Tag Archives: healthy-living

Your Dog and My Run

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I want to say that I’m pretty excited and proud of myself. I was given the highest compliment that anyone can bestow upon a Proverbs 31 lady of God. I was told that I display none of the typical mid western bloat/swell and that I look like I’m from the west coast. I only had to run 530 days in a row to warrant such a compliment, so it’s a pretty big deal.

I frequently encounter wildlife on my outdoor runs. Between the deer population, wild turkeys, and Canada Geese, I have my fill of beauty to behold and pests to ignore. Bugs, snakes, worms, and birds all fill my day. To be honest, this was shocking to me at first because I live in a metro area not the country. Jonathan has even been attacked by a pack of turkeys one block from my highly populated neighborhood.

Even an avid pet lover could fill with disdain if they frequently worked out outside. I promise you every pet owner thinks that their pet is the cutest and most friendly little thing in the world. Today I encountered not one, not two, but three unleashed dogs. All three owners were grinning from ear to ear as they strolled down the sidewalk with their pet untethered at their side. One of the dogs nipped at my ankle for an entire quarter-mile while their owner stood, unmoving, in the driveway simultaneously grinning and yelling at me about how their dog is just having fun and means no harm. I had to literally stop, turn around, and run that dog back to its owner (.25 miles back and then .25 back to where I was to start with) just to be told that my running was the cause of the situation. I will tell you that as someone who is definitely not an animal lover and, is in fact apathetic about pets, somebody on their daily exercise routine is not at fault for making your animal run. They are animals. That is what they do. They may be cute. They may be trained, but deep down inside they are wildlife and should not be allowed to roam untethered and free while you stand totally still laughing about it. If this was still 1990 you may have been the unwilling star of “Animal Attacks” on Fox.

This has been a public service announcement. No animals or humans were harmed during the recreation of this event for your consumption. My God promises me that the lion will lay next to the lamb, because if not, I don’t want to take a victory lap on that side of glory.

Today was day 530 of my Run Streak and an absolutely gorgeous, sunny 7 mile run ended with a 1 mile walk. I read in Hal Higdon’s book that adding a walk to the end of every medium to long run will help you avoid injury. I read that book when I could hardly even move because I was suffering from Achilles Tendonitis. My expert opinion is that this works. It just gives your muscles and body a chance to cool down and process all the blood and oxygen through the system and gives you a minute to return to normalcy. You only need to walk .25 miles at the end of a medium to long run to see the benefits. I swear by it. In fact, when the weather is decent, I will gladly run 14 miles just to be able to stroll 1 mile at the end of it. I love to walk and it is usually during this .25-1.5 mile walk that I have my deepest and most amazing thoughts of every day.

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I found this drawing and couldn’t help but display it prominently. It means as much to me as Reese receiving a graduate degree from Harvard would mean. The amazing intellect and good taste that Reese displays with his word choice is uncanny.That’s a boy that knows what is important. He has his priorities straight.

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Reese and Gentry chilling on a Saturday afternoon. I definitely think Gentry has a career in fashion design. Look at the amazing outfit he chose and his color blocking skills.

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This is a nice lady that I saw while out today. It may be difficult to see, but she is wearing a full blown surgical mask. Unless there is a new style trend that I’m not aware of, I’m thinking that if you have this large of a germ phobia, a kids play area is not the place to hang out. Play places are the giant bacterial petri dish of God’s science lab

Reese taking a break during extreme dodge ball at Karate this morning.

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In closing, Saturday nights always give me a rush of excitement and adrenaline. Not only can I never sleep because I know the hope and potential of every service, but I can’t wait to get to The Bridge Church and hear this hottie preach tomorrow! Not only is he an amazing pastor, but he is easy on the eyes.

Is there a night of the week that you can’t sleep? Why?

What is on the docket for your dinner tonight?

I am back to clean eating today, sorry to disappoint all of my fans who thought for a moment they could be eating french fries, giant sandwiches, cake, restaurant food, and all of the other random things I’ve blogged about and be able to maintain a fit, healthy body. Remember, I’m a daily work in progress. I will never gain the 55 pounds back that I lost and that takes focus, dedication, commitment, and throwing away all clothes that give you room to breathe. Knowing I will have no skirts to put on for church tomorrow if I have one more bad eating day motivates me to put a stop to the birthday week celebration train! One day a week where you indulge, and one weekend or week here and there will not kill you, it is the daily and overall habits and choices that will.

Citizen of the Year

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WARNING: Daily Bible Reading, Renewing of the Mind, Fresh Air, and Exercise Induced Endorphins will lead to Joy, a continuous state of happiness, and overall contentment regardless of the circumstances!

So I weighed today (and truthfully everyday)….I’m happy to report I am only up 2 lbs from all of the festivities and at least 1 of those 2 lbs can be attributed to the much higher than average sodium I’ve been consuming. I normally really do eat clean and at home. I’m not making that up, and because of that, eating out and eating salty/processed food really reeks havoc on me.

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This morning I woke up pretty pumped so I decided to throw an immediate party with several of my best friends. I invited Claritin, Chobani, Mrs. Banana, an entire pot of coffee, sunshine, my Garmin Watch, a hug from all 3 of my men, and a sunny outdoor 8 mile run/1.5 mile walk into my life and started the party early. The extreme pleasure evident from the above photograph has less to do with my pot of coffee, and infinitely more to do with the fact that I was able to run outside today. My 8 mile run today felt easier and was done at a faster pace than my miserable 4 mile run yesterday. While I only averaged 9:28/mile, I am in taper mode, which means taking it easy and no speed work, so I deemed the run a great success. My favorite part was the walk at the end of the 8 miles though. It gave me ample time to breathe pollen deep into my lungs and enjoy the side effects of a freshly mowed lawn on my eyes and nose.

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Below: Peace, Love, and Donuts (Sounds like very good philosophical advice)

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My clean eating is going super well. Between last night’s community event (more on that below) and my post run work lunch dates, I am managing to keep my calorie consumption well below the 9,000 calorie a day mark. I count this a great success on a birthday week.  The best Gyro you will ever eat is at a little hole in the wall in Lakewood, Ohio called the Greek Village. Their Chicken Gyro and Fries will definitely change your life. I definitely need to make a stop there this week in order to celebrate God’s goodness and another year of life. (At what point does the week long birthday celebration turn into gluttonous excess? I really don’t know the answer to this. I am trying hard to find out though and I will report my progress back to you.)

We made a pit stop on the way back at a place we’ve wanted to try at  Kamm’s Corner  called “Peace, Love, and Donuts”. This was a very unique spot with INSANE donuts. Gentry had a dirty worm. Jonathan had a M&M donut, and I couldn’t decide, so I just chose a basic powdered donut. These donuts were amazing. They are made right there on location and are consistently rated best donuts by Cleveland magazine. Everyone that lives in the Cleveland Metro Area should also spend their birthday week exploring local places. It doesn’t take long, and you are completely justified because it is your birthday. Also, be sure to sign up for all the free birthday coupons at all of these places. All of my celebrating has cost me very little $. Don’t let me fool you. I explore and have fun on like $1 a day.

In the middle of all of this goodness and partying and play, I have been doing lots of seeding and leading today. For example, we don’t just visit these places to eat and explore, but we plants seeds of the gospel and invite people to church with us. Today the lady at the Greek Village told me that I was a ray of sunshine and how she was energized by our encounter and how I uplifted her soul. We have invited them to church, in fact, my husband even preached about the amazingness of their Gyro’s, so we are believing that at some point the Seeding, Eating, and Repeating will result in harvest.

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So last night was super fun. We took the boys to karate, watched them name names and take prisoners, and my mom picked them up there from us so that we could network, lead, seed, eat, and repeat. We went to the Citizen of the Year Banquet with 400 or so of our closest friends. The food was predictable banquet style high sodium, high fat, medium taste, maximum bang for your buck, and maximum caloric content. I also ate a bacon wrapped water chestnut ( or 12). This was a first for me. I like water chestnuts and anything involving bacon is always a hit, so I figured it couldn’t really fail as an appetizer item.

In all honesty, it is an honor to live and serve in our community and God did some amazing things at the Citizen of the year Banquet last night. We went to represent the Bridge Church and continue to network with the officials and friends that we have made and be the “Johnny Appleseed’s” of the gospel that we are called to be. You wouldn’t even believe the doors that were opened and the conversations that we had. Great things are in store and God keeps laying bricks onto our foundation: Line upon line….precept upon precept…here a little, there a little. Serving God and living for him is the best. One person said “Every day is a holiday and every meal is a banquet.”We sat next to and dined with the Director of Law and the Director of Finance for the city, as well as with a former citizen of the year. I’m pretty sure that was divine strategy. I also saw my friend, Reese’s best school friend’s mom, who serves on City Council and is up for re-election (friends in high places), the president of the women’s charitable league that I have been serving in, and hung out with the mayor again.

In addition, we dined with Andrew Bernard (Ed Helms) from the Office. We are bonafide celebrities now. His company was very enjoyable and he removed his face tattoo and black tooth to be in our presence.

How involved are you with your community?

Do you see value in investing in people even when you have no guaranteed return?

How much weight do you usually gain the week of your birthday?

I am voting for myself as Citizen of the Year next year. I deserve it because I keep trash out of my front yard and the lawn stays in a moderately pleasing state.

Bikram Running

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There will never be a day when we wont need dedication,discipline,energy,and the feeling that we can change things for the better -GS

After a very late night, and the fifth night in a row that I’ve slept only a handful of hours, I unwittingly embarked on a round of Bikram running, or you could call it sauna city. If you are not familiar with Bikram, it is a type of yoga that you do in a room set to 2,345 degrees, give or take a degree or two, and is designed to detoxify you. Why anyone does this is beyond me, and when you add the fact that running is like increasing the external temperature 20 degrees no matter what the setting (they say to dress 20 degrees warmer when you run), and the fact I am just a salty sweatband wearing gal anyway, it was a recipe for disaster. I don’t know why the local YMCA thinks 80 degrees is an acceptable cardio room temperature, but my 76 year old work out buddies love it.
The above quote applied today in a huge way. I was on top of the world on my run yesterday, and today I felt like a beached whale plodding through quicksand. Today the dedication and discipline kicked in long before the energy did. Thank God I’m on the taper for the Capital City Half Marathon in Columbus, Ohio next week so all I had on the agenda was a 4 mile run and 1 mile walk. The good thing about short running is it is short. The bad thing about short running is that by the time you are warmed up and ready to sprint to your gold medal, you are done. I’m more of an endurance runner than I am a sprinter, so, as weird as it sounds, I prefer distances of 6 miles plus. (Depending on where I’m at in my training schedule) I do enjoy my 5K speedwork days though, when I’m not in a sauna, not hopped up on 45 pots of coffee, and not mentally/physically exhausted. (so basically once a year. ha. just kidding)

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Being forced to run on the treadmill when the sun is brightly shining outside always makes your run so much more enthusiastic. I mean, who wouldn’t be energized by this view?
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Glancing at Sophia Vergara while being stimulated with pop tempo beats helped me push through. I mean, I could look like her by pushing through to the end of my run, or look like Jessica circa 2010 pre-running. The choice is clear. Run towards Sophia!
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The husband was out of town, thus forcing me on the treadmill. I couldn’t get up early and get my run in and leave my kids home alone because he wasn’t there. Therefore, since Gentry had PM school today instead of AM, I had to drag him to child watch at the YMCA while I drug my pitiful self onto the treadmill. Notice how I piled up the pillows creating a fluffy husband so I could have the illusion of safety while I slept last night.

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The best part of waking up, besides being alive, Chobani and Starbucks.

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Continuing the birthday celebrations…..bye bye edible arrangement. We wiped that arrangement out in about 35 seconds. We are full time sugar seekers, but I like to make it sound healthy and say we are part time fruitarians. (Fruitarians will eat only what falls (or would fall) naturally from a plant). It has nothing to do with our love of carbohydrates.

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I could not be more proud of Gentry for choosing the chocolate covered fruit over the regular fruit. He is a smart cookie.

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A glimpse of last night’s quick dinner, the result of having to rush Reese right off the bus and into the car to attend an all evening event.

Notice, my husband returned home today bearing snacks. Between the Chick Fil A and the snack pack, the post birthday clean eating is going tremendously well. At least I’ll have well stocked glycogen stores for the Capital City Half marathon.

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Here is Gentry when I picked him up from school today. He is sporting his brand new Angry Birds glasses. I had to go to Target to pick up some essentials, and in staying true to what I know to be righteous and holy, I had to purchase something not on my list. I find it preferable, nay mandatory, to purchase extras every time I go into Target. I am still trying to witness this doctrine to my husband, but he is having trouble converting. In keeping with our Dave Ramsey lifestyle, I must disclose that Gentry really did need a pair of sun glasses that fit his head. Last year’s glasses were cutting off his vision and circulation.

The new sunglasses have nothing to do with Gentry’s top 3 quotes (unsolicited mind you) of the day today:

1) Mom, you can’t finish listening to our daily bible reading plan when I’m in school. Save the last chapter for when I’m done. (We are on day 105 of a You Version Read through the Bible program that we listen to together daily.)

2) “You are a Super Mom”

3) “Mom, your hair is so long and silky that I can’t quit touching it”

I am not exaggerating or lying about any of the above quotes. If you know Gentry, you know he’s a heart breaker.

For our comments section, have you ever been really proud of yourself? Besides the fact that I punched my run today in the face even though it was fighting back hard, I met a chiropractor last night in a social setting and did not ask him to crack my back. This is a sure sign of maturity. I really wanted to have him work his magic on me, even though he was a total stranger and we were in a large crowd. I am very proud of the fact that I resisted asking him to perform free services on me.

I am also proud of the fact that I have been such an amazing witness for Christ that a mom at Gentry’s pre-school knew it was me driving the wrong direction because of my “The Bridge Church” car magnet on my van. I’m letting my little light shine!

What are you proud of?

Are you a “fruitarian” too?