Someplace that's green

I'm being all healthy and stuff today. Instead of driving to work, I walked. Yay for exercise! But since I woke up I have had the most killer pounding headache ever, and the walking did not help. I don't want to break down and take something for it, I feel way over-medicated as it is from the last few weeks, but it's to the point where it is difficult to function.

This morning I woke up and was not having breathing problems. One step closer to being not-sick.

So much I want to accomplish today, but all I want to do is curl up in a ball and sleep until the headache goes away.

I have been good at tracking my food on SparkPeople so far.

My current eating habits:
Too many calories (averaging 1900, should be no more than 1550)
A little high on overall fat
Doing great on limiting saturated fat
Too much cholesterol (I like egg salad sandwiches darn it!)
Not nearly enough fiber or protein
Doing great on sodium, with the exception of a couple specific foods (soup and potato salad)

Can I improve? Yes, yes I can.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24915524/?GT1=43001

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won Puerto Rico’s Democratic presidential primary by a substantial margin Sunday, NBC News projected. But Clinton’s newly defiant campaign against her own party leaders may have been blunted by low turnout in the island territory while her rival edged ever closer to the nomination.

Puerto Rico, once a political asterisk in presidential contests, was seen as Clinton’s last best electoral chance as she tries to build a case that she has won more actual votes during the primary season than her rival, Sen. Barack Obama.

Clinton’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, pushed that case strongly Sunday in an argument directed at unpledged party officials known as superdelegates.

“She continues to win these primaries. It’s extraordinary,” McAuliffe said in an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “She keeps running it up, and I think it shows Hillary’s strength for the fall.”

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, a prominent supporter of Obama, maintained that “the important thing is the contest between Senator Obama and Senator John McCain.”

“That is what will really unify the Democratic Party and bring us victory in November,” she said in an interview with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

At a rally in San Juan late Sunday afternoon, Clinton thanked Puerto Rican Democrats for “this show of overwhelming support” and vowed to fight on in primaries Tuesday in Montana and South Dakota.

Obama congratulated Clinton at a rally in South Dakota, but did not otherwise refer to the Puerto Rico results, which were expected to have little impact on the delegate race.

Election officials said turnout was extremely low, perhaps 400,000 out of nearly 3 million registered voters. So while polls showed Clinton holding a lead, she was likely to win a majority of the commonwealth’s 55 delegates but not get a huge influx of popular votes.

“Even though there is some enthusiasm, you cannot compare this with a general election in Puerto Rico,” said former San Juan Mayor Hector Luis Acevedo, the local representative of the Democratic Party.

Acevedo said the primary was organized in just fewer than 100 days, after the Democratic National Committee approved a switch from a caucus to a primary.

Clinton campaigned hard in Puerto Rico, spending several hours Saturday on the back of a pickup truck in a salsa-blasting, 40-vehicle caravan through the outskirts of San Juan. In a sign that her supporters were unwilling to give up, an outside group financed by her labor backers bought $150,000 worth of television ads on the island promoting her views.

The group, the American Leadership Project, was also spending $300,000 on ads in Tuesday’s primary states of Montana and South Dakota, where Obama is deemed the favorite. Clinton planned to campaign Monday in South Dakota.

Puerto Rico’s politics is dominated by two local parties, known as red and blue, divided over the issue of statehood.

Along those lines, Clinton often referred to “bringing red and blue together,” but Puerto Rico Senate President Kenneth McClintock, co-chairman of her campaign, said the local parties would not be working to get out the vote because there was no political benefit.

“The State Elections Commission has put very little advertising, contrary to what they usually do," he McClintock said. “We’ve had some factors against us.”

In addition, the smaller Partido Independista, which advocates full independence for the island, held a public protest of the vote Sunday in San Juan. It discouraged followers from participating in the contest because the commonwealth does not have a vote in the general election.

Acevedo and McClintock both said that even if local voters were not interested in the outcome, the attention that had been paid to Puerto Rico by the candidates and the national press would help the islands.

“The Puerto Rican voter and the Puerto Rican citizens will enjoy more benefits, more attention, more friends in the Senate of the United States no matter who wins,” Acevedo said. “We will have more attention to our problems and to the solutions than we will have had if we not have this primary in Puerto Rico.”

Clinton was winning roughly two-thirds of the votes in the U.S. territory as she continued a strong run through the last primaries that came too late to make a dent in Obama's overwhelming delegate lead.

In defeat, Obama gained 17 delegates, leaving him 47 short of the 2,118 needed to become the first black presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party, according an Associated Press count.

Aides predicted the 46-year-old first-term Illinois senator could clinch the nomination as early as this week. Montana and South Dakota close out the primary season on Tuesday.

Campaigning in Mitchell, South Dakota, Obama said he was confident the party would unite, and praised Clinton in terms usually reserved for a vanquished rival. He told supporters that she would be "a great asset when we go into November" — the general election battle against Republican John McCain.

Obama has a total of 2,071 delegates in The Associated Press count, including the 17 from Puerto Rico. He also gained the support of two superdelegates — top party officials and lawmakers free to vote for any candidate — during the day.

Clinton has 1915.5, including 38 from Puerto Rico.

Finally broke down and bought some Excedrin Migraine. That did the trick. GOOD stuff.

Cleaned Screensaver's tank - I thought I killed all the snails, but when I filled the water back up, a bunch crawled right back out of the rocks. Darn it. Need more lettuce.

Worked on my online class discussions and watched the incredibly boring videos I'm supposed to watch.

Talked to Penny and exchanged bitch-sessions to blow off stress. I didn't realize I was stressed, but I'm feeling a bit more relaxed now.

Went to the pet store and picked up some medication for Screensaver. Apparently there exists drops to add to his water that helps him to grow back fins and heal wounds and stuff. Cool. He's looking kinda scraggly since the incident with the cat.

Still procrastinating my statistics homework. I've done some of it, but really it just doesn't make much sense no matter how long I stare at it. Then I get frustrated and go do something I DO know how to do.

Did some much-needed laundry.

Learned about Puerto Rico's place in the primaries (see previous post).

First day I have not only stayed within my calorie goal for the day, I also stayed under the fat and cholesterol goals and ate enough protein. Success! Now I just need to keep it up. I'm not used to eating that much meat, but I felt full all day and that's a good thing. Protein makes me feel more full than sugar. Go figure. :) (Yes I am aware that I have been told this)