In the Raw

I was on Facebook just a few moments ago and saw a post from a friend where she talked about changing her diet and her successes that followed. Someone asked her what she did and she responded that she cut out all animal products, no meat, eggs or dairy. She has become 80% vegan as she puts it.  I am not sure if she knows it, but she is following the raw food movement, a diet the includes only foods that haven’t been heated about 115 degrees Fahrenheit- hence the name RAW - they are not cooked. Though, I also call it the NAKED diet because these veggies are also being consumed without "dressing" them. (Get it?! "Dressing" them... no SALAD dressing!!! Genius.) The basic belief behind the movement is that when you are not heating the food up past the 115 degrees you are preserving t naturally occurring nutrients – especially water-soluble vitamins (like Vitamin C)- which may be lost when heating the food.  On the raw food diet your daily intake of fruits and veggies sky rocket, as they become your main staple, whole grains are essential as well and your protein becomes mostly plant based (soy - though you can have some fish which is prepared "raw"). To me this is a yuck but to some it is a yum, take your pick!  For someone like me, who weight trains and wants lean muscle gain, a strict raw diet will not work. You need a certain amount of protein in your diet to build muscle and I know I won't be happy doing it only on soy and fish.... however, some do. I am however very intrigued by the raw movement. A raw diet is much like an eating cleanse. A detox or cleanse is often liquid based and should have a time limit, but raw foods can do the same basic flush. On a raw foods diet you are banning processed junk and incorporating whole foods, ones that are not processed.  If you are thinking about doing any type of detox I recommend getting your diet as raw and whole as you can first, then doing the detox and then moving back into the raw stuff and then finally adding animal proteins if you want them. So what do you think? Are you up for life in the raw? I recently found a blog on Wholeliving.com where a woman (Lindsay Funston) went raw for 14 days. She was successful in her endeavors but does admit in a following blog to an all out meatfest at a gathering called, no other than "Meatopia"- AWESOME! What I like about this is it shows us that some of us do need animal based meats and it is okay to incorporate them. I am not sure about "Meatopia-ing" it up frequently, but finding balance in your diet is key to whole healthy living.  Fans of the raw diet rave about it's blessings (glowing skin and abundant energy!) so much so that I am keen to giving it a try. So after this move, I too will give the fourteen day challenge a go. Though I will not officially begin the two weeks until the fifteenth of Aug. I plan on weaning myself off of the meats and cheeses starting sometime during the first week of Aug. (as I am sure it is not wise to commit one's self to a major diet change when you are living out of moving boxes- I will give myself some wiggle room!) As I get closer to the start of the fourteen days I will be posting tips and recipes in hopes of  successful navigation through  the streets of rawtown.  Aside from a raw diet, the five principles to healthy eating are as such: 1. Drink water first 2. Eat every 2-3 hours 3. Eat Veggies at every meal 4. Eat Protein at every meal 5. Only Whole Grains (no processed foods!) - so even if you are not going raw,  following those principles will help one stay on track. If you would like to interlope at the raw party with me, I encourage you to come along!

"Respect your body. Eat well. Dance forever."  -Eliza Gaynor Minden

Conquering Slacker Mountain

I am moving in one week and everything that goes with it has up turned my routine. Mostly do to the stress,  lately I have found my self tired and worn out. It has not been a surprise to turn around and find I have missed three consecutive days of workouts, that I have been forgoing a good run for a stretch on the couch. Stress is a sneaky siren. Her call has you capsizing into the doldrums with not much hope of rowing yourself out. And though I know that giving into it merely generates more stress, even I succumb to her sometimes, as I almost did yesterday. Yesterday my husband came home early from work, at about 3:30 pm. I had two choices. I knew if I worked quickly I could beat him to the punch, calling "Gym!" before he called out "Golf!" (think "Shot Gun!" for parents and imagine me putting on my shoes as I hop and bump my way out the front door - leaving husband reaching for golf clubs, mouth open and children with confused expression frozen on face...) - and if I did not work quickly I would forgo my window of opportunity and given in to my tired body. I mustered everything in my stressed out downtrodden being and reached for my shoes....  "Gym!" I yelled- shocking my family, old dog, new dog and probably half of the neighborhood- beating my poor sweet husband to the coveted front seat of freedom. (This is of course a dramatization- but it is an accurate description of how it feels to win alone time when you have kids.) So as I pulled on my shoes, hoping out the front door, almost tripping over dogs and adjusting exercise pants which requires tugging and wiggling and looking quite foolish, I made the decision to run the two miles to the gym- leaving my cool comfortable car parked where she stood.  HA! I believe the expression most appropriate here hints at a pool and jumping in rather than wading slowly.  And so I took a deep breath and jumped feet first into the heat of the day.  "Why?!", you ask, "Why would you do that to yourself?!". Surely I must have died there on the side of the road and most likely  I am typing  this today from the great beyond! No. I made it. I ran the whole way and ended up at the gym a sweaty, stinky, thirsty mess. The point is - I tried. I did it. I ran to the gym after a couple workout-less days and forced myself to demand a couple inches of space among all the other guys and gals and punched out a leg workout. And then, then I slowly walked myself home. The key here is this: Just give it a go. Tell yourself twenty minutes. Tell yourself you are only going to commit to twenty minutes and if you are still tired- you will go home. More often than not, if you at least begin a work out, no matter how tired you believe you are, you will find your footing along the way and finish it. And even if it is half ass, you will have moved. You will have injected something positive into your stressed out worn out day. You will have conquered Slacker Mountain and you will feel better!

There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.
Henry Ford

Run Like Kevin Bacon

Let's be honest: ruts happen. They happen without us even noticing what is going on. Maybe it's the new job, new baby, new boyfriend... new TV? Basically take anything in your life and add "NEW" in front of it and you have a recipe for disaster. (The only exception: putting "NEW" in front of "Episode of True Blood" because watching vampires flaunt their naked mad attractive selves on your TV screen will have you doing push ups right then and there out of pure magical creature body envy.) So basically life works like this: Month of getting up early to (insert work out goal of choice here) until end of month when all the work of month one leads to new confidence which then attracts new (insert distraction of choice here) which then leads to Month Two of new distraction bliss with a foggy undertone of all the work outs not being accomplished peppered with a side of guilt. The key to surviving this anomaly is pulling ourselves out of it. This, of course, happens to be one of the many great feats of human life: the power to overcome the challenges we face. There are many resources one may look to for guidance when facing times of hardship. Many look to spiritual strength found maybe in the Bible, the Torah, the Qur'an or the words of the Dali Lama. Some may look to great writers like Twain and  Thoreau. Some may trust the age old favorite of "Go Ask Your Mom." All great resources I agree. However. When faced with life's speed bumps, esp. health and wellness ones, I turn to the often overlooked inspirational greatness which is the "80's Dance Montage". Yes, the amazing awe inspiring power which is only found in that of movies laced with brat packers and Kevin Bacon. I mean seriously. If the power of dance can inspire a whole town of misfits to overcome the anti-jubilation prejudice of their rural small American town think of what it can do for you! If you don't get goose bumps watching Ren's iconic warehouse dance, then you just are hopeless to begin with. Come on people!! Ren McCormack transforms that dusty warehouse into a hot bed of social revolution with only three minutes worth of fist pumping, heart pounding dedication and you can too! You can start right now. Get yourself on itunes and download  your own $1.29 worth of greatness. (If "Holding Out For a Hero" does not get you off your butt, then seriously, stop reading this blog- you are officially a lost cause.)  Then play it loud and get moving: jump from cubicle to cubicle, do the Egyptian down the grocery isle, go ahead leap, tumble and spin all over your back yard! Grab that ipod and your sneakers and run like Kevin Bacon as fast as you can, for as far as you can (fist pumping optional). Just get moving, you Benders and Claires, and you'll get back on track.

A Few of my Favorite Things...

The gym closest to my house is quite busy during the hours I visit it, so lately I have been primarily working out at home. I am lucky enough to have a spin bike, barbells, bar with plates, kettle bell, medicine ball, pull up bar, TRX system and a multitude of DVDs (basically - the works) at my disposal.  Though I have all this fancy equipment, working out the same way at home often becomes boring, leaving us seeking refuge on couch potato island watching LOST reruns in our workout outfits. Thanks to a husband who has a less than reliable work schedule and a will not to set up permanent residence on said isle- I have become the queen of the ad-hoc  home work out system. Give me a toddler, a staircase and a swing set and with in five minutes I can develop  a circuit guaranteed to get your heart racing and your muscles screaming. These are some of my favorite work outs to do, esp. the ones where I include my kids. I have very distinct memories of being on family vacations and my father pulling us onto his back to add resistance to his push ups or curling us up in preacher curl "hugs", so I have first hand knowledge of how fun being included can be for a child. I have been known to do squats with one of my children riding piggy back and do pull ups on playground equipment. I have done step ups on picnic tables and lunges in community pools. I have found that once you get over the "there goes that crazy lady doing sprints around her house again" stigmata - these patchwork workouts can be the most fun. They definitely beat the rat race you often find at a health club and they often get you out of your house. So if you are stuck at home working out, with no extra money in the budget for a gym member ship or even a set of weights- fear not! There are great workouts to be had, but you have to get creative! So grab your kid, or borrow one from a neighbor! Head outside and find a park bench or a picnic table . Find a straight strip of side walk. These are all great workout tools. Lunge down a straight sidewalk, forwards and then backwards. Then sprint down it. Do step ups, triceps dips and decline push ups on a bench. If you can't find an appropriate sized kid anywhere.. (and I would have to ask you, Really? Did you look hard because the buggers are everywhere.) fill up a backpack with soup cans and do squats! You can seriously get a great work out with nothing more then your body weight and sense of adventure! (And a sense of humor don't hurt either!) However, if you do have some dough to put towards a home workout system, here are some of my favorite things:
10 LB Kettle Bell... Swing from your core- not your arms!
Pull up bar- one you put in your door way... if you can't do a pull up unassisted - help yourself with a chair (We bought ours used... and I bet you can find one too!)
Yoga Mat
Balance Ball
Three sets of dumbbells, weight that you curl the following reps: rep 15-20, rep 10-15 and rep 6-8 with
Jump rope
And there you go. If you want to get fancy I will tell you I also enjoy the Nike Training App and the Nike + ipod App...  The first has preset work outs with how-to videos that you can sync the music on your ipod to and the second will track your speed and distance which you can access while you run!
But, honestly, to get cut - you need only to get creative! So get outside and get your buff on.

The Distance

I have been BFFs with running for a while now. Like most friends we have had our ups and downs. Those bikini bottoms I was forced to run in during high school track was almost a deal breaker. But I some how found the courage to get back out there and become a recreational runner after my blink and you missed it stint as a lady bruin. To me running has two faces. One is the distance mileage mediation side and one is the short, fast and hard bad ass side. Now, don't get me wrong. When you take the first run - that first one ever, and you make it down two blocks and back with out stopping to walk and you are huffing and puffing outside on your drive way when you get home, you feel like a bad ass, a crazy fool, but a bad ass-and believe me you are! But the kind of crazy I am talking about is when you are at the gym on a treadmill moving the incline up and down, when you are so adapt at changing the RPMs you don't even look at the control panel to do it any more. When you are huffing and grunting through the challenging parts and only a little less in your recovery stage, so much so that the people around you get nervous. When you know what you are doing on your treadmill is making people turn up their machines as well. That is amazing. For the last three years that is the type of running I have been doing.  My farthest distance run since moving to and from Germany has been five miles. I would love to train and accomplish my first marathon now that I am in the states and I am sure I will, one day. Being a mother and an army wife often shapes my goals and accomplishments. Long distance running and training takes planning and team work. Being an Army wife means I have moved about five times during my seven year marriage. I have also had two babies and faced two deployments.  So I have had to adapt: to new places and to new environments. We are growing up. We are marrying our best friends. We are having babies. We are leaving behind the trails that led down those first runs.  For the first time, we are beginning to move away from the people and places that have shaped us. My first and only distance race was the Army 10 Miler. I ran and trained for it with my best friend. Someone who has held my hand through college, the birth of my first child and continually shows up when I need her most. Though she has stayed close to our hometown, I have moved from Hawaii to Germany and some places in between. We can't train together in the same way we did for that first race. But it does not mean we don't inspire and encourage each other. And though she has new friends to encourage her, train and race with, I own the memory of that very first one. Growing up is hard and sometimes it leaves you opening your front door and facing a place so new you will have to completely trust your GPS to get you back to it after lacing up your sneakers and heading out on that first run. Those first steps into the unknown can be lonely but the rewards can be amazing. Those first steps have taken me from my neighborhood in Burke, Va to the monuments of Richmond, from the hills of O'ahu to the vineyards of Stuttgart.  Currently I run with my dog past the historical "white elephants" of Ft. Benning GA, tracking my mileage with a "nike +" shoe pod because I don't know the area well enough to gauge distance on my own. And though I am in a completely new place, every mile I log makes it feel more like home. After all, "Home is where the the Run is....." and every run sticks tough to you.