You Are What You Eat

So I've been giving thought to my nutrition habits lately.

About 5 years ago I made a conscious effort to eliminate excess fat and sugar. It was not a total deprivation thing. It was things like switching from 2% milk to fat free milk; no dressing on my salad; no sugar on my cereal; swapping out sodas for unsweetened green tea or water; and in general watching my portion sizes. I allowed cheating though. I concentrated on being "good" but allowed myself a piece of cake at our work birthday parties for example and the occasional sweet treat or soda as a 'reward'. This actually worked for close to a year.

Then I was diagnosed with exercise induced anemia. This was easily brought under control by iron supplements but then I started training for my first marathon. So my iron counts were good but I was still tired. Two things kicked in. First, I "needed"to reward myself for reaching mileage milestones. Second, being tired makes me crave and give into comfort food. Same thing happens when I'm sick. And let's face it, comfort food is mostly junk calories. Good thing I was running a lot. And lately, I've been a little down about the heart thing lately so more junk calories.

Okehocking Preserve

Today I did my wander walking at Okehocking Preserve with my friend Maggi. We have been trying to get to this place for a weeknight run for probably close to 9 months now. For one reason or another we couldn't make it at the same time or the weather bonked -- all kinds of reasons. I'm not walking these days and I suggested if she didn't mind could we try again this week. Today was the day.

What a great place! Crushed gravel or grass or dirt paths meandering over rolling hills, around meadows and along two creeks. I suppose if one went there often enough you could get a feel for where all the trails led (or if you took the map with you). I think we had a better time just wandering around seeing where we ended up. There were a few trails that we skipped making notes to go back when the weather was cooler and we could wear long pants and sleves and protect against tics. It was close to 90 today.

If You Need A Beach Chair, Go To The Beach.

On Saturday we went shopping. On the list were an egg slicer, a bag of weed and feed, possibly a bush for the front yard, belts, shorts and a beach chair. We managed to get the egg slider, the weed & feed and the belts. We decided we need some expert advice on the bush for the front yard and could not find any beach chairs or the right kind of shorts.

I have (had) a sand chair that I love to use on our front porch. The straps have been hanging on by a thread. All the stores we went to had resin, high off the ground chairs. We decided that we should go to the source to buy one. So this morning we went to Ocean City for the day.

It was a gorgeous day. The winds of the past two days
were much milder and it was warm in the sun.

We took a walk to the water's edge and I got sand in my shoes

Dave got his Taylor pork roll sandwich from Litterers

And I bought myself an OC jacket
to make up for the medal I didnt get this weekend.

Oh and we did get a chair too!

Before I sign off I want to thank everyone who sent me private and public well wish messages this weekend. I heard from so many different people in one form or another. You all made me smile. Thank you.

Careful What You Wish For….

Ok, I didn’t actually WISH for this but the title more or less fits anyway. Today I got an unexpected call from Michelle at the GP’s office. She wanted to share the results from the echocardiogram. I thought we had covered that in our last call but apparently not.

She said the test revealed a valve issue. She wanted to make sure that I did make an appointment with the cardiologist. I told her I had an appointment for July 1^st. I have to admit my brain went a little funky when she told me this and I probably asked her three times before hanging up if she was sure I didn’t need to get there earlier. Each time I asked she replied very patiently that no, my appointment was fine but given the potential long term consequences she wanted to make sure I HAD the appointment. She apologized and said she wasn’t allowed to give anything more over the phone. She offered to make an appointment with the GP if I wanted more explanation before going to the cardiologist but I declined. On the one hand more detail might help and then again it might not since I can’t get to see the cardiologist any earlier anyway. I’m tempted to call cardiologist and see if they can move my appointment up in light of this but I’m too discombobulated to think about that right now.

So part of me feels vindicated for giving up the marathon and stopping my running and cycling activities. Another part of me went from feeling 53 to 80 in less than 60 seconds. When I told Dave that he reminded me that if I’m 80 he is 93. That’s not really fair to him so I’ll see if I can improve my outlook sooner rather than later. My poor boss (the only one in my office who knows about this) and I had a meeting shortly after I heard from Michelle and the first words from my boss were “You don’t look so good”. I told her about the call. Except for the 80-93 thing, she and Dave had the same comments more or less. “You were smart to go early” and “Medical technology and medicine are pretty advanced these days it will probably be fine”. All good and mirrors my own thoughts but quite frankly it would be much more comforting if it weren’t ME we were talking about.

*HUGE SIGH*. Ok. I know that to avoid going absolutely bonkers over the next month I have to avoid hyper focusing on this. I know I should probably be telling myself “Nothing has changed. It’s just words right now. Physically you are the same person you were yesterday. It’s just the words ‘there is a valve issue’ that are making you feel like crap.” But I think it may take few days for that to work.

My running friends will understand this analogy best – right now I feel like I’m in taper mode. It’s the final weeks before the race and you start to feel all kinds of things that may or may not be real. And you just don’t know which is which. If I were really tapering for a race I’d be writing it all off to that. But I’m not so I guess the only thing to do for the next 5 ½ weeks is to keep smiling keep moving and try be aware - but not obsessed with - what’s going on inside.

The practical side of me has one more thing to be pissed off about. I bought a brand new bike last November L I’m sure I’ll be allowed or feel comfortable riding it again but for now all I can  think of is I HATE that I spent money and it’s just sitting there looking pretty and collecting dust. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Red Light Green Light

1. 2. 3. Does anyone besides me remember playing that game as kids? I'm probably dating myself aren't I? *shrug*. And with that I haven't even begun the post and I've already digressed. LOL

Today I got what I'm calling a yellow light from the doctor. I spoke to the diligent Michelle who was able to track down the results of the tests and enough interpretation of them to learn that neither revealed anything urgent. There is no immediate need for me to see the cardiologist. I refrained from pointing out that that was a good thing since it took two weeks to get that answer. It isn't Michelle's fault. In hindsight it may be mine. Perhaps I didn't ask enough questions after that first visit. I'll explain that in a minute.

Michelle recommended I get an appointment with cardiologist #2. A suggestion with which I agreed since cardiologist #1 turned me away TWICE! I called C#2 and got the earliest appointment they could give me. July 1st. That is not a typo. The earliest appointment for a new patient with no urgent need is July 1st.

I asked the very kind and patient person at C#2's office my question about needing more tests and should I do that first. She said no. They way I understand her answer is the purpose of the first two tests was to rule out an emergency (again two weeks later??) and that now I needed to see the doctor and go through history and Q&A to determine what other tests will help him figure out what is going on. I wish someone had told me that two weeks ago. If they had (and this is where I think maybe I should have asked) then I would have made the appointment then and possibly gotten an earlier one. It could easily be cancelled if the tests had shown something urgent. I'm blessed with never having to see the doctor for anything other than routine visits, pregnancy or a cold. The downside is I didn't know how to handle this.

The question of whether I can run or cycle wasn't answered exactly. I should have asked what 'normal activities' mean. I'll probably test the waters between now and my appointment but I am also content to continue "wander walking". I enjoy it.

Tonight's miles were done at the Valley Forge Loop. I saw Julius and Sue at the start but once we got to the top of that first hill they - perhaps a bit reluctantly as most of us tend to do at that point - took off running. It was humid tonight but there were some breezes that made it ok.