Celebrating 4 years of no antibiotics, no strep throat and no flu or flu shots.

          While making my juice today I came to the realization that this is the 4th year I have been juicing vegetables and fruits. I am celebrating four years in which I did not get plagued with my twice-a-year illness of strep throat chased by strong antibiotics. Four years of not getting the flu or even needing a flu shot. I have to confess though, I have never had the flu shot, neither has my hubby or my kids...ever! I strongly believe that although my kids do not drink the juice as often as my hubby and me, they still reap the benefits from our juicing. I can only credit that to them benefitting from perhaps a raised family-wide immunity that stems from our our juicing.  I now juice about twice a week and generally make my juice from apples, carrots, ginger, celery and beets. Here is a pic of my mom's Breville juicer. To make a giant pitcher I used 2 cored apples, 2 lbs. of carrots, a thumb-sized piece of ginger, 2 medium beets and 1 lbs. of celery. I took pictures of everyone in the house at the time drinking it. I had two 8oz. glasses. When home we too have our own Breville juicer. 

Tastes best with some ice!!

Totally enjoying my juice!!

My beautiful mami drinking her glass of juice.

My son tasting it.....when he was a toddler he'd drink tons of it. He's become a bit more picky with age. 

              My daughter drinking her juice....she will have a glass usually IF she helps make it. 

How getting sick can help you reset your goals

      It was not tough coming to a decision about my running. From one day to the next I went from one thing to another. It happened Friday, I got sick, not the kind of sick where you actually need medicine for, but the kind of sick where your body just calls it quits and there are no other symptoms but pure fatigue, heavy, achy unrelenting fatigue. My whole body ached, I had a fever, I could not even walk normally; this whole time, all I could think of was my warm, cozy bed and my favorite soft pillow. I took the day off work and slept in. Somewhere during my late breakfast and nightfall I knew that things had to changed in my thinking. That's the thing about big changes, they start, like teeny tiny little seeds, deep in one's innermost thoughts. Never underestimate the power of these tiny ideas...

     In my teens, I remember doing these ridiculous diets. Okay, back then I did not think they were ridiculous at all. I remember doing a vegetable soup diet and an all-fruit diet, and an all-fruit-and-veggie diet. Not surprisingly, they were often extreme enough, weird enough, depriving enough that they'd work. I'd lose a ton of weight....for a few months. Oh how I thought I was the boss of my body then. My iron will has always been good at getting me exactly what I want in life, except when it came to my body. My body would always come right back and demand what it wanted. These diets were very much like walking a tightrope, they required so much attention, so much dedication, and sacrifice that at some point it was bound to fail; Life, by its very nature would always come and blow me back.  

       This 50K was my next "tightrope". I had it set in my mind that despite my busy schedule, despite my many, many other projects, and most importantly, DESPITE an ongoing, pestering, lingering, annoying, not-going-to-go-away-without-rest-kind-of injury I was also going to somehow, someway... make my body train for a 50K and run one THIS Spring. To those who may not know, although a 50K race is only 5 miles more than a marathon, the trainings look quite different. In a 50k training schedule one most often has back-to-back long runs on weekends. For instance, in mid-training, you might have 20 miler Saturday, followed by a 8 or a 10 miler on Sunday. As my body fell apart in pure protest Friday I knew I had done it again, I has once again created a "tightrope" of which I have now fallen off. Once again, I was taking advantage of my iron will to override my body's voice. I had once again shut her up and put her second to my desires.  

       This morning, I woke up in much better health and went for a different kind of a run. This was not a training run, but in all its ordinariness (if that's even a word) it ended up being quite extraordinary.  Not one to cross off a 16-week training printout on my fridge, but it sure was a great new run, one of which I feel has helped me turn the page to a new phase in my running. What was different? For one, I smiled more, I closed my eyes for a few seconds several times to better take in the wind in my face, I fully stopped at the red lights and did not feel the need to keep hopping around to "keep up my training", most importantly, the pressure of making a certain mileage requirement was off the table, allowing me to out and back run end even though it was at 4.6 miles...What?  no running around the block to make that an even 5 miles? NOPE!!! 
       Is still plan on running my fall marathons, but knowing I have a few months of pure, unadulterated play time with my running really feels amazing. I know can truly focus on other goals I could not fulfill while training, such as feeding my body better foods, going to see the doctor about my recurring muscle pain in the back of my legs, and of course, simply enjoying those runs.