Jocelyn's 1/2 Marathon Journal

[Boss Man]

There is a slight caveat with Decaffeinated products, well especially Coffee.

There are different methods of decaffeinating, and if remember correctly, one of which involves deep water soaking to strip the outer lay off.

Another invovles jet washing and the third involves jet washing with a chemical of some sort.

I think there's a fourth method, but I'm not certain on that.

The issue here being that the chemical method uses a carcinogen, so that could slightly elevate your risk of Cancer, if you drank any decaff prepared that way.

The obvious thing to consider is, that any company using such a method, would not stipulate it on the packaging, as that would not be a good selling point, to say Warning, this product might slightly elevate your risk of Cancer.

However if you rang a helpline / hotline for any company, you might find the answers regarding preparation, might be not forthcoming, because it's likely the personnel, would just be people advising about returns policies and such like. I doubt such people would have intimate knowledge of growing, picking and treatment methods, of coffee beans and / or tea leaves.

You can get round this issue in a few ways however.

1. Drink Tea from a Redbush plant, I.E. Tetley Redbush, which is a caffeine free source.

2. Have half or two thirds of a cup of regular coffee or tea.

3. Increase the ratio of tea or coffee to Water and have the drink weaker.

These would be effectively alternative ways of decaffeinating your choice(s), without using an actual decaffenated alternative.

[feelin-great]

I am actually trying to get myself off of coffee completely, which is why I am doing half decaf right now. I get headaches if I don't have it in the morning, but it is easier now that I have been adding in decaf. But I did a little research on the decaf process of the brand I drink - this is what I found:

"A trace amount of ethyl acetate may be found in Folgers brewed coffee, according to Folgers. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of ethyl acetate for the decaffeination process in the 1980s. Ethyl acetate is naturally found in foods like apples, bananas and pineapples. Folgers claims it would take 500 cups of their coffee to meet the levels of ethyl acetate in one very ripe banana."

It's a good thing I don't plan on drinking it much longer

So my heart issued has been much better this weekend, although not gone. I still get it a few times a day, but not as strong. This afternoon I had a stretch of about 20 minutes where it got rather severe, but it has been gone for a few hours now. This one completely drained me of any remaining energy I had I got my blood results back before I left town on Friday, I was shocked to see them so quickly, I got them in two days! EVERYTHING they tested was in a fabulous range, except for one - I can't remember the name of it, but I need to do a bit more research to find out why it might be low.

I hope everybody had a great weekend

[Boss Man]

There's differing tests you might have had, like Blood Pressure, White bloodcell, Hemocrit, Heamoglobin, possibly C-reactive Protein maybe Homocysteine and perhaps Platelet count and others I might have forgotten, all of which should be used as a basis for either blood health and / or heart-attack risk

I cannot recall offhand the differing ways in which some are tested, but you can find most of these tests and procedures outlined on medicinenet, if you want more understanding about anything, as they are listed in a tests and procedures category.

[musculArgirl2]

Good to know almost everything was in a great range but that one. Do you now have to make an appointment with a cardiologist? Sorry you are still having the issue this weekend. How stressful! Hopefully everything will turn out okay.

[feelin-great]

I lost .6 this week. Slowly but surely! That is a total of 9.4 I think????

Monday night I was finally feeling well enough to get back to the gym again. I have not been having the heart issues for the last 3 days (well, a few on Monday but nothing serious). I am staying off of the treadmill for a few more days because my shins are still bothering me a bit, but they are definitely on the mend, so my goal is to start running at a higher incline with my old shoes on Monday.

[Nokie173]

I lost .6 this week. Slowly but surely!

Yeah... I gotta keep remembering that!! Keep it up girl... the numbers are adding up and your weight is going down!

[musculArgirl2]

Good job on the weight loss!

[feelin-great]

I have had a really tough, emotional day. By the time I walked out of work (not work issues, family issues) I was so drained I could barely move. I knew my options were 1) go get Chinese and wallow in pain or 2) go to the gym and work out my frustrations. I chose #2 and it felt good.

On a bad note, when I was at my emotional low this afternoon all I wanted was something sweet so I got a Little Debbie Zebra Cake from the vending machine. I am really ashamed to admit that I felt a little better after I ate it I don't understand that. But in light of what I used to do when i was upset (get a pint of Ben & Jerry's and Chinese) I think it was a small success considering it was just the one small thing. I do have to stop eating away my emotions, though.

[Boss Man]

Don't be hard on yourself. You have proven that compared to what would have happened before, this minor food indescretion as you might see it, is a step in the right direction.

So be proud of yourself and keep on working at the mindset. Any forward progress is always good progress.

I'm proud of you misses .

[musculArgirl2]

I have had a really tough, emotional day. By the time I walked out of work (not work issues, family issues) I was so drained I could barely move. I knew my options were 1) go get Chinese and wallow in pain or 2) go to the gym and work out my frustrations. I chose #2 and it felt good.

On a bad note, when I was at my emotional low this afternoon all I wanted was something sweet so I got a Little Debbie Zebra Cake from the vending machine. I am really ashamed to admit that I felt a little better after I ate it I don't understand that. But in light of what I used to do when i was upset (get a pint of Ben & Jerry's and Chinese) I think it was a small success considering it was just the one small thing. I do have to stop eating away my emotions, though.

Good job on the #2 option. It is hard not to eat away emotions. But you did good Joc!

[fitoverforty]

I have had a really tough, emotional day. By the time I walked out of work (not work issues, family issues) I was so drained I could barely move. I knew my options were 1) go get Chinese and wallow in pain or 2) go to the gym and work out my frustrations. I chose #2 and it felt good.
On a bad note, when I was at my emotional low this afternoon all I wanted was something sweet so I got a Little Debbie Zebra Cake from the vending machine. I am really ashamed to admit that I felt a little better after I ate it I don't understand that.

First, it is a proven fact that exercise boosts serotonin levels in your brain, which is a mood lifter, so choosing to go to the gym was an excellent decision to help with the emotions and feelings of being drained, that's why it felt good.
Second, the reason you felt better after the Zebra cake is 1) they taste great! 2) chocolate also has an amino acid in it called tryptophan which the body converts to serotonin in the brain - so....that is why eating sweets or carbs makes us feel better.
The trick is choosing the right sweets or carbs, so we don't totally derail our weight loss efforts. Bananas, oats, cottage cheese, sweet potatos, and yes, even a bit of dark chocolate are some "mood lifting" serotonin releasing options.
Don't beat yourself up over it, focus on the good decisions you made and learn from the not so good ones, you handled it better than you have in the past so that is a positive!

[Nokie173]

Give yourself some credit... Option #2 is GOOD... keep that in mind

[feelin-great]

I gained .2 this week Once again I have only myself to blame. A co-worker has an 11 year old daughter who was just diagnosed with bone cancer so we are trying to raise money for the family. We are selling those fundraising candy bars (yum). Having them on me for a week has been torture, so of course I ended up eating some I was also out of town on a family (sisters, mom, aunts, cousins) shopping trip, so we went to breakfast and dinner. Although I was good at dinner, not so much breakfast Oh, well, back at the healthy eating this week.

I ran again on Monday night - I increased the incline and used my old shoes. My shins felt great!!!! And I stretched more than normal. Last night was my sister's birthday (so of course I had cake ) so I didn't get to the gym. But now this morning my shins are a bit sore. It is strange that it took two days for that to happen. I guess maybe I should stretch them out even on my off days????

[musculArgirl2]

i looked this up at all experts. (i dont' really know if their experts)

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Aerobics-226 ... ints-1.htm but it said to ice a lot. I know that helped me out a lot with my feet.

I would think it wouldn't hurt to stretch it more too but i don't know.

[Nokie173]

I gained .2 this week Once again I have only myself to blame....

It's 0.2 lbs... not 2.0 lbs... Don't be so hard on yourself... You are back