I woke up the morning of Day 11 feeling “pretty good”. There have been moments over the last couple of days when I was downright giddy. Not a bad change if you ask me 🙂

It’s Saturday, but this isn’t just any Saturday. No, It’s the Saturday before I begin to put my 2013 workout plans into action. I have some goals for the year. They are goals that I will not achieve unless I chip away at them a bit at a time. For starters, I plan to end the year among the red belts at my DoJang, which is the last color before black. I’ve been training for about a year and a half so far. It would be fantastic if I avoided injury this year. I’m done with concussions, blown out knees, and broken toes (to name a few). The talk of injury prevention brings me to my next point. I hope to resume spinning this year. I quit last April after an accident in the parking lot of the gym where I injured both knees and was out for weeks – I was running, full speed, through the parking lot because I was late for spinning class… and I tripped. Parking lots and I do not have a good track record (no, I do not care to elaborate lol). I will say that this time my face avoided pavement – whew!

Lastly, I am planning to run my first marathon at the end of this year. I’ve done a couple of half-marathons in the last two years. I’ve always wanted to do at least one marathon. The Husband and I plan to train here (almost 7K feet elevation), but sign up for a race closer to sea level. Since I don’t have my base built back up, I’ll begin my “pre-training” next week. I am hopeful that eating these gorgeous raw foods will energize these runs. When I did the raw thing last year, I remember having ultra fast recovery times and it only taking me a quarter mile to feel “warmed up”, when it took as much as two miles before. Also, my paces were naturally increasing with almost every run.

So, these are my plans, but I want to have fun with them too. I don’t want to become so focused on the end goal that I can’t laugh at myself when I have to take three tries before I break a board with a back kick (happened in my last test lol). I don’t want to become so focused on the burn that I can’t “hoot and hollar” with the other rock stars in spinning class. And, I don’t want to become so focused on beating some time that I don’t even make it to the starting line of the marathon… much less the finish.

Are you looking to make some changes in 2013? Check out The Journey for more information.

*********************************************************************************************

What I read: Job 29-31

What I ate:

• Breakfast – Ten oranges juiced with electric citrus juicer
• Lunch – 10 Bananas blended with 8oz of water – YUM!
  
• Dinner – 1/2 large watermelon, 1 pound of romaine, 1 cup of grape tomatoes, 1 cup golden tomatoes with persimmon dressing (1 persimmon, 1 cutie, cilantro, parsley blended together)
  

What I did: Went for a 43 min walk with the Husband 🙂

Here are the notes I made regarding my symptoms throughout Day 11:

• slowed digestion (gas, abdominal pain, bloating)
  
• headaches
  
• puffy hands, feet, and face (thank you, salt) – I thought during the first week that my face looked really old and tired… it’s looking more youthful now. Still gets a bit puffy in the evenings.
  
• sinus congestion – very little
  
• dry/itchy eyes, skin, and scalp
  
• acne – clearing, almost gone
  
• aching muscles and muscle spasms
  
• foggy brain
• irritability
  
• mood swings – better, because I’m getting better at “talking out” what is bothering me rather than bottling it up. The Husband and I had a bit of a communication issue and rather than let it make me sulk, I talked about it… rationally lol. Everything was instantly better.
  
• blood sugar fluctuations
  
• fatigue – very little
  
• unable to sleep well – slept well.
  
• unquenchable thirst (again, thank you, salt) – much better
  
• cravings – I smelled fried chicken today. It smelled good. The Husband thought so too, but then we talked about it and realized that we associated the smell with good memories from our childhood… that was the attraction, not the food itself.