Smoothie Ideas

So I've gotten into making smoothies again within the last couple of weeks.  I don't keep as much produce on hand like I did a year ago, but I am making do with whatever I have.

A few hours ago I had a super big sweet-fruity-cold craving.  Funny about the cold thing: Atlanta is covered in its second sheet of ice and I'm craving a cold fruit drink -- HA!  I look outside and it looks freezing.  Haven't been outside since 10PM last night.  Kinda pretty, but very cold.

Anyway...

• 1 nectarine (peeled and cut into chunks)
• 3 slices of mango (one of which was rather large)
• 6 frozen strawberries
• Coconut Water (I usually add until it looks right...  Sorry)

OMG it was heavenly and exactly what my body craved.  Actually...  It's craving another one.  I may just do that in about 30 minutes.

Yesterday I did a similar one, but added a couple extra slices of mango and a peeled & chunked honeycrisp apple.  Yumsters!

With smoothies, I've a HUGE fan of using fresh produce.  I'll mix a couple frozen pieces in to give it a bit extra chill and crunchiness.  My boyfriend bought a GINORMOUS bag of frozen fruit from CostCo some while back.  It has honeydew in it, which I don't like, but it has lots of peaches, pineapple, and some berries.  I pick and choose from it when the mood strikes me.  :)

Because I throw in a tad of frozen fruit, I don't bother with ice; it kind of waters it down.

I use the coconut water for the electrolytes it provides since I'm pretending I am an athlete.  ;)

Soul Searching and a Decision

So I thought it through and talked it over a great running buddy, Doc, and my boyfriend.

Consensus is "if it doesn't make you happy, don't do it."  It's rather sad because running has made me happy for the better part of 13 years.

Doc and I  talked it over for the better part of 20 minutes.  He's worried that running may actually be doing harm based on my description of feeling toxic and smelling foul.  But he says since my neurotransmitters and adrenals are so low, I need more happy things in my life, so can the running for now.

Boyfriend was really supportive too and he totally gets it.  He's been worried that I overtrain, so not running for a while is good for the both of us I think.  If I ever feel like going for a jog, I'll do it.  But not unless I totally want to.

So I talked to one of my best buds, Gail, and she might be in for doing a relay at the Peachtree International Triathlon.  Yay!  Our other buddy, Chris, is probably doing the event as well to help prepare for Nationals.  It'd be fun to go with both of them.  :)  If Gail ends up not wanting or not being able to run the 10K for me, I'll register for the aquabike instead.  Then wait for Chris at the finish line.  :)

Rather excited about doing aquabike events.  Tri the Parks has a division for it as well.  More of Georgia Multisport Productions's events are including aquabike.  Should be fun.

I'm also on the look out for some century rides.  It'd be more of a milestone for me since I've never done something like that before.

So I'm going to have to rewrite my tentative training plan.  We'll see how it all works out.

I've lost my edge

So I've lost my mental game.  Or my love for the sport.  Or my health.  Or all.

Since Oct, I have seen little or no gains in running.  I also have noticed I feel disgusting when I run and after I run.  I used to love the sweaty-exhilarated feel post-run.  No I'm sprinting for the shower.  It feels like toxic sweat.  Maybe it's totally mental, but I think my sweat stinks differently than when I'm on the stationary bike.

My whole body feels sick while running.  I train by heart rate right now since I've been trying to recover from all the infections and the trashing of my endocrine systems.  I just feel like I'm working WAY harder and seeing no gains in 3-4 months -- and I've been conservative on the HR.

I have definite improvements in strength thanks to a more focused training plan.  I have definite improvements in spinning.  I have definite improvements in my overall health thanks to huge dietary changes and supplements.  I have definite improvements in swimming.

I complained about this a few weeks back to Doc; he said "It's the hardest so be patient."  Three weeks later still zero progress.  How much more patient?

Final straw that has me doing some serious soul searching...  I did the Hot Chocolate 5K in Atlanta a couple weekends ago.  The event itself was cute and neat.  But I did not really have fun.  EVERY race I have done regardless of weather (snow, sleet, rain, wind, super cold, super hot, etc) I have had fun.  This one was not fun.  It had nothing to do with the event itself.  I did not have fun.  No smiling.  No laughing.  No smile after the finish line.  I just wanted to go home and take a shower and forget it never happened.  During the 5K, I kept thinking of how I didn't want to be there.  I did try to make myself feel like I had a good time.  I told myself for days after that I did actually have fun, but I was lying.

It feels awful to run.  I can't explain it.  The pain I had all last year has diminished by 70-80%.  Even when I was in excruciating pain, I was still having a blast.  It's not fun anymore.  And I feel like complete shit inside my body.

I'm considering changing my game plan for this year.  I was going to try and perform to the best of my athletic abilities and beyond for sprints and olympic tris.  I can do aquabikes and relays instead.  Then throw in some centuries.  If I can find someone to run a 13.1 for me, I'll sign up for Augusta 70.3 and do the swim/bike.

I'd continue to run here and there, but I wouldn't be training for it.  See how I feel at the end of the calendar year and see about returning to the tri sport with all three in the bag.

I texted Doc this morning about all this.  He said we'll talk more at my appointment Friday, but "you're a good runner -- talented."  Perhaps...  But what do you tell the runner who doesn't have the heart to continue?

Corn - Cheese - Can of....

Food avoidence is proving to be as difficult as I thought it was.  But I'm getting better at it.  Kinda.  Sorta...  Don't judge me!

I'm become addicted to Paleo style cooking.  The most common ingredient that I have to swap out though is onions.  So sad.  My favorite website so far is PaleOMG.  I even downloaded her cookbook, OMG That's Paleo? for my Kindle app.  What a great resource; not to mention a great source of entertainment because her randomness, sense of humor, and style of writing is right up my alley.

Certain things have been I have avoided fairly well: shrimp, oranges, tuna, almonds, crab.  There are others too, but I didn't eat them before, so it wasn't hard to say "no!"  :)  The first hardest for me though was wheat and gluten.  However, I can count on one hand how many times I "slipped up" since Christmas; and the last 8 days have been gluten and wheat free -- yay.  Corn is the next hardest.  I LOVE southwestern/TexMex/Mexican/etc.  What three things do they use a shit-ton of?  Corn, cheese, onions.  Well BOO!  I've done my best though.  Went to three Mexican places in the last 2 weeks and twice I totally avoided everything while once I indulged in nachos (corn and cheese).  I have now weened myself off of dairy coffee creamer.  I made my own coconut cream (of sorts) and now use that; not the same, but it is a good substitute.

Eating out is SOOOOOO hard to avoid shit.  Sometimes I'm successfull and sometimes I'm not.  My boyfriend thrives on authentic Chinese cuisine which uses a ton of onions.  I now just pick them off.  Last night we went to a seafood pub and I cheated a tad: deep fried scallops (cornmeal) and hush puppies (cornmeal).  Saturday we went to Mellow Mushroom and I cheated a tad: gluten free house special (onions and cheese).

Mmmmmmm......CHEESE!

HOLY SHIT!  I freakin' LOVE cheese!

It's the best thing ever.  Damn this is to hard to not eat.  I can have goat cheese, but it's not the same.  I've been getting better and better about not eating it though.  I go more and more days between cheating.  (That sounds so wrong.  Lol.)

I need to go grocery shopping....  BAD.  I had to improvise on what to take for lunch (otherwise I would go out and grab Wendy's -- BAD GIRL!).  So I made some carrot sticks, celery sticks, a McIntosh apple, a jar of sunbutter (to garnish the previous three), then I grabbed a pack of rice thins (crackers) and something I've never eaten before:

Sardines!  Yeah.  Never had 'em.  Never seen an opened can of them before an hour ago (yes that is my cluttered desk at work).  Smell fishy (surprise there).  These don't have too much fishy taste though.  Takes a little getting used to.  I can eat them -- first one was the most awkward.  Lol.  At least the heads are off!  ;)  How did I like my lunch?  It worked.  Would I do it again?  If I was in a pinch, like today.

Here fishy fishy fishy....  He he he he.

Finally... Some answers

So I've been struggling with chronic pain for most of my life.  (Mentioned that a few times, haven't I?)  ;) Well I got super sick back in September and I haven't been the same since.  And no matter how hard I tried and how much I tried to force myself, I could never get myself back into a training/workout mode.  Finally Doc sent me to a wholistic medicine specialist (Dr. B).  He's actually a legitimate doctor (med training and all), specialized in naturopathic medicine.  Pretty cool.

The first visit is nothing more than telling him my story and answering a bunch of questions.  However, Dr. B is convinced that everything is connected.  So he sent me home with a slew of tests (blood, saliva, urine, etc) that he needed done.  Oh and he gave me homework.  4 supplements and an epsom salt bath everyday.  Yeah so the salt bath thing didn't quite happen as often as he'd hoped.  But I did do the 4 supplements:

• WholeMega capsules (2000 mg/day)
• Rhodiola Rosea (500mg/day)
• Curcumin (500mg/day)
• Alfalfa powder (I couldn't find that so he said the capsules are fine)

After I finished the first bottle of the rosea (which was expensive and I had to take 4 capsules to get the 500mg I needed), I found another source at GNC where I can take 2 capsules to get 680mg.  A little more than my allotted dose, but I figured for one bottle it couldn't kill me.  Still cheaper than the other brand I bought at Whole Foods.

Been taking the supplements for about 6 weeks straight and my energy isn't what it used to be, but it is way more manageable.  And my appetite peeks its head out every now and then.  So it's helping taking the edge off.  I feel focused more often than I was so that's a bonus.

So I returned to Dr. B earlier this week.  One test never made it to the lab (stupid FedEx), but the others were there.  Vitamin D was at rock bottom.  Neurotransmitter test came back retardedly low on.... nearly everything. Except PEA and Dopamine; which has Dr. B really confused since the norepinephrine and epinephrine are nearly non-existent. Yay. More confusion. But those two things being so low explains why I am so sleepy all the time and why my body feels so sluggish. So... Some answers. There were other crappy results as well.

Food testing is what has my head turning right now. For the next 8 weeks, I am told to avoid all items "in red" on the list. Maybe later I can try adding some of the lower scoring foods back in. Essentially, no more: cow dairy of any kind (it scored SUPER high), almonds, asparagus, corn, crab, eggplant, gluten, grapefruit, haddock, malt, mustard, onion (scored very high -- makes me sad), orange, peanut, black pepper, shrimp, tuna, and wheat. Grrr.... Doc (original dr) said he'd help me with ways to swap out those items. Dr. B said he was going to put me on a Paleo diet, until he saw that almonds were on the list; Doc says it's still my best bet and that it can substituted in the meantime.

*sigh* I have about 15 more tests to get done. And I have 3 more supplements I have to take to start getting my numbers back up (already on 4 supplements). Still don't have any specific answers, but Dr. B and Doc seem to be rather confident that food avoidance will help kill most of my chronic pain.

I said I was going to wait until after Christmas until I start moving towards this food avoidance thing.  Well It's the day after Christmas.  And I'm looking at the can of tuna on the counter thinking, "I'd really like a tuna salad sandwich after my workout this morning."

Damn....

Sometimes it pays to click on links

Recently, I've become addicted to Drew Canole's website FitLife.  His "Alpha Reset" program is intriguing and I think it may be worth a try.  But what I like most are his articles, vodcasts and blog posts.  His information is sound.  There are plenty of research journals and articles that back up his information.  So why do I just read those?

The way Drew Canole presents the information is so much easier to understand.  Sometimes he gives a TON of information at once, but he mostly gives it in small doses with links to other pages where he provides more detail.  I like it a lot.

For example:

3 Fats That Are Good For You

He gives a small brief overview of the 3 fats to familiarize you with them.  Then he gives links in each category that helps provide more detail.  I'm always getting newsletters about the "wonders" of avocados; I so sick of all the same-ol same-ol.  I almost didn't click on his extra link.  When I did, his supplemental page had information that I was not familiar with.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Some of it was repeated, but most was not.  He got kinda technical with it too, but it's still easy enough to follow.

I also suggest reading the supplemental link for coconut oil if you get the chance.  I like using coconut oil, but I've never been sure what to do with it.  Just saying, "Oh!  You can do anything with it!  Just swap it out for -blah blah blah-," is not enough for me.  I'm not that adventurous or creative when it comes to food/nutrition.  He actually specifically gives multiple ways of using them in smoothies and a snack.  I'm actually rather excited!  I'm going to get my tub of coconut oil and give it a try tomorrow!

Time for a Restart

Within the last 6 months, I've had a number of fresh starts.  Some of which were unexpected and initially unwanted.  However, I have found myself in a much better place.

At the end of August, I fell horribly ill.  I had gastro-enteritis and a bacteria infection.  I lost 10 pounds in 30 hours.  I was severely dehydrated and malnourished because everything I ingested went straight through and never got absorbed.  I had fever after fever of 102+; I got tired of constantly taking showers.  I had to call my very awesome buddy to pick me up and take me to Urgent Care.  It was quite an experience.

A week later was my final race of the season, but I was so weak that I became exhausted just walking from my car to my office.  Doc grounded me from the race.  I knew it was coming, but it still sucks.

So I still haven't started working out again.  It's been about a week or so since my appetite has returned to normal and I'm able to stomach most foods again.  I haven't been eating like I should, but I haven't been eating complete junk either.

I'm also staying at a friend's place for a couple of months while I get my finances together to buy a new place.  Well...  He is a great friend, but he's my amazing new boyfriend as well.  Funny how when you become happy with yourself, that happiness is increased ten fold when you find someone completely compatible with you.

Nice thing is that I have a lot of support for getting back into that alkaline diet.  Now that my weight is back to near normal, I'm about ready to start juicing a bunch and dabbling with exercise.

I lost a lot of muscle and all of my fitness to that sickness.  I have no idea how to get back into training. Hell...  Now triathlon season is over; this gives me a great opportunity to actually plan a full year of training and racing -- the right way instead of my half-assed way.

Doc gave me orders to start working out again this week.  I have to start with 20-30 minutes of super light cardio and very light weight training.  My energy levels have been real low by the end of my workday  So I'm going to have to force myself to do this.  Good news is that I have access to a fitness center so my number of excuses have diminished.  Wait a sec...  is that good news or bad news?  ;)