I didn't mean to slip away from the blog, but it's been kind of crazy outside of the keyboard the last few days. I am trying to balance getting healthy but also not going off the deep end.
Yesterday I had an upset stomach. Fantastic. Remembering the cardinal rule of exercise and sickness, since it was below the neck I decided to skip the workout. It's hard for me not to beat myself up about it. I also ate mostly carbs last night. Anything to ease the waves of nausea that kept washing over me. After a melatonin induced sleep I feel much better today. I learned last year that apparently this is something that also happens to my young cousins when they're incredibly tired. Why are bodies so weird??
I have stuck to my no grains or sweets for the week! (Side note...we're not including popcorn so it's not 100% grain free.) This past week I got a few more miles closer to my 2019 goal though of reaching 2,019 miles for the year. I celebrated the 200 mile mark!
Only 1,819 to go.....
That't not daunting.
However...I did something crazy and signed up for another marathon.
I have to let that sink in.
26.2 miles. Over the 4 months that it will take to train for the marathon I will add an additional 530 miles.
If I continue at my current pace, I'll hit close to 1,800 miles for the year. So I'll be a little shy of the 2,019 goal. We'll see what my body can handle.
In other health related news I finally finished 'In the Defense of Food' by Michael Pollan. It was a lot of information. Almost overwhelmingly so.
For starters the book was written in 2008, so reading it 11 years later some of the information is outdated, although...some of his predictions, such as coca-cola coming out with "organic" soda, were right.
It was an interesting listen, but I also found it to be an idealist way of thinking towards food. I agree that we should find locally sourced food products as often as possible but it's not as easy for someone in the middle of the city with a low income, as it is for someone who lives a few doors down from a farmer.
I agree that the food industry tends to look at the science of food more than the food in its entirety. The thinking goes, Omega 3's are good for you, let's put that in cookies, pasta, and bread. While a cookie may be organic and contain "extra" organically sourced nutrients, it's still a cookie. You're better off eating a non-organic piece of fruit than you are an organic cookie. It's what Michael Pollan dubs "nutritionism."
The end of the book was really neat because he covered how different cultures view food. For instance the French consume fewer calories than Americans but they spend more time sitting down and enjoying their food. Leisurely enjoying the food that's been cooking surrounded by a table of friends and family, verses Americans who tend to think if it fits in a cup holder it's good enough for me. (Although full disclosure, small apples fit in my cup holder...so it can't ALL be bad.)
Michael Pollan also covered eating meat, and the importance of a grass-fed, grass-finished animal. When animals consume more grass they consume more beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is important for humans because it's a cancer fighting anti-oxidant. It is a main source for vitamin A, which is essential for normal growth and development, immune system function...just to name a few.
I had to break the book down into almost 4 different parts. The amount of information was somewhat overwhelming. Which in turn made me overwhelmed.
Trying to lose weight, eat right, gain muscle, not loose sleep, balance your hormones, but continue an active prayer, family, and social life. Well...it's stressful. In America where things often move faster it's hard for us to slow down and really balance our lives. I usually eat breakfast in my car on my way to the gym. So much so, that when I cleaned it out the other day, I found 6 forks and two plates. No wonder we can't keep any silverware in the house...because I steal it and the SUV eats it. Ha!
I'm not gonna lie, the thought of a well maintained diet, plus my full time and part time schedule, as well as adding the time commitment of a marathon has me a little freaked out. Can my body handle it?
This is where self doubt starts to creep in. One of my first thoughts this morning was "Girl you are fat. How did you get to be so bad again? You look terrible."
Well, have you ever considered the source of these lies? (Not my lies, your lies...that your brain tells you.) Hopefully in the books or articles you read, such as In The Defense of Food, they have resources backing up their evidence. The authors hopefully did their do-diligence and checked their sources, and re-checked them. The publishers hopefully spent time researching and talking to people and studying the particular subject they are discussing. When a lie snakes into your brain, such as you're not good enough...who is the author of that thought? What are you basing your information off of, that tells you that?
In Game of Thrones Season 7, Daenerys tells Jon Snow that she cannot have children. He asks her how she knows that.
He asks her, to question if where she got this information was valid. Is there a lie you are telling yourself that you've believed for so long, you no longer know that it's a lie?
The bible is filled with verses of God pouring out his love for us, and yet I still believe I am not beautiful or worthy. Where is that coming from? It's not from the truth. Biblical truth. We are worth more than rubies to God.
Are you telling yourself you can't run a marathon? Are you telling yourself you can't lose weight? I'm still at the beginning of my journey for this year and yet I am allowing myself to believe I am not worth fighting for. Every time I decide to sabotage my progress by binge eating or sacrificing sleep I buy into the lie that I cannot do something.
As someone who fights infertility I battle believing that God will grant us children of our own. That he still loves us. Whose to say we won't though? God gives comfort to the baron woman. When someone else tells you, you can't do something are you considering the source? Are we believing lies from bad sources? Whether it's political, scientific, and healthy and body related, are we doing ourselves the favor to do the hard work and find the source? Or are we believing the tabloids rumors that show up on popular social media sites? Are we streamlining our information from one place or are we varying our sources? We all know it only takes 1 sperm and 1 egg to create a baby. A baby that starts as an embryo, no bigger than a width of pencil. God is bigger than numbers. We just have to remember that when the lies of our worth start to seep in. Especially when we weigh ourselves on the bathroom scale in the morning.
I encourage you to face the lies you might be telling yourself and truly find the source of your information. If it's not biblical, in the name of love, or based from multiple sources, it's time to reconsider what we believe to be true about our bodies. About ourselves.
We are beautiful. I am beautiful. We are worthy. I am worthy.
Alright friends, thank you for sticking around. I will catch up with you later this weekend.
Blessings,
A
Yesterday I had an upset stomach. Fantastic. Remembering the cardinal rule of exercise and sickness, since it was below the neck I decided to skip the workout. It's hard for me not to beat myself up about it. I also ate mostly carbs last night. Anything to ease the waves of nausea that kept washing over me. After a melatonin induced sleep I feel much better today. I learned last year that apparently this is something that also happens to my young cousins when they're incredibly tired. Why are bodies so weird??
I have stuck to my no grains or sweets for the week! (Side note...we're not including popcorn so it's not 100% grain free.) This past week I got a few more miles closer to my 2019 goal though of reaching 2,019 miles for the year. I celebrated the 200 mile mark!
Only 1,819 to go.....
That't not daunting.
However...I did something crazy and signed up for another marathon.
I have to let that sink in.
26.2 miles. Over the 4 months that it will take to train for the marathon I will add an additional 530 miles.
If I continue at my current pace, I'll hit close to 1,800 miles for the year. So I'll be a little shy of the 2,019 goal. We'll see what my body can handle.
In other health related news I finally finished 'In the Defense of Food' by Michael Pollan. It was a lot of information. Almost overwhelmingly so.
For starters the book was written in 2008, so reading it 11 years later some of the information is outdated, although...some of his predictions, such as coca-cola coming out with "organic" soda, were right.
It was an interesting listen, but I also found it to be an idealist way of thinking towards food. I agree that we should find locally sourced food products as often as possible but it's not as easy for someone in the middle of the city with a low income, as it is for someone who lives a few doors down from a farmer.
I agree that the food industry tends to look at the science of food more than the food in its entirety. The thinking goes, Omega 3's are good for you, let's put that in cookies, pasta, and bread. While a cookie may be organic and contain "extra" organically sourced nutrients, it's still a cookie. You're better off eating a non-organic piece of fruit than you are an organic cookie. It's what Michael Pollan dubs "nutritionism."
The end of the book was really neat because he covered how different cultures view food. For instance the French consume fewer calories than Americans but they spend more time sitting down and enjoying their food. Leisurely enjoying the food that's been cooking surrounded by a table of friends and family, verses Americans who tend to think if it fits in a cup holder it's good enough for me. (Although full disclosure, small apples fit in my cup holder...so it can't ALL be bad.)
Michael Pollan also covered eating meat, and the importance of a grass-fed, grass-finished animal. When animals consume more grass they consume more beta-carotene. Beta-carotene is important for humans because it's a cancer fighting anti-oxidant. It is a main source for vitamin A, which is essential for normal growth and development, immune system function...just to name a few.
I had to break the book down into almost 4 different parts. The amount of information was somewhat overwhelming. Which in turn made me overwhelmed.
Trying to lose weight, eat right, gain muscle, not loose sleep, balance your hormones, but continue an active prayer, family, and social life. Well...it's stressful. In America where things often move faster it's hard for us to slow down and really balance our lives. I usually eat breakfast in my car on my way to the gym. So much so, that when I cleaned it out the other day, I found 6 forks and two plates. No wonder we can't keep any silverware in the house...because I steal it and the SUV eats it. Ha!
I'm not gonna lie, the thought of a well maintained diet, plus my full time and part time schedule, as well as adding the time commitment of a marathon has me a little freaked out. Can my body handle it?
This is where self doubt starts to creep in. One of my first thoughts this morning was "Girl you are fat. How did you get to be so bad again? You look terrible."
Well, have you ever considered the source of these lies? (Not my lies, your lies...that your brain tells you.) Hopefully in the books or articles you read, such as In The Defense of Food, they have resources backing up their evidence. The authors hopefully did their do-diligence and checked their sources, and re-checked them. The publishers hopefully spent time researching and talking to people and studying the particular subject they are discussing. When a lie snakes into your brain, such as you're not good enough...who is the author of that thought? What are you basing your information off of, that tells you that?
In Game of Thrones Season 7, Daenerys tells Jon Snow that she cannot have children. He asks her how she knows that.
He asks her, to question if where she got this information was valid. Is there a lie you are telling yourself that you've believed for so long, you no longer know that it's a lie?
The bible is filled with verses of God pouring out his love for us, and yet I still believe I am not beautiful or worthy. Where is that coming from? It's not from the truth. Biblical truth. We are worth more than rubies to God.
Are you telling yourself you can't run a marathon? Are you telling yourself you can't lose weight? I'm still at the beginning of my journey for this year and yet I am allowing myself to believe I am not worth fighting for. Every time I decide to sabotage my progress by binge eating or sacrificing sleep I buy into the lie that I cannot do something.
As someone who fights infertility I battle believing that God will grant us children of our own. That he still loves us. Whose to say we won't though? God gives comfort to the baron woman. When someone else tells you, you can't do something are you considering the source? Are we believing lies from bad sources? Whether it's political, scientific, and healthy and body related, are we doing ourselves the favor to do the hard work and find the source? Or are we believing the tabloids rumors that show up on popular social media sites? Are we streamlining our information from one place or are we varying our sources? We all know it only takes 1 sperm and 1 egg to create a baby. A baby that starts as an embryo, no bigger than a width of pencil. God is bigger than numbers. We just have to remember that when the lies of our worth start to seep in. Especially when we weigh ourselves on the bathroom scale in the morning.
I encourage you to face the lies you might be telling yourself and truly find the source of your information. If it's not biblical, in the name of love, or based from multiple sources, it's time to reconsider what we believe to be true about our bodies. About ourselves.
We are beautiful. I am beautiful. We are worthy. I am worthy.
Alright friends, thank you for sticking around. I will catch up with you later this weekend.
Blessings,
A
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