Category Archives: Health

Food, Health

Rebuilding Food Habits: Changing My Mind About Breakfast

When I first started experimenting with changing my food habits, I went gluten free. Breakfast was the one meal I had the most trouble changing. I ended up just going to non-wheat based cereals, oatmeal, or other traditional American breakfast foods like eggs and bacon.

When I went vegan and completely grain free, my ideas about breakfast had already started to shift. I had already given up grains, dairy and eggs at various times, so I had to figure something else out.

One important lesson that I learned in creating new food habits was that breakfast is just a meal, not a category of foods. It doesn’t have to be cereal with milk(or nut milks), toast, eggs and bacon, oatmeal or a muffin. If you can have “Brinner” (breakfast for dinner), why not dinner, lunch or anything else for breakfast?

The first time I tried a salad for breakfast was great. Then I started branching out. Of course I had smoothies and fruit, I eat a couple bananas with breakfast nearly everyday. I’ve had sweet potatoes. I’ve had steamed brussels sprouts. I’ve had soups. This morning I had a small acorn squash, boiled whole until the skin cracked and was easily pealed off by hand once it cooled. I also had 2 bananas, a persimmon, and brussels sprouts with a small sweet potato and hot sauce.

A huge part of changing food habits is changing your mindset. At one time, I couldn’t conceive of giving up bread, pasta, cheese, meat, or sugar. Slowly, one-by-one, I was able to change how I thought about each. I don’t need meat for protein. I find fruit just as satisfying as candy was in the past. Water quenches my thirst better than soda or juice. And breakfast is whatever I want it to be.

Exercise, Practice, Running, Training Log

October 27-November 2 Practice Running

Monday, October 27, 2014, 5:09 pm

4.02 mi, 127 ft gain, 59:15. Sultan Basin Rd DNR gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I may have to give up on my goal of 2000 mi for the year. My achilles/heel just keeps nagging. It’s not bad, but not really getting much better. And I’ve given up on running the 12 hour race this Saturday. I should probably take it easy for a while, if I can handle it mentally.

Anyway, a little discomfort for about half of the run. I was shooting for 4-6 mi. Couldn’t go to either of the first two spots I wanted to run because of hunters. It’s firearm deer season. So I went out a little further. I ended up running the two single track sections connecting the closed logging roads around to the third single track section that loops back to the road I started on. I found some chanterelles on the first road, a pleasant surprise.

I was a little short of 4 mi, so I ran across to the other gate and out a little ways to get my 4 mi.

I was planning to take it easy for a couple weeks in January before making a training push for a race in March. I guess my schedule has moved up.

 

Tuesday, October 28, 2014, 5:30 pm

4.57 mi, 66 ft gain, 41:29. Road in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Not too bad starting out. Then at about 0.2 mi, left achilles/heel started to tighten up and hurt. By 0.4 mi I could tell it was throwing off my gait, it hurt, and I was seriously thinking about turning around and taking a break for a week or two. I decided to slow down and go a couple more minutes. Then everything loosened up and felt fine for the rest of the run.

Before I started, I was feeling pretty good and thinking of going for about 6 mi. After going for a bit, and with the waning light, I decided I’d just go out for about 20 min, turn around and come back. I kept it at a fairly easy pace. I noticed several times that I was slowly speeding up to Sigurd’s pace as he was lightly pulling.

I hit 20 min and decided to go up to the next street. That, a couple stops for the dogs, a pitstop for myself, and taking the rocky RR access road, which slowed my pace a bit, on the way back make up for going over 40 minutes.

I’ve been sort of dreading going running with the rainy, gloomy weather the past week or so. But I’m happier and feel so much better every time I get home afterwards.

If I do scale back my running this much earlier than I planned, I might have to finally get into a yoga class or something.

 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014, 5:24 pm

4.58 mi, 66 ft gain, 39:28. Same as Tuesday, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Still some discomfort from about 0.25-0.5 mi but not nearly as bad as yesterday. After that, it was pretty good. Hit the same turn around spot at about the same time. No pitstops on the way back this time, and stuck to the road instead of the rocky RR access road. I think I also kept a little faster pace today too.

Got home and took a look at a couple more small trees leaning over the driveway. I took care of one a couple days ago. I got out the bow saw and took care of two more today. I also got to enjoy the beautiful sunset through the trees while doing so.

Dry and partly sunny today.

 

Thursday, October 30, 2014, 4:52 pm

4.71 mi, 66 ft gain, 40:00. Same as Tue & Wed, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I didn’t want to go out in the rain—again. But I’m glad I did. Very little discomfort from about 0.35-0.55. Great the rest of the time. I did a quick lap back down the road from the RR crossing at the beginning, waiting for a train to go by. It was shorter than I expected, so I didn’t have to backtrack far.

After that I ran out to the same spot I’ve turned around the last couple days. I got there at about the same time, even with the little extra waiting-for-the-train time. A little slower on the return trip than yesterday, but I think I stopped once more for the dogs to pee than yesterday as well.

The rain wasn’t too bad. The wind on top of the rain was rather annoying on the return trip from about 3.5-4.25 mi.

I’m not running the 12hr. I want to fully recover this time. I’ve pushed it too early, because I felt pretty good, and just prolonged the recovery process. As much as I want to get into the mountains before they get snowed in, I ‘ll stick with flat and easy, so I can keep running.

 

Friday, October 31, 2014, 3:59 pm

3.19 mi, 28 ft gain, 29:12. Road in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I wanted to run farther today, but didn’t have the time before I had to leave for some errands. I thought about going for another run in the dark after I got back, but I don’t really want to run around in the dark on Halloween.

I had a little less discomfort than yesterday at about the same point in the run. I’m looking forward to no more pain and getting back to longer trail runs.

 

Saturday, November 1, 2014, 5:32 pm

5.04 mi, 92 ft gain, 41:28. Road through town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I wanted to longer, but it’s getting dark so early. Maybe I’ll go out later for a few more on my own. I don’t like road running with the dogs in the dark.

Less discomfort than yesterday, happening in about the same section. It was a little colder today. No rain though. Overall a pretty good run. Went faster than the past few days. About 20 min out to turnaround. The dogs took a minute doing their business at the turnaround. I ran past my house just a little bit to hit 5 mi.

 

Sunday, November 2, 2014, 4:03 pm

9.14 mi, 444 ft gain, 1:17:42. Long way around town + Wallace Falls TH, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I wanted to get a little longer run on the roads in today. Less discomfort today starting at about the same point and lasting just a little longer. I started heading east up US2, turned on May Creek Rd, followed it around to Ley Rd and up to the Wallace Falls SP TH, got a little water and headed out again. Then I headed for home on my normal route.

I only had a couple vehicles not give me space while running on the small or non-existent shoulder. I liked the hills on May Creek rd, both going up at the beginning and down a couple miles later.

I pulled out my headlamp shortly after leaving the state park. It wasn’t that dark yet, but I use it more so vehicles see me. I like to carry a flashlight on road runs in the dark as well. I usually carry it in my traffic side hand pointing backwards so vehicles behind me can see me better. Sometime I’ll get some small flashers to just clip to my vest or clothes.

After a few minutes to warm up, I felt pretty awesome for the rest of the run. My effort at this pace was comparable almost 1 min slower pace at around this time last year. It’s great to see progress.
October totals: 215.2 mi, 23,536 ft gain

My personal best monthly mileage total, only by 3 mi, but that’s still pretty good for cutting back as much as I did for the last 2 weeks.

Weekly totals: 35.3 mi, 775 ft gain

 

I’m disappointed that I missed the 12 hour race on Saturday, but I’d rather recover fully for bigger plans yet to come. I guess there’s still time to hit my 2000 mi goal for the year, but I have 481 mi to go. I’d have to average a little over 8.1 mi a day. I’m happy with my year of running, regardless. With the exception of July, when I eased up a lot due to rolling my ankle, I’ve increased my mileage every month from 145 mi in April. I’ve also run at least 3 mi everyday starting August 13th. And I’ve already beat my best yearly mileage. A possible big race in Spring is a more important goal for me, anyway.

Goals, Health, Sleep

Reprogramming My Subconscious

As much progress as I’ve made in some areas of my life, lately I feel like I’ve been sabotaging myself in other areas. Other than injuries, I’ve done great sticking with running this year. I’ve done fantastically well with my food habits too.

I previously wrote about sleep. At the time, I was doing well enough. Then I decided that I wanted to go to sleep and wake up earlier. I want more wakeful hours during daylight and to not be rushed to get to places before they close when I have errands to run.

I started to work my way to an earlier bed time and wake up. Then I hit a whole lot of resistance. I’d end up staying up even later than before and sleeping later into the day. It’s almost a compulsion to keep doing whatever I can to not go to bed.

I’ve also been feeling extra groggy when I haven’t gotten a full nights sleep. So my willpower to wake up earlier is more easily overpowered. The same thing happened last year in the fall and winter. I wonder if part of it is environmental, but I’m not exactly sure what it would be. But it doesn’t keep me up late.

The same sort of pattern played out a bit in my reselling business. I built up to a certain point and wanted to go further. Instead, I ended up going backwards.

It happened when I was a kid as well. I was sick a lot (I think I was making myself ill), so I was homeschooled in 5th grade. The district provided a tutor. I remember one particular assignment. I was supposed to write a report. I don’t recall the topic. I had all the materials, but got overwhelmed and didn’t do it. The due date, which I helped choose, came and went. My tutor even explained that he was pretty sure that I’d get overwhelmed, shut down and not finish.

Even though I don’t do moderation very well in a lot of cases, I’ve found that I have to try it in others. To get back on track in my reselling business, I had to break it down into smaller chunks. Instead of spending 4-6 or even up to 10 hours a day, a few days a week doing as much as possible, I give myself a few things to do daily while watching or listening to something over a couple hours. I guess doing it daily could be considered all in, in one manner of speaking. The distraction of sound and/or video also helps.

I also have a book that I planned about 2 years ago, wrote a few pages last year and haven’t done much with since. I broke it down into small sections, but it still overwhelms me, both the size of the task and the subject matter. I really want to complete it, maybe even need to complete it. The resistance is seemingly insurmountable, though.

The comfort of the status quo is incredible anti-motivation against these things I want. Change can be difficult and even scary. Consciously I want to make changes to become my potential. Subconsciously, I’m trying to protect myself from failure, rejection, overwork, danger or whatever the perceived threats.

The trick is reprogramming the subconscious to no longer see these things as threats. I’ve done it before in other aspects of my life. Time to put in some more work, and maybe learn a little moderation.

Health, Hydration

Water and Responding to the Body’s Feedback Systems

Water saves the day again. I’ve gotten used to the refreshing feeling I get shortly after drinking 1 quart of water after I wake up for the day.

Because of my PSC diagnosis (briefly discussed in my about me post), I like to keep hydrated and eat low fat. Every once in a while I find myself eating what is probably too much fat for me. Staying well hydrated keeps the increased flow of bile in my liver from getting too sludgy and blocking things up, which can be extremely painful.

Today, I had a large avocado, a bunch of pistachios and pumpkin seeds, way more fat than I usually eat. I guess I wasn’t drinking as much water as normal either. I started to feel the earliest stages of a possible PSC related problem. Half hour earlier, I had about 8 ounces of water, but it wasn’t enough. I immediately downed about 24 ounces of water. Within minutes I felt the water absorb into my body and the discomfort disappeared. I’ll be sure to stay on top of my water intake the rest of the day, but experience has taught me that I should be OK. Of course I’m probably done with fatty foods for the day too.

I’m still heading out for a short run to work out some tightness from yesterday, but I think I’ll take a water bottle with me.

The body has great feedback systems, and I love learning how to be aware and respond to it.

Food, Health, Hydration, Smoothies

Smoothies without Recipes

I eat food mostly for fuel. Of course I prefer things that taste good. I like foods that are easy to prepare and eat. Smoothies are great. Wash, maybe peel, blend and drink. Salads are great too, but you can’t really chug 64 ounces of salad in a minute or two. And I almost always hit the 64 ounce max line on my Vitamix carafe.

I don’t use recipes. I use what I have on hand at the time. My regular smoothies are not desserts. I want to get a bunch of vegetables and some fruits to my stomach quickly. It’s a big carafe of vitamins, minerals, micronutrients, fiber and water.

There are generally three parts to my smoothies: vegetables, fruit and water. I think of vegetables in two groups: greens and other. Fruit is for calories and flavor. Water is for hydration, texture and ease of blending.

Vegetables
I put greens in just about every smoothie I make. I use at least half a bunch, which comes out to 5-8 ounces by weight. I’ll use more if there’s room. I also add wild greens occasionally.

My favorite greens for smoothies:
*Collards
*Chard
*Kale – all types
*Beet Greens
*Bok Choy
*Nettles
*Spinach
*Cabbage
*Brussels Sprouts
*Plantain (the weed not the fruit)
*Sheep Sorrel
*Wood Sorrel
*Dandelion

I started adding other vegetables as well earlier this year. I think it was after seeing a video of Rich Roll adding broccoli to his smoothie. I love broccoli, so I gave it a try. I’m going to go by the culinary definition of vegetables, rather than botanical.

Some other vegetables I add to smoothies:
*Beets – I love beets. I add them to almost all my smoothies.
*Broccoli – florets and stems
*Cucumber
*Zucchini
*Carrots
*Cauliflower
*Radishes
*Celery – use sparingly, it gives a salty taste
*Kohlrabi

Fruit
I like fruit, but I don’t normally add much more than 16 ounces of fruit to a 64 ounce smoothie. I often use less, just enough fruit for flavor. However, if I’m looking for more calories, I’ll add more fruit. My choice of fruit often goes by what’s in season, and hence cheap.

Some favorite fruits for smoothies:
*Bananas – At least 1 in nearly every smoothie. Good soluble fiber. Can reduce nasty froth on top.
*Strawberries – I don’t cut off the leaves. They’re greens, and I make green smoothies.
*Blueberries
*Mangos
*Watermelon
*Peaches
*Blackberries
*Huckleberries
*Papaya
*Oranges
*Lemon – with or without peel.
*Pineapple

Water
I add enough water so everything blends well and get the texture I want. I know some people use juice or coconut water instead of water. I prefer straight water. I rarely drink juice and prefer to consume my food whole. Fiber is important.

Other
I used to add other things more often. Now, occasionally, I may add some rosehips powder for vitamin C, vegan protein powder, reishi or chaga mushrooms.

Blenders
A good blender makes a huge difference, but I got by with a $5 thrift shop model for a couple years. I love my Vitamix, though.

Make the Smoothie
1. Wash ALL produce. Unless you picked it from your own garden, you don’t know how it’s been handled. In the last few years, there have been E-coli outbreaks from spinach and cantaloupe, probably others too.
2. Peel, core, removed seeds and de-stem. Sometimes I don’t peel lemons, but always remove the seeds. I never skin beets. I know some people eat mangos with the peel, but I always peel them. I’ve occasionally added watermelon rind. I always peel kohlrabi.
3. Cut up produce. I cut things up into chunks small enough so they don’t get stuck in the carafe, wedged against the sides. Sometimes I cut greens. Other times I add them whole at the end.
4. Add produce to blender. Depending on your blender, you may need to add things in a certain order. When I had a cheap blender, greens took the most time to break down to my desired consistency, so I added them first. With a powerful blender, it may not matter.
5. Add water. I start with a couple cups of water, less if I’m using something like watermelon with a lot of retained water.
6. Blend. Start on low. Increase speed slowly to get everything moving. If needed, use a plunger to dislodge any stuck produce. Increase speed to high and blend until it’s as smooth as you’d like.
Optional: Add more water. If it’s not circulating well or too thick, slowly add more water until it reaches your desired consistency.
7. Enjoy!

It’ll take some experimenting to get the greens, vegetables and fruits ratios you like, and to make the right volume for you. Cleanup is a lot easier the sooner you get to it. I drink a whole 64 ounce smoothie, 32 ounces at a time, in one sitting. If you’re going to save some for later, it’s best to pour the remainder into another container and store in the fridge.

Finally, definitely experiment with other greens, vegetables and fruits. The only precautions I’d urge are to make sure the produce is ok to eat raw, whether they need to be peeled, have the seeds removed, or something else.