The Art of Fine Tuning Your Lifestyle.

*I have a real treat coming up for y'all! So be sure to tune in tomorrow for Part I of an interview I did with none other than the fabulous Lennie Mowris!

10 years ago when I was a junior in college, I went through a time of romantic-ish drama, the details of which would make such a great chick flick movie script. (Anybody know a movie producer? Haha)

This little episode caused me anguish and stress at the time. I will spare you the nitty gritty of it, but thankfully the school year ended and I found myself facing the summer alone.

One night, hating to be sitting alone in a dorm room with my thoughts, I did something I hadn't ever done in my life. I put on my tennis shoes, pulled my hair back in a ponytail, walked out the door and took off running.

I ran my tushie off that summer. I was a slow runner and I didn't measure my distance or pace, but I discovered within myself a potential for endurance running, some days running up to 2.5 hours in full blown Texas heat.


Running helped me sort myself out, and being alone with the sun, wind and sometimes rain, taught me a lot about who I was and what I wanted in life. When I was running I felt like I could handle anything.

All that running made me really skinny and hot. Soon after that I started dating my soon-to-be husband and pretty much the next day, forgot all about that drama that brought me such grief.

Last year when I started running again after a long hiatus, I began measuring my distance and pace, and realized that I was running dismally slow. I kept plugging away at it and enjoyed it, but it was still discouraging.

A discovery
But this week I made a big discovery. I was researching running techniques because I'm just a nerd like that, and realized that I have been landing on my heel with every stride, which has been greatly slowing me down!

After reading, experimenting (by walking and running around barefoot a bit) and figuring out that landing midfoot or on the balls of your feet is much more natural, I decided to give it a try this morning with shoes on.

My regular old tennis shoes are big and bulky, and with those it was almost impossible to land on anything other than my heel, so this morning I pulled out another pair of slim running flats I have, that I rarely wear because they pinch my toes.

Here are the results of my experiment.

1. I shaved over 2 minutes off my regular pace without any extra effort, going from 12:37 (that is so embarassing!) to 10:21 per mile which is still not great but not shabby for someone on my level either.

2. Running felt more effortless, more "glidey" and seemed to require less huffing and puffing energy.

3. I need to get a new pair of shoes, like, TODAY. The photo below says it all.


Fine tuning the rest of my life.
I was amazed that just by one simple tweak, my running pace picked up so effortlessly and so much.

It made me begin to think about how important fine tuning is to the rest of my life. In a sense we are all fine tuning, every single day. Human beings are very adaptable creatures and it's a good thing too, because we all find ourselves in a constant state of change.

Embracing Fluidity
When I thought about how this concept applied to my diet and health habits, I realized that I have really been fine tuning it over the last several years, and that each time I have tweaked something, it has either gotten better or worse. It doesn't ever stay the same.

Some things I have tweaked - I have increased calories, decreased calories, tried certain foods, left others behind - some temporarily, some hopefully forever. I have gotten less sleep, more sleep, made recipes, eaten only whole foods, gone fruit only, eaten tons of greens, etc.

I love this fluidity, this thought that I never have to be stuck in a rut because if I dig deep and listen to the wisdom and common sense of my own body and to the laws of nature, I will instinctively have ideas of how to fine tune my habits so I can achieve the life I long for.

All I need is time, practice and patience.

Have you fine tuned your life lately?
Have you been turning any dials on your lifestyle recently? What kinds of things have you tweaked, and how have you seen these changes affect your health and happiness? Please share with us!