A Cold? No Thanks!

I had a few germs threatening to take over a couple of days before last week's Island Girl. Beginnings of a cold, hint of a sore throat, low grade fever. No thanks, not interested.

 

I have a few favourite ways to nip that stuff in the bud - lots of rest, lots of water, let the fever do the work of killing germs, and watch my nutrition. My absolutely favourite go-to foods when I'm feeling under the weather are Terminator smoothies from Booster Juice (berries, bananas, orange juice, echinacea) and bowls of yellow dal from my favourite Indian place. It might be all in my head, but there's something about the comforting warmth of soft lentils stewed with turmeric, garlic and spicy peppers that does the trick every time.

 

So by race day, I looked like this:  



 

5.5K and smiling. The lady in pink looks pretty happy too!

 

Thumbs up for my daughter (and my son, further back on the beach)

The germs threatened to make a come back the day after the race, but after a good night's sleep, a Terminator smoothie and a bowl of dal, I felt as good as new. Fingers crossed that I`m really over this!

 

What are your favourite tricks for warding off a cold?

 

This week's recap -

 

Took things easy at the beginning of the week - walked the dog a few times but that`s all that my tight calves and tender shins would allow. Time for new shoes!

 

Rest of the week - got the the gym for a circuit and abs workout, down to the track for a few slow laps, did a 3K run around the neighbourhood, and took the kids to the park a couple of times to shoot hoops. My son and I love to play one-on-one, and all of a sudden, my daughter is tall enough to sink shots herself! We had so much fun getting out sweat on - fabulous!

WOOHOO!

 

 

Love the after-dinner trips to the park at this time of year. Any time the weather is nice, actually.

 



My Week in Salads

After the stress-eating debacle of last week, I decided that I should make an effort to pack myself with nutrition. One of my favourite ways to do this is via a big salad filled with chopped up bits of everything that catches my eye. I love how nourished but light and and energetic I feel after eating a meal-sized salad, especially when I have it for dinner before an evening workout.

However, I frequently fall out of the habit of having a salad for dinner or lunch, so this week is dedicated  to reestablishing a good habit. And I thought I'd better take a daily picture to encourage myself to actually do this, but also make sure that I have enough variety in my bowl, rather than throwing together the same mix every day as I tend to do...I'm a pretty lazy cook, unfortunately. 

So - here's this week's exercise and salad recap:

Saturday - Stella and I reran C25K W2 Day 2 (2.4K), and later went for a walk to the dog park (2K round trip).

Sunday - Reran C25K W2 Day 3. Salad for lunch:

Sunday: 4 packed cups of baby greens, brocolli stalk, cucumber, tomatoes, dried cranberries, almonds, apples and a wee bit of cheese

Later - out to my inlaw's for dinner and a 2.4K dog walk down by the lake.

Pretty. Extra points if you can spot the CN Tower.

Monday: Curves workout + boot camp #11 for the year (230 assorted crunches + 100 side leg lifts + 50 pushups) + 300m in the pool + walk the dog 1K. A very slow & tired 1K. Today's lunch:

Monday: baby greens, chick peas, carrots, celery, tomatoes, almonds and a wee bit of cheese.

Tuesday: Rest day! Very short dog walk. Today's lunch:

Tuesday: baby greens, veggie chick'n strips, celery, brocolli, apple, orange and peanuts. No cheese today.

Wednesday: Dog park (2K round trip), C25K week 3 run 1. Run 90s, walk 90s, run 3 min, walk 3 min, repeat. Oh my. Running for 3 minutes non-stop was OK. Doing it a second time a few minutes later was tough. Doesn't help that I'm still fighing the tail end of my cold and that breathing in cold air was uncomfortable. Today's lunch:

Wednesday: baby greens, strawberries, chickpeas, almonds, cucumbers

And today's sunset. Which pleasantly was happening after 6pm. Days are getting longer!

Thursday: Dog park walk (2K), Zumba + Curves + boot camp (300 crunches, 40 leg lifts, 3 mins on stairstepper, 50 pushups, 35s plank). Tonight's dinner:

Thursday: baby greens, tomatoes, cucumber, veggie chick'n strips, pumpkin seeds

Friday: C25K week 3 run 2. Haha - I didn't even need to tell Stella that we were going out - she flew to the front door as soon as she hear me zip up my running jacket. Good news - this was a much better run than two days ago. My cold must be getting better! Tonight's dinner:

Friday: baby greens, apples, celery, blueberries, beets, pecans and pumpkin seeds

I have to say - I did find that committing to having a salad for a meal every single day felt a bit restrictive in terms of meal planning.

But I feel fantastic - I lost the donut weight that I put on last week, I have a ton of energy, and I really enjoyed the challenge of seeking out more variety than I typically put in my salad bowl. And this was just with what I had on hand. It's got me thinking about what I can put on my grocery list this weekend to make next week's salads even more varied.

I also feel like this was the first time in a long while that I consisently achieved 7-10 servings of fruit & veg every day. Good all around.

Anyone have favourite (vegetarian) combinations to recommend? How is your nutrition these days?

Seriously - Step Away from the Cheese

We went away for the weekend at the beginning of this week to spend a couple of days staying with good friends. We have a great time when we get together - they are good friends, amazing hosts, have a very comfortable home, a lovely dog, wonderful kids - and a big yard for everyone to go outside and play.

There is the slight problem that these friends are amazing cooks, who use fresh, natural ingredients in everything that they make. This is a problem? Well - I find myself eating far too much when we're there, and doing a lot of nibbling in between meals. Pickles, fresh fruit and raw veggies are always in reach, however, I find it alarming to notice how much reaching I do for the high-fat foods on the table - this weekend, it was cheese, cream cheese, homemade guacamole, cashews...and more cheese.

I ate so much cheese that I had to sign up for a 5K! My son is going to join me for this one :-)

The result? I'm writing this a few hours after getting home and I'm feeling anxious. Really, really anxious, and I'm having a hard time figuring out why. A small part of it might be feeling guilty for having lost my self control around tempting foods - but I don't think that's really it as I have come to realize that days like these are minor setbacks that I can work off in the days ahead. I think I'm having a crash after eating so many high fat foods in such a short time. Wonder if there's anything to that. 

Lesson learned? I hope so. I feel seriously awful.

OK, Jennifer - repeat after me - Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

The good news? My gym has started their own version of The Biggest Loser. I've publicly committed to trying to lost 10 pounds over the next 3 months. Let's see how I do...!

Here's a recap of this week:

Saturday - Curves workout, then jumped in the car with the family to go out of town for the weekend.

Sunday - Spent the day lounging with our friends before driving back home in the evening. Very relaxing weekend - but (as above) paid hard for it on Sunday evening.

Monday - Stairs to 7 in AM; Curves workout after dinner.

Tuesday - Nothin' much today. Running late in the AM, too busy to get away at lunch (sigh), school open house in the evening. Try again tomorrow.

Wednesday - Stairs to 7 in AM; short walk and stairs to 7 at lunch.

Thursday - Stairs to 7 in AM; short walk at lunch; Zumba Curves after dinner. SO FUN!

Friday - Stairs to 7 in AM; blasted the Gipsy Kings after dinner and gave my daughter a 10-minute Zumba lesson in the kitchen. Talk about fun :-)

What I'm reading this week: Just After Sunset, short stories by Steven King. Pure brain candy.

Do you eat enough plants?

Kids and I grew a watermelon - in our shady Toronto backyard!
It wasa teeny but tasty. October 2010

I've been a vegetarian for 20 years, but until recently I didn't eat enough plants. I ate a lot of carbs, a lot of cheeeeeese and a lot of treats. Surprise, surprise - I put on a lot of weight. 

I've overhauled my diet in the last two years and definintely eat a more balanced diet. I regularly struggle with keeping on track after so many years of bad habits, but overall I'm eating well.

Meanwhile - my children are also vegetarians, and I've always made sure to feed them well even in the days when I wasn't taking as good care of myself. We talk a lot about nutrition and healthy eating, and I hope I'm giving them the tools to make good choices about what they eat.

So far, so good. My favourite part of summer is watching the kids go out to the garden to snack on the fruits and veg that we grow in our teeny back yard. We don't have a lot of space, but we've made room for a raspberry bush, a blueberry bush, a strawberry patch, an apple tree and a cherry tree. Every spring, I also have the kids choose a plant or two that they want to grow. This year, they planted snow peas, cucumbers, carrots and watermelon in addition to the tomatoes and red peppers that I planted. All of this variety means that from May to September, there's always something ready to be picked and nibbled on.

Ahhh summer. You seem so very far away. Oh well. Winter gives me time to plan out the changes that I want to make in the flower gardens in the spring :-)

Here's a recap of this week:



Last raspberry of the season - October 2010

Saturday - Curves workout in the morning; took the kids swimming for an hour in the afternoon.



Sunday - Nothin' much. Cleaned the house, then subway'd it downtown with my sister-in-law to catch a performance of Wicked. Great show!!!

Monday - Stairs to 7 in AM; 1.1K walk and stairs to 12 at lunchtime.

Tuesday - Stairs to 7 in AM; 1K walk and stairs to 12 at lunchtime; Curves workout after dinner. Parked the car a few blocks away from the gym so got in a 6 block round trip walk in too.

Wendnesday - Day off. 1K walk at lunch.

Thursday - Stairs to 7 in AM, 1.5K walk and stairs to 7 at lunch. Curves workout after dinner.

Friday - Stairs to 7 in AM, 1K walk and stairs to 7 at lunch. Starting to get bored with this routine so better start shakin' things up a bit. Good news - only 2 more weeks until the skating rinks open!

What I'm reading this week: The Girl Who Played with Fire. Looks like I'll be reading the entire series.