Crossed the line at 1:58:15, a strong sub 2 hour half marathon…the holy grail of casual runners.
(As a side note, I rocked a ponytail during the race and did not look this ugly or psychotic the entire morning. Race day photos are well known for showing your inner crazy.)
You are looking at a girl who PR’d yet again at a race. In my 3rd running of the Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus, Ohio, I shaved 43 seconds off of my best Half Marathon race time to date. I was initially hoping to get an even better finish time, but life crept in and my speed work was less than award winning, but who in the world is complaining?!!! PR baby. I’ve got 6 Half Marathons under my belt, a second full marathon scheduled for the fall, and a mind, body, spirit charged with endorphins.
Do you think distance runners are crazy?
What charges your mind, body, and spirit?
You can’t grow if you can’t be uncomfortable.-@leadershipfreak
Growth moments occur with one foot on solid ground and one foot firmly in midair. Growth happens “where the sidewalk ends.”
The bottom line is that you can’t do anything if you first don’t start. Two and a half years ago I couldn’t even run one mile from start to finish and was 55 pounds larger than I am today. Saturday I will run my 6th official half marathon race (I’ve also raced a full). Contrast that to this morning when I ran 1.5 miles just to keep my run streak alive (the powers that be usually recommend a complete rest day before a race) and literally felt like I had done absolutely nothing. Two and half years ago I would’ve wept at running a solid 1.5 miles, and now it felt like almost a waste of all the time and effort it took to put my clothes and tennis shoes on, but keeping the run streak alive is no joke! Keeping these 55 pounds off and toning up a body marred by two pregnancies and 14,000 years of yo-yo dieting is no small task. This girl is on fire. I’m not letting anyone slow my go. I’ve come to far to turn back now. (I think I have the makings of a political speech. Please vote for me. I’m Citizen of the Year.)
Because I have learned that you are all dying to know what I eat, when I go to the restroom, and the temperature that I like the room set at, I didn’t want to forget to leave you with these nuggets of information. In keeping with the part-time vegetarian lifestyle, once my Daniel Fast was over this week (the Daniel Fast is more vegan than vegetarian), I had an amazing egg sandwich for lunch. This is my go to lunch 4/7 days a week usually, unless I’m on one of my nut butter kicks. I get my protein. It tastes delicious. It is very filling. And, it has the health muscle building fats and complete yada yada yada that you need to thrive. I add one serving of cheese on the egg and place it on two slices of whole grain bread with a serving of strawberry jelly. It will change your life. Try it ASAP.
Raising the kiddos as part-time Vegemite’s too. They don’t know it though. They just like the healthy food to make them big and strong. Food always tastes better on a cartoon plate. Look at all this protein and body building fruit from Gentry’s snack/lunch combo yesterday. Yum.
One of two of my favorite athletes.
My delicious breakfast today! A perfectly healthy and delicious carb loading opportunity.
Full disclosure: I followed that gorgeous plate with a bagel and jelly. I definitely think that extra glycogen will buy me a first place win.
My first full fat, whole milk cappuccino since the fall. I’m not going to lie, the foam is amazing with whole milk. Good thing I ran a whole mile this morning.
Before you are jealous of what you perceive to be my at home coffee bar and perfectly crafted breakfast, you must be made aware that I’m out of town for a business trip that coincided beautifully on the calendar, in the same city, with my Half Marathon tomorrow (a Race and Expo Recap will be going down on the blog) at a hotel with unlimited Starbucks coffee. I caution all citizens to be on high alert because by 8 AM this morning I was about a gallon of the goodness into my day. I “hydrate” so well for races. I’m following all of the rules. I mean, certainly coffee is better than water correct? It’s a bean!
I love it when business and pleasure piggyback. Isn’t that what life is-a mesh of mind, body, spirit, work, and play?
Seed, Lead, Run, Eat, Repeat: I love the cycle.
Learn when to work, when to play, and when to rest. It isn’t weird at all that I consider running 13.1 miles rest. Mind. Body. Spirit.
He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. (Proverbs 10:5 ESV)
Ok, now I want a vacation. Seed, Lead, Run, Eat, Repeat. Fly away to Australia for 3 weeks (I wish)
How do you make sure that your work involves play and your play includes work? We don’t want any workaholics or sloths. We were created for so much more than the extremes.
Fact: Every run counts. Every bit of junk food hurts. It’s not a game. It’s your life and health.
The weather here in the Cleveland Metro Area has finally started to meet my standard of approval. I am not one to complain of the weather, because if you wanted paradise in terms of temperature and weather patterns, you probably shouldn’t live in North East Ohio. However, there comes a point at which when snow is falling in April that you throw your hands up in the air like a child and start trying to call fire down from heaven like Elijah. Thankfully, global climate change caught up with us and we are enjoying pure heaven on earth this week. I took the kids on a bike ride to the park to play with about a hundred of our closest friends. I am doing my best to instill good food and fitness principles into them without making an issue of it. Like in other areas of my life, I am striving to lead by example. I think eating disorders and an odd relationship with food are born by people obsessing too much about the weight of their kids or making certain foods forbidden (Notice my theory in practice in the above photo. Gentry rode his bike two miles round trip and that necessitated the ingestion of the leftover Easter peeps. He needed to boost those glycogen stores). Model good habits and patterns and get your kids off the couch and outside. Since the weather has been nice my children, and just about ever kid in the neighborhood, have been playing in our yard for hours.
On this bike ride, Reese informed me of all of the good things he is learning at school, like how the fact that we own 2 cars is killing the environment. He told me that we need to get rid of our vehicles and ride our bikes or walk everywhere so that we can stop destroying the earth. He was sent on a mission with his classmates to tell their parents all of the horrible things they are doing on a daily basis to ensure our planet is annihilated. These tidbits of knowledge will serve him well. Who needs math and language arts skills anyway when you are armed with these inconvenient “truths”? I told Reese that I will take him up on that next time we have to go somewhere that is beyond the 2 mile radius of our home and see how his little legs keep up.
Vegetarian can be delicious. To the left is a HUGE pan of Oven Roasted Vegetables I made seasoned only with a little Mrs. Dash. To the right is Organic Brown Rice (Bought in a 987 pound package at Costco) and Stir Fried vegetables. I really do enjoy eating like this as long as I'm not within 3 miles of smelling a Five Guy's Burgers and Fries.
In other news did you know that eating meat is also destroying the planet. Who knew? It’s a good thing that Meatless Monday was turned into Meatless Tuesday and Meatless Wednesday this week. At the end of one month and beginning of another month, Jonathan and I do at least a 3 day vegetarian regime commonly referred to as a Daniel’s Fast. I will write more on this later, but in short, we like to “tithe” a segment of time of our month in a season of more intense focus.(Most months are 30 days, hence a 3 day fast.) This is for renewal physically, spiritually, and mentally. As mind, body, and spirit, we can’t ignore the fact that life has a way of adding pollutants, a Spiritual climate change if you will, and the only way to break through the fog is for your body to feel healthy and renewed, your mind to be focused on things outside of yourself, and your Spirit to be in tune with God. It sure did not hurt that our end of April/beginning of May vegetarian spree occurred right as I was detoxing from the birthday celebrations. These short little fasts every month always make me feel so energetic in both Spirit and body. I encourage you to read up on this and start implementing it. I will be blogging much more about it in the future. Science has also proven that seasons of fasting can prolong your life, so even if you don’t care about Spiritual renewal and mental focus, your health will thank you.
What do you implement in your life to reset your mind, body, and Spirit?
What is your favorite vegetable?
How do you hand the “Inconvenient Truth” of climate change?
I recycle. I try to be a good steward of the earth. I do not litter. I do, however, like having a car.
I don’t run to add days to my life. I run to add life to my days.
Everyday is a new opportunity for a miracle. I thought I would share some tips with you to ensure that you never miss a moment of excellence in your life. As a runner, especially a runstreaker (completed day 534 this morning), you naturally sweat a whole lot, and if you value friendship, family, and your job, you will shower after you run. This sacred truth is even infinitely more true for those of us who are super salty glow sticks even in sub arctic temperatures. This actually presents quite a challenge if you are a female with long hair. The dirty little secret that long haired girls have is that we don’t wash our hair daily. Perhaps there are a few of you out there that get a gold star or have naturally shiny, healthy hair despite overuse, but for the majority of us, we are walking the tight rope between hair that is like straw on the ends, but clean on the scalp, or moisturized and silky throughout with a vat of Crisco on top.
Is anyone else jealous of how their husbands, sons, and other men can just shower, towel off, dab a spray of hairspray or a little squeeze of gel and set off looking like a million bucks?
I have a few tips to share with you that will change your life as a female that desires to be physically fit without engaging in hours of primping. First of all, always wash your hair on medium and long run days. No matter what, mileage over 5-6 miles should come with a Public Service announcement encouraging you to use shampoo and conditioner. However, on your shorter run days (or cross training days if that is your thing), or on your strength training days, be nice to your straw ends and give them a break from the washing, drying, pulling, and primping. The greatest discovery of my generation was dry shampoo. It used to be expensive and I never bought it, but now Suave and other drug store brands make and sell it for less than the price of a Latte. You just spray a little of that on your scalp and it absorbs oils from your scalp without affecting your ends. It has a nice neutralizing smell too, so you don’t start smelling like a 15-year-old boy.
The next wonder worker is the “3 minute miracle” from Aussie. I have bought about every brand of deep conditioner or hair mask from all price ranges, and have found the $3 Aussie brand is the best for me. I get unsolicited comments from all 3 of my men on how soft my hair feels on the days I use it. I use it once or twice a week, depending on how my hair is holding up, and then use just regular voluminous conditioner on the other days.
My hair use to be super dry, super crunchy, and super scrunching. Up until 3 months ago I used gel and mousse and hair spray daily. Thankfully one of my friends witnessed to me about how even though the clothes from the 80’s are back in style, my hair belongs back in 1983. She saved me. She introduced me to smoothing serums and heat protection products and Moroccan oils and my hair is being resilient. After years of wearing my hair curly and wavy, I have been wearing it straight, and when I do curl it, I avoid the scrunchy, permy 80’s curl, and actually use hot rollers. I’m an unstoppable fashion force. I need to pay my tithes to this friend because she made me see the light.
Whatever you choose to do with your hair, please remember to bathe every crevice of your entire body daily regardless!! There are no shortcuts for fresh arm pits and zit free faces outside of a good old fashioned cleansing. I’m petitioning the Lord to add this wisdom to the book of Proverbs.
I am not a fan of “selfie’s”, however, my full-time personal photographer needed the day off. I love to run with a pontyail, however, a super attractive and fancy updo like this keeps the hair off your scalp and neck much more effectively and efficiently keeping the oils, sweat, and grease to a minimum.
What products and hair-do’s have revolutionized your life?Are you a duck faced “selfie” addict?How often do you wash your hair and why?
The difference between who you are now and who you want to be is the work you put in.
I am super proud of my husband. You have to admit that he is a rock star. When we first started dating, he told me that his dream was to be a rock star. Although I’m pretty sure this was tongue in cheek, when you decide to plant a church you have to be willing to wear many, many hats and Jonathan has been totally owning the drummer hat. We are, however, accepting applications for the Bridge Church drummer position in case you were wondering. Jonathan would give up that seat in 3.2 seconds if somebody able AND talented wanted it.
On Sunday, after playing with mad skill, Jonathan continued our Parables Sermon Series at the Bridge Church with the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Luke Chapter 10 is where you can read the parable). This parable speaks to me every single time. I think we have all been guilty of being so busy, even busy with good things, that we neglect the greatest calling that we have, and that is to serve, bless, and minister to those around us. Too many people are more interested in getting people to COME to them that they fail to GO and tell or GO and show or GO and share.
An individual who is more interested in building barriers rather than bridges has missed the heart of the GOSPEL!
Barriers can be big or small. Sometimes barriers aren’t even spiritual, but they are cultural. We don’t want to step outside of our comfort zone or interrupt our schedules. We are inherently selfish. I know this to be true because you have to TEACH your children to share. They aren’t born wanting their sibling to have a turn on the swings, they have to be taught that. We must learn to teach ourselves to share of our time, talent, and treasure and look at people with the same compassion that Jesus looked at us. Jesus came to save the entire world and his mission on earth was only 33 years long and his ministry was only 3 years long and yet he was never too busy to be interrupted. He didn’t hang out with “church” people or religious elites all the time, he focused on the least of these. My challenge this week is to ask myself who I can serve and to focus less on my to do list and my ministry and my mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional health and see who I can pour into. Not that I don’t already do this, but we could all be significantly better at being intentional in every interaction we have on a daily basis. You may think you know somebody, but it could be what you don’t know that could cause you to miss a God given opportunity. You don’t know their hurts, fears, failures, private lives, or prayers. Lend a hand!
When I went on my run this morning, because the morning was nice, there were lots of people in their yards trying to get a few things done before work, or people walking to their cars to leave and I tuned myself into my surroundings. Do you know that I heard 5 different languages spoken just around my subdivision on that one run? Literally portions of the entire globe are residing in my neighborhood. By reaching out to one neighbor, you could affect not only individuals, but families, networks, regions, and nations. There is no time to not live your life on mission. You can’t keep your distance and make a difference!
We practice Meatless Mondays as part of our routine. This was last nights dinner. Besides the hours spent gathering a super fancy plate and place mat, this “Taco Salad” meal is super delicious and quick. A HUGE bed of Spinach with Tasty Bite Madras Lentils on Top (Purchased at Costco. They also sell this brand at Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Trader Joe’s and other places but it is way more expensive there than Costco). You top the lentils off with organic salsa (Costco brand Kirkland of course), and a dollop of plain Greek yogurt or fat-free sour cream. This is filling, amazing and less than 400 calories.
Could my life be filled with anymore cuteness or greatness? I think this picture is evidence that it could not be.
Have you ever heard of part-time vegetarianism or Meatless Monday’s? Do you practice it?
What can you do today to serve your community, starting with your neighborhood?
Have you noticed most pastors wish they were rock stars? Their favorite move is to sing loudly into the microphone at the end of service, even if that’s not their gift. I have observed this 87% of contemporary churches.
Create a life you love 
