What does it really mean to be INSPIRED??

The spring semester has finally come to an end, leaving me with plenty of time to reflect on the actives of the last month.  I have been luck enough to have been surrounded by some amazing individuals who have reminded me just what the word "INSPIRED" means.

At the end of April I was honored to be asked by Skirt Sports to again help with the Boston Marathon Expo - standing along side owner and founder Nicole DeBoom, assistant Noelle Wilson, and epic marathon pioneer Katherine Switzer.  INSPIRING is being surrounded with three women who define the meaning of #realwomenmove - through their personal accomplishments, promotion of general health and fitness to women of all shapes and sizes, and support of our growing young ladies who are about to join the active lifestyle movement.

I would have to say that the best part of the weekend was watching Katherine Switzer interact with a 3rd grader who wrote a school hero report all about Katherine's impact on female marathon running.  Katherine was so grateful, and took her time to talk to the young lady all about her experiences and what it was like being a marathon runner prior to the 1970's.  Having such a woman leading the way for health and fitness among our youth is one of the reasons I love working in the field of exercise physiology and being an Ambassador for Skirt Sports - I know that we are making a different to the lives of so many women and young ladies across the globe.

After enjoying two days at the expo with my favorite Skirt Sport ladies - it was off to be INSPIRED while volunteering on the Boston Marathon Course on Monday.  Despite the cold rainy weather this year, nothing could have been more rewarding than seeing thousands of runners pass by the tables, 9 miles into their marathon journey.  Among them, those that INSPIRE me the most - the disabled athletes.  Those athletes who have persevered through so much more than just the training for a 26.2 mile run.  The athletes who run with one, or even two, prosthetic limbs; the blind athletes, the wheelchair athletes, all of the athletes who work harder than the typical human to achieve greatness.

I left the marathon experience feeling uplifted, feeling stronger, and feeling humbled.  A clear reminder that no mater the challenge, perseverance, dedication, and determination can lead to achievement.  That achievement does not need to be a 26.2 mile race - it doesn't even need to be a 13.1 mile race - choosing to get up off the couch and make today the day to start the healthy journey towards a new body is achievement enough.  Today's achievement will turn into tomorrow's reward.

Looking for a little more INSPIRATION???  Take a minute to enter to win a basic entry into the Skirt Sports Virtual 13er (this means that you can run from the location you live in - no traveling to Boulder, CO required. Although Boulder is an amazing place to race!!!).  In order to enter - leave a comment below (be sure to add in your email address where instructed so I can notify if you have won) and winner will be selected at random at 6:00pm EST (so you make your entry for your printed skirt!).  Even if you don't win - the virtual 13er is a great way to INSPIRE run a half marathon with friends locally!!

2015 - New Year New Goals

Perhaps being 40 is the realization that although mentally you may feel 20, physically your body will constantly remind you that you are, in fact, not 20.  And on most occasions, your body may actually attempt to force you into believing that it is more like 50 or 60, even though that is completely not true.  So, with this ripe (old) age, I have decided that trying to exercise, lose weight, engage in race training, and recover it can't be done the same way it was when I was 20, or even 30 for that matter.

Part of heading into 2015 was the realization that I was in fact well distanced from my athletic past.  A two year stint on the DL for disk herniation and 4 broken vertebrae had left me beyond my worse for weight gain and inactivity levels.  Perhaps the continued back pain was a correlation between the lack of activity, weight gain, and stress on the joints?  Hmmm.... it was seriously time to stop whining and get moving - even if that moving wasn't what it was a few years ago.

I have started 2015 with some specific and detailed weight loss and activity goals, that are achievable in the correct time frame - healthy weight loss occurs at no more than 1-2 lbs per week, if it is going to stay off and become part of a permanent lifestyle change.  This means that I have to accept that losing 45 lbs is going to take me AT LEAST 22-45 weeks - Hello Jenn - you didn't put it on overnight, it's not going to come off in a month - FACT!

Adding fitness to an unstable back also means that I am going to have bad days - days where I know I have done too much.  This means, that no matter what the workout program may say for that day - I have to accept a day (or even two) off.  Pushing beyond the pain isn't going to make this 40 (really more like 65) year old back feel like a 20 year old back, it's just going to make it worse: ACCEPT it Gordon, you may have to accept the sprint distance as the new half iron distance.

All of these goals are things that are a working progress towards feeling more fit and more healthy in 2015 - getting back to where I used to be before spending too much time on the DL.  These are also goals that my growing ABC's are going to see and realize that they are part of life, no matter the age. That healthy goal setting, eating, and activity are important to bodies of all ages and a skill they are going to need for a lifetime.

With the changes I have for 2015 I have changed the ABC kids blog title to include the more active approach our family is taking in the coming year.  You will see more of our posts about how we are staying active, incorporating health and fitness into our daily lives - especially for a family who has individuals in nearly 3 different centuries - which is going to pose challenges of its own.  Hopefully these stories will inspire you to keep on moving or to stay moving; and to realize that if you are a mom who has put her fitness goals on the back burner while your little ones are getting going, you can get all of those goals back and still juggle it all.  Cheers to our new 2015 :)

And so the 'girly' issues begin..... (or continue)....

I think that I knew 9 years ago when Dawn and I started talking about wanting children, that there were going to be bumps in the road for that child as they endured the school age years.  I expected and prepared myself for dealing with the 'there may be derogatory remarks made because he/she has two mom; kids can be mean about others with atypical families; there may need to be some ability to find other families like our own.'  And I wasn't naive enough to think that there wouldn't be the usual 'picking' comments made about wearing glasses, or having braces; but I think that I had expected those to happen near middle school, and I had lots of time to prepare.

Unfortunately what I wasn't ready for is that all of this stuff would start sooner - much sooner.  At the ripe old age of 7, and in second grade, I am faced with a child in tears:


      "I didn't eat lunch today because I didn't have anyone to sit next to.  There is this 'popular' table and I just don't get invited to sit there."

      "No one plays with me at recess, they called me a baby for having pigtails in my hair today."

      "The girls were all coming up with silly names for each other and two of them said mine is 'fatty' and it made me feel really sad."

What? This is happening in 2nd grade? Did I miss something?  Yes, I know, kids are cruel, they will find ways to put others down, but in today's day and age of eliminating bullying - why does it seem to me that it is happening to the younger population.  And where are these kids learning these behaviors? That it is okay and acceptable to use derogatory terms to label other kids - haven't we continued to teach the golden rule?????
 
        DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU'D HAVE DONE TO YOU

Because in this house there are two major things that I repeat over and over again - treat others as you'd like to be treated - AND - if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.  No, my kids aren't perfect, and frankly in my own four walls they can't handle doing this to each other.  But in public and towards other children, we go out of our way to reprimand the moments that they aren't following these basic rules.  Isn't everyone else too?

Yes, I know that our kids re going to get picked on.  Cassie is like a mini-me, and I can recall all to well being called fat, chunky, chubby, and fluffy.  And hopefully I can teach her to have the strength to tell someone that what she is saying to her is not nice and it hurts feelings.  That she can have the strength to tell someone not to take her library book away from her.  That she can have the strength to know that she can be the better person by smiling back or turning the the other way.  She is a beautiful, caring, compassionate young lady and hopefully the reinforcement she gets from her moms will help her to be empowered enough to stand up for her amazing self and for those around her who don't feel like they have the confidence to do the same.

I am posting the photos from our dance costume try-on's tonight, a stressful part of dance as Cassie was not feeling so confident in her body or in her dancing abilities after today's school events.  Hopefully the more she hears the good things, she will gain the confidence to know that she is a special young lady.

My goofy girl - tap costume

These are going to be cute for their tap song

Brooklyn showing off her costume for the Lilo and Stitch Hula song

Brooklyn showing off her costume for her Lilo and Stitch Hula song

Look out!!

Cassie in her Jazz costume (shake your tail feathers from Chicken Little) and Brooklyn in her ballet costume (The Cinderella song where the mice are making her dress)

Enough with the broken back already!

So..... I've despite all that I have been through with this little back of mine, in the last couple of weeks, I have tried to take on the 'be positive and you will feel positive' approach.

Today - it's just not working!

On October 10th I was in a hurry to get the girls some new clothes for school when I flew down the wooden stairs, missing one and landing just below the center of my back on the step behind me.  Yes, there were lots of choice colorful words, lots of tears, and about :30 minutes of time to get off the floor.

Two ER visits and lots of pain later - I had broken the transverse processes of the first four lumbar vertebrae of mine.  Wow, really? I broke my back? Are you sure?  What now???  What about my job? My active kids? My triathlon career?  MY LIFE????

The right side trauma led to a whole cascade of trauma on an already herniated left side of my spine, plagued with SI joint disfunction and about 2 years of sciatia so bad I was sure that the bones of my lower legs were broken.  Am I going to have to live like this forever? Are there options for treatment? Is the pain ever going to go away????

Yes, if you find an awesome anesthesiologist names Dr. Pulai, he will conduct an RFA on your left side to get ride of the constant sciatia.  And all of a sudden, three weeks post procedure, I am pain free for the first time in 2 years...... had I only known before I did my last Ironman when all of these issues began.....

But the stabbing pains still exist in the right lumbar spot of my back.  By the end of the day of teaching 5 classes and walking across most of campus.... I am suffering.  And so I turned to the internet:

            "Transverse process fractures are rare, they typically do not require surgical intervention, however, they can be exceedingly painful and take significant periods of time to heal because of the massive muscles attached to the bone."

Well, awesome, sign me right up.

So here I am, 15 weeks post fall/break of back, and my vertebrae are still broken.  The right side of my back is still exceedingly painful.  And I don't have any answers about the hows or whens of doing things.  (Unfortunately the researcher in me has already pounded the medical journals for answers. Some say rest and wear a brace, some say you can resume activity 4 weeks post injury to tolerance because the bones will never re-fuse, some say to be pain free before returning to activity.....).  I will get through this. It sucks.  The mental scope of realizing that I honestly may never run or bike again at the level I had before is killing me.  Feeling like I can't keep up with the kids at the end of an energetic day is devastating.  I hope that I can compete again, I miss it dearly. But it is far more than that - it's going through a day of my life not feeling that someone is stabbing me in the back; it's saying yes to skating or sledding or pig piling on mommy.

This is just a hiccup in general scheme of things, and I will get through it.  I will get to be active again... maybe not tomorrow or the next day - but someday. I just have to have the mental strength to get me through the days like these (I already have an amazing wife and three kids who keep me motivated!).