Health – HeaRty's Haven

Parking fees at our office building is pretty expensive (Php 130/day). Usually the slots are also filled up already when 9AM comes in. With that in mind, a lot of us decided to park somewhere far away in a parking lot owned by A. Venue. Parking costs just around Php40/day but disadvantage is.. we have to walk like 10minutes to reach the office. For me, I thought of it more of an advantage because:

we can save like Php90 per day for the parking fee
we can use the 10-minute walk as an exercise

I usually bring slippers as I can’t walk 10 minutes wearing high heels. However, I decided to just wear my high-heeled wedge shoes today. Since they were wedge shoes, I didn’t think it would be dangerous for the walk. Unfortunately though, I fell on the street today.

I fell hard… fell on my knees with lots of people around. Noone helped me though, they just looked at me. I sat a bit on the floor for a few seconds as I felt the pain in my foot. Anyhow, I managed to get up and continued walking towards the office. This time, I walked really slow as pain really started to set in.

When I arrived at the office, the pain became unbearable such that I couldn’t walk anymore. I went straight to the clinic. Here’s what they did to help me:

Asked me to sit in a comfortable chair.
Held my feet up high
Put ice compress on the pain area
put inflammatory cream on the area
asked me to take some pain meds
put some elastic bandage on my ankle.

They also asked me to go to a hospital and have an x-ray. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really walk so I ended up just glued to my seat. The x-ray is needed to check if there are fractures. I really just hope I don’t get any. I don’t think I have the energy to drive myself to the hospital because my right ankle is the one that is injured.

The pain really gets worse as time passes by. I don’t know how long this will be. I decided to just work from home until I get well. Hopefully it does heal soon, I hate staying at home. Internet connection is really slow as well (I work more effectively at the office).

A close friend of mine asked her brother who’s also a doctor for medical advice (she’s such a sweet friend!). A great advice that I will follow while I’m nursing this sprained ankle. Here are the useful information I got (maybe this could help some of you too):

cold compress for the 1st three days and continue as long as it is swollen.
should completely rest the ankle & let ligaments heal.
take pain meds for 1st two days. Take it as needed after if pain still persists.

Learned a lot from this experience. Though I assume my friends would think that I would quit wearing high heels, well they’re wrong. I’ll still continue to wear my high heeled shoes hahaha! I’m sure though that I won’t be walking that 10-minute activity with high heels (no matter if wedge or not), I’ll just wear my friendly slippers…

Official Website of Rochelle Sy Chua on media, events, travel, food and restaurant experiences in Taipei, Taiwan, Manila, Philippines and Asia.

Last week, I attended a very informative seminar about running. It was conducted by Second Wind Running Store. Neville & Hector who are Second Wind Running’s owners were the main speakers.

Let me share with you what I learned from the event. A few things really stuck my mind. For one, finding the right shoes. Then there is what to drink when running & how often we should run.

First off, let’s talk about running terms that were mentioned in the seminar:

Marathon – 42 kilometers
PR – Personal Record
Pace – Rate of Movement in Run (usually minutes/kilometer)
Gait – manner of running
Stride – to run with long steps

One thing they emphasized was that a 5k/10k/21k run are NOT marathons. I also noticed how people loosely use the word “marathon”.

Another important point that was shared in details was how we should choose the right equipment for our runs. Things like buying the right caps, shirts, shorts, watches, socks & shoes.

runninggear

Knowing your foot type is very important when buying shoes. The Second Wind Running Store can help us analyze our foot type and give input as to what shoes to buy for running. We have to run at the treadmill so they could see the behaviour of how we run. It’s really amazing. I will visit their store soon one of these days.

foottype

Part of the seminar also talked about running trivia. Did you know that it is best to buy shoes in the late afternoon when our feet are at its largest state? Did you know that to ensure that the shoe fits, you try to insert your fingers at the front and back? Also, don’t wear 100% cotton socks as it keeps your feet wet. Synthetic blend socks are best to fend off moisture. It’s best to drink a sports drink like Gatorade rather than water, because the former has potassium content and can give us more energy.

Okay, details are done. But I’m sure you’re asking if this is such a good idea. You’re not alone in asking that question. A lot of people have been asking if running can help us lose weight. After listening to the seminar, I can give you a definite “yes”. These are just some guidelines regarding calories burned during running & other stuff that could help us decide what kind of approach we’re going to do.

for every 1.6 kilometers, you will burn approximately 125 calories.
running long and slow burns a higher percentage of fat calories. It teaches our body to be more efficient in fat burning.
running shorter and faster burns more total calories per minute or mile. It helps us lose weight, including body fat.
faster running also increase “afterburn”. That means the body is still burning calories after the running stops.

I’m so glad that I attended this since one of my goals for 2010 (take note: I take it seriously this time) is to go jogging. One of my main goals is to stay fit and I have chosen to do that by jogging and learning swimming. So this running seminar came at the right time as I prepare to reach my 2010 goals.

More pictures regarding the seminar can be found here.

Tag: Health

Me, Parking & My Sprained Ankle

Running for Beginners