THANKSGIVING CAN HURT US!

After a long semester at school, few students can wait until Thanksgiving break when they can return home for a few much needed days of rest and comfort. Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday for college students because it gives them four days to do nothing but sit around watching sports and eating....A LOT! It's true, the mindset of most people at the holidays is that over-eating and stuffing our faces is alright because it's a special occasion. Not to mention the fact that eating is a social activity, and many of us tend to overeat in large gatherings because we do it unconsciously.

Anyways, a recent study came out that stated that the average college student gains an average of 2 pounds over thanksgiving break. The number may not seem like much, but if you consider the fact that the weight gain is accumulated after only 3 days then it becomes a problem of much concern for overall health. Another concern comes from the fact that while consuming all the extra holiday calories and treats, students aren't moving much, not even getting the little activity they usually do when walking to and from classes.

The article in many ways served as a warning to many college students. While it's understandable that the pressure to please doting relatives and the yearning for home cooking is high, it's important not to let yourself go during the holidays. No one is saying to hit the gym and go on a crash diet but be sensible. If your eating that extra piece of cake, get up and move a bit!

FESTIVAL

About an hour ago our field hockey team returned to St. Louis after a five day tournament in Palm Springs, California. This trip was scheduled to be our end of the year culmination, but with the way regular season ended i was pretty nervous to see how we were going to do. Since our season ended we have been holding practices twice a week in the fitness center doing one grueling hour of conditioning and strength training, 20 minutes of sprints and stairs, and a piddly half hour scrimmage. However, to my suprise the one factor that helped us keep an edge during the whole tournament was our endurance and conditioning level. The teams we played against at festival were made up of co-ed international players, alum division 1 players, and any other person who was gung ho field hockey. So needless to say it was a merciless few days.
Looking back at the six games we played against all the teams i can honestly say i was impressed by the way our team rose to play these "field hockey enthusiasts" by taking a beating and pretty much schooling each team we played whether we won or lost. Since we began our training for the marathon and our gym workouts i saw such an improvement in the way we played with each other and how we dealt with other teams. We ran circles around our competition.
I left this weekend with a new respect and excitement for my team and next season. We saw that our training is paying off and being immersed in a world where field hockey is worshipped really has the affect of putting passion for the sport and for being an athlete back into your heart.

SOMETHING TO KEEP YOU GOING

"People don't play sports because its fun. Ask any athlete, most of them hate it, but they couldnt imagine their life without it. Its part of them, the hate/love relationship. Its what they live for. They live for the practices, parties, cheers, long bus rides, invitationals, countless pairs of different types of shoes, water, Gatorade, and coaches you hate but appreciate. They live for the way it feels when you beat the team next to you by 1 point in overtime, and you know those 2 extra sprints you ran in practice were worth it. They live for the way you become a family with your team, they live for the countless songs you sing in your head when your running ALL those suicides. They live for the competition, they live for the friends, the practices, the memories, the pain, its who they are. It's who we are. WE ARE ATHLETES..."

PLAYLIST #1

This is just a little suggestion that i'm offering out to the general public...i know taht it's next to impossible for me to run without my music, but you can't always have the same playlist or CD to listen to because it's just like running the same course over and over everyday....it gets DULL! So here is a playlist that has been keeping me moving this week. Enjoy!

We'll call this one "Take a SEAT!"

• "Someday" --Flipsyde
• "Just Like a Pill" -- Pink
• "Ring the Alarm" -- Beyonce
• "Runaway" -- The Real McCoys
• "Home" -- Bone Thugs
• "Only One" -- Yellowcard
• "Let the Drummer Kick it" -- Citizen Cope
• "Ass in your Face" -- Ebony Eyes
• "Remember the Name" -- Fort Minor
• "Here in Your Arms" -- Hellogoodbye
• "I'll Never Leave" -- Lumidee (GREAT BEAT TO RUN TO!!)
• "Southside" -- Moby
• "Roses" -- Outkast

Pretty Random...yes...BUT if your bored with running, why not try somthing new!

ON THE RISE

This month on MSN there was an article about how women these days are impacting the world of running. The article went beyond talking about women marathoners (although there was a 13% increase in professional women runners), and covered the rapid increase in recreational women runners.
According to the article women are the heart and soul of the increase and rapid spread and popularity of running as a sport these days. We have overcome a huge milestone and are becoming the driving force keeping the athletic sporting goods companies in growing business. The theory behind this growth dates back to the Title XI bill in the late 70's.
Girls around this age (early to late 20's) are the fastest growing running population. Our generation of women grew up being able to play sports in grade and high school. We were raised as athletes, and at the time comes for us to retire from organized sports, we have turned to running as our alternative to stay healthy and moving. So if at anytime younger women feel down and under appreciated, just look at the mark we have made to one of the biggest markets in todays world. We made an impact here, and who knows where else we could leave one...

DOVE 'EVOLUTION'





This post is just a little follow up to the one i put up about the media messing with women's ideas of beauty and body image. Someone in one of my classes this week showed this during out discussion of our society's obsession with sexy. This video is just anonther way to illustrate the way that our minds are controlled and tricked on a daily basis. Don't fall for it anymore!!

POWER

"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. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Considering the quote above, do you ever feel that the thing that holds us back the most in the goals we are trying to achieve is not that we believe we will fail, but that we know somewhere inside us is the power to rise and succeed beyond our own perception? I was considering this the other day on my morning run. I was coming up to this huge hill and i told myself i could do it and get through the rest of my run if i took the hill slowly. However, once i got to the base of the hill i decided i wanted to get it done with and sprint, and i made it up the hill and i didn't get sore, and i didn't slow the rest of my run.
Then i got to more thinking. What if what holds us back is not failure. What if we are held back by our own personal belief in our boundaries and limits. We hold ourselves back and tell ourselves to go slower if we get tired during sprints, but what if we just went harder? What is it that is stopping someone who always finishes third in a race from just letting go of everything and knowing they CAN finish first? I think that it's not as easy as just telling yourself you believe it, you really have to let your mind believe it and let go of the boundaries you have set in your mind for yourself. Just let go.

REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES

It's hard to have a blog on running and staying in shape without ever discussing body image. Obviously, my biggest goal is to complete my life goal and run a marathon, but i'm not going to lie when i say the way my body is changing isn't an added perk.
We live in a society where thin is in. Models and actresses seen in the media give women a false sense of what they should look like...this is nothing new. The images we as a culture are trying to imitate and reproduce on our own bodies are unrealistic and they are hurting us. It's becoming socially beautiful to look like a skeleton, and the real women out there, the ones with curves are suffereing by getting the brunt of critism and poor self-image.
This is what i think, and it's taken me a while to gain this perspective, curves are beautiful, and everyone was made to look different. This is why i'm especially appreciative in the steps we've been taking towards bettering body images. One example is the recent ban of models that were too thin from fashion week in Milan, Italy. But my favorite way the perspective is shifting is in the media with advertising. Big name corporations like Nike and Dove are leading the way towards a better future for women with their new advertising campaigns.

"I have thunder thighs. And that's a compliment because they are strong and toned and muscular. And though they are unwelcome in the petite section, they are cheered on in marathons. Fifty years from now, i'll bounce a grandshild on my thunder thighs, and then i'll go out for a run."

A lot of people have a problem with ads like this one saying that it promotes the idea that it creates unflattering images to think about, and that somehow it's okay to be heavier........IT IS!!! It's not about everyone fitting into one idea of what sexy or beautiful is, it's about emulating beauty and sexiness from what you already have. I love these ads, and i'm all for the media changing to help girls accept themselves more.

"My Butt is big and round like the letter C, and 10,000 lunges have made it rounder but not smaller. And that’s just fine. It’s a space heater for my side of the bed. It’s my ambassador. To those who walk behind me, it’s a border collie that herds skinny women away from the best deals at clothing sales. My butt is big and that’s just fine. And those who might scorn it are invited to kiss it."

THINGS THAT COME UP

So if i haven't mentioned it before, i live in a house on campus with 5 other girls, who are all beautiful fun people. I love the girls i live with, however, at this age, and in a setting where you put 6 insecure young women together, certain issues are bound to arise. Last year the issues first started to come up, only they were unspoken, and existed as a silent competition. The issues we faced together were body and food issues.
In our house, every single girl was either experiencing or trying to recover from some sort of eating disorder and in the off season it really got intense. We all had our own agendas and time to kill ourselves at the gym working out because we had no practice or sport to concern ourselves with. For me personally, i wouldn't say i had a certain type of eating disorder, it was more a combination of disorders. I would wake up and run, go to class and run, then i headed to the gym until i went to dinner. Some days i kept my food down, but other days i would throw up before i got in the shower, so that the noise of the water would cover up the sound of what i was doing to myself.
It wasn't hard for my friends to realize what was going on, partially because they were sensitive to it because they were doing the same, and because i spent my days running at least 5 miles, and i did not like to run. Up until the very end of school my roommates and i suffered through this silent competition trying to outdo each other in body image and exercise stamina. By the time i went home my friends i hadn't seen all year began to notice my different behaviors and the way i looked. Something i thought would disappear when i got out of the situation of my house only got worse, because i had more privacy and free time at home. All day i thought about food and how many calories were in this food, or how long could i wait until eating my next snack, or making myself feel so guilty about the last thing i ate. My thoughts started to get worse and i found myself only thinking about what i ate or how much i was going to exercise later in that day. My empty days were kept busy making lists of restricted foods, and designing complex exercise regimes. In the time i wasn't eating or exercising i would look through magazines trying to find the perfect figure or secretly admiring the discipline people with real eating disorders had.
By the time i left formy summer job in the mountains, i was a mess.The thing that saved me from myself was working at a summer camp. I lived with 40 insecure 13 year olds, and when you live with that much insecurity and hear them worry about themselves when they are stick thin, you really get a new perspective. The perspective i gained was how ridiculous i must sound. It's like the Baz Luhrman speech, "Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, nevermind, you won't understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded, but trust me in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine."
So although i got into shape this summer, it wasn't just for field hockey and sports. I was in shape because i was recovering from my eating issues, and although i still exercised a lot, my thoughts were getting cleaner, and i was able to repress most of the guilt and negative feelings in my head. I like to think that i am better now, i have accepted my body and the fact that i was made to look a different. I wasn't designed to be a stick, i am an athlete. I have curves, and i love my curves now.
Back to the point of this whole story....so i'm afraid of the off-season. I'm afraid my training will be confused with a disorder, or that i am using my training for a subconscious way to let the disease come back.

YET ANOTHER REASON TO RUN

Nike Running Commercial

CONQUERING THE LOOP

I have conquered the loop. The past two years i've pecnt my time hating every second of the loop, blacking out from my memory the time i spend on the loop, and pretty much just counting down the seconds until it's over. But the other day i ran the loop with my roommate and inspirational running buddy, Darby, and we ran the entire 2.5 miles in 18 minutes and spent the whole time having a full-blown conversation.
The end of the loop caught me by suprise, not because i was out of breath or because my legs hurt, but instead because our conversation was cut off when we realized we couldn't run any further. Instead of feeling happy and kind of excited at the fact that we could run the loop so easily, instead i felt disappointed. I felt like now there was no challenge, nothing to keep me angry and push me to go harder.
Now we have to find a new "loop", or some other longer, harder course to run. We need to find a way to keep us running harder and harder and not getting easier on ourselves because the loop is suddenly a cake walk. The river run may have to be the new loop. I hate the river run.

SOMETHING TO KEEP ME GOING

"If the miles behind me could be put into words before you...you would feel my efforts, my struggles, my desires, but most of all you would see my joy...watch me from afar run the trails and hills and miles upon miles you will see..."

"If you want to be the best runner you can be, start now. Don't spend the rest of your life wondering if you can do it." --Priscilla Welche

"Everyone who has run knows that it's most important value is in removing tension and allowing release from whatever cares the day may bring"