100/200/200 Two days post initial test

Yesterday I got REALLY sore.  My thighs did not like going into or out of sitting position.    It was pretty bad. 

Today I'm back to being just sore.

If the cloudy weather holds out, tonight I'll do some intervals on the treadmill (my house gets really hot - gets over 85 degrees inside) and then start the 100/200/200 six week program tomorrow.  :D

100/200/200 Progress

SORE.  I'm not dying though.  See how I feel tomorrow.  If not too sore, I'll do more tomorrow. 

100 pushups, 200 squats, 200 situps...and a chinup

I am taking up challenges I found on the hundredpushups.com site.

The site has programs to work up to performing 100 pushups, 200 squats, and 200 situps.

It offers simple info, initial tests to determine where to start, 6-week workout plans that require three 10-minute weekly sessions per goal and more.

There is an iPhone app...but alas I'm a Blackberry user.  It's okay because you can print out the whole 6-week program on a single piece of paper and follow instructions to fold it into a booklet that can fit in your purse or wallet. 

The site creator can add your name to the lists of people who have taken up the challenges - and then later to the lists of people who accomplished the goals. There are also little badges you can copy and use on your own site when you meet the goal. I want them!

I did the initial tests today. I was able to do 14 modified pushups, 100 situps, and 56 squats.

I did the pushups with my knees directly below my hips. I'll probably have to go through the program a couple times doing various modified versions until I'm able to do 100 regular pushups. The situps actually are crunches  (per their instructions). I could have done more squats but one of my knees started to creak and pop. I'm at the age where I can throw my back out rolling over in bed...so I stopped.

They have a link for a 25 pull-up program, but it is under construction. So I found an easy to follow program for chinups on criticalbench.com. It's designed for someone like me who has never done a chinup and likely has weak hands and wrists that need to build up some strength. 

I wonder if I'm going to be sore tomorrow.  I'll do the next workout either on Sunday or Monday depending on how I feel.

Re-start

This slide show is for my fresh new start. Sorry so long before posts, I'm over having a tantrum over my alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency diagnosis and back into a positive frame of mind. :)



See it larger here: http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=2327530

Getting things back into perspective

I had two disasters happen and 1 predicted challenge.

First I went to a doctor check-up and mentioned that I didn't understand if I was eating raw food, why wasn't I losing weight faster. He asked what I was eating that was fatty, and I told him I ate nuts, seeds, and avocado. So the doctor told me he'd have his diabetes educator talk to me when I checked out at the front desk.

Mind you, up until this point I was eating at least 80% raw food with no problems. No cravings, except for the cravings I felt were caused by my metformin. I could handle those. I was eating vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and seaweeds most of the time.

So I'm standing there at the front desk with a full waiting room. The educator walked out, looked me up and down, and said, "Well, when I have a SKINNY diabetic and I want them to gain weight, I tell them to eat nuts, seeds, and avocados." She stopped and looked me up and down again. Then silence. So I was like, "Ummm so.....I don't eat those?" She exclaimed, "BINGO!" Told me not to eat them, and walked out.

As I'm walking to my car, my sister calls and says she's been diagnosed with alpha-1 antitripsin deficiency and her doctor told her because both our parents were carriers, I had it too. Great...another chronic disease? So I was pissed and not really in a positive frame of mind.

Okay, so I go home and try to eat vegetables, fruits, and seaweed. I started to get really bad hunger pains and cravings. It was awful. You know....if my other foods are fruits, vegetables and seaweed - what's the big deal if I eat nuts, seeds, and avocados? And how can she make diet recommendations based on one question to her from my doctor? At least I wasn't eating hamburgers or pizza.

Combine this with my "who gives a turtle" attitude over the A-1-A deficiency, I started eating more "regular" food. I gained 4 pounds back, lost the glow, and pretty much just fell off the raw wagon.

So, I've been off the raw and therefore my diabetes control sucked. In addition, the Arizona heat was too much for me and my sister to continue the jogging/crossfit stuff in the evening when we both had time. So that stalled in May.

I had a little talk with myself and got some great feedback here and on my YouTube site. Thank you all you great people!! It's not the end of the world. And we always have more control over things than we think we have.

I'm going back on the raw - with the nuts, seeds, and avocados, thank you. My plan is mostly veggie smoothies and salads during the day and then cooked veggies or more indigenous recipes for dinner, most of the time anyway. Hopefully back to about 80% again.

I found a cheap Parks and Recreation center that looks promising with cardio machines and a weight room - so we are going to go check that out. Cross your fingers it has good cooling.

I was so bad I didn't go for the A-1-A deficiency lab...but I went ahead and did that this past Friday. See what it says, and I'll let ya'll know.

So I was down, but I'm not out. :)

I got me a brand-new chronic incurable disease - yay

Here is a video update...in a nutshell, I got sick and had something that resembled a stroke. Doctor has a feeling it wasn't, but getting tests anyway. He does not feel the diet or exercise caused it either - he thinks if anything they are helping and keeping away more serious complications.

Then my sister calls me and informs me that she has been diagnosed with an incurable chronic disease - Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. This is a disease also called inherited emphysema. And, it's supposed to come on earlier and more severe than emphysema caused by smoking.

She also informs me that she got it because both our mom and dad are carriers so...I have it too!

It is a problem with our DNA. Our bodies don't produce a protein that protects our lungs and eventually it begins to attack our lungs and our livers, eventually destroying them.

I do have a lot of the symptoms - asthma (mine is induced only by illness), difficulty drawing blood, easy for respiratory illnesses to progress, etc.

He told her diet and exercise will NOT make a difference - no matter what she does. However, I've looked around the internet and it looks like many doctors recommend vegetable juices and vegetable juice fasts with flare-ups. I myself know my illnesses don't get very bad if I keep to vegetables.

I've also seen that inflammation is a component - and most raw foodies know that when you go raw, inflammation goes down. So I'm going to up my raw and see. She is younger than me and her symptoms are worse...but she does smoke a lot. So far I don't have a lot of problems unless I catch something or the weather changes.

Anyway, here's my video.

Update 3/31/09

Been exercising and planning my son's birthday party and dealing with all the unexpected stuff that pop up...so been really short on time lately.

In addition to my cousin joining me when I workout at the park, his girlfriend and my sister have joined us. My son comes too. I have another friend with 4 kids...and they might all join us too. So pretty kewl. :)

I'm not superwoman yet...but I've made some nice improvements! Little steps in the right direction, woohoo. I hope to get a video uploaded soon. I'm way behind on the videos! Need to set aside a day for that.

Oh ya, a big update as far as a weird health issue. I started getting strange heart palpitations. They happen when I'm angry, stressed, or tired. They also happen when I've had a lot of chocolate or caffeine.

It started with one big hard heartbeat that I could feel in my whole body followed by a few seconds of no heartbeat. It happened once in a while. Then it started to happen for a couple hours. Now for most nights, they go through the night and morning. It doesn't hurt. When my heartbeat pauses, it seems like it's hard to breathe. It's annoying. It started happening after I started to do a lot of jogging.

I saw my doctor yesterday. I have to wear a holter heart monitor tomorrow for 24 hours and get that evaluated. I also took a slew of lab tests yesterday. Seems like he might be worried about my thyroid. I have big cow eyes, so he's always worried about that anyway lol. I'll let ya'll know when I find out.

Update 3-23-09

I'm still doing "mostly" raw. With the economic situation it gets tough...but been trying to be creative.

I just discovered my local swap meet actually sells fruits, vegetables, and nuts at pretty good prices. They even claim it's organic. That would be kewl...but not sure if they just stick the stickers on regular produce haha. I got some stuff, even a few bags of acorns I plan to make some acorn flour with to use for mushes.

I have some friends who get fruits and veggies from this guy and they give me their extras. He doesn't really share where he gets the stuff from...but I highly suspect some of it may be dumpster dived. LOL. There's lots of stuff, even avocados. One time I got an entire box of avocados. The outsides were a little wrinkly looking, but when I cut them open they were green with no black spots whatsoever. I also get bags and bags of bagged greens and greens in sealed containers. Just about everything is labeled organic. I never know what I'm going to get, could be all squash for a week or all cauliflower.

It's actually pretty sad if this is dumpster diving stuff - because some days we get tons (like up to 8 big boxes)....we couldn't possibly eat it before it goes bad and we have to throw most of it away. So sad to think of how much stuff like this goes to the dump. My neighbors won't take any because I told them it could be from a dumpster haha. Well, one will but they are just a young couple and don't eat much. My sister and her hubby also gladly take some.

I've also picked up an exercise pal...one of my cousins who decided to put his money where his mouth is and try to get fit. He's been walking around the park with me and trying to get familiar with the exercise equipment they have there. It's been a lot of fun spending time with him.

I've been faithful pretty much with the daily jogs, doing at least a mile a day. Partway through the course I do some situps (up to 3 sets of 20 now - up from one set of 1 a couple weeks ago). I also do 3 sets of 10 of push-ups (on an elevated bar) and 10 pull-ups on a chin-high bar that I hang from with my legs extended out at a slant and on my heels. I also have gone from not being able to hang from the pull-up bar at all to hanging for about 5 seconds and even getting in a couple swings. My achy right shoulder has been the main obstacle. It really hurts. I think I need to start some special exercises to break up the scar tissue in my arm.

My sister has been wanting to come...and tried to tonight but she has some dental problems..an infection going on, that is making it hard for her. Hopefully she'll be able to get that worked on (expensive though!) and come out with me and our cousin.

I hope to put up a video soon of my starting workouts at the equipment - kind of to show where I began. It's really amazing to see how much progress you can make in a couple weeks.

As far as the CrossFit beginner plan - I have still been working with a weight bar with no weights on it as I'm not all that confident with my form. Not sure whether to remain at week 1 - I think I may and maybe next week put a little bit of weight on the bar if I feel I've got the form right.

That's pretty amazing too. I used to hate deadlifts. HATE THEM. My back and neck would hurt after doing them. But I've been pretty good watching videos and reading the instructions on the CrossFit site before I do a session and now they are actually enjoyable. Doing it with the correct form makes a huge difference.

I'm also really enjoying jogging with the new method. I bend at the knees and try to have my whole body slightly lean forward. I try to have my foot hit the ground underneath me and because my knees are bent, it's easier to be "springy." I don't strike with my heel, but try to have the mid and forefoot strike more...pretty much running on the balls of my feet. When I lean, my body is kind of in a "fall" and my legs act more like vaulting poles or like the wheels on a car instead of being pounded on or acting like a motor. I let gravity propell me forward.

I jog with very little steps and I'm not very fast, but I can go a whole lot farther with more comfort and enjoy the sunshine, the birds, the plants, the mountains.

In the past when I've tried to run regularly I've gotten shin splints, foot pain, head and neck pain. My spine is not formed right and is not naturally springy. I have no curve in my neck - so before my skull literally pounded on my rigid spine. I also don't have the curve in the back like I should...meaning a curve you would see from the side. Instead, my spine is curved sideways and I have a big extra vertebra at the bottom - kind of like a deformity. So it wouldn't "spring" like it should. That would give me a lot of problems.

This time, no problems. Again, what a great difference good form makes. It's amazing.

Oh yea, one more weird thing. I've actually GAINED at least 4 pounds. Which is odd because finally I have tons of people telling me I look like I've lost weight - at least a couple times a day now. Also, my clothes are looser. My shorts used to be really tight and now kind of hang. My doctor gave me an article on body composition, to illustrate how that can happen - because muscle can displace fat and muscle weighs more than the fat did.

Also, this weekend I was browsing a store with mirrored walls. Once in a while I would look up and catch a glimpse of myself and be surprised because I would expect more pudginess...but there's a lot less now and almost seems like looking at another person.

Anyway...that's my update. Sorry haven't done more - been busy exercising and planning a birthday party! :)

Exercising my butt off...literally!

Sorry I fell behind a couple days on blogging. I've been very busy starting up my new exercise program. I started the beginner Crossfit program - which in itself is very easy but I've decided to do some walking or jogging every day in an attempt to get off Glucophage. Yesterday I refilled less than a month's supply of Glucophage and got some new strips for my meter...$60!!!! WITH insurance. Ya, that's gotta go. It's much better than the $250 per month I was spending before when I was doing insulin and syringes - but I'm determined to get it down to just the testing strips. Send me good vibes!

I've also become very determined to re-learn how to jump rope so I've been doing that quite often as well.

I've been scouting new walking/hiking/jogging locations as you can see in this video on my YouTube channel: Scouting Exercise Locations

As many of you know, I was inspired by Gayle Jordan's story here. I mentioned her in one of my videos. Imagine my excitement and happiness when she responded! Here is her response:



Of course I had to respond to her. Here is my response:



And you can bet, I've been working on my pull-ups!

How can insulin make you fat?

We all know insulin is a hormone and escorts sugar into cells to be burned for energy.

However, not everyone knows that insulin has multiple functions. Some that can make you fat or make it easier to gain/retain weight. Some of it's other functions:

1) Signals for carb cravings.
2) Signals for fat to be retained and not be burned for energy.
3) Forces fat cells to convert blood lipids to triglycerides.
4) Speeds up aging.
5) Etc., etc., etc....insulin has MANY functions and most of them are not fully understood.

The more insulin there is...the worse these things can be. If you have insulin resistance you often have excess insulin in your system but your body can't use it to get glucose into cells...but it might be able to still be used for the above functions. This insulin can be from your own body producing it or insulin you inject.

If your body still produces insulin, your insulin levels increase when there is glucose in the blood from carbohydrates, when protein is ingested, or there is circulating adrenaline (stress, exercise, etc.).

Muscle cells and fat cells are effected by insulin's levels...and they make up about 2/3 of all our cells. So insulin has a BIG effect on our health.

Blood sugar control is a sign of how much sugar we have in our bloodstream. However, diabetes is much more complex than that. I personally have been around people who regularly inject excess amounts of insulin while eating tons of carbs and sugar. Yes, they may have a 4.5 HbA1c...but that insulin is making them gain or retain weight and who knows what else. So it's better to try to watch your diet and try to limit how much insulin you need from meds.

When I was diagnosed, I was told by the nurse, "Oh mija (little girl), I'm so sorry. I would rather have cancer than diabetes."

However, as diseases go...I think diabetes is pretty nifty in that you do have some control over it. I know the above stuff may make you feel like - omg, what the hell am I supposed to do then? But if you exercise, even just a little each day, it makes your cells produce more receptors so that you can use more of the insulin that's in your system.

Insulin degrades once it has been docked onto a cell receptor. So the more receptors you make, the more insulin you degrade or burn up.