The Little Things
April 2, 2013

Most of the time, march is a month that hardly seems to exist for me. It usually rushes by in quite a haze, a month that bridges winter and spring. Like I said, March tends to fly by in the blink of an eye, so at the end of the month I’m usually pretty surprised that anything has happened at all. Here’s how the month looked:

13 Challenges in 2013

We’re now a quarter of the way through the year so it’s interesting to see how “on track” things are:

Well, I’d call March a success, even if it was a crazy month that seemed to fly by. I fell into a rhythm with cooking and exercising, and both were really fun and enjoyable for me!

Now it’s your turn to share! What was your favorite thing about March? If you wrote goals for the year, how are you doing? What are you most looking forward to in April? 

April 1, 2013

Oh yes- I’m still talking about boundaries here. Here’s what we’ve talked about so far: Introducing Boundaries, Influence vs. Ownership, Respecting the No, and Health Attracting Health.

Today I’m going to talk about something that seems to be really hard for us humans to get (unfortunately easy and healthy don’t always line up). In life, there are a lot of things that happen to us that we never signed up for or ok’ed. A lot of bad or unfortunate things happen to us in life, things beyond our control. However, even in those situations where we had no say in what happened, we still have control over what we own.

No matter what is happening, we still control our thoughts, feelings, and actions. When we use a phrase such as the following, it is a statement of not owning our property: “__(insert name of person or situation)_____ MAKES ME so ___ (insert emotion)___”. When we have an explosive reaction to someone because “they make me so angry”, we are choosing to give up our control of our property and become a helpless victim.

If I want to control my happy emotions in life, then I also need to control my unhappy ones as well. This is where we tend to struggle. As humans we want to push any badness or “yuck feeling” off ourselves and onto someone else. Owning our reactions means that we stay in control of how we feel and behave. This doesn’t mean that you can’t be angry or upset. It does mean, however, that no one is “making me” anything. Because YOU own your reactions, YOU are the only one who can be responsible for them. YOU are responsible for owning the health of your reactions. NOT the other person, no matter what they did or what happened.

Here’s my challenge to you this week: OWN your reactions this week. When the crazy things of life happen that you can’t control, invest your energy in controlling what you can control (your thoughts, feelings, and actions). What for statements that something MADE YOU upset/angry/annoyed, etc… and take back control! OWN your reactions!

Now it’s your turn to share! What’s so difficult about owning our own reactions? What makes us want to push the “badness” onto someone else? Why don’t we acknowledge the control that we do have instead of focusing on the control we don’t have? 

March 31, 2013

First of all, HAPPY EASTER! I hope you each have a wonderful day celebrating with your friends or family. I don’t have any real set Easter holiday traditions because so often while growing up our spring break was over Easter and we were traveling. Anyways, I can’t believe we’re already getting as close as we are to the race (MAY 4th!!). I had planned to do two shorter runs this week instead of one long run, but I ended up getting a bad cold towards the end of the week and decided to scrap that run. Here’s what the week looked like:

It was pretty nice to have a cut back week for my IT bands, and I’m ready to get back into my more normal routine this coming week. A few more weeks before taper starts:)

Now it’s your turn to share! How are you celebrating Easter? Did you have any fun Easter traditions growing up? 

March 29, 2013

My junior year of college, I had the opportunity to travel to the Dominican Republic for spring break. This was really a dream come true. For some reason since I was in elementary school I had an intense desire to go to the DR, so when I had the opportunity I immediately snatched it up. I ended up going through an organization to help build a school associated with an orphanage there. Instead of a sterile building were the orphans were kept, there were houses on the compound, and each orphan was assigned a family of 10 to live with. I loved the warmth that this arrangement provided, and I was especially excited to help provide for them a building in which to learn! With the money that my team raised, we not only bought all the building supplies, but we also paid for a number of local men to help us with the project.

On the first day I was there I shoveled gravel into a concrete mixer for eight hours with a Dominican man. I remember him telling me that he couldn’t understand why we were here because that isn’t what he knew of American women from MTV. I loved that we were able to show them that not all Americans are those seen on MTV, and I loved the hours I got to spend talking to him. I didn’t love how I felt that next morning when I tried to get out of bed. Being in a bent over position shoveling for 8 hours when you aren’t used to doing that does a real number on your body!

DR CollageClockwise from Top Left: Shoveling gravel into a concrete mixer for 8 hours, playing with the little kids across the street, playing with a girl at the orphanage, and sunrise on Easter morning in Sosua.

There were a few little kids who lived in the houses across from where we stayed, so when we finished work for the day and had showered, we would go down and play wiht them. I knew (know?) a little spanish, and could communicate in basic ways with them. A little four year old boy started to call me his girlfriend, and at one point dragged me into his home to meet his parents. So there I was, an American girl standing in the middle of a strangers home in a little mountain town being introduced by a little 4 year old boy as his girlfriend. I tried, in my broken spanish, to explain who I was, and that I was, in fact, not his girlfriend or trying to creep on his son. He was adorable. In fact, I still have a picture of 4 of those kids on my refrigerator as a reminder of that amazing week I spent there.

The last day we drove to a resort in Sosua to spend Easter there before flying home. We hid Easter eggs for an egg hunt for kids in the town, and that was lots of fun to be a part of! After lunch, we headed to a local beach (not the one associated with the resort), and we spent a few hours snorkeling in the beautiful ocean while steel drums were playing on the beach. It was amazing, straight out of a movie. I’ll never forget it.

We didn’t end up sleeping that night at all. We stayed up all night sitting on the beach and looking at the stars. All too quickly our 4 am bus left for the airport, and we left the Dominican Republic. That week was forever etched on my heart, and I think of that time often. Every Easter week I think about the great blessing it was to meet the people I did and have the experiences I did on this wonderful island!

Now it’s your turn to share! What is your favorite spring break memory? 

March 28, 2013

Fact. I’ve loved this week. It slowed down a little and I’ve had the chance to have a little fun. So, with that, here are a few things I’m thankful for this week:

I’m thankful for the warmth and sunshine: It was a rough March weather wise (except for a few days), and I’m so thankful that the sun has been out! I love to see the sun shining off the water or hitting me as I head out for the day! I’m also glad for the extra Vitamin D it provides!

I’m thankful that my POTS isn’t the same as it used to be. A few days ago I posted a blog about how POTS changed my exercise and activity level. Let’s be honest, it wasn’t pretty. I’m so happy that, while I still struggle regularly with it, it’s not the same as it used to be.

I’m thankful for my brother. Ok. Really I’m thankful for both of them. But right now I’m specifically thankful for the youngest one. We work out together regularly, and I’m thankful he’s willing to drag himself out of bed to be at the gym at 6:30 to lift with me (even when I complain about it).

I’m thankful for my feet. I love to walk, especially now that it’s getting a bit nicer out! I’m so thankful for my feet that carry me from one place to another as I walk and train for my next half marathon!

I’m thankful for beautiful sunrises. I’ve missed a lot of sunrises in my life, mostly because I was never a morning person. However, over the last six months I’ve consistently woken up earlier in the morning, and because of that I’ve caught a lot of sunrises that I normally would’ve missed! Even though I miss the extra sleep, I’m thankful for the beauty in these beautiful, still moments of the day.

Now it’s your turn to share! What are you feeling thankful for today? Are you a sunrise or sunset type of person? 

March 27, 2013

Salads were an almost nightly fixture at my house, so I learned to love them very early on in life. I’ve found, however, that it’s tough to make salads when there aren’t lots of people around to eat everything before it goes bad. If I just choose to make a salad once or twice a week, I end up throwing away a lot of ingredients. Because of that, I avoided salads for a long time, much to my chagrin. Recently, I’ve decided to make salads a regular part of my life once again.

Here’s what I do: When I make salads, I end up eating it for most of the week. Because of that, I want as many veggies and protein filled foods as I can get to make it into a delicious and tasty meal!

Here’s a list of Ingredients I use in my salads:

Fresh Veggie Salad CollageFood Prep!

In preparation for the week, I cook and cut up each of the foods and place in separate containers. The chicken I put in a frying pain with hot oil and I cover both sides of the chicken with greek seasoning and red cayenne pepper. After it cools, I cut into small, shredded pieces. The night before, I dump all the ingredients into a large plastic container and put it in the refrigerator. The next morning, as I pack my lunch, I drizzle a little vinaigrette on top!

Fresh Veggie Salad

This is SUCH an easy lunch and one that I could eat multiple days of the week! Plus, doing it this way is much cheaper then buying a salad out at lunch! Besides the initial cooking and cutting of food on Sunday (which doesn’t even take half an hour), the work throughout the rest of the week is minimal! That’s my kind of meal!

Now it’s your turn to share! Do you eat salads very often? What are your “must haves” with salad? 

March 26, 2013

I think this post might only make sense if you’ve been reading for awhile and had a little background information. To make it easy, here are the critical posts:

To summarize, I was always a very active person. I played outside all year round, ice skated for 4 years, danced for 12 years, and played soccer and basketball. My entire family was and still is active. But then POTS hit in late January or early February of 2004. I started passing out and getting very dizzy upon standing (you can read why that happens here), and the constant nausea and migraines didn’t help. Needless to say, my work outs all but completely stopped. There was very little activity. I was worn out, exhausted, and there were days I could hardly do what I needed to. Gone were the days of me being active; the couch is where I found myself most of the time.

Especially those first months when I hadn’t found the diet and medications I needed to function well, exercising was impossible, and any activity was difficult. When you’re resting heart rate is already 120+, even walking up the stairs is a solid work out!

For years I “worked out” by going slowly on the elliptical or going on slow walks with friends. POTS won out for many years… that is, until 2010…

Coming next- how to exercise with POTS-

Now it’s your turn to share! Has something knocked you out such that you couldn’t be active even when you wanted to be? Is there anything specific you’d like to know about POTS? 

March 25, 2013

Oh boundaries. I know I’ve been singing the praises for boundaries the last few weeks, and today will be no different. I truly do believe that having healthy boundaries is the foundation for healthy relationships, and that’s why I talk about it so often. Here are my other posts on boundaries: Introduction to Boundaries, Influence vs. Ownership, and Respecting the No!

As we begin to implement boundaries into our life, when we stop taking responsibility for others’ property (their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors), and we stand up and take responsibility for our own property, we begin to get more and more healthy (yay!!). As we get healthier, we tend to notice the lack of health (the poor boundaries, the lack of respect for our no, etc..) in some people in our lives. This becomes frustrating.

As we get healthier, we tend to be turned off by the lack of health in others and more attracted to the health in people. Time and time again a client comes in and states that she doesn’t really want to be close friends with someone anymore because they just aren’t safe or healthy for her. This is important, because the people we choose to surround ourselves with truly does impact our life. If we surround ourselves with health, we are more likely to be healthy ourselves.

Who we surround ourselves with will impact our health. Health leads to health. As you become healthier, your “tastes in people” will likely also change, and this is a good thing. We, in a sense, train ourselves to be attracted to health because, as we become healthy, we want people in our lives with similar ideals, respect, and safeness.

Here’s my challenge to you this week: Evaluate the people in your life. Are they healthy people who will encourage the health within you, or are they unhealthy people who detract from your health? Maybe there needs to be a shift in friendships. I also challenge you to look at the health within yourself. What things within you encourage the health of the people in your life? What things take away from the health of others. Be honest with yourself, because that’s how we grow and change.

Now it’s your turn to share! What is attractive about the health of others? How can having unhealthy people too close to us be harmful? 

March 24, 2013

It’s been a fun week. i’m “stepping back” this week to give my it bands a bit of a rest, but I did do a new to me activity. On Saturday me hopped on a stair stepper to see what all the fuss was about. 70 floors later I stepped off the machine and thought the experience was interesting,.. Here’s what the week looked like:

So that’s that. No running but lots of fun activities. I’m happy to say that I went up in weight on a few of the exercises while lifting, and it’s great to see some progress. It was also interesting to try out the stair step. I’m not sure I would do it every week, but it definitely worked me out different!

Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever tried the stair step machine? Thoughts? What are you looking forward to this week?

March 22, 2013

Happy Friday and Happy Spring!! Oh- you missed the memo that it’s spring now? It must be because the feels like was 5 degrees yesterday morning. Brrr- so wrong for so far into March.

When I’m training, I love reading about other peoples’ races; it’s motivating and inspiring. Check out these great race recaps from the last week: Ashley, Meghann, Anne, & Monica.

23 Scientifically-Backed Ways to Reduce Stress Right Now

Online Resources To Improve Your Life

Vegan Birthday Cake: I’m not even vegan and I think I need to make this cake! It sounds delicious!

Regular Exercise During Young Adulthood Could Improve Brain Functioning Later On: Yet another reason that fitness is an important part of overall health.

What’s Really in McDonald’s Shamrock Shake: Spoiler alert- 54 ingredients! So crazy, right?

Now it’s your turn to share! Link up your favorite post from the week? What are you most looking forward to this first weekend of spring?