Garmin Connect - Activity Details for After Work Ride with Barb

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for After Work Ride with Barb

Click the link to check out the route Barb and I did tonight after work. If you click the player function, check out the point in the beginning of the ride where the marker stops. That's when I fell!

Four Days with a "Pellet"

So I mentioned in my last blog that my acupuncturist placed a ‘pellet’ next to my ear to control my appetite. 

Ok, I am open minded and I thought, “Let’s see how this goes.” But I did not expect the results I have experienced. 

I have strong cravings for sugar and french fries specifically but fried foods in general. I also have an appetite for large portions. On the one hand, I burn a lot of calories between running and biking. However, I also have a life time history of overeating. So it is hard to determine if my big appetite is from high activity or just learned behavior. 

But since I have had my “pellet” inserted I haven’t felt hungry. Yikes! This isn’t necessarily good as you may first suspect. It is imperative that we eat! You can not be healthy if you don’t eat. 

So, not having an appetite is good because it takes the ‘edge off’ cravings. But you must remember to eat and eat healthy foods. So let me reiterate that not eating is not good. But having compulsive urges removed helps so much in reestablishing healthy behaviors! 

I can not believe that since I had this pellet inserted I haven’t felt hungry!How is that??? Even after I went for a good run, I didn’t feel hungry. 

So I have had to pay attention to what I have eaten during the day and what I should eat for the rest of the day. Because I am not hungry, I am not thinking of food. I’m not fighting cravings, I’m not obsessing over food. It’s great! 

But I don’t recommend it for people who don’t obsess or over eat. You simply won’t eat which is not a good thing. But for those of us who eat too much or have cravings, it turns off the cravings and tunes out hunger. Which on the one hand, as I said, can be beneficial. But you must be prepared to think about how much and what to eat. Which ironically is what I think most people seek out to avoid. We want a magic pill to take so we don’t need to think. We want to simply remove the desire. 

Well this pellet is taking away the desire. But with it comes a responsibility to really nurture yourself by being mindful and put your attention to what and how much you are eating. 

I would not recommend this to those of us who eat mindlessly either. Because for those of us who eat when we’re not hungry are going to continue to eat when we are not hungry. So I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone. But for those of us who have trouble with cravings or portion control and will pay attention to what we eat, I think this pellet might help. 

My next appointment is on Wednesday. This time I’ll have her work on my injured hamstring. 

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for Untitled

Click the links to see where Heather and I ran tonight.

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

Garmin Connect -
Activity Details for Barb and I did a ride today. (Sorry Joyce. It was a last minute deal.) We ran into the Tailwinds group and the Cutters team on our way out. The bikers were out in force today!
(Click the link above to view the route and details)

Wow! That's Acupuncture?

I tried acupuncture for the first time tonight. It was great!!

I really didn’t know what to expect. I figured you laid on a table and had super skinny needles stuck all over you. I heard it was really relaxing and that it cures what ails you.

Most people wouldn’t expect having a bunch of needles stuck in you your skin would be relaxing but it was! I started out laying on my stomach on a massage table. My head was resting in that weird doughnut pillow.

I was happy just to be able to lie down for awhile. I have just been exhausted lately. Then she starts placing the needles along my spine. I didn’t feel most of them at all. I only felt a small quick prick on a few of them. 

She said, “Ok, we just let them sit there and cleanse you chis for about 15 minutes.”

The next thing I know she’s coming back into the room, I had fallen asleep and there was a big line of drool hang from my mouth and about to drop onto the carpet!

Oh my goodness! I couldn’t believe it. But then I realized I had even been dreaming!

But the craziness hadn’t even started yet! She took the needles out of my back and had me flip over. I had told her how my right knee had been sore. So she put needles around my knee. Then she put electrodes on the needles and started shocking me with little electric pulses. It felt great! Who would’ve thought!

Then I smelled what I thought was incense. Then my knee got nice and warm. Like deep inside and right where the soreness was. 

I said, “I don’t know what you’re doing but it feels great!”

“I’m using Moxa. It’s a herb. It pulls out what ever is causing you trouble. “

I opened my eyes slightly and I saw a huge cloud of smoke barreling up from my knee! There were many separate large ribbons of smoke sailing straight up into the air. I visualized the soreness and whatever might be causing it “going up in smoke” and floating away. 

While the pins were in my knee, she placed another one right next to my left ear. She said, “That’s for hunger.”

I thought, “Dang lady, I don’t need help being hungry! I have a great appetite!” 

Apparently, placing a needle there suppresses appetite. She told me she could put a ‘pellet’ there instead. A pellet is a very short pin that is inserted and left in for up to a week. Cool. I’ll try it.

So I left feeling great I was even going to go for a run which I hadn’t been for several days.

I had a great run and my knee didn’t hurt the whole time. Nice.

I have another appoint for next week. I’ll get a new pellet then. :) 

Yoga Dog

Yoga Dog

Those of you who have been reading my blog know I like to exercise with my dog Heather. Well I discovered she likes to do yoga with me. Consider the pictures above: 

Heather jumped up and gave me kissing while I was in my triangle stance. Then she tried to play with her toy (I was using as a knee cushion) as I stretched my quads. Then as I was ending in the ‘Happy Baby’ pose she came in again for another set of kisses. 

She’s my Yoga Dog! :) 

Isn't it too Early in the Season to Need a Crash Pack????

Well, I haven’t blogged much lately because I have been busy getting out. Which is the ironic thing about blogging. If you don’t get out much you have a lot of time to blog but not much to blog about. Of course if you are getting out a lot you may have a lot to blog about but no time. Funny; ain’t it?

The rain’s been letting up so besides running, I’ve been able to get out on a ride on the weekends lately. My friend Barb is getting out with me. She is my most dependable riding buddy. She almost always is up for a ride. Even if the weather is ‘iffy’ she’s up for getting in the saddle as long as it’s not raining, gusting winds or below freezing. 

We started off with a 10 miler ride just to break our saddles in easy. Then after that we  thought 20 miles would be just right. One weekend I plotted a relatively flat route. So I knew we’d knock of 20 pretty easy. 

It was so great to be out. I took us out west first and we had a stiff head wind for several miles. The first half of the route not only was windy, but the roads were in bad condition and we had to cross a couple railroad tracks that are in serious disrepair. But it’s all part of biking. 

Our route turned us south just before the half way point and we not only had a nice tail wind now but also some nice downhill. So I made the most out of that. I love the down hill and seeing how fast I can go. Must say I didn’t get as fast as I may have later in the season but it felt great!

A couple miles into this leg of the route I was flying downhill and I saw another biker coming up from the opposite direction. He was off his bike and pushing. From a distance he looked  liked he was pushing a recumbent bike. As I approached, I saw a tire strung over his handle bars. ‘Oh shoot!’ I thought, ‘He’s blown a tire.’ Then it occurred to me; I don’t have any tubes that’d fit a his tires. Then I remembered that even if I did, I didn’t have a pump. 

Now that is smart. I carry two extra tubes, you know, just in case I blow two tires on a ride. But what good are they if I don’t have a way to fill them with air? Duh. 

I slowed down just the same to see I could help him with anything. As I came close, I realized he wasn’t on a recumbent and he didn’t blow a tire. He was touring and he had a good sized trailer hitched to the back of his bike and he was walking up the hill. The tire over his handle bars was simply a spare. 

We waved to each other as we passed and I picked up speed again. 

When I got to the bottom of the hill at the intersection of Black Rd and HWY 1 I waved at the guy on the corner selling fruit. He smiled back at me. I crossed Black Rd then pulled over to wait for Barb and have a drink. 

I kept my left foot clipped into my pedal and unclipped my right foot and stood flat footed  on my right foot. 

I grabbed my water bottle out of its cage with my left hand and reached for my phone with my right hand. That’s when my handle bars pitched suddenly to the right. Which threw the balance of my bike hard to the left. Both my hands were full and I was trying to figure out how to grab my bars quickly when I felt the bike swing to the left past the point of no return. And from a standing position, my bike fell over and took me with it. 

I can’t imagine what the fruit stand man must have thought. One minute I’m standing there; the next I’m in the road with my bike on top of me. Great. I look up and Barb is just crossing the intersection herself wondering why in the world I’m on the ground!

She rolls up, “What happened?”

“I tipped over.”

“Did you scratch your bike?” (Barb is a true biker). I got up and examined my bike, which is barely two months old by the way. Not a scratch on it. 

“Wow. How embarrassing!” I say. 

“You alright?” Barb asked.

“Oh yeah. I just tipped over. Didn’t feel a thing.”

So I throw my leg over my top tube and get ready to take off when I hear Barb said, “Oh man, you’re bleeding!”

“What?” I look at the back of my calf and sure as heck I have a row of puncture wounds from my chain ring with fat bulbs of blood growing and about to run down my leg. 

Well, thanks to Barb. She takes our her crash pack. (No I don’t carry a crash pack either). Using her supplies I clean up. But the wound just wants to keep bleeding. So I finally give up and just put a band aid on the worse part of it. I figured I couldn’t bleed too much between there and home.  So I just got on my bike and rode home. 

I told Barb I would pack myself a crash pack when I got home. This wasn’t the first time Barb saved the day for me. 

Later that night my husband was checking out my leg and let out a whoop! I didn’t ice my leg or anything when I got home since it never hurt. I didn’t fall hard or fall at high speed. So I assumed it was fine. But as we examined the spot later we discovered there were actually two rows of punctures and a lot of bruising. It looked like I took a major spill. One that could only come from a high speed dramatic wipe out. 

That would be cool. But no. If people asked me what happened, they’d expect me to tell an exciting story of speed and daring. But I would only be able to tell them about standing stock still and tipping over like a sleeping cow. *Sigh*

I Have the Best Dad!

I have the best dad in the world.  One reason he is the best dad is because he still loves me even when I tease him! We come from a fun loving people. So I know he appreciates good hearted teasing.

So when he finds out I was teasing him about being able to monitor Mom's heart rate from my laptop (which is TOTALLY believable in this day and age) he will not write me out of his will. But know I inherited his sense of humor. .....and be proud.