Yesterday was my day off from running. But, I put the cactus paddles back into the diet. Actually, this time my wife Margarita prepared them in a cream of broccoli/zuccini/nopal cactus paddle soup prepared without cream or natural yogurt. Unlike me, she uses much fewer of the cactus paddles, partially to my shagrin... But, I was in the middle of "doing the books"... Today I ran 49 minutes... Not a drop of blood... You can place the cactus paddles in any dish keeping in mind that their under-cooked flavor is a slight bit tart (what I call "green" here in Mexico)... I wouldn't worry about over cooking them... Cook them to death if you wish. They continue working as an anti-inflamatory and anti-ulcerant etc... Remember that nopals are mucousy from their mucilage just like Okra. If you don't have a problem with okra... if you do, I suggest you get over it just as I got over it... It may be the only true natural remedy you can find that enables you to relax in the bathroom and continue running... the following scholarly articles I'm posting are on mucilage (not necessarily from cactus paddles):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3074307/
This is a wonderful piece: http://cornersofthemouth.wordp...age-by-karin-uphoff/
http://www.healthbenefitstimes...fits-of-nopal-fruit/