Kick in the Arse

This post is brought to you by 4:30 AM.  Why?  No, it's not because I'm up early to rack off some crazy miles.  No, I'm not up early to do chores, or go to work.  I can't sleep!  Last night I attended a Christmas Tea and ate too much, too late .... I'm paying the price with sleeplessness and bloating.

I took a picture to share with you, but honestly it was way too scary to share.  I look (and feel) like a train ran over me.

There's been too much of this lately.  No doubt some stress eating, coupled with a lack of time, motivation & organization.  Not a good formula.

There's not nearly enough fruits & veggies in my life lately.  And really, there's no excuse for that.  Over the next few days I'm getting myself organized.  Hitting up the produce stand.  There are some wicked salads out there that don't take much to put together.  I used to make myself some great packages of veggies to take to work everyday.

I need to get back to this!  I feel SOOOO much better with lots of produce in my life.  I crave sugar less.  My body just feels ... cleaner.

For tonight I've just finished off a hot cup of Sleepytime Tea.  Let's hope it does it's magic.

Keep Active!

and (note to self) eat your veggies!!!

Heidi

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Whoops

Firt ... here are pics of my curly-do daughter.  I remember (not too fondly) a time when she would barely let me brush her hair .... and certainly would NOT let me fuss with it.  Now she asks me to.  It only took me 35 minutes today.  And, we managed to all get out the door on time!!! WOOOHOOO, this is a big accomplishment in our house.  She felt silly having her picture taken like this and wouldn't smile.

Certainly helped getting out the door on time that I spent time last night getting lunches ready for me & my husband (neither of my kids will eat while at school).  On the weekend I prepared a bunch of stuff to make this easier.  I made my steel cut oats for the week and portioned them out into individual bowls for quick reheating.  I cut up a bunch of sandwich fixings and put them in a container.  SO much easier and quicker that chopping up everything every morning (or night).  Also I have a bowl of boiled eggs and some cleaned and ready to go fruit.  This morning we just had to grab our completed lunch kits and go.

So last night I ACCIDENTALLY ran.  My son had soccer practice so I decided to do a 4 mile run then meet my friend for tea.  Halfway through the run I thought .... "wait, didn't I run yesterday, AND the day before too".  Whoops!  With the plan I'm following I'm not supposed to run more than 2 days in a row right now as I build back up.  This long weekend thing messed me up, and the run just fit my schedule for the day.  I can feel it in my hips today so will definitely take a rest from running today and possibly tomorrow too.

Also got another round of the Shred done last night.  I think I may be ready to add in a few more days of these workouts.  They're still tough, but I don't feel quite like I'm dying after them now.  My plan is still to aim for a minimum of 4 per week, but I think this week I'll try for more than that.

Week One of Syl's Challenge

Shred Style Workouts - 4 ... met goal

Running - 5/7 days, 23.8 miles

Stepped on the scale - ZERO!  This isn't really part of the challenge, but right now I don't want to go on there.  I'm waiting until Day 10 and mostly want to see some changes in the measurements.

So my kiddies are back at school.  Their back to sports - first soccer game this weekend - YAHOO.  Our schedules will all get established over the next week or two.  This time of year always feels like a fresh start.  A chance to get all organized and improve on areas of your life.  For me this year, it is about getting to school on time (it's usually my fault if they are late), preparing lunches the night before and having some sort of a plan in place for dinner for at least the busiest of nights (aka sports nights).  Being organized feels so much better than the chaotic mess I too often find myself in.

Keep Active!

Heidi

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Here we go....

**BUILDING UP MILEAGE**

After 10 days off of running ... I'm back!  Today marks the kick off of my mileage re-building plan.

The plan is to start off slowly, not worry about pace, and continuously build up over a period of about 4 months until I'm running a half marathon distance again.    Every 4 weeks is a recovery week which I think will be very important.  Too often I'm push, push, push and don't schedule recovery weeks. 

I loved the feeling of being able to comfortably run those longer distances and can't wait to get back to it.  But I'm going to do it smartly this time.

This morning I did my first run of the plan ... 3 miles.  It was W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L!  And I ran before work too - crazy huh?!  I changed my Garmin so that it would NOT tell me pace or time.  All I want to think about right now is distance and just let my body run as it feels.

For the first time in a long while I also ran the whole distance without taking a break ... and I never felt like I needed one.  That tells me this is just what I need.

**ORGANIZATION**

Last week I rode my bike to work every day and it was great.  The only down side was packing lunch.  I only have a smallish pack on my bike and hate to carry a backpack.  I'd like to ride most of this week as well and think I may have found a way to have the best of both worlds (cycling & food from home).

This morning I packed my lunch for the entire week and brought it with me to work.  I'm fortunate to have a fridge, microwave & kettle at my disposal - pretty much for just myself.  So I can stock that little fridge full!

I brought with me:

• 4 c. carrot sticks
• 4 c. blanched broccoli
• 1/2 c. homemade pueblo bean dip
• 4 c. green & red grapes, mixed
• 4 c. homemade navy bean soup
• 3 turkey sausages (130 cal 5 g fat ... I can't wait!)
• 750g container peach yoghurt

If I feel the need to supplement this at all it's easy enough to pack a small extra snack, or take a 1/2 mile walk to the grocery store on my lunch break.

Once a week I can bring my food in and then when I bring next week's food to work, I'll take last week's containers home.  I think even if I'm not riding my bike to work this would save me all kinds of time, money and temptation!  I already pack my lunch most days of the week, typically in a rush in the morning, but this is something I can do on Sunday and have it done.

I'm very excited with all these new plans on the go.  Kinda feel like a kid going back to school (well, maybe not my kids, but like little kids that still find it exciting).

Keep Active!

Heidi

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Getting Nervous

I wanted to share this with you a few days ago, but have been disorganized getting my picture in the right place at the right time.  Last weekend I finally got around to making something I've been wanting to make for a LONG time.

Back in June 2009, my buddy Syl made these Shrimp Salad Rolls that looked so good.  For about a month after that, everytime I went to a grocery store I looked for the rice paper wrappers that were needed and they were continually out of stock.  (Was that when there was that rice shortage thing going on???? Hmmm, I don't remember)

The other day I was looking for something interesting to pop out at me in the Asian isle and BAM, rice paper wraps!  I snatched them up like a thief and knew exactly what I wanted to make.

I made them slightly different from Syl.  Mine included the following:

• Rice paper wraps
• Rice Vermicelli
• Shrimp (we're the same to here) 

then I added:

• chopped Cilantro
• julienned carrots
• julienned orange peppers (would have preferred red)
• julienned cucumber 

mixed up some:

• Hoisin sauce
• peanut butter (4 to 1 mix)

SO GOOD!

I actually didn't find them too hard to wrap if you soak the paper until just barely plyable, like 2-3 seconds at the most.  Then I placed them onto a damp plate.  I found if you put them on a clean tea towel, as many sites suggest, they often stick to it and sometimes tear.  If everything is cut & chopped, ready to go, they don't take too long to assemble.  It was actually kind of fun!

The only thing is I made so many of them (and my kids won't touch them), so we had alot of leftovers.  They still TASTE great leftover, but they continue to get softer and the wrap gets very tender and break easily.  I just used a knife and fork to eat them.  This is one of the leftovers.  Maybe doesn't look appealing, but so YUM!!!  That's a side plate, they're not that huge☺.

So as the title of this post indicates ... I'm getting nervous.

My next race is in about a week and a half (on May 9th).  It's a massive 10K run (Vancouver Sun Run).  I did it last year, first vowing never to do it again, but then loving it and being excited for the next year. 

 

On one hand I am absolutely pumped to do this race.  Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I fully expect to beat my last years time of 58:56.  Possibly by quite a bit.

 

However, I'm starting to get extremely nervous about this race.  Why?  Because of the events that went down at my last race, the half marathon.  Since then, I DO NOT run anywhere unless I'm 100% sure there is available potties or I carry TP.  I've also become quite aware of how often I actually use the facilities during a run.  Over 5-8K I pretty much need the services once on most runs.  Afternoon/evening runs are suprisingly not so bad ... but morning runs (which races tend to be), pretty much guaranteed.

 

This makes me feel very nervous for this upcoming race.  Actually, no .... it's makes me nervous for ALL future races.  What if this is a continual problem?  Can I only enter races that have facilities on route?  Some of my favourite races there is no option other than bushes.

 

I didn't seem to have this problem last year.  The only thing I can see that's different is I used to NEVER eat before running in the morning.  No food, no drink (other than maybe a little water).  But then again, on the morning of the fateful run, I also didn't eat.  So maybe that isn't the solution.  Plus there seems to be so much positive information in regards to pre-race fuel.

 

I'm sure I'll get through this.  Likely that was a race out of the norm and hopefully it will never happen again.  But saying that and KNOWING that are two very different things.

 

Wow, this is almost a post worth of Shut Up & Run.  Sorry if it's TMI for you :)  It's just a concern that is weighing heavily on my mind.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to have a very exciting (well for me) post.  Stay tuned!!!

Have a wonderful today!!

And to my friends out there in bloggy world and beyond who are receiving snow today ... my heart goes out to you.  There is no words of condolence.  That just SUCKS!  Bring on SUMMER!!!

Heidi

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Food Thieves

The other day I posted that I was going to do some prep work on the weekend for the week ahead.

This is what I had planned and how it worked out:

• ♥ Another fruit salad - done, and nearly gone (see below)
• ♥ Raw veggies - done
• ♥ Teriyaki Chicken Stir-fry - postponed
• ♥ Another pasta dish - postponed
• ♥ Hard boil eggs - done
• ♥ Double batch steel cut oats - half done
• ♥ Chop peaches for morning oats - done

Mostly a success, some issues.

I decided to postpone making the stir fry & pasta dish because I looked at my week and realized that I had time to do that mid-week.  Plus, I decided to make a huge batch of Black Bean Soup, which will last me for a few days. 

I ran into a bit of a problem making a double batch of oats as I found I was ... almost out!  So I made what was left in the container and that will have to do until next shopping day.

The fruit is almost a funny story!  I cut up:

• two HUGE cantaloupes
• a large honeydew melon
• a pineapple
• 5 POUNDS of strawberries 

This went into two massive containers, plus I filled up a container for Monday's lunch. 

Later that evening, my son was searching for food and I told him there was some cut up fruit.  He is a MAJOR sugar-holic and we've been a bit on his case lately.  So he grabbed the fruit and made a yoghurt-cool whip dip.  Much better than anything else he would have had.

In typically teenage boy fashion ... he ate almost half of what I had prepared.  Then my daughter came home from swimming with a friend and ate some.  Then my husband came home and got into it.

On Monday morning all I had left was:

• 4 strawberries
• 3 - 1" x 2" slices of honeydew
• 6 - 1" x 2" slices of cantaloupe

On one hand I'm ecstatic that my family is eating all this healthy fruit.  But on the other ..... so much for my prepped meals.  The other food I prepared is safe though because they won't touch it.  I stopped at the produce store on the way home last night for restocking. Guess I'll have to cut up alot more.

I'm feeling icky today.  Last night my sister's BIL was supposed to come into town for work and I had agreed to make him cookies (there's a back story to this).  So I made up 3 batches last night.  Only to get a call saying his work schedule had changed and he wouldn't be in town. 

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know that I have issues with binging on cookie dough while baking.  I did pretty good last night and just had a taste of each dough to make sure it was OK.  But this morning .... breakfast was 3 chocolate chip cookies (they are pretty small) and a peanut butter chocolate no-bake oat cookie.  I feel gross!  I skipped regular breakfast because I just couldn't have something else on top of that.  It surprises me a little how full that made me feel.  I'm going to remember this feeling when I get home and they're facing me again.  The good thing is my piggy family will consume what's left within the next 24 hours so the temptation won't last.

REMINDER....

Today is Jen @ Prior Fat Girls Challenge

If she can get 500 people to commit to doing 60+ minutes of activity on April 20th, Tony the Anti-Jared, will donate $250 to YMCA Activate America.

I'll be doing 60+ minutes today to support this cause.  I'm not even an American, but still, I think this is a good cause worth supporting and really it couldn't be any easier.  A healthier world benefits everyone!

Will you????

PS - If you aren't a blogger but you do 60+ minutes of activity today, sent me a note and I'll let Jen know you've helped out her cause.

Heidi

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Beautiful Morning

Oh what a glorious day!  These are the days that are so close to perfect you could almost cry.

This morning I met up with 4 wonderful ladies for a run in the park.  I haven't been able to run with them for about a month now.  It was so nice to get together.  The pace was slower than my usual, but I enjoyed every second of it.  The sun was shining, the birds were singing, tons of people were out walking their dogs.  Awesome!

I would have liked to get out for another run this afternoon, but unfortunately that isn't going to happen.  My daughter has another dance competition tonight which will take up the whole afternoon (it's an hour+ drive each way).  She had one last night as well - they took home Gold in their category.

This weekend I need to dedicate to some serious housework!  It's been a hectic month and I've been doing the bare minimum.  Plus this week I've rarely been home so it's on full disaster right now and I can't stand another second of it.

Also I want to spend some time preparing some food!!!  Last weekend I made a couple pasta dishes and a massive bowl of fruit salad.  It made it through most of the week and helped me out a ton in having something quick and healthy to eat for lunches and for when I've had less than 10 minutes to be in and out the door again.

My plans for this weekend:

• ♥ Another fruit salad
• ♥ Raw veggies
• ♥ Teriyaki Chicken Stir-fry
• ♥ Another pasta dish
• ♥ Hard boil eggs
• ♥ Double batch steel cut oats
• ♥ Chop peaches for morning oats

That should give me a few options to turn to when life throws me a curve.

Have a great weekend!

Heidi

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