New personal best

10km, 1 hour.

This health &v fitness thing sure is odd. I didn't get up until 1.00pm today because I had (another) bad migraine. Ye this evening I feel good enough to go on the crosstrainer.

What is even odder, and more frustrating, is that my weight stays resolutely the same. I am not eating between meals. I am not eating huge amounts of carbs. I am not drinking lots of milk. If my measurements were changing, then that would be great. But everything stays the same :0(

just in case

Last winter we had trouble with the heating a couple of times. Well, it wasn't really trouble, since by the time I realised there was a problem the letting company were already on to it. But I do wonder what would happen if the heating failed at 5.00pm on a Friday. With this in mind I bought enough wood to last a few days. This is a pathetic fire to be sure, but it was only to check that there were no chimney problems.

Now, where did I put those chesnuts...

Fantastic

Just finished Her Fearful Symmetry.. I needn't have worried, it was a great read.

Seize the moment

(Hard to do when it took me a few moments to work out how to spell 'seize'- German is really screwing with my English.)

This week has been harder than normal. I am having lots of migraine problems. It's getting me down a bit.

However, one of the things about living with chronic pain is that you learn to make the most of the good times. And to be fair, I have had lots of good times with the current med regime. I had a couple of hours today where I felt not bad at all. I leapt at the chance to go on the crosstrainer. Well, okay, I admit that is putting a bit of a gloss on it. I dragged myself upstairs and did my first 60 minutes for a long time and clocked up just over 9.00km.

Feeling far too knackered to feel smug about it, I then sat down to do an hour of German, which wasn't too bad at all.

I also managed to chuck on some pumpkin and apple soup (my favourite) and slung some soda bread in the oven. I'm starting to feel really crappy again so it's off to the sofa for me and an hour or two of Star Treck- in German, natarulich ;0)

sulk

I've had a migraine off and on for 3 days now. It hasn't got to the head-pounding stage but I am feeling a bit on the miserable side. Nauseous too. This is when I am very grateful that I am not trying to hold down a job, nor have to care for 3 children under 5.

Don't look back in anger

Thanks to the suggestions on an earlier post, I am now tuned into Absolute Radio. Nothing like a bit of Oasis to take me back a few years....

Next step

HAving had the appointment earlier this week regarding the possibility of a PFO, I had a long chat with one of the patients who has had the procedure.

I have decided to join the study. The first step will be to have the test to see if I have a hole in my heart. That will be sometime next week.

Speedy, huh?

Gasp

Just completed 50 min and 7.66km on the crosstrainer. Had to push hard for most of the was and those extra ten minutes at the end were bloody awful, but it has to be done if I am going to reach my goal of 1 hour every two days.

I am also trying very hard now with regards to what I am eating. A small amount of carbohydrate twice a day, protein at every meal and loads (and loads more)vegetables.

Smug

Much as I hate to admit it to myself, never mind anyone else, when I was a skinny miss I was fairly smug about it. Until about 10 years ago, I weighed 7.5 stones. I wasn't on a diet, in fact I ate a ridiculous amount of cream cakes and chocolate bars. I only put on the regulation 1.5 St when I was pregnant and with no effort at all was back in my jeans when Baby Bear was 3 weeks old. Over the next decade I put on about half a stone ( about 3 kilos). I 'knew' that people who were overweight 'simply had to eat less and exercise more.'

Well I am paying for that smugness now. I use my crosstrainer every two days. I am eating much less....but I am not losing weight. Ha, the simple things in life are not so simple after all.

I have made some progress though. Having come off the pizotifen (which was responsible for the weight gain, but not for the weight staying put), I am now back to a more normal eating pattern. Thze current migraine med, a beta blocker, is not affecting my pulse which makes it easier for me to exercise. Today when I had my nutritionist appointment (well, don't all the best people have nutritionists?)I told him I wanted to move on..

Next goal- increase from 40 min to 1 hour every two days on the crosstrainer, one stone in weight lost. Both by Christmas.

So...

....you know that feeling you get when you have changed your password on your email and then can't remember it.....?

Suggestions please

When I was in the UK, I listened to Virgin Radio. For an oldtimer like me, it was perfect- some of the music from my youth (the 70s and 80s, in case you were wondering!!) and more modern 'stuff'. But none of that rap crap- I'm talking Cold Play, Snow Patrol, The Killers,Maroon 5, Greenday & C.

Any suggestion for a similar station that I can listen to on the Internet. I can see that Virgin is based in some other countries, but I am having problems streaming so can't tell if it is the same.

(polite)Suggestions welcome.

Research

Study title: Percutaneous closure of patent foramen ovale (PFO) in migraine with aura (PRIMA)- a randomized prospective study.

This article explains it quite nicely. If I decide to take part in the study the first step involves a procedure to discover whether or not I do have a hole in my heart. And guess what? It involves shoving something down my throat. I'm so over having that kind of thing done. Unlike the endoscopy that I had a month or so ago, I'll be wide awake for this one :0( I'm going to talk it over with Number Guy and make a decision about it this week.

It's here!

Thrifty cooking

I've had a look at a few 'thrifty cookbooks' and some of them are ok. Some of them involve eating things that, quite frankly, turn my stomach. However, I think The Thrifty Cookbook is a winner.

The author gives some excellent advice on how to waste less food, basic techniques, what to shop for, storing things in fridge and freezer. Then she gets down to it with chapters such as- Soups, Stews and Curries, Bakes, Rice, Pasta and Things to do with Bread amongst others. Ingredients are cross-referenced in the index. Another handy section is 'What goes with what.'

I don't think anyone would feel hard done-by if they were served a meal made from one of these recipes. Baby Bear is often looking for recipe ideas and I think that one of these books is going to be finding its way into his Christmas stocking, as it's a great book for students, too.

Scared of a book

I've been waiting so long for this that I can't quite bring myself to start it. What if it's, well, crap?