My Fingers are Dead

Well I haven't blogged as much because simply put, I can't type. Well... I couldn't but now I can. Anyways I'll get to that later.

Last Thursday the NBA finals were on. Our rabbit ears had been acting up lately. I forgot to mention we now have FOUR channels (!!) but the antennae has to be in the EXACT right place in order to work. The game was skipping in and out BAD so I decided to try again because I knew Dan would really enjoy watching it. I found out how to make it work.

It only worked when I stood in this exact position. I moved, no dice. I kid you not.

So I tried to fool the TV

Lamp with a snuggie. Looks like me right?

Didn't work which is obvious by the BIG FAT BLACK screen. Darn.

With another 10 minutes of messing with it, turns out it needed to be moved two inches to the left. Works perfect now! Although I was very tempted to just stand there the whole time haha

Dan and I had a lunch date at Gringo's

So much food!

I made delicious peanut butter bars (recipe here) for a Father's Day BBQ we went to on Sunday

nom nom nom

I verbally asked my phone to google 'fox schedule' to see what time So You Think You Can Dance was on. Good thing I looked at what it heard before it loaded.

I've never hit the back button more frantically in my life.

The best part I think are the asterisks. Hilarious. My phone is classy.

So now to my fingers

For my Research Methods we are doing a research project involving blood glucose. While controlling for diet, we are trying to see how the number of sets of resistance training effects the amount of glucose your body absorbs. We were doing this because it can help pre-diabetics or type 2 diabetics. It has already been shown that exercise helps your body absorb more glucose. But if your body absorbs the same amount of glucose when only doing one set then there's no need to do three right? 

Anyways for our initial run through me and two other classmates were guinea pigs participants. We had to fast for 10 hours then drink chocolate milk 2 hours before our workout. Then we worked out lifting our 80% max as many times until failure. Work outs included leg press, bench press, leg extension, leg curl, bicep curl and tricep extension. We'll do this three different days doing a different number of total sets. 

After the work out we rest, get an initial blood sample (finger prick) then we have to drink basically sugar water within 5 minutes. Then we do finger pricks every 15 minutes for the first bit then every 30 minutes for the last two. SEVEN finger pricks in all. And you don't just need a smidgen of blood you need to fill 2 capillary tubes.

So I did this last Saturday, Wednesday and maybe this Saturday too. Saturday wasn't too bad fasting wise because we did it in the morning. Sleep fasting is the BEST. Too bad that doesn't work on fast Sundays. Okay I may be a baby but the finger pricks hurt! The needle in the ones we use are bigger than finger prickers that diabetics use. Plus I bruise so stinking easy. I'm a baby. It hurt.

during the research

my first finger suffered the worst after the first day

sooo bruised and it hurt like crazy. It actually still hurts and I'm pretty sure we hit a nerve

every time I straightened my arm I felt shooting pain all the way from my elbow to the tip of my finger. It was weird. 

Drinking sugar water doesn't sound so bad but when you're already bad and drinking things (I would make a terrible alcoholic) and you're trying to gulp it down it definitely made me nauseous. The waiting in between blood samples in the lab was pretty fun though. We played Mr. and Mrs. Smith on the projector.

After the research was over at like 11am I went home and ate. FOOD. It was great. But then I was pretty exhausted. I rested. When I felt better Dan and I went and played tennis that afternoon with Jordynn and Mike so good thing this was my left hand.

Funny side note. So our blood samples HAVE to be taken at specific times and when our teacher was driving us from the gym to the lab it hit time for me so we just parked and did it in the car haha might have looked funny to the people around us.

Wednesday we did this again and this was kind of a doosey. We were working out at 3:15 (our class time) so that means I should start fasting around 3 in the morning, then go to all my classes starving, then go work out. Lucky for me it was my 3 set day. So I had to do each exercise lifting my 80% max until failure 3 times. It was killer. 

I took the initiative and made scrambled eggs the night before, went to bed late, woke up at 3am and ate everything that sounded good (eggs and toast), slept in as late as I possibly could (didn't work, I had to pee) then just focused during class. One of my teachers started describing how amazing soft pretzels are and I was about to punch him. I drank my chocolate milk during class and was pretty much in a fog the whole time. 

I didn't die working out but I felt pretty light headed a couple times. Then came the blood analysis. I wasn't too worried because I bled pretty well last time. Well... not this time! at one point I had my teacher and another guy from my class squeezing my arm and hand at the same time to get me to bleed. I'd rather have them squeeze it then poke me again. Twice they had to poke me again so I got a lovely 9 holes in my fingers. I was running out of fingers because I do 2 pricks on each side of a finger and I was trying to let the other ones from Saturday heal haha. Because of the poking and squeezing certain fingers got pretty darn bruised.

(don't worry about the bottom of my finger on the bottom photo. That's just a weird shadow)

both my ring fingers are a mess but luckily because you often don't use that part of your finger. I don't feel them too much. Except when I accidentally hit them at work and I want to yelp like I stubbed my toe on a knife. When you hit them the pain is unreal for such a little poke.

EMBARRASSING MOMENT #1

For one step in the blood analysis we have to let the samples sit for 10 minutes. I was helping with the lab work and we were writing down the time started and finished so we could keep track. I wrote down the time interval and went to sit down. A fellow class mate walks over and looks at it like a minute later and asks, "Who wrote 5:50-5:60?" I was so out of it that although my math skills were working, my time skills were not. We were laughing pretty hard and they couldn't blame me! I had no brain food! They all thought it was pretty funny so that's good.

EMBARRASSING MOMENT #2

After the research experiment was over about 6pm Dan picked me up and we went to Subway. I was thinking okay, I haven't eaten all day.. I'll get a foot long when usually I can only finish a 6 inch. After fasting for 15 hours I STILL couldn't finish a foot long. Dan had to help.

And lastly

here's what my teacher wrote on our gallon of milk for the study so other people wouldn't drink it.

contains hericides

I had a good laugh about that

Well good things about this weekend - I have it all off from work!

bad things about this weekend - I may have to do the research again Saturday morning

Wish me and my fingers luck!