Thanksgiving

I really like the meaning behind the Thanksgiving holiday and setting aside the time to be with family and being thankful for our blessing, however I wish the part of the holiday where we eat until we’re stuffed wasn’t an annual tradition. After we all take the time to truly be thankful, we eat and eat until our “fat pants” are tight, then we take a nap and continue to eat. Usually, I always turn back to my bad eating habits on thanksgiving and the days after until all the leftovers are gone. I’m choosing not to this year. This year, I’m going to be mindful of what I’m eating.

This will also be the first thanksgiving as a Vegetarian. This is will the 2^nd year in a row where I have eaten turkey at Thanksgiving. Last year, it was by accident. The time slipped away and I wasn’t in the mood to prepare a Turkey. This year, instead of focusing on the turkey, I am focusing on other foods.

I was at a local farmer’s market recently and I found these Brussel Sprouts! I had never seen Brussel Sprouts on stalks!

 

When it comes to any pie, I just can’t get enough. I’m going to try make a “Healthy” pumpkin pie with less than 5 ingredients AND without a crust. Save the calories, skip the crust. I am also going to make apple pies. I made apple sauce from fresh apples a while ago and I saved the apple skins. I’m going to cook those down, add some spices, portion into egg roll wrappers and bake. I’ve made apple pies before with egg roll wrappers. I’ve also made strawberry, pear and blueberry pies. I cook down whatever fruits and spices I would like, portion into egg roll wrappers and bake for 15 minutes, or until egg roll wrapper was brown at 350 degrees. It’s such an easy way to make a delicious pie.

I was getting nervous about having all the food around and the possibility of being tempted by the foods. I realize I am strong, power and I have a lot of self control. I am determined to make it through this holiday season still losing weight.

Whatever your thanksgiving traditions, I hope you have a great thanksgiving!

Fallin’ in love

I just love this time of the year for running. The weather is just perfect for breaking a sweat. On a recent run, I found myself in the middle of the woods, running a trail that was just covered with leaves. It was a sunny, but chilly day. The trail was absolutely gorgeous. Most of the leaves had already fallen off the trees, but still a few remained on the trees. On that sandy trail, I ran by a lake and ran over a few streams.

As I was running, I noticed I was singing, quite loudly, along to the music. I made sure to stop singing when fellow runners were around, out of respect. I was laughing out loud and just loving the run. I was in a daze and not paying attention to the ground. Before I knew it, I was on the ground. I was running on the trail and tripped over a tree root that was covered by fallen tree leaves. My knees were covered in sand and I couldn’t believe I fell.

After realizing I was on the ground, I quickly looked around the make sure nobody saw. Thankfully, nobody did. I walked for about 30 seconds to make sure I wasn’t injured, then, I walked the 30 seconds back to where I fell and started to run the trail again. Thankfully, there was another runner about 3 minutes away, so if I needed help after the fall, there was help available.

As I started to run again, I told myself to turn the music down (a little) and start to pay more attention to the trail.

I love when running outside seems so fun. It’s such an amazing feeling when you don’t have to push yourself that much and by the time you know it, you’ve already ran over 5 miles.

Breaking the tradition

My birthday is quickly approaching. Only two days away. I have told family members that I do not want a birthday cake this year.

My reasoning is this-

1. My birthday is going to happen whether or not there is a birthday cake.

2. If I had a cake, not all the pieces will be eaten at once, so I would have leftovers. At some point, the leftovers would have to be eaten and I don’t want the temptation of having a half-eaten pan of birthday cake in the frig staring at me.

3. I could make a "healthier" cake, but again there will still be leftovers.

4. I have a difficult time avoiding having a 2^nd, 3^rd or 4^th piece of cake, if they are available, and I DON'T need or want any temptations.

5. I love cake, cookies and all desserts, but the only reason that I can think of to have a birthday cake is because it’s tradition. That’s not a good enough excuse for me (anymore).

I started the tradition of not having a birthday cake last year. Last year, I was out of the house the majority of the day. When I returned home it was about 9:30 at night and that is way too late for me to eat anything, let alone cut into a birthday cake. I started a new tradition instead of eating cake, we take a family walk. Instead of eating, we continue to celebrate my birthday by all breaking a sweat together. I hope to continue this new tradition this year, even if it’s raining.

My birthdays have really evolved the past few years. Two years ago, I bought myself a cookie cookbook for my birthday. That day, that only thing I wanted to do was bake cookies. If you didn’t know this before, I loved cookies. I made over a dozen cookie recipes. Each recipe made a dozen or more cookies, so I had a whole bunch. I have cookies stacked on top of cookies all over the countertops in the kitchen. The freezer was just filled with bags of homemade cookies. And yes, I continued to snack on them, because they were available.

So to go from baking dozen upon dozen of cookies, literally all day long, to the next year of eliminating my birthday cake and incorporating a family walk, my birthdays have definitely evolved with my healthier lifestyle.

Traditions don’t have to be broken to stick with a healthier lifestyle. I have learned that I need to take control of the situation and reduce, and sometimes, eliminate my temptations all together. The positive side of breaking a tradition is creating new ones. A birthday walk is now my new birthday tradition!

Trick or Treat? Yes, please!

This year for Halloween I reinvented my tricks and treats. Usually for Halloween I always associate the holiday with candy, and who doesn’t?!? You see a lot more candy displayed in the store and many more decorations. Traditionally, I wouldn’t associate Trick or Treating with living healthy, but this year I definitely did.

I have a little trick that I do whenever I went shopping. Whenever I was in the stores and would walk by a Halloween candy display, I tighten my grip on the cart, continue to look straight ahead and avoid all eye contact with the candy. Usually I would avoid the candy aisles and displays all together, but sometimes you have to pass them. I refused to buy candy and I was successful. I made it through the holiday without any candy or sweets.

My treat this year was to wear a fun costume and exercise. I attended an exercise class days before Halloween and everyone who attended wore a costume. I dressed up as a 14 “Carrot” Wedding Ring.

Below is a picture! (Notice the 14 carrots, the hula hoop representing the Ring and the white dress and obnoxious bridal makeup.)

 

Besides the exercise class, I also treated myself to something else. Instead of buying candy for myself, I bought a new bicycle helmet. Not only did I avoid all candy, I gave myself treats to encourage myself to continue on my new healthy lifestyle.

Pink Banana

I have really been enjoying myself the past couple weeks. I have been going to as many farmer markets as I can find. On one of my farmer market trips, I came across of local stand where the majority of the produce was squash. That’s not really surprising given the season. While I was at this place, I found myself looking at all the different kinds of squash that were available. I came across a Carnival Squash, Sweet Potato Squash and, the most shocking, Pink Banana Squash. I have bought squash before, but usually stick with only a few varieties. My curiosity got the best of me and before I knew it I was loading  Carnival, Sweet Potato and a Pink Banana into the car. As I was driving home, I was getting more and more curious and anxious to cook these different squashes up.

Below is a picture of the pink banana squash that I bought.

 

As soon as I got home, I began preparing my kitchen for a squash bake-athon. Besides purchasing these three new squashes that I never had before, I also previously had Acorn squashes, a spaghetti squash, a large Hubbard squash and two Butternut squashes awaiting for this bake-athon. As soon as the oven was preheated, the bake-athon began. It was raining that day and the smell of the something in the oven made it an ideal fall day. As the squashes were done cooking, I removed the skin and began filling zip-lock bags.

Here’s a picture of my madness! (Only about 1/4 of what was I was doing.) The long squash in the front is the Pink Banana.

 

Out of all the squash I baked, the only one I tried that day was the Pink Banana squash. I was the most curious about the taste of that, so I had to try some. I stocked the freezer with pre-baked squash and kept as many seeds as I could. I kept the seeds with the intention of trying to grow my own squashes next year. I also had another motive for keeping the seeds. Baking them! Since I had so many different kinds of seeds, I used a different spice and herb for each one! The only baked squash seed that is still available for consumption is the Pink Banana squash.

I really enjoy finding new produce to cook with and try. Especially if it’s in season and cheap.

13.1

Yesterday was the big day, my first half marathon!

The morning began with a quick panic attack after having a dream that I overslept, ignored my alarm and missed the race. I thought the dream was real and I was so upset. I had been waiting for this race for a while now and this was my opportunity to prove to myself that I could do this. I was so thankful to know that it was only a dream and I still had plenty of time to get ready.

After getting ready, I ate a quick breakfast, and it was time to go. Upon leaving the house, I noticed it was raining. Despite all my preparations, I forgot to check the weather. It continued to rain during the drive to the race and as I waited around for the race to begin. As I was walking to the start line, it was still raining. As the sun was coming up, the race began and the rain continued. It finally stopped raining as I approached mile 2. The first 3 miles seemed to go by fast, although I had to prevent myself from thinking about the 10 miles that I still needed to do.

Since it rained the majority of the night before, the course was wet and muddy in some places. I just continued to run, listen to my music and enjoy my "ME" time. Around mile 4, I had a huge boost of energy. I felt like screaming with excitement, singing out loud and engage in conversations with fellow runners. Even though I did none of these, I still had a huge smile on my face while I continued through miles 4, 5 and 6.

Once I was at mile 7, I thought to myself you are halfway done. I was running with a running belt. I had two bottles filled with Gatorade and water. I also had a granola bar. I wasn’t sure if I was going to hit a wall and not be able to keep running. I told myself once I got to mile 7, I would have that granola bar. It was very difficult to keep running and eat that granola bar at the same time, but I did it. Miles 8 and 9 seemed to take a while. During mile 9, I told myself “Just get to mile 10 and then go into 5k mode”. I don’t really know what I was saying. I don’t have a different mindset when going into a longer race or a 5k. I kept saying that to myself and somehow it helped. I got to mile 10 and told myself, only a 5k is left. I felt myself begin to slow down around mile 11. During mile 11, I felt that I was on autopilot. I wasn’t even thinking about running anymore, I was just doing it. I was telling myself that I probably couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to AND I didn’t want to because I have 2 miles to go. I was thrilled to reach mile 12.

During the final mile, I began to hold back tears. I was so proud that I was pushing myself and proving I could do it. I thought it was silly that I was beginning to cry as I was coming into the home stretch. I was so happy to know that I was running every single step and also that I could see the finish line. During the last 30 seconds of the race, I started sprinting.

I didn’t know I had any more energy left in me, let alone one final push to the end. I crossed the finish line and I was so overjoyed. After finishing, I tried to walk, but it was difficult. It hurt to walk! I probably looked like a calf that was walking for the first time, but I didn’t care. I was drenched in sweat and walking like a baby calf but I had the biggest smile on my face.

 

 

I still can’t believe I did it!

 

A new chapter

I’m embarking on a new adventure. Becoming a vegetarian!

I’m going to do my research and find new recipes that will be easy enough to make and tasty as well. From the beginning, I have slowly been incorporating other sources of protein in my diet besides meat. I very rarely eat red meat as it is. The last time I can remember eating red meat is many months ago and it was only a ½ of a hamburger. I eat sources of protein, but typically it doesn’t come from meat. I do eat fish and chicken on occasion, but it's been a while. I do still plan on eating dairy and eggs.

Eventually I would like to consider myself a Vegan, but for now I’m going to try being a vegetarian.