Breakfast Anytime

hmm, well apparently i'm in quite the posting mood lately. i think it's funny how i read gaming blogs more often than CNN, so i get random news like mcdonald's considering offering breakfast all day long from 8bit joystick instead of ABC news. not to mention like two weeks later, heh.

not that that's necessarily a healthy idea, but alayna & i were quite disappointed one night in allen when our 1am request at the local mcdonald's for the delicious #4 breakfast was denied, as breakfast didn't start till 4:30am. i guess we were spoiled by the all-night breakfast the college station mcdonald's across from a&m offered. there was nothing quite like having an egg mcmuffin at 3:30am while all the chairs were stacked on the tables and a guy was mopping the floors. thus, i approve of this proposed all-day idea.

--j

Rick's HFCS Diet

so after hearing so much bad buzz about high fructose corn syrup over the last few months and seeing rick's successful shedding by giving up cokes, i've tried myself to avoid HFCS as best as i can.

it's actually more difficult than i had originally thought, because so many things these days seem to have it. i'm not exactly the type to go scouring through food labels looking for ingredients or calorie counts or anything so sometimes i won't even realize something has HFCS till i stop and think to look. i was surprised that stuff like cans of country time lemonade and a V8 smoothie bottle had it. it almost seems like you have to find something that's specifically marked as healthier (such as including splenda) to avoid it.

i don't wanna act like it makes the biggest difference in the world, but i think avoiding HFCS is something that's relatively manageable for me. i can't pretend like i have a "weight problem" so i'm not looking to really diet hardcore or start massively portion controlling or anything like that. but i had gotten to a point where i was usually drinking one 20oz. coke at work, a 12oz. can with dinner and another 12oz. can before midnight everyday. that's 44oz. of coke a day, which is obviously waaay too much. i started to get better by subbing in other drinks like juices and sugar-free lemonades instead of the cokes, as well as trying and liking coke zero.

with the exception of occasionally getting "real" cokes at restaurants, i've largely stopped drinking real soda with HFCS. when i can find coke zero (which can be dodgy at work) i always go for that. i'd say at this point it tastes about 90% as good as coke, and still has caffeine, so it works for me. i've basically found that if i avoid real cokes for several days, i'll generally be 4-5 pounds lighter on the scale, as long as i'm doing cardio a few times a week. that basically puts me at my goal weight of 195, and i've even been a few pounds below that a bit.

in truth you kinda never want to achieve your goal, because then you don't have a goal left. as long as i'm hovering around 195 i guess i kinda don't care that much how things go. i've actually done a great job at cutting way back on fast food, although i can't really say it's dropped much off of me. i think the only realistic way i'm gonna flirt with maybe 190 is to work out more, but 4 times a week is realistically the best i can't hope for, which also isn't gonna gain me much.

so i don't really know what my new year's resolution's gonna be, at least food-wise. but i guess that can't be too bad a predicament, hey?

--j

Thrashed Bod

i'm not much of a complainer when it comes to physical ailments and whatnot, but i think i finally gotta cave a bit. i've been working out 3 times a week since mid-2002 and it might have finally caught up with me. more and more lately i'm just racking up too many aches and pains all the time, and it really starts to take its toll on me after a while.

i've had several months of varying levels of mid and lower back pain, but it's gotten worse in the last month. i finally had to bite the bullet and schedule a doctor's appointment even though i don't have anything much more than "uh yeah my mid and lower back hurts all the time, and i'm tiring of taking painkillers daily." i go in tomorrow, so i'll see if i'm just given a few weeks' worth of stronger pain killers or actually get referred to a specialist.

it actually kinda sucks cuz i'm at a point where everything's going well for both cardio and strength training. running has been better than it was last year (in which an attempt at training for a 5K ended with a month of physical therapy sessions for shin splints) although i've started pretty slow. i've seen some recent gains for certain muscle groups, after some pretty long plateaus. upon finally finding a solid opponent again, i've started back up with competitive racquetball once a week as well.

but despite all that, i can't really ignore that i can't seem to go a day anymore without popping an aleve or tylenol and gingerly moving around all day. lately what happens is i'll play an hour and a half of racquetball monday night and for the next 2 full days my right shoulder's completely fucked and my legs are thrashed. then things will get better further in the week, but the usual arm and chest workouts are hampered by the bad back. i've barely even been able do actual back workouts for the last couple months anyway.

it'd be easy to say that since i'm a software engineer having lingering soreness and back pain would be relatively easy to manage, but that's certainly not the case for me. i actually feel a lot better when i'm active or working out than when i'm just sitting. while i'm at work or at home on the computer it's hard not to think about my back being so stiff. god forbid i have to get up and limp to the bathroom gingerly, heh.

i dunno, i don't wanna stop. i wanna keep doing what i've been doing for the last 4+ years, cuz most of the time i actually enjoy it. but, while i may only be 24, i gotta start listening to the body and at least see the doctor about this. we'll start with the back, but off & on i've had issues with both wrists (another lovely bi-product of being a software engineer AND trying to bench press more), right shoulder (really should be iced after all racquetball sessions), still the lingering shin splints at times (should go away over time...) and neck (certainly from too much computer dorkery).

recently, i've found this health-related blog fairly interesting. spend 5 minutes and read about his attempts at losing weight.

--justin