Wanna Start an EVolution?!

Call it what ya want:  vegetarian, vegan, plant-based, plant-strong, kind, compassionate.  People are writing about it, talking about it and most importantly trying it!  But with all of the good press and open minds, I can't help but feel a little nervous.  I already see a rise here in Barbados of processed and essentially "junk" vegetarian foods.  The same food scientists and marketers that got you to LOVE McDonalds are hard at work for your newly minted vegetarian dollars. 

I attended a raw food demonstration and lunch with Chef Manuela Scalini last weekend and it was so literally food for thought.  As we discussed the benefits of one ingredient over another, where to get sea moss, how to purchase coconut jelly and the best brands of nutritional yeast, I had an out of body moment.  Three years ago (two years ago!) I wouldn't have had a CLUE as to what anyone was speaking about.

That's the evolution of diet. 

Three years ago I started by removing the meat and substituting things that look and taste like meat. Remember, I was coming from 20 years in a fitness culture that preaches 10 chicken breasts a day and calls potatoes The Devil.  Where was I going to go from there?  Straight to Morningstar Farms Chix Patties is where!  The path I took was junkie (I can't read half of the ingredients on any MF package) but it worked.  And my diet evolved from there.

When I eliminated dairy and eggs, that was another step in the process.  Learning to make my own veggie burgers propelled me forward again, and I was able to walk away from processed fake burgers.

When I started added greens and green shakes to my diet my taste buds started to change.  I craved (and still do) all those greens I missed for 40 years.  Greens lead to other things - more vocabulary - chia, salba, hemp, spirulina. 

Now my focus has turned to the work of pioneering doctors (Esselstyn, Campbell, Barnard, Klaper, McDougall, etc.) and the way they are reversing diabetes and heart disease through plant-based, whole food diets. It's the most inspiring reading, watching and learning that I've ever done.  Lest we forget, I'm a fitness junkie at heart!

Which brings me back to the raw food demo last weekend.  The food was beautiful, Manuela was beautiful and I so enjoyed spending an afternoon with like-minded women but I have to admit that a raw food diet is farther out on the evolutionary spectrum then I'm ready for.  I took some great things from that class - a kickass recipe for Passionfruit Flan and this little piece of self awareness.

My evolution isn't over and neither is yours.  Keep growing, keep learning, keep eliminating and adding new foods.  Don't believe anything on the front of any food package - read the ingredients. Take a step and then take another one. As animal-free diets rise, so will the naysayers, the lobbying groups and the companies that have too much invested to just let you walk away.  Do your own research and feed your body whole food - often.  Most importantly: Enjoy your evolution!

I was inspired this week by the following interview with one of my favorites, Dr. Michael Klaper.  He is one of the most kind people and an excellent messenger.  Your time will not be wasted :)

Evolve On!

Tough Run

Runing has taken on new meaning since I've been injured.  I used to be constantly striving for a longer distance or a 'little bit faster' but these days I'm ecstatic to log five miles without pain.  It took some time to let go the ego and settle into where I am but man I have learned valuable lessons. Lesson #1:  Ignoring pain for five months is a bad idea.

My running partners have also changed over the past few months.  My sweet Rachel ran until her sixth month of pregnancy but is finally resting up for delivery and my husband is running so strong that I can't keep up or run his routes - yet another ego blow but I'm still standing! So I've coerced some new girls a couple of mornings and I run alone a couple of mornings.

Which brings me to the tough run... I just can't clear it from my mind so maybe writing it down will help?

I was running alone two Sundays ago before my yoga class and decided to take a flat stretch of road to the base of a large hill and then turn around.  Hills are no friend to my hamstring these days. When I got to the base of the hill, I could hear a horrible sound over the music coming through my iPod.  I clicked it off and my ears were flooded with the sounds of a pig screaming from the house in front of me - which was also my turn around point.  It was the most awful sound I had ever heard. Wailing terror is the best I can describe it.  And then a man screaming awful guttural noises while killing the pig.  And then many other pigs screaming in fear.  I cannot express how loud it was.  In the driveway a refrigerated truck sat idling.  A woman was sitting with her legs dangling out of the open truck door, her head in her hands, covering her ears.

I panicked.  Tears sprang to my eyes and I didn't know what to do, how to make it stop.  Without much thought, I plowed forward up the hill.  It hurt like hell but it seemed the best way to get away from the sound.   But instead the sound travelled upward with me and resounded across the hillside as I climbed the switchback.  Having only my legs to carry me felt like the classic nightmare of running but getting nowhere.  I couldn't get my iPod loud enough and I couldn't keep the tears at bay.  It was truly awful.

I don't know whether I ran far enough or if the noise stopped but when I could no longer hear it and could no longer see the road through my tears, I stopped.  I squatted low and prayed for the pigs and prayed that whoever sat down to dine tonight would somehow think of the life that had been taken so violently. And I prayed that the woman in the truck who could not listen could also not partake of the pork - that her heart had been touched in some way. Probably silly on my part but even as I sit here typing, I am overcome.

The sounds stayed with me through my yoga class and I have had a hard time shaking the whole experience.  I watched a few slaughterhouse videos when I was becoming a vegetarian as a way to "seal the deal" but I have never been physically close to a slaughter before that run.  I drove by that house last night on my way home and saw another truck in the driveway with two people milling around the front yard.  I rolled my windows up tight and cranked the stereo but I could not stop my eyes from watering as I gunned it up the hill.

I was reminded of a famous quote by Paul McCartney - "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian."

True enough Sir Paul.

Half Year In Review

The last thing I remember was a New Year's party and suddenly it's June 30.  Half of my last year on Barbados is gone. What?

Time to admit my shortcomings review my progress on my half year goals of 2013.  Annual goals are just too "out there" for me and the statistics on successful New Year's Resolutions suggest that I'm not alone.  Setting my goals and reviewing them publicly is the best way I've found to get sh*t done!

To recap my 2013 half year goals:
1. Publish 26 blog posts by June 30
2. Get half marathon time under 2:10
3. Simplify our stuff in anticipation of a move
4. Pass my Precision Nutrition Exam
5. Send a birthday card to every family member
6. Complete the Great Train Race across Barbados in February

Oh dear.  Mixed bag.

I've taken the blog posts down to the WIRE.  THIS is the 26th post for 2013.  I only posted once in April and twice in May (for absolutely no reason) and it placed me squarely behind the 8 ball.  When I'm writing consistently, I have no problem coming up with topics, recipes, etc. but when I take a break it's like my brain goes dead.  At least I can rack this up in the "completed" column.  Frankly, I need it!

Taking a good long injury break from running made #2 impossible.  I needed the break more than anything and honestly, taking the time off was much harder than getting the 2:10.  All runners know this.  It killed me to drop from Pittsburgh and the months spent running down down down into more pain did a number on my mind.  After a rest, adjustments to some of my yoga postures and great chiropractic care, I'm running up up up into the light of day.  That 2:10 will be mine!

I'm giving myself an A++ for simplifying our lives. After two brutal garage sales I have NOTHING in any closet or dresser that is located outside my bedroom.  My kitchen is pared down to the essentials (read: Vitamix).  I have eliminated all but three small boxes of important documents and I have scanned our entire life into the computer - which is now backed up locally and remotely AND our credit is protected by LifeLock.  BAM!

Not taking the PN exam is killing me.  I have procrastinated this for 6 months.  Time management is the problem here and I have no one to blame.  I only have the final quarter of the material to go through but the information at the beginning of the course is the hardest to retain (cell structure, energy production systems, etc.) so when I fall off the study train I feel the need to go back and review from the beginning before plowing through the final bit of material.  I need to move this goal into a shorter range category.  Like, 30 days.  Get it DONE Lauren.

I sent not one single birthday card.  And it's not that I don't care... I really do care.  I call family on their birthdays but getting a card from our crappy card shop and ordering stamps online (it's my only option with our APO mail system) is something that I just don't do.  I think this goal might be physically impossible for me :)

And here we are - my favorite goal of all - The Great Train Race.  Yes!  Completed it and became only the 17th or 18th (depending on how you list me and the huz) people to complete the whole race as individual runners.  It was an amazing day that definitely pushed my limits, both physical and mental.  I can only hope that our move date will allow for one more crack at it in February!

So there you have it.  I'm working on a list of goals for the remainder of 2013 which I'm sure will get blown to hell once we get our next assignment.  I am a madwoman once the next location is revealed!

I know that a few of you posted your own goals in response to my New Years post.  I would love to hear from you! How's it going?

A Year Without Illness

Well here it is!  It's been one year since we travelled out to California for the Western States 100 and one year since either me or my husband has had so much as a sniffle.  No annual cold, no losing my voice, no flu - no nothing!

It's estimated that 65% of marathon runners contract an upper-respiratory tract infection within two weeks following a marathon.  The many weeks of training, the travel, the stress (and ultimately the joy!) all take a toll on the body.  But because the body is a freakin' miracle, it will sustain you to the finish line and then "get sick when it can".  Between me and my husband, we ran five marathons in the past year and beat those odds every single time.  Coincidence?  Fluke?  I think not.

You might be thinking "Sick? You live in Barbados. It's not cold. There's no winter. When would you get sick anyway?" But it's not cold weather that makes you sick, it's germs from people.  This heat is like an incubator and every day thousands of tourists from around the world are touching the things that I'm touching - hand rails, bathroom doors, bar tops :)  I also work in a building with a closed ventilation system.  Our windows don't open and all of the entrances are air locked. When someone sneezes on floor 1, eventually I'm breathing it on floor 4.  Gross but true.  A few years ago I tried to quickly take off my nail polish at my desk and got a complaint about "fumes" 20 minutes later from a worker two floors below me. Like I said - gross. 

So what has changed this year?  We've been drinking green shakes with 100% consistency.  We haven't missed a single day in the last year.  I've never done ANYTHING with this much consistency!  For the first few months it was an effort and I had to tape my running schedule/calendar to the fridge at eye level and cross off the days "prison style". Now that we're addicted - no calendar required.

Sometimes I make the shakes right after a run.  Sometimes a little before I start with my clients at 11:00 a.m. Sometimes I substitute a shake for dinner and I've had a few nights 'out' that required a bedtime shake.  What could be better than slamming a green shake before bed and letting it work its detoxifying magic while I sleep off a few well-intentioned rums?   

We've used Enerprime by Impax for the most part but recently started switching up with ORAC-Energy Greens by Paradise Herbs two days per week.  I think both are fantastic and I like the variety of ingredients.  Our shakes have developed over time.  My last post about the shakes was Shake It Don't Break It.    To those ingredients I now add 2 tablespoons of ground flaxseed, 2 tablespoons of hemp protein powder and 1 bunch of kale when available.  All of these extras are just me playing around and seeing how many calories and nutrients I can get into one blender.   No need to get bogged down in any specialty ingredients.  The important thing is to get those greens in!

If you feel that your immune and digestive systems aren't all they could be or if you aren't getting at least 10 servings of vegetables per day why not consider a greens powder/shake?  It can't hurt to consistently use one container of greens. Roll the dice!  If you can stay free of illness, your body is free to regenerate itself and do the other 1 million amazing things it does!

Reset the clock... I'm going for two years!