Spontaneity looks great on others.  I don’t believe I don it quite as graciously.  What was I thinking??? How could I be so silly?  I am a reasonable person, who carefully weighs things, plans things and considers things before committing to them.  So what happened last night?

Here is the scenario….  Ring, ring, ring goes the telephone…I see Illinois on the caller ID…the only person I know from that state is my sister-in-law, whom I rarely ever get to see, and really don’t get to talk to that often either.  I happily answered the phone….her first question was….”What are you doing in October?”  I said it depended on what weekend.  She then said…”Well, would you want to run with me somewhere?”   “Uh…I don’t know…what did you have in mind?”

“Well,” she said, ” Nike is having their half marathon then I already entered, but I really want someone to go and run with me.”  Ugh….I thought, I’ve had the flu for about 15 days now and feel like a slug…plus with my past history of always injuring myself when I train for a race my immediate (and probably most sensibly answer) was that I didn’t think I could, didn’t really feel like it and “oh, by the way, where is it?”  She laughingly informed me it was in San Francisco and was being put on to benefit Leukemia research…which her dad (my husband’s dad) died from when they were very young. 

So with that I got off the phone and decided I would discuss it with my husband…surely he would talk sense into me…especially once I reminded him I would be gone the weekend before that to Women of Faith up in Portland…it would mean two weekends in a row where I would be gone.

“That’s a great idea!” he said.  That  sounds like fun…he says….”I’m a big boy…I can handle the kids and the house a couple of weekends…you go and have fun.”  Wow, wasn’t exactly expecting that one.

OK…so I called Julia back and committed, and then before I got cold feet, I went on-line and signed up and paid my entry fee. 

Now…the caveat is that they draw to see who “gets to run”.  So we may not even get to go…the drawing is at the end of March and we would be drawn as a group, so either both of us goes, or neither of us.  I am not sure which to hope for.

For finishing the race you get a blue box from Tiffany’s with who know what in it…sounds great except for the fact that I don’t wear jewelry.  Oh well…

So you can imagine how panicked I felt this morning….feeling sick still, sluggish, and did I mention, I am not comfortable traveling…it freaks me out.  San Francisco???? Are you kidding me?  I am terrified!

Well, there you go….will update you once names are drawn.  In all truth…I know this is sad…but I am more excited about the free chocolate than the box from Tiffany’s at the finish line… I will take my allergy meds and enjoy a piece of that free Ghiradelli’s chocolate no matter what the consequences!!  Can you blame me?

I know I have been absent for awhile.  This has actually been purposeful.  I just love to write and have enjoyed trying to awaken some creative fibers within these old dry bones…but as I have alluded to previously…I am an all or nothing kind of person.  How ironic that the blog titled to be about finding balance was actually throwing me out of whack. 

I was using writing, blogging and internet surfing as an excuse to fall behind on household duties…and that just isn’t acceptable.

So I purposely stayed away (not from the internet all together) to help re-balance the time I spend here.

I will still have occasional posts…as I don’t want to be an “all or nothing”.  Believe me, I thought about quitting all together…but that sort of defeats the purpose of finding balance.

So now I am being more faithful in being a steward of my home and family.  Things are getting done and I am thankful for every task that I have (well…cleaning the bunny cage is hard to be thankful for…)

A verse I came across this morning in my reading was one I had read before, but as God’s perfect timing would have it, it struck a cord in me this morning.  It is Colossians 3:23-24.  “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Boy did I need that one.  My other favorite scripture is found in Proverbs 6:10 and says “A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to res, and poverty will come upon you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.”

So I will still be here… I do have some topics that I really want to write about….but it will be a little less frequently.  I will still stay updated with friends on Facebook as that takes such a small amount of time and I love to hear what everyone is doing each day.  So ironically…this blog about balance will be less verbose and less frequently updated to teach me the very thing I was hoping to write about.  I do hope to pop in here and write once a week or so…

Hope you are all having a wonderful week.

Have a balanced, focused and stewardly day!

Do you believe that all good things are a gift from above?  I do.  It’s easy to see it when you have something as dramatic as the safety of all those aboard the plane that landed in the Hudson River.  How can anyone deny that divine intervention and protection was at work there?  (Oh, I am sure there are some who will).

But what about the little things…the fingerprints of God in your life that you take for granted.  I had one of those moments yesterday morning, and I am learning to take note and give praise and thanks back when I see these little moments occur.

To fully appreciate this, here is a little history prior to today’s events.

As you recall, I was just a wee bit dissatisfied with the services provided by my current gym and have already taken the liberty of signing up at God’s Gold’s gym.  So on Wednesday morning I decided I would finally have a discussion with the current gym’s manager and lay out my case as to why they are in violation of their side of the contract which should make it null and void, sparing me from paying the $50 cancellation fee. 

I had a great workout.  Ran my five miles, did a core workout and a few upper body machines…then off to the shower room.  I rehearsed what I had planned to say…reminded myself to be calm and respectful and went out to the front counter.  I had planned to talk to the manager first and then go get my son out of childcare.  To  my surprise, my step-dad had already gotten my son and was waiting on me to leave.  That never happens…he even commented on how he had never before been into the children’s area and had just decided this morning on a whim to go get him for me.  Coincidence?  I think not!  Here is why. 

So we left and I resolved that the conversation would have to wait until the next day.  Oh well.  So the next morning (Thursday morning) I get a call from the gym before getting ready to go.  The manager informs me that now daycare will be cut to only 3 hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  She went on to say that she knew the days I came were Wed, Thur, and Fri…so she said she understood if I needed to cancel, since they were not upholding the stipulations that I signed up under.  She said I could cancel and not pay the cancellation fee.

Is God good or what?  I didn’t even have to ask.  What a great gift.  The timing was all too perfect not to have been divinely orchestrated.  Not only that, but it gave me complete peace about my choice to have switched gyms…for now I truly had no other choice.

Have a grateful, thankful, prayer filled day

He and I in the old days!

 

How I love that horse.  I had his mother, who lived to be 34.  I hope he surpasses this.  He still acts like a three year old.  Hope you enjoyed his pictures.

Have a majestic, wildly beautiful, captivating day!

Old Danny boy. Gentle giant! In his mid twenties, still lots and lots of years left I hope!

Katie bug. the little stinker we got from a rescue group in Fossil, Oregon. She is so naughty, but we all love her anyway.

Domino, my mini. He was my "surgery pony" in vet school, whom my lab partners and I refused to do the terminal surgery on. We then went to the auction where the school took him and bought him. Had him almost ten years now.

Our little feral kitty turned house kitty. She was so ugly when she was trapped and brought in 8 years ago, we didn’t even know what color she was. She was pregnant and had very little hair due to ringworm. Now you would never this princess was once a queen of the night.

I am missing digital pictures of my most favorite horse of all (I know I shouldn’t have favorites, but I do!)  My beloved old gelding.  Had him since he was born and now he  about to turn 20 years old!  Here is a picture of a horse that looks very similar to him:

I will scan in an actual one soon…then you can tell me if this picture is even close

Have a kind, giving, stewardship filled day.

I have them on my sidebar too, so you can use that to click over…just thought I would pass that little tip along to you bloggers out there who don’t already know about it!

Can you say "naughty dog?!"

Arghh!  That Katie dog!  I mean, I love her…but this eating my stuff is driving me nuts.  It’s not like she is a true puppy either.  She is about two and a half going on four months!

Sunday I had the rare opportunity to indulge myself by doing basically anything I wanted to.  My husband took our kids along with grandpa to a nearby ski lodge for their first ever adventure skiing.  That left me with endless options on what I might do.  Let’s see…I could take a nap, clean the house, read a book…oh no!  Wait, I got it…I’ll go for a run!  I have been running in the gym since my New Year’s Day fiasco, so this would have been my first road run since then.  That means…Katie’s first run in three weeks.  So I go to get my gym bag so I can grab my patellar knee straps (which I cannot run a yard without) and what do I see?

Katie packing one in her mouth out the the living room!!!  I grabbed it away and immediately began looking for the other one (which is my favorite one).  It’s gone.  Well, actually it’s probably in Katie’s duodenum by now, unless of course it hangs up on her pylorus, in which case I will see it again encased in bile and mucus when she pukes it back up on my carper in the next two days.  I could have strangled her!  Fortunately, I have a spare one, so I put that on, and off she and I went.  We ran a pleasant 5 1/4 miles.  It was a perfect 38 degrees out and just lightly misting, so really a nice run.  I definitely could tell a difference on my perceived effort, having only run in the gym the last three weeks…got my work cut out for me now.

Josh Cox

That leads to the potential breakthrough.  If you recall my post a couple of weeks back about starting Lolo Jone’s  core workout.  Well, at the same time I started Josh Cox’s core workout posted on Runner’s World, and have been doing these regularly.  I have read for a long time how important core strength is to a runner to prevent injury and to increase endurance.  Blah, blah, blah I thought.  Well, I have to say that on my run I took special care to keep my torso and pelvis in proper alignment, using core strength and I was amazed at how pain free my knee was.  I even went up a little hill, which is normally excruciating, and had only one tiny twinge that was barely noticeable.  I think I may really be on to something.  Probably too early to tell, but I am certainly going to pursue this avenue.  Hey, if nothing else, it has the nice side benefit of starting to define abdominal muscles I forgot I even had!

Have a lavishly relaxing, humorous, fit day!

This is all too true when you run in my hometown, where all dogs run free and very few are spayed or neutered. (let alone vaccinated and dewormed!)

Addendum to above post:

I began writing this post on Sunday when the events transpired, but Monday I found the other patellar strap where Katie had hid it under my daughter’s bed.  Yeah!  She didn’t eat it after all.  Good dog, Katie…but she still is a bandit!!

Obviously I believe the answer to my title question is a resounding yes.  So what of it? Well….

 There is a weird thought that has been bugging me for a couple of weeks now.  How do we really know that it is best to eat 6 times a day as opposed to 2-3 times a day.  I know it has been shoved down our throats that this is the best thing to do…but I am not all that convinced that this is so.  Perhaps if you are eating simple carbohydrates frequently, this would help keep you from having such wild swings in blood glucose and insulin levels.  But what if you eat only protein, fat and very complex carbohydrates?  Why then would you need to eat so often.  It seems to me you are just training your stomach and your brain to need constant satiety. 

The two reasons I have been thinking about this are

• we are monogastrics by nature and anatomy.  We are not grazers, nor do we have a complex intestinal system that needs small frequent meals throughout the day.   We are very similar to dogs and pigs, which do quite well eating twice a day.  Many dogs actually do very nicely eating once a day. 

• I have noticed after my small protein and fat laden breakfasts on Saturday mornings (4 lean turkey sausage links and 2 talbespoons of organic peanut butter), that I do not need to eat for at least 8 or 9 hours.  This is necessary, as I work straight through the day on Saturdays and do not have a scheduled lunch.  I find that when I am existing on a low carb way of eating, I do not have cravings or feelings of hypoglycemia like I used to when I ate more carbs.  None of the “shakies”, headaches or fatigue (you know what I am talking about!)  On the days that I go to they gym, I have a protein shake in the morning and a cup of coffee and am not hungry until noon, in spite of a grueling workout.

So I am really questioning all the hyped up dogma about eating every 2-3 hours.  I really believe that if you are accustomed to using ketones as an energy source and not glucose, you can eat in a more natural pattern…that is 2-3 times a day, and feel satiated. 

Now I may be way off base.  This is certainly not something I have read about, but I am just postulating based on my own experience.  Perhaps if you eat things in their natural forms (the more complex the better) you can actually spend less time obsessing about and craving food.  Eating in a way that our body was actually designed to may just make a person feel better than they ever thought possible.

BTW…for the critics who say you cannot exercise on a low carb lifestyle…tell me again after my next ten mile run.  After your body adapts to using ketones (which takes about 2 weeks) you most certainly can and should exercise.  In fact, you will be less dependent on replenishing carbs as you run, because you have a limitless supply of ketones to burn (from fat) as you exercise.  If you would like to read more on this topic and get more info in general about a low carb WOE (way of eating), check this link out. A support forum for low carbers that links to studies supporing low carb WOE and message boards full of people who run long distance and do heavy resistance training eating this way.  Great website for all things low carb!

Have a pleasant, satisfying, and satiated day!

This morning when the phone rang and the gym was on the line to inform me that once again there would be no childcare offered today, I was not terribly surprised.  Irritated, yes, surprised, no. 

And so I am sure it is no surprise to you that this fueled my fire to seek membership elsewhere!  After yesterdays emotional and verbal sewage I spewed about my current gym situation, it shouldn’t come as a tremendous shock that I did indeed sign up at another gym today.  I visited/toured three gyms and ruled a fourth one out due to high membership fees.  After considering the four of these…Gold’s gym was an easy choice.  It was very clean, had adequate parking spaces, had child care six days a week for most of the day, has very nice equipment, nice staff, great locker rooms with a sauna, and is cheaper than what I am paying now for membership plus childcare for one child.  The downside?  The drive.  I don’t really mind the actual drive, it’s the chunk of time it cuts out of my day, when I am already crunched to get things done (maybe I should stop writing on my blog!!).  The other upside to Gold’s is that if I take another child in the summer (which I will), it doesn’t cost any more, whereas where I am at it would be considerably more than the already steep price.  Plus I can use a Gold’s gym no matter where I am at (of course I rarely go anywhere…but it makes justifying it easier!!)

As I drove up to Gold’s gym…one thought ran through my head…talk about preconceived notions.  The only word repeating over and over in my feeble mind was, “meatheads, there are going to be lots of meatheads here”.  Hope I didn’t offend anyone.  It’s not that I am easily intimidated.  I don’t know many musclebound men that have incubated, grown and popped out two human beings.  I am proud of my fitness level as a mother of two in her thirties.  It was just the idea of what might be inside a Gold’s gym that made me go there last on my list.  I was pleasantly surprised to find people of all types inside.  It was actually the most user friendly and comfortable place I had visited all day.  So I went ahead and signed up!

Then I got home and immediately that ol’ feeling of buyers’ remorse set it.  Thinking, “Is this really what I should do?  Am I just reacting out of anger?  Does this really make sense for me?”  But honestly, it is nicer, cheaper, more accommodating and cleaner.  Why am I so hesitant?  Guess it is just my personality.

I’ll keep you posted on how the transition goes.  I am going to finish out the month at the other gym…and then make the switch. 

Hey, I even like the name better…as I typed it over and over, I kept accidentally dropping the “L”, making it God’s gym. Sounds good to me!

Have a decisive, strong and productive day!

I know that is probably what you are thinking as I start off on another rant in the realm of physical fitness…but this has been brewing all morning, and unfortunately, this blog is the outlet!  Now I will not mention names of people or locations, because it is not my intent to blame, or malign anybody, but I just have to get this off my chest.

Every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I drive 18 miles to go the nearest gym that has childcare (it is the only gym within 35 miles that has childcare).  When I first joined there, I told myself I could put up with the filth on the floor, the decomposing vinyl on all the equipment, the poor quality cardio equipment and the tiny, tiny locker room.  After all it was the only place available and they did have a very nice lady who did the child care Mon -Fri in the mornings and evenings.  So I began to go in the evenings as there really wasn’t anyone else there…often times, my children were the only ones there.  So I wasn’t too surprised when after a couple of months I was notified that they would no longer have childcare in the evenings and I would need to come in the morning, where childcare would be offered from 8-11am.  Fine.  Then a few weeks later, I was informed that the gym would no longer be open on Sundays.  OK?!  Still, I was determined to make it work…after all, it is my only option.  Then, when we had the bad weather, when they decided not to offer childcare at all…we had to call first and see if they were offering it.  Hmmm…not quite what I signed on for, but still plugging along on my fitness routine.  Next…in January I was informed that my childcare rate is increasing by almost 50%. Ouch…not sure if I want to spend that much on TOP OF my membership.  Especially since I will be paying more money for less hours offered…doesn’t sound too good to me.

This morning was the straw that finally did it…on it’s own, it would have been a very small thing…but coming at the cumulation of all these prior incidences, it might just be more than I want to put up with.  This morning someone at the front desk didn’t feel well…so they pulled the lady from upstairs that does the childcare down to the front desk to cover…so guess what…no childcare.  Are you kidding me? 

Let’s see if the math adds up here, shall we?  Are you telling me that during a recession, your economic plan for the business is to cut overall hours for the gym, decrease childcare hours drastically, mark up the childcare 50% and be unreliable?  How much do they really think we members are willing to put up with?  So that’s it for me.  I am going to drive another 18 miles (36 miles total, mind you) to go to a gym that is professional, clean, child friendly and actually open when it is suppose to be!  Can you really blame me?  The filth alone in this little gym should have done it for me a long time ago.    You would need a HAS-MAT team to clean that pit up! No upkeep there…rusted machinery from unbridled sweat, food between crevices, dust everywhere, fingernails down on the floor…I am NOT kidding!  Machinery is constantly out of order or just barely working.  “New” machinery is from auction and consists of machines that no one else would want.  That’s it!  I am fired up and fed up! 

I guess this may give them a taste of how well there business model is going to work for them.  Maybe they can use my cancellation fee to hire a cleaning service!

Ahhhh!  That feels much better.  Now if only my glutius maximum won’t spread from all that extra time sitting in the car driving to my new destination, wherever that might be!

Have an energetic, happy, and clean day!