Why I'm not really eating grains anymore, sorry for the inconvenience

I apologize in advance to anyone who's used to ordering pizza or feeding me spaghetti when I come around.  : )

So on and off over the past year, I've been experimenting with going grain free.  This year I'm planning to ramp up my effort even more.  I don't know if people are wondering why, but here I'll put it out there anyway in case you're interested.

The whole thing started with trying to lose weight in '08 to '09...  I started using The Daily Plate and calorie counting.  It worked for me for quite a while.  It had a handy graph that showed weight v. calorie intake.  I first noticed that if I ate veggies, I could get a lot more food for my calorie expenditure than if I ate breads, so I made a substitution. Then I noticed that after the initial weight loss, I'd go through plateaus and the periods where I'd drop weight again.  I also could track that the plateaus would be when I was eating grains and the drop periods with veg instead of grains (both were the same number of calories consumed & expended).  I love data! 

OK, fast forward to July/August of 2009 and I go to the MovNat seminar, they feed me "paleo" all week, I come home, get pizza & a beer & have fish & chips the next day for lunch.  Subsequently, I broke out in a rash around my torso and forearms.  I went to the doctor & the doctor wrote it off as being woods related eventhough it was a breakout pattern that is related to Celiac stuff.  At some point I requested the full test for both markers of Celiac & came back negative.

Starting with that MovNat experience, I experimented over the next year with on again/off again paleo/primal, and have done a lot of reading and personal research into human body metabolism and health and nutrition and all that jazz.  If you know me well, I've probably irritated the shit out of you this year with all of this.

There's been a lot of press this past year about Gluten Free diets & products and there's been some info about it and a bunch of articles about it being a fad and people are just jumping on the bandwagon.  "All these people are claiming to be 'gluten intolerant' and they're not celiacs so they're just making a fuss to be special & it's stupid" etc...

Here are two things:
1) Article on Celiac Diagnosis - summary: you're only celiac and get a celiac diagnosis once the villi in your intestine gets destroyed.  THEN you get the immuno response markers in your blood stream that they test for. The destroying happens over time.  Some people will get to this point, some people won't but that doesn't mean there's not damage going on because you can find the same markers in the stool of people who have a problem with it and who don't show up on the blood tests.  End result: lots of people can have issues and body responses without knowing this is the cause.
2) Article on digesstion of grains, comparing Europeans and Africans - summary: european children couldn't break down proteins in grains well while african children could because the african children have bacteria in their guts (coincidentally also found in the stomachs of termites) which breaks down the grain constituents for them.

After a while of experimenting on my own, here are a few of my own personal findings which are leading me to give up the grains for real (I don't mean to be a pain for meal planning, but it's a quality of life issue at this point):

When I go grain free:

• my winter eczema (which has been getting progressively worse every year) is non-existent
• my seasonal allergies are almost non-existent (used to be non-stop from March to November)
• a lot of my low-grade aches & pains go away**
• I don't get PMS bitchiness or cramps
• my intestines normalize & I don't fart as much and become more "regular"
• my mood swings disappear
• when I don't get fed on time, I just get hungry, instead of turning into a raging psychotic bitch
• I feel like I have more energy & my ability to move is improved.
• I also *seem * to get sick a lot less

 ** I starred this one because to be honest, I didn't realize I was achy until I STOPPED eating grains & felt different.  You don't realize how shitty you feel until you feel good?

Anyway, I've at this point been so many time through the cycle of  grains/no grains that I can see definite patterns at this point and reasonably make these conclusions.  During allergy season, if I go on a weekend grain bender (this may be just eating like a normal person), my nose immediately starts running & clears up in a day or two when I go back to no grains.  Same with the eczema.  I currently have a little red crusty patch on my right calf and I've been partaking in the holiday splendor.  I went semi-clean again yesterday (today back to full clean) and it's a little better than it was. I expect it to be gone by tomorrow or the next day.

Anyway, to sum up:  once again, I'm not choosing this lifestyle to be difficult on other people; while the physical ailments are motiv, it's more the psychological effects that motivate me.  I don't like feeling like a raving lunatic - especially now that I can no longer blame it on being female or having PMS.  Now that I know I can control it by what I eat (or don't), I feel like anything else is being unfair to myself and my friends and family.

Also, not to get preachy, but seriously...  if you are reading this & have any sort of chronic pains, moodiness, really bad PMS, skin problems, allergies, or anything that classifies as an "inflammatory condition", try 30 days no grains.  Just try it.  If nothing changes, then so be it.  If something does change, then it may be helpful!

p.s.  some may be tempted to argue "how can so many people have issues with grains?  we've been eating them for thousands of years & some cultures still live almost exclusively on them!"  Well, true.  people have been eating them for a long time, but we've also stopped eating dirt and termites.  that could, ultimately, be what's making the difference.  I don't know.  All i know is that since I can't take a termite supplement, I'll just stick to not eating grains as much as possible.

We need a better look at Autism

I just ran across the following article, Siblings of autistic children may share some symptoms, and it reminded me (again) about something I had heard a while back about a scientist proposing an little-talked-about theory linking Autism to prenatal androgen exposure (example of research on the androgen link).  I will be really interested to see where future research in this field leads.  If the Androgen hypothesis is correct, it could also account for the findings in the science article that I found today.  If we could some day get something solid that will lead people away from the oft-refuted, but still accused immunization link, that would be a good thing.  Trying not to harp on another subject, it's also making me wonder once again if this is at least partially influenced by the shitty state of the Standard American diet...  I've heard a lot about how PCOS, which is also characterized with abnormal androgen levels, is influenced by diet and insulin resistance.  Just something I'm pondering right now.

For the record, this is just the pondering of a layman with a general science background.  I'm not a medical professional, nor do I play one on TV.  But I still wonder about these things.
_________________________
UPDATED:  Link to the guy from whom I first heard about the hypothesis

Mindfulness

Mindfulness... such a simple word. So little meaning if you look at it and so much meaning if you think about it.

More and more I am drawn to a quote attributed to Buddha: "Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and our own common sense."


Mindfulness is changing my life.

Though I can maybe argue that I've been practicing mindfulness all my life (and that brings to question some nature v. nurture questions), I was never really "mindful" of mindfulness until last summer.

I was first introduced (or rather, first noticed the word and its usage) to mindfulness last summer at the MovNat Seminar with Erwan LeCorre. He introduced me to the idea of mindfulness in movement - the difference between long jumping and long jumping with a purpose... don't just jump. think about why you're jumping (give it a purpose) and how it feels and if you failed, why you failed - was it lack of ability or mental interference? Also, don't just jump, and don't just move, but be mindful of your environment and your senses... what works for a dry area or a man-made area may not work for an unprdictable environment of change. Really, it all relates to awareness.

Next I ran into it through my work with Exuberant Animal. First, I interacted with Kwame M. Brown and then at the East Coast Jam, I met Frank Forencich, the founder. I can't remember specific quotes, but I remember recognizing the term 'mindfulness' and that is really the basis behind Exuberant Animal. It is play-based fitness, but it also specifically to combine the mind and body and community by performing purposeful,mindful movements that are fun because you interact with other people.

About a month ago, I ran across a post by Greg Carver, who I met at MovNat. He's posted once before on mindfulness of movement but this post was referring to introducing mindfulness in eating as well. It makes sense to me.

Greg Carver:
Mindful Movement, Mindful Eating - "it seems logical to me that we can also be mindful about food and eating."

Two nights ago I attended a lecture on Barefoot Running by the authors of a book by the same name, Michael Sandler and Jessica Lee. At some point, I think when discussing the issue of glass on the road (people always ask, well, what about glass?!? you're going to hurt yourself), he said you end up being more mindful about where you're putting your feet.


Today, I ran across this video, which is cool in and of itself, but here again mindfulness pops up.


Mad Viking:
http://vimeo.com/12459183 - "I take kids up here and get them to turn off their cell phones, which is step one of mindfulness training, and just sit for ten minutes and listen to the birds that are around here..."

So, noticing "mindfulness" in the Mad Viking video was the key that clicked the lightbulb on. I don't know why, but the repetition and connection hit today and I started pondering... I think I've always practiced some degree or another of mindfulness - whether it's from my mother asking me to think about why I did this or that, or if it's something as simple as being hypervigilant with being aware of my surroundings, which has kept me safe several times.

As a teen/adult, I've always tried to be mindful of how I interact with other people and the things around me. I realized I was unhappy in shoes where I couldn't feel the bumps on the ground. I discovered that I enjoy running, but only barefoot and only when I can "go inside" my body and feel the ground and feel how my muscles and joints are reacting. I also have found that I LIKE "working out" if I have a purpose. I've started to find that being Mindful of what I'm eating , as Greg suggested, is wonderful. I'm having more luck optimizing my health by being mindful of how my body feels after eating various things and that being mindful about my eating habits can really change what and how I eat... I relly enjoy cooking most of the time now because I've changed it froma chore into a creative process. I had a problem with preparing a whole chicken for grilling until I stopped tossing it around on the counter and started treating it with respect and being gentle with my preparation. Small changes are becoming big changes and it's really interesting to sit back and look at.

Maybe I live by mindfulness. Maybe it's the essence of my being and happiness and I just never had a word for it. The more I'm realizing that isolating myself from my environment and nature makes me unhappy, the more I am finding ways to make myself happy. I think being mindful about things help one be more open minded. When you can separate yourself, even temporarily, from your feelings and view things with a clear mind... a blank slate... interesting things happen. I like stepping back and watching people as if I were not a person... like Jane Goodall watching chimps. I don't think it's harsh, I just think it's being mindful of the fact that I'm an animal too - that we all are - and that some things people do make as little sense when you take yourself out of context as watching some of the things animals do that we don't understand.

I've also been finding that it's not a natural reaction for most people. It seems hard to convey to my Exuberant Animal classes how to be mindful of their movements or even that they should. I think it's something that can be learned. Maybe most people don't understand any importance of it or might understand why some people would find it important, but see no personal value in it.

Ah well, I've rambled into some other realm here.

All I know is that I really believe the overall concept of mindfulness is important to me, though I may avoid using the word, and I really hope it isn't a word or concept that gets picked up as a "thing" that people get behind and strip of all it's importance or meaning by overuse. I worry when people corporatize good concepts.

Here: I'll leave you with something to be mindful over... : )

Oops and thoughts about the future...

Yeah, so I just realized that I posted the Friday article Wrap-up on Thursday and my sense of time is all off. I thought last night was Friday, but then I thought today was Thursday or Wednesday while I was driving to work. Oh well.

So the post yesterday had something to do with a hint that I'm contemplating teaching again. I am. It'll probably be years down the road. I'm looking into programs. I should get my degree in it this time at some point. There's a fast track program which would be more my speed, but it looks like I'll have the same problem as last time because I won't get classroom management or grade assessment skills until after I'm already in the classroom... but I've found some good resources on my own this time and may look into that down the road. I do need to figure out what prereqs I need though because while I could be fully competent going into the fast track program in Physics and maybe Math, That's not all I want. I'd also like to have the necessary reqs. for health and Phys. Ed.

Why?!? Why would someone who HATED Phys ed want to teach it? How could I teach phys ed if I still have an innate loathing of volleyball? Well, I don't know the answer to the third question, but to the first and second I put this: through my work with MovNat & Exuberant Animal this past year and by being exposed to SPARK (the book) and stuff like this, I think I can best apply my knowledge and positively impact people by applying my science at an early age... It's so empowering when someone tells you WHY you should move and move a lot, rather than when someone tells you that you SHOULD move a lot. It's also better getting the education in WHY and the experimenting and learning it for yourself. I think I can do the most here. That is why. : )

This is why: Physically Active Play and Cognition

More failure. Mood deteriorating.

I've had this incessant whatever-it-is for a week now. Sinus pressure. Tired. Those are the major symptoms. Today I was extra tired (though I had broken sleep, so...) and found a newly swollen, sore lymph node in my throat. Decided: "hell, I'll go to the health clinic downstairs & see if there's anything they can find." Checked my nose & ears & apparently didn't see anything that would scream "sinus/ear infection" to them. Checked out my throat & saw some discoloration & did a rapid strep test. Negative, but they seemed skeptical. Apparently the tests are very inaccurate. The Dr. sat down and filled a scrip for penicillin and said, get this: "You've had it for a week now, there's a possibility that it's strep. Here's a scrip, but it's up to you. You can wait a day or two and see if it clears up before you take anything or you can start taking it right now. Your choice." your choice. They don't normally say that. I liked him. He looked about retirement age, had a very good personality, was super forth coming with the info. I LIKED him. Then I noticed he's a D.O. Google stalking ensued and he's not covered by my insurance and is barely mentioned, so I figured he does not have a private practice.

On the off-chance, I decided to go back & see if he knew of anyone. I talked to the nurse about my medical care philosophy & she understood what I'm talking about but has not found anyone in the area here. Then we asked him. SOOOOO frustrating. He'd be my perfect doctor. He didn't discount what I was saying, he agreed with my approach to care, he understood what I was looking for and then told me that he couldn't recommend anyone. BUGGER!!! What I got from both of them is "Things are different now and you can't make any money as a doctor that takes a holistic approach to care so even though some still come out of med school, they don't stay in it long." CRAP.

Back to the drawing board. It sounds like the best I can hope for is maybe someday finding a doctor who talks to me at least like they think I'm a semi-intelligent person (or pretends at least).

*sigh *

Eczema Experiment

Start of a new, crazy guinea pig experiment on myself... I'm wondering if there's a correlation between diet and my seasonal eczema which appeared to be held in check, if not cured, by the liberal use of knee socks last year. As a result, I've resolved to go bare (non-sock-clad) legged this year and see what happens. Unfortunately, up until the past few days, the weather has been too mild and uncooperative (development of the condition usually coincides with the arrival of cold, dry air). Now! It has finally gone cold and dry for a spell, so we shall see what happens. : ) *crosses fingers *

Friday Article Wrap-up

Alrighty!


So I read a lot of articles and come across stuff that I find fascinating all the time. Lately, it's been within a very narrow genre and since I've been sharing those articles regularly, some people are getting irritated or taking it the wrong way. As a result, I've figured out a way to present the articles that I've found intriguing this week without constantly spamming people. Also, if you aren't interested, don't read them or pick and choose.



Without further ado, here's this week's list in no particular order:

Fun stuff:

• The 25 Best Costumes At The 2009 NYC Marathon



• SEASONAL: Zombie Attack Preparedness (ZAP) Workout

Informative stuff:

• Omega-3 deficiency may be hurting our hearts


• Feeling grumpy 'is good for you' - finally, after untold stories about how J's gonna live 12-14 years longer than me because he doesn't stress.... ; )


• Collins: Letter to young American women


• Animals make the perfect humans - an OpEd that scathing, yet amusing


• Depression link to processed food - I'd like to see the controls on the study, but I've heard enough anecdotal evidence to buy that it's a contributing factor


• Chris Rock on the billion dollar black 'good hair' industry

• 'The myth of the chemical cure' - also something I've heard a couple of different places and worth noting perhaps


• To Meet Your Nutrient Goals, You May Need to Expand Your Food Variety - I want to look up this study too.
• Not So Happily Ever After

"damn having a scientific mind & a compulsion to experiment on myself!"

Just got my blood panels back from my physical - from Jan 08, my Cholesterol is down, the LDL is SIGNIFICANTLY down and I find myself wishing I had another panel from July or August '09... that would indicate whether it was strictly due to weight loss or due to healthier eating (have kinda gone half-paleo the past 5-6 weeks and wonder if/how much effect that might have).

Also, tested negative for Celiacs = yay, cake won't kill me! (if had in moderation)

Also, started training on the Couch to 5K program with my friend for Cherry Blossom. Since 30 sec jog to 90 sec walk is, well... kinda a cake-walk for me, I'm using it as an opportunity to start out slowly with running TRULY barefoot.... not too bad, though it's truly evident that I don't have a callus base yet. I really want to see if barefoot vs. psuedo barefoot has more of an effect on foot arch strength... Though you can feel rocks & etc through the Virbam Five Fingers, I can say with complete certainty now that it is WAY different without shoes - after doing a 30 second jog on a sea of shale-like gravel and acorns, going "OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! OWWWIE!!!" That was a bad trip plan on my part and will wait to attempt that again until I have some calluses built up. : ) Onward with the experiments!

Experiment on self #221

In great quantities, over long periods of time, soda is bad for you. Who knows what the artificial stuff in Diet soda will do really? You know that. I know that. The fact still remains that I am addicted to soda. At work, I drink for one of these reasons: A) I'm thirsty, B) I need caffeine, C) I want something flavored in my mouth, D) because I suck on any consumable liquid put in front of me. With the exception of maybe, MAYBE reason B, There is no reason why I need to drink soda specifically. So why do I? Because I'm lazy and forgetful. Some days I just don't feel like walking down the hall, cleaning and filling my teapot and waiting for the water to boil (lazy). On days that I DO go get water & put it on to boil, I start doing work while it boils and realize 2 hours later that I've never made my tea. I turn the hot-pot back on and then promptly forget about it again, ad nauseum... Really, it's much quicker and yeilds more predictable results if I go pop money in the vending machine and grab a diet Coke. Finally I've hit a breaking point and realized that I MUST stop because the amount of soda I'm consuming disgusts me and the waste from all those bottles disgusts me and the waste of money that is my habit is disgusting.

I've come up witha solution and I will be seeing if I can stick to it.... A big vat o' iced tea. This satisfies both my need to drink and ease on environmental and financial impact while appeasing my lazy, forgetful self. I went out and bought a Thermos Pump Carafe in a 2 qt. size. and made 3 qt of iced tea in my tea maker last night. This morning, pour tea in carafe & off to work with me. I have my stainless steeel travel mug and plan to refil it all day. I dunno if 2 qt. will last all day, but we'll see. If this works, and I strongly suspect that it will once I make it a routine, please don't harass me about bringing my tea with me when I come to visit on long road trips.... It's really hard to find good unsweetened bottled tea in gas stations and 7-11s.

In other health and experiment related news...
I'm always impressed at how well minor home surgery seems to work. I took a spill in a parking lot over a week ago (literally tripped over my own feet, quite embarassing) and scraped up my hand. I must not have cleaned it & dressed it well enough the first time around because after 5 days it was still hurting, a bit red, and raised in one spot. Seemed like beginning infection to me.... So I reopenned it, applied alcohol, HO, and more antibiotic cream and it cleared up by the next day and was completely fine in another 2. Love it when that works.

Also, allergy season is starting up full swing again and I am once again going to try to subject myself to as much fresh air as possible to acclimate to the allergens. Yay! So far, so good.

Lastly, after realizing that I was no longer on a "plateau" for weight loss, but rather the La Brea Tar Pit (yeah, that's me...), I started looking at what I was eating and I've once again dropped all green vegetables, if not all vegetables period, out of my diet. AGAIN. So I've been trying to get 2-3 servings of veggies in per day again. I think it's helping already and that's only been 4 days ago. Wheee.... veggies are so critical.

wondering...

well, after working a long day today, I went out for a run. I'm running out of time (pun not intended) as I've mentioned before, so at this point, I've thrown the Couch to 5K out the window... My last run was 20 mins straight through, ended up being 2.12 miles and I felt OK at the end, so I decided to go for 25 mins this time and see how far I ended up going. I essentially ended up hating my life for the last 10 mins because my stomach was upset that I had consumed an energy bar 30 mins prior and I felt like I was really slowing up for the last 7 mins or so, but all in all I made it 2.6 miles in 25 mins and that works out somehow to 9.5 min per mile, so I guess I'm still doing OK.

Also, I thought I'd see what my resting heart rate is just cause... I can't find out from those stupid blood pressure machines because I have an irrational fear that they're going to go haywire, never deflate and chop my arm off, so my heart is always racing. So just sitting here, the resting heart rate is 48 bpm... I think that rates as "healthy", but I suspect that it just means my heart is as lazy as the rest of me.

Also fate dictated that I would stop working tonight after the internet glitched 3 times and then I couldn't get my login to register any more. Guess that means I should go to bed! :) G'night all.

The New Experiment....

So after seeing what I have deemed to be proven results by improving my diet and increasing my vitamin and vegetable intake (well, duh...), I am now on a kind of naturally improving my well-being kick and have run across this article about Omega-3 Fatty Acids. And once again "well, duh..." I mean, people have talked about Omega-3s for quite a while and I had noticed, but it seemed like such a side note... and honestly, I wasn't sure it was anything more than another hype thing. I'm still not sure it's anything other than hype. It does seem like a giant ad for that one company, but there are also a lot of facts and scenarios presented that have made sense to me. I'm thinking it's worth a try. J has been saying he wants to eat more fish. So we'll try to work more fish in per week and I'll see about finding fish oil supplements (know I have some cod liver oil up in the closet somewhere...). The plan is to try this for a couple of months and see if I notice any difference in how I feel, in the Fuzzy-head syndrome I've been experiencing of late, and in my overall anxiety and mood swing levels. Eeeeee!!! *claps and dances * It's always fun to have a new experiment to try on myself.

My Teeth Will Be Happy.

Woot! I just succeeded in signing up for a dental plan and it comes with a free vision thingie too. Goodie. I'll just wait until I get a dental card in the mail & then go about setting up appointments. It really is time.

Also, I gorged like nobody's business for about to weeks and held steady, weight wise. Yay. I'm back to being good though... does anyone know what those Indian Sweet Lentil Balls are called? Ah well.

So Inauguration is coming up and I feel a war brewing... I think Jonah really wants to go to an official Inaugural Ball type thing to be a part of history. I really just want to be at a real ball, so I'd prefer to go to the Glen Echo Inaugural Ball - it's only $20 and there'll actually be dancing. Here is a good example of why I don't want to go to one of the "real" balls. It's not just the article... I checked out most of the balls and there are almost no details, when there are details, it looks like for the $150 you spend to get in, you get 2 cocktail weenies and there is no mention whatsoever of any sort of dancing. Heck, they don't even tell you what kind of music will be played if any. Which really leads one to believe you stand around to see and be seen and probably get packed into the room like sardines. Ugh. Why? We shall see what happens.

Resolutions Addendum

Alrighty. With picking up my new resolutions, I've been thinking about health in general. It's kinda scary. There are so many harmful or potentially harmful products out there. I am really starting to consider all of the potential impacts of the pervasive use of plastics. Sometime this past year, studies came out showing that polycarbonate leeches stuff into the water and food stored in it and some such. Then with all of the melamine stuff coming out of China recently, my happy little dream world of "I'm sure no one would sell me something that can harm me or cause long term effects" has been shattered. As a result, last spring I stopped using my favorite Polycarbonate water bottle. (on a side note, I've also been considering ditching those ziplock/glad food containers in favor of the pyrex ones with lids... dunno.) Why is it my favorite? - the lid. It has this flip-top lid where you press a button and the lid flips open and then it has this perfect sipping portion and then you just swing it closed again and it locks. The main advantage is that it keeps the drinking area covered and therefor clean during one of my inevitable Kluzt moments when I drop it in a big pile of mulch or whatever. You can also open & close it one-handed for easy use while driving. This lid is CRITICAL for me. Then last May, Jonah's cousins came down and introduced me to "Smart Water" - which has electrolytes added for anyone who doesn't know. I really liked that idea. I'm kinda a camel in that I go a long time without drinking, and then drink a lot all at once. I probably am constantly teetering on the brink of minor dehydration. I need to change that. So anyway, whenever I feel dehydrated I now grab a smart water. Then that turned into grabbing a smart water on my way to work - every morning. Then the piles of water bottles to be recycled and the thought of money wasted has been seeming like a big waste. It really is a big waste. Yesterday, I was motoring around Target looking for a thermos or a reasonable facsimile thereof and GLORY BE! I found my old polycarbonate water bottle now made in stainless steel (like this but with the same lid as the original)! Praise whatever!!!! Now I can have my water, save money, hopefully not die from it (the bottle was made in China... should I be worried?), AND have no moral dilemmas about undue waste. *does a little dance*

Also, I picked up a stainless steel 24 oz. vacuum mug so that I can make tea and take it with me on trips. I think I still need a full scale thermos, but eh. I'm a fan of tea. I love tea. It's a great soda substitute, especially if you get a flavored type. Today's tea of the day: Republic of Tea 'Wild Blueberry' (Fine Black Tea with Sweet Blueberries) So my plan for a WHILE now has been to get a mug or thermos, make tea & then take it with me on road trips because you can barely ever get good tea in convenience stores (the only one I've found that's decent if you actually like tea is Gold Peak Unsweetened).

Addendums to Resolutions:

• drink my own water
• increase tea intake/decrease soda intake
• limit soda intake to lunch only
• start to moisturize more regularly

This week I've done pretty well on parts of my resolutions and not so well on others. J's been out of town on business travel and so I've been pretty good about exercising since it is all my own schedule. I have not been so good about cooking in since I'm the only one and haven't really stayed in. Last night I went to a place called Mackey's because they have a Guinness Steak & Mushroom pie (I tooooootally miss steak & ale pies from Scotland). It was good, but not the same AT ALL. *sigh * I'd also say I'll be better about cooking in next week, but it'll be T-giving and the only night we'll be home is Monday. Maybe I'll cook Monday? Dunno.

Funny self-deprecating story of the day: this is why I claim only to be a physicist-poser... So I get that new stainless steel water bottle and this morning I fill it with Brita water from the fridge. I go to grab the bottle and come away SHOCKED at how cold it is... anyone with a physics degree SHOULD expect that. It's metal, & metal is not an insulator. *hangs head in shame * Mental note... new sewing project will be to make a fabric coozie for my water bottle.

Exercise Recap

So my training went pretty well yesterday. I timed the walk/runs and the direction of my travel just right such that the middle walk (It's W-R-W-R-W in an 8-5-5-5-7 relation this week) happened just at the right time to walk around the observation deck over the marsh. I got a happy little viewing reward that way, yay! The marsh is sooooo pretty regardless of time of year. I think I like cattails. Well the first run went well. I remembered to focus on my form - mid-foot strike, heel touch, roll & push-off; keep feet pointed forward; try not to over exert my ankle muscles; & bent-knee landing. It felt good. I think I was slower again. I think I get slower when I focus on form, but it's definitely better for my joints, especially that friggin' left knee. On the second run, my mind wandered and I had to pull it back to the task at hand because I could feel my feet turning back out again. I like barefooting because it really does force you to have a biomechanically good form. If you are off, you hurt or at least don't feel perfect. If you are on, you feel just fine. I'm still sore through the back of my calves a little - they're tight - but that's indicative that I was still overcompensating with my ankles and just not keeping it all loose. That'll get better over time. This is why I've been starting out slow again - so that I can get the right form down again so I don't blow my knee out.

In other news, I just put on my super skinny skirt from the end of HS, the beginning of college. It fits! I'm quite pleased. I'm happy that I'm getting back into running because if I do more running and dancing, hopefully it'll firm up my butt & thighs some more. *crosses fingers* We'll see. I'm not complaining about the quantity of muscle that I have already... it's been established that I have more muscle now than last time I was this size because I weigh 15 lbs more than I did then. That's at least SOME progress that was made over the last 10 years. Ah! I also went climbing the other day. That felt kinda good. I don't think I like most of the people at my gym though. They're not very social. I think I need to find myself a regular partner. I was happy to find out that the main strength I lost was in my fingers. They got fatigued well before any other part, so that's OK I guess. That's one definite thing that's great about taking up running as a form of exercise - you can do it ANYWHERE. Not so with climbing. Next week is T-giving as you all know and I'll be home for 5 days? Yeah. So I'll just pack my five fingers and my jogging pants and go! Yay! Hopefully this time my mum won't worry about me exerting myself in the cold. Parents always worry, I guess. : )

Speaking of Five Fingers... if anyone feels like getting me a random senseless gift, I'm jonesin' for those light blue/green ones featured on the front page.... ; )

Ah, I also entertained myself by taking Retro Pinup pics of myself last night. That was fun. No, I'm not posting them on here. Needless to say, if anyone wants any pin-ups done for them, let me know. I love it! I also do head shots & I really, really want to try recreating the effects of 16th century paintings with my camera. Let me know if you're up for a shoot!

Is it just me?

Is it just me or is it colder out? Sounds like a stupid question since the winter weather just started showing up, I know. See, here's the thing. I know winter has come sooner than last year, but I've also lost 50 lbs of insulation. I'm guessing it's a combination of being colder earlier and my lack of insulation, but I am COLD lately. Last year I probably wore socks only whenever there was enough snow to risk getting it into my shoes (i.e. a handful of times). This year I've not only started to wear socks already, but have upgraded to knee socks. This has two benefits... 1)I am warmer from the knee-down and 2) my Eczema is not attacking me as ferrociously as in previous years. For anyone interested, I have been getting Eczema on the back of my calves and sometimes up my legs, but only in the winter. As soon as the temperature changes and the humidity drops, it kicks in. This year... not so much. Is it that I'm eating better and perhaps subjecting myself to fewer allergens and thereby not exacerbating things? Is it purely that the additions of knee socks is, as my friend suggested earlier, keeping more moisture on my skin and thereby not letting it dry out as much? I don't know if I'll ever really get the answer to either the cold question or the Eczema vs. knee socks one. Oh well, off to run & see f I succeed in not puking up the potato and vegetable soups I ate for lunch. Goodie!

Samhain 2007 to 2008

I have no idea how many people know this, but I inadvertantly deided to celebrate Samhain (ancient celtic New Year ~ Nov 1) last year and made some Samhain resolutions. I would recommend that EVERYONE do it! The main benefit: you make resolutions to be better about what you eat right BEFORE the major binging holidays and they're so new that it helps you be good around all those cookies and candies and turkey and stuffing and.... *drools on self *



So last year (don't know if it's Samhain 2007 or 2008) I made the following resolutions:

1. Improve myself, healthwise


2. Take less of other's issues onto my own shoulders (kinda relates to 1 if you think about mental health)


3. Get off my ass & make some friends, or try to be better about those that I already have (relates also to mental health)


4. Start doing the things that I like to do again


5. Find social outlets where I fit


6. Eat better (relates to #1)


7. Conduct experiment to see if I can enjoy running

For #1, there were a lot of sub-resolutions... exercise more, get a physical, find a primary Care physician, go to the dentist, get my weight in check or lose some (most preferable), and get myself into a better mental state through improving my lifestyle.

I think I've done pretty well so far... I did get a physical and a PCP, I've done a greater variety of exercise, I've found dance groups, I've lost 45 lbs., I'm in better cardio shape & I think I've built some muscle? I'm doing more things that I want to do instead of just going along with what everyone else is doing. I think I'm happier? Who knows. Happiness is hard to quantify, especially when work is stressful. I HAVE NOT GOTTEN TO A DENTIST.... someone please, PLEASE harass me into doing it. I need to go, I know I need to... I just... don't... waaannnnttt... to. Ack!

For #2, I've been distancing myself from the problems of others and have kinda stopped trying to solve them for them.

For #3, I 'bought' a friend on Craigslist and that has been quite nice. I've also made more of an effort to call & hang out with the girls that I already knew, but kinda sat back and waited for something to happen. One person or the other needs to make a move for a friendship to go anywhere. So I've actively worked on countering my paranoia of rejection and started making the first move. hoorah! I've also been trying to reestablish old friendships and make the most of current long-distance ones. Facebook has helped since I can't bring myself to pick up the telephone. One thing I still need to work on is to not be so afraid of the social stigma of a married woman going off & getting herself guy friends to hang with. I used to hang out with guys all the time in college. J doesn't care. The only thing that's holding me back really is the stigma. That damn stigma held me back from just calling my friend Matt up to hang out & now he's gone & I'll never get the chance again. Must change this.

Regarding #4, I think this year has been a success. I've been to a lot of odd movies at the Arlington Drafthouse. I've also gotten involved with some 18th century dance that ends up combining my love of costuming and dressing up with dancing and it only requires a twice a year or so commitment. Additionally, I found a vintage dance group that meets once a month, so once a month I get to go do a kick-your-knickers-up Polka and other fun things. I've been doing more sewing and I've been going to fewer events that I don't like - I used to go because "someone else wanted to go".

For #5, please check out the comment about Vintage dance in #4 and I also got in with a group of girls my age through 18th century dance and we all are a little ga-ga over regency stuff. So darn comfy!

Number 6, as of April I started in on The Daily Plate and I've lost 45 lbs and am eating sooo many more fruits and veggies that I'm quite proud. I'd say it's been a success eventhough I do occasionally fall back into my meat & potatoes only thing. I'll have to be on TDP forever, I think.

The running is a semi-success. I enjoy it to a point. The fact of the matter is that I eventually get bored. I can't really keep my attention on it for more than 30 mins and I need a significant number of rocks & trees around to keep me interested. But, hey! I think I will try to work my way up to a 10 K by this time next year though. What do you think?

Now, I really should start thinking up a new list of Samhain resolutions for this coming year. Once again, the eating better & less sweets will be a part of it. But what else... hmmmm.....

My little bit o' Karma-seeding or something...

Alrighty, here's the deal. I love, absolutely love, living here. I can handle the traffic, I can handle the lines, I can handle the uppity-ness, but there's one thing that I hate around here: the "I'm more important than you" thing that people do around here. I don't know if it's because people are busier here than other places or if it's because we have a high number of foreign-born people or if it's because there's too much money, but it doesn't seem to be limited to rich people. Here's the perfect example of the DC more-important-than-thou thing: you start to pull out of a parking spot. No one's coming. you are about half way out of your parking spot when someone beeps and drives past without slowing down. This is the DC "I'm coming through and you'd best get out of my way" signal.

I'm not quite sure why people do this. It makes me mad. I'm sure there are times when a person has just gotten a call that someone's in the hospital and they need to get there right away, but with the frequency that this happens, either it's just selfishness or there are a lot of people rushing to hospitals.

There are so many ills in the world. There are pointless wars, rampant hate, homelessness, poorness, starvation, addictions, deadly diseases, murders, etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum. You know, I can't do a damn thing about any of it. I can donate money and time to worthy causes in my community, but really, it makes me ill when I think about the fact that I can't do anything substantial to stop it all.

One day, a number of years ago, I was thinking... about world religions, commonalities between people, and physics and thought... there's so much talk about energy being neither created nor destroyed and people discussing the power of prayer or spiritual energy or etc... and maybe that's all it's really about. Maybe it's all energy. And then there's the butterfly effect. The one thing I can do is try every moment to put as much "good energy" or karma or whatever back into the world as possible.

[anecdotal aside: I was walking through the K-mart parking lot one day in my purple striped wellies because, duh, it was supposed to rain. Two girls, must have been late high-school, drove past, rolled down the window, and made a comment about what's up with my ugly-ass boots. I was in a pretty good funk for the next 4 hours. The funk was due to the mind-numbing effects of someone finding it necessary to instigate a drive-by-insulting over rain boots, not the insult itself. When I left work later, I passed another woman on the street who stopped momentarily and complimented me on my boots. This made me feel so much better, that I wanted to skip and thought "there is some good in the world."]

Now, if a 30 second exchange can make me feel horrible for 4 hours and a 30 second exchange can also do the exact opposite, one thing I can do to improve the lives of all these little people who live in the big city is to be nice. People don't seem to expect nice here, so it seems like it makes more of a difference. And maybe if it makes a difference, that person will also be nice and who knows but it could have a butterfly effect of varying scales. It's a nice thought anyway. Maybe it'll put some good in the world to counteract all the bad.

My challenge to myself and you all... hold the door for people, it'll only cost you 10 seconds. Hold the elevator for people, let someone merge in front of you, stop to let a pedestrian cross the road, smile at someone, compliment their shoes or hair, wave the other person through the intersection first even if you were there one second before them. Be nice to your servers, learn a piece of dollar-origami. If you get a nice server who seems to be having a shitty day, leave something fun as well as the tip. Everything that you do has a chance of making 30 seconds of someone else's shitty day nice or funny, which helps in the long-run I think.

Progress

For anyone who hasn't been talking to me since April and for anyone who hasn't seen me recently and for anyone who just doesn't know.... I've been on a really big weight-loss kick. I finally reached that point that just kicks one in the ass such that one actually has some motivation to keep with it. I was one of those people who had "tried everything" and "nothing works" and "I have a lousey metabolism."



[aside: that last one's true. I'm genetically predisposed to be very strong & hearty and would be well-suited to old-school farming or full time athelete or a life without cars, horses, etc because I can go forever and not burn much of anything. The only time I've been able to keep weight off was when I was walking 5 miles a day and dancing for 1.5 hours 5-6 nights a week. and the only time I've been able to lose weight due to exercise alone was a summer of competitive swimming practice, 1.5 hours a day 5 days per week.]





This year, starting Nov.1, 2007, has been a year of discovery for me. I've been reevaluating my needs and wants and how to maintain my sanity and I've been focussing on improving my health. I started by trying to "eat better" and started running so that I could do the Cherry Blossom 5K in April. I was also rock climbing once or twice a week at that time. April came around. I was in better cardiovascular, muscular, and mental shape, but I had failed to lose any weight.





April 9, I weighed in at 196 (ugh!) and started using The Daily Plate... It has made the biggest change for me thus far. TDP keeps me honest and aware of what I am putting into my body. It makes me aware of when I'm not eating enough fruits & veggies, it's making me realize that a lot of "healthy" options at restaurants aren't really, and that average serving at a restaurant is about three servings on one plate. Excuse my language, but WTF?? No wonder this country has a weight problem. No wonder we have a economic problem!! I have probably cut my food bills in half because I take home leftovers almost every day and eat them for another meal. I suppose it is a good thing since then I get to enjoy the good food twice. Additionally, TDP has made me realize that one does not need to totally control what one eats. One can have good days or bad days as long as they somewhat even-out over time. See?

Well, anyway, the whole point between sharing this rant/ background is that I am giddy because I weighed in today at 152.5 lbs and still going. I'm below the weight I was when I left college, and can fit back into some of my vintage clothing. (goodie!) Hoorah!