Chug-along-chica!

Hey Lybi! I just got back from a week out of town and was catching up on the blog. I looked over your last week. You're doing AWESOME! Great mileage and pace and yes you should absolutely pat yourself on the back for running through an Arizona summer! Sidenote- I'm not the healthiest eater, but I am mostly a vegetarian. I do eat fish, but that's the only meat Jim & I eat. Just saw that you were toying with the idea....

Good job on the run today! Have fun with the diet...I'm definitely out on that one. No sugar? That's just wrong :)

Great job today Lybi, and on the no sugar diet there is no way I could do that either, I am a wimp. But I will see how you do and then maybe I might try it if you notice anything good from it...

GoodLuck.

It is a good experiment. You actually did it for a few months before if I recall. Of course you were not running then. I am up to 7 1/2 minutes on the elliptical exerciser. I am waiting to feel more energetic. So far I am more tired at night. But a good tired. I am trying to cut down on sugar and white flour. More whole grains. I am thinking about getting some Splenda. Is that a good idea?

I'll do it with you.

FYI, the temperature this morning was a balmy 67 degrees. Woohoo! It was awesome. Great job on your run, I am more impressed that you did not feel like you were pushing it really hard. There is no doubt that you will be able to run a great time at your next 5K - I would think somewhere in the low 26:00 range would be well within your grasp.

For a second there, you had me scared, Sasha. I hadn't read the other comments yet. I misread your comment to think you would run a race with me. I think I would probably explode or something from effort. Or maybe pull one of these (see this video!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWheGgqmq0A

Congrats, Lybi! I am inspired by the weather, too! It's because of my bday, you know. ;) I was so invigorated, I cleaned out my van while the baby napped (my other two girls helped), and (3 laundry baskets & one box of trash later...) I even vacuumed it.

I really feel like I need to cut out my dairy for awhile, because even a relatively small amount made me miserable Friday night. Soooo, it's not the same as your diet, but I will cut out the dairy this week. (For those who don't know, I am sensitive to milk and have mood-altering, unpleasant but ignorable physical symptoms when I have too much of it too often. Since I enjoy cheese, etc so much, I pretend I don't have this problem. >>) I've got to go to the store! lol

Congrats on yet another training PR. I agree with hubby James that a 26:00 could very well happen at your next 'official' 5K.

Good luck on the diet also. I've sort of been doing this diet the last month but I can't say that I've been 100%. But I do think it has helped my training and definitely helped me get rid of my "India gut".

Christi: that's cool that you are a pescawhateveryoucallitvegetarian. Do you eat eggs and milk products?

Mik'L: Thanks, eating mainly algae and wheat grass is wrong, no sugar is just "mildly odd", doncha think?

Clay: this is easy compared to doing 50 min. on the elliptical trainer, so you are definitely NOT a wimp.

Mom: Great job! I'm so proud to be descended from you. Love you.

James: Thanks, I'd be faster than that if you'd just let me hang on to your shirt...

Holly: Every 15 min. spent cleaning a car is worth at least mile ;). Hey, I'll eat your dairy and you eat my sugar. Actually, it's the Pringles and bread I think I'll miss most. Be sure to eat at least one can of Pringles this week. Pizza flavor.

Lybi - they actually sell a gadget that allows one runner to tow the other. I would be illegal to use during a race, but it would make for an excelling training tool, it will reprogram your mind, and then eventually the body will catch up.

Also, as your fitness increases, the cravings for bad food decrease. They say you are what you eat, but I think the reverse is true as well, you want to eat what you currently are. So with that in mind, if you want to become better, you start by eating better than what you feel like to jump start yourself.

We had to know that if there WAS such a gadget, Sasha would know about it. hehe! Speaking of comical runs involving a leash...8)

You may have to clarify on the "no sugar" part of the diet. You still can eat fruit and normal foods sweetened (but not oversweetened) w/ healthy alternatives to white sugar, right?

I will totally look into having a can of Pringles w/out dairy for you.8) hehe I'm not sure if there is one... Have some "cheeese!" (-wallace) for me. :)

Good job on the new record! As for the diet, I'm not sure if I could handle that? Yes please clarify. Maybe white flour or sugar, I like baby steps! But keep us informed and I'll make up my mind after tomorrow! Callzee just reminded me that I'm going on a feild trip with her tomorrow. It's to Provo, like over 4 hours on the bus with 5th graders. They limited parent's to about 3, and I woke up not feeling so great after work last night today.... I think I'm gonna need all the white flour, refined sugar and anything else bad that I can think of to get through the day. Caffine, formaldihyde? (spelling) anything else you can think of I might benefit from? Oh I better feel better and get out and run today, til I'm dead so I will be in a comma for the bus ride! (I always dread this, but when it's all said and done, it's usually not too bad!) we'll see!

Michelle - in 2003 after missing the Trial's Qualifier in St. George, I decided although the chances were slim, I would run a few Saturday marathons around the country to be able to live with a peace of conscience for the next 3 years knowing that I had done my honest best. To make the long story short, I found myself running my 6th marathon of the year in Huntsville, AL one week after having run another. I started out hard, was still off pace, but was hanging in there until 18. Then the wall hit me in full measure. I got to the finish, and now another marathon started immediately. My flight was leaving from Atlanta which was 3.5 hours away soon enough that I had only enough time to get changed and go. I knew that I would be drowsy, and I would absolutely have no chance to stop and take even a 10 minute nap, so to deal with the problem I grabbed lots of grapes and yellow bananas from the race, and headed for the airport (got a new PR, 3:02 from the start of the race to being dressed and driving). First hour was terrible, but after getting some food in I was fine, never drowsy. No caffeine, no junk food, stayed awake just fine, it can be done.

Congratulations Lybi! And I wish you the best of "consistency."

And now about Eclipse, I finished Saturday. I put my thoughts, predictions, and questions on my blog today. Check it out if you have time.

I have the following things to say:

I'm sure my neighbors would love to see James dragging me around the neighborhood on a tether. I'm going to end up on Americas Funniest Videos if I'm not careful.

No sugar/white flour=no white sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, white flour or anything that has these things in the ingredients. So no ketchup. Darn. So far, honey, fructose (fruit sugar), molasses, stevia, and splenda are ok as sweetners. (Why is honey oK? Isn't it just liquid sugar, chemically? Maybe only raw honey?)

And I haven't finished Eclipse yet. There's some controversy over some of the smoochy scenes. I've heard mixed reviews. (Did you find anything in it offensive?)

Lybi, your great, the PRs will keep coming. You have so much excitement in your words - No doubt, sawdust with a little salt and pepper can taste great. What will you eat for the next two weeks? What counts as sugar? frutose?

Lybi,

I am so happy you are trying the no sugar, no white flour. It can be done. Decide you will stick with it for a week no matter how you feel or how much you want it. I did it a few years ago and now I eat very little sugar or white flour. If you do it long enough, sugar-sweetened foods your previously ate with abandon, will seem extremely sweet to you. We gradually changed our household to whole grain everything and radically reduced our sugar intake. You know what happened? We take two bites of something with sugar in it and are satisfied. We don't like regular pasta anymore because it is too slimy and bland.

Ok, you've asked some questions, that I have answers for. I have done a lot of research (reading) on sugar and its metabolism in the body. I have particularly focused on high fructose corn syrup. The bottom line is HFCS (or corn syrup as is often on the labels) is evil. When it gets into your body, it goes to your liver to be metabolized. It gets broken up into glycerides and each glyceride is hung on a three carbon backbone making it a TRIGLYCERIDE. Yes, the very thing docs look for in your blood and want you to lower because of heart disease, diabetes, etc. HFCS is in a lot of things including ketchup as you noted. It is also in salad dressing, medicine, and crackers. You will have to carefullly read labels. It is also in things that are considered "natural" even though HFCS is far from natural. One such item is Arizona Iced Tea, also Snapple. Fructose, is a fruit sugar and is usually consumed with fiber which helps mediate insulin levels making it a safer sugar to consume physiologically. Honey is mostly fructose, but also has glusose and a minuscule amount of sucrose in it.

You might consider trying to avoid the artificial sweeteners. Some are metabolized into things similar to wood alcohols in the body and some still cause insulin to increase as if you have consumed regular sugar.

After the initial shock of depriving your body of sugar and white flour, you most likely will find you are less habituated to the taste and the changes will become a habit! Good luck!

Wow Lulu! What a bunch of great info...I'll never eat corn syrup again! I've already noticed that my taste buds have shifted somewhat BC the other day I ate a really good peach, and it tasted SUPER sweet. It could've been candy, it was so sweet.

So honey IS better than sugar. That's interesting, and good to know. So far I haven't even had any honey. I am still going strong eating lots of whole grains and produce. (And when I say whole grain, I mean I could plant it, it's so whole!)