Happy Friday, friends! The recap in a nutshell... What have I been up to anyway?! Did you see Part 1? It was left hanging… so the conclusion… for now anyway... Part 2 ?

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You all have been asking... Where have you been?... What happened?... How's Charlie?... What about photography?... What's with all the yoga?... What happened to Aut2bFit?... Why shift?... Wait, who are you?... Here's a little recap, or in a nutshell, an attempt to answer a few things. 🙂 ... Part 1...

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This last week I finally had my back fixed, or like I was joking, I had my titanium spine installed! The last two years were tough with excruciating pain from herniated and ruptured lumbar discs, fractured vertebrae, fragments of bone and disc floating, two torn annular ligaments, and a pinched compromised L5 root nerve leaving my right leg and foot increasingly weakened with nerve damage. (Not including the torn hip)

Now I have disc implants and a structure of titanium rebuilding my lumbar spine! I was walking with help within 24 hours and came home yesterday! I am SO optimistic for a new lease on life and Kris2.0! I’m actually Bionic-Woman! ?

Dr. Fineman, Raymond Neurosurgery & Spine, and my team of neuro scientists, doctors and nurses at Huntington Hospital were absolutely incredible! There was not a face around me that wasn’t encouraging and smiling and amazingly caring! I couldn’t have been in better hands. But I have to go back to my dear friend @kmassoudi and her neurosurgeon husband Farzad for helping me come to grips with my injuries over the last year, walking me through the process, putting me in touch with super happy patients with this procedure, helping me find my final surgeon, and helping me see I will get my life back!

Don’t worry, guys... so many yoga pictures to come, I think I could do some bionic scorpions now... just give me 6 months to a year ? ... oh, and I might replace some running with golf! I hear this worked well for Tiger! ?? ??

Happy Easter! ??? Happy Passover! Happy Ramadan! I feel especially blessed and grateful this holiday!

There's a ton of talk everywhere about what you can't eat! I'm really sick of it! Whenever there's a social media post about summer, you're immediately bombarded with diets, get fit fast plans, and then lists of everything you can't have! I don't know about anyone else, but the constant onslaught of what I can't have is exactly what makes me think about those things and then want them all the more, even if I never did in the first place. This was very true while I was modeling in my early twenties. I was modeling in Europe and New York and I was constantly being told to lose five or ten more pounds. It's the only time in my life where I think I've had an issue with food. And inevitably, I ended up gaining weight, losing it again, and having an unhealthy diet/binge attitude towards food. The minute I stopped that, feeding my hunger for life and for active fitness, and thus fueling my body to be able to do what I wanted to do, I developed a healthy mind and a healthier body. Even with a healthy relationship towards food, we can get into routines, or be short on time, and fall into habits or forget to try new ideas. With my activity level, running, parenting, and the stress of life, I think that I could always use a little extra help. I have battled anemia off and on my entire life, and as I get older I find I'm short on minerals and other nutrients with my running and workouts.

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I did it! It was the time of my life... almost! 😉 I don't even know where to start with marathon running?! Some may think I'm nuts, but the longer I run, the more I love it! I really don't start until mile five or six! Ha! I really really hate the first two miles... my shoes hurt, I'm cursing the road or my path, everything about my outfit is uncomfortable, my playlist sucks, I'm tired, maybe I needed more coffee, but do I have to pee?! Haha! But mile five starts to feel good, mile six is getting fun, and by mile seven I can conquer the world! And then I have to admit, mile seventeen to twenty-six all depend on my amount of training leading up! Distance running, and marathons mean so much to me, it's a metaphor for so much in life! I've written about the comparison to special-needs parenting before, Nine Ways Marathon-Training Compares to Special Needs Parenting. But for everything we do in life, isn't it really a test over time, endurance, determination, goal-setting, perseverance? I find it is. So when I can accomplish a long run, or even finish a long race, it sets me up for winning all of those other struggles in life where so rarely do I get a banana and a bagel at the end, never mind a shiny medal that says, "Way to Go! You kicked ass!"

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Last week I got to shoot fitness! I got to shoot cool products to help training and yoga, and got to shoot with my fitness-pal, so combing those parts of my life in one day and calling it work was a real treat! When you run as much as I do, train for a sport like marathon-ing, or just weight-train or do cross-fit, you need to get your muscles tuned up. These little guys are perfect to fit in your bag when traveling, or to the gym or office, I know my pal, Bethany, keeps them in her desk! Check out their website for tips and videos on how to use them!  Yoga Tune Up® | The Roll Model® Method | Tune Up Fitness®

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So yesterday was the Pasadena Half Marathon, 13.1 miles running around picturesque Pasadena, California, ending in the amazing, (and champion-feeling) Rose Bowl stadium. This one was a tough one for me. On most days, I feel I can step outside and run 13.1 and enjoy myself. But I did a lot of races last year, and then a painful torn gastroc calf in October, a speedy recovery right into the Malibu Half Marathon November 5th. My time that day was a let down for me even though with all better reasoning, I knew I had just healed my calf in two quick weeks! Anyhow, I felt burnt out. I didn't run too much at any great length since. But I actually did enjoy myself yesterday! My hip flexors started to hurt (and still do honestly), my left knee, my left ankle, my right toes felt jammed in my shoe, and did I mention it was 38 degrees when we started and didn't warm up much?! That did not help my untrained and un-warmed muscles! And despite having the worst time on my personal record, I feel a bit re-engergized to start back at it again! I can get out there on any given Sunday and run 13.1 with a ton of fun! (Believe me, I am completely aware that this only leaves me eight short weeks to run 26.2 on any given Sunday! The LA Marathon!)

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I tend to read more than one book at a time. Perhaps I get bored easily. Perhaps it says something about my ability to focus. Anyway… I’m reading Meditations from the Mat. In my defense, it is more of a daily chapter type book, a verse or page per day, so I need another book. Today, I read a bit where a man was always thinking “What’s in it for me? What do I get out of this?” And the suggestion was a slight shift to “What can I give” How can I be of service?” I don’t think I suffer from this issue, but it’s still nice to reflect on situations, “How many I offer something?”

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