Binged, Less sting

Last night I finished up my binge watching of Jack Ryan.  I ingested all three seasons in 2-3 weeks.  A lot of times I would watch an episode or two while I was in bed which is not ideal as it is not unusual for me to drift in and out in that position, resulting in some gaps on the story line for me. Regardless I enjoyed the series.  I have a list of three things I want to dig into next, one of them being Yellowstone and another being Picard.

My sleep has been getting better lately since the incision on my head is healing up.  I don’t feel the sharp sting that I did the first few days, allowing me to get better sleep once again, with an assist from Unisom.

I am now at the point with my house transition that I am wishing we could just get it over with.  I know long hard days of packing/moving are coming followed by an unknown amount of time at the new place trying to get things in workable order.  It’s going to be a combination of frustration and fun, without a doubt.

Tonight I am planning to hit the sand volleyball court for the fourth consecutive week.  I am encouraged that things are going better.  Pretty much every time I have played pickleball since I started in 2022 I have worn knee braces, thinking they would help my overall knee stability.  I have had one knee scoped twice for meniscus damage and the other one is not in great shape either.  I have been able to play pickleball but often my knees have not felt great after playing, it is my biggest problem area.

Well when I started playing volleyball I decided to not wear the braces because I basically did not want to get them all sandy.  However I noticed afterward that my knees felt better than I would have expected after playing.  I then thought back to my active volleyball days.  After my knee surgeries I thought I needed to wear a brace so I did, for awhile.  However at one point I stopped wearing it and again I actually felt better.  My non-medical expert opinion is the compression the knee brace creates decreases the amount of space in the joint which in turn creates more opportunity for inflammation.

So anyway, based on this I have also stopped wearing my dual knee braces for pickleball and low and behold, I have noticed I am exiting each session feeling better in my knees than I have for the majority of time I have been playing.  So my plan going forward is to keep playing “naked” and see where it leads me.  My hope is the more I expose my body to the movements in these sports the more reliable it will become.

The other night I stepped on the scale and it actually read 181 lbs, my heaviest weight in probably a year or more.  Now that I am more around where I want to be I need to taper off my eating to more reasonable levels as well as keep focusing on my strength training.  I want any additional weight to be primarily muscle, not flab.  Last night after work I was still able to knock out my calisthenics “century” workout, doing 20 pull ups, 20 dips, 30 hanging knee raises and 30 push ups.  It felt a little more difficult with the added few pounds but I got through it.  I am mentally weighing if I want to build a pull up bar at my new place or not…..