Born to Run

Preface: Ok. I read the book Born to Run earlier this year. Now anyone who knows me, knows I do not run. My exercise of choice has always been laying on the couch with the occasional swimming laps; I have never exercised on a consistent basis. I also hate gyms. The idea of *going* to a gym gives me intense feelings of laziness and avoidance. On my mission, I always felt horrible for my companions who liked to exercise every morning. Me and mornings are mortal enemies, and when you add the possibility to exercise to that morning, it is not a good mixture. I think the best was when I was with Pam and there was a track behind our apartment. This was great because she could jog around the track, as I would attempt to make one slow lap and then sit in the stands and watch her run while trying to stay awake. It was a happy time.

Another aspect of my personality that is worth mentioning is that I'm prideful really stubborn. When people tell me I *have* to do something, I don't do it. People think they are really clever once they hear me tell them this fact, because they then attempt reverse psychology on me. Please note: I am not an idiot. This then makes you loose respect and credibility in my book, and I want to do whatever you want me to do less than before. To be honest, unless I want to do something or am apathetic to the cause, you have a low chance of convincing me to do anything.  I know, I'm a terrible person. I think now that you know this about me, you will find this post ironic. Not hipster-ironic, but literary element ironic. Please see the second definition for further clarification.

iro·ny

 noun \ˈī-rə-nē also ˈī(-ə)r-nē\

: the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think especially in order to be funny

: a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected

This is a picture of my dad and me "working on our arms together". It was a joke based on something we saw on Chuck the other day. lol. 

Story Time:

There are moments in life when you hear or read something, and it rings true to you. This happened when I read Born to Run. He makes valid assertions and the logic behind his ideas spoke to me.  It is a non-fiction book about his interaction with a tribe that still exists in the canyons of Mexico who have more-or-less rejected modernization. They live a simple life, and run, a lot. They run for about 50 miles straight with no problem....and did I mention they do it more-or-less barefoot? The more I read this book, the more I realized: I. was born. to run. That is mode of transportation my body is built for. Ever since the beginning of time, people ran to get around...without running shoes. If you are not convinced after reading this book, I don't care. You might be crazy. I might be crazy. It really doesn't matter, because the point is, it convinced *me* that running is a good idea. After hundreds of attempts to convince me that exercise is not the enemy, this book changed my mind.  I bought myself some barefoot running shoes. Not the toe shoes that still give more support than you would have without any shoes, but the Xero Shoes that were created to replicate the shoes that the people in Born to Run use. An important note to make is: one cannot just simply start to run barefoot. Your feet are used to shoes, so your feet muscles are underdeveloped. Like any muscle, you have to build it up; build up to running barefoot. I started jogging around the lake by my hotel, but like every time I attempt to work out, I got bored quickly. I put it on the back burner.

Then Teri Jo's birthday came up. We went out to dinner, and over dinner, she was saying she wanted to do a 9 to 5. A 9 to 5? What is that? She explained that this sports store, Luke's Locker, does a 5K training program with different levels. It goes with the most nonathletic beginners (aka me) to people who are real runners. It is a 9 week program, and at the end, you do a 5K. I told her to let me know when sign up was, because I was intrigued. I wanted to start running. 

Pam is so supportive of my crazy.

The time came to sign up. I did. The first day of training, with the Saturday group run, was when I was in Utah. I was staying with Pam and Trey, and told Pam that no matter what I say, she has to make me run. I didn't want to start my first day of running being lazy and skipping the running-part. We jogged. Even though my sister warned me I wouldn't be able to with the altitude difference. We did it. I was so proud. My lungs burned, but I did it.

I started the walk/run program, and in the beginning it was TERRIBLE. I hated it, but since I made the mental commitment, I did not want to quit. The second Saturday group run wasn't a happy omen either. I woke up with terrible cramps and wanted to die. This did not give me any desire to get up early and go work out. Nevertheless, I went. I couldn't find where Luke's Locker was, so I was late. But I was there. I walked slowly the entire time, but I did it. I feel like that was me the first few week. I did it, and that was as positive as I could get. Running was making me more tired. I also had really bad pain in my calves after about 3 minutes of power walking which lasted the rest of my work out for weeks. When I brought this up with the Luke's Locker people doing the group runs they would say "It sounds like you need new shoes". NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!! When they said this, I just smiled, nodded, and ignored their advice. Why? Because one idea in Born to Run is that we've been running long before specially made running shoes, and running injuries have increased ever since the shoe industry has started creating expensive specialized running shoes. My interpretation of the data presented to me was: running shoes weaken your foot muscles, and it doesn't matter what shoes you wear running, whether they are cheap or not supportive, because your body is made for barefoot running. Maybe I interpreted it wrong, but I don't believe I need new expensive running shoes to make my calf muscles to stop aching when I run. 

I brought this problem up to my friend Alison, who was a cross-country runner in high school. We went to see Ender's Game together with some other friends who were also on the high school cross country team. I took their running advice to heart. Alison said that power walking uses different muscles than running, so I am working out different muscles. She said to not start off power walking, but start off walking slower. She also recommended me jogging slower when I told her about my apprehension about having to jog 14-minutes straight for the upcoming Saturday jog. I thought both was good advice. It worked. 

Since those moments, my calves have stopped hurting. Honestly, I think my body just was freaking out because I was finally using it and making it work. I can power walk for 10+ minutes without the intense calf pains. My 5K is next week, and I have to say, my attitude has changed. I had an off week last week and only went to the gym twice. This week, I decided to go again after Lindsay gave me words of encouragement: "Don't be lazy." I did, and I jogged for a full 20 minutes consistently without stopping. Now I'm sure many people are like "that's nothing", but for me, this is a complete change of lifestyle. The craziest part: I'm enjoying it. I like that I can see myself progressing. I like that I used to feel like dying in the attempt to jog for 5 minutes straight, and now, it's not a problem. There are some days that I want the work day to be over, just so I can go to the gym and RUN. I was running yesterday, and it made me smile, while running. It was a crazy. Please note, this change did not happen immediately. It was hard to start, and I'd say it took me a month to genuinely like running. 

The only downside is, I have not been loosing weight at all.  I have an aunt, who my whole life is always like "you shouldnt to eat that" or "that has a lot of carbs". As long as I can remember, she pretty much always makes comments about weight and eating. This has only increased my belief that, you shouldn't obsess about what you eat to try an be skinny. You should be healthy and happy. If you feel good about yourself and your body, that's all that really matters. I've tried not to obsesses about my weight like that, because I think it makes people unhappy. Also, I love food. Nevertheless, I try to be aware of my weight. This past year at work has increased my stress and decreased my happiness levels. This is causing me to eat my feelings of stress and depression. It has also caused me to reach my end-of-mission weight. This is not good. I've been working out at the gym, but I've also been eating crap food. 

I was talking with Teri Jo, and she mentioned that she was loosing weight. I asked her what she was doing. She told me she was using the My Fitness Pal app. The free version. I'm not going to lie, when I hear "counting calories" I think of starving yourself. It gives you a calorie intake goal based on the activity of your lifestyle and how much you want to loose each week. I'm on my 3rd week of using it, and I'm not starving. I think, if anything, it's making more conscious about what I'm eating. I feel like I'm in control. Aka, it's feeding my OCD tenancies. I like it. I'm not starving myself. I'm making wiser food choices, but still get to splurge with my calories if I know I want to eat, say, a slice of the homemade apple pie I made on Sunday. Plus, you get to see the results. 

Bottom line. I'm feeling really good. I feel healthy. I feel like I am born to run, and I want to run. Fingers crossed that I can keep this up after my training program is over, and I finished the 5K.

Just Call Me Neville

I am super awkward. I am embarrassing. I am Neville Longbottom when the whole Gryffindor house is ashamed of him for having written down the week's worth of passwords only to get in the hands of the accused murderer, Sirius Black.

As Stephen Colbert says, "If you don't know who that is, congratulations on waking up from your eight-year coma. Let me get you up to speed for some of the things you might have missed. First of all the economy is terrible. All human thought has now been limited to 140 characters. And most importantly Neville Longbottom now looks like this. I think we can all agree that that is a real message of hope." But like Neville, I hope to grow out of the awkward embarrassing stage of my life....one day. A girl can dream, right?

But for real. This is a story of why I am borderline anti-social. So this week, in preparation for the roadtrip I was taking with my sister, I was given the task of putting HP6 on my iPod. I had forgotten to pack the night before I had to drive home, so I had to pack Wednesday. I quickly plugged in my iPod and uploaded the book files back onto my iTunes and put it on my iPod. I got home and relaxed a little by doing some online shopping as Saryah was getting stuff together and loading her car. At one point, she put all her clothes, with the hangers still on, on a blanket, and wrapped the blanket up. I felt like we were carrying a dead body into the trunk of her car.

Thursday morning started off like any other, waking up after a few hours of sleep at 4:30am, making sure saryah was awake....hang on.....wait a second.....that's not right. I do not do that. Sorry. No. Let's start over. I managed to wake up to my alarm at 4:30 am. Slowly and sluggishly we made it to the car.....nooooo. I woke up and made sure Saryah was too. We got ready and got the last minute things in the car only to realize after about 1 minute on the road, we forgot something. oops. So we turned around, and hit the road for a second time. I passed out cold in the passenger seat. Two hours later, Saryah was pulling into Buc-ee's to get some gas and for us to change driving. So she fell asleep as we went into San Antonio. What we didn't consider is, despite our early departure from Houston, we hit San Antonio during rush hour traffic. Since we were in San Antonio, we decided to pull off at the next Taco Cabana on the side of the highway. However, this was not happening as quickly as we hoped. I put it in my phone and the closest one was off Hildebrand. When we got there, this one had no bathroom that we saw. Instead of sitting at a table and eating, we went to the car...and ate. lol.  the tight space caused me to spill on myself. #fail Then when I went to throw away the trash, we discovered the outdoor bathroom door. #fail

On the way out of the city, we decided to put on the HP6 audio book. The problem was, the tracks weren't playing in order, and we couldn't control it with the usb cord connection......and it wasn't HP6. In my rush to leave my place, I put HP7 on my iPod. #spoileralert  #epicfail I had been stressing about starting the HP series again with book 6 because I haven't re-read the series in over half a decade. Overtime I try, I get super angsty and have to stop. Now I was starting with #7. The last one. #facepalm #iamnevillelongbottom 

We had to stop listening to it anyway because we couldn't navigate the iPod menu on her car and needed and AUX cord. The problem is, we had passed the last Wal-Mart that would be on I-10 for a very long time. So we had to listen to my music instead. Qué horror! Saryah went back to sleep, and I continued driving.  We tried to get gas around half tank just in case there was a long time before the next gas station. It's West Texas; there isn't much out there. 

We managed to find a Wal-Mart (with a surprisingly clean bathroom) and got the AUX cord and started at the very beginning. A very good place to start. We realized we had lost time in the traffic in San Antonio, and the weather, while sunny, had a bit of chill to it, so we skipped our planned stop at Balmorhea State Park. Instead we drove straight up to Roswell, New Mexico. It took about 10 hours on the road before we crossed the border out of Texas. It's a pretty big state. When we hit Roswell, we stopped off at a gas station to take a picture with an alien statue, and I re-enacted the Roswell scene where Max tells Liz that he's an alien. #imsuperfunny There were little alien heads on all the lamp posts in town. Our plan was to stop at an alien themed diner, but we weren't hungry as we drove through. The healthy snacks Saryah picked up were doing their job.

We drove the rest of the afternoon to Albuquerque, New Mexico. Truth: you can't trust a city when all the buildings aren't build bigger than two-stories. We checked into the hotel. It was pretty cold out. Please note: deserts get cold at night. After my phone said there was no Panera Bread in the city, we decided on Jason's Deli. On our drive to pick up our order....we drove past a Panera #lyingphone #fail *sigh* Oh well. The food was okay, but people, don't get Tomato Basil Soup from Jason's Deli. It had a layer or grease/oil that seemed so out of place. We showered after a long day in the car and watch some tv on saryah's laptop, because using the hotel's real tv is too much effort. giggles.

First stop Friday morning? Four Corners of course! It is where the states of Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona meet in one place. Take that A Walk To Remember! Two places at once? Underachievers! We got four! Own3d. We had to drive thorough Arizona to get there and to continue our trip, go through Colorado to get to Utah.

We stopped for lunch at Subway and afterwards, I wanted some crackers. I ate the crackers before getting in the car and went to throw my little wrapper in the car trash bag. When I did, all the crumbs in the wrapper fell out onto the driver's seat. Oh goodness. I didn't know what to do. They were such tiny crumbs. I thought, maybe saryah won't notice and think her car is just super messy. Then I looked at her and she looked at the seat and didn't say anything. I thought 'maybe she didn't notice?' so i went to sit down and she said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" and started laughing. I started laughing. I thought i would pee my pants. I then had to pick up the little crumbs from the seat. #iamnevillelongbottom #epicfail Saryah laughed at me for the rest of the weekend for this.

The drive to Salt Lake City was pretty uneventful. We drove up a super steep hill and were nervous her little car's engine wouldn't make it. As soon as we hit the top of the hill the Capitol was staring at us. It's quite lovely. We drove to her place and met the people. They gave her a warm welcome with a tour. The most awkward part was the man who was moving out said "The Mormons shouldn't bother you too much either" and then him and his wife started telling us a little bit about the Mormons. It was so awkward, I didn't want to make it uncomfortable for Saryah (who has to live in the house) that we were Mormon, and Saryah didn't say anything either.  We both agreed after that there will be a better time to bring it up anyway. We unloaded Saryah's stuff, made a list of what she still needed and went off to dinner. We went to this cute little restaurant I found online. Em's. It was so perfect, and I felt a little under-dressed in my tshirt and jeans. I should have had a blouse on or something. Oh well. The food was really delicious too. I have a feeling Saryah will return there often after I leave. We then hit up target, pick up stuff, and then we went to visit Elo!

Ah yes. The Cool Bus. :)

I was a little surprised when we showed up and her boyfriend was there, but it was nice to meet him. We all hung out and one of her friends came over and shortly proposed to me. lol. oh funny people. Then we quizzed him about what the 7 horocruxes were. He got 5/7. Decent, but not impressive. It was a nice night seeing Elo and catching up a little. We went back to Saryah's place and promptly went to bed, because it was a long and tiresome day.

Saturday morning started off nice and early as we went to Bruges Waffles to meet Ian for some breakfast. We were sitting in the cold, as Saryah didn't bring a winter coat, thinking that the 80degree Texas spring season continues up to Utah. After being 15 minutes late, we called him to see where we was. He said he was a Bruges Waffles waiting for us. As soon as he said that, I knew....there had to be more than on location in Salt Lake City. #fail We went over to the one by him and had a great morning chatting over waffles. yum. We headed off to Whole Foods to get some groceries for Saryah. It was Sample Saturday, and the Whole Foods is pretty big. We went shopping for a bit and didn't find anything. We then went to eat luch at the Pie Hole, a recommendation from Ian. It was good even though it has the feeling of entering a biker bar. We then went to check out he Library, and listen to the HP6 audio book because we were about to start the Snape's Memories chapter. You cannot pause in the middle of such an emotional chapter. We then went back to Saryah's place to relax because it was already a long and exhausting day. I fell asleep as soon as we got back.and was woken up with Saryah saying "Is that Pam at the front door?" In my disorientated state, I was super confused at what was going on, but I went to the door and there was a surprise. It wasn't only Pam; Trey was there too! Que milagro! I was told Trey was working, but he wasn't! Woot! We went on a walk to the Capitol, even though it was cold and drizzling. It is a pretty cool capitol. We then went off to get some Ethiopian food and meet up with Katie. We had a lot of fun at dinner, and stayed much longer than anticipated, just talking. Katie arrived a little late because she got a little lost. It was nice catching up with everyone. We said goodbye to Katie, then went to Target again for some more last minute things for Saryah. We had to say goodbye :( So sad. I told Pam that I would come back for Conference & the Mission Reunion this fall, even though seeing everyone post-mission makes me awkward. Bleh.

Sunday morning was super sad because I had to say farewell to my lil sis, We woke up early and had a nice big breakfast of omelets and toast. yum yum. She then dropped me off at the airport. SOOOOO SAD. While at the airport, I had time to continue reading Born to Run. My dad, lil sis, and broseph had read it already, and Saryah's been trying to get me to read it since. I finally got it out from the library, and as I read it, the more I fell in love with it! You know those moments in life where you hear something or read something and it just kind of rings true to every fiber of your being? It was as if I had always known it on some level but was waiting for the memory to be awaken from my state of forgetfulness. I loved it. It is about a people in Mexico who run ridiculously long lengths with no real problem. As someone who hates running with a fiery passion, I was not expecting to really like this book as much as my dad and siblings did. The people in the story were truly inspiring and the stories and facts that backed up theories about running, just seems to ring true to me. It definitely altered my way of thinking.  Here is just a little quote from the book that I loved:

Love of life! Exactly!...It wasn't just how to run; it was how to live, the essence of who we are as a species and what we're meant to be...Perhaps all our troubles --all the violence, obesity, illness, depression, and greed we can't overcome -- began when we stopped living as Running People. Deny your nature, and it will erupt in some other, uglier way. [...] Maybe the ancient Hindus were better crystal-ball-gazers than Hollywood when they predicted the world would end not with a bang but with a big old yawn. Shiva the Destroyer would snuff us out by doing...nothing. Lazing out. Withdrawing his hot-blooded force from our bodies. Letting us become slugs (99).  -Born To Run by Christopher McDougall

"Just move your legs. Because if you don't think you were born to run, you're not only denying history. You are denying who you are" (244).

I think the person I found the most interesting would have to be Barefoot Ted. Yes. That is what he was called. But he runs more or less barefoot. The reasoning behind it just made sense to me. Therefore, Monday after work, I went on my first barefoot walk. True story. I went to the lake around the corner of my place, slipped of my flip flops, and walked around the lake next to the side walk. I also discovered that the lake has Texas Bluebonnets growing all over. It was beautiful. It felt good, and made me super happy. That night, I enjoyed a good FHE night of a sidewalk chalk art contest. Since it's a church activity, You can't really single people out, because I would feel too badly. Everyone got a participation prize!

On a side note/tangent:
I do supply chain management for a living. Part of that includes cost savings. As someone who is current focusing on cost savings at work, when I see a deal, I want to jump at it. In this spirit of frugality, I begin my story. Earlier this year, T-Mobile announced they will be adding iPhones to their service. I looked at multiple articles (this is only one example), which compared the pricing. You see, if you get your phone from T-mobile, you have to pay an unsubsidized prices (meaning, you have to pay all $600 of the phone). I've read another article recently about how Americans don't like having to pay a lot of money up front even if there is cost savings in the long run. It's true. To fight the instinct that Americans have, T-Mobile has said "no pay the subsidized price up front and then every month pay $20 extra). I see what you are doing T-Mobile, and I am pleased by your sneaky ways. Even with paying for the phone outright, I would still see about $800 in savings in the next two years. For me, that's kinda awesome. However, to avoid Early Termination fees, I have to wait for three months. THREE! #firstworldproblems

Now on a more serious note, The Boston Marathon Bombings. I am grateful for the men and women in uniform who protect us. I am grateful that the other suspect has been apprehended  It was a truly horrific bombing that happened there. It's serious moments in life like this where I am left with a loss for words. I think my first reaction was more of a "I can't believe this just happens" state of shock. It was a terrible incident, but with a mixture of comedic relief in the middle of all the emotional turmoil, I think Stephen Colbert ended his opening monologue perfectly when he said “These people tried to make life bad for the people of Boston, but all they can ever do is show just how good those people are.” It's sad and tragic, but in these moments, I feel hope when I see strangers helping each other and showing selfless service towards other. In the tragedy, there is good breaking through to give light to others. As John 1:5 states, "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."  Light and Darkness.  I recall something I read about light from Robert D. Hales in "Out of Darkness into His Marvelous Light" that said:

As children, we learned how to keep darkness away by turning on a light. Sometimes, when our parents went away for the evening, we would turn on every light in the house! We understood the physical law that is also a spiritual law: light and darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
Light dispels darkness. When light is present, darkness is vanquished and must depart. More importantly, darkness cannot conquer light unless the light is diminished or departs. When the spiritual light of the Holy Ghost is present, the darkness of Satan departs.
...we are engaged in a battle between the forces of light and darkness. If it were not for the Light of Jesus Christ and His gospel, we would be doomed to the destruction of darkness. But the Savior said, “I am come a light into the world.” 13 “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” 14
The Lord is our light and, literally, our salvation. 15 Like the sacred fire that encircled the children in 3 Nephi, [in The Book of Mormon] His light will form a protective shield between you and the darkness of the adversary as you live worthy of it. You need that light. We need that light. Carefully study the scriptures...and listen to the teachings of your parents and leaders. Then, by obedience to wise counsel, learn to claim the protective light of the gospel as your own.
You may wonder, “How can I do that?” There is only one way: you must learn to generate that light each day by believing on Jesus Christ and following His commandments. 

 I know that our Heavenly Father knows us and loves us. I do not doubt and cannot forget. Even though the world is in turmoil, and there are moments ahead in the our future as human beings that might be difficult; He is aware. Our God is a God of love.