Embracing Identity: 2018 (No better time then the Present)

Embracing Identity: 2018 (No better time then the Present): Wow!!!!! It has been a very longtime since I wrote on my blog "Embracing Identity", according to the analytics it has been a 4 y...

2018 (No better time then the Present)

Wow!!!!!

It has been a very longtime since I wrote on my blog "Embracing Identity", according to the analytics it has been a 4 year hiatus.  As I was reading through the blog, I realized how much amazing content has been created over the years and this is my attempt to revamp it.  A lot has changed since 2013, an overwhelming amount, I even attempted to start a whole new blog, but realized very quickly a lot of work goes into it and so claiming an old piece of Pogo history might be more relevant.

Cheers to a New Year

As with most people in the world, as 2018 rolled around and I found myself at Bully's playing some slots and listening to a 50's & 60's cover band, I new this was the time to finally get in shape.  However, every year I have said this and I start off blazing into January with new supplements promising phenomenal results, for a few weeks I fight cravings for greasy/salty food and I limit my fermented barley intake (And as most people who know me knows, I love fermented beverages).

So what is so different about this year then any other year I have failed a resolution.  Firstly, I am at the highest I have ever weighed in my life, for a long time I was stuck at a very happy 220, still a little chubby, but respectable.  However, as I weigh myself before the New Year, I clock in well above that and mixed with a few events I will discuss, I have a feeling 2018 will be that year.

It took many travels and many fermented barley's to get here.

Secondly, in May of 2017 I was playing baseball with the Telegraph Tappers D "mixed" slo-ball team and I hurt myself.  This was not your normal injury and I am still rehabbing from this as I sit here and write a Blog entry.  My hip and my SI joint fused together, to explain it lightly, it was like a block of ice with little rotation and an enormous amount of pain.  I went to chiropractors and massage therapists for temporary relief, but was confused because my body would just not heal in the way it has in the past.

There was no pain medication in the world that was working and I had a 3 week trip to Europe planned.  As July approached I went on the 3 week backpacking trip, of which I can confirm that backpacking as a 35 year old, much different then in your mid-20's.  As well, hostel beds are not the best for someone in chronic pain, so I drank beer as a remedy to mask the pain through England, Belgium and France, very expensive medicinal fix.  For those that have never backpacked, this entailed carrying a 40 pound backpack while walking long distances and waiting at every mode of transportation in plus 30 temperatures.  In fact, it was one of the longest stretches of hot weather in England that the grass was dying on the tennis professionals at Wimbledon.

As we headed to Greece and toured a very hot Athens, I so very badly wanted to climb to the top of the Acropolis, but lucky Derek and Poncho has already done it, my body just would not let me.  I am a guy who played 6 different sports growing up, I depended heavily on my body and now I could not climb up the Acropolis, what was wrong with me.

 
Another moment, I was sipping a Kilkenny in Temple Bar District watching a live Irish band in Temple Bar with Poncho and in 25 mins was the live theater performance of one of my all-time favourite booke "Angela's Ashes".  My pain was terrible as I could not sit in the Bar (it is very popular), so I decided to run to Bord Gais Theatre, which was about 20 mins away, every step was agonizing, fuelled by a few Kilkenny's I made it in on time, got a ticket and watched a master piece unfold in front of me.

Finally, when I arrived home, it was too much, I reached out to a Specialist "Sandra Voth", she is incredible and has worked me back to functional and not in chronic pain via natural methods, I would recommend her to anyone.  She explained to me that my poor posture and how my body took impact playing all those sports caused this injury, one that I could not have avoided, it just chose now to show up.  This injury has been depressing and rehabbing it has been a challenge, but I realized last year that my body is not invincible like I have treated it over the past decade.  Not being able to workout at full capacity has created a complacency that I must overcome.  If my hip could go like this, what else might be in line for a tune-up?

Lastly, as I ventured home to good old Saskatchewan for the holiday season, I went to a rather new bar on Rochdale Blvd named Leopold's Tavern.  As I was there enjoying a phenomenal buzz with Party Tim, my bro, Legbo and Wolkowski, I bumped into a friend that I use to wrestle in highschool.  Will Amichand is perhaps one of the nicest humans I have met throughout playing sports that was not actually on my team.  He wrestled for O'Neill and we joined in the same year.  That year we would wrestle eachother many times and as we reminisced he said something that stuck with me "Dude, you were ripped in highschool".

This is a fact, I was ripped in highschool, I worked out hard, ran every day and as I sit there at my heaviest weight, it hit me!!!  I need to finally take this seriously, which means a change in lifestyle, but at 35 years old, there is probably no better time then the present.  Heck if I have taken 10 years to get here, then 2 years of working hard to get back to a respectable weight is do-able.  Cheers to the Pylo videos I bought on the infomercial, I will let you know the results.

Cheers to resolutions and cheers to a better you :)

Roy Pogorzelski