How Do I Score 2011?

New Year is coming upon us. This is an entry I've been working on in my head for a long time. Ever since 2007, it's been pretty easy to "score" what the past year has been...



2007 - Bought our house in Westminster, found out we were having 1st child, I got promoted that year - GREAT

2008 - Noah - GREAT!!!!

2009 - Layoffs at work, our refi deal fell apart between Christmas and New Year's, and Shannon's ectopic - HORRIBLE YEAR

2010 - Pregnant with 2nd child, Work doing better - GOOD



This year...I have no idea how to do this. Darcy was born, so I can't call this a terrible year. She is a wonderful child and a blessing to have every day. But, this can't be a wonderful year. It can't be a great or good year. Because while we have Darcy, we also added this shitty member of our household too. Cancer.



I didn't post this before, because I just didn't want to talk about it or confront the situation head on...Shannon had a CT scan for post-op done on December 7th...Pearl Harbor Day, should've seen that coming. The spots in her lungs grew. In the abscence of any signs of infection, that basically confirms that it is Stage 4 cancer. Despite the successful surgery, the cancer has already spread to her lungs. This is not what we wanted, obviously. This is not what should be happening.

What happens now? Shannon is back on chemo, as we figured she would be post-surgery. But now, I think she has to be on chemo until the spots can dissapear. And that's not even a given, since her chemo treatment pre-surgery never fully removed any spots, only shrunk some. And since it's showing signs of spread, that changes the prognosis. In a direction that we didn't want to think about. Basically, they aren't considering this curable anymore.

Nobody is giving up. She has a lot of fight left, but this development just cuts us down at the knees. The thing I keep coming back to, from a perspective of how this year is...this isn't right. Shannon shouldn't have to be focusing on pills, scans, incisions, colostomies. She should be worrying about Darcy cutting teeth, saying first words, what crap she's getting into now that she can crawl like beast mode. Cancer is a thief, that much is certain. And it's already stolen a laundry list of things from our family. And unfortunately, it seems like that list might keep growing for awhile.

So tell me, how should I score this year? It's horrible to think of this year as a shit year, because Darcy's birth was something great. That's not fair to Darcy. But it's not fair that I be forced to score this year as good when we have this kind've shit from cancer. This year has brought so much loss upcoming to our family, how can you celebrate it? Shannon said she'll still toast the new year because, to be honest, next year CAN'T be worse, right? Right? Maybe right? Hopefully right!?

I think all that can be said...F*@# Cancer! You dirty rat, you can't win this war, we can't let you. Also, I'm going to cut your balls off. Maybe not today, maybe not next year, but someday, I will find a way to spit on your figurative grave, you POS disease.

Twelve Years of Rust: 1st 5K

Quite late in posting about this, but it's been a busy month, so sue me. Or don't, I don't have the money to deal with that.

So, 11/5/11. My 1st 5K. First, I want to state again how humbled and gracious I am for the outpouring of donations we got for the race. My original team goal was to raise $1000. We finished at a bit over $3000! We were officially the 2nd place team for fundraising at the time of the race, but another team got some post-race donations, putting them in 2nd place. Whatever, I'm just glad we were able to smash through my original goal. And the donations came from all corners...Coworkers, FB friends, Shannon's friends, family, family, family, people from my Ravens board. There were quite a few people who donated who have never seen either one of us in person. That is touching.

I saw a text before the race from Shannon which indicated there was a chance she would get released from the hospital that day, and that definitley helped give me some extra strength for this. It was FRIGID. No other way to describe it, it was just absolutely freezing when we got there at 7am. It warmed up a little bit after the race started, but by then, I had already clipped my race bib onto my jacket, so I ran the race in the following gear:

Winter hat (Plain, removed about halfway through the race)

Gloves (Water wicking, removed about halfway through the race)

Track Jacket (Unzipped 1/3 of the way through the race)

White Undershirt (Worn on top of long sleeve shirt and water wicking shirt)

Longsleeve T-Shirt (Plain)

Running Shirt

Track Pants

Underwear worn under pants

Undy Boxers worn over pants

Batman underwear worn over Undy boxers

Socks and shoes

Within the first mile, we'd seperated into a few packs. Bill and two of my co-workers ran with me, letting me set the pace. A few minutes behind us were two of my other co-workers who have had knee injuries (In his defense, Chuck was coming off a knee injury in the last month and ran in the 1st group), and then Andy was a few minutes behind them. About halfway into the race, I made up my mind that I was going to run the whole thing. I had only run for 20 minutes one time before, but I felt like I was doing good enough halfway through, it'd just be the right thing to do, running the whole thing. It wasn't really a problem until I decided I wanted to sprint at the end. I first caught sight of the finish line at roughly 1/4 mile to go. I started to sprint, then realized I'd never make it before I'd have to walk it. So I waited until I was literally within throwing distance of the finish line. And then I just went all out. The picture that was taken of me finishing looks quite ridiculous, as my coat is flailing around me and my face looks just...weird.

My finish time was 32:30, from start line to finish line. Not a great time for my age group, but I wasn't dead last or even close to it. I finished just behind the "middle of the pack", roughly top 60%. My pace was better than all my previous runs too. So, I'll take those results, just need to keep improving. And I'm proud/thankful to my fellow runners. Bill, Chuck, and Jay finished just after me, Dan and Slava finished a few minutes later, and Andy powered through about 8 minutes after I had, give or take a bit. We all finished in sub-42 minute time, so I feel very proud of our group.

And bonus, Shannon did come home that day. This should be just the first of many goals I'm going to set for myself, fitness wise. Already tenatively doing the Tough Mudder DC in May. I keep flip flopping on that though. Just seems like such a huge leap to go from a 5K race to a 10-13 mile endurance challenge, involving feats of strength. I just worry that Warrior Dash will be a bit of a letdown in terms of pushing my limits.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Pork Stew

Have I mentioned how much I love crock pot meals? Granted, about half the ones I've tried have kind've come out flat, but the ones that taste good, I love making again and again. The only problem is that you have to remember to prepare the night before. Pork stew is probably the most complicated crockpot meal I make. Beef Stew, Pot Roast...just dump a bunch of veggies in, put your meat on top, add seasoning, go. Chili....ok, chili is probably the most complicated to PREPARE. But chili is an experience with me. Pork Stew is probably easy enough to prepare, but there's noodles that have to be cooked seperate, gravy that has to be thickened. But it does taste real yummy. And I was suprised to see it wasn't all that bad in terms of calories and fat.

Pork Stew with Egg Noodles

1.5 pounds Boneless Center Cut Pork Chops
3 cans pork gravy
12 oz baby carrots
1 large white onion
8 oz mushrooms
3 tbsp corn starch
1/3 cup water
1 bag egg noodles

1. Trim any fat from the pork chops and then chop into bite size cubes
2. Add pork, baby carrots, and mushrooms to crock pot
3. Chop onion into small wedges and add to crock pot
4. Pour all 3 cans of pork gravy into the crock pot
5. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours
6. Boil a large pot of water (Dutch Oven size), then add egg noodles and cook until they are nice and soft
7. Once the crock pot is done, use a collander in a large bowl to separate the gravy from the pork and vegetables
8. In a separate bowl, stir the corn starch and water until they are a smooth mixture
9. Pour the gravy into a saucepan and bring to a boil
10. Add the starch mixture in slowly, stirring as it's added. You are finished when the sauce is thickened throughout
11. Pour the thickened gravy back into the crock pot

Per 2 ladles of stew and 1 cup egg noodles

430 calories
10 grams fat
48 carbs
36 grams protein

Notes:

• Hard to gauge the serving size on this. Originally thought it made 8 servings, but 2.5 of us ran through that stew pretty well in one sitting with no seconds
  


• I'm sure you could reduce the numbers with a different pasta
  

Twelve Years of Rust: How Far I've Come...

Been awhile since I've posted about my fitness/health. I'm still doing the diet and I'm still working towards my goal, but sometimes the progress is a bit slowgoing, and I only want to post when I hit a big milestone or have something big to say.

So weight wise, I've hit the halfway mark. I'm getting real close to leaving the 200 level behind, but whenever I want to hit a mark, it always seems to take some roller coaster hills to get through it. So I've dipped to as low as 203, went back up a few pounds, am now hovering around 204. I'd like to still go for 160 by April 2012, but that goal might fall a bit short. No matter, if I'm 170-180 in April, that's still a HUGE leap forward. And then I can just stick with the diet a few extra months, hit my goal, and transition to the maintain diet.

Now, running. I took a running/jogging class in college, but I can't remember my mile time, or whether I could actually sustain a run for a full mile. I do remember gym class in high school. I remember running with Andy Bruchey, both of us pondering if we'd need crash carts at the end of running a mile. I remember falling to the ground after the mile was up. It felt like such a labor to get through a single mile. With Shannon's surgery being a few days before the 5k, and her not likely to be released from the hospital before the 5k, my last chances to run would've been Thursday (I had a minor surgical procedure on 10/21 and was limited from running until then). So on Thursday, I broke out the cold weather gear (performance tee, long sleeve white tee, track pants, gloves, thermal hat) and decided to do a practice 5k. I did it in 34 minutes and felt pretty decent. I planned to do one more practice/tune-up run this weekend. Was originally going to try it yesterday during the snow, but I was too tired and ended up going to sleep early. So tonight, I said I need to do this. Originally planned to just do 20 mins of running...

I did a 2nd 5K. I did 10K in 4 days.

And you know what? I did not need a crash cart. I did not fall down at the end. I felt good.

I think I see the corner and I've rounded it. In just 5 months since I started tracking my runs, I've:

Run 90+ miles

Run 18+ hours

Burned 74+ donuts off

Powered nearly 15 TVs

Shaved about 2:30 off my mile pace

Just a note to my friends out there who say they need to start exercising but put it off, or think they can't do it...I did it. I went from 260 pounds to almost 200, and from struggling to run 1.5 miles to pulling off 5K in almost no sweat.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: The Chili Recipe

I need to take a minute to describe how epic this post/recipe is. Chili is, by far, my favorite thing to cook. #1, there’s a lot of mixing involved, so it’s a big undertaking. #2, it’s less the “cut, dry, color, repeat” type recipe that I usually make, because you have to taste it as it cooks, adjust the seasonings here and there, etc. And #3, chilis is just awesome. Shannon doesn’t like it, and Noah won’t eat anything spicy like that, so I’m relegated to making it for my co-workers a couple times a year. Over the years, I’ve gotten compliments from them, and I don’t think it’s just patronizing, because there’s usually not much left at the end of the day. I’m not going to go out and say this is the best chili recipe, but I think it works well. Not too crazy spicy, but has a kick to it.

Now that I’m counting calories, it was good to add everything up and see that this doesn’t break your back on a diet. I used to make it with 2 pounds ground beef (Usually 80/20) and 1 lb pork sausage. Instead, I went with turkey sausage, 1 lb 96% lean ground beef, and 1 lb 93% lean ground turkey. If you modify the recipe to throw those in instead, each bowl serving is 24 grams of fat. And keep in mind, I usually had two bowls on the days I made it. 48 grams of fat, in one meal, and that’s not counting in cheese to top it, or chips on the side. Wow.

So, without any more ado…here is my chili recipe.

Lean Hearty Chili with Beef and Turkey

1.25 pounds 93/7 ground turkey
1 pound 96/4 ground beef
1 bag Jimmy Dean’s Fully Cooked Turkey Sausage Crumbles
1 28oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 29oz can tomato sauce
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles, drained
1 15oz can kidney beans
1 cup chopped green peppers
1 cup chopped onion
8 oz beer
4 tbsp chili powder
4 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon

1. Peel and dice onion and green pepper.
2. Open and drain both cans of diced tomatoes
3. Open, rinse, and drain kidney beans
4. Pour tomato sauce, both cans diced tomatoes, kidney beans, green peppers, and onion into 5 quart crockpot
5. Brown all the meat together, drain, then simmer in beer for 5-10 minutes.
6. Add ground beef and beer to crock pot. Stir well
7. Sprinkle about 2 tbsp chili powder, 2 tsp ground cumin, 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp garlic powder, and 1 tsp salt into crockpot, stir
8. Cook for 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high. If cooking unattended, repeat step 7 before turning on crockpot. If cooking attended, add seasonings in to taste.

Per 12 oz of chili:

248 calories
7.5 grams fat
20 carbs
26 grams protein

Notes:

• Remember, I said the old recipe was 24 g fat per bowl. From 24 to 7.5, just by switching up the meat a little…
  


• I’ve cheated a bit before and used a chili seasoning mix packet to add some more flavor to it. Didn’t have one this time, and I’m still pleased with the result
  


• If you want to go spicier, I would add in some chopped jalapeno peppers.
  


• I tried this before with light beer instead of my go to beer, Yuengling. Do yourself a favor, don’t do it. I would say the same for non-alcoholic beer.

The One Where I Just Go Off In A Million Directions

Been awhile since I blogged for blogging sake, without a specific motif in mind. I have a couple things to post about, none of which constitute a standalone post, so I'm just going to update lots of things in general

Shannon is setup for surgery on November 1st. We were hoping for a sooner surgery date, but they need to schedule two different surgeons for a whole day, so it had to be a bit longer. It works fine, just a long time to wait around. Still some uncertainty about how the cancer fight is doing, but she's fighting it hard, and there's still things to hope for, so we're continuing to hope, pray and fight. Some days, I'm downtrodden and get caught up in worries. But lately...something just feels better. Like something is reassuring me that we don't need to worry so much. I can't explain it, just lots of days where it almost feels this whole thing is starting to get behind us.

Noah is....every bit of a 3 year old. I love him, but he can really be a butt somedays. He routinely tells me he doesn't like me and wants me to go away. It hurts even though I know he doesn't really mean it. I know it's just him being three, but it gets tough to handle some most of the time. He doesn't act up at school, from what we can tell, so I won't complain much. He's a good kid. He went to a wedding on Saturday (Very proud that my kid experienced a same sex wedding at an early age), and that kid is a RIOT when he dances (See here). He's finally started on swim lessons. VERY cautious in the water, but he listens well.

Darcy is a major cutie. She smiles at EVERYONE. I am going to need a big ass shotgun....probably sooner rather than later. She can't sit up quite yet, but soon I can tell. Her weight and head have joined the "normal" world and are up to 25th percentile. Meanwhile, like Noah, her height is nearly off the charts.

Only two more pounds to lose to hit 50. I want that set of steak knives! I'm feeling thinner and though I don't notice any change when checking a mirror shirtless, I look thinner when dressed in clothes I think. I'm loving the progress I've made, because this is seriously so much more than I've ever done before. And it's such a big thing to hang my hat on. 210 isn't a good weight to be either, but 50 pounds off me probably added a year or two to my life, at least.

Remember my last post about Red Cross? So, I'm donating platelets. Friday. Super psyched to know I'm helping to save someone's life.

I'm getting back to my running strength, pre-blood donation. Shaved my time down to 10:30 per mile. I'm still running the Undy 5k, even though it's just 4 days after Shannon's surgery. Shannon told me I still had to run it. So you should either run it with me or donate or send it around. I bumped the team goal up to 1,000 after we smashed our last goal of 800. Friends of Shannon Hamilton Team Page

Apparently, I'm an Untapped Oil Well

So remember how in my last post, I mentioned that I was interested in donating platelets?

Got a call from the Red Cross today. Apparently when my blood work came back from my donation, they noted that I was:
1. Male
2. Blood type A+
3. High Platelet Count

Those three things means they marked my report with a smiley face and handed it off to the lady who called me. Because according to her, I am "a universal donor for platelets". You don't know how much that pumps me up. As soon as I can figure out the best logistics, I'm so donating platelets now. Especially when I see that platelets are only useable for 5 days. So any donations that come in now, HAVE to be used right away, otherwise they are unusable. So right away, I'll be helping 1-3 people per donation. AND platelet donations don't weaken your running like donating blood does. That's why my runs have been harder to finish.

So that just ends up being a happy irony. I was already thinking about doing it, then I find out I'm "in demand" to do it. Sweet!

I Feel Like a Human Juicebox...Hawaiian Blood Punch

I've never given blood before. I almost did once. Signed up for a blood drive in high school, but in the initial registration, they didn't like one of the acne medicines I was taking and said I couldn't give blood while on it. After that, I think the mental hurdle just kept me from it. I felt like I would pass out, it'd be bad, I'd be too unhealthy to donate...Just a million reasons not to do something.

Shannon had a blood transfusion back in July, when she was in the hospital getting the stent. It was done just as a measure to boost her iron, but it got me thinking about donating. Just because your blood goes to good homes. And really, how hard can it be? So, I made up my mind to do it, especially once the doctor said I was in good health.

So today, we were going to the mall to do some shopping, when I saw the Blood Drive sign. As we walked around, I found the place and they had no wait. So I said, alright, let's do this! Well, apparently, I got the one nurse who really didn't want to be there. She was totally cold and annoyed at everything I did. She said "Hold out your arms" so I held them out in front of me. Well, she really meant "Show me your arms so I can make sure you aren't shooting heroin", so she forcefully turned my arms over to see. Not asked, not explained, just took my arms and turned them kind've gruffly. And I was wearing a "special sticker" which was supposed to identify me as a new donator, so they'd explain things to me more. Yeah, that didn't happen. She just seemed annoyed at everything I did which didn't fit in the routine. But whatever, I dealt and after about 20 minutes, they got me back to a chair. She checked one arm for veins....Then she checked the other arm for veins....Then, "Vein Check!". So apparently, I also have pretty sucky veins. Shannon has bad veins too, but mainly because they roll when people try to take blood, and her return goes dry quickly. I was disheartened at this point and ready to just walk out. It'd been about 30 minutes and I still hadn't given a drop of useable blood (I gave a drop for testing my iron level)

But, new nurse came over and she explained what was going on. Apparently, I just have deep veins. Eventually, she found a decent one, marked it with a sharpie, and then stuck me. And once I was stuck, I bled quick. I filled my bag in about 8 minutes. She advised me to probably drink more water next time and that should help the veins. She was MUCH nicer than the other nurse. And I didn't get dizzy, lightheaded, or anything like that. Just very chilly as we walked around after. And then I felt annoyed at myself, because I forgot tonight was a running night, and so I have to wait until tomorrow night now.

Now that it's done, I'm tempted to go for donating platelets or plasma next time. It's more rare for people to do, so I know it's needed. The biggest challenge with that is time (Takes about 2 hours for platelets, not sure about plasma). But if I pick the right time, I bet I could do it. So, Red Cross, you gave us 1 pint of blood for Shannon, and now I gave you 1 pint of blood. We're even! No blood debt!

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try: Salsa Chicken Lunch Wrap

I didn't take a picture of this, but I thought it turned out well, so I'm documenting it here for future tries.

So, lunch time today. Didn't want to do the normal turkey sandwich or anything. Two days ago, I grilled up some chicken that needed to be used, so it's been sitting in the fridge without any use. Ok, so let's go with that. I love wraps, tortillas are just awesome to me. So, chicken wrap. I also love tomatoes, so I diced up a good sized slice to top the chicken with. While doing the tomato, I thought...hmmm, Salsa Chicken, that sounds like a good idea. And to top it off, let's make it a nice lunch wrap with some lettuce, cheese, and mayo. Unfortunately, I realized then that when I got lettuce on Sunday, I had never put it in the fridge. It was hiding in a bag of dry stuff I had never put away. ICK! So no lettuce, but the rest worked. So, here it is....

Salsa Chicken Lunch Wrap

4 oz grilled chicken breast
1 burrito sized flour tortilla
1 large slice of tomato
1/2 cup of shredded lettuce
1 slice of Alpine Lace 25% Provolone Cheese
1 tbsp Kraft Olive Oil Mayo
2 tbsp salsa

1. Cut up the chicken breast into small cubes
2. Put tortilla in the microwave, with chicken arranged on top of the tortilla in the center, and the cheese on top of the chicken
3. Heat for 20-25 seconds
4. Dice the tomato slice into small chunks and put on top of chicken and cheese. Sprinkle lettuce on top of the tomatoes
5. Spread mayo and salsa on top of the pile
6. Roll the tortilla up like a burrito

Per 1 wrap

455 calories
15 g fat
41 carbs
39 g protein

Notes

• After looking over the ingredients I used, realized if I'd only had some hot peppers around, I could've turned this into a Chicken Cheesesteak Wrap, for about the same nutritional value.


• I had to throw this together a bit since Darcy was playing on the floor. In hindsight, might be better to mix up the salsa and mayo together, and spread that on the tortilla before putting the chicken and cheese on.

Dieting Challenge: Red Robin

Something I'm realizing as I'm in month 4 of my diet...you know what, let's stop right there. Diet implies that this is temporary. I know that this way of eating will need to stay with me for life. Maybe not as restrictive, but the choices need to remain the same if I want to keep the weight off. So, let's call this month 4 of my new eating ways. Anyway, something I'm realizing more and more is that I can't always research the exact nutrition in a place we're going to eat out prior to the meal. That adds probably about 15-20 minutes to the wait before getting to the place to eat. And with 2 kids, waiting 15 minutes means waiting like 30-40 because then Darcy would want to eat, or Noah would start throwing a fit. So, I'm realizing I need to be able to figure these things out on the fly.

So due to Shannon's treatment today, we both ended up skipping lunch. It ended right in the middle of lunch, so instead of running out and getting something which we'd have to rush to eat before end of treatment, or instead of running and grabbing something after, we just skipped. Not to mention, breakfast was pretty minimal too, due to the time we get there. So, all I'd had to eat today was a Special K Protein Bar in the morning. Lots of calories, carbs, and fat needing to be used. But, since this was a rare case, the challenge will be modified a bit...

The challenge: Find a meal at RR for 800 calories or less, 25 grams of fat or less.

The choice: So, let's start with some eliminations...
1. Beef. Beef is great, it really is. But unless you KNOW you're getting 93/7 or 96/4 ground beef, avoid getting it. High in fat, and processed.
2. Ask for no mayo. This stings a bit, because I love mayo on sandwiches. But rarely do restaurants use light or healthy mayo.

So, with those in mind, RR has a HUGE chicken sandwich menu. The one I targeted for this occasion was the Whiskey River BBQ Chicken Sandwich. Asked for no mayo, left on cheese. Ate the fries as well, but if it was a "normal" day, I would've subbed a side salad with a low-fat dressing for the fries, no croutons.

The result:
Let's start with the side -
Side salad w/o dressing is 85 calories, 5 g fat. Dressings listed on the website are all high in fat, but I'd be suprised if they had no low-fat/low-cal options. So let's round up to 150 calories, 9 g fat.

Sandwich-
734 calories, 27 g fat. Huh. I thought removing the mayo would be enough, but RR puts TWO slices of cheese on their sandwiches by default. Also, the onion straws add 122 calories and 6 g fat.

So, assuming those two, our meal would be 884 calories, 32 g fat. So this challenge is a FAIL.

Ways I could've done it:
1. Sticking w/ sandwich, take the cheese down to 1 slice of cheddar and remove onion straws. This takes the sandwich down to 527 calories, 14 g fat. That's 200 calories and 13 g fat lower, which would easily put us inside of our ranges. Or, removing cheese and mayo, but leaving onion straws...559 calories, 13 g fat.
2. Don't eat a side. I've done this before with fast food. Just get the sandwich and leave the sides. It's a tradeoff, you get a full flavor sandwich but you may find yourself hungry still.
3. Healthier sandwich: Simply Grilled Chicken Sandwich, starts at 420 calories, 8 g fat. Doing this sandwich, you can add on fries to get 854 calories, 26 g fat. Not great, but close enough to be decent. And if you sub a healthier side...

Twelve Years of Rust: The 20 Minute Run

This Couch-to-5k program has been great for me, from so many angles. The running has certainly helped my weight loss. The plan has made it easier for me to progress in my goal of running the Undy 5k in November. Hell, you could even argue the routine of running has helped me with procrastination (Shannon would probably beg to differ, since I still don't do the dishes or clean the rabbit's cage as often as I should or without a few honey-do reminders).

The plan itself is pretty straightforward. (PLUG: http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml). You assume that you are not up to snuff physically (hence, COUCH to 5k), and this little puppy outlines some easy stepping stones to help you break down the task of going from not running to running 3.1 miles in a single sitting. The steps in the early weeks are pretty simple. Run 1 min, Walk 1.5 minutes (Week1). Run 1.5 min, Walk 2 min (Week2). Run 3 minutes. Run 5 minutes. All the way until Week 5. In week 5, it does something a little odd...Day 1, Run 5 minutes, Walk 3, Run 5, Walk 3, Run 5. Day 2, Run 8 minutes, Walk 5, Run 8 (Ok, there's your step up from 5 minutes, got it).

DAY 3. Run for 20 minutes without walking. Ummm, WTF? Are you serious?????? I haven't run for any longer than 8 minutes...ONE TIME! How am I supposed to run for 20 minutes? At once?

So first off, a disclaimer. I repeat weeks on Couch to 5k. I find that helps you best, if you do each week twice, your legs get used to it easier without injury. So I did the first 2 days of W5 last week. Then I repeated them this week. On Wednesday, after doing my first 8 min run, followed by 5 min walking, I went to do 8 min of running. But I decided to push it. I finished out my route running it. I ended up at 11 minutes and change running. And what did that tell me? Once you get past 8 minutes...nothing really happens. Your legs don't fall off. There's no searing pain. There's no panic attack. Your legs are still hella tired, but that's it. So I said, alright, let's do the thing.

Tips...1) Do not look at your watch. For as long as you can stand it. Because as soon as you see you've run for 4 mins/5 mins, all your mind can do is "I have to do 3 more of what I just ran?" And then time just stops moving. 1 minute of running feels like 5 minutes. 2) Since you need to check your watch, pick a landmark on your run for watch check. I used the library, which is about 1.6 miles of my normal 2.1 mile run. So when I checked in and saw I had run for 16.5 minutes, I was like "Allright! Only 3.5 more mins to go! I can do this easy!". And 3) If you start feeling tired, first try slowing your pace. Just do a little more than a brisk walk. If that doesn't do it...then walk. No shame in trying, you'll probably get further than you thought you would anyway.

So yeah, 20 mins. I can do that. Because I just did. So eat it, body rust!

Twelve Years of Rust: I've Finally Reached the OVER-DIET Problem

I'm pretty certain this is the furthest I've gone on any diet. Four months in, and still doing it. I think it's a nice thing to look at a typical meal plan in my old ways and a meal plan today and notice the huge difference...I've figured out what things are heavy in fat and calories so I should avoid, what things are good for me (Pretzel Sticks are the best snack food. 28 pretzel sticks are 110 calories, 2 grams fat. Lots of carbs too).

But I'm noticing that I've finally gotten TOO far on the diet. I'm having trouble eating up to 40 grams of fat a day now. It's easy to see the problem if you look in my fridge. Fat Free might as well be on the outside of the fridge. I've got fat free mayo, fat free shredded cheese, fat free meats, fat free bread, fat free yogurt, fat free ice cream. Cutting out fats is a good thing, but I'm cutting out so much, it's actually getting bad on my nutrition. This was reflected in my bloodwork. I'm really low on HDL Cholesterol. The tips to raise this level are exercise, diet, give up smoking and drinking, and add in more oils, peanut butter, etc to your foods. Except the last one, I've already done all those. And if I add in those oils/peanut butter, my fat jumps WAY up and then I struggle to stay under my daily limit.

So, here's my plan of action. Now, the doctor didn't mention HDL to me at all. I'm thinking he knew I was exercising and dieting, so he ignored it for now. But I would bet that number won't come up much with more diet and exercise. So, for one thing, I started taking a multi-vitamin. Niacin is known to help raise HDL, although I'm taking it in a small dose in the multi-vitamin. My dad mentioned someone he knew went on heavy dose of Niacin and got hives all over, so let's stick to the multi vitamin for now. I'm also SLOWLY adding the reduced fat things back into the diet over fat free. Tonight, I used just 93/7 turkey instead of 99/1. I'm also trying to add in real eggs when I make egg beaters for breakfast. We're getting "farm fresh" eggs from my in-laws now (Thank you btw, they are delicious!), and I know eggs have good fat in them, so if I add one and then use 2 egg beaters, that adds in some fat while not going crazy.

I just find it funny/somewhat proud that i've done so well, I've now got to ADD fat into my diet. Like tonight, eating a cup of pudding after dinner because I was under on all my totals. Oh woe is me, I have to eat some awesome pudding. :)

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Pan-Fried Fish, Mashed Potatoes, and Grilled Veggies

I usually blog about a particular dish I make, but since the fish and the veggies were both a bit of "advanced" cooking, and the mashed potatoes are great for my diet, I decided to do a whole meal.

So a good way to get in protein and healthy fats is fish. I love seafood. Granted, I usually love it when I can't cook it (Steamed Crabs, Grilled Shrimp although I'm sure I could do that, Crab Cakes, etc), but it's great. Brain food. We try to cook fish now and again, and more than just fish sticks, which are easy, but incredibly unhealthy. Pan frying is the easiest way I know how to do it. I know I could broil, or grill, or straight up fry it, but I haven't done those yet and I don't feel like screwing around, so I just stick with pan frying.

You can do fish with a lot of good sides, but recently, we'd done pan fried catfish with mashed potatoes and fried squash. That was yummy, so I stuck with those sides. Mashed potatoes, and GRILLED squash. Added in mushrooms too.

So, without further ado. A full meal for fish consumption.





Pan Fried Fish with Mashed Potatoes and Roasted Squash and Mushrooms

1 lb of fish fillets, divided up into 4 equal sections
2 cups white cornmeal
salt, pepper, old bay, Cajun seasoning (No specific amounts needed, just enough to season to your taste)
1 cup egg whites
1/4 cup water

2 medium to large summer squash
1 package sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
seasoning salt (We used Tastefully Simple, you can use whatever you want)

1 package Idahoan mashed potatoes
2 cups water


Pan Fried Fish
1. In a bowl, combine egg whites and water
2. In a seperate bowl, put cornmeal in. Add seasonings and stir to your liking. You should put enough in that you can start to see some particles in the cornmeal when well mixed
3. For each fish filet/piece, dip in egg white bowl several times, then transfer to cornmeal bowl and coat well with cornmeal mixture, so that entire filet/piece is covered. Repeat for all fish
4. Spray a large skillet with cooking spray, place on medium-low heat, and arrange fish inside.
5. Turn fish every few minutes until both sides are crispy and browned

Roasted Squash and Mushrooms
1. Cut squash into slices and open package of mushrooms
2. Pre-heat grill on Medium-Low heat for 3 minutes
3. Sprinkle seasoning salt on one side of veggies and place this side face up on the grill
4. Baste all vegetables on tops with extra virgin olive oil
5. Heat for a few minutes, then turn all veggies
6. Sprinkle with more seasoning salt, then baste with more extra virgin olive oil
7. Turn as needed until vegetables are softened and at desired char levels

Mashed Potatoes
1. Boil 2 cups of water
2. Remove from heat and add whole package of Idahoan Mashed Potatoes
3. Stir flaked until all are moistened
4. Let stand for 1 minute, then stir with a fork to fluff potatoes


Per 4 oz fish, 1/2 cup Mashed Potatoes, 1 cup of mushrooms and squash

490 Calories
20 grams fat (14 g comes from the estimated 1 tbsp of ev olive oil that is in the vegetables)
49 carbs
31 grams protein


Notes

• For the fish, your discretion on which kind. We like catfish because it's naturally tastier, but Giant was all out when we did our shopping. I went with Tilapia, which is low fat, but still had some. The hard part with those lower fat fish are they are naturally bland, so you need to find some way to spice/season them up.


• A good way to add some flavor to the blander fish is to spoon 1 tbsp of salsa on top of the fish when serving


• Idahoan Mashed Potatoes rock. 1/2 cup is 110 calories, 2 grams of fat. And they make flavored, like Roasted Garlic, Four Cheese, etc


• 2 summer squash and 1 package of mushrooms made enough to feed 3 people. I would reccomend going with more if you can

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Spinach Lasanga Rolls

This post should've gone up over a week ago, but I got lazy. These things got some pretty high marks from Shannon, my Father-In-Law (a former chef, so that's saying something!), and my parents. Plus, Noah ripped through them too.


So, this comes via another blog, which I'll steal the picture from and give credit for the idea: http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2011/04/spinach-lasagna-rolls.html. I did not deviate too much from the original recipe, just made sure to go fat free on whatever cheeses I could. Prep time on this takes a little while, since you need to boil the lasagna noodles, then DRY them before use. Can't use no-bake, HAS to be the full on boil noodles. It also took time for me to thaw out the spinach, but that was due to poor planning, not always going to be the case.

Spinach Lasagna Rolls

10 oz Chopped Spinach (If you use frozen, make sure it is thawed and drained before use. You DO NOT need to cook it before hand)
15 oz Fat Free Ricotta Cheese
.5 cup Grated Parmesean Cheese
1 egg
28 oz Pasta Sauce
0.5 cup Fat Free Shredded Mozzerella Cheese
9 Lasanga Noodles, the boil kind, Boiled and DRIED
Seasonings as desired for spinach/cheese mixture (The recipe called for oregano and italian seasonings, but I forgot about it until it was too late)

1. Boil 9 lasanga noodles until they are nice and soft. Drain them, then lay them out somewhere they can dry.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesean cheese, egg, and any seasonings you like for the mixture (I only used salt and pepper, in hindsight I would've added oregano, thyme, maybe some garlic powder or garlic salt) and mix until they are nice and mixed
3. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
4. Make sure noodles are dry, then on a sheet of wax paper, lay out a noodle. Spread about 1/3 of the ricotta/spinach mixture on the noodle, then gently roll it up and place it seam down in a glass baking pan. Repeat this for each lasanga noodle
5. Pour the pasta sauce on top of the rolls so they are well covered
6. Sprinkle the mozzerella cheese on top of each roll so each has a small pile on top of it
7. Bake for 40 minutes

Per each roll:

218 calories
4 grams fat
31 carbs
14 grams protein

Notes:

• I wasn't thinking when I made this and made no vegetable alongside it. After two rolls, no one seemed to care.



• I had this for lunch at work 3 days later. Still tasted awesome

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try...: Easy Turkey Enchiladas

Viva la awesome. Tonight was a grocery shopping night, so figuring we didn't have time for a big cooked meal, Shannon said "maybe enchiladas". She had a recipe on pinterest for Chicken Enchiladas, but since that involved a lot of custom spices and prep, I said let's just break out the old favorite....Old El Paso's "Easy Beef Enchiladas". But you know me, I always try to give things my dieting twist.


So, let's axe the beef and replace it with ground turkey. I sprung for the 93/7 turkey to add a little fat in. And for cheese, I got some Fat Free Shredded Cheddar. But, since I needed to use up some of my 2% Mexican Shredded from a meal last week, I used that in the enchilada stuffing, and used the fat free cheese on top of them. I also deviated from my normal way to make them. Normally, I wrap them up like burritos and arrange them in the baking dish, smother them in enchilada sauce and bury them in the cheese. Smother and bury are not great dieting words, so instead I rolled them into...well, rollups. Then I drizzled lines of enchilada sauce across and back several times, then sprinkled cheese on top. Those are nicer words. Here is the result tonight...

Easy Turkey Enchiladas

1.25 pounds 93/7 ground turkey
1.75 cups Old El Paso Mild Enchilada Sauce
1 cup of 2% Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
0.5 cup of Fat Free Cheddar Shredded Cheese
8 Wrap-Itz 8" Flour Tortillas

1. Brown the ground turkey and drain (if there is any grease, I usually do not need to with ground turkey)
2. Pre-heat over to 375
3. Combine ground turkey, 3/4 cup of enchilada sauce, and 2% cheese in a mixing bowl and mix together well until you have a good combined mixture of all ingredients
4. Spray 9x13 glass baking pan with cooking spray
5. Spoon about 2 heaping spoonfuls (I used eyeball measurements) into each tortilla, roll it up, and place it seam side down in pan
6. Pour remaining enchilada sauce evenly over rollups
7. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of enchiladas
8. Bake for 15-20 minutes (Until cheese is melted)

Per 1 enchilada:

280 calories
10 grams fat
23 carbs
23 grams protein

Notes:

• I usually eat two enchiladas, so it wasn't totally lean, but this is about 33% of daily fat intake on a normal diet, so for a dinner, that's pretty good.
  


• This recipe can go leaner if you use extra lean ground turkey and/or Fat Free Shredded Cheese for ALL the cheese. You can also probably go a little leaner on tortillas, but I shopped for a pretty low fat tortilla, and I've tried the Old El Paso 97% Fat Free tortillas. They taste too bland for that it's worth.



• This recipe can certainly go heavier on fat if you need. I won't extrapolate on how, I'm sure you can figure out how :)
  


• Suggestion from Shannon...Don't skimp on the Enchilada Sauce. 1 cup poured on top left the ends of the enchiladas kind've dried out. Enchilada sauce is 0 fat, only 20 calories for 1/4 cup. So adding 1 extra cup on top equates to just 10 calories per enchilada. Much more taste, not much added numbers.



• Not sure which method of "rolling" I prefer yet. This way made for a cooler looking pan, more like Don Pablo's style, but the burrito rolling style is much neater and makes for easier serving

Twelve Years of Rust: 1st Checkpoint

So one of the hallmarks of the Spark Diet is setting goals for yourself. I suppose most weight loss programs do this, but Spark wants to get more general than weight goals, they like covering fitness, lifestyle, etc. Now, I'm doing Sparkdiet, but I'm not crazily into all the site, it's not bad stuff, but some of it is overkill to me. But I do like the goals idea, because instead of focusing on "I have to lose 100 pounds in a year" and looking at progress against the big number, you can chunk it up.

So originally, when I was dropping nearly 3 pounds a week, I'd targeted 225 by July 1st. But my weight loss settled out and I adjusted it to August 1st. In the week leading up, the scale continued to read 228. I knew I was still making progress, because I'd done good on my ranges, I've kept up my exercise, and the 228 number was more common on random weigh ins. My weigh in number changes from hour to hour, so I generally average them out to figure out my real weight, since so many little things can bump you up a pound or two here or there. So when I weighed in today, I was expecting to not hit my goal.

224.4

Yup, I got it. CHECKPOINT CLEARED! I'm going to celebrate with a Lean Pocket Turkey Sausage, Egg, and Cheese (Still good on my diet) and focus on my next checkpoints. I'm on track to be the lightest I've been since college in just a few weeks time.


8/1/2011 - 225 POUNDS - ACHIEVED
11/1/2011 - 200 POUNDS
11/5/2011 - D.C. Undy 5K
2/1/2012 - 175 POUNDS
4/1/2012 - 160 POUNDS
5/19-20-2012 - Warrior Dash MD

Twelve Years of Rust: Doctor Approved

So, another big hurdle I can cross off in my path to chisle off the crap that's built up in twelve years inside my body...I saw a doctor today.

Granted, he wasn't doing anything more than talking to me and doing slight exam, but it was a big step for me. See, every time I thought about going, I knew I was going to have to talk about the number on the scale, and address how I was going to fix it. And I just didn't want to think about it. So instead, I just went to Minute Clinics every time I needed antibiotics and just ignored the doctor. But, with the recent plan in place, I felt now was the time to get this cleared medically and make sure I wasn't missing anything troubling that needed to be addressed...

So let's start with the vitals, which is probably the biggest news from the visit. Weight was about same as at home...228, but that was also with jeans and flip-flops. Height was the first suprise. I did a quick check at home when I started this diet, and I had my height as 5'7". At the dr's, they have me at 5'9". That will help my BMI a bit. They took my pulse and BP. I didn't catch the pulse (They said it was lower, but attributed that to exercise), but the BP was outstanding. 112/70. That is normal range, no monitoring needed! When I had pneumonia earlier this year, my BP was 164/92 or something crazy like that. High blood pressure runs in my family, so to hear that after just a few months of dieting and exercise, my BP is in a totally normal range, alright! I'm kicking ass and taking names!

Apart from vitals, not much to report. Doctor just went over my history, said I'll need to go for blood work for a full metabolic panel to check out all the routine screens. Need to fast for 12 hours before, so I can do it after 9:30am tomorrow. He gave me referrals for a dermatologist (for mole check, since we've had some mole issues in my side of the family as of late) and a urologist (for snip-snap day) and that's that. But the overall feeling I got was I'm on track now and no concerns.

The next goal I have, outside of the diet and exercise...to donate blood. I've never donated and I've always been slightly afraid of the process, but I want to give. That'll come soon though, since I don't have any prep work to do for it.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try... - Broccoli Chicken Cheese Braid

So, I'll confess, I got the original recipe/idea from this blog which Shannon found on pinterest, but I did it tonight with my own twists and used the Spark Recipe calculator to figure out the damage. This was one of the few broccoli recipes I liked when I was still living with my parents, and this was a kind've unique twist on it, so we gave it a try. It was "billed" as a quick recipe to make if you're running late from work, but the prep time for me was about 15 minutes, then about 30 minutes to bake, so it's still a bit of a hassle if you're running low on time, but it works well.


Broccoli Chicken Cheese Braid

1 3/4 cups of Perdue Short Cuts Carved Chicken Breast (any style)
1 3/4 cups of Kraft Natural Cheese Fat Free Cheddar Shredded Cheese
1 3/4 cups of cooked, chopped broccoli
1/2 cup of Kraft Olive Oil Mayonaisse
12 Reduced Fat Crescent Rolls (Dough, not cooked...The ones I got from Giant were 8 per container, so I used 1.5. Pillsbury might be 6 per container so if so, get those to avoid waste)
1/4 cup Egg Substitute
Rosemary

1. Steam the broccoli
2. While the broccoli is cooking, cut up the chicken into bite sized pieces
3. While the broccoli is cooking, combine the chicken, cheese, and mayonaisse in a mixing bowl
4. While the broccoli is still cooking, preheat oven to 375 degrees
5. On a paper lined cookie sheet, unroll all the dough rolls to form a large rectangle. Press or roll the edges together so it forms one continuous layer.
6. Chop up the cooked broccoli into fine pieces and add into the mixing bowl. Stir the mixture up well
7. Pour the mixture onto the dough sheet, forming a "log" in the center of the dough
8. Along the long dimension of the dough sheet, on the sides of the "log", cut the dough in strips 1 inch wide
9. Pull each strip up and cover the log, alternating sides of the log to form a braid
10. Brush the top of the braid with the egg substitute
11. Sprinkle rosemary on top
12. Bake for 30 minutes

Serves 5 2-inch wide slices

439 calories
17.5 g fat
39.5 g carbs
31 g protein

Notes:
-Ok, so this recipe is kind've high in fat, even with the olive oil mayo, the fat free cheddar cheese, and the reduced fat crescent rolls. But, for how tasty it is, that's pretty worth it. And 17.5 g is only 27% of the reccomended fat intake for a 2000 calorie diet, so that's not too bad
- I wonder if you can prepare the braid ahead of time, which would halve the time needed to make it.
- One way to speed up the recipe would be buying chopped frozen broccoli, so no chopping is needed. I only had broccoli florets here, so I had no other option

Twelve Years of Rust: Not Just a Diet, but a Lifestyle

I don't think I've used the term in this blog, but that's what I'm calling this recent kick I've been on....Twelve Years of Rust. Twelve years ago, I was 16, at a decent enough weight that my senior pictures looked good, actually able to FULLY run a mile without stopping to walk. The years after that have been a gradual relaxation of all health sense. Yes, in that time I did WW twice, I did Spark once, I even took a running/jogging class. But every time, I just did it for a bit and let it go. Not realizing where I'd end up. I started off losing weight at 260 pounds, and I'm down enough that people are noticing, and I like that. I'm around 228 now, which isn't even halfway to my goal weight of 160, but it's the lightest I've been in probably 5 years.

But, what this entry here is about, is not just the weight loss. Because, just losing the weight really isn't enough. I've done diets before, I've lost weight before. With Shannon's cancer battle going on, I've realized I need to get EVERYTHING about my health back on track. It's really scary when I can't recall the last time I saw a doctor. I mean, I know the WEIGHT I was at (190, wow :-/) and I know it was during college, but before senior year, so we're talking at least 6-7 years ago. But in any case, that's 6-7 years of no checking blood pressure, cholesterol, and other general health things I'm sure I need to be watching for. I'm glad to say at 2pm tomorrow, that will be remedied. I'm going for my first doctor visit with Dr. Ruzbarsky. I'm a little nervous but a little excited. Because I like telling people I'm losing weight. It makes me feel accomplished. I'm sure he'll talk about what I need to lose still, and I'll need blood work, but I know a lot of things are already improved. My blood pressure for instance, was 164 on the systolic when I had pneumonia this year. Now I'm sure pneumonia was part of that, but 164 is almost stage 2 hypertension. Now, I'm down to the 120s. Still a bit high, but way closer to normal.

Another big piece of this is the exercise. I didn't do that any of the other times. I'm actually getting excited to run and try races and think down the road. I'm already planning the 5K in November and the Warrior Dash in 2012. Once that's done and I can really hit the ground with running, I'm torn on whether to go for 10K/Half-Marathons, or maybe start trying to train for a Triathlon. I know Ironman is out...EVER! And I don't really want to do the Tough Mudder...EVER! But apart from those two, I want to try these fun crazy runs like "Run For Your Lives" Zombie 5K. I loved when I went to do my 5 min run on Monday and despite thinking I was never going to make it, I pushed through and did it. Goal setting, goal smashing.

I'm Not a Gourmet Cook, But I Try... - Cheesy Sausage and Eggs, The Lean Way

Starting to fall behind on my posting goal, but two of the things I really enjoy lately are cooking and getting healthy. More on the getting healthy in a later post, but I want to start putting up some good diet recipes which I find helps me stay in my diet goals while not eating "health foods". Basically, a way to get some good comfort food while not busting your gut.


I love breakfast. Eggs are awesome, Sausage is f-in awesome, and Cheese is always gold. Combine the 3, and you have one glorious pile...of fat! 2 oz of Jimmy Dean Sausage is 22 grams of fat. Cheese is 8 grams of fat for 1/4 cup, and eggs, while they are nutritious... 4.5 grams of fat PER EGG. So, if you wanted to make some scrambled eggs, let's say 3 eggs, with cheese and 2 oz of sausage... almost 44 grams of fat. In one meal. No sir! And calories? 520 for 3 eggs, 1/4 cup of cheese, and 2 oz of sausage. So on a diet, I guess you can't eat this right?


Cheesy Eggs and Sausage, the Lean Way



1/2 cup of egg beaters, yellow
1/4 cup of egg beaters, whites
2/3 cup of Jimmy Dean Turkey Sausage Crumbles
1/4 cup of 2% Shredded Mexican Cheese
2 tbsp of 2% Milk (Just to fluff the eggs a bit, this is optional)

1. Put a skillet on the stove with cooking spray on low-medium heat (3 or 4 out of 10)
2. Mix the egg beaters and milk in a cup
3. Once your skillet is heated, pour the egg and milk mixture in the skillet
4. Allow it to cook untouched until you can see bubbles forming where the bottom is cooked
5. Pour in the turkey sausage crumbles and wait 2 minutes
6. Start scrambling it all up, continue cooking until all liquid is gone and the mixture is good and cooked
7. In a bowl, put 1/8 cup of cheese on the bottom
8. Once the eggs and sausage are finished cooking, spoon it into the bowl, then add 1/8 cup of cheese on top
9. Allow to sit for a minute or two, then stir so that the cheese is mixed well into the sausage and eggs
10. Go to town!

265 calories
10 grams of fat
36 grams of protein
5 carbs

For my diet, the only problem here is the lack of carbs, as I need to eat about 220 a day. But eating some toast with this would help that out, and if I use my *plug* Giant Lite Italian Bread, 50 calories per slice, 0.5 grams of fat, 12 carbs per slice...That brings our meal totals to 365 calories, 11 grams of fat, 29 carbs, 42 grams of protein.

Notes:
*Eggs aren't a bad thing to cut out, so feel free to take out the egg substitute and use real eggs, just remember that if you are counting grams of fat, that's 15 grams of fat compared to 0 in egg beaters.
*You can use fat free shredded cheese, which I found at Giant, but the last time I tried that, it tasted weird to me
*Turkey Sausage Crumbles are awesome. Sometimes, I just eat those alone to help get in some protein at breakfast. To me, the taste difference between beef/pork and turkey is minimal.

Fighting the Good Fight

wow, so my last post was pretty gloomy. But, as we all know, it usually gets worse before it can get better...

So Shannon got all lined up for her radiation treatments, and actually went through two of them. Before doing it, they sent her for a PET scan to examine lymph node involvement and get a baseline measurement for her tumor. Well, at her 2nd appointment, the radiation oncologist grabbed her into a side room. The lymph nodes were okay, but the scan turned up suspicious spots on Shannon's liver. The liver is generally the first place this cancer spreads to. While they can't tell for sure if it's cancer or not (suspicious spots can be cancer or any number of other conditions which cause sugars to burn quicker than normal), they thought the best course of treatment now is to stop radiation and instead attack this thing with a more broadband chemotherapy. That means no more chemo pills. This is full on, intravenous chemo.

Now, let's let me work out why this doesn't mean the end of the world. First of all, Dr. Hermann was quick to point out that he has several patients who had it spread to the liver who have gone past the 10 year mark still cancer free. Also, looking at wikipedia, when the cancer is isolated in the liver in small spots, you can do surgery to "resect" the liver and the prognosis for that is above 50% over 5 years, rather than the grim 5% that Stage 4 would usually quote you. And we still don't really know that it is cancer, it could be nothing.

So today was Day 1 of chemo. And we got our first snippet of good news today. Comparing the blood work from this morning to the blood work taken last week, Shannon's tumor marker has already dropped after just two treatments of radiation. So it looks like the cancer should be responding well to the treatments. Chemo treatments will be long...2 hour wait in the beginning while blood work confirms her cell counts, then 3-4 hours of infusion, followed by a 46 hour infusion pump. But the whole staff there? AMAZING! They constantly shower you with attention, ask you if you need things, explain everything, ask to see your kids, the whole deal! And they even made sure to get Shannon a day bed with a window today so she'd have a nice comfy treatment.

So that's that. This is going to be a long tough journey for Shannon, but everything in my head is telling me she can beat it. It will suck, but everyone at Hopkins has been awesome and made this experience a lot easier to go through.

When Life Takes a Crap On You

It's kind of hauntingly ironic that my last post talked about a new era between having a 3 year old, a new born, and dieting...

Shannon's weight loss concerned her doctor, so they sent her to a GI, who thought she probably had IBS but sent her for a colonoscopy as a pre-caution. During that, they found a large growth low in her intestinal track, so large it prevented them from going any further. They took a biopsy of it and sent her for a CT scan and bloodwork. We knew right away, from the diagnosis codes on the CT scan order, that the doctor suspected cancer. Half a week later, we got the heavy news...cancer. Various CT scans have shown no mestases, so that's good, but still...CANCER?!

Through some gentle prodding by families, we decided to start working with Johns Hopkins, since they have a specialty center for these type of cancers, rated #3 in the world. So, this week was pretty swamped with appointments. Met with a surgeon on Wednesday who dropped another rock on us...The treatment plan won't just be surgery. Radiation and chemotherapy for 4-5 weeks before, followed by chemo for 4 months after the surgery. Now, in fairness, the reason they are doing this is because with this type of cancer, there's really good results shown when you go for this type of treatment. As one of the oncologists described it, you want to try to kill this thing in one shot, rather than being conservative and having to battle it 3 or 4 times. Still, it means a lot of changes and isn't something that'll be fun. On Thursday, Shannon went for an MRI in the morning, then met with radiation oncologist where they laid out what was going to happen with the radiation. On Friday, we met with medical oncologist to discuss the chemo piece, Shannon got another CT scan, and then she had her simulation radiation treatment. That should be it for the initial appointments, now it's just waiting for the treatment to be ready to execute.

I wanted to blog this because I want to ask anyone I know to pray, hope, send good thoughts, or whatever your own spirituality allows, send it Shannon's way. She has been really strong up through this point, taking in a lot of information and rolling with the changes this is going to bring, but this is definitley emotionally tolling, and once the treatment starts, that's going to be just a little heavier to bear. We're optimistic, everyone at Hopkins is really great and this is a very well studied cancer, so the treatments are something that has been shown to have a high success rate. And everyone knows Shannon...she's head strong. She's not going to let this take her under. But please send any good thoughts you can.

Another thing you can do...So a way I can combine being a supportive husband with the fitness I've been trying to improve. The Undy 5k in Washington DC is November 5th, 2011, benefitting Colon Cancer Awareness. I'm sticking my flag in the ground...this is my first fitness goal. Be able to finish a 5k and not be the last place runner, finishing a solid 3 hours later. If you are interested in joining a team, or donating, please let me know. I'm excited to do this, wanted to try some sort of event to motivate my fitness, and to pick one that is for cause, and especially one that ties into what Shannon is going to....it's just perfect.

New Era

Technically, it's still within 3 weeks, so that doesn't count as letting this thing go, right?

Darcy is 1 month old. Her weight issues are clearly in the dust, she's up to 6 lbs, 12 oz. She had gained 4 oz at the first doctor's appointment, back on my last post. Then she gained another 6 to get back to birth weight one week later, and gained a full 16 in the past two weeks. So, no more medical issues. Now we can just focus on the normal newborn stuff. Like trouble sleeping at night. She was better the past two nights with a humidifier in the room, but before that, we were practically having to hold her while she slept. Didn't remember Noah having that issue. The main thing now is just remembering all the little things that come up with newborns. Like how sometimes, she'll be mad until I stand and hold her. As soon as I sit, no dice. I'll get used to it....again

Noah is becoming every bit of a 3 year old. While that includes better performance in his toileting and being a sharp, observant chatterbox, it also include the terrible parts. Like trying to bite my shirt if I tell him "Noah, you can't possibly play with a guitar, a castle, two cars, and a cheetah all at the same time, please put some toys away". The worst is some of the things he says. I'm not talking curse words...I think we pretty much nipped that one by watching our own mouths and reminding him what was naughty, mistake words. No, this is much tougher. Like, when he doesn't like something we've told him to do or not do..."You don't ever say that again". I'm like "WTF kid???". But then, I remember, when he said something mean, I told him "Don't ever use that language". So he's really just trying to emulate us. Crap. Aanother good example is when he tried to run into the street, telling him "Don't ever do that". Yup, that got turned right back around on us. Also, not to brag, but my kid is uber-good at taking pictures. We got his spring pictures back and need to decide on a picture order. But it's too hard, because all his pictures look awesome. And he can suprise me a lot with the things he can do physically. Like about 3 weeks ago, we took him to an inflatable play place. So they have one of those big slides where you have to climp up the side and can slide down a 25 foot slide. Naturally, I'm too heavy to go on these things, so I was watching from the side. I was sure he wasn't going to be able to climb it, but sure enough...he climbed the thing about 5 times. On the 5th, he finally got scared of going down the slide. That gave me a nice 5 minute fright, trying to figure out how I'd go up and get him being that I'd probably cause the whole thing to pop.

Speaking of that...I finally decided to do something about this weight. I've been overweight...since grade school really. When I entered college, I was probably a decent enough weight, but Freshman 15 turned into Sophmore 30, turned into Junior 45, etc, etc. When I got married, I was at about 220 pounds and maintaining. But then, when Shannon got pregnant with Noah, I jumped to about 240. Since then, I've gained another 20, putting me at 260. Once I saw I'd jumped over 250, something just clicked with me. My BMI puts me in morbid obesity. Morbid. Diseased. This isn't just me being overweight, this is bad health. I think I've always put Noah, Darcy, and Shannon's health in front of my own, but the longer I stay this weight, the worse it'll be in the long run, and the harder it'll be to get back down.

So, after my team at worked kicked off a Fitness Challenge earlier this year, I decided to knuckle down and really start getting this under control. My plan, for now, is to use SparkPeople again to track calories, fat, carbs, and protein. Add into that, I'm trying to do about 3 days a week of walking/jogging or cardio DVD. I prefer the walking/jogging, because I can listen to my music and go at my own pace, but the cardio DVD is more convenient because I can do it in the living room. Progress will probably be slow, but I'm already down to about 258. My goal is to get to 160 by April 2012. 160 puts me JUST over the "healthy weight" line on the BMI scale. Hopefully, the weight loss and the exercise will also prep me to be able to do th Fit Challenge at work. It's going to take some time (They were using the Army Fit Test Guidelines), but my plan is to get in a respectable range there too. UPDATE: I also found this, which goes hand in hand with the "Army measuring stick"...http://usmilitary.about.com/od/army/l/blmaleweight.htm. My max weight for my height and age is 169-174. So 160 is a good target.

The dieting isn't too bad, because as long as I cut the right things out in the right places, I can still enjoy a splurge here and there. Example, one day this week Noah wanted Taco Bell. Instead of ordering my "usual meal" (2 Beef Chalupas, 1 taco = 930 calories, 56 g fat), I got 2 Chicken Gorditas and 1 taco, for 710 calories and 30 g fat. Still not the best for a diet, but I'm finding that cutting an unhealthy bit here or there makes a big difference.

So, between the dieting, the newborn, and the Terrible 3s coming, looks like a Brand New Era for the Hamilton Household.

Open Letter to the (former) NFLPA and the NFL Owners

I missed the boat with the lockout occurring while we were in the hospital with Darcy. I try not to take sides, but since the owners wanted to continue negotiating and made a last minute offer where they finally made a lot of concessions, I think I blame the players a bit more right now. I know there's still tons of time, but now that you decertified, which triggered the owners to begin the lockout, there are going to be moutains of lawsuits to clear before you can strike a deal.

But this letter is squarely aimed at both sides. Because in the end, this is a give and take situation, and the owners only gave a little bit...

You can all count your money, which is still probably decent even with no football. Ticket holders can cry foul about the money they put out for tickets, but it will be returned. We can all gripe about what we'll do on Sundays, but there are plenty of things we can do.

The thing that puts this labor tragedy in perspective for me is how my 2 year old son, who's been talking about going to Ravens Training Camp NON-STOP since it left Westminster, now has to be told that he probably can't go to Training Camp this year, because it won't happen. Maybe they get a deal done late and it's held at M&T Bank Stadium, which is fine, I'll take him to it once or twice. But having to try to explain to a 2 year old everyday why this great thing known as football won't be around for him to watch? That's just wrong.

Take it with a grain of salt, but there are just somethings about this lockout/decertification/money grubbing which really get tired. Congrats football, you've managed to get me excited for baseball.

Oops, I done it again...

Over/under on how long I'll stick with blogging again: 3 weeks, or 4 blog posts

So, much has happened since our vacation...That was 9 months ago. About the time it takes to grow a baby...oh wait...

Yup, so we're officially a clan now. Not just a trio, we added a 2nd guitarist to our merry little band. We found out in July 2010, discovered the baby was a she in November 2010, and named her Darcy Noelle shortly after. The original plan was to have a C-section on March 15th, at 39 weeks pregnant. On March 8th, the doctor sent Shannon for a non-stress test to make sure the baby was moving okay. I can clearly remember the discussion as she was going in for the test, because she wanted BBQ for dinner, but we had no idea when the test would be done, so I had just planned to make something for Noah and we'd figure out dinner afterwards. Well, around 8pm that plan went out the window because as they were doing the non-stress test, they saw Shannon was contracting, and pretty regularly and quickly. After an overnight observation, her doctor advised us to go with the C-section a week early, since he was confident Darcy was good enough to go and the contractions wouldn't stop with meds or fluids.

So, at 12:28pm on March 9th, we brought baby #2 into the world. So in addition to coming a week early, our second suprise was when they weighed her. Noah was...a big baby. 9 lbs 5 oz, 21 inches long, pretty heavyweight size for a baby, even at 42 weeks. As the doctors measured Shannon during her pregnancy, they came to the conclusion that Darcy would be BIGGER if not as big as Noah. So imagine our shock when the scale read 5 lbs 12 oz. 62% of Noah's birthweight. I actually decided to put their scale pictures side by side to compare...

Image wouldn't fit here...

So when she then dropped birthweight, it got even scarier for us, getting down to 5 lbs, 2 oz by the time we left the hospital. She's maintained since then, and we'll hear from the doctor today if she's gained. If she hasn't, I have to know where it's going. We're trying to let her dictate when she eats, but we usually supplement at 4 hours with about 40 cc of milk if she isn't eating. She's been eating much better, so I have to think the weight is about to come up.

Noah has been taking it in stride. We're all adjusting to new routines. Noah has been waking up and running into Darcy's room before we can get him. This wouldn't be an issue, but he likes trying to poke her. Also, he's waking up at around 4am or 5am, which is crazy early considering it takes him until 8:30 or 9 to go to sleep. We've been adjusting too. He's very pushy for an almost 3 year old, and since we're already stressed about Darcy, we end up getting frustrated a lot. Most recent example is the football shirts. Noah has two Redskin shirts and two Ravens shirts. Over time, it's gotten to be that he will try re-wearing the shirts a 2nd day in a row, or throwing a fit if we ask him to wear a non-football shirt. I think we both reached a breaking point on Saturday. All his football shirts were dirty, so we put him in a guitar shirt. I didn't count, but he must've told us around 40 times on Saturday that he wanted to wear his football shirt. And he's also in that "flip-flop phase" now. The one where when I ask him to make a decision, he says "okay I want spaghetti for dinner. No! I was ham steak. No Ham Steak! I want spaghetti...". He's still an awesome kid, and I love him like crazy, but he's definitley a 3 year old in his mannerisms.

And that's been my life for the past two weeks. I have work emails open, but they've smartly not included me in many things because I end up doing stuff even when i'm supposed to be ignoring work. I start working again tomorrow, albeit from home so that we can begin making sure Shannon can handle everything without me around (driving, getting lunch, getting things to drink, etc). More to elaborate on later, hopefully I can stick with this blog thing for longer than a month. We shall see...