low carb stuff that is equally as tasty, albeit without all the artery clogging fat and cholesterol that makes food taste so good. I now understand that eating too much sugar conditions the body to crave yet more food, and what do you do but eat more, even when your body doesn't need all that sugar. The pancreas works over time to process all the sugar which can lead to dangerous things.That is exactly how it has been with me. I'd eat a late breakfast, and couple that with a late lunch and a lot of candy bars and sodas in between. pretty undisciplined.
The book provides for a lot of recipes and she has made good use of it. It is funny though because the book lists all the stuff that'l make you gain weight, and I am surprised that a lot of the stuff I enjoyed previously, fruit juices, bread, and the like are really supposed to taken in moderation. I used to drink a half gallon of OJ every two days, but the sugar content is unacceptably high, and I was under the impression that OJ is a good natural drink, a safe bet is what I always assumed. But the sugar is often as much as you'd get in a can of Coke, so that habit has been quelled. Thank god I never got to learn how to drink coffee, or I would really be in trouble.
Coupled with exercise, I think I am doing pretty good. The proof'l be in the pudding when I go for my next blood test next week. I've been doing a bit of exercise, surfing, and Tae Bo. I can see an outline of stomach muscles that disappeared 15 years ago when I got married. I've been doing abs and cardio work with Tae bo and have been playing tennis as well. So I've gotten off my lazy ass and have formulated an exercise regimen that I think is beginning to show results, which is a good thing, because I don't want to be a diabetic at 40.
The book provides for a lot of recipes and she has made good use of it. It is funny though because the book lists all the stuff that'l make you gain weight, and I am surprised that a lot of the stuff I enjoyed previously, fruit juices, bread, and the like are really supposed to taken in moderation. I used to drink a half gallon of OJ every two days, but the sugar content is unacceptably high, and I was under the impression that OJ is a good natural drink, a safe bet is what I always assumed. But the sugar is often as much as you'd get in a can of Coke, so that habit has been quelled. Thank god I never got to learn how to drink coffee, or I would really be in trouble.
Coupled with exercise, I think I am doing pretty good. The proof'l be in the pudding when I go for my next blood test next week. I've been doing a bit of exercise, surfing, and Tae Bo. I can see an outline of stomach muscles that disappeared 15 years ago when I got married. I've been doing abs and cardio work with Tae bo and have been playing tennis as well. So I've gotten off my lazy ass and have formulated an exercise regimen that I think is beginning to show results, which is a good thing, because I don't want to be a diabetic at 40.
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