running-on-coffee

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Amazing

Vedic multiplication method.

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Hi Guys 👋🏼

I’ve been m.i.a for a little while because I have a new job that requires a lot of training and certifications. My running life has been momentarily put on hold because of all the studying I have to do. However my heart is always longing for a run among the trees. I’m hoping once I finish with my training and am offered a contact I will successfully be able to balance my run life and work life.

Thank goodness I have all these wonderful blogs and Instagram full of happy runners allowing me to live vicariously through them. One of the most interesting things about my new job is that I must wear a simple analog watch. I am prohibited from wearing a smart watch or Garmin because I can not be distracted. I also cannot wear a digital watch because I need the minute hand.

What I find fascinating is that because I cannot wear my Garmin I am not preoccupied with the number of steps I’ve taken and I am kinder to myself and less stressed throughout the day. I get to your calls, emails, and text when I am able to do so, I don’t live in a “oh I’ve got to reply right away” state of being. It’s been very nice to be slightly disconnected from my phone in that way. Funny how enjoyable life can be when you are focusing on being in the now. Reminds me of the calls and text are free time era.

Anyway thanks for posting about your lives and runs fellow runners and as always have a safe and wonderful run.

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This may be an unpopular opinion but here goes... I think and again this is my opinion but I think it is absolutely disgusting to allow your dog, large or small, to obsessively lick your face. I know sometimes your dog gets you but to just sit there for minutes and let your dog lick your face is just gross.

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Ran 2.3miles today and enjoyed the beautiful spring bloom in the neighborhood but I forgot to log my miles on the charity miles app. 💐🏃🏽‍♀️

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Kept my streak alive with a quick 1.35 miles 🏃🏽‍♀️ noticing physical changes which is always nice.

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Ran 2 miles today nonstop 🏃🏽‍♀️ whoop whoop 🙌

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I’m trying to keep my run streak alive but have to concede to a bit of a run/walk streak right now as I am fighting off a mild case of the stomach flu 🤢

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Day 2 of my 30 day run streak completed 🏃🏽‍♀️

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Hi tumblr running friends 👋🏼 I wanted to share my accomplishment with you today because I know you will appreciate it. Today I ran 1.50 miles without stopping and needing to walk. I am so happy I can hardly contain myself. I have created a nice urban route because running on the dirt trails really does a number on my knees and as every runner knows non-runners will surly say “running is so bad for your knees”.

I am challenging myself this month to a 30 day run streak challenge. I have always wanted to do one and decided well today being the first of April why not start today. Also did I mention to you that my eldest son has started running with me. That is such a big deal for me because as long as I have been running I have never had a running buddy. I have no friends who are runners, my spouse isn’t a runner, and to my knowledge no member of my extended family are runners. I’m the only one and at this point in my life I would like to have another person/friend in my life who understands the beauty of running.

Finally I would like to leave you with a delicious little treasure I have recently discovered. The cheese I pictured is absolutely amazing. My boys and I are hooked. I bought it at Safeway and if you have a Safeway in your area do your tastebuds a favor and purchase this cheese. Make sure it’s soft, if it isn’t the flavor will be more tangy. Have a wonderful day and week of happy and safe running friends.

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how to start your own sourdough!!

i’m trying to incorporate sourdough in all of my baking recipes, since it’s good for the gut and also SO yummy! so for anyone wondering how the heck to get that going, this post is for you! It’s a 5 day process to get it started and then relatively simple to upkeep/use. 

Getting it started

Day 1: Add ¾ cup flour + ½ cup room temp water to a large plastic glass container. The container needs to hold at LEAST 4 cups, but preferably bigger since your starter will grow (i used a 1 quart mason jar, although the internet recommended a 2qt container). Mix thoroughly (make sure to scrape down sides) and place OPEN container in a warm spot (like on the fridge). Can cover with a kitchen towel (i placed my open jar container in a nut milk bag). It should bubble and roughly double in size as the natural yeast in the flour is activated.

Day 2-5: Once a day, “feed” the starter with 3/4 cup flour + ½ cup room temp water to your container. Mix thoroughly. Place open container on fridge to activate. Keep an eye on the amount your sourdough is rising so it doesnt overflow or anything. You may need a larger container, especially if your kitchen is significantly warmer than mine (as the yeast will be more active!)

Day 6: Your sourdough starter should be very bubbly and smell sour at this point; however, it should not look moldy or your yeast/starter has died. Now your sourdough starter should be ready to use!

Baking with sourdough:

Use (or discard) half of your starter, then feed the starter (important that you feed it AFTER removing some). Leaving it on the counter from this point on it will need to be used (or discarded) and then fed every day, which would mean using ~half of the starter (aka baking with it in a recipe). 

So from this point on you should use the starter, feed it, and then place it in the fridge (with lid) until you are ready to use it again. It needs to be fed at least once a week if in the fridge (which means either using or discarding some at this point). When you are ready to use it again, set it on the counter and feed once more (remember to leave container open at RT). 

Most sourdough recipes call for ½ cup at a time but then will have you omit some or all of the instant yeast and let the dough rise over night. If you are patient, you can do this. I am not patient so i let the dough rise anywhere from 30min-several hours, but will use instant yeast with it AND increase the amount of sourdough starter. 

It’s not an exact science so much, you just need to continue feeding the starter flour and some water or it will die. You don’t have to add/remove exactly a certain amount, it’s just that is what is recommended so that you have the same amount of starter at all times (otherwise you will slowly accumulate more and more starter which will probably end up killing your starter from not enough nutrients). 

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My precious baby bunny passed away today. I love you Floofers 🐇

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4 wonderful miles 🌲

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Garmin Forerunner 235

So today my family gifted me a Garmin Forerunner 235 and I am so excited to go running tomorrow. Friends I need your advice, what widgets and apps do you recommend I download to my watch? I’d appreciate your feedback on what to avoid and what makes you love your Garmin on runs that much more.

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Weight loss by Scott

One bright spot to an awful start to training for the year is that I actually managed to figure out a way to get leaner.  Between early January and late February I managed to lose 11 pounds.  I’ve more or less held steady since then, adding a bit on my week in Canada and dropping it again within a couple weeks of getting back.  And at this point I’ve achieved enough dietary zen that I don’t crave anything bad for me anymore.  And knowing full well that everyone is different so this probably won’t work for others like it’s worked for me, here are the steps I followed to do it:

Nothing but fruit, nuts, and protein powder before lunch every day.  I make rare allowances for something else on days where eating specific things is logistically difficult (a banana and a clif builder bar if I’m skiing or snowboarding or an rx bar before longer runs).

No useless carbs.  I’m not necessarily eating “low carb,” but I’m being mindful about not eating carbs that don’t really add any value to the meal.  So basically no bread, no pasta, minimal rice, no oat meal, minimal granola.  I make an exception for tortillas in a breakfast burritos.  And I don’t always stick to this 100%.  But that’s the goal.  I get plenty of carbs from the fruit I eat.

No junk with added sugar.  No candy, no baked goods, no energy bars, no high sugar yogurt.  Basically my only sugar comes from fruit.  I know this sounds super hard and blasphemous, but after a few days of discipline it’s not that hard.

1 salad as a meal per day.  So a salad for lunch or dinner.  It can be huge, it can have good, fatty dressing, but it needs to be a salad.  I probably get this 5-6 times per week.

Snack on nuts or fruit whenever I feel like I need to.

Try to aim high on protein.  I typically have 1-2 protein shakes per day (25-50 grams).

No eating between roughly 7 pm and 9 am.  Schedules sometimes dictate a later dinner.  But once dinner is done, no more for the rest of the night.  The only real exception to that is the occasional protein shake if I’m really hungry and I don’t feel like I’ve had enough protein that day.

I know this sounds super hard and I wasn’t expecting myself to have 7 rules when I started writing this, but it’s really not that bad.  The first couple of days I find myself eating a ton of nuts and I worry that I’m eating way too much.  But by 3 or 4 days in I stop eating as much and after a week or two of really following this I’m eating significantly less and am never seriously hungry.  Add in running 4 or 5 times a week and weight was falling off.  It may have ended up being a ketogenic situation since the running was burning off the carbs that I was eating.  But I never got that walking dead feeling when I tried going ketogenic before.  Now I’m kind of in maintenance mode since I hit my initial weight goal (sub-170) and I have a vacation coming up.  But I’m still basically eating the same things.

Not sure if this will help anyone.  But I’m someone that has really really struggled to lose weight and break out of bad eating habits and it was fairly easy to follow for me.  Don’t @ me with the high sodium content of all the nuts.  Perfect is the enemy of good.

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HOLY REALITY CHECK

Guys I just weighed myself this morning because I wanted to stop avoiding the truth and find out where I am starting from and in the 3 years of living in the PNW I have gained back 56lbs. I had lost 111 lbs. when we first moved up here. This is so beyond disappointing, I am so disappointed in myself. Believing people’s lies of “you look great” . No I don’t!! Unhealthy does not look great. I am obese and no matter how much society squawks about big is beautiful and love yourself at your size I am obese and killing myself with unhealthy food!

Ugh I am glad I looked, saddened by the results but I needed to stop lying to myself. 56 POUNDS 🤬 I have got no one to blame but myself.

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This past week and a half has been a challenging one. Two of my boys had the flu, my middle son was taken by ambulance to the emergency room with complications from the flu. My husband was out of state at the time and my friends daughter was losing her battle with cancer.

As I was taking care of my two boys I was frantically cleaning and disinfecting the house so my eldest son with his suppressed immune system issues didn’t catch the flu because that would lead to a long hospital stay. Thank goodness we are all recovered now but I am so fatigued I just want to sit and this recent weather doesn’t help my cause. I have obviously not been to the gym in some time and hate the lazy way these gloomy days make me feel.

Oh how foolish I was to take for granted the wonderful running trails and weather of Southern California. What a moron I was to not appreciate her beauty, her way of life. I wish I could go back I wish I was there now.

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Nope

I am just going to say it and piss off my family. I do not want to live in Washington anymore. I was a fool and an idiot and I was very happy in Temecula. I want to return to Temecula ASAP