The Coleman Lifestyle Archives - Page 2 of 2

IF Series, Part 5: The World Loves Wine

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Cruisin Michelle

There are a plethora of great quotes about wine and I love them as much as I love deep, old, rich, luxurious red wine. I like my wine to smell good, have long legs, and stay in my mouth longer than my throat. Is it getting hot in here or is it me? I haven’t had any wine in five weeks and it shows in my writing. 🤣 If you don’t know anything about red wine you are probably lost but stick with me and will get through this post together. Wine is a metaphor for life and today I have quite a tasting flight for you.

Just like I had in post #3 in this series, I have a disclaimer: We don’t have an addiction to alcohol. We have traveled the world, and unlike in the US, most of the world takes a different view on alcohol. It’s ok to have a glass or two of alcohol with dinner, maybe have an occasional night with more. It probably is not ok when your body craves it, can’t get enough of it, and you can’t stop drinking when you start. I am not an expert in any of the subjects I discuss, they are merely my life experiences and insights. As I have said previously, I lived with an alcoholic many years ago. The destruction was devastating and I never wish that addiction on anyone. Brian and I know our limits. We consciously take time off from alcohol. For example, we typically take 4 weeks off at the start of the year for a good cleanse during “Dry January” and we are currently on week 5 of no alcohol. What wait? 5 weeks! Crazy Americans! I know, tell me about it or should I say let me tell you about it. Haha!

“[Her] lips drink water but [her] heart drinks wine,”
~ EE Cummings

Did you know there are 463 quotes with the word “wine” in them on GoodReads? 70 countries produce wine. There are over 100 bible verses about wine. Why does the world love wine so much? Maybe it is the fond memories, new experiences, a conversation starter with new people, the diversity of wine, the connection to Earth in the grapes, or that the process of making wine is fascinating. There are many reasons but this blog post is about how it adds to our life and how it doesn’t always help us reach our health goals.

“Beer is made by men, wine by God,”
~ Martin Luther

For me, the bottom is line is alcohol is only a problem when my goal is weight loss. During our two years practicing intermittent fasting (IF), I have learned I can maintain my weight while enjoying life with alcohol in it. Hallelujah! I could never make that statement while on Weight Watchers, following the Biggest Loser plan, or using the MyFitnessPal app. When we lost weight the first time, we were told to eat all of the time, count points, and if I had a glass of wine I gained weight quickly and couldn’t lose it. Besides having to eat tiny, unsatisfying meals 6-7 times a time, not being able to enjoy the finer things like a good bottle of red wine was something I couldn’t live with forever.

Just like with food, I don’t want to feel guilty every time I say “yes” to wine. See part 3 in this series to understand my relationship with guilt and eating. I am trying to rid myself of everything that makes me feel guilty. I don’t want to have to say, “No, I can’t, I’m dieting.” UGH – Dieting STINKS! To me, I don’t want to be remembered as the girl who was always on a diet. Honestly, if I died today, that could easily be the quote on my tombstone, “Michelle: The girl who was never happy with her weight and was always on a diet.” Yuck, yuck, yuck! I want my tombstone to say, “Michelle: She lived life to the fullest and always said yes to new experiences.” As a disclaimer, I will be cremated with my ashes spread on top of a mountain with an amazing view and there won’t actually be a tombstone, so there’s that detail. 😊

2017 – Walking the Camino Frances, living our best life with good food & wine

I believe wine is a metaphor for life. First, wine needs patience. Shouldn’t we all be a bit more patient with ourselves, our shortcomings, and definitely with others? Everyone walking this Earth is on their own journey, doing the best they can, and we cannot rush change. Though I wish we could rush change when it comes to racism and sexism, that’s a topic for another day. We don’t know the burdens other people carry around. If I believed in rushing change, I would have had gastric bypass surgery years ago when the scale read well over 300 pounds. That was a choice I couldn’t make back then, though I am not judging anyone else’s choices. I knew if I would have had the surgery, I would find a way around that tiny stomach and would have gained all of the weight back and more. That’s just me. I don’t do well with “cannot,” rather I need, “yes you can.” I can have wine, pizza, and burgers without someone else or a surgically induced tiny stomach creating limitations. I need to find the patience to create my own limitations. For example, I have decided to break up with wine for 3 months (and all alcohol) not because I need to or someone told me I need to, I want the change to achieve my goals. 2020 was rough, and like most of the world, I consumed more than my fair share of alcohol. So I decided to take a break so I can clear my head, my soul, and my liver. 😊 It’s always better when it’s our choice to make a change. I need to clarify one thing in case you see a post on social media, we will have wine on Valentine’s Day along with a romantic dinner for two. We aren’t monsters. 😂 We enjoy celebrations with wine and I don’t see that changing… ever. The glasses of wine in the photo at the top of this post are from 2019 when we celebrated walking to the end of the Earth together on the Camino de Santiago. You will often see us celebrating accomplishments with a nice dinner and wine.

Moving on, wine is complex and multi-layered. Just like with life, there are so many complexities it can be near impossible to stick with a diet 100% of the time. Which is OK!! Sometimes we need a vacation, a break, a burger, and a beautiful glass of wine. It is why I am no longer dieting – IF is my lifestyle. Sometimes it will be low in carbs and other times high in carbs. I am not changing what I eat rather when I eat and, I believe, that makes all the difference. Before IF, my hormones were so messed up that one week on vacation or even one weekend of amazing eating would throw everything off, and I would not be able to lose the weight I gained. I was in a complex spiral of weight problems and hormone nightmares. Once I decided to never diet again but rather understand the journey I was on more clearly (with the help of a fantastic doctor), change was real. I needed patience, I needed to understand the complexity of hormones, and I needed to work through the layers of misinformation I have put my body through. I have been dieting since I knew what the word meant and my body needed time to believe I would never put it through a diet again! Ever, never. I don’t know if my metabolism will ever be “normal” again but I sure am trying to love myself, my hormones, and my metabolism again. IF is not a diet to me. Like wine, IF can be complex to achieve your goals but it doesn’t have to be complicated forever. The simple side of fasting is: you eat, you fast. The layers that can make it complicated include what your goals are for fasting, how long you fast, what you eat when you feast. That is all personal, is always changing to meet your needs, and most importantly you need to reach to the experts for help. I am not an expert.

Third, a wine needs to be paired well to be at its best. I’m quite lucky to have a partner who jumped on the IF journey with me from the start. I pray you are able to surround yourself with people who lift you up, support you, and encourage your decisions. We all need more cheerleaders and fewer critics. A good marriage is made up of two people who can be completely different but pair well together. Brian and I aren’t always on the same page, aren’t always looking for the same outcome, and sometimes we do more harm than good when trying to achieve a goal. We have a saying that when we are good together, we are unstoppable but when we are in the mood to sabotage, we can be very bad together. 😂 For example, if we are fasting on a random Saturday and I said to Brian (or he said to me), “I really want pizza tonight and some wine,” it would be extremely challenging for either of us to continue to fast. When we are “flexing our fasting muscles,” we are unstoppable but we can just as easily push the other person into the deep end of a deep-dish pizza. 😂 How do we focus on achieving our goals? Boundaries, topics that are off-limits, and forgiveness is a must. Food is an off-limits topic on fasting days. Further, we recognize though we are individuals, we share a home that needs boundaries so what’s in the pantry, the fridge, or the liquor cabinet needs to support both of our goals. It also means we have created a schedule based on how we pair together. Those are just a few of the things that we found have worked. Every couple is different. The ultimate goal is to determine how you pair with the people around you to bring out the best in each other.

Finally, wine has many varieties. Yes, it does and just like with people we come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and abilities. 🙌🏼 You don’t have to like every wine but you can appreciate the differences they bring to a meal. Did you know that wine tastes different based on what food it is or is not served with? It’s shocking how different the same glass of wine can taste with fish, steak filets, or nothing at all. Sometimes it’s amazing and sometimes it’s downright skunky. Wine not only needs to be paired well but everyone has a different palate so the varieties are important for enjoyment. We don’t have to like every person that comes into our lives but we should be kind, fair, and non-judgmental. It is not our job to judge where someone is on their journey, what they look like, or what choices they make. Our job is to support other people and to be an example of kindness and forgiveness. We should appreciate that variety is the spice of life and we all need a bit of spice! 🌶

Do I miss wine when I am cleansing? Sure, when I see it on TV or when I am enjoying a good meal and know what wine would be amazing with it. However, my goals are more important. I can’t always say that because sometimes wine is more important. 😂 It’s a bit easier to take a break from wine right now because of COVID. We are not going out like we normally do and our social life is null and void. For better or worse, this time of COVID has created a space in my life to be more like wine. Instead of drinking wine, I am learning to be patient, I appreciate who I am paired with, and I am keeping my life full of variety with other things I enjoy. Sometimes it is OK to hang out in the wine cellar and wait until it is your time to pop the cork.

Next week will mark 6 weeks on our new IF regimen. I will show you some photos of our journey because we can already see a difference in our bodies! Hint: We both have already lost more than 13 pounds each! I will talk about the lessons we have learned throughout our 2 years of practicing intermittent fasting. Thank you for coming along. Thank you for supporting our journey with your kindness. Subscribe to our blog for notifications each time a new blog comes out.

Be kind to one another. Love yourself. You have one person and one person alone to look at in the mirror for the rest of your life. It’s important to love what you see in the reflection. For better or worse, love yourself more than you love wine. ❤️

To go back and re-read this series from the start, click here. To read post #6 in this series, click here. Want to know more about IF? Something you want to be explained further? Leave a comment! I always welcome topic inspiration.

IF Series, Part 4: The Gym Rat Turns Fat, Again

Posted on February 2, 2021 by Cruisin Michelle

I have always loathed going to the gym. Even though I loved the girlfriends I met and the friendships I made in spin class, I hated the “eat less, move more” bandwagon I was on. I felt like if I didn’t go to the gym, I would get fat. I was trying to earn more Weight Watchers points so I could eat more. Sometimes I would go to the gym twice a day just to earn those dang exercise points. I was desperately trying to be the skinny girl people saw on the outside. But inside I hated my life. I didn’t hate myself, I hated my life at the time. Today I am talking about what has changed since those gym days, how exercise fits into our intermittent fasting (IF) lifestyle, and how we have come to enjoy exercising again.

During those intense gym days from 2010-2016, I was teaching a full day, getting two hours in at the gym, and listening to Brian complain at the thought of having to join me. I may have loathed the gym but Brian out-right despised it. The gym rat life wasn’t for either of us. If you are a gym rat and you are happy, I am happy for you. I am not here to judge anyone else’s journey. Just like with food, we all have to find the exercise that best fits our own lives. I am here today to talk about our journey. Our bottom line: We are the happiest going on adventures in the great outdoors. We love where hiking takes us. We love where biking takes us. We love exercising together.

We can’t hike every day, except in the summer when we find ourselves outside almost every minute of every day. But we also know we can’t keep up with the grand adventures we’ve had in our younger years without exercising throughout the year to maintain our health. We both turn 50 years old this year and we are well aware of how muscle mass deteriorates as we grow older. Just like a carousel, here we are again, learning to find an exercise regimen that works for both of us.

Let me be very clear about one point. I did not gain weight because I stopped going to the gym. I gained weight because I didn’t eat well, my Hashimotos was not controlled well, I was experimenting with new medications, and I entered peri-menopause. My weight gain happened before I started practicing IF. I have not gained any weight since we started IF two years ago. My Hashimotos is currently under control and IF has helped to control my hormone fluctuations during menopause. You can read about our food journey by going back to the start of this series, just click here. Additionally, I have only stopped exercising completely because of injury and I have had my fair share of injuries. ☹️ Since my days at the gym, I had skin removal surgery that took 3 surgeries and a rough healing process. I was thrown from a horse, breaking both my arm and pelvis. I have had surgery on both of my feet from overuse, bunions, and hammertoes. I had to stop running and doing triathlons because my bladder hated all of it. Life has changed a lot since my gym days but my love of being active is greater than ever.

Walking, hiking, and bicycling make me feel invigorated, young, and free from stress. It brings both of us great joy to wander through old towns, climb big mountains, explore quaint villages in other countries, and see all that our world had to offer. We want to live out our favorite adventures for the rest of our lives, and as our tag line says, we want you to take that adventure with us. The gym didn’t bring me joy, sometimes I cried in pain, but seeing a grand vista from the top of a mountain can bring me to tears in a way nothing else can do.

The question is how do we stay active during our busy school year so we can continue to climb those mountains? Honestly, the answer is simple. Do something every day. Sometimes I just work on my balance ($20). Other days I sweat on my spin bike ($500) or walk up a mountain on my treadmill ($900). Sometimes, but it takes a lot of internal motivation, I swing around my kettlebells ($95). I have linked all of my home gym items for your reference, and yes, I spent quite about $1500 on setting up our home gym but it’s still less than 2 year’s gym membership times two people and we bought these items over time. However, I am much happier working out at home and I work out more often than I went to the gym. Earlier, I said you have to find what works for you, this is what works for me. I can work out with or without Brian, at 7 a.m., noon, or 7 p.m. I don’t get distracted by driving past McDonald’s on the way to a gym, talking for longer than I worked out, and nobody has to look at me while I sweat. Oh, and I can watch whatever motivates me on TV and nobody has to see my 80s vibe! 😂

The point is we continue to be active. More importantly, the other point is nobody can outrun a bad diet. I am spending more time learning to eat well, eat less, eat less often, and as a bonus, exercising as I can for the purpose of being ready for our next big adventure and adding to my overall health. I don’t depend on running off calories so I can eat more. I no longer believe in the calories in, calories out mentality. If you want to know what I am talking about, I highly recommend you head over to Dr. Fung’s website, click here. He is the expert on understanding why calories in/calories out is a myth.

Yes, I got a new home gym, and working out on my terms is wonderful. But there is another big change since we started IF. This one may be too much but stay with me. We exercise while fasting. If that surprised you as much as it surprised me two years ago, I get it. The thought of exercising while fasting horrified both of us. But now, understanding the science, we exercise even if we have been fasting for 20 hours or multiple days. We don’t exercise the same way I did during my gym rat days but we do exercise. We have hiked 10+ miles, worked out in our home gym for 60-90 minutes, or enjoyed a good yoga class, all while fasting.

Here’s what we have learned about fasting while exercising: My head is clearer and I can work harder when I exercise in a fasted state. Honestly, my head is clearer all the time when we are practicing IF well! It’s the best feeling ever! Click here for a great article about exercise and fasting. We have been working on building our “fasting muscle” for two years and have built up to what we can do now. We started easy, going for a walk while fasting, then working out a bit hard at our home gym, hiking 10+ miles while fasting, and ultimately hiking much of the Camino in a fasted state.

Historically, people didn’t work out in a commercial gym because they didn’t exist on every corner like a McDonalds. I know commercial gyms have been around since the mid-1800s, but the purpose and accessibility was much different. The average person didn’t need a gym to work out, they just lived an active life. That’s where I am at: We should all want to live an active life full of activities you enjoy doing for the purpose of being able to move well as you age. It shouldn’t be tied to the thought of losing or gaining weight. We manage our weight based on what we eat and when we eat it. We manage our physical health by moving our bodies in a way that makes each person happy. These are two separate ideas and should not be linked together.

Next week I am going to talk about our relationship with alcohol and use it as a metaphor for life. The following week I am going to recap the lessons we have learned from our 2-year journey practicing intermittent fasting. Finally, I will round out where we are today on our journey as I discuss the changes we have made in 2021 and how they are impacting us. Hint: 2021 is going very well even with a few hiccups along the way.

Thank you for coming along on this journey of self-reflection. Subscribe to our website to get notified when we post new blogs. I pray these blog posts help you on your own journey to good health and even better living. Ultimately we have one life to live. The goal should be to live it well.

To go back and re-read this series from the start, click here. To read post #5 in this series, click here.

*We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

IF Series, Part 3: The Prison of Guilty Eating

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Cruisin Michelle

Food is not in a pill. It’s not in a juice, a bar, a powder, a diet label, and it definitely is not in a pill. Food is real. It is crunchy, flavorful, chewy, colorful, and can bring people great joy. We need food to live and it is meant to be enjoyed. If you eat something because a diet plan tells you to eat it and it doesn’t bring you joy, I get it. I have been eating foods that I don’t enjoy for too long. Guilt and food describe my life in short. Until January 2019 when I decided to try eating without guilt.

Food is meant to be enjoyed.

I wish I could remove all guilt. Unlike other life experiences, guilt doesn’t do us any good. It makes some of us eat more. It can make us crave unhealthy food and drink. We think food/drinks will make us feel better, remove the guilt, but it does nothing but make us feel worse. This is the story of my entire life – eat, feel guilty, eat more, drink something to ignore the guilt, continue this never-ending cycle.

Disclaimer: We talk openly about food addiction and are well aware of our keenness for food. We continually work to redefine our food relationship. We don’t have an addiction to alcohol. We have traveled the world, and unlike in the US, most of the world takes a different view on alcohol. It’s ok to have a glass or two of alcohol with dinner, maybe have an occasional night with more. It’s not ok when your body craves it, can’t get enough of it, and you can’t stop drinking when you start. I lived with an alcoholic. It was painful to watch the destruction. I never wish that addiction on anyone. Brian and I love to enjoy good wine, creative cocktails, and we know our limits. We consciously take time off from alcohol. For example, we typically take 4-6 weeks off at the start of the year for a good cleanse. As of this post, we are on week 4 of “dry January,” we haven’t decided when we will start drinking again, and I promise, we will be talking more about alcohol in another post. For now, back to food!

When I found intermittent fasting (IF), the prison walls of guilt eating started to crumble. They still stand but there are huge cracks in my prison cell. To read about how my IF journey started, click here and read post one in this series. I don’t know if I will ever be paroled from guilt. I feel guilty for what comes out of my mouth, what goes into my mouth, and much more. If you don’t struggle with guilt, I wholeheartedly commend you. I am not here to talk to you about where my guilt comes from, my therapist holds the key to that web, but I do want to tell you about how the prison walls started cracking and the bars began to open. Though I haven’t always practiced IF “correctly,” I have seen I can eat one or two meals a day without my warden, guilt.

I vividly remember when I started IF in mid-January 2019 because I gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted as long as I only ate one meal a day. I was in love with my new regimen. For the first time in my life, I ate whatever I wanted without guilt. It was like the warden let me have a taste of the great outdoors. Mind you, Brian had not started IF but he was thrilled when I would text him and ask him to bring home pizza. He was curious as to how I was eating our favorite foods for dinner and losing weight. I am confident it is why he so quickly jumped into practicing IF himself. Who wouldn’t? Since we were already denying ourselves wine because it was “dry January,” then pizza, tacos, and burgers were the perfect substitutes. Another Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, rather I am just sharing our journey. If you read the first two blogs in this series, you know that we haven’t practice IF “correctly,” and ultimately, we didn’t lose any long-term weight but we did maintain our weight which was, at the time, a major victory.

Something was working with this practice of intermittent fasting. I lost weight in the beginning, Brian did too. What we now understand is that it wasn’t our time for weight loss. First, we had much to learn about eating without guilt. We had to in essence give ourselves permission to just eat because we had been dieting since our marriage started. But let’s get back to 2019. February came too fast, we started to add wine back in with many evening meals. March and April came even faster and we got busy with Brian’s musical (something we produce together for Brian’s high school students). We loosened up the one meal a day and started having a snack and a meal. Then summer came. If you don’t know, we spend our summers adventuring either in our RV or on the Camino. In 2019 we walked the Camino which you can read about here. We planned to walk 10-15 miles a day so we worried that we needed to eat more. We still practiced IF but we only skipped breakfast. Further, we drank way too much of that beautiful Spanish wine and indulged in too many plates of mouthwatering Portuguese pastries. We were on a two-month holiday and it was wonderful.

However, once those habits changed to a wider eating window it was excruciating to go back to one meal a day. In fall 2019 we stuck with eating two meals a day and have been practicing that ever since. In 2020 we continued to fast for about 18 hours a day, eating lunch, snacks, and dinner in a 6-hour window. You would think it would lead to weight loss if you have read about intermittent fasting but you don’t yet know what we ate in that window. 🤣 I’m getting there.

For the most part, our previous weight loss success was by following Weight Watchers. We learned we should eat 6 or 7 times a day to “keep our metabolism up.” That’s a truckload of crap, people! A truckload of full-on crap! All that eating plan did was make me feel deprived, tired, and upset that I would only ever eat tiny, unsatisfying meals. The worst of it: Not only did we believe we needed 6-7 meals a day but we told others they did too. We told people breakfast is the most important meal of the day. More crap! I want to genuinely apologize to each person we fed that information to in the past. I am deeply sorry. Breakfast means to “break your fast.” It is not the most important meal of the day, that is just what cereal makers want us to believe. Read this blog on Dr. Jason Fung’s website, or this one on the calorie debacle, and then read his books (linked below).

Why do we still practice intermittent fasting if we haven’t lost weight? Because we both feel a thousand times better than we did on weight watchers or not following any eating plan at all. We eat real food. We eat food that feeds the soul. We eat food without guilt. In 2020 we tried eating Keto. It’s ok but I love bread. I already have to eat gluten-free for my gut health. I have been gluten-free since 2013 and my gut is much happier. Managing my PCOS and Hashimoto’s well means being gluten-free but that’s another story, for now, back to bread… mmmm! We lowered our carbs and were feeling good but we both refuse to ever go back to counting anything. We are not now, nor ever, going to count calories, carbs, fat, or anything. We want to eat (feasting), we want to not eat (fasting). That’s it. We never again want to agonize over anything or any number again. We did that for too long and we weren’t happy. But yes, we started settling into a decent low carb life, we were feeling good, and then COVID happened in late March 2020.

COVID cocktail hour while our Governor provided daily briefings

Here’s how the rest of 2020 eating looked: Open our eating window with a cocktail hour, eat lunch, continue the evening with more cocktails or wine, eat a hearty dinner, and maybe have a dessert. In our six-hour eating window, we enjoyed delicious food and mouth-watering drinks. We managed our feelings and isolation the only way we knew how – to eat and drink. But that’s ok. Our world was experiencing a major crisis, we were all coping. Ultimately our clothes got a bit tighter, we were putting a band-aid on our feelings, and the happy train left the station without us. Something was different though. We weren’t gaining weight as fast as we would have in the past. Every time we pulled back on the cocktails, cut out the snacks and dessert, tighten up our feasting window, our bodies said thank you and we dropped a couple of pounds back off. We didn’t miss the lesson here but summertime was upon us. We spent the summer in our RV traveling out West avoiding people as much as possible while still adventuring in our national parks. We continued our somewhat ridiculous eating and drinking in a six-hour window but because we were doing a lot of walking and hiking, our clothes loosened up a bit more. YAY! We finished our summer trip at pretty much the same weight that we had started it, how often can you say that after vacation? Especially one that is two months long. Not us.

Intermittent fasting was working, there is no doubt about it. However, both of our doctors reminded us that we needed to give our livers a break and be a bit more thoughtful about what we ate. My blood pressure was high, Brian was diagnosed as pre-diabetic. It was time to put on the brakes and rethink our priorities just in time for Christmas indulgences. It was time to start with the basics about IF again so we turned to audiobooks and podcasts while driving to Tennessee to spend a quiet holiday in the RV. We listened to Eve Mayer’s book, Life in the Fasting Lane. We listened to Dr. Fung’s podcast. We worked on setting S.M.A.R.T. goals, focused on reminding ourselves why we love IF, and figured out how to do it better.

I am learning to walk out of my guilt prison. I am learning to lose while winning!

The prison walls of guilt have been crumbling since we started IF in 2019. In order for them to be gone forever, I have to learn how to balance between eating what I want, eating what is good for me, and figuring out what I can live with forever. I have learned to eat without guilt but learning to eat well and lose weight is a process. I have learned how to maintain weight and that is our biggest win thus far on our two-year IF journey. A win I am proud of because I never maintained my weight before on any diet plan. I was never happy on any diet plan – period! Losing weight is easy when you are on a diet but maintaining that loss when you are living the rest of your life is an entirely different challenge. If you have followed our journey from the very beginning, you understand we intimately know the weight maintenance challenge. Learning to lose weight again, well that is our 2021 plan and we are set up for success. We’re not getting into the details of what’s happening yet because I need to see how much “sticks” before I can speak on it intelligently. However, I will tease you by saying something is working. As of this post, Brian and I are already down quite a bit of weight, our blood glucose numbers are better, my blood pressure is already normalizing, and our waists are smaller. I like looking in the mirror again – the biggest win of all so far. One day at a time. I am on the happy train and I have no intention of getting off again.

If you are thinking about starting intermittent fasting, or maybe you are already practicing if but not getting anywhere, I challenge you to read about it. Get the facts from those who have been there or are the experts. Do not just listen to me. Others have so much more to teach you. Do not follow my eating habits! Start with Dr. Fung’s book, The Ultimate Guide to Intermittent Fasting. It is life-changing. I am reading it again and I can’t believe how much I forgot or skipped over because I wasn’t ready for this change in 2019. He also wrote the books, The Obesity Code and The Diabetes Code. They are outstanding! I am also re-reading Gin Stephen’s books, Delay, Don’t Deny and Feast Without Fear. Gin put a new book out in 2020 that I can’t wait to dive into Fast. Feast. Repeat.

Come back next week when I talk about how this gym rat got fat again. 🤣 Last week I talked about out-running the yo-yo diet phenomenon with over-exercising. Next week I will talk about how I balance good exercise habits without guilt warden showing up when I don’t exercise “enough.” I promise I will talk about IF and our relationship with alcohol after that post; I am going to explore how wine is a metaphor for living well. Then we will reflect on what we have learned during our first two years practicing IF. Finally, at that point, I think I will be ready to talk about where we are in 2021. If you want me to talk about something specific related to our journey of living well and in good health, leave a comment or email me.

To go back and re-read post #2 in this series, click here. To read post #4 in this series, click here.

*We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Intermittent Fasting Series, Part 2: The Yo-Yo Diet Run for My Life

Posted on January 19, 2021 by Cruisin Michelle

Thank you for your kind words after our first post in this series. It is tough to open up about a weight loss journey that isn’t what most people would call a success. But never the less, it has been our success, and that is why I am here to tell you about it in this blog series. I appreciate you coming along on this journey of self-reflection.

We have not been featured in any magazines since we were in Woman’s Day magazine in 2014 and I am completely OK with the lack of public attention to our journey. I am sure people whisper and wonder about us. Heck, that may be why you are still reading part 2 in this series because you want to know what happened. I’m OK with that, it’s an interesting story. You may look at what we eat, drink, and think, “How could they?!” I get it.

I have no idea how people live a happy, food-fulfilled life on only 1,200 calories, eating salads and diet coke, endlessly exercising, and counting calories every single day to make sure they don’t go over. I don’t get it. I tried to live that life and I certainly cannot live that way for a lifetime. I love food and wine, oh how I love deep, luscious, red wine. I love cake, delicious and rich chocolate cake. For those couple of years from 2011-2015, I was miserable as a “skinny girl.” Sure, I loved looking in the mirror! But living was a problem. It was things like only being able to eat one unsatisfying slice of pizza, one mini cupcake when I wanted to eat the big one, and one guilty glass of wine that led to finishing the entire bottle because I just wanted to say, “screw the limitations, I need to live!” I was working out to burn more calories to eat even more food. That is what the “experts” say, right? Eat less and move more! Rubbish! I wanted to go on vacation without spending a year losing those pounds I picked up as souvenirs. I wanted to eat without getting fat – period. It’s every person’s dream. But alas there I was, a skinny girl who struggled to live while my hormones continued to rage out of control because the weight started to fluctuate…a lot. Alas, the yo-yo diet run for my life begins again.

Indulging in the mini-cupcake when I really wanted the big one!

I had just turned 40 when this weight loss journey was at its peak. My son was in the United States Marine Corps and I was mad about it. I wasn’t mad at him, he was made for the Corps. He is a warrior in every sense of the word. I hated him being so far away especially when he was deployed overseas. I took out all of my anger at the gym, a temporary motivator. I cannot live well in that constant state of anger. Fortunately, my son came back home safe and life is a bit quieter.

If you don’t already know, you can’t outrun a bad diet. You can move as much as you want but if your diet is a horrible mess, you will be too. I know this all too well. I tried my best to outrun the yo-yo phenomenon. I ran half marathons. I completed several triathlons. I hiked 500 miles across Spain. I worked out 2, even 3 times a day. I wasn’t living. I was trying to outrun the food demon inside of me and I was ticked off it didn’t work. I knew it wouldn’t work but it wasn’t until intermittent fasting (IF) that I learned why it wouldn’t work. We’ll talk about that in another blog post. I promise it’s coming. I have a lot to say about what we have learned on IF.

Here’s what I learned from our “weight loss success” – (1) I hate counting calories. (2) I hate thinking about food unless I am eating or menu planning. (3) I hate thinking about all the foods that are “restricted” because the experts at some diet company deemed them forbidden. (4) I hate tracking my food and therefore having to think about food more often. (5) I unequivocally cannot stand food prep. I hate it more than I hate dieting. (6) In the future, I only want to outrun a bear.

In the future, I only want to outrun a bear.

Also at the age of 40, I had a hysterectomy though I should have had it long before. Unfortunately, the insurance company had too many opinions on what I should do to my body and when I should do it. A rant for another day. My hormones have been a struggle since I was 15 years old, probably even younger. I remember vividly when the OB/GYN told me I had PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) followed by, “you will never get pregnant.” Yep, you heard that one right. This teenager was just given the license to have sex while dealing with the emotion and devastation at the thought of not becoming a mom. Obviously, that doctor was wrong because I have a handsome adult son. It wasn’t that I couldn’t get pregnant but rather it would be difficult to get pregnant. My son was unexpected at age 20 but he remains to be my greatest blessing in life. In 2020 he and his wife made us grandparents. 🙌🏼

Hormones are the greatest blessing and challenge of being a woman. I am not a nutrition expert, as if you didn’t know that already. I am certainly not a medical professional, again no big surprise. Therefore, I don’t know if I had PCOS because I was fat, I was fat because I had PCOS or something else entirely nor do I care at this point. I have read a lot about PCOS but that is not the point of this blog. What I know is my hormonal challenges only seemed to get more complicated as the years went on and I became more overweight and unhealthy. The yo-yo run continues.

PCOS is just another symptom of a bigger problem. I have struggled with being pre-diabetic, excess hair growth, terrible acne, overall saggy skin, high blood pressure, anxiety, and I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in 2016. Hashimoto’s is an umbrella diagnosis for an autoimmune condition related to the thyroid. I knew my thyroid was a problem because I got that diagnosis in 2006 but it took me a while to find a doctor who could help me put all of these hormone pieces together. Oh, and did I mention I am also going through menopause? Yep, that too!

Are you thinking yet, she is a mess and I am glad I am not her! I wouldn’t blame you. Finding a doctor who could understand my diagnosis and help me take action was amazing. It also meant trying a new medication, finding the right dosage, which meant more weight gain. I remember our anniversary weekend getaway in 2017 when I was trying yet another new medication. I gained 12 pounds in one weekend! Yep, thank you underactive thyroid. We even hiked about 15 miles that weekend. You can’t outrun a bad thyroid either.

Grasping what was happening on the inside behind what everyone could see on the outside is important to appreciate the journey. I think we all have “stuff” to deal with in our progression towards good health. Whether it’s food addiction, hormones, some other health challenge, or emotional baggage. Life is a roller coaster, a yo-yo, or maybe it’s like dodgeball and we are all just trying to not get hit too hard by what’s thrown at us next. If we can just control how we react to it, we’re winning. Right? Sounds so easy (sarcasm). Intermittent fasting is kind of like that, controlling when we eat so we can enjoy more of what we eat. I wish we would have found it much sooner. Sadly, between 2015-2019, Brian and I gained back about 100 pounds of the 254 pounds we lost while rebelling against the restrictive diet we had known all too well. 😔

But I haven’t even begun to tell you what we gained when we found IF on that day in mid-January 2019. We gained enough to make an entire blog series about our journey. We cut the string on the yo-yo all together. Let me make sure you don’t miss this point – Because of intermittent fasting, we threw the yo-yo away forever. In the first blog post, I had a picture of all of our favorite foods. Can we eat all of those foods? Yes and no. We spent two years trying to see how much food we could eat when we were feasting between our fasts. Guess what? In two years we loved life, we lived well, we ate well, we drank well, we fasted, and we didn’t gain any more weight. Do we want to lose weight? Of course, we do! But for two years, this hormonally-challenged woman and her easy-going husband didn’t gain any weight. I could never have said that when we were “skinny.” The story isn’t over yet. Come back next week when we talk about learning to eat again. Subscribe to our blog to get notifications when the next blog post is up.

To go back and re-read post #1 in this series, click here. To read post #3 in this series, click here.

Intermittent Fasting Series, Part 1: How To Not Lose Weight with Intermittent Fasting

Posted on January 12, 2021 by Cruisin Michelle

I readily admit this is a new subject for us. After the year 2020 why not open up other areas of our life and introduce new topics? For us, 2020 was chugging along peacefully when it came to a screeching halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Maybe some of you had already given up on your all too familiar 2020 New Years Resolutions but we still had hope for weight loss success. COVID changed all of that motivation. All of a sudden we were both working from home, getting in each other’s way, planning out ways to leave town only to be thwarted by stay-at-home restrictions, and interrupting our days for a 2:00 p.m. governor’s press conference about the pandemic which quickly turned into “Wine with DeWine.” Mike DeWine is our Ohio Governor and he has the perfect name for pandemic self-care. Google it, a lot of swag came out of this moment. But before I talk about 2020 too much, I should tell you how our intermittent fasting (IF) journey started.

Fortunately, we started our IF journey in mid-January 2019. It was not a New Years Resolution. It was not something we had ever heard of before that day in mid-January. It was a typical Wednesday and I (Michelle) was driving to work listening to a podcast about the Camino de Santiago. The woman was telling her Camino story to our favorite Camino friend, Dan Mullins. She was establishing the “why” she started walking the Camino which included a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. She explored many non-traditional ways of managing this diagnosis including intermittent and extended day fasting (ADF). She told Dan that she didn’t eat for 30 days (it may have been longer but all I know it was a long time). He interrupted her, “excuse me? You didn’t eat for how long?” I echoed the same question out loud. How does this happen without dying of starvation? She went on to explain and I swear I listened to that podcast at least three times. Disclaimer: She explained how she worked with her physician along with several others including Dr. Jason Fung. I had to Google these doctors and I found books by Dr. Jason Fung and Gin Stephens.

At this point, I told Brian nothing! I knew he would roll his eyes out loud and would never go along with my interest in this subject area. He is a foodie and we are both food addicts. Mind you, I was not fasting yet rather just exploring this strange idea of not eating. I had a work trip scheduled a day or two later so I ordered Delay, Don’t Deny by Gin Stephens on Audible, skipped my first breakfast ever, and got on the road for my 5-hour drive. STOP: I skipped my first breakfast ever. Ever, in my entire life ever. I still can’t believe that I took step one so fast. I normally think about a diet long before I start one. I listened to her book for the entire drive. I didn’t eat for the entire drive. Fortunately, it’s only a 4-hour book so I was able to repeat several sections. By the time I arrived at my destination I decided to not eat the rest of my day and to “open my eating window” the next day for lunch.

You read that right, this food addict started her fasting journey with a 36-hour fast: Mistake 1. Dr. Jason Fung and Gin Stephens would have slapped my hands. But oh my dear goodness I felt amazing! I opened my eating window guilt-free with my favorite Culver’s gluten-free bacon cheeseburger and fries: Mistake 2. Just a side note, when practicing IF correctly, you should not open your eating window with greasy, processed, carb-heavy foods. That being said, I was hooked on this new path. More importantly, I ate something guilt-free for the first time in my entire life. Living with guilt is a series for another day.

Hold on. I have to go back even further before I can tell you how badly we failed at intermittent fasting. I am a lifetime dieter, we both are, but I have been dieting since my hormones kicked in around age 13. I have always been fat. I’ve tried a million diet pills, failed miserably as a 20-something at Weight Watchers. If there was a quick or easy fix, I prayed it worked but it never did. When Brian and I met, we tried countless more diets. Miraculously, one diet finally worked for us. Between the two of us, we lost about 250 pounds! Yes, we were living our best life! Our weight loss success was even featured in Woman’s Day magazine. We were counting our points, found a love of hiking, and were both happier than ever. But we weren’t. In order to sustain my weight loss, I could only eat about 1,200-1,300 calories a day. We love food. We hate counting every calorie. We hate thinking about what we can’t eat every day. We love wine and indulging in foods from all over the world. We were ticked off! Skinny people don’t count every calorie and don’t feel guilty for every bite they take. We were skinny – why do we have to think about all of this crap!

But we weren’t skinny, rather we are former fat people. We believed we would always have a weight “problem,” even if the scale said we were perfect. So we rebelled. Slowly and unknowingly we started to gain weight. We were frustrated. We wanted to live like skinny people (though I actually have no idea what that means). We ate what we thought were reasonable portions and only indulged occasionally. But the weight kept creeping up. We didn’t talk about it. My hormones continued to get out of whack. Our clothes started getting tighter. Brian would loosen his belt and I would run to Kohl’s to get more comfortable clothes. I discovered leggings. 🙌🏼

In this series about intermittent fasting, I will tell you about the hormonal challenges I am faced with, how I introduced IF to Brian, how we continued to fail at losing weight with intermittent fasting, what turns our IF journey took in 2019 and 2020, and why we both still practice IF today. Wait, what? Yep, two years later and not a single pound lost, we are still practicing IF. It’s a crazy story very few people know about it. We have been judged since the first day someone realized we were on a diet that was working back in 2010. I can’t believe I am talking about something that didn’t work but there is a lot we can learn from this intermittent fasting journey. Subscribe to our blog for notifications when the post comes out.

To read the next post in this series, click here.

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Teacher Life: The Demands, The Schedule, and Why We Travel

Posted on May 22, 2019 by Cruisin Michelle

If you are a parent, you know the anticipation your kid’s experience at the start of a new school year and the excitement of summer looming at the end of the year. Teachers have the same feelings. We look forward to starting a new school year; we want to meet our new students, hear about their summer adventures, improve our teaching plans. At the end of the school year, we are spent. Our brains have been in overload for 9+ months, we are mentally and physically tired from the demands of our students and our administration. But before I talk about that and why we travel, let me tell you about what we do as teachers.

Brian and I live in two completely different teaching worlds. For Brian, the middle school and high school choir teacher, he has his nose to the grind day in and day out. He is preparing students for concerts, contests, and assessing their learning five days a week for about 6 1/2 hours a day. When he is not in the classroom he is grading, planning, listening to music, working on the annual musical, and finding new music so he can continue to inspire their love of music from around the world and through the ages.

For me, a Professor of Communication, my pace is a bit slower but just as mentally draining. I spend my days discovering the latest research in my field, working through the technical challenges of online learning, grading research papers, facilitating learning in the classroom, advising students, and meeting the demands of the administrative parts of my job.

Yes, we are blessed to be in similar, even complimentary, professions. Yes, we are acutely aware of how lucky we are to have large blocks of time off together. Twice a year, during Christmas and summer breaks, we are extremely blessed because we have that time off together. Few teachers are that lucky. However, let me take a few minutes to talk about the drawbacks in the education world, as it relates to home/life balance. Balance is something we all have to seek out when it comes to figuring out how much time you should spend on work, with your family, and self-care. The chunk of time needed looks different for everyone and for most balance doesn’t come naturally.

Brian lives by a bell during the school year. If he has students in his classroom, nothing else can matter (even going to the bathroom has to wait). His students and their parents know him very well, many students take choir for up to seven years. In the world of instant access, he is in constant communication with them unless he literally unplugs. Fortunately, I am not in the classroom to the same extent as Brian, it would throw me completely off balance. My days have a bit of research, grading, teaching, and administrative work. My students are in regular communication with me, but certainly not to the same extent. That constant communication, along with all the other demands is draining for both of us and just like every other professional, we need to unplug and recharge.

Michelle hitting the books in her happy place, the library

However, because we have a few large blocks of time, we don’t have much time to unplug during the school year. This is the part that people who are not in the academic world don’t fully understand. For example, during the school year if we have a niece graduating, a child getting married, and an opportunity for a cheap, long weekend, we would have to make sacrifices because we only have three personal days total in an academic year. Now Brian and I have been teaching long enough, that we know those sacrifices are typically manageable. But it’s something we have to explain to friends/family when we are planning out our school year. I am not complaining, we are blessed, but it’s our reality. And I won’t even start on how ridiculous that our Spring Breaks are never on the same week, so we both typically work through them unless we’re lucky enough to still have our personal days so we can leave for a bit on one of the two weeks. But it’s Brian’s busiest season with his musical and my busy time because the end of the academic year is looming, so truly unplugging during either Spring Break isn’t an option.

As I am sure many professionals face, we deal with the constant work pressures, the “Did I send that email?” “Did I forget to tell Sue about the meeting tomorrow?” and just the “What am I forgetting?” feeling, maybe it’s age! Haha! Working professionals are always thinking about work. Unfortunately, some don’t know how or when to unplug. That breaks my heart because unplugging is good for your soul and your relationships.

For us, during the school year, we are often working an average of ten hours a day, six days a week. Brian has a lot of evening and weekend commitments because of the nature of his job and I have a mind-blowing amount of grading. Haha! Therefore, we can’t truly unplug until school is out of session.

This is why we love to travel! It’s easier to unplug if you go somewhere that doesn’t have cell service. For us, getting metaphorically “lost in the woods” feeds the soul in a way nothing else can. We figured this out very early in our marriage and have made traveling a priority ever since.

Every time we travel to a new place we realize how big this world is, our “to do” list grows, our time together on Earth feels limited, and our desire to see it all gets stronger. Traveling is more than simply seeing the landscape. Rather, for us, it’s about getting to know the people, the cultures, and learning about the social expectations.

Backpacking a section the AT for my 40th birthday

Traveling makes us better teachers. This isn’t simply because we unplugged, though it helps. Because we are responsible for teaching students how to communicate (Michelle) and how to sing cultural and historical pieces of music (Brian), we are better at our jobs because we have these experiences. I have been teaching Intercultural Communication for over 20 years but I have never been as sharp as I have been since I started traveling internationally. When we traveled on the Camino in 2017, Brian heard pieces of music where they were intended to be sung. He experienced the history that he only understood because of book knowledge up until that point.

Participating in “Hell Run” mud race for our 5 year anniversary with about 25 of our closest friends

Traveling is good for the soul, whether you hike, bike, kayak, lay on a beach, heat up in a spa, or hole up in a five-star hotel. Next time you travel in the off-season, remember that your kid’s teacher can’t just pull out of school like kids are pulled out of school. However, they are working to finding balance just like you do. They may have to travel during the most expensive times of the school year, but they are thankful for the ability to do it.

Meet our new YouTube Channel!

Posted on March 27, 2019 by Cruisin Brian

For some reason, we have been really nervous to start a YouTube channel. I think that watching our favorite vloggers such as Keep Your Daydream, Less Junk More Journey, and Gone With the Wynns has created some pressure that was just overwhelming. We tried shooting a video back over the summer but never pulled the trigger to upload it because we just weren’t happy with the content. I think it’s also about making sure we have the time to dedicate to a good YouTube channel. I don’t know if we have found the time, but we certainly have the motivation to record our adventures.

This week in the Smoky Mountains we bit the bullet, we have two videos up so far and hope to put out a couple more before the end of the week and then start releasing videos from time to time as we continue our Camino training through the Spring. Here’s our first video.

Why do we feel the need to start a YouTube channel in the first place? We want an interactive visual way of sharing our travels with our families and friends as we travel across the country and around the globe! Our long term goal is to be full-time adventurer’s once we have retired from our teaching jobs and we know that YouTube is one method of eventually making some income.

One of the reasons we were hesitant to start the channel was the intimidation I mentioned above that we felt when watching so many other channels. Their production value is so slick and polished, we just are not sure we could compete. We’ve decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it! Since we will be walking across Spain and Portugal over the summer, we will not be able to carry much gear in our packs. Because of this, our videos will be pretty low tech for the time being. Before I go any further, the links below will take you to Amazon through our affiliate page, meaning that we get a VERY small commission if you buy. Here is what we’ve decided to take along:

iPhone 7

The iPhone 7 has a great camera and the video quality is pretty good too, I might be upgrading my phone before we go, but that’s only if I can convince Michelle that we can work it into the budget, but she won’t be upgrading her phone. Not only will I be shooting on my iPhone, but also all of the editing will be happening here using iMovie.

Michelle and I both do video and photos for the blogs and now, videos.

Monopod

Again, because we can’t carry items unless they fulfill several needs I really want a monopod that would double as my hiking pole. After testing out several monopods that felt either too flimsy or too heavy, I’ve finally settled on the Go2Gether trekking pole with integrated camera mount. The pole feels sturdy and the locks have kept it from collapsing with moderate pressure. It comes with snow and mud baskets and several different tips. The handle is a little small for my hands and I’m going to be adding some bike handlebar tape to give them some extra padding. I bought two because I want my poles to match.

Gimbal

The go-to company for smartphone gimbals seems to be DJI and after checking out several, I am really happy with my Osmo Mobile 2. I’ve come across a couple of problems so far. The Bluetooth connection between the gimbal and phone really eats up my phone battery. So far the solution has been to power off the gimbal whenever I’m not shooting video and that is helping. Problem number two is not being able to readily connect a mic at the same time as the gimbal because of the port placement on the phone. I’ve found an adapter but it is not a graceful solution that I am pleased with.

Wide Angle Lens

In order to get some special shots, I wanted to play with adding some lens onto the phone too. Some Genius at the Apple Store recommended the Olloclip Core Lens and Clip. The core pack comes with a super-wide angle and a dual fisheye/macro lens. Also, the clip that holds the lens can attach to your pack with a carabiner and converts into a mini phone stand. You can purchase additional lenses that just clip on including telephoto and ultra-wide.

Photo taken with the regular iPhone 7 camera, no zoom

Same photo with the Olloclip Super Wide Angle Lens

Using the Olloclip Fisheye lens yields some interesting results

Finally with the Marco lens, great detail becomes visible

Microphone

I was concerned about wind noise, especially when hiking near roads or in windy situations and wanted to add a microphone. Rode makes good quality mics at an affordable price point so I picked up a Rode VideoMicro Mic that comes with a shock mount and windshield. I had to add a ring clamp to attach it to a hiking pole and an adapter to plug it into the phone (it has a 1/8 inch plug, not lightning). I’m still working battery issues and haven’t used both the gimbal and the mic at the same time yet.

So there it is, our setup to get started on YouTube. Of course, I know that there will be more gear to come (anyone want to buy me a DJI Spark Drone?) and that we will probably have to make some adjustments as we travel along the Camino. Check out our first two videos and give us some feedback! Also, make sure that you click on the subscribe button and click the bell to get notifications every time we post new content.

Rock Bottom: Why I Almost Quit My Camino

Posted on February 6, 2019 by Cruisin Michelle

When I look through the Facebook group, American Pilgrims on the Camino, I feel like I am the only one who wanted to quit. I know there are those who needed to quit because of physical problems, but somedays it feels like I am the only one who wanted to quit. Let me set it up for you.

Michelle on the Meseta after trying her first Tart de Santiago. She is all smiles.

We had been planning our Camino for about 6 years. We couldn’t contain our excitement the closer it got to our departure date. I, Michelle, am a Professor of Communication so the thought of interacting and engaging with people from all over the world filled me with joy. We are hikers with 10 years of hiking experience including quite a bit of long-distance day-hiking and some backpacking so we were looking forward to the physical elements of the walk. I was a bit anxious about the food because I have an auto-immune disease, can’t eat gluten, and I am a bit of a picky eater but hate to admit it. Though I tried to have an open mind and share Brian’s enthusiasm for embracing food culture, I quietly struggled with the thought of it. Though it took forever to get there, June 2017 arrived and we set off on the Camino filled with excitement and a small case of anxiety.

“Second breakfast” Spanish tortilla for Michelle, Bocadillo for Brian, Toblerone to share, and Coca-Cola light

I took the photo above of our first “second breakfast” as it’s affectionately called on the Camino. Second breakfast is what you have after hiking about 5-10 km. First breakfast is typically bread and coffee. So begins my first challenge, I can’t eat bread and I don’t drink coffee. I wish I liked coffee, I do, it’s just not my flavor so I usually found a Monster energy drink at a store the night before and started my day with it. Next, I initially loved Spanish tortilla. It’s eggs and potatoes, what’s not to love. On a side note, Brian wasn’t a big fan of bocadillo, he called it a baseball bat of bread with a thin layer of ham and cheese. Fortunately, Brian usually had a lot of other choices. But this isn’t why I wanted to quit the Camino.

Hiking early in the morning to beat the heat

Challenge number 2, oh how we both hate early mornings. We had to leave our albergue by about 5:30 – 6 a.m. for most of our Camino because Spain was experiencing record heat. When we didn’t leave so early in the morning the heat was so bad we had to quit early so leaving early was a better alternative. But this isn’t why I wanted to quit the Camino.

Then there is doing the laundry by hand, day after day. After a long day of hiking in the heat, all I wanted to do was take a nap. Brian had to talk me into showering and washing the clothes with him before passing out on the bed. Some days it took a lot of convincing. But that is not why I wanted to quit.

I don’t know where my husband got so much energy but his drive to see every inch of every town after hiking an average of 13 miles a day and hand washing our laundry astounded me. He was so happy – all the time – happy. I was tired, exhausted, crabby and weak. That is why I wanted to quit the Camino but I hadn’t hit rock bottom yet. I felt so inadequate. It wasn’t Brian’s fault.

I also felt very isolated. I didn’t have anyone else to talk to on the Camino. We were hiking together, so yes we had each other, but after Pomplona, we went for several days without meeting anyone who spoke English. Feeling isolated in our room one night I even looked up flights. I was ready to max out a credit card and fly home the next day. Brian convinced me to give it one more day and if I wanted to quit he was ready to come home with me. What? He would quit too! Ugh, the pressure of not wanting to end his Camino. But I agreed to give it one more day and I was convinced we were going home.

I really don’t remember the next day except that it wasn’t as hot, the shade was plentiful, the hills weren’t too bad, and we walked into a town to have second breakfast only to find a group of pilgrims all speaking English. The signs were everywhere, I knew by the end of the day we were to continue walking on the Camino.

I was re-establishing a good rhythm on the Camino again until our third day on the Meseta and our 17th day of walking. The Meseta is a week-long stretch of flat hiking from Burgos to León where you feel like you can see the entire week ahead of you because it is so flat. It is also normally the hottest part of the Camino but for us, it was the coldest, wettest, and windiest part. We had awful winds, up to 25 mph.

Then we walked into Carrión de los Condes. When we arrived, we walked into a convent where cloistered nuns were sitting in the back singing. It left us speechless. A fellow pilgrim was sitting in a pew, crying, so I sat with her. Later that evening she saw us again and she told her friend that we were her angels. Apparently, we helped her out a few different times but didn’t realize what we did was so meaningful.

“The singing nuns” who asked that we don’t show their faces

That evening we met a different order of nuns who are affectionately called, “the singing nuns.” We knew this was an evening we could not miss. There was also a priest who we had been following on and off all day. We first met him chanting in a church earlier that day. He brought us to our knees in that church. That evening he led mass and we learned he was from Poland, delivering the mass in Latin, Spanish, and English. Wow.

The best part of the evening was when the nuns asked everyone why they were walking the Camino. When they learned we were walking to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary, they dedicated a song to us. Sobbing in an overcrowded room full of strangers, I realized this was my rock bottom. I knew I needed to continue on the Camino. I had to complete this walk. I felt so broken and so energized all at the same time. We left that room full of friends to find our dinner and ran into a group of Spaniards celebrating a reunion. They invited us to dance with them. I wanted a do-over with the energy I was feeling that evening. I started my Camino over again the next morning, renewed.

It was that evening when we opened ourselves up, sharing our story with strangers, that everything changed. From that day forward we met friends from all over the world, people we are still friends with today. I don’t know what took us so long, but I am so very thankful for that evening and finally hitting my rock bottom.

Only a short 8 days later we left the weight of our burdens at Cruz de Ferro. We even shared this moment with two new friends from Hawaii who kindly took the photo above. Please don’t wait to connect with people. They are a big part of the Camino. I continued to struggle with the food, hand washing the laundry, and heat exhaustion, but I had new friends to help us along the way as I hope we helped them.

I am thankful to have Brian walking by my side. We pushed each other, lifted each other up, and we know when it’s time to be patient with one another. It is my hope that you have someone to walk with along your Way or find someone faster than I did.

Buen Camino friends, see you along the Way!

Welcome to Our New Website

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Cruisin Michelle

We are so excited to have you here, please click around and check out all our new site has to offer. This is just the beginning of a new journey for the Colemans. If you would have asked us a year ago if we would like to start blogging, we would have said no. We don’t have time, don’t have the energy, and certainly don’t have anything to say. Personally, I am still in shock that Brian is as committed as he is. Haha, don’t tell him I said that. 😉

The first questions we get from people is why? Why are you blogging? What is your purpose for the website? What are your plans for the future with Cruisin’ with the Colemans? I’m so glad you asked. I love talking about the what and why!

Why did we start Cruisin’ with the Colemans? We did it for us. We needed an outlet for our travels. We know the gift we have been given by having the time, ability, and desire to travel. Since we are both teachers we have the time to travel in larger blocks which gives us the ability to go places we wouldn’t be able to go to with only one or two weeks off at a time. Also, as teachers, we both have the desire to research and see so many places in the world. This travel makes us better teachers because we can share what we experience with our students.

“Cruisin’ with the Colemans is our way of living what we learned on our Camino”
www.cruisinwiththecolemans.com

The purpose of the website vs. simply a blog is because we have decided that we want to do more than just blogging. We know that want to sell our travel photos, continue giving presentations about our travels, eventually do more travel consulting, and then who knows what else is down our path. We have not defined exactly where we want to go or what we precisely want to do just yet but the journey we are on makes us smile every single day.

The idea for Cruisin’ with the Colemans came after we finished our first Camino in 2017. The day we flew home from Spain, we stopped at an RV store before we even went home. Let me say that again – we had been in Spain for two months and we stopped off at an RV store before we even went home! That is crazy but it’s also how we felt. We purchased the RV we had been researching in our downtime on the Camino a week after we got home. We didn’t want the journey to end. Cruisin’ with the Colemans is our way of living what we learned on our Camino. We learned that you can’t plan everything, you have to accept the challenges in front of you, the journey is important, and to never stop walking.

Thank you for being a part of our journey thus far. Your support does not go unnoticed. We are humbled that you want to read our blog posts, that you subscribe to our blogs, and that you share our blog posts. We will do our best to provide you with reasons to keep coming back.

As we say on the Camino, “Buen Camino” which literally translates as “Good Way.” It is what you say when you leave someone as you wish the well on their journey. We wish you all well on your journey. Until we meet again. You can say Buen Camino to us by giving us a thumbs up and sharing our website. Thank you!

When Talking about Adventuring is Hard

Posted on October 10, 2018 by Cruisin Michelle

This past summer was filled with the highest of highs and sadly the lowest of lows. The highs consisted of our son’s, my cousin’s wedding, and time with a breadth of my family. Sadly, what brought my extended family together was the passing of my grandfather. My grandfather was, simply stated, the most amazing man I have ever meet. Together

my grandparents provided the world with 5 boys, 20 grandchildren, and countless great-grandchildren. They loved attending every possible special event of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and even the not so special events. Family brought them genuine joy. They taught me how to love unconditionally, what to look for in the perfect mate, to appreciate and enjoy live theater, and the value being committed to your community. I can only strive to be half as amazing as they were collectively. I am thankful I had 41 years with my grandmother and 47 with my grandfather. I am a better human because I knew them.
My grandfather affectionally referred to as the gentle giant, survived World War II, the Depression, drought after drought as a dairy farmer, and six years ago, the loss of his bride, my grandmother. I respected him as a husband, a grandfather, and a man, more than any other human being I know. He was smart, frank, graceful, loving, patient, kind, generous, and non-discriminatory.
When I knew his end was near this summer it was like I was frozen in fear of the inevitable. I didn’t want to go adventuring, I wasn’t in the mood to leave the RV, and all I wanted to do was go home to be with my grandfather. We finally made it to his side, his passing was slow, but fortunately, all of his family made it home to say our good-byes. The time with family was the greatest gift we could give him. It lifted all of our spirits and we could feel our grandmothers presence everywhere which was precisely what we all needed.
So comes the sudden stop of my newly developed appreciation of weekly blogging. My heart needed time to mend. My mind needed time to reconsider my goals. I wanted to blog, I tried to blog, I have 3 drafts waiting for me to finish, but my focus hasn’t been there. I come to you with a heart that is trying to mend and a new focus on greater goals to achieve undeniable happiness. I have had several conversations with my grandparents in my dreams. They were my greatest fans and thoroughly enjoyed listening to every single detail about any story I was willing to share with them. Therefore, I will write again. I will share our adventures with you. Maybe there is someone out there who needs to hear about them. Maybe somehow my grandparents are listening and smiling because all they wanted was for their family to live their best lives.
Brian and I have a lot to share with you. Next week I will pick up where we left off as we entered the UP of Michigan to finish our summer 2018 adventure. Then I will share with you what has been going on as we have begun to the plan our summer 2019 adventure which is going to be hiking the Camino Portuguese. My goal is to post an adventure blog every Wednesday morning at 8:00 a.m. EST. Brian will continue to post his “Recipe of the Week” every Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. EST. If you like what you are reading, please like, comment, share, and follow! We write our blogs for you. We write them to inspire an adventurous spirit in all of us. We write them to remember what it looks like for us to live our best life.
To everyone who helped me through the passing of my grandfather, thank you. To Brian who kept our posts coming while I mended a broken heart, thank you. I see my grandfathers spirit in Brian and that is the ultimate compliment. To anyone who still has either or both of their grandparents on this Earth, call them. Share everything that is is going on in your life with them. They are waiting to hear from you.