Going beyond transition

Monthly Archives: November 2010

Giving Thanks today and every day

Posted on by Posted in Gratitude, Life .

So today, on American Thanksgiving, we are often reminded that we should give thanks for all the people and things we have in our lives. I don’t think we should be limiting it to a single day, however. I’ve been blessed daily with many things that I’m eternally grateful for.

1. Kristen, for one, makes life more whole, fun and loving. Sure we have our little bits and moments of disagreements but on the whole we complement each other. I have to admit I’ve never laughed as much as I do with her. For that I am grateful.

2. My health has been better this year than in past years and seems to be getting better. My recent foray into a whole raw food diet (thank you VitaMix and Victoria Boutenko) has been very promising. Once the next few weeks of travel settles then I should be able to resume it full force again and go back to a full vegan diet.

Additionally, moving to California has inspired me to return to cycling and I’m planning for my trans-continental ride from Vancouver to L.A., and perhaps right to the Mexican border.

3. While nearly 10% of the US populace is either unemployed or underemployed, I’m lucky enough to enjoy full employment (even if it does include may days of overtime). With this comes the health benefits I need as well as a pay that takes the stress out of day-to-day finances. I’m still recovering from the cost of the move but I’m more ahead now than I was before.

I’m also lucky that my company is willing to cover the cost of my work visa, even in these rough times (granted, unlike others we post some high percentages when it comes to profits).

4. Although many transsexed individuals face discrimination, ridicule and worse, I’ve been blessed with friends, family and colleagues who are supportive. Even those few that read here have been supportive and I’ve been pretty lucky to never once receive hate mail. (whether this has to do with me being an FTM or not I don’t know, especially given what Chaz and other prominent transmen face).

5. And without my friends, life would be very lonely indeed. My recent trip to Toronto showed me how lucky I am to have the friends I do. Even though I haven’t seen my two closest friends in a while (2-3 years) I was able to visit and stay with them and catch up with a former student of mine who I hadn’t seen in nearly 6-7 years. Even though I’m admittedly horrible at writing friends and family they still love me anyways.

6. Finally, the furrkids: Bobcat, the cranky cat; and Lily and Fawnda, the silliest and incredibly densest pugs around. The laughs and joys they bring by being themselves makes life that much more enjoyable and stress free.

So I do have a lot to be thankful for, not just today but every day. To all my American friends and adoptive family: Happy Thanksgiving/Gobbler Day. To everyone: thanks for being a part of my life.

Life is on track again

Posted on by Posted in Daily life, transition, Traveling/Work, Uncategorized .

Well, life has been busy since my last entry. My cycling has dropped off some due to traveling and probably won’t pick up again until the week of Thanksgiving. And then again in mid-December. Although I do love my job, it’s hard to get cycling in when I want to. I recently got Chris Carmichael’s book, The Time Crunched Cyclist. Basically, it’s like his program he used for Lance but adjusted for the average cyclist who wants to do well. I certainly wouldn’t be able to do the Tour de France but i should be able to do a few centuries and my planned tours. I will have to maximize my cycling. I’m tempted to get a new indoor trainer. I used to have one when I lived in Canada (cold nights made it hard to bike then). I think the bigger challenge will be that I’m on the road so much right now and in the near future. The one good thing is that the week of Thanksgiving my company is doing a “shutdown” and I intend to leverage that for a fair amount of cycling. We recently got the dogs a bicycle dog trailer and I might even attempt to see if they like that. If they do, then I can bring them with me on rides.

In other fun stuff, I got my new visa. This is good since it’ll keep me here for a while. It was a bit of nerve racking experience but it’s done. I now have my new passport (with new name) and a visa (also with new name). I went to SSA to get a new SSN with new name and will start the process for a driver’s license as well. I think I’ll also get a California ID as I do need additional ID sometimes and it would be better, when traveling only in the US, to use the state issued ID. So little time and so much to do.

Thanksgiving week will probably be the week I look into finally getting top surgery booked. I still have some weight I need to lose before then. I’ve dropped about 20lbs since earlier this summer and I think I can drop another 30-40lbs before the end of the year. I certainly wouldn’t be buff or perfectly lean but I think I will be in a healthier position for surgery. What is interesting is that I recently checked my company’s benefits site and I noticed that the exclusion for SRS has been removed. In fact, all exclusions seem removed and it’s down to 4 general terms. Since I know quite a few trans individuals who have had Aetna successfully cover their surgery I think I’m going to actively pursue the surgery and coverage under my benefits program.

I can honestly say that this makes life look great. I often post on HuffPost and have been commenting on the articles about Cher’s comments on Chaz in an effort to dispel some of the misinformation on trans individuals. While that can often be discouraging it is the worst I see in life today.

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.