Outrun CF Virtual Race: October 1, 2011!

The first Out Run CF Virtual Race was a huge success. Runners and walkers from all over the world came together with one thing in mind, to Out Run Cystic Fibrosis! This fall, on October 1, 2011, we plan to do it again. The Rock CF Foundation and CysticLife are joining forces, once again, to bring you another Out Run CF Virtual Race.

In case you missed out last time, or need a refresher, here is how it works. Anyone and everyone is invited to participate: Fibros, Cysters, parents, spouses, friends, extended family, you name it! Participants will find a route near their house. Then on October 1, 2011, EVERYONE will lace up their sneakers and hit the pavement in their Out Run CF shirt (Each registrant will receive a t-shirt unique to this fall’s race from us in the mail).

No distance is too long, or too short. YOU pick YOUR mileage. 1 mile? 5K? 10K? 10 miles? Half Marathon? Marathon? It’s up to you! Nothing is too fast or too slow YOU pick YOUR speed. We just want to get the entire CF community out of their houses and into their running shoes on the same day, for the same cause.

Registrants can blog about their training, ask questions, and share tips on CysticLife.org. We want the entire site to be plastered with talk of exercise, running, and encouragement. On race day, we want people to post their times and their experiences. Let’s make this Virtual Race even BIGGER than the first one! Let’s make it the biggest race the community, and the world, has ever seen!!

So here again are the hard facts:

Who: Everyone
What: Outrun CF Virtual Race held by Rock CF Foundation and CysticLife
When: October 1, 2011
Where: Anywhere
Why: Because anyone can run—whether it’s for a minute or a marathon! Together we can Out Run CF.
How : Register at http://www.active.com/running/anytown-mi/out-run-cfvirtual-run-fall-edition-2011

Helpful sites to get you started:

CysticLife.org—Blog about your progress, ask questions about training to the community, post Airwaves with your daily run updates, connect with others to encourage them and be encouraged

Dailymile.com—Make and account and join the Rock CF/CysticLife group to track your miles and keep track of others! http://www.dailymile.com/groups/1463-rock-cf-and-cysticlife-virtual-runners/

Facebook.com—Join the Out Run CF group to see how many people are outrunning CF and connect with them! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Out-Run-CF/164020056961598

Runnersworld.com—Get inspired, find training programs.

Thankful Thursday - 3rd Trimester & Gentamicin

It's thankful Thursday time! We all have so much to be thankful for and we love to take this opportunity just to write down each and everything that comes to mind. as I mentioned, I no longer have the "linkytools" but I invite you to share your thankful blog in the comments section. Without further ado, here's what we're thankful for:

Mandi's List:

I'm thankful for food. Today I had to go in for a 3-hour glucose tolerance test (yes, that means I failed the 1-hour. I was 133 and the cut off is above 139, but anything in the 130's they do a 3-hour on just in case. We'll keep you posted with results). However, the one thing I learned from this fasting test is how much I am thankful for food. I had to go in fasting for 12 hours, and then it was 3 more hours until I could eat...and for this preggo momma, who eats every 2-4 hours, that was not awesome. I've never had a lunch taste so good! I sure am thankful for food.

I'm thankful for a bigger Peanut. Peanut is growing and healthy, and I am so thankful for that. But the thing I love the most this week is that Peanut is getting big enough that I can sometimes feel a body part moving under the skin, and actually FEEL the body part. It's not just the movement, but Peanut's body that I can feel. It is so incredible!! I am so thankful for the bond I can build with my baby as I feel her wiggle around.

I'm thankful for being in the 3rd trimester! As of Tuesday, we were 28 weeks pregnant. Man, I am SO thankful to be in the 3rd trimester. We are counting down to the end now - only 12 weeks left. Looking at the calendar it looks SO close and I think the next several weeks will fly by (as we have a lot on the calendar), but then it'll probably slow down as we get close to the end and time will crawl by. Also, t feels great to know that if I were to have Peanut today, she would have a 90% survival rate. Knowing that we've made it to a point that Peanut would likely be ok if I went into labor, brings a lot of peace to my often worrying mind!

Ronnie's List:

I'm thankful for my opportunity to spend some time with the good folks out in Kansas City this weekend. I've been invited to speak at their CF education day on Saturday and I'm really excited to share my story. I love being able to speak face-to-face with members in the community, and sometimes I even get to meet people that I know from the online community. I certainly hope that's the case on Saturday!

I'm thankful for this blog. This blog gives me the opportunity to talk about anything and everything. And although talking, or writing in this case, about stuff I care about is enjoyable, I especially like the interaction that takes place on RSBR. It's amazing how willing you guys are to share tips and tricks about topics I discuss on this blog. I've been struggling to come up with veggie centric meals, I voiced that concern and within hours I had comments and emails giving me suggestions. I seriously couldn't ask for anything more!

I'm thankful for inhaled antibiotics. I still think inhaled antibiotics are the best thing since sliced bread. These things go right to the source of the infection and most of the time, no matter which drug it is, it feels like something is working. I just started another cycle of inhaled Gentamicin (an oldie but goodie) and I'm hoping that it holds off a trip to the Hole for a little while longer!

So, what are you thankful for today?

Weight Loss Challenge...Still Struggling.

About three weeks ago I posted about my attempt to cut some lbs over the course of the next 6 months. If you missed the post and want to catch up, you can find it here. I figured I would update you guys on how I did on achieving my weekly goals plus let you know what my new goals are for this week. Here were my original goals:

Using smaller plates for my meals

Not returning for seconds

Eating more servings of vegetables and fruit

Taking more time to eat my meals

I knocked the first week's goals out of the park. We then added additional goals onto my original ones. My goals for the last two weeks have been the same. I still haven't scored 100% on accomplishing them, so until I do, we will not set new ones. Plus, I feel really comfortable with what they are and think that they are all very good to shoot for. Here are my goals for this week:

I will continue with small plates and no second servings

I will eat three servings of vegetables at least 3 days per week.

I will continue to slow down my eating by chewing more and more slowly, and setting food/utensil down between bites.

I will lift 3 days/week and spin 3 days/week. I will also do a separate workout on one of the weekend days.

I will watch the videos (that were sent to me) and begin playing around with the 12 Kg kettlebell.

I will ride my bike while Mandi runs at least 3 mornings/week.

So far, I'm still struggling with the same ones that I was struggling with last week. I feel like I am constantly hungry, so when that snack or meal finally comes, it's hard not to scarf it down. One good thing is that even tough I don't feel full immediately, I'm aware enough to know that it just takes my brain a little bit to register the feeling. Still, I'm not accomplishing all that I have set out to do, so I'm going to have to figure something out. As far as the three servings of veggies, I have improved, but I need to get better. I've tried to increase my salad intake, with the most yummy salad dressing ever (sesame ginger) and I've discovered that I love carrots...as long as they're dipped in hummus. If I could really nail down these last two I would be ready to move on to bigger and better things. I just really need to buckle down.

You guys were great at giving me tips last week and I took most of them to heart. If you have any additional tips or didn't chime in last week, please don't hold back. I need all of the help that I can get!

I started this journey at 205 and was down to 197 a week later. A week after that I was down to 193. Just weighed myself: 191.

Coming Down With A Cold

The past few days I have had a headache for most of the day, but mostly on my left side. My left ear has also been painful to the point that I'm always tugging at it. Finally, the left side of my throat has been pretty sore and I try to avoid swallowing food past that side (pretty much impossible by the way). So I don't know if I'm coming down with something or my body is just being a jerk, but either way, I've taken my usual steps to combat anything that may be going on.

This is my go-to checklist when I feel myself getting non-CF sick:

First thing I do is step it up on my treatments. The last thing I want to happen is for whatever is going on in my head to make it down to my lungs. I make sure come you know what and high water that 3 treatments a day is the minimum but I really shoot for 4. I also try to focus more on my breathing while doing the treatment. You guys know how it is. Sometimes surfing online can make a treatment go by so fast that we barely even noticed it was there...and that's notalways a good thing.

I always try to "drown" my system when I'm feeling a little sick. I drink a lot of water on most days, but I focus on going overboard on the days I feel a little off. Water makes up most of our being and the world, so I figure it must be good for something right? Some say that it helps to

flush out toxins, some say it helps to keep everything moving, some say it acts as fuel for our natural bug fighting machine, and I say that it just makes me feel better so I do it!

Another thing that I always do when I have a sore throat or stuffy head/nose is reach for the salt water. This is a little thing that I picked up from my grandpa while I was young. My gramps was known for sniffing salt water every night and he swore by it's healing effects. I can tell you this - nothing clears out my stuffy nose like sniffing salt water, and if I gargle the stuff, I'm almost guaranteed not to wake up with a sore throat the following morning. It is a home remedy that always seems to do wonders for me.

The last thing that I should do, but is pretty hard for me to get down, is just simply resting. I always feel like I get worse when I slow down. I know that it's not the case all of the time, but it still plays with my mind. The problem is, a good hard workout will sometimes get me right back on the path of feeling great, while other times it can push me down the path of feeling like crud. I never quite know which way it will go until after my workout.

So that's about it. Those are my go-to's when I feel myself starting to come down with something. What about you guys? Any extra steps that you take when you feel yourself "coming down" with something?

Peanut before Glider?

Yesterday we went to Buy Buy Baby to finally buy our glider for the nursery. I have been putting it off for the last 5 weeks because I was nervous to pull the trigger on one. You see, they don't have all of the gliders available to "test drive" at the store, so you can't necessarily sit and feel the one you order. Also, none of the gliders out on the floor came in a fabric I liked. So that meant I had to order a glider I had never sat in, in a fabric I only saw a little swatch of. And to add insult to injury, once ordered you can't cancel it. It could be the ugliest, most uncomfortable chair in the history of the world, and we are stuck with it. Everything about that made me anxious and not want to pull the trigger! However, yesterday felt like it was a good day to be a risk-taker and buy the glider and ottoman.

So we went to Buy Buy Baby and bought a great looking, upholstered chair and ottoman in a fabric that looks like it will be beautiful (a creamish/tanish color). It's the same glider as in the picture (top right of blog), but it's in a different fabric. Well we got the chair ordered and then were told when we could expect our custom beauty: 10/6/11-11/6/11. As soon as I saw those dates I thought to myself, "What? Are you telling me peanut is SO close that I may finish incubating this little nugget before they can assemble and deliver a chair?!" The thought was thrilling and scary all at the same time. It made me panic a little bit thinking, "shoot, what else haven't I done that if I don't do it now it will be 'too late'?" But more than anything I was just excited. We are due in 12 weeks from tomorrow...which means peanut is considered full-term at any point 9 weeks from now. FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! I, obviously, am hoping to be one of those lucky ladies that has her first just glide right out at 37 weeks...however, I am fully aware that I will likely be sitting, twirling my thumbs at 41 weeks wondering if peanut will ever come out.

So here's where I need your help. What are things that I should be doing (or should have done) at or before 28 weeks? This first time mom has no idea what exactly should be done at this point, but all I know is that if a glider can take up to 13 weeks, there must be other things I need to get on the ball and do. So help me out here...what did you have done before 28 weeks? What can I leave for the last minute?