Michael & Liz are Bloggable

 With the 3rd trimester well on it's way, I can't help but mark how different each trimester has been. Pregnancy really is perfectly divided into 3 sections, 3 very very different sections. Here is my assessment of how those trimesters have gone.

1st Trimester - The Paranoia Trimester:

The first 90 days are full of paranoia. The baby is incredibly small and vulnerable and almost anything can happen. The end of the first trimester is marked by a significant decrease in risks to the baby. Liz was always sick and tired during that time and we were always analyzing every issue to see if it's something to be concerned about. This first trimester, full of paranoia, is my least favorite. It may contain the excitement of finding out your pregnant, but that's the only thing to be happy about during that time.

2nd Trimester - The Fun Trimester: 

The second 90 days are the most fun. The baby is growing big enough to poke out of Liz's belly. The baby will start kicking for the first time. The exhaustion that occurred in the first 90 days is completely gone and energy returns to a normal level. It also includes the first ultrasound along with the discovery of the baby's sex. Now that you know the sex, you can get right into picking the baby's name. This was definitely the best trimester.

3rd Trimester - The Anxious Trimester: 

Anxious as in, eager and antsy, not anxious as in worried or fearful. While we are barely halfway through the final trimester, it is difficult to handle all the excitement as Liz's belly continues to move around and grows so big. It's as if we already have a baby, we just can't play with him yet. We have a name picked out and we can't tell anyone about it. We have baby clothes, a baby room, and all the baby things ready, and yet no baby to occupy those things. There is a date that used to be far off in the distance, but is increasingly becoming a tangible date on the calendar. Liz, and pregnant women alike, start to get uncomfortable with the size of their belly. An old movie line of "just get this thing out of me", is a phrase that makes a lot of sense to me now.

Yesterday was the first time in the pregnancy where the baby and I interacted. We were in baby class, and he was kicking hard. That's one thing we certainly will remember about the pregnancy, is how active he has been. Liz could feel him kick at 16 weeks and all he does these days is constant somersaults and flailing inside her belly. I like to think he's already starting to develop his soccer skills. Anyway, I found the spot he was kicking, and pushed his limb back in. With an abrupt reaction, he kicked Liz right back to the point where she jolted around in her chair. It was very comical.

We have all the preparations made for life to change, and yet we still have all this time to wait. I almost equate it to having bought a house, moved all the furniture onto the front lawn, but told we won't get the key for another month. So close and yet so far. We also don't have any control over the future either. The baby will arrive when he wants to arrive, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. I keep looking at the calendar in March and thinking to myself, which day are you? Which day have we been waiting for? Which day is going to be one of the greatest days in our life? It's so exciting and yet all we can be right now is antsy.

So anxiousness, that's all the 3rd trimester is consumed by. Hopefully March gets here sooner, rather than later. It's starting to get tough to wait.

So why not just throw something else on this blog that makes me look insane. This week I signed up for my 2012 ultra marathon. Here's a link to the site: http://www.hinsonlake24hour.com/

The race lasts 24 hours. You start at 8AM on a Saturday morning and you go until 8AM on Sunday morning. There is no finish line, just an end time. It's a 1.5 mile loop and you go as far as you possibly can during that time.  It's been called a tailgate with some running. This may sound ridiculous and outrageous, but 9 months away, this sounds like it will be a lot of fun to participate in.

My goals:

• Don't stop except for normal stuff like food, bathroom use, and stretching. I want to see if I can keep walking or running for the entire 24 hours. 
• Cover 50 miles. Compared to previous year's totals, 50 miles in this race is small potatoes. For example, in 2011, if I ran 50 miles, I would have finished 100th place out of 254 people. But I have never run an ultra before and never run farther than 26.2 miles. I think 50 miles is a reasonable goal. 

So at this point I need to figure out how to train for this. I think I will initially just start training like I would for a marathon. Medium runs in the week and long runs on the weekend. Then once I get comfortable with marathon distance long runs, I'll start extending those even farther and include walking in there to get used to that. It will not be easy and I am not naive enough to act like I don't have any concerns or doubts.

I'll keep you all up to date with how I'm doing in training. Right now I'm kinda bummed because I have a pulled or tight muscle near my right calf that just won't go away. Can't wait for it to go away so I can put in some serious mileage. This is certainly a daunting challenge, but I like challenges, so bring it Lake Hinson.

I have been a nutritarian for 11 days. A what? The book "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman, talks about the concept of being a nutritarian. It's eating foods as high in nutrients as possible. The plan he proposes boils down to eating as a vegan for 6 weeks while also completely cutting out sugar, oils, and as much salt as possible.

So I've been doing it for 11 days now and I must admit that this has got to be the healthiest I have ever felt in my life. I'm rarely tired, I have lots of energy, and losing weight isn't very difficult. I can hardly claim that I'm starving myself either because I'm stuffing my face with fruits and vegetables. I've lost roughly 11 pounds over the last 20 days and the rest of the weight coming off is just a matter of time. With that said, here are a few things that I've learned over the last 11 days:

• I have always been so concerned with what I weigh, but while eating the right things and moving down the right path, I've begun to not care. Weight really is just a number, but it's how you feel and your health inside that counts. I can really feel myself improving in health. I donated platelets the other day and my heart rate was 52 and my blood pressure 110/72. I'm psyched to see my weight drop, but I just really don't care how fast at this point. It'll settle where it wants.
  
• Walnuts are really good. I used to think they were dull and boring, but it's a very under rated nut. Super healthy and delicious.
  
• Without eating sweets, clementines have become my new dessert. They are so sweet and delicious.
  
• Now that I've freed myself of the toxic habit of fatty foods and overeating, random hunger suddenly doesn't bother me anymore. There was a time that missing a meal or not eating enough would cause me to get a headache.I truly believe that overeating is an addiction, and I really had a problem with withdrawal. That should never happen. Terrible.
  
• Taco salads are awesome. Throwing some beans, corn, and salsa on top of some lettuce is freakin' delicious.
  
• "Don't sweat the small stuff". It would be easy to go crazy on this plan. For example, salsa's 5th or 6th ingredient is salt. I'm not supposed to have salt but when I'm doing so many things right, I'm not going to drive myself crazy by caring that my healthy taco salad has a slight bit of salt in the salsa. Not to say I'm careless and not following the rules, but that's nit picky. Who cares. 

I could go on, but I'll stop there. Do you want to know the 2 main reasons why I am giving this plan a try? Dr. Fuhrman has many patients who cure their allergies by following this diet plan. I can't imagine living Spring through Fall without allergies. My life would be much happier during those times, so the first reason is to see if that is actually possible. The second reason I am trying it is to get faster at running. It's about time I put in the same effort into my food as I do with the training in my running.

This should be the best year of our lives, can't wait to see what happens.

This is my 5th year in a row doing new year resolutions on this blog. It's time to make some pledges to accomplish some new resolutions in 2012. Here are the links from the previous years:

• 2011 New Year's Resolutions
• 2010 New Year's Resolutions
• 2009 New Year's Resolutions
• 2008 New Year's Resolutions

Last year I went 2 for 3 on my resolutions, here are the results:

1. Operation Reese Cup - This totally failed. The goal was to lose 26 pounds. The good thing is, I began 2011 at 187 and finished the year at 187 (as of this afternoon). The Reese Cup is still in the freezer today. The day I hit 160, I will eat that treat, hopefully it's not freezer burned. 
2. Complete 4 house projects. We completely made over our Sweet Room, I re-did the landscaping in the front of the house, expanded the attic by 40 square feet, and wainscot and painted the second bedroom to prep for our new baby boy. The only 2 projects I haven't accomplished yet is staining the deck and putting up hanging shelves above the garage door. I don't know when I'll stain the deck, but I've already bought the wood to hang shelves in the garage. 
3. No carbonated soda. I had an addendum that I could have some if I stayed up between 2-5AM, but I didn't even do that. I was actually excited about having a soda in 2012, but I've decided I just don't need it. I think I've given it up permanently. 14 year old me just said "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?!?!"

So what am I doing in the New Year. I would argue these are my 2 hardest new year's resolutions I've EVER made. Check them out:

1. Go vegan for 6 weeks. Yep, that's what I said. Vegan. Recently I read a book called "Eat to Live" by Joel Fuhrman about health and nutrition. It has blown my mind and my opinions on how we as a society eat. Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma really blew my mind with how we eat and how we should treat the preparation of our food. Joel Fuhrman takes it one step further and throws a TON of science behind it about how our body processes food.
   
   He proposes a 6 week plan to go entirely vegan and I'm going to do it. My Mom and sister Annie are doing it as well and we're encouraging each other. It's especially tough on Liz because she does most of the cooking for dinner, but since this is my choice and my burden, I am going to start contributing and even preparing dinner for us. I don't know what to expect out of the plan other than to lose weight and break free of my food addiction. I will write a book review to explain my thoughts and feelings later, but basically this is one of my new year's resolutions is to accomplish this 6 week plan.
   
   By the way, my dinner tonight was a massive salad with sauteed onion, green pepper, Serrano pepper, and red hot chili peppers, and then some walnuts sprinkled on top. It was delish.
   
   
2. Run an ultra marathon. At this point the race I am aiming at is the Lake Hinson 24 Hour race in September. It's kind of a choose your own adventure type race. If you want to run 100 miles or if you want to run 30, it's up to you. At this point, my 2 goals in the race would be to (A) not stop for more than the time it takes to stretch and eat and (B) to travel at least 50 miles. I realize this is ridiculous, to say the least, but something inside of me is telling me to get it done. In 2010 I ran 1011 miles. In 2011 I ran 1061 miles. Hopefully with this new goal, I can blow both of those away.