MEC race 3

Hot.  Hilly.  Humid.  Hell.

This was my third 10k race and was almost the race that made me think that running isn't for me.  Now that I'm home, had a shower and continuing to hydrate with ALL the water, I am willing to run again.... just maybe not in the heat.

The best part of this race was FRIENDS.  

I go into every race with 3 goals - 1: Don't die, 2: Finish 3: Have fun.  I did not have fun, I did finish, and once again I felt that I just might die.

The race didn't start till 9:30 and it was already +26°C.  The course was along the beautiful Salt Marsh Trails. However there was no shade and barely any breeze.  But there were HILLS.  All the hills.

I tried my best in the beginning and managed to run/walk the first 5k. At the turn around, I dumped a lot of water on my head in an attempt to cool down.  I drank all the water.  And then I walked.  I walked the last 5ks- Up the hills, Down the hills, In the heat.  So. Much. Heat.

I crossed the finish line with a time of 02:05:34- last again, but I thought to myself "at least I didn't die"

I walked over to my friends who were cheering me on, got some water and BAM! I couldn't breath.  Luckily I was talking to Melissa at that time and she quickly got me to the first aid tent, helped me get my asthma inhaler out of my pouch and told the First Aider's what was going on. I used the puffer, walked slowly around in the shade (with the First Aider following me to make sure I didn't keel over) and eventually my breathing improved.  

I gave Jody the car keys (driving didn't seem like a good idea) and we headed out for brunch.  While my breathing was better, my temperature was still high and I struggled through breakfast, vacillating between nausea and being lightheaded.  Jeanette went to the bathroom with me to make sure I didn't pass out and helped cool me down with we paper towel on my neck.  

This is why friends are the best part of any race.

The journey so far

I started this blog 7 years ago as a way to journal and track my weight loss journey.  Recently it's evolved into more of a running blog, but that is because running has become such an important part of my health routine.

Much like my blogging, my weight has ebbed and flowed over the years.  By 2013 I had lost 60 pounds.  I was running 2-3 times a week and doing Tae Kwon Do 2-3 days a week.  On the food side I was counting calories and following the 5:2 Fast diet plan.  I feel that the fasting is what really had me losing weight, but I didn't find it sustainable, especially with all the exercise I was doing.

After 2013 my weight slowly crept back up.  I stopped fasting, I stopped going to Tae Kwon Do and I stopped counting calories.  The only consistent thing that I've kept up is running.  But my running has gotten slower and harder the more weight I've put on.

The plan is to get back on track.  I start training for the Valley Harvest Half Marathon next week through the Running Room.  I'm also going to join a gym so that I can go to their boot camps 2-3 times a week.  I'm tracking my food again.  The only thing I'm not going back to is fasting. While it is an effective tool for weight loss, I find it makes me too tired and I would rather focus on eating healthy and exercising.

Like always, I don't have a specific weight goal or running pace that I'm aiming for.  Healthy, injury free and happy are the best goals to have.

Back at it

Sept 25th. Can it really be that I haven’t posted here in four and half months? What the heck have I been doing?

Let me tell you, my family and I have been doing a lot in those 4.5 months. Hilary went through chemo and radiation treatments and kicked cancer to the curb. I ran a couple of 5k races. Liam and I both had surgery – on the same day, at 2 different hospitals. We had family visits, celebrated 2 major holidays, got back into a school routine, twice – September and January (those pesky holiday breaks throw everything out of whack). Liam was in his first Shakespeare production. I got hearing aids. And we’ve survived a couple of snow storms.

Not surprisingly, I gained too much weight and undid any health improvements I had gained during my training for the half marathon.

And I’m okay with that.

Sometimes, you just have to ride the wave that life throws at you, knowing that eventually it will settle down and you can pick yourself up and get back at it.

That’s what I’m doing now.

One of the best motivations for me is to commit to (and pay) for a race. So I’ve signed up for 3! I’m sticking with 5ks this year, so I’ve decided to run the Bluenose 5k in May then Soul Sisters and Ocean Breeze in June. While the first race is still more than 3 months away, I need to get back into shape. My focus so far this year has been healthy eating, and it’s paying off. I lost 5 pounds in January. Of course, having surgery really helped to kick start the process. And I’m still learning which foods I can tolerate without my gallbladder.

To help with my recovery I started doing some simple stretching routines. It’s amazing how great that little bit of movement felt after being fairly sedentary for so long. I then added in walking, working to increase my pace and distance. I haven’t actually started running again…. but I feel ready! Tonight I’m going to the gym with a friend for a free trial. I really don’t see me as a gym–goer, but hey, it’s free! I’ll check out the equipment, and get in a good work out, and maybe even run on the treadmill. Our sidewalks are covered in snow right now, so I’m going to have to come up with an indoor running solution for the next month or so. I still have some track passes for the indoor track from last winter, so I’m sure that is where I’ll ultimately end up. Or the snow could melt… stranger things have happened.

So the journey continues.

Standing

Stand in the place where you live
Now face North
Think about direction
Wonder why you haven't before
Now stand in the place where you work
Now face West
Think about the place where you live
Wonder why you haven't before
R.E.M. “Stand”

For more than 20 years I have had jobs that require me to sit and work at a computer for 8 hours a day. While I often walked at least part of the way to work, the majority of my day, even at home in the evenings, has been spent sitting down. This past February I slipped on the ice during our winter of doom and twisted my knee. What should have been a simple injury, healing up after a few days of rest, is still bothering me 5 months later.

But only when I sit down.

There is something about the angle of my knee when I sit that aggravates the pain in my knee cap. I can walk, run or stand for hours without any issue, but if I sit for more than 10 minutes, the pain begins. It’s not excruciating or unbearable, just annoying*.

This has obviously become a problem at work, but one that I have been able to solve with some improvisation!

With the help of an empty box, an upside down flower pot and a box of staples, I have turned my desk into a standing desk. I don’t think I would win any ergonomic awards, but it works for me. I still have my chair so that if I want to sit for lunch, or just to take a quick break I can. And if I have days where my knee isn’t bothering me and I want to sit for longer periods of time, I can simply move the box aside and I have a sitting desk again. I bought myself a mat to stand on, because I did find my feet were getting sore.

It might be unconventional, but it’s a lot cheaper than the real standing desks you can buy and they only accommodate a single monitor, not the 3 I use at work.

*Don’t worry, I’m not just ignoring the knee pain. I’ve been doing a series of stretches and strengthening exercises that have really been helping.

Remembering

Yesterday as Donzella and I were coming into the home stretch of our 7k run, we passed the building where we used to work together and where we first met 9 years ago. She asked me to think about how far I had come since that time. Was I as active then as I am now? Do I weigh as much now as I did then? The answer to both of those questions is a resounding NO!

It is too easy to lose insight into how far I have come when I am focused on today's goals. I get down on myself about a scale number that isn’t moving, or feeling that my 9:30/km pace is too slow. I need to stop and remind myself that just a few short years ago, the number on the scale was much, much bigger and the idea of running for even one minute was laughable.

Now I’m training to run my first half-marathon! I’m no longer pre-diabetic, I’m healthier and happier then I have been in a long time. Sure there is still work to be done, I haven’t run that half-marathon yet! But each day is better than the one before it, and so much better than all those days 9 years ago.

2015 Goals

I have a few goals for 2015. The biggest one is to continue to live a healthy lifestyle so that I can be my healthiest. This includes better eating, more sleep, being happy with my life and exercising.

There are two things that I do for exercise that I plan to keep working on in 2015 – TaeKwon-Do and running.

My TaeKwon-Do goals are simple: Test for my Blue stripe in January and test for my Blue belt in the fall. I need to commit to attending classes more regularly for this to happen. I had a few months in 2014 where I only made it to a single class. I’m never going to learn my patterns and improve my techniques at that rate.

My plan for running is to get out at least 3 times a week and slowly increase my distance.  I'm less concerned about my speed, though of course I would love to be faster.

The one thing that keeps me motivated to run is having a planned race to train for. Right now I have at least 7 races that I want to participate in for 2015.

2015 Race List

1. NS Lung Run May 2 – I really liked this race last year – It’s run along the boardwalk and through the container terminal. And it’s nice and flat.
2. Recharge with Milk ½ Marathon May 17 – MAYBE.... I haven’t decided yet if I can train enough to run my first ½ marathon by May. The idea that I’m even considering this freaks me out.
3. Ocean Breeze June 20 – I’m planning to do the 10k again this year. Hopefully it won’t be in a torrential downpour!
4. MacPass Mile Aug 02 – New to me for 2015. This involve running across the Macdonald Bridge from Halifax to Dartmouth. It’s got a pretty wicked up slope, followed by the same down slope once you pass the middle of the bridge
5. Natal Day Road Race August 03 – This is a great 2 mile race through Dartmouth. 2015 will be the 110th year this race has run.
6. CIBC Run for the Cure Oct 4 – 2015 will my third year running this 5k race through downtown Halifax. This is also the only run that I actively fundraise for.
7. Runway Run (was in October last year) – I hope they have this race again for 2015. Running on the airport runway was a lot of fun.
8. All the Shrinking Jeans Virtual runs (usually about 3 a year) – I like the virtual races because they help to keep me training for something between other races.

I will hopefully pick up a few more races along the way as well.

Most notably for 2015, I don't have a weight goal.  Do I want to lose weight?  Of course!  But I am not setting a specific goal of how many pounds I want to lose, or what my goal weight for the end of the year would be.  Instead, I'm going to focus on being healthy and exercising.  If I do those 2 things, the weight loss will follow.

C is for....

Cookies and Cake and Chocolate and Candy and ice Cream and Chips and  CRAP.

These are all things that I have been eating way too much of and as such, I'm back to gaining weight instead of losing it.

That stops today.

Today I am starting another 6-week accountability group.  My goal for this group is to stop eating all of these C-words.  Overall we eat a very healthy, fresh food diet.  Hilary is an amazing cook who is always on the hunt for new, exciting recipes that are tasty and healthy.  I have a healthy breakfast, a well packed lunch and a great dinner.   I need to stop snacking after work and in the evenings before bed.

My other detractor of late has been having a car.  Due to various commitments, we've been keeping our weekend rental car during the week which adds 2 problems to my weight loss/health plan.  1) I'm not walking 20 minutes every morning from the bus to work.  2) It's far to convenient to skip breakfast and pick up something at the drive through.  My food choices for the last 2 weeks have not been great.

While this feels a bit like starting over, it really is just getting back on tract.  I've had 2 weeks of sloth and gluttony, so no it's time to settle back into my healthy routine.

One heck of a work out

Last night I went to the adult/advanced Tae Kwon Do class. It’s always more challenging then the family class, since the class isn’t made up of 5-10 year olds. For some reason the instructors expect a lot more from the grownups. This class was by far the most physically challenging class I have ever done. You could wring out my shirt and I was still dripping sweat from my brow after I had walked home. At the end of class when we line up and bow to our instructor, I was pretty sure I was going to throw up.

But I didn’t throw up and better yet I made it through the whole class. My technique needs a lot of work, but I was able to do all of the drills.

We started the night with 2 minute rounds of punching drills. An easy start to the night, except for my tiny, little, girly wrists.

This was followed by a killer drill. It involved doing push ups at one end of the gym and then running to the other end and doing back kicks. You start off with 1 push up and 1 kick, and keep increasing till you get to 10 of each. THEN you go back down from 9-1. Added all together that is 100 push ups and 100 back kicks. And let’s not forget the running in between. I didn’t think I was going to make it towards the end, but I powered through. Granted my version of a push up leaves a lot be desired, but even so I am feeling it in my arms today.


I am no where near as good as this 7 year old kid!  I was lucky if I hit the pad 50% of the time.


Our next drilled was 30 pushed leg lifts. This sounds and looks pretty easy, but by the time I had done 10 I wasn’t thinking that any more.



We finished the night off with some advanced kicking techniques that helped to reinforce that I need to work not only on my flexibility, but my basic understanding of left vs. right.

I’m really glad that today and tomorrow are rest days! I can barely lift my arms over my head today. It was certainly one heck of a work out.

Too sick to exercise?

When should you say “enough is enough” and take to the couch or your sick bed instead of gearing up and working out?

I’ve been down for the count for almost a week know with a cold/sinus infection. While researching the idea of exercising while sick, I came across the best advice: “"Do what you can do, and if you can't do it, then don't”  Seems like a no brainer! You know your body best. The point of exercising is to improve your overall health. If you are pushing yourself too far, then you are really defeating the purpose.

Other words of wisdom include don't exercise if you have a fever or any sort of lung issue. While I haven't had either of those issues, all of my symptoms being in my sinuses, I've opted out of exercising for the past week.  I was so run down on the weekend that I napped for a total of 7 hours over 2 days.  I never nap, so this was a sure sign that my body needed a break.  And the pain of a sinus infection made just moving my head an ordeal.  I can't imagine doing lunges or toe touches; I'm pretty sure my head would have exploded.

I'm taking one more day to overcome my headache and fatigue and plan to get back into my routine of 30 minutes of exercise a day starting tomorrow.

Check out these links to some articles on exercising when sick:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/exercise/expert-answers/faq-20058494
http://www.webmd.com/cold-and-flu/cold-guide/exercise-when-you-have-cold
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/health/exercising-with-cold-flu/

Do you work out when you are sick?

Nourish Your Soul

It's not just your body that you need to take care of on this journey to health.  It's too easy to get caught up in eating the right food at the right time, exercising and tracking everything.  Before you know it, you have forgotten to live life and enjoy it.

It's also easy to lose sight of your relationships with the ones you love if you focus solely on yourself.  The ones I love are two of the main reasons that I want to get healthy so that I can enjoy life with them.  So today I have taken the day off work to celebrate Valentine's Day with both Hilary and Liam.

I'll be spending the morning at Liam's school receiving food from other parents, preparing trays for each class then serving buffet to Liam and his classmates for their Valentine's Day shared lunch.

Hilary and I will have some quality couple time with couple's massages at BodyMends!  Afterwards we'll pick up some sushi (and chicken fingers for the kid) and have a nice family evening together.

I never want to lose sight of why I am doing this.  Yes, I'm doing it for me, but for me to be happy, fulfilled and complete, I need my loved ones with me.  Otherwise it would be a very healthy, but lonely life.

So today I will focus less on calories, portions and how many steps I've taken.

Today I focus on nourishing my soul.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Four Fs

WARNING

This post contains TMI!

Four Fs

Fat, female, flatulent, forty. A mnemonic with clinical currency as factors classically associated with cholelithiasis and acute cholecystitis

McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

This past summer, while we were on vacation no less, I started having a most embarrassing problem with excessive flatulence.   Not only was it excessive, my loved ones, who suffered in the van with me, described it as if something had died inside me and was trying to get out.  The smell was really that bad.

At the time I blamed it on being lactose intolerant and apparently unable to remember to take lactase enzyme pills before having ice cream.  And since we were on vacation, there was a lot of ice cream.

However, the problem has continued to plague me and those around me ever since.  It doesn't happen daily, but frequent enough to be problematic.  The only saving grace is that it seems to be limited to occurring in the evenings, so I don't often have to deal with it while I'm at work.

Just over 2 years ago I had been having pains under my rib cage on the right hand side.  The pain could be so bad as to double me over in tears at time.  Again, it wasn't happening regularly and I was never able to associate it to any specific food or trigger.  The suspect was gallstones so I was sent for an ultrasound.  By the time I had the ultrasound, the pains had all but vanished.  In the last year I think I've only had one or "attacks" and never as bad as they had been.

Now, with the onset of the "Four Fs" I am once again wondering about gallstones as the culprit.  Gallstones, lactose intolerance, Celiac disease or mystery infections from travelling the world seem to be the prime culprits (outside of eating beans, beans the musical fruit) for excessive, odorous flatulence.  Since I haven't been outside of Canada in 10 years and I can't link up cause and effect with eating a specific food, gallstones have become my current self-diagnosis.

Of course the next step is to talk to the doctor.  Hopefully we can get this under control before Liam and Hilary ask me move out!

Obsessed

“Mama, are you still obsessed?” asked my 11 year old son from the couch. It took me a minute to figure out what he was talking about. I had just finished my weekly weigh-in with the Wii Fit. Did he think I was obsessed with weighing myself? Obsessed with weight loss? But then it dawned on me. He was asking if I was still obese.

Obese. Such an unobtrusive word to be packed with such power.

While I love the Wii Fit for weighing myself, I really can’t stand the stupid cartoon of the balance board that shouts out “That’s Obese!” every time I weigh in. In fact, I no longer turn on the volume when I weigh myself.  I know that I’m obese. I don’t need it shouted at me every couple of days. And I don't need my 11 year old son to hear it either.

Liam and I talked about what it means to be obese, and why I weigh myself. I try not to talk about being on a diet, or eating “bad” foods. While he currently struggles with gaining weight and has a lot of food issues, I want him to have a healthy relationship with food and his weight. Girls are often seen as the ones who struggle with body image issues and eating disorders, but it can hit boys too.

Parenting is a hard gig, full of potholes and pitfalls.  Fighting against peer pressure and the media makes it even harder.  Add in my own struggles and it seems like a perfect storm.  I'm hoping that Liam and I can keep up an open and honest dialogue about food, body image, weight, exercise and health.  I also hope that if I lead by example, he will follow.

How do you handle body image and weight issues with your children?

---

Statistics for Eating Disorders in Males
source: National Eating Disorder Information Center

• Four percent of boys in grades nine and ten reported anabolic steroid use in a 2002 study, showing that body preoccupation and attempts to alter one’s body are issues affecting both men and women.
  Boyce, W. F. (2004). Young people in Canada: their health and well-being. Ottawa, Ontario: Health Canada.


• The fashion industry has long dictated that female models be tall and waif-like; however, male models are now facing increasing pressure to slim down and appear more androgynous, in order to book top fashion jobs.
  Trebay, G. (2008, February 7). The Vanishing Point. The New York Times. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com


• In a survey of adolescents in grades 7-12, 30% of girls and 25% of boys reported teasing by peers about their weight. Such teasing has been found to persist in the home as well - 29% of girls and 16% of boys reported having been teased by a family member about their weight.
  Eisenberg, M. E. & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2003). Associations of Weight-Based Teasing and Emotional Well-Being Among Adolescents. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 157(6), 733-738.


• Health Canada found that almost one in every two girls and almost one in every five boys of grade 10 either were on a diet or wanted to lose weight.
  Trends in the Health of Canadian Youth. A report based on the data collected through the 1989/90, 1993/94 and 1997/98 survey cycles for the World Health Organization Cross-National Collaborative Study: Health Behaviours in School-Age Children (HBSC). The trend comparisons report on data collected from among 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds in Canada. This report includes data from a selection of other countries as well as data from grade 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 students in Canada. The report can be found at the following website: www.phac-aspc.gc.ca

Not enough sleep

I've hit a slump again where I'm not sleeping well.  I fall asleep easily (after a cup of Roiboos tea and some melatonin) but I wake up between 1:00 and 3:00 and toss and turn until the last 10 glorious minutes before my alarm goes off at 5:40.  Why is that always the best sleep of the night?

I can't take OTC sleep aids (besides melatonin) because they have the opposite effect on me.  Within an hour of taking them, I'm revved up and can feel the blood coursing through my veins.  I've tried a variety of OTC meds that are not specific to sleeping, like Gravol or muscle relaxants, but they have very little effect on the quality or quantity of sleep that I get.

I suspect that some of the issue is the dreaded (and unavoidable) problem of simply getting older.   While I consider myself far too young to be even considering "the change" I have to admit to having a few episodes of night sweats recently.  Personally I'm blaming too many blankets, but it's a factor I can't completely overlook.  With no maternal health history, I don't know when women in my family start having menopause symptoms.  I'm hoping they were all much, much older than I am now.

I know that caffeine and alcohol are not factors.  I'm getting exercise 3 times a week, and trying to walk every day.  There is no physical reason for me to not sleep well.  A lot of it is in my head - I just can't seem to shut down once I wake up in the middle of the night.  Random thoughts just keep swirling around.   Like the commercial for Tylenol Nighttime that has the woman tossing and turning and wondering "What if the Hokey Pokey IS what it's all about?"  I'm not having deep thoughts... I'm not worrying about my taxes, my mortgage or car payments.... I don't have any family stress.... my job is going well....  I just can't stop my brain.

I know, from past experience, that this will pass, usually within a few weeks.  Until then though, I'm tired and I would really, really like to sleep through the night.

Do you have trouble sleeping?  Any tried and true solutions?

Sugar

I have a very sweet tooth. I love candy and sweets, and have a hard time moderating myself. I also have adverse reactions to sugar, which would make you think that it would be easier for me to avoid. Yet I always forget how I’m going to feel after, when I’m popping candies into my mouth. I’ve noticed in the last week or so that I now get a headache after eating candy. I suspect because I’ve been eating healthier lately, that the sudden rush of sugar goes straight to my head, literally. It also plays havoc with my blood sugar.

As a teenager I struggled with Hypoglycemia – the opposite of diabetes – where my body produced too much insulin. If I didn’t eat regularly and let my blood sugar drop, I would pass out. I have too many stories about passing out in strange and embarrassing places, before I learned to listen to my body and fuel it appropriately. Over time and likely with my weight gain, my body shifted to a pre-diabetic mode and I was dealing with the opposite problem. While I’m no longer considered in either state, I feel the effects of my blood sugar levels almost instantly. Within minutes of having a high dose of sugar, my cheeks and ears turn bright red and start to burn and I can start to feel light headed and sick to my stomach.

And yet it still doesn’t stop me from eating it.

I came across a group today that is running a 30 day challenge starting on February 1st. They are challenging people to change just one thing for 30 days to help your goal of a healthier lifestyle. While I always maintain that I don’t deny myself anything and that I’m not on a “diet” but on a new way of living, I am going to deny myself candy and sugary foods for the next 30 days. I don’t need them, they do nothing good for me and there are plenty of healthy, sweet altrenatives if I feel that I just can’t go on without some extra sweetness. I’m sure I will feel better for it too.

Are you interested in making 1 small change for 30 days? Come join us!

Nature vs. Nurture

Genetics can play a huge role in whether or not we are over weight. But so can our our environment. In our home right now, we have both spectrums of weight issues – I am trying to lose weight and we are always trying to get Liam to gain weight. Since both he and I are adopted, it has me thinking about the effects of nature vs nurture on our struggles.

Being adopted in a time of closed adoptions, I grew up with no idea of what my genetic family looked like. Did they struggle with their weight too? Or were my weight problems more because of the environment I lived in? My mom has been a member of TOPS for more than 35 years. I grew up watching her diet, measure her food and count calories. Her weight would go up and down over the years, until she finally hit her goal weight and stuck with it in the last decade. However, we always had chips, cookies, pop and ice cream in the house, and I remember freely helping myself to it all. All celebrations had a food component and all successes were rewarded with treats.

Eventually I was able to meet my birth mother and to see pictures of my half sister. They too have both struggled with weight issues all their life, with my sister being much heavier than I have ever been. So it seems that karma may have dealt me with weight issues from both the side of nature and the side of nurture.

We have more of an open adoption with Liam’s first family, but only on his mother’s side. He seems to be the only one that struggles with gaining weight. He also has the environmental component of being on medication that works as an appetit surpressant. So it begs the question – will he always be on the low end of the weight percentile, or could his genetic makeup kick in one day and even things out?

At the end of the day, the idea of nature vs nurture is really only academic. We can’t change our genetic makeup. We can however control our environment by making sure we are eating healthy food and staying active.

Do you think that Nature or Nurture has had a bigger impact on your health today?

Raynaud's Syndrome

I live in a place that is cold at least 4 months of the year.  It may not be as cold as other places in Canada, but when you have a disease that is affected by the cold, you are certainly aware of the dips in temperature.

 What is Raynaud's Syndrome:

Raynaud's (ray-NOHZ) disease is a condition that causes some areas of your body — such as your fingers, toes, the tip of your nose and your ears — to feel numb and cool in response to cold temperatures or stress. In Raynaud's disease, smaller arteries that supply blood to your skin narrow, limiting blood circulation to affected areas.  Source: Mayo Clinic

If I let myself get cold, my fingers, toes and even my nipples lose all blood flow, turn white and I have no sensation in them.  It's not just a matter of wearing warm socks and gloves (or fur lined bras).  I have to keep my core warm too.  I spend the better part of Nov - March wearing a minimum of 4 layers - tank top, short sleeve t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt and sweater. If I'm really cold I will add a hoodie or wrap myself up in a blanket.  I wear oven mitts to get things out of the freezer or to hold a bowl or glass that is cold to the touch. We have a bucket full of hand warmers and I use a heated bag every night when I go to bed to keep my hands warm as I fall asleep. I always have gloves and mittens with me, and use the fingerless gloves at the office so that I still type.

Once I do start to warm up, the blood comes rushing back to the area with a lot of pain and discomfort.  It can be like having pins and needles from sitting on your leg for too long, but much more intense. On a bad day I can have 3-4 episodes which is very unpleasant.

I do take a medication that is a calcium channel blocker to help relax and open up the small blood vessels.  It doesn't cure the problem, but it does help decrease the frequency of attacks.

I have lived with this disease for more than a decade now.  I'm still fascinated to watch the transformation of my fingers from regular skin tone to white to bright red as the blood rushes back.  It freaks out cashiers when I hand them money with fingers that look like they belong on a corpse.  While there is no cure, I have found ways to work around it and to minimize the impact on my life.  The only "cure" would be to move somewhere warm where I would never get cold.  Maybe one day.......

Miso

In my Christmas stocking this year I got some lovely cup of soup style Miso Soups. Just add water and you have a lovely mug of warm, comforting goodness, complete with squares of tofu and bits of seaweed. I’ve always loved miso soup, so having it to take to work seemed like an awesome idea. And it is!

One packet of Miso soup has only 35 calories. It’s certainly not a complete meal on its own, but it makes for a great mid afternoon snack, or an add-on to a lunch of cheese and crackers. Miso also has many health benefits. One study associates it with lowering the risk of breast cancer¹. Other studies link it to weight loss². Nutritionally it is packed with vitamins from the B family, especially B12 (on that I often suffer from a lack of), antioxidants and it is a complete protein³.

What exactly is Miso?

Miso is a paste made from fermented soybeans. While that doesn’t sound very appetizing , it has the texture of butter with a satly/nutty flavor⁴. It can be used in a variety of recipes, though the most commonly used for Miso soup.

Sources:

1)WebMd
2) LiveStrong
3) Care2.com
4) Natural News

Do you eat Miso?  What is your favorite recipe?

Water

Drinking more water every day is part of my plan for healthier living. Luckily I have always loved water and it is usually my go-to beverage when I’m thirsty.

Benefits of water.

• Helps to fill you up. People often mistake thirst for hunger. If you feel hungry have a drink of water and wait 10 minutes. If you are still hungry then go looking for a snack. 
• Drinking cold water helps you burn more calories as your body works to warm the water up.
• You get in extra steps each day because of the extra trips to the washroom. 

 This is one I didn't know:

• Drinking water also helps your body burn stored fat. If you're not drinking enough water, your liver will be forced to help your kidneys detoxify your body. When you drink plenty of water, your kidneys don't need any extra help, so your liver will be able to metabolize stored fat more efficiently.  Source: FitDay.com

How much water do you need?
 
The old adage of “drink 8 glasses a day” isn’t very accurate. Glasses come in as many shapes and sizes as people do. A better calculation is 1 ounce of water for every 2 pounds. So a 200 pound person should drink 100 ounces or 12.5 cups of water a day. And as soon as you add in exercise or a hot day, you need to drink even more. While it seems daunting, if you spread it over the (approx) 17 hours a day that you are awake that’s less than 1 cup an hour. Source: PBS.org

How to drink more water

• Keep water with you at all times to sip from.
• Have a glass of water before and after eating. 
• Add flavor – slices of lemon, lime, cucumber or even a few crushed berries will give your water a nice taste without adding calories. 
• Keep track of your how much you drink. You might think you are getting enough water, but when you start writing it down you might be surprised. 
• Replace at least one non-water beverage a day with water. 
• Eat more fruit, especially watermelon
• Black tea and coffee can even count towards your water intake each day.

How much water do you drink every day?

Who to tell

One of the first decisions you have to make when you embark on the journey to better health is “who do you tell”? For some people, keeping their goals private is of utmost importance. They don’t want people all up in their business. For others, like me, we gather strength and support from the people around us.

I work in an office with 100+ people, but work closely with a team of about 10. I’m not the only one who is trying to make better food and exercise choices right now. It’s the second week of January and New Year’s Resolutions are in full swing. Even if, or maybe especially if, I was the only one on this journey, it would be important to me to tell the people around me. I get a lot of support from co-workers checking in on my progress, murmuring understanding on days that I’m struggling and a lot of comraderie from sharing stories, recipes and ideas.  I directly work with 2 guys that eat out EVERYDAY for lunch. Before Christmas I was easily sucked into joining them more often than I should. I started out justifying it to myself that I needed the mental health break from the office and that I would just get a drink and enjoy the social aspect of lunch out. That quickly turned into me ordering lunch and even desert most days. Not good.

If I didn’t tell people that I was working on better eating, they wouldn’t know not to offer me all the junk food they bring in, or might think me a snob when I don’t share their birthday cakes or start to wonder why I suddenly stopped going out for lunch with them.

Outside of the office I share with friends and family too. This is not a journey I can do alone, and it’s also more than just a diet, or a short term thing. If I’m going to make this a lifelong way of living a healthier life, the people that love and support me need to know, and hopefully need to be on board and supportive. I’m very lucky that all the people in my life are supportive. I’ve heard from others that have people in their life that seem to only want to sabotage their success. I can’t imagine why anyone would do that, but I guess it takes all kinds.

Who do you share the details of your journey with? Do you have the support of those around you?

The truth about sitting down

I sit for the majority of my day.  40 minutes on the bus, 8 hours at work, and more time in the evenings either at the computer or in front of the TV.  I try to make an effort to get up and walk whenever I can.  While I wait for the bus I do laps of the station.  I try to get up at least once an hour at work and do a full lap of our fairly large office.  The evenings are harder, since I'm usually pretty tired and just want to crap out in a chair. I try to overcome the fatigue and do some exercise.   Read on to find out more about the perils of sitting.