Here is a little update on what I have been doing to, at the least, remain in decent shape.  While I am not training for any marathons, or even any races for that matter, I am still running a lot.  I would say I run between 25 and 35 miles a week, with my average being about 30 miles.  I do it to stay in shape and because I always seem to feel better mentally after pounding the pavement for an hour.  I also, on occasion, lift weights in my basement or do a rowing or CrossFit type of workout that my husband gives to me when the weather is crummy and I am just so sick of the treadmill.  I work out about 5-6 days a week and aim for 12k steps a day.  I haven't been doing any types of core strengthening exercises, probably because I have found the programs boring and not incredibly helpful.  

While I do not eat strictly Paleo anymore, I still eat very healthy.  I try to remain as low carb as possible for most of the day, but I usually allow myself a treat each day.  That might be a glass of wine, some organic candy, some tortilla chips, a donut (my vice!), or sometimes a few treats in a day.  My diet consists mostly of fruits, veggies, organic and/or grass-fed meats, fish, nuts, egg whites (b/c I hate the yolks still!), EVOO/coconut oil, and black coffee.  I eat very little in the way of regular dairy, processed foods, sugar, wheat, gluten, etc.  

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It's been a while since I have been able to sit at a computer for more than 5 minutes at a time since daycare has been closed for almost 2 weeks and I have taken some time off of work.  It was nice to be away from the daily grind, but today it is back to reality.  I already miss my little B. 

Let's see, in the past 2 weeks, I have put on Christmas Day dinner for 10 people, hosted 5 family members at my tiny 1100 sq. ft. house for 5 days, hosted NYE for 10 people, won a race that over 500 people ran (1st female), and was able to get everything back together for today.  No, I didn't sleep much.

Lastly, here is a quick (and promised) update on the Paleo cookies that I made for Christmas this year... most of them were a success. 

Hope you all had a great holiday with family and friends!  XOXO

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Are you ready to hear all about my NYC Marathon experience?  If you continue reading this, you will get to do just that and will probably learn more than you ever wanted to about it!

First off, let me explain how difficult it was actually getting to NYC for the marathon.  Period.  No, I am not talking about my car dying, or traffic, or getting lost.  In the week leading up to the marathon it seemed like everything that could go wrong did.

TUESDAY

• As B and I attempted to go up and get ready for bed, he somehow managed to fall down 3 wooden steps and hit his head.
• I panicked, called 911, and the first responders showed up.  
• Long story short we ended up in the ER for most of the night.  Luckily he checked out ok in the end, but it wasn't without a ton of worry on the part of my husband and me. 

 

WEDNESDAY

• Got a call from my mom letting me know that my Aunt had passed away.  She was old and had been sick with cancer for sometime, but it did not make things easier to take.  She always sent me a card on my birthday EVERY single year of my life with $5.  So incredibly sad.  

 

THURSDAY

• Got a mid-day call from daycare telling me that B was throwing up, but with no fever or other symptoms.  Immediately I thought...concussion.  
• Left work immediately and took him to the doctor.  He checked out ok, neurologically, though.  They told me that he might be coming down with something.
• Got an email from daycare saying that a child was diagnosed with Coxsackie...again.  Uh oh.

 

FRIDAY

• Had to keep B out of daycare (24 hours after throwing up) and fully expected to be dealing with HFM again, but luckily he never threw up again and actually behaved quite normally all day.  PHEW! 
• I didn't get much work (or packing) done though since I had to watch him.

So that brings us to the actual marathon weekend.  I'm going to recount as much as I can so read at your own risk!


SATURDAY

• Saturday morning, my Sister and BIL met us at the hotel and took the baby for an outing while my husband and I jogged to the marathon expo and got my number.  It was about a 4  mile run, round-trip, and it was raining pretty hard the whole time.  The expo at the Javits Center was insanity.  It was so huge, but very well organized.  I was able to get in, get my number, get my shirt, and then walk around to the different vendors before heading back to meet up with my Sister and BIL to grab some lunch.  I had to be careful not to eat anything that might upset my stomach so I stuck with an egg-white omelet with herbs (ok...I snuck a few fries), which was a safe and tasty bet. 
• Saturday afternoon, we got back to the hotel and put the baby down for a nap.  Since there was really nothing that we could do while he was napping, we took a nap, too.  First nap I have had in a while and it was quite nice!  After the nap, I worked on decorating my race shirt with my name and laying out all of my stuff for the next morning. 
• Saturday night, my husband ordered me an awesome half of a roasted chicken with sauteed veggies and roasted potatoes for dinner.  It was a perfect race night meal.  After eating (and getting the baby to sleep), I ordered a 4:30 AM coffee delivery, set my alarm for 4:25 AM and called it a night.  Thankfully I got an "extra" hour of sleep with the time change and B only woke up once.

 

SUNDAY MORNING, PRE-MARATHON

• I woke up bright and early and started my pre-race routine.  The coffee was delivered right on schedule, which really helped to get me going.
• I wore: a long sleeve Lulu shirt, w/ a Lulu bra & tank underneath, my black Lulu shorts (can you tell I'm obsessed with Lulu?!), Features socks, Zensah compression sleeves, my Nike Lunar Glides, cheapo black gloves, headband, RayBans, my Garmin, my homemade pace band for a 3:24 marathon (haha), a "throw away" fleece, and a "throw away" pair of sweats.
• In a bag I brought: extra "throw away" sneaks to wear in case it was muddy, chapstick, water bottle w/ Coco Hydro in it, running "fanny pack", 2 packs of Annie's fruit snacks, a banana, baggie of cereal, applesauce, BodyGlide, 3 trash bags, hand warmers (x2 packs), extra toilet paper, an extra water, $60, credit card, ID, and my husband's phone (since I have the iPhone 6 plus and it is HUGE).
• I headed over to the NYC Public Library to catch the 6 AM bus to Staten Island.  
• Security was pretty tight, but fairly well organized.  They had police and volunteers checking bibs before you could get into the bus corral, again in line for the bus, and then again before you could get on the bus.
• I felt like I was the only person from the US on the bus that I got on.  No one around me was speaking English!   
• The bus ride over took almost an hour and about 40 minutes into it I realized I had to pee.  There was lots of traffic, even at that early hour.    
• When the bus got to the "Athlete's Village" everyone filed off the bus and walked almost a mile to the village.  Security was even tighter.  We had to have our bibs checked and re-checked, had to go through metal detectors, and had to have our bags searched (and I think they also went through the detectors, as well).  
• Of course, once I was in, I made a beeline for one of the hundreds of port-o-potties they had there.  
• So I got to the village around 7 AM and my wave didn't start until 10:05 AM.  It was about 40 degrees, cloudy, and extremely windy.  Luckily I had brought trash bags and hand warmers with me.  I literally huddled for several hours in my trash bag along with thousands of others.  There was really no where to go to have the wind broken.  I sat next to a guy from Brazil for quite a while.  It was his first trip to the northern part of the US and, needless to say, he was freezing!
• Waiting was so hard.  I was literally in denial that I was about to run a marathon.  My teeth were chattering and I just could not get warm.  It was a pretty miserable wait.
• At around 9:30 AM they called wave 2 to get in line.  I made one last stop at the porto and then filed into the corral.  One of the most miserable things about the whole experience was taking off those "throw away" clothes!  
• I pushed up to the very front of the corral and heard a few guys say that they were also in the wrong wave, meaning that they should have been in wave 1, so I felt like I wanted to stick with them.
• They unhooked the corral gates and everyone pushed up to the starting line.  I was mid-wave 2, but tried to get as close as I could to the starting line once they took down the gates.

 

 SUNDAY MORNING, MARATHON 

• The gun went off and it was several minutes before I started actually running.  I sauntered over the starting line since most people around me were barely moving.  This was exactly my panic-scenario...not being able to run because the people ahead of me were too slow.  
• Going across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was beautiful, but so windy.  I was also very focused on passing people to get to a place where I could just run straight ahead.  Even though I told myself I was NOT going to weave through people during the first 3 miles, I did.  People were stopping randomly on the bridge to take selfies or pics of others.  I get that people wanted to commemorate their experience with pictures, but at least they could have stepped to the side to do so!  I clocked my first mile at 8:28, which was much slower than my targeted pace of 7:46 so I really stepped it up for mile 2 and hit 7:06.  BIG MISTAKE!
• My 5k split was 23:47, which was an average 7:39 pace and still way too fast.  For some reason I got this idea in my head that I could bank miles.  Ha.  No.  In case you were wondering, it doesn't work like that in a marathon.  Maybe a 5k, but not the marathon.  Silly me.
• Running through Brooklyn was exciting because my sister was parked on the course around mile 7.  As soon as I got into Brooklyn I started looking for her.  She said she had a sign so I figured that I would be able to easily find her.  Nope!  There were way more spectators that I ever could have imagined.  It was incredible.  People were blasting music and several punk bands played.  It was so cool!  I had my name on my shirt and it was incredible how many people were cheering for me as a result.  I felt super special!  :)
• My 10k split was 47:29, which was a 7:38 pace.  Way too fast.  I felt good though until mile 6.5 when I started to get familiar shooting pains up my right calf.  Sh*t, I thought.  Not good.  I guess this is what happens after huddling in a trash bag for 3 hours and then then trying to pass hundreds of people while going up-hill from a dead stop.  Oops.
• When I got to 7 miles I started to slow down to look for my sister.  I could not find her.  I looked from miles 7-9 and did not see her.  I was kind of upset, especially since my calf was seriously hurting me and I was starting to favor my left leg.  Seeing her would have really made me perk up, but no dice, unfortunately.
• I didn't realize that so much of Brooklyn would be up hill.  This bothered my calf a ton.  I stopped enjoying the surroundings and started thinking to myself. "If I quietly slink off the course and take a cab back to Manhattan, will anyone notice?"  Then I remembered that lots of my friends and family were tracking me in real-time.  So yeah, that might have confused them.  I kept on going.  At mile 10 I ate one of my packs of fruit snacks and that gave me a little pick-me-up.
• I got to the 1/2 Marathon point at 1:41, which made my average pace 7:44.  I was definitely slowing down, but I was still on track to make my goal.  I was very worried though because both of my legs were starting to feel heavy.  Cardiovascularly speaking, I could have gone faster, but my legs were just not having it. 
• Around mile 15/16 my Garmin decided to stop working.  This was right after I had gone across the Queensboro Bridge, which in my humble opinion, was the most difficult part of the race for me and where the wheels started to fall off.  It was so windy on that damn bridge.  The wind blew dirt, dust, leaves, and trash at us.  The hill (which is the upside of the bridge) seemed to go on forever.  I passed so many walkers and dejected runners, but I know that I slowed down, too.  I had no idea how much I had slowed down though because my GPS malfunctioned.  This really hit me hard in the moral department.
• Running through the streets of Manhattan was cool, but the wind made it super challenging.  There were points where I felt like I wasn't even moving though.  The miles felt like they were getting farther and farther apart.  
• By the time I got to 30k, my time was 2:26.  I had slowed to a pace of 7:49.  I had no idea how fast I was going because I was so far off my pace band at this point.  I made the decision then to just finish the best that I could.  My legs were feeling really bad and it was a struggle to move one foot in front of the other.
• Running on 5th Avenue was pretty awesome.  There were so many cheering fans.  Even though I started to go into survival mode and stopped paying attention to the little things, I did see this, which made me chuckle:

• Those last 5-6 miles, second to the Queensboro Bridge, were the most abysmal.  By the time I got to 40k, I was really slowing down.  I hit 3:19, which is an 8 minute pace.  My pace between 30k to 40k was about 8:30 per mile.  You could say that I hit the proverbial wall at this point.  I was pretty devastated, but continued soldiering on because I couldn't give up now.  So many people around me had also hit the wall, but harder than myself because the amount of walkers that I passed was astounding.   
• Running though the park and seeing the mile 25 marker gave me a renewed spirit.  In my anger and sadness about slowing down so much, I had forgotten about my goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.  I tried doing the math in my head (which, I'll be honest was not exact and quite difficult) and figured out that I might still have a chance.  I picked up the pace as much as my lead heavy legs would let me.
• The course was marked with the last 800 meters, then 400 meters, and so I tried to play mental games with myself to say that I could sprint that out with no problem.  I passed people left and right and had several near misses with people that would randomly stop or zig-zag in front of me.  
• Then I saw the finish, in all its glory, and I "sprinted" across.  I don't remember what the clock said because it was running from the first wave and was ahead of me by quite a bit.  I was just so happy to be done.   

 

 SUNDAY AFTERNOON, POST-MARATHON 

• Walking through the finishers chute was a challenge.  I received my medal.  I got my finishers bag.  I got a Mylar blanket.  I shuffled, slowly, with all of the other marathon finishers through the park.  
• It was at this point that I remembered that I had tracked myself on my husband's phone so I decided to take a look.  There is was (along with over 40 congratulatory text messages from family and friends).  My finishing time was 3:30, about an 8 minute average pace.  So far over my goal, but a solid Boston qualifier. 
• I started crying because so many emotions hit me at once.  Happiness to have qualified for Boston (a life-long goal).  Sadness and anger to have come so short of my goal and what my coach thought I could do.  Pain because my legs had seized up and walking was so difficult.  Confusion as people tried to point me in the direction of the exit.
• Getting out to the family reunion area seemed to take forever.  I just wanted to sit down with a cup of hot coffee and put my feet up.  I also cooled down very fast and started to get shivery.  I walked several blocks until they gave us a pretty sweet fleece poncho to keep us warm.

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I have about 7 weeks to go until the NYC marathon so I thought that it might make sense to write a little bit about where I am with my training.  This is my 3rd marathon, so I knew what to expect with regards to the time commitment.  I did not have a 16 1/2 month old during training for the first two, so this definitely is an added "twist" which has been a lot more to manage than I thought!

Personal Marathon Goal: 3:30

BQ Goal: 3:35

Average Weekly Mileage: ~40 miles per week

Highest Weekly Mileage: 49.1 miles

Longest Single Run: 20.03 miles (7:57 min per mile average pace)

Average Pace: ~8:07 min per mile

Interval Pace: Between 6:30 and 6:48 min per mile

Usual Schedule: 
Mon- 7/8 miles easy
Tues- Speed/track workout (~6-7 miles total)
Wed- OFF
Thurs- 5/6 mile tempo (includes 3 miles of faster running)
Fri- 60 min easy
Sat- Long run
Sun- Recovery 45/60 min easy

Diet: I try for paleo, but I'd say I am more gluten free right now because I need more carbs than I feel like I can get from just fruits, squash, sweet potatoes.  I am constantly hungry and I CRAVE carbs (I am also still BF 2-3 times a day).  Seriously.  I eat so much right now.  I am OBSESSED with Multigrain Puffins.  I seriously eat almost 2 boxes a week.  

Run Nutrition: That's All Fruit Bars (mid-long run).  CocoHydro Sport drink for runs of 13 miles or more.  Rise Protein Bars after most runs of 6 miles or more (or hard workouts).

Sleep: About 6.5-7 a night on average.

Injuries: Mostly nagging stuff.  My right hip is tight.  My right shin gets sore unless I wear a compression sleeve (which I would strongly recommend!).  I generally always feel a little sore in my hamstrings/glutes.

Shoes:  Nike Lunar Glide 5 for easy days, Nike Lunar Glide 6 for long runs/tempo, Mizuno Wave Sayonora for speed/races.

Other Favorite Running Gear: Feetures Elite Ultralight Socks

Most Fun Run So Far:  Running 12 miles in NYC from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back with my sister (she rocked it).

Complaints:  I feel like I am getting slower from all of the long and plodding miles and I miss running in 5k races.  I feel like my muscles and ligaments are getting shorter.  I am kind of bored with the long runs.

Positives:  I get lots of compliments on my muscular legs.  :)  Overall I feel good.  I am so excited to be done with this training and to run the race of my life!

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I am currently knee-deep in NYC marathon training and, let me tell you, the cards have definitely been stacked against me, once again.  My husband and I have managed to keep, what I have viewed as a fair schedule for the last couple of weeks.  Yes, there have been days when I feel like his workouts have been ill-timed or ridiculously long, but other than that, we have both been able to train for our respective sports while still managing the baby, the house, the pets, our jobs, etc.

Here is an example of my workout schedule for this week:

Monday- 6 miles (easy)
Tuesday- Track workout of 400 (90 sec rest), 400 (2:30 rest), 800 (90 sec rest) x 3, with a 1 mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down
Wednesday- OFF
Thursday- 6 miles with 3 miles at tempo pace (1/2 marathon to marathon pace)
Friday- 45-60 min (easy)
Saturday- 16 miles
Sunday- 30-45 min (easy) and/or cross-train

I usually do my Mon/Thursday workouts right after work at 5 PM and my husband spends time with the baby (feeds him dinner and bathes him) and then I take over so that he can leave around 6:30 PM for his workout for which he usually doesn't return until almost 9 PM or later.  My Mon/Thursday runs take between 45-55 minutes and I always forgo stretching so that I can get back to see B.

Tuesday is the only night that I have to go run at a specific time because I run with a group of people.  I have to leave at 6:10 PM to get there on time, so this is the ONE day that I have requested that he take off.  If I could change the schedule and make everyone meet on Wednesday, I would, but I am not making the schedule.  Before I leave, I usually help feed B and occasionally bathe him, too.

Wednesdays, I usually take off so my husband is free to go to train whenever he wants, but he usually doesn't go until 6:30 PM.

Fridays, I usually run at lunch unless there is a baby doctor appointment or some other appointment that day.  If I can't run at lunch then I run with the baby in the jogger after work or occasionally pull a Mon/Thurs schedule kind of day.  My husband is (usually) free to train whenever he wants.

Saturday mornings are my long runs (up to 22 miles by Sept/Oct).  I have been getting on the road between 5 AM and 5:30 AM so that I can be back in time for my husband to go and workout at at 8 AM.  He usually goes around 8 AM and doesn't come back until 11 AM, at which point we all start the rest of our day, together.

Sundays are our only day to "sleep in".  Usually B has other plans, but occasionally we get to sleep until 7-7:30 AM.  Occasionally we do a family workout and run together with B in the jogger or do some other type of cross-training workout.

So most of you reading this are probably exhausted after reading this because I feel exhausted after typing it.  It may seem fair to you or you may think, sheesh, that guys really does long workouts (the thought I usually have).  Last night we ran into an issue, which I feel like we have run into before.  My husband is not a fan of my Tuesday night workouts because he says that it screws up the whole week for him.  I thought that we had come to an agreement that Tuesdays were MY day.  The one day that I can go and workout with others and not feel like I have to rush back.  Apparently, there was no agreement.

My MIL is still watching the baby on Mon/Tues until the end of the month.  When she decided she wanted to do this, she told us that she was here to watch the baby and that we should never feel bad about doing so while she was there.  Well, I think she came to the realization that he is a lot more work than she thought and come 4:30 PM, she is ready to hand him over to his rightful owners.  My husband has been sneakily getting his mom to watch the baby on Tuesdays so that he can slink out of the house at 5 PM to go workout.  He doesn't get back until around 7 PM, so I am left with the uncomfortable job of leaving the baby with Meme after she has already watched him all day.  I feel guilty and terrible when I leave.  My husband doesn't mind because, when he leaves, I'm there.

After work last night (after thinking we had an agreement about Tuesdays since we had gotten into a fight about it the previous week), my husband, MIL, SIL, and I were all sitting in the living room watching B when my husband asked his mom if she would mind watching B while he went to workout.  She didn't sound like she had even the slightest bit of interest in that idea.  If she had said, "Yes!  I'd love to," then maybe I would not be typing this right now, but she definitely did not sound excited.  I glared at him and told him that I thought we decided that he was taking the day off, but he shrugged off my comment and kept talking about working out.  I asked him politely not to go, but he kept pressing it.  I told him quietly that I didn't feel comfortable having this conversation in front of his family so he decided to be passive-aggressive and say, "Fine.  I won't go." so as to make me feel as guilty as possible.  He even threw in an, "my workout schedule for the week is ruined."  Of course steam started flowing out of my nose and ears.

To make a long story short, he didn't go, but not because he remembered our conversation from the previous week.  In fact, he said he could not recall said conversation.  I went to my running workout feeling guilty as ever and did not perform well and didn't have a great time because I kept thinking about this situation.

When I got back at around 8:30 PM, the house was dark, the front light was out, and the door was locked.  I got inside and everything was quiet.  I went upstairs to find my husband in bed...sleeping.  B's lunches were not packed, his cups dirty, the dirty pump parts in the sink, the cats milling around, the dog begging to be let outside.  To me, this was the ultimate F.U.  I have to get up at 4:30 AM so that I can get to work early enough to be able to pick B up from daycare, plus 90 percent of the time I am up with him at least once a night.  Yes, I know I choose to do this work-out once a week so I get back late and have a little scrambling to do and have to deal with less sleep.  I get that.  What I don't get is why he wants to (seemingly) make my life more difficult on this particular night.    

So of course B was also up all night last night.  Some type of almost 16 month old sleep regression situation going on.  So on top of being super angry, I had to deal with that.  I guess it is still TBD how we decide to work this situation out since we can't seem to come to a compromise that works for both of us.  Is it me?  Is it him?  Is it both of us?  Should we both give up the notion of being able to train for anything and just go back to working out to prevent us from becoming unhealthy?  I am not sure if our situation is unique, but it would be great to get some advice or feedback on how you all make it work (without divorce!).

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This is the second Mother's Day weekend that I have been lucky enough to celebrate with my family.  Last year at this time, I had pretty much just given birth and was still coming out of that first month, baby induced fog.  This year I was actually able to spend the weekend hanging out with my family and the beautiful weather that we had made things that much more enjoyable.

We started the weekend off by doing a family 5K.  My husband agreed to run with the baby in the jogger so that I could test out my newly conditioned wheels.  I am so grateful to him that he let me run the race sans baby because I ended up PRing by 46 seconds!  That doesn't sound like a lot to most people, but my previous fastest 5K was 20:51.  I hit 20:05 (6:27 pace!) at this 5K, almost making my goal race time of under 20 minutes.  Ahhhh I was so close!  I think I am heading in the right direction though.  I hope that I can make up 6 seconds on my next race.

My husband the the baby did great, too!  I felt bad though because there was a definite head wind on the part of the course and running with the jogger is like running with a parachute tied to your back...very difficult.  Even still, they finished under 29 minutes, so I was very proud of them both!

After we ran the race, we hung around for a bit to see the results of the race.  Turns out that I got 3rd place in my age group, so I had to hang out to receive my medal.  The three of us were hanging out near the car because it was still a little chilly and windy.  The baby was sitting in the driver's seat, I was in the passenger's seat, and my husband was standing next to the car.  The baby was playing with anything that he could get his little hands on: Daddy's cell phone, a pen, the car keys...

I announced to my husband that I was going to run to the bathroom and that he would need to keep a close eye on the babe.  He nodded and I sprinted to the loo.  I unsuccessfully tried to get into the passenger's side of the car; the door was locked.

"Hey!  Unlock the car!" I yelled to my husband over the car.

He attempted to open the driver's side door with no luck.

"Ummmmm it's locked!" he exclaimed.

"Haha" I said.

"No really, it's locked.  B is locked in the car" he said.

Oh gawd...for real?  

He had done, what he thought, was close the door partially to let someone through, when he actually latched the door.  B had apparently used the car keys to lock the door while he was playing.

There was little B, sitting in the driver's seat of the car, smiling and waving to his freaked out parents.

"What do we do???" my husband asked.

"Call the police!" I said with agitation in my voice.

"My phone is in the car.  Use your phone!" he said.

"My phone is in the car, too!  Go ask someone if you can use their phone!" I said.  Then I spotted two police officers that had been directing race traffic and I made a beeline for them.

I frantically interrupted their conversation and uttered a few key words including: baby, locked, and car.  The officers quickly shifted into business mode and ran over to the car with me.  There was little B, in the front seat, with both hands on the wheel, and smiling at us all.

"Push the unlock button!" one of the police officers yelled to him.  His selective hearing kicked in; he was only interested in enjoying his alone time in the car and had no desire to try to figure out how to break himself free.

"I think we are going to have to call the fire department" the other officer decided.  He radioed to the nearest station and they were on there way.  Not more than 5 minutes later the fire truck had made its way to the race parking lot.  The group of people who had gathered for the race awards ceremony stared at the ruckus that we were making.

B had a blast watching the firefighters prop open the door with a balloon looking things and then unlock the door with a long coat-hanger-looking-thingy.  Poof!  The door was opened and my devious little wanna-be-driver was free.  He looked up at all of us staring at him and cheering and then he started clapping for himself.  It was priceless.

We thanked the police and firemen and then headed over to the award ceremony.  With lots of awkward stares, I accepted my age group medal, and then we headed home.  If this is a preview of coming attractions (with regards to how B is going to be as a toddler), we are in serious trouble!!

Wishing all the mommies with babies in their arms, babies in their bellies, and babies in heaven a very Happy Mother's Day!  You are all amazing.  xoxo

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I apologize that this post is so delayed.  At the time that I wrote the first post about diastasis recti I had wanted to follow-up shortly thereafter with another post regarding how I was dealing with the issue.  I'll update you on my "progress" and where everything stands right now.

Back when I wrote my first post on this subject in September, I had made great progress with my physical therapist.  I was doing regular core exercises that were specifically geared towards people with my condition.  I was running a ton and feeling great.  I felt like I was getting so much better so in November, I joined CrossFit.  For a while I was modifying all of the workouts that had any ab components because the physical therapist told me that they could make the condition worse and un-do all of the work that I put in (sit-ups, v-ups, toes-to-bar, etc).  After a while it started to get embarrassing and decided to disregard what my PT had said.  I always had to modify exercises and always had to explain to others why I was "cheating".  I was tired of it.

One day, during a class, I decided to just go for it.  I felt like my core was pretty strong so I did a whole workout with a component that included "toes-to-bar" except that I did "knees-to-elbows", which is the beginner version of the former workout.  I did the workout and felt ok during it, but that night when I got home, I noticed in the mirror that my stomach looked worse than it had in a long time.  My lower back was also bothering me.  UGH.  After only one workout, my diastasis looked so much worse than it had in months.  How completely defeating.

Since quitting CrossFit, I have been running a lot more.  I started training with a coach again and do weekly intervals with a "team".  I am back in my element!  The only problem is that I still have this annoying ab separation to deal with.  Besides causing some lower back pain, it looks like I am 6 months pregnant every night, which is terrible for my self-esteem.  Last week my Aunt asked me when I was due.  Seriously?  I had really hoped to wear a 2 piece bathing suit this summer, but that isn't going to happen (maybe ever again).  It is crazy that I am 115 lbs, which is lower than I was before I got pregnant, but I have never felt more uncomfortable with my body.

So now I am back to, what I feel like, is square one.  I need to start doing my core exercises from my PT again.  I need to practice getting up and out of bed in the way that she taught me.  I need to start wearing the brace at night again.  I also need to really be strict about what I am eating.  Sugar and wheat tend to make me bloated, which exacerbates the problem.  One girl in a support group that I am in, mentioned that apple cider vinegar helps with bloating.  I tried that one night when I felt very bloated and it worked within 15 minutes (I put 2 teaspoons in water and pounded it...totally gross).  I know it is bad for your teeth though, so it isn't a perfect solution.

For reference, here are some pictures to detail what I am talking about.

Picture #1

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Two days ago, my husband and I were getting ready to turn in for the night when he decided that it would be a good idea to tell me how running is bad for me and will lead to my eventual death.  Ok maybe he didn't actually say that it would kill me, but he definitely alluded to the fact that I should let up on the distance type of cardiovascular activity or submit to the fact that I will die of some type of running induced heart malady (hint, hint, more CrossFit?).

How did this start?  My husband is big into listening to Paleo specific podcasts while he is in his car and it just so happened that the one that he was listening to was listing out the many reasons why cardio, distance running in particular, is bad for you.  I haven't researched the specifics of the podcast or the "studies" that were referred to, but I have since G.oogled "is running bad for you" and "chronic cardio" and I have come up with a plethora of articles preaching gospel on how endurance running is evil and HIIT (high intensity interval training) is where it is at.

Wow.  Where have I been?  Apparently I had tunnel vision and was only concerned with my reproductive health for several years so I missed the memo on how bad running is for you.  So I guess getting back to my pre-baby weight, regulating my blood sugar, and normalizing my thyroid function, and preventing PPD due to running was just a coincidence?

Rather than be angry with my husband for trying to convince me (yet again) why CrossFit is the best of the best in terms of workout regimes, I started to get depressed.  Another thing that I have done or liked to do that I need to cross off my list because someone did a study and concluded that it is bad for me.  Add it to the list of things I shouldn't do, shouldn't eat, or shouldn't use along with:

• Conventionally grown fruits & veggies
• GMO fruits & veggies, which are unfortunately not marked
• Meat of unknown origin (i.e. grocery store meat)
• Farmed fish
• Drug store cosmetics
• Anything made in China
• Fleece (lovely co-worker...)
• Perfumes
• Nail polish
• Johnson & Johnson products
• Dairy
• Soy
• Corn
• Wheat/Gluten
• Aluminum foil
• Cell phones
• Trans fats
• The elliptical machine
• Non-green furniture (lovely co-worker tells me this)
• Formula
• Canned food
• Phthalates, Sulfates, Parabens
• Tampax, Playtex, or other regular tampons
• Microwave
• High fructose corn syrup
• Tupperware
• Caramel coloring
• Yankee Candles
• Non-organic decaf coffee
• Anything with lavender
• The baby jumper or the Exersaucer (also, from the lovely co-worker)
• Sitting at work
• Purel
• Antibacterial soap
• Toothpaste with triclosan
• I could keep going but I think you catch my drift here...

It is getting really exhausting to live like this.  Just when I turn around and that that I have all my bases covered, with regards to keeping my family and me safe from the dangerous world that we live in, a new study comes out that "proves" that something else that you use every day and have used every day for your entire life is going to cause you to get cancer, Alzheimers, or some other type of incurable terminal illness.  I think one part that they leave out of all of these findings is what type of damage all of these studies can do to a person's mental health when they go crazy trying to cut all of the bad products out and stick with only what has been determined to be "safe" today.

Am I going to quit running?  No.  Am I going to give up my dream of running in the NYC Marathon this fall?  No.  Am I going to continue trying to cut out all of the potentially disease causing products out?  Ok, maybe, but within reason.  At some point I (along with others) need to realize that it is most certain that something, eventually, but hopefully many many years away will kill us.  It may be the accumulation of chemicals in your body causing cancer or it may be that you get hit by a bus.  We just don't know.  If we spend all of our free time trying to cut everything out then we are not going to be able to spend any time enjoying life, because friends, unless you know something that I don't, we only get one.

Here is my takeaway...  I am going to eat healthy when I can, but enjoy a treat once in a while (after this damn Paleo Challenge is over!).  I am going to use natural products that cause less stress to the environment, but still use my Givenchy Very Irresistible because I love the way that it smells.  I am not going to keep my son in a bubble, because eventually he is going to grow up and need to make his own choices, but I'll offer him healthy suggestions and hope that he takes some of them.  I'll exercise how I want because it makes me feel good, helps keep me sane, and I'd rather die a happy girl than a miserable one.  :)

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Wow.  How is it possible that I now the parent to a 9 month old?  Where did the time go?  Yesterday we went to the doctor for his 9 month appointment.  He is now 29 inches and 21 pounds/13 ounces.  He is growing right along the 75th percentile curve, which the doctor was very happy with (especially since he is still mostly breastfed).  I'll give you his stats and then I'll tell you what the doctor said regarding those stats.

Physical
Can sit on his own.
Can go from his back or stomach to a sitting position.
Can pull himself to stand on his own (in his crib or on the ottoman).
Can army crawl backwards.
Can crawl forward one or two times (then gives up and sits).
Likes to use his thumb and first finger to make pinchers to pick up the tiniest things off of the floor.

Non-Verbal
Waves bye-bye when you wave to him.
Reaches for you when you ask if he wants "up".
Turns to look when you say "where is daddy" or "where is the dog/cat".

Verbal
Says "dada" on occasion.
Babbles when he is by himself (in his crib before he goes to sleep or when he gets up).
Screams/grunts/cries when he wants you to pay attention to him.

Food
Still breastfeeding or taking bottles of breast-milk every 3 1/2 -4 hours.
Wakes up at least once a night to breastfeed.
Loves pureed baby food including all veggies and fruits.
Gums baby teething biscuits.
Gags and throws up when eating anything that is semi-solid (bananas, avocado, egg yolks).

Sleep
Takes 1-2 naps a day ranging from 45 min to 2.5 hours.  Totally variable!
Has slept up to 9 hours straight, but averages about 6 hours straight.
Goes to sleep around 6:30 PM, usually.
Wakes up around 7 AM, usually.

Activities
Goes to music class once a week at his pre-school that he will start attending in the summer.
Takes swimming lessons once a week and love it!
Has occasional play-dates with my friend's children, although not enough of them!
Loves reading books before bed.
Loves playing with his toys.
Loves playing peekabo

So I am not sure if this is the picture of a "normal" 9 month old or not.  The doctor told me that she would like to see more in the way of verbal skills by this point although she was ok with the non-verbal.  She told me that if he didn't make a ton of progress by 12 months that she would refer him to early intervention.  I hope that he makes progress in the next 3 months, which seems like a long time to wait if there is an issue, but I guess that is just how things work.  She also told me to start pushing more real food and to continue giving him water in a sippy (which he just pours out all over himself).

I am trying to keep to the assumption that all babies develop at different rates.  What is "normal" for one baby might not be "normal" for another.  It is tough because we live in a society where everyone compares everything to something else.  I guess I'll jut wait it out like they say.  Anyone else have any experience with "delays" such as this in a 9 month old?    

As for the Paleo Challenge, I am still going strong with the diet, although I could really use a chocolate chip cookie and a glass of red wine.  Those cravings have NOT gone away as it was suggested that they would.  I am keeping up with the 2-3 days a week of CrossFit and 3-4 days a week of running, too.  I have also forgotten to pay my car payment, forgotten to pay the electric bill, and screwed up the electronic payment for the mortgage so that they assessed me a late fee and refused to take it off even though I made the payment on time, but the account somehow didn't get set up correctly.  Aye.

One really great thing that happened though, was that I "won" my first race, for the females and got 4th overall!  It was a small race, but still a great ego booster.  I am getting closer to breaking 20 minutes in the 5k!!

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So you may think that since I have not posted in almost a week, that I have fallen off the Paleo Challenge wagon.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  I am still going strong and have not slipped up once.  Rather than go through each of the last days that I missed, individually, I will give you some of the highlights.

I have noticed a few things since being on this pretty restrictive version of the paleo diet (i.e. no honey, dried fruits, maple syrup, etc.) which have included:

• Being more thirsty even though I am drinking a ton more water than usual.
• Being unusually exhausted in the evenings to the point where I have been falling asleep sitting up.
• Sleeping very deeply (when I actually get to sleep).
• Waking up feeling rested even after broken sleep.
• Less general bloat.
• Still craving carbs...namely cereal and crispy/salty items.
• Craving a glass of red wine after dinner.
• Being much less agitated than I was during the first week of this challenge.
• Drinking way more caffeinated coffee than I have since long before I became pregnant and not having it affect me.
• No longer feel like I am developing low blood sugar if I wait too long between meals (i.e. no carbo crash between breakfast and lunch).
• I am spending waaaaaaaaaay more money on food than I ever have in my life.  Our grocery bills have gone up by at least $150 a week to include all organic/grass-fed meats and as much organic produce as possible.
• After a serious tanking in my breast milk supply, I can say with almost complete certainty that it is back to where it was before.  YAY!  This may have to do with the resolution of masitits (and finishing the antibiotics) or with the fact that my body has adjusted to the new diet.  This morning, I pumped 8 ounces!
• We made this meal last night, Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry over Brussels Sprouts (except with chicken) and it was awesome!  I loooove Brussels Sprouts so why not put more veggies and some lean protein on top and call it a meal?! 

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Wednesday, 1/8/14...

Food
Breakfast
Paleo pumpkin pancakes, turkey sausage, blueberries/blackberries

Snack
Mixed dry roasted nuts, snow peas & baby carrots

Lunch
Kale and spinach salad with roasted peppers, celery, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and grilled chicken

Snack
2 clementines, Steve's buffalo chicken jerky

Snack
Sunflower seeds, pistachios

Dinner
Stir fried beef with broccoli and cauliflower rice (from a paleo catering company)

Snack
Paleo apple/pear crisp (sugar-detox)

Exercise
I took the day off from CrossFit today and instead ran 4 miles on the treadmill.  It is tough to schedule days of complete rest while doing CrossFit and running.  I feel like if I miss CrossFit, I am wasting money and if I miss a day of running I will lose my cardiovascular shape.  Ugh.

Life
Saw the funny article in US News and Reports about the Paleo Diet being the worst diet.  Ummm they really think that Slimfast is a better idea?  For real?  Do you know what is in that crap (see below)?  I agree that if you are trying to use it to "diet" in the American sense, then yes, it is a very difficult transition to make.  Cutting out processed carbs cold turkey is pretty terrible.  Almost as bad a cutting a caffeine addiction.  It is also rather expensive and generally takes more time to prepare than a "normal" diet.  If you are using Paleo as a lifestyle instead of a quick fix diet solution then I think it is a great alternative to the crappy American processed food diet.  I will write up a better post on this later on (hopefully if I have time this weekend!), but I felt that I had to mention this incredibly ignorant article.

B was a complete train wreck last night!  He woke up a bunch of times and then had trouble going back to sleep.  I really think his 8th tooth is going to be poking through very soon as his cheeks are very rosy, he is drooling up a storm, and is biting on ANYTHING that he can get his mouth near (including my shoulder).

FAT FREE MILK, WATER, SUGAR, COCOA (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), CANOLA OIL, MILK PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, FRUCTOSE, GUM ARABIC, CELLULOSE GEL, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, POTASSIUM PHOSPHATE, MALTODEXTRIN, SOY LECITHIN, CELLULOSE GUM, CARRAGEENAN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SODIUM BICARBONATE, SUCRALOSE AND ACESULFAME POTASSIUM (NONNUTRITIVE SWEETENERS), SODIUM CITRATE, CITRIC ACID,

MAGNESIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, SODIUM ASCORBATE, VITAMIN E ACETATE, ZINC GLUCONATE, FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE, NIACINAMIDE, CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, MANGANESE SULFATE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, RIBOFLAVIN, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, FOLIC ACID, CHROMIUM CHLORIDE, BIOTIN, SODIUM MOLYBDATE, POTASSIUM IODIDE, PHYLLOQUINONE (VITAMIN K1), SODIUM SELENITE, CYANOCOBALAMIN (VITAMIN B12), CHOLECALCIFEROL (VITAMIN D3). SWEETENED WITH NUTRITIVE SWEETENERS AND NONNUTRITIVE SWEETENERS. CONTAINS MILK AND SOY.

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