Why Running is the Best Feeling Ever

As a Personal Trainer I get asked daily why I love doing what I do.  Why do I love to work out?  Why do I love to run?  Why do I want to help other people do those same things?  All of these things make me feel better and keep me sane.  I absolutely love the feeling of running.  I'm typically away from people, or only around people I really truly like to be around because we can talk about the same things or they know when to just be quiet and run.  When Red and I first started dating he would bike next to me while I ran and we would go all over down town Cincinnati.  We had some of the best conversations during those runs.  I think running together was the perfect way to get to know each other better.  We could just enjoy each others company, talk about whatever we wanted, and get to know how the other would react if something went wrong.  Be it a twisted ankle, needing water, bonking, or just needing to vent.  Running provided a great escape from the rest of the world.  

Today running is my therapy.  I can clear my head, empty my heart of my problems, and just run.  It helps to have great running buddies because they can help talk you through your problems, cheer you up, or just let you cry.  I enjoy working out, I really do, and I love swimming.  But there is something about running that makes me feel better.  After work I sometimes feel drained and just want to go away and not deal with anyone, sometimes you just need to be left alone.  Today during my run I was able to have company, but be alone at the same time.  I was able to vent, cry, laugh, and talk out a lot of things that bug me or just needed to be talked out and now I feel 100 times better.  I feel better now after running 6 miles than I did when I first woke up this morning.  I'm not a morning person, so that isn't saying much but you get my point.  After running you start to appreciate things a little bit more too.  Water tastes AMAZING.  After sprints you realize how much better air feels when you get to the end.  Running is freeing and refreshing.  If you say you hate running then you're clearly doing it for the wrong reasons.  For me running is one of the single best feelings in the world and I am positive that this winter is going to cause me to lose my mind if I can't get outside and run more often.  Do you hear that Winter?!  I need you to go away!!  We would all like it if you could go away, you've more than filled your quota for this year, please bugger off!

Let's brag about Red for a second :P

This story begins about 5 years ago, Red and I were just dating and he was already getting tired of doing all of the cooking.  As many people can attest to, I used to REALLY suck at cooking.  How my sister survived some of my attempts at "food", we will never know.  I was so bad that I screwed up Easy Mac on a regular basis, to the point where my roommates would just give up and make it for me. (Thank you!).  I either wound up with a strange soup, or a baked on gelatonous mess that had adhered to the sides of whatever bowl I was using.  With this kind of background I was not keen on attempting to cook for someone I actually wanted to keep around.

Enter Red, he has always been able to cook and was more than happy to cook...for a little while.  Then he started insisting that I make attempts to cook something other than plain chicken and spaghetti.  I kept telling Red that I wouldn't cook for him because he would always hover and "critique" anything that I was doing.  It made me nervous and even if I was doing something right I knew he would come behind me and fix something.  After many attempts at sharing the kitchen I just let him deal with it.  Finally he realized that I wasn't going to cook ever again if this kept up, so he devised a plan.  He promised to at least try anything that I made.

This plan worked out for quite a while because it turned out that real food was easier to cook than whatever is in Easy Mac.  There were still horrific moments, and he would quietly watch me eat, and as long as I kept eating whatever I had messed up then he would keep eating.  After we were through he would say that he was glad I tried something new, but let's keep our options open.  That or "that was good, but we don't need to try it ever again".  Yep.  He made the deal to try ANYTHING I cooked or made, and he has held to his promise to this day.  Well now he is starting to sorely regret that promise as I have gained more confidence in the kitchen and am branching out into the crazy healthy world where gluten free is everywhere, beets are a key ingredient, and protein powder is a fully acceptable substitute to flour.  Ok, maybe not that bad, ok yes it is.  Cue this week's newest "attempts".  For Sunday breakfast we always eat French toast, eggs, and bacon.  I decided that I wanted to try something a little bit different and was a bit healthier.  I attempted "cookie dough cereal".

1 scoop protein powder
1/2 C quick oats
1-2T nut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp sweetener of choice (we just used sugar)
Enjoy with almond milk.

Red kept his promise, ate half of the bowl that I gave him then looked at me and asked if I was serious.  I continued to eat mine because I thought it was actually good, I also didn't put as much cinnamon in mine which apparently ruined his.  Ok, fine, that was a flop in his book.  I have since had it 3 times and still think it's delicious.

Attempt two:  a juicing/smoothie/drink/thing.  Basically I was bored and thought something would work out.  The jury is still out.  I have been hearing rave reviews about beets and their benefits to athletes, cancer fighting awesomeness, and their ability to balance your checkbook (I made the last one up).  So I figured it must be good!!   While at William Sonoma the other day they had samples of juice.  Instant creativity boost!  During my grocery shopping on Monday I decided to pick up some beets, carrots, grapefruits, and apples for my newest juicing epiphany.  Buoyed by the inspiration provided by William Sonoma I now had a plan.  Today I put my plan into action, and Red again regretted his 5 year promise :)

Juice from 1 Red Grapefruit
1/4 of a beet
1 carrot
2 apples
8 oz of water
I put everything in my Ninja blender and let her go.  When everything was blended I strained my juice, added some sugar, and enjoyed.  As I took my newest concoction to the living room I told Red to try it.  He immediately said no, but I just gave him "the look" and he gave up and tried it.  See, he's such a good sport.  Red has honestly never turned down anything that I have made without at first trying it.  He also is good enough to eat more of it if he knows it's something I really wanted to turn out and something I tried really hard, but yet still screwed up.  Now I'm not going to say that this drink was a fantastic idea, but I've certainly had worse, and this one I can at least get down.

I bring you!  Whatever the crap you want to call this:

What's your ideal????

It has been brought to my attention that people are waging war against each other for some of the dumbest things on the planet.  After I realized that people were being very passive aggressive about different ideals I started to noticed that there was a lot of hypocrisy going on with these wars.  Here are some of the topics that I've noticed have social acceptability to go one way but not the other:

Skinny v. "Curvy"

Degrees v. no degrees (or even multiple degrees v. 1 degree or less)

Working out v. not working out

Partying v. staying at home (I'm noticing this a lot between some of my friends who are all parents, I have friends on both sides of this argument)

Having kids v. not having kids

With a lot of these it seems that it is socially acceptable to pick on one side of the argument but not the other and that the arguments can be taken so far that relationships are ruined.  Let's look briefly at some of these and see if you can relate at all.

Skinny v. Curvy:

A fat person can defend themselves by calling themselves curvy, or blame it on "genetics".  These same people can tell someone else that they're too skinny, work out too much, have too much muscle, should eat a sandwich, or any other number of things.  BUT if the skinny person were to say the opposite things to the fat person then the skinny person clearly hates fat people and is a jerk.  The big person can say "you're a bag of bones, go eat something" and that's cool, but if you say "you're a fat ass, step away from the sandwich", you're an asshole.

Degrees v. no degrees:

Apparently you can rag on someone for getting a degree and trying to better themselves, but trust me, you are not allowed to tell the same person who lacks a degree that they are stupid for not going on in education.  I realize that some people are drawn to school and others have no desire to sit in a classroom, but unless you're wanting to be a doctor without going to school, why does it bother you who went to school and who didn't?  Congrats, you are picking on someone who has a degree to say they're smarter than you in "X" subject.  This one really irritates me.

Working out v. Not working out:

I find this one hilarious.  It's a personal favorite of mine when someone sits in front of me and says that that they want to lose 30+ pounds but they don't want to workout.  I also love it when people tell me that working out is bad for you.  Clearly.  I am a huge fan of the saying that 80% of the key to success in weight loss starts in the kitchen, but you're still missing 20%.  Also, if you're not willing to take care of that first 80% AND not do the other 20%, then you're probably screwed.

Partying v. staying in:

I get to watch this war on Facebook all the time, I feel like it's a little soap opera that I get to read every day.  I have zero stance on this, I'm just watching.  My two cents are that if you choose to have children and still go out to party that you take care of your kids first.  You can choose to not go out and party but still spend your money on other things and be a crappy parent.  I get to watch people talk about not affording clothes for their kids, but yet they can afford alcohol on the weekend.  OR they talk about not affording heat for their house, scream religion at those who drink and label them as bad parents, but yet their closet rivals that of an major department store.  

Finally, this one made a big splash just a couple weeks ago and it was 100% unintentional: *Disclaimer, this is my blog and unless you can behave don't comment*

Kids v. No Kids:

Holy Fancy Moses!  I had absolutely no idea that there was such a divide between these two camps!  Some people simply don't like kids (me and a lot of my friends), some people love being around kids (my sister teaches 3 year olds, some of my friends have multiple children, clearly for them).  I don't think there is something inherently wrong with either of these ideas.  I also realize that some people may end up with kids and still hate everyone else's kids.  It works the same way with animals.  I love my animals more than most people, but if your dog wants to hump my leg, pee on everything, or be smaller than my cat, then no.  I will not like your dog.  Does this make me anti-dog?  Heck no!  But yeesh!  I was sent messages telling me I would be a terrible parent and I should never have kids simply because I was complaining about getting on a plane to Orlando (Disney) with screaming children.  This is not my cup of tea.  I didn't say anything to the kids or their parents, but I guess I should keep my thoughts to myself about not liking little Johnny who is screaming at the top of his lungs because he can't see Goofy yet.  My bad.  (sarcasm)  

This entire rant brings me to my point.  Why is your view better than mine?  Why is my view better than yours?  Why does there have to only be one thing that's right?  And why are there so many socially acceptable one way streets on views?  There are a lot of big things that I think most people agree on, but these other issues really don't impact anyone else.  You think someone is too skinny?  Unless they're unhealthy or asking you how to gain weight then leave them alone.  What about too fat?  I'm a personal trainer and I'm still not going to bug you if I think you're too fat.  Now if you come up and directly ask me questions then I will give you brutal honest answers.  If you're 45% body fat and need to lose 50 pounds, I'm not going to think it's cute when you call yourself "fluffy".  Kids v. no kids?  I don't care how many kids you have so long as you don't expect me to take care of them.  Just don't turn around and tell me that I'm a terrible person because I don't like your kid.  There are so many other issues; guns v. no guns, abortion, drugs, trucks v. prius, mac v. pc, rich v. poor, the list is endless!

I'm not trying to tick anyone off, I have just been noticing a lot of these arguments springing up more frequently.  I find a lot of these things entertaining to hear the arguments, but then at the same time I get to see a lot of people get their feelings hurt or feel put down and there is no "socially acceptable" retaliation.  Knock it off.