Today’s Food & Sick Dogs

So today’s food:
Breakfast: All raw: green smoothie, some veggies, soaked nuts & seeds and home-grown mung bean sprouts
Lunch: PR & Banana on gluten-free bread with coconut hot chocolate
Dinner: Early Thanksgiving

Only our early Thanksgiving (meaning I couldn’t fit the turkey I scored at Shaws in the freezer) was usurped by having to take our very sick dog to the ER. We’re waiting for some test results but hope he’s OK.

I’ll have to share my Thanksgiving recipes tomorrow because it’s late!

Running, Hydration & "New" Pants

I’ve found that lately, on the days I run, I’m totally exhausted for the remainder of the day. I’ve been trying to figure out why this is. I eat healthily, have at least a quart of green smoothie, and drink water. But I think maybe I wasn’t drinking enough water. I don’t like drinking a lot while I’m running, so I tried to drink a lot of water this morning before my run. Then during the run (67 minutes), I only drank about 8 ounces of water, but during my subsequent walk (Bear was still asleep, so I grabbed the dog and walked about 1.6 miles), I drank another 12 ounces. And then I drank about a cup & a half of water when I got home.

I think I don’t drink enough in general. I’ve been trying to only drink small amounts with meals, since drinking with meals waters down your stomach acids and makes digestion more difficult. But I’ve found it’s a bit unrealistic for me because I just don’t remember to drink enough. Or Bear will fall asleep on my lap for an hour and a half and I won’t have anything to drink nearby. So my goal is to increase the amount I drink between meals and slowly decrease the amount I drink with meals. I figure overall hydration is the most important thing.

It’s almost 6:30 PM, and I didn’t get the tireds today! So I think my cunning plan is working.

When I was doing my post-run sit-ups, Noodles decided he needed to sit as close to me as possible and pollute my air space with his stinky breath. He finally moved, at which Bear decided my sit-ups must be a game, and he wanted to join by lying across my stomach. Oh, boy! Another time I was doing sit-ups, Noodles decided to lick my elbow every time I lifted up in a sit-up. Never a dull moment around here!

Don’t you love it when you find old clothing that you forgot about, packed away in a box somewhere? About a month & a half ago, I was cleaning out the basement and found a box marked “Medium & Bigger Clothes”. Not a particularly helpful label, so I decided to pull them out & see what I could wear. It was like Christmas! I found several pairs of pants, including summer pants and a skirt, that fit, as well as 3 pairs of jeans that could fit after a few more pounds lost. Well, as of today, the 3 pairs of jeans fit, albeit snugly! I don’t really wear jeans in the summer anyway; it’s too muggy here, but by the fall, I’ll have 3 “new” pairs of jeans to wear! I love it

Back Home

We’re home. Our flight was delayed about two & a half hours due to the rain storms in Boston. So we sat on the runway for 2.5 hours! Bear did very well, all things considered.

I have to say first that while I had an amazing time at the conference, I’m happy to be home I had eggs and a mostly decaf americano for breakfast for the 1st time in almost a week. And we missed Noodles so much! I’ve never seen him so happy to see us.

I’ll try to post a wrap-up from the conference later today if I have time. You can check out some other conference update at Randy’s blog or Laura Leigh’s blog (including a picture of me sharing my testimony).

Good Day with Bear

I’m excited for the long weekend coming up!

This past weekend was sort of blah. A serious highlight was having 2 friends stop by with their new baby! But the rest – I’m just glad it’s over

Bear & I had a great day today. I’m trying not to overanalyze as to why We played and ate and went for a run and went for 2 walks. I think I wore Noodles out; he’s sprawled out on the floor now. I didn’t make him go on the run, but I did take him on the 2 walks. I have to remind myself sometimes that he is 10 years old

In the green smoothie demo I posted a few weeks ago, Green Smoothie Girl said she gets 15 servings of fruits and veggies in her smoothie. I did a loose measurement today, and I only used 3-4 servings of greens, and 4-5 servings of fruit. I’m consulting with her blog to find out how she crams all that stuff in there. I know you’re all on the edge of your seats with anticipation.

Green Smoothies

I got a new pair of running shoes yesterday at Bill Rodgers Running Center. It’s pretty close to Boston Harbor Community Church, where we are members, so we headed over there after service. This is my 3rd pair of shoes I’ve purchased there. The first pair of running shoes that I had years ago I bought at City Sports. No offense, but they really have no idea how to fit people for shoes, and this is based on more than one experience. Bill Rodgers Running Center, on the other hand, do know how to fit people. In fact, I’ve always gotten great service there.

So I left the store yesterday with Saucony Hurricanes:

I celebrated my new shoes by deciding I’m going to up my running to 3 times a week. I succeeded at running twice a week for the last 3 weeks since I started running again. So today, in an attempt to find a less hilly running route, I ran 55 minutes….in new shoes….over a lot more hills than usual. Oops! Generally, I run about 2.8 miles and it takes me 36-40 minutes, depending on whether or not Noodles runs the second lap with us. I don’t know how far I ran today, but it was well over 4 miles. Somehow I ended up at a spot that is 2 miles away from home, and I didn’t go straight there. But it mostly felt good

I succeeded in drinking a green smoothie every weekday last week (M-F), and even had a big spinach, kale & collard greens salad on Saturday. Tonight, I had a green smoothie with a little chicken and a gluten-free banana chocolate chip muffin that I baked yesterday Quite an interesting dinner, but I had to throw something together quickly!

More Heat & More Running

Since it’s supposed to be super-hot again today, and since we were up early, I went running this morning. It was only about 75 degrees with 85% humidity. Youch. I only did one lap, and I left the Bear at home with Roy, but took Noodles. About halfway through the run, Noodles finally decided he didn’t like being pulled along & decided to keep up. It might have something to do with him stopping to “do his business” at about the halfway point. I tried to encourage him to do it in the yard before he left, but he just sat there, looking at me. So off we went.

We’ll be going on at least one long walk up to the grocery store today, as I’m running out of greens for my green smoothies. I’m trying to eat/drink one every weekday, up from my goal of 3 a week. Just to clarify, I don’t eat them as meals because for some reason, they don’t fill me up. I may have one with a meal, but I’ve tried several times to have these as meals, and I’m always hungry an hour or two later. I know some people eat them as meals, but it doesn’t seem to work for me.

The Bear is miraculously sleeping in the bed, so I’m going to try & get a few things done!

Walking in the Heat

So I got this brilliant idea around 2 PM that we (Bear, Noodles & I) should go for a walk. The loop that I generally walk is 1.4-1.6 miles, depending on if I add a couple extra blocks at the end. After going the 1.6 mile loop, Bear started to fall asleep in the jogging stroller, so I decided to walk the loop again.

Bad idea.

First of all, it’s over 95 degrees out with about 50% humidity. Second, I didn’t bring any water for me & the dog (Bear doesn’t generally drink water & he was well-hydrated). Third, did I mention it’s hot?

Almost exactly halfway through the 2nd loop, Noodles decides to lay down on the a nice, shady, grassy knoll & not get up. Usually, if I pull on the leash, he’ll eventually follow me, but pulling on his leash only made it so I was dragging him on the grass. After a few minutes of coaxing and a limp Noodles laying in the grass, I began to get concerned. Roy & I used to watch a lot of “Animal Cops” (”Detroit” was our favorite), and I remember that a dog’s temperature is actually higher than a human’s, so I stuck my finger in his mouth to feel his gums. He was cool, so then I picked him up to make sure he could stand. Yep, he could stand. I contemplated taking the baby out of the stroller and putting the dog in there, but that would mean I’d have to carry the baby home; plus, I couldn’t really see Noodles fitting in there. After some more coaxing, Noodles begrudgingly walked home.

I need to remind myself that he almost never drinks water. When we got home from church yesterday, he’d barely touched his water, though it was close to 90 degrees in our house. Even today after we finally got home, he didn’t have any water until I reminded him to get some, at which point he drank a bunch, and then kept going back for more drinks. I made myself a green smoothie with apple, grapefruit, banana, spinach, broccoli, blueberries, red chard, swiss chard & what I think was collard greens. Yum!

I’ve decided to weigh myself every week or two and see if that sits OK with my head (I used to have an eating disorder, so I have to be careful). I have lost 2 more pounds, again without trying. That’s cool I’ve also made some progress on the book I’m writing. I figure even if I can only write a few paragraphs a week, I’ll be done in a couple of years, and that’s fine with me. I’m in no rush

One Bear Improved, the Other Worsens

Baby Bear is getting better. His armpit temperature didn’t register above 100 today, which is good since last night, it spiked again to an even higher temp than Sunday night. We even went running today, and somehow he fell asleep, despite the bumps & barking dog (I took Noodles on the 2nd lap). The run was surprisingly easy, despite my unbalanced lunch I had some rotisserie chicken and a gluten-free brownie. I generally eat relatively healthily and even had a green smoothie yesterday, so maybe that made up for it. I also had garbanzo flour pancakes with rice protein for breakfast – very scrumptious!

I’m getting more interested in eating raw foods, though I can’t eat many of the recipes I find because they all include nuts & seeds. Since I’m currently eating dairy, soy, corn, wheat, nut & mostly seed-free (I occasionally eat pumpkin seeds or tahini), many of the recipes are off-limits to me. I guess I’ll just stick with green smoothies for now!

The plan for traveling tomorrow is still up in the air. If Roy is sick, then the Bear & I will travel alone with our friend we are bringing to a recovery program in NH. That should be interesting, as the farthest I’ve traveled alone in the car with the Bear is less than an hour, and the treatment center is 2-2.5 hours away. Little does my friend know he may be on baby entertainment duty tomorrow!

It’s 9 AM

I don’t know what to do with myself. It’s 9 AM, and Bear (and Dad and Noodles) are all still sleeping. I don’t know if Bear has ever slept this late!

I guess I’ll go start some coffee

Running!

I started running again this week. I hadn’t been running in 2 years, so it was challenging. I had to stop running due to some problems with my hips, but since my hips aren’t really improving or getting worse, I decided it was worth the risk. I took Bear out in the jogging stroller and he seemed to have a good time.

I ran 1.5 miles on Tuesday and then again today. I continued on today and did another 1.5 miles, partially walking and partially running.

I’ve been walking a lot lately anyways. The Bear seems to calm right down when I put him in the stroller and take him out. Plus, Noodles needs a daily walk, so I find myself averaging 3-5 miles a day of on-foot travel. I’m now down to about 7 pounds below what I weighed when I found out I was pregnant – less than I’ve weighed in about 2.5 years. And I’m not even trying to lose weight. That’s a nice feeling