Category Archives: Health

Days 4 and 5 and some great news

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We will start with the great news.  It’s about my cat Indy.  For those who don’t know, I’ll explain the problem quickly.  Indy is a big, fluffy black cat, who is 14.5 years old.  He always, always eats (with the exception of a 3 month stint of anorexia a few years back) and he never, ever vomits.   In October and November, he had had three separate incidents of vomiting and pooping everywhere, and not eating.   These would last one day and he’d feel better the next day.   After the third episode, I took him to our regular vet, who saw nothing on exam, so we sent for blood testing.  The results of that showed pretty severe liver problems.  For example, the ALT was 499 and the normal high is about 100ish.  A follow-up x-ray showed nothing but a bit of arthritis in the spine.

He was referred to a veterinary internal medicine specialist, where he received an ultrasound, which was also inconclusive, and a fine needle aspirate of the liver was sent out for cytology.  At this point, we were looking either at cholangiohepatitis or cancer.   And the cytology didn’t help.  The first order of business was to treat for the cholangiohepatitis, which is a long course of antibiotics.  If the liver enzymes stabilize, then its likely the hepatitis and NOT cancer.

Thursday, I received a call from the veterinary center and guess what?  His ALT was down to 160!  Yay!  The antibiotics are helping.  Not that I needed bloodwork to tell me that, as he has returned totally to his kitten like antics and his very very large appetite.  :)

Now for the Vegan Challenge.

Saturday was my weigh in day and I was down 2.2 pounds.  Yay.

Friday food was good.

*Breakfast was oatmeal with maple syrup and pecans

*Lunch was leftover couscous confetti salad

*Dinner was out and I had bbq seitan pita with fries and a salad

Saturday, well, I did remain vegan except for some accidental mayo, but healthy wasn’t as strong.

*Breakfast was hash browns and an English Muffin

*Lunch was at Burger King … a BK veggie and small onion ring

*Dinner was Domino’s pizza … no cheese, extra sauce and black olives, onion and spinach

But that is not overcomerable (is that a word?) … I will do better this week for sure, and I hope to make a return to doing cardio.

Yay!  I’ve figured out how to insert pictures!

My 21-Day Vegan Kickstart Challenge

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It’s a new year.  I thought I would start it off by doing something a little different.  Resolutions are boring.  I mean, who doesn’t want to get fit, lose weight, get organized, etc.  We all do!  It’s the rare person who can claim to be all of those.

I only knew that I wanted to try to eliminate dairy.  Why?  Well, there are many reasons, but the one that makes the most sense is because I am allergic to the milk proteins casein and whey.  Let me tell you … casein and whey are hidden in everything!  And the other MAIN reason is that as a vegetarian, it only makes sense to progress into this way of eating, for me.  I already refuse to wear leather, suede, wool or use products that have been tested on animals.   If you want to get into it further, you can certainly find reasons why many experts are saying that it is not good for us, and you can certainly find out how dairy is an even crueler industry than eating the cows that dairy comes from.

And because I was giving up the dairy, I stepped it up to eliminate eggs and to try to eat as many whole foods as possible to try to ease up reliance on convenience foods.  I think that switching to whole foods, foods that come from nature, that I actually have to cook and/or prepare, will be the key to my finally reaching my goal weight.

This style of eating is also just naturally low in sugar.  I am not deliberately eliminating that.  If I find something vegan and has sugar, I will consider it.  And I don’t mean fruit.  Fruit sugar is another thing altogether.

To help me with this challenge, I decided to follow the guidelines and recipes of the 21-Day Vegan Kickstart by the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).  You can find information about it here:

I tried to start on Monday, but although it was vegan, except for some butter, I don’t count it since I relied on what I had and not on whole foods.

On Tuesday, I made the Confetti Couscous Salad.  I had to adjust it, as I thought I had raisins and cabbage, but I had neither.  Well, I had cabbage, it was just not edible.  I deliberately left out the carrots and substituted dried cranberries for the raisins.  This was absolutely yummy.

Wednesday, which was even better, I had oatmeal for breakfast, for lunch I had the couscous salad leftovers (and I still have more!) and I made the Carrot Red Pepper Soup, without the carrots, so essentially it was just Roasted Red Pepper Soup.  This was very easy to make and very tasty … but needed some spices … maybe some Italian seasoning.  I also made the “Southern” Beans and Greens.  I put Southern in quotes, cause I am quite sure that in the South, it ain’t vegan!  My beans of choice were organic Pinto and my greens were kale.  I thought these were really good.  This mixture could also be wrapped in a tortilla (thanks for the idea Christy) or served with rice, which is what I had for lunch today.

I don’t aspire to follow the food plan to the letter, but I am definitely staying vegan, whole foods and using the recipes on the plan.   I’ll be eating out a little this weekend, but I will be doing my best to stick to whole food, low fat, and vegan.

It’s only been three full days, and I can tell you I feel better already.  My stomach doesn’t feel all pouchy and full.  I feel lighter.  I hope to take off a few pounds at the end of this as well, especially once my cough goes away completely and I can exercise again.

Adios, my friends and readers, I’ll be back tomorrow with a more complete list and maybe some photos and other updates.

*I was actually directed to this particular challenge by my very beautiful, talented and intelligent friend, Emily, a Holistic Health Counselor and owner of Triumph Wellness.  Her blog is listed in my blogroll.

Not Shooting From the Hip

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I’ve been experiencing hip pain for about three years now.   It first became apparent during training for the Gasparilla Tampa Bay marathon, which was held in February of 2007.  But I would just rest and then be able to run.  Only a few times has it affected my ability to run regularly.  The first being when we did the San Diego Marathon in June of that same year.    It bothered me while training for the Pittsburgh marathon in 2009, but I still was able to run that race and some half marathons.  But during training, I had many days of having to walk it out and not run at all.

I FINALLY broke down and saw a doctor.  A sports medicine orthopedist.   That day, she did some strength tests on me and I had an x-ray that showed nothing except some arthritis.  Because of that, I needed to get an MRI, which I scheduled for November 11.   Long story short, the Monday before we were to go to Vegas, I heard from my doctor who gave me the verdict that I had a hip impingement, which was irregularly shaped bones.  She said a lot of stuff that I quite honestly didn’t catch, but caught the important stuff.  Start PT, there is a surgery that is an option that is essentially shaving bone, no running and see her in about six weeks.

Ack!  What????  I did indeed call for PT that very day and scheduled my first session for the day before we left for Vegas, where we were doing half marathons, Matt running, me walking.   Of course, I did a lot of research, made myself ill.  I found a blog of someone who went through this and is doing well on the surgery.  I joined a yahoo! support group for people with this condition … FAI (femoracetabular impingement).    What I learned is that there are two main kinds of FAI … one where the femur bone has a bony protrustion or some mis-shape, which is called CAM and the other is the acetabulum, called PINCHER and some people can have two.  There seem to be mixed results on the surgery, but most people ended up going for the surgery because they could not control the pain.  They couldn’t run, go to yoga, bike, nothing.  But after surgery, supposedly one can return to these activities if the surgery is successful.

Do I even need to say I was scared? And running?  I had all the emotions.  I was sad that I might not be able to run again.  Then relieved.   Somewhere in there, I became alright with it.  Then I wasn’t.  Then I thought if I could just run a little.  It didn’t have to be training all the time.  A 5K or a 10K would be great.  Just back and forth and back and forth between the emotions.  Finally decided that I wouldn’t use running as a reason for getting the surgery.  That would have to be a benefit.   I was quite honestly more upset about the fact that all of the FAI sites said no yoga.  I haven’t been to yoga in a very long time and I need yoga for much more than “stretching”.   Yoga is more important to me than running.

I’ve been faithfully going to PT twice a week (except for the two times this stupid cold has kept me at home) and doing my at-home exercises.  My therapist, Valerie, is very nice and smart.  She told me that as soon as I feel up to it, I can exercise and do anything except run, jump or strengthen the legs, as the PT is doing that for me.  That includes yoga “as long as it doesn’t hurt”.

Tuesday, 1/5, I had my six week checkup with my sports medicine doctor.  I, unfortunately, didn’t have a lot to report as far as fitness gains, as I haven’t done any real exercise since walking the half marathon on 12/6.  But we talked in more detail and as it turns out, all of my gloom and doom and worries were really overblown.  I’m glad I did the research, I won’t say that that was a mistake, but as it turns out:

*My impingement is so slight that it isn’t even really anything she would consider as needing surgery.  I have the CAM type, and it looks like one side of my femur is straight instead of curved.  It’s probably bilateral, as well as the arthritis.

*She feels my arthritis is the biggest problem.

*My pain is multi-faceted and includes tendonitis as well as the muscle weakness.  The tendinitis is on the right side, not the left and that is why the impingement and arthritis are not troublesome on the other side.

*There is a SMALL chance I have a SMALL labral tear, which is something that needs surgically corrected, but at this point, we are not going there.

*Might need a psoas release for full elimination of pain (no thank you!).

Basically, the treatment for the arthritis and the tendinitis is what I am doing … stop the activity that caused it (running), go to PT to strengthen, use heat, and other pain control methods, including yoga, which was highly recommended.  :)   Low impact cardio and weight control.

When I asked her about running again someday, not because I wanted to run marathons again, but just for fun and shorter distances, and she said that I might be able to do that again.

So that is where I stand.  And I do honestly feel good about things now.  And very thankful that I won’t need to keep getting those steroid shots in my hip!  They are not very comfortable.

My Second Weight Workout

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If you haven’t read the entry on the first workout, please go back and do so.  Then this will make better sense.

Today’s workout was postponed from yesterday.  No biggie.  I’m supposed to do 2-3 times per week.  I’m shooting for three, but two will just take longer.  And who knows, I might just do it on Sunday, giving me three workouts.

Today’s workout, Workout B, Stage 1, went like this:

First Exercise:  Deadlift:   2 sets of 15 reps.  I grabbed my 12 pound body bar.  It was way too easy.  On the second set, I used 10# dumbbells in each hand.  That felt better.  But I don’t think I actually did it right, cause I didn’t feel like I was working.   I will look at some videos on this and next time, I will assemble my barbell.

Second Exercise (to be alternated with the third exercise): Dumbbell Shoulder Press:  2 sets of 15 reps.  I used 10 pound weights, challenging, but not impossible.  Yes, I was surprised too.

Third Exercise:  Pullovers: 2 sets of 15 reps.   Hmmm …. Thought for sure I could use the 10 pounders.  Nope, I did ONE.  So I switched to the eight pound weights.  Still too heavy, I managed 12 reps.  When I went through the second rotation, I dropped to 5 pounders, did 15 reps, but that felt too light.  Can’t win?  Not sure what to do … stay with the 5 pounders and do the reps a few more times, and go back up, or use the 8 pounds until I can do 15 of them?

Fourth Exercise:  Lunge: 2 sets of 15 reps.  I grabbed the 10-pound dumbbells and did my 15 reps on each side.  I felt challenged, a little wobbly.  Felt that my form was off, but it really wasn’t.    On the second set, I also used the ten pound dumbbells and had a little trouble finishing the set.

Fifth Exercise:  Swiss Ball Crunch:  2 sets of 8 reps:  Ditched the Swiss Ball forever.  No more balls for me.  They are unsafe for me.  So I did crunches on the floor.  In a normal week, when I do yoga two or three times, I work the core alot, so I am not stressing the abs during these workouts.  I did 2 sets of 15 on the floor.  I didn’t alternate with the lunges, like I supposed to.  I did the lunges, two sets of crunches, then the last set of lunges.  I just didn’t feel like getting up and down off the floor.

Bonus Exercise:  Bicep Curls:  2 sets of 15 reps:  I did them, using ten pound weights.  That is where I should be today.  In a few more weeks, I should be sporting the 12 pounders.

When I was done, I made a protein smoothie.  That is the best part of the workout.  Again, I don’t understand how these simple five exercises, with no cardio is supposed to make weight “pour” off of me.  But I know it will make me stronger, sleeker, faster and drive up my metabolism at rest.  But I must do cardio.  Good thing I am mostly addicted to running.

Okay well now you all know my regimen for the next 6-8 weeks.  I’ll let you know how its going half way through and again at the end.  No, I didn’t take measurements because I find them not only demoralizing and unmotivating, I am also really bad at accurately measuring myself.  I can measure the same place three times in a row and get a different reading.  I’ll go by the scale and my clothing sizes.  Eventually, I guess I will measure myself, probably at the end and use my “old” set of measurements as comparision.  I wasn’t much lighter than I am now, and did wear the same size.

Until next time!

My First Weight Workout

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Since Matt and I decided not to run the Chicago Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon, we decided to work on other aspects of our fitness.  Except for my calves, I am pretty mushy.  I do have a strong core from yoga, but I really needed to start incorporating weights.  I have been saying for years that I need to. But between training for the marathon, injuries and yoga … well, I never really got a chance to get into it.  I’d do an interval workout occasionally, but nothing really worth mentioning.  I’d always stop doing it again. This time, though, I am going to take it seriously.

It’s not surprising to many of you that I read a lot of health and fitness blogs and magazines.  After hearing about the results from The Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler, with Cassandra Forsythe, M.S. and workout programs by Alwyn (ALL-in) Cosgrove, I decided to buy this book.   I read it and became excited about the program, even if it is technically a six month program.  That sounds daunting, but then, I train for races for four months, this isn’t really that much longer, right?   The nutrition section makes a lot of sense, but as a vegetarian, I was told to look elsewhere.

The big innovation to this program is that the trainers advocate heavy weights for women.  Usually, women are told to lift light weights with lots of repitition, so that they don’t bulk up. Most women don’t want to be bulky, but I do want visible muscle, so this is the way I should lift.   The six months are divided up into seven stages, with stage six being optional.  Each stage will last between six to eight weeks, based on how many times per week you work out.  Each stage has two workouts you alternate.   Each workout has FIVE exercises.

As an endurance “athlete”, I have trouble wrapping my head around that.  Five exercises, 20-25 minutes per workout.  Cardio not necessary and the pounds will roll off?  Hmmmph … we’ll see.  I mean, I understand, building muscle will increase my metabolism and make me smaller, but does it really feel like a workout?  And I will still be doing cardio, as I am still running, just not … long.

So today, after finally getting the training logs and the exercises organized, I did the first workout.  It took me about 22 minutes.

Here is how it went down:

First exercise …. Squats with barbell, 2 sets of 15.  Well, that was fine … my 12 pound body bar is already obsolete.

Second exercise … Push-ups … um, I can do zero of these on the floor.  I managed to eek out 2 sets of 15 by doing the 45 degree ones at the dining room table.

Third exercise …. Dumbbell bent-over Row …. These were fun.  Need to increase weights next time.

Fourth exercise …. Step Up (on bench) … I have done these for years while doing my FIRM workouts.  It was familiar to me. I grabbed the 8 pounders.  Did the first sets.  But the second sets burned.  And I am a RUNNER … aren’t I supposed to have strong legs.  LOL.  And here the heart rate went up … so I got, what, four minutes of cardio?

Fifth exercise …. Prone Jackknife … these involve an exercise ball.  I hate those things.  Every time I try to use them, I hurt myself. But I drug it up from the basement anyway, cleaned it off and tried this exercise.  Fell off every time.  So, I just skipped this exercise.  Don’t know what body part I missed out on working.

Bonus … just because that didn’t feel complete … I did 2 sets of 15 reps of triceps kickbacks with 5 pound weights.  The first set was easy, the second harder.  Will not be able to move up to 8 pounders the next time.

Did it feel like a workout?  Yeah.  But it still felt like cheating, because it was only 22 minutes and until my heart rate went up, I barely broke a sweat.  And that was probably because it suddenly became humid right as I was getting started.

I’ll report on workout 2, but don’t worry, I won’t be recapping every single one for you.  :)

The 2009 Inaugural Rock & Roll Half Marathon Seattle

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The above named marathon and half marathon was held on June 27, 2009.  We left for Seattle on Thursday, June 25, 2009 and returned home on Tuesday, June 30th.  Details of the trip will be shared in a different entry.  This one is just about the actual race.

The day started at 4:00 a.m.  I got up swearing to never do another race EVER.   At that time of day, it doesn’t matter what I am doing.  Its just too darn early to be up.  Even with the 11 hours of sleep I got Thursday night, its just hard.

Being veterans of many races, we have the prepping part down to a science.  We were out the door at 4:30 a.m. where it was already starting to get light. Unlike in San Antonio, there were lots of shuttles waiting to load us runners up and take us to the start line in Tukwila.  We were not going to have a repeat of San Antonio and be late for the race.  Later on, however, I did find out that some people were late, but I am unsure if it was lack of shuttles or if it was the participants fault.   The down side of getting to the race area early is the waiting forever and getting cold legs.  We found a place to sit down so that we didn’t have to stand the whole time, or walk, and tire out our legs.

Eventually we lined up in our corrals.  Matt was several ahead of me, so that is where we parted ways.  In my corral, I was talking to women from Portland, who say Seattle sucks.  :)   They also were in the same state of mind I was in … where we just didn’t care what time we finished in.  We were there to have fun.  Or as much fun as you can have in a race.

Since I refused to be a slave to time, I didn’t wear my Garmin.  The only time I wished that I had, was the very beginning, as I missed the timer at the start line, and I really had no idea what time I started.  Because in the end, when you cross the finish line, you do want to know your actual time.   Found out later it was about 45 minutes until I crossed.

As we were walking towards the start, another woman started talking to me.  She is also a run/walker and was planning on doing the full marathon.  She planned to finish in 5:30, which is the pace I was going.  We started running together and a woman from NOLA who is currently living in Miami Beach decided to run with us.  We joked that she would be passing us quickly.  NOLA was telling me the differences in HOT between New Orleans and Miami Beach.   Um, okay ….

Unfortunately, I left the marathoner behind and it was NOLA and me for awhile.  We were on the same pace and she kept me running.  I blew her away though when she stopped for a potty break early on.  She could have possibly passed me later, but I don’t think she did.

There were hills at this point, not nothing too bad.  There were enough downhills and flat areas to even it out.  Mile 5 was a nice long rolling uphill, which wasn’t so bad, as I didn’t notice that it was steep until about mile 8 when someone commented on the hill at mile 5.  I guess there are advantages to living and running in Pittsburgh.

The Seward Park area was totally beautiful, tree lined and went along the water.  Seward Park encompassed miles 4-8.   Some spectators called to our attention a bald eagle in a tree.  Spectacular to see one not in captivity.  I certainly never had!  Some people stopped to take pictures.  I was tempted, but afraid to lose my stride.

Mile 9 was the steepest hill … nobody around me even attempted to run. After all, I was with the slow people. This hill was almost straight up and down, I kid you not.  Fortunately, it wasn’t long.   This was first split of marathon and half marathon.   Apparently there were two more.  Out and backs are rough.  I am glad that I didn’t do the full after hearing this.  I can handle people in front of me, but there is something about watching people on the other side that I find discouraging.  And later on, I saw the really big hill that the full marathoners had to endure.  I had even more respect for all of them after that.  And my respect was super high already!

Then we entered the transit tunnel …  it was interesting.  I thought it would be short and I was walking. Decided to walk the tunnel and then run, but the tunnel kept going and going … was it the Energizer tunnel?  There was even a water stop, a band, and porta potties!   I honestly was waiting for something to happen … like in movies, all the scary things happen in tunnels.  All that happened though was that I wanted to be done running.

At mile 10, I was at the 2:00:00 mark, which was a happy happy place for me.  I was very satisfied with this.  This is a 12:00 mile pace, and that means that I was running more than walking.  However, the road beyond the tunnel got very very narrow and here is where I was slowed down.  Even though I was with the 5 mph runners, I actually run a little faster and lose time on my walks and so I had a wall of slower people that I couldn’t get past.  The next mile was much slower and I also started to get tired here.

Around mile 12, where the full and half marathoners are following the same path, someone, a spectator, saw my marathon number, and said “You are halfway there” and I just smiled.  It was mile 14.5 for the full marathoners.  I didn’t bother to correct him and tell him I was almost done.  I already felt like an imposter, running with my “yellow” full marathon number.

Finish line … winded around and was annoying.  I hate when I know the finish is coming and I can’t see it!  I have to say that from mile 12 on, it was all downhills and flat though.  Again, unlike San Antonio that finished on the ONLY uphill of the whole race.  Maybe enough people complained about that, so they made sure to correct  it in Seattle.

So I turned the corner into the parking lot next to my hotel and then turned again and once more for good measure and crossed the finish line in a clock time of:  3:25:31.  Which in real time was 2:42:54.  Not even close to a PR and slower than I’ve done the last several halfs.  But its okay, I was fine with that.

Immediately after the race, I got my medal and some water and some salty snack.  The secure area was HUGE!  The mylar blankets are usually given out early in the area, but it was almost at the exit.  I needed it this time, as I was chilled and nauseated.  So I sat down.  I couldn’t open my bottle because my fingers were still swollen and the nice guy sitting nearby opened it for me.  We talked awhile.  Then I got up to go look for Matt.  I talked to a woman in her 60s, who just started running about 5 years ago.  She got her husband and her brother to do it too.  Another man who hadn’t run a marathon since college (and he was probably over 40) until this one and qualified for Boston.  Incredible.  So many nice people hanging out in the secure area waiting for their partners to finish.  I was bit annoyed that the UPS trucks were OUTSIDE the area, and I couldn’t get my flip flops, but you know, I survived.

It was a totally new experience for me, not caring about my time.  Just running and talking to people and looking at the scenery.  I liked it, but you know that I will get my competitive drive going again and care about time again.  But until then, I’ll just enjoy the ride.

The hardest part about the staggered start is not knowing when someone actually started.  I had no idea how long it would be before Matt would be done.  I checked the live results page and guessed, but was not a good guesser. Eventually a I got a text from him that said “Just passed 21; please procure gun/ammo and prepare to do the humane thing”.  Ha ha.  Then 40 minutes later “Passed 24.  What’s the status on that gun”.

Well, obviously if someone is texting, you know that things are not going well.  But my wonderful husband did finish in 5:00. That is amazing … two marathons in 8 weeks for him.

Other stats, mostly for the other runners:

Overall place:  11,009/15,650

Out of females: 7,485/11,421 (the race was 70% female)

Division (females, 35-39):  1516/2135 (I keep waiting for that to get better)

Splits:

5K 36:41

10K 1:14:06

9 mile: 1:49:32

12:26 overall pace (told you I slowed down)

Fitness, Pain, and Other Stuff

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Last Thursday, May 28th, I went out for a run.  It was about 74 degrees outside, with an equally high humidity.  But, you know, I had to run.  That marathon is getting closer, I had no choice.   Naturally, this being Pittsburgh, we really haven’t had these temperatures stick around long enough to be acclimated to it yet, so that made it difficult.  I was doing reasonably well, though, making decent time, feeling pretty good and relatively pain free.  It was on the way back, about 4.5 miles into the 6.2 mile run that I suddenly had pain.  The pain was in my right leg … and I’ve been having trouble with the left one.  It started at the very top of the inside thigh, and then moved to the hamstring/glute area.  I could run a small amount, then needed to walk.  I pretty much walked only at the very end.  I thought this was odd, but wasn’t too worried at the time.

The next morning I got up and went to yoga.   Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t even do a forward bend without pain.  Not even downward dog.  This being vinyasa yoga with all its forward bends and down dogs meant that I was in real trouble here.  I could actually bend with a lot less pain if I kept my knee bent.  I muddled through the class.  The only pose I ended up sitting out, well, I actually stood, was “twisted triangle” which for some reason was the worst.  I nearly yelped when I tried it.  I left the class feeling better though and could straighten the leg in down dog by the end of class.

Saturday, I was signed up to do a level 2 yoga workshop.  My glute/hamstring whatever, was still bothering me, but the pain was about 50% of what it was on Friday.  So I went.  I learned so many cool things.  I still couldn’t do twisted triangle, but forward bends were permitted.  I learned a new way to take flight in crow, and I am so close to being able to stay in that pose, but still can’t, its pretty frustrating!

Sunday was our scheduled long run.  Um, yeah.  I gave up at around mile 3.5 (and I was crazily thinking I would be going 15 miles) and walked the rest of the way. I did manage to walk 10 miles, but it got really slow at the end.  :)   Hills are not my friends.

At this point, it is looking like the full marathon is out of the question, and that I am going to have to do the half.  The only good news there is that I am way ahead in training for that.  This really makes me sad, remembering how great it felt to complete the full 26.2 miles.  Maybe if I can learn to not be so hard on myself, I might allow myself to walk the second half of the marathon … I’ll have 7 hours to complete it.  We’ll see.  It will be a game day decision.

So this week, I took the week off from running to allow my leg to heal.  It’s been tough.  It’s funny how I fight with myself to get out there and run normally, but then when I “can’t” there is nothing I would rather do.   I just got back a few minutes ago from picking up my CSA farm box (all greens, I guess I’ll be eating lots of salads) and saw many people running.  It made me happy to see them, as running does make me happy but it made me want to come home and put on my running shoes.  But I know I can’t do it until Sunday … that is the smart thing to do.    A walk on Tuesday (in flip flops because my blisters would crack open in shoes) made it very clear that I am not quite ready to run.

I took off my coward hat and tried the South Side yoga studio this week and I loved it.  The noontime class is great as I don’t need to get up early, or rush in the morning and can even go if I run early.  I just don’t like the rest of the day starting at 2:00, by the time I get home, so I guess I’ll have to work on being productive before the class.  Let’s not kid ourselves, its not like I usually get started on things earlier than that most days! Four classes in six days whetted my appetite for more yoga.  So that is good I got the yoga bug back.

Today … I finally finished the seasonal wardrobe conversion.  I had time … waiting for a handyman to come by to give us estimates on some work we need done.  We thought he was coming by at 9:30 but it was after 4:00 before he got here.  Funny how much more time I have when I don’t have to workout.  It was frustrating to have no idea when he would be here and Matt gave up his run because of it.  The handyman didn’t act like I was crazy for having so many cats, he just asked if they all got along, just as Blossom decided to terrorize Fuzzy.

Cole did not sleep one minute all day.  I don’t think Fuzzy, Blossom, or Willie did either.  They were too interested in me.  Cole is very mischievous in general, and more so today.  He was getting on my nerves.  He should be glad that he is so sweet at other times!

And, finally, an update on Hallie.  She is doing fine.  No weird leg pop-outs and she is eating very well and neatly, at that.   If you stuck it out, thank you for reading this very post.

Vegetarianism and The Food Network

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I never used to watch The Food Network.  I thought that it would be boring and make me hungry.  I couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to sit around and watch food shows all day.  That was close to the insanity of watching a home shopping channel, but not as bad as watching golf or bowling.

As it turns out, though, they have some interesting shows.  I like Alton Brown’s Good Eats. I’ve learned cooking techniques and about differences in various types of foods (onions, potatoes).  He is funny, sometimes just corny.  Ace of Cakes; Diners, Drive-In’s and Dives; Unwrapped; Challenge … all shows that are entertaining in their own right.   Have you ever seen Emeril?  He never prepares anything that either me or my husband would eat and I think he would be truly stumped by having to create a healthy meal.

And that is my pet peeve with the network.  There is a significant lack of healthy cooking.   I’ve heard that there are shows that do have healthy cooking, but I’ve yet to see it.   However … vegetarians?  Oh forget about it, cause apparently we don’t exist … and if someone does remember that there is such a creature they get it wrong.  Not that I spend a lot of time watching tv in general, I am talking maybe an hour a week with this channel, and different shows each time, as we watch at different times.

Imagine my excitement, when one day Matt turned on the Rachel Ray show 30 Minute Meals, and found out that it is vegetarian day!  Whoo-Hoo!  Let’s see what we do with that.   It was predictable, salad/veggies and pasta.  That is a typical, not very familiar with vegetarian eating standard food.  Everything was going well, she made a cold chickpea and vegetable salad that looked tasty enough that I modified it a tiny bit and made it for my family’s Memorial Day picnic. It was a big hit.  Then she made another type of salad, and included mozzarella cheese.  Okay, that is vegetarian, but if you have a vegan, that is out.  Then to the pasta … spaghetti noodles, grilled vegetables mixed in to a homemade cheesy sauce that included, wait for it …. chicken stock! Yes!  Chicken stock!  Didn’t you know that chicken stock is vegetarian?  Grrrr…….   what a dope! (to quote a good friend of mine).

No … chicken stock is NOT vegetarian! I hope she didn’t really serve that to some actual vegetarians!  If they ate that and then went back and saw the show, they would be pissed off!  Seriously so.

Today, while we were eating our breakfast, we flipped the station on and came across a show that we had never heard of.  Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello.   It was a cooking on the grill episode, naturally, with this being Memorial Day and all.   I learned that many Caesar Salads have anchovies in them.  Eww!  Good thing I never eat Caesar Salad (warning to my vegetarian readers who eat those in restaurants!).   After he made his gross buffet of various animal products, he started on the grilled mozzarella cheese, the potatoes, the bread and zucchini.   Oh boy a vegetarian delight!  He did mention that the vegetables were to appease his vegetarian friends.  What he didn’t realize is that … he cooked the vegetables directly on top of various animal fat!  It’s not vegetarian anymore.

What would these chefs do if handed some tofu, tempeh or seitan?  They’d be perplexed.  Tell them no broth except vegetable and don’t cook with the animals … their heads would probably explode.

The Food Network is doing vegetarians a disservice.  If they are not going to cook it appropriately, they shouldn’t label it as such!

But never fear, I will be here to give you the right information!

One last lesson for tonight, my friends. Fish is an animal.   Fish is NOT a vegetarian food.


Running Very Fast

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Last night, Matt and I headed out for a six mile run.  We weren’t sure if we would go six or seven, as it all depended on how many little humans might be in the baseball field and we feel kind of silly running around the loop several times if they are there.   Turns out, there were kids, but there was also a killer dog … that dog determined it would only be six miles!  He actually wasn’t a killer dog, he was a very friendly boisterous dog who didn’t want to heel with his owner, he wanted to run with us.  That happens a lot.

Anyway, when we were about 9:28 into our run, I glanced at my Garmin to see how fast I was going and how much further until I reached one mile.  I always think I am going to stop to walk at mile one, but I usually keep going. ;)    The Garmin indicated that I was already at one mile.  Whoo Hoo.  Except … not really.  We were more like at .75.   I don’t know what happened, but the Garmin was obviously infected by a virus.

I actually enjoyed the malfunctioning mileage counter.  I loved seeing how fast I was accumulating the miles.  Normally, this only happens in my imagination.  But I had concrete, er, electronic proof that I was a speedy little runner last night.

According to my Garmin, I ran 9.78 miles in 1:14:15.  Oh how I only wish.  I really only went 6.2.  But I can still enjoy pretending.

And speaking of killer animals, yesterday Hallie insisted on coming down to the main living quarters.  She was down here for about 45 minutes, and encountered several cats.  Nobody picked on her, but they were all curious, therefore, they were not ignoring her.  Nobody got into a fight.  However, when she was ready to return to her suite, Cole was standing next to it, staring her down.  He at the top of the stairs, she on the landing.  Just staring at each other.  Neither seemed stressed though.  I don’t know who would have won, as I ended it but picking up Cole and locking him in the bathroom so that the poor girl could get upstairs and settle down.

After our run and dinner, I attempted to finish the baby blanket I am working on.  I had sewn the sides together earlier, however, I had decided to use 1″ seams instead of the 1/2″ as determined by the pattern and, as any one who has any mathematical inclination can tell you (which is obviously not me), the sides were too short.  So I just finished up ripping them apart to make according to the original directions.  Note to self:  Cut bigger pieces of fabric if you want larger seams!