Going beyond transition

Category Archives: fitness

Rumors of My Demise are Greatly Exaggarated

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life, transition, vegan stuff .

Life have been extremely busy of late. From about the end of July to now I’ve been doing 60-80 hour weeks. My paycheck loves it but I’m starting to wear a bit. I knew it was going to be like this and it will likely continue to the end of the year. In a lot of ways, this is great! It means I’ll be happily employed for a while yet (and to be honest, I don’t expect that to change but with the economy as it’s going, anything is possible). In other news K got a job (finally!) in her field. After nearly a year and half (with over 1,000 applications and only 2 interviews) she got a call back for a temp position in the VA. I suspect that she’ll be there longer than the 2-3 months they initially said it would be (they keep giving her more cases) so that’s good. Even better, she’s really happy about all that.

On a lark yesterday, we went to the Open House that the place next door was showing. It was perfect! 3 bedroom (or rather 1 bedroom, 2 offices or 1 bedroom, 1 office and maybe 1 nursery?), had a nice backyard (for the puglettes), a 2nd floor large balcony, granite counter tops, new appliances and a center aisle kitchen workspace. The biggest downside was lack of A/C. And that’s a deal breaker in L.A. Although where we live is actually very temperate there can be weeks where it gets regularly above 100F. The other downside was price: $600K. We could do it but I’m hesitant until the green card is done. And once we’re confident that K’s job is perm, I think we’ll look into it. I don’t know that $600K is achievable. I’ve always thought that $250-300K would be more appropriate but who knows? With rates so low it may be a good time for us to lock into a long term mortgage. One of my long term dreams was to have a house. Not for financial reasons but for permanence and to settle down.

Needless to say, the house next door definitely fit into what we were dreaming of as a house. It would need a little work (and some major heavy duty cleaning! I could tell where they tried to hide it) but it’s something that could easily be done. More importantly, is that we’d be able to stay in a community that we like and we could get to know more of it.
In other news, apparently the Health Insurance company is claiming that my surgery isn’t coverable (even though their own policy says that it can). I think they deliberately make it hard to obtain coverage. So to help me with this I enabled help from CKlife.org to get through the red tape of health insurance. I think one of the biggest challenges in the US (that I’ve faced) is the overwhelming amount of red tape that everything has, from taxes to health care. The fact that, as an intelligent adult, I need help to navigate all this crap is incredible. I suppose that is how one keeps a large population at work — by tracking things via paperwork (and it’s mostly paperwork; it’s surprising how many do not have good online account systems). But I still find it all frustrating. I am still recovering to a degree and have decided to postpone my planned trip from Vancouver, B.C. to Los Angeles next year to the year after. So it’s now a goal of 2013 rather than 2012.

That should give me enough time to get back into shape (other than round) and get back to fully vegan. I’ve been gradually moving back to it. Watching and reading about the whys reminded me why I so much did it in the past. Sometimes we need that before we can get back to where we were. At this point, I’ve gotten to about 95% vegan with some vegetarian meals here and there (I’m trying to empty the fridge of stuff without having to toss it). I was also considering a gym membership with maybe a trainer (it’s a UFC gym) but perhaps what I need is just the trainer bit. I don’t think I need a gym since my body is weight enough and if I do the exercises right, I can use that. I just need to figure out where in my schedule I should put this. It may be a matter of scheduling 30-60 min a day just so I can have that time to do exercise. I am, at least, walking the dogs early in the morning before work starts. I may need to get up a little earlier to do the weight stuff and then do the dog walk afterwards. Hrmm…

A Month Later

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life, transition, Traveling/Work .

It’s been a month since the surgery. A lot of the swelling has gone down and it’s nice to not have to wear a binder any more. That said, however,  I’m still sleeping on the Lazy Boy simply because I’m less likely to roll on my sides.  And since I still have a bit of swelling on my sides, it’s safer and easier for me to sleep on my “back” while in the Lazy Boy. The doc says it’ll be another couple of weeks before that swelling is completely down.

The weather is getting warmer here in Los Angeles. I was surprised how much I finally am ok with what I see in the mirror (although I’d like to get rid of my beer gut). I still can’t do full exercise but I have been trying to walk the dogs at least once a day for about 30 min. I’m hoping that I might be able to do some simple pushups, situps and simple free weight exercises in a couple of weeks. And then after a series of business meetings in the San Fran area, I’m hoping to get back into running and cycling again.

One of the things I’d really like to do is barefoot running but I probably won’t since I’m a bit of a wuss and fear cutting my feet (even though I know that with barefoot running, it can be easier to address those kinds of injuries). At the least, I’d like to do minimalist running — much like I did last summer in NYC. I truly enjoyed it and might even consider doing a 5K in the fall if I’m consistent enough with the running. To that end I’m probably going to start getting up earlier. Say around 4-5ish so that I can run/bike earlier without interfering with my work day. If I’m not teaching, that’d give me a couple of hours to do what I need. And then later in the afternoon I can do things like the situps/pushups and/or weight stuff.

I’m not sure about my bike trip for next year given what I’ve seen of people’s driving behaviours here in L.A. I still want to do it but I think I need to investigate some things more. In particular, I do need to read on other’s experience on doing this trip. It’s consider intermediate to expert. My biggest concern is timing and whether I will have enough time — 30 or so days, including weekends — to bike from Vancouver to Los Angeles. It’s the part of going over the mountains and the like that may slow it down. I may decide to avoid the issue of the border and start in Seattle instead of Vancouver. Then again, I may just push the trip back a year. One of the challenges is that I didn’t think that the recovery would take this long. I had planned on a few weeks (3-4) but more realistically, I’m looking at 2-3 months in total before I’m fully recovered. I still want to bike from L.A. to San Diego and back again over a two day period.

Anyways, on top of all that I’ve had my performance review and that went well. I’m still waiting to see what’s happening in regards to the green card. I was pleasantly surprised when my HR department started the process for me without me probing for it. I’m hopeful that it will come through and make somewhat easier for me here in the US. I wanted to take some Spanish courses at a local community college but they require that I live at least a year in California before I can apply. So I’ll be waiting until this fall before starting basic Spanish. In the meantime, I can — at the least — finally try for my driver’s license. It’s been at least 20 years since I last tried and while L.A. drivers on the freeways are scary, I think I could handle regular street traffic. I think I’ll look into AAA membership and see about taking one of their defensive driving classes.

Anyways, that’s the update so far. Life is definitely good right now.

 

An update (finally!)

Posted on by Posted in Finances, fitness, transition, Traveling/Work .

I know. I know.

I’m way late for updates. I have to admit work has been busy and I’ve been focused on that recently. It also had me traveling a bit so that added more to my challenges. It’s been fun being able to go to a variety of places for work. Recently, I’ve been to Orlando, Austin, Minneapolis (that gets almost as cold as Ottawa!) and San Jose. And now, I get ready for my most fun trip yet: Sydney, Singapore and Beijing! I’m truly excited about this and buying extra flash cards for the cameras (I’m going to bring both my Powershot and my Canon DSLR with me). I’ve managed to add in a few extra days in Sydney and Beijing to try to do some touristy stuff. Basically, I get 3-4 days in each city (2 days of teaching and 1 day of travel). What will be interesting is how being a transsexual might be viewed or challenged on these trips. I’ve gotten oks for travel for Sydney and Singapore (Australia requires a visa and Singapore I don’t need one) but Beijing is the one that worries me the most. I’m waiting for that one to return an ok on my visa (along with passport and my H1-B visa). I should know by tomorrow.

I finished my taxes early and because of my move and the way that my pay got changed, I’m getting a sweet tax return. Because of this (and some money I had set aside for what I thought I would have to pay) I’m probably going to get a new MacBook Pro for myself along with a couple of other computers (so I can build a home lab environment). And, finally going to do something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time: top surgery. Even as a kid, having “moobs” was never something I liked. I just had no connection to them. I went to a couple of consults, asked a tonne of questions and finally decided on a surgeon. I put down a deposit of $500. I’m hoping that insurance will cover some of it (if it’s 50% or more, I’d be thrilled but any amount is better than nothing).

For me, this is the step I want most. Once done, I will decide afterwards if I want any bottom surgery beyond a hysterectomy (I want that simply because of the risk of cancer increases as I continue to take T and if I get that surgery, then my dosage can be reduced). I so want a summer where I don’t have to wear a binder — and perhaps even go topless. I still have my big bike trip for next year planned, although I need to get my training plan back into some kind of order. I’d like to be able to do this without wearing a binder.

Speaking of health, the training plan got shelved a bit after I threw out my back something fierce (sitting, standing or lying down was painful). I’ve finally got to a chiropractor and have been getting regular treatment to address this long term. The surgeon I saw said that likely this surgery will help with my back pain as he feels I’m overly “top heavy”. I suspect he’s right since I’ve had upper back pain all my life.

In other health fronts, we’ve been wavering on our eating and our vegan lifestyle. This is something that I definitely want to get back to. I have found that when I’m just vegetarian I feel listless and tired but when I’m vegan, particularly raw vegan, I have more energy, focus and direction. I think I need to re-read “The China Study” and re-watch “Earthlings” to remind me of the things I do not want to do and why I don’t want to do it.

Overall, I have to say that my transition has been amazing for me. There is one thing, however, that still saddens me and that is the loss of my dad. He’s around but just doesn’t seem to want to talk to me. In some ways, I understand why (he’s a very right-wing Catholic) but it’s still a bit sad. I suppose since we never really had contact when I was growing up it’s not that big of a deal for me (I’d be more devastated if my aunts, uncles and/or my grandmother refused to speak to me) but still..

Ah well… so that’s all my news for now. I’ll probably do some updates when I’m on the road over the next few weeks (I, oddly enough, leave on my 41st birthday — a week from today!) as I suspect it should make for some interesting reading.

Life in California.. ain’t that bad, really.

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life .

I’ve definitely got to say that I’m enjoying the California weather. It occurred to me today as I biked down to and along the Strand that normally I wouldn’t experience this kind of nice weather in Canada until say mid-May or early June. It was a perfectly sunny day with little wind. And I’ve now found the perfect route to get there without trudging up and down this one huge hill that I had been doing before. Granted it adds about 2KM each way but that’s fine. It’ll make my usual ride about 42KM instead of 38KM. For now I’m still using my beater single speed bike but I will have to get back on my proper touring bike at some point (it did get a nice tune-up so I should actually ride it).

It’s interesting living here in Southern California. K had asked me recently if I like it and I have to say that I do. It’s weird but the small suburb that we live in feels somewhat like a small city. It’s hard to imagine that we belong to one of the more populated cities in the US. For example, last night I took the pugs out on a walk. It was a pleasant warm night with little breeze. We take the same path as many other dog walkers, cyclists and runners do. At one point I stopped and looked up.  I could clearly see and identify the Little and Big Dippers. This was something I couldn’t do in Toronto nor NYC. (When I lived in Burlington, I could do it when I walked along Lake Ontario). I imagine that come summertime I’ll be able to see even more stars in the summer sky.

Back to the cycling. If it wasn’t for work, I’d bet I could do in a year here what would normally take me 3-4 years to do in Toronto. I’m kinda excited about that. I still have to venture out farther and I need to figure out where in San Diego I want to stay. I’ve found the path I want to take to get down there but I do want to find a place to stay overnight. I was pondering camping but the choices seem limited and the KOA prices are a tad high for a tent (sans car). I mean, at $50 a night I might as well go for a cheap hotel at $100 — especially since it would be only one night. Right now, my bigger challenge is all the travelling I’ve been and will be doing for work. At the end of the month I go to Austin, come back for a weekend and then will be off to Orlando for about 11 days. And then I have two weeks of online teaching (although that means early start with early finish so I could bike once class is done).

In other fronts, K got me World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. I so want to play but with it taking 25GB of space (!!!) it’s a bit much for this system. And I really do need to get my own computer again. I’ve been debating between getting a Mac or a PC (I love my work Mac Book Pro). And then to add more challenge to it, debating on laptop vs desktop. I like the laptop option as it means I could be outside playing but the desktop option allows for more customization. Then again, who am I kidding? I tend to be the one who gets it maxed out and nothing to customize anyways. I may just go for a MacBook Pro and get the iPad 2 when it’s finally released. Certainly my wireless is decent enough. I think it’s actually faster than the cable connections I had in NYC or Toronto. Anyways, that will probably wait until after tax season. I’ve had some money set aside for taxes but I may not need all of it (I over-estimated what I owe on some stocks I cashed). That’s a “to be reviewed later” pile.

The one thing I will need to do is figure out if I can get top surgery finally. My insurance is definitely one that will cover it; I just need to find a doctor that is, ideally, within network. This whole in and out of network stuff is the stuff I hate. I’d rather just go to a doctor I’m comfortable with, regardless of anything else, and use them. Meh. Anyways, I think on my next visit I’ll ask her if she can recommend anyone for the surgery and if so, I’ll check them out to see if they can get it covered under the insurance. Then I’ll just need a letter from her and I probably could get a letter from my old NYC doc  to get the insurance company to cover it (as long as it’s deemed a medical necessity they will cover it). I’ve reached a point where binders are becoming annoying and I know once I really get into the cycling I won’t want to where those any more. Even now I find it too constricting but I also, at the same time, feel rather self conscious of it.

It’s a weird thing that I’ve noticed that as I continue further in, my gender dysphoria is increasing and I’m more aware of the slight difference. Most people seem to ignore the F on the passport (still my only ID — given the work schedule I don’t know when I’ll be able to finally get lessons for driving) and refer to me as Mr or Sir but for me, personally, it’s becoming a health issue (back pain and interferes at times with workouts and such) and something I need to get addressed. Fingers crossed that this year will finally be the year.

The Start of a New Year…. Finally.

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, fitness, LGBTQ, Life, Novel writing, transition, Traveling/Work, vegan stuff .

I can honestly say that I’m tired of rain. Heck, at times, it’s been colder in Los Angeles (and wetter!) than in Toronto or other northern cities. Whether the cause is Global Warming or not, isn’t that important. What is important is that the weather patterns are a-changin’. K and I went to Montreal for the festive holidays and ended up staying an extra 3 days thanks to the blizzard that hit the Northeast. It’s interesting how all the Canadian airports had no issue with the storm (even though they handle these kinds of storms regularly) but the big 3 in question — JFK, LaGuardia and Newark — completely fell apart.

I’m thankful that we were staying with family and they had room for us for the extra days but I did feel bad about imposing on them for this extra time. I know that it impacts on the daily routine and sometimes that can be trying. It was still a fun visit, nonetheless. I introduced K to poutine (if you’ve never had this, it is an experience: basically, it’s french fries, cheese curds and gravy). We also indulged in some New Brunswick lobster (tastes very different from Maine or elsewhere). This trip was our last omnivore meal. We’ve reached a point where we want to return back to a vegan diet and primarily one that is a raw vegan diet. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do 100% raw vegan (and, if I could, it’d do 3-4 green smoothies a day) but I’m going to aim for at least 50% if not higher.

I haven’t been back on my bike since we got all the rain and I had all that travel but after my trip this week to San Jose, I should be able to start some cycling for a couple of weeks. One of the things I still have to do is coordinate with a hotel gym when I travel or walk where possible. Given that my next 3 trips will be San Jose, Austin (TX) and Orlando I think walking may be in my future.

So, given that it’s the start of the new year, I suppose I should put up some resolutions. I was going to compare them to last year’s but it appears I didn’t really post any. I suspect that was because I knew things would be somewhat in flux with the move and the visa really being the biggest concerns. Ok.. so here goes.

1. Return back to a vegan lifestyle. I truly can’t take meat or processed foods any more. There still is a part of me that wants to be pescaterian (damned Acadian genes!) but I’m going to avoid that as much as possible. As I said above, I want it to be primarily raw vegan (ideally up to 80%) where possible. I have found that my body is having a harder and harder time with processed foods in general. I’m also cutting out all soda, diet or otherwise. If it ain’t water or whiskey, it’s gonna be a tea.

2. Cycling 3-6 times a week. This will depend on how much on the road I am but if I get what I asked for (once a month) then I should be fine. In addition to this I want to ensure that I do 25 pushups a day and 50 situps (no necessarily all at once but in a series of reps). This would be the basic exercise for every day and should help build some of my core muscles.

3. Do a full completion of the P90X program. I have the DVDs and the space. I just need to do the damned things. I know a lot of trans guys who have done this and they say it’s the best at building up muscle, especially pre-surgery.

4. When not doing P90X or cycling, go for a run. I actually had enjoyed running with my FiveFingers and want to get back to doing that again. I think it’d be a nice alternating exercise to the cycling for me to do as a way to lose weight.

5. Do two centuries to San Diego and back. Nothing gets me on my bike more than having a goal. A century (100 miles in a single day) to San Diego would be a good way to gauge how I’m doing.  Doing it twice — once in May (?) and once in August (?) — would be a good way to gauge how my fitness levels are doing. It can also allow me to explore the area more.

6. Get my driver’s license. At 40, I’m weird in that I’ve never gotten it. And I’ll be honest in that the Los Angeles freeways scare the crap out of me. The average speed is about 80-100 mph (well into the 130-150kph range). I don’t know if I’ll ever use the freeways themselves but there are a lot of secondary freeways I could use. I’m aiming to see if I can get this by my 41st birthday or around there.

7. Walk the pups once a day when I’m at home. This will be particularly helpful for Jan to April since K will be working at her dad’s (an accountant) and that’s prime tax season. It’ll also help me get a little more exercise and keep them from being too wild. I particularly want this to be a 45-60 min venture. Pugs don’t need a lot of exercise but it does help keep these two from fighting with each other (they do this dominance thing a bit and the walks reduce that a lot).

8. Read a book a week and write at least once a day. I “hermitized” during 2010. I withdrew a lot because too much was going on and things are settling down quite a bit now into more of a routine. There is still a part of me that aspires to be a fiction writer. I used to want to write sci fi and part of me still does but given how much mystery I read I may lean that way. Or just combine them. I missed out on the 2010 NaWriMo but want to participate this year. I also have an intention of writing a technical book. I’ve been asked a few times to do a couple and there is one that is pending that I need to work on an outline with a colleague and get that started. I also need to be more diligent on my blogs and that is something I should be doing.

9. Get top surgery (at least) but perhaps a hysto as well. I’m thinking I may try to do this before the GOP repeal it (although I just read today how they are going start off the new session with that). I’m hopeful that my insurance provider will still keep the standard they are (as long as it’s consider a medical necessity by a doctor, they will cover it). I’m finding that my GID has been worsening in regards to physical appearance. Although I pass 100% of the time, I’m very self-conscious of certain things. And I’d like to have the top surgery before I do my big trip in 2012.

10. The actual weight loss goal — lose 60lbs by end of 2011. This means dropping from the 240lbs I had in 2009 (at 5’1″, it’s 50% body fat) to about 180lbs. I’ve been steady between 220-230 the last month or so. That is good but I need to continue to get that needle to drop more. My ultimate goal would be 150-160lbs. Although BMI and others say that still overweight, for my body type (stocky/compact) it’d be too much.

All of these are doable for this year. And now that I’ve written them out, I’ve basically made myself accountable to myself to complete them. In addition to all this, I will be migrating this blog (along with the others) to a new internet provider. I recently got an account to have my sites hosted on a virtual server. This will allow me to install and configure things the way I want it. When I get back from San Jose I will begin that process and post up a new link to the new address (it’ll be an IP to start with until the domain gets resolved to the new address).

Bring on 2011!

Getting back in the saddle.

Posted on by Posted in fitness .

Welp. I started the P90X program yesterday (FINALLY!!) and managed to get through about 45 min of the Shoulders CD. I decided to leave out the “bonus” stuff for now. I’m going to go for a ride later today (I tend to ride better in warmer weather and don’t have arm/leg warmers for early morning rides). Unfortunately, as luck would have it, just as I get started into this stuff, I have to travel. My visa paperwork is finally arriving and I’ll likely have to trudge up to Canada to get my visa done as well as fly back to the US to go through Customs to get it the final stamp of approval. This will likely mean nearly a week on the road, no cycling. I can do the P90X, at least, in my hotel room so that’s one comfort. Once I’ve done that, then I’ll head to Seattle for a week (I also have a trip to Reston, VA scheduled for the first week of Dec). So, lots of travel.

I’ve been doing some reading for some cycling specific training and am looking at Chris Carmichael’s Time-Crunched Training Plan (using 6-8 hours a week to train for centuries and the like but not a professional athlete’s level). I want to get back into long distance cycling. I’m thinking of doing L.A. to San Diego and back either later this year or early next. I figure that would be roughly about 100 miles (give or take) each way and would be a good weekend project trip. I don’t know if I will do the San Fran to L.A. AIDS ride. My biggest concern is that you need to raise $3000 to participate. I know that’s for all the support options along with funds raised for both San Fran and L.A. but it may not necessarily be doable. My company offers a matching program as part of their charity efforts but that would still be a challenge. I’m not used to raising those kinds of funds. I haven’t completely discounted the ride but am still pondering it.

That said, for the 4 rides I did last week it equaled 4500 calories, 85 miles and nearly 9 hours of riding. Not bad for a start. If I can maintain that or improve upon that (I’m still using my single speed bike for now and would expect my mileage to increase with my geared touring bike), then I think I should be ok for returning back to the road again. I’ll probably go riding today but I’ll have to wait until my visa paperwork arrives (should be here before 3pm). It’s going to be warm today and I have to admit that I bike better in warmth than I do when it’s chilly.

Things are looking up.

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, fitness, Gratitude, Traveling/Work .

I love it when things come together. I’ve been poking about the lawyer’s site to see what was up with my visa and lo’ and behold on Friday, 3 months to the day that USCIS officially received the visa application it was approved. It was like a whole bunch of weight was lifted off my shoulders. I’m still waiting for details to come from the lawyers as to the next steps. Once I know, then I can move forward. I think part of it will include a visit back home to Canada to address my passport (and finally get all my ID in sync) as well as getting the visa itself.

Which then brings me to today’s little discovery. I decided to log into my company’s website and check out benefits and all that. I was looking at my coverage and noticed something. In the exclusions there was no mention of sexual reassignment. Yippee! Once I finish with the whole visa thing I will have two calls to make: one to a doctor and one to the DMV (Yes, yes.. I know.. I’m 40 and still don’t have a license).

Eh.. I don’t really need one. I did go out on a bike ride today (38KM on a single speed). It was awesome. It reminded me of all those times I’d just ride and let my mind drift into the ether. For some people they find spirituality in a building. I find it on a bike. I biked along the South Bay Beach Cities path (aka The Strand). The houses on there are amazing and it has to be the quietest path I’ve ever been on. I got as far as Marina Del Ray. The path itself is part of California Coastal Trail initiative. It kind of reminds me of the Trans Canada Trail but just not as long nor as cold.

I think I could kinda get used to all this… 😉

First West Coast Ride but not the Last

Posted on by Posted in fitness, Life, Traveling/Work .

Well. I went out for an hour ride (truth be told I managed to get a little lost). But the good side was that the bike fared well so I should be able to use it next week. I did feel sa little naked without an helmet, gloves and whistle (i have a dingy bell but they are, IMO, useless in traffic and a pealess whistle is awesome). We’ll be heading to a couple of bike shops today and probably REI. My current helmet, somewhere in a box, is about 10 years old so its due to be replaced.

What I found truly interesting was that it pretty much felt like I had never stopped cycling. And the roads in this area of Los Angeles are a cyclist’s dream: perfectly smooth with no glass shards on them. This is very different compared to when I used to bicycle in Toronto. Get a smooth street with few people on was a rarity.

Hopefully the new visa stuff will come through and I can bike through more of the West coast.

My first “3K”.

Posted on by Posted in fitness .

Well.. I did 1.85 miles (or 3K) in 25 min. Not bad really. It is technically a 15 min mile. I’m hoping that once in Redondo, I’ll start running 5-6 days a week and see if I can eventually get to a 13 min mile. The main reason is so that I’m not spending time exercising and spending more time doing other stuff. It means if I did a 5K marathon I’d be done in 45 min (roughly). While I won’t win any races, I will finish and I think that’s good in itself.

It’s interesting that when I get up, I so do not want to run but once I’ve done it, I feel awesome. And my recovery is pretty easy — maybe a couple of hours. These Vibrams have been one of the best investments for me at encouraging me to run. It does make a difference to have good shoes. My first set were Keen Sandals. I swear by them. And now these. If I could only wear Keens and Vibrams all the time, I’d be set.

Anyways.. now I’m off for a long-overdue massage.

The face of a wanna-be runner