Mixed bag Monday.

Oh, Mondays. You always throw me for a loop, each and every week.

Weekend Re-cap:

Saturday:

Pretty good, all in all. Finally went back to 24Cycle (spin) class after a loooong absence and to my surprise, we got new bikes! I kinda miss the wider seats on the old ones (though really, I think I need a Tempurpedic pillow to sit on in that class to make me 100% satisfied), but the new ones have better/comfier handles and they're much easier to adjust with the better quality knobs and such. Not bad! That said, I've rekindled my love affair with spinning. Not sure if I'll try and get in to Tuesday's class, but I think I'll try and shoot for Thursday. Not planning on going to this Saturday's session, due to the debut of BodyPump! Still so excited for that class.

Sunday:

Could've used a do-over on this day. Emotional nonsense, lots of crying, lots of poor eating and drinking. Things did get resolved before the day was over though, so I'm thankful for that. Went to bed stuffed with a bit too much Domino's Pizza and tried to cope with the heat, but overall, felt better. That was, until...

Monday:

Woke up around 1 am with chest pains. Asked Doug to pass me a couple of Tums. Still in a lot of pain. Proceeded to drink some Alka-Seltzer. Nope. Kinda felt worse. Wanted puke, felt on the verge of passing out every time I stood or sat up, broke out in a sweat, mid-chest/top of stomach still incredibly cramped and on fire. It soon became clear that what was happening to me was the return of an ol' friend: an ulcer attack.

A few years ago, I started getting ulcers (the less serious, but still crazy-annoying peptic kind, not the bleeding kind). I don't get them often, but they've been popping up about every year or so. And the symptoms of a flare-up have become painfully familiar, literally.

Tried pinpointing the cause with my doctor in the past, but no luck. The attacks themselves do appear after not-so-great eating and drinking though, so it's sort of been a blessing in disguise. I have been drinking alcohol pretty regularly for the past few weeks, so now I HAVE to give it up for a while, as booze is a big no-no when trying to heal an ulcer. Naturally, I'll be making better food choices than I have been lately as well. All I need to do is replay the attack I had this morning in my head and it's pretty much instant motivation to eat better. I'm sure childbirth and passing kidney stones rate pretty high on the List of Pain, but I think ulcer attacks aren't far behind. It gets so bad that my dignity goes out the window for 30-60 minutes and I'm totally cool with dying by the toilet in my pajamas.

So, I'll be replacing booze with cayenne water (sounds strange, but kills ulcer pain and actually helps heal it, in my experience) and passing up sugar and fat in favor of Zantac. Makes me feel like a cross between a homeopathic wizard and one of those old dudes from the acid reflux medication commercials, ha.

I woke up long before my alarm went off this morning and even though I wasn't planning a workout after the attack, I figured I could at least handle some time on my recumbent bike. Pulled it up to the TV in the living room and watched Adult Swim for an hour while I rode at a moderate pace. Covered 13 miles. Because my chest area is sensitive at the moment, I'm avoiding running and other high-impact exercises over the next few days. I'll get by just fine with some other alternatives I have planned.

Things that have cheered me up:

-After sharing my emotional stress with my mom, she of course had supportive words to share and immediately planned a Girl's Night/Sushi Date for us and my sister, tomorrow night. Love, love that woman. She's driven me crazy plenty of times in the past (and still does, heh), but she's always there when I need her the most.

-Discovering a new favorite blog this morning: Cheap Healthy Good. This pretty much covers all of my favorite types of blogs in one. I follow individual health, food and frugal-living blogs, so naturally, CHG is my new BFF. I've already snagged a few recipes I'm eager to try, including this Savory Oats dish. I've heard of others trying savory oatmeal in the past, but was kinda hesitant to give it a shot myself. This recipe looks like it'll guide me in the right direction!

Anywho, hope everyone's week is off to a good start (or at least without ulcer attacks)! I hope to have a new DVD review posted this week. Also on the horizon, another book review and a new weight-loss plan review. Kinda busy these days!

Progress with Progresso

Starting to feel better, finally. While doing chores the burning, tight sensation in my upper stomach wouldn't go away so now I'm wondering if I aggravated an ulcer. I've had stomach ulcers before, so the pain is pretty familiar by now. Not sure how I get them, but drinking and crap eating usually bring them to my attention. If that's the case, the puking makes sense too. I've never been much of a puker (even with lots of alcohol), but getting ulcers changed that.

Not 100% sure that an ulcer the case, but either way I decided to make some light Progresso soup and added as much cayenne pepper as I could stand and now I feel loads better. I know, contrary to popular belief, cayenne is awesome for treating mild (i.e., non-bleeding) ulcers, as well as stomach pain and heart burn in general.

Doug wants to go to Wal-Mart, so maybe walking around some more will do me some good.

FOOD:

breakfast:
saltines- 1

snack:
apple- 1

lunch:
2 c. soup- 3

snack:
dove bar- 4
beef jerky- 1

dinner:
broccoli slaw w/ 1 tbsp dressing- 1
potato- 2
f.f. shredded cheese- 1
light sour cream- 1
salsa- 0
l.c. wrap- 1
boca crumbles- 1
cheese single- 1
pickles- 0

total points used: 18/22
activity points: 40-ish min. run- 4.5
WAPs: 0/35 remaining

EXERCISE:

Still up in the air. Did some vacuuming and cleaned the bathrooms, but I didn't sweat, so it's not even worth counting at this point.

I sucked it up and went for a run outside on the trail.