Resolutions

I've been thinking a lot about my New Years resolutions.  I want to be healthier, but I also have a goal with a defined date to shoot for, which is always more useful for me than just vague notions of "being healthy". I have a swim coming up!

American Airlines oversold our flight for Christmas in Chicago and asked for volunteers to give up their seats.  In exchange they offered a $500 travel voucher, seats on a flight the next morning, meal vouchers and a night at a hotel with cab fare if we weren't local.  As Jason proclaimed as he dashed over to the gate counter, "That's our next trip to St. John!"

Indeed.

So we now have $1,000 in travel vouchers on American, one of the airlines with direct Boston to St. Thomas flights.  And here's where my goals come into play.

See, several months ago I discovered that there's an open-water swim in St. John on Memorial Day weekend to raise money for the National Park.  I thought to myself, "Wouldn't that be cool to do?"  Then I started talking with my swimming buddy about it.  One of the things Jason and I bonded with her and her husband over was our mutual love of St. John.  Turns out they had traveled there a couple of months after Jason and I went in 2011.  Also, both she and her husband swam in high school.

You can see where this is going, right?

Since Jason and I now have unexpected travel money, I mentioned the swim to our friends again as something that might actually happen and they both enthusiastically said they want to go and have been talking about it amongst themselves ever since I told them about it.  So barring some unforeseen problem, the 3 of us are doing the swim in May!  Jason will be our cheerleader/towel holder.

(I spent last night looking at villas for 4 in St. John.  It's amazing what you can rent for a week when you have 4 people to share the expense!)  

The thing is, I have gotten even more soft and squishy and haven't been swimming regularly for a couple of months now.  In the St. John swim, the swimmers can swim 1, 2 or 3 miles.  Of course, I would like to be hardcore and do the 3-mile swim, but I'm not sure if I can.  I'm a sprinter and I'm ok with that.  But I would like to try to get ready for a 3-mile swim.  Which means I need a training plan! 

So here are my official Resolutions.

First, diet:

1) Starting January 1, I am doing Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet.  This means I'll be basically eating protein, fat and vegetables.  No fruit and definitely no grains and sugar.  And NO Diet Coke!  I've done this a few times before and it's a good way for me to go cold turkey on the carbs (and caffeine) and lose the cravings.

2) After that, I'll probably add in some fruits and sweet potatoes, and stick to a more Paleo/Primal food plan.

3) I'll see how I feel, but I plan to be strict for 30 days and then possibly give myself a splurge day.  A monthly splurge day has worked well for me in the past.  It's a crutch, I know, but it's easier for me to turn down a treat if I think, "That's ok, on my splurge day I can have something sugary."  In reality, the longer I stay away from sugar and carbs, the less I want on my splurge day anyway.

Second, exercise:

1) Two strength training classes per week, most likely Monday and Friday mornings.

2) At least two 30-60 minute cardio workouts per week.  Obviously I need to swim, but, oh my gosh, it is HARD to convince myself to put on a swimsuit in January in Rhode Island.  Swimming might need to wait a month or so.  I'll elliptical to start.  Right now I'm so out of shape again, that I'll just do a basic elliptical workout, but by the 3rd week, I plan to throw in a HIIT workout at least once a week.

3) Separate from #2, I'll walk home from work when I can.  Sometimes it's too icy on the streets in the winter for this to be feasible, but when I can, I'll shoot for 2 walks home per week.

This is the plan for now.  As I move into February and March, I'll modify as I begin to increase my swimming and work on endurance.

It all starts Tuesday!

Helping Out A Little

I wrote about our experience in Queens on my other blog.

Wheat

We had the opportunity yesterday to go to Queens and help families clean up after Hurricane Sandy.  Yes, it's been over a month since the hurricane swept through New York City, but there are still people with disaster areas for homes as Winter approaches.  There were lot of groups there helping, which was great to see, but there's a lot to do.

I'm going to write something a little later today about the actual experience, but I'm going to be navel-gazely here and talk about food and me because I need to remember this.

So this past week I've been very mindful about my eating.  I've had a cookie here or there (ONE cookie), but generally I haven't eaten wheat at all (except for the little bit in a cookie) and instead have been eating meat and fat and fruits and vegetables. I made most of my meals this week at home.

Yesterday morning I made us sandwiches to take to New York.  I also bought crackers and Mint Oreos and apples and carrots to take and share with out group.  One of my Young Women from church came with me and Jason so I had to feed her too.  We left the house at 5:30 AM and stopped at McDonald's for breakfast at around 7:30 because highway food offerings are limited.  I had a Sausage biscuit.  Sausage, good.  Biscuit, bad (but so, SO good too, even if it is McDonald's.  I have deep Southern roots and love a buttery biscuit).

Lunch came and I ate my sandwich (on whole wheat bread everyone!  No problem, right?)  I also had a couple of corn chips someone brought and a couple of Mint Oreos.

After we were done, we went to a diner for dinner, and I ate most of a hamburger (with bun), plus a couple of bites of cake (Jason got a meal that included dessert).

We drove home and 4 hours later watched a TV show and I had a couple more Mint Oreos.  Because, Mint Oreos!

I thought, I'm doing manual labor, my body can handle some wheat and other carbs.

Last night, at about 12:30 AM, I almost threw up.  I went to bed with a stomach ache, and at 12:30, woke up wide awake, trying not to lose those Oreos.

This morning I'm trying to keep my head from exploding into a full-on migraine and my stomach isn't so hot.  I'm popping Excedrin and I just ate some eggs in a bunch of butter and I feel a little better.  Aren't you supposed to eat greasy foods for hangovers?  For me, I think I'm being literal when I say I have a carb hangover.

I have a ton of stuff to do today (go to church, teach a lesson, Evensong rehearsal and service) so I just can't be sick.

Can someone please sit on my shoulder and be that little angel who reminds me how I feel when I eat grains all day long?  Geez!  You'd think I would have learned by now.

Holidays

I'm not even going to make excuses for why I haven't been posting.  Just not feeling it, I guess.  Partly because I haven't really been working out.  It's getting cold and the mornings are dark, and this is the hardest time of the year for me to pry myself out of bed and go to the gym.  I didn't even sign up for the current Masters swim session.

(Though I'm still on the coach's email list and now have a pile of new workouts in my inbox, so that's cool.)

After succumbing to the Thanksgiving bacchanalia, I pledged that starting yesterday morning I would eat better in the coming weeks.  I'm not saying I'm being perfect, but my goal is to eat healthy at work, make healthy dinners, and generally not eat 2-4 pieces of pie per day, which is kind of what was happening during and post-Thanksgiving.  Jason went to Trader Joe's last night (aka, land of amazing Christmas treats) and bought us a box of Pfeffernusse, which are so, so good.  I had one last night after dinner and that was just perfect.

(I kind of hoped he had gotten some Peppermint Joe Joe's too, but he said, "I didn't really think we needed those."  I guess we needed the Pfeffernusse, though...?)

I haven't been doing the gym thing, but I have been walking a lot lately.  I have a new walking buddy, and have discovered that dashing off 3-4 miles of walking is a piece of cake when you're gabbing the whole time.  This is the same person who was my swimming buddy, but we've both been pretty ambivalent about the idea of waking up in the cold and jumping into a pool at 6:30 in the morning.

The good news is, I know me, and I know that I'm pretty good with diving into New Years resolutions.  So while I work on my many projects at work, have extra choir practices and services for the holidays, bake and cook, and try madly to finish my holiday knitting, I know that waiting for me at the end of it all is a bright shiny New Year and resolutions to be made and conquered!

Boots

For years I have lusted after boots to wear in the winter.  Pants fit me weird (15 inch difference between my hips and my waist), so I wear skirts and dresses, even in the coldest days of winter. 

Well, when it's really cold, I wear sweatpants into work and then change.  But the point is, my legs are cold.

I was assured that Lane Bryant had boots that would fit the most substantial of calves.  I happily ordered 3 pairs (since I can just return them to the store) and tried them on this morning.

No good.  Not even the fat lady boots fit my giant calves.  Siiiiiigghhhhh.

Actually, I did get one pair zipped up, but it was a little squished and when I took a step the entire boot, and its synthetic material, made this awful squeaking sound.  The other 2 pairs weren't even close to zipping up. 

I was so excited to have boots this winter, and now I'm just sad that I'm so fat.  Bleh.

Ireland, October 19-20, 2012

Click for the travelogue of our first day in Ireland.

Sugar Is Some Crazy Stuff

It's the morning after Halloween and I started my day feeling completely spaced out and with a stomach ache.  The culprit? Too much sampling from the treat bowl.  For the first year, we actually bought enough candy for the masses of trick or treaters that descend on our neighborhood.  Which meant I sat down to watch a scary movie* with Jason with a few mini Butterfingers to keep me company.  This is in addition to the few I had eaten while handing out candy.

Then I woke up feeling awful.  This is why I don't eat candy that often.

*Paranormal Activity 3.  Not as good as 1 or 2, in my opinion, but still plenty creepy.

Speaking of candy, I made an interesting observation while we were in Ireland last week.  (Yes, we went to Ireland!  It was fantastic and I'll be writing travelogues shortly.)  Every time we made a pit stop I would grab a new English candy bar for us to try.  Jason and I each had our favorites, but I observed that I was infinitely more satiated by the good quality chocolate.  Everyone talks about how dark chocolate is more satisfying generally, which I've found to be true, but even the milk chocolate was better.  I could eat half a candy bar and think, "That's plenty for now. I'll just put the rest away for later."  Right this moment I have half a Wispa Gold still sitting in my carry-on bag. 

It's not that it's not tasty, because it is, and downing all of that American chocolate last night just reminded me how much better the non-waxy English stuff tastes.  But just a few bites of some high quality chocolate, and I'm good for awhile.  It's similar to eating empty, processed foods and being hungry a half hour later, versus eating good whole foods and being satiated for a long time.

You know what else is satiating?  Irish breakfasts.  Bacon, sausage, eggs, mushrooms, beans, toast, fruit, puddings.  I didn't care for the beans (pinto beans in tomato-y sauce, meh) and would just have a little toast and fruit.  Usually my breakfasts consisted of bacon, mushrooms and a small slice of brown soda bread with butter.  All of that protein and fat kept me full all day long as we tramped around Ireland.  We would have breakfast at 7 or 8 AM, half a candy bar and a cookie around 1 or 2 PM, then eat a nice dinner around 7 or 8 PM.  In the meantime we hiked up hills and wandered around ruins and averaged about 20,000 steps per day.  And I was full all day long.  Fantastic!

Status Update

Despite my boss's worries that we need to be marketing more and get out there in the community, I am swamped with work again.  I've been coming in early and leaving later than usual and I'm blowing deadlines all over the place, which is stressing me out.

I'm also not sleeping so well this week because Jason is out of town.   Despite 31 years on my own, apparently now I need a husband to sleep.  Lame.  I actually blame my imagination more than anything. I am very good at spooking myself and recalling scary movie moments while I'm lying there in the dark alone, trying to fall asleep. 

Then last night I saw the first house centipede in our home.  Not even the fairy-tale house is immune to the scourge of house centipedes!  So I spent a little time chasing it around (those things are fast!) and my pumping adrenaline kept me up way past when I was tired.

The point is, this week has been kind of a bust, exercise-wise.  I swam on Monday, but that's been it.  I plan to swim tomorrow, but I've missed all of my other swims this week because I was beat and/or needed to come into work early.  Also, it's been raining all week so it's not like I could take a long walk as a make-up.

Oh well.  I'll just have to get back in the game next week.  To misquote Scarlett O'Hara, after all, next week is another week!

Ow My Head

Yesterday I got this huge grody mole on the back of my head removed.  There was nothing wrong with it, no cancer suspicions or anything, it was just huge and grody and needed to be off of my head.

This morning I woke up with the worst migraine I've had in a long time.  I was really close to tears, actually.  I took the Tylenol that the dermatologist said I could take for any pain because it's not a blood thinner and they don't want my head wound to bleed, since the head is so vascular.

Then a couple of hours later, after trying to will the headache away with an icepack on my head and the covers pulled up to block out all light, I decided I didn't care about the blood thinning issue and I took 3 Excedrin.  A little while later, I spent 15 minutes going through all my bags and drawers, hoping to find a stray prescription migraine pill that actually works.  No luck.

Finally the Excedrin started to kind of work, so I got up and drank a Diet Coke (another migraine helper, believe it or not) and ate 2 eggs.  Managed to keep all of that down, which was a feat considering how my stomach felt.

So anyway, here I sit at home, with piles of things to do at work, and only marginally able to concentrate enough to do a little bit of that work.  My head still hurts, but not quite as badly.  I keep popping Excedrin, hoping instead of just keeping the worst pain at bay, they will eventually make the headache go away entirely.

Jason speculates that this may due to my head surgery yesterday.  It seems like a bit of an extreme reaction to getting a mole removed.  I'm going to say it's a side effect from suffering head trauma.  That sounds better.

Peppers Galore

Jason grew a lot of peppers this year.  Truth be told, I'm not a huge pepper fan, particularly of the bell pepper variety.  I have tried many, many times to like bell peppers and I just can't do it.

Nevertheless, we have a lot of peppers to get through in the next couple of weeks.  I most wanted to make Jason something with the caballero peppers that he grew and which he loves but that I do not like at all.  They're a good size for stuffing and I figured I could knock some of those out of our supply with a good dinner recipe using lots of peppers.  After asking my Facebook friends (particularly those from Tucson) for a chile relleno recipe, I realized that, wow, chile rellenos are complicated and time-consuming!

So I came up with my own spicy stuffed peppers recipe with meatballs and more peppers!  In the crock pot!

• 6-7 caballero peppers (can also use bell pepper or any other pepper that is stuffable.  The caballero peppers are kind of small (3 inches long by 2 inches wide) so if you're using big bell peppers, 1-3 should suffice for this recipe)
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef
• 1/2 C bread crumbs
• 1 sweet onion, chopped small
• 5-6 banana peppers and/or parker peppers, seeds removed and chopped small
• 2 T cumin
• 4 T chili powder
• 2 t salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 15 oz can no salt added diced tomatoes (can also use fresh tomatoes, but I'm saving ours for caprese salad and homemade tomato sauce)
• 1 15 oz can tomato sauce

Cut off the tops and bottoms of the caballero peppers and remove all seeds.  The bottoms are cut off so that the peppers can stand up in the crock pot.

Mix together ground beef, bread crumbs, onion, about 2/3 of your chopped peppers, 1 1/2 T cumin, 2 T chili powder, 1 t salt, and eggs.  Probably easiest to mix with your hands.

Stuff the caballero peppers with beef mixture.  Roll the rest of the beef mixture into meatballs, about 2 inches in diameter.

In a separate bowl mix together diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, rest of the chopped peppers, 1/2 T cumin, 2 T chili powder and 1 t salt.  Taste and/or smell to make sure that the strongest flavors are the cumin and chili powder, not the tomatoes, otherwise you're just making slightly Mexican spaghetti sauce.  Add more cumin and chili powder as needed. 

Pour tomato mixture into the crock pot and spread evenly.  Place the stuffed peppers on end in the crock pot, then fill in the rest of the space with a layer of meatballs.  Cook on low for 8 hours.


We ate this for dinner last night and I ate leftover meatballs for lunch today.  Jason got his stuffed peppers, and I got some yummy meatballs.  Win win.

Foiled!

I've been paying really close attention to how I feel both physically and emotionally over the past couple of days based on what I eat, by delicately tweaking my diet and reflecting on the slight cues from my body.  Last night I decided to toss this whole delicate nonsense because being delicate is for losers, I guess...?

I volunteer with the teenage girls at my church and last night was our activity night.  I got home from work and fixed myself a big salad, figuring I might have something else small after the activity when we met up with some friends for bar trivia.  It turned out that trivia didn't work out, but Jason and a couple of friends went to the Texas Roadhouse for their Wednesday night steak special.

After my activity ended, I met them at the Roadhouse.  I wasn't hungry enough for a whole dinner so I got a buffalo chicken wings appetizer.  First mistake.  Turn out The Roadhouse's buffalo chicken is really buffalo sauce-coated breaded chicken.  Breaded.  Oh well.  So much for the high-protein appetizer I expected.  I ate all the celery and most of the chicken, though, because I was hungry.

Second mistake.  Downing a couple of the decadent Roadhouse rolls before I really thought about it.  I can't be sure if it was the rolls or the breading (though I'm leaning toward the rolls), but by the time I got home, I already felt bloated and Jason can attest to my irritability.

This morning I had a total carb hangover.  I felt tired and sluggish.  For the last few days I've been waking up a little bit before my alarm.  It's not that I didn't want to stay in bed on those mornings, but I felt awake and ready to get up.  This morning I just could not get out of bed.  I finally got up at 8:15 and sped through my morning routine to finally get to work by 9:15.  Lame. 

Enough With the IMs, Coach!

Our Masters coach is absolutely obsessed with IMs!  For those of you who didn't catch this during the recent Olympics, IMs are Individual Medleys - Butterfly, Backstroke, Breaststroke, Freestyle.

The last few weeks, both the Tuesday morning workouts and the extra workout she sends us later in the week, have been all about the IMs.  I actually appreciate getting some variety from our new coach, because our old coach was all about freestyle.  Which, I love freestyle, but I also like the chance to practice the other strokes.

Howver, every practice recently I feel like I'm dying by the end of it.  And I don't even have high yardage to show for it!  Butterfly and especially Breaststroke slow me waaaay down, so it really impacts the distance I can swim in an hour.

Here was our workout this morning (which I'm sure will only be interesting to other swimmers, so feel free to skip.  I'm including it to emphasize the IM insanity):

200 warm up

16 100's:
1. Fly - 50 kick, 50 drill
2. Back - 50 kick, 50 drill
3. Breast - 50 kick, 50 drill
4. Free - 50 kick, 50 drill
5. Fly - 50 drill, 50 swim
6. Back - 50 drill, 50 swim
7. Breast - 50 drill, 50 swim
8. Free  - 50 drill, 50 swim
9-16 - odds 100 IM, evens 100 free

10 50s with :10 rest
Odds: 50 IM (12.5 Fly, 12.5 Back, 12.5 Breast, 12.5 Free)
Evens: 50 Free

At that point I had to get out of the pool a little early to get to a work meeting, but you get the idea.  It's been like this with the IMs for about 3 weeks now.

FYI, Butterfly is hard, everyone.  HARD.  I am in awe of the Olympics swimmers who race Butterfly.  So after a 25 or 50 of that, I am beat.  THEN I'm expected to swim Breast, which I am SO SLOW at.  I'm not really sure why.  I focus on my technique and try really hard, but I am just achingly, frustratingly slow.

Confession: when the extra weekly practice includes Breaststroke, I usually substitute Fly or Back.  I can only handle being extremely frustrated once a week.

Tomorrow morning I will hit the pool with one of my old coach's workouts and I will revel in the Freestyle!

A Day in Rhode Island

Jason and I bought too many Groupons this summer!  We got excited when all of the Groupons for the summer activities started coming out in May, and we snapped up a bunch.  Now we're struggling to use them all before they expire.

(For instance, since there was cruddy weather last weekend, I don't think we're going to get to use the stand-up paddleboarding Groupon before it expires. At least we can use the face value for a credit.)

On Saturday, we kayaked all day.  We bought Groupons from Narrow River Kayaks, thinking we would go twice for 4 hours.  Instead, we used both of them and kayaked all day.  Well, we didn't kayak ALL day, but for a long stretch.  Let's just say, today I am still feeling my lats.

My boss recommended this spot to us a few years ago and ever since we've tried to go back at least once a summer.  When you put in, you can either kayak up the river, past the lovely rich peoples' homes and boats, or head down the river to where it flows into the ocean, beach your kayak and play at the beach for awhile.  Since we had tons of time, we headed up the river first.

The thing you should know is that the tide was going out the whole time we paddled upriver.  If we paused for too long, we started going backwards.  We paddled further than we had in the past, and Jason figured we paddled upriver, against the tide and a strongish breeze, for about 2 1/2 miles.  In case you were wondering, that means Jason and I are awesome.

Then we turned around and went to the beach for a couple of hours.  All told, Jason thinks we paddled for 6 1/2 miles.

After we returned the kayaks, we drove to the beach at  Quonochontaug.  We checked out Quonochontaug last Fall, when Jason's brother was visiting, mainly because in the X-Files, it's the place where Mulder's family has a summer home.  And, yes, we are big nerds.

(Dear X-Files writers,  After living in New England for awhile now, I have to question your sense of geography.  Supposedly Mulder grew up on Martha's Vineyard (an ISLAND) and his family summered on the mainland in Rhode Island.  This makes no sense.  What also makes no sense is how Mulder was able to get from DC to Martha's Vineyard (an ISLAND) is just a few hours, no problem, with no thought of things like ferry schedules and such.)

We went for the nerd cachet, but discovered that Quonochontaug is this absolutely beautiful private community.  We also discovered on Saturday that in September, we could just wander around the restricted community beach.

This is a little-known fact about Rhode Island: the beaches are amazingly beautiful, the water is still warm in September, and after Labor Day, no one is around to make you pay for parking, or to keep you off of restricted beaches.

We rounded out the evening with dinner at Aunt Carrie's (which I keep wanting to call Sister Carrie's)  It is apparently a Rhode Island institution, and Jason took his parents there the last time they visited while I was working like a chump.  So good.  SO good!  Scallops of perfection!

Such a perfect Rhode Island day.  Sometimes this state drives me insane, with its corrupt politics and cronyism and bankruptcy, but it really is a lovely place.

New Challenge: In Progress

One of my swim friends on Spark People created a new challenge to run from September 10 to October 10. She said to look at the principles that guide Diana Nyad from this article and focus on one or more of the principles for a month.

Here's what I'm doing:

First, #4 Nyad is a learning machine and #8 Nyad is coachable. I already try to internalize what my coach tells me to do to get better, but I'm going to really focus on that this month. Maybe I'll improve enough to not hate breaststroke!

Second, #2 Nyad embraces obstacles to growth. This past week has reminded me how fantastic I feel when I swim consistently. For the next month, I'll schedule in 3 swims and 1 strength training class per week.

Finally, #10 Nyad is a big thinker. I want to work on my sprint times. In the next month, I'm going to try to get down to either under 1:30 for a 100 free or under :40 for a 50 free, or both. I'm not sure if I can get there in a month, but I'm going to try!

So far this week is good.  Not only did I listen to and incoporate my coach's breaststroke advice  at Masters (and maybe got a little faster), but I swam Monday and Tuesday and I went to strength training class yesterday.  I'm feeling energized all day long (well, until around 9 PM because early morning workouts make me an old lady).  I haven't started the sprint work yet, but I'll get there.

More Than Just Calories

I've written a lot about my frustration with the failure of the calories in/calories out equation in my life.  I think at this point I've gained back almost all the weight I lost 8 years ago, a big chunk of that over the past 2 years, but I haven't really changed that much in my life.  I have periods of eating healthy, and periods of not eating so healthy.  I have periods of working out regularly, and then working out irregularly.  After years of tracking my calories, I have a pretty good idea of my average calories per day, and yet I don't lose weight, despite all of the various equations telling me that I should be dropping weight, no problem.

Today I read Tom Naughton's latest post and was struck again by the ridiculousness of our standard nutritional guidelines and the expectation that every person should fit into a tidy little height/weight box.  Basically, Tom writes about his 2 dogs, who have been raised together, eating the same food, yet one is 18 pounds heavier, and much more muscular than the other.  In reality, it's not just calories in/calories out.  Weight and body shape is created by a complicated cocktail of calories, exercise, genetics and hormones.  The things we eat do impact how we look and what we weigh, but not in the simplistic manner that we've been taught.

Personally, I feel best when I exercise regularly and when I eat a lower carb diet, particularly excluding wheat.  I'm trying to make peace with the fact that despite all that I do, while I feel good, have low blood pressure and a low resting heart rate, I will most likely never be thin. 

(By the way, if you haven't seen Tom's movie Fat Head, I cannot recommend it enough.  Jason the Scientist confirms that the science is right on.)

Challenge Complete!

I finished my Olympics Challenge this morning!  16,025 yards in 16 days. 

This has actually been an awesome swimming week for me.  A friend of mine who swam in high school decided to join the Y and we met up 4 times this week to swim.  I've known since college that having a workout buddy is really key for me.  If I know someone is waiting for me, there is no way I'm going to stand her up.

We swam Monday morning, and then the last 3 mornings.  I completed the challenge with 0 days and 25 yards (ie, 1 lap) to spare!  Nothing like cutting it close.

My friend and I are already planning to swim next Monday, I have Masters swimming on Tuesday, and then she's going to join me for strength training class on Wednesday.  I'm sucking her into the world of swimming at the Y, and at the same time getting myself into a great routine.

I've also been doing really well with eating all week and I can feel it.  The good, clean eating plus 4 swims means I have a major endorphin buzz right now. 

I wish I could bottle this feeeling somehow, so that I could remind myself how awesome it feels to BE HEALTHY.  Why is it so hard to remember that?

&*$&#*!&@#

Forgot to set my alarm last night.  No swim this morning, which means I'm behind in my Olympics challenge.  Guess I'll be doing some crazy amounts of swimming next week.

Coming Out of a Carb Coma

Yesterday morning we had a staff meeting at work.  Meaning the 4 people who work in my office sat in our teeny conference room talking about projects.  Our assistant insisted on getting breakfast for us, and boy did she ever.  She turned up with a HUGE box of pastries.  HUGE.  When I commented on the hugeness, she said, "Well, but they're so cheap!"

Never mind that we're only 4 people and there's no way in the world we would ever eat all of that.  I think 4 people = 4 pastries.  Right?  There were probably 12 pastries in that box.

Not only was the box huge, but the pastries themselves were huge.  I carved the corners off of a few of them and nibbled on them for breakfast.  I swam yesterday morning so I was starving.  I ate a big salad for lunch, but the damage was done.  The rest of the day consisted of insulin spikes and crashes.  When I crashed, I would wander into the conference room and grab another pastry corner to get through another hour or so of my afternoon.

Then we went out for dinner with friends.  Mexican food.  It was so good!  Usually corn tortilla chips don't bug me too much, but after yesterday's carb-stravaganza, it was just adding insult to injury.

This morning I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  No swimming, only sleep, is what my body cried.  So I slept until almost 8 AM.

I'm all puffy too.  The jacket I wore just last week, noting that it was fitting a little looser, is today completely constricting my upper arms.

In addition, I had a bout of angry sleep talking last night.  Sometimes I have whole conversations with Jason in the middle of the night, while he's sitting up in bed, typing away on his computer, that I don't remember the next day.  Sometimes they're benign and sometimes I'm just so irritated with him I could scream.  Sometimes I wake up in the middle of these ramblings. 

Last night was an angry night and I woke up in the middle of it and snapped at him, "How much longer are you going to be on your computer?!"

To be fair, it was 1:12 AM.  I don't think my question was completely unreasonable.  However, my delivery could have been a little nicer.  I wonder, though, if those angry nights have anything to do with what I've eaten the day before.  That's something to make note of in the future.

So here I am, disappointed because I didn't get in my swim this morning, feeling bloated and yucky, with a slightly resentful husband.  Pastries are no good for me!

We have suggested to our assistant that next time she might also want to get some fruit for our staff meeting breakfast.  I'd like to put in a plug for bacon too, but I think that might be asking too much.

Michelle Obama is Sort of a Low-Carber

I just read this article about Michelle Obama's diet and fitness tips.  While she does mention eating veggie pizza on whole wheat crust (per the Daily Plate guidelines she's pushing), I thought Tip #5 was very interesting:

5. She Eats Five Meals a Day, When She’s ‘Doing What I’m Supposed to Do’

“I try to eat—when I’m being good—five meals, a breakfast, which can be like stir-fried vegetables, tofu, or oatmeal,” she said while promoting her book, American Grown: The Story of The White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America. “And then I’ll have a snack, something like this [pointing to a tray of sliced apples and honey from the White House beehive] or a vegetable tray or sometimes a protein shake ... then lunch. This last year I’ve tried to change it so my lunch is my biggest meal ... like today, I had fish and vegetables, stir-fried vegetables. And if I’m going to have a carb, like a brown rice or a potato or something, I’ll have it at lunch.”

 

It sounds like the majority of her meals are protein, fruits and vegetables, with a carb (meaning brown rice or potato) possibly thrown in at lunch, with some oatmeal or honey here or there.  If only she could push that more in her official recommendations without the USDA and their grain subsidies jumping down her throat.

Weekend in New Hampshire

Jason and I spent this past weekend in New Hampshire because it was a 3-day weekend in Rhode Island.  We spent 2 nights at a lovely inn that I can't recommend enough.  Jason asked if we could live there, that's how much he liked it. 

Jacuzzi!

The 3rd night, we hiked into the Zealand Falls Hut, maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club, stayed overnight, and hiked out the next morning.  So this weekend I got 2 nights of really luxurious sleep, which almost made up for getting almost no sleep on the 3rd night.  Suffice it to say, I do not do well with snoring, and when you're sharing a sleeping room with 17 other people, there will be snoring. 

I say we hiked in, but what I really mean is, we "hiked" in to the hut.  I think we walked the easiest trail in the White Mountains.  It was 2 1/2 miles of a slight incline through the woods, then maybe 1/4 mile straight up through granite boulders to the hut, on the kind of trail I've come to expect from the White Mountains.  Once we got to the hut, we dumped our bags and claimed our bunks, then walked out to the Falls.

You can boulder hop on the falls and sit on dry rock, with the water rushing around on either side of you.  After we sat there for a few minutes, Jason asked if I wanted to hike back down and over, on another flat trail to another set of falls.  I'm just going to put it out there and say I am the wimpiest hiker ever.  I really wish I could be that awesome, kick-a** hiker girl for Jason, but I'm just not.  I opted to stay at the top of the hill and read my book.  He wound up hiking another 4 miles on his own.  I felt bad, but not bad enough to go with him.

Here's my problem.  Whenever I hike, I get really overheated and wind up with a migraine.   Doesn't matter how much water and/or Gatorade I drink, it happens every time.  This was a very easy hike, but then I also weigh more than I did the last time we hiked, so it didn't take much.  It was also hot and muggy on Sunday.  The headache started Sunday afternoon and continued through Monday morning, finally waning a bit around 1 PM.  Then it came back last night and when I woke up this morning, it was there, stabbing me in the right eyebrow.  I popped 3 Excedrin and managed to pull it together enough to go to Masters swimming.  Right now it's still a little achey, but not bad.  My fingers are crossed that as the day continues, it will get better and not worse.

So, yeah.  That's enough to put me right off of hiking.  I'm going to do a little research and see if I can figure out why this happens, but for now, Jason will just have to be content with the non-kick-a**, non-hiker girl that I am.