Morning Headaches

I have been waking up every morning with a headache for at least the past 5 days.  What the heck is that about?  I used to get headaches pretty regularly but when I'm exercising/eating right I hardly ever get them.  Granted, I've not been exercising much this past week due to being sick but I don't think that would cause a headache every morning.  Today I woke up at 6am but yesterday morning the headache woke me at 2am.  The good thing is ibuprofen seems to do the trick but a headache is no way to start the day and I'm over it.  (Update:  I decided the headaches were related to allergies.  Not sure, but in any case they stopped).

And, I am still coughing.  Getting over this chest cold is a slow process.  But I still manged to have a super fun weekend.  You know I did the obstacle course 5k on Saturday.  On Sunday we spent the morning with the kidlets and in the evening we had friends over for dinner.  We grilled carne asada and veggies and had chips and salsa - it was super yummy but I ate too much.  Including too much of the too good arroz con leche (rice pudding) I made.  And I had a couple beers, which always spikes my appetite.  Anyway, I chocked it all up to a special occasion (it was a bon voyage dinner for our friends who are moving out of state) and tagged Monday as a day to clean up my eating act.

Monday I had to eat lunch at home and, unfortunately, I hit the chips and salsa again and polished off the arroz con leche.  Oh, and I ate some chocolate too.  Don't ask.  That left me feeling grumpy and irritated with myself.  Though I was still coughing I decided I had to go to the gym before my mood dips into the full-on blues.  I went with a plan to do some walking, maybe ride the bike a bit, and then some weight training - nothing too serious.  But after a few minutes walking on the treadmill I decided to give running a try.  I really wanted the endorphins.  And it was fine, I coughed a bit in the first five minutes but once I was moving things were fine.  I ran for 25 minutes, mostly at 5.5mph.  It was when I stopped that I suddenly started coughing a lot.  My lungs felt all squishy, if that makes sense.  Anyway, after the run I did legs/shoulders/core.  I ended up doing my normal legs workout.  I drew a line in the sand, I was tired of being sick and I just wanted to do my normal thing.  But boy-oh-boy I was exhausted afterward!

Dinner was leftover (homemade) pizza and I barely hung on until the kids went to bed.  Sadly I happened upon some old Easter candy (that I didn't even know we had!) and in my weakened, tired state I ate three mini (even smaller than fun-size) chocolate candies.  Fortunately I went to bed without eating even more.  I've been faithfully tracking all this eating though, so that makes me feel better.  That reminds me, I need to get that Easter candy out of the house.  I did a weight-check this morning and I'm only up .4 pounds - not bad considering all the food I've eaten.

Today has gone well, I had Chipotle for lunch but I had the kids' taco kit.  It's a perfect amount of food for only 7 points (I skip the chips and the drink).  I get two corn tortillas, the black beans, chicken (or barbacoa - same points), and bell pepper/onions with a side of pico de gallo.  Makes two healthy sized tacos and I'm happy.

I'm planning on going to the gym after work.  Hopefully I can ride the bike, though level 7 has been kicking my butt lately so I might have to take it down a notch until I'm done with this cough.  Either way, I'm getting my heart rate revved up.

The last thing is I've got my eye out for an event for July/August and/or September/October.  After the sprint tri on June 16th I've got nothing until the Olympic in November.  That won't work.

Mud Factor Obstacle Course 5k 2012 "Race" Review

It was a gorgeous day at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma County.  Laurie and I met up at her house at 8:30 for the short drive.  Our wave wasn't until 10:30 but we wanted arrive plenty early in case there were long registration lines.  The lines weren't too long, we got our stuff and put on our Mud Factor bandannas to get in the spirit.  In line we met a woman who'd just moved from New York (Hi Shae!) - and she's lost 100 pounds!  We swapped some weight loss stories and cheered each other on.

Laurie and I pre-race (obviously because we're still clean!)

I wore my Marin 10k shirt with running shorts.  For shoes I wore my first real running shoes.  I felt a little sentimental about letting them go (we donated our shoes after the event) but it was a nice send-off for them and the recipient will get some good mojo with those shoes.

Goodbye Ol' Buddies!

We were registered for the 10:30 wave.  We walked around and watched earlier waves take off.  We could see a few of the obstacles, including the main event - the triple threat.

I had to merge two of my pics together to show all three.

Ah, it looks so easy.  It's just going over the top that's the tricky part.

Hold On!

After all this watching it was still not even 10am.  Laurie I decided to crash the 10am wave since they didn't seem to be paying any attention to which wave you registered for.

Lots of young people out there, as you can see.

Now we have to hustle!  The line for bag check was too long so we ran and put our stuff in the car.  At the starting line and off we go!!  Of course I have no pictures from the course because I couldn't carry a camera (though I saw one person with one!).

I remember there being a lot of hills but they were mostly not that long.  I'm still suffering a bit with this chest cough so I could only run on the flat parts.  Laurie stuck with me and it was a lot more fun doing the event with her then I imagine it would be alone.  The obstacles were totally doable and were just a matter of getting through with my shoes intact.  We saw people lose their shoes in the mud pits.  Your feet sink into the thick mud and when you lift to take the next step your foot comes out but your shoe doesn't!  On the second mud pit we took our shoes and socks off and carried them!  Putting them back on while covered in mud was interesting.  Squish, squish.

I was so happy to see the one and only water station at the 1.5 mile mark.  More up/down hills and more doable obstacles and then we come up toward the big finish.  Those "triple threat" things don't look too intimidating until you are climbing over them yourself.  My mind started in with fear and I thought, "don't think, don't think, just do."  The good thing was a woman next to me started to panic at the top of the first one, "I can't, I can't do it, I have a heights thing."  I talked her over and down and that helped distract me from my own anxiety.  She was ready to bail (bale?) altogether on the second one but she didn't quit and I was happy to cheer her on.  Though I was definitely quivering myself as I hurled my leg over the top of those things.  Hang on is right! But we all made it - High five Laurie!!

The only things left after that were more mud pits, the ones you have to crawl through to go under wires.

Go Shea!

I scraped my knees up some but other than that the mud pits weren't too bad.  This is where the big mud gets piled on your whole body though.  And voila!  We're done.  Whew!  It was heating up out there (in the 80's today) and we were glad to be done.  We tried to clean off at the "showers" but they were more like squirt guns, weak ones at that, so we did the best we could and went and got our free beer.

 I didn't even realize I had mud on my face until I got in the car.

We will, we will, Rock You!

Oh, and the finisher's medal is kind of cool.  On the back it says, "I Cheated Death".  I don't know about that, but I'll take it :)

We headed out to the car and who did I see?  Another blogger.  Bekki from Wild Child Gone Good.  She had her hair in characteristic double pony tails and I think that helped me recognize her.  This was my first real-life blogger to blogger encounter.  Anyway, she lives in the North Bay as well and I knew she was doing this event because she'd posted about it.  Fun!

On the road home and I stayed at Laurie's for another beer.  We ended up jumping in her pool to clean off some, which was refreshing and fun.  I finally headed for home about 1pm and I was starving!  I thought about all sorts of "bad" foods I wanted to eat but managed to talk myself down and into a Hi Tech Curry Shrimp burrito from their "healthy grill" menu.  Well played, Michelle, well played.

Well, that's it from me!  I'd say I was operating at about 80-85% capacity today given my chest cold.  I'd love to do this event again next year and give it my all.  It was a great way to spend a Saturday.  Now, can I squeeze in a nap before the kids wake from theirs??

Update with official pics:

Saturday's Agenda for Fun

A few weeks ago I saw a Groupon for a mud run in my local area.  $29, I'm in!  I am still sick but getting better by the hour and hoping I'll be at least 80% come Saturday.  The distance is 5k and I'm doing this with my buddy Laurie - we will hopefully survive together :)

Mud Factor are the race organizers and, based on some Yelp reviews from another area, they are still working out the kinks.  So we're prepared for long registration lines.

Mud Factor's been posting some pics on their FB page...I'm more than a tiny bit nervous!

Over-unders

Harder than it looks I bet

wtf?!

Wish me luck.

Betty Draper Goes to Weight Watchers

Any other Mad Men fans out there?  I was amused to see Betty attend a Weight Watchers meeting.  The episode started with Betty weighing out some Swiss cheese to go along with dry toast and a half of grapefruit.  I think it was her breakfast.

Dry toast, Swiss cheese and grapefruit - a 1960's WW breakfast

Later in the episode she attends a meeting.  I think the way the meeting is depicted, with women weighing in at the front of the room (though the WW leader doesn't announce their weight) is how many people imagine WW meetings to be. 

A public weigh-in.

After weigh-in a discussion gets underway and Betty is called upon to stand up and talk.  Another thing that doesn't happen in modern-day WW meetings, but another thing that some people imagine happens. 

Betty shares so she doesn't "stuff yourself just to keep from telling your family your problems".

I'm not sure this was a smart move for WW, to be portrayed this way.  Maybe they are assuming their target audience knows this isn't how meetings are conducted anymore but if I were a WW exec it'd still make me nervous.  Anyway, it sure was fun to see Betty at a WW meeting.  I'd probably watch a whole TV show built around WW meetings in the 60's, it'd be fun!  The episode closes with Betty having Thanksgiving dinner. 

What a sad Thanksgiving dinner for Betty!

She then takes her one and only bite of stuffing...the expressions that cross her face as she chews are priceless.  Check it out...

The reason she got "fat" on the show was because they needed to work around her real-life pregnancy.  I hope they keep Betty's weight loss storyline for a while longer.

As you can see, I was very entertained by the whole thing.  As you can also see, I've been home sick all day and watching a lot of TV.  My mom came over to help with the kids.  I'm going to work tomorrow though, and hopefully will be well enough to get a tiny bit of exercise before the mud run on Saturday.  What?  I didn't tell you I registered for a 5k mud run.  Oops!  More on that tomorrow.

 

Weight of the Nation: 7 Criteria for Ideal Cardiovascular Health

It's official, I'm sick.  I have a bona fide cough and a sore throat.  I dug out some old (expired) cough syrup and that helped but I figured I'd better get a new prescription so I made a doctor appointment for the afternoon to get more.  Myra was still a bit under the weather too so she was home with me yesterday.  So my plane is grounded for a few days.  What am I doing?  Watching the HBO documentary Weight of the Nation.  I watched Part I: Consequences and Part II: Choices.  Scary stuff, lots of dire statistics.  I think I knew that obesity was an epidemic in this country but I don't know that I appreciated just how bad it is or how serious the consequences are becoming. 

The documentary listed the 7 criteria for ideal cardiovascular health.

Less than 1% of people in the US meet all 7 of these criteria.  Less than 1 out of 100 people.  Wow.  I'm not that one person, not yet, but I'm getting there.  I need to get my body mass index down and my "bad" cholesterol is 1 over normal so I need to get that down a bit.  I plan to meet all 7 of these by this time next year.  There were other statistics that alarmed me: 

• Overweight and obese people are 80% more likely to develop dementia.
• Fatty liver is being seen in children.  13% of all kids have it.  38% of overweight kids have it.  This is a problem that used to pretty much not exist in children.
• Going up from 2% overweight to 5% overweight increases your risk of diabetes "substantially"

An overweight woman they interviewed said the eat right and exercise recommendation is not as popular as fad diets because "It's like a boring story, no action - it's not a thriller...you gotta have a hook or a gimmick."  They asked these overweight/obese people how many diets they'd tried and how much weight they've lost/re-gained over time.  Needless to say, it was a lot.  In talking about maintenance they referenced the National Weight Loss Registry in saying that people who have successfully lost weight "...need to be vigilant over a long period of time" in order to keep it off.  "It's a lot easier to lose weight than it is to keep weight off" and  most "diets" don't focus on keeping weight off.  They are selling weight loss, after all, not weight maintenance.  It's a multi-billion dollar industry ($58 billion!) and yet the overweight are gaining at an ever-increasing rate. 

This all reinforced my focus on maintenance.  In Where My Journey Began I said maintenance is "the only reason I'm back" and that is as true today as ever.  Weight lost and re-gained is almost worse than weight never lost at all.  Except that I learned something each time I lost and re-gained weight.  And I became convinced that losing weight is not the goal, change is the goal - and a byproduct of that change is weight loss.

Ok, that's it from me.  I'm going back to being sick.  I will have to tell you later about eating a bunch of corn nuts (17 points!) and chinese food for dinner (5 million points).  Between being sick and skipping workouts and these less than stellar food choices, I don't think I'll be logging a weight loss this week.  Oh well, that's how it goes sometimes.  I haven't been really sick in ages so I can't complain.