I was looking back on my 2014 year end summary and that was one rough year to say the least, 2015 turned out to be much better in every way.   The amazing thing is that my prediction in my #1 goal of “Get Healthy” actually was pretty accurate.  I expected to be over SIBO and healing my gut but didn’t expect to be feeling really good until 2016 but really I ended up feeling pretty good by mid-2015.  I stopped taking anti-microbials in May and declared myself cured of SIBO in June and since then have been getting better and better each month with no relapse in almost eight months now.   On top of eradicating my SIBO the last round of treatment I did got rid of my blastocystisis hominis too which was excellent news – SIBO and parasite free finally.  I also got good news that I do not have the auto-immune condition that is a major cause of SIBO which is why I think I’ve avoided relapse for so long.

I had a few other health challenges during the year dealing with weird symptoms that we thought could have been MS but after an MRI it turns out I just have a few really bad discs in my neck and that is causing burning sensations in my legs and other nerve symptoms, if it isn’t one thing it is another.  I’m currently working on these with a chiropractor and have improved a bit over the last month but it is going to take constant work to keep the symptoms at bay.   I am fine while moving or standing, it is sitting that really kills me so I recently switched to a stand-up desk at home to help.   My sleep has been up and down all year and I’ve finally learned some techniques to deal with it better.

My weight tanked again somewhat mysteriously mid-year about the time I finished anti-microbials and so I got serious about weight gain by instituting Operation Bradley Cooper in August.   This has been a huge success and I’ve put on a lot of weight, climbing up past my mid-term goal of 160 in November finally and steadily gaining a bit more through December.  I’m ending the year with the most weight I’ve had in 23 months, I dropped below 164 in mid-January 2014 and it has taken me this long to get back.  My bet is that my weight will stabilize in early 2016 somewhere in the 165-170 range.   The weight improvement has definitely come with a greatly expanded diet over the course of the year.  What started out as low FODMAP AIP is now a full Paleo diet with a lot more variety and more foods that help feed the good bacteria in my system which I think has helped me assimilate food better.

I’ve been very involved with the SIBO community this year on top of dealing with my illness.  I did finish up my SIBO app in January and released it.  Since then I’ve done a few updates to the app which was very well received in the SIBO community.  In March I also started a local SIBO Support Group that began with two of us meeting one Sunday and has now grown to 45 people on-line and a smaller regular group that meets monthly.   This group has been good for everyone involved and I’ve made some good friends in the people that show up.  I attended the 2nd SIBO Symposium in Portland in June with my doctor and some of my SIBO friends.   This was a good conference to learn about all the latest findings about the condition and I plan on returning in 2016.

Along with getting my health back I got my life back in 2015 which was huge, I even travelled!  Catherine and I travelled to SoCal in February for our first trip since I got sick.  It was a huge success and very good for the soul hanging on the beach, running in the backcountry, and getting to visit family down there.    Of course I overdid the running and walking so lost some weight but it was worth it.  In May we travelled to Portland for a long weekend which also involved a lot of walking around the city and there we also decided to buy ultralight backpacking gear and get back into backpacking this year in place of our big road trips that we used to take.    I was back in Portland in June for the SIBO Symposium with friends and to hit up more of the great Paleo-friendly restaurants there.   I also went to Iowa in July for the first time in a long time and then back to SoCal with Catherine in November for the triplet’s birthday which was another great trip.

Catherine and I took advantage of the perfect summer and did a lot of hiking and some backpacking.   Our first shake-down trip was to Mirror Lake off the PCT starting at Snoqualmie Pass.  This was just a short, overnight trip that got us back into backpacking and was a huge success.   Later that month we did another overnight trip to Rachel & Rampart Lakes.   In July we did 50k+ trip in three days down at Mt. Rainier with the Ultrapedestrian Wilderness Challenge Chinook Pass Loop.  This was an awesome trip and it was so good to be back on The Mountain after years away.   This trip inspired us to do more at Rainier in 2016 for sure.  On top of these trips we did a lot of day hiking too and hope to continue day hiking through the winter to stay in shape for next year.

In September I had two outdoor trips.  First I went on my first real fishing trip in years to the Deschutes River in Oregon with my friends Jeff and Louis.   This trip was kind of dicey, it was very remote and I’d been having a weird weight drop, sleep issues and new symptoms in my legs from the disc issues.   I went for it and was so glad that I did, living outdoors on the river for 4 days was just what I needed.  I got to hang with friends, fish all day and caught quite a few steelhead on the Deschutes and trout on the Yakima.

As soon as I returned from that trip Catherine and I were off to Mazama and the North Cascades for a week where we revisited a lot of our favorite trails and did a lot of hiking.  This trip took the place of a final backpacking trip and was really fun.  We got to hike the Mazama trails,  Maple Pass Loop, finally did the Cutthroat to Rainy Pass hike and hiked all of Pipestone Canyon.   I also got to fish Freestone Lake every day which was loads of fun as always.

Speaking of fishing, I did a LOT of it this year.   I managed to get in 136 days for the year so far shattering my old record of 112 days.   Most of this was trout fishing either in the local rivers or lakes.  I spent a lot of the spring lake fishing to stock up our freezer with trout.  I also did a bit of kayak fishing for pink salmon this year and managed to catch quite a few of them which we grilled and smoked.   I did the Deschutes trip too and a few outings in SoCal fishing the Long Beach/LA Harbor and Catalina Island.

Along with fishing I took up hunting again this year for the first time in about 35 years.  The last time I hunted I was 18 and home from college on Thanksgiving break.  A few friends and I went out and I managed to get a pheasant on that trip.  After that I became a vegetarian and so stopped hunting but after going Paleo decided it was time to start again.   In March, Chris and I did a trip to Ellensburg where we took a Sporting Clays class one day and went pheasant hunting the next day getting 7 birds.  I did some more shooting classes during the summer and once fall hit began hitting the fields again.  Chris and I did one trip to Ellensburg, I hunted the local areas with some success even without a dog and then my friend Mark and I did great in Ellensburg in November bagging 11 of the 12 birds we got up.  I’m really enjoying bird hunting again and it helps supply some of our poultry needs.  Now we are looking for a dog.

I have been able to keep running through the year which has been great for my mental well being.   I did much of the Winter Trail Run Series in 2014/15 which was a good way to get back into it since the distances are fairly short.   I ran six events during the normal season and managed to set PRs in the 5k, 5-mile, 10k and 10-mile distances.    Now I’m back into the Winter Series for 2015/16 but am doing the longer distance options in most events.  I hope to be back up to half marathon distance by spring and am planning on running a 25k in Iowa in April and in SoCal in May.  I think that I’ll limit myself to 25k distances, more just seems to be a stress on the body and the digestive system and I don’t need any more of that in my life.

On top of all this since March I’ve been studying again for the first time in forever.  I am now wrapping up the last few months of my training with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and will graduate in March.  I’m still trying to decide if I really want to work as a SIBO Health Coach when this is done but I have learned quite a bit over the course of the year and so far am seeing a few practice clients to help me decide what I want to do with this.   It has been good just to get me on a  schedule and be held accountable for getting work done.   It has also cut into any “real” work I’ve been doing though I have been doing some app updates and working on a new project that is pretty exciting but still in the early phases.

In the midst of all this we managed to finish off our studio project turning our spare garage into studio space for each of us.  We now have an art studio, a yoga/massage studio, a small bath and a very nice entryway in the building.   This has allowed me to start painting again and has allowed Catherine to do some work from home instead of having to work at yoga studios for massage.

So, how did I go on my 2015 goals?  Pretty well actually:

• Get Healthy – DONE!!!!
• Work
  • Get v1 of the SIBO app out the door early in the year – DONE and a few updates.
  • New app idea and implement in Swift – nope, never got there
  • Hopefully do some tenkara workshops and some actual guiding – I decided to bag on NW Tenkara as a job this year.
• • Start a Nutrititonal Consulting program and starting to do some work in that area – DONE
• Travel – DONE and more than expected actually
• Fishing – DONE and I really outdid myself in that area
• Fitness – DONE

How about looking forward to 2016, which I am definitely looking forward to?

•  Health – keep healing up my gut and getting my weight to stabilize in the coming year.
• Work
  • Finish IIN Training in March and decide what I want to do with it
  • Get v2.5 of my Zenso app out the door finally getting it ready for iPhone 6/6S and fixing a nasty bug.
  • A few things in the cooker which I can’t talk about yet
• Outdoors
  • Backpacking – get in at least 3-4 backpacking trips including at least one on part or all of the Wonderland Trail in Mt. Rainier
  • Fishing – I’ll never top last year in number of days but just try to keep my usual 100 days or so of fly fishing.
  • Hunting – I need to spend a bit more time at Trap this summer to get in good shape for the fall.  Hopefully we will get a dog too.  Otherwise, a spring trip to Red’s or Cookes and then hunting again in the fall.  I’ll try again for a deer tag too in 2016.
• Running
  • Winter Trail Run Series 2015/16
  • Hawkeyes 25k – April 8 in Iowa City
  • Whoos in El Moro 25k – May 7 in SoCal
  • Sun Mountain 25k – in May if I’m not wiped out from the other 25k runs
  • Other summer runs and Winter 2016/17