Week 4, here I come

I have a renewed sense of optimism and energy starting Week 4 today.

I really began it yesterday afternoon (Monday) after my quiz to try and get some reading of the case done before the first lecture at 8am on Tuesdays.

I had a big headache and felt tired so I went back to bed for a few hours this afternoon. I have been slack with my diet and eating bread again and drinking a bit of coffee and I really must stop that before I return to work on Thursday.

I sat down tonight with my little exercise journal. I have two weeks until a taekwon-do competition in Mildura, and then only two weeks after that is the Australian Masters Games in Geelong. I went to tkd training last night and I have lost a serious amount of fitness over the past 3 or so weeks. It's scary! I am very motivated to go to training as much as possible, therefore I must study a good 10 hours during the day. Training takes up a huge chunk of time as it's such a long drive to our club and we go to the gym for an hour beforehand to work on cardio, strength, and stretching. The 1.5 hour classes are technique-focused.

Anyway, it's all fluids and electrolytes this week so there is heaps of physiology to understand. I like physiol, but this week is truly daunting.

This is what I'm doing right now:

• This week's learning objectives (this week they came with the answers. Not sure if it was a mistake? Normally it's just a question format, ie "What are the fluid compartments of the body?")
• This week's case. It's MASSIVE. There's about 4 actual clinical vignettes and 25 pages of information attached with it.
• Revision of lecture and slides. I just can't pay attention for 1.5 hours straight so I am trying to go over them again. I have a second lecture on Thursday morning. I feel the quiz questions are covered well in the lectures in this module.
• Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology - the appropriate chapters in the renal section on fluid and electrolytes and also diuretics
• Dr Najeeb lectures on fluids and diuretics. 
• Then, I have 3 required readings to do
• USMLEWorld QBank renal physiology questions
• cross-referencing in First Aid and Kaplan revision sources that I have

Barefoot running

I just ordered my first pair of barefoot (minimalist) running shoes! I'm so excited!

I think I've finally figured out why I do and don't like running so much! I like the running but I hate wearing shoes. I am constantly complaining that they are too tight or too loose, my toes are squished or they are too heavy, too this, too that. I am hoping barefoot running will eliminate these problems and let me just run free.

Unfortunately, my feet are the softest feet you will ever meet! I have to build up the skin on them. Until that happens the Invisible Shoes I ordered will help.

I am going to do more Wii Fit and exercise dvds barefoot indoors for beginners to help strengthen the muscles in my ankles and foot arches, although I think they are pretty good as I go barefoot around the house and mostly live in thongs when I'm not at work (I even take my boots off at work when I'm at the branch, I should have seen this barefoot thing coming a long time ago....).

So, I'm really excited. I hope the shipping for the US doesn't take too long.

Unpredictable

Just about as soon as I finished my post yesterday we got paged and were out of the branch working until about 5pm, ie I got nothing done on my study or anything else.

I went to beD at 7pm. Another early night. A mega-storm which we had been warned about all day on the radio started at about that time and I couldn't tell you what the intensity was because I slept like I was dead all night. I woke at 6am feeling almost normal and here we are today back at work for my last shift of the week.

Today I've just been reviewing last week's material for my quiz today. I used to find it annoying to have to go back to the previous week in the middle of a new week, but now I'm starting to think it's good because it really does help solidify that long-term memory. I also, as you may recall, didn't have much time to study last week so I'm catching up on those readings now. I'll go back to this weeks pituitary adenoma later today. Juggle, juggle, juggle.

That's about all. Although I disappointingly haven't been able to exercise as much as I wanted to this week, I have got my diet going really well - lots and lots of healthy food. I've now begun the process of reducing portion sizes and eating more frequently. I've caught up on sleep so I'm hoping to introduce exercise back tonight when I'm off work! Hoorah!

One step back

I've woken with a wry neck.  It's so bad.  All day.  So, so bad.  It's still sore now.  Too sore to workout.  Too sore to even cook dinner.  So I haven't worked out for nearly a week!!!!!!

Here's what happened:

Wednesday - Unplanned cheat meal, but good workout.  Planning to take my next cheat meal on Monday.
Thursday - Did my first TAM PDS workout.  F-ing love the results and think I've cracked the plateau!
Friday - got flogged at work.  Got up out of bed (a bit late as late call-out Thurs night and out until 4am) straight away (about 1pm) and didn't get back in until midnight.  No workout possible. 
Saturday - Needed to vacuum before I worked out on the floor - it had been neglected for over a week now.  Half way through vacuuming I get a job.  Get flogged with back-to-back patients and don't make it back until 5.30pm.  My lower back is killing from all the patient lifting and hours and hours stuck in the ambulance.  Decided I need the night off and the next day to rest my back.  Friend says she's going out and is picking me up at 6pm!  Have 30mins to get ready.  Have a few wines with dinner (which immediately relieves the pain - best muscle relaxant).  Dinner = cheat meal+++
Sunday - hangover.  Recovering from night before.  Too wasted to workout.  Just enough healthy food in the house to eat resonably well.  Feel ok about the cheat meal and feel it has not been an obstacle and happy with my progress.
Today - Get called at 7.30am (still in bed) to ask if I want to work OT.  Don't want to but I need to to pay for my med school fees.  Realise my neck is stiff - try and stretch it under the hot water in the shower and make it much worse to the point where I can't even put my hair up for work.  Still go in anyway with a lavendar-scented teddy-bear wheat heatpack on top of my paramedic uniform.  No chance of working out.  Too sore to even prepare food.  Manage to get a fairly healthy lunch at the cafe but snacking on the only food at work - chocolate. 

So there you go.  That's how easily one can be derailed.  I feel like I've lost a whole week and have gone back up to my plateau set point (the new one which is about 1kg under the old one).

I have enrolled to do my Personal Trainer certificate.  I think it wont take much time as the anatomy and physiology should be pretty basic.  I had a quick look at one of their online tute supplement videos and it was like "the cell wall is a semi-permeable membrane...", and "here are examples of synovial joints...".... ok, I think I will be right with the assesments without too much brain strain.

So I kind of fantasise about having a second job as a personal trainer, but being really high-end boutique, very personalised, like a 3 or 6 month program and not just being paid to kick someone's butt - that is so 5 years ago.  I also hope it will encourage me to stay looking good as it will be expected of me.  I've never been someone who anyone would say "oh yeh, she really looks like and athelete", so the challenge is captivating.  And mainly I'm hoping to encourage myself to keep going with this whole fitness thing - to make it a serious part of my ingrained, everyay life - and that, I believe, is worth the ivestment in PT course tuition fees.  I might even avoid my predestined path of diabetes.  Again, this is the rationalising I am a master at.  Truely.

I go back to work tomorrow night so I hope to get fully back on track tomorrow when I wake up (without a wry neck).

Tracy Anderson

I just got Tracy Anderson's 30-day Method book today from Amazon. I'm really into the "TAM" right now, although I have more than a few reservations about her diet plan.

I did her dance cardio today for 20mins after my 1-hour mat workout. Tomorrow I start the 30-day workout for real, but using the Venice Nutrition diet instead (and all the other elements of Venice Nutrition such as sleep and stress control).

I've ordered the TAM Metamorphosis 90-day plan but I don't know how long it will take to arrive from the States, so the timing should be quite good.

I can't wait to pass on my TAM mat workout to my sister who is getting married in 5 months, then the 30-day method when my Meta arrives.

So, yeh, I'm pretty obsessed with TAM right now, but I just really like it. I even rearranged the furniture in my lounge room to accomodate my workouts (until I can get my dojo/gym ready). Yoga and running are on the back-burner for now.

I have exactly 4 weeks until I start med school again and it has seemed to have taken forever. It's perfect timing for me now to do this bootcamp as my world is organised and ready.

It's over

Finally, my working week is over.  I am so happy.  I kind of fell off the workout/diet wagon over the last few days and I can't wait to get a proper night's sleep tonight and kick-off again tomorrow.

I'm really tired.  I have tried to rest as much as possible and eat well but I've still ended up with a sore throat and enlarged posterior cervical lymph nodes which is my sign that I'm run down.  My feet are even too sore to think about doing any sort of standing workout.  But I am hopeful I can get things back on track tomorrow.

I ate all those muffins already except for the two I gave my partner at work.  But, the good thing is, even though I craved those carbs, when it came to dinner time, I actually craved the balanced meals from Venice Nutrition, and have actually eaten well for 80% of the day anyway.

Tracy Anderson

So lately I've started doing my Tracy Anderson DVD workout.  I've had that DVD for about 2 years and have always thought it was great.  I find it gets me the best results for sure.  I'm not really into her cardio because I find it takes a lot of time to learn the choreography and needs too much space than my lounge room can provide, hence I've been happy doing my Zumba.

I thought I would look at her website again to see if she has released anything else, and OMG the website is totally revamped and there are heaps of ways I can give my money to Ms Anderson.  I just ordered her Metamorphosis program and I wish there was an express post option because I would have paid anything to have that right now. 

My muscles grow really quickly as I'm a mesomorph/endomorph so I get really fast results with any sort of strength training.  I've done the TA Mat DVD most days for the past fortnight and my abs and arms look awesome, if I do say so myself.  My hips and legs are tighter, but I can only occasionally glimpse the definition as I still have too much fat there, but thanks to Mark MacDonald's book, that is starting to finally shift slowly, slowly.

Last time I looked at TA's diet plan I was a bit horrified.  I can't live off that little food, especially when I workout.  I will be interested in seeing what it looks like these days.

Going back to work has really stuffed up my routine.  Being on-call, and most significantly, getting called-out really wrecks my sleeping habit - to sleep at night for at least 8 hours.  I know I am a ten-hour person, but I'd be happy with 8 during my working week then sleep bank on days off.  Last night I only got 6 and when my pager went off I was like a zombie after working 7am to 2am (the next morning).  Then we were busy all day.  I got home at 6.30pm and had a 2-hour nap, then finally a shower (!), dinner, and 1-hour TA Mat workout and now it's 9.45pm and I'm on-call overnight and back on-duty at 7am, which means if I wan 8 hours sleep (providing I don't get a call-out) I need to be in bed by.... oh crap... now.

I can already see when I start back studying I'm going to need a lot more hours in my day.....

Study

Wow - this is the first time I've felt like studying since my exam in mid-March. I'm looking at my newest addition to my medical bookshelves, which is Lippincott's Pharmacology.

There are so many pharm questions in med exams, and right now I'm guessing a lot from recall and I can't seem to conceptually organise everything in my mind. I think pharm could easily be a stand-alone module, rather than mixed with the body systems (as is everything else except biochem, and I heard a rumor about a new research module).

So my goal is to read this text cover-to-cover. We'll see what really happens. I like the way the book is organised, which I think I mentioned before, so I'm kind of excited about it all.

I'm doing some OT again today so I hope to get enough downtime to read, vacuum my car, and do my banking. Workout will be this evening but possibly light as I'm feeling physically tired today.

Addiction

I realised today I'm addicted to studying medicine.  My friend is studying advanced intensive care paramedic practice and asked me to proof read her assignment on infective endocarditis for her....  Well, the poor girl has red pen all over her assignment and then I was suggesting her to write about the empirical antibiotic therapy and how they work on the bacteria!  Seriously!  I think that was a bit overboard.  I was able to tell her about the modified Duke criteria which is essential when talking about IE diagnosis.  And then I really go into it, citing references she could use and latest journal articles.  Seems like all this med study is doing something to help me advance in the world of healthcare afterall.

Anyway, the major revelation was how addicted I am to it all.  I couldn't stop.  I actually miss study now and want to go back, especially seeing as I have a bit more control over my diet and exercise.  I'm back on my laptop with my glasses on.  Maybe I can actually step foot into my study room again this week.

Well, with my foot taped up I was able to do my Tracy Anderson Mat and walk for 20mins on the deadly (treadmill) at a 15% incline which was enough to get a sweat up.  So, if I'm not working tomorrow, I really need to go hard in the cardio intensity and increase the duration of the lower-intensity.  I have been thinking about when I would have my "cheat meal" this week - well it happened tonight.  My coworker wanted to go to the pub for dinner, so chicken kiev with chips and Coke then Crunchie for dessert is what happened.  At first I didn't enjoy the "dirty" food (as opposed to the clean eating I've been doing for the past 4 weeks), but then I got into it and got a real sugar-high, which I think contributed to going overboard on proof-reading my friends assignment!

First OT

I'm doing my first overtime shift since coming back to work.  OT for me = med school tuition fees, so seeing as I'm all caught up on sleep so far, I'm happy to be here.  Today should pay for this week's fees.  Even though I'm not studying this term I still pay monthly across the year to try and make it easier.  Well, that is the theory.  IF only I could do 12 more OT shifts by the end of the week and I would be all caught up on school fees too.  Ugh.  I'm trying not to stress about it too much yet.  I still have both my kidneys to sell.

Luckily I've been fairly good with preparing food days ahead so after getting the phone call to come into work I was able to easily round-up my grub.  I also knew what I wanted to do for workout this am, so I grabbed my Tracy Anderson Mat Workout DVD, two 1kg weights, and skipping rope, and have my runners on.  We have a treadmill at work, so I'm hoping to do 30mins 15% incline walking, but, as usually, there's a "but".  I woke up with a big painful red lump under the ball of my left foot.  I'm not sure if it's a bite or if I walked on a stone and forgot.  I did stand on something sharp 2 days ago... ooh I hope it's not infected.  So I'm going to take a closer look at that before I begin.  I wont affect the Mat Workout, and I can put most of my weight on the right foot for skipping, but the walking might be difficult.  Ugh.

We had some good work yesterday so I'm glad to be back still.  I also bumped into my Mentor at the hospital and she was all like "When are we starting again!?"... It's so awesome to have a mentor that enthusiastic!

First day back

It's my first day back at work after 4 weeks off. Coupled with the early start (shift starts at 7am), I'm already feeling horrible. I couldn't sleep last night and I slept through my alarm and missed my workout this morning. I also forgot to bring my rice milk (I'm off dairy) as part of breaky. Ugh. Why me.

Hoping things will improve throughout the day.

Update

Nothing really to report here. Went out last night and backing it up tonight. Looking forward to dancing! Last night I drank vodka, lime, and soda and I think it helped me feel better this morning than drinking my normal staple of cheap champagne.

Ramped up my workout today as I've realised I've plateued. I added more weights, high intensity intervals, then stepped up the intensity for my Zumba cardio session.

I've realised I love dancing and hate running, so I don't know how I'm going to consolidate this revelation in the future...

Rabbit

Happy Lunar New Year!  I have always thought the Solar-Lunar calendar made much more sense than the Roman one, but anyway...  It's the year of the Rabbit!  One of my ex-boyfriends told me I looked like a rabbit once...  So, my friend turned 42 last year and ran a marathon (42km) to mark the occasion.  For some reason it has really stuck in my head.  I met a new friend and he is turning 42 this year and I told him he should run a marathon.  He said no.  Then my other friend is training for the Iron Man and I keep thinking these people are crazy.  Thinking, thinking, thinking.  And I've been complaining for ages I just can't get any motivation to exercise.  And it's the year of the rabbit... and I think you might know where this is heading.

So, I'm putting it out there. I want to run a marathon this year.

I'm not a runner.  My body is in no way built to run a marathon.  Didn't Oprah run a marathon once?  And I've been worried about my diet and risk of diabetes and when I did the hike yesterday I realised that if I don't get fit now, I'll never be fit.

I used to be in the Army.  I was my fittest then.  And still then I didn't feel fit.  I used to like running about 4 or 5 km cross-country, but not 42km flat.

My friend took 6 months to prepare, but she was already pretty fit before she started. My rough plan is to work towards the Melbourne Marathon in October.

Ok so I am really scared thinking about it.  It will be a lot of work, and right now my calves are killing just sitting here.  But because it seems just so impossible right now is exactly the reason why I want to do it.  I am also aware that I have just had 2 weeks off work and my body is in a routine which I don't normally have the luxury of.  Sometimes work is so crazy that I eat, work, and sleep only.  No tv, no housework.  Just come home, go to bed, and go back to work again.  I do, however, have a deadly-treadly at work.

I'm frightened.  I have overcome pain and boredom before, but not at the same time of extensive periods.  Do people listen to their iPod during marathons?

Gaiters

Just came back from a short morning walk, testing out my new gaiters.  Not sure if I have them on the right feet, but they did the trick.  It was easy to get a sweat on this morning as it's lovely and humid - plenty of butterflies around.  It must be nearly 30oC already at 10am.  It rained last night so all the plants are green and turgid.
Have a whole day of study in front of me today, which is a continuation of last night, preparing for my weekly grilling in my online lecture tomorrow morning at stupid-o'clock.  It's all about immunocompromisation and pneumonia these two weeks in a double case-study.  I also just found out I can watch the recorded lectures, not just listen to the podcasts.  Glad I found that out now and not at the end of the year.

So I've realised that as a paramedic I found cardiovascular easy and respiratory difficult.  I can't see any other systems getting any easier for me.  And, yes, yet again, it is just one reason why I'm really enjoying my studies.

Good day

A good day in the books today.  Started with a short walk through the bush on the property here and then a wee bit of retail therapy including a trip to the supermarket to get all my favourite study food, and that has seemed to be enough to get my mind back in the right space for study again.  I am amazed how much sugar the brain requires.

Had a can of RedBull before and my heart is pounding now.  Don't think I can drink that stuff any more, or I should at least try and avoid it.  One good thing about being at Mum and Dad's is that I get a decent meal twice a day, with vegetable and everything!  I can smell the t-bone stea on the barbie right now!  I'm not generally very organised at home and aim for something semi-healthy once a day, and by that I mean if it comes in a tomato-base then that counts as a vegetable, and of course red wine counts as a fruit.

The bush walk this morning made me realise how much I miss the exercise endorphins.  Bought a pair of gaiters today so I wont get so scratched up tomorrow and can go longer.  And I look more cool too., which is very important when there is noone here to see me!  I can justify it because I am planning a hiking trip in March and have one bookde already for September.  I have a few weeks off in March (and Sep) with no work and no study, so I look forward to that one.