Day 31: Heart of America

Today is the last day of my one month trial. I start fresh again tomorrow with my new goals in mind along with another that I have faith that I can accomplish.

Three years ago, I was a serious runner. It's hard to believe so much time has passed, but life comes and goes quickly as I have learned all too well. At that time, I was racing regularly and logging 20 to 30 miles each week. I had run and even placed in a number of 5ks and had finished my first 1/2 marathon. In the summer of 2009, I was training for a full, the Heart of America.

In the weeks leading up to my training, I was growing ever more tired and ever more nauseated on my long runs. I often had to stop to be sick by the side of the trail, a fun discovery for other runners, I'm sure. I attributed it to the long runs and the strict diet I was on but learned, a week after I completed the marathon, that I was pregnant. It didn't occur to my husband or I that it could be possible as we were told by a number of physicians that I couldn't become pregnant without medical intervention, which was how our son was conceived.

I finished dead last in the marathon with a time of 7:00:24. It was glorious and abysmal at the same time, but knowing now what I didn't know then, it was a feat to have finished the race at all. HoA is considered by many to be one of the more difficult courses in the country with few water stops, high temps, and a killer route. Though I finished last, there were many that year who did not finish at all. In fact, that year 12.5% of runners did not finish, compared to the 2% who did not finish the New York Marathon in the same year.

This year, I have decided to run the Heart of America marathon again. This year, I will definitely not be pregnant, though I also won't have the recent experience I had in '09. Not long after I finished the marathon, I developed hyperemesis gravidarum, a persistent nausea that occurs during pregnancy. I was able to control the nausea through meds, large amounts of carbs, and extreme lack of movement. I also gained something like 70 pounds. After the baby was born, I thought running would happen immediately, but she was not (is not) the sleeper that my son was and I found that those early morning hours that I had previously spent running were instead spent rocking a crying baby. I know other parents who are able to begin running immediately after their children are born. That wasn't me.

However, things have changed. Tonight, we celebrate my husband's completed manuscript by taking the kids out to dinner then rushing home, putting them to bed, and probably watching a bad movie that we'll both end up mocking. Tomorrow, I celebrate by going on my first training run.

Day 30: The Joys of Cauliflower Crust

Every month, I invite a group of ladies and their children over so that we may share recipes and good times with one another. Each month has a different theme, sometimes surrounding a holiday, an ingredient, or a particular cooking style. The most popular thus far was our "Chocolate" theme. A chocolate lunch is one that no one can say no to.

Today's theme was "Foolish Foods" in honor of April Fools Day. The idea is that you either create foods that look like other foods or that you "hide" one food inside of another. Gourmet Gals didn't happen the way it was supposed to due to our household illness but I made a cauliflower crust pizza regardless and it was delicious. Even the 6 year old said he would eat it every day.

If you look online, you can find several recipes for cauliflower crust. I decided to go with my own version. I cooked the cauliflower until it was very soft, then pureed. I added a heaping tablespoon of ground fennel and lots of spices. It is completely vegan and gluten free if you're into that kind of thing. When my son tasted it after I added pizza sauce and low-fat mozzarella, he had no idea it was not simply pizza.

The one issue I do have with it is that the crust is not the right consistency, but I think now that it is because I made it too thick. I have some leftover puree and I'll try again to see if I can get a better texture.

Today has not been totally clean. I did eat a muffin prepared with sugar and white flour, but it had zucchini in it, so that's better, right?

Goals for April

March has almost come to an end and though this last week has not turned out as I had hoped, clean eating has definitely changed the way that I approach food. My diet has not changed radically. I was already eating fairly healthy foods. As I have been a vegetarian for 18 years, I already eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. However, I have swapped all butter for olive oil, all pastas for whole grain, and regular store bought peanut butter for natural and freshly ground nut butters.

With the end of March around the corner, I'm looking back at what I have achieved. I achieved an appreciation for both clean eating and weight training. I am starting to develop some definition in my arms that I haven't seen in a while and I've lost all of the baby weight and then some. Despite having been sick every day this week, I have had energy to play with the kids and enjoy myself. I am learning to listen to my body and I am learning to learn from my mistakes.

When March ends, new goals begin. They are as follows:

• Continue clean eating
• Continue weight training
• Lose eight pounds
• Lose one inch off my waistline
• Begin 1/2 marathon training

Anyone who follows the blog will know whether or not I am sticking to my goals. If I'm not, feel free to berate me for it.

Day 28: Unclean

Have you ever felt your body under attack and you can just tell that you need to feed it? I think of it as the army of white blood cells needing rations to have the strength to counter the insurgent germs. Today was just such a day for me. I was ravenous from about 10AM. I didn't choose to stop clean eating or to make bad food choices that I would regret later. Instead, I chose to listen to my body and give it what it needed. I had lots of protein and whole grain carbs but not a lot of fruit and veggies. I actually feel much better and I think I'll be well  again after a good night's sleep.

I didn't take any regular exercise again today, though I did get in a lot of activity. Gus and I spent a good deal of the day playing baseball outside and playing Wii Tennis inside. I would have to stop and rest for 20 minutes every so often, but he was a good sport about it and we had a lot of fun.

Day 27: Still Sick

My whole theory about clean eating strengthening my defenses is completely wrong. I have been sick for three days now and I have only gotten worse. I'm really hoping today is the last day of it because this Spring Break has been one long week of various kinds of yuck emanating from my body. Stupid germs.

I did fine yesterday, except I did accidentally eat a Girl Scout cookie. By accidentally I mean that I was hungry, opened the pantry, and found that there was only one Thin Mint left. I'm only human. Meals were very clean though. I had oatmeal for breakfast - cooked in water, no sugar, and sprinkled with sugar-free, vegan chocolate chips for some flavor. It sounds gross, right? DELICIOUS. In fact, I had the exact same breakfast again this morning. Lunch was an apple and a whole wheat tortilla with freshly ground peanut butter. Dinner was home made vegan sloppy joe on whole wheat bun, roasted new potatoes with olive oil and rosemary, and a huge, heaping pile of brussel sprouts. Really, I had too many brussel sprouts. I need to cool it with the brussel sprouts.

Exercise didn't happen yesterday and I can't see it happening at all today. I did take the kids out for a bike ride and then I took them to play some tennis. It was HARD but it was worth it. We spent about 40 minutes on the courts and about an hour on the bikes, though to be fair, most of that hour was me convincing the 6 yr old to ride his bike. Sigh.

The end of the month is almost here, and it has been a successful venture into clean eating. I have new goals for the month of April and I'm very excited to get them started!

Quotes to Motivate and Inspire

I have an amazing life. Be jealous. My husband is phenomenal. It's truly disgusting. He's hardworking, intelligent, interesting, handsome, and he doesn't know it, but he's also a lot of fun to be around. If that's not enough, he's an awesome father. The kids have their ups and downs as all kids do, but for the most part, they pretty much rock. My son is this brilliant, bright little boy who just gets along with everyone so well and even in the midst of a day of fighting and general horribleness (like yesterday) he tells me that he loves me. Last night, at dinner, he said, "Thank you, mom, for all the wonderful things you do." Can you get over that? And the little one, well, it's hard to know what she's going to be like, but so far, she's pretty awesome too. Her smiles don't just light up the room, they light up the whole block. Beyond my family, I love my house, I love my work, and I love my life in general.

Work, though, that's what has gotten me started on this blog post. I've dabbled in a few different things since I started working from home almost six years ago. I started doing marketing and freelance writing, then really focused on writing for a while, then really focused on marketing for a while. Last year, I started my own business selling hair bows, then I turned back to freelance writing, which is my first and true love. As a freelancer, I have the ability to write on a variety of topics, from traveling abroad to financial advice to an HVAC product guide, and for the most part, I love it all.

Today I am challenging myself. Generally I focus on topics that I find very interesting or that apply to my everyday life. Our family is going back to Disney World this summer, thus I've written several articles on Disney and the Orlando area. I have also been writing a great many fitness and clean eating pieces lately and have a regular client that asks for articles about running and road racing. All good. However. today I step outside myself and into a world of great feelings and emotion. I'm asked to find inspiring quotes and phrases that will help people to find the strength inside themselves to travel on the path of stuff. Or whatever. You see, I'm not that person. "Inspiring Quotes" don't inspire me. I find them silly. In fact, if you visit my Facebook page you'll see my personal quotes are:

"Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck." - Joss Whedon
"Quem corre por gosto nao cansa." (He who runs for pleasure never tires.)

That is not to say that I cannot be inspired; I am just inspired by different things. I am inspired by a clear, blue sky. I am inspired by staring at the moon, by listening to the birds in the spring, by watching my children laugh and play. I am not inspired by something someone said at sometime, probably to try to impress someone or make a fast buck. To me, words are fairly empty. Nature is real. Action is meaningful. Words are just words.

So today, my challenge is to be inspired by words. My challenge is to find these motivational quotes that I can not only share with the world (or with this one client who may or may not end up publishing the article at all), but perhaps that I can even use myself. Today I should squelch the cynic and instead choose to allow myself to feel something cheesy and insipid. Today, I should choose to be inspired.

Day 26: Blecch

Today has not been good. The baby had some kind of GI stuff going on that she spread around the house, then she developed a head cold. I was just bragging on my newfound tolerance to germs and WHAM! Irony appeared. The first day of Spring Break, the one week that I have access to the car (and gym) every day, and I feel like death.

Food was really blah today. Whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter and honey for breakfast, I don't even know what lunch was. I think I had an apple? I know it wasn't much. For dinner I had the rest of my spinach and tofu scramble, this time with salsa (still not that good), a black bean burger w/ guacamole, corn, and low-fat cottage cheese. No cardio today because of the illness, but I did do the rest of my exercises and I spent much of the day being active with the six year old who thinks that the funnest thing in the world is to stay indoors and be as inactive as possible. I'm not going to lie, there were tears today. Tomorrow the forecast is cloudy with a chance of tennis. Even when I'm sick, I'm going to do my best to get this little boy up and moving around.