Snow, Exercise, and Food

Today is April 14, 2013. I thought for sure I would have been out on my motorcycle by now! I couldn’t have been more wrong. Spring is no where to be found here in Minnesota.  We’ve had snow, followed by more snow, and then snow. Today we had a little remix of snow, ice, and rain. Make it stop!!

Enough whining. So, what have I been up to? Well I’m still working on training for The Color Run 5K in July. I did a preset workout on my treadmill today called the Maui 5K. It varies the incline to be similar to the actual three mile course in Hawaii [wish I were in Hawaii] and I’ll continue training indoor until the weather cooperates. I worked out listening to Classic Rock on Pandora. It is a nice way to keep a pace steady. Anyone else run to a Pandora station? Suggestions are welcome.

Another change that hubby and I have made is to our diet after watching Forks over Knives documentary. There are a couple of health issues hubby has wrestled with and we are not a fan of popping pills so dietary changes seem like a good course to try. We picked up the book The Engine 2 Diet to follow the 28 day meal plans based on a plant strong diet. We are two weeks in and liking it!

Here are a couple of meals we’ve had lately.

Tomato soap, salad with lots of sprouts, and open faced refried bean sandwich

Plant strong pizza with almond/soy cheese

This is quite a bit of a change from our previous lean meat and dairy diet and takes some planning. Hubby made me a chalkboard for the kitchen. Love it!!

Meal planning!

I’ve been really encouraged by Trobairtiz‘s other blog Trobairitz Table d’hote | A  Motorcyclist’s Adventures with Vegan Cuisine. Great resource for more recipes. Yay!

Sidelined

Well, my wonderful visit with my daughter and grandson ended last week. *Sigh* Then I proceeded to somehow perforate my tympanic membrane a.k.a. burst eardrum. No earache. No fever. No cold. No symptoms. No clue as to how or why it happened. Baffled the doctor. So I got that going for me …

For now training for the 5k has come to a crawl. Too much movement bothers my ear; which according to the doctor could take up to three months to heal. I feel like I’ve been sidelined. Not giving up though. I tried a walking incline program on the treadmill. That seemed to go okay. So until I can jog without feeling like I’m jostling my inner ear I’ll do a walking incline.

Here’s a picture of the little guy all bundled up! He loves sledding!!

Taking my grandson sledding!

P.S. I made the Panda hat for him 🙂

How to Reinvent Yourself

Did I get your attention? Do you ever think things will never change? Well mark the calendar. One year from now you will have replaced 98% of all the atoms in your body. True Story. Every five days your stomach lining is replaced. Your skin replaces it’s self approximately every month … your liver in six weeks … and your skeleton in three months. Now that is change!

Got your body covered. What about your mind? “Be careful what you think because your thoughts run your life” is an old Proverb I read frequently. Did you know we have about 50,000 thoughts a day and today’s thoughts are about 98% of the same as the day before. So, unless I intentionally stop and/or change my thoughts nothing is going to change.

I recently started training (way early) for The Color Run 5K that takes place in July using the C25K app. Why so early? Because I didn’t think I could do it. BUT, I put this up on the white board next to my treadmill, “Quit thinking why you can’t and start thinking why you can!” I just completed week 8 of training which consistes of a five minute warm-up, jog 28 minutes then a five minute cool down. Yup. Something I’ve never EVER done in my life and I’m old (getting closer to 60 than 50). What changed? My mind.

Image source: unknown (found on Pinterest)

 

How I think I look and reality!

For me, there is so much truth in these images! I’m still laughing.

I’m still plugging away training for the Color Run in July. I’m using a treadmill and the C25K app. I’m determined to keep at it no matter what I look like (see above photo). I’m also looking for healthy recipes. Do you have any to share??

Resolutions … yada yada yada

Oh my! 2013 is here and my list of resolutions is still in draft form. One item that is the typical suspect on a New Year’s resolution list is exercise. The older I get the more I understand the importance of regular exercise. I’m not talking about becoming Ernestine Shepherd, even though I find her story quite motivating, I’m talking about being functionally fit. I’m still working on what that looks like both in exercise and eating healthy. I want to create a realistic plan that will work for me.

In the mean time, I found this list of exercises we’d be better off leaving behind in 2013.

– Jumping on the bandwagon.

– Beating your head against the wall.

– Beating your own drum.

– Dragging your heels.

– Jumping to conclusions.

– Grasping at straws.

– Fishing for compliments.

– Throwing your weight around.

– Passing the buck.

-Repeating excuses.

Seriously. To me, healthy living is at the center of the target for 2013. I don’t think the rest of my resolutions will be successful without it. I’m not standing still while I figure out what will work best for me. I’m working on doing something that points to my healthy living goal everyday. What plans do you have for 2013?