Slump

You know you haven't blogged in a while when you have to double check your URL. I've been in a blogging slump, cooking slump, exercise slump. You name it, I'm in a slump about it.

Joy

Dear Joy,

I never knew you while you were alive, but I want to tell you now that you are an inspiration to me.

(source NY Daily News article)

Congratulations on a race well run. Rest in peace.

Love,

Kyra

Dallas Marathon (update)

I must admit that I'm a bit bummed out this morning. The person who was putting together the relay team for the Dallas Marathon has backed out for unspecified reasons. I don't know the other people from the team, so I have no idea if they know other runners who'd step in so that the team stays together. The few local runners I know aren't relay sorts, they run the whole thing, so being part of a team wouldn't interest them. I'm the sort that needs a race on my schedule to motivate me to get up off of my ass and run. This isn't looking promising...

Dallas Marathon (relay), here I come

It's been a while since I've run any great distance. Great being more than two miles. Time to lace up and start training again. A friend is putting together a relay team for the Dallas Marathon, pka White Rock Marathon, and I've said I'll take the second leg. Since she's never done a big race before, I said she should take the final leg so that she has the finish line experience. I chose the second leg because it winds through the Turtle Creek area. If you aren't familiar with Dallas, that's were a bunch of the rich folks live. I may as well have gorgeous houses, whose property taxes are probably more than The Aussie and I make in a year or two, to drool over while I'm running.

We're gonna need a bigger boat

Okay, maybe not a bigger boat, but certainly a bigger fridge. I was stalking Sisterhood of The Shrinking Jeans' Christy and Melissa over at Real Oilfield Wives recently, and came across a post mentioning a food co-op called Bountiful Baskets. Curious to see if they had a location near me, I hopped on over to their website. Not only did they have one near me, the had one in my town! Unable to resist, I signed up and made a contribution for the weekly basket. Unsure of what to expect, I also contributed for an "Italian Pack" add-in and two "Juice Pack" add-ins. Remind me, next time I contribute, not to get so much. My fridge is jam packed, I've re-tasked my salad bowls to be fruit bowls, and I spent half of yesterday cooking vegetables. Part of that time was spent just staring at the counter, wondering what on earth to do with all of the stuff! 

This isn't even everything. Not pictured are the bags of carrots, all the fruit, including two pineapples. In no particular order (all packs mixed together), I got:

1 bunch of spinach
4 ears of corn
4 Asian pears
6 peaches
10 limes
4 lemons
6 apples
1 bunch of bananas
1 head of romaine
2 bags of carrots
2 bags of baby carrots
2 heads of celery
3 bunches of parsley
1 container of mushrooms
1 eggplant (donated)
3 avocadoes (donated)
2 bunches of beets, with greens
2 pineapples
2 bunches of kale
4 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 leek
1 head of garlic
several springs of fresh rosemary
several springs of fresh oregano
several springs of fresh basil
6 Roma tomatoes
2 yellow onions
1 red onion
1 hatch chilies
3 green peppers
2 chunks of ginger

So far, I've made an eggplant-less ratatouille, bacon braised kale, and kale with pine nuts, raisins and capers. The Aussie asked what I was going to do with all of it. My reply? Eat a !*&$% load of veggies this week.

The Whole 30 hasn't been pretty

From reading people's accounts of how they felt while doing the Whole 30, I expected great energy, sleeping well, clear skin, overall, feeling pretty good. My energy has been good, I've been sleeping okay, but clear skin and feeling good? Nope. It could be anything from a sensitivity to coconut oil, yeast overgrowth die-off, toxins leaving the body like rats leaving a sinking ship. I don't know.  All I know is that my eczema went from moderate to horrible in two weeks, and I'm miserable. I've gotten it on my face before, but only on one eyelid. Certainly not all over it. I look like I've been in a brawl. My eyes are puffy and red, I've got itchy patches under my eyes, and on my jawline, and my lips are terribly cracked at the corners, are chapped, and they burn. It's worse on my hands, too. The section on my middle finger is so bad that the skin over my knuckle has split.

 

So, I've decided to not continue restricting what I'm eating so severely. I will continue to eat whole foods, no junk food, no sugars, but I will be adding back in some whole grain products and some dairy. If Whole 30 works for you, great. It's helped me get off of a plateau, but I'm suffering in other ways. I need to be healthy on the outside as well as the inside.

Let's do this.

Let's see if I can't get back below my 10% level, shall we?

Starting weight:

This paleo/Whole30 thing seems to be working already.