Day 79 – Runnin’ Fool

My brother and I trained for the St. George Marathon last year and he has only run one other time since—although I can’t say that like I’m Mr. Wonderful… I’ve only run a hand full of times since.  I called him last night and talked him into going on a run with me at 5:30 this morning.  Very hesitantly he agreed and I called him bright and early.  It took a little coaxing but I finally talked him out of bed—which may have been a good thing because if he had finally said no I may have gone back to bed.

All the research (as well as the program we’ve been doing) says that exercise is a must for a Candida program but I’ve not been very good at being consistent.  It was fairly easy early on as the energy came very quick but as soon as the first set of juice only days hit the exercise almost stopped entirely for me.  My new resolve is to do something every morning—although I will probably take a break from it all on Sundays.

We ran the route I usually run so my brother drove to my house and we walked to the starting point and ran and ran.  When I was running with my brother last year I remember my heart rate always being the one that would go higher.  Mine would hit 180-190 and his would stay at 160-170.  This time it was his heart rate that would jump up to 180-190 and mine—although my strap wasn’t working—didn’t feel like it raised more than about 160 or so.  I kept pushing him along when last year I would have been happy to stop or slow down when he did.

I did, however, finally slow a little toward the end—probably the last ½ mile or so because we do always like to talk and/or rant and rave about the news and the political issues of the day and then give our own biased views to each other, let off some steam and move on!  All in all I went 3.65 miles but my pace was not very good—I didn’t break any of my records or anything.

The food aspect of the whole journey is feeling very old because there has not been a whole lot of branching out so I’ll just say that we did our usual favorites (or other menu items).  I did purchase some Eggies because they looked like a cool little invention—however, I was not as impressed with the actual product as I was about the infomercial associated with it!

I was pretty tired this morning, but worry how I’ll feel tomorrow because the lag in energy after exercise for me usually hits more the day after.  I did feel like I got a lot accomplished today and had a great day overall!

Here’s to hoping I’ll have more exciting news to report tomorrow.  

Day 78 – Exercise is Exhausting but Good for Me… Right?

I was set on getting up at 5:30am and did get up, but had a rough time staying up.  It was my wife’s turn to run and I stayed at home to work out—I was going to have a date with Tony Horton but a rough night of sleep won out.  I ended up doing about 70 pushups and 70 or so crunches and went back to bed where it didn’t take me long to drift back to sleep.

Breakfast was steel-cut-oats and our favorite green drink—are you sick of hearin about it yet?  Lunch as no less exciting—beans and quinoa but not a lot of salad—actually it wasn’t a very big day of salad today.  Dinner was pizza for the boys and more beans and quinoa for me—that is the kind of day I had.

I felt great after the exercise yesterday but this morning it caught up to me.  My muscles weren’t really that sore but I was feeling sooooo tired a lot of the day and felt like I was dragging—I didn’t get a chance to pick up more salad so I ended up forgoing that for the day and just made it simple (a lot of what I ate came out of a can today!).

I am NOT a morning person and have to remind myself that although it’s a pain in the butt it is good for me so although I feel tired today I am setting the run into my calendar again for tomorrow and hitting the road again.  I’ll keep this up until I get the runners high (and then hopefully it will be a bit easier for me) or until I get a road bike or a decent mountain bike so I can really do what I love.  Running is just so much less expensive than biking is and easier to get ready for—not a lot of equipment to maintain or worry about.

I’ll have to see if my brother wants to come with me—it’s been since before the St. George Marathon last October that we’ve run together.  Exercise is good for me… Exercise is good for me… Exercise is good for me… how many times do I need to say it before it sticks?

77 – A morning Plan

Mornings are now and have always been very very difficult for me.  I have the fight with my pillow in the morning and my pillow usually ends up winning so I never get up and never get out running or doing something else.  Well… last night I decided I would force myself to get out of bed at 5:30am to run.  To help get me there I made it a calendar entry on my iPhone and invited my wife—who really didn’t need any motivation for getting up in the morning.

When the alarm went off at 5:30am I was tempted to get my lazy but back into bed, but I didn’t.  My wife reminded me—and I reminded myself—that I made this a ‘goal’ and needed to stick with it, so I did get up and get ready and then got out the door.  It is about ¼ of a mile to where I run and I always walk there before starting.  All the way up I just wanted to turn around and come home, but didn’t.

It was still pretty dark at about 6:00am or so as I made it to my starting point, built up the courage and then took off!  I’m not a speed runner but I was noticing my time and made really good average time.  I ran about 3.95 miles at an average pace of 9:16 per mile (so I beat my time and distance from Saturday).  I still don’t feel great while running but I felt really good after I was done.  The only problem—and I’m not sure if it was caused by the running—I have had a stuffy nose and feel like a cold is coming on… YUCK! But I don’t think that will stop me from getting out again.

I have really neglected a very important part of getting better which is to make sure I’m exercising regularly (preferably daily), so I’m creating a resolve to win the fight against my pillow and see if I can now get a runner’s high—something I’ve never really been able to get to before!  Time will tell.

Anyway… other than the cold it’s been a great day!  I started steel-cut-oats before I left out the door and they were pretty much ready when I got home.  Also had our favorite green juice.  Spaghetti for lunch (leftovers)… a TON of spaghetti—hopefully the tomatoes sit OK with my stomach.  I did notice during the run I had some pretty interesting cramping in my stomach, it wasn’t really painful cramping but more like tightening… when I got home I realized why… let’s just say my body was glad to be rid of a good amount of waste!  You’re welcome!

Dinner was a quick eggs and toast (made from some of my homemade bread).   My wife worked late tonight for some conferences at school so it was just me and da boyz for dinner and then pack meeting tonight (scout meeting) for my 8 year old.  Had a great time and a great day!  Here’s to an even better tomorrow!

Catching up the blog

It's Saturday April 6, 2013 and this week has been quite the roller coaster—but mostly in a good way.  I’ve posted before that I’ve been posting my blog 1 week behind so I could make sure I posted consistently—which I’ve done an entry every day up until this last Monday.  I think it’s now time to bring my blog current and continue to post every day—or as nearly every day as possible—as my struggles and triumphs continue to give me joy and kick my butt.  So over the next two days I'm going to bring my blog current and will also explain my adventure I've had during the week of April 2-6. 

Day 76 – The Greatest News Ever!

Ok, so there it’s not really the greatest news and… OK, so it’s not really news at all, but couldn’t think of a better title for today and had to improvise.  I keep hoping for something new or some progress (at least more noticeable—instant—progress) but alas… I guess it’s not meant to be; at least yet!

My wife got up at 5:30am to do Yoga—I had intended to get up with her but my 4 trips to the bathroom last night made me groggier this morning.  It was mostly my fault I got up so many times… I did down about 20 to 30 ounces of water when I took garlic last night about 45 minutes before bed.

Breakfast was our standard steel-cut-oats and our favorite green juice.  We won’t be able to have Cacao Pow for possibly a few more days because our Amazon order of Cacao hasn’t arrived and we just found out today that the companies orders for the day (the company we ordered the Cacao Pow from) were messed up for the day we ordered—we have, however, been assured it’s been corrected and is now on its way.  But, as it is we really only had enough Cacao for one more something (drink, dessert, etc) which we did use tonight in a almond milk, cinnamon, cacao, stevia hot cocoa.

The tough early morning extended to later this morning and I felt groggy throughout the morning.  Mornings had gotten better for a while and while they must still be better than they were, I have a hard time in the mornings.  Lunch was quinoa with onions, salt pepper, lemon juice and green salsa mixed together all over a HUGE spring mix salad—very boring but very good.

We had some friends over tonight and decided to make some spaghetti for them.  Thinking our Gluten Free noodles would be too much for them we made a little batch of the gluten free and a big batch of wheat noodles.  I think only one of the guests actually ate the whole-wheat noodles and everybody else wanted the gluten free—Also, I think she only chose the wheat noodles because she felt bad we cooked them.

They stayed a while to let the kids play and then our boys PASSED out!  Which is always a good thing—I have to say, probably have said it before, that we have GREAT kids when it comes time to go to bed! And most times for that matter