That lethargy I complained about in my last post isn’t going
anywhere. In fact it may be getting worse.
It doesn’t seem to impact my training: for example, I felt
particularly strong in last night’s workout (finished 1 rep short of Rika which
is always going to be a good day, to come that close to an athlete of her
calibre!). Although Tuesday I felt too tired to train, and took the day off,
and it’s annoying to feel tired all day long, and it’s contributing to a
general ‘sense of humour failure’ as Rika would say, whereby everything and
everyone annoys me.
My acupuncturist laughed at me, and said it was a darn good
thing I came in because my body is quite run down. My chiropractor diagnosed an
issue with my adrenal glands … apparently I need to relax more. I think that
having Peter & Mandy away Monday and Tuesday didn’t help because I had to
be in charge and sort out everything on my own (or at least maintain a list of
things to discuss with them when they got back).
Didn’t help either that on the way back from showing our new
business consultant intern the FoodTents GrowZone I got into a car accident
(this lady was turning right and was supposed to yield to me because I had the
right of way, turned right in front of me, and there was no way I could stop).
It was crazy, the woman couldn’t even walk straight. She was clearly not well
and shouldn’t have been driving. We went to the police station to file an
accident report and I swear in America they probably would have locked her up
for something. But this is South Africa. I can’t complain, at some point I’m
sure I’ll be on the receiving end of that sort of laissez-faire attitude.
So now I have to deal with a slightly detached front bumper.
On the plus side, solid engineering prevented any major damage to my car at
all. Hers didn’t fare so well. But as she was uninsured, I have to pay myself,
and hassle with insurance. Yet another thing to add to my list of things to do.
I did manage to sign a lease on a new apartment this week, though. Had to
negotiate some changes to the lease but that was straightforward enough and I’m
quite happy: it doesn’t have the dramatic view of my current place but it’s got
character (which is KEY in my book ... I do NOT want to live in a brand-new
24-hour security pre-fab building where everything is brand new), it’s in a
small block with only 5 apartments, has two bedrooms so I can have guests and,
most importantly, there are views of foliage from all windows. The living room
opens onto a balcony from which you cannot see much view but you can see a lot
of trees, including a banana tree. That sort of view and amount of greenery
around is very rare, and is what attracted me … it’s not your run-of-the-mill
apartment at all. Oh and it has offstreet parking, and no stairs to climb. Good
for when I come home loaded up with 85 different things. A new coat of paint,
new mirror and cabinet in the bathroom, and some furniture and I’ll be right at
home.
One thing I will miss about this place is the lovely gas
stove. One thing I won’t miss is the shower that keeps attacking me.
Today was actually the first day all week that I didn’t wake
up in a sour mood and stay that way all day. Tuesday evening was quite nice as
a few of us gathered to have a dinner in honour of our wonderful intern Christoph,
whose last week is this week. He’s going to be a big loss.
Aside from the lethargy (if it persists past the CrossFit
comp next weekend, I’ll get a blood panel done and see if there’s something
actually wrong with me), things are ok. A lot of our interns are going to be
gone next week which will free me up from day-to-day management to start to get
a handle on whether or not we are all spending our time the most effectively. I’m
sure we are not and I have some ideas about how to fix it, so it will be good to
have a relatively quiet week and get some hard-core planning done. The Hub is
really coming alive, with new members and some very cool events.
The intermittent fasting experiment is going quite well. I
am never hungry in the morning, and whatever energy issues I have are
unaffected by food intake. I’m also finally breaking through my fat loss
barrier. It’s possible that what’s going on is overly rapid fat loss so I’m going
to measure that too. Whatever’s going on with me, I’ll diagnose and fix it.
Because that’s what I do, and when it’s something as crucially important to me
as my health I’m not going to ignore the problem. If there’s one thing I do
know it’s that correlation and causation are not one and the same thing.
Speaking of my body again, the acupuncture is really helping
my ankle and knee. It’s amazing. Although I know by now that I have an
abnormally high pain tolerance but some of those needles when they go in ….
OUCH! Adding insult to injury in these last few sessions when he pulls them out
I feel just …. Broken. I have a hard time even sitting up, and I just feel …. Tender
is maybe the best word. It’s not a feeling I relish. But while it may be my own
personal torture, it’s incredibly effective.
Oh, and I feel compelled to explain why I called Apple an
evil empire in the last post. As much respect as I have for Steve Jobs as a
designer, perfectionist, visionary, and (maybe) leader, it annoys me that he’s
done with Apple what he hated about Microsoft. He’s made a completely closed
and proprietary set of systems and forced his software down users’ throats.
Want to use an iPod? Well you MUST use iTunes. Oh, your battery died? Buy a new
unit. We don’t support replacement batteries. In a way, power to him and the
loyalty they’ve inspired in the cult of Mac. But part of that loyalty is
engineered into the planned obsolescence of the product design, combined with
extremely poor interoperability. Once you’re in, you’re locked in. Microsoft is
an evil empire too, don’t get me wrong, but just because Apple is different and
prettier doesn’t make it better. Pretty is as pretty does, after all. Yes, it’s
just business, and all’s fair in love and competitive warfare, but Apple ain’t
a kind and gentle company either, so far as I can see. I don’t trust them, and
for that reason I don’t buy their products. Except for other people.
Now to bed, so I can hope my head and body are in the right
place tomorrow morning. Slightly over one week to go before I compete. There’s
nothing quite like a competition (or a deadline) to focus the mind.
- “A bottle of wine is the answer to everything.” – Jon (ain’t THAT the truth!)
- “Americans have big feet.” – Rika
- “Americans can sometimes be … a little much. Sorry to say.” – Chris
- “In a world where nothing seems to matter, what we do here is extremely relevant.” – Peter
- “You’re not well.” – Jeff
- “You’re not Superwoman.” – Jon
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