Aren't questions amazing?

Today was day 552 of running at least a mile every day.

I heard, second hand, of a commentator who said that we all talk about weight loss as a simple equation of not eating more calories than we burn, and discussions tend to concentrate on how we can achieve that.

However we don't look at why it is that we do that. After all, no animals, other than domesticated ones, put on weight due to eating more than they burn.

So what caused us to start eating, and in fact generally consume, more than we actually need?

Have we lost the ability to tell when we reach that magical tipping point that is "enough"?

How do you know when it's enough?

What makes us thrive and excel, and can that become too much?

What's the measure there?

Is it happiness?

Is there such a thing as happy enough?

What happens if you have more than enough happiness?

At what point do you go past happiness into something else?

What are the happiest moments of my life?

How could I have made the happiest moments of my life even happier?

What makes me happy every day?

Aren't questions amazing?

A leg up

After my musings in my last post on the incredible healing ability of our bodies, it's only fitting that my own body should tell me that it needs a bit of help and support for it to facilitate its own healing.

I finally had to admit that I may need to add an extra ingredient in addition to my daily run following a run with my club colleagues last night where I became more and more aware of having to almost drag my left leg around with me.

It was actually even worse this morning when I managed a glorious seventeen minutes to complete one mile. I even gave up on the extra "bit" and walked the last bit home.

I put it all down to an incident about a month ago when, having locked my house keys inside the house, I had to remove a very small window and climb through it. Whilst manoeuvring my way through said window, at one point I had all my weight on my weaker left leg (previous cartilage and ligament football injury), with my other leg still pointing up through the window.

It was at this point that my left leg gave way under me. I appeared to wrench it somewhat and it hasn't been quite the same since.

So I will continue with my mile a day "therapy" but I have decided to also obtain some expert assistance.

All may become clearer early next week. Hopefully!

Enjoying the ride

I seem to have fallen out of the habit of writing my blog lately.

I'm still running though, and I completed my 543rd consecutive day of running at least a mile this morning.

My thoughts have been on both the fragility and also the miracle of life in the past twelve or so hours.

Last night I heard from my mum that one of her best, and oldest, friends passed away yesterday, and then on top of that I witnessed our adopted cat pounce on and proceed to devour a bird.

On the miracle side of things, I watched a recording of the last programme in the excellent BBC series "Inside The Human Body" last night.

Watching this series has made me more aware of what a mind-blowing miracle we all are.

Michael Mosley, the presenter who trained as a medical student, said last night that doctor's can't actually heal people, all they are able to do is facilitate the human body's natural ability to heal itself.

It seems to always come back to the principal that we all have everything within ourselves already to heal ourselves, be successful and thrive. All we need is the occasional support and encouragement to enable us to draw on those amazing resources that already within us.

And while we're about it, we should feel amazed and awed by this miraculous and fragile thing called life that we are riding right now.

Let it be

It's been a struggle this last week or so.

It's funny how the language you use can sometimes make it obvious why you're finding something hard.

It all started with wrenching my left knee when climbing into a very small window in the front of my house after I'd managed to lock my keys inside the house just over a week ago , and has now progressed to pulling my hamstring in the same leg yesterday.

So I've done a lot of very slow runs of a mile and a bit.

And I'm due to be going on a four-day extended running weekend with thirty other runners in three days time.

Anyway, back to me using the word struggle at the start of this post. It is quite accurate for me to describe that I've been finding it a struggle.

But what I managed to do on this morning's run was to make it OK that I was running very slow.

I managed to not fret about what might happen if my leg doesn't get any better or even gets worse.

The words of Paul McCartney came to me,

"When I find myself in times of trouble Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it be".

I don't remember Mother Mary coming to me, but who knows, maybe she did.

And, as another song says, "Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be".

Funnily enough, I'm not actually finding it a struggle any more.

I ran

I have just taken on a challenge - to imagine that I have only fifteen minutes to live, and to write the story that needs to be told.

Life hangs on a thread and is precious, a true gift and a blessing.

You can spend your life looking at all the things that are wrong with it and how it doesn't compare to others, or you can live it fully - wonder at the incredible luck that you are here at this moment in time.

Is it all about living a huge life and stretching yourself?

Life is whatever you want it to be.

The most important thing you can do is be aware, honest and responsible for where you are now and decide for yourself where it is you want to go. What is the journey you would most like to make?

You had also better build in a healthy dose of relationships and being of service to others.

You may not feel that as a desire right now, but I'm pretty convinced that at some point in time, that will become important to you.

What else needs to be said? I do believe that we are intricately connected and I also subscribe to that whole philosophy of what you do to others (people, animals, the planet), you do to yourself.

I came across an inspiring idea recently that is new to me although not new as a concept.

When certain tribes of native American Indians set goals, they set them seven generations ahead, which is the equivalent of about a hundred years in our money.

What difference would that make to you to set your goals beyond your time on this planet? How different would your goals look?

I'm not saying you shouldn't have your own goals, but make sure they include what you want to have, what you want to do and who you want to be. Then see how they fit in with your hundred year goals.

As has often been said, it is not the planet we are killing with our focus on short-term profit and gain. The planet will probably still be here long after we're gone. It's ourselves as a species and the other species that we share this planet with, that we destroy with our constant greed and desire for luxury and convenience.

Studies on happiness have also discovered that taking the easy way, such as using our cars instead of using our own power, reduces our levels of happiness.

The power we are looking to obtain won't fulfill us if we don't make use of the power that already exists within us, that we give up in our endless search for short cuts and convenience.

How did I use my power?

I ran.

Am I TOO rested?

I ran a VERY gentle mile-and-a-bit yesterday morning as I'd been without food for the previous twenty hours.

After a quick shower I then sauntered up to my local hospital for an appointment to have a colonoscopy, just to check my internal workings were up to scratch.

When I was being checked in they gave me the heart rate and blood pressure check, and the nurse seemed a little surprised that my resting heart rate was lower than it should be (outside the normal range apparently).

Does this mean that I've been practicing my resting far too much and have become exceedingly proficient at it?

Was I far less worried than I should have been about the impending medical procedure?

Might the efficiency of my heart have been improved by my 505 days of consecutively running a mile each day?

Is there a potential problem with my heart?

While the nurse said that I should mention it to my doctor next time I see him (no need for a special appointment), I can't help thinking that the reason for my low resting heart rate is more likely to be one of, or all of, my first three above possibilities than the latter one, but who am I to judge?

Anyway, although I'm still not supposed to drive, drink alcohol or operate heavy machinery until at least lunchtime today (not that I anticipate doing them then, at least not all at once), this morning I planned for another gentle mile-and-a-bit, as I gather I still should have some anesthetic in my system.

However I felt so strong that I boosted the run to a pretty quick two-miler and I feel great!

Oh and I had the best results from my colonoscopy than the previous three I've had over the last eleven years too.

Do you think there might be something in this running a mile each day lark?

The lesson of 500

This morning Nicky came with me for a gentle just under 3-miler, which was impressive for her as she hasn't run for months.

For me it is a day for celebration as it was my 500th consecutive day of running at least a mile, and I feel rather proud.

I wonder why that is, as it's nothing spectacular to run a mile, and it's also not spectacular to run a mile the next day either. Actually, thinking about it, it's not spectacular to run a mile every day for 500 days.

It's something to do with the idea I thought of fairly recently of pushing the ordinary far enough that it might become extra-ordinary.

I'm not suggesting that I'm extraordinary, or even that running a mile each day is extraordinary. It's just that at some point ordinary with enough commitment becomes something that is a bit beyond the ordinary, whilst still being ordinary, if that makes sense.

For me, the people I really look up to as "heroes" probably wouldn't see themselves as such in any way, because they are ordinary people doing ordinary things who have pushed themselves beyond what I, and others, consider reasonable.

If I think back to when I started this experiment, I would not have considered it possible for me to still be doing my daily mile. That's what feels great.

And yet, although for a large number of the 500 days I have had to overcome resistance to do my mile or so, on its own each of those small wins wasn't that big a deal.

It's when I add up the small wins and keep putting one foot in front of the other, I suddenly realise that I am capable of far more than I ever gave myself credit for.

Now that's a lesson that could make a huge difference in my life, if I can bring that to every aspect of my life!