1st Bike Photo An Endurance Increase And Life Changing Perspective

 Hill Climb Workout at Bikeloft N. Weight to power ration is increasing and endurance is increasing from last training session. SO exciting! (not exactly my prettiest moment, but I have to start somewhere)

I finished my training!  Last time I road a little over 4 and 1/2 miles. TODAY- 7 miles! I needed this.  I REALLY need this mental win! As always, thanks again to my coach for all he's done.  I don't think I've ridden this far in 10 years.  Maybe longer.





I spent the last 24 hours in a war with my mind.  I got 2 hours sleep because my mind wouldn't stop wandering about todays workout. Could I REALLY finish it? Each training session has gotten slightly harder and after the other day's workout on the treadmill I was just emotionally drained and felt defeated.

My husband has spent much of our marriage encouraging me.  What really frustrates me is that I push his words aside like they don't matter. Not on purpose of course, but in my head "I'm not good enough". So when he tells me that I AM, I'm basically brushing it aside and calling him a liar.  I can't even imagine how this must feel to him.

When I finished todays workout, I felt self satisfaction.  What frustrated me a little in the beginning (and it was for good reason), was my coach would leave me for several minutes at a time to myself.  I didn't really grasp it until today.  When I race, nobody is going to be there WITH me to push me ahead.  My coach won't be behind me to shout me to move on, my husband won't be there to kindly encourage me only to hear me push his kindness to the side.  It's just going to be me, my legs, the water, a bike and other athletes surrounding me at their own pace.

Today I fully understood his method.  He never leaves me for too long. In fact, when he knows I'm struggling to make the last few moments or a particular climb, he's there. He talks me through it and redirects my focus. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes. He lets ME do the work, to care enough about MYSELF to engage in a different thought process and focus. He's there when I need him though and won't let me fail. It's teaching me self discipline. Something that I need so bad. Something that will help me to lean on my own strength and courage instead of constantly leaning on my husband to do it all or anyone else for that matter, because of chronic fear. It's reshaping me to be a stronger...ME!

At the end of my training session I asked if we could go over my results to compare workouts.  Each workout was a different kind so it's like comparing apples to oranges however, we noticed a difference from last time. We noticed quite the increase in endurance and "I" pushed myself increasing my weight to power ratio. Seeing the results made me happy!  I kept saying, "I know I'm not ready to race yet" and turned to hear coach say, "Bek, you have to BUILD UP to it.  This is not going to happen overnight".  Have I mentioned how Amazing and generally compassionate my coach is?  He's tough, but he really is the greatest!

I shared those last sentiments with my husband to hear a HUGE hurray from my husband to my coach. He's been telling me this for quite a while now.  Which leads me to my final thought...I think it's time to let go of this baggage I'm holding onto.  It really isn't healthy.  My husband loves me.  He's patient, kind, gentle and puts up with more than any man would.  I AM however, glad to God for this lifestyle change.  Maybe letting go of the baggage will help me to accept my husbands word and trust the man God hand-picked to be the love of my life forever. He deserves all the love and respect I can give him.

Blessings Everyone!

The Good And The VERY UGLY moments of training. Getting out of my head and learning NOT to focus on the numbers.

Had my very first meltdown on the treadmill tonight. lol Luckily the heart monitor my friend so kindly sent helped us to figure everything out. I was REALLY winded at the speed I've been recently doing and could barely pass 3 minutes. We found out I was over my zone by 8bpm. I looked at my husband and started to cry uncontrollably. "how will I ever finish a 5k if I can't get through 3 minutes at 4.5 speed?!" He kindly said we have to lower your speed for now until you build up endurance. Very grateful to our friendBethany not just for sending me this monitor, but for questioning whether I was monitoring my heart rate to be sure I wasn't over my heart rate zone. Onward and upward right? ((sigh))


***Words from my coach...Only use the HRM as a guild line, DO NOT get "married" to those numbers. There are way to many if's and's or but's when it comes to HR. This is why I haven't gotten you one yet. Just dial in your p/e and you will always wko to the level you body needs and wants at this point. " Not every run is good" But there is something good in every run"!

You are looking at the data too close and directly comparing numbers, " I was winded on a wko I normally can handle" "Oh I see my H/R is 8bpm over" That 8bpm could have come from anywhere, lack of fluid, lack of sleep, stress etc etc.... You became stressed over the wko for no reason, you need to understand your body before you try to apply any numbers. I don't want those numbers holding you back.

You are learning how to push beyond old barriers, push hard when you can, take a rest when you really need to and learning how to listen to your mind/body as a whole! Not one aspect that has a many diff variables.



I have to say that my coach is very inspirational. I respect him. I'm not looking at the WHOLE picture.  I've never done this before so I can't expect to understand it quite yet. THIS is what a coach is for. I'm just SO grateful for him. 

New Pictures From The Month Of January

Dec. 2013 & January 2014

Dec. 2013 & January 2014

1st pic is Dec.,  2nd is  from January. Less chin, upper body is starting to feel lighter and LOOK!  My legs are closer together. YAY!  I also feel like everything is moving downward. Oh fat, please melt away soon!

Pushing The Limits To Finish Over 1/2 The Mileage Of A 5k. Hooray

Did My C25K workout this evening. It was great to workout at 7pm instead of the usual 2am workouts.  We do this so we can exercise together before bed with my husbands work schedule.  It has proven to be tiresome though and it leaves less room for sleep.

SLEEP. What's that?!  I know hormones have played a role in why I don't sleep as well as anxiety & depression.  What I've also come to the conclusion of is that I also deal with Seasonal Depression.  Vitamin D deficiency which I now have to raise MUCH higher than the prescription so I'm take over the counter AND prescription (suggested by my Dr.).  Since I'm starting to feel LESS anxious though, I find I'm taking the prescription to help with sleep. NOT really what it's recommended for. So I've asked to taper off the anxiety med and am now using Ambien to help me sleep.  Without sleep, my body won't be able to recover from the exercise not to mention that sleep is important for us.  So I'm going to try it for the season and see if this helps my moods by getting the sleep I need.  Which comes to my final point.  I liked the earlier workout. Doug stood by me and "coached" as I ran 4.5 for 25 minutes in interval training. 10 minutes of warmup and cool down.  In 35 minutes I made it to 1.77 miles leaving me with just 1.3 miles left to cover to get me ready for a 5K.

This of course doesn't mean when I reach that goal it's over. Let's not forget I have to swim 300 meters and bike 30K which is about 18.6 miles and THEN run the 5k. Transition from biking to running will be VERY interesting.

What has me nervous is there are cut off times for each leg of the race. If I don't make them, I'm cut from completing the rest.  I know I have 7 months left to train, but this is starting to get REAL.  Let remember I haven't done ANYTHING like this in my life! I am considered an obese woman with diabetes, hypothyroid, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and if I'm at all being honest, I'm coming from an eating addiction. I ate to soothe anxiety, anger and frustration.

This of course is changing over time. But I have a heck of a long way to go mentally, physically AND spiritually. 7 months seems like a long time, but in all honesty I'm carrying a whole lot of baggage. This fat on my body represents baggage of all kinds. I push ahead, but I also wonder "Am I REALLY ready?"  Then I think "What the HECK did I get myself into?!"

This is a part of my journey.  One that right now I'm enjoying.  I mean, I just ran over half of what I need in order to get through the 5k.  That's AMAZING.  A fun thing that happened during was the songs that came on the Iheart Radio channel. We started out with "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera,  As I was FORCING myself to get air from the run I tried SO HARD not to laugh as the PERFECT song choice came on "Catch My Breath" by Kelly Clarkson.  As I finished the final part of the program , Christina Aguilera's "Fighter" played.   The whole time as I ran gasping for air and hoping to finish the program, I watched my husband and daughter in the corner of my eye as they were dancing together.  It extended into dancing fits once he and Little Bear helped me to stretch.   It became a family thing. Exercise became a choice for us to BE together reaping the labor of hard work for the benefit of the "vessel" that God created.  If I do say so myself once again...I finished over HALF the distance I need to finish a 5K! Once I reach that goal, I'll work hard on perfecting the time.

I'm so proud of myself. This is the longest I've gone 1st with a new plant based lifestyle and now with a form of exercise that pushes me OVER the limits of what I ever thought I could do.  Today as I sat in the Dr.'s office, He said he was happy with where my labs were and couldn't WAIT to see them again in 3-4 months time when my hope is to lower insulin levels even more AND raise my GOOD cholesterol.

Mean Green Juice Fun With Little Bear

Engine 2 Hummus Recipe.

Healthy Homemade Hummus

Ingredients:

2 cans chick peas, rinsed and drained

3 cloves garlic

Juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons Bragg Liquid Aminos

1/4 cup water or vegetable broth

Instructions:

I mash the beans together in a bowl, quickly chop up the garlic cloves and throw them in, add the ground cumin and stir.  Throw it in the blender and blend all ingredients into a thick paste adding the lemon juice, liquid aminos and broth to the mixture so it won't clog. 

Variations:

Customize by adding one or more of the following:

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped

1 roasted and chopped red bell pepper

1 cup dark or Kalamata olives

1 bunch fresh mint

1 cup fresh spinach

1 cup cooked eggplant

NOTE: This is the most basic of the spreads. You can find a variation of this recipe in almost any grocery store, but 95 percent of them are made with either olive oil or tahini (sesame paste), which pushes up the fat content. Your best bet is to take three minutes and make a batch on Sunday that will last you for the week.

You can find the source at Engine 2. A Vegan site we frequent quite often. I HAD to share this hummus recipe because it's FAT FREE.  Cut the grocery store brand and make it yourself. It's fresh and Yummy!

Source:  Rip Esselstyn from Engine 2 Diet

Myth Buster: Cruciferous Veggies and Kale Cannot Be Consumed By Those With Hypothyroid. True Or False? Find Out below...

Click on The Picture above to check out the full article

An excerpt from the article:
"Animal studies suggested the hypothetical thyroid issue from eating very large amounts of cruciferous vegetables years ago.9 However, no human study has demonstrated a deficiency in thyroid function from consuming cruciferous vegetables. Only one such study seems to have been conducted as of yet; in that study, no effects on thyroid function were observed in subjects eating 150 grams of cooked Brussels sprouts daily for 4 weeks. Raw cruciferous vegetables have not been investigated, however the only case report relating cruciferous vegetables to thyroid harm suggests that it would be almost impossible to consume enough cruciferous to harm the thyroid. This case was that of an 88-year old woman who developed hypothyroidism after eating 1-1.5 kg (2.2-3.3 pounds) of raw bok choy every day for several months; an excessive and unreasonable intake of raw cruciferous. In other words, a person would have to consume an insane amount of raw cruciferous to have a negative effect on thyroid function.

"Recent results from the Adventist Health Study revealed that vegan Adventists were less likely than omnivore Adventists to have hypothyroidism. Similarly, a 2011 study of Boston area vegetarians and vegans found that vegans had higher urinary thiocyanate (indicative of higher cruciferous intake) and lower iodine intake, but no difference in thyroid function, which was within the normal range.

"The fear (circulating the internet by some authors) of eating cruciferous vegetables or that those with hypothyroidism should reduce or avoid the consumption of kale or other cruciferous vegetables is unfounded and does a disservice to the community. Whether you have normal thyroid function or hypothyroidism, there is no benefit for you to avoid or restrict your intake of cruciferous vegetables. Eating cruciferous vegetables is not optional; they have numerous anti-cancer benefits, a high micronutrient to calorie ratio and an association with reduced risk of premature death. An effectively functioning immune system is dependent on their consumption, and these benefits clearly outweigh the risk of a modest decrease in thyroid function, which could only occur if the amount of raw cruciferous intake was at an insanely high level or a person was significantly iodine deficient. Eat one or two servings of cruciferous vegetables daily, in the context of a healthful variety of vegetables, beans, fruit, nuts and seeds; and be sure to get adequate iodine, too. "

Source:  Dr. Fuhrman