Balboaroc

I have been meaning to update for a while and just never logged onto my computer. So I have leveled up in life. August 1st I started Whole30 with a group from the NF Academy women. When they started talking about it I was VERY skeptical. I was always more of a moderation girl, I liked the idea of it and it just sounded healthier. BUT it wasn't really working. After trying the same thing over and over again you start to realize the only way something is going to change is by trying something different. So I joined the group with the intention of thinking about it and reading other people's posts. I really didn't think I could do it but then I had the thought what if I really tried... 14 days in I can report that its a miracle but I am sugar free, mostly dairy free (minus a whey protein shake and a bit of butter here and there) and grain free (minus a few slices of bread for BLT's 2-3 times). Its a miracle.... and even more so my SI joint pain is gone. The chiropractor helped me but I still had residual issues if I bent over in the garden too much. So something was causing inflammation, probably all 3. Eventually I will add items back in as treats here and there but I have no plans on going back to eating those things daily. I think long term I will probably go more paleo but I plan on sticking mostly to whole30 rules for the remainder of the month. As for how much, how many treats I plan on allowing back in I don't know. 1 a week, a month? I'll have to play it by ear. Whole30 has a rule that if you take a bite and you don't absolutely love it you don't finish it which sounds good. Its just odd, in a good way.. even when I did Atkins years and years ago I leaned on sugar free items and I'm not doing this now. I would really love to see myself sticking with this long term.

Alas back from vacation and looking to get back to the lovely journey of fitness and health. I actually didn't do bad on vacation...I probably lost between 2 and 4 lbs. I am a vacationing anomaly. In all honesty I'm a nervous traveler and I tend to eat less on vacation which accounted for the loss. We have a travel trailer so we only went out to eat 2 times in the week we were gone. I also quit drinking coffee again while there and I didn't drink much alcohol either. My digestive system really is not fond of me traveling. Fun, Fun. Also I walked on the beach every day, a few times a day really now that I think about it. We stayed at Pirateland Campground in Myrtle Beach (highly recommend it). So now that I'm back and have tackled most of the laundry we made while gone, I have been tackling all of the food that my garden produced while I was gone. My goodness I have squashes that are huge and cucumbers too! Last night I made squash patties that I just love. I probably could have made an entire meal out of them. Shredded squash, bit of shredded onion..S&P.. let it sit a few minutes then squeeze out the extra water. Mix in an egg, panko crumbs or a bit of flour (depends on how it feels), make patties, fry in oil. So that last part isn't the healthiest part but I usually just use enough to keep them from sticking. You could probably also modify it to be full paleo if that is your thing. I made squash relish today and hope to make cucumbers tomorrow. I would also like to make some squash patties to go in the freezer for later in the year. Next up my garden will be spitting tomatoes at me left and right and my peach tree is almost ripe. Its a lot of take in when a garden starts producing but its a blessing really. I love that part of the year where you can look back and know you grew something and that something helps feed yourself and your family. I am looking to get back into my academy lessons really soon. In the next day or so. On the fitness front I ended up letting someone else have my Mudderella ticket. The person that I was going to run with before ended up having another person run with her so I don't feel so bad letting it go. If she would have had no one I would have stuck in there. I feel an odd sense of sadness and relief. I don't feel regret so that is good. So I'm an intuitive person. I try to listen to when I get feelings about things (except during that time of the month). I haven't felt good about the idea of racing ever since the Warrior Dash. Like that I need to come to terms with it just not being my thing anymore. I don't feel like I'm improving and it certainly hasn't helped me lose weight. Also I have come across quite a few articles about things that have happened to people during races (blindness) and a friend of mine online broke her leg and ankle at the Tough Mudder very recently. I feel like all these signs have been coming my way that its time for me to move onto different forms of exercise for myself. I get that a race is a challenge and isn't supposed to be easy. For me though it needs to be fun. I have been losing the fun factor. Frankly the way some people talk about races it doesn't seem like they are having fun either. I also need to feel like I'm leveling up and I wasn't doing that in racing. The Warrior Dash was a step up but I felt like I did not perform well. I don't know what it is but the Warrior Dash did something to me. I'm tired of getting so nervous before a race that I can't eat (and then can't perform well). Feeling like I'm about to either crap myself (sorry) or die before a race. I can look back on this time in my life with fondness, not regret. It did help get me out of my shell a bit. I'm glad I did it. I also have the feeling that had I continued racing, or picking harder races, that I was eventually going to get hurt. I was shaking pretty bad at the end of the Warrior Dash. That could have ended badly. Hope to update again in the new few days!

I was browsing our boards and found this one geared for Epic quests and thought it would be fun to keep a post on here about that. I don't know if anyone is familiar with the idea of having a list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. I currently keep a list which will be done in October of 2017. So as to spare you all some boring things on my list I will pick out ones that are more epic in nature. When you create a do to list of 101 things you start throwing in some rather small things that can be oh, not so exciting. Here goes.... Charity - Continue with doing 30 charitable things each year. Last year I started doing this and the charitable things can range from small to large. I just like continually giving back no matter how small. I did taxes for someone for free...pay parking meters...volunteer at the kid's school. Currently I'm up to 15 things so I'm on track for the year. Donate Blood Fitness/Adventure - Lose 20 lbs Hike Old Rag Cut sugar out of my diet Try something way new for me (pole classes/aerial yoga/belly dance) Hold a Falcon/Hawk Home Improvement - Re-Do at least 3 rooms in the house. Bathroom, and both kid's rooms. (usually we do painting and things of that nature as a couple and I would like to try and do something myself for once...that and the husband refuses to paint anymore LOL) Financial - Pay off 4 credit cards/debts Education based goals - Learn to drive stick (better than I can now) Learn to hitch and drive with the travel trailer attached. Lean Guitar (or Ukelele) Learn to Knit Pottery Classes Master Gardener Classes

It looks like I have never done a Battle Log on here. I had recently decided to do a battle log on the Academy but it sounds like some changes are happening and I'll need to do my journaling here. No biggie. On this side would be where I would journal if I was doing a challenge so this all works out for me in the long run. I am currently working my way back through the lessons on the Academy so some of what I may blog about will be from there. I'm a week out from vacation and 2 weeks about from the Mudderella. I haven't announced it yet, not like I need to, but I've been kicking the idea around that I may bow out of obstacle course races after this year. This will be my 6th race. Don't get me wrong I've enjoyed myself but at the end of the day I'm not really a runner. Even calling what I do running is funny because its mostly walking with some running thrown in. I want to be able to scale back to daily walks and hikes with lifting as my primary form of exercise. That and my nerves. My goodness you should see how bad my anxiety can be pre-race. We'll see, no pressure. I may see the race line up of local races next year and go for it again. At the least I can say I've done it and its been fun. I certainly haven't lost weight or gotten smaller because of racing though which is why I think I might need to head in another direction for that (and my Dr. and Chiro have seemed to have hinted to me..is running what I really like and enjoy doing?). That and I keep reading articles where people have gotten hurt (3 people fell off the wall at the Warrior Dash I was at this May) and one woman went blind after a race. I'm very careful but the truth of potentially getting hurt could be a real possibility. I will leave with part of my last journal entry on the Academy which lists my big why... For me personally one of my reasons, and has been for a long time, is witnessing certain family members (even as close as my own parents) have issues because of their weight. I truly believe there comes an age where you are either going to heavily contribute to future issues as an older adult or fix it so you don't have issues. I don't want to get where my kids have to take care of me and I can still get around and have a grand old time as an active older adult. Another reason is that I truly do want to be the best version of myself I can be. It sounds cheesy and I've said it for along time but its true. I want to be proud of myself. I want my husband and kids to be proud of me too. I want to be able to wear more cute clothes and look good in them. Finally one of my biggest personal reasons is the fact that the better I take care of myself...the more consistent I am with exercise and watching my diet... the better I feel mentally. When I'm not taking good care of myself my anxiety acts up, my self esteem plummets, and frankly a lot of other areas in my life plummet also. Its not a good thing. If I could only pick one reason out of all of them this is probably the biggest one for me. When your mental stability starts to waiver it is not a good thing.

Ah! Didn't mean to go quite that long without an update! So the Warrior Dash was this past weekend. It really was a good time but would I do it again? Probably not. Now that doesn't mean I didn't like it, its just mostly due to race location and logistics. If they decided to plop one in a town not far from me I would probably do it. As it is they seem to have the Maryland Warrior Dash at Budd's Creek Motorcross every year. I drove 2- 2.5 hours to get to this one and stayed overnight in a motel. I am really glad I did that too because I didn't want to be doing that drive the day of the race. I'll go through the good and not so good (I won't say bad..nothing was bad about the race, just a few eh or ok moments) The Good: 1.Getting to the race couldn't be easier because we stayed in La Plata the night before. Parking and bib packet pick up could not have gone more smoothly. They really do have it down when it comes to this at this Warrior Dash. 2. The race was fun and it was challenging. I did a lot of height induced things that generally brought me fear but I powered through. There was at least 2 or 3 obstacles that I had the urge to back down off of and go around but I did them anyhow. Put me in the mud all day long....put me on a high up wall or fence is the challenge. Diesel Dome and High Tension were the big ones for this. 3. As with most all obstacle races I found another lovely set of ladies to talk to. 4. I potentially had the best tasting beer of my life afterwards. 5. The shower area set up really wasn't too bad. It was pretty effective. The Eh that makes for a good story LOL... 1. The team I was supposed to meet from the Mudderella and run with at the Warrior Dash didn't show. I was to run at 11 am and was standing there with my husband but didn't see them anywhere. I was going to wait until the next wave (11:15) but something told me to just go ahead and go. I'm glad I did because I talked to them later and they didn't run until 12:15 or later. Running by myself is no biggie as I generally have done all of these runs by myself and just run into people to help me on course. 2. My anxiety pre-race. My goodness the week before off and on, the day before, and especially the morning of a race I am a hot mess. Yes I know I'm going to have fun but dang social anxiety, and anxiety in general sucks. Funny how I do these races to help beat my anxieties and give myself more confidence. I do have a prescription I use for anxiety as needed and it does help but I also don't want to take too much pre-race as I will be handling obstacles and want to be alert as possible. The other BIG downer for my anxiety is that it takes my appetite... 3. So my appetite pre-race and even the night before wasn't great. I forced myself to eat a muffin that morning and took an apple to the track with me but never ate it. When I'm worked up and nervous like that everything is like its getting choked down with no flavor. I should have had protein but I just couldn't look at it that morning. This is bad news for someone about to do physical activity. This is hands down the one thing I need to learn to rectify if I ever want to do a more serious race like the Tough Mudder or Spartan. 4. Speaking of food as fuel... So the course was marked as moderately hilly. Please just take the moderately out LOL. The course was hilly, hilly, hilly. I didn't do hardly any running. The hills were either in the woods or we were out on the motorcross track. Yes this was cool but my God my body was just so incredibly tired at the end (ahem on the lack of fuel). Thank God I always tuck sport beans in my bra or I think I would have been way worse well before the end of the race. My last obstacle was High Tension and I didn't realize until I was well across it that I was starting to shake. I really was ready to be done. 5. Shut down and skipped obstacles... So the constant hills. I powered through most of that. Shoot I even sorta walk/jogged up some (well till the end LOL). The obstacles..... There were 2 shut down and 2 that I kinda skipped and that had to do with height issues (I'm 5'2). The Mud Mounds I was disappointed in. Mudderella does something similar and its my favorite obstacle. You have to help your fellow person to get through all the mud pits. I don't know what was up with this Warrior Dash crowd but I had to ask for help to get out of the first pit and did not get into the 2nd pit because the mound between the 2 was high and I had a hard enough time getting help out of the first pit. A woman did come over to help when I asked but in other races I've been in men and women would ask you if you needed help if they saw you struggling. I almost had to ask a few times for help and you would have to be blind to not see I was not getting out of that pit on my own. I also didn't do High Tension because of my height and I am not strong enough to do monkey bars. The 2 shut down was the big 14 foot wall I was scared of. This worked out for the best. It was near the end and I probably was not strong enough to do it anyhow at that point. Also at least 3 people had fell off the wall before they shut it down. Maybe other people were not prepared for how tough the course was? It would have been doable earlier on in the race most likely. The other shut down was their big finisher obstacle Goliath. I got to the end and was waiting and there was quite a backup. One of the ladies I was talking to mentioned the time was 1pm. Holy crap I had been out there for 2 hours. I can usually do a race in an hour so no wonder I was shaking. I made a final decision to go around Goliath because I didn't want to fall off of the first wall or the cargo net to get to the slide. As I was going around they shut it down because the liner was loosing water and I think someone got injured. So I think I made a good call to skip it and then in a way the call was made for me as well since it was shut down. So that was pretty much my race experience. It was a good time, it was a tough time. I was prepared and not prepared all at the same time. I read some comments on facebook about the race and some said they usually do not have the course laid out like that with so many hills. So I guess they do try to mix it up year to year. Either way I'm glad to say I have my medal. I always wanted to do that Warrior Dash and now I can say I have done it.

Still here, still reading...just not much to say I guess. I am 10 days out from the Warrior Dash and have started my anxiety/antsy pre-race ritual. So since I am a relative new person to blogging on the forums its worth mentioning I am an introvert (I do like people though but I need my breaks) and I have battled social anxiety all my life. I do these crazy races to kinda get over that but I swear the morning of the race I always feel like I am dying inside until I am actually running. The week of a race I usually have crazy dreams which would coincide with me feeling like I am not prepped enough. So I am focusing on the after and during feelings when these anxiety feelings crop up. Trying to figure out what I want to wear race day. I have my tape and my gloves. I did see a shirt I liked at Target today. I have a group of 4 or 5 that I am going to meet there but I don't think we are in the same wave and it seems like they have their own scheme running. Its not a biggie they are absolute sweethearts and I ran into them at the Mudderella in VA last year. I generally run solo and then my adrenaline kicks in during the race and I chat pretty much everyone up. I wish I could take a fraction of that high pre-race. I was looking online at our obstacles and I think the only one bothering me is a wall that is about 14 feet high, straight up and down. Now I have probably climbed taller than that in cargo form, just not straight up and down. I will have to see how I'm feeling about things race day. I generally don't skip obstacles ever. I just don't think about them until I get there and then just do it. At 5'2 height issues can be a factor for me. Last year I didn't climb the mountain of haybales at the Mudderella because my reach just isn't there LOL. I really, really don't want to fall off of an obstacle. Haven't yet...don't want to start now. So I'm trying

LOL I always try to find the positive in things. I would really rather not do that experience ever again though. Ugh. Last week I hit my goal of 2 runs and 3 lifting sessions. I also did fairly well of tracking. We had a birthday dinner for my MIL on Saturday so I didn't track then. I also didn't do so hot with tracking Sunday evening or Monday evening. Still not mindlessly grabbing food but not honestly tracking either. I did some meal prep yesterday so I have breakfast and lunch made. I also have dinner planned out. I lifted yesterday after my 2 mile walk. Today I am doing Week 4 day 2 of the Zombie 5k. I'll have to see what the weather is like tomorrow. I'm in the mood to shake things up and may go for a hike.

Despite sickness I would still deem week 1 (last week) a success. Calories were cut and when I started back eating I have been in my range daily. No coffee. So the only one lacking last week was the exercise. No biggie, life and sickness happens. Onto this week! I am feeling very good about things. Yesterday I did a 2 mile walk then weights and today I did my Zombie 5K trainer (Week 3, day 3). So I am on track for my 3 times with weights and 2 runs a week. I know this is going to sound crazy because I sure as heck don't want to catch Norovirus again...like ever... but maybe in a way it was a good thing for me. Not the weight loss but I am being much more mindful of what I'm putting back in my body. I do allow myself treats daily but they fit in my calorie count and I am making sure its something I really want vs. just mindlessly grabbing candy around the house. I just really ask myself if I want something. I think about it and don't just mindlessly do it. Am I truly wanting to eat this or am I doing it because I'm bored or trying to eat another feeling. Coffee is what it is. You are either drinking it or not and I haven't had any. So that is good on that front.

Well I have discovered a way to get yourself off of coffee, drop 5+ lbs, and essentially detox and clean out your system all at once. Norovirus!! Went for a 5 mile walk on Monday with my friend. Was feeling fine but when I got back I wasn't starving like I normally would be after that amount of cardio. Then 9pm it hit and after my son was sick this past weekend I knew what it was. I was so, so careful cleaning up after time. Apparently its going around in a lot of circles so for anyone that happens to read this take care in close group situations (schools, nursing homes, etc). I am feeling better today, finally dropped the headache which was lack of caffeine and calories I'm sure. Appetite is there but not grand. I'm not bothering to count, that always seemed crazy to me when people would ask questions like that while sick. Health first...get to feeling better, then worry about body goals. I doubt a can of soup, 2 glasses of coke, and a half sleeve of club crackers would do much damage anyhow. Ok so I almost sugar detoxed minus the coke. LOL. Hope to be back at things by weeks end. Man I'm so glad I planted my garden Monday. It was *such* a pretty day too. Night..not so much.

Here I am all gung ho! Monday: 5 mile walk with my friend... Monday night: Norovirus. So thankful that didn't hit while I was walking (if you have ever had it you'll know why I said that). Yeeeah.... I'm feeling better today but it really knocks you down a few pegs. Hope to be back at it by weeks end. Nice to see some new Rangers coming in to say Hi!

I'm running at 10 or 10:30 I have to look at my emails LOL. The girls I met up with at the Mudderella in VA is doing it with me. This will be my first race planned with a team from start to finish. I usually run solo but end up talking to everyone and getting help everywhere. I'm excited but the introvert in me gets nervous at the idea of running with a team. The Mud Dog run in Frederick is fun. I haven't done that one in 2-3 years and its 4-18 this year. Maybe next year I'll feel more ready for it..I had some issues over the winter with seasonal depression and my training dropped off horribly. Mud Dog is another beginner race really but I just feel better if I prepare. I know what you mean about the burpees and Spartans being doable. I have a few hip issues so burpees feel very unnatural to me. I think if I keep up on the exercises my chiropractor has given me, I want to give burpees another shot. The thought of the number of burpees I would most likely end up doing at a Spartan is very daunting to me. I just hate the idea of punishment at a race. I put myself through enough nervous hell just to show up, please don't punish me after that. I don't even need to be timed or a part of the stats, just don't punish me LOL.

Yep that is the one! I've always wanted to do one. For me its really not close though. I'm in Maryland but this is quite south of me since I'm up near the PA line. I'm going down the night before and spending the night because I'm not into traveling on race day. Always wanted to do a Warrior Dash so when they were running a great deal last year I couldn't pass it up. I would love to do a Tough Mudder but they screwed up something with the city of Frederick a few years back and haven't been back since. Then they had been runnning in Inwood WV which isn't too far but not this year. Kinda disappointed on that front. I haven't looked into doing a Spartan race...the burpee penalty kills it for me.

Habit RPG has revolutionized me finishing the challenge last go around. I have tried different apps and while Fitocracy is another game type app it just didn't stick as well. I think its because I felt like I was logging my activity in too many places and it got overwhelming. Maybe at some point I'll try it again but I use Jefit to log my weight training..that is another good one. Generally I like coffee too...well I love it. I just don't love that it becomes a vehicle for an extra amount of calories a day and if I don't drink it then I get headaches. Sometimes if I have some place to go in the morning I won't drink it till the afternoon (coffee also helps me to *ahem* have a productive digestive system LOL) and then I get a headache. It just becomes a pain in the butt, or head as it is.

So I'm kicking around what I want my goals to be. Last time my 3 main goals were 1. track water, 2. track food, 3. exercise 5 out of 7 days a week. Good goals yes but I want to be a tad more specific this go around since like I mentioned my main thing was to finish the challenge. This time around the main thing I would like to complete is to be off of daily coffee. I want to finish another challenge completely...get in here, check in, be a part of all of this... and get off of coffee. I feel much better when I drink coffee on occasion and am not a slave to the caffeine monster. Its better for my anxiety in the long run also. What I consider being off of the "sauce" is drinking it no more than twice a week. Sometimes I drink it twice a day and of course with sugar and cream. So those two things there are what I consider an overall goal that I would like to see happen by the end of the next 6 weeks. 3 measurable goals: 1. Track calories the majority of a week 6 out of 7 days and continue to track the full day even if I go over. The calculator app I have has me at 2041 maintenance calories, 1633 for fat loss and my BMR is around 1484. I would like to see myself hit a target between 1600-1700 a day. I'll throw tracking water in here also. I know basic amounts I should be drinking I just want to make sure I track it as well. 2. 3 weight sessions a week and 2 runs a week at least. Bonus if I throw yoga in there or another run. Continue doing exercises as laid out by my chiropractor. 3. Lay off the coffee. My plan will be to slowly back down off of it starting this weekend. Maybe substitute something to help ward off the headache I will potentially get and then bam I'll be on to counting a coffee free streak. Life side quest - Prepare for husband's 40th b-day party beginning of June. We are doing something at the house but I have things around here I want to do to prepare. I need to set up a facebook page, start brainstorming what I plan to make, refinish my kitchen table because it looks like crap and other various house tasks. So I'll be blogging about this as well. Ok so there I go. I feel pretty good about these goals. I'm excited to see what others have in store for themselves.

Great goals! I'll be reading and cheering you on!