The Internet and Information (Is it making us dumber? Smarter? No difference at all?)

This is something I was just thinking about... based on another thought I had (go figure, right?)  I was reading an article, and some of the comments said something along the lines of "This should have been proof-read before being published."  That lead me to start thinking about the internet in general.  The first thing that popped into my head was along the lines of "Anyone can post anything now, and anyone will believe it.  The internet just propogates un-informed ideas."  I mean, if you think about it, it's sort of true.  Look at my blog, for example... It's all opinions, and not a whole lot of research.  If someone wasn't thinking, they could look at some of what I say and say "Oh, well, Nina said it, so it must be true!"  Actually, as a side note, that would be really flattering, but probably not always the wisest idea.  Anyways, back on topic.  In the past, there would only be a few ways that people would be able to read my blog entries:

1)  Published in a newspaper/magazine - where someone most likely looked over the articles and ensured that grammer/etc. was correct.

2)  I wrote and gave copies of my posts to my friends.  In that case, I would probably only have 10-15 people reading what I wrote (I think I would be too lazy to distribute more)

3) I wrote a book with all of my thoughts/ideas and published it (again, I would hope that would have been proof read). 

These days, however, all I have to do is write up a quick blog, post it onto my Facebook, and BAM - depending on how interesting my blog entry title subject is - there are 100 reads right within a couple of hours!  If you were to go back to the ninetees, when I was a teenager,  it would have been much harder for that many people to read my writing.

So my point is that it is much easier to get access to information now, and it's much easier to put information which may or may not be correct. Duh, right?  Well, here's where my thought process went.  The first thought I had earlier was that the internet is probably just mis-informing people, and people are getting dumber because they have all of this incorrect information, and nobody has to proof-read anything anymore, etc. etc.  I actually feel kind of old for thinking that at all... People who were born ten years after me ALL had computers in their early teenage years (that most likely didn't include a dial-up tone or very fast-loading pages!) 

Then I got to thinking a little deeper...  The internet, despite some people's opinions, and many comments I read on articles/etc., does not make people dumber.  It might make people lazier in a way... But if you are actually thinking about what you are doing and reading, you won't be misinformed.  Actually, in a way, it teaches you to think critically because you have such an abundance of information thrown at you.  I know in college Wikipedia was an incredibly popular source of information, but the professors were  constantly touting "It is NOT a valid resource!"  And they were correct; however, anyone with any type of education could tell you that.  They could ALSO tell you that if you're smart about it, you can use the resources from Wikipedia to find out more information from reliable sources on a given topic.  Having the vast amounts of information available on the internet can be both positive and negative.  If you aren't smart about it, you might believe anything you read.  But, if you are smart about it, you can learn quite a bit about tons of topics, and then sort through that on what you want to believe.  You just have to learn what the term "reliable sources" really means..   In the past, you might only be able to find a couple of books on a topic, and if it was published, well, it HAD to be correct, right? Well, yeah, that's true if you only have access to a couple of books in a library on a particular topic.  What else CAN you believe?

 But now us mere citizens with Bachelor's degrees (or high school degrees, or any type of education that teaches them to read) can actually access information from medical journals and studies and all sorts of information that you would NOT have had access to in the past.  If you can distinguish between good and bad information, you can actually make some decisions for yourself.  I just thought of a conversation I had with one of my best friends in medical school right now who said that the patient-doctor relationship is changing.  Instead of the doctor just telling the patient what to do, the patient can have a role in treatment.  In the past, that would have been MUCH more difficult.  Other than the patient telling the doctor how they were feeling, they probably couldn't do very much in the way of "interacting."  What choice did they have than to listen to the doctor?   An example is after my last seizure when the neurologist asked me about symptoms and I said something about an aura without even thinking about it.  She says "How do you know what an aura is?"  Um... because I researched the weird deja vu/dizziness/sometimes nauseous feelings I was getting, and found it exactly matched the description of an aura. Or when my primary care manager wanted me to switch medication to another type, I was able to access databases and learned there were several other medications I could use with less side effects (I didn't switch - I'd rather wait until I see an actual neurologist for that one - too much at stake there).  Now, that's not to say that the internet can take the place of a professional in areas that require a lot of study (medical, law, etc.), but it can help keep a regular citizen informed of things they might not otherwise understand very well. 

So to conclude this entry.  No, the internet does not make people dumber.  In reality, it helps people to learn more information and think more critically about the information they are being fed - as you ARE much more likely to come across faulty information on the internet than you would be if you only read published books and articles. I could say it makes people lazy when it comes to writing, but even that isn't necessarily true.  Yes, my blog entry is full of grammer mistakes, but guess what?  It's not published, so it doesn't matter.  My own handwritten journal entries I've been keeping since I was 11 years old are also full of grammatical errors, and writing those didn't make me lazy either.  Being lazy when it counts is what makes you lazy.   I will say, however, that it drives me INSANE when people type like 5 year old children just learning how to read and write, with zero punctuation whatsoever (if your punctuation makes it hard to understand what you are trying to say, you probably should fix it). 

Hope some of you found that a little interesting.  If not, well, it's my blog :-p  !  Hehe.

Nina

Losing weight - the heathy and easy way!

I'm sure I have posted something about this before... because I do have a tendency to repeat myself at times, but here goes.  This was initially going to be a rant, but then I decided that I might actually give some advice that has worked for me in the past couple of years  (After writing this, I realized that I was recently reading another blog entry called "the anti-diet" that has a lot of the same principles if you want to check it out: http://www.thelondoner.me/2012/01/anti-diet.html))

One of my pet peeves is when people assume that I'm thin because I either have a fast metabolism or I starve myself.  OR, it's ONLY because I "run so much" (in reality, I don't run THAT much, and I tend to lose weight when I'm running less), so I'm going to write down what it is that I've done.  First, I do not just have a fast metabolism.  I have been slightly chubby.  I've never been obese, but at not even 5'1" and 126 pounds, there was a time people couldn't look at me and say I wasn't eating enough (I still don't think somebody could look at me and say that, but I guess I look smaller in some of my uniforms, but anyways...).  At this point, I'm about 5'1" and 110 pounds.  Not a huge difference, but when you are so short, that's a pretty big difference.  So here's what I ACTUALLY do as a real, mostly-healthy (in regards to eating anyway) woman.  If you talk to most "naturally thin" women, this is similar to how they eat as well... Most of them DON'T starve themselves, and most of them aren't out exercising for hours every day.

1) First IMPORTANT - very very important point is PORTION SIZE.  I DO tend to eat what I want, which is why some people assume I must just have a fast metabolism.   The trick, however, is a) I don't do it ALL the time, and b) I limit portions.  Portions are REALLY important, as you CAN eat what you want and stay thin if you limit how much of what you eat.  Example:  I eat a lot of ice cream.  However, it's in small portions.  In my freezer I have several types of ice cream, and I eat them after both lunch AND dinner some days, but the trick is that the portions are SMALL.  I have MINI snickers bars (90 calories each) and MINI drumsticks (120 calories each).  Even if I eat a mini snickers and a mini drumstick in one day, that's still only 210 calories.  That's less than most people drink in their coffee drinks.  Which brings me to point number two.

2)  I RARELY drink anything with calories in it... It's just not satisfying.  It helps that I just don't even like soda.  But to me, the 110 or so calories (or more, depending on the size of the glass) in the glass of orange juice in the morning just isn't worth it.  I'd rather eat the real orange PLUS a slice of toast for the same amount of calories and feel WAY more satisfied.   As for coffee drinks, I do like them sometimes, but I still limit them.  Again, empty calories!  If I DO drink a latte, I count it as a snack, since it does have some nutritional value with milk/etc. But it's not ON TOP of a snack.  I also don't drink gatorade/sports drinks - even as a runner, they seem unnecessary to me.  Now, if I've just done a long run, I will probably drink a recovery drink afterward, but that's not a regular occurrence - it's if I feel like my body actually NEEDS those extra calories.  The one thing I will drink fairly regularly (still not all that often) is V8 type drinks as snacks, and sometimes I'll have an acai berry drink, but this is only occasionally, and only if I've been running more frequently.  Which brings me to point 3 - exercise!

3)  All right, so I do exercise more often than your average person, though not as much as some people who really can just eat whatever they want and run it off.  But you will notice that I said above that I tend to lose weight when I'm not running as much.  It's true, and I'll tell you why (besides blood volume and all that other fun exercise physiology stuff).  When I'm running more, I HAVE to eat more.  It's not a matter of "YAY, I'm running, I can eat WHATEVER I WANT!"  It's more like.... "Yay, I'm running!  I need to MAKE SURE I eat something before I do my long run (this is me, I know a lot of people who are okay running without eating), and I need to make sure I eat something aftewards to recover, and make sure my dinner is big enough to be sufficient for tomorrow" and so on so forth... you get the point.  Calories in, calories out.  I actually have to make sure I eat more when I'm running more, so I don't really lose much in the way of weight unless I'm trying, and it's HARD because I'm hungry constantly if I'm trying.  But that's just running... I was talking to a friend who noticed that the healthiest looking people tend to be people who do yoga, and I think there's a reason for that.  There's a lifestyle around exercise as opposed to just burning calories that tends to bring about overall healthier eating habits, which in turn, brings about healthier weight.

There is also, however, the calorie-burning component of exercise.  I've recently taken up actually walking for exercise.  It does not burn as many calories as running, and takes way longer, but it's easy to do anytime of day, AND because it burns less calories, you tend to be less hungry than after a run, so it's easier to control food intake (which is way more important than anything else when it comes to losing weight).  I noticed in Afghanistan that I lost a couple of pounds, which I'm sure had SOMETHING to do with my lack of alcohol consumption, but also had something to do with the fact I made it a point to walk everywhere (I wasn't running much because I hurt my knee).   Of course, I am totally a fan of running, and I also think weight-lifting is great, as it gives you definition so when you DO lose the weight, you don't just look like a stick figure, but you actually look GOOD in that bikini instead of "skinny fat."

4)  BALANCE is KEY.  I know this blog entry kind of makes it sound like I do eat what I want, when I want.... And while that's true, it's not 100% true.  I still have to pay attention to what I'm eating, because as my relatives can attest to (this was back when I was YOUNG, and DID have a crazy fast metabolism), I can eat a LOT of food.  Like, an entire pizza, followed by dessert.  This was when I weighed like 80 pounds.  If I did that whenever I wanted NOW, I would probably be pretty large.  So if I DO eat a really unhealthy meal, the next day, I will probably make it a point to eat healthier.  Not starving myself... I USED to do that, back when I was ten pounds heavier.  And then I would get really hungry and end up over-eating that night.  My mom actually visited me in New York before I headed to Afghanistan, and she noted that the way I ate for the most part was pretty healthy - and yummy!  Sauteed veggies with chicken sausage and rice, all nice and seasoned up...  Cooking with cooking spray instead of oil or butter when I could helped a lot...  It all took maybe 5-10 minutes to prepare, but it was filling and tasted great.  Knowing that I eat like that most of the time helps me to not feel SO guilty when I go out to eat a giant bowl of pasta and wine and follow it with dessert :)

5) Eat food with SUSTENANCE.  This point slightly contradicts point number one, as point number one states that you can eat whatever you want if you monitor your portions, and that is totally true.  However, there are certain things that you can't just eat a few of and be satisfied.  There are also certain things I won't keep around the house, because if I do, I will eat way too much.  An example is chips... I was reading in some health article somewhere that chips (and similar foods) are the number one common eating habit of obese people.  Not ice cream or fast food or eating out... chips.  I can tell you why: because when someone opens up a bag of chips, it's REALLY hard to stop eating them, and you aren't really getting any nutritional out of them, so you still need to eat MORE to feel like you've actually had a meal.  And the more often you eat them, the more often you crave them, and it becomes not just a "one time" thing, but an all-the-time thing.  One serving of Doritos is like 140 calories... not that many calories in reality.  But how many chips is that?  What, around 8-10?  That's hardly ANYTHING - of course you will want more!  It goes back to substance...  Do you want 10 Doritos, or do you want a mini-bagel with a little bit of cream cheese?  Because a mini bagel is about 100 calories, and if you are careful with your serving of cream cheese, it won't be 200 calories of cream cheese on that bagel, and not only that, but you'll be satisfied and not feel the need to eat a lot more.  Or another example is cheese... Sometimes, I'll feel like a snack at night (I TRY not to eat late, but sometimes if I've been particularly active that day, it just happens, and I don't feel guilty), I'll try to figure out... okay, what can I eat that will take away this nagging hungry feeling without adding tons of calories?  I COULD grab a handful of crackers and want more and more... OR, I could slice up some cheese with a few crackers.  Guess what, after that cheese, I don't feel like I need to eat more.  Sure, cheese is really fattening if you get the good stuff (that I like), but because it's so rich, I don't need to eat a ton of it to feel satisfied.

In conclusion, if you want to look like a super model, this probably won't work for you and you will likely still have some fat on your body, but that's okay, because human beings have fat on their body. Especially women... we weren't designed to be sticks, we were designed to have babies, which means we're going to hips/thighs/breasts/etc. (not to say that if you're naturally thin there's something wrong with you.)  If, however, you just want to lose some weight without feeling like you're completely missing out on all of your favorite foods, or if you are tired of trying to do everything "perfect," losing a few pounds quickly, then gaining it back, then go ahead and try out some of these principles.   Of course, I'm not a nutritionist nor weight loss expert, I'm just posting what has worked for me to stay at a healthy weight after several years of making the same mistakes that most people make when trying to lose weight.

Feel to leave comments if you have any questions!

A couple of other things I thought of after writing my initial post (and talking to my mum):

 - When you DO start cutting out certain foods (which I have) you start to realize you don't like them as much.  Fast food is an example (as the blog I posted above stated) - once you just stop eating it, you stop wanting it.  You feel better when you don't eat them, and they just don't taste as good anymore.

And when you have too much time on your hands

You start to think a lot... about EVERYTHING!  So here are some random thoughts that have been on my mind in these past jobless weeks:

1) The people who are most worth being in your life are the ones who will stick with you through good and bad.... unless you do something really awful to them.  Like sleep with their girlfriend/boyfriend/something along those lines.  I wouldn't expect someone to be my friend anymore if I did something like that to them (and no, I haven't).  Otherwise, if they ditch you because you're not "fun" or are depressed for a little while, they really aren't worth your effort/time/energy.  And before anyone gets upset or assumes this is some passive-aggressive means of telling somebody something, this isn't really directed at anyone, just something I've thought about.   But if you THINK it's directed at you, it probably is (but it wasn't MEANT to be directed at anyone in particular).  Get your brain wrapped around that one ;)

2) On that same token... most people can only take so much.  If it's never about them, and it's only about you ALL THE TIME, they will probably get tired of spending time with you (again, before anyone gets offended, this wasn't really directed at anyone.  But I was a psychology major... I like analyzing how people think/act!)  Unless someone has taken vows to remain with you for the rest of your life, or they are family, nobody is really obligated to spend time with someone who constantly drags them down.

3)  And on ANOTHER similar note.. There are definitely times that I PERSONALLY would rather be alone than drag other people down when I'm feeling down.  Anyone else feel that way?  But I'm sort of an introvert anyways, so I think that's normal.

4)  Life is short, and you don't know when something might happen to you or someone you love.  Therefore, while you should not be reckless with your life (there's no need to SHORTEN your life), you should enjoy your life and do what you love, and not take the people in it for granted.

5)  Shoot... and here goes my awesome memory.  I can't remember number 5.  Oh well, I'm going to follow thought number four and go RUN!  Because I love it, and I'm so happy that I can still do it :)   I'm sure I'll remember ten brilliant ideas when I'm out destroying my body.  Hehehe.

Love,
Nina

Rough Week

I'm not going to lie... This has been a rough week in several respects.  The first thing was being evac'ed out of Afghanistan (nothing like regaining consciousness while you're being put on an ambulance)... Then getting diagnosed with epilepsy and told I can't drive for the next few months or handle a weapon for the next year.   But I can only say I'm lucky that that is the reason why I was being rolled onto an ambulance and evacuated out of Afghanistan.  Some of the people being evacuated out had missing limbs... As much as I wanted to feel sorry for myself, I could not, because I realize I'm actually lucky (even though I still would much rather be deployed with my fellow soldiers right now).

I found out last night that our first classmate from my graduating class was killed in action in Afghanistan.  We've been graduated for less than a year... Like any good West Point graduate, I automatically went and looked at his Facebook and saw a wall post from who I presume was his mother who asked him to call her - very much like what my own family would post on my wall.  To be honest, I have spent quite some time in tears.  I was involved in OCF (Officer's Christian Fellowship) with this fellow graduate, and we have known each other for quite some time - since our freshman year at West Point.  He was on battalion staff when I was on regimental staff, so we did work together some, and I knew him socially as well, though we didn't hangout all that often.  He wasn't a popular guy, but he was a good guy, and I can't believe he's gone.  This just hit too close to home... And now I'm in tears again.  I'm sure these anti-seizure meds they have me on aren't helping matters any, as they tend to cause me to be emotional (these are the same meds they put me on a couple years ago).  It's hard to see your own classmates who had the same hopes and dreams as you being killed at such a young age.  Without getting political, I can't say I'll be disappointed when we pull out of Afghanistan.  Even though I was glad I had the honor to serve over there, and I'm really disappointed I got pulled out early (I was only there for about a month before I had to leave), I don't want to see anymore of my fellow soldiers killed over there... These people who had friends and family and hopes and dreams just like me and the people I'm closest to.

That is all I have to say for now... I know this fellow soldier is in a better place now, and I pray for those closest to him who have lost a great guy.  Be Thou at Peace.

Well, that was quick: My Return from Afghanistan

So this post will be a slightly personal post... Just because I know I have a lot of people wandering what the hell happened to me, and I'd rather just post a blog so everyone knows rather than people trying to figure it out on their own.

All right, so what did happen to me?  Well, I had a seizure while I was in Afghanistan.  So I got med-evaced out of Afghanistan, and am currently in Germany.  Someone apparently walked in on me while I was in the midst of the seizure, and I guess I hit my head on the U.S. flag near my desk, because now I have a nice gash on the top of my forehead, and there was a bit of blood around me (or so I hear).

  For those of you who don't know, this is not my first seizure... I actually had a seizure back in 2010... well, actually, I had two, but they were both within a couple of hours of each other.  The difference between now and then is that my last one was the first one, and because my tests all came back normal, the docs attributed it to pills I was taking.  Well, this time I wasn't taking any pills, and I wasn't really sleep deprived.  Plus, I'd had an "aura" prior to this one... Auras are a weird feeling that a lot of people get prior to having seizures, and are actually mini-seizures in themselves, but they generally do not manifest themselves.  I've had several auras in the past couple of years (especially in the past year), but they have never turned into anything, so I've been able to ignore them.  Well, this time the aura was particularly intense, and someone whose soldier actually has seizures walked into the office while I was having it.  I did not, however, think it would turn into anything because I'd had several auras that turned into nothing.... Well, I guess I was wrong, because here I am...

Saw a neurologist, and I had another EEG (they hook a machine up to your brain and graph your brain waves to look for anything unusual), and this time it actually showed up as abnormal (last time everything was normal).  So, because this was not my first seizure, and because I'd had several auras, and because of the abnormal brain waves on the EEG, I was diagnosed with epilepsy.  With that diagnosis comes medicine... The same crap they put me on the LAST time I had a seizure (but they let me go off of it because I hadn't had any issues)... Some of the side effects include moodiness, fatigue, dizziness, and other fun side effects.  So, I don't know if I'm slightly jet lagged or it's the meds, but I am EXTREMELY out of it today.  I pretty much feel like I'm walking around in a haze... And frankly, I feel stoned.  Fortunately I'm not feeling particularly moody - probably because I'm too out of it to care.   

Anyways, so now begins treatment for epilepsy... I'm all ready dreading the meds... Particularly in my current drugged state of mind.   Fortunately, I am wiser now... UNfortunately, this means I do not get to return to Afghanistan :(  I was there all of a month... and now I'm done.  I am dreading going back to work back in the states, while also not being able to drive for the next three months... It is extremely difficult to get around while being unmarried and living alone somewhere that does not believe in public transportation.  Not to mention the fact that I won't have a real position because I was SUPPOSED to be in Afghanistan... But, I'm going to try to remain positive, because everything happens for a reason, correct?  I mean... This DID happen in Afghanistan, and it could have happened anywhere, at anytime... heck, it could have happened while I was in my room, and nobody would have seen it.  These are the things I'm trying to keep in mind...

Alas, I should sleep now.  Speaking of weird deja vu feelings... I'm feelin' em now!  (I think it has to do more with being in Germany again, though!) 

Love,
Nina

P.S.  To the people who send support and whatnot to the soldiers - thank you!  I am with the warrior transition soldiers, and the support is amazing here, even if I was not hurt in combat.  The free blankets, clothes, food, etc. are such morale boosters.  Though I know things could be so much worse (I could actually be hurt), it is really hard being away from my unit and the soldiers I work with, and the support is helping a lot. 

Cultural Sensitivity and Male/Female Soldiers

This blog entry is going to be some thoughts based on the recent interaction I've had with large groups of combat arms soldiers in all-male units.  Just some opinions I've had recently, and I know they could be completely off, and I really have no scientific evidence/research to back any of these thoughts with, but I like to speculate... 

First, I have to say I had forgotten how different it is being surrounded by males, as my branch has quite a few females... In my current unit, we are almost 50% female, which is quite rare in the Army.   I have to say, the dynamic is quite different in our unit as opposed to all-male units.  The dynamic in our unit between males/females is probably more similar to what you would see in a civilian work place.  You have some men and women who are just hard to get along with and are inconsiderate, no matter what, but from what I have seen,  people are not as rowdy/disrespectful/blatantly sexist/inconsiderate in units with a higher percentage of females (at least not around me!)   Of course, I have never been in an all-male unit, but I did spend four years in a male-dominated military academy (ahem, only 15% of our student population were women), which is pretty darn close to all males.  I don't think I realized it as much as a cadet,  because I thought that maybe male cadets were just a rowdier bunch than most men, but based on what I've seen, it would seem most men just act completely different when they are surrounded by almost nothing but other men.

 I bring this up because recently I have been around quite a few all/mostly male units, and the way they act is quite similar to the way cadets tended to act.  They tend to be rowdy, don't seem to care at all that there are at least a couple of women around when they talk about sex/women in general, and are generally much less considerate of other people.  One of the other female lieutenants in my unit and I were talking about it while we were on the bus with several guys, and it got me thinking of all the recent issues we've had with Soldiers doing things on deployment that aren't exactly conducive to building strong relationships and building good impressions (ahem... burning Qurans/massacring civilians/etc.)... And I have to wonder, would it be different if there were more females in these types of units? In the military in general? It's not that women don't do things that are completely wrong - I mean, look at Abu Ghraib, and women sure can be mean if they want to - but if you had more of them around and people (or men, because they are the majority of the military) were forced to deal with a different "culture" (women) on a regular basis, would it make any difference in their actions? If they were forced to be more sensitive to other people on a regular basis, would it be easier for them to relate to a foreign culture?  I'm not saying just a couple of women scattered around, as West Point DID have women, but the men STILL acted different from what I've seen in units that have larger percentages of women, but a force where women are the norm, rather than the exception.  Even when I was enlisted, when I was on a temporary duty with ALL guys, they started acting much rowdier/raunchier than how they acted when they were around a higher percentage of women.  These guys were decent men who treated their families well, and when they were in a normal setting, were considerate people, but I will tell you what, they had me pretty upset, and I have fairly tough skin.  They felt pretty terrible when they realized it too, but because they didn't really think about it (being around a bunch of people just like themselves), they kept building off of each other to the point where their "jokes" got pretty bad (not directed at me persay, but I was THERE).  And these guys weren't even in COMBAT... there was no stress of bullets flying... they were just a bunch of dudes spending 12-16 hours a day together working, with only a couple of females around.

So, I guess what I am curious about is whether or not increasing the percentage of women in the Army - in combat units, more specifically - would reduce some of the types of issues that we have had with cultural insensitivities?  I know we have female engagement teams that deal with local women, but what about having more females in male units in general?  I realize that the same reasons a higher percentage of women would be good for the military could also present other challenges such as distractions and new logistical considerations, and I also realize my examples are not entirely relevant, as both units I have been in were non-combat units, so the stressors are different.  However, seeing the similarities between how males in all-male units act compared with how cadets at West Point acted (who also had no combat stress, and many of them wouldn't have to worry about it for a few years) makes me question how having more women would influence culturally sensitive behavior in male soldiers.  

Minimal Running and Injury Prevention

So, can anyone tell what I spend my Sunday nights at home doing when I don't have to work the next day?  Hehe.  Anyways, I'm about to talk about some reasons why I'm glad I've transitioned into more minimal shoes/more natural running style.

Today was the longest distance I have done in quite awhile (over a year), and while the last time I did the same distance (18 miles)  I was wearing "conventional" shoes and orthotics, and based on my running history, I think it was probably only a matter of time before I ended up hurt again.  I remember one of my friends at West Point running with me once and telling me I was probably getting injured all the time because I slammed my feet onto the ground - she was remarking on how loud I was when I ran.  I remember saying it probably had something to do with the insoles I was wearing... and that they made me run different  (I think I was suffering from plantar fasciitis at the time).  And I thought they were HELPING, ha.  Funny to look back on the fact that I said that and look at what I know now about running and injuries.  Also interesting when I look back on the fact I used to run 50-60 miles per week without injury, but when people I ran with noticed I was running "on my toes" and were telling me that I needed to run heel to toe that is when I got and stayed injured...

I will say that transitioning did cause me some injuries - though nothing that stopped me from running for a long time.  I got that tendinitis in my right foot right when I switched to my first pair of more minimal shoes, the Saucony Kinvaras... My feet weren't used to doing so much, I guess.  I went and ran 7 miles in them the day I bought them - 3.5 uphill, and 3.5 downhill, lol.   Once I worked more on having a lighter landing and got used to the shoes, that injury went away, and I haven't had any more issues with it.  The next injury was my hip thing... I'm not really sure what that one came from, but I think I'm probably doing something wrong when it comes to form (and too much speed/hill work... even with proper form, too much too soon can cause problems!)   I think it also has something to do with the fact I supinate a lot (run on the outside of my foot)... All the wear on my shoes is on the outer forefoot area... When I notice myself doing it, I try to roll my ankle in a bit more when I'm running

 The good news is that unlike the injuries I was getting when I was running in conventional shoes/heel-to-toe/etc., I can STILL run!  I might take a couple of days off if something doesn't seem right, but I don't have to take MONTHS off.   And, I have found that once I focus on form while running if I notice something hurting, it hurts less.  Today, for example, my left knee was starting to hurt after about 14-15 miles.  I think beyond just the general stress of running on slanted pavement for 15 miles that I was starting to hurt because I was heel striking/over-striding a bit.  I started focusing on running with smoother/lighter steps, and keeping my stride short, and the pain was less-pronounced, and after the run my knees weren't hurting at all (but my legs sure are!  Haha).  I still need to figure out why the heck the left side of my shoe is the side most worn out, and why my left side just keeps being the one getting beat up, but I think it might have something to do with running on slanted roads... I try to run in the middle when possible, but unfortunately, even in the country, there are cars :)

ANYWAYS, my point is that most of my issues now are fairly easy for me to fix once I focus on form.  Like my calve tightness, which from what I've been reading, can also cause top of the foot pain (no, I don't have a stress fracture - there is no pain at all to the touch, it just comes and goes as it please)... I have learned that that is because I tend to push off with my toes when I am speeding up instead of letting my core/upper legs do most of the work... My lower legs should be "along for the ride" instead of doing the work.  Sprinting form just doesn't work for 2 hour runs.   Once I allow my lower body to relax, I don't have the same issues.  I wish I could run fully barefoot, as I have heard that it gives you the BEST feedback (apparently my toes would be getting blisters if I was pushing off with them barefoot), but I'm too chicken to do it when it's 20 degrees outside (frost bite, anyone?), and I need to build up to it... and I kinda lack patience, hehe... I did do it at the track a couple of weeks ago though :)

So what I am saying in this blog is that if you find yourself struggling with injuries, you should try some more minimal shoes.  But you still need to focus on form... Minimal running is not a cure all, but it sure helps fix form problems, which will in turn fix injury problems.  I would say it's also really important to be in tune with your body and learn what causes certain types of twinges/pain.  I know if I over stride that my knees start to hurt, so I try to focus more on shorter, faster strides.  OH, and if you do transition, do so slowly!  You can still fix form problems in regular shoes, but it's a LOT easier to do it in more minimal shoes.  I have a friend who knows a bit about form, and I commented that he was heel striking like crazy during a run... He said he knew, but that it was hard NOT to heel strike in his conventional shoes that he was wearing.

I would also recommend reading Chi Running if you are interested in learning more about form.  There are books on Pose and Evolution running as well, but I have not read them, though I've gone to a class on Pose, and that is what my physical therapist worked with me on when I was suffering from tendinitis in my right foot.  From what I've learned about Pose and Chi methods, Chi seems to be best for long distance running, and pose seems like would be best for shorter/faster running.  I don't know much about Evolution method... I do know they are all similar though.

Alas, I hope I can provide some information for those people who might be suffering from injuries of different types!  I know I am no expert on injury prevention, as evidenced by my constant stream of them, but I have at least learned through my mistakes different ways to help fix them, and how to avoid being sidelined for months/years like I was back when I was running in conventional shoes and heel striking (it really was about three years of different injuries before I was able to start long distance running again).