A Little Self-Pity

My foot hurts! I love, love, love to run but my body does not. This is an endless source of frustration to me. I am only running TWICE A WEEK right now because I'm training for a triathalon. TWICE A WEEK. No big deal right? My longest run so far has been only 35 minutes. That's IT. And my foot has been hurting for over a week now. I deliberately do not limp on it because I think that caused all kinds of other problems when I fractured the same foot last time. I asked Jeff to give me a blessing last night and I am trying to have the faith to be healed.

At this point I am going to just keep praying and continue my training. I only want to make it to my race. With all the cross training I am doing I am crossing my fingers that I will make it through. It really doesn't hurt that bad, but then again, neither did my stress fracture. I don't care if it is already broken if I can just do my race.

I even bought special shoes that are supposed to strengthen your feet. And I cross train. I haven't trained for a running race in a year. Why does this always happen? Why can some people run 100 miles and not get injured and I can't run 3? I just want to run!!!!

Bike Ride

I went on an amazing bike ride yesterday. I did the north Santa Fe trail and rode for 70 minutes, so I got more than 5 miles out before I had to turn around and it was so beautiful! After a few miles the trail really opens up and you can see the mountains and all the land around. The weather was perfect, nice and warm and not windy! I have used this trail lots of times but never on a bike so I was never able to go much past the gate to the Air Force Academy. But this time I saw so much more and it was breathtaking. It reminded me why we moved here. It is so beautiful here!

The only down side is my bike is not a mountain bike so I slipped on the dirt a lot and that was scary, plus I saw a snake (shudder). So unfortunately I don't think I'll go this way again, and instead stick to the south going paved road on the other side of Woodmen. I REALLY don't want to fall! It was so beautiful I almost wished I had a mountain bike....but I like my face road-rash-free. Maybe I just need to train for a marathon next so I can run miles out on the trail. Hmm, that's an idea... :)

Keep on keeping on

I am on my fourth week of my Eat to Live diet and feeling great! So far I've lost 11.5 pounds! Yea! To make it a complete make-over I also started a 90-day schedule to finish the Book of Mormon, and a 12 week triathalon training program. So by the time I go to California in August I will be my new self physically and spiritually.

When I first started my diet I felt overwhelmed by a vegan diet. I mean if you are not eating meat or dairy, what ARE you eating?!! At first I just stuck with meals I already knew and just modified them a bit. I made my favorite split pea soup and just didn't add the ham. I made Red Beans and Rice and only put sausage in Jeff's and the kids' portions. I made bean burritos and left out the cheese and sour cream and added avocado and lots of veggies instead.

We made some other changes as well. We found fabulous whole wheat tortillas at Costco that we love and made the switch to brown rice or wild rice, and soy milk. Instead of having cereal for breakfast I now have Old Fashioned Oats cooked in water, sprinkled with dried blueberries and Craisens, which Carter LOVES (although in Carter's I add lots of butter and little whole milk with the dried fruit). Or I just have a whole grapefruit or some other fruit. Surprisingly the fruit usually holds me till lunch just as well as oatmeal.

I've found some new recipes that I love also. Wild Red Beans, Chickpea and Cauliflower Curry and Robin's Granola, from my friend Robin's website, who started me reading Eat to Live in the first place. Roasted Carrots with Cumin and Lime is also a new favorite. Just the other night I made Golden Mushroom, Pea and Asparagus Risotto which was also delicious (although I'm not sure risotto is a whole grain, but I tried it anyway).

All in all, we're eating a lot more salads, vegetables, and beans. I feel full and satisfied after every meal and don't really have many cravings. I still often want something sweet after dinner but if I really want something I'll have some fruit or a bowl of granola. One night I made a Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie which was amazing, but it can only be a once in a while treat!

Well, I'm halfway through my six week program and over halfway to my goal of losing 20 pounds! Here's to keeping on...

What????

Yesterday Jaden said "Look!". We looked and this is what we saw:
If you look closely you can see that our office door is pouring water like it's a faucet!! Jeff, who had gotten home only minutes before quickly figured it out and ran upstairs to turn off the washing machine. I just stood there stupidly, "What?????" I guess the washing machine wiggled the water hose off and it drained straight through the hole in the center of the top of the office door. Weird. Could have been worse I guess, what if we hadn't been home? What would I have done if Jeff wasn't there to run upstairs to turn off the washer? I can be a little slow on the uptake sometimes. By the time I had figured out the mystery our house would have been flooded!

Jaden

On Sundays I make the whole family take naps because the Sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest. Jaden, who is now five, rarely actually falls asleep anymore and Sunday is usually the only day I actually make him lay down. Well today the whole family actually did fall asleep for a blessed two hours (well all the kids were asleep for two hours, I got about 20 minutes before Addison woke up hungry and then I couldn't fall back asleep). While the house was rarely quiet I enjoyed some time to read the Ensign and a book I've just started. Ahhh. Peace and quiet.

(He actually caught all those fish!)

What I didn't expect to enjoy so much was waking Jaden up. It had been two hours which now meant it was 5 o'clock and I was gonna start dinner soon. When Jaden does sleep he often sleeps a long time. I didn't want him sleeping too long or too close to bedtime so I decided to wake him up. He is a pretty heavy sleeper so its not always an easy or quick thing. I pulled him out of bed and he was so out of it he was kind of resisting not knowing what was going on. He is so big and strong now I almost couldn't get him out of bed! I finally heaved him up into my arms and carried him down the stairs. I could feel him holding in to me and his strength surprised me again. It has been awhile since I've needed to pick him up for anything. I carried him downstairs and sat down on the couch with him. He curled up into my chest like he used to do when he was much littler. As I sat there holding my oldest son who is now barely fitting in my lap as he snuggled into me like he hasn't in years my heart swelled. Here was my first born all legs and arms who struggles when I try to give him hugs, who gets up by himself, gets dressed by himself, puts on his shoes by himself, who almost takes care of himself curled up like the baby he used to be. When he was two he used to love to be snuggled like this for a long time after naps, now I barely get a kiss anymore. And then I could see ten years down the road when he is taller than me, stronger than me, smarter than me (at least he will think he is!), mouthing off to me and hating all the show of love I will want to give him (hopefully not all of it!) and I just hugged him tighter and kissed his head. I tickled him and squeezed him, put my cold hands on him and stole quite a few kisses while he was still willing. I asked him as I often do, "Do you know that I love you?" He answered, "you always do" and I couldn't stop smiling.

Eat to Live: Diary of a Diet

There's one thing I cannot stop talking about lately. It's this book I read called "Eat to Live."
It's a book about how to lose weight, reverse disease and eat as healthy as possible. You eat tons of fruits and vegetables--four whole fruits a day, 1 lb fresh raw vegetables, 1 lb cooked vegetables, 1 cup beans and legumes, a small amount of raw nuts and seeds (1 oz), only whole grains, no added sugar, very limited fat and no animal products. That's it in a nutshell. The author recommends you go completely vegan, but concedes that a little bit of lean meat and fish is okay.

If anyone asked me two weeks ago if I ever thought I would try a vegan diet I would have said no way. While I was reading the chapter that talks about how bad animal products are for you I had to put the book down and pray to discern truth because I was so resistant to the idea. I didn't want my preconceived notions to close my mind to truth. As I was reading, the Word of Wisdom came to my mind to eat meat sparingly. That never really made sense to me before. I mean, we need protein every day, right? As I kept reading and learned how much protein is in vegetables it all made sense. I don't think I'll ever go all the way vegetarian, but from what I read sparingly makes a lot of sense to me.

So I buckled down and put my money where my mouth is and started the diet yesterday. The amazing thing is I had already started making some changes to my diet last week, and before I even officially started the diet I had lost a couple pounds! Then after one day of really following the rules I lost a pound and a half. And the best thing is I finally feel like I have discovered the healthiest way to eat. I always knew to eat healthy you need to eat a lot of fruit and veggies, but this gives me actual guidelines to go by so I feel like I have more direction.

My only concern is having enough calories to produce breast milk so I make sure I get some fat in the form of avocados, olives, and nuts and some light dressing on my salads. Also I'm not limiting my carbs, I'm just switching to all whole grains. I lost my breast milk by dieting while nursing Jaden so I'm much more aware this time. Hopefully I can catch it if my supply goes down. I feel like it will be okay because I'm not counting calories, I eat as much as I want of the good stuff, I'm just cutting out the junk.

I'm gonna try to keep a diary of the diet so that I can pay attention to positive changes and the progress that I'm making. So hopefully I'll do a good job of keeping y'all posted! Here goes nothing!

Work

Dirty toilets. Dishes. Dinner. Laundry. Grocery shopping. Gym. More sleep please?