Watch the windows, lovies.

Okay, okay, I admit it. I watch TV on Thursday nights. Oh, the horror, right? It’s a vice, I know. I could give it up anytime (says the addict?)! But I so like to laugh and there’s a bit of comedy on that night.


Anyway.

Since I was watching a network station, they fill their in-betweenie minutes with loads of commercials. I do not have fancy DVRing going on, so I am succumbed to patiently wait through them until the show comes back on. I saw some of those commercials (because really, who can sit still during a commercial, it’s the perfect time to go make toast, obviously) on and off and I must say, DUDE. WHAT THE HECK.

If you’ve heard the wild news lately, everyone is fighting about gun rights and whether or not the second amendment to the United States constitution should be eradicated or modified. Many people are very passionate about this – and I believe it is right that they ought to be. Let’s face it – bad guys are always going to get their hands on guns and other weapons. You might as well have a fighting chance.

Wherever it may be that you stand on that issue, that is not my point for today. (I apparently just wanted to get your blood pumping and freak you out for a minute, I guess. Did it work? Are you all high-blood-pressure-y now? Sorry.)

My issue has to do with these insane commercials for movies and other adverts. Try this – if you ever are up for an experiment, say what you see as commercials roll along. Last night, it would have been something like this:

Gangster, gun, punching, lipstick girl, kicking, shooting, more shooting, more gangsters, shooting people, explosions, shooting, driving off of a cliff, shooting people, gangsters, alcohol, shooting at people, punching, shooting, making out, shooting.

That’s just one commercial for a movie.

The next one and the next one are pretty much the same, in different order and you could swap out gangster for undercover police officer, army dude, bank robber, whatever the other minor theme of the movie is, since apparently the major themes of movies are “shoot people”.

I am not really a person who favors the banning of anything (even though I think our society would benefit from an absence of these movies). I think legalizing things actually reduces crime (blood pressure rising yet? Wow, it worked again!). Don’t freak out. It’s just my opinion. You can have yours, too, I’m just making a point, which is this: shouldn’t we be at least a little (if not more) concerned about what we’re putting into the HEADS of people as much as what we’re putting into the HANDS of people?

Rocket. stinkin’. science, baby.

Seriously. Watch a commercial (if you dare). Vocalize what images they are showing. It’s wiggidy wacked, f’realies. (These are interspersed with drug commercials whose side effects include suicidal tendencies, depression, mood alteration, etc. GREAT PLAN, ya’ll.)

It’s just something to think about, if you’re feeling up for it.

If not, you probably just need to take a pill or something.

Er, wait.

Crap.

Peace, love and protect the windows of your soul, m’dears,

Ms. Daisy

Healthy Herbal Remedies for Sick Season

Hello, me hearties!  Today’s topic came about because I’ve had two phone calls from friends in the last week regarding the same issue: the ugly, the dreaded, the hideous…strep throat.  My friends called me to see if I might have some herbal remedy to get them (and their littles) through.  With this in mind, I’ve put together some ideas for you this winter as you’re threatened with sore throats, colds, and whatever other kind of nasty thing buzzes around hopping from place to place through the cold months.

I am not a doctor, I am not an herbalist (“a” herbalist for the UK-ers as you prolifically pronounce the “H”) and I barely play one on TV (my Grandma's podiatry office thinks I am secretly Charlie from Revolution, they swear she is my twin and take pictures of me to send to their spouses.  No autographs, please.), but I’ve read up on such things and have a few ideas.

Let me begin by saying that strep is horrid and you don’t want to mess with it.  If you are concerned, you get thyself to your appropriate health care provider.  I am not giving you physician advice.  I am merely relaying information to you that may be useful in a stressful strep-throaty or other time of unwell-ness.  So, basically, don’t sue me, I’m only here trying to help.  Thanks.

Now.  Down to business.

This first bit of help comes via my 99 year-old Grandmother.  Yes, I said 99.  Her mother before her was only 102 when she passed from this life to the next.  I guess she might know a few things about life and this here world and this one comes hot off the presses from true vintage old-fashioned remedies.  This will help you bust through your symptoms and if you have a regular old horrible torturous sore throat, it will eradicate it in a few days.  I have not tried it yet with the strep variety, but I know it will help the symptoms of the generic awful sore throat type.

It is simply this – get a coffee mug, cover the bottom of it with a very thin layer of salt.  I go for the kosher salt, personally.  Fill up about 1/3 of the mug with distilled white vinegar.  Fill the rest of the mug with the hottest water you can ever think that you might possibly be able to bear.  Stir the concoction until the salt has dissolved and gargle that beast of a thing until you’ve emptied the mug.  You can do this as often as you need to.  I often find that at the end of this horrible taste combination (to me, anyway) is the benefit of actually having relief from the aliens who are living in my throat, ripping out the insides of it with diamond-tipped daggers and pencil-sharpened talons.

If you’re wondering why on earth this disgusting mix works, it is because of the two components and their vicious trauma that they inflict on the bad-guy germs.  There is a theory that holds that germs/bacteria/things unfriendly to your body flourish in an acidic pH environment.  An alkaline environment is inhospitable to them and makes them curl up into little balls and cry themselves to sleep.  Or something like that.  It is essentially a chemical onslaught of shock and awe to those nasties.

The other aspect, the salt, is the physical bully in the fight.  At a near molecular level, NaCl (table salt) is very angular and sharp-edged.  These are the lances, the daggers, the swords, the light sabers and the fists of the mini-world of germs.  They do physical damage to the nasties, rendering them broken, sliced, decapitated and decimated.  Good for you, bad for them.

The combination is a dual assault on the nasties-front.  One point for the good guys.

Now some of you are reading and saying, wuh-wuh-wuh-wait a miiiiiiiiinute!  Why don’t you just go get some antibiotics and get it over with?  Yes, I know.  Antibiotics do kill the bad streppies (and the other nasties), but some people don’t want to go that route.  They want to avoid that if possible to attempt to keep their immune system stronger, etc.  The long-term effects of repeated antibiotic use are disturbing (with all those super-germs and what-not) and some people nearly prefer the consequences of an illness to the possible consequences of taking prescription drugs.  I am not saying that antibiotics are always the devil, but they really aren’t always Superman, either.  (I thought I might explain, just in case you were wondering why on earth I hadn’t suggested this idea in the first place.)  Antibiotics are a whole post in and of themselves for another time.

Meanwhile, back to the topic.

Sometimes you’ve got drainage with the sore throat thing – and if that’s the case, you better grab your Neti pot and clean that junk out.  If you only have a blue plastic one, okay, but think about investing in perhaps a stainless steel or ceramic one.  Antibiotics aren’t quite the devil, but plastic quite IS. 

Next.

Thyme is a natural herb used to treat inflammation.  (I actually steep thyme in witch hazel for a facial astringent to rid me of zit-ification.)  When I had a crazy sinus infection, I took Fenu-Thyme and holy cowzers, that worked like a charm.  It also made me smell like I was eating pancakes out of my armpits, but that’s another story.

So check your local health food store for that herb mix capsule.  Don’t go mixing stuff up yourself – herbs are very effective and I don’t want you getting sick from being haphazard and trying to wing it.

My naturopath had something called “Throat Spray”.  I didn’t get it because I haven’t needed it (yet), but that might be something you want to check out.  Great name, eh?

Another great help is garlic.  Yes, you might like garlic bread, but I’m talking go ballistic on the garlic.  Roast up an entire clove and pop that sucker in your mouth like it’s a Godiva truffle.  You may end up smelling like a train wreck, but that baby is powerful and you will feel better.  It can also be used preventatively, if you’re feeling just the eensiest bit like you might be coming down with something, hit it and you’ll be free and clear of the nasties (and probably other people since you may end up reeking, but at least you’ll feel well enough to go to the ball, Cinderella.).

Something you DO NOT want to do WHATSOEVER AT ALL is to consume sugar in any form.  Stay away from the bacteria’s food like it is the bubonic plague.  If I am ill’n, I do not drink juice, eat ice cream, inhale truffles, put syrup on my pancakes, eat sauce that contains sugar, sneak a cookie, or any form of the likes of that.  Neither aid nor abet the enemy.

Some people have had good results with a combination of honey, cayenne and garlic.  I am so overcautious that I’d say yes to the cayenne and garlic and skip the honey because it is sweet and I would be scared I might feed the nasties.  Yes, I know, honey is anti-microbial and has wonderful properties, but I just personally go ultra-cautious on it and avoid it (since it’s in the sugar family) while I’m not well.  Maybe that is idiotic, but that’s how I roll.

Something you can do to help build your immune system is to make some Bieler broth.  It’s not broth in a traditional sense (because I think most people think of chicken/beef/bone, etc. when they think broth and this has none of those things).  This is a combination of green veggies, somewhat steamed and put through a blender.  You use the water it was steamed over so you are not losing any of the nutrients.  It is made with zucchini, green beans, celery and parsley.  Basically, you steam up some zucchini and green beans until they are ultra-bright green with an eensy bit of water.  Put the celery and parsley in as almost an afterthought for a minute-ish then dump the entire pot into your blender (water included) and turn it into green sludge.  If you’re doing it the true Bieler way, you don’t use salt, pepper, seasonings or anything.  You just pull up your big girl undies and grin and bear it.  I can tell you that this crazy green “soup” works like nobody’s business.

Another idea – kombucha.  If I am feeling a little off, I drink a glass of kombucha and I feel better.  This boosts your immune system and also fights on the side of alkalinity, so you get some extra bonus in there.  This is great if you are having belly trouble.  I cannot tell you how many times I’ve felt a bit odd in the gut and chugged a cup, made myself sit down on the couch and relax for half an hour and been back to my running around spaztical self within the hour. 

Another immune booster and cough calmer – elderberries.  A lot of health food stores sell them in dried form.  They look like tiny peppercorns.  You can make a cough syrup/immune booster with these little powerhouses.  Dump in a tablespoon or so into boiling water and steep like tea.  You can grate some ginger into it for your throat.  Some people make it last longer by adding some alcohol as a way to preserve it.  I keep this concoction in the fridge.  A lot of people add raw honey to it, also.  My favorite, Crunchy Betty, has a recipe for you!

Anyway, I hope that you do feel well throughout the winter (summer for my dear Australians), but if you don’t – see if you might feel a lot better using stuff you’ve already got in your cupboards.

However you slice it, be a good advocate for your own health.  Don’t sit back and treat it like a train ride.  Research, read and become well-informed so you can hop the bench and get in the driver’s seat.

Be well, my friends!

Peace, love and may you have victory over the nasties,

Ms. Daisy

Eat Yer Vitamins

A phrase I say perhaps thirty times before 8:00 a.m. is, "Eat your vitamins."  This is because my offspring leave their mini-pile next to their egg and toast pretty much daily until I say it in varying degrees with multiple accents and to the tunes of different songs.  This culminates in me saying, "Put it in your mouth or I will put it in your mouth for you."  Somewhere along this continum the small people decide to ingest their oh-so-loved vitamin friends in the shapes of bears, lions or balls.

Now - as an adult, you don't have that fantastic mommy head blabbing on reminding you that you ought to eat your vitamins.  (So sad, eh?  You could get your mum to say it and record her and it could be your tea-timer or something...just an idea.)  Or you could just do it yourself because you are so wise and lovely and responsible.

But, pray tell!  What kind of vitamins are you taking?  I would submit to you that unless your vitamins are food-based and naturally occurring, you might as well be poking your finger in your eyeballs for fun.

Is there really a difference, say you?

There REALLY is, say I.

How can you tell what's in them or where they come from?  Ready?  You're going to be shocked - read the label.

(You've never heard me say that one before, eh?  Exactly.)

And if that doesn't work, call.  Look up the company name, find a contact number and call their customer service and ask.  If they say things like, "I have no idea, um, um..." - THEY AREN'T MADE OF NATURAL THINGS.  

So you're like, what's the diff?  Who cares if it was made in a lab?  Isn't it the same thing?

Have you ever been sick from eating vitamins?  As in, you took your vitamin and within fifteen minutes you're either on the verge of vomiting or you really do barf it out.  Has that ever happened?  

Okay, so do you know why that happened?  When you get something so wiggidy-whacked in your body, the wise designer of your body made it so that it would go on auto-reject and expel it in the most efficient way possible.  In this situation, it's usually up, up and away.  If you do not expel it, you may just feel nauseous for the whole morning.  Great.

So here's the deal.  Back in the early-middleish of the last century, scientists were all gung-ho to break things down to their smallest known part and try to rebuild things in their own way.  If they could simulate things found in nature, they wouldn't really have to rely on nature (for one thing) and secondly, they could make serious boku bucks on it because they could patent it and tell everyone about their "invention" and do their own thing, making their own moolah.  I mean, you can't really patent an orange - well, unless you're in the GMO business, I guess (sickos!).

This is the history of aspirin, actually.  Dr. Bayer broke down the lowest common denominator of naturally occurring painkillers (like white willow bark) and rebuilt it, put it in a tablet and sold it as a wonderdrug.  Just think of where we'd be today without painkillers.

In the forest gnawing on tree bark, I guess.

But I digress.

The problem with lab-created things is that your body does not recognize them.  They're like a foreign language.  Es como, por ejemplo, empiezo hablar en espanol y ustedes solo comprenden el ingles - o aleman.  No saben nada de lo que digo.  Es lo mismo.  Entiendes?  Ojala que si.  Got it?  Exactly.  It's like bouncing off of your forehead and not going in.  Y si me entienden, pues, es como algo en svenska - jag alskar dej saa mycket, min bastis kompis!  Du ar saa popular.  Jag ar fran fiskafaren.  And that doesn't even make sense in that language.  (Except to you, bastis!)

Your body does the same thing.  It basically says, "WHAT THE CRAP IS THAT??" and barfs it out.  Or, in the case of water-soluble vitamins, it just gets urinated out.  This is exactly what you need: expensive pee.  Maybe it would help your garden, now that I think about it.  Just be sure to "water" your garden with it if you'd like to go that route.

But in the case that you are not interested in becoming a human fertilizer machine, maybe you ought to rethink what vitamins you're consuming.

I would recommend one that even had a bit of a probiotic in it.  They help get all that flora and fauna (?) sorted out in your intestinal tract so you don't have problems (let me tell you, you ought not be troubled in that area - you can cause serious problems for yourself if you do).  The probiotic helps give you a balance with your...elimination of used-up resources.  Ahem.

I like the Garden of Life brand, personally.  They have both food-sourced (and naturally occurring) vitamins and minerals combined with a probiotic.  They have vitamins specifically made for women, men and children - seniors, pregnant women, the whole nine.  I'm not paid to say this about their company (or any other I talk about) nor do I receive benefits from doing so, I'm just pointing you to an example that has helped me personally. (But it would be SO COOL if they did.  Hey - Garden of Life - send me free vitamins!!  Raw One for Women, please.  Thanks.)

I also take something that will TOTALLY sick you out - desiccated liver.  Oh, how delicious thou art, you desiccated liver, you.  I don't eat organ meats - I don't really have a good source for them (yet...I guess), but they are SO valuable to you and to your health.  So I take it in dried up tablet form.  Yummy.  If you let it melt (on accident) because you're swallowing it with your hot tea in the morning, you're going to have a mouthful of beef taste.  Oh, wow, beef taste in the morning.  What could be better?  If you're a regular consumer of liver, then, well, you really don't have to do my lame way.  But if you haven't served up some liver to you and yours lately, you might want to research the benefits of doing so.  (Or take the cheating way out and do what I do.)

Besides that, I will sometimes take a swig of cod liver oil.  You can get some serious Vitamin D and A in those puppies.  Fishies.  Whatever.

Now that's just me - you've got to find out what you may be lacking.  If you are craving things, maybe your body is telling you what you need.  I read that if you crave chocolate, you are lacking in magnesium.  Apparently our society needs a mega-dose of magnesium?  Totally possible.

Anyway, a safe bet is likely a multi-vitamin designed for you at your stage of life.  I know that if you buy whole-food based vitamins, they're going to cost more than lab-created ones, but as the lab-created ones are speaking to your body in a foreign language and don't do you any good (except for make your pee very fancy - on the plus  side for your garden), you might want to take something that your body can actually USE.  

Genius, I know.

Peace, love and just put it in your mouth already!
Ms. Daisy  

It's time to stand up: don't be a noodle spine

Did you read the article about how 8 nurses in Indiana got fired for not subjecting themselves to a mandatory flu shot?

Welcome to the U.S. of A. where freedom is slipping through your fingers like sand through the hourglass.

So in this article, apparently a hospital required all employees to get a flu shot.  Something like 2000 did not do it but only 8 nurses were fired.  The powers that be are citing "patient safety" as their reason for requiring their faithful employees to shoot stuff into their bodies against their will.  This article also said that most people won't fight it but they really seem to have a problem with those dang nurses - they don't want to do it.

I WONDER WHY.  Do you think nurses talk to people?  Do they ever talk to sick people?  Do they ever talk about HOW sick people got sick?  Do they know the system at all?  Just a teensy eensy bit, maybe?

There is something wrong here.

I don't know if you've noticed, but there is a lot of push for groupthink.  Don't be an individual.  Heavens, no.  Don't think for yourself.  Don't do anything that everyone else in the whole freakin world isn't already doing.  Stay in your box.  Betas wear khaki.  Take your soma.

If you dare to stand up for your OWN personal rights against the will and body-rapist/tyrants, you're sure to get fired.

Or worse.

Everything is somewhat connected, yes.  We all get that.  But people who are trying to get you to think collectively are raping your mind and filling your thoughts with their personally beneficial propaganda.

Wake up, it's time for you to ask them - why?  Why don't they care about their nurses? Why do they dare strong-arm educated, caring, intelligent people who have dedicated their lives to the service of others?  Doesn't their theory of "patient safety" blow up out the window the second A DIFFERENT patient walks into the hospital and "contaminates" it with their evil one-celled organisms?  Ask them - who the crap do they think they are, telling you what you must inject/inhale/consume in your body?  Ask them - who stands to benefit from this?  Who are you?  Who supports you?  How are you getting paid?  Follow the money and you're sure to find a trace of a stink.

Money, power and control - the ingredients for an ugly storm.

At least in this very weak society there are a very few who will stand up for their beliefs, for their rights against the tyrants - even when it is to their own hurt.  They are those who did not lay down and take it, but instead stood up strong, eyes straight ahead, following hard after their convictions and putting their foot down when the line was crossed.

They chose courage instead of cowardice, personal convictions over groupthink brainwash and will have a legacy to leave their very proud progeny.

May you be as likewise legendary in your own arena.

Peace, love and give the nurses some capes,
Ms. Daisy

Randoms. Happy New Year!

Okay, I’m on late today, sorry.  It was a bit of a crazy one.  Anyway, I wanted to talk to all a ya’ll about a few things in true random Daisy style.  Giddy up.

First – on your New Year's resolution to become a runner (right?  Didn’t you?  Wasn’t that on the list?), I wanted to point some of you who live in a snowy climate toward a tool that you can use to run outside whilst the world turns into a giant ice cube.  It’s called Yak Trax and m’dearies, they are amazing.  They are these metal coil thingy-ma-jigs that strap on with rubber and Velcro to the bottom of your running shoes.  It gives you a fantastic grip so you have a much less chance of falling on the ice that used to be a sidewalk.  As my dear Swedish friend says, “There’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.”  Those Swedes!  Ah, precis, det ar så popular.  Jag älskar dej, bastis!

Check out some fancy Yaktrax!

Secondly – What kind of doctor do you go see?  Have you ever considered a naturopath?  I seriously think you should.  If you get a good doctor (of any type, really), they are a gold mine of wonderful information.  I’m not knocking all other types of doctors, just so ya’s know, but I am discouraged that there are so many physicians out there who – instead of perusing your symptoms and seek an actual CAUSE – prefer to consult their gigantic book of cleverly painted pills and play Pick-Yer-Favorite-Color by using a Twister wheel provided for them by their own dear friends, the pharmaceutical companies.

Thirdly – Hillary Clinton.  If you believe ANYTHING that the media is telling you about her ailments that she so fatefully is experiencing at the perfect timing so that she does not have to testify in something that may incriminate her for wrongdoing, please, do me a favor.  Pick up a block of wood and bang it against your forehead like the monks in Monty Python’s Holy Grail.  This will help you.  Somehow.  If it doesn’t, just ask your doctor to give you the color of the week pill.

Fourthly – Guns don’t murder people, zombies and sickos do.  If you think you can solve the world’s problems by removing guns from the safes of the actual sane and law-abiding people, you might as well also ban steak knives, cars, gardening tools, ropes, and a plethora of other tools that any generic weirdo would get his weirdo hands on and do his weirdo things with.  Promoting vampires, werewolves, aliens, and crimes/murder (via shows like CSI, etc.) feed the mainstream of society and spread their sprawling talons with a slicing grip into every idea that used to be “normal” (two-parent homes, young people being respectful to their elders, not sucking blood out of people’s necks, etc.).  Society is broken into a thousand pieces and it just keeps getting hacked at every single day.  Politics aren’t going to fix it.  The media aren’t going to fix it.  (It sounds so weird to say that, but media is really a plural word.  Ugh.  It looks so gross and sounds weird that way, though, doesn’t it!?  Ew.)  There’s only one solution.  Move to Switzerland.  They all have guns there and the crime rate is like 0.000%.  That was easy!  Any other world problems, just send them my way.

Now let me just tell you what I really think.

Yes.

Ahem.

Okay, I guess that’s enough soapbox for one day.

Peace, love and I’ll meet you in Switzerland with your Yaktrax on,

Ms. Daisy

Be it resolved...

I don’t know how it is everywhere, but here in these United States, everyone loves to have a good solid New Year’s resolution or two.  Or five.  And amongst the throngs of lists of the many resolves, there stands one which is so prevalent and pronounced that it is quite likely that it is the most popular resolution ever made and I dare say it is made every year by the masses.  What is this resolution that is so near and dear and popular and prevalent?

The fantastic resolution to lose weight/begin exercising.

This is never more evident to me than in the gym in the wee hours of the morning all throughout January.  I, being somewhat of a creature of habit, have my “own” locker at the gym.  If I could stencil my name on it, I would, but since I can’t, I just claim it by using the same one every single morning.  It is the perfect spot for me, oh how I love it so!  It never fails, however, that sometime in January, a person who is pretending that they are going to get fit and fabulous waddles in and steals my locker.  This only happens in January because about 5 weeks (6 if you’d like to make bets on it) after the new year, all of those people who were working it out to go work out totally quit and go back to sleeping in and eating potato chips on their couches while they identify with the contestants on The Biggest Loser (I love you, Bob and Jillian!)

This is the time where all of the actual regulars rejoice and are free to enjoy a much more open space in the privacy of their own locker area without threat of invasion. 

Maybe you’ve got a resolution to pick up a new hobby or learn something you’ve never tried before.  If you aren’t a runner, might I suggest giving it a whirl?  It is a very rewarding hobby and once you convince yourself you’d like to do it and begin pursing it, there are a myriad of benefits.  What benefits, say you?  Well, there’s the obvious – an increase in cardiovascular health, a trimmer figure, and perhaps even the coveted golden crown of weight loss and a shrinking of the posterior regions.  Then you’ve got the others – a great stress-reliever and an outlet for clearing your mind and lungs.  You get to enjoy the scenery around you on an up-closer scale that you wouldn’t be able to do if you were passing by on a bus or in a car and it gives you an appreciation for your surroundings (or you just get entertainment value by playing a game of “Grade The Lawns” as you run past).  You may even develop an addiction to it with all those endorphins flying around, not to mention the best sleep you'll ever have after a killer run (for all of you dear insomniacs out there).  Some research reports that running even reduces your risk of disease like breast cancer and osteoporosis for women.

Now you’re sitting there thinking, “Yeah, that’s just great Ms. Daisy, but I have to tell you something: I HATE RUNNING.” 

I know, I know.  You like the idea of running but the actual doing it is horrid torture.  I was there.  I know how you feel. 

Sometimes you’ve got to pull the mind-over-matter thing.  I didn’t start running until after I was 27ish years old.  I called up my little sister (who was a member of a cross country running team) and said…

“Hey, so, I’ve been thinking.  I think it would be so cool to be a marathon runner!  Do you want to do a marathon with me?”

Sister: “Do you have any idea how long a marathon actually is?”

Me: “Um, no…”

Sister: “26.2 miles.”

Me: “Oh, ick.  What do they have that’s less?”

Sister:  “A half?”

Me: “Ummmm, still no…is that the least?”

Sister: “There’s a 10k, 6.2 miles.”

Me: “Oh man! Is there anything else?”

Sister: “A 5k?”

Me:  “Sold!  I’m so doing that!  Now, how do I do it?”

I didn’t really know how, but I ran 6 days a week for practice.  I actually started off with quite hating running.  I could only really run about one block.  The amazing thing about your body and your muscle memory is that it grows and grows – the more you practice, the more you can do.  The positive reinforcement I got from being able to steadily do more and more (plus my idea that I would soon get to call myself “a runner”) spurred me on to keep it up, even when it was hard and I didn’t feel like it anymore.

I signed up for a 5k race (I recommend you do this.).  Every morning I would picture the other racers.  I would tell myself that they got up and were running right now (or perhaps they were already done with their run today) and they were killing it out there.  They were going for the gold and wanted to snatch first place away from me.  I have a slightly competitive nature and this worked very well because I would then run so hard I would nearly crumple into a pathetic little ball on the cement upon finishing each day (Also recommended, but not required.).

I am happy to tell you that if I can do it, you can do it.  I truly could not run more than a block.  After several years of training off and on, I even managed to finish a half marathon (13.1 miles/21 k).  I am not telling you this so that I can tell you fascinating stories of my personal awesomeness, but rather to say that YOU CAN DO IT! 

Whaddya think?  Do you want to call yourself a runner?  What resolutions do you have? 

Peace, love and train it like you’re Little Mac,

Ms. Daisy