Sometimes I'm a total dork

The headache cure
As I was gulping my extra strong black coffee at 5am before I tore out the door for the gym today, I figured it out. Headaches. Saturdays.

I've gone to my Weight Watcher 11am meeting three Saturdays in a row. I drink very little before the meeting, and I never drink coffee! Maybe some water, but never coffee. I've been getting a headache every Saturday.

The headaches are caffeine withdrawal, not a brain tumor like I thought. I've quit coffee many times in my life so I should have known.

In my defense, the headaches were exceptionally bad. As I age things seem to hit me harder. Colds are worse, the flu almost killed me last year (three times!), and apparently caffeine withdrawal symptoms are more intense. The joys of getting older.

The exercise
I've decided to change things up a bit and have two cardio-only days, and four cardio/strength days, and always one day of rest a week.

Today was a cardio-only day. I completed a warmup of 10 minutes on the treadmill, jogging 4 -5 mph intervals. Then 35 minutes on the cross ramp where I kicked my own butt. Lastly, 20 minutes on the stationary bike where I really have to work to keep my heart rate up around 135. I was a hot, wet and oh so not sexy mess when I was done. My shirt was completely drenched (and completely gross). My bangs were literally dripping.

So when my coworker asked me to walk with her at lunch, I was thinking more of a get some fresh air kind of stroll. When we started off I could barely keep up with her, until finally she said, "Do you always walk this FAST?!!!" Cracked me up since I thought she was setting the pace and she thought I was setting the pace. We'd only been walking ten minutes and I could barely breathe because we were going to fast.

We slowed down a little, but it was 3.5 miles, the first half all down hill and then the return, all up a very steep hill. It wasn't a leisurely stroll, but a tough workout. My glutes are in agony tonight. Even sitting hurts.

My food
I'm still struggling with late night eating, but it's not as bad as a few weeks ago. I seem to have a semblance of self-control. I eat, but usually not a lot and never anything that would be considered unhealthy, but I'm still eating too much.

I've been tracking most days, even though sometimes I'm over my points (and I eat all my activity Points and all my weeklies). The only thing saving me are my activity Points. I earned 12 today with two hours of cardio.

Logging my weight
This is strange and a little sad. I haven't entered my weight into my Statistics page since November 16, 2009. In three and half months I've lost one pound.  Note my big gain from 9/5 to 11/16, when I was traveling non-stop for work. I gained 17.6 pounds in about two months and I still haven't lost it. I really need to get serious.

Picture of the day

 Des Moines Creek Trail, Des Moines, WA

An overcast, typical Northwest day, and a typical

moss covered tree (kind of creepy looking).

Weekend update

Another headache
I can't believe I haven't posted since Thursday morning. I guess I just wasn't in the blogging mood or something. Or maybe it was the headache from hell that took me down again.

Saturday is a blur. All I remember doing is going to Weight Watchers, weighing in, sitting through the meeting with an excruciating headache, then heading home and back to bed.

Nothing can stop these headaches when they come. Aspirin, Aleve, Tylenol doesn't phase them. All I can do is curl into a fetal position in a dark, quiet room and wait it out.

Today I was fine. The headache is gone, although there's a lingering feeling of tenderness behind my eyes. Like it could come back any minute.

I don't know what's up with these headaches, but I'm getting a little concerned. That was my third one in three weeks, and sometimes during the day I have a stabbing pain on the left side of my head that lasts for just a few minutes.

I have my annual physical in two weeks, and I'm going to ask my doctor about it. It's just the strangest thing. I rarely get headaches and when I do, nothing like these last three. They're literally debilitating.

The weigh-in
Okay, enough of the headache talk. About the weigh-in. Not exactly a stunning loss, but it's a loss:

Saturday 2/27/2010 Weigh-in

Last week's weight:  176.6

Current weight: 175.4

Week loss: -1.2

Total loss:  -63.8

My workout
Because of the headache from hell I skipped working out Saturday. I could barely stand up so working out was out of the question. However, I made up for it on Sunday.

The Big Book of Exercises by Women's Health says you're only suppose to do one exercise per body part per workout. I've never heard this before, but it makes sense.I usually try to do at least two exercises per body part. For example, I always do two bicep exercises back to back, two triceps, two shoulder, two deltoids, etc.

What I've noticed is that I don't do as well on the second exercise for the same body part. My form isn't as good and I struggle with the heavier weights.

It also suggests not doing the same exercise for each body part during the week, to mix it up. Even changing how you hold the dumbbells makes a difference in how you work the muscle group you're focusing on.

The book also says you should do 24 reps of an exercise. For example, three sets of 8, or as set of 12, 10, 8. They said more if you're up to it, but 24 was the optimum number. A a few more is okay if you're up to it, but three sets of 15, probably not a good idea (I've done that a lot). If you can do three sets of 15 then you're probably not using heavy enough weights.

One thing I've learned, every author of strength training has their own opinion of what's right. They all think their way is the right waym, but none of them are written in stone. You have to figure out what works best for you.

Here's the page from my exercise log for today. I planned out my workout before I got to the gym. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to complete this workout. It  was definitely one of my best workouts.

Tulips that I bought for myself. As long as I try the best I can with working out and trying to eat right during the week, I buy myself flowers on Saturday. I love tulips. They remind me of spring, my favorite season.

It was a full moon on Saturday night. I did ventured outside with the raging headache at about 8pm. Just to get some fresh air, hoping it would cure my headache. It didn't, but I did get to see this gorgeous full moon. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was spectacular.

Bananas out the wazoo!

Our step-daughter-in-law's brother got half a pallet of bananas (that's 24 boxes) that were going to be thrown away (the bananas were still green) and he gave her a box of them (she gave us half the box, that's 20 lbs of bananas).
I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with all those bananas, since one gets tired of eating banana bread all the time. So I put 4 peeled bananas in a quart zipper freezer bag, mashed the bananas, zipped it closed, and dated the bag. Did that until I ran out of bananas, and put them all in the freezer. Now, when I want banana bread/cake/muffins/etc, all I have to do is pull a bag of mashed bananas out of the freezer, let them thaw, cut a corner off the bag, and squeeze them into the mixing bowl when they go into the recipe.
That was much easier than mashing the bananas in a bowl and then trying to transfer them to a freezer bag, and the bags take up less room in the freezer than small containers would. And I don't have to wash the bags when I'm done, I can throw them away.
What chaps my hide about these bananas? Whatever store ordered them and the company that shipped them - well, if the store ordered 50 boxes of bananas, they come 48 boxes to a pallet, so the company ships 2 pallets, which is 96 boxes. The store doesn't need 96 boxes, they only need 50, so those other 46 boxes get thrown away (unless there's a truck driver or two or three who are willing to take them). Which is how the step-DIL's brother got the pallet, he split it with another truck driver rather than see them get thrown away (and they both went around finding people who were willing to buy boxes or half-boxes of bananas for less than what they would have paid for them at a store). That part I don't have a problem with, but what if there wasn't anyone who was willing to take them? That's a lot of bananas that would have gone to waste, and that happens with all kinds of other produce. Now why can't those overages be donated to food shelves so that they aren't wasted, and people who can't normally afford to buy fresh fruits and veggies would have an opportunity to get some at no cost? I would think that could also be a tax deduction for the store also, donating to a food shelf.............certainly makes more sense than throwing it away.