Dude, hang in there.

Don't beat yourself up over the beer and chocolate. Instead, rededicate yourself. Forgive yourself, but remember your goals. It's okay to say, "Okay, I made a couple of mistakes, but now I need to really get after it again." 

As far as getting started or actually "doing it". Consider this, if you wait until you feel like it, you are never going to do it, because you aren't going to feel like it. One thing that helps me is remembering that something is better than nothing. Getting a short, kind of crappy workout in, is better than the great workout you planned but didn't do. 

It also helps me to take smaller bite sized chunks. Something like "I'm going to get 5 workouts in this week." Rather than, I'm going to workout for an hour every day from now on. 

Hang in there, brother. You're a good person and we need more folks like you out on the course. 

Make sure you are really confident with swinging fast before you start Stack. Stack is going to ask you to swing as hard as you can 20+ times during a session. If you're still a little tentative, I would be worried about injuring yourself and not getting as much out of it as you could. 

And repeating what others have said, don't beat yourself up about having chocolate and beer. If your diet is to eliminate those things entirely, it's going to be harder to be successful with it. Much better to allow those things in moderation. Personally, I limit beer to the weekend, which works well for me. If you like something, you shouldn't avoid it entirely is all I'm saying.

I am enjoying following your journey. You've made some great progress so far! Don't lose sight of that. I'm excited for you that the golf is coming back.

On 3/7/2024 at 9:17 AM, DeadMan said:

Make sure you are really confident with swinging fast before you start Stack. Stack is going to ask you to swing as hard as you can 20+ times during a session. If you're still a little tentative, I would be worried about injuring yourself and not getting as much out of it as you could. 

On 3/7/2024 at 10:16 AM, iacas said:

Yes, this. Stack is not rehab.

And you don't want to train yourself to swing slowly.

I agree with all comments 100%.  I did speak about it with PT today and they felt I should be able to swing and asked if my not doing it was due to pain or due to lack of confidence.  Right notwI would say maybe both.  I've not even tried a normal speed swing.  Just now I finished a short walk after lunch and the foot is hurting so I am thinking a true swing could cause some pain, or at a minimum discomfort.  Either way, discomfort or pain would inhibit a successful Stack session.

The frustrating part is all of the PT people are saying the same thing, that they are surprised I am having pain because they feel the flexibility & strength in the joint is good.

I just need to be a little patient, which is not in my DNA.

On 3/7/2024 at 9:17 AM, DeadMan said:

If your diet is to eliminate those things entirely, it's going to be harder to be successful with it. Much better to allow those things in moderation.

I agree but I do have a few weaknesses.  One of those weaknesses is Chocolate and another is Pasta.  A little is OK, but my tendency with those items is to over indulge.  

The positive from this is that I have found an equilibrium where I can have some of those things and not gain weight and eventually I will need to be in "Sustain" mode but for now I really wan to knock off a little more weight.

Quote

Additionally, I've had some weak moments involving chocolate and/or beer.  I like both but they are both "Wasted Calories"

While both of these are true, of the two I'd peg beer as the greater of two evils. It turns out the problem, maybe the greater problem with alcohol isn't just the empty calories, but alcohol also raises your cortisol level. Increased cortisol encourages your body to save/add fat.

Chocolate, conversely, particularly dark chocolate, can actually help lower cortisol.

I've all but given up alcoholic beverages. This coming from a man with an enviable stock in spirits (particularly Bourbon, Rye, and single-malt Scotch) who used to always enjoy a good IPA with dinner. I can't recall when I last drank any spirits and, other than a birthday party I went to last weekend, I've had one beer, with dinner, since the first of the year.

I don't really miss it anymore.

As an admitted chocoholic I do enjoy a couple pieces of quality chocolate with my after-dinner coffee each evening. TBH: It doesn't seem to impact my fat loss.

As for swing speed training: I agree with the others. Get your swing grooved.  Get comfortable with it.  Get whatever physical ailments are plaguing you resolved.  Then think about swing speed training. First maybe get into the gym? Do some general strength training?  Also maybe look into joint mobility work?

FINALLY hit some balls this weekend.

I did a short range session Saturday.  Hit only 20 balls.  10 with 8 Iron & 10 with Driver.  Overall the foot felt good during the session but I did notice I was not fully turning and was rather flat footed on the last couple of shots.  In the past that usually happened as the pain in my ankle kicked up but this time I did not feel pain...AT THAT TIME.  About 30 minutes after the range session pain clearly kicked in and I had to ice that evening.  I spoke to my rehab therapist about it and he said it was likely due to being a "New movement" after the surgery and he thinks it should settle down.  His suggestion was keep the range sessions short as I build up the strength & flexibility.

I did feel my speed was pretty much normal but given the result of that session I am going to hold off on The Stack training for now.  I just do not feel it is time to put in maximum effort.

The quality of shots was "Reasonable".  There were a few mishits, maybe 4-5 real bad, but overall good with no slices and more went straight than to the left.   Slice is my usual miss so it was nice to not have that.   I did sense I may be falling back into my Palmy grip and need to work on that and re-watched Erik's grip video.

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I would suggest to ice as soon as you get home and don’t wait for pain. I did this through all my knee recovery.

Not a bad idea.  Thx

3 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I would suggest to ice as soon as you get home and don’t wait for pain. I did this through all my knee recovery.

I continued icing the knee upon which I had surgery for at least a week after I stopped feeling any pain. Maybe longer. Anytime I worked that knee as part of my recovery therapy it got iced afterwards.

I feel I'm moving in the correct direction.  Did a range session a couple days ago and had no pain after that.  I started my Evolvr but will hold off on The Stack until I am more confident I can do "Maximum Effort" swings.  Right now I feel I am swinging somewhat normally but I'm just not confident enough to push it yet.

On The Stack, I really wish I had held off ordering a little and gotten the newer blue-tooth enabled measuring device instead of the PRGR Monitor but oh well.  I'll live.

Weight loss is still stagnate.  Was hoping to get back onto the Treadmill but it broke.  Great timing, just when I'm ready to use it.  I'll use the spinning bike and old fashioned walking outside.  Should have the replacement treadmill in 2 weeks.  

I

Short update, still working on getting back into the full swing of golf (pun intended).  I'm now posting to My Swing page and 5-minute daily practice and will post more on the Stack Speed Training thread as that gets going so this thread my not include a lot of "Golf" but I am getting back into it.

I have my 1st two golf trips in just over a month, First is Garland Resort then the TST Outing in Ohio and I really hoping my foot is up to a lot of golf.  I have 5 rounds in 7 days and I'm looking forward to that.

As for the weight loss, it is still plateaued but given I've not exercised much at all for several months I'm glad to hold steady.  We should have our new treadmill next week and I'm hoping to use that on a regular basis which should help on weight loss.

The foot is doing "OK".  I'm a little frustrated (OK, a LOT Frustrated).  It feels absolutely perfect then all of a sudden a sharp pain and then I'm limping for the next 24 hours or so.  My PT crew are very happy with flexibility & strength and I think they are getting frustrated that I am still having pain at times.  I've done 26 PT Sessions and I'm going to keep going because I usually feel real good when I leave and they do keep mixing up the PT in an attempt to get it where I want it.  For now I've got 6 sessions scheduled through the end of April and will figure out May in a couple of week.  Unfortunately my insurance deductible reset on April 1st so it is all "Out of pocket" but if I feel it is helping I will continue regardless of the cost.  I'm not getting any younger and I need to get this as good as possible now.

I meet with the surgeon tomorrow morning and look forward to his opinion.

The good news is the pain I am complaining about now is nothing like what I had pre-surgery in October.  I've been told this is a 6-12 month recovery and should not be upset since I am still a little short of the 6 month mark.  I just get so frustrated when one moment I am not thinking about it and it is as if nothing ever happened and then the next moment I'm limping and need to ice it for the remainder of the day.  I would like to walk some rounds this year but I'm not sure I should do that yet.

Met with the surgeon earlier today and he is happy and does not want to see me again unless I think something is wrong.  He said the pain is normal and will go away in time but cautioned it could be another 6 months or so.  He said he still sees inflammation and that may take another 6 months to go away as well.   He did give me some things to share with PT which should help.

Now that I know to expect the inflation to last a while I need to figure out the golf shoes.  Maybe by a duplicate of my current pair but larger and wear the left from my current smaller size pair and the right from the new larger size pair.  Too bad they will not sell me a single shoe.

Well, I got insanely busy and fell behind on my Evolvr & 5 minute daily practice in less that 2 weeks. I even skipped my 1st week of league, that has never happened.   I need to be more disciplined!

Therapist this morning decided to try something new.  He added some kinesiology tape on the foot & ankle.  That was about 8 am.  By 10am I was feeling a whole lot less pain. 😀

Quick update. Foot felt better than in forever today.  Came home and did a full treadmill workout,  ok, it was beginner level, slow and virtually no incline, but I did it.

For the first time in ages I hit all of my FitBit goals.

Only time I felt any discomfort was while on a decline.

I feel like I turned a corner, all thanks to my PT guy and some Kinesiology Tape. 😀

let’s hope I do not pay for it tomorrow.