Coffee as a 'diuretic'?!

Just wanted to share some cool info, plus a little insight of my own.

I recently read coffee and tea are actually not diuretics. A diuretic is a food/drink that basically flushes the water out of you and is said to dehydrate you because it increases the urine production in your body. Some drinks that were thought to be diuretics include your caffeine drinks like coffee, tea and soda.

The reason why i researched this was because i really wanted to know if the coffee i was drinking before my races was the reason why my dehydration was happening, thus, leading to stomach issues after the race. Now i know that it couldn't have been from the coffee.

P.S. Are you wondering why you may pee more after having your morning coffee? I'll explain my theory. We drink coffee for an incentive, right? To get energized, to help with bowel movements, to have something warm, the taste... whatever it may be! So obviously we are going to drink excess amounts because we think we are actually benefitting from having this beverage. More benefitting than water, at least. So if we are consuming more coffee/tea than we would water, obviously we are going to have more urine production and have to pee more often. Make sense? It does to me.

Also... when we have water, we usually just sip on it (rather than chugging the thermos of coffee or tea we make/buy). If we don't sip on it, we drink a lot of it because we have just worked out or we are thirsty. When we're thirsty, our body is telling us that we NEED the water, therefor we won't have much urine production because that water is getting absorbed by our organs which are in need.

K that's all. Just wanted share these thoughts :)

Keepin' busy!

So wadup 2013? I'm going to stick with this once-a-month blog thing I have going on here, because that's all I have time for! One blog is better than no blog :)

January was a cool month. Not literally.. It's basically a sauna here, and i'm not sure why. Much different than Tallahassee winters, that's for sure. I don't even mind it.. running in the morning before work (5 am) is much easier while it's muggy than when I can't feel my fingers and my toes go numb. My only problem is that it is so freakin dark! I have reflectors that I can attach to my legs and arms but I feel like they don't work so I never use them. I should, but they are so tedious to put on. Kind of like the tedious-ness of bringing mace with me while I run which I highly regretted not taking the day I got chased by a pitbull 2 weeks ago. He was barking and growling and jumping and all I could do was stand straight with my arms crossed (like a mummy standing up) and my head facing the sky so he wouldn't jump and bite my face off. Or my arms (cause they tend to go for hanging things). This dog came out of no where too! I was running on Little Rd. and it literally came out of the bushes where there were no houses or people around. He even had a harness on.. that's when you know he's serious. Anyways, I freed myself by sprinting across the street while he ran back into the bushes. I was pretty far away now.. sprinting about 11 mph (for real) and I was hoping he would get hit by a car if he was to chase after me. None the less, he DID chase after me again and dodged all of the cars while doing so. I kept sprinting -- way out of breath -- and ran into a 7-11 where I stayed for a good 10 minutes while reading the latest celeb mags :) Lol.. bittersweet. Moral of the story? Bring mace and reflectors? lol.. I don't know, maybe I just wanted to blab.

So other events that occurred this month? I started my next internship rotation at a nursing home and I surprisingly LOVE IT. I love feeling important and taking control of these patient's diets. I do all kinds of things! Make sure they are getting the types of food they like/need/crave and also making sure the consistancy is one they can manage. Mechanical soft is like grinding up their food in chunks, puree is obviously having a mashed potatoe-like consistency (for ill-swallowing/chewing patients), and TPN (which is.. :( .. tube feeding). All of the food tastes exactly the same because really the only addition to the recipe is putting it in a food processor. It just looks um.. gross.
The older generation is just so cute. I love lending a helping hand to those who can't open their sugar packets, pull up their covers, or can't stand having their tea just below 212 degrees. No, but really.. I do love helping them, just because I know I am making a difference in their day. It's really fun figuring out which field of dietetics I am going to pursue! This week is my last week at the nursing home, and then I am off to a hospital for 20 weeks. 9 hours a day. 5 days a week. No pay. WHOA. 

Thank god I am busy right now though because my boyfriend, Jay, left for the Army this past Sunday. It was the saddest thing but ya know what, the rout he is taking is probably the best thing he could have done. Plus, makes me realize how special he really is. MUSHY MUSHY!! 

Last month I gave up Facebook for my new years resolution and this month I will be giving up sweets. How freakin hard! I went from saying just "milk chocolate" (cause I really only eat dark), to "ok, fruity flavored candies", to "ugh okay. All sweets. Here we go!". I literally just threw away my baby stashes too so this is serious business. I'm trying to keep up with the fact that Jay won't be eating like this either while at boot camp (he's a huge sweets person, too. HUGE.) Plus, this is the best month to do it as February is the shortest month of the year ;)

Winter Festivities!

It's been quite some time! Lets see.. more than a month! Wowzers. I have been super busy lately. In late December my internship/job at the District School Board Office came to an end. Really gonna miss the Food and Nutrition family I have come to know and love! 

This is the card work had given me as a goodbye. As well as my ice cream party mm!! 

I am on to new adventures now though! Wanna hear (read)? Good, here we go.

• I have a new internship rotation lined up for me to start at Bayonet Point Hospital for about 5 months. I heard it was one of the hardest internships but I am a determined little gal and I'll try to dig all of that hardcore FSU studying outta my noggin to help this process! Also, I'll be completing a few other rotations at nursing homes and WIC clinics. If anyone has any great contacts with either of those, please let me know! 

• Since I was in the system of the district school board I decided to start substitute teaching little youngins while I had any breaks in between my internships. I have already taught kindergarten (HELL!!!) and 3rd graders (ntb..). Let me just tell you that if you haven't babysat before, you are in for a real treat. I'm talking poopy-pants, biting, screaming, crying, paper cut up all over the floor, tattle-tailing, spaghetti-sauce-faced CHAOS. But hey, its 65$ a day and thats 65$ I didn't have when I woke up. Plus, I don't get paid during my internships so something had to be done!

• Listen to this, though. My family has great contacts with a coach who used to coach football at Hudson High, Tom Shaw. He has his own sports performance camp at Disney's Wide World of Sports in Orlando and while their main sports dietitian is out of town, they wanted me to fill in and help counsel their athletes! Now, it's true that I have NO idea who these guys are, but once I look them up and see that they are all on the verge of the NFL draft picks or maybe getting signed with the Braves, I realize this is pretty impressive business! We'll see what the future has in store for me with this amazing contact because it seems pretty promising as of now.

In Tom Shaw's training room!

• So work/careers aside, my running life has been splendid! I completed the 12 mile Tough Mudder in December and it was honestly the most exhilarating thing in my life! I loved everything about it. Challenging myself like I have never challenged myself before gave me a kind of high i've never felt before (nor have I ever really BEEN high! lol). I never work my arms out.. except 10 pushups/day.. so I was pretty nervous about how demanding it would be to climb 4 walls all by myself. Mission completed.

HURT like heck

Electrical Shocks!

Barbed Wire

Half Pipe climb.. and me being saved by these gentlemen.

I don't even know what this did for me except making me feel uncomfortable.

Cliff Jump! wee

Monkey Bars.. which I fell 1/2 way. The only obstacle I didn't fully accomplish.

Other than these pictures, there was also 3 15 ft walls to climb over, mud piles that smelled like cow manure, dark and wet underground tunnels, freezing cold ice bath we had to submerge in.. face under.., and army walks with your partner. Doesn't sound like an awesome time but once you accomplish these things, you feel like you can do anything. I am convinced it is the coolest race ever. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. :D

PHEW! Other than running/work, I also went to Virginia for a few days this break to catch up with the cousins before Christmas! It was frigid as ever. Not a fan of the cold nor do I think I ever will be. It feels like my insides are dying.

Cool shot of me and Britt on railroad tracks during a VA run!

                        

Last but not least, we just got back from Ft. Myers for my next door neighbor/2nd brother's wedding. It was beautiful, and I cried. I definitely got some good tips for when I am ready to tie the knot, but Lord knows when that will be. I am not worried about it right now, but it was such a nice feeling to experience true love. Plus, the DJ was amazing, food was great, drinks were better :)

She cried too ;)

And that's all she wrote! 

Byee