Final Post

It is what you learn that can make you a better person. Of this, from my short experience in life I can be sure. “90 to change” was what I had in mind every time that I was tired or just felt like I was going to throw the towel. We, as a race, especially in the western hemisphere, have become absolutely disgusting. We have lost perspective on the basics in order to look and care at things that really do not matter. And, this way we’ve lost control over our own bodies.

Not us, not any of you that are reading this blog. All of us have started the “changing process.” You are either done with the program, in the middle of it, or just contemplating the possibility of starting because you, YOU, have realized that there is something intrinsically wrong about what’s going on with your life. In retrospective, I am amazed of how I was throwing my body, physically and mentally, to the trashcan. It’s absurd that we get to the point were you simply cannot perform a simple task. Climbing a flight of stairs, o running a couple of blocks. You are made to use our bodies. I do not need to say how that’s changed.

Since high school, everyone always is telling you to live a healthy life, but most of those people don’t. I was fortunate to witness some ironic situation in med school. An internists smelling like an ashtray forcing a patient to quit; an endocrinologist bigger than a car telling a 9-year-old boy that he is overweight so he has to stop eating, and so on. So, as a person and a doctor, how can I make a real difference in this world? I’m still searching for the answer, but one thing is clear for me, I start by learning. And, I learned a lot during this short three months, I learned more than during most lectures on holistic health at a classroom, or by reading papers and papers on the risk of diabetes and hypertension. I learned tons about myself, and I learned lots about other people whom, like you, have opened their eyes. Knowledge acquired through experience is absolutely the best things you can give yourself. Don’t be afraid, you can do it.  

I had 90 days to change and I did. I am really proud. Now I have more time to make a change.

The evolution of PCP 

Day 79

Diet 95%

Exercise 60%

These past two weeks have been crazy for me. Obstetrics in the morning, psychiatry in the afternoon and have to be on call sleeping at the hospital twice a week. Didn`t have even the weekend because I had a Pediatrics brigade on Saturday and on call on Sunday. Been sleeping like 4-5 hours a day because finals are coming up and I have my first thesis presentation in next week so there is just no way of completing the exercise. On days in which I am extremely tired I did only the jump rope, on other the abs, on three days of the past 15 I just felt so tired there was no way.

On Saturday after I arrived in Bogotá I had my last indulgence, we were planning with Helena to go to a restaurant and have some ribs but we were too tired to do. So we went to a very colombian burger place and I had a ¾ lb grilled cheeseburger with bacon. Tasted great. Felt sick all through Sunday and Monday…

Feeling much better from the hypotension because I added some salt to my diet, (about 1/20 of what I ate before) and I`m having a square of dark chocolate after lunch every two days. (that’s why the 95%)

Things are crazy for me in school right now but I’m really trying my best to have as many PPCP days as I can.

The actual burger.

 

Day 65

Not much to write about, been completely absorbed by schoolwork but have managed to have perfect PCP days on 6/7 days a week. One day there always something that you don't have control over for the last two weeks there's been a constant feeling tired with a little bit of headache and orthostatism (feeling like you're going to faint you you stand up) [which I wrote an email about, patrick]  so on two or three occasions I added a little bit of salt and had a bite of something with sugar; it helped a lot.

Progress

I saw that Kristi did a side by side picture from day 0 to week 8. There is just nothing to say.

Day 56

First day bak to real life. Not liking it so much...

I'll show you a couple of pictures taken with my iphone (that say a lot more than words) about last week.

This was our dining room.

The place where wonderful food was created.

My absolutely delicious indulgence number 2.

Our alternative dinning room.

Finally the place where I did my exercise in the morning the a gorgeous view of the ocean in the back.

Day 50

Right now I'm sitting by the beach watching the sun come down having a glass of milk while my girfriend enjoys a whiskey. this is kind of the perfect place to PCP. im doing exercise in the morinigs before it is to hot . Had to skip 2 days since it took us 20 hours to get here because of rocks folling on the road. Diet has been fairly easy as the crew of 7 very helpful ladies that cook and clean the place have been extreamly considerated. It was perfect that indulgence no. 2 came this week and i enjoyed it yesterday. had a fried fish with cocunut rice and ... well i took a picture and when i get home ill show you. that's all for now from paradaise.

Day 45

As I've told you I will be leaving tomorrow to paradise. No electricity nor internet connection there. So I'll try to post something when a visit some towns nearby. Right now it's 3 pm in bogota and I'm getting some rest before I head to the hospital for a night at the delivery room.

Day 43

Ok so and terribly stressed out because of the delivery room clerkship last week on that. Last Friday I was so stressed that I came home from the hospital and did the 1400 jumps in one go. I understand that it is not to do every day but that day it felt really good. Almost couldn’t believe that I was able to accomplish that after I finished. While the jumps are doing great, today I did about 1800 jumps in the 2 minutes (it impossible for me not to count), the pushups are giving me a hard time I fail at about 50% and I have to do them with me knees on the floor, and even then I finish with my whole upper body …

Almost half way there and this time is tough on the mind. I have not yet been accustomed to the 1 hour exercise every day; however, PCP diet during the week seems completely natural. The problem is the weekend with big lunch invitation and parties going on till late night. .. the power of the mind.

This past week I was feeling very tired and I blame it on my very limited sleeping hours. But, next week is my last spring break. So I am going to make the best of it. Here is a picture of the place I’m going so that every single one of you feels like coming to Colombia. Check it out: www.elmatuy.com

Day 36

Yet another week has passed and time seems to be flying. This past week was in one word complicated.

I’ll start with school, for the next two week of my ob-gyn clerkship I will be on the delivery room of a public hospital in Bogota, yesterday first day, and lucky me, first night on-call (now I know I don’t like it) it was terrible, I felt horrible, at one point during the night there were 5 very young 17 to 21 year old women in labor yelling and screaming at nurses who where not very nice at them. The attending didn’t show up and the resident and the intern had tons and tons of work to do so they left me and a fellow med student on our first day with all those women and no clue. We did our best; I received three of them, two girls and one boy, all healthy newborns.

One the other hand exercise are really complicated when you star your day at 6 in the morning at rounds and finish it at 8:30 am the next day after rounds…. I slept almost all the afternoon today.  It would be like this once a week so I really have to be very organized. Yesterday I went blank on my jump rope because there was literally no 10 minutes to spare. I just finished my routine today and it’s getting tougher. Doing great with the rope series of 400-500 finishing in about 12 minutes with the 1400. But bicycle and plank… suffered them.

As I wrote last week I was waiting on my girlfriend to get better from the flu to have my indulgence with her. Things were complicated at the end of the week cause I had the ob-gyn theoretical exam on Friday and she had to study for exams both on Friday and during the weekend. To make the story short we were invited to my brother’s place one Saturday where I decided that my indulgence should be four hot BBQ chicken wings (I absolutely love them) and what happened … I felt sick all Sunday almost couldn’t do the exercise.

Well that about it for this week trying to go to bet early as I have to be at round in the hospital at 6 am. 

Day 29

Another week has passed and everyday comments on how thin or how well I look are heard more often. Indulgence has taken place since during the weekend I wasn’t feeling well and now my girlfriend is with the flu, I’ll wait so that we can have a nice night out to a restaurant; really looking forward to it.
I just arrived from the grocery store where I bought massive amounts of fruits, different kinds so that I don’t get bored eating the same thing. A little worried about this week’s dinner menu since I love eating meat or fish at night but I have to give it a chance. Fortunately I’m in the tropic so variety is great.

On the other hand I’m doing pretty well with the exercise doing the 1300 jumps on 3 – 4 series, yesterday, since it was only jumping; I did 600 in a row. I was absolutely amazed. Few times I have felt that I just can`t finish a series of pull ups or davinci but I’ve forced myself and a few minutes later I feel great.

At school I just started ob-gyn clerkship and don’t know yet if I like it yet. There is a tough thing about this one because I have an on-call night every week so I really have to be organized about exercise and packing massive lunch boxes.

That’s about it for this week, doing great really happy about the results, lost 9 kg and looking and feeling better every day.

Day 22

I was completely disconnected from the Internet since last Friday. We had a long weekend since Monday was holiday here in Colombia. My girlfriend’s family invited us to spend the weekend at a pool-house a few km away from Bogotá. It was great. We had an amazing time. However, PCP diet is extremely tough in a trip like this. While everyone was eating the delicious hand food filled with salt and oil they served all day long at the pool, having them with a heavenly icy cold beer I was having a plate of papaya or pineapple with a glass of water. It was hard, I have to confess the twice during the four days I was away I had a huge glass of whiskey filled with 19/20 part of water and 1 of liquor. Gave me the feeling I had a glass of alcohol to toast and share with all the family. Also on several occasions I had to have food with salt, it is hard enough that it was bathing suits, swimming pool, sun, and coconut trees all around then you have to add the component of being invited … you all understand.

In the long run I think it was OK. I managed to do all exercise, replaced jumping for swimming on Monday, ate almost perfectly almost every single time and had a great time. Looking back to the trip I realized that everyone with a few kilograms to spare where really jealous of me. Now back to real life.       

Day 15

Since the beginning of the program I have had a hard time writing the Blog, but this few days have been worse. Now it feels absurd to write about a lot of what now seem tiny problems that when people are dying and nuclear reactors are about to burst because of an earthquake and tsunami. Hope everyone is ok. However, I understand that it’s crucial for the program to write. So here it goes.

Last week was terrible for me in terms of time and as Patrick said I felt I was eating tons and tons of food, the hardest was to eat all I had to for breakfast.  I am really happy about the reduction this week. Yesterday was the first day that I did not finish my exercise and I felt terrible. It was only the rope jumps so I let it for last thing at night, and when I got home I was really tired. I started jumping and after the second series of 200 I was falling asleep while jumping so I just went to bed. Felt terrible today.

The last two days I’ve had at least 4 people telling me that I look better, skinnier. That’s always nice and helps to raise motivation and work harder. I just got home from the supermarket buying vegetables and will work hard on my exercise.

Day 10

Just finished my exercise and it’s getting tougher but I’m loving it.  I can’t figure out how much time do you’ll got to ask all those questions cause between classes, seminars, symposiums, clerkships and on-call nights (like last night); and then you add 45 minutes exercise plus writing my thesis (first draft due in tomorrow) then reading the 25 or so emails from fellow PCPers everyday, by the way great questions I had some of them really clarifying video, … I’m felling great but there’s a lot going on right now. Diet is fabulous I happen to have an, almost perfect, help in my house that I just hand in the grams I have to eat everyday and she takes care of everything from going to buy groceries to cooking delicious yet extremely compliant with the instructions and varied food to packing everything in perfect lock and lock boxes and the in zip lock bags so I can take with me everywhere. That’s helpful. With the exercise perfect, I’m taking about 35-40 minutes on it this week and now I feel that I’m working my muscles. Doing great very happy, hopefully next week I’ll have more time to write mine and read and comment on your blogs.

Day 6

Ok so I have been having trouble writing in the Blog just got home today Sunday 6 p.m. in Bogota. The past two days (The whole weekend) I have been in an ACLS that’s Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support course and exam. It was hard, but I A’s it. So in the middle of a terrible clerkship comes a hard, and long, exam, plus I have to hand in the first draft of my thesis this Friday. I’m really stressed about that.

I’ve been talking to my fellow medical students about the program and everyone has something to say, it’s kind of annoying. I had a very nerdy friend who started to say something like –“studies have shown that fruit………..” Oh just shut up and do the program yourself instead of telling me about what studies have shown.

I feel am eating like a bird, I’m not eating half but about a third of what I usually eat but I’m feeling great and not feeling hungry at all. My strategy has been trying to eat at least 6 teams a day very small portions. One night just out of curiosity I weighted a piece of meat that I was going to east 60 g. Usually I eat around 200.

Feeling great and enjoying doing all exercise and this week I have to replace eating food for eating books.

Day 3

Well I’ve been kind of avoiding the blogging; it’s kind of weird writing like this. I am in the middle of a 5-week mandatory forensics clerkship that that is really awful. So fortunately I have PCP to take my mind off it.

First day was the worst, I was hungry all day long, since then everyday has been a little better in terms of hunger. The exercise: first day I did it in 15 minutes and said to myself that it was nothing, I felt it the next morning when I had doubts about getting out of bed feeling like an old person, today much better. I understand we have to start slow but I’m psyched about working out more, it’s coming I know. I already feel better about myself for starting on this awesome journey.

First Blog

90 Days, great expectations. Hard work, better life. New fresh start.
It is a great opportunity to change, to correct the errors that because of innumerable factors we all in western countries have made in the way we live. It is easier to continue in the sedentary path towards a grotesque body and eat what it is served trying to become diabetic before the age of forty. It is always time for change, for improvement; it is always time to start feeling better about your life.  It is always time to open your eyes and see.