weekend happenings :: 1.13.13

A run today: 3.2 miles to test out my parents sparkling new treadmill. This arrived just in time for marathon training when I will be over here every rainy running day. I had to make it a quickie run so I could get back to laying on the couch and reading magazines watching the Seahawks game.

A run yesterday: 6.3 fah-reezing miles outside in the sunshine. As cold as it was, it was a gorgeous day so it took my mind off the numb hands.




Aforementioned magazines:

Saturday night babysitting:

Saturday morning run - soaking up those sun rays!:

 

Friday marathon training prep:

What did you do this weekend? Also, I need to hear how you deal with running in the winter elements!

thoughtsday

....is all about my vegan eats lately! This year has been easier than the last couple of years, from what I can tell from only 10 days in. I've been staying motivated by reading Scott Jurek's book "Eat and Run." He's been a strict vegan for pretty much the whole time he's been running, so it's nice to read about someone who is doing what I"m doing, x100. Because he runs ultra marathons. And I so definitely do not.

So, here are some recent eats. The pictures may suck, but I have to say that the taste was pretty spot on.

1. Warm black bean salad with sweet potatoes. So dang good - and super quick. I subbed in quinoa and olives and took out the sour cream.

2. Colorful smoothies. In December, I made sure to buy a bunch of bananas, let them get squishy, and then slice them up and pop them in the freezer to have on hand for smoothies and some quick energy. They do not fail to ever play nicely with pretty much anything. I've used frozen spinach, beets, apples, and always add a dash of cinnamon and some almond milk. Mmm.

3. Sweet Potato Surprise. Clearly, I've been sweet on sweet potatoes. This was really good and filling. I threw in some broccoli with the pasta and added sunflower seeds on stop.

4. Oatmeal Banana Bites. Clearly, I can't get enough of bananananananas either.This babies are so easy to throw together, and are great for a light breakfast/snack. Make sure to eat them in 3 days, or else they get moldy because they're pretty moist. I made the mistake of making two batches at once, and we had two leftover that I had to throw away. Try keeping them in the fridge instead, possibly?

2013 goals

A run: 6 miles outside in the suuuunshiiiine.



I've never been much of a New Year resolution-type person. This isn't because I don't think I have any self-improving to work on (ha!), but more that I just like to work on things at my own speed and time. However, I figured this was a good time to really nail down some projects that have been tossing around in my head lately.

Por example: the following. These are items that I would really, really like to see myself do in the near future. Now that I have them out there in e-world and in a more visual way (rather than stewing in my wacky brain), I might pay more attention to them and muster up the due diligence to try them out for myself.

So, hurrrr we go:

1. Make a tangible inspiration board. I really like the one found in that link. I have all the supplies on hand, and it would be easy to switch up the content when a refresher is in order. I need space like this to get my thoughts onto.

2. Properly train for my marathon without injuring myself. My next marathon is the North Olympic Discovery Marathon on June 2nd, and I'm looking into the Hanson brothers training plan. It's way different than my last one, which included three 20-milers. That plan went really well, but I'm totally open for a different plan that I've heard rave reviews of.

3.  World Vision fundraising. I'm looking into this for my above-mentioned marathon training as a way to raise money for mine and Scott's kids that we adopted through World Vision. I'm still figuring out the logistics, but I would be really happy if this pulled through. I'm not the biggest fan of fundraising since I know everyone is so tight on money right now, but I am a fan of doing something with my training that has deeper gratification than, well, finishing a marathon. And killer legs ( and I mean that in the "ow, my legs are killing me because I just ran 473587435 miles in 18 weeks").

4. Remain on my vegan diet until February...and possibly longer.Yeah. HARD. But I've tortured myself by choosing to watch all these "save the earth by stop eating animals" movies as a way to remain motivated for Veganocon and they're not easy to ignore. So I might not, and I will deal with it. We shall see.

Veganocon 2013

A run: Today was a beautiful, albeit freezing, sunny day from start to finish, but unfortunately I was too busy getting dental work done to enjoy it. I trotted out later in the evening for a little over 4 mile run, and it was so nice to see stars!

I have to say, I am over getting a mere 7 hours of daylight a day. I added the "Sunrise and Sunset Times" calendar to my Google Calendar today, and was relieved to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel! January 31st has a sunrise of 7:38am and a sunset of 5:11pm. Totally doable.

Here's my nighttime jogging loot. It's pure joy shedding 18 extra pounds when I return home:

In other, more food-related news, it's January! (Shoot, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I just realized I'm the worst blogger in the world and neglected to do a New Year's post.I'm assuming you're over it. Not that you were ever under it. ?)

The past 3 years I have strapped on my self-discipline and proceeded to put myself on a strict vegan diet during January. It all started because I had shed myself of some sort of less-than-ideal habit every January. This was just supposed to only last one January, until I realized how great I felt, and continue to feel each January.

I realize that while I enjoy being vegan, it is a very difficult lifestyle to maintain. I know that I need to set a goal for myself, such as lasting only a month, or else I don't think it would stick very well when I don't do it 100% based on personal belief (such as animal cruelty).

Long story short, real food makes me feel real good. But that doesn't mean I don't want a blizzard every now and again.

This is my husband's bowl He gets cheese. I do not.

This year, I'm going to really try and plan meals ahead of time so I'm set to deal with my hangry and tired self when dinner rolls around. Breakfast and lunch are pretty easy, since I eat mostly vegan for those meals already, or they require only slight substitutions.

I made the above "creamy sundried tomato soup" tonight, which turned out great. I added pesto, since it's what you do when you make anything with sundried tomatoes.That's Scott's bowl - he thinks he's cooler than me with all his cheese. Little does he know that I accidentally finished off the rest of the pot without him, sans cheese. It was that good.

Have you tried a drastically different diet lately?