Pass It On!!!

When I started running I had no idea how to properly fuel my body.  I relied on low calorie foods and getting the most food for my calories.  I was doing Weight Watchers and wanted the most food for my points.  I quickly came to realize that those foods were not going to fuel my runs and had to start doing some research.  I found out that the foods I needed to eat were not always going to be low calorie or low fat but were going to have lots of nutritional goodness that my body could use to keep going.  I asked a lot of questions and luckily had patient people in my life that didn't mind the multiple emails asking what to do next.  I figured out some great nutrient dense foods that would give me awesome energy.  I then started running further and longer and had to start looking at what my body needed before, during and after my runs.  I again asked a lot of questions and again was met with a lot of patience and great answers.  I was also given lots of little samples of things to try before I went out and spent a bunch of money on things I might not like.  I was and still am grateful for all of that.

Last night a friend who has started going to a boot camp class asked for some advice and I was so very happy to be able to share some of what I have learned.  I sent her some treats to try today and she liked them.  She jokingly said that she would pay me to make more of the little bars I sent.  I love helping people and love that I can finally be someone that people come to when they have exercise and nutrition questions.  I definitely don't know it all and need to practice more of what I preach but I have come a long way over the past 3 years and would certainly make the old Selena sit up and listen.  I think she would be very shocked and maybe even a little proud:)

Who Knew?

I think everyone knows I have struggled to find my motivation to work out over the past few months.  I have been better than my pre-running days but have slacked a lot and struggled to get back out there.  I knew I needed to change things up a bit and perhaps find a new exercise to throw into the mix.  I still really love running and the way I feel during and after but I'm having a hard time remembering that in the wee hours of the morning when I need to get up.  Add to that the fact that Adrian doesn't get home from work until 10:30pm most nights and I just haven't been getting out as much as I should.  Tonight I decided to get my running clothes on and run the track at the high school where Adryanna has her soccer practice.  She practiced, I ran, it was wonderful.

The thing that no one knew was that I might actually like swimming.  I really suck and have never been taught how to swim properly but how hard is it really?  Oh yeah, really hard.  Luckily the basic motions are not rocket science and I can get by.  I learned this weekend that swimming burns incredible amounts of calories and who can complain about an exercise that is in water and keeps you somewhat cooler.  I decided that through the summer I will play around with swimming lengths at my mother in law's house every chance I can get and in the fall I will look at lane swimming times at the YMCA.  We'll see where things go from there.  I have never aspired to be a swimmer and certainly don't envision myself doing crazy things like triathlons (you have to ride a bike for that, bikes and I don't really get along well).  For now I will enjoy my new activity and see where it takes me.

Our garden is doing very well still and we have started to get cherry tomatoes ripe enough to eat.  We cut down one bunch of celery but will wait a few more weeks for more.  The stalks aren't very thick yet but they taste good.  Our broccoli was delicious and there are a few baby heads of broccoli growing now.  Pretty soon I will be having toasted tomato sandwiches with homemade mayo(Adrian makes it so much better than the store) for lunch.  I'm super excited for that!!!

Gardener Extraordinaire!

Back in May we ordered a giant bag of black earth and went shopping for plants.  We have lived in our house for 5 years and every year I have planted a veggie garden.  Most years that garden has half succeeded.  This year I was determined that it was going to be awesome.  I did a bit of research but went mostly with the knowledge I have from my grandfather.  He lived three minutes from where we do now and he had the most beautiful gardens imaginable.  Armed with the memories of his gardens I decided what I wanted to plant and off we went.  I think I mentioned in a previous post what we planted but in case you missed it (or I am wrong) we planted: cucumbers, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, broccoli, celery, peppers, swiss chard, snow peas, yellow beans and left from previous years we have raspberry and blackberry bushes.  When we were finished we had teeny tiny little plants in the garden.

Teeny Tiny!

I've spent the last two months checking and watering those plants and tonight I am pleased to say everything has done quite well.  The only problem we have had are pests.  Something has eaten my snow peas to the point that they are not going to produce anything and something stole three out of our four broccoli plants.  Everything else is beautiful.  We will be eating most of our veggies from the garden for the next few weeks.  We had yellow beans yesterday and when I looked tonight there are enough for us to have them again on the weekend.  The broccoli that didn't get stolen is just about ready to pick and I understand we will get a little more from it once it's cut.  The celery is almost ready to start using it and I've had several salads from our lettuce.  Last night I made a swiss chard and quinoa dish to take for lunch today.   I'm looking forward to all the wonderful tomatoes to ripen.  This year I am going to can some and have Adrian make some sauce that we can use all winter long.  Of course several tomatoes will have to be used to make toasted tomato sandwiches!!!!

Here's the broccoli now:)

 I'm very happy with my gardening adventures and have learned a lot for next year.  The broccoli leaves got quite large so I will have to give them a bit more room next year and I planted my tomatoes a little to close together.  I learned that beans do much better at the back of my yard as opposed to the side where I have planted them in the past.  Usually they don't get very big and they get burnt.  This year with more shade they have beautiful green leaves and loads of beans.  The rest I'm growing for the first year and they have grown perfectly.  I often joke that my grandpa lives in my backyard guiding me while I do these things.  I suppose if you think about it most of what I know about gardening comes from spending time with him in the summers so even though he is no longer with us his knowledge lives on:)

It's been an interesting couple of weeks around here!  Christina is not slowed down at all by her broken leg and is getting more and more adventurous by the day.  She has now decided that it's a good idea to walk on her cast despite the fact that it is not a walking cast and she has been told not to walk.  She was at the doctor yesterday for a referral to a local orthopedic surgeon and her doctor thinks she might be just about ready to have the cast off.  We see the orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday morning and hopefully will leave with a castless kid.  I will be so very happy to have her back on two legs again and to be able to give her a nice long bath! We've been doing sponge baths and washing her hair very carefully but she is three and it just isn't cutting it!

I am proud to say that I have increased my distance running and next weekend will be running a 5k with no worries about whether I can do it or not.  I'm so very frustrated with myself for letting my distance get so low.  A year ago I ran 21.1k!  I should be able to run that still but I got lazy.  Lesson learned and I will not be making that mistake again!

I have been eating lots of new foods.  Not a lot of new recipes but I try something new every chance I get. I have caved in the pop department but only a couple of times.

Two more weeks of work and then a vacation week.  I am so looking forward to the time off and the break from the routine.

Boy oh Boy!

Well life sure does have a way of getting interesting!  Last weekend Christina broke her leg again!  Yep that's right Again!  Almost two years ago she broke her right leg and now she has broken her left.  It is making for quite the interesting time.  When she broke it before she was much smaller and easier to get around.  She was also much more content to just sit and play or colour.  Now she is much more active and getting her to stay still is proving hard.  When it happened I envisioned a month much like last time where we would have dinner, hop in the stroller and head out for a nice long walk before it was bedtime.  This time we only have an umbrella stroller and she is very uncomfortable in it which means she does not want to be in it. I am on the hunt for a jogging stroller because they allow the kids to stretch their legs out a little more.  Hopefully if I find one nice and cheap she will be more content in it and we can get out more.

As for all of my goals things are going fairly well.  I have not made a whole lot of new recipes but have worked on more variety to what I am making.  This morning for example instead of just plain eggs we had an omelette made with mushrooms, green onion and peppers.   I added a tomato slice to it and it was fantastic! I have been a bit slack on the exercise because I had a really wicked allergy flair up and just didn't feel like doing anything.  I actually went to the doctor because I was so plugged up I thought I had an ear infection.  He assured me that I was okay and that it was simply a really bad year for allergies.  I started taking some allergy medication and have been getting a little better each day.

This coming week I am hoping to get up most mornings and either walk or run plus go for a walk each night. Only four weeks until the cast comes off and hopefully stays off!

A Great Month

I just realized that it's been a couple of weeks since I wrote last!  Things are going along quite well.  I am running a little bit longer each time, not much but a couple minutes here and there.  I didn't do a lot of running this past week because I have been fighting a cold or allergies that have left me pretty exhausted.  I still made it out a couple of days though and felt great.  I am looking forward to this week.  The weather is going to be perfect in the morning for running.

As for new recipes I missed making one last week because I didn't make dinner on Sunday.  This week I made something new but it wasn't really a recipe.  My youngest stepdaughter, Ashlee, is a vegetarian and we were having burgers yesterday.  She said a while ago that she had used a portabello mushroom to replace a burger so that was this weeks new thing.  I made her one on Saturday when the rest of us had sausage and yesterday Adrian made her one to replace the burger.  Adrian's turned out better because he marinated it longer.  I had a taste of it and it was delicious.  I can see me using them in the future for myself!

Overall it's been a good month.  I am back to a routine of exercising and now that the weather is good it's a lot easier to eat well too.  The market is starting to get more fresh, local fruits and veggies too.  There is nothing better than good local food.

It was a long weekend here in Canada and the weather was perfect.  We got the garden all planted and the pool is almost full.  Summer is right around the corner (although it feels like it's already here) and it's going to be  a great one!

The Terrible Things Running Has Done!

It's been two and a half years since I started running and it has done some terrible things to me!!!  Okay so not really but when I started I heard all the things that were bad about running.  You know the usual "you're going to kill your knees", "People die running marathons you know?" (people die from sitting on the couch eating chips too), "My uncles, friends, cousins, grandfather ran and now he needs a hip replacement".   I heard it all.  I ignored it all and chose to hear the people telling me all the good stuff.

Last summer I ran my first half marathon.  The training was hard, long and exhausting.  I completed that half marathon in 3:17 and lived to tell about it.  I lost three toenails which have just finally grown back to looking like nothing ever happened.  I was so proud of my accomplishment and still am.  What I didn't do is keep up my distance or frequency of running when that half marathon was over.  Now I am back to short distances but building that back up.  Wednesday morning was my best run in a very long time and it finally felt like I was going to be able to get back to longer distances.  While I was on the last 500m or so I started thinking about all the things that have changed since that first hellish 10 minute run that I thought was going to kill me.  I decided to share some of the reasons I fell in love with running as well as some of the things I have learned since becoming a runner!

1.  I have become a healthier mom and better example to my girls.
2.  I have learned that the sunshine is beautiful while it is coming up at 5:30am in the spring and equally as beautiful when it is setting at 5:30pm in the cold winter.
3.  I have learned that I will not freeze to death in subzero temperature, while snow is blowing horizontally at me.
4.  I have learned that it can feel hot during the coldest days of winter.
5.  I can now run across a parking lot in fancy shoes, during a rain storm, and not be out of breath when I get inside.
6.  Running has helped me find who I am and has been a silent friend when I needed to vent.  People say that running is better than a good therapist.
7.  Running has made me a more confident person who is more willing to speak up for the things I believe.
8.  I have learned that I am stronger and more determined than I ever thought.

I'm sure the list could go on forever but I'll leave it there.   What has running taught you?