Summer heat and skydiving

This is one of those “learn from my mistakes” kind of posts. Don’t let this happen to you!

Remember growing up and having your mother preach to you about staying hydrated on those long, hot summer days?

Yeah, so do I. And I wish I would have listened closer.

This weekend was a busy one at the dropzone – between milestone celebrations, demos and packing in the heat, there were enough distractions to make me forget about eating and drinking properly.

And I paid for it dearly yesterday with a trip to the emergency room. Chills, muscle spasms, dizziness, increased heart rate and chest pains – not a good combination! I wasn’t about to wait the 4+ hours they were anticipating to get me in, so after speaking to a nurse who suggested I was “just” extremely dehydrated, I took her advice, bought some Gatorade and headed home.

Sure enough within a few hours of guzzling the electrolyte-enhanced sports drink my symptoms were starting to subside.

So after a miserable day yesterday I’m doing my best to quench my thirst before it arrives.

Lesson learned: sometime you just need to stop and take care of yourself – especially on hot days at the dropzone. Proper nutrition and hydration are extremely important – not just in sports, but in life. If you’re not consistently careful, it’ll catch up with you…trust me!

From now on, I’ll be sure to have extra sports drinks on hand….you should too!

Blue skies!


Ashley

Skydiving: the ultimate diet

It seems that this summer I found the perfect diet plan – skydiving.

Not that I was exactly in the market to lose weight, but since I’ve started spending most of my weekend time at the DZ almost 15 pounds have dropped off. And probably not in the healthiest of ways.

(The real bummer here is that my RW suit doesn’t fit nearly as well as it used to…though who doesn’t love a new suit, right?)

Eating at the dropzone never seems to be a priority. On a good day, we jump, chat about the jump, pack, chat about the next jump, maybe throw in a dirt dive or two and do it all over again.

Every few jumps someone will hand me a bottle of water that I will gulp down, not realizing how much it was actually needed. Thankfully, I have friends who pay better attention to my hydration than I do.

But when it comes to eating, I tend to ignore the rumblings in my stomach until the day’s end.

Why?

Well, when I was a student, my main reason for not eating was because I was so nervous I feared that at any moment it might come back up. So I avoided food like the plague.

As I’ve progressed, this trend has continued – mainly because that’s the trend to which I became accustom. Although my body signals to me that it needs nourishment, rarely do I actually feel hungry at the DZ. But the moment I come down from sunset load and get packed up, I realize just how famished I am!

Of course, that doesn’t stop me from cracking open a cold, refreshing beer to end the day. And with no food in my system, it’s a quick, cheap buzz, that’s for sure.

I do realize this trend needs to change. Consuming only calories from beer is bound to catch up with my health one day. But, as a girl who typically watches what she eats, accompanying fellow skydivers to the nearest fast food joint for a mid-day bite just doesn’t sit well with me.

During the Work Stinks boogie this year at Start Skydiving, we stocked up on fresh fruit and light protein bars to help get us through the weekend. This was just the ticket. You get quick fuel that doesn’t sit around in your belly for hours.

Of course, since I’ve been back at home I’ve gone right back to my old ways. Next time I head to the DZ, I’ll have to stop at the grocery store to pick up some goods.

What about you? What is your typical eating routine during weekends at the DZ? Do you too find yourself eating less?

Blue Skies!

Ashley