Observations | Keeping up with Kate

Take Me Out to the Ball Game…

Posted on June 7, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

You know how the rest of the song goes (you are singing it right?)…

Monday night I took my nephew to the Phillies vs. Marlins game as part of his baseball association’s night out at the ballpark. I had gone last year with my brother and nephew and it was a lot of fun. My brother was traveling for work and asked if I could take him. Of course, the answer was YES!

We had to get to the ballpark early because part of the evening included a walk around the stadium. Last year, my nephew walked with the team and one of the coaches. This year he was on a new team and I was a little nervous as I didn’t know any of the parents or the coaches. I befriended one of the Mom’s and she encouraged me to go on the field – which is exactly what I did. I don’t know who enjoyed walking on the field more – the kids or the adults? We were all walking around use our cellphones – snapping pictures.

Here are some of the fun shots I got on the field:

Local group playing the theme to Rocky as we walked around the Ballpark

Getting the infield ready

The Home Team’s helmets

Approaching the left field wall.

On Deck Circle

I asked my nephew if he wanted to get a photo of the two of us on the field together – the answer was NO – but he did allow me to take a photo of him on the field (I won’t be sharing though since his parents aren’t on social media – so his photos won’t be either).

So after some ballpark grub – hot dogs, a few fries, water and our bag of peanuts – off we went to our seats in the upper deck behind home plate. Here are a few shots from our seats:

Thougtht this was a cool shote with the Phillies sign and the city in the background.

Zoomed in view from our seats via my iPhone.

View from our seats.

The start of the game wasn’t great – it didn’t get interesting until late in the game – just right before we had to leave – the fun started with a home run by catcher. The little boy next to me got so excited he spilled a nice portion of his Phillie red italian ice on my side – good thing it matched my shirt! It was great to see the team hit the ball and get some runs – it was 5-2 when we left and 7-2 by the time we got to our car – it was great hearing the roar of the crowd as we walked to the car – we knew our team was doing great. It was an awesome ending to a fantastic day at the ballpark.

I wanted to share this story because I think sometimes we are always so busy in our daily lives we don’t take the time and really enjoy some of the simple things in life. I hope I created a fond memory for my nephew – I know I created one for myself.

PS: I did get him to agree on a self-portrait of the two of us in our seats!

The Art of Thank You

Posted on June 2, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

When was the last time you wrote a Thank You note? I spent about an hour writing Thank You notes as part of a customer retention initiative at work on Friday. I wrote about 10 of them. I do this every month – it was something my company started last year and something I believe is important and unique. Our company target is 5 per mont – I’ve asked my team to complete 10 per month. I often wonder what the people on the other end think when they receive a thank you note from me or one of my co-workers?

When I was writing on Friday, I took some time in between writing (and giving my hand a rest – you get writers cramp since we spend so much time on computers now) to reflect on how was feeling – I’ll have to say pretty darn good. It was nice to sit down and personally write out the Thank You notes to our customers. Life seems to be moving so fast now adays – (I can’t believe it is already June) – that we don’t stop to appreciate the people around us. I have an opportunity in my life to change that…

I’ve been writing Thank You notes for as long as I can remember – a rule in our house growing up was you had to send a Thank You note for any gifts you received. As I got older I wasn’t made to do it, but my Mom definately had it ingrained in me (in case you are wondering I think this is a great thing). As I write this I recall Thank You notes my Mom would receive from her Uncle Ted – he learned to say Thank You on his mother’s knee (he wrote this at least once). I have fond family memories when Uncle Ted would join us for family events at Easter and Thanksgiving. He was a kind, sweet, old fashioned man who was very good to my Mom and her sisters growing up.

Back to the Thank You notes – I don’t recall when, but my Mom gave me a book called The Thank You Book by Robyn Freedman Spizman and I haven’t ever really looked at it. I pulled it out this morning and was leafing through it. I plan on adding it to my reading list this week – it is a short read. I’ll share with you what I learn.

My goal for summer of 2013 (adding to my Summer Bucket List) is to write 2 Thank You notes per week for the people who have done a great job at work, helped me or done something nice. Ideally these will be handwritten Thank You notes vs. sending an email. I think it means so much more receiving it something in the mail vs. all the junk mail and bills we all receive everyday – a little gem.

“One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay ‘in kind’ somewhere else in life” – Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Ice Cream, Ice Cream, We all SCREAM for ICE CREAM

Posted on June 1, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I have loved ice cream for as long as I can remember. When I would go to my Mom-Mom’s and Pop-Pop’s – there was always a 1/2 gallon of REAL Breyer’s Vanilla ice cream. For years, our house only had Breyer’s ice cream in it – we branched out and tried other flavors beside vanilla too. 🙂

Fast forward to 2013 and it is hot as blazes for June 1st – feels more like August 1st. I’ve been doing ‘chores’ all day and wanted some ice cream tonight. I was originally going to hit the drive-thru at Dairy Queen for a Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard (small). I decided I’d go get some Breyer’s Ice Cream with peanut butter cup, chocolate cookie dough or chocolate chip – since I would know the ingredients. Boy was I wrong! I find the Breyer’s with peanut butter cup and it says it is made with Light Ice Cream (and lots of other stuff) – there are so many ingregdients in it – there was the mention of Sugar – 11xs! So then I decided to look at the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Chocolate Chip – both made with Frozen Dairy Dessert – with both having at least 3 types of Sugars. Needless to say I was disgusted and disappointed in Breyer’s. What has happened to Breyer’s?

Off I went to the Turkey Hill section – they had ice cream with similar ingredients until I spied Turkey Hill All Natural Ice Cream – I picked the Salted Caramel – 6 ingredients: cream, milk, sugar, caramel, vanilla and salt! The sugar content is higher than I normally get – next time I’ll try the Coffee – 3 less grams of sugar.

So how was the ice cream? It was yummy (a touch sweeter than it needed to be – but still yummy)! I enjoyed it as I watched the opening of Libeled Lady (1936) on TCM.

And in case you haven’t figured it out – I will be purchasing the Turkey Hill All Natural from now on.

Stay cool!

Road Warriors

Posted on May 31, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I was traveling last week to Chicago. I’m in awe of Road Warriors. What is a Road Warrior? Per a Google search – 75% travel is equal to the road warrior being away from home all week days except Friday; 50% travel is equal to 2.5 days of the 5 day work week. However, an easier calculation is simply on average there are 20 work days in a month, divide that into the number of days you are not at home.

Why am I in awe of them? I’m in awe of the ones who have figured out how to balance staying in a hotel, eating healthy and getting workouts in consistently. I was a bit of a Road Warrior from 2001 – 2003 and I’ll be honest I never could figure out the balance.

Nowadays, I travel once a week every few months (more the first part of the year). I am diligent in packing my workout clothes; however, many times my workout on my trip is carrying the extra clothes and sneakers in my bag. For example, the big kick-off meeting I run every March – I was in Chicago for almost an entire week – I never saw the inside of the hotel gym – I was working 14+ hours / day – so sleep was my priority!

So once again last week, I packed my workout clothes and sneakers. The first day I walked a lot in the airport – so I sort of chalked that up as my ‘workout’. The next day it didn’t happen. I was committed on Day 3 to get my workout in and I succeeded! I was down in the teeny hotel gym bright and early with a great interval training session (a bit longer version of a HIIT workout) – it was awesome. Then I did some arms and ab work. It was a nice soaking workout. I will chalk this up as a WIN for me! Better late then never. 🙂

Workout DONE!

Near the end of my workout, a co-worker of mine comes in to get her workout in for the day (and she is a Road Warrior – and she worked out the day before too!) The kicker to this little side story was before our meeting started she mentioned that it was great seeing me in the gym and I was ‘sweating like a man‘ (note: I believe we were the only two in the group at that hotel that made it to the gym that morning!) – I was a touch embarrassed and a little proud (as I worked pretty darn hard) (and actually didn’t lug my stuff around for nothing)!

So off to O’Hare I went to try and fly standby (post meeting) – I did not have the luck of the Irish that day, but thought I would share how I relaxed while waiting (trying to take it a little bit like a ‘Road Warrior’) (note: not lugging the sneakers in the bag this time either).

Chillaxin’ at ORD

I think if I ever become a ‘Road Warrior’ again – I know I would do so much better with everything I’ve put in place the last few years. If it took me time to figure out the balance – at least I’d get some sort of a workout lugging the extra workout clothes around! 🙂

Have a great Friday!

The Great Imitator – Part 2

Posted on May 30, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Good morning! Sorry it has been awhile from my last post. Time just seems to be getting away from me lately.

As May comes to an end – I thought I’d give you an update on my Lyme Disease. So I’ve had some questions answered and I have more now that I’ve looked at my results a bit more.

Here is what I learned at my appointment – I was probably infected within 6 months of my diagnosis since the Western Blot came back positive. So I was infected sometime between May and November. I’m going to find out at my next nutritionist appointment when I first reported my exhaustion – I think it was early on when I started going and we chalked it up to my food changes.

I’m pleased to announce that the Western Blot test came back Negative – so according to the CDC – I’m cured! However, as I’ve look at my test results a bit more – I have more questions.

November Test Results:
- Lyme Ab Interp, EIA: Positive
- Lyme Disease Ab, Quant, Igm: 1.60H (Positive is > 1.09)
- I don’t have the page for the Western Blot – and I need to get the rest of this report
April Test Results:
- Lyme AB Interp, EIA; Positive Abnormal
- Lyme Disease Ab, Quant, IgM: 1.47H (Positive is >1.09) – but it is going down!
- Lyme IgM WB (Western Blot): Negative – and positive for some of the Borrelia-specific bands – I wonder is there something to do for this or it will run its course?

The actual diagnosis states the following: An equivocal or positive EIA result followed by a negative Western Blot (WB) result is considered NEGATIVE – so that is where the NEGATIVE comes in.

Why am I skeptical? A couple of things: I’ve read quite a bit of information from different sources, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of research being doing on this (and some of the things I’ve seen on chronic lyme scares the you know what out of me; however, I think my risk for this is very, very low) and lastly the thing that really bothers me is my exhaustion level. Here is my most recent example: I was traveling last week for work – I wasn’t out late any of the evenings except the night I traveled back home (got home around midnight) – it took me most of the 3 day weekend to recover – that isn’t normal!

I guess time will tell – part of me wonders if this will be like Mono (yes I’ve had that before too) – will it just have to run its course out of my body – I sure hope that is what it is. Something that makes me believe this is I can’t donate blood for a year past my diagnosis – found that out last night (though if you have Chronic Lyme – they don’t want you to donate).

I will repeat from my first Great Imitator post why I’m sharing: AWARENESS! May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month! It is all about PREVENTION: http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/ or http://www.lymedisease.org/lyme101/prevention/lyme_prevention.html as there isn’t a lot of understanding or support on the long term effects of Lyme Disease by the Health Care Industry . So please be extra careful this spring, summer and fall since we did not have a very cold winter – there are a lot more deer ticks since they weren’t killed off with the cold.

The Great Imitator

Posted on May 18, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

***Warning: Long Post***

The Monday after Thanksgiving last year, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease (aka The Great Imitator). It was both a relief and a fear of the unknown. I’ve decided to share my story in hopes that it prevents others from getting it as it is preventable.

It was a relief as I finally knew why I was so tired and having problems concentrating (two of the symptoms). And the fear factor was – I had no idea when I got it and how long I’ve had it (which is scary considering the longer I’ve had it the more likely for long-term effects). As my brother stated when I told him – “It isn’t as if you are a hiker”. I’m really not an outdoorsy person anymore – I much prefer a nice hotel with a spa vs. camping (been there done that as a Girl Scout). Additionally, I never had the tell-tale bullseye rash and I found out that 40% of the people diagnosed with Lyme Disease never get it.

As I sit back and look at 2012 – when did I get it? – I’m starting to pinpoint sometime in the summer (time will tell). I originally thought I’ve had it since the Spring, but the more and more tests I get done for other things the more I think I got it the end of May or June.

I started seeing my nutritionist in May 2012 and I remember going back a month later complaining about being tired – so exhausted all I could do when I was finished with work was sleep for an hour or so. It wasn’t every day so we both thought it was adding sandwiches with real bread not sprouted back to my lunch of choice. As I look back on it now – it makes me wonder if I was feeling the effects of Lyme. I seemed to feel better in July but I was also on vacation for two weeks – although I do recall not really staying up late and sleeping in a little more. Fall was just plain crazy both work and personally – I went to 5 PSU home games – 4 of which I stayed the whole weekend up there. As I look back, I did keep those crazy college hours though (a change from the past). And work was just super busy working on 2013 planning. And I was TIRED!

So how did I ultimately find out I had Lyme Disease? I had a 4 month follow-up with my Doctor (I saw her in July and all my blood work was normal – no lyme test though) (which is also why I think I may not have gotten it until the summer) the Monday before Thanksgiving. I planned on talking to her about how tired I was – just the day before I had breakfast with my extended and family and all I could do on Sunday was sleep on the couch (and I don’t mean a nap – full blown exhaustion). I honestly thought it was thyroid related – due to being tired and my ongoing struggle losing weight. Test results = no thyroid issue. Although some of my other numbers spiked and by quite a lot (this is why I think I got somewhere between June and November). It still didn’t explain my exhaustion. The comment I received was for me to just make myself get up and move around (and honestly that ticked me off as I was still working out). So I pushed and explained what happened the day before. Reluctantly (and I truly believe this) she wrote out a script for more lab work. I didn’t have to fast so I could get it done very quickly. I went the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I knew one test was for a Vitamin B deficiency and I had figured out one was for Lupus. I put the test out of my mind for the remainder of the Thanksgiving holiday – until Monday morning. Bottomline – you know your body better than anyone else – keep pushing your Doctor for the answers!

Monday morning I was anxious. I made the mistake of getting on WebMD – I was searching my symptoms and Lupus kept popping up. I was SCARED. Monday afternoon, I received a phone from the Doctor’s office to schedule an appointment for the next day. The assistant could hear the anxiety in my voice – she asked me if I wanted to know what I had – of course I said YES – I just couldn’t wait! She told me I had Lyme Disease and I whooped with relief since it wasn’t Lupus.

I had heard of Lyme Disease, knew you got it from a deer tick (virtually impossible to see), but never really knew what it entailed. And did not know it was an Auto Immune disease that will stay with me the rest of my life. So for the next 30 days I took 500 mg of antibiotics 3 times a day. I know the saying goes the ‘cure is in the last dosage’ and I can tell you I was hoping for that, because midway through my treatment (the day after Christmas – and it was a laid back Christmas) – I was exhausted. I love doing things with my extended family and I had to pass that day. In my opinion, the cure wasn’t in the last dose.

I don’t recall the exact date, but I remember waking up one day and I was like – WOW – I feel normal. But I’ve also noticed that if I stay out late (sans adult beverages too) – I’m beat for the next two days – that just isn’t normal. I’m hoping this is like mono (yes I’ve had that before too) and it will run its course. I’ve done some research of late on Lyme Disease and it is just scary what it can do to you long term if left untreated. I’m fairly confident mine was caught early. I go back to my Doctor’s this Monday to find out my blood work and there was an additional test added for Lyme Disease. Fingers crossed the levels are low!

So why the super long post – AWARENESS! May is Lyme Disease Awareness Month! It is all about PREVENTION: http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/ or http://www.lymedisease.org/lyme101/prevention/lyme_prevention.html as there isn’t a lot of understanding or support on the long term effects of Lyme Disease by the Health Care Industry (I’ve read how the later stages (where it wasn’t caught soon enough) and it is debilitating). So please be extra careful this spring, summer and fall since we did not have a very cold winter – there are a lot more deer ticks since they weren’t killed off with the cold.

I really do think mine was caught in time; however, seeing my results on Monday will help reassure me! 🙂 And I hope this post was helpful in preventing you or your family contracting Lyme Disease!

Challenge Workout Results

Posted on May 17, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

On our second workout of our Spring Transformation there was a challenge workout. The purpose of the challenge is to set your baseline and to see how you’ve improved over the 6 weeks. I’ve done the challenges before and knew it was coming, but I can tell you I was kind of nervous for the challenge (4/17).

The challenge exercises were as follows:

Push-ups to exhaustion on toes and knees – with a requirement to go down to a weight on the mat
Wall Sit
Burpees (the full body workout – I used to despise – now not so much) (timed 2 minutes)

April 17, 2013 Results

Push-ups: 17 (toes)
Wall Sit: 1:14 minutes (with a massive headache that lasted for about 2 days)
Burpees: 28

May 15, 2013 Results (not as nervous – just anticipation)

Push-ups: 25 (toes) and 13 (knees)
Wall Sit: 1:41 minutes (no headache – yeah!!)
Burpees: 27 (bummer)

Overall Results

Push-ups: 32% improvement on toes; overall 124% improvement 🙂
Wall Sit: 24% improvement
Burpees: 3.5% decline
Overall Results: 48% Improvement – wahoo!!!

I’m very pleased with my results. Wish I had at least gotten to my baseline on my burpees – but it isn’t the end of the world.

The energy in our class was a little blah at the beginning on May 15th – post warm up we had a visit in our class – a squirrel – I think he helped get our adrenaline up. Everyone had great results and were cheering everyone one – particularly our last two standing (more like sitting) on the wall sits.

Really happy and proud of my results!!

20

Posted on May 6, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Last April I made the best phone call I’ve made in a long time. I made an appointment to see a Nutritionist. I was at my whits end – I was at one of the best fitness levels in my life (except when I was played sports in HS and College) and not losing any weight – and in fact I was gaining weight – something had to be done!!

If I’m honest with myself – the weight gain started in 2001 – 2003 when I was traveling quite a bit for work and had no real workout routine – I was working crazy, crazy hours and just not eating right. I had a short stint where I lost some weight and I was in NYC at least twice a week for work where I walked everywhere – which helped. Then in 2005, I bought a condo, moved further south (so my NYC trips declined) and my job changed (not that I haven’t gone through a lot of job changes at work) – there was just less and less time for ME. I think I finally had enough and started BP in 2007 / 2008 (not sure of the timing). I loved the workouts and all the great people I met. I’ll be honest I wasn’t a fan of the timing – 6 am workouts (wake-ups at 5:15 am) and I’m not really a morning person. I’d do really well during the transformations but then they would be over and I’d get bored or just talk myself out of getting up in the morning (I was pretty good at it too). I stopped eating many processed foods, eating fast food and not going out to dinner as much but I still wasn’t losing weight.

Now fast forward to last spring during the Spring transformation and there was a special guest speaker – a nutritionist set to speak to all of us. I was traveling for work and wasn’t sure I was going to make it – my trainer – really encouraged me to go (she thought it would really help me – Thank You Anna!!). I made changes the next day after the seminar – I went from 3 meals and two snacks to 3 meals a day (with that 3 pm craving still there). I finally got around to making an appointment in April – the date was set for early May 2012.

I got on the scale and I was the heaviest I’ve even been in my life (and I will never see that # again) at that first appointment. Quite honestly, I’m too embarrassed that I let it get so out of control that I still can’t even put that number on this blog! (and probably never will!)

After that first meeting in May 2012 – my nutritionist started treating me as pre-diabetic so no more than 30 grams of carbs per meal, protein and veggies at every meal. No salads as a meal and NO FRUIT (due to the sugar). The first month I lost 6 lbs. I did start having energy issues – I don’t recall if it was in June or later in the summer (as I reflect back – it was probably the start of my Lyme disease symptoms and I thought it was my body adapting to my new eating pattern). I’ve gone every month for the last year – most months I’ve lost weight – had a little bit of a hiccup in December/January and got back on track. We’ve adjusted what I’ve been eating so 1. I don’t feel like I’m missing out (i.e. I went to 5 of 6 PSU home games this past fall and I tailgated – ironically the fall had some good weight loss mths) 2. Removed carbs from breakfast as I’m very carb sensitive (this was the past 2 mths). 3. Eat when I’m hungry – so I don’t eat breakfast when I first get up and today I just had coffee and ate an early lunch. Everyone is different and you have to find out what works best for you.

So why this really long blog entry and what is the deal with the title of this post?? Well I went last Thursday and I hit a milestone – I’ve lost 20 pounds!!! I know some are reading this and thinking really – 20 lbs in a year that really isn’t that much – a year or so ago I would’ve said the same thing (heck I bet even 6 mths ago I would’ve said that). I’ve learned a lot about myself over the past year – to be PATIENT, that this isn’t a diet and I’m making changes that will be permanent. I actually haven’t told a lot of people – I shared my success with a few people I worked out with last Thursday over lunch and I got a little emotional.

No on to my next milestone – it is a small one, but I think a really big one for me – it is the #6!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race – I’ve posted this before and this will continue to be my mantra (although I’m not opposed to a couple of windfalls either)! In the end this post is for me – just an opportunity to see in a year what else I’ve been able to accomplish.

Thanks for reading and remember you can do anything if you put your mind to it (oh and a little patience always helps)!!

Sleeping with my iPhone – it isn’t what you think!:-)

Posted on May 2, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

I’ve had my iPhone for over a year now and one of the first apps that I downloaded (based on another blogger’s recommendation) was Sleep Cycle. http://www.sleepcycle.com/

Sleep Cycle icon on my phone – next to the SFDC Chatter icon – yes I had a lot of unopened email! 🙂

Sleep Cycle (per the app intro) – used a wake up phase (30 minutes by default) that ends at your desired alarm time. During the phase Sleep Cycle will monitor your body to wake you softly when you are in the lightest possible sleep state. Sleep Cycle uses the iPhone accelerometer to sense your movement as you sleep. You place your iPhone upside down on your mattress. Mine is always on airplane mode when I use it – not text or email alerts when I’m trying to sleep.

I had a great night sleep Tuesday night – 100% quality! I’ve only had one other 100% night sleep and both times they were days when I did YOGA!

100% Sleep Quality Night!

You can notes based on some of your daily habits to see how they impact your sleep pattern. I only added this in the last 6 – 8 months. Here is a view of what the graphs look like – stress (dah) negatively impacts my sleep pattern.

Yoga and Eating Late have a positive impact on my sleep pattern – stressful day – not so much!

Hardbody/Worked are the same activity, tea is herbal and good hydration has a slight advantage over low.

At first I was skeptical about this app, however, I can tell you I see how it changes and when I work up Wednesday morning I really felt refreshed. Just wish I had a lot more 100% night sleeps – most of mine nights hover around the 80% + /- area.

3 month sleep quality %

You can check out lots of trends. I also found out I really need 7 1/2 – 8 hours of quality sleep – good news is I’m really close to that goal on average.

Average Hours per night and other interesting data points.

I think this is very insightful as I continue to learn more and more about myself and how sleep impacts my ability to function and lose weight. Sleep it does the body good! (or in my case – GREAT)!!

Week 3 – Accountability

Posted on April 29, 2013 by keepingupwithkate91

Week 3 is in the books. It was a much tougher week than I expected even though I achieved a score (that I calculated) of 87%.

My week 3 goals were to limit my daily coffee to 2 K cups per day and add 2-3 green smoothies (for the week). In addition, to continue my week 2 goal (salad at every meal) and week 1 goal (80 ozs of water per day). I achieved 100% of the week 3 goals and I missed 1 salad (I think it was Tuesday – that was my blur day) and 1 day of water (Tuesday as well).

My observations on the past week:

A tough week – everything felt a little harder this week. I don’t know if was incorporating all 3 goals in a cumulative fashion or just that this was ‘hump’ week of the transformation.
A bit of upset stomach on Tuesday into Wednesday.
Low energy pre-Wednesday workout – felt much better after the workout.
Green Smoothies — I’m not a fan! – I’m sure part of it is I’m not eating fruit (under the guidance of a nutritionist) and I did put avocado (1/2 in it – which I love) – it was just too think – even after I re-blended it. I had my last one for lunch on Friday – and I found out I enjoy eating lunch over drinking it. I will leave the smoothies for now for my in a pinch breakfast. Just not for me on a regular basis.

Celebrate my Success: Not limiting my coffee this weekend – I won’t go crazy – but I’ll enjoy my morning cup of Joe even more!