Food to feel good

Back on an airplane means another blog post!

One thing I've struggled with in my efforts to get healthy is making the right food choices. I LOVE food, more specifically I love food that tastes good. My most favorite thing to do is find new recipes and try new things, healthy or not. I love a good salad but present me with something deep fried and I am a happy girl! In my efforts, I haven't taken the feeling of being deprived well at all! I get discouraged, feel hopeless and then binge on everything I've been withholding and then feel worse about myself. I'm fairly confident that pretty much EVERY dieter has had this problem and I'm sure that what I'm about to share is in no way shape or form revelatory but I'm going to share it anyway! :)

As I've yo-yoed back and forth between hard lined healthy and binge on whatever I want, I've come to realize that really probably isn't the best plan (Duh!) I wrote about this same thing last year after our Disney trip but really didn't change any of my habits even though I experienced the benefits of having good habits! I have decided that an addition to my yearly goals and that's a new mantra of "food to feel good"!

I was in Colorado this week on business and decided I was going to make a conscious effort to really think about what I was eating. To pick food that made me feel good. I actually did a fair job and I could tell that I just felt better. I skipped McDonald's breakfasts in favor of a oatmeal breakfast bar I'd brought with me, I packed snacks of dried fruit, nuts, granola bars and trail mix and I just put thought into what I was eating.  Not to say that I was a saint in anyway shape or form but I made an effort.  I decided that one of the nights out I was going to spurge. I got a green chile cheeseburger and dug in...... And after about 1/2 ended up feeling not good at all. Another not so subtle reminder that food that's not good for me doesnt make me feel good. I keep trying to remind myself that our bodies adre pretty amazing machines that need the proper fuel to function at their best. And I just don't want to feel crummy all the time for sake of eating a cheeseburger.

So I'm going to try to put a real focus on eating to feel good in these next couple months, I feel so much better when I am putting good things into my body. Not to say that I'm not going to splurge, as the ice cream in the airport proved today. I am just going to work on finding that balance of eating what I want and eating to feel good. :)

What are your tips for fueling your body? Favorite healthy snacks? I've got a great snack post coming up! 20 days until I check in for our flights to Florida!!!! We can do this!

It's the final countdown!!

I hope you are all singing that song in your head like I am......
I'm on my way to Colorado for business and have in flight WiFi. What's a girl to do while locked in a metal tube for 3 hours? Write a blog post of course! As in previous mobile written posts, I apologize for any odd grammar/ spelling mistakes!

The final countdown is on my friends! Hotels are checked in, MagicBands have been received, and tutus for our running costumes have been handmade with love by the world's greatest cousin. Thank you Abby!!!! I am in the final stages of completing my costume. Hint-it includes a tiara  and some spray in hair glitter! Kyle has a shirt he is designing with my sister in law's boyfriend and we both finally have new shoes! Things are coming together so nicely!

On the running front, I am in Physical therapy to deal with some pretty intense pain that has been creeping up on me. The general consensus is I have some strained ligaments somewhere that are causing some uncomfortable swelling and a lot of pain. Not to be deterred I have plan going forward with my PT to make this run possible! I did 4 miles last night pushing myself quite hard (@10:00pm mind you because I lost track of the time) and felt actually pretty good! Although my foot hurt like a lot this morning. I did not bring my running stuff to Colorado with me because I doubt there is going to be much time and our hotel I'd almost 8000 miles above sea level. My hometown is 641 miles above sea level..... You get the point I'm making.

The plan when I get back is to knuckle under and push hard to finish the training program strong. I have no plans to set a land speed record on this race, I just want to finish under the time deadline, in an upright position.
I hope you'll follow along on this journey with me friends. Your words of support and encouragement have gotten me through the Lowe points in this last year and a half. I can't believe it is 4 weeks away!!!! We can do this!!!

Biscotti!

Keeping true to my 2014 goal of working on my health, I cooked up a storm Sunday night. I know for me the trick is having everything done in advance so I can't use my utter laziness some nights as a reason for not eating a healthy lunch at work throughout the week. I ended up making one batch of this delicious carrot soup plus cutting up a weeks worth of munchie veggies. A bag of cucumbers, carrots and bell peppers are perfect for me as an afternoon snack. One thing I was obviously missing was something sweet. I've been at this "healthy" thing long enough to know if I cut something out completely or feel like I'm depriving myself, I will fall off the wagon fast. And boy will I fall off it hard. To that end, I knew I needed a sweet treat. Nothing extravagant but something that could satisfy my need for chocolate and carbs on crazy days at work (read: every day). The hubs came across this little gem on Cooking Light. I've always wanted to try making biscotti and this one was at least healthful so I began a several step baking experiment at 9:30pm... cuz that's kind of my thing it seems.

 Several cooking steps later, I had successfully made my first batch of  biscotti! These are great! They are crunchy from whole wheat flour, chewy from yummy dried cherries and just sweet enough from some semi-sweet chocolate chips. The twice baking making them delicious and crunchy. Anyone who's a sweets junkie (PICK ME!) should really consider these for a better alternative to regular cookies. For full disclosure, these aren't difficult by any means but they do require one bake, a cool then another bake, flip, one more bake so you may not want to start them at 9:30pm like the person writing this blog may or may not have done. The result was well worth it but I was a bit tired by the end. Also be mindful that they are a hard cookie. Biscotti are traditionally meant to be dipped in espresso to soften before eating. I had no problem munching on them with my back teeth so just be mindful before chomping down with your front teeth.

What are your go-to treats to satisfy your sweet cravings when you are trying to food conscious? Any tips to help keep each other moving towards our goals? 36 DAYS PEOPLE! 36 days and I'll be mentally and physically prepping for my biggest physical accomplishment of my life! 34 days and I'll be checking into our flights, 5 days until our MagicBands will ship, not that I'm counting down or anything. Add in the fact that I'm going on a week long business trip soon and this next month is going to fly by! Back up to 8 miles this weekend, then upping by 1.5 miles every weekend until the race per the training plan. This is happening!!!!!

 

Chocolate-Cherry Biscotti
(Originally from Cooking Light, March 2001)
I did make a few changes: The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 tsp of Almond extract, I do not care for almond extract. If you do and want to use it, just cut back the vanilla to 2 tsp and add the almond. I also chose to use mini chocolate chips instead of full size ones, I think it improves the distribution through out the dough and gives a nicer texture overall. Cooking Light suggests you use a serrated knife for cutting into slices, that didn't work for me at all! My serrated knife might have been too dull but my biggest, sharpest chef's knife was excellent at cutting the dough into strips after the first bake.

 

Ingredients 

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt 
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup dried tart cherries
1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
Cooking spray

 Preheat oven to 350F.

Lightly measure dry ingredients into measuring cups, level with knife. Combine first three ingredients in bowl, whisk well.

Beat together sugar and eggs on high speed until pale yellow and thick. (About four minutes, the mixture should fall off the beater in ribbons) Add oil and extract(s). Beat until blended. Add flour mixture and combine on low speed until just incorporated. Stir in cherries and chocolate chips.

Divide the dough in half. Turn out one half onto a cookie sheet lightly coated with cooking spray. Shape into a 10 inch by 1 inch roll. Repeat with remaining half of dough. Bake at 350F for 25 minutes or until lightly brown. Remove from the baking sheet and let cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack and reduce the oven temp to 325F

Cut each log into approximately 20 (1/2") diagonal slices. Place each slice, cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 325F, flip over, and bake for another 10 minutes. The cookies will be slightly soft in the center but will harden as they cool. Remove from sheet and cool completely on a wire rack. Store in airtight container and Enjoy!

Welcome 2014!

Hello Friends!

I'm back from my little hiatus from blogging (Lucky you?) With life as crazy as it was I needed to take a break from some activities in order to not go crazy and for better or worse, blogging was one of the chosen activities to back off on for a while. Fear not! That does not mean I have been shirking my running. I haven't been as good as I should have been with the holidays and all the yummy food but last weekend I did 6 miles without to much trouble so yay! Double yay because we are 48 days away, Wow!

Anyway! Back to the topic at hand, Welcoming 2014! If you are a somewhat regular follower, you will remember that last year I wrote how I do not really do "resolutions" per say. I'm more the goal setter myself. I'd rather set some achievable goals to guide my year rather than some resolution that I'm going to forget about in a month. So with that in mind here are a few of my goals!

- Continue on the path of getting healthier! This is the longest I have ever stuck with anything fitness related so I'm excited to keep going! I know I still have a decent way to go but I've made some good strides in the last year and come on! I'm running 13.1 miles in 48 days

- Make more time for just my family. Our lives are so busy that it is difficult sometimes to make sure that we spend quality time with the ones we love most. I'm going to strive to set aside "no phone/email" time every night instead of obsessive checking my phone every 5 minutes. I also want to set a dedicated movie night with the hubs every week. He loves movies, I love being around him. Win, win!

- Blog more! I really enjoy being able to share with everyone. I also like that it holds me more accountable and I love to share my cooking (mis)adventures!

I'm sure my goal list will evolve over the year but right now I'm going to focus on those. Case and point, I've got about 3 posts I'm working on right now. Hint, one involves sweet potatoes and my brand new mandolin slicer. BOOYA!

So see you later 2013 and hello 2014! Great things are ahead, let's go get them together!

Countdown!

72 days people. 72 DAYS before I get on a plane with the idea to run 13.1 miles in the most magical place on earth. 15 days before I can online Check- In to my hotel. Man, time flies! Remember when we were discussing how exciting it was because we were exactly a year away? Yea, that was forever ago. Excuse my why I go into my Anxiety corner and have a hyperventilating panic attack....

With the approaching deadline, the hubs and I thought that we should try to fit in a couple actual races to get a good gauge of our time. I mentioned this to Cindy and she suggested a Turkey Trot* and sure enough there was one sponsored by GRPS in downtown Grand Rapids. We signed up and were all excited. Myself more so that Kyle because it was my first official "Race" since the epic disaster that was the 2008 Metro Health Marathon Relay. (See 2009 ankle surgery for details) The week before had turned out to be unseasonably cold even for Michigan with lows in the teens and highs in the 20's. We grumbled/laughed about it but didn't cancel. We just bought some cold weather running gear at Target and made plans for Grandma and Grandpa to watch MB in morning. Well, Ol' Mother Nature decided it would be HILARIOUS to send the first real snow storm of the year the night before and morning of the race. Like winter weather advisory and everything! About 3-4 inches of snow fell between midnight and 6am. Still, we didn't back out, we were going to do this!

Ready to go!

Sleepy but kinda ready to go

The snow had mostly stopped by the time the race started but boy was it cold. TMI ALERT! I get really sweaty when I run so I was just in compression tights, shorts and a long sleeve shirt, with a hat and gloves. I was initially freezing my nubin's off but knew I would warm up quickly. The streets where we started weren't THAT bad. The asphalt had enough traction that you could generally get a good grip on the road. Grand Rapids also does it's best to heat the street and sidewalks with steam so they were about 40% clear of snow. Feeling pretty good, we kept up our run/walk/run pace up through the first mile. Then the problems started. With Grand Rapids being a pretty old city, there are a lot of brick roads. They don't really plow the narrow, old brick roads. And brick is slippery. Very slippery. And after the ridiculously slippery brick, there was treacherously slippery smooth concrete followed by some more slippery concrete. After almost causing ourselves and each other serious bodily harm several times, we decided that for safety reasons we needed to walk. We walked the next two miles, running when we felt we safely could which wasn't much. When we rounded the last bend to the finish line, we were back on asphalt and started running again. In the end it was kind of a bust but I ended up having a really good time. I got to spend the morning with my incredible hubs, laughing and trying to not fall flat on our backs and we got a T-shirt. After the race we stopped and got Starbucks and had the rest of the day to spend with our wonderful family. So I'm going to give this race a D- for conditions and a A+ for experience. It was fun and I plan on doing it next year again!

I finished my first "real" race!

As for regular runs, now that I'm done with the class I was taking (THANK GOODNESS) I'm going to start pushing my mileage up and get this thing done! Oh, and maybe get new shoes.
The countdown is on friends, We can do this!!!

Awww Aren't we adorbs

* For those of you who don't know, a Turkey Trot is a 5K on Thanksgiving morning.

Carrot Soup!

I'm working on my next post about how everything is going but this one is going to just be about food! So yay! Please forgive some of the formatting in the recipe area. Blogger was being a jerk....

Everybody raves about Spring and all the fresh veggies, which are great but they aren't my true love. Don't get me wrong, I adore the summer and all it's plentiful, tasty bounty. I even joined a CSA this year and it was an amazing experience but my most favorite food season, hands down has to be Fall. I'm a flip flop kind of girl all the way but it is kind of wonderful switching to boots, scarves and long sleeve shirts. After a the long, hot days of summer I welcome the cool, crisp mornings of Fall. It doesn't hurt that Michigan erupts into a beautiful bouquet of Autumn foliage either. Fall is also my favorite time to visit our local farmers market. There is something almost magical about it. Fewer people in the crisp weather, the colorful bounty of the Fall harvest, snuggling MB up against me in her baby carrier.... But I digress, I think you can tell, I Love Fall and it's food.

 The hubs is a major soup/stew fan and I tend to limit those in the summer because, Hello. Who wants to have soup when it's 90 Degrees out and who wants to have the stove/oven on for 5+ hours in the 90 Degree heat? Yeah. No One. So once it gets a bit nippy, I like to breakout my trusty 3-4 soup recipes and start putting them on repeat until it gets hot again. Now hubby likes that but I get pretty bored by oh, November. To solve said boredom, I turned to trusty (In a slight stalker-ish kind of way) food blog obsession! Of course, Miss Deb never, ever disappoints. In the October edition of Parade magazine I came upon her recipe for Carrot Soup with Turkey Meatballs and spinach. How perfectly Fall does that sound? The correct answer is VERY! And having just received a poop-load of carrots from my CSA, the timing couldn't have been better. The result was an orange splattered kitchen plus a heaping helping a Fall deliciousness (Don't judge, I'm still learning to use my immersion blender) The carrots were a perfectly sweet back drop to the super tender, cheesy meatballs and the spinach just seemed to round out the whole thing. Add the yummy taste on top of the fact that you have a really healthy meal filled with veggies, greens and lean protein and you've definitely got a winner! Also, it's just a really easy one pot wonder!

So here's to Fall and the calm before the storm that is the Holidays. I hope you will embrace the cool weather and make this ridiculously delicious soup! Tune in next week for a running update, I can't believe we are 106 days away from checking into our flights! Time flies when you are having fun!

Carrot Soup with Turkey Meatballs and Spinach
Origianally in Parade Magazine, October 2013
By Deb Perelman
*Notes- You most certainly do NOT need an immersion blender to make this. A regular blender works perfectly, just be careful with blending hot things in general. I added a few splashes of chicken stock at the end just to loosen up the consistency for my own person tastes. Enjoy!

Soup:

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 lb carrots, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, smashed

Kosher salt

1 pinch red pepper flakes (optional)

4 cups chicken, turkey, or vegetable broth (homemade or reduced-sodium canned)

2 cups baby spinach leaves, sliced

Meatballs: 

½ lb ground turkey

¼ cup grated ­Parmesan or pecorino cheese

¼ cup bread crumbs

2 Tbsp milk (or water)

1 clove garlic, minced

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

For Soup:

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add oil, carrots, onion, garlic, 1/2tsp salt and red pepper flakes. Saute' and stir until the veggies start to brown, about 15 minutes. Add the broth, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pan. Cover and simmer until the carrots are tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
For Meatballs:
While the carrots are cooking, in a medium bowl mix together all the meatball ingredients, seasoning with salt and pepper and rolling into 1" balls. Reserve on platter.
Finishing Soup:
Using an immersion blender or a conventional blender, puree' until smooth. If using a regular blender, return soup to put. Bring to a simmer and all meatballs. Let simmer until meatballs are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add spinach and simmer until wilted. Thin out with broth with desired. Serve and enjoy!

Guest Post! Having a Baby Changes Everything

Thank goodness Cindy is here for you guys because I've been seriously slacking. Look forward to a yummy carrot soup recipe next week and enjoy the latest from my partner in crime!


I used to laugh when grad students called their dissertations their "baby", but around February of this year, I suddenly completely understood the sentiment.  I started to get very protective of my research projects, got upset when when my adviser suggested changes or "improvements", and I felt a huge ball of anxiety settle in my belly as the "due date" approached.

In the end, after a five year gestation period and a hard two months of labor, my precious baby entered the world.  May I present:  "Intracortical Microstimulation of Somatosensory Cortex: Functional Encoding and Localization of Neuronal Recruitment" Much like I've heard a real human infant does, this baby of mine has completely changed my life in innumerable ways:

1) I can now officially make people call me "Dr. O."
2) I can make people completely flabbergasted by telling them basic facts about myself.  (This is particularly effective in person when they can see that I am a small, youngish female "Wait... you have a PhD... in engineering?!?!?")
3) My relationship with my adviser has almost completely swung from mentee to friend.  He's a cool guy, so this is a very good thing.
4) I got a real, big girl engineering job.  It pays me money and everything!
5) Said big girl job required moving from Phoenix to San Diego, where I know maybe 3 people. 
6) The move means that I am living apart from my husband, who has to stay in Phoenix for the time being.

Needless to say, these big life changes have made me put my running and exercise habits on the back burner for a bit.  I'm working on making new friends and slowly figuring out how to do this long-distance relationship thing again.  But as Briana keeps reminding me, the half marathon is rapidly approaching!  


So I got started running again this week.  It's strange... there are hills and humidity here!  My strategy so far has been to run a mile, then repeat walking 2/10 mi. and running 8/10 mi up to 3 miles.  I seem to be able to finish that consistently within about 35 minutes.  This weekend I'm planning to find a place to run along the coast (did I mention that I live 5 minutes from the ocean?) and hopefully try out 5 miles for the first time!

DisneyWorld, here we come!