Eating? Reading? And Two Important Announcements!
Okay, I’m going to start with the most important thing- ELISABETH IS BACK!!! She has an incredible new blog. Phew! We’ve been deprived of her blog posts long enough. And speaking of Elisabeth, let’s start with food. I’m still working on my project of eliminating harmful oils from my diet, and guess what foods contain these oils? Basically, everything. Of course that’s an exaggeration, but so many of my old standbys are now off the table. Elisabeth sent me this recipe for protein balls, and I made them today: I like to joke that I can “ruin” any recipe, and this was no exception. I left out the maple syrup and chocolate chips, and used a little stevia instead. They are still delicious!!! Now I have something to reach for when I want a snack, other than pretzels or chips. Oh, here’s the second announcement- we have two new family members! (Warning… the following photos contain rodents in case you’re not a fan.) Yes, we finally got our rats. They are very friendly and affectionate! This was my daughter’s idea, and our new girls have been a good bonding experience for us… which we desperately needed. It’s not that my daughter and I fight, or argue all the time. It’s more that we just don’t understand each other. We’re very different people, and it’s hard. Nicole shared this poem, “On Children” the other day: You may give them your love but not your thoughts, For they have their own thoughts… So many times I’ve felt this would all be easier if I could just put my thoughts in my daughter’s head! Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way. Anyway, I’ve been feeling the need for some Buddhist wisdom so I’m re-reading this book: I love Pema Chodron- she’s a Buddhist nun, and her writings are profound, yet clear and easy to understand. Our aim is to fully awaken our heart and mind, not just for our own greater well-being but also to bring benefit, solace, and wisdom to other living beings. What motivation could top that? Do you have pets?- Now we have two cats (Muffin and Charlotte), two guinea pigs (Nutmeg and Cinnamon), and our rats, Kris and Lucy. I feel bad for my husband- he’s living in a house with eight girls!
Weekly Rundown- Grinding Along
Welcome to the Weekly Rundown, hosted as always by the indomitable Kim and Deborah. The week started strong, but as it went on things felt harder than usual. I can’t exactly put my finger on what was wrong, and when that happends the only thing to do is put my head down and keep grinding along. Here’s how it all played out: Sunday 11 mile long run that felt AMAZING! I got up super early and was able to complete the first six miles in the dark. At that point I hardly felt like I had done anything, and all I had was my usual five mile route left. I finished feeling about 100 times better than I did at the end of last week’s long run. Monday Leg day! I started with Runner’s Touch exercise and then did the sled, squats, side planks with leg lifts… … and ended with tibialis and calf raises. Tuesday Back to the gym! I started with the sled… … and then did a 3 mile treadmill run, with hill intervals. Wednesday I had to be home all day to wait for the dishwasher repairman. Originally they gave us a window of 7 am- 7 pm (seriously?) but luckily the night before were able to narrow it down to 10:30-2:30. This meant I was able to do my 4 mile run in the daylight. I also got out my pull up bar and did a few sets of negatives- as always, ouch. Thursday The early morning school traffic has gotten a little better, but there’s still a discrepancy between the time I would like to leave for school, and the time my daughter is actually ready. This gives me more time than I need before we leave, and a little less time than I would like at the gym. I’ve solved this- for now- by starting my workout at home with things I don’t need the gym for. Runner’s Touch, lunges, side plank with leg lifts at home. Then, at the gym, sled, squats, deadlifts, tibialis and calf raises. Friday Early morning 4 mile run! Saturday Off. I was able to sleep in a little before work. At night, watched Baylor lose, SOB! Our quarterback was injured in the first game of the season (what kind of luck is that?) and has been out ever since. Things are not going well. Sunday On tap for today- 12 mile long run! I’ll start in the dark again to avoid the heat, but I’ll be honest- I think running in the dark is a little creepy and depressing. I’m not really looking forward to it, although the second half will be in daylight. Right now running in the dark seems the lesser of two evils, though. Workout-wise it was a pretty good week (although what happened to upper body? Oops.) Football-wise it was a little sad. Baylor lost horribly, and our high school homecoming game got rained out. But at least we still have the Dolphins! A good long run and a good football game are just what I need to shake me out of this funk. How was your week? Are you loving the start of fall, or dreading what comes after? – September is a hard month in South Florida. It’s still so, so hot. It’ll be another month before we can start hoping for a cool down.
100 Day Countdown
On this week’s “Happier’ podcast, Gretchen and Liz discussed the fact that September 23rd starts the countdown of the last 100 days of 2023. They reviewed their “23 for 23” lists to see if there were any neglected areas they need to focus on before the year is over. That’s a good idea! I pulled out my own “23 for 23” list, which unfortunately only has nine things on it. Oops. But let’s review those nine: Go to the gym regularly (2-3 days a week.) – CHECK! Run a 50K – CHECK! Increase my protein intake- CHECK (I’m doing great so far!) Read 50 books- Still possible unless I fall off the schedule in November-December as I usually do. Participate in NaBloPoMo 2023- Oh yes! More on that below. Organize my closet- Absolutely not. Fix foot- hahahahahahahaha! That’s a good one. I’ve had plantar fasciitis in my left foot for three years and it’s still going strong! Focus on getting 7-8 hours of sleep a night- Er. More on that below as well. Send Christmas cards. I like that last one- obviously when I made the list I was feeling guilty because I only sent out three cards last year. I did buy a box of cards in January, so I’m cautiously optimistic that this one will happen. Let’s go back to #8, sleep. After a lot of big talk and small actions, my sleep is pretty much where it was a year ago. I do go to bed earlier now, but I also get up earlier. It’s very rare that I get eight hours- it’s usually between six and seven, and there are always a couple disastrous nights thrown in there of five or less. WHY? The good news is, I normally turn off all screens at least an hour before bed. The bad news is, I use that time to read and sometimes I stay up too late reading. I love reading at night when everyone else is in bed, but it just doesn’t fit with going to bed early. That’s problem #1. Problem #2 is that once I get in bed, sometimes I have trouble falling asleep. This can be for various reasons, and doesn’t seem to correspond to anything in my life. Sometimes I have to pee several times. Other times, I drink an entire can of sparkling water before bed and sleep soundly. Sometimes, I have the “moveable itch” phenomenon (this is probably self-explanatory.) Sometimes I’ll sleep really well after a long run or hard gym workout, but sometimes I’ll toss and turn for a couple hours. AND, when I’m up late reading, often I don’t really want to go to bed because I’m not sure if I’ll fall asleep, or just lie there miserably. SIGH! There are still a lot of things I haven’t tried, and I’m going to renew my focus on sleep for the last 100 days of the year. Let’s move on to a more pleasant topic: NaBloPoMo 2023! Oh yes, I’m doing it again. Not only am I doing it, but I have a THEME for this year, and some potential NaBloPoMo “projects.” Ooh! Exciting and mysterious! I can’t wait. Did you make a “23 for 23” (or any list of goals) this year? Is there anything you want to focus on especially for the last 100 days? Who’s doing NaBloPoMo with me this year??? Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Challenge Your Beliefs
I subscribe to Mark Manson’s weekly email,, “Your Next Breakthrough (five minutes each week that might change your life.”) This week’s thought was: Nobody is wrong 100% of the time. Always look for the nugget of truth in those you disagree with. Nobody is right 100% of the time. Always look for the faults and mistakes in those you agree with. Followed by these questions: How can you challenge your own ideas and assumptions regularly? How can you seek out and find viewpoints you disagree with, and then challenge yourself to find wisdom and truth in them? Why aren’t you doing this more often? Every once in a while I have to re-examine my eating habits. Now, for any vegans reading this, DON’T WORRY. You will never, ever read here that I’ve decided to stop being vegan. I’ve been vegan for over thirty years, and that’s not going to change. But lately I’ve been letting a lot of processed foods creep into my diet, and I had to re-examine my beliefs about what a healthy vegan diet looks like. A podcast I’ve been listening to lately is Human Performance Outliers, hosted by ultra runner Zach Bitter. In this episode he interviewed Brad Kearns, who I have a love/hate relationship with. Brad has his own podcast, “B.Rad” and he’s pretty entertaining. He has a lot of interesting ideas about health and exercise, and I like what he has to say… EXCEPT WHEN HE TALKS ABOUT EATING. He does keto- fine!- but for some reason is passionately anti-vegan. It got so annoying that I stopped listening to him, but decided to give him another try as a guest on Zach’s podcast. He’s still anti-vegan! But his main rant on this episode was against “seed oils,” a term people use to refer to most vegetable oils, including soybean, sunflower, safflower, and canola. Brad said (and I looked it up, he’s right!) those oils are particularly harmful because they cause a lot of inflammation in the body, and that they’re in practically all processed foods. He said, if you want to improve your diet, first get rid of the seed oils, then come back and we’ll argue about keto vs. vegan. Hmmm! I came home and looked in my fridge. Earth balance has vegetable oils, and so does the Miyoko’s cheese I’ve been slathering on everything. The pantry was equally disastrous- all the chips, pretzels and crackers have seed oils. In fact, it really is in most processed foods and I never thought twice about it. I’m not going to make myself crazy over it, but I’m going to seriously reduce the processed foods in my diet. Tonight for dinner I made this recipe for “Ultimate Vegan Chili.” and instead of opening a bag of chips, I made some chips out of corn tortillas! I brushed them with olive oil (olive oil is apparently one of the good ones,) sprinkled on some salt, and baked them. They tasted about as good as they look, which means they pretty much sucked. But I’ll keep trying! I have to get back to having things like chips every once in a while as a treat, rather than whenever I feel like it. So, thanks Brad! We’ll never agree on vegan vs. keto, but we do have some common ground after all. Do you have any beliefs that you’ve challenged lately? When was the last time you changed your mind about something big? –I do have a big one, in case anyone missed this post, Story of an Anti-Vaxxer