Category Archives: health & fitness

A narrative of my journeys with diet, exercise, and various healthcare professionals

health & fitness 3 Comments

Yay For Bronchitis!

Aaron wasn’t feeling so well on Thursday night. When he got up on Friday, he was feeling downright shitty. He stayed home from work on Friday night, sick and feverish and hacking up a lung.

Saturday was my Aikido seminar and testing. I left Aaron sleeping when I went to the morning seminar, and returned after noon to find him still sleeping (which is pretty normal, considering his schedule). He’d had a hard time sleeping; once he got up and around, he started feeling better. He came with me to the testing on Saturday afternoon, to watch me earn my rank in Aikido (more on that later), and we stuck around for the potluck dinner afterward. He didn’t seem so bad — his cough had died down considerably, and he wasn’t feeling as warm.

I, on the other hand, started getting a tickle of a cough while watching the tests that came after mine. By Saturday night, I was hacking almost as much as Aaron had been.

On Sunday, both of us were completely miserable, although he seemed to be doing better than I was. I was feverish, dizzy, nauseated, not hungry in the least; I basically just beached myself on the couch with water and tea and books all day. I took my temperature while Aaron was out doing grocery shopping: 101°F. That made me feel even worse.

Knowing how Aaron had felt, I e-mailed my supervisor in advance and told him I wouldn’t be in on Monday. I went to bed with the intention of sleeping it off, sweating it out, and being well enough to go to work by Tuesday. Aaron was feeling fine by the time he went to bed a few hours after me.

Last night sucked.

I couldn’t get to sleep, thanks to my Aikido soreness and my periodic hacking, rattling cough. I dozed in and out, and kept waking up either in pools of my own sweat or shivering like a mofo. I finally managed to get to sleep around 6:30am, and slept until around 10:30 or 11am. Aaron didn’t fare as well, as he barely slept all night.

When we both dozed awake, he informed me that we were going to get up, shower, eat something, and go to Urgent Care. Both of us. Turns out, he’d woken up in the middle of the night to hack and cough and get a drink of water, and had looked up the closest Urgent Care place in the phone book because he was so freaking miserable.

So, that’s what we did. We got to Maumee Urgent Care at 12:15pm, and Aaron got called in to see the doctor at 1:30pm. I got called in shortly thereafter. Long story short, I was diagnosed with bronchitis and pharyngitis, and Aaron was diagnosed with much worse bronchitis than mine. I didn’t have any immediate treatments at Urgent Care; just a prescription for antibiotics and a decongestant. Aaron, on the other hand, got a breathing treatment and a shot in the ass at the clinic, plus three prescriptions, including an inhaler and an antibiotic.

Per doctor’s orders, I’m off work tomorrow, and Aaron’s off work until Thursday.

Aren’t we the pair?

weight loss

The Challenge: Week #3

Running Weight Loss Totals:

Diana James
Week 1: 0.5% 1.5%
Week 2: 1.6% 2.3%
Week 3: 3.8% ???

Official Tuesday weight: 204.5 pounds. This was a one-and-a-half pound loss from yesterday, and I attribute it to yesterday’s hefty two-hour session of aikido, after which I was too queasy to eat more than a small bowl of cereal for dinner. I fully expect to bounce back by a pound by tomorrow morning. And I’m OK with that.

The big accomplishment of the week was a steady weight loss over the weekend. We still ate out once, at Zoup, where I had a bowl of seafood chowder with multigrain bread. (I love eating at places where I can narrow down my meal choices ahead of time by checking the nutrition facts.) We made all our other meals at home: leftover salmon and green beans for Saturday dinner, omelettes for Sunday lunch, and Three Amigos Chili (thanks, Sheryl!) for Sunday dinner.

Exercise for the week was basically aikido on Wednesday — and yesterday — and a few days of lunch walks. I didn’t do aikido on Saturday morning because I was too exhausted to bother (thanks, womanhood). I’ve had aikido on the brain, thanks to my upcoming test, and I’m hesitant to do any strenuous exercise during the week (read: strength training) other than aikido, for fear of hurting myself so that I can’t test. This is also a great lame excuse for me to avoid cardio, as well, even though it’s what I need.

This Saturday is my aikido test, after which will be a potluck with all kinds of food. Hopefully, some of it will actually be good for me, being that there are plenty of vegetarians and proponents of macrobiotics and general health nuts in the dojo. If the Zen Brownies make an appearance, though, I’m definitely going to partake. 🙂 (There’s nothing overly untoward / weird / illegal in the Zen Brownies; they’re just REALLY good.) If I gain weight from that one meal, so be it. I give myself permission to indulge after (hopefully) earning my rank in aikido.

My focus for this week is going to involve getting enough sleep, and getting up at a reasonable time in the morning. I’d rather have my breakfast at home than just bring a banana to work and call that a meal, and I’d also like to start showing up to work ON TIME (even though, yes, I am salaried, and no one’s said anything yet). I’m going to spend a goodly amount of time on ME before bed, including all the normal hygiene (that I sometimes skip — I’m so bad), plus some quiet time sitting zazen, and generally helping myself calm down and relax and make myself feel just a little pampered. So often, I’ll just let myself get ridiculously tired, and finally throw together a lunch, tromp upstairs, braid my hair, strip (er, I mean, put on my jammies), get in bed, read a few pages of a book out of habit, then turn off the light once I can’t keep my eyes open. This is, I fear, not the healthiest of nighttime rituals. I resolve to change that this week, and see if it changes my attitude and mood (and possibly my eating and/or exercise habits).

Thanks to Lauren (a.k.a. “Bouffa“) and Sheryl and Aaron for their support this week. It’s helpful to know I have friends who want me to succeed and be happy, as simple and cheesy as that sounds.

weight loss 1 Comment

The Challenge: Week #2

Running Weight Loss Totals:

Diana James
Week 1: 0.5% 1.5%
Week 2: 1.6% 2.3%

Official Tuesday weight: 209. My low weight for the week was 208, though, and I’ve been hovering between 208 and 208.5 all week (except for last Tuesday’s weigh-in, of course).

Last week, I declared that my strategy would be to eat out only once during the weekend, and eat the remainder of the weekend’s meals at home. I managed to successfully stick to my plan, only eating out for lunch on Saturday, after aikido. I also managed to track everything I ate over the weekend, including my lunch at the Reynolds Garden Café.

Next step: eat HEALTHY at home and in restaurants.

Lunch? At the Reynolds Garden Café? Racked up every last calorie I’d burned in aikido that morning, plus some. Ninety minutes of martial arts wiped out by one giant Smothered Chicken Omelet. And I knew better, but I ate it anyway. Dinner that night was Sweet Mustard Chicken and frozen green beans; still a calorie-laden meal, though, since I ate two chicken breasts instead of just one.

It was Sunday’s lunch that was really the kicker, though: I broke down and made alfredo sauce. With full-fat cream cheese, and butter, and parmesan, and 2% milk. Ate it with baked chicken over low-carb organic whole-wheat elbow macaroni. It was a great low-carb meal, but not so much a good balanced meal. Incredible amounts of fat and overall calories… and with no aikido to balance them out. Dinner was super-spicy Thai Coconut Shrimp over brown rice: still a little high in calories, actually. Or maybe my portions are a little out of kilter. Either way, Sunday was a learning experience. I guess I should count myself lucky that I only gained a pound and a half from Sunday to Monday.

As far as exercise goes, I’ve been doing OK. I take half-hour walks during my lunch most days of the work week (although I’ll sometimes work through my lunch one day a week as personal penance for coming in late, even though I’m salary). I went to aikido on Wednesday and Saturday (finally, a day of no bleeding!), plus I did some pilates last Tuesday, and yoga last night.

My goal for next week is going to be portion control, especially on the weekends. I want to make a concerted effort to eat small, frequent meals on weekends, like I do during the week. Weekend weight-gain is my biggest challenge right now; once I can maintain a steady weight from Friday to Monday, I’ll move on to another challenge, like exercise.

aikido 1 Comment

Aikido Recap

Wednesday, Jan 2: Reviewed suwari waza (kneeling) techniques for sixth kyu test: shomen uchi ikkyo omote and shomen uchi ikkyo ura. Spent the full hour working on just those, with occasional moments of showing sensei the same techniques tachi waza (standing). Learned a lot, refined my skills. Realized later that I had developed blisters on my knees that had since burst, leaving my knees skinned.

Saturday, Jan 5: Returned to Aikido class for a second time in one week, which is not the norm for me. I need to prepare for my test on the 26th, though, so I stepped it up. My knees sported standard band-aids.

Before we broke into ranks to study for the testing, my fate was foreshadowed by unexpected bleeding from a shaving oopsie on my ankle. Later, once we broke into ranks, we once again started with suwari waza; within ten minutes, my band-aids had failed and my knees were bleeding all over my white gi. That class ended up being pretty much a wash, as I kept having to leave the mat to re-band-aid or re-secure said band-aids with medical tape. After class, everyone claimed that I was “hardcore,” although I knew that the initial blisters that had caused the bleeding had to be a result of poor or incorrect kneeling technique on my part.

Wednesday, Jan 9: This time, my knees sported the proper wound attire: large, fabric band-aids made especially for knees. i brought one extra, just in case, and left it in my bag in the changing room.

Again, we mukyu (unranked students) began with suwari waza techniques; this time, though, I was basically forced by my now-delicate knees to use proper technique. I made sure to keep my toes curled up under me, and to walk purposefully on my toes and knees, rather than just scooting and pivoting myself around. I also found myself pulling up my pant-legs and checking my knees whenever I got a free moment; the left knee was generally fine, and the right knee did start bleeding, but not enough to soak through the band-aid.

We then spent some much-needed time on two tachi waza techniques: mune tsuki kotegaeshi (the link shows a slightly more physical version than we practice) and yokomen uchi shihonage. Near the end of class, while I was acting as uke (the attacker/throwee), I felt my ankle scrape across the mat. I’d already gotten a mat burn on that ankle recently, and it hadn’t quite healed, so I wasn’t surprised when my training partner pointed out that I was bleeding. I excused myself, ran off the mat and into the bathroom to clean up, then into the changing room to apply my Band-Aid Of Awesomeness. Once I got myself all squared away and back on the mat, it was time to line up and show the class what we’d learned.

The mukyu demonstrated the two tachi waza techniques we’d studied. It was the first time I’d done any techniques in front of Sensei and the entire class, and it was good practice for how testing will feel. After we were done, the other ranks showed what they’d learned. The next rank up from us did a more advanced suwari waza technique, and the rest all demonstrated weapons work. I see now why we’ve been focusing on weapons more than before: weapons work is apparently a major part of testing for some of the higher ranks.

Assuming I go to two classes a week from now until testing, I have four classes left until testing day. If I step it up and attend three classes a week, I could make it six classes total. I could probably use the extra classes; there are ten techniques total that I need to know, and of those ten, I only feel totally confident with seven. I’m not entirely sure what the other three are. I probably know the techniques, but don’t know them by name. Actually, after a YouTube refresher, I’m feeling OK with identifying most of them, but I know I need some detail work with the techniques.

I also need to get some more practice with rolling, as I haven’t really had to roll for some time now. I was feeling fairly confident with it at one point. In the test, I’ll have to do at least ten forward rolls consecutively (not like these, thankfully — something similar to this, but more of a roll than a breakfall), and I don’t feel comfortable enough with rolling to do that right now. I will in a couple of weeks, though.

weight loss 1 Comment

The Challenge: Week #1

Week 1 Summary:
Diana: 0.5% body weight lost
James: 1.5% body weight lost

The good news is that I got back on the wagon. I lost one pound in one week, which is healthy and sustainable. I became more aware of my eating habits.

The bad news is that, while I became more aware of my weekend eating habits in particular, I failed to change them this week. This allowed James to pull ahead. Had I not regained weight over the weekend, I could have potentially tied James with a 1.4% loss (or more) in the first week. I did see 209 on Friday, but I said goodbye to it on Saturday with my day of Indian and Mexican food, and continued to wave farewell with Sunday’s lunch of Chinese.

My strategy for the coming week is to only eat out once over the weekend, and to make it lunch, not dinner. That will give me the chance to burn off any evilness during the rest of the day. Usually, Aaron and I will eat out for three out of four meals during the weekend, only eating Sunday dinner at home. That’s going to change. I’m going to be trying out some new healthy recipes this weekend, to make eating at home fun.

I’m going to continue my current plan of eating 1400 Calories per day, broken down into 40% carbohydrate / 30% protein / 30% fat. I’ve been doing fairly well with not overeating in the evenings, thanks to my DietOrganizer application. It’s like Deal-a-Meal: when my DietOrganizer Palm app says I have no calories left, I’m done eating for the day.

I’m also going to continue attending two aikido classes per week (Wed and Sat) instead of just on Wednesdays, although that has more to do with my upcoming test than the weight loss challenge.

I’m surprised at how much a challenge can motivate me. When I found out today that James had lost a higher percentage than I had, that immediately intensified my resolve to improve in the coming week. I know that I should be able to just compete with myself, go for a new personal best, make it a game, all that self-improvement stuff… but that doesn’t seem to work for me. I always rationalize that it doesn’t matter if I screw up, because it’s not like there’s anything at stake in the short run.

But now? Now, there’s bragging rights to consider. And a dinner. Preferably steak.