So my new favorite breakfast thing? Fruit smoothies. They're so yummy, refreshing and totally healthy! Plus, so easy to make.
The trick is to use frozen fruit. It's really great because there's no prep involved! No need to slice any fruit beforehand. And it's fairly cheap for a big bag at the grocery store. So last week I got a bag of mixed berries and a bag of mixed tropical fruit (mango, pineapple, kiwi, papaya...) and have been loving it.
Also, if you have any bananas that are getting too ripe you can throw them in your freezer to save for smoothies!
There's no need for ice if the fruit is frozen. From there on-- it's just some frozen fruit, half a cup of milk (I love it with the Vanilla Soy) and bleeeeeeeend! You can also use fruit juice, or yogurt or icecream (although that kills it's healthy factor).
Very yummy indeed!
For months I've been thinking and talking about running. I've read a lot about how running is the simplest way to get healthy, to get in shape and to lose weight. But running never seemed simple to me. I could never understand why anyone would ever want to just go.... run. I always thought it would be boring and figured running without a destination seemed silly. So instead I choose the elliptical or the stationery bikes at the gym. Talk about going nowhere!
I had tried running in high school. I knew a girl who dropped weight like CRAZY and when I asked how she did it-- she said she simply started running. Sounded simple enough so one morning I got up earlier before school-- drank a fruit smoothie and headed out in my neighborhood. Within minutes I was bent over gasping for air, feeling like a failure. My lungs couldn't handle this! I blamed it on "sports asthma" and gave up on the idea.
Come to find out.... six years later... I had taken the completely wrong approach. Of course I couldn't just start running out my front door full speed ahead! Our bodies can't go from sedentary to full motion; they need time to adjust. So, with the help of my boy (who is a runner), I did some research, read up a lot and started running two weeks ago.
Wow! The difference it makes when you pace yourself! Everything I read said to start a successful running program you had to start with a run/walk program. And that's what I did. Starting from scratch most people can run at least 30 seconds without stopping. Since I walk around for 8 hours at work-- I figured I could run for a minute straight. Let me tell you-- going from 30 seconds to 60 seconds seems like such a small addition of time. But at 40 seconds I was dying for 60 to come. Then I would walk for two minutes before running another minute.
But it always got easier. The first day my legs were sooooo sore and my heart felt like it was gonna beat right out of my chest! But the second and third and fourth day only got easier. And it's incredible how much more beneficial running is to any other exercise I've ever done! After running the muscles in my legs were sore... but also in my abs and arms and places I didn't even know I had muscles! Most specifically right behind my ankle. How weird!
What's even weirder is how much I love it! And how I still want to go every time. Today I was scheduled to run 1:30 then walk 2 mins... do this 8 times then at the end try to run for 2 mins. Derek was running alongside me at the end and I was distracted and when I looked down at the clock I realized I had run for 2:30 and the car was in sight so Derek said, "Just run to the car then you can stop". By the time I got to the car it was 2:40 and my curiousity got the best of me.... Could I run for 3 mins straight? 20 more seconds was all it would take. And I did it! When that 3 min mark hit I felt like dying but at the same time I was SO proud! Just earlier that day I had thought it impossible to run for 1.5 mins and then at the end had doubled my time! What a fantastic feeling! I almost cried, haha.
So much of running is a mind game. Now when I go back out to run, three minutes won't seem so impossible since I know I've done it at least once. And in a couple of weeks when I'm running for 10 mins straight (which seems CRAZY right now), it will be cool to look back to this day and remember how proud I was over 3 mins. How cool. :)
I've had this page open all weekend in hopes of posting but I never did get around to it. In fact, I didn't get around to much this weekend. It's been a gloomy last few days. I'm not sure why either, but I think others have been feeling it too-- despite the gorgeous weather. I think that might actually make it worse.
Friday I was invited out to a picnic and although I wanted to go very badly-- I only had about an hour of warning and had already been trying to do a million things that day. I was all set to cancel my current plans to attend when I realized I was just too stressed and on the verge of tears and really not wanting to leave the house. It was just too much in too little time and so I collapsed under my own depressed state. I also in the midst of all the craziness received some bad news.
For the past couple of days I had been attempting to train two new trainees at Panera. It was an experiment to see how possible it was since we are very short staffed and wanting to get people up and running as soon as possible. Well, I had put a lot of effort and time into getting everything ready and thinking up ways to make it all work. Then I had actually put in the four nights of working with two trainees at once. And I was very tired. As one of my trainees put it-- each night I was essentially thinking for three people at once. It was exhausting.
And right as I was trying to collect myself to rush out the door on Friday-- I get the news that one of my trainees quit. It was just heart breaking. And I almost feel stupid because it mattered so much to me but it did. I immediately burst into tears. I felt like a failure of a trainer and all the stress of training and being tired... it just seemed to have gone to waste. From then on it was just a waste of a day... burried in my own self-depricating pathetic state.
Saturday and Sunday were better although I, of course, regretted not going to the picnic on Friday since I knew I had missed the chance to see my friends. And I pretty much sat in front of the tv both days wasting away. I kept looking out the window-- I knew it was gorgeous outside and I knew that if I could just manage to get up I'd be happy but it just didn't happen. So I spent the weekend glued to the tv (although in the process I did discover a pretty cool movie called Under the Tuscan Sky). It's all this vicous cycle of "I'm tired, I want to rest" but then when you rest you just feel more tired and more in need of resting. I also ate a lot of junk which probably added to my inactivity.
But alas! The weekend is over and I did wake up positive this morning. Despite the storm and the rain squelching my plans to go running (I'll have to post about that one of these days...) I am looking forward to the rest of the night. I have plans to cook and clean and hopefully both of those will happen. And even if I do spend the night in front of the tv wasting away-- at least I don't have the added guilt of wasting a nice spring day with friends. Plus, I will get to see them on Wednesday so it all seems a little more bearable.
I'm stealing this idea from my BFF Kara over at LilMissWisecracker.com! She uses 6 words to sum up her day or her week or sometimes seasons of life. I love the idea because it's perfect for days like this one where I want to post but have nothing to say. So here we go! My 6 word memoir of today!
Heating pad induced sleep cures cramps! :)
Hi friends. I'm sure you're wondering about the title of this post. Or are dreading to read what it could be about, haha.
I have terrible luck. Especially in the medical sense. Almost all of my major sicknesses/surgeries have been a bought of bad luck. Appendicitis, cyst, and the most recent... abscess on my tonsils are all things that occur randomly without any real cause. And I always seem to get these things.
To make matters worse with the tonsil debacle... I'm apparently allergic to penicillin or something in that antibiotic because I broke out into hives about a week ago when I was nearly the end of taking it. But of course that can't be the end of my troubles... The antibiotics strike again and as a result I'm left with a yeast infection.
So.. angry vagina. On top of having my period. Go figures.
