Archives for June 2011

Tea Time

June 23, 2011 by 6 Comments

Yesterday Laura and I went on a little field trip!  We hit up Panera for an awesome lunch and I got a super awesome present from her!  (she also made me some cupcakes!)  I can’t wait to make something from this cookbook!!!

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P.S.  we also got our plane tickets to Philly for the Healthy Living Summit!!!  Look out Philly, here we come!

From there we headed over to the Fort Worth Stockyards because we had been wanting to hit up The Spice and Tea Exchange for a while!

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It was super cool and I got a few things that caught my interest!

 

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These teas are both to die for (I’ve already tried both of them!).  Coconut Oolong, and Black Chocolate!!

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I’m thinking this rub will be good for grilling some veggies- especially portabella mushrooms!

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Spicy Cocoa Mix- it’s got cinnamon and hot peppers in it!  It reminded me of the Mexican Hot Chocolate I had when we were in Santa Fe- mmmmm!!!

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And this Tuscany Blend I think I’ll put it in a little EVOO and use it for dipping some fresh bread in!  I think this was my favorite smelling item in the whole store!

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We wandered around the stockyards for a while and I took a lot of pictures, but I’ll post them in a separate post tomorrow!

 

Have a spicy day!!  Winking smile

 

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Meatless Monday: Lentil Loaf

June 20, 2011 by 3 Comments

 

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We’ve heard of Meatless Monday, yes?  If you haven’t heard of it check out the Meatless Monday website.  Of course every day is meatless for us, but I don’t believe that the meatless thing has to be an all or nothing thing for everyone.  Not everyone is willing to go completely meatless, but everyone can commit to having one meatless day a week.  Simple!  You’ll get in more veggies, reduce your risk of some chronic diseases(heart disease, diabetes, cancer to name a few), and help the environment all at the same time!  So let’s do this!  Each Monday I’ll give you a great meatless recipe and a whole lot of encouragement!

On with the recipe…

I know you’re probably thinking that lentil loaf sounds weird, but trust me when I say it’s so good!  We actually crave it- especially in the winter.  It’s an amazing comfort food, and I think it’s appropriate at all times of the year!  This recipe gets a big thumbs up from the husband. (he actually requests it sometimes!).

And the best part…. the leftovers!  This is amazing on sandwiches the next day.

Lentil Loaf
(Print this recipe!)

Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, shredded
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups cooked lentils
1 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped or ground
1 Tablespoon ground flax seed
1/2 cup ketchup, plus more for spreading on top of loaf
2 teaspoons vegetarian worcestershire sauce
2 handfuls chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F.

Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray.

Sauté onion, carrots, and garlic in the 2 tsp of olive oil until tender.

Add to a large mixing bowl along with all of the other ingredients.

Stir and lightly mash the mixture with the back of your mixing spoon until it comes together.  If it’s too dry and won’t come together you may need to add a few splashes of water or vegetable broth. (or if it’s too wet you can add more bread crumbs)

Press mixture into loaf pan and spread a little more ketchup on top.

Bake for 1 hour, let cool for 10-15 minutes before serving.

Cut into slices- you should get eight servings.  Serve with mashed potatoes, green beans, and rolls for some classic home cooked comfort food.  OR on a sandwich- the best thing to do with the leftovers the next day!!!

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I swear I could NOT get a good picture of this- though I took like a billion. I think you’ll have to make it and just trust me that it’s delish.

Happy Meatless Monday!

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Weekly Weigh In: Week 3

June 18, 2011 by 2 Comments

Last week’s weight: 173.4
This week’s weight: 173.8

Change this week: +.4
Total weight lost:  36.2 lbs!

 

Well, I didn’t have the best week food or calorie-wise so I knew I might gain a little this week.  While it’s always a little disappointing to see the number going up instead of down, I’m choosing to focus on the total weight lost number and that number makes me happy.

I switched up the way I log my calories in the middle of the week this week- I was using a bodybugg(I’ve had it for forever and I found it when I was cleaning and decided to use it again), which is super cool because it tracks all the calories you’re burning throughout the day BUT the apex website super sucks.  Their database of foods is not so great.  It’s not that easy to log your calories or add new foods.  Plus it’s $10 a month.  The site was down for a whole day so I wasn’t able to log my calories, so I’m pretty sure I went waaaaay over.  That’s when I decided to switch.

I decided to switch to SparkPeople. I had played around with it a little in the past and I liked it.  When people ask me for a good website to track calories I usually send them to SparkPeople.  So I thought I would give it another go.  It’s free.  It’s pretty easy to use once you figure out how to use it (It can be a little confusing at first).  It has a huuuuuge database of foods and you can even find foods that other members have added manually.  There’s also a recipe calculator- I LOVE this!  Plus they have an iPhone app, so that makes it super easy to log my calories and workouts.

So in summary I’m choosing to focus on the overall fact that my weight is going down even though I gained this week.  It will eventually get where it needs to be.  On weeks like this it’s easy for me to say “oh screw it- I give up”.  That’s what I naturally want to do.  But I try my best to be a positive person so I’m just going to keep chugging along and know that I’m doing my best.

I’m going to leave you with my favorite quote, which really helps keep me on track especially on weeks like this…

“Believe in yourself, trust the process, change forever”  -Bob Harper

 

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Ditching the label

June 16, 2011 by 16 Comments

This post…

I have written it and deleted it about 10 times.  Changed and unchanged my mind.  Thought about it, re-thought it.  Prayed about it.  I finally decided that I should just post it.  And I don’t say this to start any kind of drama- that’s just not how I roll.  I just want to share how I’m feeling and be completely honest about it. (p.s. I’m really nervous about this!)

I’m not calling myself a vegan anymore.

First of all I’m not planning on changing anything about the way I eat or live my life.  That is staying the same- my purpose in living my life is to live in a way that shows compassion and kindness to all animals, human and non-human.

I’m still eating a plant-based diet.  I still won’t be buying any leather(though I still do wear the leather things that I already had- I’m a poor college student, I can’t afford to replace it.  Plus when I wear it, it reminds me of why I live my life the way I do).  Even though, yes, I am technically a vegan I don’t want to call myself one any more.

There are a couple of reasons for this decision…

First of all I’ve found the vegan community to be very judgmental and unkind as a whole.  That makes me extremely sad. Sad smile (I’m not saying all vegans are, just what I’ve witnessed in general in the community).  I’ve seen people call other people unfathomable names because they’re a “better vegan” than them or because they accidently ate something with milk in it and didn’t realize it until it was too late.  Whaa?  Yes.  And the whole thing with Natalie Portman and Bob Harper?!  Goodness.  I’ve even found myself starting to think that way a few times and I don’t like that at all.  I don’t want to be that person.  Especially with the career I’m going into- not every client I have will be willing to transition to a completely plant-based diet and I need to be able to help them without judging them.  I want to get away from this mindset- know what I mean?

Another reason is because I feel like I’m being judged All.The.Time. and I’m going insane trying to be perfect.  I feel like if I make one mistake I’m going to get blasted and It makes me so tired and sad.  I couldn’t even enjoy a vacay with my husband because I was so worried about what I was going to eat the whole cruise.  The people at our dinner table watched me like hawks every single bite I ate- it was miserable.  And my poor husband- I probably drove him nuts as well.  I want to be free to be imperfect and mess up without being judged or made to think that I’m not good enough.  When I’m on vacation I don’t want to have to worry myself ragged about driving the waiter insane about the ingredient list to make sure there’s no butter in it.  I’m only human and I’m imperfect.  I will make mistakes.  And I want that to be okay.

I actually decided this quite a while ago and discussed it with the husband, but now that I’m actually putting it out on my blog I feel much much better about the decision.  Like I said I’m not planning on changing anything in my diet, but it feels really nice to just relax about it all.  I don’t want to be known by a label- I just want to BE!!

Whew!

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Running Revelations

June 14, 2011 by 4 Comments

All this time I’ve been running I’ve been doing it wrong and I didn’t know it!  Since I’ve really been into running lately I’ve been reading a lot about it, mostly for inspiration more than anything else.  But along the way I’ve learned a lot and I realized I’ve been doing some things wrong and hurting myself without even knowing it.  Here are a couple of the things that I’ve learned about recently…

Stride rate, or leg turnover. 

Did you know that most elite distance and Olympic-class runners crank out a stride rate of over 180 strides per minute?

Taking too long of a stride slows a runner down because it increases impact and, because of that, injury risk- it sends shock throughout  the lower leg and shins possibly affecting your hips as well.

Shorter lighter steps are the way to go!

This is something that I have really been practicing lately.  I was definitely trying to take much too large of a stride. So I practiced hitting 3 strides per second (that comes out to 180 strides/minute).  It felt silly at first, but I noticed I was able to run faster AND my foot and knees didn’t hurt!  Shock of all shocks!  I’ve been having terrible pain in my feet while I’ve been running and to think all I needed to do was take smaller strides!!  I’m still working on this and I will be for some time- it will take a while to really get it ingrained in my head.

This is also helping me with the next thing, which is…

How your feet strike the ground.

We have the tendency to let our heels strike the ground first and then push off from there.  From what I understand we should be landing midfoot and then pushing off of the balls of our feet.  The force of impact is much much greater when our heels hit the ground first than it is when our midfoot does.  Again, sending shocks throughout our joints causing pain and injury.

Here is some interesting info on that.

So I’ve also been working on this!  This is very hard for me because I was in marching band for 11 years and we were taught to ALWAYS lead with the heel and roll our feet from there.  This is so stuck in my head that it’s very hard to change and it has really been a struggle for me.  But I’m working on it- and I’ve also noticed a lot less pain in my feet from doing this too, so yay!

 

Anyway, there are just a few things I’ve been learning lately, hopefully I’ll have more to add to this list soon- remember I’m no doctor or running expert! Use caution when trying something new while running!!

Also, I’m also thinking of transitioning to some minimalist shoes… anybody know anything about this or could give me some good suggestions/books/websites??

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