Healthy

So far I've managed to stay away from sodas. It hasn't been that bad but I do go through cravings. We gave up sodas, I refer to them as cokes, for Lent this year and enjoyed the feeling so much that I thought I would finish the remainder of the year without them. I have read that when you are sleep deprived that your body craves carbohydrates and while it could very much be all in my head, I have noticed that when I'm sleepy or didn't get more than 6 hours of sleep the night(s) before I really NEED a coke. I also crave candy more than I usually do when I'm sleepy.

So far though this week, I've drank at least 16 ounces of milk at night which is big for me because I don't really like milk. I've also drank at least 80 ounces of water per day and sometimes more. The water part isn't actually new, I've been drinking at least 64 ounces for a while but what has changed is drinking water at night which just adds to my total. I've also managed to be very sparing when it comes to adding sugar or salt to what I'm eating or drinking. I make it as the recipe calls and that is it. Sometimes I leave it out entirely if it doesn't affect the taste.

One very large change has come with eating fruit throughout the day. I've managed to eat at least 1 banana and either a plum or apricot but usually it is two of each. This is a big change because I don't usually eat fruit throughout the day and I think it is the biggest reason for my curbed sweet tooth.

My wife as done well too, we both have been support each other through the process. I've felt much better and hopefully with the training for the half-marathon in October we'll see some differences in our overall health in the upcoming weeks.

Diet, exercise and racing

What people hear me say, "diet" they usually quip back with a, "you're too skinny for a diet" or something like, "because your SOO fat!" But I think of diet as something you're on all the time. You can have a bad diet or a good diet or a balanced diet, whatever kind of diet you want. No matter the name a diet is something you have all the time. Since the baby has come into our lives we've been eating a good or at least decent diet nothing just outright horrible, BUT we've dropped the exercising from our routine once we started getting ready to sell the house.

This week was 16 weeks until our next half-marathon. My wife and I would like to get back towards our PR times and for that I've decided to do some work on my diet. This week we also started our structured run training, so I decided to lay some ground rules somewhere to help keep me accountable for my actions.

1.) No drinks other than water or tea
2.) 1 hr of exercise per day (more on this in subsequent posts)
3.) Nothing with added sugar
4.) Nothing with added salt
5.) Vegetables or Fruits with every meal.

It is a simple straight forward diet that doesn't involve doing or eating crazy things. It is just back to basic good balanced dieting. Right now my daily caloric goal is 2200kcals. This is a fair amount of food for a person who is eating healthy. I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine that leads to a healthy lifestyle.

Babies

Of all the classes I took in college my education classes were the easiest and most enjoyable aside from the PE classes I took. I really enjoyed them and learned a tremendous amount about how to relate to people and ways people learn. One class I took was child development. It started from conception to adulthood. It was a neat class and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While I was learning about babies I knew all about how quickly they learn and develop new skills. I took tests demonstrating my knowledge of the material. However, nothing could substitute the real thing. Over the past several months the baby has really been learning how to do things. She says Dog and Dada at will, in context and even those not around babies and unable to decipher their language can understand these two words. Unfortunately for mama she is inconsistent with the actual MAMA sounds but I think she says NANA to also refer to mommy. The things that blows my mind is that she understands words she can't say. She will sit down, stand up, give a hug, give a kiss and one or two other commands like clap or make the Indian sound with her hand and mouth.

She can point to your nose, eyes and tummy when asked, although she doesn't point to her eyes or nose if you hold your finger out she'll move her nose or eyes to touch your finger. She LOVES being asked where her tummy is, probably because she knows you'll tickle it once she points to hers.

She imitates a lot of things we do. If she sees you clapping she'll clap. If she sees you whistling she'll pucker her lips. If you point to an object she'll look and maybe say gibberish about it. She imitates words you are saying. This week I've noticed she gets close to saying what you're saying and sometimes nails it on the first try although she is just imitating and doesn't really LEARN a word it is neat to hear a baby repeat after you. I dropped something and said, "Oops!" and she said exactly, "Oops!" so clearly I thought it was my sister-in-law. Of course she never used the word again in our attempts to repeat the incident but it was just neat to hear it happen.

I know the process, I knew the process but now I'm living the process and it is amazing. Much better than any book or teacher could describe. Babies are amazing, I wish I was as versatile at learning as they are.