in case of emergency

April 28, 2009

an amp of epi, stat!
i have to attend an ACLS course today and tomorrow. ACLS stands for advanced cardiovascular life support, and i’ve actually never taken it. instead, i am PALS-certified, which is pediatric advanced life support. a friendlier acronym (what do you expect? it’s PEDS!), and a whole different set of algorithms.
so how much exactly is in “an amp”? i have no idea.

because pediatric patients vary so much in size, we never get to ask for ‘an amp’ of anything. it’s always “0.1 mg/kg” or something like that. kids are also different in that their hearts are better, so their problems are very rarely of cardiac origin. even if a 3-year old’s heart is stopped, it’s usually because of something else, such as respiratory arrest. adults, however, are all moldy and crusted over with atherosclerosis and vascular disease, so you can’t trust their hearts worth a dime. personally, i’d rather not have to deal with them at all, but i suppose ACLS could be useful if someone goes down on a plane or something.

up-sides to ACLS training
• could be interesting
• get to sit on my butt and play the student role
• i get to wear jeans to work
• we’ll be done at 4:30 pm both days

down-sides to ACLS training
• it starts at 7:45 which means i didn’t get to run this morning
• and the high is 88
• so going in the afternoon is going to be ugly
• will probably be boring
• i don’t really like sitting down on my butt all day

oh well. it will be worth it if i ever find myself needing to use it someday!

restauranted out
we went to lantern in chapel hill last night to celebrate a friend’s birthday. while the meal was fantastic (lantern is among my top 3 favorite restaurants in the area, if not my favorite), we’ve been eating out a lot lately. even though i love trying new restaurants and gourmet food, i have a low threshold for getting tired of it. usually after 2-3 decadent meals within a short timespan i will declare that i am restauranted out.

part of the problem is that i almost never leave a restaurant feeling just satisfied — i’m always super-full! even when the quantity of food doesn’t seem like it’s that much, i think the amount of oil/fats used in preparation must be much, MUCH higher than when i cook at home, because i don’t have another good explanation for this phenomenon. i know that last night’s meal must have been quite sodium-heavy as well, because i kept chugging water throughout the meal and upon returning home.

obviously, i can’t just blame the restaurants — no one forced me to order the banana ice cream with salted peanuts and caramel to share with josh (and honestly, that particular confection was 100% worth the pain and discomfort that followed). but i’d love to be able to enjoy the restaurant experience without feeling borderline-ill afterwards. this gets particularly important when on vacation, because we are likely to be eating out multiple nights in a row.

tips, suggestions, your experiences? either way, i’m looking forward to enjoying my own home-cooked healthy fare for the next few days at least.

———————————————————————-

4.27.09

workout: 40 minutes cycling (levels 4-5 — 14.7 ‘miles’ on the stationary bike) + level 3 30-day shred. finally!

reading: arghgh. none.

and for full disclosure: i bit one nail yesterday. !!! but at least i realized it before i moved on to other fingers!

6 Comments

  • Reply da March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Mom and I agree with your restaurant oil/fats theory, and the high salt factor can be a drag, too. I’ve never tried this, but I’ll bet most restaurants worth their salt (pun intended) would adjust the oil/fat/salt content downward upon request. Of course, the taste may go downward along with that! L, da

  • Reply SugarPunk March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Jeff and I make it a practice to always split entrees when we’re eating out – and we almost always *still* have food left over. If we’re not splitting (we do like different things, after all), we just portion it in half before we start eating, and stop when we’ve hit half if we’re not feeling ‘full’ already.

    It also helps that we hardly ever get dessert out any more – with all the samples I’ve got going on at home, J’s gotten really picky about dessert quality. Me, too. I don’t order anything I can make myself.

  • Reply Run Sarah March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    I often feel sick because of the high fat/oil content of restaurant food, even if its something I make at home and I feel fine after. I need to renew my ACLS, gah..

  • Reply Elina March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    I just saw your post on Tina’s blog. I do very similar things and I find that if I don’t plan ahead, my meal quality really suffers. I’m super impressed that you’re able to cook, exercise and relax on top of working 80+ hours. Very impressive!!

  • Reply atilla March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    my only tip is share and watch the alcohol….never miss dessert

  • Reply Anonymous March 10, 2019 at 7:29 pm

    Sarah,

    I have this same problem and quickly tire of eating out. I do a fair amount of business travel so this can be a challenge. My strategies to feel good and maintain weight with frequent eating out is to 1) always eat only half of what I order, 2) never or rarely eat dessert, 3) limit alcohol to wine and only one glass, 4) order nothing with sauces, 5) primarily order fish. I prefer to feel good rather than have the rich food. Thats my two cents.

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