Twisted Nerve?

by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness"

I feel like staying in bed the whole day. I can't move my neck, my shoulders and head hurt, and I've got a stomach ache (the latter thanks to yesterday's dose of aspirin).

Only one small movement has caused this crap. I think it's some kind of twisted nerve (is that what it's called?). 

Hope I'll feel better tomorrow because I want to run again. It's getting really cold here in Germany and I don't think I'll keep this routine up as soon as the temperature falls below zero. So every day counts now!

What do you do to keep fit during the cold winter months?

Heart Rate Monitor

by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness"

I just returned from my first run using my new Sigma PC 9 heart rate monitor watch (thank you, Cyber Monday!). 

Today's running details:

2.3 km (= 1.5 miles) / 19:45 mins / 203 kcal / average pulse: 159

I'm hungry now!

More Running

by Sal

I didn't sleep well last night... and overslept this morning. I woke up feeling groggy and disoriented. I couldn't bring myself to hurry, I was only able to move around like a sloth. 

On my way to work, I started craving an energy drink so hard I almost stopped at a supermarket to get one. At the office, the first thing I did was get a cup of instant cappucino. And then another.

At lunch, I gave in to my craving and bought that stupid energy drink. I finished half of it before my bad conscience kicked it.

At that point, while I was wondering if I was slowly developing into a caffeine addict, I remembered that I had read an interesting article about caffeine and energy drinks at Nerd Fitness - The Ultimate Guide To Caffeine.  I finished my energy drink and have stayed away from caffeine since then (but I have been thinking about cappucino the whole time).

However, when I arrived home, I took Flo for a walk and decided to run afterwards. I ran approx. one mile without stopping. Yippieh! 

Unfortunately, I seem to have laced my shoes too tight and now have a hurting spot right on top of my left foot. Grrr. Go away, pain! You keep me from feeling good about my achievements!

I didn't check my weight this morning and won't do so before tomorrow morning in hopes of me having dropped another 200 to 500 grams...

Cyber Monday

by Sal 

I indulged in Amazon's Cyber Monday yesterday and ordered a heart rate monitor (this one) which was 30% off. Can't wait for it to arrive at my doorstep! I hope it will be easy to use.

Do you use a heart rate monitor when working out? What are your experiences? Anything I have to keep in mind when using mine?

It has been raining most of the day and I can't get rid of that stupid migraine. I don't feel like doing anything, really. My doc advised me not to work out during migraine attacks because the pain, sickness, and dizzyness will most likely get worse when exercising (it's true, I found out the hard way).

I feel bad about having eaten crap for lunch (cheeseburger & chicken nuggets). I made better choices for dinner: pita bread filled with tzaziki sauce and cucumber slices (less than 300 kcals). Will have raspberries and low-fat yoghurt for dessert in a minute (less than 200 kcals).

Still, today's carb intake was way too much. My goal is staying below 175 g of carbs but I had 224 g today. Where did most of that come from? They hid in the 5 wholegrain cookies I had early in the morning (43 g) and in both the cheeseburger sandwich and the pita bread (33 g each). I consumed more carbs when drinking a glass of banana-cherry juice... 30 g. Argh. Will only drink water and tea tomorrow (and cappucino because I can't live without it).

A Body In Numbers, Oats & Muscle Mass

by Sal

In 1999, when I moved back to Germany, I lost 10 kgs in 3 months by eating oatmeal at least once a day. Back then, I was exercising regularly, too, and hat lots of muscle mass to burn fat.

A short while ago, I participated in a health and fitness congress in Kassel (a city right in the middle of Germany). I had the opportunity to check out the newest BodyAnalizer scales. The results were as follows:

My Body In Numbers

Age: 31

Height: 163 cm

Weight: 62 kgs

Recommended weight: 58 kgs

Body fat: 17.5 kgs / 28.3 %

Muscles: 40.8 kgs

BMI: 23.3

Recommendations:

- build muscle mass

- reduce calory intake by 220 kcal 

(recommended daily calory intake to maintain weight: 1,681 kcal)

(results were created individually for my body only; please don't draw conclusions from my results, yours will differ)

Okay, that tells us that I don't have to lose as much weight as I wanted thought. Only 4 kgs. Sounds easy, right? I've been trying to lose these 4 kgs for weeks now. 

Oats!

I'm back to eating oatmeal gruel at leat once a day. I usually add a little cinnamon for better taste. This weekend, I've had oatmeal for both breakfast and supper. I'm aware about this being pretty one-sided, so I've added lots of berries to each meal. Unfortunately, I'm allergic to apples, peaches, bananas and the like, so it's strawberries, raspberries, blueberries etc. for me. 

Do you suffer from any food allergies?

Muscle Mass

So. Well. I have to build muscles. I already knew that before stepping on that scale but I haven't done anything to gain more muscle mass yet. I've done a few push-ups, sit-ups, and squats here and there, but these do hardly count. Another point to be added to my fitness goals for 2013.

Which are yours?

Link To Check Out

• Bat Fit Facebook Group

Migraine Attack

by Sal

I woke up feeling groggy. That's always a bad sign. Waking up groggily usually foreshadows a migraine attack - and yes, after an hour or two, it started. I've managed to keep it at bay for now. My head hurts like hell and I'm sick to the stomach, but I'm still able to walk around the house and get a little work done. Which is good. 

My vision isn't quite clear. It feels as if clouds are coming up, like in the photo above (Atlantic City three weeks before Sandy hit). In relation to migraines, this phenomenon is called "migraine aura". On bad days it's like looking through a dark and narrow tunnel with only a small opening at the end. It's the reason why I don't drine a car when having a migraine attack.

I tried to take good care of myself today. I went outside to walk (with Flo and once on my own for a brisk 5-minute walk) and ate yummy stuff: cereals for breakfast, noodle soup for lunch, oatmeal gruel for dinner. I didn't drink enough yet so I'm going to make tea in a minute and prepare a tall glass of berry shake, which is low on fat and calories but still offers the fuel my body needs.

I'm considering having a can of coke. My Doc told me caffeine can help bringing about the detumescence of the blood vessels in my brain. Is it worth a try?

Writing, Eating, Exercising

by Sal 

Weekend is here! This will be a lovely, relaxing weekend. I have absolutely no plans of doing anything except for:

Writing

I'm participating in this year's NaNoWriMo. I've been failing so far. I won't meet the goal of writing 50,000 words. Okay, I've probably written more than 50,000 words this month, but most of them don't count for my WriMo-project. Read more about me failing at NaNoWriMo in my writing blog.

I hope to get a little more writing done this weekend.

Eating Healthy

Eating healthy and keeping my calory intake below 1,400 is really hard. I usually manage to stay below the 1,600 calory mark. Small success!

Today, I made exactly two bad choices: 

The first one was picking that lovely garlic dressing for my salad at lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't read the label before I bought it. If I had, I would have picked a low-fat dressing. 

The sevond bad choice was eating that caramel yoghurt. I love caramel and the yoghurt was delicious, but it had lots of calories and left me craving for more.

What else did I have today? One slice of whole-wheat bread with curd cheese, four oat cookies (in other words: boring cookies), a mixed salad, lots of oatmeal gruel with cinnamon, two cups of tea, cappucino, water...

I plan on doing another soup day on Saturday or Sunday. My first soup day ion Monday wnt really well and made me lose 700 g (approx. 1 pound).

Exercising

I went jogging twice this week. Hopefully I'll be able to motivate myself to go running a third time on Saturday or Sunday. I'm also thinking about maybe going to the local health club... Undecided about that.

I will have to force myself to do some sets of push-ups this weekend. Remember: I only manage three in a row.

Reading

So many books and magazines I haven't found the time to read yet. What's better than sipping hot tea and reading a good book?

Knitting

I started knitting a scarf yesterday. I might be able to finish it this weekend.

What are your plans for the weekend?

P.S.: Add me on Facebook. I'd love to connect.