Good News, Bad News

screen shot from the
22 days 22 push ups challenge

My eye doctor visit did not fill me with optimism. The latest Visual Field test showed marked deterioration of my vision. The doctor starts off the consultation talking about surgery. The good news is that what remaining vision I have is perfect. Yep, I have 20/20 vision in that 5-10% of my optic nerves that haven't been destroyed. Oh joy! But it seems almost inevitable that I will lose my vision, no matter what I do. Thankfully, I haven't noticed any vision loss, but that's how glaucoma works. You don't actually notice it happening. I'm scheduled to have another round of SLTs in the coming weeks. I still take my eye drops twice daily. On a lark, I ask the doc if there's anything else, I can do, like take vitamins?

She brightens and pulls out an order form for ScienceBased Health, a company that professes to manufacture and sell vitamins to aid in various eye ailments. She tells me to order the Optic Nerve Formula. It can only be purchased with the blessings of an ophthalmologist. I review the list of ingredients online. It contains the usual anti-oxidants, and then a few surprises, like ginkgo biloba. What the heck. If it actually works and saves my frayed optic nerves, then it'll be well-worth it. It's not like it'll hurt me if it doesn't work. Each bottle only contains a month's worth so I order 3 months to get the free shipping. I don't know if I'll be able to notice any difference, but it's not going to hurt.

Because I told a friend I'd help her during her busy season, which is apparently now, I have to skip a few days at the gym. Which has me rearranging what I'm going to do today, and still have time to run errands before my son gets off the bus. I hate giving up whacking the machine, so I plan to do that on Friday. Today, I decide to double up my cardio and do some body basics: benching and SLDLs. And the basic warm up stuff. I drop my push ups to just 80 for the first set. I feel weak today. Ugh! Well, there's still the remainder 22 for the Push Up Challenge. And two sets of pull ups.

Benching feels okay. SLDLs has me a little worried about my right lower back until I adjust my stance. I see some old faces that have been MIA all summer. I make DB Lateral Raises superset with Reverse Flyes my last iron exercise. The inclined bench is stuck at 90 degrees, and I'm about to whack it loose. Instead Skinny John comes rushing over to try and adjust it for me. He can't make it budge. The Mayor pushes SJ aside and tells him that since it's jammed, you need to lift the front seat before pulling the back adjustment knob. And the bench relaxes into an incline. Then they both walk away. Cool. I'm not sure if I was suppose to say something, but I didn't. And that felt right. Gym etiquette is weird like that.

I add another 30 minutes of cardio back into my routine because I won't be doing anything tomorrow except those 22 push ups. And I like doing Intervals. I know. Crazy...

Wednesday
5.21 total miles

30 min elliptical
Program 2
282 cal
2.51 miles

HGPU 31
Knee-Ins 50
Push Ups 80
Crunches 3 X 50
Bird Dogs 2 X 60 sec
Elbow Planks 2 X 45 sec

Day 14  22 push ups

Smith flat bench
15 X Bar, 80
12 X 100, 120
25 X 80

Smith SLDLs
15 X bar, 80
12 X 100, 120, 130

DB Lat s/s Rev Incl Flyes
20 lbs X 12/20 x 3

30 min elliptical
Intervals
310 cal
2.70 miles

HGPU 31