LESS No

I realized somewhere along the way that I say, "No," a lot, so much so that I often mind myself saying "No" without thinking. I say, "No" to social invitations. I say, "No" to surprise plans. I say, "No" to treats people want to share. I think, "No" has become a protective reflex. "No" is a way to prevent anxiety due to changing of plans. "No" is a way to avoid that overthinking spirals in which I find myself often. "No" is a way to keep my space small, and in my control.

I do not necessarily want to live a small life, though. I want to live a wide, expansive life. I want to live with joy and whimsy, so this month, I told myself to try to say, "No" less, and "Yes" more. It kind of worked, until it didn't.

When I chose this, "less" for the month, I envisioned a month of fun and celebration. What my injury brought on was a lot of saying, "Yes," to medical appointments and, "Yes" to help doing everyday tasks (like carrying in groceries, carrying the grocery bags back out to the car, doing chores, etc.). It kind of stinks.

I did get a chance to say, "Yes" to a few fun things, though. I said, "Yes" to dinner with my husband after we got back from that fated race, even though it was late and downtown was mobbed. I said, "Yes" to establishing a morning coffee routine. [To me, caffeine is a vice, but apparently collagen might help with fracture recovery, so coffee with collagen is a frequent occurrence right now, instead of a sporadic pre-run supplement (Karaytug, 2021; Konig, 2018; Sun et al., 2025.] I said, "Yes" to my husband taking me to ride a ferris wheel for the first time. I did say, "No" to Dippin' Dots on that trip, though, which made me sad because although it did not sound good at the time, I have never had it before.

I said, "Yes" to taking on some roles I did not plan with my brother's wedding. Maybe that was me channeling big sister bossiness, but I hope my, "Yes" let them say a few more, "No's" and enjoy their special day. I said more, "No's" then I probably should have on that trip, but saying, "Yes" to every goodie that came my way (eg at the lavish rehearsal dinner) would have left me feeling ill. I guess their are some places to say, "No."

I said, "No" to sourdough during our San Francisco day, but then I got redemption when my husband asked again. (He claims he gave me some at the restaurant, but I don't think so). I didn't really want sourdough, but it was good to take a bite and remember that I like my husband's sourdough better.

My increasing number of medical appointments has forced me to say, "No" to work obligations and give up a few more of my responsibilities there. (Thankfully, my director is understanding.) While I would rather go on with life as it was, I have to step back in order to take care of myself. Needless to say, this month of less has not turned out as I hoped. 

I imagine that I will continue to need to say, "No" for the sake of my health and well-being, but even in that, there are probably rooms to say more, "Yes." Maybe I don't always want to say, "Yes" to all, things, but a few more yesses would probably benefit me. They could continue to expose me to new experiences, and bring me for joy. This month was practice in trying to stop defaulting to, "No." Maybe it could be "Let me think about it," or "Give me a minute." That would at least give me a chance at an experience versus always missing out....

References:

Karaytug, K., Arzu, U., Ergin, O. N., Bilgili, F., Unverengil, G., Bayram, S., & Sen, C. (2021). Effects of Collagen- and Arginine-Fortified Osteokine Supplementation on Fracture Healing. Cureus, 13(10), e19072. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.19072

König, D., Oesser, S., Scharla, S., Zdzieblik, D., & Gollhofer, A. (2018). Specific Collagen Peptides Improve Bone Mineral Density and Bone Markers in Postmenopausal Women-A Randomized Controlled Study. Nutrients, 10(1), 97. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu10010097

Sun, C., Yang, A., Teng, F., & Xia, Y. (2025). Efficacy of collagen peptide supplementation on bone and muscle health: a meta-analysis. Frontiers in nutrition, 12, 1646090. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2025.1646090

What We Cooked and Ate (Week 21)

This Week's Eats:

A delicious chicken kebab pita bread situation with fresh tzatziki sauce my husband made for Memorial Day

Sour cream and onion chicken salad (100 Days of Real Food)

Sourdough English muffins (Pantry Mama)

Sourdough zucchini fritters (Pantry Mama)

Noteworthy Repeats:

Big-batch Instant Pot white beans (Epicurious)

Cottage cheese egg bake (The Real Food Dietitians)

Shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot)

Freezer Pull-Outs:

Pumpkin spice sourdough discard oatmeal bake (Acts of Sourdough)

Savory sourdough discard vegan zucchini bread (Adapted from Atlyyt on Reddit)

Sourdough pumpkin oatmeal cookies (Everyday Homemade)

The More of Less Report (May)

Well, this has not been a great month. (See my post from last week for more details.) I have given into plenty of vices and I am not proud of it. I am not very proud of anything right now. I am just surviving. But anyway, onto how that has affected my year of less.

January-LESS scrolling: Did I scroll less this month? Oh no. I scrolled a lot. Nir Eyal (2019) writes in Indistractable that people scroll to escape discomfort. I definitely did that this month. I scrolled to distract myself from both the physical pain of my injury, as well as the emotional and mental pain of it. I scrolled to distract myself. I scrolled to numb. None of it really worked. It just prolonged the hard work of grief that I need to do. It also perpetuated the continually shorter attention span that I seem to be developing.

February-LESS picking: My habits have been all over the place this month. I kept up some of my skin care, and just suffered through at other times. Honestly, I did not give this goal much, if any priority.

March-LESS hunger (judgment): Of the few goals I made for April, the one I did keep was to increase my intake of healthy fats. Well, it was too little too late. I got that injury I have been fearing. From what I read, not fueling well enough keeps bone from repairing itself as fast as it should.

When my injury happened, my training load went down, a lot. I had a hard time even getting in the minimum grams required from my carb load. I got a little bit hungrier after running, but still not as much as usual.

The first few days of my injury, I was not very hungry at all. Then, despite my much lower intensity, and lower volume training, my hunger spiked. Apparently this is normal, as injury recover boosts energy needs 10-20% (Hughen, 2024). While in the past, I had tried to reduce dairy and processed foods to address my high cholesterol, now I am here for all of it. I imagine I am going to gain weight from what I am doing, and that may be uncomfortable, but if I want to heal (and I do), that is the price I will pay.

April-LESS goals: Well, this one unintentionally came to fruition. My goals were to rehab what I thought was tendinopathy to run another race at the end of the month. I can't even do the exercises I wanted to do to get ready for the race, and the race goal is long-gone. I did read Sara Hall's (2026) book For the Love of the Grind, though, so I met that goal. Hallelujah for non-running goals....

--

Apparently this year of less is also going to include less running. Hopefully it lets me rest. Hopefully it helps me reprioritize. My goal with less was to focus on what really matters. I guess I am going to learn that a very hard way....

References:

Eyal, N. (2019). Indistractable: How to control your attention and choose your life. Ben Bella Books.

Hall, S. (2026). For the love of the grind: A memoir. St. Martin's Press.

Hughen, C. (Host). (2024, October 22). Nutritional priorities during rehab w/ Adrian Chavez (No. 171) [Audio podcast episode]. In E3 r3hab. https://e3rehab.libsyn.com/171-nutritional-priorities-during-rehab-w-adrian-chavez

What We Cooked and Ate (Week 20)

This Week's Eats:

Chocolate chip Greek yogurt muffins (Hummusapien)

Mississippi chicken chili (365 Days of Slow + Pressure Cooking)

Mississippi pot roast Meal Prep in an Instant

Peanut butter-lemon sauce (Easy Vegetarian Slow Cooker) 

Sourdough pumpkin oatmeal cookies (Everyday Homemade)

Noteworthy Repeats:

Big-batch Instant Pot white beans (Epicurious)

Cottage cheese egg bake (The Real Food Dietitians)

Chickpea "tuna" salad (Drugstore Divas)

Freezer Pull-Outs:

Five-minute chicken gravy (Fixed on Fresh)

Shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot)

Sourdough discard blueberry bagels (This Jess Cooks)

A Forced Break

One thousand, two hundred and sixty-two days, and my run streak is over. (Well, it's been over for a while at the time of this publishing.) Running was always there for me, until it wasn't. I experienced a banner year last year in running, and felt like I had finally found "my thing." Now, I am no longer a runner. I probably pushed too hard. I knew that some things were not quite right, and I pushed on through anyways. And now here I lay.

That stress fracture I worried about pre- and post-Shiprock? Well, it turns out my differential diagnosis skills are pretty decent. That is exactly what I have: a break in my bones from too much: too much impact, too much intensity, too much pushing through the pain.

I have been through a barrage of tests, from the initial x-rays, to bloodwork, to MRIs, to bone density scans, and more. Though we cannot pinpoint a precise cause for my stress fracture, quite a few things are not quite right. I am getting treatment from a team of professionals, and now I have to wait to see how my body will respond.

My running goals are on hold for now, possibly permanently. Only time will tell if I get back to running at all. If I do, it probably will not be like it was before. I am older. I broke my body. I don't want to break it again.

If I am honest, I probably needed this break. I have a type A personality. Had I not broken my body, I would have kept pushing through. That's me. That's running. I have time, and hopefully now motivation, to attend to my health. This break in my bones is revealing just how tired I was, and forcing me to rest. Time off is helping me explore other ways to move my body (and also forcing me to make peace with a lot less activity). I hope I recover. I hope I come back stronger. Only God knows if that will happen. Whatever may come, may God use it for His glory and my good. 

San Francisco, a Deux

My brother got married outside of San Francisco on Saturday. Our AirBnB checkout time on Sunday was 11 AM, and our flight left the San Francisco airport at 7:16 PM. What do we do with the time in between? We asked? Make a day date of San Francisco, (on mutual agreement this time, see last year's post for the backstory on that).

First up, how to get from where we were to San Francisco? We took an Uber from the AirBnB and then took the ferry over from Sausalito. 

This was entirely the genius of my husband, and at $14 a person, probably cheaper than another Uber ride, and more scenic! From the top deck with saw the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge (where I ran last year), Alcatraz, the port, and more. We also spotted dolphins, a pelican, and sea lions.

Once in San Francisco, of course we had to visit Boudain Bakery again. It was a bit of a walk, but worth it. I think we even sat at the same high-top table.

I wanted food, but not necessarily a sandwich. My husband asked what sounded good, and all I could think off was fish and chips, so we schlepped over to Broad Street Oyster Co. (Note that while we both wore/carried our backpacks, my husband pulled our 46 pound piece of checked luggage this whole way.) 

We were in Ghirardelli Square, and my husband wanted to try Dubai style chocolate, so we made a stop

(I did not think the chocolate was that great, but I am a dark chocolate girl and not the biggest fan of pistachios, so no big surprise. My husband likes to take a treat from travels back to his office, so he plans to share the rest of the treats with them.)

Then into the cable car line. (We wanted to ride last year, but did not have the time.) I would say we waited about an hour to get to the car, and then the drivers packed that thing full. But while we waited, we got to see the workers change the car tracks, and heard an accordion player perform.

The ride was much noisier than I expected, but at $9 a person, it was cheaper than getting another Uber or Waymo (since Waymo does run in this city).

From the cable car, we took the BART into the airport. Time burned? Six hours. Money spent? Well, probably as much as we would have paid for a better flight time. But hey, we got a day date out of it, and a maxed out one at that.

San Francisco, a Deux? Thumbs up. And after enjoying the respite of cool temperatures during our already hot Arizona summer, maybe we will be back?

What We Cooked and Ate (Week 19)

This Week's Eats:

Pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookie bites (Joy in My Kitchen)

Noteworthy Repeats:

Barn raising casserole (365 Days of Slow + Pressure Cooking) (Left over from last week)

Big-batch Instant Pot white beans (Epicurious)

Cottage cheese egg bake (The Real Food Dietitians)

Chickpea "tuna" salad (Drugstore Divas)

Shredded chicken (365 Days of Crockpot)

Freezer Pull-Outs:

No knead pan pizza (Budget Bytes) 

Savory sourdough discard vegan zucchini bread (Adapted from Atlyyt on Reddit)

Seeded PB oat energy balls (The Dietitian Runner)

Sourdough bread

Thin and crispy pizza (Budget Bytes)