Jun 27, 2011

More pictures in which I am being inappropriate

I have several serious posts brewing, but in the meantime I leave you with a few pictures of me embarrassing myself and others.

Every year M's residency has a graduation dinner for the fellows and residents. This year it was at a Motorsports park in this museum of classic cars and motorcycles.


They also have sculptures outside. Of naked dudes. On Segways. You see where this is going.

photography note: standing as wide as possible does not lead to flattering pictures. 

Why yes, his entire residency and attendings were just inside or walking past. I try not to let dignity hold me back from a good picture.

After that dinner we went to a going away party for friends who moved to Portland...which I just can't talk about.  Then we went to the world's sketchiest bar for karaoke! 

I am only posting a picture of me to protect the guilty. 
Y'all I don't even know what this thing was. It was called "The Baby". I didn't order it and I assure you I didn't drink the entire thing. I think 12 of us might have been drinking out of it at one point. The karaoke was fantastic and we had some serious performers. 

I'm obviously keeping it real and classy here on this blog.

Jun 24, 2011

Legally changing my name

I got this as a captcha the other day and loved it. I may make it my official blog alter ego name:

Senisha Tunvegan

Isn't that a great name blog name?

Jun 22, 2011

Pre-workout Food

After vacation last week, I'm clearly in need of getting back on the healthy eating wagon! Totally worth it, though : )

I went to boot camp last Friday after we got back, and it was terrible. I woke up late and didn't have time to eat a good breakfast beforehand-just a granola bar in the car. Dear readers: don't be as dumb as me. I bonked hard. Usually the workout is tough. I'm sweating, sometimes a little light headed, and I'm breathing hard struggling to finish the exercises. Friday was just...wrong. Vision going black, sweating yet freezing cold, nauseous. I had to sit with my head b/t my legs for most of it b/c I was so dizzy. I'm super prone to head rushes (orthostatic hypotension: that dizziness, blurry vision that occurs sometimes if you stand up too quickly and your blood pressure falls.) I get these alllllll the time. It felt like that the entire time. Usually he is checking in with us, making sure we are ok and helps get us through the last reps or dig deeper. He looked at me and just said are you ok? Me: blank look, shaking my head. Him: dude. you look awful. go sit down.


 So today's topic is Eating Before Exercise!

Before boot camp I usually eat a piece of bread with some peanut butter, or a banana with yogurt, or something like that. A bit of quick carbs with a little protein. I can't eat too much or I feel like I will throw up. I am not much of a morning person, so I have to make myself eat something. If you exercise late in the day it isn't so much of a concern.


Some people advocate working out on an empty stomach. The theory behind this is that without glucose, your body has to start using fat for fuel. A fun little process called glycolysis. This is an unusual and inefficient process-so usually it slows you down quite a bit. The argument is that if you continually exercise and your body has to go into glycolysis 1) who doesn't want to burn fat? and 2) your body becomes more efficient at it eventually won't slow you down as much. That is also a very quick and dirty explanation of how low carb diets work.


I admit that I don't know enough about this topic and haven't read much research on it. Bad dietitian, bad! Instead I thought I would ask you lovely people.


--Do you workout on an empty stomach if you work out in the morning? Do you think it makes a difference? 

--Do you have a pre-workout snack? What is it? 

--Do you have an opinion on running/working out with a bit of glucose/glycogen depletion?


And as a survey note to my tens of readers: do you read posts like this that are kind of wordy and a tiny bit more educational? I would like this blog to be somewhat informative, but I don't really know how much people want to actually read ; ) So weigh in and tell me!

Jun 20, 2011

More pictures in which I am drinking

Enjoying a nice Pinot at Happy Hour somewhere on the Harbor. Then we went to play mini golf! Because we are the two nerdiest nerds who ever nerded, 

Also, I'm surprisingly good at mini golf. It doesn't really make any sense. 

After mini golf we wandered around and eventually ate somewhere lackluster. Oh well. At least it was pretty. 
Michael decided to take pictures of me while we waited for our food. 

I got tired of it after awhile. 
(Also pictured: HUMIDITY)



Here is the secret to enjoying a touristy beach area: GO EARLY. We ate dinner each night at like 5-5:30 (sadly, no senior citizen discounts were granted.) First, everyone is still at the beach. Second, HAPPY HOUR. If you go after 6 there is at least an hour wait. 

We went to McGuire's which was having 2 for 1 special. I mean, obviously I had to get two margaritas, right? That's just math. 
Ate some delicious mahi mahi and the world's most baconiest baked potato.


So yes, I may have gained 2-3 lbs in Florida. WORTH IT.

Jun 17, 2011

Very short beach recap

We ate a lot. Drank a lot. Sat on the beach.



The end!

Here are a few pics. We took zero of us together, so it is mostly pictures of me drinking to be honest.

Beach! As you can see there was a bit of seaweed. Y'all seaweed freaks me out. I just can't stand it touching me. 

Oh my gosh you guys. We went to a restaurant on the harbor to kill some time before we could get into the condo. But, it had to be somewhere dog friendly b/c we took our puppies with us. Yes, we are those people. I love taking them with us on vacation. I researched and found a place that would let us sit outside with them. They even brought out doggy bowls and treats!


So we are there, just going to have a late lunch and waste some time. Our waiter takes our order and as he is leaving just lets it drop that, oh by the way, we have bottomless champagne FOR $7 for the next two hours. SOLD. I'm pretty sure that sitting in the sun, on the water, with my husband and dogs, drinking bottomless champagne is my very own personal heaven. I want to live there forever. 

After refilling my glass for the eleventh time I say "oh, why don't you just leave the bottle and save yourself a trip!" 

AND HE DID
IT WAS AMAZING

Unsurprisingly, I had to take a little nap when we got to our condo. The restaurant clearly underestimated my ability to get as much as possible for very little money.


Up next: more pictures of me drinking things!

Best dietitian ever!

Jun 9, 2011

Vacation, all I've ever wanted

Saturday I will be headed south to the beach for a long weekend with my favorite husband and puppies. So excited! M and I rarely go on vacation with just us. We usually go with friends/work, or one of our families. My parents always go to the beach for a week and we usually tag along. This will mark the 3rd time in 8 yrs we have gone on a trip by ourselves!


ahhh. Heaven. I can't wait. I may be a little quiet for a few days. I've put a time limit on internet time for us on vacation!

Boot camp will consist of: walking from condo to the beach; frolicking in the waves; many, many bicep curls of margaritas, snarfing seafood.

Jun 7, 2011

Today

I feel like all my posts start with the word "ouch" or "OMG, I'm dying".

But guess what? I am dying from the ouch. Yesterday we did a BUNCH of dead lifts and lower back stuff. Y'all know my lower back is the most effed up part of my effed up body. I honestly shouldn't have done them all, b/c I don't want my back muscles any tighter. I want my abs stronger to balance (and to show off my banging 6 pack.) Now I can barely walk b/c even stabilizing my body hurts. I can't bend at the waist.

In good news, that is the only part of me that is sore so I guess my arms are getting used to non-stop pushups and legs are ok with jumping lunges. Victory is mine!

These are a few of my favorite things

I bring you a new, FANTASTIC, unscheduled FAVORITE THINGS!


this made me giggle uncontrollably, so I'm sharing. Also, I have millions of these saved for your viewing pleasure.

I'm going to start with the most important thing and the reason I'm posting today:

UNDERPANTS.



Cheap underpants!
temporarily on sale for 5/$25 which is exceptionally cheap for these. They are reg $14 or so. I think 5/25 is maybe twice a year max.

eta: only a couple are 5/25. the rest are buy 3 get 2. damn.

These are the best underpants on the planet. No exaggeration. They are panty line free. They are flat seamed and have little elastic ridges to hold them in place. They are fantastic for working out b/c they don't move. I only buy them when they are buy 3 get 2 free or 5/$25. I have slowly replaced all my old underoos with these. I can not overstate their awesomeness. Available in a variety of colors and fabrics. They are  underpant MIRACLES.

You really need to buy these. I am sadly not a paid endorser of magic underpants, I just love them. 

I like to use the word underpants b/c it sounds so frumpy and nerdy.

Related to magic underpants:



This actually completely rids you of the back fat rolls that bras produce. Even fit girls can have fat splooges over the bra. Not with this one. It almost feels like wearing a sports bra b/c you can feel it is a little more fabric than most bras. They are super comfy too. If you do buy one, size down in the band. I go down a band size and up a cup size in these. Which is pretty good for the ego, too.

So I'm sharing so you can have the wonderful underpants for a reduced price.  You really need them. I'm happy to answer any questions or receive thanks when you find how amazing they are.

Jun 6, 2011

Boot camp-AKA why I can no longer walk

I've been going at 6:30 am this week. I am not a morning person, but also once I'm up I'm awake. Once I get there it just feels like ambiguous morning, not ass crack of dawn.

The biggest difference is that there are about 4x as many people there! I am not a huge fan of working out in front of other people, but once I get started I mostly just focus on surviving. I have no idea what everyone else is doing. Since there are so many more people we have been doing less tire dragging and more traditional intervals/weights/tabata/ whatever. I wish it was something like: do 20 reps of this. Instead of: do as many as you can in a minute until you die. Thank God as these I can actually do! Tons of jumping and lunges and planks and push ups.

Wednesday we did tons of dead lifts which killed my hamstrings. I do these every night to help with my back, but focus more on the stretching than lifting with my hamstrings. He had us do 2 circuits of jumping lunges and then dead lifts and then 2 circuits of inverted pull ups and push ups on kettlebells (which I just can not do. I can't really even do modified pushups.) My trainer must have gotten the memo it was National Running Day b/c he made us run tons of laps! Let me tell you, after you go through all those exercises, it is difficult to then run. I'm a slow runner on a good day. I have to take walk breaks, I'm not even going to pretend differently. But, I keep hauling my self around.

Friday it was more traditional boot camp type thing. We started with a hundred pushups. One. Hundred. I can't even come close to that. We had to do 100 before we could move to the next station. I considered getting in my car and heading home. I have made a modified push up where I kind of lean on one knee and and kick one leg out-so the knee down makes kind of a fulcrum. Cheating!

then-run to a pavilion and do pull ups on the TRX. Then run along the perimeter of the park to the bridge. Walking lunges across the bridge. Tricep dips on the wall. more running. then carrying lifted kettlebells up steps. then shoulder presses with the kettlebells. AND THEN DO IT AGAIN.

PURE EVIL.

I just signed up for 6 more months. I've officially lost my mind.

Jun 3, 2011

Food Plate

The big news in the nutrition world is the changing of the Food Pyramid to the Choose My Plate model. It is all over social media with everyone weighing in on it. So of course, I'm jumping on that bandwagon.

Pretty! 
The Good

-Easy to understand.
-Practical-gives visual representation of portions
-Half is fruit/veggies
-I actually like that it is labeled "protein" vs "meat" for people who are vegetarian/vegan

The Bad
-Where are the fats and sugars? Especially the healthy un/mono-saturated ones? The guidelines don't really differentiate b/t healthy fats and unhealthy fats.
-Lean protein? Low fat dairy? this is addressed in the guidelines, but not the plate icon.
-I think the serving sizes is ambiguous.
-I wish it addressed what NOT to eat more.
-It doesn't emphasize whole grains. And I think most people are counting cakes/cookies/chips as grains. 
-Do we need that much dairy? Calcium-yes. But you can get calcium from other sources. Should dairy count as a protein? 

Overall, it isn't bad. It is a start. I don't think this new icon will have a huge impact on the way people eat though, unfortunately. I wish I knew what would motivate everyone to make better choices. Right now, our nutrition as a country is so broken that even just getting people to eat like this plate, with its flaws, would make a huge impact. While I think it could be better, it is going to be a process of baby steps to fix our nation's health. It is aimed at the people with the vastly unhealthy lives, not regular people who have a basic understanding of nutrition. I thought most nutrition info was common sense and well known to all. That is not the case.

I just wish there was an answer. Bad nutrition seems so cyclical to me. Parents don't make healthy choices for themselves or the child. The child grows up eating processed, fatty foods and both gains a taste for these foods and a jacked up metabolism. The child becomes a parent and teaches their child the same thing. Somewhere, somehow we have to break that cycle. I don't think a new icon is going to change most peoples' eating patterns.

My school nutrition rotations were spent in Birmingham Public Schools-this is a very poor (financially-80-90% were on free/reduced lunches) school system populated by largely African American kids. It is the definition of an urban setting where kids aren't necessarily safe playing outside; kids live in an area with fewer parks and sidewalks; they are living in a food desert where the produce selection is terrible; and they honestly have not been exposed to nutrition knowledge or many nutritious foods-and those foods seem weird. School lunches are always under fire for being over processed, fries count as veggies, the meats aren't lean, too much pizza, etc. And this is true. But, when we served new salads with more and better veggies-the kids won't eat it. They have to have a certain number of veggies on their plate; they can't refuse them. When we tried different, non-starch veggies-the kids won't eat them. They would rather eat nothing and throw food away than eat some of these more nutritious items. So, yes, we should revamp school lunches, but if they aren't getting a healthy message at home it doesn't seem like it would make much of an impact. Not to even touch on how little money schools have for these meals.

As a dietitian, one of our major goals is to motivate people to make a change in their diet. Whether that is a gluten free, or a renal , or just a basic healthy diet, our job is to convince the patient to eat that way. It seems easy, but it is actually one of the most challenging aspects of this job. You would think telling someone "You are diabetic. Your blood sugar is 679. If you keep eating like you have been, you are going to be really sick and then die. The end." would be motivating, but apparently not based on the frequency of return patients. Many of my patients just thought diabetes/heart disease/early death were just inevitable. All their friends and family have died youngish from complications. That is just what happens in a person's life. They don't think they can change, or that the change would be worth it. I'm very interested in what that spark is, that convinces someone to buy into what you are saying and motivate themselves to do it.  How can I change your motivation from extrinsic (I have to do this b/c my MD/RD is making me) to intrinsic (I have to do this so that I can be healthy and watch my kids grow up.) What can we do? What can we say? What can we use to convince someone that they *have* to make changes? Dietitians do our best, but I have left patients' rooms knowing they aren't going to do anything I say.


So I'm glad there is a new, hopefully easy to interpret graphic. Will it change anything? We will have to see. I don't think the disconnect is that people don't know what to eat. They just would rather not eat the healthy foods. But, we have to start somewhere. And we have to start now. 

What are your thoughts? Love it or hate the plate? If you have made a change in your eating, what was your motivating factor? How did you move from contemplation to action? What do you think needs to be done to correct the terrifying health path we are currently on? 

Jun 2, 2011

The winner of my first giveaway is...

Congrats! Email me at confessionsofadietitian@gmail.com and I will get you all set up : ) 

Thanks for the entries and new followers. I'm looking forward to reading your blogs!

Jun 1, 2011

GIVEAWAY!

Don't forget, today is the LAST day you can enter my giveaway! 

FREE ITUNES AND CAMELBAK!

http://confessionsofaregistereddietitian.blogspot.com/2011/05/favorite-things.html

You have to leave a comment to be entered!