The Reason You Can't Go Barefoot in Kansas.

Since little Miss Yahoo is in preschool every morning now I've been enjoying running outside again rather than on a treadmill all the time. I really enjoy running in Kansas. There may not be hills or trees to enjoy but the sense of incredible spaciousness (and wind) can be exhilarating! 

I finished a morning run just the other day where I had ran through town, through a few ditches and dirt roads....overall a great run. But then I went to untie my shoes. 

This dear friends is the reason no one ever goes barefoot in SW Kansas. This is the reason why so many people out here wear boots. Burrs. Folks, these aren't anything like those sweet little burrs you'll find in Illinois or Indiana. Those little burrs that grab onto your clothes after walking in the Indiana woods, you know, the ones you easily brush off.  Nope, Kansas burrs are downright NASTY!! 

They are big and their spikes are HARD and painful.They sting even if you try to pull them off gently. So much so that I won't touch them with my bare fingers. I pulled these off my shoes with toilet paper. They stick to everything! 

I even found some securely stuck onto the sole hard soles of my running shoes. 

I've heard these called "goat burrs" and "sand burrs". I'm not sure if there's a difference between those two names or exactly which burrs were stuck all over my shoes. I have my own special name for these burrs "*#$&*@@# BURRS!!!!!" 

Burrs are also the reason you don't sit or lay down on the ground either. Yip learned that the hard way the first year we were here. We were out in the country at a friend's house and he lay down in their yard and came up with his back covered in these burrs!! He's never forgotten it either! 

Sunday Devotions - Body Splendor!!!!

Let me just start off by saying that this post is probably one of the hardest I've ever written. The thought of sharing this subject with you has caused me a lot of anxiety. I'm literally biting my nails off as I write this. Why?? Well, I'm about to share a few photos of myself...in a sports bra. Showing my pregnancy stretch marks...from twins...and a c-section. (I wouldn't blame you at all if you ran screaming from this site right now.) 

Okay though, let's back up. Why exactly am I sharing a post of my half naked body with you on a SUNDAY DEVOTION? It's kind of a long story so let's start at the beginning. 

I've always been athletic. All through high school and college I played sports. After college I continued running and lifting weights and started doing some yoga. I never worked out or exercised because I was trying to attain the "perfect body" or anything. I just really enjoy how my body feels after I exercise. But any girl who spends a decade playing on sports teams spends their fair share in a locker room with other girls. It's no surprise I have a few hang ups about how my body looks. It sure hasn't helped either that my stomach has gone through some trauma. My first pregnancy I carried twins full term (and gained 60 pounds) and my second ended with an emergency c-section. Fun scars abound!! 

Earlier in the year I found a website that I have absolutely fell in love with, Bodyrock. A few times a week the Bodyrock site posts 12 minute workouts (alternating rounds of 50 seconds work, 10 seconds rest) along with a video on how to do each move. Twelve minutes may not sound like a lot but these workouts are HARD!! I'm always sweating like a pig when I'm done and there's lots of times I can't make it through an exercise without a break. It's awesome that the workouts are only 12 minutes too, no excuses! Bodyrock encourages those working out with them to take a photo of themselves once a month or so to really see the difference Bodyrocking can make. Some Bodyrockers even end up sharing those photos on Facebook as inspiration for others. 

I'd thought about sharing my photos but couldn't bear the thought of showing my stretched out stomach to 50,000+ Facebook followers! AAACCCKKK!! 

But I have taken photos along the way. This is me on May 1st, 2012. I am so insecure I couldn't even bear to get my head in the image! 

So back to Bodyrock. One of the hosts, who does AWESOME workouts by the way, has shared a couple of plastic surgeries that she's had on the site; a breast enhancement and a nose job. And she's caught a lot of criticism for doing so. Lots of people say she was beautiful to begin with and she didn't need to get the plastic surgeries and that now that she's had two she won't be able to stop. I had to agree, she didn't need that work done. She had an awesome body...BUT I also thought it shared a LOT of courage a bravery to share her insecurities with others . After that I got to thinking a bit more of sharing my photos but STILL couldn't bear to do so. 

Until I was reading my Bible this week and came across this passage; 

^{1 Corinthians 15:38-44}  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

God created my body in splendor!! He created it to do wonderful things. I had 3 babies and dang, those stretch marks are a sign of the strength my body had while bringing life into this world! Okay, can you just say "WOW". God doesn't create mistakes. He gave me this body for a specific purpose, he created stretch marks for a reason too, and who am I to question that he's made a mistake. According to God my body is grand! Why shouldn't I be proud of it?

So here's me after about 5 months of Bodyrocking on October 4, 2012

There's not a huge change but I can certainly tell a difference in my love handles and I DEFINITELY feel stronger with more energy. It's amazing the workouts I can do now, with no problems, that I couldn't do 5 months ago. It's also amazing how much more energy I have to spend on my family! 

Look, I have a head in this one!! Ha, ha! 

The previous photos were really hard for me to share on my blog. (All my fingernails are gone now!) But the next image is by far the hardest to share. 

My Twin Skin.

Yep that's my belly. Gross isn't it? 

No, no it's NOT GROSS. (I have to keep reminding myself of that!)

My stretched out tummy did wonderful things, it brought three glorious children into this world. God is more than happy with how I look and I should be too. 

In this world we get so wrapped up in how we look that we forget that this earthly body is fleeting. This will not be the body we inhabit in heaven, that body will be glorious! But this earthly body and earthly life and world holds its own splendor. God doesn't make mistakes, we don't need to "fix" anything he's created. 

Embrace it. Be proud. Our bodies, our lives are gifts. If we feel the need to strive for a "perfect" body though the earthly one shouldn't be our focus. Rather we should strive for perfection in spirit. 

Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for the strength of my body. Thank You for stretching out my tummy because it reminds me of just how glorious this earthly body You created is!! It can do fabulous things! Help me find perfection in spirit and not worry about this short lived earthly body. There are definitely more important things to worry about than that. Amen! 

Running; snow, hills, wind...I love it.

I love to run. I run 6 days a week. My dad thinks I'm crazy; he always tells me that's why cars were invented so I wouldn't have to run everywhere. 


I don't run to lose weight or win races, I rarely enter them. I'm not some jumbo health nut. I just run because I LOVE to run. Running can really be an addiction. Those times in my life, mostly during vacations, where I can't run for 3 or 4 days is painful, literally. My legs ache unless I can run. I can't imagine life without running because I've done it for so long. If I do the math it's been about....crap, 20 years I've been running. I started running cross country my junior year of high school and fell in love with long distance. 


Running is individual. No one can take the blame for my running failures. 
Running is meditative. I get a lot of praying done on my daily runs. 
Running is physical. Well, duh, of course it's physical. But I also mean that through running I've been physically able to experience the world in a way I wouldn't have if I hadn't been a runner. 

Most of my 20 years of running hasn't been on a treadmill; that little blessing has only been around for about 3. Because I've made it a habit of running 6 days a week I've also ran in all kinds of weather and on all the different terrain we've moved around to. 


In Illinois I ran in the winter on a treeless plain. I'd often have 2 pairs of pants and socks on, 3 shirts and sometimes a couple of hats. I ran with snow falling in my face while working hard to lift my frozen feet out of the drifts of snow. My winter runs were silent and clear. I finished my runs with snow in my socks and skin red from the cold but I enjoyed the runs despite the discomfort. It was a wonderful thing to see and listen to God's silence on those runs. 


In southern Indiana I ran on hilly gravel roads. I remember telling DR that my butt burned after my first week running there! I had never ran so many hills in my life! Running in Indiana I was surrounded by thick green trees that isolated me so completely, at least from humans anyway. Many times I spooked deer out of their morning grazing in the cornfields. I even came upon a stray horse one time! My Indiana runs were also accompanied by singing birds and the sounds one only hears in the woods. I ran in Indiana winters but it's the summers I remember the most. The hot gravel beneath my feet that kicked up the dust. The humidity completely enveloped me! I don't know how I ever breathed on some of those runs but I felt a fire in my lungs that made me happy I had worked so hard. 


About 6 years ago I was able to chaperone a group of high school students to West Virginia on a white water rafting trip. What fun that was! At the end of a day on the river a couple of the teenagers were going for a run and I tagged along. Well, dragged along was more like it. Those kids were ten years younger than me and in much better shape. How humbling! And if I thought the hills of southern Indiana were bad, oh boy, the mountains in W. Virginia were killer...but beautiful. I love to gaze on an Appalachian mountain slope because it evokes a sense of gentle aging I suppose. 


In Kansas I haven't done as much outside running as I've done in other states. I blame the convenience of my treadmill for that :) But I do get out on warm sunny days occasionally. Over the weekend I decided to go running on a day that we were having 40 mph wind gusts. You think I'm crazy? Yeah, probably. I ran half a mile to the west and yes it was windy but I was still in town protected by trees and houses. Once I reached the edge of town and turned to the south, where the wind was coming from, it was like running against a wall. I just couldn't move! It was kind of fun! But I couldn't keep it up so I ran back into town to the football field and ran around the track. It was exhilarating! Every turn of the track caused the wind to hit me from a different angle. I had to be so aware of where and how the wind was hitting me that it took some concentration not to get knocked over! I don't think I had ever had a run where I had to concentrate so hard on my body and what it was doing. 


I've written before how blessed I feel to have moved so many places and I'm also blessed to have been able to run in those places in a variety of different weathers. God has blessed me with people and places but also the opportunity to experience his world silently and humbly on my own. I wish I could take you all on these runs with me but I don't think they'd be as special if you weren't on your own. 


P.S. - Good running news! I'm up to running 5 days a week in my Vibram 5 Finger shoes! 

Me, My Shoes and My Major Pains in the....

Feet! Pains in the feet...what were you thinking? 

You know the stereotype about women? That we just love to shop, especially for shoes? That's not me. And never has been. Shopping for shoes or clothes has never been enjoyable to me. I just want to get what I need and get out. Imagine my despair when I had to throw out all my shoes and replace them. Oh no!!! 

Let me explain..I've suffered from foot pain for at least ten years. It had been on and off and, up until a year and a half ago, I could always do something to ease the pain. Put arch supports in my shoes, stop running for a while or just buy a new pair of shoes. I had to completely give up wearing flip flops about 5 years ago because they hurt my feet so badly. But about a year and half ago I was having serious and consistent foot pain for months that wouldn't go away no matter what I did. Many days I was on the verge of tears because the pain was so bad. I was to the point where I was running on my treadmill barefoot and I had a pair of flimsy canvas shoes I wore all the time because that was the closest to being barefoot. I didn't own one pair of shoes that didn't hurt and going barefoot was the only thing that could ease the pain. 

I finally went to a podiatrist who measured my feet and, lo and behold, I was wearing the wrong size shoes. I had been wearing size 9 since high school and the doctor said I needed a 8 1/2 wide shoe AND I had high rigid arches. I was wearing shoes that were too small, squeezing my feet and didn't have enough support. 

Great (insert sarcasm). I had to buy new shoes. 

I've went through a lot of shoes in the past year. Some worked (I bought men's cowboy boots because they are wider than women's and they feel great), some failed miserably (I still have to put arch supports in most of my shoes). But I just have to share the VERY BEST SHOES OF ALL TIME!!! 

Okabashi Shoes.

4 Reasons this company is awesome! 

1. Made in the USA

2. These shoes are completely recyclable. 

When your shoes wear out, send them back to Okabashi and they'll make them into a new pair. 

3. My feet have NEVER hurt in Okabashi shoes. (They're endorsed by the American Chiropractic Society.)

4. VERY affordable. Prices range from $13 - $20 dollars a pair. 

I just received two new pairs last week. These are Clogs. 

The Okabashi shoes are rubber like, not soft and foamy like Crocs but sturdier. 

Each pair of Okabashi shoes have a built in arch support. I've been wearing these brown ones all over the house and I've forgotten that I'm even wearing them. They are that comfortable. 

Please ignore my ugly toes. 

I also got a new pair of Classic Flip Flops this week! 

Last summer I wore a green pair of Okabashi flip flops everyday. No joke. I wore them to church, in the garden, EVERY WHERE! They felt so very good on my feet. I hadn't been able to wear flip flops for 5 years! Okabashi has been a blessing for my feet. 

My green ones aren't worn out either; they really do last. 

I just wanted a second pair for the summer. (Guilty pleasure)

My favorite part of these Okabashi shoes are the little bumps. It's like getting a foot massage all day long! That's my idea of heaven right there. 

GREAT SHOE #2 -Vibram 

I run a lot; 20+ miles a week. I did end up getting new running shoes after I remeasured my feet but I enjoyed running barefoot so much that I kept doing it a few days a week on my treadmill for the past year. Although running barefoot feels good, with my high arches I can't do it everyday or my feet start really hurting again. I have found that my feet feel much stronger than they did a year ago. 

DR bought me a pair of Vibram FiveFinger shoes for Christmas!

I admit, I over did in these shoes the first week I had them and ran in them 4 days in a row and my feet hurt for a week. I'm smarter now; a couple days on and a couple days off. 

Basically the philosophy is that our bodies were never made to shoes and the shoes we do wear make the muscles in our feet and legs weak and throws off our alignment. Naturally, our feet are designed to work best barefoot but after decades of wearing shoes (on concrete, not natural), it takes time to adjust to wearing or running in these shoes on a daily basis. 

So even though my feet should be able to go barefoot, I've spent too much time in other shoes and I don't have the strength in my arches (yet) to wear these shoes everyday. 

Despite not being able to wear them everyday I do love these shoes. They are comfortable to run in and much warmer than I anticipated. I don't wear socks with them though you can buy toe socks off the Vibram website. There's plenty of traction so I don't have to worry about slipping in them. The bottom of these shoes are strong enough too that I don't have to worry about anything poking into my feet as I run. It's kind of difficult getting used to putting them on, I'm still working on getting the right toes in the right holes! And when you run in these you almost have to relearn your stride. I don't take as long of steps and my feet land more on the ball of my feet rather than the heel. I have found myself lately running at a faster pace in these shoes than traditional running shoes and that's encouraging! Vibram's aren't cheap though; $100+ per pair. However if they strengthen my feet I think the price is worth it. 

My feet problems are probably totally different than yours but if you are looking for a new pair of shoes I definitely recommend that you check out Okabashi and Vibram FiveFingers! That may have something just for you. 

These shoes are making me constipated.

Let me start off by telling you I'm a runner. I've considered myself a runner since I was 16 years old and joined my high school cross country team. (Wow, has it been 18 years ago?) I've played volleyball, basketball, tennis and hiked all over the place. Needless to say, I've always had an active lifestyle. But sometimes I feel like my past is catching up to me!


For the last few years I've had some recurring pain in my right foot. I've learned this means I've stressed or pulled my foot muscles in some way. Usually rest and arch supports does the trick and I'm back to my old self in a couple weeks. Recently the old pain resurfaced, I wasn't able to run and was having trouble resting my foot the way I needed to. Oh the injustice!! Maybe I can't rest it correctly because with three kids I spend a lot more time on my feet than before!

Last week I was in WalMart and came across this pair of shoes. I wasn't planning on buying a new pair but as I looked at them something flicked in my brain. Wasn't the sole of this shoe designed to strengthen your feet somehow? Didn't I remember they were supposed to mimic your feet walking in sand or something? I vaguely remembered reading something about this type of shoe years before.


On a whim, for $25, I bought this pair of shoes and wore them for the next 4 hours. Late in the afternoon I realized my abs and butt muscles were working hard at keeping me balanced on those funky curves and boy, did I feel constipated! All those clenching muscles can't be good for keeping bathroom visits on schedule. But my feet were comfortable!


Then I hopped on the Internet to read up on these shoes and realized I probably wasn't supposed to have worn them for that long on the very first day. These are Danskin's version of the MBT or Mubai Barefoot Technology. True MBT shoes are priced in the $200+ range. This type of shoe was designed to imitate the footfall of the African Mubai tribe who walk in soft sand and have perfect posture. (If you want to read some more on MBT here is a couple informative sites I found; here, here and here.)


During the first week I wore them the pain in my foot decreased everyday. I wasn't icing it as much and I was lots less grumpy, always a plus! On the other hand other parts of my body (ankles, hips, knees) became sore because I was using muscles I hadn't used, or used correctly, in a long time.

In the middle of the week I took a 40 minute walk and they felt great but I realized just how bad my posture must be. Toward the end of the walk I had to work harder and harder to stand up straight and not slouch. Of course I probably wouldn't have noticed my posture without these shoes.

The pain in my foot is gone now but I'm not sure the shoes had much to do with it. (I did a few other things that I think had a bigger impact on my recovery.) On the other hand I really like walking around in these shoes. It's like getting a mini workout without trying!
So, anyone out there ever have shoes like these longer than a week? What do you think? Do you like em' or are they over rated? Could you ever see yourself wearing something like these?

Yip and Yap's 1 Mile Fun Run!

I'm a big runner. I run about six days a week and occasionally I'll compete in races but I never blog about it cuz...what's there to write about?

Left, right, left, right, breathe, right, left, right....that would get kind of boring!

But this morning the boys and I ran a 1 Mile Fun Run in our little town's summer festival. We had a great time and it was one of the more entertaining races I've ever ran!

First of all, the boys needed to warm up! Great a playground conveneniently nearby.

And a bit of mental preparation. Here's their race faces. Yip was quite serious!

This is the first race I've ran where the runners were bussed to the starting line, which was out in the country. The boys were more excited about the bus ride than the race!

The boys ran ahead while I pushed Yahoo in the stroller and they kept looking back to talk!

"Are we doing good Mom? Are you still back there?

 Hey, that guy is really far ahead of us!"

"Wow! Was that a dead toad on the road?

 Let's stop and check it out!"

They did great and had fun! They received their participation certificates and showed them off.

"Mom, what's a parsipapation cerficate?"

My Running Buddy In The Making.

We bought a treadmill about a month ago and I love it!! No more running in the rain and snow. No more running in three layers of clothes during the dead of winter. No more cancelling a run because it's too dark to see. No more dodging snowplows. No more being a mile away from the toilet when, well, you know.

I can read a book, run hills, take a drink, be warm, be close to a potty all during my run!

Seriously though,

 this.......

.....is the best perk of this treadmill. The training of my future running buddy!! Get going there Yahoo...we have races to train for!! 

Yoga vs. Tylenol

Disclaimer - I am not the women in the posted pictures...geez, I wish I looked that good!

I've been pretty athletic my whole life. Basketball, volleyball, tennis, hiking, canoeing, baling hay, working on a farm....I've been pretty active in my 33 years around here! But my addiction, the activity I can't do without is running. I run an average of six days a week. When I don't run my body aches from inactivity. You're thinking I'm crazy aren't cha? My dad can't figure out why I run this much either. "That's why cars were invented." he says. He's secretly embarrassed by me but don't tell him I know.

As all athletes know, eventually your body will get aches and pains and I was no exception. When I was younger Tylenol, a little stretching, maybe some Icy Hot was all I needed to get over minor discomforts. After the birth of my twins, about 4 or 5 years ago, my body seemed to be telling me that it was getting overworked. I was having pains in my shoulders and hips but the worst were the shooting pains I was getting in my feet. I tried changing running shoes and changing where I ran. I even had my feet x-rayed looking for a problem but nothing worked. Tylenol wasn't even making a dent in the pain. The pains got so bad I was limping all the time and could barely walk around the house. I was very, very grumpy. It drives me crazy when I can't run and here I was unable to run for weeks and stuck in a house with two babies. Grumpy doesn't even begin to describe it.

I went to the library one day looking for some alternative; an exercise video or something. Searching through the exercise books I found this book, Real Men Do Yoga, at the library. Seemed kind of interesting so I took it home to read...I didn't have much else to do. What I learned is repetitive motions through sports creates tension and muscle knots and causes our bodies to get out of alignment. Yoga helps athletes to combat all that wear and tear we do on our bodies by stretching things out and realigning our body to its natural position.

The first time I did yoga it was just doing poses from this book. I'm sure I was doing plenty of things wrong but even after that first time my body felt better, looser, more relaxed. Through the past few years I have tried to practice yoga a couple times a week. I have never lived close enough to any yoga studio to practice with a real instructor but I have been lucky enough to find some great resources online.

YogaToday is a great website that has a new live streaming yoga class everyday taught by three very different instructors. With its variety in levels of classes and types of yoga it is a great place for anyone who wants to practice yoga at home.

Recently I have also been downloading some yoga podcasts from iTunes to my MP3 player when my internet isn't available. Dave Farmar, Philip Urso, Elsie's Yoga Class, and Hillary's Yoga Practice. All four of these podcasts come in different lengths and levels, plus the instructors all have something different to offer in their practice.

By no means am I an expert on yoga or running...or much of anything for that matter! I'm just sharing my experience with you. When in pain we will do just about anything to get rid of it and yoga has helped me. Yoga has helped to relieve my pain, taught me to relax and even helped me through the birth of my daughter. Hopefully I'll get the chance to go to a real yoga studio someday to take a class but for now while living on the plains of Illinois this is my yoga...and it sure beats Tylenol!