Michael & Liz are Bloggable

The baby's room is coming together! We've spent quite a bit of time over the last few months planning all the furniture, fabrics, etc and I'm happy to say that my vision is finally coming together.

Yesterday was all about windows. In the baby's room, we have 3 odd size windows - two smaller ones on the outside and a bigger one in the middle. After thinking about it for a while, I decided to treat it like one giant window instead of three separate ones. To tie all three together, we decided to build a window cornice to wrap around the curtain rod. It's finally done and I am so happy with the result!

Here's the finished product with the curtains open so you can see the 3 windows:


As you can see, the fabric around the cornice matches the quilt on the twin bed, and also the crib bedding which is just slightly out of view. I'll blog about all that stuff when the whole room is complete, but for now, let's just focus on this window.

Michael started the cornice by using some wood that was actually used as a larger cornice in his Grandma's condo in Florida. Since his parents have re-vamped the condo, the wood came to live in our garage for a while and was perfect for this project. It just needed to be re-sized a bit, but we like to think of it as Michael's Grandma looking over our little boy.

After he re-sized the wood, I used a staple gun to cover the front in batting to give it a little cushion. Then came the fabric! This was tricky because I wanted it to look like one extended piece of fabric, but it needed to cover over 100 inches of board. My awesome sewing skills came in handy and I was able to put 3 fabric pieces together. Of course I can see the seams, but overall it's not too obvious so I'm quite pleased! Once everything was sewed and ironed, Michael then used the staple gun to add on the fabric. He then used brackets on the inside to hold it in place against the wall. Luckily, he hit studs so this isn't going anywhere!

Here's the final product a little closer up. We have a subtle elephant theme going on and it's all based on this fabric. I love how it turned out!


We also purchased blackout curtains from Target (these if you are interested) and love them. We have the same brand curtains in our Sweet Room (TV room) downstairs to avoid light glare on the TV and we love them, so we wanted to make sure we're able to get this room as dark as possible as well.

Overall, I love how it turned out! Now we just need to organize some more things in here, paint an end table and get things on the walls and this room is done! With plenty (hopefully) of time to spare before Baby Fulton makes his arrival! And, from when I started typing this post, our final piece of big furniture arrived for the room and I am just rocking away as a type - it's awesome! More details to come as the room get finished!

When I started this vegan diet, one of my main goals was to get faster at running. It only makes sense: 1. you drop weight 2. your legs don't have to carry as much 3. you get faster. The logic is there, but for some reason in my weight loss I haven't necessarily gotten faster, and I've realized why.

So it's been 45 days since I started "eating healthier", and it has been exactly 32 days since I went completely vegan. In those 45 days I have now lost roughly 25 pounds and am feeling more fit and healthier than any time in my life. In fact, I wrote a post a couple summers ago about how I had dropped to my lowest weight since high school. At this point I am now below that point, and I could not be more thrilled about it. I am close to achieving my weight loss goals.

What I have learned though is that running is much more than a formula. There are no shortcuts. Losing weight will not make you faster just like gaining weight will not make you stronger. I absolutely feel lighter on my feet. I can feel the difference between now and what I felt like 2 months ago to run, but I am a long way from where I want to be in achieving my running goals.

Losing the weight was certainly step 1 and I still have about 5 or 6 more pounds to go in this step. Step 2 is to maintain it while I train my butt off trying to get faster. Like I said though, there is no formula. I can lose all the weight I want to, but putting in the miles is the only way to improve. I think training not only trains your legs to get stronger to handle a lot of miles, but more importantly it trains your mind to realize that you are fine, you can keep going, you can go faster.

The other thing that losing weight does not do, is train your heart. Now that I have a Garmin watch, I am able to get real-time updates on my heart rate. What anyone who runs with a heart rate monitor will realize is that as you get in better shape, your heart rate begins to adjust just like your legs do. What I aim for is to never go above 160 beats per minute while running unless I am nearing the finish. Back in early January that meant I couldn't go faster than 9 minutes per mile. As I get faster and stronger, 160 bpm will start to mean I can't run faster than 8:30, then 8, then 7:30, and so on. So your heart needs to be trained just as much as your legs do. Losing weight certainly encourages a lower heart rate, but ultimately it's your training that will make your heart stronger and more durable in distance runs.

To get faster, your legs, heart, and mind all have to get stronger and be in sync. To me, that has little to do with your weight.

Just a quick update about my sports hernia. I decided, ironically the day before I started losing weight, that I would push through this injury without getting surgery. So far that decision has been the best one. I knew that it would eventually heal, but it almost feels like it has disappeared completely. The 2 things I could not do without pain was kick a ball and sprint. Sprinting appears to have been resolved. Last week I ran 8 miles with a friend and I sprinted at the end without an ounce of pain. In fact it wasn't until a few hours after I sprinted that I realized "holy crap, I just sprinted today without any issues!!!" I still have yet to kick a ball but I imagine that pain has at least gone down. I doubt I could do it pain-free though.

I say "almost disappeared", because occasionally I feel achy in the area that was injured, but that's about it. I can't really explain why it has gone away though, maybe it's the weight loss? Recently, within the last week, I have started doing exercises to strengthen my pelvic area, but prior to that I have shied away from inflaming the area.

I am thankful though, because late Fall was a depressing time for me, athletically. I felt helpless and giving up sports was something I was unwilling to do. It's in stark contrast to how I feel now. I am now more hopeful than ever. I am confident that 2012 is going to be one heck of a year for both me, Liz, and our expanding family!!

I've been slacking on the blog, and lately all I feel like writing about is babies and our baby prep. But no one really wants to hear about that. So other than that, all I could think of writing about is running or the movies we've seen on Netflix over the last few months. So for now I chose movies. We've seen a few in the theaters lately, but I didn't include those. 

November:

• Bridesmaids (2011) - 4 stars - The first time I saw this movie in the theater, I just about fell out of my chair laughing. The second time around, it was nowhere near as funny. 5 stars in the theater and 3 stars at home, so we land at 4.
• Get Him to the Greek (2010) - 4 stars - You ever seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Where Sarah Marshall runs away with Aldous Snow? Well this movie is all about Russell Brand acting as Aldous Snow again. I couldn't believe it when it came on. I really really enjoyed it, I think his character is hilarious.
• Sex and the City 2 (2010) - 1 star - If I were to set out to write and direct the absolute worst movie I could possibly dream up, I still don't think I'd fall below this movie. It was mind numbingly terrible. 
• Jonah Hex (2010) - 2 stars - I don't actually even recall seeing this movie, it was that forgettable. 
• The Last Airbender (2010) - 3 stars - They definitely made this a difficult movie to follow, but they also clearly set it up for sequels. If you hang with it and follow the plot, it's actually a surprisingly decent movie. I look forward to the sequels. 
• Shrek Forever After (2010) - 4 stars - Pleasantly surprised with this 4th Shrek movie, I wasn't a huge fan of any of them since the first, but this one came very close.
• Charlie St. Cloud (2010) - 4 stars - I need to write these reviews down closer to the time I actually watch the movies. I remember really enjoying this movie, but I can't remember why. I really enjoy Zac Efron, I'm ashamed to admit, the High School Musical movies are really enjoyable. 
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) - 4 stars - This movie gets 4 stars mainly because the graphics are unbelievable. It's hard to believe that it can be done. The plot wasn't awful, usually I hate the plot in the transformer movies, but this time I could actually follow it. 
• Hocus Pocus (1993) - 2 stars - The only reason this didn't get 1 star was because it was made in 1993. I understand it was made for kids, but even so, it's so incredibly awful. It has completely been ruined for me as a good movie to watch around Halloween. Although leave it to Netflix to ship it to us on the day before Thanksgiving. 

December:

• Capitalism: A Love Story (2009) - 2 stars - Basic premise: highlight the people who got damaged the most by the recession and have them complain on camera about their struggles. What doesn't make sense is that they featured some families who had lived in the same house for 30 years and those families lost their home. My question is, why don't they own their house by now? I personally cannot watch the movie and not think about how ridiculous their money management had been all these years. Of course it's everyone else's fault except their own. I didn't feel very sorry for the people they featured, which is probably why I only gave it 2 stars. 
• Going the Distance (2010) - 3 stars - Typical romantic comedy, you could see the plot climax coming from a mile away. I still enjoyed it though. The only thing I didn't like is, I can't imagine anyone like Drew Barrymore falling for a guy like Justin Long. 
• Wales: A Nationhood (2006) - 2 stars - I thought I'd learn something about Wales, but it was flat out boring. 
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) - 1 star - It's not often that I don't finish a movie, but it happened with this one. Just couldn't stand it anymore. Just didn't find the plot set up interesting. 
• Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead (2010) - 5 stars - This movie kick started my changing opinions about food. The book Eat to Live pushed me over the edge though. If you watch this movie, it'll make you want to buy a juicer. Which by the way, we now own one.
• The A-Team (2010) - 3 stars - Decent action movie, and Liam Neeson does awesome every time, but that's about it. 
• Takers (2010) - 2 stars - This is one of those movies Netflix recommended because it had no other options and it's required to. Very little about this movie was interesting, stupid Netflix.
• Easy A (2010) - 2 stars - I don't find Emma Stone attractive, even a little bit. So that and the fact that the movie had a pointless plot, it gets 2 stars. 
• The Town (2010) - 4 stars - Ben Affleck was awesome in this movie. I'm not a huge fan of Jon Hamm as he seems to me the human equivalent of a big tall board. He's stiff, uninteresting, and lacks personality. Even with him in it, I really enjoyed this movie. The costumes that they dressed up in was creepy too.
• A Prophet (2009) - 2 stars - Another movie Netflix forces upon me with it's stupid recommendations. First of all Netflix, get the hint, there has never been a movie with subtitles that I've given more than 2 stars. I still watched the whole thing though, and I still can only muster giving it 2 stars.

January:

• Spirit of the Marathon (2007) - 4 stars - I think this movie was more designed for the beginning runner, but it was interesting to learn about the training habits of the elite athletes. I also feel bad for them. They have the same struggles I do, but on a grand scale. They train and train and train, running 100 miles per week, and then lose by 12 seconds in a 2 hour race. That's tough.
• Life as We Know It (2010) - 3 stars - Nothing special about this movie. I really like Katherine Heigl, but that wasn't good enough to improve this movie. You could also see how the movie ends within 2 minutes from the start.
• Fred Claus (2007) - 4 stars - I love Vince Vaughn, and very few of his movies will fall below 4 stars for me. I love his sarcastic demeanor most of all.
• That Thing You Do! (1996) - 3 stars - Liz really hyped this movie to me, but usually hyping a movie only ends in disappointment. It was average at best. And I also really wanted more Tom Hanks, but he played a VERY minor role. 
• Everything Must Go (2010) - 5 stars - Will Ferrell usually doesn't nail his serious comedies, but this one was awesome. Several times he busted out his sarcastic, Ricky Bobby-type, tone and it was very funny. I recommend this for all Will Ferrell fans, you'll enjoy it.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides (2011) - 3 stars - My immediate reaction was "Why was that called Stranger Tides"? They said the phrase once in the whole movie in a very insignificant scene. The plot was convoluted and boring. This series will never be able to touch the success of the first Pirates movie. I'm afraid it may continue to go downhill with any future movies. 
• The Ghost Writer (2010) - 4 stars - This movie had my riveted from the start, but the ending left a lot to be desired. I actually can't claim to fully understand how it ended. It wasn't entirely clear to me, so I just assumed I missed something and it was excellent. The only reason I watched this was Pierce Brosnan and my love of the Bond characters. I'd recommend it.
• Facing Ali (2009) - 1 star - Why are we praising a guy who very clearly dodged the Vietnam draft?? Between his trash talking and his draft dodging, I think he's a despicable human being. I got this movie to see if it may change my mind, if there was something I was missing, but no, he's a piece of ...
• Winter's Bone (2010) - 2 stars - Got this movie because Jennifer Lawrence is the star in Hunger Games, so I wanted to see her in a movie before that. She did great in it and I think she'll rock Hunger Games, but she couldn't make up for this movie's plot. 
• Morning Glory (2010) - 4 stars - I freaking love Rachel McAdams in all her movies. This was a really cute comedy, I'd highly recommend it.
• Cyrus (2010) - 3 stars - This had "indie" written all over it, and yet had some big stars in it. It's basically a guy moves in with a girl who has a son who is angry about it. I think they could have done SOO much more with the plot. They have John C. Reilly and Jonah Hill and they can't create some hilarious prank scenes in the house? Come on. 

 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.