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I was torn about trying to run this weekend or waiting until later in the week. The weather is not so good right now, so it took me about 5 hours to convince myself that running was actually going to happen. I checked the weather on my way out the door, and this is what it looked like:
Brrr. I re-thought my plan to run today, but then remembered this quote, and I was off.
It was fine once I started running, but a feels like of 12 is just really cold. And there was snow and a bit of ice covering the roads.
This was one of the most difficult runs I’ve ever done. It was cold, windy, snowy and icy, and snow was blowing out of the sky and up off the road and hitting me in the face most of the run. I had to run slowly at times because I was slipping on the road, and sometimes because the snow was so deep that I couldn’t move any faster. Oh- and I haven’t run that distance since my 5k race on Thanksgiving Day, so that definitely played into it as well. But, I still had fun! Here’s how my time looked:
Not so fantastic at all. If I was to gauge the success of my run on pace, this race would be an epic failure. But as I was running the last mile (which was particularly windy and tough), I started to think about how huge this race was for me, and how accomplished I felt. That’s a weird thought for someone who was running much slower than normal, right? But success isn’t just defined by time. I’ve never run in such bad weather before, and certainly not on road conditions like that! Last winter was the first winter I ran, and it was a really mild winter, so I never had to deal with much ice or snow. So, while I didn’t set any PRs, I’m still proud of how I ran and pushed myself in really rough conditions. So, in that regard, this race was a huge success! I do hope, however, that my future 5ks this year are a bit faster!
Now it’s your turn to share! How do you define “success” when it comes to fitness or racing?
The winter is definitely in full force right now and the gray days are piling up, so I thought it might be beneficial to address the issue of seasonal affective disorder! People with seasonal affective disorder can fall on a long sprectrum from feeling “off” or “blah-ish” to depression. The Mayo Clinic says the following about SAD:
“Seasonal affective disorder (also called SAD) is a type of depression that occurs at the same time every year. If you’re like most people with seasonal affective disorder, your symptoms start in the fall and may continue into the winter months, sapping your energy and making you feel moody. Less often, seasonal affective disorder causes depression in the spring or early summer.” – Mayo Clinic
SAD can present in a number of ways, including the following: loss of energy, hopelessness, social isolation, desire to increase sleeping time, loss of interest, and weight gain. Again, these can all be on a spectrum of intensity, from mild to severe.
If you struggle with SAD, here are a few tips:
- Look into Light Therapy. You can purchase a light box with lights in it that mimic outdoor light. This is incredibly helpful for those very gray weeks throughout the winter! These light boxes can not only help increase mood, but because they mimic daylight, can be incredibly beneficial for helping you to wake up in the morning. You can read more about light boxes here (and make sure to talk to your doctor before purchasing)!
- Don’t isolate! Depression often tells us to isolate, but the problem is that isolation is the fuel for depression. No matter how much you want to isolate, understand that it is counterproductive! Scheduling low-key activities with close friends would be beneficial, even when you don’t feel like it.
- Medication. Medication can be used to treat SAD. Talk to your doctor to determine if medicine might be helpful to you.
- MOVE! When we’re struggling with SAD, it can be difficult to have any desire to walk or exercise. Not only does exercise produce endorphins (think “happy”!), exercising continues to put your body and mind on a healthy track. Again, trying to exercise even when you don’t want to is healthy. Perhaps getting a workout buddy would be helpful to help motivate you! My mood has been SO much better since I’ve trained for half marathons throughout January, February, and March.
- Continue to eat healthy foods. Sometimes when we start to feel depressed, we eat increasingly more comfort foods which often aren’t healthy. The problem with that is that it makes us more sluggish and decreases our energy (on top of the SAD), making our situation even worth. Stocking up on protein, veggies, fruit, and other energy giving foods is important!
- Schedule things to look forward to! Having things to look forward to many nights a week (both “little things” and big things), can be helpful and motivating. Plan out a few things over the next few weeks that you can look forward to. Potential things might be a massage, manicure, extra exercise class at the gym, meeting with a personal trainer, dinner and a movie, an overnight trip, etc…
- Try to decrease catastrophizing language. It’s easy to start using extreme words to describe the current weather situation (“horrible, terrible, miserable”, etc…). These words tend to just rile us up a bit and increase how badly we feel. I wish I could impress upon each of you how absolutely important it is to watch the words that you choose to use.
- Embrace the shades of gray. Again, the idea behind this is to watch the words that you use, and work to not use extreme language. Go back and read my entire post on that, as I think it’s beneficial and helpful.
- Increase healthy thought patterns. This might be one of the most important things in dealing with SAD. The Thought Record, as well as the REBT self help form, might be helpful for you in this area.
I want to emphasize that if you believe that you have SAD or are experiencing symptoms of depression, contact your doctor or a local therapist. If you are having suicidal thoughts or thoughts of self harm, please call 9-1-1 or go to the hospital immediately.
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever experienced seasonal affective disorder? What do you do to try to deal with SAD?
*Disclaimer: This post is not intended to take the place of professional advice. As stated above, if you feel that you might have SAD or are experiencing depression, please contact a local therapist or doctor.
Happy Super Bowl Day! As I announced yesterday, I just officially started training for my 3rd half marathon! The beginning of the week took me on a short trip, so I was up early getting in workouts before things. This week has been a great mix of activities, and I’ve really loved that!
- Sunday: .5 mile swim, 1 hour chair pilates
- Monday: 1 mile walk, 45 minutes reformer pilates, 15 minutes chair pilates
- Tuesday: Rest- travel day
- Wednesday: 7.6 mile bike, 2:00 planks
- Thursday: 45 minutes pilates, 2:30 planks
- Friday: 20 minutes pilates, 2:30 planks
- Saturday: 3.1 mile run (race recap coming this week!), 2:30 planks
This week was a really great mix of core work, and all 3 triathlon events! I loved the balance I had this week, and wish that each week could be like this (except I’d like to walk more often because I love that!).
Now it’s your turn to share! What would your ideal week of exercise look like? How often do you hit that? What’re you doing for the Super Bowl?
Indianapolis Mini Marathon!
This is the first race I’ve ever run for the 2nd year in a row, so it’s exciting to know a bit of what I’m getting into with this race. Being the country’s largest half marathon, the excitement and crowds are absolutely amazing, and I’m excited to run in this environment again since I had so much fun running it my first time.
I’m trying to go into this 3rd half marathon training cycle smarter than I have the last two times. My body clearly can’t handle running more than twice a week (which very much annoys me), so I plan to train primarily through cross training (walking, biking, swimming, and pilates), and running 1-2 times a week. I will be training using the Galloway Method once again, and am doing physical therapy exercises most days of the week to try to deal with my IT band pain. I want to be smart and not try to push through injuries and pain. To be honest, my last two half marathon training cycles have been a bit rough (shin splints the first time, IT band pain the second time), and I really would like this cycle to go well. Either way, though, I know it’ll be fun!
I actually signed up for this race right after Thanksgiving, and “received the race” as a Christmas present from my brother (he also gave me the race last year!). He says it’s fun because it’s like he gets to be a part of me racing, and it’s fun for me to know how supportive he is! So, it’s an extra fun race for me to run!
Alright, off to train and envision the finish line.
At the finish line of the Indy Mini in 2012!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite part of training for a race?
Somehow January passed and I sort of feel like the month didn’t really exist (I’m not sure why though). The fact that I was sick for a week and a half of the month probably contributed to some of that. But, the month wasn’t a total loss by any means. Here’s what the month looked like:
- I shared about the importance of tracking your behavior before you change it. This might be a good time to look back at the post and readjust some of your New Years Resolutions…
- I shared a few new recipes: Root Beer Float Cupcakes (AMAZING!), Homemade Lactose Free Pizza, Maple Glazed Parsnips, Carrots, & Sweet Potato, and a Veggie and Bean Rice Dish.
- I shared a few mental health posts this month: On Being Present, Viewing Yourself As An Investment, and Acknowledging Your Hurt.
- I shared a few tips about how I personally find the time to exercise.
- I finally started my series on my “journey to running”
- Maybe the biggest thing: I shared my 13 challenges for 2013
An Update on my 13 challenges for 2013:
- The fitness related ones haven’t had too terribly much progress with being sick in the middle of the month.
- Going through my clothes: Not a single article of clothing has been cleared out of my closet yet.
- Typing up letters from war: CHECK! I finished typing up the letters from war, but now I need to type up the letters from the months of training leading to my grandpa heading to war.
- I’m really working on being present. I notice myself looking forward to things in the future, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, I try to pull myself back to the present. I try to slow down and watch the sunrise and sunset, take a few deep breaths outside instead of complaining about the cold, etc…
Now it’s your turn to share! What was your biggest accomplishment in January? What are you most looking forward to in February?
I’m thankful for heat! I was traveling the first part of the week, and turned my place down to 54 degrees. It was warm the first few days after I got back, but last night a storm front moved into the area. This morning when I woke up, this is what I found:
Brrr. And yes, that does say 54 degrees. It’s not so fun getting up when it’s that temperature. I’m so thankful for heat that I can flip on easily! I definitely try not to take it for granted.
I’m thankful for safety. So very, very thankful. I drove a little over 550 miles earlier this week over the course of 10 hours. During that time, I experienced ice covered roads, intense fog (I couldn’t see more than 100 feet in front of my car and couldn’t see oncoming traffic at all!), a torrential downpour (bad enough I could see the while lines on either side of my lane at times), and wind gusts that pushed my car around. Let me just say that it was one of my least favorite drives ever, and I was so happy to be home!
I’m thankful for a long weekend with my family! I had a really great time spending a few days with my family! We had a fun time exercising, baking, preparing for Valentine’s day, watching movies, and having a fire. I love these days!
I’m thankful for the internet. It’s SO convenient! Growing up I would have to head to the library frequently to gather information for papers and presentations. Now all I have to do is get on the internet and I have all the information I need at my fingertips! That’s convenience at its best. (Also- isn’t it funny how we complain when the internet is being slow even though it’s still so much faster than driving to the library, parking, looking up books, checking out, and driving home?)
I’m thankful for pilates. I absolutely love pilates, and am so happy that I found this form of exercise many years ago! While it’s definitely a great core exercise, it changes and strengthens my entire body. I find it to not only be somewhat relaxing, but also a really great total body work out. I just tried chair pilates for the first time earlier this week, and I’m already a huge fan!
I’m thankful for co-workers who become friends. Earlier today I went out with two former co-workers who turned into friends. I loved getting to catch up with them!
Now it’s your turn to share! Join in on the feeling of thankfulness! What are you feeling thankful for today?
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato
- 1 large parsnip
- 3 large handfuls of baby carrots
- olive oil (to coat veggies)
- sea salt (to coat veggies)
- 2 heaping tablespoons maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp of garlic powder
- 1/2-3/4 tsp of brown sugar
First I chopped up the parsnips, sweet potato, and baby carrots into bite size pieces. The smaller baby carrots I didn’t cut, but the fatter ones I cut in half length wise.
I tossed in a large bowl with extra virgin olive oil and sea salt until evenly coated, and spread on a cookie sheet.
I baked at 415 degrees for a total of 28 minutes. Here’s how I broke it down. I baked for 13 minutes, then mixed the veggies up and put back in for 7 minutes. After those 8 minutes, I took the veggies out and put them in a bowl with the premixed maple syrup, garlic powder, and brown sugar. After evenly coating again, I put back into the oven for another 8 minutes to set the glaze.
YUM! Of course if you don’t like any of these vegetables, you can take them out of the recipe. Red potatoes would also taste delicious in this dish!
Enjoy!
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s your favorite way to make foods you don’t like edible? Have you tried parsnip before?
©2013, Journey To Wellness, Caroline
I’ve wanted to share my journey to running since I first started this blog, and it’s taken me a year and a half to finally sit down and start typing this. Just a warning- this will definitely be a story in may parts, so you’ll have to follow along each week as I share another piece of my story. I think the best place to start the story is before the real story picks up, so I’ll be talking about life up until my junior year of high school!
Like many people, I was born into a really active and health conscious family. My dad was a runner throughout his 20s, and my mom occasionally ran with him. I was an active little kid, and loved to run around outside. I did ballet until first grade, when I switched to ice skating (for 4 years). In 4th grade, I picked up ballet again, and continued to dance until I started college. I played soccer throughout elementary school and played basketball in middle school. It wasn’t uncommon for me to hop in the pool throughout middle and high school and swim a mile for fun on a Saturday (I was also a lifeguard in high school). My point is, I was really active. I didn’t enjoy running much at all, though. I can count on one hand the number of times I actually went out on a ran during this time. I would tell people throughout this time that “I would much rather swim a mile than run a mile anytime”. Yeah. Crazy, right?
I remember in middle school we did the presidential fitness test at school, and I ran an 8:04 mile. I think it’s my fastest mile that was ever timed. Coincidentally, even after running for almost two years, I still can’t run a mile that fast.
So, I grew up in a very healthy and active household, and enjoyed dancing and playing sports. While I never trained for the run, I still managed to pull out a pretty great mile time. I guess something in it was natural?
And then November of 2003 hit…
Now it’s your turn to share! Were you an active child? What was your favorite way to stay active as a kid?
We are imperfect humans living in an imperfect world. Because of this, we will be hurt throughout our lives (unfortunately). It’s important that we learn how to handle being hurt so that we can grow from it, learn how to protect ourselves better, and be able to continue to live our lives well. I find that sometimes, people like to avoid acknowledging the hurt and the pain they’ve experienced. This can be for a number of reasons (i.e. they are in denial, they don’t want to “bring the past up” again, they don’t want to “make myself stressed and upset” again, they don’t want to be weak, or they just want to get away from the bad as quickly as possible). The thing is, on the surface, it makes sense to try to get away from the pain as fast as possible to help save ourselves. The problem with that is that, by doing this, we don’t have a chance to learn and grow from it.
Humans tend to react out of the hurts we’ve experienced. This is more likely if we haven’t worked through the hurt, and less likely if we’ve done the hard work of working through and growing from it. Feeling pain over the past is not weak. You have to be a strong and courageous person to face a hurt head on, admit it, and work hard to resolve the hurt as best as you can. While acknowledging a hurt might make life a little more painful in the moment, it will make life much less painful in the future.
I love this quote: “But wounds should not stay wounds. They need to heal. A relational wound needs to be resolved so that you get back to normal life- that is, being in healthy connections, being freed form the past, and exercising your grifts and passions… Time, by itself, heals very little. Broken bones need more than time, as do homes in disrepair and lives that have had a troubled relationship. What you really need in order to heal is support… The process of revisiting the past enables you to clear the decks of the previous relationship so you don’t carry old emotional junk into a new relationship” (Beyond Boundaries, Townsend, p 62-63).
We can’t get the support we need in order to process and heal without acknowledging that we have been hurt. We can’t “clear the decks” by ignoring. While acknowledging the hurt might create a bit more pain in the moment, it allows us to engage fully and healthily in future relationships, and minimizes the amount of junk from the hurt that influences the current relationship.
Acknowledging our hurt is good. But we can’t stay there forever, ruminating about it. Acknowledging the hurt is the first step in healing, but it is a very important step as well.
Now it’s your turn to share! What’s tough about admitting that we’ve been hurt in the past? Something for you to think about- what “junk” are you currently carrying with you from previous relationships that haven’t been resolved?
After two very blah weeks of working out, I finally am back to a more normal work out routine! Getting sick can really knock you off your feet! Here’s what the week looked like:
- Sunday: 1.5 mile walk
- Monday: Rest
- Tuesday: Rest
- Wednesday: 2.18 mile walk
- Thursday: .85 mile walk – travel day
- Friday: 1 hour pilates, 2.00 mile run, 1.58 mile walk
- Saturday: 45 minutes pilates, .50 mile walk
I’m happy to be starting to fall back into a more normal work out routine after a pretty blah-ish month of working out. Sometimes taking a break so you don’t burn out is also valuable, so I hope that I can enter my next training cycle feeling rejuvenated and excited!
Now it’s your turn to share! What was one exciting part of your last week?