Jamie Fellrath | Practical Mindfulness

As many of you probably know, I love my obstacle course races (or mud runs, as many call them).  I talk a lot about them, because I love the feeling of getting outdoors and really testing your entire body with a good obstacle course.  I even liked the obstacle courses we were "forced" to go through at my two Army ROTC summer camps - because they were fun and they let you do stuff that you didn't get to do every day. Thus far, in my short obstacle course race career, I've run a bunch of fun races:  in 2011 I did the Warrior Dash and Ruckus races; in 2012 I ran the first Mud Ninja race and the Hell Run ; and this past summer I did the Savage Race and the second Mud Ninja race.  And it was at Mud Ninja 2013 that I had the best time I've had so far with a race as I went through it with a team of friends. So now I want to take it a step further and take part in what many consider to be the granddaddy of all obstacle course races:  the Tough Mudder .  ...

Photo by Traci Auerbach (Note: I had written this for another purpose closer to the race date, but after it wasn't used I decided to add it here.  Hope you enjoy! -- Jamie) Last year's inaugural Mud Ninja was, by all accounts, a success. And amazingly enough, the 2013 iteration was an even greater one! To start, the size of the Train 4 Autism: Columbus Chapter team went from four to eleven. Joining the 2012 team of Jamie and Jenn Fellrath, Joe Auerbach, and Joy Beer were (Train 4 Autism: Columbus sponsor) MovNat Ohio owner Lori Crock, Chris Muczyk, Stacey Mustard, Ryan Jewell, Jaye Puckett, Amy Dorris, and Eli Brickey. Monthly technique and training sessions with MovNat Ohio leading up to the event were definitely a great help as the day began. And for several, the Mud Ninja was their inaugural attempt at a mud obstacle race! It should be noted that starting one's obstacle racing experience with the Mud Ninja is akin to beginning one's musical pursuits ...

Don't hold it for too long! Image by michitux via Flickr I always like it when different parts of my life come together in a common theme or idea.  That's been happening a lot lately, particularly after reading Mark Sisson's The Primal Connection: Follow Your Genetic Blueprint to Health and Happiness , and comparing it to what I've learned via MorningCoach.com .  The ways that J.B. Glossinger and many other success coaches and personal evolution gurus teach us totally jibe with the ancestral instincts that we've evolved with as per Sisson and others.  It's really amazing. Case in point:  today, J.B. told us the story of a lecturer who came into her lecture holding a glass of water.  Expecting this to lead into a glass-half-empty-or-half-full story, the audience was surprised to hear her discuss just how that glass is like stress. Holding that glass out for a minute would be no big deal.  It really doesn't weigh that much, and no one would have troub...

I've been running a lot of blogs over the years - this one at Fellrath.com; PaleoMental and MyPrimalTrek, and a few others.  And honestly, they've all been fun to do. But I'm going back to the beginning a bit now, and combining all those posts back into one place here at Fellrath.com. Why?  Because they're all me.  They're all facets of who I am, what I'm interested in, and what I'm trying to do in the world and for the world.  I want people to be more healthy, body and soul.  I want people to have fulfillment.  I want to share what I'm doing in the world with a lot of people and hopefully help them move forward in their personal evolution. Trying to split all that out into the various "topics" via separate blogs was just getting too scattered.  I didn't feel the freedom to explain how health is a personal development topic, or how MovNat practice improves more than just the bodily health aspects of life. Here I can talk about ALL...

The world of barefoot running/minimalist footwear absolutely fascinates me.  A big part of that comes from my high school years, I think. I used to be more of a runner when I was younger - running in 5 and 10K races with my parents a lot - until I hit high school.  Then, I ran one season with the cross country team and got runner's knee right at the beginning of the actual season.  Though I struggled through it I never really enjoyed it.  And that injury interfered with my competitive swimming (I was a breaststroke specialist, a stroke with a powerful whipping kick and lots of knee action) and gave me a lot of pain for the next couple years even though I stopped running.  Seriously - I had trouble walking down stairs without pain through my first three years of high school.  Pretty bad.   I think a lot about how things might have been different for me had I worn minimalist shoes growing up and especially in high school cross-country.  Sure, we wer...

Me, at another finish line (the 2010 Warrior Dash Ohio) It's over.  Well, in 3 hours, it'll be over.  It's 9:05 PM on Day 30 of my Whole30 challenge, and I did it. What did I accomplish?  Well, nothing particularly new since I went through this in 2008 with my first Primal Blueprint challenge, with one exception: I have solidified myself a lot - lots of body fat gone and replaced with lean muscle - again. I've improved my immune response - even when everyone else in the house got sick for a couple days with colds, etc., I had a slight case of the sniffles at worst. Stress levels have gone down a lot. I've created some great habits in cooking and, most important, preparation for cooking. I went dairy free for 30 days for the first time in my life.   The last one is the most interesting to me, honestly.  I'm interested to see what happens when I introduce dairy back into the swing of things.  I recall Amy Kubal talking about how it affected her on the Health ...

Just as I discovered when I first tried out the Primal Blueprint back in 2008, it is sort of amazing how quickly the body returns to processing the way it should be.  Only about three weeks into this Whole30 effort, I'm feeling fine and not feeling any real cravings that aren't habit-based (as opposed to nutrition-based).   I make that distinction because I do have cravings that are habit based. I used to have coffee with heavy whipping cream every morning before this Whole30, and I'd been craving that pretty heavily as I started my work day.  I no longer have that dairy craving - even though it was basically healthy, this is the first time I've ever actively cut dairy out of my diet and I'll be interested to see what happens on May 22 when I add it back in. I haven't given up coffee, I've been having bulletproof coffee with ghee or coconut oil at home and I've been taking it black at work when I've wanted it (and even that has gone down quite a bit ...