All I want for Christmas is Me

Oh hi there. Yes, you, over there - with the Lululemon pants and the Starbucks.   

You look like a fit, healthy, well-rested modern day woman who gets to the yoga studio and has amazing girls' nights out with your equally awesome friends. 

Um, this may be a little awkward, but have you seen my butt? It was last seen about 4 years ago heading home from a Yin class in Yaletown, wrapped in a pair of tight black yoga pants and securing numerous stares and compliments from passersby. 

I thought you may know where it is, since you seem to travel in the same circles as my butt did.

Image by mindwalker2076 via Flickr
This came up when I searched for 'Yin'
so I had to include it.

Does this conversation sound familiar? Do you wonder where your butt went? Your nice, tight booty, perky boobs, glowing complexion and expensively colored and styled hair left you when you had your kids? Your manicure and your pedicure and waxed legs, pits, eyebrows and bikini line hit the road when you stopped getting a full night of sleep and had no time to waste on silly things like self-grooming?

Well this year I've decided that unlike the usual vapid Christmas list, I'm going for broke. That's right - I want ME back!

A bunch of things need to happen to effect my desired result so I spent a good amount of time thinking about it and narrowed it down to 10 things. My list is compiled in order of importance but that mostly just indicates which 'surprise!' gift certificates I want to open first.

Husband! Listen up!

1. Professional hair color/cut at the uber hair salon that I used to frequent.

2. Mani/pedi including reflexology.

3. Hour long massage at a spa complete with cucumbers on my eyes, a facial and a fluffy robe. And little sandwiches, juice and a fruit plate.

4. Two or three really good nights of sleep. Uninterrupted by man, dog, child or alarm.

5. A trip to the MAC store for makeup application and the product that goes with it.

6. Full body waxing. Ok not the entire body but all the gross bits.

7. Dinner out with a few girlfriends. Including wine and a taxi home. Or limo if you want to go all out.

8. Time each week to go running or to the gym, at least one evening a week. That includes childcare.

9. A personalized full service bra fitting complete with new bras.

10. A stylus and illustrator program so I can ignore everyone and hide out in the office making funny
pictures and giggling maniacally to myself.

That's it! Please please please, I've been such a good girl this year. I've been covered in poop and food. I've endured tantrums and work stresses and a bad dog. A fucking TREE FELL ON MY CAR. I deserve this. I need this.

And if you see my butt can you please tell it I miss it and I've love for it to come home. Don't forget to mention that I will really commit this time - lots of squats and lunges, as many as it needs.

Image by Mat Honan via Flickr
These are not my butt.

Healthier Hot Chocolate

It's colder out these days even here in Northern California so I've had a hankering (<--lol) for hot chocolate. Old timey hot chocolate was pretty rich and sugary but I have discovered a bit of a healthier alternative.

Here is the recipe:

1 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
1 tbsp raw brown sugar (or a teeny drip of Stevia liquid)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
dash of cinnamon

(play with the amounts to suit your own taste)

Now - you could jam this into a cup and microwave it if you are short on time but it is much better if you warm it slowly on the stove. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a small saucepan, add a small amount of the almond milk and stir into a paste. Then add the rest of the milk and continue to stir over low heat until hot.

Pour into a mug, add a marshmallow and an extra sprinkle of cinnamon and you're done.

Ender loves this hot chocolate, it's lactose & soy free and the cinnamon has some anti-inflammatory properties. If I know my kid we'll be making this more than once over the Thanksgiving weekend, especially if the weather is nice enough to go out and do some outdoor activities.

I search so you don't have to!

I'm so sick that I could literally just crawl under the table and sleep for the day. E started a new preschool a few weeks ago and brought home his first 'new' cold/flu bug. So he's now home sick for the third day in a row since I'm super anal about not sending my kid to school to spread the germs. I don't need those dirty looks!

Unfortunately I think it hit me way harder than it did him - which is just more fodder for my conspiracy theory that toddlers are experimenting on us. I can't string more than one sentence together right now so I decided to do a little bit of link loving this morning.

Enjoy!!

Because your biggest worry when having relations with animals should be the risk of cancer. HuffPo

We totally should have done this to Ender. And my dog. Reddit

If pizza is a vegetable then I quit. I just quit. Boston.com

Ridiculous. Everyone knows that babies can handle a good solid stabbing. MSNBC

Just wait a sec before you cut that cord! BBC

Hey Robert Pattinson! I think someone liiiikes you ;P  Twihard Delight

Day Four Update

You know how this morning I wrote that post about how I wasn't really feeling Day Four as badly this time around? Well, apparently Day Four read my blog and was all offended and emasculated so it came out swinging around 1pm today to teach me a lesson in humility.

I now swear in front of all of you, with Day Four's shank at my throat, that it hurt a lot and sucked pretty bad all afternoon.

But I got to jam in a nap with Ender so I'm feeling a bit better now. If things follow the same path as the last fast I will wake up tomorrow feeling amazing and spry and happy. Shhhhh! Don't let Day Four hear that.

Juice Fast Day Four

Well, it's Day Four and I woke up with a bit of a headache this morning. Day Four is usually my 'bad' day which means that I really get the gross out and just want to lay in bed. Since this is a fast follow on the 40 days fast I expect I'll have much less toxic leakage cleansing to do.

My allergies are getting better but I'm not sure whether the pollen has lessened in recent days. Regardless, I'm feeling good and have decided to do five days. I don't want to drop weight and I can see on my tongue that the housekeeping is going strong already.

So that means I'd better have some good juice for my last morning tomorrow in order to get my energy up for the day. I dig that on a juice fast you can juice as much as you want. You can drink as much as you can hold, if that's what you need to do. I think on the first week of our 40 day fast we juiced a whole aisle of produce from Whole Foods. Goodbye paycheck!  ;)

I'm afraid that the juice may be feeding the growth of R's mustache for Movember. It's disturbing.

Ender has tomorrow off for Veterans Day so we'll be having some play time with his best buddy Devlin. Maybe some breakfast and park time if it's not raining or, if it is wet, we'll hunker down with a kiddo flick. Perhaps we'll finally get to splash in some puddles and test out E's new rain boots!

Gotta jet - bills to pay, doggy that needs feeding and love and some serious dusting and sweeping await. Jealous? Yeah, you are. I can tell.

Ender in an accurate representation of me on Day Four.

Juice Fast Day Three

I realized today that I should clarify my reasons for doing this follow-up fast.

It's NOT because I want to lose weight. In fact I'd really rather not. I don't want to buy new pants again. Well I do, but not at the sacrifice of the new pants I just bought a month or two ago. The only weight I regained after my 40 day fast was basically what I like to call 'poop weight' - the food that is currently being processed in my digestive tract. My reasons for fasting again are based around wanting the yummy, easily processed shot of nutrients and to give my body a bit of digestive time off to do some housekeeping work. This may be surprising - so brace yourself - I don't find it hard. I don't feel deprived or hungry at all.

Fasting is not necessarily synonymous with dieting. Many cultures fast for cultural or religious purposes that have absolutely nothing to do with losing weight. I am not doing some bunky boxed 'detox' or 'cleanse' from a box picked up at the local health food store.

I know many trainers and nutritionists out there are shocked and dismayed that someone would do such a horrible thing as not eat solids for a short period of time. What's funny and contradictory is that some of these same people actively promote a 'primal' lifestyle. I suspect primal man didn't eat every two hours every day of his life. I'm guessing he spent some time feeling hungry and viewed food largely as a means of survival.

North American culture tends to celebrate gluttony, evidenced by the popularity of eating contests, all you can eat food bars and TV shows like Man Vs Food. I find those things pretty disturbing. I certainly don't want my son growing up with the belief that he should eat everything on his plate just because it's on there. I want him to learn to eat mindfully and nutritionally. He likes sweets just like any kid but many times he also chooses veggies over sugar. I'm so proud of his eating habits even when he's being finicky. Of course he's not allowed to fast and doesn't even really know what that is - he's a growing boy! He can make his own decisions on that when he is much much older. Like maybe around 60 ;P

I really want for people to keep an open mind about their own nutrition, do lots and lots of research, talk to experts and find a plan that really works for them. Don't buy into a cookie cutter plan that is supposed to work for everyone. We are all different! Try new things. If you try a juice fast and hate it, then don't do it! Easy as pie. If you love it, then maybe incorporate it healthfully into your life.

Make peace with yourself, your food and your lifestyle and again, above all, stop for a minute and listen to your body. Really really listen. If you feel like crap most days maybe something needs to change.

Anyhoo - that's just my opinion and my 2 cents. I also believe in climate change FWIW.

Stop and smell this happy rose from my yard. 

Juice Fast Day Two

Today went fairly well. Didn't feel hungry after having my kale/pineapple juice this morning. However, Ender is sitting in front of me dipping a home-made chocolate chip cookie in chocolate milk as his bedtime snack and I really want to have a taste of the chocolate.

Some fatigue got me around 2:30 this afternoon and luckily Ender was ready for a nap after we played quite hard at the park so I took a nice little sleep with him. R is working late at the office so E is going to crash with me in bed tonite as he says his tummy is feeling a bit sore. Hopefully he's just eating so much for his growth spurt that it's just working overtime and not a new bug from school.

If I can get another good night's sleep under my belt for tomorrow I think I'll be set for the nastiness of days 3 and 4. Thanks to my allergies I already had a pretty epic cleansing of the sinus cavities this evening. You're welcome!

I can't wait to see how the next 8 days play out. Especially Friday with Tricia - what could possibly go wrong with me all goofed up on a fast under her wonderful influence?

Night!

Day One Juice Fast - Update

So I'm at the end of day one. Did I mention earlier that I'm not allowed to have caffeine? I can't remember what I said because I'm not allowed to have caffeine. That stuff is so good but so bad. I had decaf with stevia and a little almond milk this morning to try to ease the transition which is ok - I'm not actually craving any coffee but I do feel pretty wiggy.

The hardest part of today hasn't been actually craving any food, it's been trying to remember not to have a bite of something that I give to my son. If any of you parents want a big wake up call on your caloric intake, just go ahead and write down every single mouthful of food you put in your face hole for a week or so. Or even just a day - you will be shocked at how many extra calories you are taking in just by 'sampling'.

I realized just how hard the food addiction had gripped me again while I was making Ender dinner tonite. My first reaction was that I should need to have some but after stopping and listening to my body I realized that I wasn't hungry in the least! Eating can be such a habit which, unlike breathing, isn't really immediately necessary. Don't get me wrong - we need to eat to live but at least for me that doesn't mean I have to have three square meals and two snacks per day. I just don't. It always depends on what I'm doing, where I'm going, how much I exercised, what I already ate today and a plethora of other things.

So at the end of the day I am sitting here with a mild head fog but otherwise doing just fine on Day One. Felt a bit hungry around 1pm but a glass of juice and a glass of water cured that. Currently enjoying a peppermint tea which helps, by the way, with any sort of nausea that can pop up in the early days of fasting.

Tonite will be an early night for me so that I can attack Day Two with the same commitment as Day One. I hope Rich hasn't cheated today. Of course he is participating in Movember again this year so I should be able to spot any cookie dust in the 'stache.

Juice Fast - Day One

Ok so we are on Day 1 of our new 10 day juice fast. I am super lucky because my husband is the 'Juicer'. He likes to have control over the Breville which is fine by me because I don't want to clean it. Our son thinks it is too loud and demanded that Rich stop making 'salad juice' this morning.

I wasn't sure what the concoction this morning consisted of and with us scurrying around trying to get out the door for preschool drop off and work I forgot to ask the Juicer. My endeavors to find out resulted in this lovely Skype conversation:


[8:45:46 AM] Tracy: Ah needs ta know whatcha put in the jooce this mornin'.  fer mah blohg.
[9:11:38 AM] Rich: handful of baby carrots
[9:11:44 AM] Rich: stick of celery
[9:11:55 AM] Rich: semi-wilted head of arugula
[9:11:58 AM] Rich: 2 apples
[9:12:07 AM] Rich: handful of grapes
[9:12:12 AM] Rich: pee

As an aside - all you people who wonder how Rich puts up with my delightful oddness now know it goes both ways.

So that's what we had this morning - about 3/4 of a large glass of juice each. I'm feeling pretty dang good right now - it gave me a nice feeling of internal cleanliness pretty quickly. No, I don't mean I pooped right away - I mean that I feel good, energetic and focused. All from a big shot of nutrients that I've been missing.

Rock me with the salad juice!  Oh also - I'm pretty sure there was no pee in there.

How I Juice Fast

Disclaimer:  I am not a medical or nutrition expert. This post contains my experiences on my own personal juice fast. Consult your own experts. There are a lot of resources out there for directions and advice on how to go about completing a juice fast. I'll include a few good links that I used at the bottom of this post.


Juice fasting. Doesn't sound too hard right? Well - that's both right and wrong. It really depends on your motivation - why are you doing this? - and your own personal will power. I want to stress that you can't go into a fast half-hearted and only partially committed. If it's not something that you are stoked to do then you will likely fail. Whatever your reasons, make sure they are good ones that will get you through the first rough days.

I'm not going to write a whole how-to guide but here are my personal rules of thumb:

1. Make your own juice. Buy a good juicer if you are really serious or borrow one from someone. We use a Breville.
2. Use organic produce as much as possible.
3. Include spinach &/or kale with every juice you make.
4. If your juice tastes like shit, try adding a carrot.
5. Use a ratio of 5:2 - 5 vegetables for every 2 fruit. Keeps the natural sugars lower.
6. Apples, beets and carrots make very sweet juice.
7. If you have a sensitive stomach, avoid using a lot of citrus. I avoid grapefruit altogether.
8. You cannot juice avocados and bananas.
9. You cannot juice an In & Out Burger.
10. No caffeine, sugar, wheat or anything solid.  Just juice, veggie broth, water and herbal teas.
11. Set a realistic goal. Don't pick 40 days if you've never fasted before. Start with 3 or 5 or maybe 10.
12. 'They' say you will lose an average of 1 pound per day of fasting. Do what feels right, everyone is different. I did not lose a pound a day over my 40 day fast. I lost 28.8 and gained about 3 pounds back in the month and a half since.

So you ready to juice? I will be starting a 10 day fast tomorrow and will post a bit of an update about what I did and how I felt at the end of each day. It will be easier for anyone reading this to follow along in smaller incremental steps than to read once huge TLDR post right now.

Wish me luck!

Resources:

The book we read before our fast.

The Stages of Detox.

How to break a juice fast. This site has some really great recipes too.

Ketosis explained. What your body does when you fast.

Time for Another Juice Fast

Wow - things have been so busy around here that I have kind of let myself slide health-wise. I haven't been to chiro in ages and have started eating some fairly crappy quick food again.

Rich and I did a 40 day juice fast in August/September this year and it was a truly amazing experience both in terms of how much extra fat we lost as well as a complete reboot of our taste buds and eating habits. But I think we both knew the cravings for kale wouldn't last much past the reintroduction of solid foods. We committed to be aware of our bodies and to be mindful of when we started to slip.

Well, we're slippin'! I ate cinni-mini crunch cereal on Friday and drank WAY too much wine on Halloween. Considering we estimated that we should do anywhere from three to ten days of fasting to reset ourselves every month or two it's about time we jumped in. But you know what is weird? Instead of dreading it and feeling sorry for myself for having to do it, I'm really stoked about juicing again! My body felt so much better and my clarity of mind was tenfold.

I have to be careful with timing since we're trying to conceive and the experts say one should never fast when pregnant (or breastfeeding) and I know we're not right now (wuh wuh wuh sadface) so we're going to do 10 days again starting tomorrow!  Wish us luck!

UPDATE:  Maybe 5 days ;P

Buckwheat Bake

What do you eat after a good hard morning run or workout? This!

Buckwheat Bake Recipe

1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1 tbsp buckwheat groats*
1 tbsp vanilla protein powder
1/8 tsp baking soda

1 small to medium sized banana
1  tbsp vanilla unsweetened almond milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the buckwheat flour, groats, protein powder and baking soda in a bowl. Add in the banana, almond milk, egg and vanilla extract. Mix well with a fork.

Grease a microwaveable dish with butter and then pour batter in. Jam some berries on top (frozen blueberries, fresh raspberries or blackberries, etc.) and microwave on high power for 2 1/2 to 3 minutes depending on your microwave.

Serve drizzled with honey or with a bit of organic peanut butter. YUMMY.  It's very filling so one of these will easily feed 1 or 2 people depending how hard you worked.

It's gluten free and Ender likes it so it's toddler approved!

* Buckwheat groats are whole, raw, unroasted buckwheat kernels. When the kernels are roasted they are known as kamut.

Mommy Running in the Rain

It is supposed to finally rain today! Even though I've been lied to all week by the weatherman I'm holding out hope that it will happen. Yes, they have lied specifically to me. Ok so they didn't but the betrayal is just as painful.

Hmm, maybe this Benadryl does make me a smidge goofy. I apologize in advance for the mind gaps that might happen during this post.

Anyways - back to the running and rain. I want so very badly to go for a barefoot run outside in the rain. There is nothing so fresh and cleansing as getting out and being part of the weather, watching the dust and grit and pollen getting washed away. The smell of the wet grass and flowers, the feel of it beneath my feet is like being transported to a different place. If you live in a fairly warm climate like here in the San Francisco bay area (but not under the fog blanket) it can get a bit boring just having sunny days all the time. Don't get me wrong - I love love love the sun. I wouldn't trade it for the world. But a little rain is necessary, right? If we weren't meant to be in the rain now and then we wouldn't be waterproof. So get out in it and enjoy if you can (and dress appropriately says the mommy in me).

If it happens I promise to take and post some pics. Right now I have to attend to my child who seems to have gone feral.

Side note:  I've gotten a few questions about barefoot running and about marathons and training.  As to the barefoot part - I will write a post this week about it and include some handy links and resources.  As to the marathon - you are asking the wroooong girl.  But there are some great websites like Runners World and if you want to check out a good blog for mommy running/training check out Runninghood.

Blah. And Baby Pandas!

You know how you know you're sick? You pick a t-shirt off the floor - one that you wore all day yesterday, including for your sweaty sick afternoon nap - and smell it to see if you can get away with wearing it again today instead of having to walk all the way to the closet for a new one. I couldn't - it smelled too bad.

While I was out dropping Ender at school, my dog stole Ender's cereal that he left on the table, bowl and all and then raided his Halloween stash and hid several candies in the couches. I don't care. I am going to lay on the couch anyways and probably get up later with a lollipop and a Muskateer stuck to my ass and my dog looking at me all shifty-eyed and accusing.

Unrelated:  Here's a picture of a baby panda.

Thx Reddit for the Baby Panda this Morning.

Allergens Hate Me

I have a man cold/man allergies. Either way it's making me nauseous to watch Ender spin in circles and my equilibrium is way off. Ick. You are duly warned that disgusting descriptions of my illness are to follow as I whine around and feel sorry for myself. Good night!

Yes, I DO get bloated from allergies.  Shut up!

Family Activity - Stanford Dish

My husband and I have always enjoyed getting outside in the fresh air, especially in the sunshine. We used to live in an area that allowed us to park the car at home and walk pretty much anywhere we needed to go - that's the great thing about living in downtown Vancouver in beautiful British Columbia. Restaurants, doctor, dentist, groceries, work, shopping - everything within blocks of each other. But it rained a lot and it's not always so fun going hiking with umbrellas and rain boots. Summer time in Van is an amazing opportunity to take advantage of all the outdoor activities that the area has to offer so if you have never visited I strongly urge you to do so.  Don't just go for the skiing in winter (which is also world class), make sure you check it out in the hot months as well.
Since we've moved to California we still feel very fortunate to be able to spend a massive part of the year doing things outside.  Even when it does rain it's not that heavy and doesn't last long so we're working our way through a hiking bucket list.

Prairie Dog hole, or E burying his poop?  U decide.

This past Saturday we decided to finally check out the Stanford Dish hiking trail. It was a nice balmy 77F/22C in Palo Alto, probably a bit hotter out on the trail.  The trail itself is hilly with some pretty steep sections and runs at about a 4 mile loop.  You can't go off of the now paved trail as there is a restoration project ongoing. All extra trails are closed, probably permanently in order to restore the habitat.  That also means no bikes and no dogs allowed.


It was busy in the sense that there were lots of people out enjoying the scenery but you could definitely wander along by yourself. It took about 2 hours to do the whole loop since Ender was working on finding things for his Science Journal. He was particularly enthralled with the mounds left by the prairie dog holes and needed to inspect the ones beside the trail regularly. We saw prairie dogs, hawks, squirrels and other birds.
The trees are super cool, all gnarly and huge.

The Dish.  It's frickin' HUGE.

Ender did very well especially going uphill but he did take breaks in the jogging stroller and while he rode we jogged. The Dish itself is uber impressive. The thing is H-U-G-E. I need to find out if they ever do tours there since E was very disappointed that he couldn't get closer.

After posing for many doofy photos near the Dish we carried on with snacks, had some more water and were looking forward to some more downhill stretches. It wasn't long until we rounded a corner and spotted this!!

Reservoir 2.  6 million gallon water tank equipped with solar panels.

Another H-U-G-E structure. As we came closer Rich was talking about how much he loves exploring and the outdoors and how it's sort of magical to see what is out there and wonder whether there are underground secret alien labs and military installations. We saw this round thing with white bumps sticking up and he said 'See!  Like that! I wonder what it is, it could be blah blah or blah blah....'. I squealed 'PEGGLE! It's a giant Peggle board!! So astronauts can play Peggle from space!'

Turns out it's a reservoir. So they say.

A little further on there are some probably pretty expensive homes with gardens that back up close to the trail. I would think that they could afford to fix up their fences but whateves.

E concentrating on doing up the
harness strap himself.
Me being an idiot.

There were quite a few runners there, sweating their tushies off which is to be expected considering the heat and hills but there was one guy that we passed twice. He was my kind of runner. He was obviously winded, hot and having the time of his life. Both times we passed him he was heading uphill and had the biggest smile on his face, just in his own world, runnin'. I heart him.



All in all it was a pretty fantastic experience. Be warned that if you decide to go check it out, parking can be a problem. We lucked out and got a spot on Stanford just a few minutes walk away from the gate but I've read that it can be a bit of a nightmare. There are different ways to enter so check out a couple of guides like Bay Area Hiker.

Prairie Dog Bill. I'm not entirely sure that's
his name but I thought it fit.

You can never go wrong with getting your family out for some fresh air and letting your child explore the outdoors and his surroundings. Try to get out in nature as often as you can, you'll never regret it once you're there and it will help to instill a sense of an active lifestyle into the kid(s). We were really proud of how much walking Ender did and it was great to see his sense of wonder with even the smallest things.



Plus - he napped really well in the car afterwards.  Yippee!

Night night.

Of My (semi) Return to Running

I love how the title makes it sound like at some point in the past I was a marathoner.  Not true.  Hard to believe since I always move with such speed and grace.  My husband probably just shot liquid out his nose while reading this.  According to him our son gets his clumsiness from me, as if a thing like that could be inherited.   Can it?  Hrmmm.  Anyways...

Running used to be really fun for me from the time I was little, as it is for most children.  I was really good at track and joined the school track teams right up until Grade 8 when I got busy with other things like friends, guitar lessons and creating art.  I didn't try distance running again until I was in my early 20's and then it was just something I thought I should do to get in better shape.  Weight loss was not a goal as I was a rail until I hit the dreaded 30, I just figured everyone was running so why not me?  I'll tell you why not - it hurt like hell!  Running sprints around bases a few times a week while playing softball was no big deal, but anything that involved prolonged time/distance was completely out of the question.  I tried different surfaces, tracks, trails, grass - nothing helped.  Shin splints would pop up about 20 minutes into my run and last for days if not weeks.  Stretching didn't really help, different expensive running shoes didn't help and running-specific strength exercises didn't help.  So I gave it up and chose to do cardio on step machines, gliders and rowers.  Living in rainy Vancouver meant all this cardio had to be done in a gym.  I hate gyms.  They suck my soul unless it is a gym used specifically by trainers and their clients - good trainers, not your random 24 Hour Fitness trainers.  No offence to them, it's just more crowded in those places.

Moving to California triggered a chain of events that led me to rekindle my romance with running. The weather meant that I could go outdoors for my workouts and spend lots of time biking on the Bay Trail. A mommy friend recommended a running class run by a chick named Jen. While checking out her website, I noticed that she also offered personal training. Considering I was still packing a bunch of pregnancy weight I decided to hire her.  Best decision I have made in a long long time.  She is an amazing and supportive person, mother and trainer who seriously knows her shit.  After a couple sessions she had nailed my weak spots and come up with a plan to strengthen my hips/legs and to correct my supinating left ankle by having me run barefoot, not only correcting the ankle but changing my stride from a heel strike to a mid foot strike.  I started running completely barefoot doing laps around the soccer field next door and then went and bought my Merrell pace gloves (an excellent women's minimalist shoe with a Vibram soul). No bullshit - my strike changed and my ankle corrected in about 2 weeks. And best of all? Pain free. Heaven.  

Then we discovered that my hamstring is goofed on my left leg as well, likely as a result of a gimpy ankle and repetitive strains over the years. But nothing that can't be fixed with a little time and attention. Since that has mostly healed now I'm about to embark on another C to 5K plan which will likely go fast, followed by a bridge to 10k.  

I doubt I'll ever run a marathon. I admire those who can figure out their paces and train and race and do well.  It's just not really for me. It's kind of exciting to see how far/fast I ran after the fact, but I just don't want to watch the clock while I'm out there. I play games with myself to see if I can sprint to that next rock, then jog to the tree, then circle the hill three times, then run over to check out that overlook there.  

Running is now so completely joyful for me. If you have never run barefoot, I urge you to try it. Go out early on a sunny morning, while there is still dew on the grass, and run a few laps around a field.  Don't think about running or your pace, think about how the grass feels, how it smells, how exhilarating that early morning air is. Think about how free you are. And then remember that feeling - remember the last time you had that. I'll bet you were pretty young. My advice? Get out there, get running, don't worry about it. Be a kid.