Running Times

Quick post for today. Wanted to report in that I have not, I repeat, have not met my goal of drinking one bottle of water every day. How pathetic is that? I am renewing this goal for the upcoming week. I will drink water every day.

Denby and I ran the Lanikai loop yesterday. I clocked us at 26:43. That's pretty good for my second run around the loop in a while. We started and finished at the boat ramp. I'm going to continue to clock us so I can see if we're making progress.

Hopefully I'll have a chance to take a picture of Titus today in his new life jacket. Yesterday Nate and I took Titus down to Hawaii Kai during low tide. We bought him a life jacket that has handles on the top, so you can actually pick him up out of the water. We put it on him and had him swim, and he actually did really well! He didn't struggle like he usually does, the vest held him up so he could paddle. He usually panics, and has hated swimming for that reason. Plus, I don't think he's very buoyant. Anyway, I have to take a picture of him in his swim gear, it's really cute and really, really funny.

I took a picture of Titus in his jacket!

Here Nate is showing how you can pick him up with the handles.

Na Wahine O Ke Kai

Okay, finally, here is my blog about paddling the Molokai Channel. Throughout the paddling season (including regatta) I heard over and over again that this is the race that all of your training is going for, that this is the race that it's all about. Last year I couldn't handle the time commitment that long distance paddling calls for. This year I decided just to suck it up, because I may never have the time or the ability again.
Most girls flew out to Molokai on Friday. I had to work on Friday, so I scheduled my flight for Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of the cruising around on Molokai, checking out the beach and relaxing. More fortunately, I missed out on the cleaning of the house shutters (saved us a hundred bucks on our total lodging cost). Apparently there were 60 shutters which may have never been cleaned before. It took the girls over 3 hours, and although they say they bonded over the task, I was happy just to help with dinner later in the evening. I am not sad to have missed this event.

I arrived in Molokai after a terrifying flight on a propeller plane. I was sitting right behind the pilot, who didn't seem to be paying much attention. This worried me and made the turbulence seem a little more significant. However, I landed safe and sound on the island of Molokai. The airport is tiny, hopefully I will have a picture to show later. We then headed out to the grocery is store in bumping Kaunakakai. (Note the sarcasm, it was deserted.) Again, I took pictures of the goats at the store fronts, I hope to add those later. We then headed out to the house.

I had the opportunity to help everyone make the pasta dinner, we all had some part in putting together the meal. Ku`ulei made some incredible meatballs and Denby fried up some zucchini and eggplant for the vegetarians. She also made an incredible salad. We ate dinner and convened for the team meeting. Dan and Derek gave us a pep talk about conditions and told us how we were going to win (well, not really). We set a goal of beating 6 hours.

After dinner we all did our best to clean our systems by drinking coffee, taking fiber and hydrating. We chatted for a while about crock-pot recipes and then I headed to bed. By bed I mean a padded seat that went around the windows. I would have slept with Denby on the mattress on the floor, but she wouldn't let me cuddle with her. I'm still not sure why. Note the scary puppet that's hanging from the ceiling in the picture. That is just one of the weird, "eclectic" pieces of the owner's collection of "art." I slept pretty well except for the fact that my arms would fall asleep if I turned on my side and also that I woke up to pee ever two hours. That's okay, because we had to get up at 5:00am. The alarm went off and I grabbed some coffee and went outside to look at the stars that were incredibly clear.

For the next hour we all made breakfast and did our best to "drop the kids at the pool," or "take the browns to the superbowl" if you know what I mean. Some of us were more succesful than others. Then we were off to the race.

We got to the site, and of course we had a panic moment when we thought we had left Ku`ulei's med bag back at the house, which would mean she couldn't do the race. That got resolved and we headed to the porta-potties. Hydrating has it's drawbacks. We listened to the prayer, and hopped into the canoe.

The race start was pretty incredible, there were 86 teams in the race and we all started at 7:30am. There were boats everywhere. We had a quick run-in with another boat, we thought we might have broke the Ama, but we were good and we took off when we realized that everyone else was taking off. I never saw the flag.

The race itself was pretty incredible, you watch Molokai go, and hope that you're going to see Oahu a whole lot clearer soon. In the beginning there's such a rush of energy. Then it's just maintenance. I think we did changes every 35 minutes or so. I got back into the canoe with every change, which was cool, because I was changing in and out all the time. My changes towards the end were not very pretty, but I don't think anyone was all that graceful after 6 hours. We took a lot of pictures and rode some waves. Christie steered almost the whole thing, Shauna jumped in for 3 or for changes so Christie could pee. It got more exciting again when Diamond Head came closer and closer. We chased down several canoes during the race and that gave us some motivation to keep going hard. Waikiki seemed like it was close forever. At the very end, I was sitting in seat 5, Dan had the idea that he was going to leave the last crew in for an extended period of time to finish the race. Unfortunately I hurt my shoulder, and I'm not sure if that's the whole reason the boat slowed down, but we weren't going at our max. He did a change, and I sat out the end of the race. I'm pretty sure we won it, I wasn't there to see the finish though. I rode the escort boat in and we unpacked our goods. We were burnt, tired and ready for a beer. Of which there was plenty at the landing site.

Ananda's boyfriend Chris brought us Peanut Butter Cups and Beer, and I was very happy. We watched the announcement of the winners while we chowed down on an uninteresting buffet meal. Australia came in second, and Team Bradley won the whole thing. They missed the record by two seconds.

Overall, I think it was an incredible experience, and how cool to be able to say that I paddled from one island to another. We got great shirts out of the deal and everybody got a medal (We're all winners!). As of now, I don't think I can do it again next year. It takes so much time commitment. I was so excited to go for a run today because it was the first time I could do anything other than paddle in what seems like forever. Plus, apparently we had fantastic conditions, great surf, good wind, great tides... and it still took us six and a half hours. It makes me wonder what it would have been like in bad conditions. Anyway, I told my friends that I would write it down that I said I wouldn't do long-distance next year. Hopefully when the time to make the decision comes next year, I'll remember to look back at the blog.In the picture from left to right: Coach Derek, Sheila, Debby, Me, Denby, Ananda, Leyla, Shauna, and Cassie. Missing: Christie (I believe she's off chatting with other paddlers, hopefully also having a drink) and Ku`ulei (also socializing and hopefully enjoying a delicious brew).

A Ramble On Dieting

I've always felt that people tend to grasp onto fad diets, hoping that they'll magically lose weight. They'll read the book, which makes the diet make total sense, and stick to the principles of the diet for one or two weeks. They'll lose a whole bunch of weight or not lose any weight at all, and then they'll go back to eating the way they ate before. Even when I was really young I knew this didn't make any sense at all, and yet so many hours of women's time are wasted discussing how they're present diet is working. I always wondered why they didn't realize that you had to change the way you eat, ALL THE TIME, not just for a few weeks. And hello, why didn't people realize that fatty, greasy foods, and candy make you fat when you eat too much? And did they really not know that if you're really overweight than you are probably eating way too much of whatever it is you're eating, even if it seems healthy? And that you have to actually move your butt from the couch to lose weight? It all boils down to the fact that as Americans we have gotten altogether too lazy. We look for the quick fix. Why do the diets of the French, or the Italians, or the Chinese work better? Not because they eat more cheese or drink tea. They live a healthier lifestyle! They're not too lazy to make their lunch and dinner, or to walk down the street when they need to get something. They don't rely on the mass media to tell them what they should be eating (did we need lawsuits to tell us that McDonald's is making us fat?) they rely on what their bodies tell them and they eat what is available. They don't eat the way they do for two weeks to slim down, they eat and LIVE fairly healthy all the time. You can be vegetarian, vegan, low-carb, high carb, low-fat, and still be fat (or just unhealthy) if you don't have a healthy lifestyle to go with your diet.

I really like Myia's new blog about living healthy. I think what has helped Myia and I over the last year and a half is that we didn't just exercise, we started eating better at the same time. We started drinking more water. We started looking at not just what we were eating, but how much. Myia actually wrote down how many calories she was taking in, and anyone can see that that definitely worked for her. I just made myself look at packages and think about how many calories were in a meal before eating it. The most important thing we did though, was making the commitment to a lifestyle change. When we started we knew we weren't trying it out for a few weeks, we had to change for good.

What's the point of all of my rambling? I think it's obvious, something that we all know deep in the recesses of our minds that losing weight can't be done with a magic pill or diet. We need to stop looking at the quick fixes and get up off of our butts. Cook your own dinner. Pack a lunch. At least look to see what is really in your food before you shove it down your throat. Pay attention to how much your eating. Find a way of eating that makes you feel good, and stick to it. AND EXERCISE. There is always the excuse that we don't have enough time. But that is only an excuse. We find plenty of time in our days to email and surf the internet and watch tv. There is time for exercise.

Things that make us fat (because we eat so much of them):
Fast Food
Soda (Drinking our Calories!)
Big Portions
Lack of Exercise

Final Week of Paddling

I haven't taken any interesting pictures of my recent activity so I thought I would throw on a current picture of my little baby, Titus.

This week is the last week of distance season for paddling. Sunday is the race from Molokai to home. This is the race we have been training for all season. This morning I went to practice, felt a little stuffed up in the beginning. We paddled all the way to Smith's Point (Lanikai), and then straight out for about 15 minutes. Then we rode some waves in. After that we headed out towards Bird Island and down to the Pinky's canal. I was already feeling really burnt out and sore, and starting to feel really sick. On the way back to Kailua Canal, I felt the most tired I have felt paddling all season. I really hope it's because I'm sick, not because I am that out of shape, or that burnt out on paddling. I ended up leaving practice early because I could not picture myself getting back into the boat, which was heading back to Smith's Point one final time. That's about another hour of paddling. I made the decision to leave early. I had coffee with Joanna afterwards and we talked with Myia on conference call for a while. That was nice. It helped put some of my feelings about paddling into perspective. I'm sure I'll be ready to be back in action come Monday. I think it's a combination of body sore from being sick and from paddling so hard on Thursday night.
We also talked (on conference call with Myia) about setting goals for after paddling. I think one of the things that I have relaxed on is eating healthy. With paddling the weight was coming off so easy that I started to eat poorly again. Not as poorly as before, I don't think I'll ever go back to that. I still make lunch for Me and Nate every day for work, and our dinners are reasonably healthy. My breakfasts continue to be eggs with whatever frozen vegetables we have in the freezer. Dinners have just begun to creep up in serving size, especially with the starches. And then dessert has become a regular thing again. For a while we weren't eating very much dessert. After Nate and Bobby went to Sam's Club, we have a huge amount of skinny cow ice cream sandwiches and a whole box full of peanut butter cups.

My goals for this week:
Paddling on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Not just paddling, but enthusiastic, hard paddling. Getting to practice on time and getting excited about getting in the boat. I can do that one more week.
Sunday- Molokai
Eating: drink at least one bottle of water each day (I've relaxed on this as well)

That's it. I'm gonna keep it simple this week.

My goals for next week:
Run with Denby at least 1x. Hopefully she'll email about the time and place soon so I can put it in my planner.
Limit carbohydrate intake.

33 Mile Race

This past weekend was the E Lau Hoe race. It started at Hawaii Kai, at 8:30am and it ended at Nanakuli Beach Park. I should put this race on my Google Maps. Okay, I did, click on Google Maps and check out the course. Our starting lineup: Jenney, Ku`ulei, Me, Ananda, Debby, and Christie steering. Christie, again, steered the whole race. She's crazy. We did our first change and I got into the "pimp yacht" like I've been calling it. Joanna's friend's boat was nice. It had nice padded seats and a place to lay out in the sun in the front. You never felt like you were getting tossed around. There was also plenty of room to stretch. Not to mention the fact that it had a bed and a sink inside. We ended up doing a lot of changes, I moved around from seat 3 to seat 2, then I was in seat 4 for a little while. At the end of the race Mele was sitting seat 1, Jenney seat 2, Ananda seat 3, I was seat 4, and Debby was seat 5. We were catching up to one of the crews that was in front of us for a long time. We kept creeping up and creeping up to them. They did a change and we changed Jenney out for Sheila in seat 2. We continued to creep up on them and finally got right up to them. They did another water change and we didn't. The girls in our boat ended up paddling for at least 45 minutes. I don't know how long Mele was in because she was already in before Me, Ananda and Debby got into the boat. Anyway, it was a ton of fun and we ended up beating the boat we chased down. We got to the finish line in 5 hours and 27 minutes. Ananda and I got a ride from her boyfriend Chris. We basically wandered around talking nonsense for a while because we were so tired. We finally made it to the showers and the bathroom and made our way to his car. We stopped for gas and we bought some Peanut Butter Cups since the ones I brought for the race got left behind. That is an excellent post-race meal.
After the race me, Nate, and our neighbors Fish and Debby got together to barbecue. Titus plays with their dog Norm. Ananda and Chris showed up later with a bottle of wine. It was a pretty good day.
This week has been pretty crazy, I'm trying to learn the Ho`ohua therapist position. It's hard to keep all the names, paperwork and information straight.
Yesterday I had paddling practice. I keep promising myself that I'm going to go for a run, but I just lose the energy and motivation for it when I get home. Perhaps I need to bring my stuff with me and just change at the bathroom before the loop. I usually have some energy right at the end of work.
I still weigh 135. I have to buy new clothes. My pants were falling off of me today.
Today I finally had the motivation again to make a delicious dinner. I made- peas, I love peas, I made a whole bunch of them. I also made seashell pasta with Tomato-basil alfredo sauce (not so good for me). I breaded chicken with seasoned Panko Bread Crumbs and only put the bread crumbs on one side, then baked the chicken. It was pretty darn good. I wonder what Nate's gonna put together for dessert.

YOU GUYS ROCK

This blog has inspired me to create a whole new myspace page dedicated to being healthy. Thanks Mary. I am still going to be a part of this blog because I love it. I just wish it would send you an email or something to let you know when someone has made a new post.

Here is the link to my new page: My MySpace URL: myspace.com/livelongerlivehealthy

I am going to put the link to this blogger on that site as well.

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am very thankful for you guys and all the support throughout the last year. Getting healthy, thin and hot together was so much fun. You guys ROCK!

Life

So Nate and I have officially switched therapist positions this week. I didn't realize how stressed out I have been until Nate took over the tough case I was working on. I just feel like I can breathe better again. We had this big meeting on Thursday with me, Nate, a couple of our supervisors, the Department of Health, and the parents. I basically just got dumped on by them, which was okay because in the long run it is going to help the kid in the program. I could have defended myself so many times, but they just wanted to pull me into an argument, and I wouldn't do it. It did not feel very good while it was happening. I couldn't go to paddling practice afterwards, I just felt sick. But Nate was awesome and is going to be the best therapist with this case. And now I can breathe easier. It's tough because they went through all of my notes and made copies of everything and the Department of Health made copies of all of my notes. I stand by my work, but it is the first time that my work is being evaluated to this degree. I was called incompetent among other things by this family, and it feels good to move on.
So I'm feeling less stressed out, but I missed practice on Thursday. I guess after practice Mike (our coach) let everyone know that because some girls dropped out of the distance season he will only be sending two crews in tomorrow's race. It might mean that we only have enough girls for two crews in the Molokai race. I talked to my pal and coworker Cheryl who would love to race in the Molokai race, and knows another girl from Kaneohe Canoe Club that will come to practice if that means they can do the Molokai channel. So hopefully that third boat will still go in two weeks. The biggest blow to the team is that Kahala is not finishing the season. She's one of our steerswoman and she rocks. I think we have enough other steerswomen to do the race, but we are going to have some steerswomen doing the majority of the 42 mile race by themselves, with a quick switch out for a break in the middle.
Because I haven't done much for exercise in the past couple of days I weighed myself this morning to see how much damage I've been doing. I haven't really been eating well either, although at Mexico Lindo's last night, I did choose a fairly healthy fish wrap. So I weighed myself and over the past couple of days I've lost 4 pounds. The scale said 126 which is like 131. That's just weird. Myia I know you said that the same thing happened, that you took some time off from working out and you lost weight. I wonder why that happens. Maybe my body needed some healing time after doing paddling so often. It's a very repetitive motion and you can get burnt out really fast. I am feeling ready to paddle 33 miles tomorrow.

The Truth about "Skinny Bitch"

I have finished reading the book “Skinny Bitch” by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin (whoever the hell they are) and here is my complete review.

First, I would like to tell you, that this book is NOT about getting skinny. It is completely misleading in that aspect. The truth of the matter is it is entirely about getting healthy which could lead to being skinny. It’s a cover up! It is designed to appeal to those that just want to get skinny but really its main goal is to make you want to get healthy. In the end the ladies admit this deceit but by then you are already convinced that being healthy is truly important.

So for those that aren’t skinny yet, this may be a good guideline but you will laugh and think they are absolutely insane and probably only be able to pull off half of what they are saying. Half is GREAT and it will make you lose weight. But for those of us that are skinny already, it sucks you in because not only can you be skinny but you can be skinny and healthy at the same time. Skinny does not = healthy and healthy doesn’t always = skinny. But by getting healthy you can in fact become less fat! Lets face it most of America is more concerned with being skinny then healthy which is why this book is a great idea. The cover reads “Skinny Bitch”, you think your going to be a skinny bitch by reading it but in fact you are on your way to being a healthy bitch. Oh, also they do not endorse bitchiness and just used that title to sell books, which worked. Skinny, healthy and smart these ladies are.

Throughout the entire book it talked about “you are what you eat” and then tells you what you are eating this is very gross and makes you think. However, I did eat my beef jerky right after the chapter about animal cruelty and the crap that is in meat.

It talks about giving it up in Chapter 1 (Give it Up) which of course are all the things you don’t want to give up but aren’t good for you and make you feel like shit. It explains the truths about Carbs and low Carb diets which everyone here already knows are BAD, BAD, BAD. “You can eat bread and fruit”! Chapter 3 (Sugar is the Devil) was the hardest chapter for me because not only does it talk about how bad sugar is but also how bad the substitutes are and gives you healthier substitutes such as raw sugar(whatever that is), pure maple syrup, etc.

Then after you are convinced that you can stop eating crap and you can possibly give up sugar because it’s horrible, it goes into the (Dead, Rotting, Decomposing Flesh Diet), which is a long chapter on meat and the meat industry, which most people over look because it’s not in there face. It talks about what’s in it, what it does to you and why you don’t need it EVER.

After they have almost convinced you to stop eating meat they talk about the (Myths and Lies About Protein), (Pooping) and (Have No Faith: Governmental Agencies Don’t Give a Shit about Your Health), (Don’t be a Pussy)….these are all chapters. When they get to boring stuff they for warn you, which is kind of nice of them, after they called you a fat ass throughout the entire book. Have no doubts, this book at times will make you mad especially if you are fat and eat the way they describe and even if your not. They write without sympathy to those overweight and tell you to take control of your life, but they give you ways to do that.

They also give you long lists of what you can and should not eat. They never say can’t because you are your own person and make your own choices. Ultimately they ask you to (Use Your Head) when buying groceries and consuming food. Oh and believe me although there isn’t an entire chapter on exercise they mention it enough for you to pick up on the fact that you don’t get healthy and skinny by being fat and lazy.

Both ladies have ties to the modeling world, one is a former agent for Ford Models, the other is a former model that happens to be pretty darn smart, she has her Masters of Science in Holistic Nutrition and from the way the book reads there was lots of research put into it and gives a great list of recommended reading, websites, cook books and magazines.

This is not a book you read over a month’s time, you sit down and you read and you read and then you realize that you have been reading a long time, or at least it seemed long because I am a slow reader. Its recommended reading if you want to be on the right path to being healthy, which at this point in time I do. I am already skinny and I don’t need to be any skinner but I do need to be healthier. So let’s get skinny and healthy together.

Good Eats

I have been eating some very tasty things this week. Breakfast one banana cut up with four or five strawberries. On avg a banana is about 105 calories and 1 large strawberry is 9. A healthy breakfast. For lunch the other day I have some really good feta and spinach chicken links (70 Calories each) cooked with half a green bellpepper in garlic. Tonight I am having ground turkey seasoned with taco seasoning with green peppers all under 350 Calories and very very tasty.

Saturday's Practice

We had a long freaking practice this morning. Half of the team went to Kona to paddle in the ironman Kona race. It's 18 miles. It was too expensive for me to go, plus I didn't have a set crew to paddle with anyway. So the rest of the team paddled out to the Mokes, then we paddled straight out to the middle of the ocean for a half hour. Then we head over to the canal by Pinky's and did some sprints. After that we paddled for 10 minutes straight out and then finally head back to Kailua to put the boats away. I was there from 6-12 today. It was an awesome workout, and I think I was actually paddling correctly so my arms weren't all that sore. My back hurts, but it's not as bad as when your arms turn into noodles. My fingers are all blistered even though I wore gloves the whole time. I weighed myself after practice, that's always the best time, because you lose so much water weight, and I was 130 on my scale, which means I'm actually 135 in real life weight. I'll be very surprised if it goes lower than that. I think this is probably my correct weight. I've still got some padding around my belly and my bum, but I don't think I would want to weigh any less. I can always use more muscle, but that will come with time.

Better Food

I found great chicken sausage: Archer Farms Chicken Sausage (tomato and basil, Spinach and garlic, and spinach, garlic and feta). They are only 70-80 Calories per link (same size as a brut or turkey sausage). Anyhow they are organic so they are a little pricy but they are delicious! I love them. I am not a big meat eater so this is a great alternative.
I have had other basil and tomato chicken sausage, can’t remember what brand but they had 130 calories, which is still good considering Turkey sausage and hot dogs both have 180 each link. Even though I just bought like 25 frozen Lean Cuisine meals I am trying to move away from the stuff that has a really long shelf life. I want to stick more with the stuff that expires within a week or so because it’s healthy for you. I have learned to control my calorie intake now I need to learn how to control only putting good healthy stuff into my mind. Which I am pretty sure isn’t Skinny Cow Ice Cream bars. It’s a work in process because my freezer is filled with those too.

If you guys want a good calorie counter and want to check information before you eat, check out http://www.thecaloriecounter.com/ this link shows all nutritional value not just calories for those people that want to watch carbs and fats.
I started to read the book “Skinny Bitch” which I plan on passing along to everyone once I am finished. It is a little rude and makes you kinda mad but tells it straight, if you want to stop being fat, you need to stop putting bad shit into your body. Something’s, I don’t agree with but most are very true. Not the goal of the book is to become a Skinny Bitch which I think you can become without following it complete. They are very organic and anti chemicals including cold medicine and all sorts of shit which makes them a little crazy but it’s a good read to make you think about what you are actually putting into your body.

The book is fairly inexpensive and you guys can probably pick it up if you don’t want to wait until I mail it around. Let me know you wants to be first to receive it.