Conquering Asthma: breathing through my nose

I'm excited to share that I'm making significant progress on my asthma problem.

How do I know? Did I go to the doctor? (No, I don't even have insurance right now, so that's out of the question.) How do I know I'm getting better?

I ran my entire 12 mile long run on Sunday while breathing through my nose. That's right--no open mouth breathing, no gasping, no out-of-breath feelings. I ran 12 miles straight and didn't lose my breath. Not even going up (several) hills.

This is HUGE! I've been trying to breathe through my nose more as I run to help filter the air I take in (something useful when pollen and allergens are nature's confetti), but this was the first real run I did with NO mouth breathing.

I'm delighted.

I still take my rescue inhaler with me (better safe than sorry), and I still take my asthma medications every day (though getting them at a reasonable cost soon may be difficult if I don't find a way to get health insurance). But I feel so FREE when I don't need to THINK about breathing. Free! Free, at last!

This is a milestone for me. My body is strong enough to run the distance and my lungs can now keep up. I feel incredible.

Adventures in Nutrition: ENERGYbits (review)

At the beginning of the month, I tried out EnergyBits. It was a fun experience. I had enough Bits for about a week, so I gave them a try. I took my Bits in the morning after a normal breakfast and before any physical activity. I enjoyed my Bits by swallowing them whole.  

Here's what I learned...

They do. They actually rock. Outside of the slightly stomach-turning taste of their beloved algae (hey I'm not knocking it--I've tried it and it just isn't for me), the Bits themselves are pretty cool. In a little tin, they're portable. In their own tiny size, they're swallowable (for those like me who don't wanna chew the intensely green-flavored tabs). They're not much bigger than any regular ol' pill, but they're packed with more protein. 

I felt a real difference in my attention and stamina (a.k.a. I-wanna-get-up-and-do-something-ness). I felt good. After a run, I returned home to a few more bits and felt fueled faster. I'm on board with Bits. (Maybe that's another catchphrase for them to use in marketing? :)

I have no real complaints other than the taste, which they warned of and they're not designed to taste good but to beat the heck out of your typical "performance" snacks. Since I'm still unemployed, I'm not sure when I'll get to buy my first bagful, but I'd like to get Bits into my life.

I'm on Team Ignite! (plus coupon code)

I'm delighted to report that I'm now part of Team Ignite, with Ignite Naturals!

As an ambassador for Ignite, I'd love to share my initial review of the electrolyte beverage mix. I love the dragon fruit!

Want to try it? Use my coupon code for 10% off! (IN0720)

I'm looking forward to being part of the team and learning more about the all-natural approach Ignite takes with its products. Real ingredients for real health!

First cucumber of the season!

So crisp, so sweet... My cucumbers vines are bursting with fruit now, meaning if any of you (in the local area) want an organically-grown cucumber, let me know. I'll soon have more than I know what to do with! (There is also potential for this same problem with tomatoes...)

Here's my beauty! I ate it solo because I can eat cucumber slices like chip. Good crunch. :)

First cucumber of the 2013 garden!

Adventures in Hydration: Ignite Naturals IN Refresh Electrolyte Drink (review)

This month I was delighted to have the opportunity to try out Ignite Naturals IN Refresh Electrolyte Drink mix. I sampled the Dragonfruit lemon lime mix.

I learned about Ignite Naturals on Twitter. Their approach to active hydration is different than most other sport drinks. Some sport drinks are sugary or salty to the taste and contain food coloring and other unnatural ingredients (e.g., Gatorade*, which includes long explanations for use of food coloring, sodium, and isomaltulose in the FAQ for the product). Other sport drinks created with tablets are more balanced when it comes to sugar and sodium and contain natural flavors and colors, but the ingredient list reads like a chemistry textbook (e.g., Nuun*).

IN Refresh ingredients are simple, non-GMO, whole foods.

from IgniteNaturals.com

So I started my trial with a small glass of Dragonfruit lemon lime.

Whoa! Flavor!

The directions indicate one level scoop (about a teaspoon) for 6-8 oz. of water. That, my friends, produces a rich, bright, tasty beverage. 

Scoop & mix from Ignite Naturals and my resulting beverage.

The flavor is sweet, but it doesn't taste like a sweetener or sugar. It's more fruity than anything, which I really enjoyed. My tastebuds were dancing freestyle.

I tried the drink mix in water several more times, experimenting with more water (up to 16 oz.) to experience the diluted flavor (which I associate more with drinks like Nuun). My personal preference is to mix one scoop into a 12 oz. glass of water. That hit the perfect level of saturation for me. Not too sweet, not too dilute.

In other experiments, I mixed the drink powder with other liquids. (Bold, I know!) Since the ingredients include freeze dried organic coconut water, it seemed like an obvious choice was coconut water.

Let the chemistry begin!

I mixed one scoop of the mix with 8 oz. of coconut water. The result? Spectacular. Coconut water is not my favorite on its own, but I usually don't regret mixing it with other things. It tasted like the IN Refresh Electrolyte mix was made for coconut water, really. The thicker feel of coconut water combined with the fruity taste of Dragonfruit lemon lime made me smile on even the hottest afternoon.

I also tried mixing the powder with coconut milk (nah), in a banana coconut-milkshake (okay), and orange juice (meh--the OJ overpowered it).

But what about the actual hydration component of this drink?

I don't let myself get dehydrated on purpose, so I just incorporated this mix into my daily routine of water, water, protein shake, water, and more water. :) I almost ALWAYS need to drink water while I am running. I am one of those people who sweats just thinking about sweating, so I need to replenish my fluids pretty quickly. (I'm also a "salty sweater," meaning after a really sweaty workout I get little salt crystals on my forehead and temples. Sexy, I know.) So my IN Refresh mix came along for a few runs too. It felt a little too high-maintenance for a run because of having to make sure the mix was, well, mixed. (Some powder does separate in the solution.) I would say that it helped me recover from my workouts best of all. I didn't feel like I needed to chug it in order to rehydrate and I felt better sooner, even in humid, hot weather.

So let's break it down...

Benefits

• Made from 100% plant-based, natural, non-GMO food
• Ingredients list is readable (not chem class all over again)
• Sweet, not sugary/sweetener, taste
• Fruity, tastebud dance-provoking taste
• Serious electrolyte recharge for post-workout
• Makes coconut water a worthwhile beverage
• 1% of Ignite Naturals sales go to onepercentfortheplanet.org

Drawbacks

• Some of the powder separates and sits at the bottom of the glass after mixing. (I just kept my spoon in my glass, but it was a little weird to see a little bit of mix at the bottom of my glass. Also makes this drink higher maintenance for running or other activities for which you might bring along a beverage.)
• "Pepper" in the glass. I let several friends try the mix and they all brought up the little black specks floating in the mix and sticking to the sides of the glass. I'm sure they're from the food ingredients, but it's worth mentioning since several friends told me about it.
• The canister for the powder is too large. It arrived with 30 servings, less than half full. Proper packaging is important for shipping, marketing, etc., but the canister seemed like it could've contained 90 servings, not 30, so psychologically it was a "glass-half-empty" feeling. (Also, smaller canisters would mean less packaging, which could result in savings for the company.)

Overall reaction: I'd encourage you to try Ignite Naturals if you're looking for an all-natural solution to your hydration needs. IN Refresh comes in four flavors: Dragonfruit lemon lime, Tangerine passion fruit, Blueberry, and Prickly pear.

*Don't get me wrong--I drink Gatorade at races and I love Nuun. I am just pointing out the differences between these popular drinks and the Ignite Naturals drink mix I'm reviewing. 

Donate Your Gently Used Running Bras!

Dear Ladies,

We all know the statistics: most of us are wearing the wrong size bra, a bra that is too old, or a bra that doesn't support us like it should. The same rules apply for athletic or sports bras... Only it's worse because sizing and support mistakes can actually hurt us.

My friend Wendy at OneToughMotherRunner (hilariously) outlines her criteria for a running bra:

My absolute number one factor in a sports bra is NO BOUNCE! 

I have good reasons for this.

First, it’s uncomfortable. It just hurts – both during exercise and afterwards.

Second, people give you funny looks. The only reasons I want people to stare at me while I’m exercising is because they are 1) amazed at my perfect running form, 2) stunned by my speed (ha! unlikely!), or 3) they think I am so gorgeous they just can’t take their eyes off of me (also unlikely – especially when I’m running!).

Third, if you don’t wear a supportive sports bra during vigorous activity, you can potentially damage your chest ligaments. And finally, unrestrained movement can lead to sagging over time. 

Sagging?!?!?!?

Wendy's humor points out many issues with running bras, but imagine not having a running bra at all...

Many young women in the world don't have access to these specialty items of clothing like we do.

Enter Gabby Grebski with Girls Gotta Run Foundation: Gabby founded this organization to help

young women in impoverished Ethiopia overcome their poverty through running. One of the things these young ladies need most is running clothing and, especially, running bras.

Enter Oiselle: teamed up with Gabby and the Foundation, Oiselle is collecting *gently* used running bras in the month of June! And, just in case you needed more of a reason to give your current bras away, if you include a note with your email address when you mail your bras to Oiselle HQ, you will receive a coupon for 15% off a new Oiselle sports bra! Oiselle just launched their latest bras in March 2013 and they are all made in the USA!

What are you waiting for? It's time to part ways with your bras for a better cause. Send your gently used bras to Oiselle Running, 7109 Woodlawn Ave. NE, Seattle, WA, 98115. 

The Vessels of Our Lives

My collection of drink vessels. (That
handsome fella in the back is Jasper.)

This weekend it became apparent to me that I've got a nice little routine with the water bottles I use. There's the red one with the sport top for the gym and the metal one with the straw sipper I take to my part-time gig. But I also have a few other drink vessels that have recently become prevalent in the mix because I'm working my way through the Arbonne Fit Kit. I have my glass water cylinder with the tight-sealing top that I take in the car to drink my fizzy sticks this morning. And, my favorite, I have my blender cup that I use at least twice daily now to mix up protein shakes.

I'm washing these bottles by hand basically every single day. Tonight I was thinking about how much water I've filtered for myself to drink and how many plastic bottles I *haven't* used by instead using these bottles. I've easily saved a dozen bottles a week (if I used one to two new bottles each day).

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times: plastic bottle waste makes for icky statistics. The "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra begins with reducing the things we have... so it's better to fill your own bottle than take that new one from the vending machine. But sometimes the convenience is unavoidable. So the next time you get a bottle of water, try reusing it several times before recycling it--make that bottle live its life! Or upcycle it to make the bottle live a different life. The environment will thank you. So do I. Right here: thank you.

Besides, if you're into DIY projects like I am, it's actually pretty inspiring to see what people are doing with reusable and upcyclable materials these days!

Spring sprouts!

SPROUTS!

I started some seeds for my spring garden crops last weekend and--lo! and behold!--midweek I had some sprouts!

Plastic greenhouse with grow light
and water spray bottle near my
heating vent. This is gardening, folks.

My setup isn't ideal, but I'm doing my best. I used the little plastic greenhouse tray I kept from last year's "Secret Garden" mishap and decided to leave the lid on only until I got my first sprouts. Last year I ended up with mold and sick seedlings to boot... No one really mentions that on the greenhouse packaging. They just say to keep the seedlings warm and moist... but that *duh* equals mold. No more mold for my seedlings! I have the tray on top of a towel on the ground near a heating vent in my house. (My house is old and doesn't warm up really well... so I wanted to keep the plants warm.) I bought a fluorescent "grow light" to give my plants some faux sun since Pittsburgh is anything but sunny right now... not that I have decently sunny windows anyway. Three-quarters of my house is surrounded with porches, which keeps the house cool all year (whether I want it to be cool or not).

I learned a LOT from my garden last year, and I'm taking a new approach to gardening thanks to the stellar class I took through Grow Pittsburgh. (Best $60 I ever spent!) I grew several flowers and vegetables from seeds last year, but I'm going to try to grow all my crops from seeds this year--vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

So far I've started the following seeds:

• lettuce (sprouted)
• broccoli (sprouted)
• lavender (some sprouted)
• Shasta daisies
• lemon balm

I need to get my spinach seeds SOON so I have those seedlings ready to plant when the rest of these seedlings are ready at the end of April/beginning of May. The rest of my spring crops I plan to plant by direct seeding (seeds in the ground, not started indoors for transplanting). But, naturally, I will need to wait for the weather to cooperate for most of those to even have a chance at survival.

This year's garden is off to a great start!

Look at those happy little sprouts. :)

Outdoor Research Facemask review

I knew there would come a day when I would need to face the elements and learn to run outside in the winter. When I first started running, I built my endurance during the winter on a treadmill at the gym I joined, happily logging miles to my favorite tunes in a climate-controlled environment. My lungs were happy too.

My racing experiences taught me that my lungs needed to be exposed to a variety of different air types in order for me to do well in races that, well, weren't on a treadmill. (And unless you're doing a virtual race, it's likely that you're not racing on a treadmill.)

My asthma actually got so much worse in the summer's humidity (hallmark of western Pennsylvanian summers) that my race times suffered significantly. I even had to not attend a one-miler because the humidity was so bad and my asthma was bothering me so much... So I knew that the cold weather, the opposite extreme, would be a challenge. I just wasn't sure how to handle it.

Cue running coach: he recommended that I buy a face mask. I had been using a neck cowl, pulling it up over my nose and mouth when I felt like I needed to, but its fleeciness--albeit warm--got damp with my breath and the inconsistent temperatures for my breathing actually seemed to make things worse...

The local running store didn't have what I was looking for, so I had to look somewhere hardcore. I went to the outdoor enthusiast's store and--behold!--I found the Outdoor Research face mask for $26.

I ran a 5k for this trial. It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill of 7 degrees in St. Louis, Missouri, on New Year's Day. This was the coldest weather I ever attempted to run in... but I did it!

$26 might seem like a steep price for such a dainty thing, but when you first wear this, if you struggled to breathe before, you will thank your lucky stars to have found it and you will feel like you stole the thing for the price that you paid...

The technical composition is stellar--Windstopper fabric pulled gently across your face, shaped to cup your chin and nose without rubbing, secured at the nape of your neck with Velcro. Awesome.

It does not:

• Restrict your movement
• Feel like a turtleneck two sizes too small or grandma squeezing her shoulder into your throat as she hugs you.
• Allow you to suck in cold air. (Clutch for asthmatics with cold air-induced bronchospasms!)
• Restrict your breathing*.
• Increase your likelihood to be scoped out for a fashion magazine. It's functional, but you're not going to be mistaken for Kate Middleton in it.

 It does:

• Have a thin inner fleece lining that will brush against your face as you bounce along in your run. 
• Collect a little bit of moisture inside the front near where your nostrils or mouth are. 
• Move a bit if you dip your head towards your chest (like you're looking down).
• Wash well! I put it in a gentles bag with my running socks and sports undergarments. It goes in the dryer on low, too. Easy wash, easy dry.
• Help manage breathing by providing consistent air temperature.
• Come in different sizes. (I wear a small.)

All that being said, I would definitely recommend the Outdoor Research face mask to my fellow asthmatics! I think you'll be satisfied with the relief. For others struggling with cold air intake during the winter, this might be a good bet for you too if you find that you're frequently breathing out of your mouth.

*I did not have an asthma attack during this run, so I was breathing as I would normally during a run. That is what I mean when I say that it did not restrict my breathing.

Listening to my body

Howdy. I've been MIA this week, I know. I don't know what it is, but I have been completely uninspired. I've got some stuff happening in my personal life that's taking time away from running, blogging, and such, but I really thought I'd get to blog about last Saturday's race sooner...

Last Saturday's trail race was okay. Not stellar, but not awful. I finished. I decided that trail running isn't my favorite thing. I also decided that I really, really need to work on hills. Not just for my legs, but for my lungs.

The first hill in the race was up a paved hill and, as predicted, I had to stop to begin attempts to *not* pass out. I had already taken preventative measures with all of my asthma medication before the race, but it was cold, the hill was steep, my heart rate rocketed, and I was a goner. My focus was just not passing out... I was listening to my body for cues of what to do next.

I often find that it's moments like this when my goals are whittled down to the very basics that I get stuck in my head and the race becomes a mental game more than a physical challenge. I'm learning quickly that I need to go through a really quick and dirty round of RADICAL ACCEPTANCE before I even take one more step.

The conversation I have with myself goes something like this:
body: *huff, puff*
mind: "Oh, great, you can't breathe again."
body: "Nope." *wheeze*
mind: "Okay, well, we can't run like this."
body: "Nope." *cough*
mind: "You're going to have to slow down to take care of yourself. And that's okay."
body: "Yes, because it's better to not die."
mind: "Right, that's in line with the goal of finishing the race. Not dying."
body: *huff, puff, deep inhale of medication* "Yep."
mind: "You have asthma and it's amazing that you even run. You're slowing down to take care of yourself."
body: "Yes." *deep breath*
mind: "How do you feel now? Ready to keep going? You're doing a good job. You're taking care of yourself."

If I don't take the steps towards acceptance in those critical moments that I am slowing down to care for myself, I slowly begin to criticize myself for being weak or slow, which is really unfair because I would never ever ever do that to someone else who was suffering like I am. So to get OUT of the head game and back into the race, I have to get that conversation going and accept the reality of my illness and what I need to do to treat it and care for myself, then move on with my life.

I am working with my doctors and a health coach to get my asthma under control. I yearn for the day when I can run free like so many of the bloggers and tweeters I follow online. I'm hoping to get things together soon, but I also know that I can't rush. I have to allow my body to get stronger, adjust to medications, and tell me what it needs. It's difficult to do sometimes, though, because I want to be better, faster, and stronger NOW. I've worked to get my body in shape... but my lungs just haven't gotten around to keeping up yet because of my asthma. We'll get there. I know we will because I won't stop till we do, but the struggle is real.

Elusive asthma triggers: no allergies

Yesterday's trip to the allergist to talk about my asthma was rather uneventful.

I saw things going differently in my mind: I would walk in and talk with the doctor, get poked and prodded, and--voila!--we would find what I'm allergic to and develop a plan to treat it. I would walk out of the office feeling great that finally my asthma was going to be under my control (instead of it controlling me).

In reality, it went more like this: I walked in and talked with the doctor, he explained that I might not be allergic to anything but, instead, sensitive to environmental allergens. I was poked and prodded (oww!) and I didn't have a single reaction. (Good thing: I'm not allergic to my dog!) Since I didn't react to the allergens he tested, it seemed likely the environmental things--things like smoke, dust, pollens, or molds, things he can't possibly test me for since there are hundreds of pollens and molds--and that I would have to do some hard work.

First, we decided to switch up my daily inhaler. It's an inhaled steroid to help keep my bronchioles happy, open, and not irritated. I had previously tried the inhaler he switched me to, but I hadn't tried it with a spacer...

Let's talk about spacers. I had seen these before and always associated their use with really asthmatic people (I don't have a definition of that outside of the thought of them needing to use a spacer, this extra apparatus, with their inhalers). A spacer is a plastic tube with a rubber end where you plug in your inhaler and a mouthpiece end to, well, put your mouth on. The idea is that, with typical puffer inhalers, when you spray the medication into your mouth, most of the medication ends up in your mouth or throat, instead of being successfully inhaled into the lungs. With the spacer, you spray the medication into this tube where it is suspended in the air, just waiting for you to breathe it in. You get more medication in your lungs because you're breathing in medicated air.

So the doctor's thought was that I had tried this inhaler before and not seen results... but I hadn't tried it with a spacer! Trying the medication with the spacer will get more of each spray into my lungs, putting the medicine to work and (hopefully) showing results.

I've got this new inhaler and a spacer to use with ALL of my inhalers. (Yes, "all" of them; I have three--one everyday inhaler, one to use prior to exercise, and one rescue inhaler.) Sounds like enough to try to change the game plan, right?

Wrong. He also wants me to remove any perfumey things from my life. This is not going to be easy. I love scented lotions, body sprays, and air fresheners (right now I'm using "fall leaves" from Bath & Body Works... it's the best!).

He wants me to reconfigure my bedroom so there is less surface area for dust to settle. Meaning I should remove my bookshelf, my books, and my nightstand.

He also wants me to get a dust mite cover for my mattress and box spring. (Not cheap... but it's super icky to think about dust mites. I hate those enlarged photos they show you to prove that they exist. Microscopic bugs are still bugs and they still freak me out.)

He also wants my dog to not sleep in my bedroom. (She has her own puppy bed on the floor; she's not allowed on the bed, but now he wants her out of the room. I think this has a 0% chance of happening because my little dog won't sleep anywhere else if I'm home.)

He also wants me to thoroughly clean my house every week to keep dust to a minimum. (I'm gonna need a smaller house or a maid. I do not have time to do this... I clean my bathroom twice a week and change my sheets once a week, but outside of that I'm lucky if I get any laundry done in my spare time.)

He mentioned getting rid of carpeting, but then I said that I rent (I do) and that it's not my choice. He suggested vacuuming more often (and to have someone else do it since the dust is likely to bother me when it's stirred up).

At this point, the most do-able thing out of all of these is to use the darn inhaler with a spacer. Getting my environment under control is going to take some work. And that still doesn't address any environmental allergens/irritants OUTSIDE of my house. Pollen? Grass? Leaves? Oh, geez, who even knows. Hopefully (HOPEFULLY) in time I will feel better with the new inhaler and my new found control over my environment.

Asthma: you've met your match.