This weekend I did a few things that I have never done before. First, I went to a Starbucks. I donated blood a few weeks ago, and the American Red Cross sent me a 5$ gift card to the coffee chain. C and I were doing some grocery shopping at our local Safeway Saturday morning. This Safeway happens to have a Starbucks in it, so we decided to get some breakfast. Knowing that everything there has way too much fat for fat-phobic me, my only option was a low-fat blueberry muffin. (Being more daring, C ordered a butter croissant and a hot chocolate.) Checking their website this morning revealed surprising results: the low-fat blueberry muffin is not only "lower" in fat, but actually low fat! It had just under 300 calories, but only 1.5 grams of fat. I'm impressed. (C's croissant, on the other hand, packed 390 calories and 20 grams of fat, and the hot chocolate had 450 calories and 24 grams of fat. Wow.) But as a non-coffee drinker and as a person who tries to support locally-owned businesses as much as possible, I don't think I'll be returning.
Later that afternoon, I experienced my second first of the day. I have been experiencing some knee pain which my doctor thinks may be a combination of torn tendons and a small tear in the hamstring muscle. He recommended staying away from long-distance runs, and trying "water running." So C and I went to our local pool (I was too embarrassed to go alone), and I tried out the water running. I had to rent a buoyancy belt, but other than that, no extra props are needed. Basically, you just get in the water and run. I did it for almost an hour, but it wasn't until the last 15 minutes that I actually felt my heart rate rising, probably due to the fact that I actually started "running" harder. It was definitely interesting, and I'm considering taking some sort of water running or water aerobics class just to supplement my running. Thankfully my knee is feeling better today (maybe 70%) so hopefully today's run won't kill all the good that the water running did.
And my last semi-first of the weekend was that during the post-water-running shower, I used conditioner in my hair. I haven't used conditioner in my hair for over one year, thanks to advice from a hairdresser. I was amazed at how easy it was to put the pick through my hair after the shower, but other than that, I saw no benefit. I won't be returning to this.
19 March 2007
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6 comments:
Re Starbucks: Welcome to the dark side! I go to Starbucks on ocassion just so I can feel justified using their bathrooms anytime I want. I figure that if I'm a semi-regular customer they can't give me any flack. But that being said, their treats are pretty nasty, in my opinion.
Re Water Running: Ok a couple of questions come to mind. 1) Can you tell if you're sweating? 2) Do you get more bored than usual? With out the gym mirrors to look at the people in or an ipod to listen to music with, running would be totally intolerable. How do you stay entertained for ONE HOUR running in water? 3) Do you run in place, or around in a circle or something?
Inquiring minds want to know!
I'm impressed the you were pleasantly surprised about the fat content of the muffin. I feel like I always have the opposite epiphany. The information tells me the product is "low fat" and in my mind I'm thinking 3 grams of fat or so. Then, I find out that what seems like one serving of ice cream is actually more like 3 servings of ice cream . . . and each serving has 5 grams of fat. . .
i hope the first video you publish on your blog is you water-running. you know we all want to see it.
oh emily. that's funny. and it will NEVER happen. besides you wouldn't be able to see anything. just me bobbing in the water. it'd be pretty lame actually.
I can't believe no one has mentioned the conditioner. I for some reason was shocked that you haven't used the stuff in over a year! Don't know why, but I for some reason can't live without the stuff. Hmmm, maybe I'll try going without for a day.
to answer gretchen's questions: 1) i couldn't tell if i was armpit-sweating. however, i was not beading on the forehead. i asked C about it, as he's a big swimmer, and he doesn't think you sweat that much simply because the body is already cooled due to the water. 2) not bored at all. i watched kiddies and one speedo-clad man jump off the diving board. and 3) i ended up doing laps. as the "running" was slow in propelling me forward, it took about 5 minutes per lap. that made the time go by quickly too, because each lap took soooo long!
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