Day Seventeen: "Head Case"

The above is a poster of the Alfred Hitchcock film, Number Seventeen. If you haven't seen it, don't worry. It's not considered one of his classics. It is a head case and a bit confusing. I have a "head case" of a different kind. I've had headaches the last two days when jumping rope.

It started yesterday at Patrick's studio in Yokohama as small flecks of snow fell outside the window. If you haven't been to Patrick's studio yet and you are within reasonable traveling distance, I recommend it. It's good to get a session in with the man. It certainly inspired me to get better at jump-rope, especially. I managed to string 223 together, easily eclipsing my previous record of 150 in a row. Patrick was probably on 1,500 by the time Brian and I got through our 800. Something about jumping barefoot on the floor though (I forgot my indoor-only shoes), my head started to hurt a bit. It went away after a bit so I thought nothing of it.

But I woke up this morning with a mild headache still. Took some ibuprofen and went to work. It got better over the day, but during today's jump-rope session, the head started to hurt quite a bit. Everything has a silver lining and in this case, I really slowed down the jumping and hopped as low as I could to reduce the impact on each hop.  I hope I just need rest for it to go away. I did hit my head hard one time earlier this month while skiing although I was wearing a helmet, and I had some headaches then for a few days, usually when I went over bumpy surfaces while skiing or went to the top of the mountain. After a few days in Tokyo, they were gone. I presumed worst case it was a mild concussion but more likely I just had my bell rung a bit. I've had worse ones way back years and years ago from back when people foolishly did not wear helmets while skiing/boarding. Anyway, the last two days, jump rope = headache, so I hope this is just a blip. Rest of the exercises were fine. I have no pull-up bar at this time, so I did the inclined pull-ups and added lat pull downs with 40kg weights as well to emulate the vertical pull-up as best I can. I have, as Patrick calls it, "wimpy back muscles." Guilty, as charged.

One more thing I discovered as I was unable to watch the first video due to technical difficulties. Weigh the muesli wet. So it turns out I was eating too much in the morning.  This morning I weighed out 50grams of dry muesli (my allotment is 100grams of carbs) and I added 100ml of milk. The thing weighed 153grams wet. So I cut out the 53 grams and went with the 100grams wet. I'd been doing 100grams dry + 250ml of milk, so by that measure, I was probably somewhere around 250grams wet, about 2.5x what I should have been eating. Inadvertent cheating that will be rectified. But now, I have to ask this...if I were having whole grain bread instead and having it dry, and then I consumed 250ml of milk, would the bread also not soak in the milk and become heavier inside my stomach and therefore I am over-eating as well? I.e., 35grams dry muesli + 80ml milk in the bowl = say, 100grams wet carbs. And then I have 170ml milk in a glass. But what about the weight of the milk itself in the first number? On the other hand, 100 grams whole wheat toast taken with 250ml milk in a glass = well over 100grams of wet carbs too, no? It seems like with muesli, if you follow the wet rule, you miss out more than you would with bread?

While I ponder that one, am off to bed to rest my head. And dinner yesterday: broiled sardine, roasted red pepper, zucchini, and shiitake mushrooms. Simple, pretty quick, and healthy.