Rainy Wednesday

So I have to admit that I'm not the best with keeping up with blogging (as you can probably see!).  But I do have some potentially exciting things on the horizon that have caused me to lose focus. I've been trying to keep up with running which has also proven to be a challenge. My breathing has gotten better which is one less struggle, but I did injure myself and get a nice cold which threw a few wrenches in the mix. 

I am trying something new which so far I love! On Monday I did my first workout with Fitness Blender. I'm still sore but ready for more! In 35 minutes you can burn up to 400 calories. I was wiped. 

 I'm hoping this can help me stay in good running physique but help mitigate the injuries. Plus it's great on rainy days like today :)

New Kicks

When it comes to running sneakers are hands down the most important piece. Well in my opinion at least. I started noticing that I was getting shin splints more and more, which is something I hadn't really experienced before. Yeah I had shin splints  in the past but they always went away and whenever really long lasting. Now I was getting shinsplints more often than not and they were lasting the entire run. 

After doing a little bit of research I discovered that I needed to suck it up and buy some new sneakers.   Even though the sneakers that I had weren't really that old I guess they weren't the right kind of sneakers for my feet. I have collapsed tendons so I do need to wear orthotics when I run. I didn't really have any clue what I needed so I went to someone who did. I went online and did some research about local shops that specialize in running apparel. I found one not too far from me that specializes in running am also fit You for the perfect pair sneakers. Once you've got your shoes picked they even videoed my gait and gave me tips on my running style.

Introducing my new Nike Pegasuses! 

Running Ailments

First thing is first. If you're in pain- stop! It will only take longer to heal. Compression definitely helps to heal faster but there isn't any need to seriously injure yourself. This can set you back even farther and cause you to miss more running days.

If you decide to run outside all year round and it's cold. Just be very careful. I did push myself to run a few days when it was about 21 and 26 degrees. While I love running in the cold, you do need to be careful. Wear the right gear and make sure you will be warm. Under Armour is amazing and is a great investment. I scored a bunch of great stuff at an outlet and was able to keep warm through those cold runs.

Proving you can survive running below freezing :)

On one 21 degree day. I amped myself up and went running. I stayed warm while running but was frozen when I came inside. I tried to warm up for a bit when I realized my stomach itched really badly. I lifted up my shirt to see a large red circle on my stomach. Don't get freaked out if you end up with a rash later either. It is common. It can be known as a bunch of different things but it's medical term is cold urticaria. It's just the skins reaction to cold and sweat. After a few hours it went away. 

I've learned to pay attention to my body and to be able to differentiate between needing to push myself and needing to stop. And when in doubt, Google :)

Training

In combination with inhalers and allergy medications my breathing has been getting better. Yay! Now I feel like I can start focusing on the goal- running. I'm making sure to give myself plenty of time to get ready since I'm still pretty slow. My husband and I are going to run a 5k in a little over two months and my main goal is a half marathon in a little over 5 months. 

The first thing I wanted to do was to learn a bit more about training and what I should be doing to get ready. The first thing I learned is that you should only be running your max distance at race speed once a week and then doing a regular shorter run once a week and mix in some cardio.

Since I'm just getting back into things I'm trying to exercise three times a week. One day for my max (normal speed because right now I only have one speed- slow), one day at my moderate run and one day of cardio. 

My normal run is about 2.89 miles. That's the usual distance I used to do three times a week when I was running on a more regular basis. This past week I did push myself and do a full 4. I hated myself during it, but was so happy after. It was a gorgeous night and I couldn't help it.

It was so nice to be out and not have to be in layers of Under Armour. 

Depending on the weather I've been doin some indoor cardio on the other days. I know it may sound silly but I use a Wii. I have My Personal trainer and it actually does cause you to break a sweat and work some of your other muscles. 

I definitely recommend keeping a calendar to mark your workouts and where you want your goals to be. I've broken down the calendar working back from just before the race to now and figuring out how many miles I would need to be running to reach my goal. There are also great apps to help with that too. I use Map My Run to keep track of my distance, pace and record keeper. 

When it rains...

Or in our case I should say, "when it snows"....... On top of all of the things my husband and I have dealt with this year (joblessness, a leak in our bathroom that turned into a $10k project which included having to have new walls on the back side of our house both inside and out) we have had the fun experience of dealing with ice damming! 

It can definitely be hard to not feel down dealing with this stuff but when you stop and think for a second, good can really come from the bad. Yeah it kind of sucked not having a job for almost six months but I hated my last one so much that tightening our spending belt a little wasn't all that bad. Plus I ended up getting a job doing something I really like that actually has to do with what I went to college for. The whole wall deal- well, our house isn't going to implode or anything and we had to redo our second floor bathroom which was so terrible. As far as the ice damming, I'm still searching for the positive there since we're paying out of pocket to not have another insurance claim. Who knew cleaning your roof and gutters of ice cost a thousand dollars? This is one of those things you wish you were warned about before buying a house.....

Ready for the Super Bowl

Seeing the World Through a Different Light

So you may have questioned why the heck I'm forcing myself to try to run a half marathon when I can't breathe. It's kind of a long story but basically it's because I have a list of things I want to do before I turn the big 3-0. 

And for those of you who are bored and care to hear the detailed tale, here goes....

Like a lot of people I graduated from college feeling like I had the world at my feet. I had seen my older brothers before me evolve into young professionals with successful careers and I believed I was next in line for such fortune. Unfortunately , I graduated in 2006 versus their graduating years in the 90's. I packed up my belongings and headed home with my fancy diploma stamped "magna cum laude" . I waitressed for a chain restaurant so I transferred to one near home and figured working there for the summer would allow me one last hurrah. Come fall I figured I'd land a job in Boston and move out from my parents house and life would be good.

The summer was great. I went to concerts, travelled to see friends and spent time with family. I made a lot of great friends while waitressing and it was nice to meet new people near home that weren't my friends since elementary school. Summer came to an end and I was left with a bunch of great memories and an awesome tan. I was ready to hunt for a job. 

Not living near or going to college in a big city always left me wanting to move to one. I had my sights set on Boston. I started job hunting when I realized I had no idea what I was doing so I relied on Monster and Career Buider. Soon I got calls for interviews and I was so excited. Next I got called back for a second. Yay!!! Unfortunately my naïveté blinded me from seeing that these jobs were not so much marketing jobs as they were door to door sales jobs. And the icing on the cake? They didn't pay well either.

Discouraged I put job hunting on the back burner and continued living the life of a waitress. Working late. Parties. Bars. Fast forward about a year. Waitressing was getting old. All my coworkers were either still in college or were happy. I was neither. I started looking around my home state of Connecticut. After sending out many terrible cover letters and resumes (hindsight is always twenty-twenty!) I got irritated again. Finally I listened to a coworker who offered for me to talk to her husband about a sales job. I really didn't want to work sales but waitressing wasn't getting me anywhere and at least it was at a large telecommunications company. I saw some potential so I jumped on the opportunity.

After a few months I realized retail was definitely not for me. Trying to convince people to buy things and being ranked on it stunk. To top it off I commuted an hour each way, gas was over $4 a gallon and I only got one weekend off a month. After working in two different locations for a total of a year and a half I took the suggestion to apply for a call center position. I had by this time met my now husband and not having normal working hours was killing my social life.

I finally started in the call center which was a specialty department that dealt with promotions for existing customers. At first it wasn't bad. I worked 11:30-8, I was on the phones but had a lot of down time and made new friends. Unfortunately this new high only lasted a few months. Slowly the dynamics of the department began to change and our down time was filled with making outbound calls. We became more sales driven and the job got more and more stressful. After about 6 months I was at my wits end. I used all my sick time and vacation time and was praying for longterm illness or to get rear ended on my way to work. Realizing these feelings weren't normal, I went to go see my doctor. I had anxiety issues and some mild depression in the past and was already taking an anti anxiety medication. My doctor agreed that a change was needed so my dosage was increased and a secondary medication was added. 

Life went on. It had its ups and downs. I swore I was going to get a new job. I would go through times when it wasn't so bad and I would forget about the job search and other times I ranted like a lunatic about how unbearable it was. By this time I was going to therapy weekly and venting how idiotic and terrible my job was. I started to at least realize I wasn't alone. As more and more changes took place more and more people complained. This made me feel better and not so isolated.  Although I wasn't alone, my health didn't get better. I started having anxiety attacks on a regular basis and had to leave work early without pay. At the height of my anxiety I took a short term leave for a month. This too ended up being unpaid since the company's insurance didn't feel like the leave was warranted. After all I wasn't on that many meds they said. 

After going back to work I just couldn't care anymore. Because I stopped caring, performing like a robot was impossible so my numbers slipped. I was asked more than once if a "voluntary separation" would be best. I even had a meeting with HR where I had a panic attack in the office. The HR rep told me to "not get so excited". These people were insane. They made it seem like they controlled the gates to heaven and we should be so lucky to be there. Of course these were the people that had little to no contact with customers and goofed off most days. Managers shopped during their work day. Supervisors came in late. Only a select few did their job, and they were chastised by the others. 

Eventually I had to seek the attention of a psychiatrist. My primary care physician and therapist couldn't keep me sane. Finding a psychiatrist was another issue. I finally did find one who didn't take insurance, charged me $400 for my first session and then $120 for every 20 minute follow up. Before I knew it my medication dose had gone from 75 mg as it was when I first started to 337.5 mg. and I also took a second medication that made most people sleep. I became a zombie just get a paycheck. I had to do it. I was married, bought a house and had bills to pay. Not working wasn't an option. I was caught in the midst of a vicious cycle with no way out. 

Finally a tiny beacon of hope came my way. We got an announcement that our department was closing. Many were shocked. I honestly saw it coming miles away. We were doing so much busy work so we looked productive, but weren't actually doing anything at all. It did take a rocket scientist to see that the company had been paying more to keep the department open than we were bringing in. The director tried to inflate the numbers as beat he could, but it finally caught up.

The worst part was that we still had to work for two and a half months. It was a joke. Now they did give us two options:

Take severance and unemployment or go to customer service. Close to 90% either took the severance or a relocation package. The day after the department closed and the director was confronted about the terrible morale. He resigned and ran for the hills.

I was finally free. By the time the dust had settled I realized I had spend nearly six years of my young adult life being miserable in a dead end job with zero advancement. This put a new perspective on everything. Every moment of my life was a gift and I needed to start to live it. 

Diet is Over. Life goes on....

So I don't think I have any food allergies. I found coffee is okay. Maybe just not on an empty stomach?

I've been trying to eat healthy and cut out the crap as much as possible. I think that post holiday season this diet was the most amazing thing ever. Now I don't even crave junk food. 

Now my focus will be to ramp up my running as much as possible. I've been able to handle 30 minutes of straight running with a 5 minute warm up and 5 minute cool down. My breathing hasn't been as labored, just need to recondition myself. 

My husband and I are doing a 5k in June which I think I'll be more than ready for. The true test will be a half marathon in October!

Worst fears realized!

Well sadly I think I have discovered my issue. Black coffee (and possibly sake??). I had a delicious skinny vanilla latte at Starbucks on Friday with no issues. I even had extra espresso. Yesterday morning I had a little bit of coffee with some coffee cake. This morning to get me ready for the day I had my coffee in my to go cup and have been drinking it all morning. I had breakfast at 6:30am and didn't start my coffee until my commute at around 7:30. Sitting at my desk I now realize I'm having my typical breathing issues. Nasal passages feel like they're closing up, and slightly labored breathing. Ugh. My favorite drink is my poison.

I think alcohol may also be on this list depending on its forms. I had hibachi recently which and as we all know, "more sake, more happy." I didn't drink any sake on its own, but it was in the food. Having wine cooked off is okay, but sake I think is another story. After eatin my breathing was again interrupted with the usual symptoms. I'll have to see what links there are here. 

At least the diet was not at a loss. I lost the few holiday pounds and have found some possible aversions I have to food. Definitely looking like some positives came out.

Also another pro, I no longer have the strong sugar addiction. Although I still want it, I have enough control to say no and ignore it. Stronger willpower is also a serious plus! 

Re introduction: Dairy

Yesterday was day one of re introductions. I decided to do dairy first which was pretty exciting. I ate a Greek yogurt which tasted like the most amazing thing ever. I even let myself have a piece of milk chocolate. 

One thing I noticed is that although I had a piece and it knew there was more to be had I didn't crave to devour the whole thing. I guess I got so used to not having things that I didn't really miss them as much as I thought I did. 

Day twenty: so close, but not quite.

One more day and I'm free. Well sort of. Then I'll just be introducing one food at a time. So even then it's a ways to go. Today I had the pleasure of baking a coffee cake and chocolate chip cookies. I was so ready to just say screw this and eat a cookie. The devil sitting on my shoulder kept telling me it was only a day, what's the big deal? Well it's just a cookie, but that's three categories. Dairy, wheat and eggs. Sigh.

Going to the movies wasn't so easy either. Popcorn. Simple popcorn. Nope! Instead I snuck in some apple chips and nuts. Not exactly the same, but it will have to do and I will have to try to not strangle my husband while he eats popcorn and mini pretzel dogs.

Manning up and enjoying my apple chips.

Day 17: can time move backwards!

Food is now my best friend and worst enemy. Some moments it feels like this diet is no big deal and then the next, I want to throw the past two weeks down the drain and eat chocolate.

I've already decided the order of foods I'm reintroducing. Milk is coming first just so I can have chocolate on Monday. I cannot wait. Mmmm. Chocolate. 

Ready for the Super Bowl

Ready for the Super Bowl

Day twelve: still surviving!!

Almost there. More than half way done! I will admit that the food cravings still exist, but they're fewer and farther between. 

Today while watching today, I decided I wanted a smoothie. At least this was a snack I could work with!

Raspberry Peach Smoothie:

- frozen peaches (no sugar added)

- frozen raspberries (no sugar)

- brown rice syrup

- seltzer

Blend, and enjoy!

Unless you make the same mistake as I did and not make sure the parts of the pitcher were tightened. Whoops.

And now finally a treat I was craving!

Delicious!  And Elimination diet friendly!

Day Ten: About Half Way

I feel like at this point I'm over the whole "missing food" deal. I know what I can and cannot have and I make sure to have what I can have available to me. Commercials are still the devil, but as long as I try to avoid being around the actual food it's been fine.

The plus side to this elimination diet is that I was also able to shed the unwanted holiday pounds. I don't own a scale so I don't know the exact amount, but I can see it and tell in my clothes. Extra bonus!

I've also been having a better time breathing when it comes to running. Now I have been on a new inhaler so I can't tell for sure what has been the cause, but either way I'm happy!

I also have a few meal ideas to share. Today I made crock pot chili which is a favorite. While I didn't have corn bread, sour cream or cheese to go with it, it is still a satisfying meal. I use ground turkey, sautéed onion, garlic and green pepper, add two cans of beans (I did black and kidney), tomatoes (all I could find were strained tomatoes in a jar, but they worked fine!) and spices of your choice. I used chili powder, cayenne, paprika salt and pepper. Set for about 5 hours and you're done!

Lastly, a simple lunch idea. Boars Head turkey is gluten free and have a list of Feingold Food List approved meats. Feingold Association approves foods for people on sensitive diets. So all in all, turkey is a-okay.

Simple, yet good. Turkey, mustard and lettuce. And a few approved chips made with sunflower oil. 

And now onto the home stretch! 

 

Day 7: Week one complete

I've definitely noticed that my cravings for goods on the "no list" have been decreasing. Would I still jump someone for their baked good in hand? Probably. Would I punch someone for their SVL? Definitely. As much as the caffeine withdrawals have subsided, I still miss my morning and afternoon boosts of energy. Plus all of this herbal tea sans caffeine isn't the best substitute either. 

I'm glad that week one is done with and that I'm well on my way to being done with this diet. Still haven't noticed any changes in my breathing or anything so who knows if this test will help produce any answers. At least I can say that it has helped ween me off sweets and help me get back into shape after the holidays. All is not lost! 

Day 6: Getting Easier

Ok so I will have to admit that things are getting a little easier. I've pretty much gotten used to what I can and cannot have. This also gets to be a chance to test out new recipes and ideas. (Trying to pull something positive out of all this!)

I wanted to make a kale soup for dinner and had some ideas but as always I turned to the web for some inspiration. Usually I go to the Cooking Light website which I LOVE, but with this specialized diet I've been using more general google searches. I stumbled upon a recipe from Rachel Ray for Portuguese Chourico and Kale Soup. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/portuguese-chourico-and-kale-soup-recipe.html

I made some adjustments by adding mushrooms, cooking the onions solo for a little longer and substituting the sausage for mini turkey meatballs. I went a little Italian wedding style and made little meatballs so I could season them myself and make sure they didn't have anything I couldn't eat. I used garlic powder, chili powder, red pepper flakes, parsley, paprika and a little cayenne pepper and rolled the meat into tiny balls.

I then lightly seared them so they wouldn't fall apart in the soup. The final result was really good! I'm sure the sausage adds some great flavor, but for the time being the turkey was delicious.

I also stumbled upon another dessert recipe I had to try. This recipe can be found at 

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/recipes/strawberry-ice-cream.html

Three simple ingredients: strawberries, coconut milk and honey. Blend. Freeze. Blend and serve.

This is definitely my favorite so far. It was so easy and good that I may actually still make it once this diet is over! 

Day 5: Grocery Store Regular

Finally Friday. The day of the week everyone waits for. The weekend is here and it's time to let loose. Some head to their local watering hole for cocktails, some head out to dinner with friends and loved ones. Unless I have plans, Friday usually means pizza and relaxing. Kicking back on the sofa and enjoying a couple slices of cheesy heaven as a treat for a healthy and productive week. Ahh sounds wonderful. But of course it will have to wait another few weeks. Instead I'm back at the grocery store. I'm starting to feel like I live here. Between Pinterest and random blogs I keep trying to search for recipes of things I can have and sending myself back to the store for ingredients.

Through trial and error I have found some good ideas and recipes and some not so good. I was super excited to try paleo carrot cake balls. According to the recipe, dates, carrots, ground almonds, unsweetened coconut flakes.

cinnamon and coconut oil were going to morph together into a delicious dessert. Not so much. While they weren't terrible, if someone served me a piece of carrot cake that tasted like that, I'd be looking for the trash. And that's exactly where these cake balls went.

On a happier note, I did successfully find a PB&J option! Plain rice cakes with the awesome peanut butter with maple I had already found, now topped with a raspberry "jam". It's not as thick as jam and is only sweetened with apple juice so it's perfect for the diet. 

Later on, I did have a mini breakdown because I started getting so frustrated. It's just food, but then again I *live* for food. It's hard to do much of anything without seeing reminders of what you're missing. After about ten minutes I calmed down and got it together. I've successfully completed five days. I can do this. Err... So I hope! 

Day four: getting creative

Although I may still fight someone for a baked good or cup of coffee, I feel that I'm getting a little better at controlling any outbursts. 

Since I have a full fridge I know I have some leftovers in my future, I knew I needed to get a little creative with snacks. 

Thanks to Pinterest I made these:

Super easy to make! All I did was slice up some bananas and gently fry them using some Pam. Once done I drizzled a tablespoon of honey whisked with a tablespoon of water.

So good!! Definitely needed something sweet after a few days not having much. I also tried making another dessert courtesy of thatssomichelle.com.  I don't always want ice cream, but when I saw this recipe I was super curious. Only two ingredients: 2 frozen sliced bananas and 2 spoons of peanut butter.

Bananas into a food processor...

Once they start crumbling they turn into something like this:

Next comes my favorite part, peanut butter! Now remember it has to be with no sugar added. I did find this peanut butter with maple syrup though which is AMAZING!

Slowly but surely you'll get this:

Somehow by freezing the bananas and putting them through the food processor they become this magical fluffy froyo like substance. 

Noms! Now I'm ready for a night of relaxing on the couch and eating a dessert that not only isn't terrible for me, but also diet approved!

Day three: getting the hang of things

Caffeine headache is thankfully gone. I still want a coffee more than anything because it's such a part of my daily routine, but I will have to get over it. 

Wednesday nights my husband and I do a bowling league with friends. We are both pretty terrible, but seeing friends and having a few beers is always fun. Not so much this week. I've gone months without ever having a beer or even wanting one, but of course since I can't it was all I wanted! It's like when they told you to not mix pop rocks and soda. You probably hadn't even thought about it ever, but as soon as it was off limits, it was on.

Friends asked how I've been able to do this whole diet thing. Well. I don't really have a choice, but it hasn't been the end of the world. A. It's only three weeks and B. It's just mind over matter. If you have your meals planned in advance and don't let yourself go hungry, you'll be fine. 

Food wise.....

Keeping snacks with me definitely makes a difference. To switch things up I had some dried apple slices which are pretty good! The crunch also helps satisfy that "snacky" craving too.

I decided to try making crockpot oatmeal for breakfast. So last night I threw some ingredients together including brown rice syrup, vanilla bean paste, almond slivers and apple chunks. I really like the consistency of steel cut oats, but don't always like the time it takes to cook. This made it so much easier. I added almond milk in place of water for creaminess which was a nice touch.

I had a diet friendly protein shake a ahoy for lunch and found it was pretty good. So far I'll have to say that the food hasn't been bad at all, just missing the things I can't have that has sucked.

For dinner time I got a little creative. I used a recipe for rice with coconut milk, cashews and peas and had leftover coconut milk. I used the rest of it with the chicken I was preparing. First, I sliced the chicken very thin and sautéed it with olive oil, garlic and fresh ginger. Once the chicken was just about done I added some coconut milk, hot sauce and a little pineapple juice. I let it simmer and cook down. The final result was a creamy type sauce on the chicken. Definitely a successful experiment! 

Day two: caffeine withdrawal sucks

I'm a pretty big coffee drinker. Okay, maybe I'm an addict. No milk. No sugar. Just black coffee and the occasional skinny vanilla latte. The withdrawal finally hit me today with a killer headache. Not to mention I now want to eat foods I don't even normally eat. Maybe walking past the bakery section of a grocery store isn't the best idea. I wanted to kill someone for a donut. 

On a happier note I did get some more elimination friendly snacks. I'm pretty big on snacking throughout the day and eat smaller portions at meal times. For some strange reason when planning for this diet I hadn't taken that into account. Although I love fruit, sometimes it just doesn't cut it. 

I ventured back to the store and spent a good hour reading labels and finding snacks that were wheat, corn, dairy, egg, preservative, and citrus free.

Vans has some pretty good options. Some items are gluten free but do contain the milk, so you have to be diligent about reading the labels. Tea was harder than I thought. Almost every box of caffeine free herbal tea I picked up had orange peel as an ingredient, however black cherry didn't! I was also pleasantly surprised to find some bars by Martiani that were pretty straightforward and had pretty much only oats, dried fruit and honey. 

If you are a chips and dip type snacker, I have a solution for you too! 

The "cream cheese" may not be the best alone, but with the chips it's good! If you do decide to eat chips just remember to make sure the type of oil is specified and is not corn oil. Also, just because it's dairy free doesn't mean it's fat free. So stay conscious of your calorie and fat intake while making your choices.

I set out to make dinner a little more filling than having just soup last night. 

Success!

Taco salad with a few adjustments. I normally use ground turkey and taco seasoning mix but this time I seasoned the meat myself and added chopped onions. You can get creative with the toppings which is one reason salads are amazing! I topped mine with black beans, green peppers, tomatoes, guacamole and some dairy free cheese and sour cream.

Elimination Diet: Day 1

So far, so good. Although I really missed my coffee it wasn't too bad. I did have a moment of weakness though. Probably wasn't the best idea to go out to lunch with friends on the first day. Part of me really wanted to say, "screw this have a dinner roll and get pizza", but I held it together!

I already drink almond milk in place of regular milk so breakfast wasn't too different, just had a different cereal. Even though brown rice cereal sounds gross, it was actually pretty good! Lunch out was a little more challenging. I was able to modify a salad and have it with a piece of plain salmon. 

I've come to really like Larabars over the past year or so, and they are elimination diet friendly! Having one in my purse helped silence the nagging of my sweet tooth. 

Dinner was pretty simple. I'll post the recipe for the soup pictures below, Thai butternut squash and coconut milk soup.

One down, twenty to go...

So far so good for elimination!

Elimination Diet Prep

Tomorrow is day one of my elimination diet.  (If you're not familiar with what this diet is, I do have a page that goes into some more detail.) I'm not really looking forward to giving up a lot of my favorite foods or coffee, but I am curious to see what will happen once this is all over. I do try my best to eat healthy and stay in shape, but this diet isn't something I read about and decided to do on my own.

Over the past few years I've been having an increased issue with being short of breath. I can admit that I haven't been as diligent with going to the gym as I have in the past, but carrying a basket of laundry up the stairs shouldn't make me have to sit down.

I've always enjoyed running and desperately miss the "runner's high" after finishing a great workout. So what happened? A few years ago, I was doing a quick three miles after most work days. Even on the hottest days I stayed hydrated and went for a run. As it got colder I went into my typical hibernation. When spring came again I tried getting back into the running groove. I started commenting to my husband that it had been really humid and it was making it difficult to breathe when I ran. One morning I was able to drag him out of bed and convince him to at least go for a walk with me. Just as I was about to comment how humid and stuffy the air felt, he told me how nice it was and how it didn't feel bad out at all. This is when I realized I had an issue. My husband is more of the couch potato variety and he was okay, yet the active gym goer and runner couldn't catch her breath. 

I went to see my doctor and had a few basic tests done. She determined that I may have mild asthma with some seasonal allergies and gave me an inhaler. I thought everything was great until this past fall. I realized that I never really got back into running and that I really missed it. I figured that I did need to take it easy to start running again, so I downloaded an app called Couch to 5K. It's pretty straight forward. You gradually work yourself into running 5K by doing a gradual interval running workout over a four week period three times a week. 

At first, I felt like I was doing really well and was happy with the results. As the periods of running got longer and the walking breaks got shorter and farther apart I did notice I was having a harder time catching my breath. Despite my great progress I wasn't able to run for five minutes straight without having to stop. I was finally referred to a pulmonary specialist. My pulmonary doctor recommended trying the elimination diet to see if by chance I have some allergies that may be causing these issues.

Starting tomorrow I go cold turkey on dairy, wheat, corn, eggs, citrus fruits, coffee, tea, alcohol, refined sugars and food additives. Fingers crossed this all goes well!