Rachel's bike accident

The Glucometer.  It really isn’t just a tool for diabetics.  It will help you sleep better, look better, train better and FEEL better.  It really is THE best tool to have in your health arsenal.  I keep getting this proof over and over again.  And this isn’t just a shameless book plug for me…..(buy my book)

http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000558806/The-Glucometer-A-SelfEmpowering-Tool-to-a-Healthy-and-Lean-Body.aspx

Two weeks ago today, was Mother’s Day.  The day started off on a good note, my husband and daughters had bought me a new watch for training and some sports attire.  My husband had a SWAT detail for Police Week that day and I am currently training for a sprint triathlon.  He wasn’t going to be home so I decided the girls and I would ride our bikes over to the local high school and swim and then ride back. 

All went well with the ride over and the swim.  On the ride back there is a daunting hill.  I thought to myself we should walk down this.  I wasn’t so much worried about the hill but the speed that would be acquired on the way down and there was a right hand turn at the bottom that could turn into a wipe out or if missed could result in careening into traffic.  I said to the girls, just.go.slow.

And down we began.  Rachel was in the front, Syd was in the middle and I brought up the rear.  I saw Rachel begin to wobble out of control and in my mind I thought “FAWK”.  And down she went.  She hit the pavement and jumped to her feet and screamed, “Mommy, ow, ow, Mommy!”   Pretty much the worst words ever.  I looked her over and it appeared to me just some road rash, I thought we got away unscathed and then she opened her mouth.

Her two front teeth were busted in half.  FAAAAAWWWWWWKKKKKKK. 

I felt helpless we were a good 3 miles from the house still, Ray was 30 miles away.  What to do.  I told my baby, who was in pain that she had to suck it up and we had to start walking. 

Long story short, Rachel broke three of her front teeth, bruised the growth plate in her right wrist, bruised her hip, bruised her right knee to the point she couldn’t put weight on it.  Had road rash on both hands from fingers to elbow, both knees, her chin and her upper lip.  She was tore UP.

Thankfully bike helmets are a must in our home.  Her bike helmet is cracked and needs replaced.  I can't even fathom what this disaster would be like if she wouldn't have been wearing it.  And yes, next time we go on a long bike ride they will be wearing elbow and knee pads....regardless of their whining of appearing to be "geekish".

Two weeks later you’d never even know.  The dentist, the wonderful Dr. Sunny Allen at Neibauer in Waldorf, fixed her teeth.  Her wounds have all healed, her bruises are gone.  Actually if you want to get technical on Thursday this past week, so 10 days after you never would have known she had that bad of a bike accident.

This is 100% a contribution to her diet.  She eats well.  Veggies first (you cannot have kale chips around this child, she eats them ALL), meats, some nuts and a little bit of fruit.  She doesn’t eat grains, sugars or chemicals.  Her favorite food is grass-fed pasture raised beef burgers….and yes, she will ask to make sure she is getting quality meat.  She knows that Red Russian Kale makes better kale chips than other kales.  She knows that she has to have veggies with every meal and snack. 

She’s 10 folks!!  10.  Parents who are daunted by the task of cleaning up their children’s diets and having a REAL food only diet need to understand that REAL food is the BEST option for their children.  All you have to do is TALK and EXPLAIN to them why.  Children are like sponges, they love information.  If you explain WHY fun colored foods are not nourishing to their bodies and will make them sick and fat they understand.  Our children are not stupid.  They understand these things better than we do.

We insist our children know the language of music by learning an instrument, or learning how to play baseball and all the rules.  We insist they get good grades in school (or we should!).  We provide them the tools to learn how to behave appropriately in various situations.  We buy them pencils for school, special gear for sports, we brag about awards and ceremonies.  Why is any of this harder than proper nutrition training?  Why is this less important, when proper nutrition fuels the brain for good grades.  Fuels their character for proper behavior.  Fuels their bodies to train well.  Why is this less important?  Why do we feel we are cheating our kids if we don’t feed them fun colored cereals, pop-tarts, guzzlers and pizza?

You can go to a birthday party with your kids and the host offers you cake or pizza and you turn it down because you know it isn’t good for you.  So why aren’t you saying no to it for your kids too?  Is their waist line any less important?  The mind frame that our kids aren’t fat so they can eat whatever is a shit theory.  Can you pinpoint the time in your life when your metabolism broke and you gained weight?  More importantly skinny doesn’t mean health.  And THAT is what we need to focus on for ourselves AND our children.  Eating FOOD that will nourish our bodies,  provide nutrients to our brains, our organs, our intestines to produce hormones to keep us healthy, smart and moving. 

THIS is our focus.  Not who looks better in a bathing suit.  You want to look good in a bathing suit?  Start focusing on the quality of the food you eat and making sure your choices are nutrient dense.  In their most natural form.  Nothing processed. Nothing with chemicals.  No grains. No booze.  No sugar.  Give it 21 days.  You don’t even need to do any more exercise than walking several times a day. 

Take that challenge.  It is only 21 days.  Take that challenge for your entire family. 

The Siren Moment

We all have our siren moments.  You know what I am talking about….that ONE item or experience that no matter how hard you try, you just can’t eliminate it from your diet. You KNOW you should.

My siren is going to the movie theater.  Growing up my mom didn’t have a lot of disposable income.  We didn’t go to the movies.  I can actually tell you what movies I saw as a kid/teenager -> Purple Rain, My Girl, Terminator 2, The Running Man and Seven.  It just wasn’t something we did. 

When I started dating my husband I got turned on to movies.  He is a huge movie person.  He has probably seen every movie ever produced.  We went to the movie theaters a lot and if we weren’t at the theater we were holed up in his barracks room recreating the atmosphere.  Popcorn, chocolate, Reese’s pieces, soda, pretzels, junk galore!

The sad part is I can’t even tell you most of the movies we have seen.  If I sit too long the little monkey running the switchboard in my head starts running around switching things off and I fall asleep.  But not before I get my fair share of junk…and in hindsight that might be why I couldn’t stay awake to watch the movie.  My blood sugar was spiked and my organs were crying for a break so the brain shut me down so I couldn’t gorge on anything else.

Meh….live and learn.

Going to the theater recreates a 20 year old Angela, and a 23 year old Ray.  We were dumb, reckless, passionate, but oh so much fun.  We didn’t have schedules or responsibilities.  There was no kids, no pets, a mortgage to pay and the only time hack we had was making sure we showed up for post.  It was a very nostalgic time…and if I am being completely honest -> I am so glad we are grown ups now!

I can recognize this now, but you get me into that theater and as soon as I walk through the door I get agitated.  I want that junk.  I want that nostalgia, that lack of knowledge.  I want that hot buttery pop corn (starch) with Nonpareils (sugar) while sitting in the dark watching shiny pictures flash and boom all the while snuggled in my jacket to fend off the air conditioning blowing frigid air down my neck.

This is a total siren moment for me.  And using discipline to stave off this siren pisses me off.  I just want to be a “normal” person; enjoying the popcorn and chocolate, the big shiny pictures and the loud noises in the dark….where no one can see me be a glutton. 

BUT….I have to walk out of that theater.  And that is where the problem starts.  This is where being a “normal” person proves that ignorance is not bliss.  No one SAW me consuming mass amounts of buttery popcorn and chocolate but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.  And now the consequences set in.  What’s that…a pimple on my chin.  Fantastic. I can’t shake the lethargy.  I just want to nap and sit….but there is so much to do!  Life isn’t waiting for me to get over my starch and sugar binge. 

And the fact remains that this shit food impacts how I train, how I rest, how I live.  This shit food causes metabolic damage, I can see it when I prick my finger and test my blood sugars.  No, I am NOT diabetic.  I use the glucometer as a tool to gather information on what is REALLY going on in my body, so that I can stay lean, stay strong, train hard, live well.  (buy my book)

So what do you do when that Siren goes off? 

Do you crumble and give in? Do you avoid buying it or avoid going to that place? 

Or do you pull up your big kid britches and realize that YOU are the demon not the movie theaters.  The issue is YOU and YOUR attitude towards your Siren.  That yes, you can still go to the movies and snuggle in your jacket and watch the shiny pictures with their loud booms without compromising your health.  Do you pretend that ignorance is bliss and throw your hands up when you are too tired and lethargic to live because your food choices were shit? 

What do you do? 

I suggest you recognize that LIFE and LIVING has nothing to do with food.  That you make REAL food choices so you are vibrant and healthy and can enjoy every single blessed second you are on this Earth?  Those real food choices aren’t found in the movie theater.  They are at your Farmer’s Market, and on the local farm walking around, grazing on grass, or in the organic section of the grocery store.  Yeah, these food choices require effort in purchase and preparation.  Health requires effort.  Anyone trying to sell you a quick gimmick pill, frozen entrée or shake is trying to pay for their mortgage. 

You are going to have to cook.  You are going to have to pack your lunch.  You are going to have to prioritize time to exercise.  Health requires effort.

So I ask you….what will you do when that Siren calls??    

Lessons Learned

The world is quiet as I walk across the Pentagon’s courtyard towards the corridor that will take me winding down into the labyrinth bowels of the Pentagon to the PAC (Pentagon Athletic Center). 

It is still dark outside and the only light is the dull yellow glow coming from the building’s windows and lightly illuminating the courtyard. 

The trees in the courtyard are majestic.  They are the multi-trunk trees that wind together as they grow, they are tall, lush, and you could forget you are in an office building. 

There is no one in the courtyard yet.  No smokers to line and depress the sidewall.  No office jockeys slumped in the chairs that line the center.  No one sitting at the picnic tables shoveling the food-like product the café in the center serves.  It is simply peaceful and enjoyable.

I am walking with a purpose, but slow to take it in.  I am geared up and ready to go to work with my mentor.  This sight adds that additional motivation to my spirit to LIVE.  I feel powerful, excited, and eager to attack the day.  This is how you should wake up feeling I think to myself.  THIS is IT!  THIS is how I want to feel all day. Positive, excited, WANTING a challenge, what will the day bring?

I am on my way to my mentor…the gym…but more specifically…the iron.  I am geared up physically and mentally, just as the iron requires.  The iron doesn’t want excuses; I am to show up ready to work and work hard.  I am ready. 

The iron has taught me many life lessons that I cherish.  You could look at them and think they are inconsequential but I know…I know these lessons are invaluable.

1.        Train fasted.  Throwing up sucks.  Throwing up, while hugging the garbage can on the gym floor really sucks.  As you beg your stomach to stop reeling and burning, you promise yourself not to do that again….people walk by, they nod, they understand. 

2.       To be humble.  I am not quite as bad-ass as the rap blaring in my ears has me convinced.  I have been humbled by the iron more times than I care to admit.  I have been injured more times than I like.  The iron is always right. 

3.       I AM as bad-ass as the rap blaring in my ears has me thinking.  Attitude is everything.  My attitude in the gym isn’t about you. Actually nothing is about you when I am in the gym, I don’t even see you. 

Don’t think I am wearing those short-shorts for you, or that my stand-off attitude is because I think I am better.  I am focused, I like seeing my muscles in the mirror, I like seeing my body work.  I appreciate my hard work. 

4.       Journaling is important.  I have the worst memory.  I can’t remember what I lifted last time, or how I felt about the lift, or how my day was going when I did that lift. 

5.       Drink water.  Because your muscles are 75% water, if you don’t drink it they won’t work.

6.       I have a strong chin…..a mishap with a clean and press.

7.       Focus on me.  I am not concerned with how much weight you are lifting.  I am not concerned with your good or bad form.  I am focused on me.  My lifts are about me, not you.  They help me pursue and define my strong, lean body.  My lifts are about my health, not yours.  I cannot focus on those around me when I lift. 

I have watched for years people meander like mindless robots in seek of their punishment at the gym.  Steering clear of the barbells and flocking to the machines.  I have watched people use too heavy a weight stack on cable pulleys only to perform the worst form ever on a triceps extension.  I have watched people gear up to run, with dread in their every movement.  I have watched people mindless elliptical their way to the magical 40 minute mark.  I have seen many, many folks use the gym to punish themselves.

The iron has taught me not to soak in these negative vibes.  To concern myself with my lifts, my sprints.  Mine are the only ones that matter to me when I am in the gym to train.

8.       Where you train is important.  I have trained in so many gyms over the years. How you feel when you come into your gym is very important.  I trained at a gym occasionally with my husband a few years ago, my husband was a member and I would go with him as a guest.  As soon as you walked in you would get the once over look by the snobby staff, asking to pay for a visitors pass was an inconvenience to them.  Once you got out on the floor you could immediately see the clicks.  A lot of standing around, not much lifting.  Some of the groups were even bold enough to mock form of patrons around them.  This gym had an extremely negative energy and I never had good lifts there.  At the PAC everyone knows me.  I have been there for 10 years now.  I know the staff too.  I like going there, I like the head nod in between sets to different folks and I like the invites to work out with someone.  It is a healthy, positive vibe.

It is never just about the lift.  It is always about the mental game, the learning, the process and getting better each and every time you step up to the barbell.   It isn’t just about the pounds you are lifting, or the repetitions you are completing.  It is about the lessons.  The lessons you learn on the floor with the iron will shape who you are when you leave the gym.  The iron will mentor you to be of sound character, to have a strong mind, to be brave and, confident.