Crash and Rise

It's been a crazy past couple days here - trying to squeeze in as much work as possible before heading off to Las Vegas for the weekend with Vanessa and our two friends J&J (who are already there taking drink orders). Really looking forward to it but currently exhausted beyond all recognition.

Short notes, stuff that's on my mind and coming up :

- I was going to talk about healthy diet basics this week but in the face of going off the grid this weekend I think I'll focus on diet disruptions instead. I think me going on vacation is a good "lesson learned" type of thing for this deal - I've done it a couple times now so I can show you how it's done. And hopefully I can stay on track.

- sleep cycle - this is something I still have a problem with, I stay up way to late and short myself on sleep. Usually it's my fault for watching TV or doing something stupid on the computer but last night I actually pulled an all-nighter for the first time in a very long time (worked from 10 AM Wed pretty much constantly until 6 AM Thurs, then crashed). I do notice that when I'm able to get 6-8 hours of sleep, I drop two pounds in my sleep on a regular basis. I'm sure if I hit a plateau this is something I can futz with to see if regulating sleep makes a bigger difference or not. Like anything with health though, I'm guessing that the 80/20 rule applies - if 80% of the time you can stick to a solid routine, then the 20% of the time you screw up won't matter as much. Gotta hit that 80% mark though, and the closer to 100% the better. Nobody's perfect though. See, there, ya got something out of me in my stream-of-consciousness notes. More on this at a later date.

- I'd forgotten how fun it is to watch mob soccer. My 7-year-old daughter just joined the U-8 girls team "Happy Feet" and since they are ranked #1 in their recreational group after a seeding tournament in August they'll be playing all over the Sac county area. Really happy she's getting a good introduction to the sport I most love with some people that actually care about the game. And darned if I can't see some potential in a couple of these girls in particular. But oh man is that fun to watch - bunch-bunch-bunch....POP (ball comes out)....bunch-bunch-bunch...repeat. Not to mention the kids that are out of the current scrum collecting bugs or just generally lying on the ground. Glad I didn't coach at this level, I'll be an assistant next year maybe if she wants to move up to U-10, that suits my level of MacCotter-ness (in tribute to my late HS coach Hugh MacCotter, of whom many colorful stories can be spoken).

- I'm starting to believe that pretty much any scale I buy is a piece of crap. Any recommendations on accurate, reliable scales is fully welcome - cost not a real concern if it's not too outrageous, I just need something quality. Mine is starting to fizzle out so bad I'm using the one on Wii Fit just to get accurate measurements though.

- because of the weird schedule today I kinda reversed lunch and dinner from the usual, you'll see what I mean. But if I wasn't using tracking software of some kind, I wouldn't have known I could do that and would have just eaten the biggest bunch of junk that was easiest to get, so this is a victory. Yay.

- Joe Wilson is a grand mal idiot. That is all.

Diet for 9/10/09:
Breakfast

• Fiber One Original 1 serving with 1/2 cup fat-free milk
• 4 oz. orange juice w/vitamins
• one big cup of coffee
• Two slices of wheat bread with yogurt spread

"Lunch"

• 3 oz chicken breast
• one serving leftover garlic mashed potatoes
• 1.5 cups of cooked lima beans with yogurt butter/garlic salt

"Dinner"

• turkey sandwich on whole wheat (4 slices turkey, one slice fat-free cheese)
• 3 large raw carrots, peeled
• one glass red wine

Dessert

• 1.5 servings (approx) of Safeway fat-free chocolate frozen yogurt
• 3/4 glass of wine which was the rest of the bottle

Exercise for 9/10/09:

• I was dog-tired most of the day and concerned that I had a muscle pull in my right quad from yesterday's run so I didn't do the core workout I had planned
• I did, however, stay after Macy's soccer practice to work with her (and her sister) on some basics that the coach had said she needed; this amounted to me running around with them for about 20-30 minutes so I'm calling that exercise in my near-zombie state
• Promising myself I'll do something tomorrow and make use of the hotel gym over the weekend