Posts by phiguru

Both goals and training partners can help make exercise more fun. A half-marathon sounds great!

Since the half-marathon isn't until May, you have a decent amount of time to prepare for the event. There are lots of free training plans available to take people from different levels of fitness to their goal. Coolrunning.com has lots of training plans. A link to their half-marathon selection is here: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_4/144.s html

If it seems like too much at first, look at their 10k programs. You may want to start a little smaller and build into a half-marathon program.

One training plan that I found interesting was the Nova Marathon Challenge - they took a bunch of (mostly) non-athletes and trained them to run the Boston Marathon. Their training plan: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/marathon/calenda r.html

As my husband says, coaching is cheaper than an injury. There is likely a running club near you that has low-cost coaching available. (I'm a member of Merrimack Valley Striders, our coaching sessions are $75 for 15 weeks, sometimes less). Coaches can advise you on everything from training programs, to how your stride should shift, core strength tips, and nutrition suggestions. Check USA Track & Field's listing for clubs near you. http://www.usatf.org/clubs/search/

My Tips, from my triathlon training experience:

• Nutrition is highly personal and different people tolerate different things while doing endurance sports. Use your body as a guide.
• If your shoes are old, get new ones. Both my coaches like Asics and hate Nikes. I run essentially barefoot (one hates, the other has moderate respect).
• If you get funny blisters, try different socks. I worship coolmax toe socks, even though they look completely stupid.
• Fun thing about clubs, not everyone is a perfect, skinny athlete. Not everyone is fast. There is a lot of encouragement among members for rookie runners, personal bests, and simply finishing a race.
• What should be the motto of any new competitor:
  Dead Last Finish>Did Not Finish>>Did Not Enter

Poof!  You have a job making $500,000 a year, but unfortunately your job is running a distribution network of cocaine...you eventually get busted thanks to one of your employees rolling on you and you end up in Federal prison. 

I wish I could swim the English Channel. 

Hi funkychunkymonkey-  I'm a binge/restrict gal.  I've never been much of a purger.  But you're totally not alone. 

This has been a problem for most of my life.  I seem to have three ways I can eat: (1) eat the exact same thing every single day for months at a time - maintain a totally healthy weight*; (2) calorie restrict at 900-1200 a day, happy to live on green beans and crispbread; (3) eat like a maniac.  Since I got married, I spend a lot more time eating like 2 and 3.  When I was pregnant and breast feeding, I really didn't want to restrict, so I spent most of the time calorie loading (but mostly on decent stuff, like tofu jerkey).  It seemed like a healthier choice for the kid.  This year, however, I about passed out when I got on the scale and weighted 200#.    

I'm trying to cut down on the maniac eating, which means I fell back into calorie restricting.  For some reason, if I'm paying attention, I'll be struggling to eat 1200 cals. I'll get to the end of the day and be low, so I'll have a little muslix or cheese before bed.  I don't buy low fat things much, so when I'm restricting food, I'm really not eating much, yet I'm not hungry and I don't mind.  (And since I weighed 200# in January, hey, losing that baby weight was good, right?)

Then I'll have days like yesterday where I ate right on target until dinner time when I had a sudden change in plans and I found myself in the McDonalds drive thru.   Did I do the right thing and get the grilled chicken ceasar? Did I even splurge reasonably on a grilled chicken sandwich?  Heck no, I saw the game promotion and wanted the extra tickets that came on a big mac and fries.  The only improvement that I can cite is that it felt really stupid, placing that order, and even dumber eating it - it didn't even taste all that good to me.  

I'll also have the weekends of evil food on parade, like Saturday: Waffles, bacon, turkey dinner plate, fried dough, corn on the cob, ice cream.

So now I'm going to have more 1200-1300 cal days (I'm trying to increase my intake in hopes that it really will help me cut down on binging).  But I live in fear of the candy jar downstairs, the leftovers from meetings that get set out in the office, the pizza my husband insists on having for dinner on Fridays, and whatever other "free" food that will be in front of me.  If it is before me, I feel almost compelled to eat it.  

*I really miss the days when I could eat the exact same thing over and over.  It was extremely well planned, complete nutrients, and 1300 cals a day.  I have Asperger's, so my ED is actually a symptom.  Taking an anti-anxiety medication has helped a bit, but can't seem to stop me from not wanting to "waste food".

If flu shots were available year-round, I'd get one. But I'm not taking time off of work and paying for a doctor's visit just to get vaccinated against something that, at worst, seems to keep me out of work for a day (mostly because that's what it takes to visit the doctor, get a chest x-ray, etc).

In the last 15 years, I've had influenza A,  pneumonia, a baby, malaria. I've missed a total of 10 days of work in that time for 'illness'. Mind over matter, mask, vinegar, and clorox. And I do care about the communicability of these things both in the community and my family as my kid has a compromised airway.

To keep us healthy, I'd rather focus on handwashing and other infection control practices to keep my family and me protected against all the diseases we can.

I spend a little less than $200 each month on the food for my household (2 adults, 1 kid) without eating the 5 boxes for $1 mac & cheese and ramen noodles. ;) I don't shop according to the circular or use coupons - both had me buying things I didn't really need.  For me, the trick was to make a two week meal plan (instead of a one week plan) so that expensive items like meat could be used to their utmost. I splurge on things like cereal when the budget allows. You'll find your items that you get cranky without and work them into the budget as needed.

My meat philosophy is to use it for flavoring, instead of the main item and watch portions carefully. For example, 1 kielbasa is used to flavor 4 dinners. 1 package of chicken can make 2 suppers easy. I buy rice and pastas only as plain, never flavored, because it's cheaper, more flexible, and because the calories in the packaged versions were outrageous. Using things like a crock pot really helps keep costs down as well. Even though it makes a lot of food, I just pitch the other half in the freezer for later and then I have a no-cook meal. For example purposes, below is what we ate in the last few days at my house. Every meal is served with lettuce for salad and bread or rolls (which I usually skip).

Friday: Chicken in Wine Sauce, made in the crock pot with extra liquid

Saturday: Lentils with Rice (1 pot, 1/4 kielbasa for flavor, 30 minutes)

Sunday: Beef Stew (made two weeks ago, popped it out of the freezer)

Monday: Chicken soup with Rice (made from the leftover Chicken in Wine Sauce and extra veggies)

Tuesday: Mini-meatloaves, mashed potatoes

Wednesday: (tomorrow) Pork chops in cider sauce, egg noodles, green beans (company is coming)

For breakfast, I like to have peanut butter on toast or an egg. My husband is a freak about orange juice, so we splurge there.

For lunch, we typically have leftovers but I also keep some emergency rations on hand, like cheddar cheese and apples. (They are generally slow to spoil.)