Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Really Proud of My Kids
This has been a good week for my kids.
They got report cards and both (of them in school) did really well.
We’d been working with my oldest to make sure her grades did not drop and had determined that if they were at a certain threshold that she’d have to put ballet on hold to concentrate on her studies. She really rocked things in the last part of the year & brought everything up across the board so we didn’t have to do that. She, my wife and I were all very happy about that.
on flickr by jeff medaugh
Then we got to go watch the kids dance (ballet) this week too. They do parent’s viewing once a year so we really never see much of what is going on with all their classes. With the younger one, it was great to see her and she is doing really well. It was quite similar to the parent viewings we’ve had over the years. It was great.
With the older one, I was pretty shocked by the intensity and difficulty of the classes. I was blown away by how much work it is; how serious it is. And I guess I have to say that I am extremely impressed that my older one loves it so much and is so devoted to it. It’s definitely not goofing around fun. It’s work. And hard, technical, attention demanding, long session work. I loved to see how committed she was to it and how well she did. I don’t know that I would have expected that.
Anyway, it’s been a good week and on top of that, they’re just awesome (albeit normal kid challenging) people to be around.
I’m very lucky.
Hello 2014
Hello!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I started blogging regularly a while back, became disenchanted, got hurt (I was blogging about my fitness efforts a good bit), got sick and came up with a bunch of excuses why I stopped.
I do have goal to blog everyday. It’s not my primary goal but it’s there. That being said, I wanted to start out the new year on the right foot & see where it goes.
Looking Back on 2013
It’s late & I don’t really have anything urgent to say so I’ll just say that I’m quite thankful for what I have. In some ways 2013 was a rough year but overall, it was still wonderful. I have an amazing family that I love and that alone makes me very lucky. We had a wonderful holiday, spent lots of time together and had lots of fun.
Looking Forward to 2014
Right now, I’m actually searching for an iPhone or iPad accountability calendar app but I’m not finding one.
I read a cool year recap post by Jason Moffatt where he listed a bunch of stuff like numbers of surf sessions, massages, yoga classes and then other cool stuff that he did over the year. I thought it was very neat to be able to look back on the past year like that & that it might be something good for the family to try to do. Jason talked about his bucket list and accountability calendar so I’ve been surfing for some background on them. I haven’t found anything great on accountability calendars but I’m still looking.
I also saw another inspiring post by Dave Cooke on hitting his 10,000 km biking goal.
I figured that deciding to track some things and set some goals right now will make life more intentional and that compiling a list like this will be much easier if I start tracking things from the start. So absent any awesome apps or services, I threw together a Google spreadsheet with the things I’m going to track as separate rows and column headers of week numbers. I’ll throw totals in each column. We’ll see if that changes as we get into it but that’s what I’ve got to start.
Lee Goals
Heather and I talked about some things to track and are going to start with the following and add as we go along:
- ballet practices (or ballet buns)
- gym visits for Heather and me
- running miles for Heather and me
- biking miles for Heather and me
- SUP sessions
- hikes
- books read (by all of us)
- blog posts written
- and then any other firsts
Heather and I look to have our first Spartan Race this year & she is talking about a marathon. We’ll see where that goes but at least we have something to start.
That’s all I’ve got for now. Hope 2014 is a wonderful year for you!
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Dehydration Calling
I should have known.
I should have known.
I really should have known.
Should Have Known
Pretty much every time my back has gone out on me, I’ve been able to point to the fact that I was at least partially dehydrated. It has happened with a variety of triggering events…playing volleyball, running, drying my legs after a shower, lifting weights (often squatting or deadlifting) but lack of proper hydration is always an issue.
This time, there was no triggering event. No acute injury. I knew I was on a diet and my body was acting differently so I was especially careful. I ran a very slow 2 miles on the treadmill and then I did some lifting. I purposefully avoided squats and deadlifts as they have been triggers in the past and just lifted upper body. I did bench press, pull-ups, bent over rows and overhead shoulder press.
Pretty sure bent over rows were the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I made it through everything and went to stretch. Then as I was finishing my stretching routine, I noticed some very faint spasming of my lower back. What? No way. I was careful. Couldn’t be. But it was.
20–20
In hindsight, I should have seen it coming. Looking back, I can see a number of factors that I should have paid attention. First of all, I’m on a no/low carb diet. I know that as part of the process, we lose a lot of water as our carbohydrate stores are depleted. That’s the big weight loss at the beginning of any of these type diets.
I noticed that my calves were pre-cramping and barely cramping at night while I slept every once in a while. That never happens. I also noticed some back (lat) and torso (serratus) cramps with certain movements.
Should have known.
My Fault
And then it was completely my fault. I new that with this diet that I should make extra efforts to stay hydrated. For a while, I was pretty good with drinking water. I was good about taking my vitamins (magnesium, etc.). But then over time, I’d started drinking a bit more diet soda. When I first started on the diet soda to satisfy my sweets cravings, I stuck to non-caffinated drinks like Fanta Zero and Diet 7-Up. Over the past week, I’d slipped into drinking Diet Mountain Dew and Diet Coke. Dropped off the water almost completely & was drinking a ton of Diet Coke.
Lesson Learned
I realize that if I embark upon a dietary change, I need to pay strict attention to my body. And I cannot get lazy about doing the things I know I should. I need to stay hydrated. I need to ensure I have sufficient vitamins and minerals. And another thing I’ve slacked on in the past, I need to maintain my stretching regimens regularly.
Oh well, only a couple weeks pentalty (sigh) for my inattention to detail.
Image credit: water drops by fox_kiyo on flickr
Back Out
Things had been going pretty well and then BAM!!!!
No Warning
Out of nowhere, my lower back went out. I’ve fought this for years and have a pretty good routine for keeping it at bay. I realized that the warning signs were there but I didn’t pay enough attention.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure I was getting more and more dehydrated because of my current diet and foolish things I was doing, I did a simple workout and boom. My back siezed up.
Playing It Safe
As far as my workout, it wasn’t anything crazy. In fact, I thought I was playing it safe as I knew that my body was reacting differently while on this diet.
I did a slow 2 mile job on the treadmill, a couple of sets of bench press, 2 sets of pull-ups, 2 sets of bent over rows and 2 sets of seated overhead press. I used low weights (per my normal routine) on all of these so figured I was safe. I purposely didn’t do squats and deadlifts as I didn’t want to court any back issues with the modified diet.
No standout event. No injury. Just when I was stretching afterwards, I felt the the start of the familiar lower back spasms. Noooo!!!
Paying The Piper
Whenever this happens, it takes me a week or two to get back to normal so it’s always very frustrating. In hindsight, my chest and back were pretty sore so the exercises really did test my muscles. I hadn’t lifted in a couple weeks and I think the diet left me affected more than normal. I know that on this diet that my heart rate is up when I’m doing endurance activity so it’s not surprising. I’m also thinking it was the bent over rows that did the job. I’ve since detected a couple of trigger points in my lower back that make me think that was the culprit.
So the lesson for me here is that when you are on any type of altered diet program, you have to be doubly, triply, quadrupley careful with your activity to ensure something you normally do doesn’t trigger anything.
Image credit: Posture & pain by Dreaming in the deep south
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