dkRanch Health

This is the health section. Mainly to deal with my Body for Life experiment, but also to drop miscellaneous notes, thoughts, etc.

Some basic things I've believed in since college are that one should eat in moderation and you should exercise. Even walking, stretching, something everyday.

Why do I worry about my health? Well I didn't used to. In high school and college I enjoyed being in shape, but it wasn't the most important hting. I really just wanted to play sports. Then in my senior year of college I was playing rugby and wrecked my shoulder. A third degree separation that ripped the ligaments. I spent quite a bit of time in a shoulder brace and when I got out I couldn't even bend my arm, much less lift it. All the interviewing, the looking for a job seemed much less important.

So I spent the spring semester getting back in shape and vowing to stay there. I did pretty good and built up a stronger shoulder than I'd ever had.

Then I had kids. At least, little ones. My middle kid came shortly after I finished my second triathlon and I got in worse and worse shape after that. Just spent too much time with the kids and they were more important than working out.

Well, all my kids are at least a year old and I decided to start working on my body again. Body for Life is what I started.

Latest Health Blogs

Eye Exams 10/16/2008 7:38:07 PM
Well my eyes were healthier. The left one needed a slightly stronger prescription, but not by much. With tired eyes, I'm not surprised. I have them wander back and forth between -4.75 and -5.00 the left one hitting -5.25 today, but basically the same as it's been for 15 years.

Delaney had his exam as well, and his eyes are worse. With his glasses he was 20/60 in the left, 20/40 in the right. Without, he's worse, so he needs new glasses as well. Hopefully his don't deteriorate much more. In any case 5th grade is about when mine went bad, so he's tracking well with my life.

Steak for Lunch 10/14/2008 12:51:32 PM
The diet wanders back and forth, not the greatest over the last week or two, so I grabbed some chicken breasts the other night and planned on cooking a bunch of skinless, slightly spicy ones that we could leave in the fridge. As I was getting them ready for lunch today after running (day 35, did some lifting as well), I saw that Tia had pulled out some steaks the other day.

So I abandoned my plan and pulled out the sirloin tips. Searching for some spices, I found a few bottles and decided to do each one differently.

#1 - Grill Mate's cinnamon Chipotle Rub
#2 - Southwest seasoning
#3 - Salt and pepper

I grilled the steaks and I have to say that #1 was tasty, but that was the thinnest steak and wound up medium, negating some of the taste. That was the most interesting going on dry to me. #2 was the best, nice and med-rare.

On top of lettuce with onion and balsamic, it was a good lunch. Tia agrees!

Adding On 10/11/2008 2:40:28 PM
I added in a little lifting today after my run. I completed Day 32 and then since I was trying to upload some podcasts and still downstairs, I went over and did some lifting, not a lot, but a little to get me started again.

A Month of Running 10/10/2008 1:27:56 PM
I've completed 31 days of running today, consecutively, the most I've run in a row ever. I've surprised myself that I've been able to do it. Even with some busy days, a trip to Indy, and the beginning of bad weather, I've managed to run every day.

Tia says that it's hard to quit now, but I've had some soreness and I wonder how long I'll be able to go. I had a sore knee when bending down, but I wore my cho-pat strap a couple days and I feel better. I've even run through some sore ankles and they've felt better.

It's been hard to maintain easily. I've often run just a mile, enough to build up a sweat and get my heart beating. I've found it hard to rein myself in and gone some longer distances a few times, closing on 2 miles, but I haven't wanted to hurt myself, so I've really worked on just doing the mile slowly. The last few days were like that.

I think it's not a week to week thing, now that I've passed 4 weeks, and it's moving to a month to month thing. Or maybe it will be trip to trip. I have one at the end of this month, and if I'm still going, it will be 45 days. The trip after that will be close to day 60, which will be two months and very exciting.

But it's still a day to day thing and I have to make an effort to find time to run every day.

One interesting thing today in Jubak's column on investing. He mentioned one thing to make your retirement money last longer is to get into shape, get more healthy, and hopefully avoid large health costs when you're older. This is one way I'm doing that.

Arrgggghhh 10/9/2008 4:41:59 PM
Ran out of time. Can't run now, have to get kids moving. Maybe I'll try to run at football and get my mile in.

Body For Life

My body for life section. Notes and tracking. Eventually a whole application. For now it's tracking and allowing me to enter data about my progress.

Creatine

I started taking this on August 5, 2002. I hope to build some more muscle after having 3 friends tell me it has worked well for them.

Update: January 14, 2002

I decided to give it a try again. I went by the local grocer and they had Creatine Plus, so I got some. Much better stuff. Kind of fruit punch flavored, so I started loading today.

Update: December 28, 2002

I never picked up Creatine in December, though I'm thinking January. Tendonitis in my elbow (not sure it's related) caused me to stop lifting in late Nov, and I didn't want to do Creatine again without lifting. Will up the water intake and probably do a 1 week load and then maintenance in January.
Update: October 22, 2002

I stopped taking creatine the second week of September. It appeared to have helped me build muscle with no side effects. A couple times when I took the night dosage on a fairly empty stomach I had some gastro bubbling or slight cramping, but not sure it was the Creatine. If you check out the 12 week pictures from the Body for Life section, you'll see some muscles.

I started again the second week of October. Didn't do loading, just twice a day maintenance, but I missed some days where I got only one dose. Not sure it's making a difference this time, but we'll see.
Update: November 7, 2002

Stopped last week. This time I wasn't as good at tracking usage and regularly taking it. A bunch of days I only took one dose. Overall, it was close to 4 weeks, no loading, just 2 doses (most days) a day.

I feel pretty good. My right elbow got tweaked and is a little sore, so I've laid off lifting. In fact, I missed a full week of lifting during the time period in October and still feel big. Lots of muscle and looking good. I'm debating doing this again in December. Got a few weeks to decide.