This is a guest post.  No, I don’t have cancer.  Maybe soon I will start blogging again, but I’m taking a break for now.  If you want to do a guest post, just ask.

For those who inquired, I didn’t do Houston because I had a stress reaction in my foot that cost me 6 weeks of running, but it appears to be healed now and I’ve been running for 2.5 weeks. – Jess

Treatment methods for cancer, such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy, can be incredibly destructive. As these forms of treatment target the manipulated cells that cause cancer, they often also affect healthy tissue and cells, and the entire process often leaves cancer patients feeling weak and even discouraged. Don’t let cancer treatment beat you where the cancer itself wasn’t able to. Fight back against your cancer by becoming more active. One way that you can kick cancers butt is by running. In fact, intense forms of physical activity such as running can even reduce an individual’s risk of developing certain forms of cancer, such as colon cancer or breast cancer, by a significant rate.

Running has a slew of health benefits for individuals that have cancer, as well as for those that do not. As a high impact form of cardiovascular activity, running can help you to lose weight, take deep breaths and can even be used as a form of mental rejuvenation. Cancer like lung cancer and mesothelioma causes people to focus on cardio exercises to increase lung function. For those that are struggling with cancer, running can be a beneficial aspect of your daily routine that may help you to overcome the disease and rebuild your strength.

Running can help patients to overcome the psychological pain and fatigue that often accompany chemotherapy treatment. While running, you can maintain all control over the pace and intensity of your workout. Other forms of exercise such as weight lifting require short bursts of energy that pose the risk of becoming too intense, too quickly.

When starting out with a running routine, make sure to stretch adequately and wear proper running equipment so to avoid injury. Make sure to drink plenty of water as well so that you do not become dehydrated. As you being to run, start out at a slow jog and do not push your body too far. As you begin to incorporate running into your daily routine you will gradually increase your stamina and be able to run farther, faster and for an extended period of time.

Running can be a beneficial way to stay strong and feel great as you battle cancer. By starting small and gradually increasing intensity, running may be a good choice of exercise for just about anyone.

Depending on the stage of cancer that you are diagnosed with, as well as the level of treatment that you are undergoing, your ability to participate in physical activity will vary. Not everyone will be able to start running right away. Instead, it is important to build up your stamina gradually. While you may not be able to run a marathon right away while you are still undergoing treatment, you can start out at a pace that is right for you and gradually build up to a faster pace or a longer distance.

Liz Davies is a recent college graduate and aspiring writer especially interested in health and wellness. She wants to make a difference in people’s lives because she sees how cancer has devastated so many people in this world. Liz also likes running, playing lacrosse, reading and playing with her dog, April. If you would like to contact her she can be reached at healthylizd@gmail.com

It’s officially baking season.  As if Christmas wasn’t a good enough reason for cookies, through November and December I’ve got about six separate baking occasions.  And then least one day when I just really wanted to bake cookies.

Also, it was too hot to bake in my apartment and now it’s so cold in here that I’m looking for any excuse to turn on the oven.

Anyway, I’m relatively sure some of you are baking for the holidays as well, so here’s three good recipes I’ve tried in the past couple weeks.

Oreo-Stuffed Double Chocolate Cookies

I wanted a special occasion cookie for MSB’s birthday, so I tried these famous cookies.  He likes chocolate and Oreos and I really wanted to try stuffing a cookie.  So I did, and honestly they weren’t as good as I hoped.  At least in appearance–they tasted really good!

My advice:  Chill the dough before trying to form it around the Oreo.  I think mine would have been easier to handle and maybe spread a little less.

Double Chocolate Oreo in their gift shoebox

Jumbo Three Chip Cookies

I had to leave Milo with a friend when MSB and I went to my brother’s wedding the weekend before Thanksgiving.  He received chocolate chip cookies made from the linked recipe.  But instead of using three kinds of chips, I used semi-sweet and then a whole ton of crushed Oreos (leftover from the previous recipe, of course.)

I gave some of these to MSB too because I liked them better than his birthday cookies.  These are fat cookies with a sturdy but doughy texture.  Perfect!

Chocolate Chip Oreo Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Cornstarch

You know when you see a chocolate chip cookie that’s a little different than all the (hundreds) of others you’ve made, and it makes you really, really want to try it so you can taste yet another version of the CCC?  Well, I became obsessed with baking this recipe and made them for no other reason than that I felt like it.  But conveniently, MSB had friends over and I got to share them.

These are amazing!  Use good chocolate and definitely use more than called for in the recipe.  That’s all I would change.  These got gobbled up in a serious way.  I made them kinda small and they turned out perfectly.

CCC's with cornstarch

So, my recycling bin is really out of control.  I don’t have recycling in my building (thanks, Houston), so I have to drag it over to MSB’s place.  This requires carrying a bunch of trash down the stairs and to my car, and I’m often already carrying stuff when I go to his place.  So I say, “I’ll do it later,” and now that there’s a bunch of cans, bottles, and plastic food containers spilling out of my trash can and onto the floor, the task has become a lot more daunting.  I’m pretty sure I won’t do it until someone comes to visit me and I need my kitchen to look decent.

Updating my blog is like taking out my recycling.  I have a lot of things to write about:  lots of cookie baking, some great mileage weeks, and oh…my brother got married!  And writing about all this has just gotten much too cumbersome for me.  But hey, I won a half marathon today, so I have to update!  A race is my expected houseguest.

I ran the La Porte By the Bay Half Marathon this morning.  It was about 70*, raining, and the course went over a giant suspension bridge.  Twice.  It was the biggest hill I have ever experienced.

Luckily, the rest of the race was flat, very well-organized, and had great swag.

My friend and I arrived at about 7 AM, and hour before the 8 AM start.  La Porte is about 40 minutes from where we live in Houston and the drive was perfectly easy.  So was parking–we parked in a lot in the starting area, about 20 feet from the port-a-potties (no line!) and 15 feet from packet pickup (almost no line!).  Every time I do one of these easy, small races, I vow to do more of them.  Just not this one.

We started near the front of the pack, and I quickly became the leading female.  The first 5 miles were sooo flat and easy and I kept needing to hold myself back.  At the same time, however, I allowed myself to bank a little time because I knew I would slow down a lot on the bridge.  I did between 6:36-6:40 for all those miles.

Then we had to run on the highway service road to get to the bridge.  That’s when things got ugly.  Literally, this was a really ugly, boring part of the course.

The bridge was nicer because we could look out over the water, but I couldn’t really do that because I was staring straight forward and willing myself up the hill.  The men around me started to pass me with their annoying quad strength, but I felt like I kept a good pace.  Until I got to the top and my Garmin split was 7:24.

I made up some time on the way down the hill–6:14, my fastest mile of the race.  We hit another ugly part and headed towards the turnaround, where we went around cones in a parking lot.

After the turnaround we ran back the way we came.  The other runners were so great!  They kept yelling for me because I was the first female.  I tried to smile at them, but yelling back to everyone was out of the question at this point.  I was just hanging on as we ascended the bridge for the second time.

The second climb involved a lot of wind and drizzly rain in my face.  As much as it sucked, I will say that getting up the bridge gave me something shorter to focus on, instead of considering the 4.5 miles ahead of me.  I got to the top and passed a group of guys, then began speeding down the other side.

Mistake!  Who knew that flying down a half mile hill would give me such a wicked side cramp?  I mean, I haven’t had one of those in years!  It happened after I got to the bottom, around mile 10.  And it just…stayed there, hurting and pinching and taking away my breath.  I had to slow down to the 7:20s again, the same pace that got me up the bridge.

Miles 10-12 were really bad.  If I sped up, the cramp got worse, so I just held on.  The guys that I passed on the bridge flew by me, and getting passed always knocks my confidence a little.

The cramp finally worked itself out, and it was like I had been sitting in a traffic jam that finally started moving again–just a huge relief.  The last mile was decent.  Not great, but a good sprint at the end.

My time: 1:31:05.  A far cry from my 1:28 goal and the sub-1:30 pace I was running until the cramp, but good enough for the overall female win.  I was hoping for a great time to give me some confidence for Houston (6 weeks!), but the course was hard and I won, so it’s tough to be too upset.

Plus, I got a plaque!

Bottom line:  Well-organized race, good post-race food (which I felt a bit too ill to eat much of), and a really nice crowd of runners.  Running over a huge bridge in the muggy warm rain really brings people together.

I made this meal last weekend, and it supplied me with a couple meals of yummy leftovers for the week.  Also, both dishes were healthy without being entirely boring.  I appreciate recipes like that.

I made the Greek Lemon Chicken according to the original recipe, which is here.  The chicken breasts are marinated in Greek yogurt, then breaded, browned, and baked.

I changed the Spinach Rice Casserole after reading the comments on Allrecipes.  Most notably, I used brown rice.  The original recipe is here, but here’s what I did:

Ingredients

1 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon canola oil

1 1/2 cups uncooked brown rice

8 oz. (or so) fresh spinach, torn

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup shredded Parmesan

1/4 cup shredded Mozzarella

Directions

1. In a saucepan, saute onion and garlic in oil until the onion softens.  Add rice and cook 2 minutes.  Add broth and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat, cover, and allow to simmer for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 375*.  Remove rice from heat and stir in salt, pepper, and spinach until spinach is wilted.  Pour rice mixture into a 2 quart baking dish and cover with cheese.  Bake for 20 minutes.

Just 10 more weeks to go!  I’m blogging while watching NBC’s coverage of the NYC Marathon.  Wish it was live, but I’m just happy it’s on at all!

Watching the marathon coverage makes me realize how very, very badly I want a PR in Houston.  I’m just going to put it out there:  I want a sub-3:05.  And if I stay healthy and all my training goes as well as it did this week, then a PR might just happen.

Here’s what I did:

Monday: No running, but two BodyRock workouts! Happy Halloween workout in AM; Sexy Supremacy workout in PM.  I did two because the Happy Halloween workout wasn’t as hard as I expected.

Tuesday: 9 miles in AM; 8.6 miles with 6 x 1000 meters in PM.  The 1000s were incredibly hard, but I ran all of them very close to my goal pace.

Wednesday: 10 miles very slow to recover from the speedwork; short weights workout in PM

Thursday: 18 miles.  Getting the long run done during the week frees up my weekend, but work that day really sucks.

Friday: 10 miles in AM; Marine Corp workout in PM (this one was great!)

Saturday: 10.5 miles with 5 at faster than marathon goal pace; Set Fire to Your Abs workout

Sunday: 11 miles

Total mileage: 77.1, plus 4 BodyRock workouts!  I guess I could do one later today, but I’m not planning on it.

I’m not backing off at all this week.  I’m taking tomorrow as my rest day, but hitting the miles hard again on Tuesday and the rest of the week.  I have my first 20-miler of this cycle too.

Ahhh the giraffe! He got me!