Portion Control and Eating Mindfully

This could be me

Do you ever eat like you didn't miss the workout?  I sort of thought I might get in a later evening workout tonight.  I needed a good 6 mile-ish tempo run that did not get in as I spent most of my day rushing to pre-school orientations and then home to get everyone down for naps.  My hope was to get in a run when my husband came home from work AND in my excitement about doing that, I ate the other half of my child's cheeseburger dinner, some fries, a bunch of carrots, AND a bowl of leftover cheesy quinoa from last night.  SO MUCH FOOD.  So much food.  I held out hope that my run would happen until it was 7:40 PM, and I was rocking the baby to sleep for the SECOND time, and I just gave up.  It was dark, going to the gym just wasn't in me, and now I am sitting on the couch stuffed with way too much food.

More and more, if the workout does not happen before 2:00 PM, there is no way it will happen.  No way.  If I had a treadmill in my house, I can see getting in a lot of nap time runs.  However, I scarcely have anywhere to put my children, let alone a treadmill.  In my dream world, I have somewhere to put a treadmill.

Anyway, I have sometimes thought of visiting a nutritionist to discuss portion control.  The reason for this is that in occurs to me often that I do not eat until I am full or until I am sustained; I eat until it is gone.  Whether it is chocolate or quinoa or guacamole, I finish it.  Uncomfortably full is how I live.  Now it is generally great food, (please ignore my half cheeseburger confession from earlier in the post) but still.

And actually, more than a nutritionist.  I would like to research mindful eating.  There was this great article in the NYTimes about the principal behind relishing your food and making an effort to sit down and enjoy what you put in your mouth.  There is a whole study of eating that focuses on finding joy in your food as opposed living your life like a Japanese eating contest, which is pretty much how I roll.  I would like for my children to eat with me without the fear that the mother might eat all of her food and theirs, and MAYBE them?

There has to be a better way than my current way.  The half-cheeseburger was good tonight, however.  I mean it was really good.  Also, to redeem myself, I did get in my bike ride this morning and it was a pretty fast 17 miles.  The tempo run was important though, and I missed it.

Monday Monday

So, TODAY began for me at 3:00 AM.  The baby started crying at 3:00.  While I tried to employ my "cry it out" philosophy, Baby G eventually woke up my older son.  SO, I went to console the baby, then consoled my older son at which point IT WAS 4:00 AM.  I crawled back into my own bed at 4:30 AM. My alarm goes off at 4:45 AM to get to my bike ride.  Though I had gone to bed early, there is no time early enough to start the day at 3:00 AM.  SO, when my alarm went off at 4:45 AM, I perked up just long enough to email my bike crew that I was not going to make it.  If I had tried to make it, I would have been to sleep deprived to ride, so to speak.

I hate the "I missed my workout" guilt and I also hate being all sleep deprived grumpy and head achy, and ultimately I had both those things.  The sleep that I got from 4:45 to 6 AM was not great.  I might as well have gone on my bike ride and consigned myself to a day of exhaustion and tried to nap when the children did.  As it was, I loafed around the house drinking coffee and tending the children before loading everyone up to go to the YMCA for some lap swimming.

I swam:
1000 m freestyle
5 x 100 m @ 1:50
500 m pull
5 x 100 m @ 1:50
3 x 100 IM

It was a great swim, and I felt better afterwards.  At home, I put the children down for naps and attempted to nap myself.  The baby, however, is teething and he napped very little.  The witching hour started out very early and it was all quite frustrating.

The witching hour is a thing that I am comfortable with lasting for one to two hours.  I have psyched myself up, and I can generally make it until the baby goes to bed.  Today, however, it started quite a bit earlier as the baby really didn't nap.  It is wearing, to say the least.

I think the witching hour happens for all young children a bit before dinner time and lasts until after bath time.  If there were background music to the witching hour, I would describe it as a constant whine. If there was a dialogue to the witching hour, I would say that it is a small child asking 100 questions and a mother answering with a distracted "maybe".  The answer is not good enough, and the question is asked repeatedly, and at some point everyone wants to pull their hair out and the clock seems to inch along to bedtime at a pace that would shame a snail.

Anyway,  in terms of my marathon plan, I am relatively on track.  Will try to get in a good tempo run tomorrow, though maybe on the treadmill and in the late morning.

Only 8

So all day yesterday I was emailing my running group trying to talk everyone into running 13 miles with me.  I needed to get in 13 miles in order to follow my training plan.  Another guy in my running group is training for the flying monkey and our marathons are only two weeks apart, so we will be doing all our training together.  So, I need to just fall in line with the training plan of Wood Caldwell, my Flying Monkey friend.

My morning, however began at 4:45 AM instead of 5:45 AM with a crying baby and a much too early awakened four year old.  I had folded a load of laundry, fed everyone, gotten everyone their chocolate milk and set up cartoons before I laced up my running shoes at 6:15 AM.  It was just ridiculous.  I drank my glowing green smoothie and packed up some snacks to eat on the road. I even had time to double check my marathon plan which told me I only needed eight miles today.  EIGHT MILES.  SOOO, I still met up with my group and ran my run, but I did secretly plan to lop off the last two miles if I wasn't feeling great as I did not need the mileage anyway.  

Here is the thing.  I have been getting hungry on my runs, so this morning, I had PLENTY of time to eat plenty of food.  So, I ate two pretty huge servings of my chocolate chip oatmeal bake.  Confession:  It was really too much.  It was just a bit much, and it was one of those things that as soon as you start running you know you may have inadvisably eaten.  The whole run just felt humid and heavy.  After 8 miles, I started lagging behind the group and ran the last two miles relatively on my own.  I never got hungry, at least I can say that I never got hungry.  I did neglect to discuss with my friend Chris, how I should handle speed work and such, as I wanted to get his perspective.  SO, I need to put that on the agenda for next week.

Ahhh, next week.  When I might have an extra hour of sleep.  I feel that an extra hour of sleep would have afforded me the wherewithal to get my conversational topics in order and not make hasty food judgements.

So today, I got in 10.5 miles!! Marathon training off to a good start.

Friday: Oh Happy Day

You know, last night I went to bed with the certainty that my older son had pink eye and that I was completely run down by ROUND FIVE of mastitis in this breastfeeding cycle.  There was no doubt in my mind when I went to bed that I was looking down the barrel of a terrible day, stranded at my house with both children.  There would be nothing but bitterness and woe, diaper changing and a constant whining that would send my to lock myself in the bathroom at some point during the day.  When my older son woke up wailing at 5AM, I accepted the inevitable, sat on the couch in the dark with him, and watched some mind numbing transformer cartoons and prepared for the worst.

As dawn broke and sunlight streamed through the windows, I turned on the lights and did a second check on my son's pink eye.  Lo and Behold there was no pink eye.  It was not the tiniest bit pink, the offending eye may have just been allergic or scratched pink last night, but there were not lingering effects of the pink eye possibility.  While I did not feel physically at my best, I wanted to dance dance dance that we did not all have to stay home all day like lepers.  Pink eye makes you a leper, friend.  Pink eye makes you a leper.

Now making merry about the house, I made coffee and breakfast and packed up the car to go to swim.  No, I did not feel my best, but there is nothing that will make you feel better than dropping two children at the nursery and pretending that they are not your responsibility for two blessed hours.  I got in a great workout and I showered alone.  When I looked at what my day could have been, it seemed like a bit of heaven.

At home, I finished up some house chores before bundling everyone, including myself, into bed for a nap.  Nap, glorious nap!!  Once away, with a 3000 yard swim workout under my belt and a little mindless internet time to make me feel even better, I was golden.

I am relatively on track for my marathon training and tomorrow, I am running 13ish miles.  It all could have been so much worse.

Womp Womp

You know, every once in a while, you have a day where you want to set yourself on fire; a day where you wonder if you should look at boarding schools for your five year old or maybe hock all of your children's college savings into a live-in sitter.  Today was rough.  The children and I went shoe shopping for school at the mall.  There was much running about and "please don't touch that" and "please stay with Mommy".  I have to say that it took its toll on my day.  The children had to come to a work meeting with me and no one was perfectly behaved and then, I will be honest with you, I gave into stress eating.

Mother of the year here, picked up happy meals for her children then headed into work where I ate all their french fries.  My children do not even know that Happy Meals come with French Fries.  I eat them every time.  G-Money tried to cut in on my french fry therapy, and I had to shut him down with healthy apples.  Mommy needed those fries.

At home, my kale chips came out of the oven all covered with cashews and goodness and I ate every one.  THEN, I ate a full dinner of salmon and spinach and now I feel sort of sick. I felt sort of sicker when I noticed that my oldest son had the pink eye before he went to bed.  For this reason, I am pretty certain that I will be spending at least part of tomorrow at the doctor's office and not getting to go ANYWHERE.

A Great Reason to Write a Letter of Complaint

Arriving in 3 to 5 days!!!!

SO, I have to say, this is a pretty fabulous story.  Eight years ago, my brother was working at The Sunglasses Hut.  I was in graduate school and made the decision to buy my first pair of non-Target sunglasses.  With my brother's Sunglasses Hut discount, I bought a pair of sport Prada sunglasses for $149.00.  It was a massive expenditure for me.  For eight years, I babied those sunglasses.  I carried their case everywhere religiously.  I bought no other sunglasses.  I ran in them and went to the beach in them.  I used them for biking.  Over the last couple of years, the lenses have gotten a little scratched.

SO, like the squeaky wheel that I am, I wrote Luxottica, which owns the Prada sunglasses brand.  I told them how much I loved my sunglasses and how sad I was that the lenses had failed me EIGHT YEARS AFTER I PURCHASED THEM.  I asked Luxottica if they would please replace my lenses so that I could continue my love affair with my one luxury item.  Two weeks ago, I got a a letter from Luxottica saying that they could not fix my sunglasses, but that I could choose a new pair of sunglasses from amongst any of their other brands.  I could choose a new pair of Chanels, a new pair of Prada's, Tiffany sunglasses, or Bulgari.  What a thrill!!

I headed over to The Sunglasses Hut and tried on several pairs of glasses, though I pretty much knew what I was after.  I tried on a fabulous, huge pair of Chanels and decided that if I could get vouched a $400 pair of sunglasses, I clearly should AND I DID!!!

This Usually Happens

So I am day one into my marathon training AND I am off my schedule.  This is pretty typical.  A slow start into my training is pretty consistent for me, and it does not always end badly. Though it did end badly most notably in 2004 at Huntsville when I walked across the finish line.  Also, I am slated to start my speed sessions tomorrow, sort of, but I am thinking on this and it is definitely not happening tomorrow.  I am currently getting up at 4:55 AM on Mondays and Thursdays and then at whatever dark thirty time I run on Saturday mornings.  I've stopped getting up early to get to  swim at the lake on Sunday mornings, though I need to get back into it.  I only have so many early mornings to offer.  For speed work, I would have to get up at at 4:30 to get to the park by 5:00 AM sharp.  With the way the rest of my days are going, I just don't have that fourth early morning in me.  At a distant, childless and less employed time in my life, I went to 5:00 AM swim practice a handful of times.  I say 5:00 AM, but I really showed up at about 5:20 AM whining and dragging.  The rest of the class was always on time and they had swum at least a mile before I ever got my toe in the water.

I always wondered about the rest of the class.  What was up with them?  Did they get in bed at 7:30 PM, were they chronically sleep deprived, were they waiting at the door at 5:00 AM when the gym opened?  Are they all insomniacs?  If they are all getting in bed at 7:30 PM, when do they eat dinner, when was the last time they went out for drinks with friends?  What is all of it?  What is their life?

Another word on speed sessions, and this is the most damaging bit of all.  I was running with my running group on Saturday when Chris, who is a great runner, said that I might not need to do speed work.  He said, and I quote, "You don't really need to do the speed work.  Just come out on Saturdays and run like you've beed running."  I love/hate it when people say things like this to me, because it does not take a lot of encouragement for me to slack.  I enjoy myself some athletic slacking, and though I sometimes feel guilty about it (though rarely), I really enjoy my sleep.  I only get bummed about my slacking when it all goes wrong at the race.

I dearly wish that I only needed four hours of sleep a night, because I would get in all my workouts and have super clean cabinets.  AS it is, I was up early this morning, I road my bike and came home to find that everyone else was still asleep, which meant I was able to pop back out for a run and then get back in to get everyone else started. This is my lull period at work, so while things are slow, I have one thousand dull house chores that are not worth talking about.  I did all these, then literally passed out at 2:00 PM when the kids were napping and I am going back to bed right now.

What is worth talking about is that I am using all my dull household chore time to break in my new fabulous loafers.  SO, today while I cleaned out the refrigerator, emptied the dishwasher and made the beds, my feet pinched.  It is a first world problem that I have a dishwasher and new loafers, so I'll stop complaining.

Marathon Training Plan I think

I may figure out something different about my Sundays, but this is it for now. December 8th approacheth!! Week # Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 1 8/20 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 8/21 Speedwork 8/22 Swim - 3000 8/23 Bike-17m 8 mile run 8/24 Swim 8/25 8 mile run 8/26 2 8/27 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 8/28 speedwork 8/29 Swim 3000 8/30 Bike – 17 miles 8 mile run 8/31 Swim – 3000 yards 9/1 13 mile run 9/2 3 9/3 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 9/4 speedwork 9/5 swim – 3000 meters 9/6 Bike – 17 Miles 8 mile run 9/7 Swim – 3000 yards 9/8 14 mile run 9/9 4 9/10 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 9/11 speedwork 9/12 Swim – 3000 meters 9/13 Bike– 17 miles 8 mile run 9/14 Swim 3000 yards 9/15 10 mile run 9/16 5 9/17 Bike-17m Swim - 3000 9/18 speedwork 9/19 Swim – 3000 meters 9/20 Bike – 17 miles 8 mile run 9/21 swim 3000 yards 9/22 16 mile run 9/23 6 9/24 Bike-17m Swim-3000 9/25 speedwork 9/26 Swim-3000 yards 9/27 Bike-17 miles 8 mile run 9/28 swim-3000 yards 9/29 17 mile run 9/30 7 10/1 Bike-17 m Swim-3000 10/2 speedwork 10/3 Swim-3000 yards 10/4 bike -17 miles 8 mile run 10/5 swim-3000 yards 10/6 Half-Marathon 10/7 8 10/8 Bike-17 miles Swim-3000 10/9 speedwork 10/10 swim-3000 yards 10/11 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 10/12 swim-3000 yards 10/13 19 mile run 10/14 9 10/15 bike-17 miles Swim-3000 yards 10/16 speedwork 10/17 Swim-3000 yards 10/18 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 10/19 swim 3000 yards 10/20 20 mile run 10/21 10 10/22 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 10/23 speedwork 10/24 swim-3000 yards 10/25 bike – 17 miles 8 mile run 10/26 Swim - 3000 10/27 12 mile run 10/28 11 10/29 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 10/30 speedwork 10/31 swim – 3000 yards 11/1 bike -17 miles 8 mile run 11/2 swim 3000 yards 11/3 20 mile run 11/4 12 11/5 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 11/6 speedwork 11/7 swim-3000 yards 11/8 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/9 swim 3000 yards 11/10 12 mile run 11/11 13 11/12 bike 17 miles swim 3000 yards 11/13 speedwork 11/14 swim 3000 yards 11/15 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/16 swim 3000 yards 11/17 20 mile run 11/18 14 11/19 bike 17 miles swim 3000 11/20 speedwork 11/21 swim 3000 yards 11/22 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/23 bike-17 miles 8 mile run 11/24 12 mile run 11/25 15 11/26 Swim-2000 yards 11/27 ½ speedwork 11/28 swim - 1600 11/29 Bike 17 11/30 swim - 1600 12/1 8 mile run 12/2 16 12/3 swim -2000 yards or bike 17 miles 12/4 run distance of speedwork, but don’t do speedwork 12/5 swim 1600 12/6 day off or whatever 12/7 – light jog 12/8 Marathon

Saturday Run: I Have Nothing To Talk About Outside My Children And Their Activities

This morning, our running group started at 6:30 and for the second week in a row ran the the hilliest hills in Nashville.  The Flying Monkey is approaching in November and it is run in Percy Warner Park.  SO HILLY!!  So we keep doing these rather fast paced 11 milers through the park.  While I have been glad to do whatever, I have to get down to business next weekend.  Next weekend marks 16 weeks out from my Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville.  I think, however, getting down to business really only means 13 miles next weekend.  The eleven miles went pretty well; fast in the beginning, and then I dropped back towards the end.

Overall though, I have to say that it was a great morning.  I went to bed at 8:30 slept like a champ and fed the baby before I left the house.  Once I put him back to sleep, I drank my glowing green smoothie and got a reasonable parking space once I arrived at the park.  We started running,  I think there were 6 of us, and I will be honest with you, I was a social let down.  Being sort of in the trenches right now with my kids, I will admit that my ability to hold a conversation out side of my current life experience was pretty pathetic.  I had nothing.  I did a lot of listening and then every once in a while, I would find myself rattling on about soccer practice or swim lessons or how not to curse in front of your children. I was not much of a thrill.

I need to read up on my current events and my sports teams and such.

Oatmeal Bake

So this morning, all went smoothly.  I popped out of bed, drank my glowing green smoothie and headed to the park with two slices of oatmeal bake.  My oatmeal bake is rather life changing and I usually have it in the house.  I eat it approximately 20 minutes after my glowing green smoothie.

Recipe as follows:
3 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup chia
2 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
three or four shakes of cinnamon
2 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 package milk chocolate chips
1/4 cup brown sugar (you can add more if you leave out the chips)
1 cup almond milk

Mix it up.  Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

You can always switch out the chocolate chips for raisins for craisins or what have you, but I love the chocolate chips.

Marathon Plan

Start of Rocket City.  I ran it that year!!!

SO, I am running the Rocket City marathon in Huntsville on December 8th.  I have run this marathon probably 6 times; maybe more.  I know the course, the weather is always good, it is relatively inexpensive and it is approximately one hour and 15 minutes away from my house. A couple of times,  I have driven down the morning of the race.  Also, another sticking point, it is a small marathon, relatively uncrowded, and there is never a time when you have to elbow around corners because the course is tight and there are so many runners.  All around, it is a great race.

This year, I was even organized enough to reserve my hotel room in advance, so I can walk to the race start.  Being organized enough to get a great hotel room is a first for me.  Normally, I have to drive down the morning of the race OR spend the night in a hotel room across town and get a shuttle to the race at which point I am a bundle of nerves.  So, I am pretty thrilled that at 36 years into my life 6 or so years into racing this particular marathon, I have it together.

I have been working on my training plan all week.  It is sort of a chess game with trying to incorporate my biking and swimming in with my run schedule.  I need a day of speed work (probably Tuesday mornings)  and some long runs on Saturdays and I also need a temp run at some point (probably Tuesdays).  I am really enjoying my bike rides and I do not plan to give up swimming.  I think I need a day off where I am just doing yoga or some such in the way of strength training.

SO, all of these ideas are slowly making their way into a spread sheet that I will have coordinated by next week.  I am going to put off speed work as long as possible, maybe until October. For speed work, I have to be at the track at 5:00 AM, (misery!!!) and speed work is just overall pretty disagreeable.  I am designing my training plan to start next week.  Hopefully can publish my spread sheet tomorrow!

Honestly

Woe is Me!!

You know, this morning when it happened, I did not say "honestly".  I said something much much worse, and I am taking sides with the person who says that if a tree falls in the forrest and no one hears it, it does not make a sound.  No one else heard the pretty hard core expletives that I find that this type of situation generally elicits from me.  Anyway, I have to chide myself for having such a meltdown at 4:57 AM, everyone has had the bottom fall out of their mason jar.

Every night, I set a glowing green smoothie on the countertop to thaw out before morning.  THIS MORNING, when I picked up my mason jar of glowing green smoothie, the bottom fell off.  The bottom of the mason jar hit the tile and broke into a million pieces AND THEN the smoothie fell out of the bottom.  The smoothie hit the floor so hard that it splashed THE CEILING.  The floor was covered and the cabinets were all splashed.  I could go on all day about the baseboards, the windows, the all of it.

It amazes me how things like that always happen to me when I am in a huge hurry to get out the door on  time.  I woke up at 4:55 AM, walked into the kitchen and ruined my morning.  Thursdays are bike ride mornings.  I meet my group at 5:25, and we try to be riding by 5:29 AM.  Everyone has work and I have to sprint home to feed the baby and we have to be on the road by 5:29.

A Glowing Green Smoothie explosion is nothing that you can just leave.  My marriage would not survive waking my husband to clean up my mess so that I could make my bike ride.  I had to clean it up. It had to be cleaned up, and while I worked lightening fast to get all the mess off the floor and sweep up the glass and wipe down the cabinets, it made me late.  I was 7 minutes late out the door, and it was super sad because as I whipped into the parking lot I could see my bike group cycling into the sunrise about 5 minutes ahead of me.

Five minutes on a swim, I might make up and five minutes on a run, I could definitely make up. Five minutes on the bike, and I might as well be dead.  SO, with heaviness of heart, I got all my gear together, and pedaled as fast as I could for 17 miles.  I never saw the group, and I was the lone cyclist.  Also, my cadence sensor never picked up.  It was all very sad, and if I had had a soundtrack to my morning, it would have all been written by The Fray.  It was that sad.

This is where I am not sure about myself.  When that mason jar hit the floor, should I have scrapped my ride.  Should I have just said to myself, "this is not happening for me today.  I am cleaning this up and getting back in bed."?  I knew that there was a good chance I would not make it on time.  Why didn't I just get back in bed? Even if I couldn't sleep, I could have read my book or prayed that the rest of my day would be an improvement over recent events.

Instead, I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off, still arrived late and then got stuck in morning traffic because I got back to my car late.  Morning traffic turns on a dime, by the way. Ten minutes later than usual, and it is gridlock.

I sort of enjoyed the ride, however, even though I didn't go as fast as I would have liked.  16.5 miles per hour is fast for me, but I had been reaching upwards of 18 miles an hour with the group.  There is nothing like a group to encourage your speed.

My Time Constraints

This will be me!!

This morning, after I had been up at 4:00 AM (unwillingly this morning, as opposed to yesterday) to breastfeed, then crawled back in bed until I woke up much too late feeling like I had been run over by a truck, and figuratively maybe I had,  it occurred to me that training for a marathon has the potential to be most unpleasant.  I am struggling to find the time to watch my DVD (it is only 30 minutes) about my Diastasis Recti.  How am I going to find the time for two more 70 minute runs per week.  Womp Womp.  I was pretty excited about it when I signed up.

Also, I have, I think, four new magazine subscriptions.  They were free, and I said "yes", but why?  So I can toss them, unread, into the recycle bin?  So I can trip over a pile of magazines and children's toys, as opposed to just children's toys.  I sometimes think that I am so resentful of my time constraints that I refuse to acknowledge them and keep piling more things on my plate and becoming more frustrated.  If I were in therapy, this is what I would ask the therapist to tell me.  BUT, and here is the rub, I don't have time for therapy.  So I just keep stoking the fires of resentment and having a cocktail at 4:00 PM.  Maybe its all the same anyway.

However, I did get to the outdoor pool at my gym for an hour swim.  A cold front blew through last weekend, and the pool was freezing.  FREEZING. I persevered with 2500 meters and am hoping to hit the pool again tomorrow.

Hopefully some discussion of my training plan tomorrow!!

4:00 AM

This morning, I woke up cheerfully at 4:00 AM.  I just peeled out of bed, fully rested.  I was up before the baby.  It was ridiculous and it is happening relatively often.  I will say that I was in bed at 8:30 last night, reading just a bit of Mornings On Horseback before turning off the lights.  This has me slightly concerned that I am starting some midlife shift of my circadian rhythms.  Am I on my way to being that crotchety woman up with the garbage collectors and the local weather.  Am I going to start living my life like Matt Lauer, nervous if anyone suggests eating dinner after 5:00 or staying out past 7:00?  Is that going to me?

I still have sequin shorts in my closet and high heel shoes.  Nobody wears high heel shoes to eat dinner at 5:00 PM.

Anyway, amidst my crushing concern about the demise of my sequin shorts lifestyle, I popped onto my bike, met my fellow cyclists and pedaled 17 miles.  We rode at 16.9 miles her hour, which is quick for me.

However, I now have hanging over me a marathon on December 8th.  For this reason, I need to study and organize my swimming, biking and running into a manageable plan that will give me success on the 8th.  Will keep you posted on the development of my plan.

Diastasis Recti: Tupler Technique

So, it was a big bummer that Baby G split my transverse muscle.  After my first son was born, I was back in a bikini in six weeks, which I was pretty sure was because I was awesome.   After my second son was born, six weeks after the birth I was routinely being asked if I was pregnant.  Three months after the fact, I was routinely asked if I was pregnant.  It was beyond what I could handle.  Now, I realize that this is a first world problem.  I have two healthy children, and we are all safe and sound and well fed and I am obsessing about washboard abs and the perfect belly button.  My vanity is not lost on me.

Anyway, I spent the first few months after my pregnancy, just cranking my abs with post partum workouts.  I ordered a Tracy Anderson workout, which I did without fail every night to no avail.  In fact, I sort of thought my stomach looked worse.  So, I consulted a trainer who told me that all the pilates and ab work I had done post partum had totally made the situation worse.  She was right and it was a big bummer.  Why doesn't anyone tell you about diastasis recti immediately after giving birth.  Why does western medicine encourage us down these disterous roads?  Once diagnosed, I got sort of obsessed and began hours of research on diastasis recti.
I had a four finger (at least) seperation initially.  You check yourself by laying on your back, bending your knees with feet on the floor, and lifting your head and shoulders off the floor.  Then you see how many fingers you can get in between the gap right above your belly button.

SO, when you have abdominal wall separation, as in a diastasis recti, crunches and such wrench the separation further apart, allowing your organs and such to move through the gap and increase the chances of the 16 year old lifeguard at the pool asking you if you are pregnant.  Womp Womp.

The trainer at the YMCA taught me a good bit about it, but I obsessed over it and ended up enrolling in Julie Tupler's online course, wearing a splint, reading a textbook and watching videos.  There is a very good chance that I am going to go to New York later in the year and take her seminar personally.

The key to closing your diastasis recti is doing transverse pulses, some 500 or 1000 a day.  This is when you hold your belly button all the way in and pulse in and out while pulling your ribs together.  It takes about two minutes per set of 100.  It isn't that bad, you can do it in the car while you are driving.  You also try to wear a splint for at least 18 weeks.  I saw a dramatic difference in three weeks and even more in 6 weeks.

Now, however, I seem to have plateaued.  My stomach is flat, but my belly button is funny.  This is why I need to talk to Julie Tupler at Maternal Fitness.  She is the guru, and I want her opinion about my belly button.

Food Philosophy

9 month Pics were off the hook

So, while I have been a Kimberly Snyder guru for the last year or so, I feel it is necessary to clarify that if invited for dinner I am not going to show up at your house with a Tupperware of raw vegetables and some clarified water.  There are things that I cannot turn down under any circumstances, these are chocolate, coffee, wine and cake (especially of the birthday and wedding variety).  Chocolate, coffee and wine are completely indispensable to me for various child related reasons.  At some points in my day, respectively, first thing in the morning, sometime all day, and during the witching hour when everyone speaks to me in a whine, all these things are absolutely necessary.  And, I can't even fathom going to your birthday party and not eating some of your cake probably two pieces, one of which is a corner piece with a rose.

You just can't be that person that asks the waitress 5000 questions about vegetarian cooking practices (I dated that guy once, ooohh brooooother), the gluten content of the vinegar and how much dairy is involved in the entree.  That person is wearying, especially if this lifestyle that I have chosen is not really about a serious allergy or illness per say, but about feeling great and fitting into my admittedly expensive jeans collection.  I CANNOT AFFORD TO REPLACE MY JEANS.  ( I read an interview with Charlotte Dellal recently and when asked what brand of jeans she wore, she said "no thank you"!!  What the What.  No Jeans?? Really??)

So, everything said about my raw sauerkraut and my glowing green smoothies and my probiotic supplements, you have to live a little.

My Food Situation

Glowing Green Smoothies in my Freezer

My Fridge!!

Its the Truth!!

So, I have been having a love affair with Kimberly Snyder and her food pairings and whole foods, dairy free, gluten free lifestyle.  Not that I was keen to give up my froyos, but my whole body melted down when I was pregnant, and I just had to cry uncle and embrace the quinoa.

Confession: There was a time when I posted a question about my new food lifestyle on Kimberly Snyder's blog EVERY DAY.  Kimberly Snyder, patron saint of probiotics that she is, kindly answered all my questions.  Can you believe it??  I have to say that her kind guidance really spurred me on to follow her advice.

Every day I:

1) drink a glowing green smoothie with a few Kimberly Snyder approved changes:

• 2 apples
• 2 pears or peaches (depending on the season)
• parsely
• kale
• 2 cucumbers (usually bananas, but Kimberly says I can use the cucumbers instead)
• ginger root
• bunch of spinach
• bunch of romaine
• celery

I blend it all up in the Vitamix I got for my birthday last year and freeze six or seven servings for the week.  I have a whole schedule and system for doing it each week, and I love my GGS.

2) I take a probiotic supplement every morning and night.  I found some cheapie ones at the local Kroger and I am thrilled with them.

3) I tried to make her Probiotic and Enzyme Salad, but it was horrible.  It was so revolting that I would eat a Big Mac every day before I ever ate it again.  It really worried me that I would not be able to follow Kimberly Snyder all the way down the complicated road of eating well.  A friend turned me on to Bubbies, which is a raw sauerkraut.  They sell it at the whole foods, it is easier than making your own, and while it is not THE tastiest thing in the world, I really quite like it with spaghetti sauce and a bit of sheep cheese.  Kimberly Snyder says that sheep cheese is OK sometimes. SHEEP CHEESE!!!!!

4) I really try to follow the food pairings that she recommends:

• eat fruit early, wait 20 minutes before eating anything else
• green veggies pair with anything
• starches and proteins do not pair together
• melons are to be eaten alone

I think the fifth thing is to take digestive enzymes and I sort of stopped those, because I did not notice any big difference after doing it for a year.  

It is all pretty exciting.  I feel all sorts of better than I did before and during my pregnancy.  AND, Hanna, who cuts my hair, says that my hair remarkably longer and stronger than it was when we started down our hair road together.  ALSO, I think my aging puffy eyes are better.  They are rarely puffy anymore, and puff used to be the way I lived with my eyes.  Thrilling.