Family, farm, road-trip, graduation!

It has been a busy week around the Frade household (my mom referred to us once as Frade instead of Frank and Jade. I think it was an accident but I am going with it). My parents came to stay for a couple of days. If you invite my mom over, she will probably bring a pie. 

My parents have some local farmer friends that we went out to visit. It made me realize how much I miss living on a farm. (Mom, if you are reading this, that does NOT mean I want to take over the farm. Also, A+ for figuring out how to use the internets. And I love you.)

I am sure they didn't think it was weird that I took pictures of their animals.

You should know that pigs are my favorite animal in the entire world. Not including my dog--she is not in the animal category, duh.

My family road-tripped back to Minnesota for my graduation ceremony. Lucy enjoyed the variety of people to stand on.

Graduation and walking across the stage was super fun for me. I didn't go through the graduation ceremony for my undergrad degree, so this was really special. I'm so glad I got to share the day with Frank, my parents, and many of my school buddies. Photo below from my friend's IG. I didn't just make one picture fancier than the rest. 

Now that things have settled down a little, I hope to keep up with the blog a little better. I also hope for some ouch-free running soon. I am waiting on a chiropractor visit in June to see if that helps anything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that maybe I'm just out of whack and that's why my SI joint won't heal??

Hope your week is off to a fantastic start!

Pretty decent.

Just dropping by to say hello from Michigan!

Life is pretty decent.

In the last week, I finished grad school, moved back in with my husband, started my new job, almost got my house set up, ate some ice cream, and saw The Great Gatsby. You're pretty much caught up on me now. :)

We don't have internet yet; see ya again when we do.

Can I tell you secrets that aren't really secrets?

Welcome back to the land of the living, Jade (if living = blogging).

This is my last week of graduate school. This is my last week of being a Minnesotan! Minnesota has been good to us. Don't let Frank's fakey smile make you believe otherwise.

Can I tell you a secret? I wish we were moving back to Oregon instead of Michigan. I do not suggest reading about, watching video coverage of, or even thinking about the Eugene Marathon if you're trying to get excited to move to somewhere that is not Eugene. 

I am extremely grateful for the opportunities that we have in Michigan right now. We are really lucky to both have jobs that we love/are going to love (I start mine May 6). We are stoked to be closer to family and friends. Michigan, overall, is a pretty great state. But I left my heart in Oregon. Maybe somewhere on the other side of these rocks?

Can I tell you another secret? The reasons that I cannot run keep piling up. Remember how I was getting decently better and then had a set back when I fell on my steps in February? Well, the extenda-injury continues. My now 6.75 month old injury has spread to the side of my hip and is causing me to limp again. I think the culprit of the most recent issue is sleeping a couple nights on a fold out chair after Frank moved our furniture to Michigan (my smarty friend brought me an air mattress since then). Anyway, I think I may be irreversibly broken. Like Nick and Jessica's marriage. By the way, am I the only one who still watches Newlyweds on youtube and cries over the collapse of their union despite the fact that they are both happily raising children with their new partners? I will spare you my thoughts on Jen and Brad.

Important running announcements!!! My sis started running (again--she took a slight break to have two kiddos in two years) at the beginning of the year and she and my BIL recently raced their first 5k together. Also, my college roommate/cross-country teammate/bff recently got a lifetime PR in the 5k AND half-marathon distances. I am so proud of them and have decided to live through their running abilities for now.

PS, yesterday was Lucy's birthday. I got her an iPad. She just has to give it back to the social work department when I graduate. 

How's running going?

It is normal to make your spouse pose for pictures with you to share with all your internet friends even when he is 400 miles away. It would have been plus 4,000 husband points if he had thought to put Lucy in the picture. I was going to say something about his hair too, but then I looked at mine. Yikes. I am trying to think of ways to make it look like we are hugging next time.

You're probably wondering if I even still think about/care about/go running. Unless you're not because running hasn't been the hugest deal on this running blog since the beginning? Either way, the answer is that running hasn't been the absolute best. Strike 1: SI joint still a problem. Strike 2: Forgot my shoes over spring break and didn't run a single step for a week. Strike 3: I don't have a strike 3, so I guess I'm not completely out yet?

Fortunately...maybe...I am too wrapped up in trying to graduate and thinking about moving and missing my family to stress too much about not running as much as I'd like. I do realize that Grandma's marathon is becoming less likely all the time. And I really don't want to talk about the amount of money I've spent on races that I haven't run. 

I am focused on coming back so strong that I don't ever have to go down this injury road again. I have been building a core of steel (somewhere in there), foam rolling, doing my PT stretches, cross training, and eating well. I am getting a few runs in, and they make me feel fantastic. I have resolved to not run past the point of pain, which I wasn't doing when I was trying to build up mileage to keep the marathon within reach. That's pretty much it for me and running right now, but I think it's going to be a great summer of running places like this (my parents' farm): 

How's your training/racing?

Someone tell me about a long-lasting injury that you came back better than ever from. Please. :)

I almost made a friend today.

I caught her doing quad stretches in the ladies room at my internship (outside of the stalls, it wasn't THAT awkward). It didn't work out between us. I guess I came off as a little too excited to ask about her sore muscles and exercise routine? If you're reading this, mystery stretcher, I would like a second chance to be bffs, k?

I'm back in Minnesota for my last 6 weeks of grad school. The sad news is that I had to leave my girl with her dad (don't worry, he loves it when I refer to us as mom and dad to the dog-what man doesn't?).

The rest of my break was super good. When I finished my Whole30, I had one of these (it was not even that good??). On the other hand, the apple pie that my mom made WAS good. :)

We met up with my parents for a quick lunch and some Easter dress shopping for my nieces. We got the butterfly one, the blue one was just a bit showy for a 3 year old. Although she has been in pageants. Obviously that is a main difference between my sis and I. Or did you not pick up on me not being the pageant-attending type? 

This was followed by welcoming a new addition to our family. Can you see it strapped in the back seat behind Frank and I? Please tell me you take plant safety as seriously as we do.

One more thing, and I am sure you will thank me after reading this. You know that time right before dinner when it's too late for a snack but too early for a meal? I solved that problem today with these bad boys (yes I do realize that technically pickles are a snack, but they 100% cannot make you full).

Hope you all have a stupendous week. I heard that Mr. Feeny is joining the cast of the new Boy Meets World spin-off, so that should improve your week. ;)

The Whole30: what to expect (if you're like me)

I read up quite a bit on the the whole30 before beginning it (a great homework break). I read up on what groceries to buy, foods that are/are not acceptable, and what to expect during the whole30. The info was very helpful, but I found that my experience did not super match the day-by-day timeline on the whole30 website. Here’s what mine was like:

Day 1-3: No big deal, not feeling deprived, not feeling hungry, wondering what the big deal is? A little tired from not sleeping well (this continued throughout the 30 days, I think it was from missing Frank/being alone in the apartment/stressing over school/moving). A small headache started on day 2 and came and went throughout the rest of the month (weather change maybe? Normal headaches because sometimes people get headaches? Related to change in diet?)

Day 4: Ran almost 6 miles, which is more than I have been used to since my early Fall injury. Very sick the rest of the day. Nausea, no appetite, was pretty sure I was going to toss my cookies (and by cookies, I mean kale and chicken), but I never did. Figured out eating almonds when this happens makes me feel a lot better.

Day 8: I threw away my scale. All the info on the whole30 website suggests not weighing yourself for the entire 30 days, but I just couldn’t stop. So I tossed it in the trash and walked away. I replaced it after the whole30 with a non-electronic version because who really needs to know if they gained or lost .3 lbs on a daily basis?? I did lose some weight, which I will talk about in a different post.

Day 13ish: I discovered that SOME flavors of Naked Juice are technically compliant with the whole 30. Best choice? No. But still compliant and delicious. Around this point, the whole30 just became life. I kind of stopped counting days because it was so easy and didn't feel like a "count-down" thing.

Day 19: Cheater, cheater, diet coke drinker. I was at my internship. I was tired (and hungry?). I didn’t bring snacks. I searched the vending machine for anything I could eat and seeing nothing, made a pretty bad decision and bought a diet coke. I only drank half of it, but I know this was a whole30 failure. I decided to shame myself by taking a picture.

I am not holding this against myself anymore and already accepted the natural consequence of being up at 1:30 in the morning cleaning out our back room and trying to get Lucy to play fetch with me. I was absolutely shocked at how affected I was by half a pop when I’ve been off all sugar and other junk.

Day 23: Someone has a birthday cake at my internship. A very nice man tries to give me this piece of cake. I leave it on top of the microwave as I warm up my lamb chop, sweet potato and cauliflower for lunch. No big deal.

Day 26: Mini candy bars passed around during class. Several times. Several varieties. For the first time EVER, when I saw candy, I didn’t start salivating. Usually I can almost taste and feel chocolate on my tongue and I HAVE TO HAVE IT when I just look at it. Not so much anymore. This has been my very favorite part of the whole30.

 

Day 29: My darling husband got popcorn at the movie theatre. I was fine munching on almonds and raisins (side note: I think I ate too many almonds and raisins on the whole30?)

Day 30: This wasn’t too hard. I never reached the feeling-great-euphoria-omg-this-rocks feeling that a lot of people claim to reach. I do think eating well helped even out my mood and keep me stable and sane during a hectic time in my life, but there’s really no way to quantify that. I plan to start another whole30 after spring break so I can keep chasing the crazy high that I have heard about (and because there is no reason a 27 year old needs to spend 33% of her (husband's) income on candy.

I plan to post about running and the whole30 (spoiler alert: I don’t know much), ethical concerns with the whole 30, what I ate, and some other general thoughts/benefits I saw/resources I used soon. This post just got way too long.

Greetings from Michigan!

I am currently on my spring break in the tropics of northern Michigan. Minus the tropics part of course!

I road tripped the 7ish hours over here from Minnesota with a couple of friends who also chose Michigan as their spring break destination (what’s wrong with us?). Allow me to share what a 3 girls + 2 dogs road trip looks like.

First off, I have a problem with the juice pictured below. I hope Frank doesn’t find out how much it costs. Of course now he will because he is as addicted to Runner Girl Revisited as I am to Naked Juice.

Backseat doggy time! And yes, I am aware that nobody but nobody is wearing ripped jeans anymore.

Beware of stopping to use the restroom at gas stations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This was right beside the sink. I wish I were kidding.

Lucy decided she wanted to ride shotgun.

Then she needed a hat. Thanks for helping her out Kirsten.

Since I’ve been here, we’ve mostly been doing fun things like buying vacuums and sleeping on trundle beds since all of our furniture is in Minnesota (aka where I live) still. 

I’m really happy with the house Frank found and now I’m even more ready to be done with school and settled in here!

Today is my LAST day of the whole 30, so I’ll be writing up my thoughts on that in the next couple days. Stay tuned. :)