Tag: Health

One expensive ice-cream

Ate a full Cornetto ice-cream yesterday + froze all night with R hogging the throw and Chewie taking the blanket = a day wasted to tinnitus.

Spent most of the day blankly staring at the screen, not knowing what to do. Took me ages to update and merge PRs that I’d probably made in less time last week. Bailed out of the only meeting I had. Took a long walk and a short nap in the lunch break. Head’s still ringing.

Met a friend on the afternoon walk who pointed out that the crickets were chirping all around. Told him they chirp all the time in my head. And like for him, they were really loud for me too today.

Five checkmark day

These have become rarer than a blue moon.

  • My resting HR has gone up by nearly 20 bpm since the one-before-last post https://c306.net/spkeasy/2020/five-checkmark-day-3/.
  • I haven’t run (or swum or biked) since the last one.
  • I’ve eaten everything I can.
  • I haven’t even walked much.
  • Even though the weight is exactly the same, last time it was a spike. This time it’s the lower end of a stable range.
  • Mental health has taken a toll.
  • Today’s stress level of 39 is the lowest I’ve had in a week. The time before last, it was 16.

I’m a mess. Probably.

Signs

Unconsciously and frequently… grinding teeth, clenching fists & jaws, hunching shoulders.
Unable to focus long enough to read long articles or any books, outside of work.
Frequently snacking on desserts or peanut butter.
Drinking more caffeine than usual.
Restless for activity despite running twice a day.

All are signs to unwind. I need a vacation. I really need to meditate. And, maybe, spend a day at a quiet beach, or hiking around a mountain.

But mainly, meditate.

Continue reading Signs

No Carb Thurs… Wednesdays & Mondays

No Carb Thursdays have been a success.

But I now need to change the no-carb day of the week. My Paris marathon training plan has tempo runs planned on all Thursdays. I don’t want carbs not being available on the day when I have to run 10 miles at faster than marathon race pace. So, I’m moving no-carb day of the week. While at it, I am also tentatively increasing the number of days without carbs.

Wednesday and Monday* will be no-carb days hereon, at least till the marathon training gets over. Wednesday is the weekly rest day in the training plan, and Monday is one of two short, easy run days.

*Sunday is the long run day, and Tuesday is long intervals day. So, if I need more energy on Tuesdays, I may cancel no-carb days on Monday.

I would have liked Friday, the other easy run day to be the no-carb day. But Friday is pizza dinner night, and R wants to keep that going, so she vetoed it.

Aside:

So far, food intake on no-carb Thursdays has been mostly baked fish (cod/haddock), with an occasional omelette, or Jyoti’s sabzi/daal—all with large sides of freshly cut cucumber and carrot batons.

I want to include more food options on no-carb days. Please do share any easy to make/get no-carb food suggestions (preferably vegetarian).

No Carb Thursdays

Latest life tweak is ‘No Carb Thursdays’.

Why ‘No carbs’? Because I love carbs but they also make me feel bloated and lazy. And avoiding them all, all the time, unnecessarily taxes my will power. I have reduced the usual intake, but it still spikes occasionally (actually more frequently than I admit).

Also because I’ve gained nearly 1.5Kg in last week—76.6 last Thursday, 77.9 today. And I hadn’t run in four days. And I’m not happy—about a few things in particular, but also that low-intensity background unhappiness in general.

So I decided to try a new thing.

Why ‘Thursdays’? Because today is Thursday, and I didn’t want to put this off till tomorrow.

Continue reading No Carb Thursdays

81.4

The weighing scale read 81.4 Kg on Saturday, 10 Aug. Last time I weighed this much was on 26th February, more than five months ago.

As recently as a month ago, on 5th July, I weighed just 78 Kg. I gained 3.4 kilos in a month!

That 81.4 isn’t a single spike. My average weight last week was 80.3 Kg. A month ago it was 78.3 Kg. Even the weekly average increased by 2 kilos​ :(

Based on BMI (25.4), that makes me officially overweight.

Continue reading 81.4

81.9

That was my weight today morning – 81.9 Kg.

12 days ago it was 78.2 Kg.

That’s 12 days with injured ankles.
12 days without walking my dogs.
12 days without any exercise. No swimming, no yoga, no pilates, no cycling, and definitely no running.
12 days of over eating and sugar overdosing.
12 days of watching an unhealthy amount of TV.
12 days of not speaking to parents or friends.
Also, almost 12 days of awaiting a regret email.

12 days of being physically and emotionally crippled. 12 days of fighting, and not always winning, a battle with creeping depression.

The weight gain is just a symptom.

Continue reading 81.9