Everything is going to be ok. I have solutions to the problems! Most of them involve eating, drinking and resting. Let’s get started!
As you may know, I’m handing out high fives for Friday again with one of my best bitches – Angela of Happy Fit Mama. She’s got 99 problems but tight hips are not one! Seriously, you need to check out her yoga poses for loosening tight hips because I know that is a big problem for a lot you, and when I say “you” I mean “me.”
Let’s continue by checking out my top five problems of the week, followed by my resourceful solutions…
ONE
Problem: Drinking too much during the holidays and especially on New Year’s Eve
Is that an angel you see before you? Why yes, that is my oldest son (by one minute) last New Year’s Eve. He had a little too much sparkling grape juice and partied hard until 9:30pm. If you want to start your year off better then Vaughn did last year, check this out:
Solution: Plan workouts you will want to do and get a jump start on January!
Be Original with Your Workouts in 2016 | Treadmill Reviews
For you city dwellers, it’s easy to try out the trendiest workouts around like Daybreakers, City Row and The Mile High Run Club. That last one is a treadmill class you creepy weirdo. However, if you live in the middle of nowhere like I do, I offer some tips in the article on how to recreate these classes on your own.
Invite friends, have some mocktails and happy New Year to you!
TWO
Problem: You need to get a ton of shit things done for the holidays and suddenly, everyday things like parenting become overwhelming.
While we were picking out our Christmas tree on a very inconvenient Monday night, the boys decided it was infinitely better to play hide and seek in between all the rows of trees, and do sprint drills up and down the hill the tree farm was located on, instead of patiently choosing the perfect tree. Of course I gave up trying to corral them and just joined in.
Solution: Have one night with your girlfriends where you drink wine and belt out Adele tunes and commiserate on the hilarity that is parenting.
Three
Problem: Dismal workouts. We all have them. Mama said there would be days like this. Except my mama would have just had a cigarette and a Tab on our front porch with the neighbor. #NotAnOption
I took this shot after a less then stellar run. Just one of those runs when nothing really feels good and you start counting the miles until you’re home. Instead of being in a funk, I chose to take this picture and just be grateful for the run. Grateful I can run and have a family to run home to in a warm house filled with food and decorations and a lot of other things I sometimes take for granted. It was a moment.
Then I realized that I probably just needed a rest day.
Solution: Tis the season to have dessert, not go the extra mile and take a few extra rest days.
The Other Transition: The Importance of Rest for the Free-Living Athlete | USA Triathlon Website | Deanna Pomfret
I absolutely loved this article and Pomfret’s concept of the “free-living” athlete. She talks about how making one small change, like your head position in the pool, can change everything for your swim. Similarly, in life, small changes can make all the difference as well.
Rest days. Not just for Christmas anymore.
FOUR
Problem: Anxiety
Solution: Running
Ok, so maybe it’s not that simple but, if you’re a runner then you know running is a “cure” for a lot of life’s problems, even serious ones like dibilitating anxiety. I should know since I have suffered some pretty major anxiety attacks in my life. Alisha Perkins also knows and decided to write her first book, Running Home based on her experiences with anxiety and how, becoming a runner helped her to better manage it.
She Runs: Alisha Perkins: How the wife of a famous baseball player overcomes her anxiety disorder, one race at a time. | Zelle
I was so happy to have read and reviewed this book for Zelle and I will be sharing more about how it personally affected me on the blog soon. Get your meds ready.
Alisha Perkins and friend Alyssa finish the Red, White and BOOM half-marathon in 2014.
FIVE
Problem: I hate bananas but they are practically the perfect running fuel.
Solution: Eat dates!
In addition to the whole wheat fig bars I love, I also found the fig preserves shown in picture five. My favorite way to eat it? On a whole wheat English Muffin with Teddy’s Natural Peanut Butter.
Swap Your Pre-Run Banana with This Food | Kim McDevitt
Remember when I attended the Runner’s World Half and Festival weekend where Deena Kastor herself confessed to not loving bananas? Well, I think that may have had something to do with it.
Just two banana haters hanging out.
Now that all your problems are solved, go forth into the weekend and be merry! Oh, but first, tweet this out as a pay it forward, because it’s the holiday season and all…
[Tweet “5 problems, 5 solutions and 5 great articles. What more could you want from Friday? #HighFiveFriday”]
How many problems do you currently have? Any solutions?
Will you try figs instead of bananas as a pre-run snack?
Try any good fitness classes lately?
Glad you clarified about the Mile High Run Club 😉
Awww. Allie you are one of my best bitches too. You continue to raise me up just like Josh says. 99 problems for sure. Thankfully you are with the solution. And figs are the ultimate solution for everything! Thanks for linking up!
Allie, I think I’m following in your footsteps with the active child thing… Cooper doesn’t sit still for a half a second ever! I can totally picture him running around like crazy instead of picking out a tree. Help me!!! 🙂
Good luck my friend and, at least there is only ONE of him 🙂
I love that you use the term “best bitches”. LOL, that is hilarious. I find myself still thinking about the Runners World weekend and everything we did. I want to do it again!
LOL! It just popped into my head:-)
So with you on the RW weekend. I plan on doing it again, one way or another!
Figs! That is another new one to me…I started trying dates last week after an article I read. I am always game for finding new pre-run fuel 🙂
These are some great solutions!! The other morning was a really bad one and I called my girlfriend with similar aged kids to bitch and complain and she was yelling at her kids too. It instantly made me feel better!! Lol!!
I still haven’t tried these famous fig bars that you and Melissa are always talking about! It is my new mission!!
Misery loves company 🙂 This is also why my best friend has TWO sets of twins. It always makes me feel better!
Mom of three here, oldest is a smart mouth teen with ADHD=Major anxiety. It could be worse, I’m an Irish triplet…I’m 11 months older than my twin brothers. I completely forgive my mom for losing it. Also do not like bananas, love love Nature Grocer fig newtons.
The good old days of tab and a cigarette….love that visual in my head. I actually have a fig obsession….any time something on a menu has figs (figs, gorgonzola, prosciutto pizza for example), I zoom in on that menu item and see nothing else…. so I’ll have some figs on my run (and still like bananas,too). #youhadmeatfig
It was seriously what my mom did and I can picture it so vividly!
Yes to the fig obsession. The figs with cheese wrapped in prosciutto is the only thing I asked my step mom to make for our Christmas Eve party!!
I want to read that triathlete’s article about small changes – it sounds awesome! Your Christmas tree experience sounds eerily similar to ours…
Isn’t it great? Glad you loved it too and yes, I can imagine that your tree experience was about the same!!
I eat those wheat-free/dairy-free Newman’s Fig Bars as hiking fuel – I should really try those or just plain figs as running fuel!
i don’t believe in problems, only resourcefulness and creativity! LOL joking.. but honestly, i like problem solving. my current problem is not having enough energy during my pregnancy. i’m wrapping up the first tri, and can’t wait for the magical energy to appear. yes, exercise does help but it’s the evening where i’m struggling. i think i’ll try a 10 min walk after dinner, my dogs would just luvvv that.
oh figs, oh my! i just had some fig jam today – i love figs!!! i’ve OD’ed on fig jam before so i know my weakness, but it’s not stopping me from having it around. i would choose figs over bananas 7 out of 10 times 🙂
happy friyay!
I suffer from anxiety and I do feel when I run, it definitely calms me down. It’s like a natural xanax. Thanks for sharing.
Yes it is! I cannot imagine how bad my anxiety would be without it.
Thank you commenting and I hope you read Alisha’s book!
I’m in denial of my problems. That comes with the territory of being in limbo! I haven’t seen that Adele parody video! That’s amazing. I’m happy that I can now justify eating more figs. Thanks for all these solutions!
I wish you could solve all of my problems, Allie! But I don’t have major ones, thank goodness. And I don’t care for bananas, so I love your suggestion to sub in figs! I will have to keep an eye out for fig preserves.
So I’m allergic to bananas! Imagine that! And I’m not sure I’d like figs. I seem to do just fine with a beer at the finish line…go figure…
Too bad we couldn’t fuel with beer at the start line!!!
Well I feel like I have 99 plus problems lol, but running for sure helps!
Yes it does! We need to run soon…Colchester is coming!!
I love the concept of this post! Whenever I have annoying little problems, I try to not only think of solutions, but also think of ways to re-frame them and not let them bother me if they can’t be fixed. Around the holidays there’s so much going on so it’s easy to get stressed, but I’m trying to lead a relatively stress-free holiday season! 😉
Aren’t we all!! And yes, if you can change your attitude or perspective, it usually works. Thanks Nicole!
This is an exciting story, and running forward is the best exercise. Choosing the right commercial treadmill is not difficult. The difficulty is to keep exercising.