Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Whole30


WHOLE30 Week 1:
I don’t feel like I write a whole lot on here because I often feel like I don’t really have much new stuff to offer and that I often prefer to read a book or work on wedding stuff than blather on about the workouts I’m doing or the changes I’m making. BUT sometimes, I deem something important enough and I feel like if I DON’T write about it, I’m going to drive all of my friends crazy because I can’t shut up about it…Enter Whole30. As you may know, it’s a lifestyle change not simply a change in diet and as the website and book claim…it will change your life. I could explain exactly what it entails but there are SO many blogs that already do just that. The gist is, eat whole foods for 30 days. See what changes. No sugar, wheat, legumes, dairy but unlimited vegetables, protein, healthy fat and a fair amount of fruit. Chris and I started last Monday on June 8. We are currently on day 10. A recap for the next few days will hopefully come by the end of this week as I should be dealing with a few fun challenges this week!


Day 1:
Breakfast was a frittata, lunch was protein salad and dinner was spaghetti squash with ground beef and tomato sauce. First impressions: oh my goodness, this frittata is wonderful. However, I’m beginning to get a headache and feel a little sluggish already. YAY
Day 2:
Southwest scramble for breakfast, leftovers for lunch and dinner was chicken, roasted veggies and a cabbage slaw. Results: the tiredness, oh the tiredness. That and the dull headache that never went away. But overall, loving all the food. Also, it is not noted in the book but I had some serious bloating Monday and Tuesday. TMI perhaps? My belly just felt like I had eaten wayyy too much salt. Which was not the case. Thankfully, Wednesday things got slightly better.
Day 3:
Southwest scramble for breakfast, protein salad for lunch and a compliant torturous dinner out at California Pizza Kitchen. Results: I got up for an early morning swim with a friend that was a wonderful start to my day! Breakfast was pretty good, nothing too exciting. I was ravenous after swimming and was happily surprised that the eggs held me over for most of the way till lunch. However, I started getting a bit queasy and fatigued towards the end of the day. My lunch was waayyy too creamy and I couldn’t finish it for fear that I was going to end up hurling. Ugh.  Also, the headache got quite a bit worse towards the end of work. I was still able to fit in BBG arms and abs and get ready for dinner in time! I had scoped out the menu at CPK and even called ahead to make sure that what Chris and I were going to order was going to be compliant. The waiter was more than happy to accommodate my request of a salad instead of the succotash that came with my salmon and it was so so nice to see my friends. I really love these girls and their significant others and although my headache worsened into sinus pressure and bizarrely joint pain, it was worth it! Also of note, I say torturous just because it was a pizza place. Chris and I love pizza and here we were, relegated to getting something VERY healthy and perhaps not our first pick. But we made it. Onto day 4!
Day 4:
Southwest scramble again for breakfast, giant green salad for lunch and steak with veggies and sweet potatoes for dinner. Results: breakfast really did not go well. I woke up very dizzy and nauseous and had to force down my eggs. I was STILL feeling pretty awful close to lunch time. I decided to try some lemon ginger tea and I genuinely think that was the only thing to fix my appetite. Lunch was really really good. I switched to a giant green salad with a homemade vinaigrette instead of a mayo based protein and it helped so much. I really should have known that since I had trouble stomaching cream based proteins prior to whole30 that something similar made with fantastic ingredients really wasn’t going change my mind. I had a little trouble finishing ALL of it but got through most of it. Day 4 is also when my headaches finally began to go away (HOORAY)! I was finally feeling mostly better. Some slight stomach issues on this day as well but overall, okay.  



Day 5:
Southwest scramble for breakfast, green salad planned for lunch and taco salad planned for dinner.
Results: WOO! Currently feeling SO much better. The one downside is that Chris seems to have entered where I was on Wednesday and part of Thursday =/. But, we all are on our own timeline and I know that it will get easier for him in the next couple days. While I am kind of over the southwest scramble I’m looking forward to coming up with a few new recipes this weekend for my 4 day work trip next week AND coming up with ways we can treat/reward ourselves for making it through another week that doesn’t involve food. So much of our routine on the weekend involves food. We look forward to brunch at our favorite place every week, we eat out for dinner usually once or twice (possibly every night if I’ve been on travel all week and cannot muster the energy or excitement to cook), and I truly do love to bake. With Whole30, we are changing those habits. We’re going to go see a movie instead, we’re going to look for compliant foods, and we’re going to meal prep successfully so that both Chris and I can have a great week 2.
A few days ago I would have told you that I didn’t think I could do this. I was cranky, annoyed and frustrated with the amount of changes I was trying to make in a short amount of time. Today I can tell you that we are going to do this. It’s not always going to be easy but its only 30 days. You can do anything for 30 days. That and what a gift to be able to complain about eating healthy, mostly organic whole foods for an entire month. How many people get to have that opportunity? Not many, I count myself as very lucky that I get to.
 
Week 2 Update coming up next!

Also, it should be noted: I really doubt that anyone is going to read through this whole thing. Its a lot of chat about food but I knew that if I didn't write this stuff down that I would forget why I'm doing this and that Chris and I will fall right back into our old habits when we finish this. We do not plan to do this. Hence, the lengthiness. 

Thursday, May 14, 2015

OC Half Marathon

Another fitness goal complete! On May 3rd I competed in my second half marathon with my seriously awesome fiance, friends I've known since high school and their also incredibly awesome partners. To be completely honest, I had no clue how this race was going to go. Throughout my training I dealt with shin splints, IT band pain, a freak spider bite, foot pain, a complete change in my gait AND the ever present running cramps. I say this not to ask for your pity but to say that HOLY HECK, I went through all that stuff and still came out with a four minute PR which means that I should really start to try and believe in myself. Now to recap!

Chris and I drove down Friday night after picking up my race tank from Niki (aka the #bestrunningpartnerever) and crashed pretty quickly. On Saturday we slept in, went for our quick 2mi shake out run on the beach (first pic) and overall felt pretty darn good. We had brunch and then met up with everyone at the expo to pick up our bibs, shirts and other miscellaneous stuff you get at races. We had dinner at a delicious italian restaurant and then all went our separate ways to try and get to bed early for our 4AM wake-up call.

The morning of the race I was freaking out a bit. Actually freaking out a lot. I was so immensely worried that I would slow Chris down, or deal with running cramps in the first mile or deal with random ITB pain. I am SO thankful for this man. This was his first race longer than a 5k and here I was freaking out and he was the epitome of calm. Our training had been all over the place due to my random ailments, him getting a cold and him also dealing with some shin splints. I was NOT feeling prepared. But the gun went off and off we went!

I took this pic right around mile 3. This was a HUGE race compared to all the ones I've done in the past. There were over 22,000 runners [insert wide eyed emoji]. At first it was a little difficult trying to dodge everyone who had a different pace but I think around mile 8 or 9 I just kept thinking, 'this is awesome, look at all these totally different people crushing their goals.'

We didn't quite pace ourselves the way I had planned to or expected to but I was genuinely just so excited that I was running without pain that I told myself to just keep running and deal with the change in pace when I started to slow down. I know we definitely started to slow down a bit at mile 10 which I had planned on. I made sure we both focused on our form and took in as much fuel as we needed/could. We finished in 2:20...4 minutes faster than my first one despite all our setbacks =).

After the race we took our obligatory group picture and hobbled around a bit ;). I was surprised by how different the pain was post-race. Yes it hurt, you do not run 13.1 miles and not hurt afterwards but after my first one I very much felt that if I did not keep moving I would fall over. After this one there was pain but getting in and out of the car was okay and we were fine at brunch and somewhat okay at the beach later.
Such a kickass group of people. I am so incredibly proud of all of them for doing a fantastic job on their first HALF.

These two girls are one in a million. They endlessly listen to me ramble on about fitness stuff and are willing to take a risk on training advice that I offer. They both are so strong and I LOVE that they #runlikeagirl. Congrats you two, I can't wait for the next one ;)!

Sunday, April 26, 2015

The Third Triathlon

Last weekend I competed in my third triathlon and it went fantastic! This race was the one to replace the crappy memory of last year's olympic distance race. I chose to do the sprint knowing that I wouldn't have a ton of time to train and that it would most likely be pretty darn hot. And I'm glad that I did! 

I was scheduled to start swimming at 7:35AM and we had a whole 2-3 minutes to spare after getting my transition set up, a bathroom break and a heavy application of sunscreen. This was the first race that I got to wear a full wetsuit and man am I glad that I took the plunge and purchased it. It kept me so much warmer than the sleeveless one and the buoyancy difference was significant.  Last year, I had a huge struggle with the swim. It felt like it never ended, I was freezing the entire time and because of being so cold I had cramping as soon as I got on the bike. This year...much different. I was cold but warmed up quickly, it was a relatively quick swim and I was much warmer when I had gotten out of the water.

Heading into the water! I'm in there somewhere ;)

After my swim, I took about 4 minutes in transition and moved onto the bike pretty quickly. I did my best to keep my legs moving as fast as possible and to just get my breathing in order. We had a hill immediately out of the gate but then it was mostly rolling hills up to the turn around. Like I said, I did not have a ton of time to train for this race. I tried to get a bike and swim in each week as well as my running for the half marathon we have next week. I was very grateful that the few biking sessions I had done were very hill heavy! You can always tell when people didn't train on hills. They would pass me on the downhill and I would pass them on the uphill. Always a good feeling! 

 Annnddd now onto the last leg, the run! I was the most apprehensive about this portion because I have had injury after injury for the past several months. I was dealing with IT band pain just the day before and was not thrilled about having to push myself to think of my form and landing throughout the 3 miles. That and of course I dealt with cramps immediately after T2 -_-. It certainly didn't help that the first 1.5mi were on a really crappy dirt trail. I believe I came close to tripping and twisting my ankle at least 4-5 times. Once we hit the pavement I was able to find my stride and the only issue I was having was with my side cramps. But coming into the finish line I was blinded (in the best possible way) by Niki's signs and was able to sprint that last little bit which felt fantastic!

I seriously have the BEST cheering team. Niki and her husband were there, my handsome fiance was there (though he's kind of required to be), and Chris' parents are always there to cheer me to the finish. I can't tell you how much cheering helps. You realize that if you don't push hard, they came out for nothing and that they love you and want to succeed so why not shoot for it? It's by far one of my favorite parts about racing.

And now the next thing on the calendar is the OC Half Marathon next weekend. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I am thoroughly looking forward to getting it over with. I miss riding my bike, I'm pretty annoyed with running and I want to start BBG back up again. One more week!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Engaged.

The next order of business on getting this ole' blog up to speed is telling you a little bit about us getting engaged! This first picture was about a couple weeks before Christmas and as Chris described it, "everyone knew that I was about to propose besides you!" lol so kind of him. He proposed on Christmas morning after we had already opened our presents and I swear to you, I was ecstatic already over everything he had gotten me. I was pretty sure he was planning on proposing that morning so when we had finished all the presents and he hadn't, I just figured I was wrong. Well, then he went messing around with something in the garage, came back inside, got down on one knee and of course I said yes! It was perfect. I've mentioned this story to a few people and several people have asked "well, was there family there?" and my response is always, 'oh my gosh no, thank goodness, that would have been so awkward.' It is such  a personal moment! To have to share that with family and not be 100% genuine in the moment would just not have been okay and thankfully Chris was fully aware of that.

 The next day we went to the Children's Museum in Vegas and found this AWESOME life size lite brite that my niece and Chris got creative with. It made for such a cute photo!
 And then of course, we celebrated the next day with brunch at our favorite place. Oh how we wish we could get this place to cater our brunch wedding. We're here every weekend! Also, Chris does not look enthused because I'm taking his picture before 11am on a Sunday. I promise, he was happy.
 Lastly, the obligatory ring picture. Because I seriously LOVE it. I actually wear a different (cheaper) ring while I'm on travel and I kind of miss my normal one while I'm gone. Its a little fun to get home from work all week and get to put that one on again. I absolutely adore it.


Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The most delayed post of all time

Niki and I post-race. I had A LOT of trouble just standing there for the pic.

Ahem. It's been a while. Like three to four months a while and A LOT has happened since then. One of my resolutions was to blog 3-4 times a month and well, it's February and I have blogged a total of zero times for 2015. Go me! But I'd like to change that. Field work is starting up again which means that I'll be stuck in a hotel room quite often for the next several months and what better way to pass the time than by blogging!
So we need to review the fact that the last time I wrote, I wrote about half marathon training and considering I am about to start training for my SECOND one, we should discuss the first. In a word, it was awesome. It was hard and difficult and full of pain but I loved it. I got a cramp in my right side within one mile of the starting line (HA is what my body was saying) and Niki had to go ahead because she was kicking ass and feeling great. And, of course, that cramp stuck around ALL 13.1 MILES. However, I maintained an 11min/mile pace thanks to the incredible Edie Gracia (who I now run with a few times a month!). She was my pacer and I don't think I could have done it without her. She pushed me when it got really hard, she listened to me ramble about triathlons and then she added me to her running group on fb later that day and I have been running with them as often as I can. 
Survived is right!
As far as the pain goes. Severe pain showed up in my left foot two days afterward and I had to take a few months off running. However, because of that injury the world's best physical therapist was recommended to me and he has completely changed the way I run, the way I feel about running and how I approach strength training overall.
Edie and I around mile 11
I start training for the OC Half next week and this time I have 2 more friends (besides the gorgeous Niki) and my FIANCE (woo) running it with me! Bring it on OC.