GAPS v.2017 Week 10 Intro

As I mentioned Monday, I've ordered our broiler chicks, which we'll process towards the end of May.

I'm currently debating whether to get laying hens or ducks this summer after we return from our road trip. Our neighbors just hatched some ducklings, so it's a good chance for me to get more info about which will thrive in our wooded yard.

Despite my intentions last week to buckle down and get back on the GAPS wagon, it didn't quite happen. My nasty head cold hung around longer than I thought it would and my dad stopped by for a visit. So some fudging still happened last week, though less than the week before.

Despite the fudging and the antibiotics and painkillers, my weight is continuing to creep down. It's a slow creep, but since it's going down instead of up, I'm not complaining. I've lost 15 pounds now! Though now that I'm back to being more careful and strict with my eating so I can heal the damage done by the antibiotics, I do expect the weight loss to speed up again :)

I've gone back to the beginning of GAPS Intro and am slowly adding foods back in again. I don't need to go as slow as before, which is nice.

Weekly Mileage

the temperatures hovered around freezing Thursday morning, so we bundled up for our hike

I'm almost over my ear infection and the subsequent head cold, and the congestion in my ears is almost gone, which means my hearing is also almost back to normal (yay!). It's definitely taken longer than I anticipated, but there's nothing I could really do to hurry things along.

The first half of the week I was still feeling poorly enough to not exercise, but we went for a hike on Thursday and I walked on the treadmill Friday. I had planned on walking on Saturday as well, but after spending a couple hours wrestling wire fencing for the expanded chicken run, I decided I'd had enough exercise for the day.

Yep, it's project time again. I ordered our chicks and they'll be arriving at the end of this week, so it's time to finally finish the chicken run. We trenched, dug post holes, installed posts, and buried fencing in the fall, but the rest of the wire fencing and the support boards didn't get attached then. I'd planned on working on the fencing during the winter, but just didn't have time since getting my businesses up and running took over my life this winter.

The weather was super nice Saturday (high 70s!), so I used the rest of the roll of 1" by 1" wire fencing leftover from the enclosed run. It made it about half way around the perimeter, but just on the lower half. I've ordered more fencing to finish off the lower half and do the upper half.

Earlier in the week we made a trip to Lowes for wood to frame out the posts and attach the fencing to. It's the first time we've gone for a load of wood in months...

Weekly Mileage
Thursday:1.22 mile hike with kiddos
Friday: 3.15 miles walked on the treadmill
    total miles: 4.37

hike #9 towards #52hikechallenge
93.98 miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

Even after all these years, Sunshine loves her Nanny. Recently she was playing with some yarn and made a wig for Nanny :)

Some of the other things Sunshine has done with Nanny:
another wig
Nanny's stocking
Nanny and Minnie Mouse
Nanny playing chess
Nanny's moods
Snuggly Nanny
Sewing for Nanny
Nanny driving
Nanny voting
New Nanny, old Nanny
glasses for Nanny

GAPS v.2017 Week 9

It surprised me that these flowers recovered as well as they have- they've weathered snow, ice, and multiple frosts this spring and are still looking pretty good. 

Nature is more resilient than we know, sometimes.

Like I said last week, there's been some non-GAPS legal things going on. I finish my antibiotics tomorrow, then I need to focus on sticking to GAPS a bit better.

In the meantime, I haven't been as strict at sticking to GAPS legal foods. I didn't really see the point since I was already off GAPS with the painkillers and antibiotics. I realize that's not the best or healthiest attitude, but there you have it. stress + illness = poor food choices

Not that I went hog wild or anything. Really, the main thing was Cadbury mini eggs. Those things are always my Achille's heel. Strangely, I very rarely buy Cadbury chocolate bars. I think it's the combination of chocolate with the crunchy shell- I like the texture of the two together.

I am still losing weight, but a lot slower. I'm hoping the weight loss will pick up again once I'm back to full GAPS legal foods.

A thought I've had several times in the last couple months: winter is a great time for doing GAPS. All the soups and meats are so much easier to eat when it's cold/snowy/rainy than when it's hot and humid.

Weekly Mileage

We got an inch or two of snow Monday night, but it turned to freezing rain that morning and coated everything in ice. It didn't take long for everything to melt away. A disappointing end to a disappointing winter.

I spent last week recovering from my ear infection and ruptured eardrum and the nasty head cold that followed. The head cold is finally almost cleared up, but my ears are still congested and not feeling great. I'm not sure why, but for some reason I didn't think it would take so long for my ears to clear up. Silly, I know.

On the other hand, the antibiotics I'm on haven't done a number on my intestines <knock on wood>, which is fantastic. I've been diligent about drinking my broth, taking my probiotics, adding collagen to my broth, and eating yogurt and it's paid off (plus I was in a pretty good place before I started taking the antibiotics).

Since I was under the weather, my exercise schedule suffered. I never got on the treadmill, and my friend and I canceled our run Wednesday when the temps hit the 30s with stiff winds. Neither of us felt like going out in the cold wind. The kids and I also skipped our hike on Thursday because I just didn't feel up to it.

Today I am feeling better and I'm determined to get back to my routine. I've gotten very little done in any aspect of my life (work, house projects, etc) over the last two and a half weeks and it's been bugging me that things have stalled out. It's hard to get work done when you don't feel well though.

One thing I did do though, was to review the results from last week's race. It was a small race, though I have run smaller races. I came in fourth in my age group (30-39), but if I was 3.5 months older I would be in an older age group (40-49) and I would have totally won that age group. Something to think about for next year :)

Sunday Funny

Do you ever come across something inexplicable?

I've been cleaning and decluttering the house and came across this stash of bread bag tags in a kitchen drawer. Who's been putting them there? and why? 

I'm pretty sure Sunshine's the culprit, but I don't know her reasoning- I keep forgetting to ask her. I can't think of any reason we would need to hang on to these though, especially since we don't use them after a bag of bread is opened- we use IKEA bag clips instead.

Sifting Through My Race Data

running with my friend C has really helped my endurance and race times

After running a fast race on Saturday, I came home and sifted through my race times, because that's what I do, and found the ten fastest 5ks I've run since 2007, when I started running again after a hiatus of 8 or 9 years.

* Saturday's 5k was the first race I've run in more than 4 years where I haven't pregnant and/or nursing.

* other stats:

The 4 fastest were while I was not pregnant or nursing,

But 4 of the top ten were while I was nursing one of the boys,

And 2 were while I was pregnant and nursing, which seems counterintuitive, but those two courses are fast ones.

* the repetition:

The New Year's Day 5k is on the list 3x

The March 5k is on 2x

The Turkey Trot is on 2x (I know the New Year's Day and March 5ks are fast, but it hadn't clicked that the Turkey Trot is a fast course as well. This one stymies me a bit as it has some significant hills and I've clocked some slow times as well. I guess it comes down to wether I'm in shape or not.

The 10 fastest 5ks I've run since 2007, when I started running again after taking a break for 8 or 9 years:

1.  29:36  New Year's Day 5k 2013  (not pregnant or nursing)
2.  30:38  March 5k 2017   (not pregnant or nursing)
3.  32:03  Halloween 5k 2011  (not pregnant or nursing)
4.  32:44  Turkey Trot 5k 2011  (not pregnant or nursing)
5.  33:01  New Year's Day 5k 2016  (nursing)
6.  33:25  New Year's Day 5k 2015  (pregnant and nursing)
7.  33:25  December 5k 2014  (pregnant and nursing)
8.  33:30  Turkey Trot 2015  (nursing)
9.  33:47  Flat Trail 5k 2016  (nursing)
10. 33:49  March 5k 2016  (nursing)

So what does all this mean?

Nothing really, but I like to look at the numbers.

I've got 6 of the top 10 races in the 33 minute range, but I'd really like to consistently be in the 29 to 30 minute range. So that's the current goal: keep training, improve my speed and endurance, and lower my 5k times.

My PR from 2013 was run while I was training for the Disney World half marathon, and I'm currently ramping up to start training for my June half marathon, which helps account for Saturday's fast time. The other eight races on the list were all run with minimal to no actual training other than sporadic treadmill workouts. Training will be the key to me reaching my goal of faster 5k times.

GAPS v.2017 Week 8 Intro

turtles enjoying the beautiful weather Thursday while we were hiking

Today I had planned on just talking about how I fudged a little to make sure I fueled properly for my race. But when I got sick, I had to do some other things that aren't GAPS legal, so I need to talk about those as well.

But first, how I successfully fueled for a 5k race while doing GAPS so that I also got a PR (personal record).

I had a large handful of gluten free pretzels on Thursday and a few more on Friday. I'm not supposed to be eating complex carbs or starches, but I figured the starch content of the pretzels was my best bet in making sure my body had the energy reserves it needed for the race. This brand of pretzels has corn starch, tapioca starch, and arrowroot starch as the main ingredients, so I guess you could maybe say they're grain free if you're interpreting corn starch as a starch rather than a grain.

I made muffins Friday afternoon for the kids to eat the next morning so the babysitter didn't have to cook anything for them. This particular recipe is made with cassava flour (a starch from the cassava root, processed in a slightly different way than tapioca starch, which also comes from cassava root), as well as a bunch of dried fruits and nuts. I had one muffin Friday evening and another Saturday as I got ready for the race. I didn't have any intestinal issues (which is always a concern before a race), and I had a lot more energy than I thought I'd have.

I'm super excited that my fueling worked as well as it did and will probably do the same thing before my next race (not yet sure when that will be though- I need to plan out my race calendar still).

***********************

As I've mentioned before, we've been fighting some crud the last couple weeks. I feel like I had a lighter case of it at first, probably because of strengthening my immune system with GAPS. However, the boys were determined to share all their plague germs with me, and in the end I succumbed. I started running a fever Friday afternoon, so I took some ibuprofen then and again in the morning.

That seemed to take care of the worst of the symptoms at the time, so I went ahead and ran the race. I think that running while congested, in the cold air, was just more than my body could handle, and my eustachian tubes got blocked. This led to a middle ear infection (rare in adults, according to my doc), renewed fever and chills, sore throat, and massive ear pain.

I took Aleve Saturday and Sunday to try to knock out the pain and fever, but only with minimal success. I didn't even attempt going to sleep Sunday night because the ear pain was so bad. I just lay in bed with a hot rice pack on my ear and around one in the morning the pain finally started to let up. I thought the pain killers had finally kicked in, except that inside my ear felt very moist. With the pain level a lot lower I was able to sleep.

The next morning my ear felt odd and my hearing was off- everything was echoing. I was able to get an appointment to get it looked at and the doctor confirmed that my eardrum had indeed ruptured, as I'd suspected, but that it was just a small hole and should heal without any issues. If the rupture had been due to trauma, the healing process would have been more involved. He was concerned about the wide variety of bacteria being brought in by the kiddos (who are determined to share everything with me), so he prescribed an antibiotic to clear things up. No strep throat though, which I was concerned about, so I'm happy.

I also took River to the doctor to get his ears and throat looked at. Turns out his eardrum had ruptured almost a week earlier (I recognized the signs after the fact), but it most have happened while he was sleeping since he never exhibited the amount of pain I was in. His ears are healing fine on their own, so no antibiotics for him.

Pain killers and antibiotics are not GAPS approved. But given the circumstances, I wasn't willing to suffer more than I already was. Luckily I've been taking probiotics for some time, though I will increase the amount that I take, as well as eat more yogurt in an effort to keep my intestines as healthy as possible. I will be staying on GAPS intro for longer to make up for whatever the painkillers and antibiotics are doing to me.

Being on GAPS for two months has probably put me in as good a place as possible for doing a round of antibiotics.

March 5k

beautiful sunrise

We've been suffering through some crud for the last couple weeks, but on Friday I started feeling worse. Saturday I woke up and thought very hard about canceling. But I already had a babysitter lined up and I had committed to pick up and drive my friends A and C to the race as well. Plus, I'd been looking forward to this race for a year. I ran this race a year ago and it's a flat, fast course, which is very unusual for around here. I was coming off an illness last year too, so while I did well back then, it wasn't as well as I knew I could do.

After a nice hot shower I felt a bit better so I decided to go for it and hope for the best. The temps were in the mid-20s, which I knew was either going to clear out my lungs or make me really sick. Add our 70* temps from Thursday into the mix and I was pretty sure I knew which way things were going to go. <spoiler: my lungs aren't too bad, but I now have a middle ear infection that ruptured my ear drum Sunday night>

Last year I was sick for three months straight leading up to this race, but this year it's only been dragging on for a couple weeks. As a result, I did actually train for this race. I've been increasing my mileage, and adding some hill work and speed work into the mix.

This year it was sunny and cold, which made for perfect running conditions as long as you had sunglasses or a hat on.

While running I felt good. My legs didn't feel tired and heavy, and my body didn't feel crummy. I've experienced more than enough of both, so it was pleasantly surprising to be able to run hard and feel pretty good at the same time. And I did run hard. C and I ran together and we pushed ourselves harder than if we'd been running by ourselves. The last half mile I pulled ahead in an effort to chase down my PR. I pushed myself and I didn't feel like dying, which is a frequent feeling when I push myself in a race.

My current 5k PR is from January 2013, and I missed it by 62 seconds. But I beat my next fastest 5k (from October 2011) by 1 minute and 25 seconds. Go me! (I've got a post in the works that talks about my fastest races)

As I mentioned, this out-and-back course is flat and fast. It's a very slight incline on the way out, and a slight decline on the way back. As you can see from my times below, I managed negative splits (my later miles were faster than the earlier ones), which isn't easy, especially since my pace was a lot faster than I've run lately. The hill work C and I have been doing together really paid off in this race.

C, me, and A

I ran 3.06 miles in 30:38 plus C and I walked another 1.34 miles on the course while waiting for A to finish the 10k.
1st mile: 10:32
2nd mile: 10:22
3rd mile: 9:15
   
I thought about running the 10k, but I wanted the chance at a 5k PR. I ran the fastest 5k I've run in more than 4 years, so I'm glad I chose the 5k. I'm also glad I didn't go back to bed Saturday morning. I had a great race, notwithstanding the ear infection and ruptured ear drum :)

such a great course- we all had a blast!

Weekly Mileage
Monday: 3.29 miles walked on the treadmill
Wednesday: 3.25 miles run outside with C
Thursday: 1.87 miles hiked with kiddos
Saturday: 4.40 miles run and walked
       total mileage: 12.81 miles

44th race towards my 40 by 40 goal
1st race of 2017
hike #8 towards #52hikechallenge
89.61 miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

This is what happens when your older sister finds some old Halloween face paint and goes to town on your face. Sunshine said he was a zombie (the white face, I'm guessing?), but I thought he looked more like the villain in an old black and white movie.

Avoiding Burnout When Working From Home

Ocean thinks he's so big, trying out River's bed. He won't be sleeping in a "big boy bed" for awhile yet- I'm not ready for two boys to be roaming the house during nap time and bed time :)

A couple weeks ago I lost all desire to work on my online businesses. I was just burned out after several months of work work work work. So instead of working, I took a break and read books all week.

And I decided to be a bit more balanced with my approach to work.

I've known for some time that I'm not good at being balanced- I like to jump into a project, work hard, and get it done. The process of setting up new businesses has not been conducive to working straight through- there's been too much stop-and-go while I wait for accounts to clear and responses from other companies. Because the set-up process has taken longer and been more involved than I anticipated, it has taken longer to move from the set-up stage to the maintenance stage. Instead of being able to get things done, they're dragging on and on, which has been draining.

However, I am almost done with the set-up stages and now it's time to figure out the maintenance stages. What needs to be done every week for each business? How will I get those things done without it taking over the other aspects of my life? The key is to keep it balanced, but it's a work in progress.

In the time since my burnout I've made up a couple schedules to help me make sure I'm getting everything done. There's blog posts and instagram posts that need to be done every week, scout stuff to do, email marketing stuff to do, sourcing for Amazon, house projects, and that's not counting anything to do with the kiddos. My schedules have evolved each week as I figure what needs to be done and what needs to be changed.

I haven't worked on any projects around the house since I started my businesses, but as my work schedule eases a bit and warmer weather comes it's time to start thinking about projects again. Decluttering, finishing the outdoor chicken run, and other projects are lining up to be added to my to-do list.

It makes me busier, but it also helps me stay more balanced so I'm not spending all my time on one project.

GAPS v.2017 Week 7 Intro

Ocean tried climbing the jungle gym, but he's just not tall enough :)

I'm still hanging out in Intro phase, but I learned a valuable lesson this past week. My sugar addiction has not been kicked yet and I can't fudge even a little.

Depressing, but good to know, I suppose.

I ate some non-GAPS legal chocolate and it wasn't pretty. If I have a little chocolate, I want more. Especially if I know there's more somewhere in the house.

I had gotten complacent and thought I could handle it.

I can't. So I've got to stick to the easy-to-digest GAPS foods and avoid all temptations. It makes for boring eating, but it's what I need to do for now.

Weekly Mileage

Wednesday morning the boys and I were on the playground while Sunshine was at science club

We've been fighting some weird crud for the last week or so. Sunshine got sick first, then River, then Ocean, then me. Fevers, coughs, goopy eyes, low-level sore throats, general feeling of ickiness. You feel crummy, but not horrible. The symptoms are mild enough that I expected them to last just a few days, which makes their longevity puzzling and annoying.

I walked on the treadmill Monday, but by Wednesday evening when I was supposed to go running with my friend I wasn't feeling up for it. I've been waffling back and forth since then: do I feel sick enough to skip my workout, or well enough to do it anyway? I've got a race this Saturday and I want to get a good time, so do I push through some workouts or let my body rest?

but then a microburst moved in and we had to run for the building

we've had a couple microbursts in the years we've been here, but this one wasn't nearly as bad as this one was

I opted for rest the last half of the week, but I will be hitting the treadmill today to see how I feel.

Weekly Mileage
Monday: 3.27 miles walked on the treadmill
     total mileage: 3.27 miles

7 hikes towards #52hikechallenge
76.8 miles towards #365milechallenge

Sunday Funny

scrunchy face

raised eyebrows

Ocean does this thing where he scrunches his face up (top pic), then opens his eyes wide and raises his eyebrows (second pic). He'll do it over and over, and it's hilarious. Mr M and I have been quite entertained on multiple occasions :)

River did an eye scrunch as well, but he didn't raise his eyebrows.

February Mileage

I didn't run any races in February and it has been a nice change of pace after all the races I ran last year.

In February I made massive progressive in consistency. I exercised 4 or 5 times each week, for a total of 18 workouts in the month, versus 11 workouts in January. I also increased the distance of most of my workouts, so between that and the increased consistency I more than doubled my mileage between January and February. You're really not supposed to do that, but since the majority of my mileage is still walked rather than run, I'm ok with it. In March I'm working on increasing my running mileage.

February's mileage:

12 treadmill workouts + 3 hikes + 3 outside runs + 0 races = 54.70 miles

52 hike challenge: 7 hikes

365 mile challenge: 76.80 miles

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 6 Intro

recent beaver signs found on last week's hike

I've been doing GAPS for 6 weeks now, which is as long as I managed last time.

I've lost 14 pounds in 6 weeks, which I am still super excited about.

The last couple weeks I've been thinking about changing habits. It can be hard to change ingrained habits, but I'm slowly getting there.

I'm paying more attention to those times I feel like snacking and trying to identify why I feel like snacking. Overall, the desire to snack is receding, though if I'm particularly stressed or tired the snacking desire does go up.

I'm also eating less. When I first started GAPS I was eating more meat and veggies to make up for the drastically reduced carbs. I'm no longer always feeling hungry or having a growly tummy, so it's easier to eat less.

I'm still hanging out in intro, but I have added small amounts of dairy and fruit. I don't feel the need to move on just yet, and I'm paying attention to what my body tells me.