Technology Blog

This is getting ridiculous. On December 27 I came down with the full-blown, wish-I-was-dead version of the dreaded norovirus that’s terrorizing Rochester—it knocked me out completely for a day, but took five days to recover completely from.

Last Monday I came down with a lower-GI-only-version that took me out for all of Tuesday. Two GI bugs in two weeks—I figured I was particularly unlucky.

This morning I woke up at 3:30am with what turned out to be round two of the norovirus (or something very like it). It was worse, not better, the second time around. I wasn’t able to keep liquids down until late afternoon, and while the symptoms have abated now I still feel like I’ve been hit by a bus.

A little research on the CDC site (once I was able to sit up again) yielded two relevant pieces of information. First, that it is possible to be reinfected, though typically people get a few months of resistance rather than a few weeks. And second, that people with type O blood (that’s me) are genetically predisposed to be more vulnerable to the virus.

I really hope that this bad luck traveled in threes, and that I won’t be seeing symptoms like these again in the near future.

source: sick sick sick of being sick

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been this sick. It started early yesterday morning, and right now is the first time since Tuesday night then that I’ve left my bedroom, sat upright, or looked at a book or a screen of any kind. I’m still not ready to tackle solid food…I’ve been subsisting on Gatorade since yesterday afternoon.

It could have been worse, though. I could have gotten the stomach bug from hell on Christmas Day, or even the day after (which is reserved for my annual shopping trip with Alex). More of us could have been sick at once. And on the bright side, the popsicle that I had at 3pm yesterday was without a doubt the sweetest and most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. Like mana from heaven.

Time to invest in a large stash of hand santizer, I think, because I really really don’t want to see anyone else in my family go through this.

source: not the best way to lose the christmas cookie weight

One of the most-read posts on mamamusings is control freak, my discussion of my slide into—and recovery from—depression.

After I wrote it, the outpouring of support—both publicly and privately—were nothing short of astounding to me. It helped me to realize how important blogs are in helping us to see the world through the eyes of others. First-person accounting, particularly from a voice you’ve come to trust and love, is a powerful tool for education.

Even though I don’t need to read someone else’s words to understand what depression is, and how it can make someone feel, I’m still always grateful when I find an eloquent description of the disease. Partly because it spreads the message a little further, partly because it reminds me of where I’ve been, and of how important it is for me not to go back there.

Dervala’s writing always pulls me in. She’s a consummate storyteller, always painting extraordinary pictures with her posts. Today’s post was no exception. The difference was that instead of detailing one of her trips to Southeast Asia, or South America, or Brooklyn, or the Haight, she talked about her own depression.

Like rheumatoid arthritis, depression turns your own body against itself. It chews not on your cartilage, but on your brain cells and your sense of reality. It’s as seductive as a wife-beater, shutting out other voices to turn itself into your only friend. The only one who tells the truth about the bleakness of the world. All your energy goes towards getting through whatever stands in your way—struggling, slogging, pushing, through work and small talk and getting food—whatever it is you have to get through until you can be alone again with the voice who can be trusted.

Beautifully and bravely written.

With luck (and an occasional round of medication), I’ll never need to take more than a vicarious journey through that dark countryside again.

source: beating back the beast

I went for an eye exam yesterday, because I could literally feel the strain on my eyes and the headaches it was causing. It appears I can no longer avoid the dreaded bifocal lens. And omg…glasses seem much more expensive these days than they used to, and adding bifocal lenses to my blind-as-a-bat nearsightedness makes for a mighty pricey pair of specs. (My rx is so strong that I have to buy the super-light/thin lenses in order to wear most frames, and my vanity is so strong that I opted for the progressive lenses so that it’s not quite so obvious that they’re bifocals.)

I’m also going back to contact lenses, at least part time, so today I started pairing those with reading glasses. And while these glasses make me feel old beyond my years, they’re awfully helpful with little things like being able to read text on a screen (as well as on paper).

source: aging eyes

The European Health Insurance Card is dead handy,
providing access to healthcare for EU residents while travelling in Europe –
it’s definitely worth having one.

There were a few
reports in the
Irish newspapers last week of an announcement by the Health Service Executive,
warning of “a bogus website” which charges a fee of EUR22 to process
applications for this:

The HSE also warned that the site is asking applicants to submit detailed financial information. “It has come to the attention of the Health Service Executive that Irish residents are being targeted by a website which is unnecessarily charging people to apply for EHIC cards. The bogus site concerned — http://www.ehic-card.eu/ — is not connected to the HSE,” said the HSE in a statement.

I’d link to the HSE’s press release on the topic, but it’s down,
apparently — and that’s pretty indicative of the
problem. You see, I’ve been trying to apply for one of these recently.

The HSE has been announcing that there’s no need to use this “bogus site”,
since we can just use the “real” site at http://www.ehic.ie/ to apply for one.
Here’s what they neglect to mention:

• (a) that unless you’re a pensioner you can’t apply for one online — you
  have to print out a form, fill it in, and post it to your local health
  office.
• (b) there’s no indication on the site as to what exactly your “Local Health
  Office” may be, just a long list of mysterious locations.
• (c) in order to apply, the form demands that you supply all that ‘detailed
  financial information’ — namely your name, address, date of birth, proof
  of residency, and PPS number — anyway.
• (d) the “bogus site” isn’t really all that bogus after all.

If they had a simple and usable online application process, perhaps they
wouldn’t be plagued by other sites attempting to offer that service for what is
really a quite reasonable EUR22 fee?

This is a pretty frequent phenomenon on Irish
governmental websites; a half-assed attempt to bring
governmental services online, resulting in shiny informational sites, full
of clip-art of smiling people talking on the phone, which all come down to a
bottom line of “print this out and post it in” or “call this number” –
business as usual. Having said that, at least I can generally still get a human on the phone, which still
beats dealing with US government agencies, I guess!

BTW, I notice the HSE claim that it only takes 10 working days for an EHIC to arrive using their system. I applied for mine 3 weeks ago, and there’s been no word yet…

Tags:ehic eu government health hse internet ireland

This post was written by Justin, source: The EHIC and Irish government websites

A couple of people have asked “offline” whether things are still on track with the dietary and activity changes. The answer is definitely yes. Still doing cardio 3x/week and weights 3x/week, and the changes in food intake continue. Gerald and I pushed our “cheat day” from last Sunday to Tuesday, so we could have a decadent valentine’s dinner. It was wonderful, but I found I didn’t really want to eat all of the carbs that came with it, so I ended up eating much less than I might have. (I even stopped halfway through the creme brulee, which is quite unusual for me.) Despite that, I felt unpleasantly full for the rest of the evening—a sign that my body has definitely adapted to the new eating habits.

Some discoveries of good replacement snack foods along the way…

• Luna bars, which I think are hands-down the best tasting of the various high-protein snack bars out there (so far I’ve tried, and liked, the S’Mores, Lemon Zest, Chai Tea, and Cookies ‘n’ Cream flavors).
• Soy Crisps, which satisfy my chip cravings
• Terra Chips, also good for chip cravings

Weight loss is slow but steady. Well-being increases are faster and also steady. It’s all good.

source: staying the course

Two weeks ago, I decided to shift from the more flexible approach to getting fit outlined in Pam Peeke’s Body for Life for Women book to the more prescriptive approach in Bill Phillips’ original Body for Life book. I did this after seeing how well the latter program was already starting to work for my husband.

At this two-week mark, I’m pretty amazed by the results. The scale shows a drop of only 3 pounds—from 136.5 to 133.5. But the tale of the tape (as they say in boxing) is more striking. I’ve lost nearly 2” from my waist, and 1” each from my bust, hips, and thighs. My arms have stayed the same, but I suspect that’s because of the muscle being added. I can totally feel the difference in how my clothes fit. Beyond that, I also feel more energetic, more balanced. (Gerald’s results have been even more impressive, but that’s his story to tell, not mine.)

So, how does it work? It’s pretty straightforward. Six days a week you exercise, alternating a high-intensity 20 minute cardio workout on one day with a 40-45 minute weight training routine the next. For the weights, you alternate between upper body one day and lower the next, using a formula for increasing intensity—12 reps at a relatively easy weight, followed by 10 at a higher weight, 8 at the next higher, 6 at the next higher, then 12 at a lower weight followed immediately (no 1-minute break like the others) by 12 of a different exercise for the same muscle group. The goal is to hit a point by the last rep where you absolutely, positively, couldn’t do another rep if your life depended on it. (He provides downloadable PDF worksheets on his web site, which makes it easy to keep track of your progress and plan your workout for the next day.)

The recommendation is to do this on an empty stomach, and then to wait an hour afterwards before eating—to ensure maximum fat-burning. So getting the workout done first thing in the morning makes the most sense, and also lets you get it out of the way for the rest of the day.

On the food side, Phillips recommends that you eat 5-6 small meals a day—eating every 3 hours or so. Each meal is supposed to have both a healthy carb and some protein, with the emphasis being on reasonable portion sizes rather than calorie counting. Veggies can be eaten with any meal, in whatever quantity you like. He particularly encourages the use of protein/health bars for the in-between meals, and that’s worked well for me. I’ve become quite the expert on the different brands and flavors, and have finally found a few that I genuinely enjoy rather than tolerating.

The plan allows for one “cheat day” a week, during which you can eat whatever foods you want, and yesterday I indulged in french fries at lunch, and potato chips and a white roll with my burger at dinner. Turns out my body really doesn’t like those refined carbs much anymore, and I felt like crap by bedtime. Interestingly, I’ve had almost no cravings for sweets since starting the program, and wasn’t the least bit tempted by my kids’ milkshakes and ice cream after lunch.

This is a 12-week plan, at the end of which you can assess where you are and decide if you want to reduce the intensity of the weight training. But I suspect that the dietary changes that Gerald and I are making aren’t going to end after 12 weeks. It’s clearly improving our quality of life, and that’s not just a short term goal. More importantly, this feels sustainable. We’re eating foods we enjoy, and we don’t feel hungry at all during the day. This is nothing like “diets” I’ve been on in the past—it feels like a low-level shift in our way of thinking about food and eating.

More updates to come.

source: fitness update: the tale of the tape

I’ve been sticking to my plan to change my activity level and food intake—better than I would have expected, actually. We’ve stocked the house with healthy foods, which helps a lot. And I’m getting used to getting up earlier in order to get to the gym.

So far, I’ve seen little in the way of actual weight or size reduction, which is a little disheartening—especially since my best friend and husband are shedding pounds like crazy. But I’m going to be patient. These are good changes, regardless of whether they satisfy my desire for instant gratification.

This weekend I got a free consultations with a personal trainer at our health club, which included height/weight/measurements, body composition analysis, and strength and flexibility tests.

The good news is, my blood pressure continues to be low, and my resting heart rate is lower than I thought. The really good news is that my strength tested at “excellent” (I hit a level that would have counted as excellent even if I was 18, which was gratifying). The bad news…well, let’s just say I won’t be sharing body comp or measurement numbers anytime soon. Maybe in April, if I’ve made significant progress, I’ll share the “before” info for comparison purposes. Then again, maybe I won’t!

Gerald decided to use the more prescriptive plan from Bill Phillips’s book Body for Life, and after looking it over (and seeing how well it’s working for Gerald), I’m going to give it a shot as well. The difference is really a focus on intensity, with a clear plan for 3x/week high-intensity interval-style cardio work, and 3x/week strength training. I did my first weights session last night with Gerald coaching, and it was definitely intense.

My blogging about my commitment to getting fit again had an unexpected bonus—I got email this week from another person who’ll be attending this week’s “search champs” event here at Microsoft, and we’ve made a pact to monitor each other’s food intake at the various social events (at which large quantities of food are regularly served). It helps a lot to know that someone else is “in it” with me…and that someone will notice if I happen to reach for a brownie in the middle of the afternoon!

source: fitness update

This week I attended several presentations at the Microsoft Women’s Conference, a 3-day event held on the corporate campus in Redmond. There were hundreds of other women there—all Microsoft employees. So many, in fact, that several of the mens’ rooms had been temporarily converted to women’s rooms, prompting MSN VP Debra Chrapaty to exhort us to take advantage of our unique opportunity to make deals in the men’s room. (Chrapaty was part of a wonderful panel of female VPs at Microsoft, and I loved her description of her own personal style—“outwardly casual, inwardly rigorous.”)

When I registered for the conference, I made sure to select a session on “Body for Life for Women,” based on the book by that name and presented by its author, Pam Peeke. Pam’s a friend-of-a-friend—while in Seattle, she was staying with my good friend Linda Stone, who had strongly encouraged me to attend the talk.

Before the presentation was over, I’d ordered the book. Not only that, I’d ordered a second copy to be shipped directly to my best friend and workout buddy. (She may be 2500 miles away, but we can still be virtual workout buddies…)

Pam’s approach centers around a 12-week “body challenge,” which includes aspects of changing your mindset, your eating habits, and your exercise routine (“mind/mouth/muscle”). The book itself arrived wrapped in a thin strip of paper covered with before-and-after photos of women who’d done the 12-week challenge. The photos are inspirational, and I’ve put them up on my fridge as a daily reminder that I can do this. The stories that accompany the photos are in the book, and they’re equally inspirational. These are real women, with real lives and real stresses. The message is clear—if they can do it, so can I. (She’s also got a fabulous quote in the book from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Women are like tea bags. You never know how strong they are until they’re in hot water.”)

I’m also going to use her “clothes-o-meter” trick, which is to pick out a pair of pants that you think you ought to be able to wear when you’re in good shape. They have to be pants that you can pull up over your rear, but not even come close to zippering. (Hmmm…I wonder if I could even get my infamous black leather pants over my hips any more. They’re in Rochester, so I can’t check.) You hang those pants in the front of your closet, so you have to see them every day when you’re getting dressed. She then describes the message you’ll get from them each morning: “Mornin’! Are you going to have a good day today? Great! ‘Cause I’ll be right here waiting for you when you get home!”

What I really wish I had was a local workout buddy who wanted to hit the gym with me on a regular basis. I know from past experience that it’s the best motivator for me—I’m a lot less likely to hit the snooze button and burrow back under the covers if I know someone’s expecting to meet me. But I’ve let that be my excuse for too long now, and I’m not happy with the results. When I turned 40, almost four years ago, I was in the best shape of my life. Since then I’ve put on nearly 30 pounds—all of it fat. Blech. I’m back where I started before I got fit, and I don’t like it one bit.

So yes, I’m taking Dr. Peeke’s body challenge. Starting this week, I’m embarking on 12 weeks of commitment to taking care of myself. Healthier food, regular exercise, and a commitment to not wearing my stress on my body. That puts my ending date for the challenge in mid-April, just in time for my birthday. I want to feel as good (and as good about myself) this year as I did in 2002.

When Weez was here she jumpstarted my gym attendance, and this week I’ve gotten up early three times to go do cardio and weights before getting to the office. Next week I’m going to start going daily—I know myself well enough to know that I’m more likely to stick with something that’s part of a daily routine than something that I can put off ‘til tomorrow. This morning I’m en route to California to spend a weekend in Monterey with some of the most amazing women I know. I brought workout clothes, and have every intention of getting some exercise every day. Here in the San Jose airport, I opted for a protein-enriched smoothie instead of a burger. Small steps, but steps nonetheless.

(Note to Weez: My ongoing reluctance to do leg workouts was backed up by Dr. Peeke! In her talk, she said that particularly if you’re overweight, there’s no real need to do weight training for your legs, that cardio will take care of them for you. “The heavier you are” she said, “the stronger your legs are. You’re your own gym!” Instead, she said to focus on pelvis on up. She alternates days—chest/shoulders/triceps one day, back and biceps the next.)

I’m not going to chronicle the process here on the blog, but Weez and I are going to set up a private space (in Basecamp, probably)

source: accepting the challenge

I just found this blog. It’s from a guy with terminal cancer, and it is absolutely hysterical. “All things are possible - ok, maybe not probable, but I still do the lottery.” I go in for my lung biopsy tomorrow morning… you can find out how it goes on my step mom’s blog. I’m excited to finally find out whatever it is that I’m going to find out….

Sirota articulates the pro-business case for minimum health care laws. What a simple way to think about it. We need minimum health care requirements for businesses, just like we have a minimum wage. Duh….

I have a long-standing tradition of acquiring and becoming obsessive about a new video game during vacations and holidays. This summer is no different—except for the fact that this obsession is actually healthy!

We bought DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) for Lane for his birthday, and it’s turned out that I’m the one who’s playing it nonstop. Calories burned today: 550 650 900! More fun than a treadmill, that’s for sure.

As usual, obsessive game playing will take precedence over blogging, so don’t expect to see too much of my here. (Plus there’s that pesky packing problem to deal with, too, seeing as how we’re leaving in a mere 3 weeks…)

source: new obsession

source: Bulimia killed Terri Schiavo

Andrew Molenda sent me an email about the bankruptcy bill that just passed the Senate. The bill makes it harder for individuals to file, and will have a cruel effect on cancer survivors and others dealing with major medical crises. But what grabbed me was the tagline on his blog: “Part of being a cancer survivor is finding a meaning for why you were allowed to survive.” Amen to that….

source: Bankruptcy bill passes Senate