Category: Health

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Bloodletting

On April 15, 2013, I had the joy of refreshing my screen a hundred times watching for the finishing times of friends who were running in Boston. As soon as I saw the last of my friend’s pass with a time of 4:06:30, I smiled and went and ran my errands. So it wasn’t until a little while later that I heard about the bombs. And then spent the rest of the afternoon frantically searching online for our friends. Right before I left work for the day, we got word from the last person we hadn’t heard from. Sigh.

I cannot imagine what it was like for those who were there, who were injured (physically, mentally) or who lost someone.

My first response was to dig out my donor card and go online to Canadian Blood Services to get the number to call and make an appointment. Turns out they have a new online service now. You can register and then make your own appointments online! I find this very convenient; I can have my calendar open and chose any available time slot at my local permanent clinic. 

Some terminology: a permanent clinic is just a clinic that is in a fixed location. In Toronto there are a few: 163 King St West (at King and University; this is where I usually go); 67 College Street (at College and Bay I think) and 55 Bloor Street West (in the Manulife Centre). The 55 Bloor one is nice because it’s open on Saturdays.

A mobile clinic is when Canadian Blood Services sets up shop in an office tower, or a school or church hall. Usually it’s there for a day or two and people can often just walk in to donate (although appointments are preferred).

They usually take whole blood although they also have appointments for donating plasma and platelets. And if you’re worried about the whole idea of giving blood you can find a “what’s your type?” appointment – they prick you and tell you your blood type. I guess the idea being that you’ll see it’s not so bad after all. And there’s always juice and cookies afterwards.

Anyway, if you’ve never given blood, please give it a try; and if it’s been a while since you have, go check out the online appointment booking. I made three appointments, the first the week after the Toronto Women’s Half Marathon.

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Health

Imaginary run to PEI

I mentioned this last week. Basically to help keep me motivated I’m going to track my progress from City Hall in downtown Toronto to City Hall in Charlottetown PEI – where my brother, sister-in-law and niece and nephew live.

So the start is Nathan Phillips Square.IMG_2858

Farmers’ market on Wednesdays in the summer (although I’m a little worried. I just checked the City website and it’s not listed for this year!) and skating all the time in winter. It’s a nifty place to work beside. Our City Hall was built in the early 1950s. It was designed by a Finn: Viljo Revell. Never mind 1950, it still looks freakishly modern and its been used in lots of movies and shows.

Running since May 1:
May 1: 4.2km – ran Q to day care
May 3: 8 km – just a random run for 66 minutes. Ran after Q went to bed so an hour is about my limit then I think although I’d like to bring it up to 88 minutes (I do 10:1s remember?)
May 5:  12.2 km – this was my first “long run” since eating keto. My legs are a little tired but overall I’m still okay. I’m drinking some salty water now (trying to be carb friendly so avoiding gatorade) ’cause it was really hot out!
Total = 24.4 km

Not great but not too bad for the week after a half-marathon.

And that puts me about a kilometre or so past Colonel Danforth Park. Still in Toronto, which is freaky if you think about it. I mean, I started almost mid-point in the city and I’ve run almost 25km and I’m still in the city!

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Health

A little bit about keto

“Keto” is just short for a ketogenic diet. Which is just a fancy way of saying “low-carb.” So think of things like Atkins and you’ve got the gist at least. Toby and I are aiming for 20-50 net carbs a day. “Net-carbs” means the 2 cups of baby spinach I had with supper has 4g of carbs and 2g of fibre so there are 2g of net-carbs (carbs – fibre = net carbs).

I’ve never thought all that much about what is “in” my food. I swear I thought all food had some of fat, protein and carbs in them. Except now that I type that out I realize that I know that oil is all fat so clearly that’s not accurate. But I thought carbs were in everything.

Turns out they’re not.

Examples of things with no carbs: meat – most of it. Clearly not the stuff dipped in batter and fried but steaks, pork chops, bacon, chicken, turkey, fish. Fats and oils – pretty much all of them are okay.

Lots of salad veggies have low to no carbs: a cup of bok choy has less than 0.5g of net carbs. Same with all the different kinds of lettuces. In terms of quick and dirty rules of thumb I think the more sweet a veggie is the more net carbs it has. Beans have more than lettuce, tomatoes have a lot too.

It’ll be a bit hard I think to go without bread, although day 1 seems to be going just dandy actually, but there are a couple of things that make it okay.

Coffee? 0 carbs.

Oh and

IMG_4055

whisky? Also 0 carbs. And yep, I ran Q in to day care today and did 50 squats for Day 1 of a 30 day squat challenge.

 

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Health

Turning over a new leaf – all over again

Yep again. Hope you’ve got the patience to tag along with me.

IMG_3981

I took the photo above before my run after work on April 16. I will weigh myself first thing in the morning on Wednesday May 1. I’ll do measurements then too. I’m not gonna share the absolute numbers till it’s all over okay – but:

-I’ll post how my weight changed weekly every Friday (starting May 10)

-I’ll update the photo every four weeks on Fridays

-I’m going to redo my imaginary run to PEI too. This was something I’ve tried to do before and this time I’m going to hang a physical map of Canada up in our basement so I can see the progress as well as track it online. So, starting with my first run after the half in Montreal (so hopefully the short commute run on Wednesday May 1) I’ll restart my imaginary run to PEI 🙂

What’s the motivation this time? Lots – I’m 40 now. Q is 2. I’d like to be around for him as long as possible. I want to set a good example. I love Toby. I need him to stick around too so I figure if I do this then he will too ‘cause he’s very competitive. I have awesome running friends – 2 of whom ran with me for 2:55:– while I struggled through a half-marathon that should have taken me far less time (and will, once I lose the weight) – that I want to make proud of me. One of my medium-term goals is to run a half-marathon with lots of them again in September 2013.

So why wait until May to weigh in and stuff? I ran another half-marathon at the end of April in Montreal. The only goal there was to make the two ladies who ran with me in St. Louis (and the rest of the bunch) proud of me for doing it. I think I accomplished that – I ran 21.1k about 8 minutes faster in Montreal. I’ll do up race reports for those two runs as well as the two I have coming up at the end of May – ’cause, well, I’m crazy that way.

Then, of course, ‘cause it’s Montreal, Toby made dinner reservations for Sunday and Monday night. Our last hurrah. When we come back we’re going to try a new way of eating, called keto for short: basically low carbohydrate (so far fewer processed foods that I eat now that’s for sure) and high protein. I’ll be writing more about that later I’m sure.

So short term goals (say 3-4 months?):

-finish half-marathon in Montreal no slower than 2:55:00 – DONE! 2:47:28.1

-make better choices – no drinking at all on days I don’t run or do other exercise; eat reasonable portions; drink 2L of water a day (including at home – I manage drinking at work okay)

-be consistent

-lose 1-1.5 pounds per week

-go swimming! and learn to ride my bike

Medium term goals (say 5 – 12 months):

-plan/figure out a half-marathon training plan for the September 28 half marathon (not putting a time yet ‘cause I want to see how running and keto and losing weight are all going to hang together)

-work up to consistently run 4 days a week; yoga/stretching 1-2 times a week; 1 long and 1 short strength training session a week

-run enough to run 1500km in 2013

-lose 1-1.5 pounds per week until I hit my goal weight then maintain

Long term goals:

-Run Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (I’ll be doing the half) in the fall of 2014 with an awesome group of women

-maintain my goal weight

-run 1500-2000km in 2014