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Back Out

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Things had been going pretty well and then BAM!!!!

No Warning

back-painOut of nowhere, my lower back went out. I’ve fought this for years and have a pretty good routine for keeping it at bay. I realized that the warning signs were there but I didn’t pay enough attention.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I was getting more and more dehydrated because of my current diet and foolish things I was doing, I did a simple workout and boom. My back siezed up.

Playing It Safe

As far as my workout, it wasn’t anything crazy. In fact, I thought I was playing it safe as I knew that my body was reacting differently while on this diet.

I did a slow 2 mile job on the treadmill, a couple of sets of bench press, 2 sets of pull-ups, 2 sets of bent over rows and 2 sets of seated overhead press. I used low weights (per my normal routine) on all of these so figured I was safe. I purposely didn’t do squats and deadlifts as I didn’t want to court any back issues with the modified diet.

No standout event. No injury. Just when I was stretching afterwards, I felt the the start of the familiar lower back spasms. Noooo!!!

Paying The Piper

Whenever this happens, it takes me a week or two to get back to normal so it’s always very frustrating. In hindsight, my chest and back were pretty sore so the exercises really did test my muscles. I hadn’t lifted in a couple weeks and I think the diet left me affected more than normal. I know that on this diet that my heart rate is up when I’m doing endurance activity so it’s not surprising. I’m also thinking it was the bent over rows that did the job. I’ve since detected a couple of trigger points in my lower back that make me think that was the culprit.

So the lesson for me here is that when you are on any type of altered diet program, you have to be doubly, triply, quadrupley careful with your activity to ensure something you normally do doesn’t trigger anything.

Image credit: Posture & pain by Dreaming in the deep south

Hayden’s 3rd Birthday

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haydenThe Big 3

So our little man turned 3 today.

It was pretty neat. He is at the age where he fully gets everything that is going on and can communicate about all of it.

The night before I asked him how old he was & he said 2. I asked him how old he would be in the morning when he woke up and he said 3. He was pretty dang excited.

It’s a neat age. He’s old enough that he was sooo excited but he hasn’t been sucked into life yet where there are so many other things going on. With the girls, they’ve got school so there’s not much you can do.

Planes

I worked from home today so Heather and I would be able to take him to a movie during the day. We went and saw Planes which he was pretty excited about. We got him a kids deal (had a coupon) with popcorn, some candy & a cherry Icee. He loved it. Saw between Heather and myself and he was having fun. It was really neat to be out just the three of us. I don’t know that we’ve done that much. Toward the end of the movie, he actually climbed on Heather and fell asleep. We stayed & watched the end of the movie.

Lego Swords Of Course!

After that we headed back home to do some work & wait for the girls to get out of school. When they did, we picked them up & then all headed down to Chandler Mall. The reason for that was the Lego store. We grabbed some food in the food court & some ice cream/sorbet for the kids afterwards. Then we hit the Lego store. He was a nut in there running from thing to thing. Of course the first thing he ran to was a foam shield and sword. I don’t think he put those down the entire time we were in there. He did like some of the superhero legos and lego sets but it was the sword that he really loved. We ended up finding a Ninjago sword with a sheath that he loved and a Superman lego clock.

Once we paid, we had the sword and sheath opened up and he wore them for the rest of the night, telling us he was a karate man. He also threw in a series of bows from time to time.

It was a good day. Definitely one I’ll remember. Just a neat feeling to be able to share time with him and Heather without the madness of normal life. On the weekends, it’s always the 5 of us and there is always a ton of things going on.

My little man turned 3 today and it was good.

Twestival Phoenix Twitter Campaign Launchs

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1338 TWESTIVAL - Phoenix RGBOur Twestival Phoenix Twitter campaign launched today!

This was part of Twestival Phoenix 2013 that I really had nothing to do with. The amazing Amanda Blum took this on and made it happen.

Nicen Up Twitter

It basically involves a website and some technology to measure sentiment in tweets or Instagram potss with a hashtag (#takecharge). Then if we get enough tweets that register positively on a meter, Cox will donate $750 to Teen Lifeline for that day.

This is a big change from the last Twestival. Cox was a major, awesome supporter and donated $10,000 but our twitter campaign was a bit more self serving that time. The hashtag for that campaign was #iheartcox.

This one has no mention of them at all and with the sentiment meter, we’re actually trying to drive some positivity.

Great Folks

I’m pretty psyched about it. In addition to Amanda doing this, we had the excellent Jonathan Kressaty and VUURR donate the tech for the sentiment meter. Bob Rox also helped on the site with his CSS skills.

And as of the first day, the community has been very supportive. Got some great love from some of the Gangplank folk, especially Francine Hardaway.

More details to come on this.

My Mom Got Me In A Fight – Almost

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So had a dose of dramarama today…

Sunday Church

fistWe went to church as we do on Sundays and my mom & her fiance asked us to come have breakfast with them over at Chances on 6th. It’s a restaurant/bar that my mom has been going to for 20+ years. It’s a popular hangout with the more mature folks. They go there to dance & on holidays. She’s brought us & the whole extended family a number of times. They do karaoke & have a dance floor and the kids go crazy.

Well they also have a $5 Sunday breakfast special that my mom & some of the rest of the family often goes to. We hadn’t gone yet so we decided to join them this day. My cousin & her 2 little girls also decided to go. So we had a party of 10. Throughout the meal, my mom kept talking to other customers as there are a bunch that go over there from our church. She’s known some of these people for 40–50 years.

Kids…

Well at one point, the kids all make it on to the dance floor & start dancing & playing & even running a bit. They were making some noise and I was getting uncomfortable about and then the manager went up to them & talked to them. We called them back & I asked what she said. They said that the manager said there was no running but they could keep playing & dancing. We sat the kids down for a while nonetheless.

Now this place is divided into a pretty big bar with a good number of people sitting around it and the section where all the tables are (where we were and lots of the other folks my mom knew).

A bit later on, the kids made it back on to the dance floor and were playing & such. They were making some noise but they weren’t running. I was a bit uncomfortable with it as I didn’t want them to bother anybody. But the manager seemed ok with it and I know my mom brings her grandkids there every once in a while and the owner seems to like them.

Enter Asshole

Well this guy gets up off his barstool and leans over the mini-wall separating the bar area from the tables and starts yelling that we need to control our kids and “this is a restaurant!” Whatever. They had been given the ok by the manager but whatever. Heather says I guess that is our cue to leave. My mom gets pretty pissed off and decides to go over and give the guy a piece of her mind. Oh no…

So she goes over there and then he gets up off his chair and starts towering over her with his face inches from hear face leaning into her and yelling at her.

Gotta Go…

So I get pissed. I mean I get that the kids might have been bothering someone & maybe we should have left or calmed them down more but it’s my mom’s place, not mine. But a man (a large man) starts physically intimidating and threatening a woman – in her late 60’s? That’s BS. And my mother? Nah…

So as I started seeing him getting aggro, I quickly made my way over there and started yelling at him to back up off my mom. Saying I don’t care what he has to say but this is not acceptable. He is not backing up so I reach over her and push him back off her and step up. He starts yelling at me so I say let’s take this outside. Not a great moment. He’s a good bit bigger than me but he was old. Not frail but he was old. He says ok & then my mom & Heather & some of the others start pulling me away. I’m fighting to get to him but I kind of give in as I realize it’s stupid.

My mom goes back up to him to give him a piece of her mind & he starts leaning in threatening her again so I freak out & redouble my efforts to get free of the people holding me back but then my mom sees me coming & comes back to me. Everybody’s crying & freaking out. I don’t think I got close enough but I should have hit him right then.

As they’re pulling me back, he’s being a complete douche smiling & waving.

Hayden?!?!?

I decide to let it go & then Heather starts freaking out. “Where is Hayden!!!! Where is my son!!!”

We all break & start running around looking for him. Checking the other rooms. Heather is freaking out. The others are freaking. I’m still pretty calm & thinking we’ll find him. He’s here somewhere. I race to check another back room & the bathrooms (which my cousin said she’d already checked). Then I’m heading back out & still no sign & now I start to freak out a bit. It’s been a couple, three minutes by now.

And then Heather yells “I have him!” Rotten kid was hiding under a table in the dining room. So we all head out and I’m still fuming. I really wanted to go back inside now that everybody was gone but I let it go. Still bugs me now.

Kind of crazy. We find out later that our middle child went to her cousin (older by a couple years) & buried her head in her chest & asked her to cover her ears. Guess she was pretty scared. And I’m not sure why Hayden hid. Maybe he was scared too.

Aftermath

We talked to the kids a bunch after this & wanted them to take a few things away from it. The big thing is that we always stick up for our family no matter what. We also wanted them to know that it is not acceptable for a man ever to hit or even threatedn a lady. That should not be behavior that they think is acceptable, ever. And then, we wanted them to know it’s bad to fight and always better to walk away. Told them that people can get thrown in jail for it. If I’d hit the man, I could have gone to jail. I also told them that if the man hadn’t come up on grandma and they were just arguing a bit, I wouldn’t have gotten involved. I could even see his point of view even if he was a jerk about it. No reason to get into a fight over that. But the disrespecting and physically intimidating a woman, especially an older woman, was completely unacceptable.

Crazy start to a Sunday.

Image credit: Raised Fist by bruckerrlb on flickr

Not Quite Roman Style

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I’m not proud of it… But I admit it.

Just Need a Taste

vomitorium

vomitorium

I’ve done it a few times. I think the first was the day my mother-in-law brought over the new batch of goat butter shortbread. I snapped off a piece and popped it in my mouth. Ahhhh….. It was beautiful. I chewed it up and then I headed over to the garbage can and spit it out.

Not Just at Home

I also admit doing this at Bink’s Midtown. Now I ordered carb conscious and tried to steer clear but there were a couple of things that I just couldn’t resist!

They started the meal by bringing out buckwheat drop biscuits with vanilla whipped butter. They were warm in a cast iron skillet! How could I pass that up? I grabbed a piece, slathered on the butter & took a big bite. It was pretty damn good. As soon as I took a bite, I headed for the restroom. Went in and spit it out in the garbage can. Headed back to the table. (Hangs head in shame)

I did it once more too. We got the mussels in curry broth. They were lovely. The thing that was pointed out to us by the waiter though was that the bread that came with it was supposed to be amazing. It was a scallion foccacia that did look nice and buttery and soft but really hadn’t drawn our attention. After the waiter told us how good they were, Heather grabbed a piece, dipped it in the curry broth & tried a bite. Her jaw pretty much dropped. She loved it. Of course I had to try then. As I picked up a piece, I noticed some seeds/herbs on the underside. We were rushed for time so I didn’t get a full description of what it was made of. I dipped into the curry broth and took a big bite. It was wonderful. Amazing texture. Nice and salty pairing beautifully with the broth. I got some other flavors as well that I can’t remember. As before, I got up right then & headed for the restroom to repeat the process.

No Promises

Since then, I haven’t had a repeat. I think I’m getting more used to the diet and my willpower is a bit stronger. The cravings seem to have abated.

I do have to cop to doing it though. I’m definitely not proud and I hope not to do it again but I reserve the right in case I come across something that just looks too good to be true.

Image credit: vomitorium by dearanxiety on flickr

Do Drink Out of the Milk Carton

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diet-fantaNot really the milk carton… The 2 liter soda bottle…

Sweet Tooth

So if you haven’t seen, I’m doing the no/low carb thing. Really trying to keep the carb count low, maybe under 20 g of carbohydrates. Keeping carbohydrates this low supposedly helps induce ketosis where the body is primarily burning fat for energy.

I’m not counting the exact carbs of everything I eat but I’m trying to avoid all sugar, white flour (actually flour of any type), grains, starches, fruits and even high carb vegetables.

Along with this, I still have cravings for sugar from time to time. They’ve abated a good deal but they still come around.

The main way that I’ve been dealing with this is to drink some diet soda. Gives me a sweet kick but doesn’t give me any carbs. Now I know that diet soda may just be bad overall for you but I’m seeing it as the lesser of two evils for now.

2 Liter Is The Key

So the key – buy soda in 2 liter bottles. And drink right out of the bottle!

When I have anything smaller (12 oz. can, 16 oz. bottle, 24 oz. bottle, 32 oz. bottle), I can’t put it down. I always end up drinking the entire thing. While carb-wise, that is not a major issue, I’m also not desiring to drink an unlimited amount of diet soda.

The key is that if it’s in a 2 liter bottle, you don’t really have any intention of finishing it. I don’t know anybody that looks at a 2 liter of soda as a normal portion. So what do we typically do with a 2 liter bottle? We pour a glass of soda. Don’t do this either. If I pour a glass of soda, I’ll end up drinking the whole thing. And probably refill it too.

If I swig directly out of the 2 liter bottle, a couple swallows kills my sugar craving and then it is easy enough for me to screw the cap back on & stick it back in the refrigerator.

If you’re trying to avoid carbs or limit your calories and you still get cravings for sugar, give the 2 liter straight out of the bottle thing a whirl!

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