I encountered a mama black bear in Shenandoah National Park with my then-1 1/2 year old and husband. My kid didn’t want to stop playing around in the pebbled walk, so my husband and I walked ahead a bit, thinking he would jump up and run to us when he saw that mommy and daddy were not right with him. Not the case.
We walked a distance from him and just waited, me with hands on hips. Then, out of the corner of my eye I spied a family of bears, the mom in front and four cubs behind her. O M G.
I traversed the space back to my son very slowly, holding my breath, picked him up,scared he would make an awful fuss, so I popped my boobie in his mouth, though I’d stopped breast feeding him when he turned one.
As I walked back to my husband, I looked over at the mother bear, who was about 50 feet away from me and my son, and prayed she would just stay where she was. Guess what?
She looked at me and my “cub” walking parallel, though in the opposite direction from she was travelling, looked at her cubs in what appeared to be a kind of head count, and then nodded at me. Kind of “You’ve got yours, and I’ve got mine. And as long as you stay on your side, I’ll stay on my side.”
A couple of winters ago, I was at Woodloch Lodge in the Poconos. Brought my new cross country skis with me which I hadn’t yet used and I was bound and determined to give them a try. There were no groomed trails so off into the woods I went, following what I initially took to be snow shoe tracks. About half a mile in, I started getting clearer impressions of the tracks and realized I was following a bear’s footsteps! Needless to say, I turned around and made haste in returning to the lodge. I felt much safer skiing on the snow covered frozen lake! (Yeah, I know, another potentially brilliant move but the staff assured me the lake was thickly frozen over.)
I thought bears hibernate in the winter. I’ve never thought of looking. Right now I see bear scat on the trails but am keeping to populated multi purpose trails.
We have had a bear in our neighborhood lately. Apparently this is a time for bears to be out. The Cubs that were born last year have been kicked out as the mother has given birth. So these are young bears and they aren’t quite sure what to do and come in contact with people and houses. The DNR has asked us to bring in our bird feeders and not to put out our garbage until the morning of pick up.
OK guys, I need some encouragement to get back on the nutrition wagon! The exercise part has been great - the diet part, not so much. I think with my new found “freedom” I have also used the opportunity to go - oh, I’d like to go get an ice cream sundae. Or whatever. I think part of the problem is that I let myself get hungry and then I’m starving. I was doing well bringing my own food with me along the way, but I’m falling off!
Pizzagirl, I don’t do well bringing food with me. It never seems like I am having a real meal. Then I go and have a real meal on top of what I already ate. When I’m going to be on the go at mealtimes, I try to identify restaurants in the area that offer “healthy” options - even if it’s Panera (which probably isn’t so healthy after all). It’s better than an ice cream sundae and I feel like I had an actual meal. I also allow myself one day when I eat what I want to - usually Saturday. Do you eat breakfast? Drink a lot of water?
I do eat breakfast and a good one too – it’s more just running around in the middle of the day where I find myself tempted. And then I try to make up for it by eating a too-small dinner, which isn’t good. I think I need to get back on track with food tracking.
PG–of course you’re hungry. You do 3-5 hours of exercise in a day–that’s a lot of expended energy and you need fuel.
I try to exercise 90 minutes a day, and I get hungry. If I don’t have my own healthy snacks, I end up grabbing stuff that I shouldn’t eat (muffins or bagels). The easiest thing for me (which I love) is two hard-boiled eggs. I cook a dozen at the beginning of the week. Two eggs satisfy my cravings.
Took Sunday off (did get steps in but at a leisurely pace).
Today I did 80 minutes on the Cybex arc machine–set it on an interval program so I could get some cardio. Going to Yin Yoga tonight.
Congrats to Wildchild. You are a strong woman DMD–I would make myself crazy if my kids were parachuting. Yikes.
Sabaray–I’m starting Pilates tomorrow. It is a mat class and it’s called Powerhouse Pilates. In the description says it is core work.
I live in a small New England town about 35 miles northwest of Boston–we have had black bears roaming around town for the last year or so. They’re looking for food and bird feeders attract them. People post photos on U-tube all the time or a website for local news called Next Door
Amazon had sample boxes of protein bars recently. I tried the rxbar in chocolate sea salt. It was awful. I couldn’t finish it. It had the consistency of stale gummy bears. I’m not a big fan of chocolate, but I’m not sure it even tasted like chocolate.
Thank you, @MaterS! I guess I will be sticking with Picky bars. The packaging just looked so attractive - the kind of thing you just wanted to try and love!
Thank you so much, Michael. for the cadence information! That makes so much sense, and having actual numbers–priceless
Wow, dmd. I don’t know how you do it. My son has been skydiving a bunch of times. I don’t even want to hear about the thrill of the fall anymore. It literally makes me sick–fear of heights, fear for his safety.
We have black bears in central Florida in addition to all the other wildlife. Human-bear interactions became so problematic last year with several suburban bear attacks, that the state authorized a pretty brutal hunt. Unfortunately, around here, people have developed natural bear habitat and in the process, been sloppy with their garbage and pet food. Once they’re fed, black bears are hard to successfully relocate. Black bears are routinely spotted on hikes in natural areas. Usually, unless a mama bear is threatened, they’re really skittish.
Slightly cooler air moved in last night leaving temps in the low 70’s with less humidity this morning. I went out for my long run and felt good (and ambitious) enough to try to run the full 13.1 miles. Success! Yes, it was slow. I’m playing it safe with Galloway, using run/walk, but I did it! Outside of a blister on a toe that’s never had one, and a little soreness/tiredness, I’m feeling okay. The half marathon I’ve entered is in early November, so my plan now for running is to cut back on the long run mileage while continuing to work on running in heat, pace, heart rate, and just not injuring myself. If I’m lucky, by November the weather will be similar (but not warmer) to today’s.
Wow, it is so overwhelming when you are away from this thread for a few days. I can’t even begin to comment on anything/everything but I’ll just say kudos to everyone for having so much to say - it makes me ready to get back in!
Wedding is history and many memories now! (see the 2016 wedding thread for details). WONDERFUL time. Beautiful ceremony. FUN reception. I think it’s been almost a week since I did formal exercise or run however I did manage to average about 16,000 steps per day without exercise. So there is that! And S chose a fast song rather than a slow song for us to dance to so maybe he was trying to help me burn a few more calories!!!
It’s been HOT. Ninety + yesterday and today. My plan is to wake up early and run tomorrow before I head back to work. I post it here to help me be accountable! Ready to get back to a routine!!!
I did want to address what PG mentioned about off the wagon with eating. Not sure what you attribute it to, but for ME I need the structure of work to keep me on track. OR a really scheduled routine during the day. If I am hanging around home more, I’ll be visiting the cupboard. I can resist food stops when I’m out. But if I was to spend more time at home, you can bet I’d probably be doing more baking, grocery shopping and bringing more treats in the house, etc.
I think the food tracking could be helpful for you. When you have to log it, you have to own your choices.
Good NYT article, sabaray. This is what has caught my eye:
[quote]
Moderate intensity is probably much less than you think. Walking briskly, at 3 to 4 miles per hour or so, qualifies. So does bicycling slower than 10 miles an hour. **Anything that gets your heart rate somewhere between 110 and 140 beats per minute is enough. **Even vacuuming, mowing the lawn or actively walking your dog might qualify./quote
The bolded part (by me) is what usually gets lost when people read “moderate activity.” It really depends on the person’s fitness level, but pedaling a stationary bike or elliptical while reading a magazine is not going to cut it for most people. Or walking down the hall and back to get coffee… I can easily get 10,000 steps on my Fitbit with ZERO active minutes - even when I walk a mile and a half through the city to get to my commuter bus. A very brisk walk up a hill or a run will get my heart rate above 110 for a sustained period of time, but a 3 mph stroll back down that hill will not. That’s where HR trackers become handy, because they can provide an estimate of whether the person is actually being engaged in “moderate activity.” And despite all of their limitations, Fitbits provide pretty decent tracking of moderately elevated HR over a period of time. They may not offer the precision of a chest strap giving a second by second HR readings, but for telling the person whether or not she or he has been a sloth, hey are good enough. Take, for instance, me today - rolled down the hill for 15 min with the HR barely getting above 115.
Speaking of bears… Here is a funny story. At one company, one of my labmates, a recent immigrant from Russia, once showed up at work visibly shaken. When we asked what happen, she said she was awakened by a loud noise coming from the driveway. She walked outside to check - only to run back faster than Usain Bolt. A black bear was raiding her trashcans! She said, “You Americans used to portray Russia as a god-forsaken country where bears freely roamed city streets! Look, I lived there for decades, and I have never seen a bear other than those in zoos! If I tell my Russian friends that bears pillage garbage cans less than a mile from Microsoft, do you think they will believe me?!”
