I had a fabulous weekend. Friday night was my work bowling tournament and the pizza was a hard thing to just walk on by, BUT I did it (for the most part) and my eggplant roll-ups were awesome just as I knew they would be! Ok, I took one bite of my co-workers pizza and ate 2 pepperonis off of another. Interestingly, I bought a beer because it sounded like a good idea and come on, I was bowling, then drank less than half before I ended up tossing it. It just didn't taste as good as I thought it was going to taste. Too bad half a beer isn't available in those cases. AND in one game, I even came in second. That's me, player #2. I don't think I've ever come on second unless there were only 2 of us bowling! Turns out bowling is good exercise for the inner thigh of your lead leg. I'd forgotten that too. I'll take it where I can get it.
Saturday, we got up early and headed to the zoo about an hour East of home. We made some animal friends, saw some beautiful flowers, and I pushed the stroller up a couple of hills that felt like pretty good exercise to me. After the zoo, we found a wonderful lunch spot that had vegetarian options that were perfect for me. A grilled veggie sandwich on whole wheat pizza dough bread...ok! The bread had a seasoning mix already on it that clearly had salt in it, but this is the real world and I will do the best I can when someone else is preparing my meal. I even ate about 3/4 of the goat cheese that was on it. It was locally made and so, so, so, so good!
Sunday we got to FINALLY celebrate Father's Day with my Father-in-law. We had a cookout at the house and I found the most awesome vegan burger so that I could get the delicious, smoky grill flavor too. Voila, the Mushroom, Walnut, Quinoa Spicy Vegan Burger. Check out the rest of this fantastic recipe resource blog HERE. There are LOTS of recipes that can be tweaked slightly to fit the Eat To Live lifestyle.
Mine weren't nearly this pretty so I am using the photo from the website. I'm going to have to practice getting these to effectively stick together but they are so worth it. I will also grind the walnut in a mill the next time as well so that there aren't chunks of walnut in them. I love the walnut flavor but the texture was a little off-putting. I ate mine with a fat slice of purple onion, delicious black heirloom tomato, spicy mustard, a slice of Go Veggie. This is a new favorite line of mine. I'm just not sure I can have NO cheese most of the time. These are delicious products that melt wonderfully. The slices are thin but that's perfect so I can have the taste and mouth-feel without overdoing it!
My modifications:
1) I used tap water because really, mineral water to boil quinoa....nope.
2) I don't care for teriyaki sauce but it did need the binder and moisture so I substituted stone ground mustard with a splash of low sodium worcestershire.
3) I didn't use any olive oil for frying. I used just enough spray to keep them from sticking, then water as needed when the pan dried out.
4) Instead of finishing them in the oven, I had Jeff pop them on the grill for me. Because they were slightly crumbly, I put them on foil first but I highly recommend this step if you're able.
I was also in the mood for a pretty dessert that was more than a bowl of mixed fruit. I found just such a dessert in the Raw Blueberry and Kiwi Tart on the fabulous Blissful Basil blog. Check it out HERE.
I was relatively sure my in-laws wouldn't want a piece, and thank goodness I was right, so I quartered the recipe and used a mini loaf pan instead of the full sized tart pan she used for the picture above. I only say thank goodness because we had some left-over that I intend to eat after dinner tonight! I ended up with a checkered pattern instead of a circle, and a convert in my husband. He said he especially liked the cashew cream and that he'd like for me to make it again.
So, to my title. I had given up running, after over a year of regular sessions, a few months ago mostly because of my energy level. I just didn't feel up to it after work, making dinner, cleaning up, bathtime, bedtime, preparing lunch for the next day, blog posts, laundry, and whatever else came up in the evening. First of all, once your body is back in maximum production mode, it's a lot easier. Seriously, if you aren't felling good, right, normal, whatever you want to call it, make an appointment with your doctor. I chalked it up to "just life", "busy mom", etc. for far too long. I've been feeling a lot more like I thought I should feel at 39 since I first started this journey.
Secondly, and maybe more importantly, I had the timing all wrong. Of course I didn't feel like it at the end of the day. I have really full days and I'd like my evenings to be spent with my family and doing other things I love like watching So You Think You Can Dance and reading. I decided to bite the bullet, wake up 45 minutes earlier and start my day off right! I think I might have been more excited than I thought. I woke up and hour and 15 minutes earlier than normal. I actually was only able to run for 18 minutes with 2 minutes of walking on either side today which made me sad because I used to run for 45 minutes no sweat. After I finished, I headed back upstairs and when Jeff woke up he put me straight. That is 22 minutes longer than I ran/walked any of the days in the last few months. He's totally right!
SO, I'm proud, energized, and down 8 pounds! Whatever it takes, don't wait another day to feel good. I'll even give you my phone number if it comes down to support. That's how much it means to me.
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