Making the Rules: On Getting Back into Shape

Where does the time all go?? I swear it feels like only a week has gone by since my last post…

Any who, I’m on a plane to Indianapolis to get my ankle checked out by the doctors at St. Vincent (courtesy of USATF) and hoping for some good news. Ok. So that’s a lie… while good news would be nice, I’m not optimistic in that department right now... really I’m just looking forward to getting answers as to why I’m still in so much pain on a daily, literally step-by-step basis… getting some answers, any answers will be good news. No news is not good news for this trip. I need answers! (lol ugh! clearly I’m a bit frustrated with my situation)

I’ve been getting so antsy… not being able to workout and jump is driving me nutzo, but I guess I’ve been enjoying my free time and exploring my other interests in life. However I went a bit overboard and overloaded my schedule so my days are business than ever and I have to keep a proper calendar otherwise I’d forget everything… I seriously set 3 alarms to remind myself that I was flying to Indy today… I knew I’d forget the trip if I didn’t and suddenly wake up on Tuesday realizing that I was suppose to be 2,300 miles away. No bueno.

One of my latest projects has been trying to figure out how I can slim down and get ready to play on the beaches of Kenya next month. Some of you may argue that I’m skinny enough and should be happy with my body, but hush… I’m not trying to look anorexic or anything… I just want to feel fit and healthy and that’s been hard to do since I’m not able to train like I used to and I’ve rediscovered (and love) “normal people food” like burgers, Chipotle burritos, and vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. HA! I wasn’t able to eat like this, nor did I really want to, when I was competing. I used to eat 4 lbs of spinach a week and have kale smoothies for breakfast. Now I skip breakfast, eat whatever is convenient, and say, “sure I’ll look at the dessert menu.” I was rebelling against a healthy diet partly because I couldn’t run or do any serious workouts and I felt like “eh what’s the point in even trying.” That’s all about to change. 

Nike’s #MAKETHERULES shirt was created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Title IX, but for I’m using it to motivate my in a different ways… I’m making the rules of my own return to health and happiness.

My co-workers have been buzzing about a book called “It Starts with Food” by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig. I avoided even looking at the cover for the last couple months as I was trying to enjoy my newfound food freedom, but I recently got to a point where I don’t feel free anymore… I just feel GROSS! I need to take steps to feel healthy again despite my inability to run. And it’s going to start with food…

I’ll be checking in a couple times per week with updates as I read the book and gear up to start the “Whole 30” program. For now, I’m trying to start implementing some of the dietary recommendations in the book as I know I won’t really be able to do the complete “Whole30” program til I’m done traveling mid July… we all know it’s so hard to eat healthy on the road and I’m not even going to try to fake it. As for exercise, I’ll be using Vasper 3 – 5 days per week and committing myself to 100 abs and 3 minutes of planking at least 4 nights per week over the next 2 weeks and will up it from there. Baby steps.

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Life Beyond the Track

Well, it's officially been 6 months since I was last able to go for a leisurely run... 10 months since my last real hardcore training session. Needless to say, I'm a little soft in more than a few places. HA! Ewww. C'est la vie of the working girl.

Well since my last post, my life has been caught up in a tornado of mostly amazing events, opportunities, and yes... work in the real world. And I'm happy to say that I'm finally feeling better! The strict (gluten, sugar, dairy)-free diet worked like a charm... yes I sadly had to deprive myself of just about everything yummy for 3 months but I'm so much better for it and HAPPY happy to be off bedrest and able to have and handle the crazy busy schedule I have now. I'm still on blood thinners for the blood clots but not much I can do about that. I celebrated my renewed health by making a huge thing of lasagna on Saturday... (pack full of gluten and dairy! YUM) and I survived with flying colors!... no going to lie... I was a little nervous though.

So let's see...

Well the most exciting thing that has happened has been getting in to my top choice for business school... UC Berkeley-Haas! And the even better part... I applied via a program called The Consortium and Haas chose me to be one of their Consortium Fellows... aka I WILL BE GETTING MY MBA FOR FREE! (from a top 10 school no less!) I'm sooooo grateful! And yes, I submitted this application from my hospital bed back in November. I couldn't have done it without the support of all my family and friends who helped to edit my essays up until the deadline... writing and editing intelligent essays while in pain and drugged up on about 6 different meds after 2 surgeries is no bueno... you'll say some funny (and terribly honest) things.

Any who... let's see... I've also been interning at Vasper (the fitness system I've mentioned a few times that helped me get back on track [literally] after my injury in 2011). Apparently I've been doing a good job and they like me being around almost as much as I LOVE working here... a couple weeks ago I got promoted to be the Director of Marketing! Sweet!

Also, due to the encouragement of my little sister, who is now a successful business owner, I'm going to start selling my handmade jewelry, that for years has been reserved only for myself (and sometimes my mommy). The company is called Knot Tradition and the first collection is set to be released in June. For now, it will be sold exclusively online through my sis' store... which EVERYONE! (well all the ladies in the audience) SHOULD BE SHOPPING AT! Kelsey started her thrift boutique, Mieux & Mieux, out of an adorable victorian house in Uptown Dallas, but the online demand for her shop has been so wonderfully overwhelming that she's moving to be a mostly online shop. Her company is expanding into a new loft and patrons can come to the space by appointment only. Baby girl is doing big things! I'm so proud of her!

Oh! And more things (well people) that I'm proud of.... my JUMP SQUAD! I'm finishing up my 2nd and final year as a high school coach at Monta Vista in Cupertino, CA and it's been a challenging but fun year. The challenge has been with my ankle... sometimes I'm really sad when I head out to coach because I'm in so much pain that I can't even demonstrate and it reminds me how much I miss training and jumping, but my kids are so awesome that I snap out of my funk almost as soon as I see their faces! We've had some great individual PR's this year and today starts League Finals. GO MONTA VISTA!!!

Hummmm.... I say that's good for now. Jeez... I gotta get back into the swing of this blogging thing. It's so hard to live online and in the real world at the same time.

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A New Year, A New (Life-changing) Diet

Well happy 2013 everyone! I'm a bit late on these well-wishes but I'm happy to report that I'm finally starting to feel alive again! The crazy journey of my injury, recovery, infections, blood-clots, etc. is far from over, but I'm finally hopeful that the end may be in sight.

I spent November, December, and the beginning of January in and out of the hospital and on bed-rest, but thanks to the following script of perfectly illegible doctor's handwriting, I'm finally starting to feel like myself again... but it hasn't been easy!

After dealing with the multiple significant blood clots in my arms caused by my PICC lines, my residual extreme "yucky-ness" has been caused by my strong antibiotics and my lovely intestinal infection known as "C. Diff". I would literally take one of my pills and then be confined to my bed trying to fight off intense waves of nausea for about 3 hours. This had persisted for the last couple of months... yeah, it's really as "un-fun" as it sounds.

However, at church a few weeks ago, a friend introduced me to a doctor who specializes in digestive issues. Talking with him, deciphering his scribbles, then implementing a new dietary regimen has brought be out of my fog! YAY! No, the infection isn't gone, but I'm able to cope with it and be out and about in the world. YAY FOR PLAYING IN SUNSHINE! I've never stuck to a diet for more than a week in my life... lol!... but with what I have been suffering through, giving up some of my favorite yummy (translate: unhealthy) foods seems like a small price to pay. 

So what is this new diet of mine?  DAIRY-FREE, GLUTEN-FREE, AND the real kick in the pants ...  SUGAR-FREE!

Plus an obscene amount of probiotics to help recolonize my system with good bacteria. The doctor also recommended that I add lots fermented foods to my diet so I try to drink one Kombucha tea drink per day. When I made a stink-face at that idea, he responded:

"Hey, you're an athlete aren't you? To be the best, you do what you have to do right? Think of this as training!"

~TOUCHÉ, DOC! Touché.  He also recommended adding gums and pectins to my diet, but I haven't exactly found out how to implement them. I did buy some apple pectin capsules, but seeing as I haven't broken the seal on the jar, they really aren't doing me much good. 

If you have any favorite gluten-free + dairy-free foods or recipes, please feel free to pass them along. I'm so happy to have learned a way to cope with my body's current condition, but at the same time, I want my taste buds to be happy too!

~xoxo

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Staph infections are no fun

Seeing as November is still ticking along, I figured that this update should be it's own post... well that and this is the latest in the development of my ankle saga that seems to be never ending...
November: November started out well. I rested in LA for three days after my surgery before flying back up to San Francisco. Election Day came around and I could walk without much of a limp. I cooked a yummy dinner for Adam and my friend Leah, and we popped champagne once it was confirmed that Obama would get to serve a 2nd term and that I wouldn't have to run away to begin a new life in France. All was well... or so I thought. Little did I know that I had some nasty bacterias growing inside my ankle about to kick my butt! By the next day (Wednesday evening), I had some strange sloshing in my lower leg... yes sloshing, like water being tossed around in a ziplock bag. And as I touched my leg, I could see fluid rushing around and it sounded like a soapy water bed. At first I was intrigued... this was certainly the strangest form of inflammation I'd ever seen... but then I got a little concerned. Unfortunately though, Goggle isn't much help when you try to found out why your leg sounds like a soapy water bed...go figure. (I thought Goggle knew everything). So Wednesday night, I slept with my leg elevated, but quite a bit of the fluid was still in my leg come morning. Upon waking Thursday morning, I immediately texted my LA surgeon, describing everything going on with my leg. He simply told me that it should be able to get worked out with my upcoming physical therapy session. Sigh. So I thought I was overreacting and carried on with my errands that day. However, by 4pm I had to get home and rest my foot. Despite all my efforts to "RICE" my foot kept getting worse. By 7pm I couldn't flex it or walk on it. I called my LA surgeon but no answer and thinking once again that I was overreacting, I didn't leave a message. By 4:30AM Friday, the pain was absolutely unbearable despite my high pain tolerance. At 7:00AM I texted the LA surgeon and he simply responded "Ice it. PT will help." (PT as in physical therapy). Sigh once again. My physical therapy was scheduled for 12:30 that afternoon. But Adam refused to accept the LA surgeon's response and convinced to me to call my Stanford surgeon, who in stark contrast to the first doctor's response, insisted that I get to the Stanford clinic immediately because he feared it could be a blood clot or an infection.

The Score: Stanford "13,0000" -  Los Angeles "2" in my book.

I've never liked LA and now I have more fuel for that fire cause my Stanford doctor was right! I had 2 nasty bugs wrecking havoc on my right ankle: one of the bacterias was Staph (MSSA), the other one couldn't even be identified through a DNA sequence test but they know some clues about it. Due to the less than wonderful advice I received from the LA surgeon, the bacteria had time to multiple in such large amounts that no series of antibiotics really seemed to help initially. The infection had even spread into my ankle joint. It took 2 surgeries and 8 days in the hospital to calm the infection. I finally got released from the hospital the night of Nov. 16th. I have a PICC line (long-term IV) inserted in my left arm to give myself IV antibiotics, I have to go to the hospital weekly for up to 2 months to have my blood drawn, and the real kicker... I can't walk. Sigh.
What a huge change from the November I was planning to have... 1: Obama wins (CHECK) 2: Submit MBA applications (CHECK...even though I had to submit them while drugged up on a hospital bed) 3: Begin training efforts so I could start a full fall training regimen in December (FAIL) 4: travel to Thailand with my little sis for bonding time and her first overseas trip (FAIL!)  5: Get to Thailand and lounge on various islands for 5 days then run around Bangkok for 4 days (EPIC FAIL!)
Well that about wraps up my post 2012 Trial life. I was gearing up to get excited about the possibility of a comeback 2013 season, but seeing as I'm barely walking right now and will have an IV line for quite some time, I'm not holding my breath. BLEH! But I don't want to end this post on such a down note!... I will be using this rest time to start catching up with my blogging again. I'll try my best not to have any more 5 month gaps. lol. If you have any questions or suggestions for posts, please send them my way!
~xoxo (plus... peace, love, and pancakes!)> (


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

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Thanksgiving Leftovers

By now, most of you are probably either sick of turkey or have tossed out the scraps, but if you happen to be hanging on to that turkey for yet another boring sandwich give this simple yet DELICIOUS enchilada recipes a try... this should go without saying, but sub the chicken for turkey. Your taste buds will thank you... trust me!

Photo by yours truly. Delicious dish above prepared by my adopted dad, Kirk!!! Yum.

Cream Enchiladas with Chicken, Tomatoes, and Green Chile (aka Enchiladas Suizas... now with Turkey!)

by Rick Bayless

Ingredients:

1 28-ounce can + 1 15-ounce can good-quality tomatoes in juice, drained, preferably fire-roasted
2 hot green chiles, stemmed (depending on how hot you like things)
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil or rich-tasting pork lard
1 medium white onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 – 1 1/2 cups chicken broth, plus a little extra if needed
1/2 cup homemade Mexican-style thick cream or crème fraiche or heavy whipping cream
About 2 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken, grilled, roasted or rotisserie chicken
2/3 cup shredded Mexican melting cheese (Chihuahua, quesadilla, asadero or the like) or Monterey Jack, brick or mild cheddar
Whole wheat tortillas (I used 4 large ones that ended up quite “full”)
Green onions, diced for garnish
Fresh cilantro sprigs for garnish

Directions:

Roast the chiles under the broiler, watching carefully and turning regularly, until they’re soft and blackened, about 5 minutes. Place in a blender or food processor along with the tomatoes. Blend to a smooth puree.

In a medium-size Dutch oven, heat the oil or lard over medium heat. Add the onion and red pepper and cook, stirring regularly, until onion is golden and pepper soft, about 7 minutes. Raise the heat to medium-high, and stir in the tomato puree. Cook, stirring, until darker in color and thickened to the consistency of tomato paste, about 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in the broth, partially cover and simmer 15 minutes. Taste and season with salt, usually about 1/2 teaspoon. The sauce should be about as thick as spaghetti sauce. If it is too thick, stir in a little additional broth. Keep warm over low heat.

Stir the crème fraiche (or one of its stand-ins) into the sauce. Put the chicken in a bowl and stir 1/2 cup of the sauce mixture into it. Taste and season with additional salt if needed.

Heat the oven to 350º. Smear enough of the sauce over the bottom of a 11x7-inch baking dish to very thinly cover. Smear a small amount of the sauce in thin layer in the center of the tortilla; add 1/4 of the chicken mixture (depending on the size of your tortillas and number of tortillas), roll tightly, and place in prepared pan. Repeat with all the tortillas. Cover evenly with the remaining sauce, then sprinkle with the cheese. Bake until the enchiladas are hot through (the cheese will have begun to brown), about 15 minutes. Garnish with green onion and cilantro sprigs. These are best served piping hot from the oven.

Generously serves 4.

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