One of the Maintenance May items was continuing our work from Fit April.  And here are my results:

I am happy with the results – considering that I continued to enjoy life while eating right and exercising most of the time.  I am down 13 pounds since I started and I am happy with that.  But really pisses me off?  Emile’s results are what pisses me off:

Seriously?  He lost 30 pounds in 2 months.  No real hiccups – just a smooth transition.  Almost daily runs and some food denials, but nonetheless, he just dropped 30 pounds like it was nothing.  And if it was nothing, why didn’t he do it before?  Honestly, it seems unfair that men can fluctuate so easily.  He looks and feels great.  And if I don’t watch my back, he is going to overtake me – although he is going to start getting that gaunt look.  And both are just wrong.

We have a run next weekend that we are both hoping to again best our personal bests.  We’ll have to see.

 May 31st, 2012 Extra-Ordinary:   May in my rearview.

]]> http://bellerogue.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/hey-fat-girl/ Sat, 02 Jun 2012 01:32:53 +0000 CiCi Belle http://bellerogue.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/hey-fat-girl/ This is copied from www.flintland.blogspot.com. I thought it was awesome.

Hey, Fat Girl.

Yes, you. The one feigning to not see me when we cross paths on the running track. The one not even wearing sports gear, breathing heavy. You’re slow, you breathe hard and your efforts at moving forward make you cringe.

You cling shyly to the furthest corridor, sometimes making larger loops on the gravel ring by the track just so you’re not on it. You sweat so much that your hair is all wet. You rarely stay for more than 20 minutes at a time, and you look exhausted when you leave to go back home. You never talk to anyone. I’ve got something I’d like to say to you.

You are awesome.

If you’d look me in the eye only for an instant, you would notice the reverence and respect I have for you. The adventure you have started is tremendous; it leads to a better health, to renewed confidence and to a brand new kind of freedom. The gifts you will receive from running will far exceed the gigantic effort it takes you to show up here, to face your fears and to bravely set yourself in motion, in front of others.

You have already begun your transformation. You no longer accept this physical state of numbness and passivity. You have taken a difficult decision, but one that holds so much promise. Every hard breath you take is actually a tad easier than the one before, and every step is ever so slightly lighter. Each push forward leaves the former person you were in your wake, creating room for an improved version, one that is stronger, healthier and forward-looking, one who knows that anything is possible.

You’re a hero to me. And, if you’d take off the blaring headphones and put your head up for more than a second or two, you would notice that the other runners you cross, the ones that probably make you feel so inadequate, stare in awe at your determination. They, of all people, know best where you are coming from. They heard the resolutions of so many others, who vowed to pick up running and improve their health, “starting next week”. Yet, it is YOU who runs alongside, who digs from deep inside to find the strength to come here, and to come back again.

You are a runner, and no one can take that away from you. You are relentlessly moving forward. You are stronger than even you think, and you are about to be amazed by what you can do. One day, very soon, maybe tomorrow, you’ll step outside and marvel at your capabilities. You will not believe your own body, you will realize that you can do this. And a new horizon will open up for you. You are a true inspiration.

I bow to you.

Until then, I’ll be cross training, and I might resume easy running next week with the predetermination that I’ll stop if I have any hip flexor pain. Then I’ll work on rebuilding my mileage base and slowly incorporate some speed work. I really want to start signing up for local 5Ks and 10Ks as soon as possible, but that won’t be smart until my hip flexor is healed. Even then, it might not be smart given my lack of recent speed work, haha.

I’ve been a little disappointed this week about running a huge positive split in the marathon. However, I keep telling myself, “Dude – you just ran a freaking marathon, and you did it on reduced training with a lingering injury.” I can’t help competing with myself (or my expectations, at least) when I run, but I also need to keep things in perspective. I’m not fast enough to ever have anything at stake when I race, so the only pressure I really have is from myself. And I missed several long runs and speed workouts due to my hip flexor. I’d like to think I would’ve been able to hold up at least a little better during the second half of the race if I had a full training segment. I’m thrilled to be a marathoner now, but there’s that little part of me that occasionally thinks, “Positive split?! WTF?!” I guess the positive thing about positive splits, other than them being positive (haha), is that they’re great incentive to run better next time…

I hope you have a great weekend and run (or cross train) happy!

Questions:
Are you racing this weekend? If so, at what distance?

Do you ever get disappointed when you don’t meet a goal, even though you should be happy with what you accomplished despite missing the goal? If so, how do you balance any disappointment with the sense of accomplishment?

After typing in many different search terms into Google and trying to figure out what this was called, I finally figured out to type “Kilian Jornet electrodes” and got exactly what I was looking for.  He was using electro muscle stimulation.  This was far beyond my knowledge of foam rollers and The Stick for injury prevention so tonight I’m asking…

What is electrostimulation and why is it good for athletes?

Electro muscle stimulation is when electrodes are placed close to certain muscles and deliver low electrical currents throughout the body.  It is thought that this muscle stimulation has great benefits for athletes such as relieving pain, helping with recovery, relieving stress, and increasing range of motion.  It is also suggested the ES can help athletes improve their performance after reaching a plateau.  I looked through a few studies on the effectiveness of ES, and  their findings concluded that ES  is actually quite effective in increasing muscle strength, performance, and helping with injury prevention.  Electro muscle stimulation works by using different programs, or patterns of stimulation, to train different muscle fibers.  Different patterns of electrostimulation can help improve fatigue resistance (in other words, more endurance) while others can increase muscle power.

The FDA regulates the distribution of electrostimulators.  You can buy them over the counter or you can get a prescription.  An EMS that you purchase OTC can only legally claim that it helps with muscle toning.  A prescription device, however, can claim to help with muscle spasms, range of motion, and blood circulation.  I looked online to see how much these devices cost, and the price can vary greatly.  Some cost $60 while others cost $850.  I’m pretty sure this is not something I’ll be investing into any time soon, but it was certainly interesting to learn about.  Maybe I’ll find a friend who has one I can try out =)

Here is a video that describes how to use an EMS device:

I hope everyone has a great Friday evening and a safe weekend of running and racing!

Happy Trails and Happy Running,

Tracie

As I got older I started noticing craving triggers.  When it’s hot outside I want onions.  When its cold I want bread. And the ever classic once a month salt craving.

I recently noticed new triggers.  Exercise.  Depending on the type of exercise I crave different things.  But the dynamic is just strange.

Running I crave:             Yoga I crave:

Pizza                                  Kale

Cheeseburger                   Mushrooms

Onions                               Hummus

Potato                                Eggs

Beer                                   Wine

It’s so strange.  I would have thought eating healthy would trigger more healthful cravings.  But as soon as I got back into running I suddenly wanted pizza and beer.  When I was daily into my yoga I wanted kale salads and fried eggs.  I had the occasional glass of wine, but nothing major.  I went to the store today to get the stuff to make a cucumber salad and had to drag myself away from the beer cooler.  I did convince myself not to buy any, but here I am three hours later and all I’m thinking about is that dang beer!  Plus the pizza I did buy- but it’s still in the freezer.

Anyone else have weird exercise cravings?

I am super excited to be featured on AnotherMotherRunner.com!  I felt like a “Super” star all day long!  Thanks Sarah and Dimity!

Anyways, I’m really happy about all my final exam grades and even happier that I don’t have to worry about them anymore. I think I’ve already forgotten all of PreCal, probably similar to the way that people forget traumatic experiences. (Just kidding.)

Why is it, that whenever I do a mani/pedi, that the toenails last waaaay longer than the fingernails?

It’s incredible how quickly May went by. I feel kind of bad because I posted all of three times… in the whole month. Whoops. Anyways, I wanted to make some goals for summer break:

1) To post more often (obviously)

This is random, but these are amazing! They’re my new favorite snack. Y’all who don’t live in Texas, should be jealous.

2) To follow my summer running maintenance plan so that I can start XC season on the right foot:

• Sundays: Long run (7-9 miles)
• Tuesdays: Easy run (4-5 miles
• Thursdays: Relatively easy speed work (Fartleks, Tempo, Hill Repeats, etc.)
• Fridays: Easy run (4-5 miles)

and cycling/swimming/weights/rest days on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.

On that note, I just ordered some new shoes (Saucony ProGrid Guide 5 from RoadRunnerSports.com):

3) SAT Practice! ‘Nuff said.

Hooray…?

4) Hospital Volunteering! I did this last summer too but now it’s at a different hospital.

Happy summer break! (to those of you who are on summer break, if you’re still in school then good luck with finals!)

One last random photo: my new running watch! I promised a photo.

High school/college XC runners: what do you do to maintain in the summer?

What is the best birthday you’ve ever had?

You’ve all seen this guy… late 50′s/early 60′s, balding, wears sweatpants (possibly with cargo pockets), neon tennis shoes, and a portable cassette tape player on his hip w/ old school headphones.  I generally notice him at some point during my second set of exercises because he’s lingering awkwardly close to my machine… likely trying to spy on the amount of weight I’m lifting.  I’m never sure if he wants the machine next because he’s spent the last few minutes randomly shuffling around the gym floor while bobbing his head to whatever John Denver song happens to be playing on his cassette.  As I continue through my workout, I notice that he will scan the dumbbells, then select the 15′s to do a set of 5 bicep curls (yes, five total reps, not five per arm.)  He then gravitates toward any unfortunate female that happens to be nearby.  Perhaps he will attempt to make conversation, but likely he will sit down on the leg machine closest to her and proceed to work his inner thighs.  After that, he’ll probably complete his “workout” with 2 minutes and 17 seconds on the elliptical.  I have absolutely no idea why this guy has decided to pay for a gym membership.  My best guess is that his doctor suggested he should “get in the gym more.”  So he doing precisely that: BEING IN THE GYM, and nothing more, except maybe making a few ladies feel uncomfortable.  Tonight, I salute you Mr. Wanderer!

My workout tonight went pretty well.  It was another day of chest, triceps, and shoulders.  I did chest presses, flys, decline presses, tricep push-downs and overhead raises, and shoulder presses.  I also ran on the treadmill for the first time since breaking my toe!  It felt much better, but not 100% yet… still encouraging.  Protein today consisted of lots of peanuts, chicken for lunch and dinner, and my post-workout shake.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 125g.  Make any suggestions for back and bicep workouts in the comments tonight because I’ll be working those tomorrow!  Have a fantastic evening!

After the swim, I only had time to squeeze in a 27 mile ride on the trainer before hitting the chiro.  Today she tried acupuncture since my body doesn’t respond like a “normal” person.  Being special isn’t so great in a situation like this.  I’m gonna post this “needles in the foot” pic again for my mom those of you who don’t have facebook or follow me on twitter.

After the needle fun at the chiro, I went directly to the foot surgeon for a more needle action in the form of a cortisone shot.  He infused the cortisone with an anesthetic in order to numb the foot out for a week or so.  Let’s cross our fingers!  Ragnar here I come…..Dear Foot:  Please comply!

In developing a list of 7 things I “need” that are possibly not going to be in every runner’s bag, I started with the important stuff:

1. Ice bag.  I have a gel ice bag that I’m planning to beg my teammates to stuff in the cooler.  I need it.
2. Motrin.  I need it.
3. Merrill Encore Ice slip-on shoe.  Although this is probably the ugliest shoe I have ever purchased, I’m glad to have it.  I bought it off the clearance rack at REI and it holds my plantar fascia up and keeps my feet feeling “ok”.  I need them.  But they are ugly.  I’m considering getting a sandal just like this too. 
4. Toothbrush.  I know we won’t be having a lot of time to shower  but I’m hoping to be able to at least brush my teeth.
5. Tortilla-Peanut Butter- Dill Pickle wraps.  I know this sounds disgusting but I actually like peanut butter and pickles together and I think this will work well for me food wise and I’ll be able to avoid the soggy bread issue.
6. Rehydrate Energy Gel - This is a new product which totally rocks.  It is easy on my tummy and has an excellent lemon taste.  I still can’t get over how awesome this stuff is and am looking forward to our long term relationship. 
7. A freakin’ AWESOME attitude.  I think this is probably the most important “item” on the list.  We are going to be tired, cranky and the worst thing we can do is take it out on each other or somebody else.  In order to have a good time, each person is responsible for bringing a good attitude.  Ever heard the saying, “if you aren’t having fun, it’s your own fault”?  So let’s bring it, rock this thing and have some fun!!

What would you take on your relay run adventure?

** Happy Relaying ** Amanda – TooTallFritz ** amanda@tootallfritz.com

I will preface this by saying that Russ and I are sharing a car right now which means he drives me in for 9am and I leave at 5pm only to have to go back to pick him up at 11pm.  Needless to say, I have not mastered the ability to wake up in time to work out with only 6.5 hours of sleep between 11:30pm and 6am.

However, I did *mostly* stick to my workout schedule just not in the morning…

Sunday: 4.5 mile run

Monday: Off (Because I work both jobs this day)

Tuesday: Off (Also, two job day)

Wednesday: 2 mile run, 90 minute volleyball game

Thursday: Overslept and skipped after work gym in order to have a date night in West Hartford.

Friday: Acacia X Tend 55 minute Barre video

and tomorrow…. it is H.I.I.T. and yoga day!

Overall, I feel okay about this week. I am going to try and squeeze at least *something* in on Mondays and Tuesdays even if it’s only 10-15 minutes.

I give myself a pretty hard time some days about not being able to get up on 6.5 hours of sleep, I think about all the women I know who have amazing families and even busier lives who manage to work in marathon training and here I am, married without kids and with arguably plenty of free time, and still not able to wake up.  However, I’m a work in progress, aren’t we all?

I found this on the internet, it’s amazing, I want to share it with you because you’re amazing.

                            This image belongs to Karen Salmansohn.

Seems I’ve been gone a while? Well, I’m BAAAACK. And I’m not going to bore you with my rather lackluster exercise life which honestly has been rather lackluster lately.

Case in point, this morning’s run:

3.10 miles in 23:37 (7:35/mile)

Cooldown: 0.51 miles in 5:21

Warmed up with a lunge matrix in the morning, and then headed off. For some reason I felt like I was running near-race pace, so perceived effort was really really high, but the timings show otherwise. I attribute it to the fact that I ate more grains than usual the night before; there is NO SUCH THING AS BAD DAYS. (…only weak people and bad choices.)

The week’s basically been jam-packed with me going in and out of the lab and smelling like wastewater and chlorella, but that’s besides the point.

I have enjoyed some really good food lately though.

Hugeass bowl of seafood soup with lots of veggies and two steamed chicken breasts with some sesame/soy sauce thing. SO GOOD AND SO CHEAP. The chicken was super moist and tender. When the lady saw my order I heard her talking to her friend about how some crazy girl in a uniform was eating a two-person portion of chicken and four person portion of soup.

Baked white fish with bok choy, miso, soybean sprouts, shiitake and eggplant. Seriously, don’t ask me what fish that is. I have no clue. I just know it tastes good.

Chicken stew with shiitake, chicken (duh), lotus root, bamboo shoots, carrots, radishes, enoki mushrooms and all sorts of fun stuff. Have I mentioned how much I love soups!??!!!!!

Pork-based soup with herbs, Japanese yam and goji berries lovingly made by grandma; white fish with spinach, tomatoes, eggplant, ginger, enoki mushrooms. Yeah, still loving the soups here. Japanese yam in soups is so freaking good.

Spinach, steamed asparagus, two poached egg yolks (because I CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME poach the entire egg without it collapsing and dying) and three scrambled egg whites, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, black pepper. Breakfast salad, anyone?

Baked white fish, leafy Asian greens, dried anchovies, goji berries, white button mushrooms. Goji berries + dried anchovies = freaking delicious base, thank you very much.

Spinach (that’s hidden at the bottom BECAUSE IT’S SHY, not because it’s not there!!!!), cauliflower, baked chicken with tomato, balsamic vinegar, basil, black pepper.

Steamed kabocha, three half-boiled eggs, balsamic vinegar and black pepper. YES, WITH THE YOLKS AND EVERYTHING. Suck on that. The half-boiled eggs are a traditional breakfast here, though I think I ate too much ’cause most people eat only two and I was bursting after this relatively small breakfast. I miss this! Half-boiled eggs will be a regular in my future. (Though only two.)

Grilled white fish, spinach, goji berries, ginger. As usual I added a LOT of ginger because ginger is a lovely thing, and the base ended up quite spicy – not that I minded at all, though. I also think I prefer fish baked; grilled, the meat’s tough and yucky. :’(

I also had my very first shish kebab the other day which I did not take a photo of. It was good – lovely flavours, lovely spices, lovely herbs, and the sear on the meat was nice. But the meat was unfortunately freaking tough. I think I prefer my tender fall-off-the-bone meat that comes with the territory of cooking them in soups for long hours on end.

And guess what I made?!??!?!!

NUT BUTTERRRRR!

First, I soaked raw walnuts, almonds and cashews overnight, then drained and rinsed them, and proceeded to pulverize them in the food processor. (I’ve also been snacking a shitload on soaked and dehydrated nuts… SOMEONE STOP ME.)

See the layer of oil on top? Most of it, I think, sort of spilled away because my food processor is a sucky one that takes forever to make a tiny portion of nut butter and I have to stop every few seconds to scrape the sides down and let the motor cool because it was heating up like no other.

It ended up tasting pretty darn good, even though spreading was hell because failing to incorporate the oils into the nut butter made it quite dry and not drippy at all. It reminded me, coincidentally, not of nuts but of lotus seed paste. WHUT. I know, I know.

Next adventure: ALMOND MILK (and the various uses for leftover pulp).

I’ve also edited my “Food Philosophy” page, if anyone’s interested.

See you guys next week!!!!

How has your week been? Any adventures in making nut butter?

Selling that 1000th copy has become a goal, much like qualifying for the Boston Marathon was ten years ago.  Now that I’m almost there, I’d be grateful if you could help spread the word about the book for one last push to make it over the line.

My birthday is coming up this month.  Reaching 1000 copies would make for a great present

If you’re interested in helping, here are some suggestions:

• Share the link to the Chasing the Runner’s High site on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, your running club’s mailing list, your blog, your podcast, or wherever else you might get the attention of someone who might be interested in reading it.  Add a personal note if you can – word-of-”mouth” is the best way to spread the word.
• “Like” Chasing the Runner’s High on Facebook and share the page with your friends.
• Review the book on Amazon, Goodreads, or your favorite book site
• Post something on your blog or in your newsletter (if you need excerpts, images, or review copies beyond what you can scrape off my site, just let me know)
• Stand on the corner and tell people as they walk by (well, maybe not, but you could tell your running friends)

And, of course, you can buy the book if you haven’t already.  Anyone who wants a signed copy can email me.

Tell everyone!  And thanks again to all of you who’ve bought a copy, and to everyone who wrote to let me know what they thought about the book.  I’ve enjoyed hearing from all of you!

“Friday night.  Just got paid.  Party’s pumpin’.  Feelin’ right!”

Let’s just replace that word party with the word yoga.  I’ve reached new (and somewhat alarming) levels of healthiness by attending yoga class on a Friday evening in lieu of my usual CL Carbo Loading.  Maybe everyone should start restocking their shelves with their doomsday supplies because this new behavior is starting to frighten even me.

In all seriousness, yoga was awesome and taught by my new favorite instructor Ace.  Ace is the dude that taught my class a couple of Saturday’s ago and in a nutshell kicks ass.  We powered through planks, Pilates-style ab work and our Sun Salutations like Olympic gold medalists.  Certainly you know your workout is going to be awesome when it’s taught be a guy name Ace.  Ah yeah.

What really shocks me is how freaking crowded the class was.  Seriously, that place was poppin’ for a Friday night!  After smacking some poor chick in the boob with my yoga mat and nearly trampling over five people to get to the last open spot on the floor, I looked around and thought, “What is wrong with all you people?!”  Why are you here instead of out doing something fun?! Well, maybe they all had big plans after yoga class or maybe like me, yoga was their Friday night party.

I finally made the (right) decision to not run the Ojai Half on Sunday.  Instead tomorrow is my first day with my new running club and it feels a little bit like the night before the first day of school.  Perhaps I should go pick out my outfit so that I know I will be dressed to impress my new peeps.  Ha ha ha.  I don’t think anyone will care what I am wearing but it definitely should be interesting to join a club that’s pretty well established already.  It looks like we have a 1 and 1/2 hour run scheduled for tomorrow…I just hope I don’t embarrass myself too much.

In an effort to ensure a more successful long run I am going to implement some organic brown rice into my pre-run meal tonight.  It’s very non-Paleo, but after a lot of research I have learned it’s important for endurance (cough, cough) athletes like myself to add a little insulin spike before a strenuous workout.  As long as my legs don’t feel like lead tomorrow we should be much more successful than last Saturday.

Speaking of the Paleo…I am starting to become a little bit of a freak about food.  I’ve known for a while now that corn really isn’t good for you but never really knew the reason why.  After googling “why is corn bad for you?” I’ve finally learned the truth, and you know what?  I can barely handle the truth.  I’ll let people do their own research and come to their own conclusions but the corn conspiracy is a big one and another reason why I am very glad I’ve made the changes I have in my diet.

Hopefully I will have fun stories about my first day with the running crew tomorrow!  Until then…keep the party alive!

…I am eager for the cable man to finish up and leave and not because I want to watch tv, but because I want to get my quick 1.5 mile run in before I buckle down and get lotsa homework done.

…I take a new route through my favorite park and it leads me uphill at a fairly decent incline for .8 of a mile and I never stop running.

…I am already thinking about mentally conquering the 4 miles I have on the calendar for tomorrow!!

Note my arrow necklace also – it’s my running mojo!

I feel like a student when…

…I sit at a desk to do homework and not on my couch.

…I think about my paper while I’m running.

…I really want pizza on my massive Friday night study nights.

I feel like a person who has her stuff together when…

…I do what I say I’m going to do.

Ok.  Buckling down now.  Need to get a solid 2.5 – 3 hours of homework in.  Have a great Friday night!

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the time of day, the run was largely uneventful, although at one point my silent and speedy approach around a corner did scare a fox into running face first into a bin in an attempt to escape me. I already know I’m going to hell, so I chuckled quite a bit about that. Then about half a mile from my own front door I ran past three lads who had just got out of a cab and were clearly arriving home from a Friday night out on the sauce. Seeing that I was running, one of them (inevitably) assumed the role of comedian (at least in his own mind, if not in fact) and called out to me asking me if I was late; I responded cheerily in the negative, safe in the knowledge that I would indeed make it back indoors with several minutes to spare before midnight to log my day 1 effort.

Tomorrow we get to do it all again. And the day after. And the day after…..

Juneathon running totals

• Time: 14:10
• Distance: 2 miles
• Average pace: 7:05/mile

Recap on Day 7:

Everything before noon is kind of hazy unfortunately… but I do know that I consumed a lot of food, whatever was. I’m thinking that it involved peanut butter, I’m pretty sure. My energy was totally depleted– and I’m not sure why, because I’ve been sleeping well and eating plenty…. what’s going on? So, I decided to take a break day from exercise, and laid out by the pool a lot of the time… then I stepped on the scale.

O_O

Why?

Who knows. I knew it was going to be awful, since I had eaten so much. I knew that whatever the number was, it wasn’t going to be my actual weight… it’s water weight, right?

But still.

135.

GOOD LORD.

I was so sad. SO sad. Angry… wanted to give up… started freaking out, wringing my hands, “AH! WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?? AHHHH!” That nervous craziness went on for about 10 minutes… then my dad called me downstairs. “MADE YOU SOMETHING HONEYYYY.”

And he did:

Collard greens, soaking in garlic and onion water. Shortly after, he had to leave… which left me to myself (always a problem), but instead of pigging out on food, I drank ALL OF THE WATER THAT WAS IN THIS POT (this picture was taken after I drank all the water). My stomach looked like I was carrying three children in there, and it stayed that way for hours. Extremely uncomfortable. But, hardly any calories right? So it wasn’t a terrible thing I guess… but I was still disgusted with myself.

So! I did some blog-browsing and was inspired to try a smoothie- cleanse type of diet… so I tried this:

tried to chop the veggies up… and then… Ah, yes the food processor. Why didn’t I think of that…

It got pretty messy.

I ended up with a pretty big bowl of mushed up vegetables, that I on portioning out the next day, to serve as all 3 of my meals. And I would eat only that. ONLY that. It didn’t go exactly as planned.

When my dad came home from work, he brought something I love even more ardently than PB: ice cream. Why???!!! RAWRGH. Not good, Not, not good. So that was that.

Day 8: Today

Not an awful day. Again, I got a little side-tracked, so I didn’t record everything I ate… I kind of ate 2 big meals today. The first one took place around 11 am, and consisted of  cheerios, collard greens, cream cheese, celery, PB, and ice cream (awful I know… it’s like I’m trying to gain weight) and the other happened about an hour ago, which was made up of chocolate and collard greens. Really strange crap. But I’m done hating on myself… I feel indifferent, definitely not happy, but… it is what it is. I will try again tomorrow…

As far as my activity goes for today, it wasn’t a whole lot (it was raining). I went to LA fitness and ran a few miles, but started feeling sick from all of the collard greens sitting in my gut.

I did learn something about myself today though: I will never, ever, EVER in a million years, as long as ice cream and chocolate exist, be able to be vegan. Sorry world

Oh and haha one funny thing– remember how I said I drank about a gallon of the onion/garlicy water that the collard greens were cooking in? Yeah… well I was sweating that smell ALL DAY. It was really gross… I couldn’t smell it, but my mom tells me that my entire room smells like a big vat of simmering onions, and that if you get near me you can smell it too

GAHross. Anyway, thanks for reading, please don’t lose patience with me, and wish me luck for tommorrow :/