Real Foods Challenge: Days 5-6

Today has been a super rough day.

But before I get to that, check out what I had for dinner last night!

That would be a peanut butter-chocolate-coconut butter-banana pizza on a whole wheat crust ;)  I made the whole wheat crust in order to have regular pizza, but forgot that I can't have canned tomato sauce (because of the challenge) this month. And I despise fresh tomatoes. So instead, I got a little creative and made this. I love the combo of the peanut butter and the chocolate coconut butter.

Last night, Renee and her husband Dave and their three boys came over for the Super Bowl. I don't watch football (I hate football, actually!) but it's a lot of fun when you have friends over ;)  All five boys in the house were surprisingly really well-behaved. They were a little rowdy, but that's to be expected!

I made loaded potato skins, and I was actually able to eat them--I just made a few without bacon for me (the only non-real-food item on the skins). They turned out really good, and I think I'll make them more often. I didn't get a great picture (do I ever get great pictures of food?!)

Skins ready to be loaded (this was only one of the two trays!)

Extra sharp cheddar cheese, jack cheese, bacon, green onions, and jalapeno

So yummy!

 At the beginning of the challenge this month, I told myself that wine is okay to drink (because it's a "real" food), but I decided that I would only drink wine if it was a social situation. Enter Renee. With a bottle of Bordeaux.

We sat and chatted on the couch for the whole game, and went through two bottles of wine--by ourselves (her husband was driving). I don't know how that happened! lol  I used to be able to drink a bottle of wine and not feel much, but that certainly wasn't the case last night. It also slipped my mind that I had a long run on the schedule today--9 miles at 8:30 in the morning.

I woke up and felt horrible--my head was pounding and my stomach was queasy. I really wanted to cancel on the girls that I was running with, but I thought maybe the exercise would do me some good. And I am training for a marathon, so I can't skip runs.

We headed out, and the first six miles actually went by really fast. I wasn't feeling TOO sick--just a little icky in my stomach (I hadn't eaten anything yet). At mile seven, I started to get some stomach cramps. Mile eight was pretty rough. And the ninth mile felt like an eternity! I started to feel a little dizzy and just really wanted to the run to be over. Finally finished the run...

Our splits

As soon as I got in the car to drive home, I felt SO nauseous. I was willing myself all the way home not to throw up (not that I had anything in my stomach to throw up). Eli had a doctor's appointment, and Noah didn't have school today, so I didn't even have a chance to run in the house and shower--I just picked up Noah and Eli and left again. I took Noah to my parents' house, and when I got out of the car, I was sure I was going to vomit. Still didn't do it.

I took Eli to the doctor and FINALLY, his blood work came back normal and the flu virus is completely gone! I was very happy to hear that. He can go back to school tomorrow. He still has a cough, but with breathing treatments, it should go away.

As soon as I got home, I decided to eat a banana. My stomach was feeling horrible and I thought maybe a little food would help. I got in the shower and was doubled over with nausea. Hurried through the shower and talked to Jerry for a minute, then ran to the sink.

Finally, I puked.

I threw up the banana, and it was awful. But at least the nausea wasn't nearly as bad after that. I just laid on the couch and watched TV for a little while, then I had my usual salad for lunch (which stayed down, thankfully).

Ugh, I am going to remind myself of this day every time I want to have more than 2 drinks. I've never felt this bad from a hangover before--maybe it was a combo of the wine and the running. Either way, lesson learned!!

Food log from Day 5:
Breakfast--oats cooked in milk, with dates, walnuts, and maple syrup
Lunch--salad with chicken, almonds, raisins, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--peanut butter pizza
Snacks--orange, three potato skins, way too much wine

Food log from Day 6:
Breakfast--1/2 a banana
Lunch--salad with chicken, almonds, raisins, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--scrambled eggs with cheese, cauliflower, and creamed peas (weird combo, I know! I was craving comfort food)
Snacks--pistachios, spoonful of peanut butter, orange, popcorn with oil and salt

My strange dinner combo tonight

To make the creamed peas, I had to make a roux--which I normally do with white four. I've never used whole wheat flour before. But I tried it and it turned out just fine!

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TUTORIAL: How to use your Garmin Forerunner 205/305

I have been wanting to write this post for a long time, but knew it would involve a LOT of work. And it did. I spent the better part of about 6 hours putting this together. I know getting a Garmin can be intimidating, because you have know clue how to use it at first. Hopefully, this tutorial will make it easy (or at least easier!)

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Getting familiar with the Garmin

Here are some photos of what you'll be looking at:

Front face: lap/reset button and start/stop button

Right side: enter button, and up/down arrow buttons

left side: power button and mode button

Here is a quick rundown of what each button is for:
power button--turns the Garmin on and off
mode button--changes screens by taking you BACK a screen
arrow buttons--used to scroll up and down in the menus
enter button--to make a selection
lap button--this is used in a few different ways. Typically, you will press this when you want to mark a certain location. For example, you can press it every time you run around your block, to later look at the time it took you to complete each "lap".
start/stop button--You'll press this at the beginning of your workout to start it; then you will press it anytime you want to stop the clock (either to finish a workout, or if you stop to chat with a neighbor, and you just don't want that to "count" on your run).

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When you first turn on the Garmin by pressing the power button, you will see this screen:

Sometimes the satellites will be located immediately, and sometimes it takes a few minutes. It helps if you are outdoors and standing still. Once the satellites are located, you'll see this screen (or something similar):

Main screen: each box is a data field

This is the main face screen that comes up. Each of those boxes is called a "data field". You can choose what shows up here (which I'll explain later)--you can have 1, 2, 3, or 4 boxes on the screen, with options such as time, distance, pace, average pace, heart rate, average heart rate, lap distance, lap pace, etc. Lots of options! The ones shows above are the ones I like to use on my runs--pace, distance, heart rate (only available on the 305 model), and time.

From here, you can immediately decide to go for a run (or walk), and all you have to do is press the "start/stop" button one time. The timer will start, and as you move, you'll see the distance is starting to increase too. You can just run or walk until you're ready to stop, and press the start/stop button again to stop the timer. Viola! Your workout is done, and the information is stored.

Also shown on the very bottom of the main screen are the following:

This shows full battery, 7:33 AM, 'run' mode (vs. bike), no heart rate monitor strap found

This is the bare basic way to use the Garmin. But there are tons of cool things you can do with it, which I'll explain below.

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Once you've turned on the Garmin and gotten to the main screen, press the mode button one time. You'll see this:

In a nutshell, here is the rundown on those categories:
History--You can view your past workouts to see your distance, time, pace, calories burned, etc.
Training--This is where you can set up interval workouts, race against a virtual trainer, and create advanced workouts.
Navigation--I don't use this, but you can see the coordinates of your location. There is also an option to 'go back to start' where it gives you a map on how to return to where you started your workout from (a nice option if you're lost). I won't talk about this in the tutorial, because I don't use it.
Settings--This is where you set up your user profile, the main screen, etc.

When using the Garmin for the first time, you'll want to change the settings on some things. So scroll down to settings using the arrow button, and then press Enter. You'll see this screen:

The "settings" screen

Here is the rundown on those:
General--You can change the data fields that you view while running, select a language, choose whether to hear an alert sound, change your user profile (sex, age, weight), and change the display.
Running--With this button, you select the sport of running (running and walking are viewed as the same on the Garmin, so if you're a walker, you would still select 'running'); this is used when you bike as well as run, so you can switch back and fourth between biking and running mode. The running section also allows you to add weight (say you're carrying a baby on your back). You can change your speed units (minutes per mile, or miles per hour, or kilometers, etc). You can also change your pace "zones", which I'll write about later.
Biking--Same as running, only you would use this section to switch to biking mode from running mode.
Other--If you do another sport (skiing?)  I've never used this, so I won't be writing about it.

When you select the General button and press Enter, you'll see this screen:

General settings screen

And the rundown on those:
Data Fields--This is where you can change the data fields that you see while running.
System--You can turn the GPS part off to use the watch indoors as a timer/heart rate monitor; change the language; and select whether to have tones on or off.
User Profile--Here is where you select your sex, birth date, and weight (for calorie burning accuracy)
Display--Here is where you can select the backlight options, contrast, and "auto scroll" (which I'll explain later)

When you select Data Fields, you will see this screen:

There are four different types of data field screens. The Main 1 is the screen that shows up just after the Garmin locates satellites. (While that Main 1 date fields are showing during your run, or any other time, you can press the down arrow key to see the Main 2 data fields, and press it again to see the Running data fields...so essentially, you can view up to 12 different data fields).

The running and biking ones are exclusive for each sport. Biking is shown in miles per hour rather than minutes per mile, and there are some other differences. The Main 1 and Main 2 are shown for either sport.

To set the data fields that you'd like, use the arrows to select Main 1, Main 2, Running, or Biking and press Enter. You'll see this:

The number 4 shows that you want 4 data fields--if you want to change that to 1, 2, or 3, you just use the arrow buttons to select the number of data fields you want. Then press the Enter button. It will highlight the top left category, and you press Enter show show you the options you have to choose from (there is a long list that you'll scroll through):

Once you find the data field you want, make sure it is highlighted (by using the arrow buttons) and press Enter. Then use the arrows to highlight the other data fields in turn, and change those as well--to whatever fields you like. Once they are set to what you want, then press the Mode button to go back to the previous screen. You can then select Main 2, Running, or Biking, until you've changed them all to what you like.

Changing the User Profile

Press the Mode button until you get to the "general settings" screen again:

Using the arrow buttons, scroll down to User Profile, and press the Enter button.

User Profile screen

Here, you can change you gender, birth date, and weight, using the arrow buttons and the enter button. Once you have it set how you want, then press the mode button to go back to the previous screen.

As far as the system screen, I won't get into this much. You can read the instruction booklet if you need to change something. I never use it.

The only option on the Display screen I've ever used was the "auto scroll" feature. Turning that on will allow the Garmin to automatically scroll through your data field screens (Main 1, Main 2, Running) while you're running. I don't use this feature, as I prefer to press the arrows to change screens when I want to.

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To change sports on the Garmin (from running to biking and vice versa), go to the 'settings' screen that looks like this:

The "settings" screen

When changing from running to biking, scroll to "biking" and then select "use this sport".

The little running person in the bottom right corner of the screen will change to a person on a bike. Then you'll know you're in "biking" mode.

To change from biking to running, go to the settings screen (by pushing mode until you see it) and select "running". Then choose "use this sport".

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Once you're done with your runs, you will probably want to view your history (see how well you did). Press Mode until you see this screen:

When "History" is highlighted, press the Enter button. Then you will see the following screen:

With running highlighted (or biking, if you want to see your biking history), press Enter again, and you will see this:

Here, you can select the history you want to view. To see just one workout, you'll select "By Day". You can also view your weekly totals, and grand totals. When you select "By Day", you will see this:

This shows your workouts and the dates. You'll notice underneath the scroll part, there are some numbers. This tells you, in a nutshell, the results: time, distance, pace, and calories burned. To see the more specific stuff, select the date you want to view (the most recent one will be highlighted), and press Enter. You will see this:

This shows your calories burned, time, distance, average pace, average heart rate (on the 305 model), maximum pace, and maximum heart rate. At the bottom, "View Laps?" is highlighted. You can press Enter to see your laps (which I'll explain below). When you view laps, it looks like this:

Here, you can scroll down through each lap (I have mine set to "lap" at each mile mark). So when I talk about my mile "splits", this is what the information is. It shows that I did the first lap in 9:29, average pace of 9:29, best pace of 7:59, burned 105 calories, and my average heart rate was 151. Then when you scroll down to Lap 2, it shows all those details for the second mile. And then the third. And so on.

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As I said above, I have my Garmin set to auto lap at every mile mark. Every time I run a mile, I hear a beep, and later I can go back and look at my mile splits like I showed above. To set this feature, press Mode until you get to this screen:

Press the down arrow to highlight "Training". You will see this screen:

With Training Options highlighted, press Enter again. And you will see this:

Scroll down to Auto Lap and press Enter. Here, you can select how often you want the Garmin to mark a "lap". You can select "Off" "By Position" or "By Distance".

Off--Just means that you won't have any laps to view; your workout will be shown as a WHOLE.
By Position--You can set the auto lap to mark each time you run past a certain point. This might be good if you're running laps in your neighborhood, and you want it to lap each time you pass your house.
By Distance--My favorite. You can select a distance that you want the Garmin to mark as a lap.

When choosing a distance, you can choose it to be any distance you want, but I choose 1 mile. You can also switch to kilometers--this might be fun if you're training for a 5k, and you hear a beep every time you pass a kilometer.

I leave the auto lap on at all times.

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Another feature of the Garmin that I love is the "Workouts". Press Mode until you see this screen:

Scroll to Training and press Enter. You will see this:

Scroll to Workouts and press Enter. You'll see this:

Quick--You can choose a goal based on Distance & Time, Time & Pace, or Distance & Pace. For example, if you want to run a 5k in 26 minutes flat, you can set it to Distance & Time, and it will show this:

It shows that for that 26:00 time goal, I'd have to run an 8:22/mi pace. Then you just scroll to Done? and press Enter. Then it'll set up a split screen (no picture for this, sorry). The top will tell you to "Run for 3.11 miles (and it will count down the distance as you run). The bottom will show your pace (with your goal pace in the left corner). To start the run, you just press the start/stop button and run until it tells you to stop.

Interval--The interval workout is my favorite workout feature. This is especially useful for those of you doing the Couch to 5k. You can set it to do simple intervals, like every 1/4 mile, or you can set more complicated/specific like in the C25k program (run 30 seconds, walk 1 min, run 60 seconds, etc). To set up the Interval workout, do the steps above except select Interval instead of Quick. You will see this:

Here, you can choose whether you want to do your intervals by distance or time. I like to choose the second option, which is Distance/Rest Distance. This means I will run hard for a certain distance, then jog slowly for a certain distance. If you choose time, it just means you'll run hard for a certain amount of time, and then recover for a certain amount of time. Once you select one of those, it's pretty self-explanatory:

You just scroll through, selecting the distance you'll run hard, the time (or distance) you'll recovery, and the number of repetitions you want to do. (A repetition counts both the hard running and the recovery running--so choose the number of times you want to repeat the two of them together).  You can also choose to add a warm-up and cool-down if you'd like, that won't count toward your intervals. Then scroll to Done? and press enter. When you're ready to run, just press the start/stop button and go.

The Advanced workout option is where you can create you own type of workout, with whatever goals you want. I created the Couch to 5k workouts here, where it's kind of scattered the first couple of weeks. You can choose to run a certain distance or time, or even in a certain heart rate zone. There are lots of options here, so I won't get too detailed. Just play around with it.

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Something else you can do with the Garmin is set "Alerts" to notify you when you're not reaching a certain goal. For example, if you want to keep your heart rate in a certain zone, you can set it to beep when you are working too hard or not hard enough. You can also do this with your pace--it will beep if you're going too slow or too fast.

To set the Alerts feature, go to "Training", then "Training Options" (as I showed above), and select "Alerts". Here, you can set a Time/Distance alert, Pace alert, or Heart Rate Alert (for 305 models). Once you select that, you just fill in the fields with the information you choose, and it will alert you.

I will warn you, though, the alerts can be pretty annoying while you're running. I don't use the alerts because I don't like hearing the warning beeps. But it's always an option.

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The Garmin comes with a USB cable that you hook up to the computer, and it will read all the information from your Garmin. You can upload the info to Garmin Connect (or Running Ahead, which is the program I like), where it will store everything, and you can use screen shots like I do on my blog. Explaining Garmin Connect would take an entire tutorial itself, so I won't get into it here.

The Garmin 305 comes with a chest strap that you wear when you want to use the heart rate feature. This is the most accurate way to get a heart rate (rather than the ones that just use your pulse on your wrist). It also makes the calorie count very accurate. I've found that the 205 version seems to give MUCH higher calories burned than the more accurate 305. The chest strap is very comfortable, and I actually forget I'm wearing it.

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Okay, I think I'll leave the tutorial at that. There are other features, but these I've shared are the ones that I use the most. You can keep it really simple, like I showed in the beginning, or you can do some fun stuff with the Garmin.

I absolutely LOVE my Garmin, and I insist on wearing it every time I run. It's great for training for races, but also to see improvements in your running (or walking or biking) times and distances. It's a little pricey, but I've had mine for about 5 years, and it's still going strong.

The 205 and 305 are exactly the same, except the 305 has the heart rate strap (which is optional, you don't HAVE to wear it for the Garmin to work). They're pretty close in price, so I would recommend getting the 305--I like keeping track of my heart rate.

This whole thing may make the Garmin seem overwhelming, but once you do it a few times, you won't know how you ever ran without it!

(By the way, I am in NO WAY affiliated with Garmin, and I received nothing for writing this. I just love my Garmin and I want others to see how to use all the cool features!)

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 4

I took Noah to swim class this morning, and when I came home, I discovered something I hoped I'd never see. You would think with four cats, I would never have to. I was putting away dishes when I discovered that a mouse has taken up residence underneath my dishwasher and cupboards near the sink.

I first noticed that the plastic on the silverware tray was scraped off in a spot--and the little shavings were next to it. I KNOW it was not there yesterday. I thought it was weird, and asked the kids if they were sawing it with a knife or something. They said no, and I looked more closely at the drawer, and I saw mouse droppings.

I pulled all the drawers out, and got out a flashlight to look in the space underneath the drawers and sink. More mouse droppings. Not a LOT--just enough that I think it's just one mouse. I pulled everything out of the drawers, and took ALL the silverware and ran it through the dishwasher. I used Pinesol to clean out the drawers really well (the drawers contained my silverware tray, my Ziploc bags and plastic wrap, and then a "junk drawer" full of pens and papers and other stuff.

I found a few droppings in the drawer with the bags and plastic wrap, so I ended up throwing it all away. I cleaned out the junk drawer really well, but didn't find any droppings in there. Eli was SO excited about the whole thing--such a boy! He even said, "This is the most exciting day of my life!!" and he kept shining the flashlight in there. We let Estelle go in and check it out, but she came out with an empty mouth, unfortunately (slacker!).

I went to the store and bought a couple of mousetraps. They had all kinds of different ones, but I just chose the basic one that you think of when you picture a mousetrap. I thought it was a little more humane than the sticky paper--I read the instructions on it, thinking maybe I could save the mouse, but it says once the mouse is stuck to the paper, you just throw it away. That's so cruel!

I put peanut butter on for the bait (might as well give him a really yummy last meal). I set the first one with no problem, and as I was setting the second one, I thought, "Who in the hell could accidentally--" SNAP! The trap snapped on my thumb. I yelled, what may or may not have been profane words, and gave it to Jerry to do. Yup, the thumb is a little sore.

I don't want to put the drawers back in, because I don't want to have to go through this all over again tomorrow, so I just put plastic wrap over the opening and taped it shut (I don't want the cats to go in there and get snapped with the mousetrap).

The good news is that our food is nowhere near those cupboards. I have a pretty big kitchen, and we keep all of our food in a huge pantry on the opposite corner of where these cupboards are. So the mouse would have to cross the kitchen and climb up the wall to get to our food--not likely. I really hope that he finds the trap tonight though!

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Another "real foods" day down the hatch! I'm kind of surprised how well I'm doing at this. Having the blog and making my intentions very public certainly helps--I would be too embarrassed to screw up, so I just keep that in mind when I'm tempted to quit the challenge.

Oh, speaking of which... I meant to write about this sooner, I really did, but I kept forgetting to talk about it. My super-long binge-free streak ended sometime around my birthday :(  I don't even remember when it happened the first time, but I had to start over. And today is only Day 4. Ah well, live and learn. I learned that I can't have more than ONE treat in my house at any given time. No batches of cookies, no cupcakes + cookies + chocolate, etc.

I do fine with portions when I just have one temptation in the house. But having more than that makes it very hard for me. But I'm determined to see this month through with real food, so hopefully I will stay binge-free as well.

I tried to vary my food a little today, so it's not such a boring food log ;)  I made "banana bread" oatmeal, and it was really good--topped with peanut butter, of course! I combined 1/2 cup old fashioned oats + 3/4 cup milk + 1/2 banana, sliced + 4 walnut halves, chopped + cinnamon + tiny dash of nutmeg in a bowl and microwaved on high for 3 minutes. It honestly tasted just like banana bread. And since I always eat banana bread with peanut butter spread on top, I had to do the same with the oatmeal.

Breakfast--banana bread oatmeal (above)
Lunch--salad with chicken, balsamic vinaigrette, raisins, almonds
Dinner--chicken and roasted veggies (I adore roasted veggies!!)
Snacks--1/2 banana with peanut butter, tea, peanut butter, popcorn with oil and salt

It was absolutely gorgeous outside today, and that actually made me do something I almost never do--go for an unscheduled run. I just wanted to be outside, so I decided to do a three miler. As always, once I started running, I thought, "Why the fuck am I running when I don't have to?!" ;)  But also as always, I was happy that I did once I was done.

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 3

I tried so hard to sleep in this morning, because my boys spent the night at my parents' house last night. I was up bright and early at 6, however, so I ended up just catching up on e-mail. I was contemplating going for a run before Eli got home, but my mom ended up bringing him home at 8:30. So I decided to put my run off until Jerry woke up in the afternoon.

I took Eli to the library so he could pick out a couple of movies and books (he's completely bored being out of school right now). I ended up getting a couple of books, too. Because I'm doing this "real foods" challenge, I got In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, and The Eat Clean Diet Stripped by Tosca Reno.

When I got home, I spent some time flipping through the Tosca Reno book, and I wasn't a big fan. I was picturing it to be more of a health book than a diet book (basically, I thought it would be about WHY eating clean is good for your body); and it was definitely a diet book, with rules and everything. I quit doing those kinds of diets in 2009. But I know a lot of people really like her, so maybe I should have read the first book she wrote instead of this "Stripped" one (about losing the last 10 pounds). This was the only one they had at the library.

I decided to quit reading that and switched to In Defense of Food. I could tell I was going to like this book from the very first page, where he starts, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." You can't get more basic than that! I got the book version and audio version, so that I would have something to listen to on my run today. I put it on my iPod and headed out for an "easy four" miles.

I won't comment on the book itself just yet, because I only made it through the introduction on my run. But I'm going to read some more of it tonight. I really like SIMPLE things, and I hate that the diet industry makes everything so complicated with so many rules. That seems to be a lot of what this book is about, so I think I'm going to enjoy it.

It was pretty warm today, enough so that I just wore a very light long-sleeved tech shirt and my thin, cool running tights. I kind of wished I'd worn gloves for the first mile or so, because my hands were frozen. But after that, I felt pretty good. And by the fourth mile, I was pretty warm.

When I got home, I wanted a snack. And peanut butter was calling my name...

Banana with peanut butter and toasted walnuts

I used to eat that combo a lot when I was training for my half-marathon last year. I have a feeling you'll be seeing it again (and again...)

My food log for today (again, not much change--sorry)
Breakfast--oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and pure maple syrup
Lunch--salad with chicken breast, almonds, raisins, and balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--leftover vegetarian fried rice
Snacks--banana with peanut butter and walnuts, spoonful of peanut butter, tea, popcorn with oil and salt

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Oh, so last night the kids spent the night at my parents' house, and Jerry was off work. We decided to watch a movie, and I wanted to try out making popcorn in a brown paper bag. I did it once before YEARS ago, and remember it being a disaster, but I wanted to give it a try again. And good thing I did, because my house smelled like THIS the rest of the night:

There is nothing less appetizing than the smell of burnt popcorn. I don't understand it! Half of the kernels didn't even pop, and most of what did pop was burnt. What am I doing wrong? I didn't add anything to bag at all--just the kernels (about 2 Tbsp). I think I'll just give it up and stick with my Presto thing that goes in the microwave.

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And I'll leave you with a couple of random thoughts...

I think I figured out why I seem to have changed my mind about salad. I love live for the last little bits in the bowl, once all the lettuce is gone.

Almonds, raisins, chicken, and my dressing

Finally, I managed to get a quick photo of Estelle when she was playing fetch. Here she is carrying her favorite straw:

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 2

This morning, after I got Noah off to school, I had to take Eli for yet another blood test. The doctor told us to go to the lab at the hospital because he would get the results faster. I had no idea that the wait in the waiting room would be FOREVER long.

Eli was SO mad at me because he really didn't want to get his blood drawn again. I let him bring his Nintendo DS, but he was so mad that he didn't even want to play it. While we were sitting in the waiting room, a man across from me said, "Boy, he doesn't look too happy."  I took one look and just laughed and said, "Hmm, how can you tell?"

See how thrilled he looks?  He literally sat with that scowl on his face and his arms crossed for about 20 minutes. All the people in the waiting room thought it was funny.

His blood work came back to be the same as yesterday, which isn't good, but it isn't bad either. The doctor stressed that he is to do NO activity whatsoever. Mentally, he feels totally fine and wants to play, so it's hard to keep him lying on the couch all day.

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So Day 2 of the Real Food Challenge went well. I still don't feel any different, but like I said, I'm not expecting much so soon. I've been craving my Cinnamon Raisin Ezekiel bread with peanut butter. This afternoon when the craving hit, I had a spoonful of peanut butter and that helped (a little).

One of my favorite snacks (and something that I'm used to eating just about every day) is a piece of Ezekiel bread (toasted) with some sort of nut butter. I've been having pistachios as a snack instead--they're good, but certainly not as good as my toast with nut butter!

My food journal is pretty boring today, because it's nearly identical to yesterday... but that's the way I am. I go through food "phases", where I find something I like and I eat it every day until I find something else ;)  I'm still on the salad kick for lunch, which actually started on Christmas Eve. It's so funny--I ate probably two salads the entire time I was losing weight, because I just didn't like them. And out of nowhere, I was craving a salad on Christmas Eve, so I had one for lunch. And now I've had one nearly every day since then!

I still much prefer the French+Ranch dressing combo, but since that's not "real" food, I've made my own vinaigrette dressing. It's pretty good, but not the "Franch" I was used to eating.

A lot of you asked for the recipe for the fudge I made yesterday. I will warn you, if you're expecting it to taste like Mackinac Island Fudge, it doesn't. Not even close. It's good, though--very chocolatey and rich, but not super sweet. If given a choice between it and the Mackinac Island Fudge, with no concern for health or calories, I would certainly choose the Mackinac Island Fudge!

But anyway, I don't have a real "recipe" for it, but here is how I made it (measurements are approximate, because I don't measure).
Simply combine:
3 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tsp. honey
dash of vanilla extract (or almond extract, coconut extract, or whatever you'd like)
Enough water to bring it together (probably about 1/2 to 1 tsp)

Combine the ingredients in a small bowl. Add the water a very tiny amount at a time--you have to stir this for a long time to get all the cocoa moistened. It will be very thick, like a dough. Separate into two pieces and roll into balls. It tastes best if you refrigerate it until cold, but I can never wait that long ;)

And for those of you that asked for the recipe for the fried rice, you can find that here on my recipes blog.

Today's food log:
Breakfast--oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and maple syrup
Lunch--salad with avocado, chicken breast, and almonds, with balsamic vinaigrette
Dinner--homemade chicken soup with brown rice instead of noodles
Snacks--pistachios, string cheese, spoonful of peanut butter, chai latte (see below), popcorn with oil and salt

*One of my favorite treats while I was losing weight was a chai latte that I made myself. I love the Stash brand chai tea bags, so I would heat 1 cup of milk in the microwave until very hot (about 2 minutes), then steep a tea bag in the milk. Add 1 Tbsp. honey. It's very sweet, which makes it almost like a dessert; and steeping it in milk instead of water makes it very decadent. A great bedtime treat!

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Real Foods Challenge: Day 1

The verdict on the kale chips is.... gross. I liked the texture--super light and airy and crispy--but the taste was JUST like raw broccoli. I like raw broccoli when it's dipped in something fattening, but otherwise, I'm not a big fan. I'm willing to try kale in other ways, though--thanks for all the suggestions! I think I might like it better as a hot side dish (like broccoli).

The tea I bought, on the other hand, was amazing! I was kind of hoping I wouldn't like it, because it's super expensive. But I think I still like the Celestial Seasonings Sweet Coconut Thai better. I can't believe I didn't think to look online for it! I will be ordering some for sure.

This morning, I met Jessica at the YMCA parking lot so that we could run intervals and then she could go in and do her step class after. I actually really like doing intervals because of how fast the whole run goes by.  These are our 1/4 mile splits...

 On our "fast" parts, we were averaging an 8:57/mi pace--and it felt pretty HARD. I just kept thinking about how I ran a 10k race in October at an 8:50/mi pace, and I don't know how I managed to do it! I honestly don't care much about my pace (especially for the marathon); but it's kind of frustrating that I seem to be getting slower rather than faster. My next run is a 4-miler on Friday.

After our run, I hurried home to shower and get Eli (Jerry was home with him) and take Eli to the doctor. The doctor drew blood again and said that the flu is still prevalent. Eli was coughing this morning when he woke up, but he actually started walking a little last night. The doctor said the earliest he'll be able to go back to school is Tuesday, and that's only if everything goes well from here on out.

My "real foods" challenge started today, and it went very well (so far, anyway). Here is my food log:

Breakfast-- oats cooked in milk with dates, walnuts, and pure maple syrup
Lunch-- salad with chicken breast, homemade balsamic vinaigrette, walnuts, and avocado
Dinner-- homemade fried brown rice with tons of veggies and scrambled egg

Snacks-- pistachios, kale chips (just a couple), tea, air-popped popcorn, fudge (just combine cocoa powder, honey, a little water, and vanilla extract and form a "dough" with it)

So far, I haven't noticed a change mentally or physically--but I didn't really expect to notice a difference this quickly. I feel kind of anxious and crabby right now, probably from not having any sugar today (I haven't had the fudge yet, but I'm going to make it soon).

Oh! I was a little surprised and excited to see this when I logged into Blogger today...

Sometime this morning, my blog reached a million pageviews. That blows my mind!! I wish I had seen that coming, because I feel like I should have planned a giveaway or something fun to celebrate.

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Some of you have seen this on Facebook already, but I registered for the Tennessee Ragnar Relay in November of this year!  I'm a little nervous, because I don't know the team at ALL--Jessica was invited to join the team by her friend, and she asked if I could do it too. So Jessica is the only person I know on the team. But that's actually part of what is so FUN about a Ragnar--you get to meet some really cool people, and get to know them pretty well after spending 30ish hours in a van together :)

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Real groceries

Eli stayed home from school again today. Last night, I talked to his doctor on the phone (his "regular" pediatrician that I really like; he had to see someone else when he went in yesterday because it was a last-minute appt). The doctor told me that his ck (creatine kinase) levels were slightly elevated, which is what is causing the leg pain. He said the elevated ck level was due to a virus (flu).

It's just scary to see him unable to walk! He tries to, and sometimes he'll forget that it hurts--so I see him try to jump up and then he just falls because his legs hurt too badly to walk. Jessica told me today that this happened to her son when he was three. She said it was a few days before he could walk, but he had to get an IV in the hospital for fluids.

I'm going to keep him home probably for the rest of the week. I'm supposed to run with Jessica in the morning. Jerry is working nights, so I'll just have him stay awake until I get home in the morning from our run. We're just doing three miles of intervals.

This morning, I went grocery shopping for some "real foods". And just to clear things up, I am not doing a cleanse, or a fast, or eating "raw", or anything like that. Just good ol' REAL food for a month. While shopping today, I discovered a few things that I'm going to miss that I wasn't anticipating--salad dressing (I'm *still* on a salad kick! So strange. But I like lots of bottled dressing, and I am going to have to make my own "real" dressing); canned tomatoes (they have preservatives); and chicken broth (I usually use bouillon, because making my own broth is a pain in the ass--not to mention expensive).

I thought it was going to cost a fortune for groceries, but surprisingly, it was cheaper than usual. I spent $86, and that included cat food, plus groceries for Jerry and the kids (stuff I won't be eating).

Today's "real food" load of groceries

FYI, the Kroger brand whole wheat pasta has just ONE ingredient:  100% durum whole wheat flour. I also bought something I've been eye-balling for about a year, but I never buy it because it's $6.99! But today it was on sale for $4.99, so I just had to do it...

Celestial Seasonings has a tea called Sweet Coconut Thai, but I've never been able to find it again (I bought it once at Wal-Mart, and have been looking for it ever since). So when I saw this one, I REALLY wanted to try it, but haven't been able to spend the $7 for 22 sachets. Here is a pic of the Celestial Seasonings tea that I love and miss:

I wish I could find it somewhere!

My house REEKS right now. After reading so much about about "kale chips" that people make, I decided to give it a try. I've never tried kale, and I figured I'd try it out as part of my 30-in-30 list. I bought a bunch of kale today, and I found instructions online for making the chips in a food dehydrator. Well, apparently kale smells like shit. Literally.

I keep thinking that it's the litter box, but when I check, the litter box is clean... and then when I walk by the dehydrator, I get a huge whiff of it. Gross!  Hopefully the smell goes away once they're dehydrated? After they're done, I'm going to toss them with a tiny bit of oil and salt. I don't have high hopes, but I'm going to be open-minded when I try them. :)

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Real food in February

I've finally decided to challenge myself to something that I've always wanted to try, but have always put off for "another time". Since I mentioned that I wanted to start doing monthly challenges for myself, I'm going to start off with a bang in February--with what could possibly by the most difficult challenge I could pick for myself! ;)

I am going to eat 100% REAL food for an entire month (at least February is the shortest month!)  This isn't a weight loss kind of thing (since I'm trying to maintain my weight now) but more of a "feel good" thing. I want to see what happens to my body when I feed it "real" food. I'm hoping that it will help with my insomnia, my lethargy in the afternoons, and possibly my anxiety and depression.

I'll never know if it will help until I try it, so February is finally the time I'm going to do so!

Now, "real food" means different things to different people, so this is how I will define real food for my purposes:  1) Food as it appears in nature, without added stuff to it; 2) Packaged foods with just one ingredient (e.g. brown rice, natural peanut butter w/o added sugar or oil, pure maple syrup, one-ingredient whole wheat pasta, etc); 3) Homemade foods made from "real" ingredients; 4) meat, fish, fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, spices, and other whole foods.

Obviously this is super strict, and I would never commit to living this way forever, but it's something I'd like to try for a month.  It's going to require a lot of planning, and certainly a lot of time for cooking and preparing foods. I plan on writing and sharing my food logs for the whole 29-day challenge adventure.

I think the hardest part of this for me will be that I can't have sugar! I think that's why I've avoided doing this challenge for so long--I love my dessert. I'm going to have to come up with some alternative desserts using honey and maple syrup for sweeteners. I've gotten some food ideas from the 100 Days of Real Food website, and I think that will be a helpful resource.

I'm not going to force my family to do this with me, so I'm sure I'll have temptations. But I'm actually kind of looking forward to doing this! I'll start on Wednesday.

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I was surprised how many of you asked about my 30-in-30 list and why Jerry's family hates me. "Hate" is probably a strong word, but they definitely dislike me enough to let it be known. Jerry said that he's always been the "black sheep" of his family, and some of his aunts and uncles really dislike him--and therefore, they dislike me and our kids as well. Some of them were extremely rude to us a few years ago, and I've avoided going to any "family functions" ever since. It's just really uncomfortable to be around people that I know don't like us.  BUT, I really don't want to bring up family drama into my "happy place" of a blog ;)  so let's just let it go! I'm honestly not worried about it at all.

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Poor Eli woke up this morning and his legs hurt so badly that he couldn't walk. I thought he was just being dramatic, but I kept him home from school because he still had a low-grade fever yesterday. After a while today, I realized he really wasn't faking the leg pain, and I made a doctor's appointment for him this afternoon.

Jerry just took him to see the doctor, and they tested him for the flu--it came back positive, which didn't surprise me. And the leg pain was actually due to dehydration. She said that he is very dehydrated, even though he hasn't been throwing up.

I'm really going to have to push liquids on him. We have Gatorade, but he doesn't like it. He will only drink water if he's dying of thirst. The only thing I can get him to drink is milk (which he would drink by the gallon if I'd let him) but he has a mild allergy to milk, so I only let him have one cup a day. I'm going to figure out some sort of reward system for him to drink lots of water.

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Today was my scheduled long run--and it was only 5 miles. During marathon training, the long runs go up for two weeks, then fall back for a week. So it was 6 miles for week one, then 7 for week two, and now just 5 miles. Then next week it'll be 9!

Because I kept Eli home from school, I couldn't go meet Jessica to run with her, and I ended up having to run on the dreadmill. It felt like the longest run EVER, but I managed to finish the 5 miles.

I did some hills, so it's showing a higher calorie burn than usual, but I did the 5 miles in 49:10. Eli has to stay home tomorrow too, per the doctor's orders, but I don't have a run scheduled.  Maybe I'll have a "movie/pajama day" with Eli.

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