Year End Recap & New Year's Resolutions

Last year, my goal was to hold on to the healthy living bandwagon for dear life.  I definitely accomplished that.  The last year has been a rollercoaster ride and this is possibly the first year that I am so happy for a fresh start.  I am honestly not a New Year's Resolution person, but I do like going into a new year with goals. 

A little spring to get us through the winter.  :)

First, a 2011 recap!  For whatever reason, I do not have my stats from before last June, so I estimate that in the last year, I have lost approximately 48ish pounds, 26 since July. 76 pounds overall.  Yep, I'm a slow loser, but that's okay.  I feel more prepared to live my life healthfully once I meet goal. 

I have also completely changed the way I eat.  I try my hardest to stay away from most processed foods and have greatly decreased my meat intake (I only eat chicken, fish, and turkey in general).  I typically am only eating meat if someone else cooks it or if I go out to eat.  This means that my veggie intake is up!  Yay! 

So, here are a few good posts that puts the last year into perspective:

-Celiac and Healing Through Food Part I and Part II
-Hitting the big 5-0
-My biggest weight loss resource:  my food scale!
-The Awesome-ness of CSAs
-Learning to love veggies for breakfast
-Recap on being diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (more on that later) and my awesome Turkey Trot!

I thought I'd put forth some goals for 2012:  short term, for the spring semester, and long term.  Hopefully at the end of 2012, I'll be checking these off with glee.  Today, I'm just going to start with my short term goals for 2012 (the next three-four weeks).

1. Read From Fatigued to Fantastic!  I saw a pain management specialist yesterday who gave me a little shock: he doesn't think I have fibromyalgia.  I have all the symptoms and everything lines up but I don't "look like like a fibro".  According to this doc, I am too athletic, my muscles are in too good of shape, and I am in no means depressed (very often accompanies fibromyalgia).  Because he has no other ideas on what I could be dealing with, he told me to read this book and come back to see him with ideas about where I want to go on this.  I get to decide on my treatment options (and they will NOT include prescription medications if I have a choice)!  I like having this control and I'm glad he's giving me options.

2. Work out 5-6 day a week.  I've been doing well with this since the fall semester ended.  This is just a "keep it up!" goal.

3. Work 3-5 hours a day.  This doesn't necessarily mean work on work for next semester, but do something productive (like prepping for spring) or finish projects that I have started but never finished.  I tend to get very lazy during the breaks between semesters.  I stress myself out way too much over the semester and then just zone out until it's time to go through it again.  Time to get productive and get stuff done before the spring semester sneaks up on me!

4. Cook!  And cook good food.

5. Create menus.  I use a whiteboard on my fridge to sort out what I want to make each week but I feel like I could be making it easier on myself.  I plan to list out all the foods I make for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks so I can make meal planning quicker and easier.  I want to put these in sheet protectors on my fridge so I can look at it easily and make grocery lists easier (and hopefully save a little money this spring!).

6. Similarly to making food planning easier, I want to make calorie counting easier.  I want to go through the most common foods I eat and have a list on my fridge of the calories per ounce so that calorie counting doesn't have to be so time consuming.


Okay, off to eat breakfast (pumpkin yogurt and quinoa granola!).  I hope everyone had an awesome holiday last weekend and a very safe New Years!  Longer term goals are coming!

Mullings on Late November and Early December

Good evening folks!  I've been meaning to post for a while - life has been busy.  I've also been feeling not so great, so sitting on the computer hasn't been at top of my priority list.  I always think it's good to look back at the last month as see where I've gone wrong, right, and what I've learned.  So, a few things...let's start with the good:

1. I have been focusing on health, not weight loss, and it's awesome.  I feel great!  This is something that has been morphing in my life for a while now.  I try to eat mostly whole foods with some treats here and there.  I find when I focus on being healthy, I can more easily maintain or lose weight.  If I am obsessed with weight loss, I lose nothing and likely gain.  It's too much pressure.  What I really want is to be healthy, no matter what my weight is!
2. Even with fibromyalgia, I am able to keep up my workouts and increase my intensity.  :)  I'm just as active now as I was before diagnosis.  I find that if I do something cardio and/or free weights every day, I can hold off on pain a bit or at least the pain isn't as severe.
• Stretching is a huge thing with me right now too.  My muscles get super tight very quickly.
3. (Knock on wood...) I haven't gotten sick this fall!  I've had fibro pain, sure, but no colds or flu...nothing!  I'm no doctor, but I am going to guess this is because of two things:  (1) I have been working out outside for most of the fall (fresh air!) and (2) being healthier and more on top of my issues which likely causes my immune system to function better.  Either way, I'm happy!
4. I don't need caffeine to function.  I've had to severely reduce my caffeine because of my fibromyalgia.  I really do think it's helping.  I'm currently either drinking one (max) 1/2 caff cup of coffee in the morning or only decaf.  I know, decaf does have caffeine in it, but I love a hot coffee in the morning.  I'm working on it...

Now the weird weight loss discoveries that have come up in the last month:

1. Are you aware that your feet lose weight?  Yep, it's true!  I used to wear a 9.5 or 10 sized shoe and now I'm more in a 9 or 9.5 in dress/workout shoes (my feet swell).  My right foot is also now smaller than my left.  :/  When I put my work shoes on for the first time this fall, I thought it was odd that they kept slipping off (they are slip ons).  I didn't really think about it until I went to buy shoes a few weeks ago.
2. You are cold all. the. time.  Seriously.  I never understood why people were cold all the time.  Now I know.
3. Losing a lot of weight has caused massive hair loss for me.  I have been steadily losing tons of hair since the beginning of June.  I talked to my hair gal and she said that this is actually pretty normal when you lose higher amounts of weight.  Who knew?
4. You suddenly find bones you never knew existed!  I still have a good amount of weight to lose and I'm already finding new bones poking out.  Score!

And finally, the bad stuff:

1. Eh...not much worth talking about.  Besides a few slips in eating and a few extra days off working out, I've been going pretty strong.  Might as well stay positive!  I've been hanging out around 73lbs gone for a while now (which is not a bad thing!).  I think it's a mental thing, so I'll keep working on staying healthy!
2. The caffeine thing:  I gave up my regular morning joe right after Thanksgiving and it took about 10-12 days to really feel clear headed without caffeine.  That was not fun.

So, my thoughts for the rest of December is that I would really like to hit that 75lb mark.  I mean, I've been working at it for what feels like forever.  But, more than that, I would like to make excellent choices throughout the holidays.  Not too many gluten free cookies, not too much chocolate, and keeping up with workouts at least 4-5 days a week (6-7 days a week when the semester is over).  Last year, I was just trying to maintain my weight throughout the holidays and I feel like I can do better than that this year.

Sorry for the lack of awesome photos.  :)  I'll work on breaking out the camera for the next post.

Thanksgiving & Fibromyalgia

Well, Thanksgiving break has officially wrapped up and it's back to work!  I was able to be on break at my parent's house for nearly a week, which was much needed.  My break promptly started out with a trip to see a rheumatologist to figure out what is going on with all the muscle/joint pain that I've had all fall, as well as my everyday headaches.  I had a ton of bloodwork completed in October, including every rheumatological condition that could include muscle aches.  I was also tested for Lyme and various flu's and whatnot.  All that came back was that I showed inflammation. 

So, after a long exam, the rheumatologist came up with an answer:  fibromyalgia.  Great, right?  But at least I have an answer.  More fibromyalgia info is here and here.

The rheumatologist didn't seem to be the most knowledgeable (I felt like I knew more about fibromyalgia) and decided that I didn't need any medications.  She felt as though my blood pressure (108/57 mmHG), resting heart rate (52 bpm), and other stats were too healthy and that she didn't want to mess me up with any sort of medication.  While I am not a fan of medication (I take it as a last resort), I asked her what I could do to relieve some of the pain and she had no answer.  Literally.  So, it's back to my primary doctor to see what she says and then potentially (hopefully) a pain management doctor who can help me look into treatments like acupuncture instead of medications.

So, that was the lows.  I felt crappy and super achy all week and weekend.  I am cutting way back on caffeine, staying active, and trying to get enough sleep in hopes of avoiding any really horrible days before the semester ends in a few weeks.

Now, for the highs!  Of course, I got to spend tons of time with family and friends.  I always miss having that time and I wish I could see everyone more often. 

Also, remember me saying that I was going to walk the 5-mile Turkey Trot run in my hometown?  Well....I did!  And I beat my personal record!  By a lot!  My goal (since I had been so achy and the wind was high) was to come in under 70 minutes.  My previous record was 68.5 minutes for 5 miles.  Here's what I ended up with!

Yep, you read my time right!  65 minutes, 12 seconds; average of 13 minutes, 3 seconds per mile.  There were 524 participants, I placed 500 overall.  This seems a touch sad however this was a run and I walked the entire thing and finished ahead of a number of run/walkers.  I am 98% sure that I was the first person who walked the entire race to cross the finish line so I'm pretty proud of myself!  I was so happy when I was done. 

I set out to just beat my own record but my competitive side really came out mid-race.  With fibromyalgia, I have been told and read a lot about how hard everything is going to be with all the pain associated with it, but I feel like I showed myself that I am still a very healthy person and I can keep fibromyalgia in the background instead of letting it run my entire life.  I would love to walk another race! 

Walking this race really helped me stay on track with exercise this fall.  Even with all the pain I was experiencing, I forced myself to get out and get a walk in, knowing that I wanted to beat my personal record.  Now that the race is over and I am heading into the last few crazy weeks of the semester, I plan to tone down my workouts a little and get in whatever I can whenever I can.  So, my goal for working out for the next three weeks is do something five days a week.  I need to start working with weights again, so maybe a little Ripped in 30?

What are you thankful for?

Have you seen (or participated in) the Facebook Thanksgiving tradition of stating what you are thankful for every day in the month of November until Thanksgiving?  I thought this was a great idea and something I wanted to do, but I have been so busy that it has slipped my mind every day (literally).  So, I thought I would make it up to myself by posting it here!  So, below is my list of everything I am thankful for.  Though I probably could make a list that reaches into infinity, I'll cap it at 24 as Thanksgiving lands on the 24th day of November this month.  Some things might be a little silly, other things are not silly at all.  So, here we go!

I am thankful for:

1. My parents.  My parents are incredibly supportive and have backed me up my entire life - even if I was doing something they thought was stupid.  They provided a good example of how to live my life: work hard and appreciate what you are given.  They also supported (but tried to talk me out of) me not going to college straight out of high school.  I may have stressed them out a lot but in the end, I am an explorer and needed to figure out for myself what I wanted to do with my life.
2. My sister.  My sister is hard on me sometimes (in a good way!) and super supportive all the rest of the time.  I learned a sense of hard work and competitiveness from her.  She also taught me how to be tough when times get rough.
3. My sister's kids!  They are flippin' cute and so much fun to be around!
4. Pets!
• Bella.  Bella is my cat who I adopted from the Humane Society over 5.5 years ago.  She was about to be put down because no one wanted a cat who had a food allergy.  I totally know how food allergies go and decided to take a risk.  Turns out, she didn't have a food allergy (or got over it) and is the absolute best pet.  She makes living alone much less lonely.
• Copper.  Copper is my parent's springer spaniel.  I picked her out (or rather, she picked me out) over 6 years ago and she is such a good walking buddy when I'm at my parent's house.  She also loves Bella.  Bella pretends not to love her back.
5. My grandmothers.  Both of my amazing grandmothers have passed but I still remember them at every holiday (and every day).  I miss having them around but I am so thankful for the time I was able to have with them.
6. My job.  My job has taught me so, so much.  I grew up a pretty shy kid and my job forces me to step outside of my comfort zone and learn to deal with difficult situations.  I also get to be creative and set my own schedule - not too shabby.  :)
7. My work-a-holic-ness.  I'm not sure that's a word, but I can definitely be a perfectionist at work and that leads to work-a-holic-ness.  This can be a major stressor (sorry coworkers!) but I also think I wouldn't be where I am today without this quality.
8. Pumpkin.  'Nuff said.
9. Coffee.  Again, 'nuff said.
10. Being able to cook.  I live alone and I think if I wasn't able to cook, I would be a mess!  Cooking is so relaxing and you get a tasty treat when you are done.  And, getting to control what I eat = healthy!
11. My inability to bake.  Every now and then, I'll randomly be able to bake something decent, but let's face it, I really can't bake.  I have no patience to perfectly measure ingredients and bake for an exact time.  This is a good thing because I'd never get healthy if I was able to bake perfectly!
12. Charlie.  Charlie was the cat I had before Bella.  Charlie had feline leukemia (FeLV) and feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) and I only had her for a year.  The thing about Charlie is that she A) taught my parent's dog, Copper, exactly how to respect cats and B) taught me that even though you only have something for a short time, that doesn't mean that that time was wasted. 
13. My health.  Yes, I have some health issues (Celiac, muscle issues...), but in general, I am a very healthy person.  I am so thankful that I am strong and resilient.
14. Pickles.  My favorite food!  I can eat pickles any time of day - they make me happy.
15. My dad's green thumb.  I have a brown thumb.  I cannot grow much of anything.  My dad, on the other hand, can take a seemingly dead plant and bring it back to life in record time.  Because my dad has a green thumb, I get lots of free veggies, squash, apples, and pears from him!
16. Thanksgiving & Christmas.  I love the holidays.  They are such a good opportunity (and reason) to go home and see my family and friends!
17. My friends.  I have the greatest group of friends!  It's small.  There are some people I've known since 1st grade, some since high school, some since college and grad school, and some from work.  They are always there whenever I need someone to talk to and can pick me up when I'm feeling crummy.
18. Time off.  Because Thanksgiving is coming up, I will have a little time off.  I am so thankful for this as I really need time to decompress and get out of town!
19. My coworkers.  I ask a lot of questions and they are super supportive.  They also help me out so, so much!
20. My car.  So materialist.  I usually only drive 1-2 times a week (walk all the rest of the time) but I am so thankful that it doesn't break down when I need it.  I felt like my last car was in the shop every month.  My little Versa is the little engine that could.
21. Reese's peanut butter cups/trees/eggs...  My favorite candy.
22. My country.  I may not always like what's going on or want to hear everyone's opinions on everything under the sun, but I am thankful that we have the opportunity to say whatever we want without punishment and we are able to vote for what we believe in.  We have freedoms that others could only dream of.  We Americans are incredibly lucky.
23. My faith.  I do not attend church on a regular basis, but I am spiritual and believe that someone is looking out for me and my family.  I feel like everything happens for a reason and am thankful for every opportunity (positive or negative) that I receive.
24. Frugality.  I don't make a lot of money but I have everything I need (not everything I want).  I think it's totally cool to not have everything I want.  It teaches me what's really important.  In these tough economic times, I am so very thankful to have the ability to provide myself with everything I need and the ability to live comfortably.

Well, that was easy!  If only Thanksgiving was later in the month...

What are you thankful for?

Pumpkin Tea Lattes

Happy Friday all!  It's been a long week, but it's finally the weekend. 

So, if I haven't mentioned it before, I'm a bit of a coffee addict.  Specifically, I love pumpkin coffee this time of the year.  I look forward to it every morning and used to drink a minimum of 2 cups in the morning and perhaps another in the afternoon.  I've weaned myself down to 1 cup in the morning, most mornings of the week, and another in the afternoon if I have to work at night or it's just been a super long day and I need to work out yet.

I recently saw a drink called a Cinnamon WarmUp the Door County Coffee & Tea's Facebook page.  It looked good and had cinnamon tea, vanilla syrup, and whole milk.  I decided to recreate this to be a bit healthier using apple cinnamon tea and frothed vanilla soy milk.  It was pretty good but it also got me thinking that it would be a whole lot better with pumpkin tea!

Enter this morning.  I didn't have to be to work early so I had a little extra time to play around with making a pumpkin tea latte this morning.  In the end, it was fabulous (though I was missing my caffeine kick this morning)!  It would be a perfect holiday drink for those looking for healthy alternatives as there is no alcohol or caffeine in it.  I bet adding a tablespoon of pumpkin coffee creamer would make this extra special on Thanksgiving!

Making a Pumpkin Tea Latte is super simple:

Heat 8 oz of water.  I have a Cuisinart Single Serve Brewing System (basically a fancy Keurig) that can spit out water for tea in 1-2 minutes so this is definitely something I could do every morning.

Steep pumpkin spice tea (I used Bigelow) for 5-10 minutes, depending on how strong you like your tea.  I like strong tea in general and you'll want it a little stronger than normal because you'll add milk to it.  I let it go for 10 minutes.  Remove tea bag.

Measure out 1/3 cup milk of your choice - place in a narrow bottomed cup.  I used vanilla soy milk.  Microwave for 30-45 seconds.  Using a milk frother (I have an inexpensive BonJour frother that works well), froth the milk for 10-15 seconds.  Note - if you have a way to steam milk, use that!  I'm sure that would be better!

Add frothed milk to the tea, sprinkle on a little cinnamon, and drink up! 

The next week is going to be crazy, so if I'm not back to post again, Happy Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Risotto

Although it is technically still fall, we woke up to this last Wednesday:

I love snow.  Well, it's a love-hate relationship.  I love watching it fall from my nice, comfy couch, all curled up with my kitty.  I hate, hate, hate driving in it.  I didn't use to be so bad.  Two years in Tennessee for grad school turned me into a wimpy driver!  On the upside this year, I walk to work, so no daily winter driving required.  On the downside, I am a total klutz, so I'm not sure this is any better.  Let's all cross our fingers and knock on wood that I don't slip and break a bone this winter!  :/

The weather has turned around and, happily, I was able to get out for some good walks this weekend, which I was sorely in need of!  I trekked 4.2 miles yesterday in 57 minutes, which is my fastest time ever!  Today, I was super achy and only managed 3.7 miles, which I did not time, but felt super slow.  Oh well, going for a slightly slower walk is better than no walk at all!  I see a rheumatologist during Thanksgiving week, so hopefully, we can figure out what's causing all this crazy achiness!

Since it was a bit warmer (and not at all snowy) today, I decided to make my favorite fall supper: pumpkin risotto!  This recipe is based off of a Rachael Ray recipe, but I make it risotto style because it's less work and it cuts down on calories and fat considerably while still giving you that creamy, pasta-y taste that made the original dish so good.

People always say that risotto is so hard to make.  It's actually very simple, you just have to have a little patience and stay near the stove for a while.  I have no interest in standing over a stove all day and I have no patience and even I can make this!  So easy.  So good.

Some general tips that I have found that create good, creamy, and healthier risotto:

1. Toast your Arborio rice before adding liquid.
2. Use unsalted stock!  Since you are concentrating the flavor of the liquids you are adding, I recommend using unsalted stock.  Salted stock could make your risotto super salty.  It's smarter to just salt it to taste.  I will usually use 3 cups of stock and then water after that if the rice needs more liquid (and it usually will).
3. Wait until the rice has fully absorbed the previous addition of liquid before adding more.  Patience pays off!
4. Stir, stir, stir.  Be sure to fully stir the rice every time you add more liquid.  Go back and stir at least once between additions of liquid.  Stirring is what makes it creamy without the cream!
5. Instead of melting and mixing cheese in, sprinkle a little bit on top.  You get the same cheesy bite without all the calories.

When I make this for my mom, I will typically add 2 links of turkey sausage.  I like it both with and without it, so when I make it just for myself, I don't go through the trouble of breaking out the meat and instead add mushrooms.

Pumpkin Risotto

4 servings

Ingredients:

1 small onion, finely chopped

3/4 cup portabella mushrooms, chopped, -OR- 2 links turkey sausage, browned, drained, and set aside

3/4 cup Arborio rice

1/3 cup dry white wine

3 cups chicken -or- vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

1 tsp dried sage

Nutmeg

3/4 cup pureed pumpkin

Parmesan cheese for topping (optional)

Add the onion, garlic, and mushrooms (if using) to a pan and sauté on medium heat until soft. 

Add Arborio rice and let toast for a few minutes.  When you start to smell the rice and see that the grains are slightly browned, add in the wine.  Note:  I only had a sweet white and red on hand, so I had to use this, which makes the risotto a little sweet, but still delicious:

Let the wine cook out completely and then add 1ish cup stock.  Add bay leaves, sage, salt, pepper, and browned sausage (if using).  Stir thoroughly.  Allow the stock to cook out.  Once the stock is absorbed, add another cup of stock and stir.  Make sure you go back and stir at least once between each addition of liquid.  Continue this process (using water or additional stock as needed) until the rice is soft and creamy.

Wait until liquid is absorbed before adding more!

Remove bay leaves and add pumpkin and a small amount of water to keep the risotto from becoming too thick.  Add a few sprinkles of nutmeg and additional salt and pepper, if needed. 

Cook for 2-3 minutes and serve!  Top with Parmesan cheese for an extra kick of flavor.

Enjoy the last few weeks of fall!

Food Rules

Good chilly evening to you!  Over the weekend, I picked up the newest copy of Michael Pollan's Food Rules: An Eater's Manual.  Now, I love Michael Pollan.  If you've seen Food, Inc., you probably know who this guy is.  He also wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defence of Food, both of which I highly recommend reading if you are interested in where your food comes from.  I'm about 3/4 of the way through Food Rules and it has really gotten me thinking about how I have been slipping on eating healthfully.  Food Rules gives you easy rules of thumb for healthy eating under three categories:  "What should I eat?," "What kind of foods should I eat?," and "How much should I eat?"  Most of this stuff we probably already know, but having it in short, memorable phrases makes it easier to remember in my daily life.

I have been focusing way too much on how many calories I am eating and not enough on the quality of foods I am consuming.  While I am still eating plenty of fruits and veggies and have been cutting back on chicken and turkey, I am (was?) still eating more than my fair share of candy (Reeses are my weakness), chips, etc. 

So, I am working on cutting back on the unnatural "foodlike substances," as Pollan calls these types of foods, and replacing the "foodlike substances" with whole and natural foods.  This is really not that hard, I just need to be more diligent.  In fact, instead of being hard, it is very tasty.  My new favorite snack is olives with tomatoes and cheese (see below)!  Tonight, I also made a "taco" and rice plate (I really need to come up with better names here....).

My "Mediterranean Fix" Snack

Perfect bite!

I'm slightly obsessed with my local pizza place's Mediterranean Gluten Free pizza.  It is so good but I really can't eat like that very often.  I had their Greek salad last night, which is what inspired this snack today.  This is just mini-heirloom tomatoes cut in half, kalamata olives, and fresh mozzarella.  So good and satisfied my salty tooth today.  Plus, a handful of tomatoes + 1 oz mozzarella + 7ish Kalamata olives = 95 calories.  Score!

"Taco" and Rice Plate

As a way to eat less meat on the times when I actually want to eat something meat-like, I add in tons of veggies to fill out a dish.  So, in the pot, I had a small zucchini, 1/2 an onion, a small carrot, 1 can of drained and rinsed black beans, and 3 servings of extra-lean ground turkey.  Once all of this cooked and was softened, I seasoned the mixture with salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika, chipotle chili powder, chili powder, cumin, and cilantro.  Such a good mixture - better than packaged taco seasoning!  I split this into 4 portions.  I also made 2 servings of brown rice to go with the turkey and veggie mixture.  I tend to only eat a 1/2 serving of rice with dishes like these.  Topping this with salsa and sour cream really jazzed it up.  The best part?  Lunch leftovers for three days!

Stay warm (and healthy!) tonight!

Fall is for Squash!

If I haven't said it yet, I LOVE fall!

I love the weather, the sweaters, the colors...but especially the warm and cozy food!  Mostly, pumpkin and squash.  I am super lucky because my dad grows a ton of squash and is always willing to share.  My new find this year is buttercup squash!  How have I never had this before?  So good.

Tonight though, I had a butternut squash staring me in the face.  So, that had to be part of supper.  I also got a tip from a coworker on a good way to use up some leftover light coconut milk that I had sitting in my fridge from when I made coconut curry stir fry veggies on Monday night. 

I have been eating less meat for the past four or so months.  This is partly because I hate dealing with raw meat and the clean up.  The other part of this is that I do not eat beef or pork and prefer to only buy vegetarian fed, free range, organic, fancy-schmasy chicken.  I have issues with animal cruelty and have probably seen too many documentaries.  This chicken can be a little pricey (deals are out there though!), so I've been cutting back and eating more beans for protein.

Tonight's super delicious supper included:
Toasted Seasoned Black Beans
Garlic Kale
Roasted Butternut Squash
Coconut Milk Rice

The breakdown: 

This is a really simple meal, just a lot of dishes (yuck).  However, I made enough for lunch tomorrow so it works out.

Toasted Seasoned Black Beans

Rinse and drain a can of black beans.  Place as many as you want (1 serving = ~ 1/2 cup; 105 calories) into a small baking dish.  Sprinkle the beans with garlic powder, chili powder, and pepper.  Bake at 350 for 10-15, or until the beans are toasty.

Roasted Butternut Squash

Using a vegetable peeler, peel a butternut squash, cut off the ends of the squash.  Cut in half and scoop out the seeds.  Chop the squash into bite-sized pieces.  Place onto a baking sheet and spray lightly with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.  Bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes, or until the squash is golden brown.

Coconut Milk Rice (2 servings)

Combine a 1/2 cup brown rice, 2/3 cup light coconut milk, 1/3 cup water, salt, and pepper in a pot on the stove top.  Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer until all the liquid is absorbed (keep an eye on this as the coconut milk bubbles up).  So good.  Everyone must make this!

Garlic Kale

My garlic kale recipe is here.  Tonight I didn't feel like cutting up any more veggies so I left out the onions and mushrooms.  Still great!

This was a great end to a semi-rough day.  Many people know that I am currently dealing with some medical issues which involves widespread muscle and joint pain.  It will be about a month before I can get in to see a rheumatologist so I'm not exactly sure what I'm dealing with at this point.  This craziness came on suddenly on October 1st and has not gone away.  So ready to feel better!  I'll keep everyone updated.  In the meantime, I am working out as much as possible and getting as much sleep as I can, both of which seem to be providing a little short-term pain reduction.

Checking In

Hey folks!  Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  Things have been good yet crazy busy.  The good news is that I have lots to report so if you've been wondering how my healthy crusade is going, this post is for you!

For the most part, everything has been going well.  I have, however, been slipping on eating from time to time.  Too many sweet and crunchy things.  In times like this, I feel like it's important to check in with myself and see what up.  When I look at all that's going on, eating wise, I think I have just been too busy to make good choices.  I don't think of this as a cop out as I have been trying so very hard.  Stress, however, tends to result in bad choices for myself.  Also, I have been too busy over the past 2 months to spend weekend time cooking.  I am still working on strategies to combat these issues.  However:

Stress + no time = bad news!

Exercise, however, has been going well.  I have been skipping the gym in favor of walking outside for the past month and a half.  I am planning to walk the 5-mile Turkey Trot run on Thanksgiving.  I wanted to run this but every time I run regularly, I end up with sore knees and left hip for weeks and it just isn't worth it.  You can walk the 5-mile Turkey Trot but you have to finish it in 90 minutes.  So, I've been working to figure out if I can do it.  I have spent the last 1.5 months working myself up to 5-mile walks that I can do on a work day (as in, I don't exercise and spend the rest of the day sleeping and tired). 

Now that I've worked my way up to 5 miles, I am also working on speed.  The Turkey Trot requires a pace of 18 minutes per mile.  I didn't want to sign up without being sure I could do this and started timing 1 or 2 5-mile walks per week for a few weeks now.  Here are the times/speeds of my timed 5-mile walks (note that the majority of my walks are untimed as I tend to get a little obsessive about it):

Oct 1st (based on 6 miles):  90 minutes, 4 mph

Oct 4th:  74 minutes, 20 seconds; 4.04 mph

Oct 8th:  72 minutes, 30 seconds; 4.14 mph

Oct 10th:  75 minutes, 40 seconds; 3.97 mph

Oct 16th:  68 minutes, 30 seconds; 4.38 mph

Oct 17th:  70 minutes; 0 seconds; 4.29 mph

I'm pretty happy with this, especially since I am seeing improvement.  I had some sort of flu or other issue that has been causing me to be up all night with widespread muscle aches.  I don't know what's going on with that, but I'm happy that I am still progressing.  I took a number of days off last week when the achiness was particularly bad, thinking that I was perhaps stressing my body too much, but it did not help.  The mystery of this continues...

So, since I am checking in with myself and not entirely happy with what I see, I think it's important to look at how far I've come (plus I've had 7 people ask me to do this in the last week).  ;)  I seriously committed and started working towards my goal of being healthy around April-May 2010 but I'm going to list my stats from my most unhealthy point, which I think was around Dec-Jan 2009-2010.  First, a couple of photos.

October, 2009.  My mom and I at the Memory Walk.
2XL shirt here!  :(



October, 2011.  My mom and I at the Memory Walk.
L shirt here (and in desperate need of a haircut)!  :) 
Take a look at my mom - she is doing amazing
on her own journey!



















Okay, so a couple stats for those who have been asking:

Total pounds lost:  66 lbs (as of yesterday)
Inches lost around waist (the only one I can remember):  8.5"
Dress size:  down ~4 sizes
Clothing size:  down ~ 3-4 sizes (depending on brand)
BMI change:  down 11 points*
Walking mph change:  went from 3.3 mph to 4.4 mph when working out

I think those are all of my major changes and, wow, seeing those things written down and the photos side by side gives me quite a bit of motivation to get back on track with my nutrition.  I should have done this sooner!  The craziness in my life is starting to calm down (hopefully) and I plan to get back into meal planning and cooking every night or at least making sure I have enough healthy leftovers for the entire week if the week is going to be busy.

*For those of you who really hate the BMI scale, I understand the reasons.  However, this is what all doctors I have been to use.  Also, it gives you a good understanding of how far away from a normal weight you are.  Seeing such a huge change is so motivating, even if you don't like the scale.

Cardio Saturday

It's "Cardio Saturday"!  I really like using my Saturday mornings for long and/or hard cardio workouts.  I have the time and it makes me feel refreshed so I can enjoy the rest of my weekend!  Often, like this morning, I am so tired on Saturday morning, but a quick breakfast and cup of coffee can usually get me going.  So, today, I dragged myself out of bed at 7:30, warmed up some leftover baked oatmeal, made a cup of pumpkin coffee, and hung out with my lonely cat for a little while.  Then, I headed to the gym!

It's about a 1/2 mile walk to the gym (I consider this my warm up) and I stopped in my office in attempt to find my arm band for my Zune.  No such luck!  It may be gone forever!  Then, jetted over to the gym and hopped on the treadmill.  It's nice to be able to walk to the gym as then I don't have to spend my time warming up on the treadmill.  I started by pounding out 3 miles in 42 minutes on the treadmill (including a one-mile run to start and inclines the rest of the time) and I finished my cardio morning with another 5 miles on the bike (20 minutes).  Then, the walk home to cool off and 10 minutes of stretching out my achy muscles.  I feel so good, endorphins rock!

So I mentioned that I ran.  I was feeling really good this morning and really missing running so I decided to see what I could do.  I only ran a mile so as to not aggravate my knees and hip any more than necessary.  BUT, that mile was run in under 11 minutes!  10:30 to be exact!  Heck yeah!  I have never run a sub-12 minute mile.  I know 10:30 is probably still pretty slow, but I'm super happy with that!  I will say that my knees and hip are a little achy now but I am icing them so that they hopefully don't hurt too much later today and tomorrow.

I am really loving the stationary bike as well.  I have never, ever been a cyclist (or casual biker) and have one heck of a time getting up hills.  I was hoping to start road biking this summer and went on a few rides but I just couldn't get into it.  Too many hills!  So, I am dedicating my winter to using the stationary bike and building up my cycling muscles!  Hopefully next spring I can put the rubber on the road and give cycling another try!

Have a happy Saturday!

Autumn CSA

Back in May, I started thinking about joining a CSA (community supported agriculture).  I've wanted to do this for a couple of years but I never stay in one city all summer so I hadn't done it yet.  This year, I found a CSA that offered Autumn only share, which is perfect because it starts today and runs through the end of October.  Originally, I was going to sign up for a small box every other week but it was kind of pricey.  So, I conned a friend into going into buying a full share with me, so we will each get a small box every other week but will save ~$11/week.  Cool!

Today, I finished work a little early and walked downtown to the shop where I was to pick up my box.  Now, first of all, it is mean that they make me go to my favorite health food market to pick up my box!  I never make it out of there without baked lentil chips and lemon garlic hummus.  Today was no exception!

Second, I went down into the basement of the store and was shocked by how many people in my tiny town are part of this CSA!  Very proud of my fellow residents.  Thirdly, I really did not realize that I would have that much to haul home.  That was one long walk!

If you are a veggie lover, opening your CSA box feels a little like your birthday.  Yes, I got an e-mail this week telling me what I can expect in my box, but until you open the box, it isn't all that exciting.  I was super excited to see the selection and traded in a cucumber and a large kohlrabi for an extra head of broccoli and a tomato.  Totally worth it!  So, here's what I got this week for a SMALL box:

2 small heads of garlic

2 giant leeks

huge pack of green onions

6 small to medium carrots

4 heads of broccoli

head of Boston lettuce

3 red bell peppers

pack of yellow cherry tomatoes

5 regular tomatoes

small kohlrabi

Wow.  I have a lot of eating to do!  Some things should keep for a little longer and I'll leave those to eat later next week while I polish off the more perishable items.  I will say that I was unprepared to store these veggies.  I'm not quite sure what I was thinking!  My cat was kind of wondering what was up and hung out on the bar stool watching me unpack the veggies (and falling asleep apparently).

If you haven't joined a CSA or have never heard of CSA's before, please check them out next spring!  My CSA in particular provides all organic produce.  And, it's locally grown (as in 9.5 miles away).  This is so great for our environment and our bodies!  I'm super excited!

Veggies for Breakfast

The last thing I want to eat for breakfast is veggies!  However, I have been overloading on fruit and need to replace some of the fruit I eat with something.  I usually can't stomach meat in the morning and am getting tired of oatmeal and eggs, so that leaves veggies!  I have been told by a number of health nuts that eating veggies for breakfast is great for your body, so what do I have to lose right?  Except...veggies first thing in the morning?  No thanks.  Now, I doubt I'll ever be able to handle steamed broccoli or sauteed kale in the morning like the health nuts assure me that I will.  However, I can attempt to work veggies in creatively. 

Yesterday I posted the juice concoction of carrot and apple juice mixed together.  This is delicious and a good way to get extra vitamin A in the morning.  I have a juicer but it's at my parent's house so I haven't been juicing my own carrots, instead I buy a bottle of carrot juice at the store.

I also have been eating a lot of pumpkin yogurt in the morning, though I think pumpkin is technically a fruit. 

I have also been making a lot of "green monster" smoothies.  These are also sometimes referred to as green machine smoothies (but are not the same thing as Naked Juice's Green Machine).  There are some great recipes out there, try these sites:
http://greenmonstermovement.com/?page_id=39
http://annies-eats.net/2011/05/02/green-monster-smoothies/
http://thechiclife.com/2011/07/green-monster-smoothies-101-basic-recipe.html

In the morning, as I am always running late, I like to keep it simple.  So, a simple green smoothie is perfect.  So, here's what you do.  Fill a blender with 1/2-3/4 full of kale, spinach, or a combo of both.  This is a lot of greens here!  More than most recipes call for but it works, trust me!  I add a 1/2 cup of soy milk, a 1/2 cup of my dad's homemade apple cider (apple juice would probably be fine), a handful of blueberries, and a 1/2 of a banana.

Give it a whirl!  Sometimes (like this morning) I won't have enough liquid to properly puree the mixture, so I just add in some water to get it going.  I think it depends on how much liquid is in your other ingredients.  When your mixture is completely smooth, pour away and drink!

Yes, it looks gross, I know!  The blueberries and greens combo gives it a weird color.  It is so good though!  And a great way to add some veggies into your morning routine.

Fresh Start

Fall is in the air, as evidenced by where my cat has been hanging out for the past few days:

There are a lot of great things about my job as a college lecturer, but I would say my absolute favorite thing is that I get a fresh start every few months.  Have a bad semester?  No problem, there's a new one coming!  Never fails.

The fall semester is just beginning this week and I am hoping to kick a few problems that I've had in the past.  I also had a bit of a health scare (well, it was scary to me!) this past week.  Everything is going to be okay but I have to keep a close eye on my health.  So, I have a number of goals for this fall semester.  It's always best to write this stuff down as it feels more official and it adds motivation when other people know about it.  Here we go!

1.  Make more GOOD food!  I've gotten into the habit of cooking very healthy food and processed foods are really losing their appeal for me.  This is a good thing, but it also means spending a lot more time shopping and cooking.  A few recent concoctions:

Touch crooked - sorry!   Combo of carrot juice and dad's apple cider.



Quinoa, tomatoes, white beans, and steamed kale.


Currently, since I JUST went shopping, my fridge looks like this:

In my defense of the crazy bottom shelf, I cannot put anything in the back 6-8" of my fridge or it will freeze and I will have wasted money on spinach and whatever else is back there!

My fridge is packed!  This means I had better get cooking!  I also am starting an autumn CSA this fall and the roster of veggies I will be getting for the week looks great!  I need to keep up with this.  Since Wisconsin will soon be entering what I call Root Veggie Season, I am taking advantage of getting varied produce at decent prices while I still can!  I am also becoming a huge fan of green smoothies.  Check out recipes here:  http://greenmonstermovement.com/.  I know they look gross, but you cannot taste the spinach or kale and they are so healthy and delicious!

2.  Keep up with my workouts.  I joined the gym at work a couple of weeks ago and have scheduled my workouts into my day, which means walking home at the end of the day, taking a quick nap, having a quick snack, and walking back to the gym.  I plan to workout at the gym at least 4 work week days a week and at least one weekend day for a total of 5-6 days a week.  This will depend, of course, on what else is going on in my life but seems fairly doable.  My workout shoes and weights at my house need to see the light of day more often than they have recently!

I also plan to keep a set of workout clothes in my office so that if works runs late, I can just go hit the gym instead of using the excuse that I can't go because I don't have my workout stuff.  I already keep a set of shoes and my pass there since I hate carrying them to and from campus.



3.  Read more often!  It is not unheard of for me to start a book at the beginning of the fall semester and not finish until May because I am so busy and too tired at night to read longer than 5 minutes.  I have this stack of books that I am going to get through before June!

4.  Computer is off by 7:30pm, TV is off by 9pm.  And, I say this, but it's 9:45pm and I'm blogging with the TV on for noise.  I will be working on this though!  I need to get away from these activities a little bit.  I, for some reason, feel the need to check my work e-mail before going to bed.  While this is somewhat a casualty of the job and I know my students appreciate it, I need to respect my personal time a bit more.  This leads to #5.

5.  Work during work time and play during play time.  I seriously have a problem setting work boundaries and, as a result, have worked 7 days a week every semester for the past 2 years.  Now that I'm entering my third year of this job, I am much, much more comfortable with what I teach, how my schedule runs, what I need to do for prep, and how often I need to contact my students.  No more work e-mail on Sundays!  No working Saturdays or Sundays unless it's midterms/finals, extreme circumstances, or working with the Circle K club on campus (my new service activity for the year!).

6.  Make more time for hobbies!  Since cool/cold/frigid/tundra-like weather is coming, I need to pick up my crocheting again.  I started this afghan a long time ago with my grandmother and is the first serious crocheting item that I have stuck with worked on occasionally for the last 10 years. 

6.  Get ready for work the night before!  This means packing workout clothes if I am not coming home after work, pack my lunch and 2 snacks in my new giant thermal bag (below), ironing my clothes if I'm not going to be outside romping with my students, and packing up my work bag.  I hate doing this stuff but it's necessary to do it the night before because it takes up so much time in the morning.

7.  Finally (but probably not finally because I'm sure I'll find more stuff that I can improve on), reduce caffeine intake asap!  I love coffee.  Love, love, love.  I also love tea.  A great deal of my precious counter space looks like this on a good day (and much more messy/cluttered on a bad day):

This does not account for the shelves in my pantry that are filled with coffee and tea.  I have a problem!  I've managed to wean myself down to one cup of coffee a day.  I plan to start replacing coffee with tea at least three days a week.  I'll work my way down from there.  I don't know that I'll ever be able to enter my classroom to teach without coffee in my system but I can try!

So, there you have it!  The 7 things that I need to work on this year!  It's going to be a battle but I think anything I can do to make a healthier choice is worthwhile.