Babies, experiments, and running

And I'm still bored. Although there are stirrings of projects happening in my house. Oh yeah, and babies. Let's start with babies.

I got to hang out in the newborn nursery this week in clinical. Not a lot happens there, but when it does happen it all involves babies, so I'm cool with that. I got to feed babies, and swaddle babies, and do physical exams on babies, and take baby vital signs, etc. I also saw a baby with a huge conehead because she just wouldn't fit when on her way out the usual way, so they had to do a c-section and pull her back up and out. Fun, huh? There was another baby that looked like she was at a tanning salon because she got to lie underneath special lights that help reduce jaundice with a cute little face mask on. Oh, and there was a baby who was withdrawing from methadone because her mom is in the methadone treatment program. I felt really bad for this little girl, but she seemed like she's doing okay with it. Overall, babies are adorable and I love playing with them.

Okay, on to projects. Jess and I both want to lose weight. Not a ton of weight, but about 10 stubborn pounds that won't go away. Also, I seem to have developed some problems with glucose regulation. Evidence of this includes nearly passing out in clinical and while shadowing Dr. Meyers (I was fine after eating some food and I'm nearly positive that it was hypoglycemia and not blood-pressure related.) Further evidence is that fact that every time I go to the gym, unless I eat a LOT (way more than is reasonable for the kind of workouts I'm doing) immediately after getting home, I end up falling asleep for about 2 hours and then spend the res of the irritable and fatigued. This is annoying and inconvenient and I want to make it stop. So, with this in mind, we are going to change the way our house eats. Jordan is always excited for experiments and is willing to change how he eats to in order to study us :)

The plan is to switch to a low glycemic index diet. If you don't know about the glycemic index, read this. Basically, it means foods that provide a stable level of glucose in the blood instead of lots of peaks and valleys. Starting on February 1st we're going to take all the stuff in the house that does not qualify as low GI and stick them in a cupboard out of sight and then try to eat only low GI foods for the rest of the month and see what happens. I've also bought a glucose meter on eBay so me can get some real quantitative measures of how well this is working. I'm hoping it'll arrive sometime this week so we can all get a baseline reading of how we're doing and then see how it changes. Jess is having a fabulous time in the kitchen experimenting with low sugar and low GI recipes and so far they taste pretty good. The baseline rules are pretty simple: No foods with sugar (or high fructose corn syrup, or honey, or other sweeteners like that) in the ingredients list, and no white starches (basically no refined flour, white rice, or potatoes). This is going to be a very interesting experiment and I'm hoping it will have a good effect on both my mood and my energy level, since both have been pretty low lately.

Oh, and have I mentioned that Jordan eBayed an EEG machine? We're going to measure our brain waves. It's going to be awesome. You may be tempted to ask why, but the only answer you will get is that we think it's cool. Yeah, we're dorks.

I updated on my other blog about the Couch to 5K running plan I'm doing a while ago, but I think I'm just going to update more about it here, because I'm lazy and this isn't really cycling related at all. I've finished the first week and the first day of week 2. So far things are going well, and the workouts are getting progressively easier. The weird part is how my knee is reacting to all this new stress. I expected swelling, aching, soreness, all the usual stuff when I ask it to do something new. Instead, I'm getting this strange kind of soreness where the entire area around where the screws are feels like a gigantic bruise. It feels like someone hit that spot with a hammer, but there's no external sign of bruising except for some minor swelling. The actual joint is also mildly swollen, and a little bit achy, but not nearly as bad as I thought it would get. My theory about the bruised feeling is that I'm putting stress on the spot where the bits of bone are connected and the screws enter in a completely new way and so I'm temporarily weakening that connection and my body will respond by laying down more bone. But, in the meantime, that area is inflamed, and there is likely some internal bleeding from around the screw entry points since bone is a very vascular tissue. Which is unfortunate, since there is no way to reduce the pain and speed up the healing time except rest, and possibly alternating ice and heat. If I take NSAIDs for the inflammation that will actually slow my recovery so I'm not going to do that. And if I stop running, my body will lose the stimulus to lay down more bone and strengthen that area. So, I run slowly and carefully, take days off when I feel like I need to, and try to not put any more pressure on that connection than necessary (for example, avoid bending my knee more than 90 degress, something that my coach told me to do ages ago, which really helped, and I sort of forgot to keep doing). On the plus side, my kneecap has not done any wobbling out of place so far and I haven't had any problems with my leg collapsing under me yet. Fingers crossed that things will continue to go well.

Snow

There was an inch of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning. It stuck around all day, and more is going to be coming down throughout the week. Let winter begin.

How did I respond to this snow? First with a lot of impolite words, mostly under my breath, and then by turning my singlespeed bike into a fixed gear. See, I'm not going to ride my race bike in the snow because not only would it be dangerous on skinny slick tires, but I'd end up ruining the bike once they start putting down salt and I start crashing because of ice. So, in order to continue riding as often as possible this winter, I need to ride my steel-framed clunky commuter bike. But that's no fun. At least until now.

A fixed gear bike does not let you coast. Any time the wheels are turning the pedals turn too. It's how all bikes used to be before the invention of the freewheel. The benefits of riding a fixed gear bike are that you get stronger (zero rest = strength + endurance), pedaling technique improves, and you learn how to pedal at a really high cadence, because that's just what happens when you going to go downhill. And, it's a whole lot of fun, mostly because it's a new challenge. The challenge is simple, if you attempt to stop pedaling while the bike is moving forward you do one of two things: If you're in control you skid to a stop and feel lucky, if you're out of control the bike flips you over the handlebars. I rode it around the block a couple times today, but it was getting dark fast, so I'll need to do a real test ride as soon as I get the chance. With luck I won't be doing any flips.

In other news, school is still insane, but I'm still enjoying it. I will be observing in the operating room all day tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to. I have no idea what kind of surgery I'll be able to see, or if I'll see multiple, that will be decided when I show up.

My housemate, Jess, and I spent an entire day baking this weekend. We're coming up with winter survival plans and a lot of them involve food. This plan was specifically to get a weird food at the public market every week and make something with it. This weekend was persimmons. I'd never had one before, but it turns out they're really delicious. We made persimmon tarts and persimmon cookies. And then just for fun we made some hummus. Next week I think we're going to try making bread, and something with our mystery market food. This is a fun game.

Housemate bonding time

Today was so much fun. Turns out Jess and I get along very well, and we both like to bake. This could be a dangerous combination. We started today by going to the Public Market, where we both bought enough food that we could barely carry any more. Me at the market without the bike limiting what I buy spells trouble. So, once we got home, we scrounged up some lunch and proceeded to bake stuff. Jess made snickerdoodles and I made zucchini muffins and everybody got to happily eat all afternoon. Then we both took naps, woke up, and started to make dinner. We decided on black bean burgers (Jordan is vegetarian, and Jess and I are both happy to eat veggie), which had me a little intimidated at first, but were amazingly easy. We didn't even follow a recipe, just sorta made it up. A combination of black beans, crumbled toast, red bell pepper, onion, parsley, chili powder, an egg, some salsa, and I think that's it. All mashed together and formed into burger-shaped things, then grilled. They tasted like a burrito turned into a burger. We also made corn (6 ears for a dollar!) and drank some really good Oregon wine. It was a delicious dinner, and I nice way to get to know my new housemates.

I wish I could spend more time with Jordan before school starts for me, but school has already started for him so he spends most of his time studying for an upcoming neuro exam. Memorizing the parts of the brain and the names of the blood vessels and stuff. And he proves to me every day that I made the right choice by not going to medical school.

Speaking of medical stuff, I got attacked by either a nasty bug of some kind or the most potent poisonous plant I've ever encountered sometime during my visit. What started as some ugly bumps on my legs first turned into angry red splotches covered in blisters and have now become scabby, weepy, nasty and even bigger than before. I'm hoping that the scabbiness means they're healing finally. I took pictures of them, but they're pretty gross so I won't post them unless requested. And, I'm starting to find new angry red bumps on my legs and now on my forearm. I'm worried that by scratching I've spread whatever the original cause of the reaction was around. But, that doesn't make sense, since these things have been there for a week and a half and there's no way I've still got residual poisonous substances on me. I just don't know, but at least I've got access to a whole lot of nurses and nurse practitioners if it doesn't start to heal up.

Oh, last night Paul and I went to see Iron Man. I know, I'm slow about these things. But, it was really good. Tomorrow we're going to go spend the afternoon/evening at his friend Eric's cottage on a lake somewhere (not Lake Ontario). It will be fun. I've started meeting more people in the Paul/Sarah/Ronen friend group, and I like them all. And they play lots of board games, which I like even more. I was a little intimidated at first by the people at a board game night on Thursday, but managed to relax after the first game or so and actually started joining in the conversation.

I think that's it for now. I'm going to go curl up with my new Neil Gaiman book stolen from Jess (I love Neil Gaiman! Why didn't I start reading this stuff earlier?) and chill out a little before bed. Two more days of vacation...

Hell Week approaches

Three exams, a quiz, two assignments, and the usual metric ton of reading has qualified next week for the title of Hell Week. So, naturally, I spent yesterday baking muffins, going to a birthday party and enjoying the thunderstorms. I did manage to get a few hours of studying in, and am working on it more today.

The muffins I made turned out deliciously. Check out the recipe, if you're interested. I love that they are called toddler muffins. I also made some awesome little pancakes this morning. Except I didn't really follow that recipe very well. I used sour cream instead of cottage cheese, since I didn't have cottage cheese, used 2 whole eggs instead of 4 egg whites because I didn't want to waste 4 yolks, and added some cinnamon. I think in the future I'll add some sugar too. They were quite good though, and incredibly easy. Then, when I went shopping today I found chicken cutlets stuffed with cheese and spinach on sale. That sounded too good to pass up, so I'll be cooking those tonight and eating them for the rest of the week.

On my way out to the store, I passed by a couple of kids playing their front yard. One of them yelled, "Can I hit you with a water balloon?" at me. I told him no, since I was just heading out, but if he saw me on the way home in about an hour he could. He just looked so excited about it and asked so nicely that I couldn't give him an absolute no. Sadly, or luckily, I didn't see him on my way home. I'm sure the water balloon was put to good use.

Sexy research

Apparently you guys think I should study either condoms or prostitution... I dunno what that says about me, or you, but I'm sure it's something. I've emailed the coordinator for the condom use study because that one sounds the best to me. I would actually be able to sit in on sessions with participants and do transcription of interviews, which would be fun.

Today was still hot. Katherine ended up being unable to ride with me, but I still went out for about an hour this morning on Paris. It was nice and relaxing, except for the sweat dripping all over me. Everyone at school seemed shocked that I was still riding my bike in this heat, but then they would go sit outside during class breaks. I think they're all insane.

I'm probably not going to race tomorrow night, since the forecast calls for a high of 86 with accompanying thunderstorms and potential large hail. Doesn't that sounds like fun. At least it'll be cooler. The low at night will actually drop to 70ish tonight, which will be a welcome relief. As an example of how brutally awful the heat is, there was a pro bike race in Philadelphia (about 3 hours away) this weekend. 190 men started, less than 50 finished. And these guys get paid for this.

I'm having other problems with the weather. All of my bread is going moldy. Until this past week I'd been keeping everything in the cupboard because fridge space is limited. Well, half a loaf of bread got covered in black fuzzy stuff in just s couple of days, so anything that has survived is now refrigerated. The thing that really puzzles me, though, is that my bagels got moldy. Why is this a puzzlement? They were in the freezer. How does mold grow in the freezer? I know they weren't moldy when I put them in there, but I went to toast one this morning and it was covered in little white spots. I thought maybe it was just from freezing, so I warmed the bagel up a little, and turns out the white spots smelled like mold. And they were on all 10 of the bagels in that bag. Rochester must breed super-molds or something, I just don't get it.

Procrastinating

I should be reading, but I'm not. I did manage to go shopping though, so now I need ideas. Anyone know what to do with a top round steak? It was cheap, so I bought it, but I don't actually know what to do with it. Suggestions, please!

Also, everyone should watch the trailer for Igor!

Food, and other news

I think I've been talking about food a lot here, but that's okay because I think about food a lot. Cycling burns an incredible number of calories (at a fast pace it's about 1000/hr) so I do a lot of eating. And I'm trying to make a pretty big shift in my diet, so I'm thinking a lot more about what I eat. I'm even tracking what I eat every day, just for fun.

Anyway, I've made a few discoveries on the road to changing my eating habits. Some are pretty obvious, but make a significant difference when I actually do them, others kinda surprised me.

1. Eat more fresh produce. With the prices as low as they are at the public market, there's no reason not to buy it. It's nutrient dense, low calorie, zero fat, and just plain yummy.

2. Eat more often. I should have started doing this ages ago. I'm eating about 5 times each day now, which means that I eat less each time and have more energy throughout the day. Often what I'm eating is just a piece of fruit, some bread and hummus, or a muffin. But that's usually enough to get me through another hour or two.

3. Read labels. If I know what it is I'm about to consume, I'm more likely to consume an appropriate amount of it.

4. No food has to be ruled out as long as I'm careful about portions and total fat/calorie consumption for the day. For example, I made a box of mac and cheese today. Generally not a healthy food, but when I only eat a third of the box, and an apple, it's not that bad. I just made sure that my dinner was mostly fat free.

5. Plan ahead. I usually figure out what I'll have for dinner each day and then plan the rest of my meals based on that. I also plan to make leftovers, lots and lots of leftovers. They're starting to fill up the fridge because I'm saving them for lunches once class starts.

So there are my words of wisdom for healthier eating habits. It's working for me so far. I've got a lot of energy, my mood is more stable than it would normally be under the circumstances, and I think I'm starting to slim down again. No concrete measurements yet, since I don't have a measuring tape or a scale, but I think I am. Also, I'm recovering quickly from workouts, which means I'm eating right. If I don't consume enough carbs during/after a workout my glycogen gets depleted and the fatigue and delayed-onset muscle soreness is much worse the next day. Fun with physiology!

As for the other news, there's not a lot to report. I haven't even been outside today, since it's been raining and there was nothing to do anyway. I'm really looking forward to classes starting so that I can be busy again. I did get my first tuition bill in the mail. Not as bad as it could have been, thankfully, but it'll definitely eat up my savings pretty fast. Yay for the Federal Nursing Loan Repayment Program! They'll pay off most of my school loans if I agree to work in the US for two years after graduation.

Time to go make myself some turkey burgers to throw in the freezer... there I go talking about food again.

Improvements

Things are looking up today. I woke up pretty early and went down to the public market for another week's worth of yummy produce. I also ended up getting more flatbread (yay, pizza!) and a tub of hummus. Total cost for everything: $6.75 . I love that market. The only problem with it is the smell of elephant ears/beaver tails/fried dough that permeates the air. Hard to resist. I managed, but only by promising myself a treat from Tim Horton's every time I go out to Wegmans.

After I got home I planned to eat some lunch, chill out for a while, then go do an interval workout on my bike. Well, the weather sort of forced me to chill out for 3 hours. We had about a half hour of torrential rain, and then the sun broke through. I checked at least three weather sites to see if the sun was going to hold. They all disagreed, so I decided to go ride anyway. I got lucky and stayed dry.

When I got home I was incredibly hungry, so I cooked up some dinner (rice, tilapia, salad = yummy) and am now going to rest my legs while watching a movie. I'll probably fall asleep early tonight, that workout has hit me hard.

Classes start on Tuesday. I've had a sneak preview of some of the syllabi and it's going to be intense. I don't think I'm going to want to be going back and forth between school and home, so I'll need to figure out lunches and snacks and things to take with me. I've been doing very well food-wise and I don't want to fall back into bad habits when I get busy. Time to start cooking and freezing things, I think.

Things are looking up

I had a good day today. For all the juicy details, and pictures, check out my bike blog.

Tonight I plan to go to the weekly swing dance/blues at the Dinosaur. The didgeridoo guy will be playing. That'll be... interesting, at the very least. Right now it's raining, but I can hope it'll stop before I have to get back on my bike. Somehow I doubt it, though.

Tomorrow I've got a zipcar reserved to take me out to the mall for white sneakers and maybe a few more summer clothes. Oh, and groceries. I've got my road bike back, so I'm going to need to start eating like a bike racer again. Mmmm... carbs are my friend. Speaking of which, I'm going to go have some dinner.

Bike breakdown

I tried to buy shoes today. I failed miserably, but in the process my bike tried to kill me. Johnny lost his chain while I was riding in the middle of traffic on a relatively busy street. I managed to get over to the side without being run over, but it shook me up a lot. When I got home, I was in tears. Not just from being scared, that was just the trigger, I was crying about being stuck here by myself, missing my friends, the disappointment of my house, whether I can even pay for school, all the things that have been stuck on repeat in my brain and I've been trying to ignore. Eventually I got a hold of myself and, with a mental slap in the face, convinced myself that I at least needed to get my bike fixed.

I rode on very low traffic streets and bike paths to get to Full Moon Vista, the bike shop with the funny name that reminds me of River City Bikes. They even have espresso! The mechanic was great and tensioned my chain and tightened my headset for $5 while I tried not to drool on the Campagnolo wool jerseys. I also picked up a calendar of bike events in the state, including races. I've decided that I like this shop. It'll probably be my main bike shop while I'm here.

On the ride home I felt great. I could actually accelerate without worrying about my chain failing on me, so I was flying down beside the beautiful river with a big grin on my face. I then spent a long time looking at the info on all the races and putting them in my calendar. I made an awesome stir fry for dinner with all my fresh veggies from the public market (carrots and broccoli and zucchini, oh my!). There will be leftovers for tomorrow too. I'm doing my best to eat healthy, and to that end have started tracking what I eat. It's interesting, and I've had a few surprises as to what's actually in my favorite foods. Granola is a sneaky little bugger.

Anyway, I think I've rallied well from my little breakdown this morning, and while I wish I had gotten more accomplished today (I still need those white sneakers!), I've got time. One week, in fact, before classes start and life gets much more interesting. Oh, and my road bike should be here tomorrow. I think that'll warrant a ride to Lake Ontario, don't you?