I'm in my workout clothes

but I can't find my shoes. How frustrating! I have 2 pairs of running shoes and I can't find either of them! And I can't very well run without shoes. Hmph.

I might have to settle for some Wii yoga, though it doesn't exactly get my heart rate up. Again, I say Hmph.

Because I'm going on another full week of hormone induced depression and it's affecting my life, I called the Dr. today and asked her to fill the low dose Zoloft prescription she offered a couple months ago. I have to get a handle on this, and It's not working by my sheer will power alone, obviously. I'm sleeping a lot, eating sporadically (nothing consistent, sometimes I'm not hungry all day long and don't eat until dinner, and sometimes I'm eating simply for comfort - neither of which is healthy), finding excuses to avoid going out, not answering my phone because I don't want to talk to people... I can't live like this. So I called in the prescription. Hopefully that means I'll be able to start functioning a little better and at least get into some healthy patterns.

On the plus side, I did go back to Aerial Dance after 2 weeks of missing, so that's good. I'm also at least THINKING about exercise (even if I can't find my shoes!), so I'm taking that as a good sign, too.

As for a food log...

This morning Leif asked me to put away the spritz cookies he and Ellie made last night. Of course, I divided them into a dozen per baggie and ended up with 3 strays. You know I ate them. Hello, unhealthy breakfast! Thankfully they're small, and didn't seem to bother me at all. No headache, no dizzy. I ate lunch at about 11:20 and it consisted of 2 small corn tortillas filled with chili (the salty, turkey variety from a can) and cheese. This is one of my new favorites. Easy, not too much in the way of carbs, and they're small, so I can eat 2 and not have too much. I'm drinking a liter of carbonated water right now to add to that.

As for how I feel, I feel like I'm in a fog, like I'm made of glass and could break at any moment. I think of what I ought to be doing and can't focus long enough to get a task done. I have bunches of projects started all over the house and I can't seem to move forward with any of them. I really is like I'm walking around in the fog, trying to get my brain to reach out and focus on anything, but nothing is happening. It's very frustrating. I feel sluggish, but not so much that I didn't get out of bed, change the sheets, start a load of laundry, take a shower, and get into my workout clothes. Still, the fact that I find that an accomplishment by noon is disturbing. I did work on cutting exercises with Ellie, so I suppose that's something, too. In any event, I'd like to go back to feeling like me, instead of feeling like someone has replaced me with a slug. I'm tired of slithering around my house, leaving a trail behind me. I'd like to go back to getting stuff done early in the morning and having the rest of the day for myself or to do things with Eliana. That's what I'd like. Instead, I stay in bed until 9 and consider getting a shower and getting dressed accomplishments. I'd like to find the power button again. It's like someone put me in hibernation mode!

So... that's how I feel. I'm going to go take my vitamins now and see if it helps. =D

What's in a drink?

So I've been trying to pay attention to my vitamin intake to see if there's something I'm lacking and should supplement. I suspected I might need to supplement with some B vitamins (6 or 12), so I started tracking those vitamins, as well as A and E, on Spark People.

Last night as I was laying in bed I had a thought. Every day I drink my Fulfill Fitness water. I use it because it is sweetened with Splenda and it gives flavor to my water. But it's also vitamin enhanced. So what vitamins do that add to it?

The answer? Vitamins C, B6, B12, and Niacin.

Huh. So between my prenatal vitamin, my fitness water, and my cranergy juice, I'm pretty sure I don't need any supplemental vitamin B. And as long as I keep eating spinach and carrots, I shouldn't need any extra vitamin A or E either.

But I DID just notice that my fitness water isn't calorie free like I thought it was. Ack! It has 10 calories per 8 oz serving, and I drink approximately 8 servings a day. So that's 80 calories a day I haven't been accounting for. It's not too bad, especially since I stay on the low end of the spectrum for calories each day, but still. It's a shock to watch my calories so closely only to learn that for MONTHS I've been consuming almost 100 more than I thought I was.

I did check my Lipton iced tea packets, though, and they have neither calories nor aspartame, so I think I'm good there. Maybe I'll try to drink half that and half Fulfill each day.

Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition

I finished reading this book over the weekend and there are a few things I want to remember for future reference.

The PMS Diet (recommended for more than just PMS symptoms):

• Limit consumption of refined sugar (5 T/day), salt (3 g/day), red meat (3 oz/day), alcohol (1 oz/day), coffee, tea, and chocolate.
• Limit tobacco use.
• Limit intake of protein to 1g per kg of body weight per day.*
• Rely more on fish, poultry, whole grains, and legumes as sources of protein and less on red meat and dairy products.
• Limit intake of dairy products to 2 servings/day.
• Limit intake of fats, mainly saturated and cooked, to less than 20% of calories from fat.
• Increase intake of complex carbs to 60-70% of calories.
• Increase intake of leafy green veggies, legumes, whole grains and cereals.
• Increase intake of cis-linoleic-acid-containing foods (safflower oil is an excellent source). 1-2 T/day of unheated, unrefined oil on your salad, for example.

* I should be eating 54g protein based on this.

One thing I don't think I get enough of is vitamin B, specifically B6. I've added that to my nutrient tracker on SparkPeople, so we'll see how much I get from my diet and prenatal vitamins. But if I don't get enough, I may add that as a supplement, though I don't see a need to add the others she recommends, at least not while I'm on the prenatals and eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and complex carbs. They seem to provide adequate amounts of the vitamins I currently need, except for B6 (and maybe B12).

So there are a couple things I need to change to conform to the diet above. I need to eat a little less fat (I'm currently limiting it to 30%), more fiber, more complex carbs. So I'm off to adjust my settings on SparkPeople to reflect that.

Yesterday

I ended my day in pretty good shape (figuratively speaking! Ha!) yesterday. 1238 calories, 5 f&v, 2 liters water... pretty good!

Today I am really working on upping my fiber intake. I have not been getting enough (or at least my body isn't acting like I have!) so I'm aiming for at LEAST 25 g today. That means breakfast is 2 slice Flax and Fiber whole wheat bread from Wheat Montana. I put margarine on it, so that adds to the calories, but I'll get 10 g of fiber from those 2 slices of bread. Maybe for dinner we'll have something heavy on the beans, like chili or enchiladas. (Sidenote... I wonder if you can throw asparagus in chili?) I'll try to snack on strawberries throughout the day.

I am just flat out lethargic today. It is that lovely time of month where I feel like I've been hit by a train. Today is especially bad for some reason. I made sure to take my vitamin and drink some cranberry/B vitamin juice in hopes that it would boost my energy levels a little bit. We'll see.

I've got to pull myself together today, but it just seems like an overwhelming task! Right now Ellie is watching Blue's Clues while I get a few things done because I just don't feel like I have the patience to deal with her this morning. I'm hoping it will warm up a bit later so we can go for a walk outside before lunch. Getting out, even if there's no sunshine, should help with my mood, and the exercise can't hurt, either!

Okay... off to face the day.