more like myself
Jul. 3rd, 2010 08:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
replacementpartsAnother weekend. If nothing else, this one is guaranteed to be better than last if only because I get to go home tomorrow at the normal time. I don't have any plans for the fourth- Eira gets off work at about eight and I'd like to see if there's a park or someplace to ride bikes to and chill for a while. Fireworks or not.
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Edwin and I have been cooking a lot lately, which is good for our wallets since we aren't going out to eat. Last week he made some Zucchini Potato Soup, and while it was good, it was missing something. So earlier this week I made more, and this time made dumplings to put in the soup and it was perfect. If only they had some nutritional value- flour, salt, sugar, baking soda and powder, butter and buttermilk. Can't eat those all the time they're so heavy.
Thursday night he made some hummus, while I made seasoned asparagus and we collaborated on Grilled Cajun Salmon with Tomato Pineapple Salsa. The cajun/seasoning on the salmon was awesome, I'd probably do that again, though with less salt, the cajun stuff we bought had a lot of salt in it so with added salt in the recipe it was just a tiny bit too much. The tomato pineapple salsa was a bit of a disappointment, though. Edwin had picked out the recipe thinking the weird flavor combos would magically come together, but it was really nothing special and just kind of weird. Oh well. He'd been disappointed with the hummus, too, until I was like, "You know what this needs? Some of this red onion we got for the salsa." Red onion and hummus on pita? Perfect.
I've cut out coffee almost completely. Now I usually drink green tea. I still haven't figured out how to make it not taste burnt. It's a little better now that I've been using water that isn't too hot, but it's still nowhere near as delicious as the tea at Yusan's or Ichiban.
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trashedbat asked, in my previous post, how my energy levels have been since going on T. It's a little hard to say because I started making a lot of changes to my overall health right at the same time. I started exercising on a daily basis, and making a very conscious effort to eat healthy foods almost exclusively. I also added some workout supplements before and after my workouts. All these things have a positive effect on my energy levels. If I had to guess, I'd say the exercise has had the most impact, but the exercise is made possible by the good food and supplements I take in. I WILL say, though, that I have found myself to be both lazier and grumpier in the day or two immediately before a shot, which indicates to me a fairly strong correlation between having low testosterone in my system and having very low energy.
I guess my point is I can't for certain say that the T gives me more energy than I had before starting it, just because I have less energy when it is low in my system. I have had more energy and better moods since starting, but again, exercise and healthy eating probably has a lot more to do with that than T specifically.
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I have noticed my Left brain feels like it is becoming more active. That's the math and language hemisphere, as opposed to the creative/abstract right hemisphere. I'm finding it easier to put my thoughts and emotions to words, and therefore to be able to understand them better myself, rather than having all this jumbled up frustration or undefined upset-ness. Now, if I get upset, I can actually identify what is making me upset, and take steps to resolve it, rather than before when I'd just get upset and not know why/not say anything/sit and stew in that frustration.
I probably would be concerned about resultant atrophy in my right hemisphere, but I don't think it's working like that. It feels more like an opportunity for overall growth than a tradeoff. And it feels more like myself, the way I should be, the way I always should have been. Like there was this block between where I was and reaching my full potential, and now I'm starting to chip away at it. It's kind of exciting.
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Today's X-Stretch will be the end of week 3 and phase 1! This coming week will be a 'rest' week, which means I'll be doing Yoga-X on Sunday and Friday, CORE Synergistics (ow-ow-ow) on Monday and Thursday, Kenpo-X on Tuesday, and X-Stretch on Wednesday and Saturday.
This past week there were several kinks in my normal routine, starting with doing Tuesday's routine on Sunday since I was here at work. Monday's Plyo workout went fine, but monday night my left wrist was hurting pretty bad. Tuesday I was supposed to do Sunday's workout, which is basically all varieties of pushups and pullups, and I didn't think that would be good since my wrist had been hurting so recently. I decided to skip that routine and did Cardio-X instead. Which was okay but it was a bummer to miss that chest/back workout, and the ab ripper that should have gone with it. Wednesday I was in SF and had planned on going home early enough to do my workout at home with my supplements, but I ended up hanging out in SF most of the day and did Yoga-X without the supplements*. Thursday was Legs and Back, and Edwin decided to try doing it with me. He stuck with it all the way through, even doing most of Ab-Ripper with me. I was very proud of him, and he seemed pretty happy with it, too. Friday was Kenpo-X as normal.
*While I don't want to rely on the supplements, skipping them for a workout taught me exactly how useful they are. The pre-workout supplement works a little like workout adderall in my mind, making the workout the most important thing going on for that period of time. The AFTER-workout drink is even more important because I've discovered it almost completely eliminates soreness from that workout. I'm -still- feeling sore areas in my back from not having the recovery drink on wednesday.
-----
Edwin and I have been cooking a lot lately, which is good for our wallets since we aren't going out to eat. Last week he made some Zucchini Potato Soup, and while it was good, it was missing something. So earlier this week I made more, and this time made dumplings to put in the soup and it was perfect. If only they had some nutritional value- flour, salt, sugar, baking soda and powder, butter and buttermilk. Can't eat those all the time they're so heavy.
Thursday night he made some hummus, while I made seasoned asparagus and we collaborated on Grilled Cajun Salmon with Tomato Pineapple Salsa. The cajun/seasoning on the salmon was awesome, I'd probably do that again, though with less salt, the cajun stuff we bought had a lot of salt in it so with added salt in the recipe it was just a tiny bit too much. The tomato pineapple salsa was a bit of a disappointment, though. Edwin had picked out the recipe thinking the weird flavor combos would magically come together, but it was really nothing special and just kind of weird. Oh well. He'd been disappointed with the hummus, too, until I was like, "You know what this needs? Some of this red onion we got for the salsa." Red onion and hummus on pita? Perfect.
I've cut out coffee almost completely. Now I usually drink green tea. I still haven't figured out how to make it not taste burnt. It's a little better now that I've been using water that isn't too hot, but it's still nowhere near as delicious as the tea at Yusan's or Ichiban.
-----
trashedbat asked, in my previous post, how my energy levels have been since going on T. It's a little hard to say because I started making a lot of changes to my overall health right at the same time. I started exercising on a daily basis, and making a very conscious effort to eat healthy foods almost exclusively. I also added some workout supplements before and after my workouts. All these things have a positive effect on my energy levels. If I had to guess, I'd say the exercise has had the most impact, but the exercise is made possible by the good food and supplements I take in. I WILL say, though, that I have found myself to be both lazier and grumpier in the day or two immediately before a shot, which indicates to me a fairly strong correlation between having low testosterone in my system and having very low energy.I guess my point is I can't for certain say that the T gives me more energy than I had before starting it, just because I have less energy when it is low in my system. I have had more energy and better moods since starting, but again, exercise and healthy eating probably has a lot more to do with that than T specifically.
-----
I have noticed my Left brain feels like it is becoming more active. That's the math and language hemisphere, as opposed to the creative/abstract right hemisphere. I'm finding it easier to put my thoughts and emotions to words, and therefore to be able to understand them better myself, rather than having all this jumbled up frustration or undefined upset-ness. Now, if I get upset, I can actually identify what is making me upset, and take steps to resolve it, rather than before when I'd just get upset and not know why/not say anything/sit and stew in that frustration.
I probably would be concerned about resultant atrophy in my right hemisphere, but I don't think it's working like that. It feels more like an opportunity for overall growth than a tradeoff. And it feels more like myself, the way I should be, the way I always should have been. Like there was this block between where I was and reaching my full potential, and now I'm starting to chip away at it. It's kind of exciting.
-----
Today's X-Stretch will be the end of week 3 and phase 1! This coming week will be a 'rest' week, which means I'll be doing Yoga-X on Sunday and Friday, CORE Synergistics (ow-ow-ow) on Monday and Thursday, Kenpo-X on Tuesday, and X-Stretch on Wednesday and Saturday.
This past week there were several kinks in my normal routine, starting with doing Tuesday's routine on Sunday since I was here at work. Monday's Plyo workout went fine, but monday night my left wrist was hurting pretty bad. Tuesday I was supposed to do Sunday's workout, which is basically all varieties of pushups and pullups, and I didn't think that would be good since my wrist had been hurting so recently. I decided to skip that routine and did Cardio-X instead. Which was okay but it was a bummer to miss that chest/back workout, and the ab ripper that should have gone with it. Wednesday I was in SF and had planned on going home early enough to do my workout at home with my supplements, but I ended up hanging out in SF most of the day and did Yoga-X without the supplements*. Thursday was Legs and Back, and Edwin decided to try doing it with me. He stuck with it all the way through, even doing most of Ab-Ripper with me. I was very proud of him, and he seemed pretty happy with it, too. Friday was Kenpo-X as normal.
*While I don't want to rely on the supplements, skipping them for a workout taught me exactly how useful they are. The pre-workout supplement works a little like workout adderall in my mind, making the workout the most important thing going on for that period of time. The AFTER-workout drink is even more important because I've discovered it almost completely eliminates soreness from that workout. I'm -still- feeling sore areas in my back from not having the recovery drink on wednesday.
