Ultra Marathon Man

Wow I can't believe how fast this summer is whizzing right by. Everyday is playing with my kids and hanging out. I love hanging out with my kids. Unfortunately everything else seems to get pushed to the side as I am enjoying being with them, this blog being one of them. Many times I have things in my head that I want to write and then by the time the kids are not around and I have a little privacy, I am too tired. But I have been meaning to write on this Ultra Marathon Man topic and so I am going to give it a go.

Who knew that this was going to end up a good thing. When my husband stumbled upon this information about a man who is a running FREAK, I was so worried. At first he couldn't get enough of researching what this man does. He claims that he eats while he runs, orders pizza , pays for it as the delivery car is slowly following him and rolls it up like a burrito and then eats his pizza log as he runs. So my husband has dropped the, "I starve myself to death" thing that he was doing before. You know the research that severe caloric reduction is supposed to make you live longer, and now he has jumped on board with Mr. Marathon Man. So he is not ordering pizza on the go, but he is eating powerbars now once a day and eating a huge breakfast and a huge dinner. His running has intensified as well. He has tripled the amount of running he is doing.

The good news is that all of this running and now having adequate nutrition to support the running has really given him like a natural stress relieve. At first I thought he was doing his normal anger suppression and I was waiting for the vol canoe to erupt, but then I kept watching. I know him so well. I can look at his face and tell you if he is suppressing anger or if something just really isn't getting to him. But the great thing is that I am watching him and I am watching all the "triggers" go off and I am seeing him just handling it. This running plus added food had given him the same effect as like taking and antidepressant. I had read about all these natural things you can do, I tried telling him. I tried putting more omegas in his diet and all of this crap, but it wasn't until he saw that marathon man that he felt inspired to push himself.

This has allowed some better communication as well. I mean you can't really talk to a person who looks like they are about ready to fly off the handle at whatever you are going to say. I have made some changes in myself as well. I have been reading a few really good books and one of them is by Dr. Wayne Dyer and one thing he talks about is "being the peace that you desire". He talks about how if you are living in fear and expecting stress, you are going to get stress, but if you never let someone take away your inner peace that it will also come back to you. I had this AMAZING dream about a panther like creature chasing me and in my dream, even though I was really terrified of the beast, I turned around and grabbed it by the jowls and roared in it's face and screamed, "I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU. DO YOU HEAR ME? I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU!" The whole time I was actually terrified but I wouldn't let it rule me with fear anymore. The really strange thing is that when I held onto the jowls of this beast it felt just like my dog Louis's mouth area. I later realized that the panther like beast was a combination of my husband (black hair) and my dog Louis. The dog and my husbands interactions were the things that were causing me a great amount of fear and stress. I told my husband about this dream and he totally got it.

I am not disillusional, I know that things will still be up and down. I do however have some hope for the future. It has been so nice to enjoy my husband without the cloud of illness. I have enjoyed actually being around him. We had a great day on Sunday taking our middle child out by herself to the store with us while the others stayed home with a sitter. I can't explain to you how lovely the simple things can be. Just being around him when he is acting like his true self. The person who I fell in love with and the person I am still in love with. I laid beside him cuddled in bed and just enjoyed being next to him and the smell of him. I so totally love my husband, but I so HATE his illness. I am hoping that this exercise/eating regiment will be maintained and that the effects will continue.