Marathon Obsession

Summer, 2011

My last post was quite a while ago and a lot has happened since then. I will update you all in future posts, but for now, I want to talk about running.

Running has been one of my hobbies since I was a sophomore in high school. I lettered early, became captain of both cross country and track, and was voted by my peers to be the most inspirational runner on the team. In college, I would occasionally get out and run a bit, but running was essentially put on hold while I was studying.

Now, I run regularly. My friend runs with me occasionally (although we often degenerate into socializing instead, but that is half the fun of running with somebody). In the past few months, I have participated in a couple of races. I ran a 5k in 32.40.7 minutes, which improved my time from last year pretty significantly. I also ran a 10k with the flu, so I was just happy to finish.That 10k is the most challenging race I have ever participated in due to that flu.

Marathon training has become something of an obsession for me. I somehow ended up on the Napa Valley Marathon website and I felt this burning need to run it. The feeling that came over me was incredible; I got chills and this feeling of destiny. I try not to ignore fate, so I decided to begin training for a marathon.

Running a marathon is on my Kick-Ass Lifestyle list which is just one more good reason for me to pursue this dream! I hope my readers will enjoy following my marathon journey. Through my research, I have learned and re-discovered so much about running that I can't wait to share with you.

Ciao!

Celebrities and Body Image

I love fashion, and I love looking at celebrity fashions. The problem with that is the gap between my weight reality, and that of Vogue and Hollywood. How can real people tell what healthy looks like?

The Project:

Use celebrity images to educate yourself about what a "healthy" weight looks like.

The Steps:

1. Create a Word document and make a table with headers of "Name," "Height," "Weight," "BMI," and "Images." Use this table to keep track of the next few steps.

2. Use the internet to find as many celebrities as you can that are within 1 inch of your own height (and a couple who have bodies that you envy regardless of their height).

Example: I am 5'3", so I looked for models and celebrities who are between 5'2" and 5'4".

3. Try to find an accurate weight for each of these celebrities.

4. Use a BMI calculator using this data to find the BMI of each celebrity. I used http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/.

5. Then put the celebrities in order of BMI from lowest to highest.

Tip: I copied the table into Excel, clicked "sort" by BMI and then copied it back into Word.

6. Use the highlight feature in red on celebrities with a BMI under 18.5, and over 25.

7. Go online and find images of each of these celebrities. I tried to find bikini pictures so I could see their bodies clearly. Paste the images into your document so you can refer to them later.

This exercise will start to give you a clear image of what an unhealthy weight looks like, at least on the low side of the scale. Since I idealize celebrity bodies more than I should, it gave me a clear division between which people look healthy, and which people look anorexic.

Now I can look through Vogue and recognize that I will NEVER look like a fashion model; I don't even want to anymore. My body isn't built to be that skinny or gazelle-like. The clothes still look beautiful, but the bodies look under weight and unhealthy. I have a Word document with images of healthy figures that are actually my size. I can aspire towards a more realistic goal, instead of an unhealthy, impossible goal.

As promised, I am posting an image I created using My Virtual Model.

Weight-loss to date: down to 151lbs from 157lbs
Current BMI: 26.7

Nothing With a Heart Except Artichokes

So I have been vegetarian since I was in 7th grade. I am now a Junior in college so that comes out to around 8 or 9 years as a vegetarian. What I say is that "I don't eat anything with a heart...except artichokes." It generally works very well for me.

I have periodically tried veganism. That means along with no meat, fish or poultry, there are no dairy products such as milk, cheese, or eggs. For me, the problem with being vegan is that cereal, on of my favorite foods becomes a problem. I'm not really a substitute kind of girl, so soy milk, almond milk and rice milk do not trick my tastebuds. They can trick my eyes, but not the mouth.

People ask me, "How do you get enough protein!?"
The average American consumes 300x the recommended amount of protein. Protein is not like B12 where you need to TRY to get enough. You just will. I don't even think about it. There are plenty of plant based proteins. Beans are my favorite, and when they are combined with rice they make a whole protein. Quinoa (pronounced kEEn-wa) is a great source. So are nuts, seeds, and any grain. Also, most vegans/vegetarians have some source of soy in their diet, which is the only naturally occuring, non-meat whole protien. As long as you have a varied diet, you will be FINE!

My roommate thinks that making food takes too long and is too much of an effort, so she eats out a lot. I never eat out. Tonight I made myself thick, seasoned fries which were delicious. I cut up some potatoes, put them in a bag with some spices and olive oil and shook them up while the oven was heating, tossed them on a pan and put them in the oven. Half an hour later, I came back and they were DELICIOUS. It took maybe 5 minutes time, and they were really healthy. You would take the same amount of time waiting in line at McDonalds, for an inferior fry. Plus, I knew exactly what went into them; there were no trans fats, no lard, nothing that wasn't natural and healthy.

I have been putting more effort into eating healthy and I think after I finish my jug of milk in the fridge (along with my Cheerios) I am going to go vegan again. It only takes 3 weeks to overcome cravings, so if I cut out the milk and cheese for that long I will be home free. (I already don't eat eggs. I'm just not comfortable with it. I wouldn't want someone eating my eggs. That would just be weird).