Apples to Pecans

Feliz Navidad!  Well, almost.  I don't have to work again until Monday--woohoo!  I went on a very chilly 4 mile run yesterday morning before work.  The trick for me to stay 'warm' is to layer appropriately: running tank top, Under Armor long sleeve shirt, Calvin Klein performance jacket (hey, hey TJ Maxx!) with running capris AND the real kicker is a skiing headband I bought on my very first ski trip with Trinity (8th grade, I think?) and gloves.  If my feet, ears and hands are warm, I'm pretty good to go.  Anywho, after my run I had this bowl of oats that I've been creating in my head for weeks and just now got around to making:

• 1/4 cup oats, almond milk, water
• Cinnamon + splash of vanilla extract
• 1/2 diced honeycrisp apple (I heated it up in the saucepan for about 6 minutes before adding the oats)
• 1/4 cup fat free ricotta cheese stirred in at end
• Ground flax seed
• Walnuts
• Raw honey drizzled on top

The only thing better than the taste was the smell.  It was wonderful!  Lunch yesterday:

Steamed:

• Parsnip
• 2 carrots
• Broccoli

That's it.  No seasonings, just the wonderful taste of steamed veggies.  Keeping it simple is what I prefer sometimes most of the time.

For dinner, I made two meals.  I made a homemade BBQ sauce and poured it over about 3 lbs worth of ribeye meat and let it cook in the crockpot on low for 9 hours.  This recipe is one of Thad's favorites.  This is such a gross picture, but here is the meat in the pot (Thad already hit it up):

I also made potato gratin for his side dish.  I sliced about 4 red potatoes in 1/8 inch slices then put them in a skillet with ~2 cups of nonfat milk, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 pepper, dash of nutmeg, and ~1 tbsp butter.  I let it simmer for about 8 minutes (until the potatoes were tender), then I poured the mixture into an 8x8 baking pan (I coated the bottom of the baking dish with garlic powder), covered it with shredded cheese and baked it at 375 for 30 minutes.  I broiled it for 3 minutes whenever it was done baking.  Again, ugly picture and Thad already got his rather large serving out:

He approved of both dishes and declined a green vegetable.  Oh, well.  For my dinner, I sliced up an acorn squash and convection roasted it at 375 for 30 minutes, flipping half way through.  I seasoned the slices with EVOO, sea salt, pepper and cayenne.  I had also made some bulgur (easiest grain in the world to "cook"...you just pour boiling water over the bulgur and let it absorb the water for 30 minutes, not actual cooking involved).  I took 1/4 cup bulgur and mixed in 1/4 pinto beans, olives, corn, and onion.  Then I topped it with chipotle hot sauce.  As good as it sounded in my head, something was missing...  It needed more seasoning.

The squash was deeeeelicious!

This morning's breakfast was...a fail.  I didn't think that was possible with oatmeal, but it just didn't work for me.  I tried cranberries without sweetening them.  Not a good idea for breakfast.  I heated them up in a saucepan with a bit of water until they looked soft:

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1 tbsp ground flax
• Cinnamon + splash of vanilla
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 3 chopped pecans
• Cranberries
• Drizzle of maple syrup

The cranberries were just way too tart, and the oats were too thick today.  Blah! 

I was able to leave work early today.  I snacked on some peanut butter once I got home (I had to wait for my phone to charge so I could listen to Christmas music as I ran and ended up eating waaay too much), then went on a 14 mile run at a park right down the road.  Don't ask me why.  It was a beautiful day and I felt like running!  I'll admit that it wasn't my best run.  Never, ever fill your stomach with nothing but peanut butter and try to run for 2 hours.  I thought my stomach was going to explode.  Lesson learned!!  Dinner was left overs, but tonight I took 1/4 cup bulgur and mixed it with 1/4 cup pinto beans, olives and sweet onion.  I added a little EVOO, sea salt, pepper and cumin.  Much better combination than last night's.

Thad had leftovers as well.  It's somewhat difficult to cook just enough for two people.  It's even harder to cook a meal we both actually want and not have leftovers!  It's not hard, just requires extra planning.  I did make a pecan pie tonight at Thad's request.  Please ignore the stains on my cookie sheet!  I'm embarrassed by them, but wanted to show a picture of my pie!

Yes, I used a store bought crust, so sue me.  I've made pastry crusts plenty of times before, I was just more concerned about the filling than the crust.  I've been looking at pecan pie recipes for days now and decided to use a recipe from Cooking Light.  I wanted a recipe that used brown rice syrup and not corn syrup.  I didn't make the crust or the cream topping.  Thad loved it!!  Sweet success!  I was a bit leary about his reaction since I used brown rice syrup and I wasn't sure how it would affect the taste.  Apparently, none at all.  I also increased the amount of pecans than recipe called for.  Now that I've found a filling he likes, I'll make the crust next time.  He liked it so much, he told me to make it for Christmas :).

I'm now sipping Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea and about to hit the sack.  I'm a bit tired from my run!  Plans for tomorrow include seeing a movie with my family.  I love all the family time around the holidays!

Busy days behind and ahead

Hello!  Another busy couple of days for me.  UNF grad student orientation went really well.  It definitely calmed my nerves about the situation, and I do think I'm going to go for it.  We'll see how the first semester goes.  Saturday morning I ran 14 miles in two hours and three minutes!  My mile paces were awesome per my Garmin.  The cold weather is definitely working to my running advantage.  I met up with my parents after my run in order to get some work done on my car and to do some shopping.  I ended up spending the night with them last night and went to church at Trinity this morning.  Now I'm back in good ol' Lake City where I've spent my afternoon cuddled up by a fire watching Home Alone 2.  Now to my eats.


Thursday breakfast post yoga:

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• Pumpkin pie spice + splash of vanilla
• Wheat germ
• Cranberries
• Heaping tsp Naturally More peanut butter (found a huge jar of Naturally More at Sam's Club.  I hadn't had peanut butter in months; this definitely hit the peanut butter filled void in my stomach!)

Lunch:

• Spinach Flat Out wrap
• Spinach
• Dijon mustard
• Boar's Head turkey
• Pickles
• Olives
• Big baby carrots + hummus

Snack on my way to UNF:

Dinner (after the looong drive back to LC from Jax):

Leftovers.  I'm still dreaming about this meal.  It looks so random and not visually appealing, but my gosh it was sooo good.  As a matter of fact, I bought two more organic buttercup squash yesterday so I could make this exact meal again.  I buy organic since I eat the skin.

Friday breakfast post 4 mile run:

Breakfast pizza!

• Multigrain Flat Out
• Oikos greek yogurt
• Pom arils
• Bananito (also known as an apple banana, but bananito is so much more fun to say/type)
• Wheat germ
• Agave nectar drizzled on top

Lunch, started out like this:

Pacific Natural Foods French Onion soup that I bulked up with kale and mushrooms.  But, french onion soup needs cheese right?  Enter: mozzarella string cheese (and kashi crackers)!

This soup was good, especially considering the weather (rainy and chilly), but it was soooo salty.  I couldn't even finish it because of the saltiness.  Next time I'll buy low sodium soup.

For dinner, it was Thad's birthday and he requested Manwich sloppy joes.  So that's what I made him.  For me, I made snobby joes using a recipe from Veganomicon.  It used lentils and a homemade sauce instead of beef and canned sauce.  They were delicious!  Here are our two joes next to each other (mine's on the left, Thad's is on the right--he had already eaten):

Plated open face style on an Alvarado Street bakery sprouted grain hamburger bun with zucchini fries:

I didn't snap a picture of Saturday's lunch, but my parents and I ate at Sweet Tomatoes in Orange Park and it was delicious.  For dinner, my mom made chili!!

I absolutely love my mom's chili.  I grew up on it afterall!  I also love those bowls.

Blurry picture of this morning's whole wheat toast with Barney Butter (that I gave my dad and he's yet to use...for shame!  He says he's saving it for a special meal):

That plate was given to me on my first Christmas :)

Lunch:

• Leftover snobby joes
• Zucchini fries
• Mushrooms
• Grape tomatoes
• Spinach

I haven't eaten dinner yet.

I've had a fun, but busy past couple of days and it's only going to get more fun with a short work week and Christmas :).

Cheer up, buttercup!

Happy...Wednesday?  I'm still confused about what day it is.  I guess my mind is elsewhere, like on Christmas presents.  Speaking of, I am officially DONE with Christmas shopping!  I think...  I hope...  I'm still waiting on some gifts to come in from Amazon, but other than that, all the presents are wrapped and nestled underneath my Christmas tree.  I'm in love with my Christmas tree.  I stare at it sometimes and just smile because it makes me happy.  Shimmery things do that to me though :).

Moving on, I did Yoga Sculpt on Exercise TV on Demand this morning.  It was a good work out, good enough to get my blood pumpin'.  Breakfast:

Eggs in a basket!

• Ezekiel toast
• Organic egg beat in ramekin then split between the two holes
• Satsuma
• Delicious

My clinics have received several gifts this holiday season.  One of my clinics received two fruit baskets.  I attacked one of the baskets the day we received it and brought home bananitos, a pear and some raw honey.  I never eat any of the treats at work (and there is always a ridiculous amount of candy, cookies and the like), so I didn't feel any shame in taking some fruit.  Today my doctors were taking the staff out to lunch as a Christmas gift.  I couldn't go since I had to go to Gainesville for a Christmas get together with the other managers.  One of my physicians insisted they get me a gift, so I requested the fruit basket since no one had eaten any of it.  It's been sitting at the clinic for two days and literally almost all of the fruit was still in the basket.  I brought it home with me, but I have to admit that it made me a little sad that no one ate any of it.  My staff complain about wanting to lose weight, then they grab a piece of candy from the lounge.  I don't get it.  The cookies and sweets are replaced as soon as they run out every couple of days, but a huge basket of fruit (actually two) just sat on the table as a centerpiece.  Oy vey.  At least now I have an insane amount of fruit in my house.  For lunch I wanted something "light" since I had plans to go to Napolatanos in Gainesville at 3pm for the aforementioned Christmas party.  Enter: salad.

Some "light" salad right?  That joker ended up being huge!  In the bowl:

• Organic spinach
• Kale
• Grape tomatoes
• Olives
• Mushrooms
• Baby carrots
• Yellow pepper
• Broccoli
• Green Onion
• Relish for 'dressing'

It was delish, but the veggies did their job and filled me up for hours.  I just had a hot tea at the party which was fine by me because the offerings were lots of fried food and creamy pasta.  I don't mind indulging around the holiday season, but I'd rather indulge with family than coworkers.  Also, the atmosphere was cramped (think 30 people in a small room) and I just don't feel the need to eat just because everyone else is.  It's all about eating intuitively.

Once leaving the party, I did snack on an apple from the aforementioned fruit basket.  It was an ambrosia (not nearly as good as the honeycrisps, Steph, but what is?!)

Once home, I cleaned the bathrooms and vacuumed the floors at breakneck speed so I could watch Mickey's Christmas Carol.  I love holiday shows!!  I also whipped up dinner.  I tried a new winter squash.  A very ugly winter squash.  Say hello to an organic buttercup squash:

Not that ugly looking?  Let's take off the sticker:

Pretty ugly, right?  BUT SOOOO DELICIOUS!  I'm considering eating winter squash (squashes?  squosh?) everyday until they are no longer in season.  Ok, so that probably won't happen, but I do have two other squash (squosh?) sitting on my counter, waiting for me.  Tonight, I sliced up this squash, sprayed some EVOO, sprinkled some cumin + sea salt and roasted it at 375 using the convection roast setting on my oven.  I roasted it for 30 minutes, flipping the pieces half way through.  I probably should have let them cook just a wee bit longer, but they were delicious just like they were and made my kitchen smell delightfully sweet.  I topped half the slices with mashed pinto beans and feta cheese.

Random combination?  Oh yes.  Delicious and should be repeated as often as possible?  Oh heck yes.  The sweetness from the squash, the saltiness from the feta and the smoothness from the beans was just a perfect taste combination, trust me--which you'll have to since I know that no one who reads my blog will ever try a buttercup squash, lol.  I actually was after a kabocha squash (not to be confused with my fizzy kombucha tea that I'm slightly obsessed with) which is a type of buttercup squash, also known as a Japanese pumpkin, whenever I bought this buttercup squash.  I haven't been able to find them (kabocha) anywhere, so if you happen to happen upon one in the northeast Florida region, lemme know!

Tomorrow night I have UNF MBA grad student orientation.  YIKES!  I've had some reservations as of late about my MBA.  Driving to Jacksonville two nights a week for the next 3 years (or however long it takes) is my main concern and drawback right now.  I'm hoping that tomorrow night will seal the deal one way or the 'tother for me.

And finally, I haven't talked much about what the Lord has been teaching me lately so I figured I'd end on that note.  I just got done reading through Esther (wonderful book) and I read one line as part of a commentary on Esther that really stuck with me:

God has not placed you in your present position for you own benefit.  He put you there to serve him.

I'm very, very happy where I'm at right now in my life and I thank God daily for it.  But, it's not for my benefit that the Lord has provided me with this great life, it's for His glory.  I need to always remember that this current position and all the blessings He has bestowed upon me are to be used to serve Him.  I find myself wondering why I'm in the position I'm in and why I ended up in Lake City and how can I serve the Lord's purposes when I've never felt called into the ministry/missions and instead work in healthcare (?!), but the Lord's divine purposes aren't for me to know, and I am to serve Him each and every day by "oozing Jesus" as a wise woman I know once said ;).  You never know who may be watching and where you may be planting a seed that could one day sprout into a saved soul.  Sprouts...I didn't eat any sprouts today!  :)

Off to stare at my Christmas tree...

Times Two

All day long I've thought it was Wednesday, even Thursday a couple of times.  Not sure why!  Both yesterday morning and this morning I went on a 4.0 mile run around my neighborhood.  Let me just say I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my Garmin Forerunner!  My average mile pace is around 8:50!  Love it!  The Garmin is definitely going to make me a better runner.  It helps me kick my own butt and RUN, not jog, simply because it beeps at me every mile to tell me my pace.  It's wonderful. I'm going to switch it up a bit and share yesterday's and today's meals together.  As in, here's two breakfasts (yesterday's and today's):

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1/4 cup pumpkin
• Pumpkin pie spice
• Walnuts
• Unsweetened coconut
• Flax
• Apple butter

• 1 mango, diced (YUM)
• 1 tangerine
• Greek yogurt
• Flax
• Almond slivers
• Drizzle of agave nectar

Lunch for the past two days.  The first picture was eaten in my car due to having to be in Gainesville at a four hour meeting right after lunch!

• Ezekiel bread, hummus, sprouts, avocado
• Organic honeycrisp apple

• Zucchini and carrot patty (I mixed together 1/4 cup brown rice, 1/2 grated zucchini, 2 grated baby carrots, 1 egg white, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, 1 tbsp ground flax and a pinch of sea salt, then plopped it on a griddle, flipped it, viola.  Next time I'll add onion and garlic to give it more seasoning.) which I added massive amounts of chipotle hot sauce to post picture
• Broccoli and grape tomatoes with my daily dose of hummus

Dinner last night was left over rib eye roast pieces + potatoes + carrots and peas.  However, the picture is horrid so I will spare you :).  So, dinner tonight:

It was taco night at my house.  I made Thad ground beef.  Mine contained:

• Multi grain Flat Out wrap
• Crock pot pinto beans
• Spinach
• Smidge of avocado
• 1/8 cup reduced fat Mexican cheese
• Yellow bell pepper
• Olives
• Plain greek yogurt
• Salsa (added post picture)

I soaked one cup of pinto beans overnight, then put them in the crock pot this morning with enough water to cover.  I added 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp sea salt, 1/2 tsp corriander, 1/2 tsp onion powder and a datil pepper.  I set it on low for 8 hours.  They turned out wonderful.  I mashed about 1/2 of them and put 1/4 cup in my taco (burrito? wrap?).  Delish.  Why are tacos so good? I could eat them every night.

That's all I got!  Tomorrow is my Christmas party with my bosses and all the other managers that I never get to see except at monthly meetings.  Should be fun!

Busy, busy

December is such a busy month!  There is no doubt that the holidays are the busiest, yet most fun, time of the year.  It can be tiring at times, but I'd rather be tired than bored :).  As I mentioned in my last post, Thursday night I went to my friend's portfolio show in St. Augustine.  We ate dinner at A1A Ale Works.  No picture was snapped at dinner due to the craziness of the night, but I had a salad with mixed greens, Gorgonzola cheese, raisins and pine nuts, as well as a hummus platter.  Lots of Carrie's family and friends had met to eat at the restaurant, but it took a bit longer than planned, so we had to eat quick so we could make it to the actual show.  Carrie is now a bona fide graphic designer, having graduated from Flagler College.  Her portfolio is a 20 (?) page book full of designs she's done for different companies (some mock, some real).  It was so professional looking and well done.  She even won the award for Most Eloquent and Professional Portfolio Presentation.  Well done, Carrie!  Her talent never ceases to amaze me, and I know she's going to be an awesome asset whenever she lands a job.


Moving on to food & workouts.  Thursday morning post-yoga bowl of oats:

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• Frozen banana hunks (melted in sauce pan prior to adding oats)
• Pom
• Flax
• Almond butter

Right before I began making these oats, I opened my kitchen curtain to see my Dad's car parked in my drive way!  He comes to Lake City for work every once and awhile, so he stopped by Thursday morning to deliver a HUGE bag of pecans.  He got the pecans from my Grandpa's farm.  I haven't broken into them yet due to not having a nutcracker (I plan to buy one this week), but I'm excited.  Pecans are expensive!

Thursday lunch:

Tofu stir fry!  This meal was so quick.

• 1/5 block extra firm tofu
• Sugar snap peas
• Onion
• Yellow bell pepper
• Cauliflower
• Mushrooms
• Sesame seeds

Delicious.  I love the charred ends of the veggies!  I just threw all of it in a skillet with some sesame oil and let it do it's thing.  I also added some low sodium soy sauce and ginger.  I had an apple and some tea on the way to St. Augustine, and again dinner went unpictured.

Friday morning post-yoga breakfast:

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1 tsp cocoa
• 1/2 chocolate biscotti
• Wheat germ (haven't had wheat germ in months, it was a tasty change up from flax)
• Sliced almonds

Good bowl, but not one I'd make all the time.  Definitely Friday worthy.  The chocolate coating from the biscotti melted into the oats which made it decadant tasting.  However, this verged on being a bit too chocolatly for me in the morning (I can't believe I just said that!).

Friday lunch...

Sheer brilliance, I tell you.  Greek pizza!

• Spinach Flat Out
• Homemade pesto
• Spinach
• Grape tomatoes
• Banana peppers
• Olives
• Roasted red pepper
• Sun dried tomato
• Artichokes
• 1/8 cup mozzarella cheese

After complied all of that together, I put it underneath the broiler for about 5 minutes, then I sliced it up into little squares for consuming.  Party in my mouth!  Also during lunch, my big Christmas order from Amazon arrived.  Nice timing UPS man!  Included in the big order was my Christmas present from Thad that I ordered myself, but that's beside the point!  A GARMIN FORERUNNER 305!!  I used it on Saturday, more on that in a bit.  *Interesting note: the price has increased on Amazon since I ordered it!

Dinner Friday night was a recipe creation that I threw together at the last minute.  Thad and I weren't sure of our plans so I hadn't planned a meal for the both of us.  No worries.  He ended up making a Reuben (his fave these days).  I made a lentil + brown rice dish:

I cooked the lentils in veggie broth, dill, thyme, S & P for 20 minutes while  I sautéed a green bell pepper from my garden, 1/2 sliced onion and a carrot in a little oil.  Once the lentils were ready, I mixed them with 1/4 cup brown rice and made a dressing of EVOO + balsalmic vinegar + dijon mustard + S & P.  I also sprinkled dill on top.  I served it along side steamed zucchini which I also doused in dill.  Why am I just now realizing how tasty dill is?  YUM!

Saturday morning I woke up at 6:00am to get my long run in for the week.  I read my Garmin user manual from cover to cover on Friday night, so I was prepared to use it.  I wear it on my wrist (like a watch) while I run and it tells me how long I've been running, my current pace, how many miles I've run, and calories I've burned.  It also has GPS and all sorts of other functionality to it that I've yet to master.  It also has a heart rate monitor that I didn't wear Saturday, but plan to wear tomorrow.  Oh the possibilities!  I ended up running 14 miles in two hours and 9 minutes!!!  Once I was nearing the half marathon distance (13.1), I looked down at my Garmin and realized that a sub two half marathon (my goal when I actually run a half marathon race) will be totally attainable.  I actually ran 13.1 miles in two hours and ONE minute!  I realized a little bit too late that I was nearing the half marathon point or else I would have sped up pace to meet that goal.  BUT, considering I was just running at a comfortable pace and was almost to my goal time, I felt GREAT!  Still do!  

After the run, I quickly got ready to meet my parents and brother in Orange Park.  We had shopping to complete, as well as a family Christmas party to attend.  It ended up being a much longer shopping trip than planned due to traffic and the neverending rain, so we made it to our Christmas party late.  We didn't get to eat since everyone was packing up their food, so we visited for a little bit instead.  Afterward (around 3:45ish), we finally got lunch.  It was a good thing, because 14 miles + no food is NOT a good combination for my body.  Enter: McAllister's.

Veggie chili with a whole wheat wrap that was filled with every veggie they offered.  This totally hit the spot.  My parents and brother also got soup and sandwiches.  After lunch and a trip to Wal-Mart, we stopped by the natural food store (did you know Fleming Island had one?  It's called Grassroots, right by the Mellow Mushroom) and I got a fizzy tea!!

I'm an addict.  Passionberry was the flavor.  Wonderful was the taste.  I offered my family a sip, everyone declined!  Not surprised :).  After bidding adieu with my family and driving all the way back to Lake City from Green Cove (we drove all over the place Saturday), I made just what I was craving for dinner:

Roasted broccoli and sweet potato with organic ketchup!  I wasn't overly hungry from my late lunch, but definitely needed something and this was it.

I woke up sore all over this morning from my run.  I think it may be a combination of intense yoga on Friday morning (I've totally neglected my abs lately), the quicker pace of my 14 miles, and the fact that I didn't eat/refuel properly yesterday (not enough protein?) due to the unplanned turn of events of the day.  Anywho, breakfast and coffee were needed:

Diced up Braeburn apple with greek yogurt, wheat germ and agave nectar drizzled on top.  After church (this Lake City church has nothing on Trinity's Christmas decorations!), leftovers were consumed for lunch:

My afternoon was spent making turkey stock (using these directions) with the leftover turkey carcass from our Thanksgiving turkey my Dad made us, wrapping Christmas presents, watching Home Alone (all time favorite movie, hands down) and watching dinner cook in the Crock Pot.  I used more of the beef one of the doctor's gave me.  Last time I broiled it to not-so-good results, so this time I slow cooked it to much better results.

I just made a basic roast type recipe with red potatoes, carrots and onions.  I made a sauce with tomato paste, water, dried parsley, dried thyme and S & P that I poured on the meat before starting the Crock Pot.  It turned out just like you imagine a roast would, except it wasn't a roast.  It's a bunch of rib eye hunks.  I really don't know that much about the different cuts, but my dad is slowly teaching me (by repeating the same stuff over and over again until it finally sinks it what cut is from where and what's the best way to cook it...thanks Daddy!).  I served mine over some spinach in an attempt to get my greens in for the day.  After I snapped this picture and cut into the meat, I quickly traded it in for a different piece.  That piece on my plate had way too much fat in it.  (And Megan, despite what Nourishing Traditions says, I just can't bring myself to eat animal fat...a little is okay, a lot makes me gag.).  Thad loves animal fat, so he'll be happy to eat that piece.

I have a busy week ahead at work.  Tomorrow I have a meeting from 1:00pm-5:00pm in Gainesville.  Yikes!

OOOOH!  Guess what I found out a few hours ago?!  I PASSED MY CODING EXAM.  I am now a Certified Professional Coder.  I didn't blog about the exam which was last Saturday, but it was, in a nutshell, the longest five and a half hours of my life.  I was honestly close to tears a few times because it was so long.  It was 150 questions and 90% of the questions took about 5-7 minutes to look up 5 different codes from 4 different books.  Sheesh.  I'm quite excited that all that hard work has resulted in Shannon Tisdale, CPC.

Back in action

Sorry for the lack of food posting!  Around 8:45am on Monday morning I got a text from my best friend that she was in labor!  About 3 hours later I received a text that my niece (and namesake!!!) Naomi Faye Rollins had entered the world!  As you can imagine, I was ecstatic.  I couldn't focus on anything at work.  I emailed my boss to ask if I could leave early and had to wait 2 excruciating hours to receive a "Sure! Congrats!" email.  I promptly left Lake City and boogied over to Jacksonville to meet my niece!  She's GORGEOUS!  Yes, I'm biased.  She weighed in at 9lbs, 3oz, a whopping two pounds bigger than her big sister, Charlotte!  Mom, Dad, and baby were all doing splendid, and I'm pretty sure went home today.  Be sure to check out Brittany's blog in the next couple of days for pictures!  I'm eager to hear how Charlotte reacts to her new role as big sister.


Before receiving the text, I'd like to say that I did some yoga, went for a run or did some type of morning workout.  However, for the first time in.......a long time, I slept through my alarm!  I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever slept through my alarm!  I always wake up whenever my alarm goes off (6-6:15am).  I might not always bound out of bed, but I do wake up.  Not Monday!  I'm still not sure what happened because my alarm was set and set correctly.  I don't remember even hearing it go off, if I did in-fact turn it off.  Who knows.  Thankfully, my internal clock woke me up at 6:47am and I jumped up!  Breakfast was Becky oats:

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• Handful of frozen blueberries heated up along with the oats
• Dash of salt
• Splash of vanilla extract (~1/2 tsp)
• Ground flax meal
• Frozen blueberries on top
• Spoonful of Becky's blueberry freezer jam

Becky (my sister-in-law) gave me two bags of frozen blueberries a few weeks back.  One bag is from May 2008 and one from May 2009.  These were from 2009 and not nearly as sweet as the ones from May 2008.  She told me it was because there was less rainfall during 2009.  Interesting, no?

While waiting for the go-ahead-and-leave-early email from my boss, I ran home for lunch.  I made a quesadilla or panini, whichever you prefer to call it.  The innards:

• Spinach Flat Out wrap
• Roasted red pepper hummus
• Spinach
• Sprouts (just an FYI my sprouts are a mixture of broccoli, lentil, sunflower, adzuki bean sprouts, not alfalfa.  I get them at Publix.  They're right next to the alfalfa sprouts, and from what I can tell all sold by the same company.  I've read that the mixed sprouts have more nutrients than plain alfalfa.  I like the adzuki beans in them!)
• Sliced mushrooms
• Avacado slices
• Chipotle hot sauce

After taking a press in the foreman:

with broccoli, cauliflower and hummus for dipping.  After visiting my niece, I ran by Brittany's house to drop off some gifts for her that I've had at my house for weeks.  Brittany conveniently lives about 2 miles from Whole Foods, so you know I had to stop in for a TEA:

I love these teas!  I actually found them in Gainesville after my coding exam on Saturday and had one then too.  This is a Superfruits flavor which had goji berry juice, yumberrry and camu camu.  It was delicious because it's kombucha tea, but this flavor was my least favorite.  It didn't have the sweet undertones underneath the vinegar fermentation like the others I've had :).  Once home for dinner, I broiled up some meat that was given to us.  One of my doctors gave me a bunch of beef (long story).  The only problem is we don't know what kind of cuts the meat are, so I'm not quite sure which method is the best way to cook them.  I'm beginning to think that it's a combination of cuts.  I broiled them Monday night since I got home somewhat late from Jax, but next time I'm going to slow roast them or cook them in the crock pot.  Meat tastes best when cooked slow anyway, right Daddy?!

I seasoned the meat with some of my grandma's house seasoning, then broiled it (there was probably around 3 lbs of meat) for 7 minutes per side on high.  It came out tough as leather....  A couple bites were good, but if it takes me a minute to chew something, I won't swallow it.  I figure if my teeth can't handle it, my stomach definitely can't.  Needless to say, only about 1/3 of the meat was edible.  Ahh well, you win some, you lose some!  The brown rice and green beans were good though.  I sprinkled some dried basil on both to liven them up a bit.  Like my festive place mat that's made into some of my pictures?

Yesterday morning I did hear my alarm and set off on a quick 3.3 miles.  I tried to run it quick and finished in 31 minutes.  I can't seem to break 30 minutes.  I'm not too concerned.  I have officially sustained my first running injury though.  During my long runs for the past couple of weeks I've come home to a very bloody sock.  I thought it was just my toe nails scraping my toe (nice mental  picture, right?).  My middle toe on my right foot has been a bit sore and the tip has been a nice purple color for a few weeks, but it hasn't been bothering me other than that.  Well, yesterday morning my sock was bloody again and I realized that my toe nail has broken down to just above my nail bed!  It's still attached, but definitely icky looking!  Luckily my toe nails are painted a pretty pink OPI color so it doesn't look that bad :), and it's not really bothering me either.  Now that I've caused you to lose your appetite, let me show you my breakfast!

Who needs a breakfast burrito from McDonalds when you make your own healthy version at home?!

• La Tortilla Whole Grain Rye wrap
• One egg + one egg white
• Small green pepper from my garden, chopped
• Salsa

DELICIOUS!  And very filling.  Since I didn't get any fruit in at breakfast, I decided to get them at lunch.

Such a pretty salad.  In the bowl:

• Spinach
• One orange, sliced
• Pomegranate arils
• 5 quartered red seedless grapes
• Pecans
• Feta cheese

I pulled out some dressing to use, but ended up not needing it since the orange was so juicy and the flavors were so sweet.  It was a very refreshing salad.  Afternoon snackage was an attempt to get some veggies in:

Baby carrots, freshly ground almond butter, and Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea.  I got that almond butter from the Fresh Market in Gainesville.  I actually ground it myself!  They have a machine that resembles a big coffee grinder that grinds almonds into the butter you see on my plate.  With the flip of a switch I walked out with this:

I give it a week in my house.  It's so good and unadulterated.  For dinner last night, I simply cut a small acorn squash in half and convection roasted it in 1/2 inch of water for about 40 minutes.  Then I stuffed one half with 1/4 cup brown rice and 1/4 cup of leftover southwestern turkey soup (yes, more soup):

Unpretty picture.  Wonderful meal.  It is winter squash after all.  Really the rice + soup combo would have been better stuffed in a bell pepper (it's spicy!), but it was still wonderful.  Would you think less of me if I told you I ate the skin?  Because I did.  I also ate some leftover green beans from Monday night that went unpictured.  I then proceeded to wrap presents, watch a Charlie Brown Christmas, place a huge Christmas order at Amazon, and consequently not blog.  Priorities.

Moving on to today.  I ran another 3.3 miles, then had OATS IN A JAR!

That would be an almost empty Sunbutter jar.  This makes me giggle considering I haven't shown any of the meals I've used this Sunbutter with, yet it's empty.  Truth be told, I've only had it on toast with a few unpictured breakfasts and pre-run fuel.  Other than that, I've just snacked out of it.  Let's disregard the fact that I've had it for less than a week and a half.  At least you know I'm getting my healthy fats.  It's also the consistency of all the natural butters that have oil separation and require stirring.  I'm convinced that every time I mix up the oil + butter in those types of jars, I lose about 1/4 of the volume of the jar.  Oh well!  It made for an awesome breakfast.

• 1/3 cup oats, almond milk, water
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• Dash of sea salt
• 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• Ground flax on top

Best oats-in-a-jar combo yet!  The Sunbutter has a bolder flavor than almond butter (I'm assuming since it has evaporated cane juice added to it).  Work was work.  Lunch was splendid:

• Ezekiel bread with Roasted Pine Nut hummus (yum!), sprouts and avocado
• Kale salad with EVOO + lemon juice, olives, banana peppers and pickles

I decided that Ezekiel bread, hummus and sprouts is my new favorite sandwich combination.  The addition of the avocado was just icing on the cake...or something like that.

Now it's time for dinner.  I didn't have an afternoon snack.  Typically my day consists of breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner, but more than sticking to a routine, I try to eat intuitively, as in if when I'm hungry.  I read a quote that said "if you're not hungry enough to eat an apple, you're not hungry enough."  I ask myself if I'm hungry enough for an apple and go from there as to if I want something to snack on.  Today I ate lunch around 1:15pm so I wasn't overly hungry around "snack time."  I actually don't even have much of an appetite right now at 7:15pm. Not sure what's going on because normally I'm ravenous.  I am going to go eat dinner though, but it's going to be the other half of my squash and more soup so I'm going to spare you a picture.  I should have frozen some of the soup.  You live, you learn!

To go on a little bit more about my normal eating routine, I eat breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack (if I need it) and dinner.  Sometimes I'll have a small dessert (piece of dark chocolate), but most of the time I just have a cup of tea (no caffeine) after dinner.  Tea fills me up just fine--nice trick if you're trying to avoid the late night sweet tooth.  I don't crave sweets like I used to (and we don't really have anything other than dark chocolate or fresh & dried fruit if I did).  I also like to go to bed -slightly- hungry (as in not full) so I'm hungry in the morning for breakfast.  I loathe going to bed with a full stomach.  Tea is the perfect warm treat for me :).

I won't be posting tomorrow as I'm going to St. Augustine for another best friend's senior portfolio showing.  Carrie is graduating from the graphic design program at Flagler (YAY!) and tomorrow night is the culmination show of all of their efforts!  She's worked so hard and so long in her program.  I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see her portfolio.  Funny thing about Carrie and me, we grew up together and have been friends for over 16 years (that makes me feel old..) but are complete opposites.  I was a political science major, she did graphic design.  I can't draw a heart, she can design book covers.  But, I can't wait to see and support her tomorrow!  Needless to say, it's going to be a late night for me.  Lake City -> St. Augustine -> Lake City.

See you when I see you!

Weight Loss

Instead of posting a normal weekend recap, I thought I'd post on a subject that I've been planning for a while.  As you may or may not know, in the past four months I've lost close to 30 pounds (if I knew anything about computers and their programs, I'd add a before and after picture...).  With the holidays here and gatherings to attend, I've seen lots of people who I haven't seen in months, and I've received lots of comments on my weight.  I believe some people think I'm not eating (if you're reading this, you obviously read my blog and know what I eat on a daily basis!) or that the weight loss is potentially attributed to all the running I've been doing.  Personally, while I do think the running has helped some, I believe it's more attributed to my eating style.  I've mentioned before that I used to run 2 miles everyday and didn't experience any weight loss.  The reason for this was due to the fact that after running, I'd come home and eat a big meal plus a dessert (or two) and I felt like that was entirely okay since I had just worked out.  Wrong mind set!  After I burnout on running, I began another unhealthy habit of skipping lunch.  I wanted to lose weight, so I figured if I ate a good breakfast and a good dinner, and skipped lunch since I wasn't overly hungry at work (thus reducing total calories for the day) then I could lose weight.  Wrong mind set again!  That resulted in an irritable Shannon mid-day and over eating at dinner since I was so hungry.  I, in effect, ignored my body cues that signaled when I was hungry and tried to use my brain, and not my stomach, to determine when I should eat.  However, God didn't create a defective model when He gave me my body (more on that in a bit).


Around my birthday I decided that skipping lunch wasn't working.  I was irritable and while I had lost a few pounds, my weight had plateaued which meant the only way I was going to lose anymore weight would be to start skipping more meals--and that wasn't going to happen!  I began to do some research on nutrition and wellness online, and decided that by not eating lunch--or when my stomach was cuing me that I was hungry--I was actually slowing down my metabolism.  So, I started to change the way I ate, as well as what I ate.  I learned through reading different things (articles, blogs, books, etc.) that by eating nutrient dense food versus calorie dense food, I would feel fuller and feel fuller longer, be providing my body with needed nutrients, and I might even drop a few pounds since nutrient dense food was lower in calories.  So what is a nutrient dense food?  Fruits and veggies.  A serving size of baby carrots (7 carrots) has 35 calories.  A serving size of broccoli slaw has 25 calories.  A banana (depending on size) has 100 calories.  Also those foods that have high contents of fiber and protein (whole grains, beans, nuts, etc.), since fiber and protein is what makes you feel satiated (full).  As I started to analyze my diet, I decided I needed to incorporate more of the aforementioned food groups and less processed food, aka, calorie dense food.  Calorie dense food are those things that have no nutritional value and just equate to empty and added calories whenever they enter your body (ya know, once past the lips, forever on the hips types of food).  Examples being things like Little Debbies, lots of boxed cereals, 100 calorie snack packs, most candy, etc.  I didn't really eat lots of those things, but for the sake of describing what I mean by calorie dense food let's just roll with it.  Eating more fruits and veggies resulted in lots of experimenting because for most of my life, I had turned my nose up at lots of veggies.  I've found all sorts of veggies (and fruit!) that I love and never would have realized I liked had I not done started this lifestyle change.  And little did I know that weight would literally fall off me (hooray!!).


Another thing that I realized was that my portions were out of control.  As a woman with different bodily needs, I don't need to eat the same size dinner plate as Thad.  Most of the time I would overeat at dinner and be miserable 30 minutes later whenever my body started to digest all that I just eaten.  I also decided to start eating at the dinner table and not in front of the TV.  By so doing, I eat slower and I actually taste and chew my food versus mindlessly chomping it in my mouth for two bites then swallowing while being sucked in the boob tube.  Just a side note, Thad has yet to join me at the dinner table, but here's to hoping he will one day!


And to add to the growing list of realizations, I started to read ingredient labels and research just what was in the "food" I was putting in my body.  I read about high fructose corn syrup (I'd say it's in about 90% of processed food), partially hydrogenated oil (aka trans fat), monosodium glutamate (MSG), hydrolyzed vegetable protein, white sugar, "enriched" wheat flour, etc.  To be quite honest, I scared myself by all I was learning.  I realized that all these additives, preservatives and processes just to make food stay on the shelf a little longer or to make it cheaper to produce was not adding up to the benefit of my body.


At the same time as this food enlightenment, I was also reading through the Old Testament (still am).  I read about the intricate details of the temple that the Lord gave to the Israelites and realized that since the Bible instructs me that my body is not my own, it was bought at a price, and that it is actually a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), who was I to not respect God's vessel as such?  Though my body is temporary and I'm not perfect, the Lord did create and design me.  That includes my stomach!  This may all sound a bit strange to you, but my weight loss has been a very spiritual journey for me as well.


Due to my weight loss and everything I've learned, I've become pretty passionate about eating whole, non-processed foods.  The closer a food is to the way God made it, the better in my opinion.  I'd rather eat something from the earth than something created in a factory, lab (high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners), etc. even if it does have more calories.  I'm convinced that my body has an easier time digesting and burning natural calories than artificial ones.  Does this mean that I'm anti all processed foods?  No!  I have plenty of processed foods in my fridge/cabinets.  The oatmeal I'm so enamored with has gone through a process after all.  I do eat yogurt, ketchup and bbq sauce and they're obviously processed!  I just read ingredient labels carefully.  My rule of thumb is the shorter the list, the better.  Also, the list needs to be ingredients I can pronounce!  I'll take homemade anything (especially if it's made by my grandma) over store bought any day.  Just a side note, we brought home a store bought carrot cake that was leftover from Thanksgiving (Thad loves carrot cake).  A few days later Thad read me the ingredient list.  It took him about a minute and a half to get through all the ingredients and more than half of the list he had difficult pronouncing.  Should carrot cake really include anything more than carrots, spices, flour, eggs and sugar (and whatever other whole ingredients--I've never made one!)?  My point being that homemade is better, hands down in my opinion.  I'm trying to translate that over to how I eat as well.  Obviously time and money are factors here, but you make time and budget accordingly for those things that are important to you, and my health is important to me (Thad too).


I believe that overly processed foods like I've been referring to have major impacts on our health.  Obviously obesity is a huge problem, and linked to obesity are issues like diabetes, high blood pressure, bad joints, the list goes on and on.  I read a quote that summarizes how I feel about spending the extra money on whole foods: I'd rather pay the grocer than the doctor.  I am in no way insinuating that eating non processed foods is the be all, end all answer to health problems, but I am saying that I think eating habits affect our bodies in ways we don't realize.  When we don't eat foods that contain nutrients and vitamins naturally, we run the risk of deficiencies which can manifest themselves in very unpleasant ways.  Taking some form of medication is not the answer I like, especially not whenever a condition or issue might be solved by a change in eating habits.  


I'm just touching the tip of the iceberg in relation to some of my opinions on the subject of a healthy lifestyle, but like I said at the beginning, I felt the need to air it.  I should say that the more I read and learn, the less I feel like I actually know.  So, if you ever see something I write on this blog that you know to be wrong, please correct me!  Another thing, I've had to keep a very open mind in regards to eating more naturally.  The stereotypical individual that eats tofu, organic meat, veggies and "strange" grains (quinoa, bulgur, wheatberries) and practices yoga is not your typical conservative Southern girl ;).  It's definitely led me into what I have always viewed as liberal territory, but it's been super easy to incorporate them into my lifestyle.  What I mean by that is, I pray to Jesus whenever I do yoga, not try to become "one with myself".  I prefer local produce not because I'm sticking it to Wal-Mart or because I'm trying to reduce my "carbon footprint" by reducing the transport distance, I think local produce tastes better because it's been on the vine longer!  I'm basically trying to go back to the style of eating of olden days, just a bit healthier since that's possible these days (more access to different food).


I think I've shared enough for one post.  Maybe I should add that running and yoga are a totally different topic, yet still an important facet of my healthy lifestyle.  I guess I'll save that for another post.  My opinion isn't really as long on it.  It's just my preferred style of physical exercise (which I think everyone should get).  


It's taken me over an hour to compile all of this in a somewhat coherent way--at least I hope it's coherent!  Please send any questions or comments my way.  Just be warned that I might not shut up (especially if we sit down to eat dinner--right, Lisa?!).  :)  Thanks for reading!