Feeling off.

I seem to be slightly "off" this morning. I'm sneezing a lot and there's a weird smell in my nose, like dirt and mushrooms and maybe gym socks. A lot of pressure below the left eye. I really hope it's not a sinus infection, because I will do all I can to avoid visiting my new doctor, up to and perhaps including letting a sinus infection become a brain infection. I don't care for her, but I am on state insurance during my career transition, so what can I do?

I'm also weeping at small frustrations. Maybe one of them is really a larger frustration. See, I chose a teaching specialty, ESL, wherein it's impossible, in the end, to pass the state teacher certification until I've finished all my master's coursework. This is a highly unusual field in that way. So, schools are now posting their job openings for the fall, but I'm not a certified teacher yet. Which means another year, perhaps, of substitute teaching purgatory.

And then there are other small frustrations, like the ridiculous security measures of our Online Bank. These security measures often make doing banking with them a frustrating experience. But the rates are so good.

Earlier, on Weekend Edition, Scott Simon was telling us about a broadcaster who recently died. Peter Harvey might have been his name. I'd never heard of him before, but the touching tribute also made me weep.

Perhaps a lot of this frustration is residual from yesterday. My classmates in my master's program are fucking idiots. A quarter of them arrived 20-30 minutes late. I can understand 10 minutes, but this was a big waste of the time for which I am paying. A quarter of them showed up to class 4 hours late. Yes, the class runs for 8 hours, which is a long time, but it only meets for 7 sessions. In addition, only 2 of us brought the printouts we needed for class. And, my classmates, once they bothered to show up, took so long to grasp concepts that I had to sit there metaphorically twiddling my thumbs while I waited for them to get it. I sensed the other prepared classmate was similarly biding time.

The only consolation is that the professor and I commiserated in hushed tones about the lack of preparedness. Also, she reminded the morons to show up on time and to bring what they needed. I don't know how she did it without losing her mind. She came across as perfectly sweet and even-tempered. Of course, she's the one being paid to waste her time, not the one paying to waste her time. In two weeks (and we only have five left) we've covered only HALF of what we were supposed to.

I wonder if the natural foods store that sold me the concoction that cured my UTI within 24 hours has anything for sinusitis. Or for misanthropy and malaise.

Mini-Post

I found an article about interval training written for the layperson.

This Post Is Pretty Boring. No, Really.

I’ve been following the Food Guide Pyramid, exercising differently, reading about the wickedly hard workout known as “interval training”, and learning surprising new things in the process.

I decided to follow Uncle Sam’s nutrition advice to the T, committing to really Do This Thing if I’m going to bother. Surprise number one was that I wasn’t eating enough food. That’s right. I was eating small volumes of supremely healthy food, and then, at the late-afternoon energy crash and grumbling tummy time, filling up on Famous Amos cookies, cheese, peanut butter. Now I’m eating a helluva lot more food, but it’s not as calorie-dense, so I’m eating fewer calories total. Who would’ve guessed?

Pyramid lesson number two was that, although I ate animal protein but twice a week, I was still eating way more protein than I require. I’m practically a vegetarian compared to most people I know, and yet, I was consuming too much, between tofu, tempeh, lentils, one weekly portion of fish, and one weekly portion of chicken. I’ve cut way back on the “Meat and Beans” and increased my intake of whole grains, and I have more zip. As G. cleverly observed last night, protein builds muscle. Unless you’re a teenager or a professional body builder, you probably don’t need all that much protein.

Onto exercise. Interval training is hard. Deadly difficult. I consider myself in decent cardio shape, what with the hour-long, nonstop-movement Nia (dance) classes, the walking, and the volleyball, but a mere 26 minutes of interval training kicked my ass. I wondered why. I looked it up online. I didn’t understand all the jargon (VO2 max? huh?), but I came to understand that intense, short-duration cardio (such as interval training) burns more calories and trains the muscles and cardiovascular system in a totally different way than longer-duration, lower-intensity cardio. (It also has the nice benefit of being a shorter workout.)

This investigation lead me to the concept of specificity. Basically, when you train your muscles to use oxygen for one activity, it does not train them at all for using oxygen in another activity. For example, a fit swimmer has great cardiovascular endurance for swimming, but take her out of the pool and that trained, fit body does not know how to run. She will huff and puff. In other words, my volleyball, walking, and dance did not train my body for intense intervals (or for any intense, short-duration cardio exercise). It trained my body for volleyball, walking, and dance.

Turns out that short-duration, intense cardio is much better for weight loss. It burns more calories than low-intensity cardio and causes the body to continue to burn more calories after the workout than does low-intensity cardio. Plus there was some benefit I didn’t understand about how it makes the body use specifically fat stores more quickly than does low-intensity cardio, something about VO2 max and anaerobic thresholds. Low-intensity, longer-duration cardio (like Nia class, or marathon running, or distance swimming) teaches the body to use up fat stores in a different way. A slower burn or something. I didn’t really get it. Don’t ask me to explain. Don’t quote me.

Next: weight lifting v cardio. Weight lifting is important, but it turns out that no matter how much one defines his muscles, that won’t be apparent if they are covered with a layer of subcutaneous fat. For those who need to lose fat, such as yours truly, the method seems to be more cardio than weights, with cardio 4x/week and weight training only 2-3x/week. However, for a thin rail of a person, more weights and less cardio is recommended.

I never intended to have a weight loss blog; I just find this new info fascinating. Thank you for your patience. For the next post, I will write about music. Who wants to read this much about exercise physiology? Come back soon.

Intervals: Yowza!

My Women's Health exercise DVD just arrived, and it's awesome. You can choose pre-built workouts based on body type. I chose "classic curvy" (other choices were "athletic build" and "long and lean") and selected my Monday workout: interval training. Intervals, what's the big deal, I thought?

Holy crap.

But I got a great big, juicy shot of endorphins after laboring through the first 6 minutes, and then I was on my way.

Tomorrow: Upper body.

Always My Undoing, Plus Idioms

Visits to my father-in-law's house result in massive overeating of rich, salty and/or sugary foods. Happy Father's Day! We had meringues (awesome), huge slices of black forest cheesecake (wow), and generous slices of the best pizza outside Italy (amore). We were sent home with cheesecake and baked French toast covered in sugared pecans. You see the problem. It's especially dangerous to stay with them for a few days, as we did over Christmas. I happened to notice today that my father-in-law's waistline has grown more generous in the year he's been married to the producer of cookie, cake, French toast, and cheesecake wonders.

Uncle Sam tells me I ate more calories than I expended today. No shit, Uncle Sam. That said, I'm very glad I got up early to exercise, or I could be in even more dire straits.

One of my first ESL tasks is to notice all the idioms around me. Fall behind in your work...keep your eyes peeled (that one makes me squirm anyway)...eyes are bigger than your stomach...G. and I say, "You idiom!" when we catch each other saying one.

The Government Wants to Help

'Round about last week or the week before, Ann was writing interesting things about RMR tests and habit-changing. Back a while ago here at Italian Camp, I was ranting about Weight Watchers coming into my workplace. (BTW, my fears have not materialized, but I've since found 2 female colleagues--women who are longtime WW devotees elsewhere--who also found it creepy.)

An interesting side effect of finding a way to change careers is that I feel like I can change other things during this time of transition. As long as you're going to the store, could you get lemons, too? As long as I'm making one transition... To my surprise, the volleyball playing has done very nice, toning things for my arms and abs. It's the kind of thing where no one else could see it, but I can. So I thought, why not track food for a while and drop a couple pounds? As long as you're dropping psychic weight, how about losing a little physical weight, too? And don't forget those lemons! Besides, there's nothing like a brutal heat wave to make a person want to have minimal insulation.

Anyway, the point of all this heavily-linked lead-up is simply that the US government has an awesome, free-if-you-don't-count-taxes, interactive version of the Food Pyramid with a calorie tracker and nutrient analysis and everything! Yes, I've always been a little skeptical of the Pyramid, suspecting it may be in bed with the USDA and the Farm Bill, which together create a Machine of Evil for the ages. Still, I think it's a great interface, and it's qualitative enough for my head while being quantitative enough to be useful. Only trouble is the tedium of entering everything every day. And my love of dessert, let's be honest. Two problems. Oh wait, and there's no way in heck I can eat as much dairy as they want. OK, three. Nonetheless, I like the interface.

UPDATE: The Government is giving me a Sad Face because I didn't eat enough grains today. I got happy faces for meat and vegetables, and earned a neutral face for dairy by forcing myself to eat an extra piece of reduced-fat string cheese. Uncle Sam is giving me Sad Faces for my fat intake, but there was no option to explain that I had "Veganaise" instead of mayonnaise on my tuna salad or skim milk in my cappuccino.

UPDATE 2: Hey, there's 2.5 lbs less of me than there were last Sunday.

Shop shop shop

Marathon shopping day, people! First, I got my hair cut. Tired of spending $50 a pop on my beloved hairdresser, as much as I love her, I decided to try out the $14.95 Quick Cuts across the street from my condo. I brought in a photo of the 'do that inspired my current cut and gave the stylist instructions to tidy up my overgrown hair, following the cuts made by my talented regular hairdresser (though of course I didn't put it like that). She did a passable job, but clearly this cut was a stretch for her. She worked laboriously and carefully, expressing surprise at the number of layers in my hair, whereas my usual superhero stylist snip-snip-snips while sharing gossip about her MIL, dog, and the hoity-toity neighbors. Still, I am tidied and richer than I would be.

From there, off to The Paper Store for marathon gift-and-card buying. June brings my sister's birthday, a friend's birthday, my mom's birthday and retirement, and Father's Day. Plus, I wanted to treat myself to a new journal and a sharp-looking pen & notebook for the start of graduate school next weekend. I emerged much, much later with everything but Father's Day and my notebook done, bearing stylish color-coordinated gift wrap and all, too burnt out to purchase for The Dads.

Then, to the used book store for a few novels for myself! I selected this (title sounded familiar) and this ('cause I loved Possession) and this (which I figured would be an interesting read for a future ESL teacher). All three for the delicious price of $10.24.

A quick stop at CVS for sunscreen (on sale), headbands (also on sale and very cute with the tidied locks), and that notebook (they carry recycled now!), and then back home.

We ate wonderful tuna sandwiches for lunch (with provolone, of course), I napped, read some of the Garcia Girls (liking the first two chapters), and then took a practice MTEL reading comprehension test. The MTEL is a state-mandated test for teaching licensure. I kicked ass and so will ignore the advice to take a practice exam for the general sections. Tomorrow I'll take a crack at the writing test. These general "communication and literacy skills tests" are not the ones I'm worried about; I'll admit that the subject area test in ESL has me nervous, but only because I don't yet know anything about ESL.

OK, so then, I did some free YouTube Pilates. (I like the woman in the sculpting Pilates video because she reminds me of Kristin Davis' Charlotte York, who is the only reason I sometimes watch SATC.) Inspired by my workouts, I browsed Amazon for exercise DVDs. I found this one new for just $3.17, shipping from my own state, for a grand total of $6. The shopping gods were with me.

I don't really have a good way to end this ramble of a post.

Calcium Dreams and Sweetness

I seem to sleep better and have sweeter dreams when I take my calcium supplement before bed. (I discovered this by forgetting to take it in the morning a few days.) Try it. Let me know what happens.

Sweeter than calcium dreams, sometimes too sweet, is apricot nectar. I froze little ice cubes of it last week, wanting just a frozen splash of the pretty juice at a time. This morning, waking thirsty from last night's volleyball, I blended a few cubes with soymilk. It's SO. Delicious.

Fascinating Facts

...at least to me.

I am learning all about glycemic index, and it fascinates me. The body and brain's goal is to have steady blood glucose at all times. Some bodies regulate this better than others, because of mashup of genetics, lifestyle, and body fat.

I read a great explanation of why eating a little fat and protein with carbs is good--a little avocado or almond butter with that whole grain bread, for example, slows absorption of glucose in a favorable way, minimizing blood sugar spikes--but too much fat with carbs (like pepperoni pizza) slows absorption too much, leading to high blood glucose for too long a duration. Which explains the pizza coma. And the burger with fries coma. And yes, the Chinese buffet coma.

Fiber, like fat and protein, also mitigates blood sugar spikes (and subsequent crashes) by increasing digestion time. Which is why whole fruit, although sugary, is good for you; but juice, devoid of fiber, can cause trouble.

I'm also learning that some of the alternative medicine stuff I learned about regulating blood sugar--such as eating almonds and cinnamon--has been studied scientifically with favorable results.

There's the nutrition/A&P geekiness for the week. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off the bake an apple stuffed with cinnamon, walnuts, and a teeny wittle pat of butter for dessert.

PS It seems that all of this points toward a simple, ancient way of eating, with lots of whole foods. Or, as Michael Pollan wrote: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."