An adventure in Seitan and Kale

Tonight I decided to be adventurous and let my Door to Door Organics delivery determine what I would make for dinner.  By adventurous, I do mean being as adventurous as one can be while being relegated to complete rest for at least a week.  Since I am baking chicken and noodles for Mike, once I opened the D2DO box and saw what was inside I knew exactly what to make for myself: greens Italian Style with seitan and kale chips for snacking later.


The greens I am using are kale and rainbow chard, two of my absolute favorite.  Throw in some spinach and I am in heaven.  I use these three leafy veggies at every single meal.  Yes.  Every.  Mm-hm, breakfast included.  And here is what is really going to make you go 'hmmmm"...  I add them to my breakfast smoothie, often with Chocolate Shakeology.  Yumm-o!

Rainbow Swiss Chard

Inspiration struck when I saw the two large bundles sitting proudly atop the organic bounty at my doorstep.  I love Italian dishes centered around veggies with pasta as a side-kick. I also love leafy greens.  When the opportunity arises to combine the two I jump at it.


Kale and Swiss Chard are both powerhouse veggies packing tons of vitamins for very few calories. Chard has an added benefit; the phytonutrient antioxidants in chard act as anti-inflammatory agents. Sometimes they lower risk of chronic, unwanted inflammation which  has repeatedly been shown to increase our risk of obesity, atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and several forms of arthritis. Ew.  


Seitan (vital wheat gluten or wheat gluten) is a great replacement for animal proteins if you are not gluten intolerant and prefer to abstain from consuming copious amounts of soy. 


I happened to have on hand some Italian style canned tomatoes and some Italian style seitan, as well as some odds and ends of veggies that must be consumed pretty quickly else they would find themselves populating my composter come mid-week.  My next adventure will be to make my own seitan, but for now I will happily consume the prepared versions.


On to the recipes!


Verdi stile italiano con Seitan
(Greens Italian Style with Seitan)
You must pardon me - I literally make these up as I cook and never really measure anything too specifically. I believe in cooking from the heart and cooking from the pallet. I think of recipes as guidelines unless it is a more scientific food such as souffles or baked goods. So take inspiration from these recipes and do what will work for your kitchen, your family, and your pallet. 

• 1/2 bunch Swiss Chard
• 1/2 bunch Kale
• 2 cans of Italian style tomatoes plus any additional tomatoes laying around
• 5 large Mushrooms (baby portabella)
• 1 Zucchini
• 1/2 Vidalia onion
• Coconut oil (or any other vegetable oil)
• Italian style seitan (I used Upton's)
• Past or Rice of choice

Cook pasta or rice per directions.  :-)

In a saute pan  heat the coconut oil and then toss in all the vegetables except the canned tomatoes and greens.  Saute until the onions are translucent then  add in the seitan.  Stir to heat through then add the greens and stir to coat.  Lastly add in both cans of tomatoes and heat through.    

Once fully heated serve over rice or pasta. 

Kale Chips To Live For

I am stealing the roasting temp and time from my friend Jaye - Every time that I have made kale chips before they have fallen flat to my expectations: wilted and soggy or burnt... or wilted, soggy AND burnt.   The key here is roasting them at the right temp for the right time. Thank you Jaye! 

• Roasting pan or cookie sheet
• Kale very roughly chopped in to 2-3" sections
• Sea salt (I used Celtic sea salt since it has trace minerals) or you can use any seasoning you like - barbecue or garlic would also be very good. 
• Oil (I actually used grapeseed oil since I was out of olive oil)

Pre-heat your oven to 350*.  Mix in a bowl the rough chopped kale and oil.  Lay out on pan to roast, sprinkle with seasoning or sea salt.   Roast for ~25 or so minutes.  

Be careful when you take out of the oven as they are pretty irresistible!  

Mmmmm indeed. 

Healing with Food - Last Chance Broth

Hello everyone!  I hope that you are having a good weekend.  As for myself, I went to the Urgent Care today due to being under the weather for a week or so now.  I was diagnosed with Viral Bronchitis and Laryngitis. This means no training until I am well as my body is fighting and I am both fatigued and full of mucus, sorry for being blunt.  The doctor told me, like so many other people, that over doing it now will set me back weeks. So, doctor's orders are the be taken into complete consideration.  Rest rest rest!

Since I will not be burning calories this week training, I decided to clean up the diet and go completely vegan and sugar free to eliminate all dairy and other inflammation causing foods.  Also,  because I am on an antihistamine, I cannot take the food sensitivity test as antihistamines can alter the results which means that I will be staying on this detox for at least a month.

One thing that I find calms a sick body is a good soup.  I make a lot of random thrown together soups, so tonight is no different.  In an effort to help me be ready for the next week, I decided to make a detox broth chocked full of veggies.  Since I have a new Door to Door Organics order coming Tuesday, I decided to clean out the fridge and use all of the veggies that are in there to make what I am calling "Last Chance Broth".

I named this Last Chance Broth because it is the last chance for me to use these veggies.  Between the Vitamix and the soups I make, I have been very good and not wasting as much.  This broth can be used as a ready to eat soup, or can be the base for so many other things - everything from the medium in which I steam veggies, cook foods, or make other soups from.  I will even make my rice with the broth.

So this week I am back to tracking and eating clean clean clean and very plainly as my body heals.  I can tell by the amount of fatigue that I have that my body is fighting this thing with all of its might.  I realize that it is best to respect this and take a week or so off from training, than to set myself back a month.  I have a long road ahead of me and with that I must practice the fourth sport of Ironman - patience.


Detox Last Chance Broth

This can be made with literally any and all vegetables you need to use up in a hurry.  The list below is what I had on hand, you can use whatever you like and it will still turn out.  I find that using a rainbow of veggies makes the most nutritious broth.

• Kale
• Celery including leaves
• Carrots
• Beets including greens
• Yams
• Onions including skins
• Green peppers
• Zucchini 
• Garlic
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Turnips
• Celtic Sea Salt (with trace minerals)
• Water
• Stock Pot
• Coconut oil (or any other veggie oil)

I start by adding a few teaspoons of coconut oil (or a tablespoon of whatever oil desired) into the bottom of the stock pot over low heat. Coconut oil melts are very low temperatures, so if youa re using another oil you may want to cook over a higher heat. 

After rough cutting all the veggies, I place them in the pot and toss in the oil, allowing them to cook a little bit before adding the water and salt.  

Add enough water to coat the veggies - for me I had to add about 4 cups since I had quite the full pot.  I then added ~ 1 Tbs of Celt Sea Salt because it has so many nutrients and helps draw out the flavors of the veggies.  

I increased the heat to medium to bring to a boil., then reduced on low for an hour.  Remove the veggies and use the broth immediately, or store in the refrigerator and use in place of water in any recipes.

Enjoy! 

Rekindling my vegan love afair - with a side of lobster (hold the butter, please)

Hello everyone!  I have not fallen off of the face of the Earth, but rather have been doing some soul searching working through some stress.  It is coming out all good and I am feeling a sense of both relief and amazement that I am overcoming the largest hurdle in my life as of yet - myself.

I find that knowing the reasons why I am doing something helps me to pull through mentally tough times because it is about something greater than that moment.  Lately my focus has been on healthy eating and trying to break the code as to why I have an unhealthy relationship with food.

I saw a nutritionist and I have found a true partner in this.  I told her my history - all the good the bad the ugly (ugliest) of truths - as well as told her my goals:  I want to arrive at Ironman healthy and fit and ready for a long training day where I finish 140.6  miles strong and happy, as well as to look amazing for Mike on my wedding day (and lifetime thereafter).

I can train like a mad woman for Ironman.  I can lose all the weight I want for my wedding.  However at the core I have a broken-down, disordered relationship with food which will only work against me in my goals.

And it sucks. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over the past few months I have been working on my relationship with food, the final steps of which were to find a nutritionist to work with through Ironman and beyond.  I have stopped assigning feelings to food - i.e. comfort food - and I have stopped relating how I think of food in terms of emotional being - i.e. I love that, I hate this, I adore such and such - it just was all so unhealthy.

I feel confident that I am not "fixed" on this side yet I am confident that I have learned a lot about myself and food and now that I have made a declaration about who I am, it has totally redefined what I eat for me.

While I can still enjoy food I need to be responsible with it.  Like with any 'power', moderation and respect are necessary for successful yielding.   These are the struggles of a person with disordered eating habits. My disordered past has set me up for a lifetime of struggle with food, especially binge eating,  but it is something that I am finally making some headway in.  After all of these years and so many false starts, I am on the right path.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One thing that I have to be conscious of is getting all the nutrients that I need to be an athlete - protein, iron, calories, healthy fats, carbohydrates.  I am now tracking the foods I eat to see where I fall in my recommendations.

My goals are:

• Consume enough calories to sustain my workouts and living requirements (no hard and fast goal, but I try to stay above my BMR of about 1700 kcals per day). 
• Consume  ~90-100g of protein a day. 
• Consume ~ 100oz of water a day. 

 I tend to fall below standards in proteins and above standards in calories.  This is being corrected now. with some success already!  I am down 15 lbs since Christmas and am on my way to better understandings of nutrition as a whole process, not just food to be eaten. 

Ever since I got the Vitamix for Christmas, I have been into making lots of raw shakes and soups and have enjoyed cooking so much more.  I find a way to add veggies into every single thing I make thanks in whole to the Vitamix's amazing ability to obliterate anything you put in there.  So really I have some remarkable tools at my disposal now to assure that I am eating varied, rainbow colored diet full of  proteins, minerals, vitamins, and healthy fats and oils.  I freaking love this machine.

Sorry Mike. 

I have also been researching the best "diet" for being an endurance athlete.  Obviously a vegetarian always hears issues about protein and iron consumption and is deluged all the time by people asking - "but what do you eat?, and "how are you going to make it through training let alone a race of that size by only eating plants?"  Well it happens.  Many have, many more will.   So to be clear by 'diet' I am speaking in life-long terms; in clinical terms and not marketing terms.  Not Atkins,South Beach, nor Weight Watchers.  I mean what eating habits are best for performance and endurance.  So far the non industry paid-for or sponsored studies point to plant based diets as being superior to animal based diets.  Hmmm. Interesting. I am sure the Paleoites hate hearing this.

This also brings me to the reason for the heading of this post.  The only reason I never made the leap from vegetarianism to vegan-ism was because of two things:

1. I like cheese, and
2. I like cheese.

Oh, and also I realized in my many travels when I have been in situations where I had no viable options ahead of me I just did not eat.  This resulted in some bad situations and irregardless if you are in another country or another person's home, there comes a time when you have to pick your battles.

So leads to the 3rd reason I never went fully vegan:

     3. I will eat, graciously, whatever is being cooked for and served to me in someone's kitchen or while
         traveling through an area with limited options.  Especially if there is cheese involved.   

Yep.  I have resorted to eating an occasional animal protein including fish, sea food, and turkey. Also interesting to note is that I am still alive. So, I guess that it was not so bad after all.
   
I have come to accept that in order to be happy and healthy sometimes I need to bend my self-imposed rules and think about why I am doing something.  I am happy with this, and still think of myself as a vegetarian that allows herself flexibility when things are out of her control - the term is  flexitarian if you want to be technical.  The interesting thing is that once I took the imposition of hard rules off my shoulders, I found myself not really going to animal products unless absolutely necessary. I fell into a bucket of ribs in Panama City Beach once back in November, but never went back for seconds nor have I had them since. Whew that was close!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I realize that I live by an 90% / 10% ratio these days.  I eat vegetarian at least 90% of the time and eat animal products such as limited dairy, eggs, poultry and fish  about 10% of the time over the larger time frame. 


I am happy with this since it no longer means that I live in fear of being a hypocrite or that I have failed somehow.  I still believe in animal rights and still fight the good war, but sometimes you have to give up a singular battle in order to wage war another day.

So with that I am leaving you with a recipe from my dear friend Aparna E. Bankston.  I made this for dinner last night and it was amazing just as I had imagined it, tasty and very warming on a cool evening.   You can easily sub in chicken for the tofu if you are not a soy lover or vegetarian, or if you wish do as I did and sub in another non-meat substitute (Gardein is my favorite so far) in lieu of the 'fu.

http://notaleaf.com/2010/08/04/generals-tofu/

•1 block of extra firm tofu, cut into 1-inch cubes
•2 1/2 cloves garlic, minced
•1 1/2 teaspoons ginger, some minced, some grated
•1/4 cup soy sauce
•1/4 cup water
•1/4 cup orange juice
•1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
•1/2 tablespoon cayenne pepper (we LOVE spice, so we added more. This amount is totally up to you, though!)
•2 tablespoons vegetable oil

We served this with rice, so start by cooking some rice.

In a large, deep skillet coat the bottom with vegetable oil, about 2 tablespoons.  When it’s nice and hot, add the tofu and cook until brown on all sides.

While that’s happening in a 2-cup measuring cup (you know, like those Pyrex doohickies), measure out the soy sauce, water and orange juice. Add the corn starch, minced garlic, cayenne pepper and add some minced ginger and then grate some in there too, Stir it all together and finish cooking the tofu. (C) not a leaf, 2011

NOTE:  I subbed Gardein's Vegan Mandarin Crispy Chick'n (without the mandarin sauce) for tofu in this since I really am not a huge fan of firm tofu and I stir-fried it all in coconut oil.  Either way this was DELISH.  I would consider adding some agave nectar or ever some raw coconut nectar to this for a sweeter take.  I also added mushrooms and broccoli to the dish to add more veggies and colors, and served my portion over 1/2 Cup of brown rice.   My version contained

448 kcals,

45g of carbs,

12g of fat,

38g of protein,

4g of fiber and

5g of sugar.

 The original yields ~

418 kcals,

37 carbs,

14 fat,

37 protein,

6fiber, and

6 sugars

Weight Loss Bank Account and Setting Myself Up For Success.

I think that I finally, after all of these years, figured out how to stay on track with weight loss.  There is no magic pill, there is not secret formula.  What there is, is resource management.  Just like time and money, calories are to be budgeted in order for me to be successful.  This requires the dreaded calorie tracking.

You can tell those who budget their calories well and those who do not.

Oh but so and so just has a high metabolism, so she can eat whatever she wants.  She doesn't budget her calories!  Well maybe on a technical point she is not purposefully budgeting, but in reality she just has a bigger bank account of calories to spend (consume).

In reality this is just akin to someone with trillions of dollars in their account.  Just because they do not have to watch every penny on a level most people do does not mean that they are not on a budget - what this means is that they have a larger account to work with, they have more resources to spend. A person with a  high metabolism has a higher caloric "bank" account balance.

I have been using MyFitnessPal.com and the app on my phone to track my food intakes and my exercise.  Finally I have a target each day and I know if I go over or under and then I can see how that effects me. In addition to this I am a member of a group on Facebook that is all about getting our acts together, and a member of another one which is a Solstice to Solstice challenge.  I have found that the challenge, together with support from my friends who are also trying to get control of their weights, combined with the tools of MFP and my Ironman training has helped me see the road to success. 

I have learned a lot about the choices that I make for my meals and this tool, My Fitness Pal,  has allowed me to really plan ahead, setting myself up for the best possible opportunity for success.

Has it worked?

I got back from Germany on Saturday, weighed myself and then weighed myself today after using MFP all week.  I am down 6 lbs since Germany, a net 2.6 lbs since I left for Germany (yeah I gained some weight while there, or it could have been salt weight from my meals that weekend)  Either way - a net drop of nearly 3#s is good considering.

I have felt well fuelled for my workouts, and I have been able to see what types of foods had the best result for my hunger levels.  For me it all comes down to protein to keep me satisfied and not on all out binge mode.  Another thing for me is that I have spent a lot of time planning and prepping.  The necessary evils of being busy!

So when I say that I have spent a lot of time, what does that mean?  Well... my weekdays start on Saturday.

The weekend is my time for some long workouts as well as home type work, relaxation, date nights with Mike, and prepping and planing the coming week's meals for both us and our Pug Moose, since we cook him his meals too.

Sundays I prep for Monday and Tuesday breakfasts, as well as cook my lunch and dinner for Monday and my lunch for Tuesday.  By Sunday evening, I have packed my lunch and dinner for Monday, made my dinner for Tuesday or at least prepped for it, and have my breakfasts for Monday and Tuesday ready to cook, right down to my omelet mix in the fridge ready to pour and the omelet pan on the stove top ready to heat.

Mondays I am gone from 7am - 11pm.  I eat 3 meals and all snacks either at work or in my car.  I work, then go to the Lab for 1.5 hours of bike work, possibly a 10 minute run, and then an hour of swim drills with the team at Fraser H.S..  I come home and sleep.

Tuesdays I have my breakfast ready to pour and cook , and then throw my fruits and veggie snacks into my cooler with my pre-prepared lunch and head to work.  I come home and run and then prep and cook the meals for Wednesday and Thursday.

Wednesdays I am gone from 7am - 9pm. I go to work and then the Lab for 1.5 hours of bike work, followed by stretching.  This day I eat my 3 meals and all snacks again at work or in my car, so I have to be diligent about planning.  I come home and go to bed.

Thursdays I cook my breakfast which was already ready for me to go, and then I throw my veggies and fruits in my cooler along with my pre-packed lunch.  I am home after work (swimming and running day), and do my prep work for the rest of the week, making lunches and planning what we will need to buy the weekend when it starts all over again.


So while this may seem obsessive to some, I see it as a necessity.  I would quite honestly eat everything in site and be living at the drive-thrus if I did not plan this far in advance and take the time, no, MAKE the time to get it all ready for the schedule I keep.  

I have taken to heart that I need to be active in my weight loss and not just hope that the weight comes off because I am training for a large event and have a weeding in 6 months time.  This mentality has not worked out so well for me over the past, oh I don't know, let's say lifetime.  What I do know is that I need to set myself up for success each and every day, otherwise I am setting myself up for failure.


So what are some things that you do to keep on track of it all?  What are some thing that you wished you did?

What steps are you taking today to set yourself up for success tomorrow?

The Journey has been on a ... well... Journey!

I have been MIA from blogging for a while mainly due to a few trips:  Florida, Florida, Mexico, and now Germany.  Wow.  Is it really only January still? 

I have traveled more than 20,000 miles in 20 days and as such my body, free time, and training have taken a hit of sorts.  I am sick sitting here in my hotel room at the Residenz in Babenhousen, Germany on a cold, very damp winter afternoon.  Sick, but happy to live a life where I am able to travel the world and be apart of it.  Travelling for work has re-sparked in me the desire to travel in my personal life.  I am making a list of the places that I would like to see and I am going to start working on seeing them. Starting with the US.   I have no excuse for seeing more of China than I have of my own country.

So going back to the start. 

*starts car*

Welcome to Florida!

Mike and I drove to Florida in mi-December, staying through News Year Day.  This vacation served us two purposes, first obviously as a vaction.  Secondly it was to make the plans for our upcoming Jupiter Beach, Florida wedding.  *giggles*   Oh yes, our wedding!  August 25th, 2012 - which even though is 7 months away is coming up fast!   Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Jupiter Beach.  Life is amazing and I get to marry my best friend and the great balancer in my life. *awwww so sappy*

Moose loves running on the beach!

*coughs*  Anyhow.  We took our Pug, Moose, to the beach at Jupiter to see how he would do.  Jupiter Beach (north of the Pier at least) is one of the few dog friendly beaches left on the coast of Southern Florida.  We made sure to bring lots of "doggie bags" with us in case Moose decided to use the beach as his personal sand box, and of course he did.  The second he hit the sand there he went!

We would bring him to the edge of the water and run into the surf with him but then he would freak out and run back to the beach, attempting to run away from the ocean as fast as he could.  Good to know that he would never run into the ocean should he ever be allowed off-leash.  Good thing to know as well is that he likes to run.  Fast.  And far away from us when off of the leash.  

Jupiter Beach, FL

Mike and I spend a lot of time in Jupiter where ultimately we want to live.  We found a wonderful cafe during Hurricane Irene, ironically enough called the Hurricane Cafe, and it is a place that we go to every time we are in the area.  This time, we took Moose and he did well even with the food smells and all the people.  He likes to people watch, moreso for the attention I am sure. 

The community of Jupiter is very active in cycling (great riding up and down the A1A**), triathlons, running, stand up paddling, surfing, deep sea fishing, just about anything you can think of ocean related.  It is the perfect place for us to live, and it is the perfect place for us to start our lives as man and wife together as well. It is just so "us".

After New Years Eve, we drove north back to Michigan, through the Smokies, only for me to fly right back down a few days later.  This time I was headed for the Magic Kingdom... Disney World!  What another vacation?  Yeah, only this time it was to run a Goofy little race, 39.3 miles total, Goofy's Race and a Half Challenge. 

** You know that Ice Ice Baby is now running through your head.  Do not try to deny it!  

*makes airplane noises*

Welcome to Florida! (Again)

Myself and about 8 of my running friends flew down to run in the various races.  We dressed up as a group for both races - for the Donald Duck Half we dressed up as the various Princesses, fairies, Peter Pan and the King.

Most of us before the Half Marathon (Holger, dressed as the King, as well as Arg's father, and  Rich and Sharon are missing)

I ran with Anne and Jim as Peter Pan, Tink and Wink her wild cousin (Wink would be me of course!) stopping to take pictures at every mile (except mile 1 which we missed).  I will use any excuse to run in a tutu and take pictures, so if I have to run 39.3 miles in order to have a good enough reason then count me IN!

"Wink" after the Donald Duck half Marathon 2012

 
After the race we hot tubbed and then headed down to Celebration, Florida (a community built by Walt Disney) for dinner.  Upon awaking the next morning I had the revelation that I was so not ready for the marathon. I knew this flying down for the race.  

I had just finished my MBA the week before I headed down to Florida in December,  so I was ready to run another 13.1 miles and call it quits. I was a stoic person the morning of the marathon.  I had a great experience at Detroit Marathon this past October.  HUGE PR (77 minutes!).  I had focused on wrapping up my MBA and let training or just running in general slip to the back burner for too long.  I knew that I could finish the 26.2 but at what cost to my body?  My goal is not this race, my goal is Ironman Florida and while it is still 10 months away at this point, was running a marathon unprepared worth the risk of injury or burn out?

Yep. DUH.

So I put on my gear and got ready with the group - 101 Dalmations (complete with Cruella) were ready to be set lose upon the Kingdom!

Those of us who stayed in the house - the rest (Arg and Sharon) were staying on-site to Disney and Corrina and Rich were in the Cheer squad not running this day.

 
I had a rough morning prior to the race start as well (sorry to Jim who bore the brunt of my stoic, silent, not in a taking or joking mood self.  Yikes, I am really not a social person when my mind is in game mode).  I was cold.  I was tired.  I was sore.  And do you know what?  So was every other person there, especially those of us doing the Goofy. We had a 13 mile test-run the day prior so this was all new territory. 

Let me preface this by saying that I have felt what I call affectionately the "death march" in my fair share of races.  Marathons, halfs, 5ks, whatever the distance it can happen.  The death march scares me because it is where the event turns mental.  I told Jim and Anne while we were waiting to head to the start that I was afraid of the death march, because it was not IF it would come, it was WHEN.   I told them that while I am starting the race together with them, I am fighting my mind and the clock is going to be very close. I am prepared to stop at the half marathon checkpoint if I need to, but  I did not have time to stop and take pictures every mile.  It was not the time taking the pictures, it was the time stopping, waiting, taking, then getting back in.  I knew that my body was not ready to run 26.2 straight through, but I had to get to the half to know that I would finish.  At mile 8, I left them for good so that I could clear my head of trying to race against the finish clock.  Every time we had stopped for a picture I was feeling more and more pressure and I needed to stop the pressure build and find release in running MY Goofy.  I had a strong 3.1 miles until the checkpoint, got to there and then kept on going without a second thought.  Well OK... without a third thought. ;-) 

The castle!  We got to run around it and through it in both races.

At mile 13 I realized that I could start run/walking again as my confidence rose and my pace had increased allowing me some time in the bank, so I ran/walked 1 mile at a time to mile 20 where I looked at the clock and saw that I would make it barring a nap alongside the course.  The last 10k was the mental death march I was scared of.  The sun was out and beating down hard now.  80* or so at this point which was a 20+* increase since the start.   There was very little shade however there was a lot of water at each of the stops with ice cold drinks and sponges with water to help cool our bodies off.  At the 5 hour mark it was evident that my body was not trained to be out on my feet for much over that.  

Along the way, probably around mile 23 or so, which for those not in the know is where I quit my first marathon back in 2003,  I found a woman who was quitting the race.  Aha!  There we have it folks... I found my mission.  I would not willingly allow someone else to feel what I felt all those years ago.  There is a time and place to quit a race and today, that day, was not either of them.  There is no crying at Disney World! 

She was in worse shape than I was as she could not run at all by this point.  I just had her stick with me and told her that if she stuck with me, then she would get to the finish line.  As we were going along, the weight on my shoulders shifted and I realized that I was becoming stronger.  I could have started running again but I decided against it since my new found friend needed me.  Obviously I needed her as well.  She had told me that right before we had met, she went into the bathroom to call her brother to tell him that she was quitting.  He had actually ended up calling her at the same time to tell her that he had asked the entire church (he is a minister) to pray for her for God to send her the ability to finish happy, this her 9th time doing the race.  

When she was leaving the restroom she walked right into me and the rest is happy history.  Note to everyone reading this - never EVER tell me that you are going to quit.  Mile 23 is my mile now, as have still not let go of the pain of giving up on myself.  Every time I pass mile 23 in a run I slap the sign or stomp on the ground.  "I have beat you once again my foe!  This time the battle goes to me!" 

Thank the Lord!  I finished!  :-) 39.3 miles in the books. Now that IS Goofy!

After the race, we went downtown to celebrate with dinner wearing our medals and finishing shirts.  I am quite sun-kissed in this picture and very tired.  I am also so very grateful that I had my friends with me to make this experience awesome, even if it was mentally trying at times.

Yes!  Yes I did!

$300 for 3 medals, 3 tech shirts, and the eternal pride of overcoming not just the wall, but myself.  So totally worth it!

The next day we flew home, I got to unpack, sleep in my own bed for the first time in a week, cuddle up to Mike and the Moose,  and then get ready to fly to Mexico 24 hours later.


*makes airplane flying noises*

Bienvenido a Guadalajara!

La Diablita Cantina - great food!

The New Bridge in Guadalajara put in place for the Pan Am Games of 2011, which the town held host to.

 

 

Now it is blue! 

Yeah.  Not much to say.  I travel here frequently so I have taken most of the pictures on the many trips prior.  My passport looks like I go to Mexico every week.  Which reminds me, I need to work on booking my next trip there in a month or so...

*makes airplane noises*

Welcome to Michigan!

And then I was home for almost 2 whole weeks!  I power tested in the Lab at Fraser which was an experience in and of itself! 

*makes airplane noises* Cha-Ching!  I just made Silver Elite status with Delta!


Willkommen in Deutschland!

So here we are.  Back to cold, damp, winter Michigan style, only not in Michigan. 

Yesterday I landed in Frankfurt, drove to my hotel in Babenhausen, and then traveled via the Bahn back to Frankfurt downtown and walked around the city.

Frankfurt skyline from the river Main

Frankfurt Downtown

Today was Babenhousen via foot. The US Army has a base here and in 2007, after 60 years, they handed it back over to the German Government.  Here are some old homes in the area around the base.

My phone is not transferring my recent photos right now, so as soon as I can get to work I shall update with my Babenhausen and Frankfurt pictures.  We are going to an offsite meeting the next two days, then back to Babenhousen Tuesday night for the rest of the week. I plan on getting back to Frankfurt this week if possible, and to get out and see other sites if time allows. 

Ich bieten gute Nacht zu jeder. Sicher sein. Halten Sie sich warm!

 

(Goodnight, stay safe and stay warm)

~ Fräulein Jenniferlyn

Forget Resolutions. I have resolve. What I need are goals!

It is that time of year once again. The time to swear off smoking, drinking, food, whatever your vice and to resolve to make a change in the new year.

While this is admirable, I have decided to take a different position this year. I do not need resolutions as much as I need goals. I guess, looking over my list I see some of both.

RESOLUTIONS
I resolve to take situations with a grain of salt. This means to stop being so emotional or rather sensitive to certain situations.

I resolve to be a supporter of my friends and to always lift them up, never to year them down. There is too much poison in the world and we need more genuine care and less bitchiness towards others.

GOALS
This year I have a pretty packed schedule. Nearly the entire month of January I will be either in Florida our in another country.

I have a half marathon in the spring to look forward to, then multisport season stars with some durations, long distance bike tours, a few half iron distanced triathlons and culminating with Ironman Florida.

As if that was not enough, I am getting married in the middle of all of the crazy with the wedding being out of state to boot!

With that much going on, I feel that goals would be better to capture what I hope to accomplish this year.

Lose 30-40#.
    Through eating clean, getting more sleep, training, and taking care of myself in general.
   

Life Balance.
     I want to take up stand up paddle boarding this year in addition to continuing to add rock wall climbing and yoga into my training as cross training activities to spend more time with Mike.  We are taking monthly cooking classes together to support our goals for this year. <3 This is part of my Christmas gift from Mike in fact!

     Another life balance activity I am going to adhere to is to spend more time with friends! I have been horrible of this in the past. :(

     In order to accomplish all of this, I need to get up and get my butt to work by getting in my training early in the morning whenever possible! I will be working out in the lab at Fraser this year, so that will help me refrain from procrastination.

Work out my mind.
     I made a goal last year to read more and thanks to my Kindle, I was able to accomplish this goal in good fashion. This year I would like to read 12 books (last year I read 12 in the first three months!)

     Additionally I want to capture the milestones of this year in pictures. I have always been intrigued by project 365 & project 52 but never had the time to dedicate to this. I am making up my own project this year, and am calling it Project Journey. I will not be setting the guidelines as one picture a day or one a week or even one a month. I want to capture the milestones as they occur regardless of how frequent.

Should be interesting! So what are some of your goals for 2012?

Wednesday's Wonderings

Created by: Health Science

Wednesday Wonderings

Watching "I Used to be Fat" is great motivation for me.  Watching these teens go from being obese to being  slimmer, healthier versions of themselves makes me smile.  It also reminds me of the choices that I have made in my life and how I got to where I am today by those choices.

I remember the days when I could not even fathom running a block, let alone training for an Ironman. Now I cannot imagine my life without this.  It is absolutely amazing what happens when you surround yourself with the right people; positive and supportive people in both family and friends.

One day I will no longer be able to do this.  Today?  Today is not that day. 

Today if you are feeling down because of the choices you have made, remember that you have another choice: how you recover from them and move forward.

Onward and upward my friends!

Eating to Live vs. Living to Eat: Part I - A Primer

There are so many "diets" out there these days. Omnivore. Vegetarian. Vegan. Clean. Paleolithic.  Obviously I am not speaking about fad diets, but rather our preferred diet as a lifestyle.  Which brings me to the topic of eating for life, versus living to eat. 

When we live to eat we are ignoring the makeup of the foods we consume and are focused on the sensory experience.  The taste, the feel, the smell, even the sound.  Eating encompasses so many senses no wonder it is something that we enjoy.  Aside from NEEDING to eat in order to live, we tend to focus on food as some object to have to consume.  We do not tend to think of it as fuel for our bodies. 

I am learning that the first step in correcting eating habits is to start to think of food in terms of fuel and nutrients.  This does not mean that I cannot still enjoy food.  It just means that I am starting to think about what is in the food I eat, where it comes from, and how my body is going to use it.  

What is this food giving me aside from a full sensory experience? Aside from comfort?  Aside from pleasure?  Can my body use the nutrients within to thrive, or is it merely going to survive?

Our bodies need both macro- and micro-nutrients in order to perform at peak levels, in order to thrive,  and I am not speaking about sports performance.  The micro-nutrients are found within in the foods we eat and supplement with.  What we generically call food, science calls a combination of the macro-nutrients: fat, carbohydrate, and protein. 

And yes, contrary to certain fad diets we do indeed require all three in balance for optimal health.  The reason for this is due to how foods break down into our bodies, and how our bodies utilize these components which are the building blocks of a solid body.

Fundamentally speaking if all three nutrients are abundant in the diet, carbohydrates and fats will be used primarily for energy while proteins provide the raw materials for making hormones, muscle, and other essential biological equipment. If one of the three is missing or lacking, or one is in overabundance, this process is altered and it shows in our physique. 

Back in the early days of mankind, we were hunter-gatherers.  We had very limited resources for food options and had to work hard to fill our bellies.  Today, calories are mostly cheap and plentiful, perhaps too much so.  Long gone are the days of having to earn our food.  We do not have to run after a hamburger and pizza is delivered right to our doors. Understanding what the basic macro-nutrients have to offer can help us make better choices when it comes to our own diets.

From the moment a bite of food enters the mouth, each bit of nutrition within starts to be broken down for use by the body. Convenient, eh? One thing that I have learned is that our bodies are nothing if not efficient and highly adaptable.  This is a blessing and a curse. 

I find myself asking the question that if it is so easy, then why are we still a nation of obese people?  Scratch that.  If it is so easy then why am I still fat?  Assuming that I am at the peak of my physical outputs and focusing on the nutritional topic, there must be some common problems that active people face in reducing their body fat.  

Well, guess what?  There is. That commonality lies within the fact that for some reason we seem to not quite understand what food really is. 

Think about that.  I did.  It scared me. 

We have to eat every day to survive, yet we do not understand what we are putting into our mouths. That is sad. And frightening.

I found a great article on this very topic over on Beginner Triathlete by Ken Mierke.  He explained it better than I ever could, so here is what he has to say on the topic of these macro-nutrients. 

Examples of the macro-nutrients

Calories consumed in the form of protein may be used to repair tissues (such as muscle), be used as fuel, or be stored as fat (significant protein will be stored as fat only in extreme cases of over-consumption). This is unlikely. People are not overweight from over-consumption of protein. Athletes trying to decrease bodyfat should eat a lot of protein. I recommend about 0.6 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

Under-consumption of protein, on the other hand, may lead to muscle atrophy, which results in decreased metabolic rate, which results in fat storage. Eating enough protein, spread throughout the day, maintains muscle mass and keeps metabolic rate high. This is one key to long-term weight management.   

Calories consumed in the form of carbohydrates may be kept in the blood where they can be used as a fuel source, they can be stored in the muscles as glycogen, or be stored as fat. Two of three results of eating carbohydrate are good. The important point is that which of these results occurs is largely under our control. How our bodies use carbohydrates is affected by when we consume them, which types of carbohydrates we choose, as well as what other foods are eaten together with the carbohydrates. 

Carbohydrates are necessary for burning fat. Avoiding carbohydrates is absolutely not the answer to anyone’s weight management problems.Nobody ever got any leaner by depleting carbohydrate storage. Incorporating carbohydrates into a nutrition plan in such a way that they are used as fuel instead of stored as fat is the answer.

Calories consumed in the form of fat may be kept in the blood until they are burned or stored as fat. Most fat calories consumed will end up in fat storage. Unlike protein and carbohydrate consumption, increasing fat consumption has very little effect on metabolic rate. Basically, eating too much fat makes you fat (as well as other health destroying consequences).   

So,  if we eat an extra 100 calories of protein at breakfast, and none of it is stored as fat, this is a good thing.  That protein helps prevent carbohydrate consumed with it from being stored as fat (yay) , triggers feelings of satiety (yay), increases resting metabolic rate (yay!), and maintains muscle mass (yay!!). 

The first step in shifting the food paradigm is to understand what food is.  Hopefully this primer was a first step and inspired the desire to learn more.  I am researching the calorie in - calorie out paradigm and will post up my findings and thoughts under Eating to live vs. Living To Eat: Part II - Caloric inequalities.

The Challenge... Week 3 Wrap Up

This post also comes on the eve of the wrap up for week 3 in the challenge.  If you are in the challenge feel free to post up your progress or email it to me.  If you are interested in joining the challenge let me know!  Every day take time to educate and give back to yourself.  What takes time to develop will only give back to you in the future. Consider the development of these healthy habits today an investment in your future.  

Knowledge gained and action taken are deposits into the bank account of life.