Take a break or I make you take one!

Well, the good thing about this weekend... I finally got the mileage in that I was supposed to get in.

The bad part about the weekend was, that is was packed to the brim with stuff... training, errands, housework, a Superbowl party. So, there was hardly a minute to just get some rest.

Yesterday by lunch, I had a blazing headache and running a fever.... So I was home by 1 pm and in bed until this morning 6am when it was time to start the day all over again.

I skipped my strength workout last night, opted for more sleep this morning instead of swimming and skipped my run this afternoon.

Hopefully, with another night of solid sleep, I'll be back on the trainer with full force tomorrow afternoon.

Wish me luck. ;-)

PS: That's what I get for bragging the other day, that I haven't been sick this winter yet. But I really learned a valuable lesson last year with my two colds in four weeks spree.... I rather skip one workout more than necessary, to make sure that I am not back sick in a couple of days and drag things along even longer.

PPS: Whenever I feel under the weather, the first thing that goes out of the window is responsible eating.

Exhibit A: Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt w/ Twix..... yum!

Oh and by the way.... I don't think a frozen yogurt in itself is irresponsible to eat... But you have no idea what else I had today! ;-)

Sizzling!

A couple of days ago, I saw a co-worker jogging over lunch on the company parking lot... In long cotton jogging pants straight out of the first Rocky movie... The temperature was somewhere in the 90's. A disaster waiting to happen!

Yeah... I am fully aware that I not always follow the advice that I am about to give you, but I sure strive for improvement in these areas. So here we go:

• Hydration, hydration, hydration: Take in fluid and lots of it and best would be water. I know, I am a regular offender of this rule by drinking Coke Zero way too often, but I also try to drink water for the rest of the day. If you feel thirsty, you are already dehydrated, so put a big cup on your desk and sip along all day.
• More hydration and electrolytes: before you leave the house to exercise , take another big sip of water and make sure to take an appropriate amount of fluid with you depending on the duration of the planned workout and the weather conditions. In order to replace electrolytes while working out, you can take a sports drink along. I prefer to use Emergen-C for that purpose, since I don't stomach sports drinks well. Mixing apple juice with water (1/3 to 2/3) is a perfect drink to replace fluids AND electrolytes once you are done with your workout.
• And one more tip about hydration: fill up your water bottles half way and stick it in the freezer over night and then take them out and top them off in the morning before you head out. Have one bottle in your car in a insulated bag to have a nice cool drink once you get back to the car.
• Dress appropriately: use technical material that wicks the moisture away from your body, the hotter it gets, the more comfortable is loose fitting closing in a light color. Use sun glasses to protect your eyes, a hat to protect you head (I should do that more often) and SUNSCREEN!!!!! to protect your skin! Since I use an outdoor pool sometimes, I even use goggles with dark lenses and wear one of these snorkeling t-shirts (tight fitting t-shirts out of technical fabric with build in UV protection). 
• Stay cool: Try to avoid exercise during the hottest time of the day. Pick a shaded route. Reduce the intensity of your planned exercise.

Oh.... And here is a nice treat to keep your pooch cool.

Just fill a cup with doggy treats and carrots, fill up with water and put it in the freezer over night. Karma is ALL OVER this one and doesn't even give me the sad puppy eyes when I leave in the morning, because she is so distracted by it!

So long! ;-)

PS: No workouts for me today. Hurt my back and was in bed all day trying to move as little as possible. After a visit to the chiropractor things have improved some, but still in pain. Hopefully it's better by tomorrow!

About Pins And Needles

I was hoping that life is getting a little less crazy once the wedding is over, but well... I guess that didn't happen, at least not quite yet. One of the things that needs my immediate attention is getting my permanent residency, now that we are married.

To be honest, I completely underestimated the time, paperwork and money that will have to flow into this project for the next couple of days and most likely weeks. Thinking of the paperwork alone makes my head hurt a little, because "Form English" is by far more difficult to comprehend that normal spoken English and I am pretty sure that even native speakers do have their issues with it.... I know I have issues with German forms as well. Before I can even get bothered to fill out the paperwork, there is tons of stuff that needs to be gathered and copied and translated (certified of course).

One of the "peaks" of this process is certainly the medical examination... So this morning, I spent a couple of hours in a doctor's office to be examined and getting poked with needles.... repeatedly. One blood drawing, one tuberculosis skin test, and two vaccines (tetanus and chicken pocks - fortunately, I could prove that I have been vaccinated against everything else that was required) later my left arm hurts*... And on Thursday, I have to go back for the results and hopefully, there won't be any more tests... There are only so much needles I can take in one week.

*Actually, by now I have trouble lifting my arm up. Fortunately, I don't need to lift my arm to ride my bike! ;-)

And since this was such a serious content post, here are a couple of Monday pick-me-ups... I know that I need them:

How To Get (Back) In Shape

You can see this post as a follow-up from yesterday, but actually it was inspired my requests from friends that I received after publishing some of my wedding pictures.

Basically, it's the "How did you do this?" question that I received a lot since I lost all that weight. And my short answer always is: eat less, move more. But sometimes, people want to know some specifics, some tricks and I give them what worked for me.... Okay people, always remember, I am not a trained professional in the medical, nutrition or exercise field. What you read here is what has worked for me and my lifestyle... If it gives you a couple of items that you can implement in your life and if it's works for you, that would be GREAT!

The first thing, we have to make sure is that we are not embarking on another diet (short term view), but need to do a lifestyle change (long term view).

There is all the mental aspects:

• make a conscious decision to change your personal situation
• commit yourself to those changes and tell other people about your plans if that helps you to stick with it
• set yourself manageable milestones and goals
• reward yourself when reaching a milestone
• don't get down on yourself when you fall off the bandwagon every now and then.... BUT make sure to get back with the plan ASAP
• adjust your goals if circumstances change e.g. health, family emergencies, job demands etc
• establish good habits... once you make something your routine, it's much easier to stick with it
• try to motivate the people in your direct environment to join in with you
• try to avoid people that sabotage your efforts... it happens... oh yes

The exercise portion of it:

• if you haven't done anything in a while, start out with 30 minutes of exercise at least five days a week
• handle your exercise like an appointment, put it in your calendar to commit yourself
• most importantly: choose an activity you enjoy! if you resent the type of activity, chances are pretty slim that you are going to stick with it
• if you like to workout with company, find a workout buddy, if the person is unreliable, find another workout buddy
• set yourself goals e.g. 5K race, be able to keep up with the advance step class etc

The nutrition portion of it:

• eat breakfast
• reduce your portion size
• stash healthy snacks at work
• have your smallest meal in the evening (I know, that might be the biggest adjustment)
• reduce sugar (sparkling water instead of sodas) and fat (grilled instead of fried) intake
• treat yourself, give yourself a day off a week
• eat more veggies and fruit

You see.... Nothing earth shattering here. Most likely, it's nothing you have never heard of before... It's not rocket science, it's actually fairly easy... To loose weight you have to put in less calories in your body and burn more.

Even though I have lost my weight in 2008, there are still days and weeks, where my diet is less than clean. Sometimes it has been quite a roller coaster ride, but so far I was able to keep the upper hand. Nobody is perfect and I have to remind myself of that too... A skipped workout and a greasy burger is not the end of the world. When it comes to health, it's the big picture that counts and the fact that you get up more often than you fall down.

So long! ;-)

Breakfast

Note: This post almost didn't happen... The idea zipped by and almost got lost somewhere between my brain, an eight hour work day and the keyboard... Fortunately, I ended up remembering what I wanted to share... Yay for me.... Or yay for you.... Since you get something to read now... ALL THREE OF YOU! ;-)

Remember the health assessment at work that I mentioned several weeks ago? Back then, I filled out the questionnaire, but today was the lab day e.g. weight, measurements, body fat and drawing blood. My appointment was at 8.45am and I was supposed to fast 8 hours ahead of getting the blood drawn. Picture me getting up at 5am, drive to the pool, knock out 2,600 yards in an hour, get dressed, go to work and then work until the appointed time rolls around... And all of this WITHOUT BREAKFAST. By appointment time I had stomach cramps, felt woozy and almost started biting my fingers off... Okay... The last item is maybe a little (tiny) exaggeration.

But it got me thinking about how much my eating habits have changed when I finally decided to get healthy. You see, if you have ever read about healthy eating habits and how to maintain your weight, sooner or later you stumble over the claim that:

• breakfast kick-starts your metabolism in the morning (here is one example, just google it and you'll be surprised on how many articles are coming up)
  
• fueling your body properly during the day avoids binge eating in the evening when the body preps to sleep (here is an article more directed to athletes, but it really applies to everyone, once again google it and you will find)
  
• eating breakfast is one of the habits that most people have that were able to maintain a significant weight loss (in this article are also the other habits)

So, can I hear a YAY for breakfast, please? YAY! ;-)


(Picture is from here and the article also has some information about why breakfast is so IMPORTANT!)

Before I started my (somewhat*) healthy lifestyle, I was a notorious breakfast skipper myself. But since I never read articles about nutrition and weigh loss, I never made the connection between my weight and my (non-existing) breakfast habits. I also never thought that this is such a common habit for people with overweight. Have you ever noticed how many contestants in the Biggest Loser mention at one point during the show that they have been skipping breakfast a lot. Of course, this is not the only mistake made by the contestants when it comes to eating and exercise habits and it certainly wasn't my only mistake either.

* I certainly still have a lot of room to improvement when it comes to the quality of my nutrition. But compared to what I used to put into my body, I came a long way and in the meantime am able to balance out calorie intake with calorie expense.

If you are a breakfast skipper, please consider to ditch this habit and have a healthy breakfast to kick-start your day. It's just one simple step to improve your nutrition and has a real impact on how you feel throughout the day (increase energy level and such). It certainly is worth a shot.

When it comes to me this morning... As soon as I got back to my desk, I raided my healthy snack drawer (whole grain cheese crackers, granola bars etc), but it took me until having lunch to finally feel back to normal.

So long!

PS: Tomorrow my parents plus brother get back from their road trip and I'll be off work to spend some quality time with them. There is a good chance that you won't hear anything from me until next Monday. Then I plan to resume broadcast as usual... married and all! ;-)

Introducing: The Dead Possum Posse

Well... The health assessment at work is not even completed and we are already rolling into the next health awareness event!


This is our team mascot and yes, I am fully aware of that it doesn't look very healthy.

I am talking about: Walk to the Beach!

Myrtle Beach SC that is... And it's a virtual* race!

* I am having a lot of these lately, if you haven't noticed it yet! ;-)

Teams of four have to complete 1,000 miles (approximate distance from work to Myrtle Beach times the number of team members) between March 22nd and June 13th.

You track your daily mileage with a pedometer that converts your steps into miles and once a week I have to report to the Posse Captain that turns our numbers in to HR and they will keep the scoreboard up to date (that we always know with who we have to talk smack with).

Speaking of smack talk: As for my team "The Dead Possum Posse", we are in it to win it... Posse Captain is a dedicated hiker, one team member is currently in Ironman Utah training, one team member is a runner and also on my Palmetto200 team and me. We can also use the steps that the pedometer counts while sitting on the bike or being on the elliptical... In the bag... I am telling you. And yes I am bragging here, because I know some of my co-workers are reading this blog. (Yes, I mean you "Accounting Steps"! ;-)

Other than bragging rights, there are prizes on the line which every team is eligible for as long as they complete the distance in the given time frame. But there is still an incentive to do it fast, because there are prizes for each milestone on the way to Myrtle Beach. IN THE BAG! ;-)

Unfortunately, the pedometer that we got provided is a piece of crap. For test reasons, I put it on yesterday around lunch, then I walk from the office to the car, drove to meet Terry and already had a quarter mile on the thing. Funny I thought. Then I looked at it getting to the house and was up to 0.69 miles... I couldn't remember really walking that much. Once I was at the house, I was running around doing laundry, picking up stuff and vacuuming and whatever else. Looking at the pedometer thing... It was still at 0.69 miles... Because I changed from jeans into sweatpants once I was home, I assume right now, that the position of the pedometer on sweatpants (higher on the waist) was the problem... Since I do most of my workouts not in jeans, we have an issue here.

I hope everyone had a great start in their weekend!

So long! ;-)

Filling Out The Health Screening Questionnaire

My company does annual health screenings to promote a healthy lifestyle and health awareness. So every year, we are asked to fill out a questionnaire and every second year it's the questionnaire plus blood work. It's not mandatory, but if you don't do it, your premium goes up.

Last week, I filled out my paperwork for this year and once again I noticed that those generic assessments really don't take the endurance athlete into account.



You are an endurance athlete when...

1. you are looking for a the box "mild on swim and bike days and severe on run days" when asked how much bodily pain you had in the last four weeks.
2. you are looking for the box "it only hurts when I walk stairs" when asked how much difficulty you had in the last four weeks to do your work or other regular daily activities as a result of your physical health.
3. you are looking for the option to pick "4 single workout days and 2 doubles" when asked how many days a week you engage in aerobic exercise of at least 20 to 30 minute duration.
4. you want to check "only to replace electrolytes" when asked how often you add salt to your food or eat salty foods.
5. you demand a separation in a good and bad fat category when asked if you are more likely to consume low or high fat foods.
6. you want to separate work load from work out load when asked how well you cope with your current stress load.

My family physician already acknowledges my changed lifestyle. When I still had a BMI of 35 (that is classified as obese) he didn't do anything at my annual physical other than blood work and measure blood pressure. Now that I am at a BMI of 23 (normal), he does all kinds of additional tests since I am an endurance athlete. I thought that was kind of ironic...

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How is everyone's weekend going??