Detoxing

Back in the fall I decided to consult with an Integrative Health doctor. Someone who could potentially put the Celiac's, possible Hashimotos all together and just take a look at overall health. I feel like I was overproducing cortisal and wanted to also do a food panel study on possible irritants. There is a test for possible food sensitivities and basically what came back was dairy and peanuts (and wheat). The test tests for antibodies produced in your system to different foods. Peanuts weren't that high but dairy was significantly higher than anything else.

I also had some interesting blood sugar levels and high inflammatory markers in my system too. On the good side, if I had Hashimotos, I've put it into remission on my own (most likely due to the gluten free diet). The doctor put me on some vitamins to help with different deficiencies, like vitamin D and K and iron, plus some other herbs, like cumin which help with inflammation. I decided to wait until after the holidays to try and figure some things out and change some eating habits. So I gave up refined/process sugar and dairy about 2 weeks ago. I plan on given up the sugar for 3 weeks and then not really caring about that, but the dairy has to be 30 days to rid my body of the antibodies. I then get to add dairy back for 5 days in a row to see what happens.

In the past couple weeks though, our eating has been all flipped upside down. I've had to plan really hard to make sure I have enough calories (through Boston training) and enough nutrients at the right times too. I've made lots of new recipes...crustless quiche, maple salmon, honey mustard chicken, smokey quinoa and beans, spaghetti squash bolognase. I also make snacks like my own sugar free grain free granola with nuts, sticky energy bites for long runs, made my own hummus, making my own popcorn with dairy free butter. Definitely has been more challenging in the sense of just preparing dinners, but I'm managing.

My stomach on the other hand definitely seems to be off which is a bit of a bummer. I'm hoping that it is just my body trying to adapt to the new "normal" right now. On the other hand, maybe it's my bodies way of saying dairy is really ok for me! :) We will see! Here is a sampling of some food I've made recently.

 Spaghetti Squash bolognase

 Broiled Grapefruit with cinnamon and honey drizzled on top. I also topped these with bananas too and they were yummy!

Scrambled eggs with tomato and avocado, crustless quiche, cinnamon nut mix, homemade waffles with almond butter and strawberries. 

Training

I'm in week 6 (out of 18) for marathon training. I'm following the same hybrid beginner/advance Hanson's plan again but I have added a bit more to it in terms of some of the mileage so far. Not much, just a mile here or there. I've also really tried to keep at least 1/2 times a week some simple strength training and I've also added in 1-2 times a week of a simple 20 minute yoga for runners video to help with stretching. I don't know how much I'll be able to keep all this up as the mileage increases, but I'm just going to keep going as long as I can!

Longest run so far is 12 miles. I've done 3 miles of speed work every week (at 5K) pace, and I'm up to 7 miles tempo runs at marathon pace. These runs haven't been going well. I've consistently been running them too fast. That might be fine people might think, but the point is the train you body to run marathon pace for long periods of time and I know the pace I'm running isn't sustainable. (I'm running more like 7:40 pace on these when I'm aiming for 8:00/mile pace).

Spent a few days in San Antonio, TX for a large math meeting and I always enjoying running in new places. It was fun exploring (and getting lost). There were lots of beautiful views along the riverwalk and a really neat historic district too.

December and the Holidays

So yeah...you know I stopped posting. So I'll write a few posts to appear over the next week to catch up! December went by fast! We went to a holiday event at my work which was way overwelming, but the kids had fun playing in bounce houses, eating cookies and drinking hot cocoa, and playing in bubbles that looked like snow.

I ran a 5K race as a last minute decision and ended up placing 2nd. Won a little picture frame, a gift certificate and then the medals ended up being ornaments which was really nice.

I finished up the semester and we got ready for the holidays. We spent Christmas morning at home and the girls opened lots of presents and then we packed up and drove up north to visit family. We spent 4 days at my dads house and was able to spend lots of time with family. As usual, we all got hair cuts, this time for me, I had enough to chop off to donate (and I added some color).

We then packed up and drove across Canada to see more family. Over the course of both places we stopped in two different Childrens Museum which was fun, and headed to a mall with a carousel that the girls enjoyed.  The girls were troopers in the car!

Of course I am in Boston Marathon training mode now, and managed lots of good runs with my sister and the first run of the year in snow before our journey back to warmer temps!