Category Archives: Health

Make Plans, Achieve Goals

  By Crystal Clarke | January 4, 2016 - 12:00 pm | , , , , , , , , ,
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Make goals, make plans

It is the beginning of January, the time of promises and good intentions. I like to make plans. I’m very good at making plans, I’m not very good at executing plans. So what is my plan? My plan is to achieve my goals. That is my number 1 goal for 2016. It is possible to achieve it if my plans are reasonable. Over the past few years I have set myself up for failure. I’m just not able to do what I used to be able to. My mental illness, medications and focusing on stability takes a lot of my … Keep reading →

Cleansing

  By Crystal Clarke | December 14, 2015 - 4:55 pm | , , , , ,
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Over the past two weeks I have been doing a clean-eating cleanse that involved no sugar, no caffeine or alcohol, no soy or wheat, no eggs or dairy (that one was not hard for me), a green smoothie each morning, a lot of water (half my body weight in ounces), and daily yoga. In addition to this I started out doing the December 1-mile a day challenge and a push-up challenge. The cleanse was a success for me! I feel really great and I think I’m going to keep going with most of it, except for caffeine. With the medication that … Keep reading →

The Biggest Loser, Indeed

  By Crystal Clarke | February 5, 2014 - 8:51 am | , ,
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Rachel The Biggest Loser

Over the last few months I got hooked on The Biggest Loser. I really and truly never thought that I would say that! Reality tv is not really something that I enjoy and I had never watched any of the previous 14 seasons. However, it airs at a time that is convenient between a couple of my favourite Tuesday tv shows. I really enjoyed TBL’s positive messages about healthy living and eating, and helping people to feel empowered over their food addictions. The trainers helped talk them through some of the underlying issues that was part of their unhealthy lifestyle. … Keep reading →

Week 14

  By Crystal Clarke | April 8, 2013 - 10:29 am | , , , , , , , , , ,
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14 weeks. 14 weeks until my A-race of 2013. Holy S**t. When I counted the weeks this morning I had a little jump of panic. Why? Well, let me just tell you why. The past few months I have been more active than I have been since the marathons last spring. That really isn’t saying a lot since I did almost zero activity from June to December. The reasons for that were numerous: burn-out (2 years of straight training will do that), a knee injury, a lot of various family issues from my brother being in an accident to my … Keep reading →

The November Blues

  By Crystal Clarke | November 29, 2011 - 10:08 am | , ,
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Yes, this post does have to do with training and working out despite what the title suggests. Sometimes November really kicks me in the ass. It’s a month of darkness (literally and figuratively) and having a mental illness makes me very sensitive to this lack of light. My theory is that because the light is changing quickly this time of year and it puts us mood-swinging people off-balance. I think it’s why I’m affected more around the equinoxes. As the blues start to hit and stress increases, it inevitably takes its toll on my training. Consistency is the key to … Keep reading →

“Why Bipolar People Should Not have Dinner Parties”

  By Crystal Clarke | November 22, 2011 - 3:35 pm | , , , ,
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The title of this blog post was suggested to me by MellowJohnny. He said it in a moment of frustration at my stressing out over a fundraising dinner party I held on Sunday night. He proclaimed, “You need to write a blog called ‘Why Bipolar People Should NOT have Dinner Parties!’” We laughed about it loudly at dinner that night when a few of my best friends were sipping wine and taste-testing vegan lasagne. I thought that I would address a few sides of this statement… 1. Why bipolar people should not have dinner parties: – it causes unnecessary stress to an … Keep reading →

Electrolytes – The Key to my Health?

  By Crystal Clarke | June 2, 2011 - 8:42 pm | , , , , , , ,
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As an athlete, I am aware (as most are) that electrolytes are imperative to staying hydrated. I take this very seriously. I often consider myself one of the best hydrated people I know. I drink a lot of water every day and use electrolyte drinks on heavy training days (a long workout over 1 hour or two workouts in one day). As a side note, did you know that Gatorade has the more carbs and electrolytes than the other sports drinks? It does – read the labels! Because I am a believer in holistic medicine and healing (ie. the whole … Keep reading →

Stay Positive, Get Faster

  By Crystal Clarke | May 24, 2011 - 12:34 pm | , , , , ,
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I was down and out with a brutal cold for three weeks of hacking, snotting, and complete exhaustion. I’m not going to lie, it was difficult to recover from that. As each day passed, I felt like my fitness was going down down down. I tried to keep a positive mind and know that I would get it back once I was completely healed. Last week was my first full week back into training. The week before I did some shorter rides, super short runs, and super short swims. Last week I did … Keep reading →