Weekly Mileage

Last week was my highest mileage yet and I managed to exercise 5 days again. Slow but steady progress.

I went running with my friend Wednesday afternoon. We unintentionally ran the first mile faster than either of us had run a mile in quite some time. Which is good, but we (I, really) couldn't keep it up. I pooped out and the second two miles were a lot slower.

I'm still fighting my tired legs, but I managed to push through and keep up my workouts. Though what was supposed to be long slow distance on Saturday, just ended up being slow. I didn't have the energy for long.

We hiked on Thursday and found a bridge over a small stream. Sunshine taught River how to play Pooh Sticks, but it evolved into Pooh Leaves when the stream proved too shallow and rocky for sticks to float freely. It was lots of fun and the kids are looking forward to going back and playing in the water some more.

we also found lots of fresh beaver sign

Weekly Mileage
Monday: treadmill walk 3.14 miles
Wednesday: run outside 2.93 miles
Thursday: hike 1.64 miles
Friday: treadmill walk 3.26 miles
Saturday: treadmill walk and run 3.5 miles
        total mileage: 14.47 miles

hike #7 towards #52hikechallenge
73.53 miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

We were in Costco the other day and saw this stack of kayaks.

River said "boat in cart" and patted the <full of food> cart behind him.

He repeated himself several times- he was pretty sure that box would fit in the cart with all our food. Unfortunately for him, but there's no way it would fit. Though it did get me thinking again about kayaks and whether this year will finally be the summer we get kayaks....

GAPS v.2017 Week 5 Intro

pretty Valentine's tulips

Much to Sunshine's disgust, there was no Valentine's candy in our house this year. Partly because I've been super busy and forgot about getting any for the kiddos (oops), partly because I didn't want any candy in the house. I'm doing better about avoiding tempting foods, but if it's sitting around the house I can see it becoming a problem.

I'm continuing to lose weight- 12 pounds so far! I'm really working at identifying when I want to snack and why I'm feeling like I need to eat something. This is actually more a Whole30 thing than a GAPS thing, but it applies because snacking when I'm stressed or tired is an issue for me and I'd like to make it a non-issue.

As I mentioned Monday, Thursday I felt pretty crummy after my long run. I'm hoping that was a one-off, but we'll have to wait and see.

I'm still hanging out in the early phases of GAPS Intro. Any time I try to add something I end up not feeling great, so I take it back out. I'm ok with it though, since I want to experience as much healing as possible and what I'm eating really affects whether my body is healing or attacking itself. Slow and steady wins the race.

Weekly Mileage

looking down the hill

Last week was another good workout week, though not quite as good as the week before.

Monday I walked on the treadmill and Wednesday I went for a nice run with my friend C. It was cold and windy, but once we got onto the tree-lined gravel road, the wind wasn’t an issue.

We started running, and it felt good. The first mile is a mix of uphill and downhill, but the entire second mile is one long, long incline. Thankfully it’s not steep, but it is relentless. Despite that, we kept running. We turned around at the two mile mark and coasted downhill for a mile (the benefit of going uphill first) before tackling the mix of uphill and downhill again.

We ended up running 3.75 miles, then walking the final quarter mile back to her house as a cool down. It was an unexpected workout for both of us, but it felt good, so we just kept going.

The only problem was that while the run felt good at the time, the next morning I didn’t feel so good.

I was exhausted. I didn’t have sore muscles, but I was exhausted. Tired in my eyes exhausted, which I haven’t felt in awhile.

I’ve been trying to figure out why. I’ve pushed myself harder before, so I don’t think it has to do strictly with my run. I suspect it has to do with my diet. I’ve been doing GAPS for the last month now and this was the hardest workout I’ve done in that time. Physical exertion while low carb is a whole different ball game than physical exertion while not low carb. But I need to stay on GAPS for the healing, so I’m going to have to figure out how to make it work. Lasttime I did GAPS I trained for a half marathon, but I don’t remember feeling so crummy back then.

I took it easy on Thursday, so we didn’t go on a hike like we normally do. Friday I felt better, though still not 100%. I forced myself to walk on the treadmill Friday but didn’t feel up to doing more.

Saturday I did some speed work on the treadmill. My legs felt like I’d run a marathon- they were that tired. I managed a decent workout, but it was not as intense as I’d hoped. I just didn’t have the energy. Though a less intense workout was probably a good idea so I didn’t end up feeling worse again.

I was disappointed about missing our hike last week. We couldn’t reschedule it because Thursday morning is the only available time for us to hike. I was also disappointed that I was feeling so blah. It’s been several months since I’ve felt this bad, and it was a rude awakening. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Weekly Mileage

Monday: 3.21 miles walked on the treadmill

Wednesday: 4.1 miles run outside

Friday: 3.18 miles walked on the treadmill

Saturday: 3.18 miles treadmill speed work

              total miles: 13.67 miles

6 hikes of 52 for #52hikechallenge

59.06 miles of 365 for #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

I feel like Ocean is turning out to be the daredevil of the family. I'm not sure if he's just trying to keep up with his big brother and sister, or if he just really wants to explore everything.

Regardless of his motivation, he is always doing things that I'd rather he not. Climbing on everything, tipping his chair, turning around in the shopping cart. The safety belt is still attached snugly, but he's managed to turn himself completely around. This wasn't the first time, either, it's just the time I thought to take a picture. He thinks it's hilarious.

January Mileage

our little treehugger. he ran up to this tree, hugged it, and told me to take a picture :)

A few days ago I realized I never posted a summary of my January mileage.

It wasn't a spectacular month, but I didn't do too badly, either. Two of the hikes listed below were only about half a mile each, so they're not being counted towards my 52 hike challenge hikes. I did count them towards my 365 mile challenge mileage though.

I didn't run any races in January (and I won't be in February, either) and it has been a nice change of pace after all the races I ran last year.

My main focus in January was trying to figure out how to fit workouts in around everything else I'm cramming into my life right now. As you can see from the number of workouts, I wasn't super successful with that. It's a work in progress.

January's mileage:

4 treadmill workouts + 6 hikes + 1 outside run + 0 races = 22.10 miles total
52 hike challenge: 4 hikes
365 mile challenge: 22.10 miles

GAPS v.2017 Week 4 Intro

the crazy weather this winter has kept the maple sap from running, but our black walnuts are producing lots of sap

I've completed four weeks of GAPS Intro and I'm feeling pretty good. I'm still hanging out mostly in phase 1. I've tried adding egg yolks and they were problematic. I've tried a little plain yogurt, but that was also problematic. Avocado was fine, so I've added that in, but that's the only thing I've really added in.

In 4 weeks I've lost 11 pounds! It's so nice to see the scale ticking down instead of up, like it had been doing for the last year or so.

I've read the Whole 30 book and it talks about changing how you eat and your relationship with food. As I've thought about what I'm eating and why I'm still having food issues I've realized a few things.

1. Snacking doesn't work for me. Habit-wise, if I start eating a snack I have a hard time stopping. Despite that, I still like to have a little something in the evening after dinner. At this point, that means a spoonful of natural peanut butter or a couple apple chips. Peanut butter is a gray area- almond butter is allowed, but I prefer the flavor of peanut butter. I shouldn't really be eating the apple chips- I should be doing applesauce instead, as it's much more digestible. I'm trying to eliminate snacking altogether, but am being hindered by the next issue:

2. Increasing my mileage while doing GAPS makes it harder to not look for snacky foods. More running means more calories needed, which triggers the urge to eat more. Since I want to lose weight, I have to be even more careful with my eating.

3. Food temptations will be my downfall if I'm not careful. I'm getting better about staying away from things I shouldn't eat, but meal times can be tricky. It was too easy to eat some of the boys' grain free bread at lunch or dinner since I was hungry and it was there. I've realized that having grain free bread in the house for the boys was too much temptation for me. So I've switched the boys to gluten free bread since the gluten free bread is not a temptation for me.

Weekly Mileage

Last week was my highest mileage week since the last days of Dec 2015/first days of Jan 2016. Yeah, that was more than a year ago. It felt good though. I do need to check my totals before my last workout of the week so I can hit some round numbers instead of just under. Last week I was at 10.96 miles, this week I hit 13.92 miles. So close to 11 miles and 14 miles...

we found a bat house

I finally worked out 5 days in one week, which is what I'd like to be doing. I did two treadmill walks, two treadmill runs, and a hike. I haven't been running on the treadmill lately, but this week I bit the bullet and did it. And it wasn't as bad as I remembered it being. In fact, on Saturday I ran 3.1 miles and only stopped once, to comfort Ocean when he tried to get on the treadmill with me and it didn't work out too well for him (he's ok).

the underside of the bat house

My workouts were encouraging. I've got a 5k in a month and I'd like to get a PR under 33 minutes. I ran this race last year and came close to a PR even though I'd been sick for several months and hadn't trained properly. If I can stay healthy and keep my training up I have a decent chance of bringing my time down quite a bit. Under 33 minutes is my main goal, under 30 minutes is my stretch goal.

Ocean just couldn't stay awake during the hike

We went back to the nature park and hiked some of the other trails. It's too early in the year for foliage and flowers, but we did get to see a number of cardinals flocking near a bird feeder. One advantage of the lack of undergrowth is that we can get an idea of the lay of the land. Once the trees and bushes leaf out we won't be able to see much of anything.

there was at least a dozen cardinals in the bush, but the females blend in and are hard to see

We found an old spring while hiking, which was quite neat. The sign said that the family that lived nearby used the spring for water and to keep food cool. I'm curious as to where the family lived. There is an old farmhouse near the parking lot, but it's a little far away from the spring to be convenient for food storage and water. So now I'm wondering if they lived closer, but the house has disappeared into the underbrush. We didn't see any old foundations, so who knows.

there's just a little bit of water under the leaves

Weekly Mileage
Monday: 3.1 miles treadmill walk
Wednesday: 3.31 miles treadmill run and walk
Thursday: 1.24 mile hike
Friday: 2.26 mile treadmill walk
Saturday: 4.01 mile treadmill run and walk
          total miles: 13.92 miles

hike #6 for the 52 hike challenge
45.39 miles towards the 365 mile challenge- all caught up now

Sunday Funny

Ocean thinks it's hilarious to lean back in his chair at the table, so we've taken to lining up the stools behind him to keep him from falling. He has fallen a time or two, but it doesn't deter him from tipping his chair.

Even River knows to line up the stools quickly when Ocean starts tipping back. "uh oh, baby Ocean fall!"

As you can see, baby Ocean doesn't care if he falls- he's too busy having fun.

Business Progress

Obstacles in life, whether on the trail or in business, can be overcome. Sometimes we go over them, sometimes we go under, and sometimes we go around them.

A couple weeks ago I finally got ungated in Beauty. I started trying back in November and I needed it to happen within 90 days of my first invoice purchase (also in November). You need to submit three invoices from a wholesaler with 36 items. If it took too long to get approved, I'd have to purchase more inventory, which I didn't want to do since the inventory I'm purchasing does not have a great potential for profit. I pretty much lose money selling those items, but it makes it possible to sell a much wider variety of items, so it's worth it in the long run.

The main reason I kept pursuing the beauty category is that I have some private label ideas that I can't pursue if I can't sell in the beauty category. Now that I'm approved to sell in the beauty category I can move forward with those ideas when I have the funds available.

In between resubmitting my paperwork to Amazon repeatedly I've also been working on my other businesses.

I've realized that my past reluctance to be involved in social media is slowing me down a lot. I'm just not familiar enough with the various platforms to do even some of the basic things. So I'm learning the basics, but as soon as I can afford it, I'm going to hire a VA to handle all my social media tasks. I need to have a social media presence, but it's not something I want to deal with, so I'm willing to pay someone else to take care of it for me.

In the meantime, I'm muddling along the best I can.

My blog website is up and running, but now I have to do the monetization portion- affiliate links, ads, etc and start linking to social media. I had trouble figuring out how to promote a blog post in a Facebook post. I know I'd seen it done, but it took awhile to figure out how to do it myself. Facebook is not my favorite social media platform.

Instagram I can handle- I actually like it. I'm getting comfortable with it and am figuring out how to use it. In fact, I have two accounts that I'm active on. I set up my original account when I started my first business last year as a way of showcasing my products. Since that had to be put on hold I've just been using it to document our hikes and field trips. Eventually I'll post pictures of my leather notebooks, so I started a new account to complement the new blog.

Pinterest is also not my favorite, but I have started using it. I'm not super consistent yet and I'm still figuring out how it works.

From what I've read, some people post on various platforms 5, 6 times a day. And that's per platform. I don't have that kind of time, or even the desire to spend that much time on social media. Plus I think it's overkill to post that frequently, but that might be my anti-social media side coming out.

I won't be using any other social media platforms besides Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest. I don't have the time or energy and I've read that it's best to stick to the ones that work best in your niche. As far as I can tell, those three are the ones for me to use.

I built my blog site on Wordpress and once I found a theme that I mostly liked it went pretty easily. There's still some tweaking that needs to be done to it, but I'm not sure that I can edit those things in the theme I'm currently using. I like the layout though, so I'm willing to stick it out for awhile.

I'm also building a site for my Amazon business, but I'm using Wix for that and I'm still struggling to find a design I like, so it's going a lot slower than I'd like. Well, that and I'm having a hard time figuring out what content to include. This site is mostly to lend validity to my business.

It would be quicker to pay someone to do all this work, but the budget just can't handle it yet. So I'm doing the best I can now and I'll pay someone to re-design everything when I'm profitable.

GAPS v.2017 Week 3 Intro

My view of the track at our recent pinewood derby. I ran the computer again, but I think I'm handing those duties off next year. We combine four packs and always have a crowd. Despite the numbers, we keep things moving and finished all the races in less than two hours.

I struggled last week.

The kids aren't on GAPS, so there's food in the house that's not allowed in the Intro phases. I've been avoiding squash (it's not my favorite food) and I've ended up lower carb than I should, which makes it way too easy to snitch bits of the boys' grain free bread.

I gotta get over my squash issue and make sure I'm eating enough carbs that I'm not tempted to eat things I shouldn't. And I have to re-think the foods that are in the house. Some foods aren't a temptation, but there are couple that have proven to be an issue. Not that they're unhealthy or anything, they're just not GAPS-approved.

So I took advantage of fasting on Sunday to re-set my mind and my eating. Cheating on GAPS is not going to heal my body, so I have to be committed to eating properly if I want to feel better. Thinking about GAPS as a long term prospect has been overwhelming. I need to step back and take it a day at a time, not a week or month at a time.

Weekly Mileage

we found a cool hole in a tree

Last week was my highest mileage week so far this year at just under 11 miles. I'm still doing a lot of walking, but at least I'm getting my mileage up.

Tuesday evening I got on the treadmill while doing laundry- it really is a great time to get on the treadmill.

Sunshine wasn't quite as willing as River to get close to the hole

Thursday I went hiking with the kids and we found the old car again, and it's not as out in the middle of nowhere as we thought. It's actually just over a small hill from the remains of the driveway to the ruins of the old house that we found last time we hiked in this park a few weeks ago.

Friday I spent some time walking on the treadmill while working. It's good multi-tasking, but I can't work and run at the same time, so I'm going to have to get more efficient with what I'm doing so I can run and still get my work done.

Saturday I ran with my friend C. It was cold (mid 20's), but such a great run. There's just something about getting out in the fresh air and stretching my legs. And it's so much easier on my body to run outside than on the treadmill.

isn't this a great place to run?

The babysitter came Wednesday and Friday mornings and helped out. Wednesday Sunshine had science club so I didn't get any work done while the babysitter was watching the boys, but I was able to get the grocery shopping done in record time since I was by myself. Friday I spent some time on the treadmill while working, then spent the rest of my babysitter time just working. That evening I sat in bed and didn't feel stressed out and I realized that it was because I was able to spend some good solid time working without having to worry about what the kiddos were doing. Definitely worth the expense of the babysitter.

it's hard to take a selfie while running :)

Weekly Mileage
Tuesday- 1.59 mile treadmill walk
Thursday- 2.30 mile hike
Friday- 4.00 mile treadmill walk
Saturday- 3.07 outside run
            total mileage: 10.96 miles

hike #5 for the 52 mile hike challenge
31.47 miles towards the 365 mile challenge - only a couple miles behind where I should be

Sunday Funny

Recently River was talking about hair spoons. I could not figure out what he was talking about. What are hair spoons?

So he went and got what he was talking about.

Our garlic press.

Still not sure why in his mind it's "hair spoons"....

GAPS v.2017 Week 2 Intro

River looking down at a stream on a recent hike

In preparing to start GAPS, I reviewed my GAPS books (Gut and Psychology Syndrome and GAPS Guide). The Intro phase is temporary, lasting from a week to 6 months or so, depending on how fast or slow you go through it. It's not meant to be long term. Full GAPS can last up to two years, but generally not longer.

Last time we took 6 weeks to get through the Intro phase and then took a break because we took a trip to Disney World. We did what we could while there, but didn't stress about eating non-GAPS food. When we returned, we moved to full GAPS, but it didn't last long because morning sickness hit me hard and I couldn't handle the smell of food. When you cook all your food from scratch there's lots of food smells.

This time I won't be getting pregnant 6 weeks in, so I've been contemplating how long I'll stay on full GAPS. Part of me is ok staying on it for two years. I can see the huge health benefits from doing so, but I'm not sure it's possible.

We have a long road trip planned for this summer, but we'll be in an RV, so I can make our food and stay on GAPS. However, we'll be eating communal meals at family reunions, some of which we will be preparing. I'm already the weird one who won't let anyone else's food near hers, now I get to take it even further? No, it's the prospect of giving up s'mores. I'm really not sure about that. And I'm running a half marathon on my birthday and another Labor Day weekend. Am I going to try to find GAPS friendly fueling options that also agree with me, or stick with my non-GAPS approved Shot Blox?

And what about when we go to China to adopt? We have to spend two weeks in country. I know with planning I can eat gluten free for two weeks, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do GAPS. That won't be for another year probably, but it's still in the near future.

I will probably stick to GAPS as much as possible, try to keep cheat foods as close to GAPS as possible, and not worry too much about it all. In all reality, last time I made massive progress just in six weeks, so anything more than that is a win. I should be able to stay on GAPS cheat-free for close to five months, which will be hugely beneficial to my body.

The two books I mentioned at the top of this post have recipes, but they're pretty basic. In recent years several GAPS-specific cookbooks have been published. This is great because they contain a wider variety of recipes along with personal anecdotes from those who wrote the cookbooks based on their experiences. I found The Heal Your Gut Cookbook to be particularly helpful. It would have been nice to have four years ago, but at least I've got it now.

In phase 2 of Intro I was supposed to add in egg yolks, which I did. But I reacted to them, which surprised me, so I had to stop eating them. This made me decide to take things nice and slow and not speed through the Intro phase of GAPS. So that's what I'm doing.