Back on the Band

For the first time in over a month I did my leg strengthening exercises using my make-shift stretch band. This has always been an important part of my very limited exercise regime but my health has been so fragile over the past month that I eshewed even that basic exercise. However, I felt strong enough to resume but I have to be circumspect and not overdo it. A couple of days ago I actually went for a walk around the block for the first time in well over a month. Afterwards I felt very tired but apart from the fatigue there were no consequences.

Of course it is still a mystery as to what was wrong with me. It may have been the sourdough bread and even if it wasn't, I don't want to risk a recrudescence of my earlier symptoms. Sourdough bread is definitely off the menu now and forever. If I do suffer a recurrence of my symptoms then the culprit is most likely BAM but I'm hoping that it's not. Meanwhile I can enjoy my good health and keep my fingers crossed.

My departure to Australia is looking more like mid-June now which is close to the June 22nd danger date that I predicted earlier in the year. Of course by that time the biting cold of a Melbourne winter may have taken its toll and I'll be sick as predicted. However, my departure is at least a month away so let's see what happens in the interim. Hopefully I can stay healthy.

Protuberance Gone

After what seemed an eternity, the "protuberance" as I chose to call it, finally dropped off leaving hardly a trace. Whether its disappearance is a good thing or not, I don't know. Maybe it heralds a new phase in my deterioration or maybe I am simply healed of a mysterious affliction. Anyway it's a relief to have it gone.

My left bottom molar continues to be a source of minor annoyance, remaining sensitive to hot and cold. Presumably the nerve in the tooth will simply die and the tooth will eventually crumble. I'll keep monitoring the situation. I'm loath to visit the dental mafia unless things become really grim.

Now that I'm settled back in Maleo, I'm getting into a routine of walking every second day and doing my stretch band exercises for my legs at least once a day every day. Most days I also use the stretch band for my upper body as well. Overall I don't feel too bad but I'm aware of my increasing fragility. Increasingly I don't want to be bothered with matters that cause me stress. I'm happy just to dither about.

Mentally, I've decided to persist with my online chess. I figure I can only get better or languish at the same level as I'm at now. I find the 10 minute per side plus 5 second increment suits me well enough. I just need to manage my time because I often obtain winning positions but squander them in time trouble or because of chess blindness. It's important for maintaining a semblance of mental acuity.

Just as I finished writing this last paragraph, a family friend whom I've played chess with once before called up for a game. He's coming over soon. Last time we met, he won four games out of four convincingly so I'm apprehensive but it's all practice so ... and after two lengthy games I came away with a draw and a loss but it was.a hard fought loss and my opponet was clearly impressed with the level of my play. We are fairly evenly matched when we play at a slower pace which is what happened this time around. Last time we played I more or less matched his very rapid play but this time I played at my own pace and fared much better.

State of Play

As my creaking old body approaches its 75th birthday, I've made some changes to my exercise regime. Having mislaid my pantyhose stretch band for a second time, I've taken to doing replacement isometric exercises. I'm finding these are working quite well and my legs are definitely feeling much stronger.

Balancing while standing on one leg for the count of fifty is another exercise for leg strength. Pushing away from the wall with my hands, front on and side on, helps to maintain upper body strength and step-ups provide aerobic exercise. I still go for walks of course but the step-ups are a good alternative if it's raining, if it's the wrong time of day or if I just don't feel like venturing out.

My neck is creaking and cracking and so I make sure to keep my flexibility in that area via neck rotations and various other stretching movements. Living in a house of steps is an added blessing and I keep busy in the garden and doing general cleaning around the house, both of which boost my fitness level. Overall, at the moment, I don't feel too bad. The discomfort in the area of my solar plexus has subsided a little and pain from my broken teeth is quiescent.

Figure 1 shows my median life expectancy based on 2016 data to be 87.17 years (using Wolfram Alpha). The prompt used was "life expectancy for an Australian male born April 3rd 1949":

Figure 1

We'll see about that. What was disturbing is Wolfram Alpha's low predictions for the length of life of Indonesians. Regardless of how long I last, I need to combine long periods of sitting with periods of physical activity. It's quite common for me to be seated watching episodes in a series for two or more hours. This must be balanced by physical activity of some form or another.

Getting Sick Again

Oh dear. I wrote fatefully on May 31st that I was starting to recover from my virus attack but things promptly took a turn for the worst for the next three days. I was able to do very little. I developed a wracking cough and an overwhelming lethargy so that I slept for most of the time. It's was only  on June 4th that I could say I'd recovered.

Definitely, transiting Ceres sitting on the cusp of my sixth house was a clear reflection in the outer world of the psycho-physical activity in my inner world that led to my illness. So today, June 5th, I took my first morning walk in a week, proceeding at what for me was a leisurely pace. All I can do is begin again. Pick up where I left off.

Of course, I've misplaced my stretch band that I used for my leg exercises and so I need to either find it or find a replacement. I'm getting sick of getting sick but soon enough I'll transcend illness. While still inhabiting a physical body however, I wish there was a mental technique to distance myself from the suffering for its duration. Perhaps there is. I remember my yoga teacher of fifty years again (Elsa Gartenstein I think her name was) claimed she underwent dental procedures without anesthesia.

Six Weeks of Indolence

After six weeks of holidays, I've eventually returned home and my weight was disappointing but not surprising. In shorts only, I weighed 74.5 kg. I say not surprising because I did very little exercise, even neglecting my leg strengthening exercises with the stretch band. I'm basically back to zero so anything I do from this point on will be of benefit.

Just before heading back home, I had the opportunity to have a brief session with my psychic healer who said that my lungs and heart were not in synch, meaning that my rate of breathing and my heart rate were out of synch. He recommended that I consume three sachets of SuperGoat per day. I was somewhat surprised at this prescription, after all drinking goat's milk sweetened with palm sugar isn't exactly my style. See Figure 1.

However, I have faith in his healing and have been dutifully consuming my three sachets daily for some days now. I can say that I've noticed some definite improvement in my condition since beginning the regime and I'm motivated to continue. My condition, as I've diagnosed it, is a thymoma or thymic cyst but my healer made no mention of kelanjar  or gland this time as he'd done on a previous occasion. 

Figure 1

Meanwhile I need to get my body back into some kind of shape, slowly of course. The goat's milk has provided me with a little more energy to embark on this enterprise. Before I was feeling too lethargic to even begin. At this point in my life, the goal is to simply hold on. Sooner or later, something will carry me off but hopefully it will be quick and, in the interim, I would like to maintain an acceptable level of physical health and cognitive functioning.

HOLD ON