Running

A few weeks ago I started thinking about running. I was improving rapidly in yoga and figured I need to do a cardio, that like yoga, I would be able to do often. I am practicing yoga almost every day now, 20 minutes one day, 40 minutes another, and I can see how much easier I am going into each pose now compared to when I started. However, my hour of cardio at the gym has stayed as agonizing as the first time I went to gym.

In the past month I went to the gym for cardio exactly 3 times, lol. Each time I did half an hour on the elliptical and half an hour on the stationary bike, and what a long and agonizing hour it was!

My schedule and the hours I can go to gym gaves me six times to go to gym: Monday and Wednesday mornings, and Tuesday and Thursday all day. Even though I went on Monday mornings but since I had a meeting with my advisor in the afternoon I really didn't wanted to go, instead I wanted to make sure I was ready for my meeting. So it was a struggle to convince myself to go. Wednesdays I work all afternoon and I am on my feet most of my 8-hour shift, I knew my legs could not handle an hour cardio in the morning followed by 8-hour shift in the afternoon, so Wednesday was out! Tuesdays I met with my grandmother in the afternoon and Thursdays I wanted to go grocery shopping and prepare meals for the next three days that I had to work. You see I had an excuse for each time slot I could go to the gym. I figured I could never improve my cardio this way. 

Thankfully my schedule is improving; my advisor has moved our Monday afternoon meetings to Wednesdays, freeing my Monday completely. Hopefully I would take advantage of this and go to the 90-minute yoga Monday morning starting next week.

Thus I was considering running more and more seriously.

This past Friday I started looking for bloggers who had to lose as much as I have and had started running regularly from the beginning. Somehow I ended up at Runner's World and saw their Summer Streak announcement, run one mile a day from Memorial Day to Independence Day, I got intrigue. I figured I could spare time to run/walk one mile a day. Of course as their roles the one mile should be run, I knew I couldn't run the entire mile and decided that I want to quietly participate, take advantage of reading tweets from participants and stay motivated. The only thing that concerned me was that I am very out of shape and heavy and am scared of injuring myself. But the pros are too many and cons too little, so I had to start.

Pros:

1. I like running.
2. I had lost rapidly before when I was running regularly and so I was hoping I would lose rapidly again this time if I start running.
3. Running relaxes me, keeps me calm and serene.
4. Running makes me happy. Seriously, running acts like a happy pill for me, lol.
5. While running I become the best problem solver, lol. When I first started working, I was one of the eight people in our group, all with at least 7 years of experience. We were all working on the same project and I was intimated to ask them any questions, thinking they might think I don't know anything. So I tried to figure things on my own. One day I spend the whole day trying to figure something out with no luck. I went home late defeated. Probably was thinking about the problem while commuting, while having dinner, while sleeping, probably dreamed about it too, lol, put for sure the next day while running. Toward the end of my run suddenly I thought why I didn't try this approach! I got home and couldn't wait to get to work to try my solution. And what do you know, it worked! From then on, I never spent too much time trying to figure something out, lol. If I couldn't solve my problem in couple of hours, I would do something else, then later on, or the next morning I would go for a run and think about my problem. Two out of three times I had an idea for a solution before my run was over, lol.
6. I sleep better when I run regularly.
7. I eat better, make healthier choices.
8. If I run in the morning I know I would have a good day.
9. I can go for a run anytime I want to, weather permitting, I don't have to wait for my gym hours.
10. My parent's neighborhood is very nice and safe for runners. There is actually a nice running path if I wanted to run longer, but one mile paths are also OK.
11. Running outside, I can set my own speed. On the treadmill I force myself to run at a certain speed and certain incline that I might not be ready for yet. If I don't set it to the high numbers I want I would be disappointed and if I set it to those numbers, it would be hard for me to keep up and I probably want to quit soon.

Pro of Summer Streak

1. It is only one mile, and I think it would take me less time to go for the run/walk, then to try and talk myself out of it.
2. Seeing how many others are running, in humid weather, on the boring treadmill, with little kids in the house that might need their attention at any moment, but somehow they try to complete their run, no excuse, and so they are a great motivator for me to also complete my run.

Cons

1. Injuring myself.

You see 13 pros against 1 con, it is a no brainer, lol. Plus I figured if I run smart, if I start easy and listen to my body, I can prevent injury. Plus I have decided to weight train, at least my lower body, to make my muscles stronger and thus prevent injury.

So I started! Saturday morning I woke up around 6 am, it was before my 12-hour shift at the gym, but I put on my running shoes, and before I could think twice about it I was out of the door. The weather was great. I walked for about two minutes and then I started running. Slow. I knew the path perfectly. I know where the quarter mile, half mile, and 3 quarter mile are. I run past the half mile mark and walked to about the 3 quarter mile mark and then run home. It felt great. I was out of breath. I could hardly walk up the stairs to get ready. I took Advil with me to take for when my legs started hurting too much. At work the first couple of hours were hard, but then my tiredness went away.

I have gone running/walking 6 days out of 6 now. Some days had been better than the others and I run more past the half way mark. Some days I had a hard time making it to the half way mark while running. But over all I am enjoying my morning one mile run/walks.

I am participating in the Summer Streak with two modifications, one is that I run/walk the one mile, and two I started 2 days earlier so that I have 40 days. My goal is to be able to run the entire mile without any walks in a few weeks, and then I can start improving my speed and maybe increase the mileage a bit.

Month one evaluation.

Yesterday was one month since I started my diet. As of Friday I have lost 9.2 pounds. I am disappointed at these losses! I was hoping to be out of 190s or within a pound or two of being out, by month one, but I am nowhere close to that point. I used to lose a lot faster. Oh well.

My goal was to eat right and exercise. Well there is much room for improvement.

I have taken high sugar and high fat food out of my diet, half way through the month I eliminated bread, but I think I still eat too many bars/shakes. I like to keep those for the days that I don't have time to prepare a meal. I like to eat more whole foods.

I have been thinking one way to replace my morning bar is to have a smoothie. I like to make smoothie with Almond/Coconut milk, a small banana, one tablespoon peanut butter, and ice, very delicious and satisfying. That shall be my breakfast starting tomorrow.

On the exercise front, I am very satisfied with my yoga improvement. My first class I was tired and ready to leave half way through the class, and seriously if I was not embarrassed to face my friend/instructor afterward I would have left. But I am glad that I stayed. I am glad that I started practicing at home, at first for five minutes only. I am glad that I kept at it until now that I comfortably go through the 60-minute class. This past Friday I didn't look at the clock until we were sitting down for the cool down. That is how easily the hour passed for me. Of course there are poses that I can't get to the way I want to because of all the layers of fat in my middle, but I think my muscles have woken up and realized that they do remember these poses, lol, now I just need to lose these fats so that my muscles could go as far as they can. My next goal is to add a second class, Mondays, which is 90-minute class.

Which brings me to cardio. I have done cardio exactly three times in the past month, for about an hour each time. I am finding the elliptical and stationary bike too boring. I love spinning classes but they are offered only during the peak hours and my membership is off-peak hours, which means I can't attend spinning classes. My previous gym had passes that they periodically send to their members to give to their friends and family encouraging them to join the gym. I have been wondering if they have day passes here, and if I could use one or two to go to one of their spinning classes. That is the kind of cardio I like.

I had been thinking about running too. First off I like running, and secondly I lose weight a lot faster when I run. For example a few years ago my best friend talked me into running a 10K with her. We trained for 6 weeks. Of course I was running before we started training, but only once a week, rarely twice. At that point I was in the high 140s, was not losing weight fast and so I had decided not to weight myself. Two weeks into our training, when I felt my cloths were getting lose, I weight, and was down to 141. Four weeks later I was at 133. That is how fast I was losing, so close to my goal weight. If I remember correctly, we were running 3 days a week, running between 2-4 miles a day. We also had a long run that we started with 4 miles, increased every week until we were running 7 miles, and then cut back down to 5 miles, the week before the race.

Friday night, at the gym, when it got quite, I started surfing the net looking for experience of bloggers who were my size and had decided to run. As I was looking around I came across a challenge at Runner's World. The challenge is to run from Memorial Day to Independence Day, 38 consecutive days, one mile a day In their FAQ they are advising only people who have been running regularly for the past six months to participate. I think that is kind of extreme! I think people who have been running 4-5 times a week 3-6 miles a day for a month could easily participate. I decided I want to challenge myself. Of course I knew I couldn't run a mile but I thought I could start slow like with yoga. I want to write a separate post for my plan to run in this challenge, so stay tuned, lol.

Here are my goals for the second month on diet:

• Drink smoothies for breakfast instead of Atkins bar.
• Grill on weeknights that I am home early. Grill more veggies so that I could have as snack the next day instead of Atkins shake.
• Have at least 4 grain free days a week.
• Go to two yoga classes a week, one a 60-minute and the other a 90-minutes class.
• Run-walk one mile a day, everyday.
• On Fridays, after the yoga class, weight train lower body at least.

Week 4 weighing ...

197.2.

Loss of 1 pound even! Not surprised but disappointed!

I am disappointed not because I just lost 1 pound, but because I ignored my school work for two weeks that I had to work 17 and 16 hours on Monday and Tuesday to catch up and as a result I eat a lot on those days, and thus didn't lose much.

At least I went to the gym yesterday morning for cardio instead of Monday. I am happy about that.

This morning I went to my fourth yoga class. It went by so fast. I am starting to enjoy yoga again. What a difference four weeks make.

My parents are going to be in town for the next 10 days. They are arriving late tonight. I actually have time to drive to the airport after work to pick them up. My dad said to get there right on time so that I could park on the curbside instead of going to the parking. Parking in the airport parking is such a hassle. So yes I am happy to have my parents home.

My sister and brother are driving in tomorrow. So yes, full house, lol. I am so glad I shall be working the majority of the time they are here. My sister is very critical and bossy. My brother is so full of himself and can't stop praising himself. So yes they are both annoying in their own way. I am looking forward to Monday when they are leaving.

Oh by the way I am not imagining things, lol, seriously I can feel the bottom of my feet again. The tingling is completely gone. I am confident that my feet problem was inflammation. Apparently it wasn't that serious since a few Advil taken in the past few days has almost fixed it. You know I had this issue for over a year! That is for having a good doctor, NOT! I made an appointment with my old-new doctor, lol. I shall be seeing him in 2 and half weeks. Even if my feet are completely fine by then I am going just to get a conformation.

I am off to work. I want to post more but don't have time. I see if I can post from the gym once it got quite tonight.

Changing my doctor!

I did mention that since last year I have been experiencing tingling and numbness in my left foot. Then when I started working at the gym, standing on my feet for 4-5 hours at the time, I felt the tingling and numbness in both feet.

When I looked up what could cause these symptoms, I found diabetic and Hyperthyroidism listed.

Last year my doctor eliminated the diabetic as the cause and so while I was waiting for my first week of July appointment with her I decided to start reading on Hyperthyroidism.

I got Living Well with Hyperthyroidism by Mary Shomon and have been reading it. I have learned a lot about Hyperthyroidism and if I shall be diagnosed with it I feel more prepared to deal with it. But I am hopeful that the cause of numbness and tingling in my feet is something else, as in inflammation.

Last week I was looking for something that I came across The Hormone Diet by Natasha Turner. This book is also very informative and I have learned that inflammation could be caused by diet. Turner states that poor diet, diet high in fat, sugar, white flour, and processed food could cause inflammation in body.

I was under the believe that inflammation is caused by injury, but not so. That is why when I saw one of the causes of tingling and numbness in feet is inflammation I didn't even give it second thoughts. I thought I was not injured so no inflammation.

Saying that I am pissed at my doctor is understatement. Last year she just wrote the blood work that I went to see her for (diabetic) and told me, without any tests, that I had compressed nerve in my back and that is the cause of the numbness in my foot, and advised me to lose weight. I am thinking she must of known that one of the other causes could be Hyperthyroidism, so why didn't she also order Thyroid tests. I was having a blood test anyway, why not draw more blood and do more tests. I have also learned from Turner that there are blood tests to determine inflammation in body. Again why didn't my doctor ordered that test.

Needless to say tomorrow morning I am calling her office, canceling my appointment and I am going back to my previous doctor, the doctor that saw me from my late teens to when I switched to this doctor. So why did I switch, because of the stupid health insurance rules. My health insurance at work required me to have a GP in their network. My old doctor was not in their network, so I picked this new doctor since she was accepting new patients and since she was conveniently located near work. But I never liked it from the start. I am so glad I can go back to my old doctor. I completely trust him.

I am not sure if it is my imagination or the numbness and tingling in my feet has been reduced!

Friday night I came home with excruciating pain in my feet. I wanted to cry. I took couple of Advil and iced them. Thankfully, the pain got reduced so I could sleep. Saturday morning I still had a bit of pain and so I decided to take more Advil. Then at work my neck started hurting so I took more Advil. Sunday through today, every 6-8 hours, I have been taking Advil for my neck pain and thankfully I am feeling much better now.

I think the anti-inflammatory Advil might have cured my feet! Seriously, I can feel my big toe again. I shall let my old doctor diagnose it, lol.

Hopefully I shall be done with my vicious cycle. You see, I eat badly, ice cream, fast foods, several diet cokes a day, vending machine chips and chocolate, and I not only gained weight, I developed inflammation. According to Turner, inflammation in body prevents one from losing weight. So last summer, after my doctor's advice to lose weight, the more I tried the less successful I was. So I gained more weight and my feet started bothering more probably because of more inflammation.

Could it be the pain I have been living with for the past year be cured this easily? I am so hoping. lol.

No Drama.

Almost four weeks ago when I decided that I needed to lose weight, I decided that I needed to get drama out my life, so that I could minimize my emotional eating episodes. Thus I disassociate myself from anyone that I thought was getting on my nerves and tried to reconnect with friends and family that I knew are kind and supportive. In this way I thought I could prevent drama. Little did I know that I was creating another drama on another front, lol, ignoring my school project.

After the semester was over, I gave myself a long weekend to recuperate from my finals and the fiasco that was my roommates situation. Than the following week I half hardly did some school work, but the following two weeks almost nothing! Last Monday I even cancelled on my advisor with the excuse that I was very tired. But I know if I had something to show him, I would have gone to our meeting no matter how tired I was. Couple of cups of coffees and pastries would get the tiredness out of me for a few hours, wouldn't it, lol! But then I got an email from him Saturday afternoon that he was pushing back our meeting this week from Monday to Wednesday. I didn't read much to it when I first read the email, but then I panicked. I thought to myself what if he drops me as his student, what am I going to do? Obviously, I would have dropped me too seeing that I was slacking off.

I am not sure if it was because of the stress or did I pull a muscle or something but my neck started hurting and it went to my head. Beautiful I thought. So I popped more Advil, more on that later, and continued my work at the gym in a panic mode.

Sunday night I decided that I needed to get my act together. I decided that for the next two days I was going to concentrate on my school project and only that. No more visiting websites, no more reading about diet, illness, recipes, chick lits. No more sewing, checking out patterns and fabrics. No more watching TV, or raiding my parents DVD collection. I decided I wasn't going to the gym on Monday for cardio as I had been doing in the past two weeks, and I was not going to have lunch with my grandma and sewing lessons after that on Tuesday. I skipped gym and rescheduled with my grandma for today.

I woke up just before 7 am on Monday and started working. I went nonstop until midnight; seriously, worked 17 hours straight. Didn't even cook, but eat every couple of hours. Yes, I must have eaten close to 2000 calories, but I didn't care. I needed to be able to function, so I eat. What was important to me was that it was no emotional eating. When I eat it was real hunger. Anyhow I survived on Atkins bars and shakes, banana, peanut butter, Greek yogurt, Cheerios, watermelon, and omelet.

On Tuesday I woke up before 6 am all excited. Sometimes I find it hard to start working on a project, but once I got into it, it is hard for me to stop, I just lose track of time. It was the same when I was working. My ex knew when I had gotten into my project and he made sure he called me everyday around 6 pm reminding me to come home; otherwise I would have been at my desk until 9 or 10 pm.  Anyhow, Tuesday I worked from 6 am until 10 pm and I felt all cut up on my project. No more drama for me hopefully.

You see, I am the kind of person that if I can do something today I wouldn't leave it for tomorrow. Most of the time I carry a notebook with me, habit I developed while working, most of the time on multiple projects, went to lots of meetings, and hated when people brought their laptops and clicked their keyboards all through the meeting, I thought it was very distracting. Anyhow, in my notebook I always have a to-do-list, and I can't wait to finish a task so that I can cross it off my list; it is very gratifying.

Once in a while the little kid in me takes over, lol, and prevents me from checking my to-do-list, adding or crossing off items. That is what happened in the previous few weeks, but thankfully I am all cut up now.

I had my meeting with my advisor this morning, it went well. I am very relaxed and happy now. I don't know it is because I started my day off with 45 minutes yoga this morning, or because of my good meeting with my advisor, or because I had lunch with my grandma (she always put me in a good mood), whatever the reason I am happy and relaxed now.

Anyhow, I got my notebook out, and made two lists, side by side. One itemized task I have to do for my school project, I feel that the more specific I am with my tasks, the easier it is for me to do them. If I just say work on your school project, it backfires, lol. And the other list is everything else, including cooking, sewing, exercising, watching TV, hanging out with my best friend, visiting grandma, calling/texting/emailing my parents and friends, posting to my blog, etc. My goal is to cross off the same number of items from each list.

How I love crossing out the tasks I accomplished from my to-do-lists.

Good Advice: How Nutrition Affects Your Feet

Source: http://www.everydayhealth.com/foot-health/nutrition-and-your-feet.aspx

Some foods, like those with lots of sugar, can cause inflammation. And inflammation can impact the health of your feet.

When most people think about nutrition and their health, they have no trouble associating the foods they eat with weight loss or heart health, says Sherri Greene, DPM, a podiatrist in New York City who practices holistic foot care. However, your diet affects many other parts of your body, including your feet.

"When I explain to people that your feet are connected to the rest of your body, and what you put into your body is what makes up your body, they're like, 'Wow!' When they feel better after they change their diet, then they get it," she says.

Feet and Nutrition: Fighting Off Inflammation and Pain
One problem linked to nutrition that can affect your feet is inflammation, Dr. Greene says. Certain foods can increase chemicals in your body that cause tissue inflammation. This inflammation could appear in your foot as plantar fasciitis, which causes pain in the thick band of tissue that runs across the bottom of your foot, in your heel, or elsewhere in your foot.

Many common foods in the American diet encourage inflammation, such as the refined grains, sugar, and trans fats in many baked goods and junk foods; the saturated fat in red meat; and the omega-6 fats found in many commonly used vegetable oils, such as corn, soybean, and sunflower oils.

In addition, some people may have increased levels of inflammation in their bodies due to chronic allergies to common foods such as wheat, Greene says. Another factor that can contribute to inflammation is eating too many foods that cause your blood sugar to rise quickly, such as sweets, white flour, and pasta.

As a result, the nutritional approaches Greene discusses with patients to reduce inflammation include:

Eating more omega-3 fats. Fatty fish such as salmon, as well as fish oil supplements, are good sources of omega-3s, Greene says. Omega-3s help reduce inflammation, and nutrition studies suggest they should be properly balanced in the diet with omega-6s. Most people's diets provide far more omega-6s than omega-3s, and a fish-rich diet can address this imbalance.

Doing a general diet makeover. Following an overall healthier diet can provide anti-inflammatory benefits to your feet and your total health. This includes eating more green vegetables and other fresh plant foods, and cutting out refined grain foods and sugary treats, Greene says.

Feet and Nutrition: Other Health Connections
Two common conditions that affect millions of Americans' feet are peripheral artery disease and diabetes. Each of these conditions can harm your feet by damaging arteries that bring blood to your lower extremities.

Good nutrition can also help protect your feet from these conditions. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a diet low in saturated fat, trans fat, and sodium and rich in fruits and vegetables can help reduce your risk of peripheral artery disease. A 2008 study in the Journal of Vascular Surgery specifically found that omega-3s were associated with a lower risk of peripheral artery disease.

If you have diabetes, a healthy diet can help protect your feet from complications of that condition, too. In general, the NIH recommends a diet rich in whole grains, beans, vegetables and fruits, lean meats, and a limited amount of fats and sweets for people with diabetes.

Whether you eat more healthfully to counteract a medical condition or to avoid one, following the NIH’s recommendations will help ensure that your feet, along with the rest of your body, continue to serve you well.

Good Advice: The Effect of Inflammation on Weight Loss

Source: http://www.lisanelsonrd.com/blog/the-effect-of-inflammation-on-weight-loss

If you are to successfully lose weight you will likely focus on eating fewer calories and increasing your activity to burn more calories. It’s important that you also address inflammation on your journey to lose weight.

Research on mice has shown a “switch” controlling inflammation in the hypothalamus (region of the brain that regulates energy) becomes “flipped on” in response to high fat diets. It also shows that “overnutrition” (i.e. eating too much) turns on this inflammatory switch.

An increased level of inflammation leads our cells to become resistant to insulin and leptin.

Insulin plays a messenger role in that it tells cells it is time to take in glucose (sugar). If cells become resistant to insulin, they ignore the message that it is time to take in more glucose, glucose is converted to fatty acids, and is stored by our fat cells. If insulin resistance is persistent, eventually the fat cells will no longer respond and increased levels of fatty acids will remain in circulation.

Leptin is a hormone that triggers satiety. This is your body’s way of telling you you’ve had enough to eat. When production of leptin is hindered, we do not feel satisfied and tend to eat more.

As inflammation causes the cells to ignore the messages of insulin and leptin, you are more likely to consume more calories (because you still feel hungry) and potentially store increased levels of fat due to the increased level of circulating fatty acids.

So, if you are ready to change your ways and a heart healthy diet, with a reasonable caloric intake to promote weight loss, you need to take steps to “flip the switch off” in the hypothalamus that is controlling inflammation.

If the inflammation continues, you’re journey to lose weight will be an even bigger struggle because you do not experience satiety and the body is in mode to store fat.

How to Reduce Inflammation
You want to restore the cells sensitivity to insulin and leptin. This means eliminating inflammatory foods from your diet. Inflammatory foods include sugar, refined grains, saturated fats, and any foods you may be allergic to.

You need to switch to a diet high in anti-inflammatory foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

You’ll also want to add foods contain nutrients known for their anti-inflammatory properties, such as omega 3 fatty acids and curcumin.

Nothing new
This is not a new concept; however, it’s important. If you think you can lose weight by simply eating less of the foods you love and exercising more. . .it likely won’t work. Cutting back to one cheeseburger, small serving of fries, and small soda equals fewer calories than a super sized meal, but it is still an entire meal full of high inflammatory foods.

All the best,
Lisa Nelson RD
http://lisanelsonrd.com/