Build Your Best Body- entry 10

I took my Franken-sneakers out for my first run, a total of 4 hard non-stop miles and it did great. I even PR'ed for the mile and the 5k for this year.........I need to strengthen a few stitches on the sides, but otherwise, the sneakers worked out beautifully. 

A PR smile!!......I guess it helped that I ran a flat-ish course and did not have any street crossing to stop at or a dog to drag around. 

I made juice of course.....slowly running out of supplies. We have not driven anywhere since Friday due to the storm....maybe tomorrow I will get the nerve and drive to the veggie store 3 miles away.....but for now we have enough left for maybe one day's worth of juice. I make about 50 ounces of veggie/fruit juice daily and my hubby and I share it evenly. If I don't make it he will pick up the ask. 

Making curry chicken dinner with steamed rice, I can smell it simmering as I type.... Dinnertime in 15 minutes. 

Oh, and of course....red wine to celebrate my PR......LOL. 

Snowcation

Today I ran 4 miles and walked an additional 2.6 miles. 

Here are kids sledding in my neighborhood. In walking a few blocks this morning to go peel my son from this fun, fun place made me realize I could run in this!! yes!! All I needed was my Yak Trax. Not one fall, not one slip while running in these. So far in two days I've logged 8 miles in these,  and I've had them for 3 winters now, so they hold up fine. Want to feel invincible? buy one of these and run in them. 

            After 4 miles of running in the snow I got back home pumped! My daughter had wanted to go walking to the supermarket (1.3 miles away). We geared up, grabbing reflectors and a flashlight and walked. This was the gorgeous sunset we saw on the way there. We walked back in the dark. I am a huge believe in reflective wear and flashlights now...I am pretty sure my life has been made tons safer by just wearing them. My daughter thought the reflective vest looked like I was wearing a bra over my jacket. "Safety over fashion", I told her.

Amphipod Xinglet Reflective Wear

It was getting dark....but after my 4 miles, Mamacita and I walked to the market and back, a total of 2.6 miles. She was a real trooper. 

Got back home and made the family some Seared Lemon Shrimp. 

We had to make a triple batch of Amy's Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies, they go pretty fast. Here is the online link to the blog that has the recipe. Granted mine have a "rough" look to them, probably because I had to substitute some items seeing as I could not go out and get them in the storm. But the cookies are delicious. Thank you Amy's Heathy Baking Blog at http://amyshealthybaking.com 

Looks like the snowcation will continue.....

Build Your Best Body- entry 9

We are ready for the 'storm of the century'. Yes, That is guava you see....I have some great news...I'm 5.8 lbs down since I started my 'primarily plant-based eating plan. 

Went to Target and this was the bread aisle. I then went to Safeway supermarket and just had to laugh at their inflated fruit prices....Thank goodness for the new Korean supermarket in my town. I can buy $50 worth of veggies and fruits for only about $30. 

I ran 4.10 miles in the blizzard....proud to say I was the only runner out there. The fast growing snow did a number on my butt muscles...I had to literally kick forward with each new step to clear the snow before me for the last 2 miles. 

Thank you Yak Trax. Not one slip, not one fall....

Build Your Best Body - entry 8

 

A big storm is approaching and we have school off again tomorrow....went to buy some essentials...LOL. No seriously.... as health conscious as I want to be, we all need some wine every once in a while.

          Nora told me she was not feeling too hot and was coughing a bit. She surprised me by asking me for a juice. So you see! she has been listening to me blab on about the benefits of juicing....She told me she did not want all the normal things I usually put in mine, instead, she wanted a simple carrot-apple juice. That's it....carrots and apples.

 

Here is her juice, it's probably about 14 ounces...she drank it all up after dinner.

 

Now time to make my juice for the night!!

Build Your Best Body -Entry 7

 

Ready for juicing this morning.....I see bock choi, ginger, apple, lemon, carrots.... 

I missed a few days of posting so from now on I am calling each post an "entry" and not list them as if they are consecutive days. 

Best thing that happened today was that  ran for 5 miles on a new route while Nora was at her gymnastics class. I was perfectly bundled for the run and it felt great. I even had a PR on the fastest mile for this year, or so my Garmin tells me.

 

This is how I pack mangoes to take to work with me....no matter what it's not a pretty sight to see me eat a mango. 

Packing my lunch and snacks for work and after-school saves me from buying any emergency outside food.

Build Your Best Body- day 6

Did five non-stop running miles in the pouring rain last night with my dog, Brad...got back home at 11:30pm completely drenched and feeling amazing. This one run was so painless, it got me thinking. Perhaps all the fruit and veggie juices from the past week have been helping my joints, or maybe the 4.5 lbs I have lost from my "primarily plant-based" eating has helped me feel less tired, OR......maybe, just maybe it's Zumba. I've always been dead set against cross-training, yet, I have the sneaky suspicion that doing Zumba once a week has helped my other less-used muscles give me more overall stability and strength. 

Today I took Nora to the Alexandria Animal shelter, about 15 minutes from my house. No, we are not looking for any new pets right now. We already have four pets, a parrot, 2 cats and a dog. But Nora loves to pet animals and so we go often, as often as we can I should say. Here is one of the fur babies we met. His name is Diego and he is a chihuahua/pom mix and he was just the sweetest. Loving animals is one reason I am doing this 'primarily-plant-based eating plan, so I only thought it appropriate to share one of the animals.

Tonight's juice has a handful of kale, another handful of dandelion, 10-13 carrots, 1 ginger chunk , 1 small beet, 2 apples, 1 lemon and 1 small bok choi bundle.

Here is little momma, again, helping me make my juice.

I bought myself new sneakers! Here is a very crappy quality picture of what they look like. 44mm toe to hell drop (like the one I run in) and just amazing.....Can't wait to run in it tomorrow.

The day has been dark, broody and blah....great weather for reading in bed!! yes!!

Build your best body- day 5

     I was lucky enough to have a special helper tonight. She is even helping me type this post. My sweet little momma, age 8, asked to help me cook today!!! We cut-up veggies to make several salads to last a few days. The salads had a nice mix of sliced carrots, a handful of sprouts, diced tomatoes, shredded kale, canned black beans, and spinach leaves. Nora helped rinse and separate the beans into the 3 salads. 

Now....let's just hope daddy does not go in there and eat all of our salads. 

           Here she is....learning how to use the juicer. She was being super careful. First we juiced the greens on HIGH and then all other veggies on the LOW(er) setting. Today's juice had a whole lemon, a piece of ginger, two apples (one red and one green), tons of medium carrots, a handful of kale, some dandelion, and a medium beet. Below are the veggies prior to juicing. 

Hey!! she even got to drink her own glass. She says, "It's sweet!". 

Build your best body - day 4

Build your best body- day 3

We make sure to have the fruit basket always filled with fun, easy to eat fruits. This idea actually came from my mom. When we go to visit her in New York, and all through our childhood, we've always have a FULL basket of fruit. Now we just adopt that idea and we too have a basket full of fruit on the dining room table....for snacks. 

Running tonight and taking a juice to drink with me right after my run, as a 'recovery drink'. This one has 10-15 carrots, a thumb of ginger, a bunch of dandelion, one lemon, two small apples, parsley, kale and one small beet.

And pouring out some yumminess to drink before running tonight.Now I am sitting here typing this and sipping away at my juice. 

I thought it was really cold out and layered with two pants... went back inside and changed into one pair.....but....once we drove to gymnastics it had started snowing. First snow of the season. The wind picked up and I got really chilly, so I drove back home to again, put on two pants. All this running around ate up my running time, so I ended only running 2.4 miles. A bit disappointing, but a few miles is better than none. Plus, tonight was absolutely gorgeous. Where we live is very dark and we could see every star in the night, with the exception of some fast moving clouds covering them here and there due to the extreme wind. I think I will get up in the morning and do two more. It's Zumba day tomorrow, so I don't want to be too much in pain....but two easy miles might not be that bad.

Build your best body- day 2

I am packing my lunch for today. I have a juice I made yesterday. Also I have a green salad, three mangoes, one tangerine, one avocado a hearty veggy salad and a fruit salad. This  pretty much held me all day. I ate the last 2 avocados when I got home at 4pm, and boy are they filling. 

Dinner was two sautéed carrots, 1 head of garlic chopped, 1 small chopped onion, two small chopped zucchinis, and 1 celery stalk, chopped. I sauteed the garlic and onions separate so I could really get them crispy, added a great flavor to the other, less-cooked veggies. 

Made juice from 15-19 small carrots, 1/4 of a cabbage, 1 lemon, 4-6 kale leaves, a bunch of dandelion, 4 celery stalks, and half a beet. I split this with my husband who also makes and drinks juice daily. 

It's a delicious drink....a bit bitter from the lemon, but also sweet from both the apples and the carrots. 

Prepared my salads for the next three days...if my family does not get to them first. One of the nice side affects from doing this is that one of my kids now likes eating salad. My 11 year old saw my salads in the fridge and asked if he could have one. Of course....!!! you mean I don't have to twist your arm to make you eat veggies?? 

My friend Jenna came over to do some yoga this evening... I've got some work to do... :(