6 years years ago I was in a car accident and that resulted in a serious case of whiplash and damaged discs at c5/c6. Along with some minor damage in my lower back. That pretty much brought an end to my serious level of pool playing. I have continued to play very casually since then, but generally I have never been able to last much more than about 45 minutes before my back tells me it can not handle playing any more.
4 years ago I had 2 heart attacks and had stints installed in my heart. My father also had a stroke. Since then my father's health has continued to decline as he had a 2nd stroke, has had a heart attack, has developed lymphodema and cellulitis in his legs, has had his bladder stop and had to resort to a permanent foley catheter. With his strokes he has had vascular dementia develop and slowly gets worse.
As my father's health has declined I have had to become a full time caretaker helping my father. Also my own health has not gotten any better as during this same time I have had to deal with depression from taking care of my father, watching him decline, the after effects of 3 relationships that came and went badly, and other family issues. The end result for me and my health has been alot of weight gain. To a point of reaching 285 lbs.
To deal with the depression I have had to get regular counseling. To deal with the weight gain I have started to get more consistent in going to the gym. But when I have gone to the gym in the past I tried to make use of cardio and weight machines. I can handle the cardio treadmill and bike machines, but the various weight machines consistently exacerbated the problems in my back and really did nothing to help me feel any better. So that generally made my gym attendance very inconsistent.
With my last relationship breakup I decided I needed to make some new changes in life, and among those changes was investigating other options for exercise. I came across water exercises, and found some good aqua exercise videos on YouTube. So I began to adapt those aqua exercises into a whole new exercise regimen for myself. And in the last couple of months, it has taken some time but I am upto a 45 minute regimen that I do 5x a week. That effort combined with some changes in my diet has finally began to show some results in my losing weight.
At this point I have lost 15 pounds. For me 10 of those pounds I describe as ex girlfriend depression weight. When I reach 20 pounds of weight loss then I will have gotten rid of ex ex girlfriend depression weight. At that point the next goal will be to lose 20 more pounds to get rid of ex ex ex girlfriend depression weight. That particular relationship had a BIG impact on me emotionally more than the ones that followed. Once I reach that goal I will have lost 40 pounds and will be at the halfway point of the weight I am trying to lose.
While I continue my gym attendance and aqua exercise to lose weight I still have to deal with my back pain issues from the car accident. Surgery is out of the question because of insurance and finance issues. So I looked into acupuncture, and have found a local clinic that I can afford. And I have been attending 1x a week the last few weeks. So far it has helped a great deal on my lower back pain issues. Enough to encourage me to keep going with the treatment. My upper back pain issues are slowly improving. My goal is to get my back feeling well enough that I can effectively be able to play pool for at least 2 hours of daily training at the table. That will get me back into the game at least.
But I will tell u that along with everything else I deal with physically I have developed Plantar Fasciitis in both my feet in recent months. So I am working on trying to get that also under control. And from what I have learned it is related to my weight/obesity condition. Getting this feet pain under control is going to be essential to making me think it possible of spending a decent amount of time walking around a pool table. Besides the back pain issues as well.
Whether you play pool or note, your health is important. There was a point in my life before the car accident that I was doing well with attending the gym and exercising. Well enough that I had lost 50 pounds before the car accident. And I was very competitive with my pool playing at that time. The exercise did not directly improve my game skills, but it certainly improved my stamina for competition. And it allowed my mind to be more clear and to be mentally more alert and focused. And that's a pretty important element for anyone's pool game.
At this point I still have a long way's to go before I get back to where my game was before the car accident. And I still have alot to deal with in terms of daily stress and depression taking care of my father and my own life. But the gym time I spend each week helps somewhat in relieving some of the daily stress. The weekly counseling helps. The accupuncture is helping with my back pain. I am still probably several months away before I can begin to start on my pool training regimen that I was doing before the car accident. When I get there I will have to define a new set of pool playing goals. But I feel I can and will get there.
Whatever the current state of your health, you can make it better. Working to improve your health can only help to improve all the other parts of your life, physically and mentally. Nike say's Just Do It. But I am here to say don't be afraid to ask for help and advice. You probably have more support around you than you realize. Make use of that support. Define your goals and you can make those goals a reality.
OK I am done for now.
4 years ago I had 2 heart attacks and had stints installed in my heart. My father also had a stroke. Since then my father's health has continued to decline as he had a 2nd stroke, has had a heart attack, has developed lymphodema and cellulitis in his legs, has had his bladder stop and had to resort to a permanent foley catheter. With his strokes he has had vascular dementia develop and slowly gets worse.
As my father's health has declined I have had to become a full time caretaker helping my father. Also my own health has not gotten any better as during this same time I have had to deal with depression from taking care of my father, watching him decline, the after effects of 3 relationships that came and went badly, and other family issues. The end result for me and my health has been alot of weight gain. To a point of reaching 285 lbs.
To deal with the depression I have had to get regular counseling. To deal with the weight gain I have started to get more consistent in going to the gym. But when I have gone to the gym in the past I tried to make use of cardio and weight machines. I can handle the cardio treadmill and bike machines, but the various weight machines consistently exacerbated the problems in my back and really did nothing to help me feel any better. So that generally made my gym attendance very inconsistent.
With my last relationship breakup I decided I needed to make some new changes in life, and among those changes was investigating other options for exercise. I came across water exercises, and found some good aqua exercise videos on YouTube. So I began to adapt those aqua exercises into a whole new exercise regimen for myself. And in the last couple of months, it has taken some time but I am upto a 45 minute regimen that I do 5x a week. That effort combined with some changes in my diet has finally began to show some results in my losing weight.
At this point I have lost 15 pounds. For me 10 of those pounds I describe as ex girlfriend depression weight. When I reach 20 pounds of weight loss then I will have gotten rid of ex ex girlfriend depression weight. At that point the next goal will be to lose 20 more pounds to get rid of ex ex ex girlfriend depression weight. That particular relationship had a BIG impact on me emotionally more than the ones that followed. Once I reach that goal I will have lost 40 pounds and will be at the halfway point of the weight I am trying to lose.
While I continue my gym attendance and aqua exercise to lose weight I still have to deal with my back pain issues from the car accident. Surgery is out of the question because of insurance and finance issues. So I looked into acupuncture, and have found a local clinic that I can afford. And I have been attending 1x a week the last few weeks. So far it has helped a great deal on my lower back pain issues. Enough to encourage me to keep going with the treatment. My upper back pain issues are slowly improving. My goal is to get my back feeling well enough that I can effectively be able to play pool for at least 2 hours of daily training at the table. That will get me back into the game at least.
But I will tell u that along with everything else I deal with physically I have developed Plantar Fasciitis in both my feet in recent months. So I am working on trying to get that also under control. And from what I have learned it is related to my weight/obesity condition. Getting this feet pain under control is going to be essential to making me think it possible of spending a decent amount of time walking around a pool table. Besides the back pain issues as well.
Whether you play pool or note, your health is important. There was a point in my life before the car accident that I was doing well with attending the gym and exercising. Well enough that I had lost 50 pounds before the car accident. And I was very competitive with my pool playing at that time. The exercise did not directly improve my game skills, but it certainly improved my stamina for competition. And it allowed my mind to be more clear and to be mentally more alert and focused. And that's a pretty important element for anyone's pool game.
At this point I still have a long way's to go before I get back to where my game was before the car accident. And I still have alot to deal with in terms of daily stress and depression taking care of my father and my own life. But the gym time I spend each week helps somewhat in relieving some of the daily stress. The weekly counseling helps. The accupuncture is helping with my back pain. I am still probably several months away before I can begin to start on my pool training regimen that I was doing before the car accident. When I get there I will have to define a new set of pool playing goals. But I feel I can and will get there.
Whatever the current state of your health, you can make it better. Working to improve your health can only help to improve all the other parts of your life, physically and mentally. Nike say's Just Do It. But I am here to say don't be afraid to ask for help and advice. You probably have more support around you than you realize. Make use of that support. Define your goals and you can make those goals a reality.
OK I am done for now.
