Alzheimer's

I recently saw The Iron Lady (surprisingly good, by the way) and Margaret Thatcher either has Alzhiemers or dementia. 

I've heard 50% of people who live to 85 get it. My grandfather had it (and Parkinson's - jackpot!) before passing away at the age of 81. He lived with us for a couple of years while he had it and it was crushing. He died the week I was having finals my first semester of college (which was also when 9/11 happened so talk about a sh*tty first semester). 

My memories of him(thankfully) are largely of him before he had the disease. I used to love visiting him as a kid. Grandpa AJ!!! It was a fun place to go and my dad really loved going there. I actually didn't know that his wife was not my dad's mom until I was quite a bit older. Like 8-sh. (My real grandma died of breast cancer when my dad was 23... I can not imagine having that happen to me. I've heard she would've spoiled me rotten. I think I would've grown up more refined if I had known her.) 

He moved in with us after his wife didn't want to be married to a man with Alzheimer's. Stay classy, Suzanne... I don't remember much but the stuff I do remember from that time was the reason I was allowed to get a lock on my door at age 11 or 12 is because one night he came into my room at like 3a when I was sleeping and started putting on my clothing. He was completely disoriented. I remember when we were walking at a park as a family and he started running - like he forgot HOW to stop - until he fell and broke his arm. I see a lot of myself in him - he loved to travel and take pictures. And one of my favorite memories of him is something I wasn't alive for. He was a mechanic on planes in World War II and I've heard he flew with USO celebrities. Kinda neat.

We didn't talk about him much after he moved out but he lived in a really nice nursing home one town over hen it got to the point where he needed far more attention than my parents could give him. My dad visited every weekend. One of the sadder things I remember is when he started calling my dad, "Eddie". My dad's name is Chris. My grandfather's brother (who died, I dunno, 50 years prior)'s name was Eddie. Regressing. I could see how much it hurt my dad to know that his dad did not know who he was. And being a child, I acted childish.I stopped visiting my grandpa. It made me too sad to see how much it hurt my dad. And, yes, it was sad to see him in this state. I now wish I hadn't stopped. It wasn't about me or me feeling sad. It's about supporting those you love (mostly my dad). He had long since forgotten me and that didn't really bother me. But I was really sad for my dad.

What is my point? Weight gain after you're 40 has been linked to Alzheimer's. I know we don't know exactly what causes it but this could be one thing. My grandpa was never overweight and was extremely active so it could've been the hatchet that got barrier in his head by accident when he was a child... we'll never know. But since I do have a family history and since I AM overweight, it is something to think about. Just another reason to try to get fit. Another reason to try. 


I want to live a long, healthy life without dementia or cancers.

Waking up early

Usually waking up early is the bane of my existence. This school year is the only year in history that I've ever hit snooze. I used to situate my alarm clock across the room so I had to get up. Hitting snooze feels wonderful. But getting up early does feel a lot better. For the first time this month I did not hit snooze. And I am up super early for it but I am going over pics from last night so I am being productive. And it feels great! Not as great as waking up when the sun is out but I'll take it.

Celtics

On the same note as yesterday - our roommate, Dave, bought us Celtics tickets (which is nice since we're trying to save money and pay off debt). Again, I am so glad I went. I hate going out on weekdays. I know that I will be tired and paying for it the next day but we had so much fun - it was worth it.

The other thing is that over the years I've brought many people to soccer, basketball and Red Sox games (mostly due to the fact that my dad got free tickets all the time) and no one has ever reciprocated. Tonight was definitely a first.  :)

Sports

I am not a huge sports fan but I get sports. I played sports my entire life from basketball (shocking!) to softball to soccer (13 years) to intramural swimming and flag football. I don't watch every single Patriots, Bruins, Celtics or Red Sox game but I can get INTO it with a group of people (or there in person). I had a fantastic night watching the Pats game with some great friends. Sometimes when you feel tired and you'd rather stay home, it's nice to push yourself to go out - you'll have a better time. And I did just that. :) A little piece of happiness. It's also nice to watch people you care about get soooooo happy over it.

I-I-I-I... I work out!

It took me 2 hours to drive to Weymouth thanks to 3 plows being in front of me on 495 AND 95...

 Why Weymouth in the middle of a storm? To see my brother. We went to his gym which was amazing - they have everything. Why don't we have gyms like that in Middlesex? I did 30 minutes on an elliptical (not at 1 incline and 1 resistance like the pic below shows). I went 2.13 miles! Woot! I am slow.... Then he made me a really healthy late lunch!

Also picked up some of my brother's pictures to hang on our wall!

And while I was at it, I also put up Crystal's art that she gave me for my birthday! There is only tile in our kitchen so I couldn't put it in there but it's in the main hall leading to the kitchen. 

SOPA & PIPA vs. everyone

One of my least favorite things on planet earth is Wikipedia. Don't get me wrong - I use it. All the time. But as a teacher... it's infuriating. It's like students don't know that anything else exists.Like those thick floppy things with paper and writing inside them.

That being said, this SOPA/PIPA thing is ridiculous. 

Danger, danger, Will Robinson. Who came up with this and why did anyone back it? I'd wikipedia it... but.........

I may not like Wikipedia but I fully support a student's rights to cut and copy incorrect information, changing only one word and trying to pass it off as their own... and then getting caught for plagiarism as is so often the case - welcome to my life! Or for you to look up who won the Superbowl V (5 for all you non roman numeral users) to win at trivia night. (It was the Baltimore Colts, by the way. (Thanks answers.com!))

I tried for a long time today to write my congressmen - one of them wouldn't load. That's how bogged down the sites were. Good for us for sticking up for something for once instead of the rampant apathy that is plaguing our nation. I get the point behind it but the vagueness (is that a word?) of SOPA and PIPA is really dangerous.

If this passes, we might as well start speaking Mandarin (Chinese, since you can't look it up) because we are starting to become more and more like them by the day.  Oh wait a minute... China is now the #1 English speaking country in the world now... Have we really been beaten into stupidity by our government? Apparently. 

But now it's time to fight back!

End rant.
 ______________________________
And in topical news (for my blog), I went to the gym before I went out with a group of friends to watch the Rams kick some hockey butt! Don't get too excited - this was on an elliptical.

Food

MMMMMMmmmmmm.

Chicken. "Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made – things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it. Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve — bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this. There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be re-flavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color. But, hey, at least it tastes good, right?"

GROSS. 

It's things like this that make me not want to eat ever again, which could be a good thing. When I learned that up to 30% of milk is blood and pus, it took me 3 YEARS to drink milk again - and I had to take calcium pills every single day. 


Speaking of food, I WAAAY over ate today. My breakfast and lunch were good- I made them but I binged when I got home and then ate a huuuuge dinner. My stomach hated me for it. Dinner is tough for me because I have so many options. When I am at work, I can only eat what I've brought.

Also, we're number 1 - go UMass!

Forward progress

I was once on a road trip with a friend and we wanted to get from Tucson, Arizona to Hopkinton, MA as quickly as possible. She wanted to take the purple way (below) and I wanted to take the green way.

Her way would've been much quicker but I freaked out because I was having a panic attack and couldn't see that going north then east on interstate highways would've been faster than diagonally cutting across on a state road where there was A LOT of construction and limited us to 50 mph or less.Granted, we didn't know about the construction or speed limits but I could not get past the though that going north was NOT going east, even if it would've been faster. I need to feel like I am going forward.

With couch to 5k, I need to step back because week two was VERY hard for me. I am going to repeat week one for 2 days and then attempt week 2 on Friday. Then I'll see how I feel - if I am able to continue to week 3 or need to repeat 2. That's what happens when you are a couch potato - exercise is not easy. I've chatted with a few people who have completed the program and they all said the same thing - it gets easier. 


Tonight, I completed half of week 1 on the treadmill and the other half on the elliptical. I know you don't as good of a work out on the elliptical but for sanity's sake I need to go there for awhile. 

House search

Scott and I spent an entire day of searching for houses. Talk about exhausting (but fun!). I did this quite a lot with my mom when she was looking for a house in NY. We saw all kinds of houses including a few scary ones but it was great getting to see all of our options and how other people live. When we started we had NO clue what we were doing. By the end, we have a few things figured out.  


A porch would be nice.

A modern kitchen is great!

Don't judge a house based on the outside - pink, really? The inside was beyond words amazing. 

A clean, well put together house says a lot. 

I also learned that the town I thought I'd like the most (Millbury) is completely off limits. There is no real "downtown" and there aren't many neighborhoods. 

We also dislike old houses (think 1800s, not 1950s), and ones where we can grow our family into even if we wouldn't necessarily be able to do that now. 

We also need a basement that can be finished or is finished for Scott's man town. I'd like to be able to host parties in it and have a "bar". 

And one with a backyard big enough for a little play and space for the dogs. It doesn't have to be 5 acres but less than .5 probably isn't enough. 

And nothing near a main (turnpike) road. 

We are going to concentrate in Sutton and Douglas next but we did find two great options so far- one in Douglas (pink) and one in Uxbridge (above).

We will also have to compromise. There are certain things Scott really likes that I don't. And ones I like that he doesn't. 

Plus size

Here is an interesting article but not safe for work about plus size models.

I have never wanted to be BONE thin skinny - I think that's gross. But being like the bottom pics (below) would be nice.

I hate when I have to go to a plus size store and all they sell are NASTY clothes that 50 year old women MIGHT wear if they were a kindergarten teacher but nothing else. Thank God Old Navy sells reasonable plus size clothing or I'd be stuck in cloths like this:

I guess the goal is to get into normal size clothing. 

Push through failure

Wow. I don't know where to start. Monday was fine. Wednesday was really hard and today was near impossible. The lactic acid in my calves is off the chart. I spent a good chunk of time this afternoon looking up how to get rid of lactic acid. Apparently you can't. There are bogus ways reduce it - eating bananas, stretching, drinking water etc.... but nothing to rid yourself of it except to not work out as hard. It won't build up if you build up a tolerance. Great.

There was a point tonight that after running, I was in so much pain that 2.0 was tough. That's slow in case you are unaware. I know that without pain there can be no muscle growth but there is a pain threshold that you can or can't tolerate something. This pushed mine and I don't want injury so I took it slower. So it looks like I will be going back to either week 1 or doing week 2 over. I'm hoping for a re-do of week 2. Disappointing. And for the first time, I don't feel good after working out. I can't figure out if it's because I failed c25k, day 3, week 2 or because I am hurting.

But the important thing is I did NOT quit. I am a was quitter (with certain things). This is normally one of them. If exercise gets too hard, I'm done. But instead of wussing out after 10 minutes, I kept going and finish the remaining 9.5 minutes on the first week schedule- 60 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds of walking. 


Marking off my progress is going well... well the fact that I am doing it is going well. I am not however doing a great job of doing all of these things but I am aware of them. For example, I hit snooze every. single. day. this week.

I did not exercise on off C25K days when I should be weight lifting. I did drink a lot of water and NO soda. But I did have alcohol. I also did not act energetic once and every time I said I was tired, I cringed. I will work on this one next week - it'll be my focus. Listening to music does make me feel more awake and in a better mood. We cooked in bulk one night. I made my own lunch and breakfast every single day and practiced the one minute rule. I also did not allow myself any excuses. I either did something or I didn't but I didn't make myself feel better for not doing something.

Taking the plunge

I am doing one of the things I wanted to do on my list before I turn 30 - a polar plunge. Sponsor me here. I need to raise $250 minimum to support the Special Olympics. I would mucho appreciate it if you donated even $1.


If you want to do it, lemme know - I'll out you on my team. The more, the merrier!

23.5 hours

I completed couch to 5k week 2 day 2. It was grueling. I had to slow down on the last set of 90 seconds because my legs were dying. Even with that I still went .01 faster than Monday. My lungs are FINE.  Is there a way to reduce lactic acid so I can run farther/longer?

A video that I watched that motivated me to want to get up and move is this one - it's so much fun and makes me want to be part of a public flash mob.

This is a video my brother posted on fb and that I loved watching and is the title to this blog post. It is the single best thing you can do for your health - be active for 30 minutes a day. he asks at the end, can you limit your sleeping, tv watching etc... to 23.5 hours a day? You can even break it up into three 10 minute segments. Highly recommend.

Baby steps

I took all of the clothes that I would wear if I could fit into them out of my closet & bureau drawers tonight and put them in a bag in the attic. The book says to de-clutter your closet of things you don't wear and donate them... which I do on a regular basis. These are things I WOULD wear if I could fit in them. Mostly size 14s as believe it or not I am a 16 (in pants). Although, I am an almost 18. It's a stretch, literally. I should hang this one pair of pants I would kill to be able to wear somewhere where I can see it often to motivate me.


As for one of my things to do before I am 30 - based on the fact that I was reading 12 pages a day in my "Read the Bible in 90 Days" book, I am way ahead of schedule - until about February 21 (I got through Numbers 21). That doesn't mean I won't read anything- I like to be ahead of the game.

This seems to be a MUCH more manageable schedule to follow than the 90 day thing. I had the option of going chronologically or bopping around the Bible or going right in order and I chose to go in order.


I also started reading Heaven is for Real tonight and got 65 pages into it- it's a good story and a quick read.

It's a true story about a little boy who died briefly and went to heaven and tells his parents not only about heaven but also backs it up by telling them what they were doing and saying while he was dead (in a room far away from them) - things he couldn't have known. 

Progress not perfection

Ahajsdk! I weighed myself this morning and am still at 234. I could've done better with food last week but at least I didn't gain. Also, while I AM focusing on getting in shape, I should be focusing on weight loss too. My measurements did not budge an inch, literally. And my clothes still feel pretty tight :(  Weight lifting it is. I need to keep the following in mind.

Right now, I am trying to like to go to the gym so I have to trick train my mind without overdoing it or I'll never go back. So it will be a slow start. One good thing that I stole borrowed from someone is that I am going to put a picture of me as I am on the fridge to deter me form raiding it. It's a picture so awful that I wouldn't put it on facebook... or here. Or anywhere really. 

I started Couch 2 5k day 1, week 2 which was 90 seconds of running followed by 2 minutes of walking. I did the first 2 sets with no problem (last week I was DYING to go 60 seconds, now I can go 90 - progress, not perfection! And it will always get easier). After that got a little dicey. I did it but it hurt and I was not feeling it. But sure enough, 20 minutes came and went and I was outta there. Like my friend Melissa reminded me, YOU CAN DO ANYTHING FOR 20 MINUTES! I will be doing some light weight lifting tonight at home while watching Harry Potter (I've never seen them before, btw). I felt GREAT afterwards, of course.


Other ways to boost energy?
So I need to come up with ways to reduce calories (and sometimes that includes distracting yourself so you don't eat). The author says to set concrete goals. Amber, a friend of mine reminded me that the beginning of each chapter offers a list of things to make her happier. Here are January's:

Here are mine: 

• According to Gretchin Rubin, "[a]nother study suggested that getting one extra hour of sleep each night would do more for a person's daily happiness than getting a $60,000 raise."First, I would like to try that - please someone give me $60,000 extra... we'll see. But since that won't be happening, I can go to bed earlier. I think I disagree with this. I have gotten 8-10 hours of sleep before and felt really tired in the morning. So it can't be that. There have been times when I've been able to get up at 7 instead of 6 and that always feels 100% better. I feel like a new person. I don't think it's the amount of hours I sleep but rather waking up in the pitch black darkness. But short of uprooting the entire educational system (even though it is PROVEN that teenagers do better later in the morning), I'll have to find a way around waking up while it's still dark which is depressing.
• One thing I can do is to not hit the snooze button. I love hitting the snooze button but never did it until this year. NEVER.
• Exercise better. Not more - just better.
• Drink water. I have been dehydrated all day. I am going to buy a case of water and bring it in tomorrow. It's making me feel tired and I have a headache. Sixty-four ounces minimum. 
  
• Listen to uplifting music.  Do you ever feel like listening to sad music feels good but bums you out?
• Another quick fix is to act energetic. That I haven't been doing and need to start.
• I can cook in bulk and freeze the leftovers for lunch. I am not a huge fan of waking up early to make lunch. I love cold food anyways.
• I think one easy thing I could cut out is soda. There is no reason to ever have it. Yes, it tastes wonderful, but there is no nutritional value in it. So that's gone. Don't offer me one and if you see me drinking one, call me on it. Even especially diet soda. Bitch smack it out of my hand if you have to. NO EXCUSES. It has been linked to a lot of nasty things from cancer to dropping your blood sugar so you binge eat. I will let myself drink seltzer water.
• The one minute rule is a rule where if it takes less than a minute to do it, do it. Don't put it off. This weekend I could've avoided a lot of stress and drama (a good story I'll tell later in the "letting it go" section). I know the dogs like to eat pillows. I left a pillow on the couch and came home to this:

It would've taken 5 seconds to pick up the pillow and move it to out of their reach. Instead, I left it and lost it and then had to clean up this mess. 

So now that I've identified the things I want to keep track of daily, I have an .xls document I can keep track of it all.

I found this great blog to help motivate me last week and thought I'd share. This girl went from my weight down 100 lbs and runs marathons now.

A goal

March 10 I will be running the St. Patrick's 5k in Providence with anyone and everyone who wants to join with me. 

A goal is MUCH needed after today - where I spent most of the day napping with the pups and watching Harry Potter. Good grief.