The worst part about being so far away from home is that I don’t get to see my brother very often. I miss the little looks he would give me when he is irritated, and how happy he would be when I get home from going anywhere no matter how long I was gone. So let me introduce my brother, his name is Puka he is a blue healer mix, he is 8 years old but still acts like he is a puppy.

He has been with me for a long time and being away from him is very tough. Recently we found out some bad news about him, he had developed a form of skin cancer on his tail. They needed to amputate his tail in order to stop the cancer from spreading to the rest of his body. When my mom called me to tell me the news it hit me really hard just because the thought of going home and him not being there anymore was killing me. After he got the surgery to remove his tail he needed to wear a cone for 2 weeks to stop him from licking the stitches out.

As you can tell he is not a very big fan of the cone. He is still wearing it and my mom says that when nobody is looking at hime he tries to rip it off. My parents say that he is doing better and getting some of his energy back but the vet told them that there still is a possibility that the cancer may come back. Puka was the one person that I could always talk to and he would agree with whatever i’m saying. I know that e not an actual person but when he looks at me with those two little brown eyebrows he has I feel like he understands what I am saying. I am sure that all dog owners feel the same way, but I guess that is why they call dogs a man’s best friend.

Since I am from Hawaii that comes with a few advantages and disadvantages, one advantage is that I do not have to deal with weather thats so cold I can’t feel my face.

I am looking forward to this upcoming winter break because I will get to see my family and spend time with them, but the sad part is that I have to come back to Iowa when the break is finished. So when I am at home, getting tan, going to the beach the whole time while I am enjoying myself I know that I will have to leave the warmth and have to eventually return to the frozen tundra.

I only get to go home twice a year for a very short period of time so when I do go home it does make me a little homesick when I think about not being able to see my family for a while. I think about just staying home and not coming back but my parents want me to get a college education.

So I will be going home for winter break and it will be 85 degrees and when I have to return to school it will be a nice 10 degrees. It is a big temperature change to go through but the main thing that bothers me is when I am working out at home I can sweat and go outside and do the thing that I need to do to get better. But when I come back to school we are literally stuck indoors until basically May.

Citations

Fischer, J. (2019). Things to Do in Hilo on Hawaii’s Big Island. [online] TripSavvy. Available at: https://www.tripsavvy.com/things-to-do-and-where-to-stay-in-hilo-1532628 [Accessed 16 Nov. 2019].

Young, A. (2019). [online] Desmoinesregister.com. Available at: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/weather/2018/01/11/iowa-winter-weather-thrillist-states-rankings-wikipedia-snow-blizzards-storms/1023596001/ [Accessed 16 Nov. 2019].

College baseball has 2 separate seasons, we play during the fall and the spring. The main purpose of playing in the fall is to get into shape and ready for the full season to come in the spring. Fall baseball consists of a lot of conditioning, so I lose a lot of calories throughout a single day.

We run a lot during fall baseball practice and players are losing all the weight that they gained from over the summer. I weighed myself last week Monday, and I weighted 195 pounds. Since I came back to school I have lose 10 pounds. It has become difficult to keep track of my calorie intake because I have no idea how much I lose at practice.

I have just been trying my best to eat as much as I can, I am not paying to close attention to how much calories I am eating or what exactly I am eating. The main focus is that I want to feed my body calories either fat or protein, I just want my body to be able to burn something off rather than my muscle.

Since I do not have time to keep track of what I am eating, I just set a goal to consume about 1500 calories per day. While consuming a large amount of carbohydrates to convert to fat so my body will be able to continue to work while I am resting.

If I am able to just stay above 190 pounds until the winter I will consider that a success because with the amount of exercise I am going through during the fall, if I stop eating the amount of food that I am suppose to I will lose all of the muscle that I gained over the summer.

Citations

Salmon, J. (2019). The Rock Shows Off His Epic Cheat Meal – Generation Iron Fitness & Bodybuilding Network. Retrieved 16 September 2019, from https://generationiron.com/the-rock-shows-off-his-epic-cheat-meal/

Training, B. (2019). Best Baseball Conditioning Program | Baseball Training Supplies. Retrieved 16 September 2019, from https://baseballtrainingsupplies.com/best-baseball-conditioning-program/Salmon, J. (2019).

All athletes around the world know the importance of watching what you eat. Even if you are not an athlete you either want to lose weight or gain weight.

All athletes struggle with to trying to keep the weight that they are losing from constantly losing from burning calories during practice and games. But keeping that from happening is a lot easier said than done.

From my own personal experience I struggled with trying to keep my weight at a steady pace. During the Fall I weighed 205 pounds, I found that this weight kept me feeling energized and also strong. So I thought that I would be able to just keep eating the same way I was and I would be fine.

Consistent exercise requires consistent calorie intake, when the year was done I weighed 170 pounds and had lost all of my strength.

In order to get my weight back I had to increase the amount of calories I had per day. I found that if I consume 900 calories before 9am and eat at least 4 more meals throughout the day consisting of 600-700 calories I was able to have enough calories to keep a consistent energized and strong weight.

When trying to gain weight you also need to watch the type of proteins and carbohydrates you are consuming. You need to find foods that you like and find a way to modify it so that it has less useless fats in it.

Chicken, beef, fish, are good things to eat but just season them with spices to help with the taste, adding sauces and dips to help with the taste will defeat the purpose. Eating it with rice or potatoes is a good way to get large amounts of carbohydrates into your meal so that it will fill you up and be easy to convert to pounds.

Citations

Kitchens, Betty Crocker. “Easy Chicken with Rice Casserole.” Betty Crocker, 7 Jan. 2019, http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easy-chicken-with-rice-casserole/0d2c539a-4713-40b4-afb9-c2844a73de39.

Adminh. “Should You Bulk or Cut First (SKINNY FAT FIX).” Healing Plus, 27 Mar. 2019, healingplus.com/should-you-bulk-or-cut-first-skinny-fat-fix/.

Crispo, Victoria. “What I Learned about My Career While Learning How to Ride a Bike.” Idealistcareers, 29 Oct. 2014, idealistcareers.org/want-i-learned-about-my-career-while-learning-to-ride-a-bike/.