Posts Tagged ‘healthy-living’

Day 103 and Counting… In Walmart and Still Smiling

Posted: December 14, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, November 20, 2010

For some time now, I’ve been lusting after the new Bianchi road bikes at one of the bike shops in town. Today, I finally got one. My wife has a Masi, so we both have Italian bikes now, but I’ve just always had a thing for Bianchi.

We’re having a very small thanksgiving meal with some family this weekend, because we’ll be taking the Restoration Tour to Chicago on Wednesday and be spending the actual holiday there. We also are taking part in an outreach our church does where they give you a list and you go to the store with a plastic bag and you buy all the ingredients for a traditional holiday meal except the turkey.

Everyone brings their bags to the church and another local charity provides the turkeys. Needy families are identified through the public schools and they are sent an invitation to receive an entire meal for their family.

Ceecee and I don’t usually shop at Wal-Mart because we find it very aggravating. We finally decided that instead of complaining about it, we’d just quit going and shop elsewhere. Today, we shopped at Wal-Mart for our bag from church, mainly because we could get everything in one place and they want everyone to get pretty much the same stuff, so no one feels slighted.

The store was really crowded as usual and there was little or no service from employees, as usual, but it didn’t bother me. In the past, I would become upset and very negative and my wife would often get the brunt of it, even though I never meant for that to happen. Today, I have a new peace inside and I realized that it just didn’t matter. It was pretty nice to go through the whole Wal-Mart experience and be able to keep smiling.

It’s little things like that, as well as the big things that continue to show that I’ve really changed. Not just on the outside, but on the inside, where the changes are real and permanent. Anyone can temporarily change their behavior, but that’s only an outward change. Willpower can only take you so far. Only God can truly change a heart and I’m so thankful that He has and that I let Him.

Day 102 and Counting…Beginning Physical Therapy

Posted: December 13, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Friday, November 19, 2010

Well, we survived the short night and getting up and going to work this morning. Afterward, I had my first appointment for physical therapy on my knee. The MRI apparently was inconclusive, so the doctor sent me to a rehabilitation place. They did a bunch of strength and range of motion tests on me and now it’s really confusing.

They don’t seem to be in agreement on what the cause is or how to proceed. The doctor had told me he blamed my hips. The one guy who examined me today said I have flat feet and thinks that’s what’s causing the problem when I run. Another guy says my left leg is shorter than my right and that’s the likely problem. It’s frustrating, because back when I was 19, I had a chiropractor diagnose me with a shorter left leg and had me wear a lift inside my shoe. Since I moved away from there, other doctors have said that wasn’t true and I’ve always had chronic back problems without ever being certain why.

Anyway, we’re going to start p/t and they want me to get fitted for custom orthotics. I don’t’ really care, as long as I get better and can get back to running and doing the things I was. I’m glad not to be having surgery, but these guys don’t give me lot of confidence that they are doing more than guessing and trying things out.

Day 99 and Counting…A Marathon Souvenir

Posted: December 10, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Yesterday was the day Veteran’s Day was observed, so it was a day off for Ceecee and me. We did something crazy that we may regret later, but for now it makes a fun story.
For the bass pro marathon, they put these huge stickers on the roads and sidewalks at various points along the route that had encouraging sayings on them. They are rectangular and approximately 2 x 3 feet in dimensions. A week after the race, they were all still there.

You may have guessed what happens next. We took our bikes out and came across more than one of them. Ceecee commented about wanting one for the loft, so when we found one along the trail, away from traffic, we dismounted to have a closer look.

It was very thick and peeled right off, so I rolled it up inside out and carried it home. The loft has a concrete floor and we stuck it down right at the end of the hall where it opens up into the living area. I suppose it may have been stealing, but nobody seemed intent on gathering them back up, and even if they did, it’s not like they could be re-used. I’m sure they would simply be thrown away.

Anyway, now it’s our souvenir. Ceecee says she’ll probably never run another full marathon, but she is now one of very few who have not only completed one, but brought a little part of the course home and made it part of the décor.

Discovering Kundalini Yoga

Posted: December 7, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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I’m pretty excited about this “new” kind of yoga that I’ve recently discovered. Actually, it’s thousands of years old – probably the oldest form of yoga in existence. I’ve never been a fan of yoga before now. It’s always seemed like too much pain and discomfort for too little benefit the few times I’ve tried it.

I subscribe to a number of online newsletters from marriage and relationship gurus and I recently read an article about the 8 chakras in the body and it had a link to an article about kundalini yoga. I liked the fact that the article took a scientific, not a spiritual approach to the chakras and presented the physiology of the exercises.

I decided to browse my local library and checked out a couple of DVD’s. They were very challenging, but I felt so much better afterward. They focus very specifically on the spine and on posture and breathing. As a person who has had a lifetime of chronic back pain and chiropractic, this certainly appealed to me.

My hope is that continuing to do this regularly will make Ceecee’s and my visits to the chiropractor obsolete. So far, so good.

Day 94 and Counting… Cardio Kick-boxing

Posted: December 4, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, November 11, 2010

We signed up for a cardio-kickboxing class at our gym. Last night was the first class. We feel like we’re in a rut and have kind of plateaued in our training, so we thought this would be a way to break out of that and be pushed to do some new things.

The instructor is this young girl who used to be one of the “sugar bears,” our local university’s version of the “Laker girls.” She has a fun personality, but she can do things that I can’t ever imagine being able to do, so the class was definitely a challenge. I’m pretty sore today, but this will be good for us.

Day 92 and Counting…Food, Wine, and an MRI

Posted: December 3, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Had my MRI yesterday. Now we wait for the results. Depending on what it shows, it could either mean surgery or rehab. I just want to get it fixed, so I can do the things I want to be able to do. I don’t want surgery, but I do want to get better.

After the marathon, I thought Ceecee would be really wiped. I also thought she’d be ravenously hungry. Turned out neither was true, which was both good and bad. I’ll explain.

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it in this blog, but I’ve been a wine columnist and freelance food and wine writer since 2004. The wire service that used to run my weekly wine column succumbed to the poor economy and the general demise of print media two years ago, so I’ve just been doing some local stuff and freelancing ever since.

There are a couple of local publications that have me doing fairly regular stories, and this past weekend was one of them. Ozarks Public Television has a big yearly event here that I cover as a wine writer, and this year, I got my editor to agree to let Ceecee go also as a food writer, since she’s been to culinary school and used to cook in a big resort near Branson.

On Friday night, they had a dinner at one of the better restaurants in town. Then, on Sunday afternoon, they had their big food and wine celebration at a convention center downtown. This was the same day as the marathon, so we left there around noon and the food and wine event was to run from 2-5 pm. I figured that Ceecee would either be dead on her feet and wouldn’t enjoy it, or she would be starving and would eat and drink everything.

In the end, she was neither, but we enjoyed the event. I was glad for Ceecee to get to be there and share in the food and drink. Now she’s cooking at the loft and playing Jack Johnson on the stereo. Tonight we’re watching “Julie and Julia,” one of our favorite food movies.

Day 90 and Counting…The Bass Pro Marathon

Posted: December 3, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Sunday, November 7. 2010

I wanted to be part of the marathon somehow. I didn’t want to just be sitting in a chair somewhere along the route and hoping to make eye contact when she went by. This started out as such a big deal and she trained so intensely for several months.

Ironically, after we got back together, she has trained a lot less and she even said recently that actually running the marathon isn’t so important now. She’s still going to do it, and I wanted to be there in some capacity, so I volunteered to be a traffic director at one of the intersections.

They put me at about the 11 mile mark, so I saw her not quite halfway through. I got a chance to jog over alongside her and encourage her for a hundred yards of so before going back to my spot. She said she was doing well and she had gotten in a little group of people from her Galloway training group and they were helping each other.

I brought my bike with me, so when the last runner had gone by and my responsibility was over, I headed out on two wheels to look for her on the course. I had no idea where she might be, so I rode to the finish and worked my way backward. I found her at around mile 21 and she was struggling. I could tell she was in pain, so I stayed with her, talking to her and trying to keep her mind off it.

I knew from working at a fitness center during college that if you talked with someone who was having a hard time working out, it would pass the time quicker and help them forget about how they were feeling. I figured it couldn’t hurt to use that strategy now and it worked. She still had to get through those last five miles and I just kept talking to her and riding along beside her.

We finally reached a sign that said “26 miles down, .2 to go.” We couldn’t see the finish line yet, but knew it was just ahead. About that time, Angie was waiting along the side of the street and she started running in her high heels and cheering Ceecee on. As we came around the corner, I let her go and cross the finish line by herself. It didn’t seem right for me to cross it, since I wasn’t a runner in the race. This was her victory, her moment, and it was for her alone.

Day 89 and Counting… No News is…No News

Posted: November 30, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, November 6, 2010

Yesterday’s doctor’s appointment was frustrating. I was really hoping he would say that my experience was common and would know what to do about it. Instead, he acted like he’d never heard of anything like it. He had me do a bunch of things and asked if it hurt or had me resist against pressure from him.

Finally he said that he thinks it’s because my hips are weak and it makes me unstable when I run long distances. I don’t know about that, but that’s what he came up with. He scheduled me for an MRI Monday and we’ll go from there.

Tomorrow is Ceecee’s marathon. It still overwhelms me and confuses me to no end when I think about all of this from when she first decided to run this marathon and everything we’ve been through since. I wouldn’t trade what we have now for anything in the world, and I’m not sure if there was another way we could have gotten here. Even so, I can’t help but wonder what really caused our separation and if we could have avoided it.

Can’t live in the past though, so it’s onward to better things. Ceecee has really lavished love on me lately and I’m basking in that. I finally feel the way I’ve always wanted to, but never thought I could. She makes me feel like I’m the most valuable and special person in the world.

Day 87 and Counting… Going To The Knee Doctor

Posted: November 28, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Thursday, November 4, 2010

I made an appointment with a sports medicine doctor to have my knee examined. I asked around and got a name of a doctor whose office is real close to the gym we belong to. I hope he can come up with something. I go tomorrow.

Day 82 and Counting…Riding the Frisco Line

Posted: November 26, 2012 in Love and Marriage
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Saturday, October 30, 2010

We decided to take a long ride on the same trail where Ceecee ran the half marathon this past Spring. That was the day my re-commitment to fitness began, and it was right at the time that our marriage as we knew it was coming to an end. I’ve never been more proud of my wife than I was that day. When she crossed the finish line, something changed inside me and I wanted to be a better man. It was too late for her at that time, but eventually we got to where we are now and I’m so thankful to be where we are.

Anyway, the Frisco Line trail is supposed to run 43 miles and it was built on an old railroad track that is no longer used. The trail head is about 7 miles from our loft, so the plan was to ride to the trail head and then go as far as we could, possibly all the way to the end of the trail. At the half marathon, they went about 6.5 miles out, turned around and came back.

What we discovered today is that it’s only paved for 8 miles and then it turns to gravel. Since we have road bikes, gravel wasn’t an option, so we did the only thing we could do. We turned around and headed back the way we came from. We had ridden 15 miles to get there, so even if we just went home, it would still be a decent ride.

There’s a little town called Willard that the trail cuts right through. On the way back, on a whim, we decided to pull into a little place called Coffee Guru and see what they had to offer. We didn’t have real high expectations and were blown away when we were served what I’d have to consider the best pumpkin spice latte I’ve ever had. It broke up the ride and it was just a fun little blessing on a beautiful day.

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