Physical Therapy and Weight Status
Way back in April, 2021, my “Quote of the Month” here at JohnShinnick.com was “If I’d have known I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.” Eubie Blake, who played piano professionally well into his 90s was the source. He must have been doing something right in this regard. As I’ve been chronicling of late, my back has not been doing well. I’m definitely wishing I had a light-weight bass amp. Rehearsals would be far less painful!
I’ve been in therapy for a month and a half now, and I’m not thrilled with the results. Granted, I’m able to walk longer distances than when I started, generally over a mile over some of my home town’s relatively rare flat terrain. I used to do about a two-mile route with lots of hills. This can’t be helping with my quest to lose weight. More on that later.
I have exercises that I generally do every other day it takes about twenty-five minutes to go through a set, and (as I was initially told) I was to do three of these sets a day. I figured one in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night would be easiest, but it turned out those gaps between sets was too long. They shouldn’t be more than an hour or so. That made for a very inconvenient schedule.
What to do between sets? Reading or writing don’t really fit since they usually demand longer amounts of time without interruption. Same with guitar practice. I suppose chores around the house make sense, but I tend to get too absorbed in them and forget to do my next set. I really need more self-discipline. But if I never developed it in the last 74 years, it’s likely not in my future.
I’m due for an assessment soon. It will be determined whether I should continue with this therapy, or at least whether Medicare will pay for it.
In other news, I made mention last month that I was going to lose some weight. CDC says that a male of my height who weighs 209 or more is “obese”. Something about that word is rather disturbing. At least when applied to me. 208 or less if merely “overweight”. I was at 218 when I decided to do something about it. My plan is nothing drastic. Phase one was to cut out most of my between-meal crap. Ice cream was a big offender, crackers and other munchies were adding up too. This has gotten me down to about 205. This is a little disappointing, I was shooting for 200 by the end of August.
The Physical Shin
Last update: September 7, 2025
The John Shinnick Website
This map shows the relative amounts of obesity in the various states. California isn't too bad and I'm making it better. as of this morning I was at 205
I’m becoming a calorie counter when I shop. Popcorn and rice cakes (yeah, there are one or two that are acceptable) make good snacks if eaten in moderation. Lots of the lunches I buy are horrible, adding 500 or more calories, when some of the ones branded as “Healthy Choice” or something similar come in at about half that. The yogurt I’d been eating to supplement by breakfast pastry isn’t so bad itself, but the two together go well over 500. I also like to add fruit to that… they all add up.
My basic temperament is that of an incrementalist, that is, especially on larger projects, I’m likely to use intermediate goals. When I studied martial arts long ago, I didn’t initially see a black belt in my future. I couldn’t even figure out what they were doing. But I could see what the green belts were doing and set my sights there. By the time I made green, black made more sense. So my first step in getting my weight down was 208.5 pounds, aka, “not obese” but rather, “overweight”. The next one is to have my weight start with a “1” instead of a “2”. 199 or even 199.9. After that, I’m still “overweight” until I get to about 173. I might have been there when I was in my 20s.
So it’s all just part of life’s grand adventure. Garfield the cat said it best: Diet is just die with a t. It’s self-imposed for now. If I don’t go under 200 fairly soon with my current approach, I have the name of a dietitian handy.
