A Lovely Day Off

It feels bizarre to have a Monday off.  Friday was a little weird too, but because I was sick, all I did was sleep (after my dr’s appointment anyways)!  After nearly 3 months of working a Mon-Fri schedule, it feels very bizarre to have more than 2 days off in a row and also to have the day off when almost everyone else is at work.

I’m finally feeling better so it was a very productive day indeed!  I woke up at 7:15 am.  If I were working today, I would probably be up at 5:40 am to get ready for a swim. 

I was on the treadmill ready to run by 8:45 am.  I ran for 2 hours and then stretched out for an awesome 20 minutes.  

I got home and immediately made lunch.  I made amazing chicken wraps on the panini grill with a side of rice and a tall glass of chocolate milk.  It was to die for! 

I then took a long and relaxing hot shower.  I stretched a little more.  I decided to take a nap.  I didn’t sleep well last night due to a blanket hoarding, snoring husband.  I moved to the sofa only to encounter a snoring dog…. I moved to the spare room.  But I digress.  I took a power nap.  I didn’t set an alarm, but only slept for 50 minutes.  I felt like a new woman when I woke up!  

My legs were feeling very fatigued and unfortunately my compression gear is all still drying from being washed last night.  I decided to walk the dog to stretch out the legs a little more.  She didn’t mind.  It was a bit of an obstacle course with all the ice! (Yes, again…. it’s +4 now so we are once again into a thaw-freeze period with our weather). 

After that, I made a smoothie.  My blender has long been packed away and collecting dust but a few people I know have recently been talking about their yummy smoothies and I decided it’s time to give it a try again!  It turned out kind of gross because I had no bananas and the only fruit I had was frozen blueberries.  I still drank it down and I am now equipped to make better smoothies after a quick trip to the grocery store!  I have discovered that Sunday night is not a good time for grocery shopping.  Last night, there wasn’t a piece of fruit fit to eat and not one banana in the whole damn store!  I also had to run to the vet and pick up dog food.

Now here I am enjoying a quick coffee and it’s only 4pm!  What a productive day!  I also laundered the bed linens in the spare room and our room… although haven’t made the bed yet.  I have much more to do today.  I am about to go prepare supper.  I am making this recipe featured in February’s Runner’s World.  I am making a few alterations to it, such as adding in some spinach, but it looks damn tasty!  The plan is to prep it, put it in the fridge and then I am off to my Core class at 6pm and Corey will put it in the oven at 6:30pm and it will be perfectly ready when I arrive home!

I have a visitor arriving tomorrow and staying with us for 2 nights.  It really is a shame that I will be spending the 2 days she is here at work, but I really have zero vacation time left so such is life.  Either way, it will be good to catch up with an old friend.  She likes to swim and used to lifeguard in fact!  So we will probably hit up the pool both evenings as soon as I get off work.  Maybe she can give me some pointers for my stroke. 

 For training, this week is a recovery week, of course, the past 2 have been dismal in my opinion, but still more than my training plan calls for, so I am not going to freak out about missing time this week; although I suspect I will get more than the minimum done.  I felt strong on the treadmill today.  I know it is the treadmill and not the open road, but after feeling miserable, I am happy that I was able to keep running for 2 hours!  I did nearly 19km, which is a slower pace for me, but I am always slower on the treadmill.  When I compare to four weeks prior to last year’s hypothermic half, I am doing more mileage and managing to get more runs outside (which is crazy because I’ve been running on the treadmill a lot).  I’m looking forward to doing a quick January recap later this week in terms of training numbers because the numbers are GOOD!  And numbers don’t lie!  Going forward though, I want to definitely start concentrating more and more on QUALITY in addition to QUANTITY.  And of course, listening to my body, which is an ongoing challenge for me. 

I work Saturday this week (hence why I am off today), so it’s possible you won’t hear from me until after that with visitors coming and what not.  For now, I need to get off this computer, get my supper prepared and try and do some cleaning before I head out to core class!  Happy Monday!

What I did this Weekend

It was great to have a three day weekend.  It was very enjoyable for me.

Thursday Night

I got off work and went for a run with the dog.  We did 8 km and about halfway through my run (around 6:30), I totally remembered that I was supposed to go to a friend’s house to help decorate a Christmas tree from my old workplace to sell at the Festival of Trees.  I got home, but by that time, I had totally forgotten again.  I started helping my husband cook supper and my friend texted.  I immediately got changed (no shower) and ran over to help.  Truthfully, I’m not very good at crafts and decor or anything like that, so I mostly “supervised” and socialized.  It was fun.  

Friday

I wanted to sleep in, but that didn’t happen as per my previous post.  In hindsight, I don’t think my dog really has diabetes. We  have started taking away her water after 9 pm and that seems to be helping the early morning wake up calls (so far).  I paid tribute to fallen soldiers and to those past and present that serve this beautiful country.  After that, I laced up and hit the trails for a short run.  I met my husband for a late lunch with a couple friends which was quite enjoyable.  In the afternoon, I met my friend for coffee and it was great to chat and catch up.  I did some cleaning as well.  In the evening, I was pretty miserable with allergies.  It was my second day without antihistamines and I was not having fun.  I took some advil cold & sinus and flushed my sinuses, but I was still feeling like crap.  It was an early night for me.

Saturday

I was not feeling fabulous.  Allergies were still quite bad.  My skin was so itchy and I started to break out.  Nasal allergies were awful and my eyes hurt.  I tried to ignore it all and went for a run anyways with the dog at the trails.  I felt a little better after that.  After a snack, I did 50 minutes on the trainer!  I absolutely hate the bike trainer and prefer a spin class to the trainer any day, so this was an epic victory for me!  I still need to set up the TV stand and move the TV from upstairs so that I can get Coach Troy to do some ass kicking for me!  Then I was so happy because my husband was off for the afternoon, so we went and ran some errands and did some shopping.  The only thing I bought was a new waist leash to use while running with the dog…. product review to come in the future.

I walked the dog when we got home and it was soon time to head out.  We went to a friend’s for someone’s birthday party.  IT was so much fun! Had a few drinks, socialized and had an amazingly delcious dinner, followed by even more amazing desserts!  My allergies were not too bad at this point, still sneezing, but had been worse earlier in the day for sure.  It was an early night.  I was falling asleep by 11 pm but managed to stay out until 11:30.  Wow, I’m getting old!

Sunday

Slept in until almost 9 am!!!  Wow!  Then, somehow, my husband convinced me it was a good idea to go to Denny’s for breakfast.  That meal did not quite agree with me and I wasn’t feeling so well after that.  We went to Future Shop and he bought me a handsfree bluetooth headset since I am roadtripping to Edmonton on my own next week (for a Dr. appointment, not for fun) and I enjoy chatting on the phone during long car rides because it helps the time go by fast.  Then I cleaned a bit and went for a run.  After that, I jumped in the bath for a 10 min ice bath and it felt great on the legs!  After a shower, I met another friend for coffee.  It was awesome. Then by the time we got home, dinner was ready (I haven’t mentioned here, but I am coming to LOVE my crockpot!).  Ate dinner, relaxed for a bit, folded some laundry and the weekend is over!  Surprisingly, allergies were a bit better today.  My skin is still itchy with some red/inflammed/eczema spots.  I never realized how much antihistamines help until I was unable to take any 😦

Hope everyone else had a great weekend as well!

Another Allergy Rant

I’m really having trouble adjusting to these new allergies (wheat and egg whites).  I’ve been doing well over all.  But I have had lots of moments of self-pity and I just need to get over it.  It is a challenge to find food to eat and still eat healthy, so for now, I’m just focusing on finding food to eat to be quite honest…. the healthy part will fall into place later I’m hoping. 

I have had a few triumphs…. mostly going out for breakfast and managing to order bits and pieces of the breakfast menu and still feel satisfied and full (of course this involved bacon and hashbrowns… hence the not so healthy part…).  Mostly, I am just keeping on telling myself that soon it will become second nature.  I’ve discovered that barbecued chicken without seasoning (coconut oil) or BBQ sauce (depending on the type, anchoivies and/or wheat) still tastes yummy!  haha. 

I’ve tried a few new products and there will be reviews on those in the future.  I want to try them all a second time so I can give a proper review.  For now, after one go at three different products, my initial conclusion is unimpressive.  Once again, trying really hard to not let that get me down.  There are so many products out there that are tailored for people who are gluten intolerant or have celiac, so I will just run the gamut and try a little bit of everything.  Unfortunately, a lot of these products have eggs/egg whites in them in some form or another.  Strangely enough, it seems like avoiding egg whites will be the harder of the two allergies. 

The recipe books I ordered from amazon are all focusing on the Big 8 Food Allergies……  milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish.  I’m afflicted with the 6 that are bolded.  How lucky am I!  But, at least I still have milk!  I can still eat cheese (my favourite food after multigrain bread and bagels…. so I guess now it is my favourite food!)  So yes, I’m hoping that these recipe books will give me so great ideas for cooking at home. 

The crazy thing about this is that I ate A LOT of bread products before…. mostly multigrain bread and everything bagels.  I would probably have a bagel everyday and usually 2-4 slices of bread (on a sandwich or toasted as a snack).  The second and third day of eliminating wheat in my diet, I felt HORRIBLE.  I had massive headaches, felt exhausted and was not in the best of moods.  Once that passed, I barely even miss  these!  I would enjoy having a bagel for breakfast because it was my major pre-workout food so trying to find something else that will work is proving to be challenging (suggestions appreciated!).  But I haven’t been craving it like usual.  I’m sure that all that bread, multigrain or not, is probably not the best thing you can eat.

When I received the results of my RAST testing and it showed up with a “mild” allergy to wheat and eggs (plus the rest that I already knew about), my Dr. told me not to worry about it because it is mild.  I figured that it’s never good for your body to be in a constant state of inflammation and if it’s something under my control then why not give it a shot and see if it will make a difference.  Well, I may or may not have mentioned it before, but the huge patch of eczema on my back is now almost completely gone!  I started noticing a difference on day 2 and now it’s almost completely gone!  You can’t tell me this is a coincidence.  I was breaking out in hives a couple times a week before I cut out wheat and now it has been a full week of no wheat and a full week of no hives.  Coincidence?  I just don’t believe in them!  I’ve already decided that once I’ve been a full month wheat-free, I plan to reintroduce it and see what happens…. well, this is the plan.  But the more I think about it, the more I am a little scared I will go into a full anaphylactic reaction.  Although I doubt it, but the thought is in the back of my mind.  Also, I spoke with someone a few nights ago who had a dog allergy and she was a dog groomer and her ONLY SYMPTOM was FATIGUE!!!  Yes, I’m also allergic to dogs and I have one, but I wonder if maybe a presenting symptom in my wheat/egg allergy is fatigue, since I have been battling it for a year and a half.  If so, it would be more than worthwhile giving it up for good.  It’s hard to measure whether it has been making a difference yet since I was travelling, and then had a couple late nights 😛  But it will be interesting to see how I feel in a couple of weeks.

Product Review – Food for Life Brown Rice Tortilla

 

For about 2 weeks after being diagnose with the wheat and egg-white allergy, I was pretty much in denial, but I did start reading labels and walked down the gluten free and specialty food aisle a few times.  The food products scare me!  I’m not going to lie when I say that I feel like I’m giving up my healthy eating lifestyle because of these allergies, but yet I know that FOR ME, it will be healthier to give these up (Maybe?).

Anyways, I finally bit the bullett and picked up a few products.  This is the first that I have tried.  Yesterday I made a wrap and only defrosted the tortilla in the microwave.  It was not too bad, but the texture and consistency is different than a flour tortilla.  It seemed a little rubbery to me.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great either.

Today, I decided to try it again.  This time I stuffed it with some more yummy ingredients and grilled it on my panini grill.  It did start to fall apart on the grill…. but that could have to do with assembly and not the product itself.  It was pretty good.  Tasty!  I didn’t miss the flour tortilla.  It had a lighter feeling than the flour tortilla but it was good.  I will definitely be eating more of these in the future.

Anyone out there have any suggestions for products that I can try?

Allergies

It’s not secret to the vast majority of people that know me fairly well that I have been afflicted with many many allergies.  I’ve been dealing with this issue my whole life and until more recently it hasn’t been a huge deal.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had my share of scares requiring emergency room visits and the use of an epipen; however, in recent years, I have been way more careful in avoiding the main culprits and have been able to stay away from both epinephrine and the emergency room. 

Since I was less than 6, I discovered…. usually in a trial and error sort of fashion…. that I was allergic to fish, shellfish, peanuts, nuts, treenuts and coconut.  Growing up in rural Newfoundland, explaining the fish/shellfish allergy was more than difficult!  When I was 16 years old, I got my first epipen after a couple of trips to the emergency department in which my face was swollen and my breathing became difficult.  Being a teenager, I don’t think I truly understood the risk that I was taking sometimes when indulging in what seemed like a simple storebought cupcake. 

It first hit me when I was in nursing school and we were learning the pathophysiologic pathway for anaphylactic shock.  When my instructor explained that it is possible to go from exposure to death in 2 minutes, the threat seemed way more real to me!  I still had a couple of close calls after that.  In my last food-related incidence involving a breathing emergency (in Banff about 3.5 years ago), I deteriorated very quickly and my breathing was not only laboured, but wheezy.  I required oxygen administration after epinephrine and the emergency doctor there asked me if I had ever been intubated.  The reality really set in after I was starting to feel better and went to the washroom and the crashcart with intubation supplies ready were waiting right outside my room!  Since that incidence, I have been more careful about what I eat and also about carrying my epipen with me (although there are still times that it’s forgotten at home)

Then there is the environmental allergies.  Dogs, cats, dust mites, pollen, ragweed, grass, trees…. pretty much everything!  I am now so severely allergic to horses that I cannot be around them even to go for a sleigh ride at Christmas time.  I pretty much just take antihistamines all summer long, which is no fun.

Since April, I have been having random breakouts of hives.  I also had a couple of occassions with oral symptoms… scratchy throat, itchy and swollen lips.  I figured that apples were the culprit for this.  But then the random hives continued happening.  I went to my family doc.  He was telling me about this oral allergy syndrome that sometimes occurs when you have environmental allergies.  Apparently, you can develop a cross-reactivity with pretty much every type of fruit that exists, several different nuts (which I’m not eating anyways) and certain grains.  I told him flat out that there was no way I could avoid the extensive list and requested allergy testing.  He sent me for bloodwork first and it showed that I have all the above-mentioned allergies as well as *mild* allergies to wheat and egg whites.  He told me not to worry about it because they allergy is only mild, so I shouldn’t have to change my diet.

After researching the effects of wheat allergy, I have discovered that often the symptoms are quite vague such as fatigue, headaches, abdominal bloating and gastrointestinal issues.  It’s no secret that I’ve pretty much been dealing with fatigue off and on since last spring.  All my bloodwork is normal.  I’ve tried several things, but it continues.  It’s almost cyclic so I haven’t been able to tie it to any one thing.  But I do wonder… is it the wheat allergy?  Also, this year, I have been sick so often!  Ever since November, I’ve missed more work than I have in 3.5 years of working at this job.  Is it related to these allergies?  Is my immune system so busy fighting all these allergens that it’s not fighting the true foreign invaders?  It’s a wild theory and I don’t know if it’s related at all, but I figure, why risk it?  I’m on a mission to cut out wheat and egg whites in my diet!

I know it’s not going to be easy.  I eat A LOT of wheat, A LOT of bread products and eggs are my breakfast staple, either for my first or second breakfast of the day.  I love food and it’s already very hard with my previous restrictions, but if it’s going to help my health then it will be worth it.  Besides, there are many people out there with these allergies who live a perfectly fulfilling life.  To be totally transparent and honest, I am leaving for holidays in 2 days where I will spend 10 days in Newfoundland, be back here for 10 days and then off to Ireland!  I’m not going to make too much of an effort to follow the elimination diet in either of those places…. I know that if it works and does make me feel better than I will have to the next time I travel but for now I am just not quite ready for that step.  I’ve ordered a few cookbooks online but well…. I’m not a big fan of cooking.  It’s definitely going to be an adjustment!