Endometriosis and running

Although my endometriosis is a lot better then it use to be, it's still not completely gone and I do still suffer from some pain from time to time. I experienced a bit of pain this week so I decided to eat like I should to help prevent endometriosis pain. I feel like my body needs it, plus it's a great way to eat very healthy which will help my training for the half marathon in May. So I planned ahead, did groceries, and got into the kitchen today to prep some things for my lunch this week. I first started last weekend with preparing more kombucha

 

My brother gave me a scobby and some of the fermented drink in order for me to make my own. He gave this to me a while back, and I have been making more cause it's delicious! You have to let it ferment for at least 7 days, and this is it all ready, which it's been 9 days since it's been fermenting. I kept the scobby and some of the drink for another batch that I'll start in a few days, and the remaining I put into bottles with a slice of ginger in each. Now they need to sit for 3 days before it can go in the fridge to drink it up. I can't wait cause I ran out today.

I took out a cookbook that I haven't looked at in a while called Quinoa revolution and saw a recipe for a breakfast that I wanted to try out. I tasted it and it's really good! I can't wait to have that tomorrow morning. It only made two batches so the rest of the week for breakfast, I'll probably have some eggs with healthy bread or maybe just a protein shake with some oatmeal. Here's the recipe and my two bowls

Next step was getting one more thing ready, I sauteed some tempeh with a bit of gluten free tamari and some turmeric powder. I haven't had tempeh in a while so I tried one and it's just as good as I remember it. So simple and a great source of protein. I didn't have to prepare that many things today, cause during the week I made a brown rice risotto. I used some vegetable broth and added in some mushrooms and at the end I put in a bit of goat cheese to add some creaminess to it. I have a bit left over so that will make a good lunch along side my tempeh or I also bought some Falafel, another vegetarian option for protein. They have nothing but healthy ingredients and I have had them before and they are so yummy!. I saw they had a black bean burrito salad that looked and sounded good so I grabbed that as well at the health food store to try it out

I also have some salad and veggies and dip to have with these during the week. Suppers will be salmon, shrimp or vegetarian dishes. I did also do some running today. There's still way to much snow out there, you can actually see how our BBQ is almost all buried from the snow in the above picture, plus it's cold and icy so I play it safe and run on the treadmill. Although it's really tough to do cause I don't find running on the treadmill as fun as running outside. We are getting closer to March though so hoping the weather starts getting warmer soon so I can get out there. In the meantime, today I managed to do 10 km

Yes I do have my tablet with me with a video of someone running through the woods. It makes the run a bit more interesting cause as you can see our basement is not finished and there's junk down there so there's not much to look at, so my tablet helps. This run took me an hour and 8 min, not the best time but pretty good considering it's on a treadmill. I'm feeling it now, my legs are sore and I'm feeling quite tired but I'm doing pretty good so I can be ready for the half in May.

I did another recipe from the quinoa revolution cookbook for supper tonight that sounded really good. It did have chicken in it and my plan was to cook it aside but it was just easier to cook it all in one pan, and I thought I could use the protein since I did run 10 km. So I enjoyed one meal with chicken for supper and tomorrow I will start fresh with avoiding meat, meaning vegetarian, fish or shrimp only.

It was delicious! It had a nice kick of spice to it but nothing crazy. We both really enjoyed it. It's called Kung Pao chicken quinoa. There's two lunch size containers of left overs so my hubby will get to enjoy it for his lunch this week. Tomorrow's supper will be salmon and I can't wait!

So this coming week will be 2 more runs of 5 km each and a longer run over the following weekend, and I will also do some weights cause that's also important in my training. I am looking forward to enjoying the food I have prepared, and I want to take a look at more recipes for more ideas on what I can make for the following week.

Back in the kitchen

From my last post I talked about a root veggie tumeric soup that I was going to try out from Joyous Health, and I did make it. It turned out really good!

I had a few lunches and the rest I put in the freezer to enjoy another time. I have 3 mason jars, which I'm thinking to take one out soon. If you want the recipe I linked it on my last post.

I also talked about carrot cake cookies, these were a hit, even hubby loved them!

I will for sure make these again and again! They tasted delicious and the bonus is they are very healthy! So healthy that you can eat them for breakfast. Again thank you to Joyous Health for this amazing recipe!

I had to take a bit of a break from cooking, I went on a trip with my dad and cousin to Punta Cana. It was so great to spend that time with them, and it was also nice to escape the cold weather and snow for a week.

We got to spend some time with our new friend Romeo (dolphin), got to spend time with Pirates and went snorkeling, which we also got to see nurse sharks and sting rays. Anne and I got to enjoy a ride on a boat while getting pampered! We did a lot of swimming, walking and met some great people.

I have been back a while but it's been busy. I'm getting back on track so I'm ready for my half marathon with Samantha. She texted me on her progress and she did amazing time for a 10 km run so that was a push for me to train harder so yesterday I ran 7 km. It was tough towards the end but felt great to get further in my running. First time that I'm doing this long of a distance on a treadmill. I have always found it easier to run outside then on a treadmill, but since I got bronchitis, I can't seem to handle that much cold air, so I am training indoors on a treadmill since it's been quite a cold winter, it's icy and we have so much snow out there!

I figured out a way to make it a bit more interesting. At first I tried watching a show on netflix through my tablet but I still struggled to get far in my run, so I went back to music and I found I did a bit better. I do have a treadmill but it's in my basement which isn't done, so it's not really interesting to look at while running. Yesterday I did a bit of a search for running in the woods and I found this great video of a trail through the woods, so you get to see different trees, even people going by, and different views of fields and stuff so I gave it a try and I did way better with my run. I love looking at nature, it's so peaceful, relaxing and beautiful so I'm going to watching this video or others like it to help me get through my run on the treadmill. When I run at work, they do have tvs and there's others working out so it's a bit more interesting to help keep me running.

Still a long way to go to get to 21.5 km but luckily we have till towards the end of May to be ready.  I'm sure it will come quickly so I'll keep pushing forward to make sure I'm ready. I am really looking forward to warmer weather though so I can run outside again.Today I did weight exercises cause that's also important.

I will get back into the kitchen again to try out new recipes. Today's supper was some salmon, rice and salad. Nothing fancy but it was delicious! Well for my supper I only had the salmon and salad. I'm trying to eat as healthy as I can since that will help with my training to. Don't worry I am still eating healthy carbs but eating them for breakfast and lunch and keeping things lighter for supper.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! As I get older, it seems that the years go by faster and faster. 2018 was a great year, now time to work on making 2019 a great year as well.

I've had the last week and a half off work, and was hoping to get a lot accomplished but instead I caught another bad cold, so I didn't get much done, but that's ok, I got other things done instead. I had the time to rest up, but also go through quite a few emails that I fell behind on, which I have been concentrating more on catching up on the Joyous Health emails which has links to her blog.

One soup I decided to try out is the Root Veggie Turmeric Soup, which I plan to make that today. It will make a big batch so I'll save a few bowls and freeze the rest so I have it on hand when needed. I also want to try out this drink that she made, Matcha Collagen Latte. I did some shopping the other day so I have all the ingredients that I need.

A lot of us do make resolutions when we start off a new year but don't always stick to them, but my goal this year is to get back on track with healthy eating, and I for sure need to get back into exercising. With 2 colds and the holidays, I fell behind on my running, but I did run 2 km yesterday and did some weights. I'm working on getting back into shape so I'm ready for my half marathon in May.

I kind of fell into this rut/laziness, of making the same meals and not really making my own snacks as much or taking the time to plan ahead and I want to change that. Time to stop being so lazy and get more things accomplished. I ended up reading a post about organizing meals once a week, and I would like to get into that. That way lunches are prepared, so I'm not stuck trying to put something together in the morning before going to work. I want to try out new recipes again and make more healthy snacks. I saw this other recipe that Joyous Health made, and they are carrot cake cookies. I have this hand soap that smells like carrot cake and each time we use it, it gets us hungry for some. At one point I did buy a small carrot cake from Farm boy but it didn't taste very good, so we threw it out. So I'm thinking to try out these cookies, and a bonus is they are very healthy.

I won't be doing any diet, I don't believe in diets, and they are to hard to stick to. I like lifestyle changes cause they are easier to stick to. So my goal is to be in the kitchen a lot more to make my own recipes, or following someone's recipe. So I control what I put in to keep things healthy. To be healthy means eating real food and that's what I want to do. I may fall off track but I'll make my way back. I think it's all about balance to, it's fine to have a treat here and there, so you don't feel so deprived.

Since I got a new phone a while back I did put some music back on but not all the songs I wanted to. Plus I also got a few new CDs that I didn't get a chance to convert to MP3 so I can get them on my phone as well so I took some time to do that. I want to create a playlist, maybe 2 or 3 of them to switch things up, for when I'm exercising. I haven't created my playlist yet, well I have one created but there's not many songs saved on there. I do still have today and tomorrow to get things done so that's my goal is to get as much done as I can.

I have had plenty of rest so now it's time to get busy before going back to work on Monday.

I will be sure to take some pictures of what I make, and start sharing more recipes.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was great going back to our home town for a few days. It was so great to see family, just wish I would have had the time to see everyone. We did also have to leave our fur baby behind because she's getting old and doesn't do car rides really well, but she was well taken care of

I had an opportunity to take a bit of a detour, and I drove by the high school I went to. It has changed a bit, well I only got to see the outside. Then I went over to see our house I grew up in. That has also changed on the outside. It seems to private. Growing up we had a fence in the back yard, which it seems like it might be the same fence just in more rough shape, but the front had nothing cause when we saw the neighbors come out we would tend to get together. The new owners have built a fence in the from yard and including on each side of the drive way. It just looks so closed off. I still remember how the inside looks and I'm sure it's completely different with someone else living there but I remember putting up our Christmas tree by the front window, and our house was always very well decorated. I still remember every detail of that house, even my little hiding spot when I took over my brother's room when he moved out. It was nice seeing the house though and the neighborhood. It has changed here and there but it did bring back a lot of great memories. Makes me miss my mom that much more!

I got to also see my best friend from high school. It's been about 3 years since I last saw her. It wasn't a long visit but it was great to catch up. Hopefully next trip to Sudbury I'll get to see more friends and family that I didn't get to see.

Now that we are back home, I'm now fighting something off. I went to the clinic this morning cause I was thinking it may be strep throat. The doctor said it didn't look like it but she took a swab to be sure so just waiting for the call with the results. She said if it's not, it just means it's a virus which means lots of rest, liquids and TLC until it goes away. If it is strep throat then I go back to the clinic to pick up a prescription for antibiotics. I haven't done much cause I feel all achy and horrible. She did however give me a pill to take which has helped my throat and swelling. It still hurts to swallow but it's not as bad as it was, same with the swelling. Hopefully it goes away quickly or at least I feel better to at least get a few things accomplished.

I thought I would tackle a few things on my computer since it still means I'm resting. I want to work on my playlist on my phone so I have a lot of great music so I can get back to running once I feel well enough. My plan is emptying out our freezers as well so I can restock it with healthy meals so I have some on hand when I'm to busy or to tired. I hope to not forget to take some pictures so I can share it with all of you.

Christmas cooking

We already got quite a bit of snow so far, but it helps put me more into the Christmas spirit. My friend and I got together Friday night to get started on some Christmas cooking.

Friday we picked up the groceries we would need and went to her place to get our dough ready, and stored them in the fridge. The next morning we were set to get started. We got our meat and potatoes cooked up, and while they were cooling down we got busy with rolling our dough

Made a mess but we did pretty good with cleaning after. The below are our potato pies, the two closest are mine and hers are the two further ones. She adds a bit of the juice from the meat to hers, but I kept mine like my mom makes it, mashed potatoes into a pie

 These two are our tourtière (meat pies). We did 2 each, although would have been nice to have one more of each, but we got more time to do some desserts as well.

We made an apple pie each, and one apple crumble each. Then we of course had to make some pet de soeur, which I forgot to take a picture of these. At work we are doing a cookie exchange again and last year I made my mom's famous oh henry bars. The bad part with that is I had to make 2 batches and the mixture is thick, so I had to do it by hand and it's hard to mix so my arm was dead at the end of that. Plus once the melted chocolate cools and it's time to cut, that to is hard to do so I want to make things easier on me this time around. I found another one of my mom's recipes that simple and delicious, but since I haven't attempted to make it before I brought the recipe with me and I made it to try it out. It was simple to make and turned out really great so buttertart squares is what I'll be making for the cookie exchange.

Everything is nicely stored in my freezer now except the buttertart square which is now in my fridge. I'm thinking it's freezable but my freezers are on the full side at the moment. So it will be a yummy dessert for us to have. I'm thinking to maybe bring some at work to cause it's a lot for just the two of us. My friend wasn't interested in keeping some but we did split on everything else that we made.

It was so much fun, but we were both very tired by the end of the day. Glad those are ready though! Now time to figure out when we will celebrate Christmas here before we are off to Sudbury. Although first I really need to get started on Christmas shopping. Well I bought 2 things so far, but still so much more shopping to do!

Still enjoying the fall!

Been quite busy lately, so I have a few things to catch you all up on. First I'm still running and enjoying it

 This is a bike trail along a few main roads close to my work. I ran 5 km that day and took me a little over 32 minutes. It was such a beautiful day!  Last Monday I was sick and Tuesday I still wasn't feeling the greatest but Wednesday I was feeling better so I went for the run and I shouldn't have cause I didn't feel so great again after, so I decided to take a break the rest of the week to give my body time to rest. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be ok for my run.

Last weekend I also got busy in the kitchen. A friend at work told me about this recipe so I had to try it out and I must say it's really good. It's butternut squash mac and "cheese".

Looks like mac and cheese but there is no cheese in it. I got a butternut squash, took the skin off and de-seeded it, and cut it up into bite size pieces and boiled it until soft (you can roast them as well till soft). I drained the water, put the butternut squash in my vitamix blender and added a dab of butter and a big splash of almond milk (can use milk of choice). I pureed it till it was a good consistency, not to thick or to liquidy. Add it to the cooked pasta, which I cooked up shelled brown rice pasta and add some pepper, a touch of nutmeg and to have a cheesier taste add in some nutritional yeast. Not only is nutritional yeast healthy for us it does have that cheesy taste. I didn't add enough but you should add a good 1/4 cup or so. It doesn't taste like mac and cheese but it is really good!

I also met up with a good friend at the Keg. We were long overdo to get together and catch up. Here's the supper I had

It was so good!!  We went to do a bit of shopping since she needed new winter boots and than went next door to Chapters and checked out a few cookbooks we were interested in. It was a fun night!

On Friday I had the day off so I did my house cleaning and the stove was in need of cleaning as well so got that done to. Since I couldn't go running and it was a beautiful fall day, I went out for a nice walk

I found this trail around this time last year. It's close to my place and although it's very small it's still a great opportunity for me to be surrounded by nature. Especially with the colors of the leaves, and the sound of the crunching leaves at my feet when walking. If I had the choice I would always walk or run in a trail, but now a days it's hard to feel safe when you go into trails alone cause you never know who's around, and I rather stay safe. This is a great way for me to still enjoy a trail but feel safer cause it's surrounded by houses.

I haven't done bento box lunches in a while so thought that this week should be, and I'm quite excited about lunch now. I have a nice variety of things, which also includes options for breakfast as well. I boiled 6 eggs to enjoy with some oatmeal, which the oatmeal is from Stoked Oats. Two posts ago, for the army run, I posted a picture of all the food we got after our race, well one packet is stoked oats and it was really good! It's all natural, it's gluten free oats, and it has natural ingredients in them. No added sugar or anything. I looked online and saw that the health food store at the mall sells it, so when I went to see my hubby play hockey yesterday I stopped in to get some, along with a few other things (barley, nori sheets, and Made Good granola). I bought two kinds, one is mulberry, currant, apple and cinnamon oatmeal, and the other is almond and dark chocolate. I also have an avocado, to enjoy a toast smothered in 1/4 of the avocado with a boiled egg which I tend to add cucumber as well with a bit of salt and pepper. I also have some ham that I can also enjoy for breakfast, or Greek yogurt with some of that granola I bought.

Here are my options for my bento box lunches. Today I made a tuna salad

So I thinly cut up some celery, with leafy tops, broccoli, and red onion. In herbs I have some basil, and yes that's the flours, which I found out are edible. I tried one and it's sweeter and milder than the basil leaf. You can leave them on your plant which helps them grow faster, or you can cut them off to slow down the growing process, so I cut one off cause my herbs are growing like crazy! I also have some parsley and chives which I also minced up. I added two cans of water packed tuna, removing most of the water, added some pepper and just a touch of salt, and a bit of smoked paprika. I then added quite a bit of Dijon mustard, and some mayo. If your not a fan of mustard you can add more mayo. I mixed it all with a fork.

I also bought some whole wheat naan bread so I can top the tuna salad on that, or I do have ham or left over chicken as well. I have carrots, celery, cucumbers, red peppers, and broccoli, which I can enjoy with some humus or on their own. I also made a potato salad, and I have regular salad as well. So quite a few options for lunches this week. I can't wait!

So I told you about my herb garden. I have moved it indoors cause it's to cold out there, I actually saw a bit of snow this morning coming down but doesn't look like it's going to stick, which I'm ok with.

So yes it's growing really well indoors so far. Last year and the year before I brought them to the basement and connected two lights to act like the sun but I think it was to cool down there and dark. Yes I had the lights for them but I don't think they were big enough nor created enough heat for the herbs so they didn't last. So now that it's by the side window and patio door I hope they will do better indoors. It's nice having them close to the kitchen as well, makes it easier to grab some when needed.

I am also officially signed up for the half marathon in May, the Ottawa race! This will help motivate me to keep training. I am feeling 100% better so tomorrow I should be fine to run again and I really can't wait!

Fall

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the comfort it brings, with weather being a bit cooler, you get to wear a comfy sweater, and can bundle up under a blanket while reading a book. I absolutely love the colors it brings outside as well

If I can find a path like this one to run along, I'm so happy! I also do like walking and hiking, especially if it's with someone else so you can talk, and enjoy the beauty. Summer tends to be way to hot to exercise outside, and winter way to cold which is why I love the fall as well. Spring can be pretty great as well but it's messier cause you have snow that's melting.

I have been getting out there more often to run and I'm really enjoying every minute of it. I plan to go out for a run today. Thanks to a compress work schedule I had Friday off. I spent the morning cleaning the house and than went out for a 7 km run. It was my best time in a very long time and felt great!  Today I just plan to run 5 km. Can't over do it or else I will cause an injury. It's also the long weekend so have today off for Thanksgiving. We celebrated last night with my dad, brother, sister in law, nieces and nephews. My dad cooked the turkey, my brother brought salad and pumpkin pie, and I brought the potato dish. We did make a stop to so hubby can get a few beers and also grabbed a new wine to try out and it was really good. I decided to make something different and it worked out cause everyone really liked it.

I did forget to take a photo, but I did a mix of butternut squash and sweet potatoes. I grabbed one butternut squash, took the peel off and the seeds out and cut the squash into bite size pieces. I peeled 3 medium size sweet potatoes and cut those in bite size pieces as well. I added some coconut oil and baked it in the over at 400 for 12 minutes. I gave them a toss and put them back in for 14 minutes. While that was in the oven I took 3 small onions and cut them into small pieces, and grabbed a few mushrooms and cut those into small pieces as well and cooked them in a pan on medium low heat until they were cooked up nicely. Towards the end of the cooking process I added 3 minced garlic cloves and added some fresh herbs from my garden which is now moved into the house cause herbs don't like to cold weather. I grabbed some rosemary, and minced that up, and added it in. In an oven safe pot I added all the potatoes and squash, added a splash of almond milk, some pepper, and mashed them up. I evened it out to add the onion/mushroom mix on top and than sprinkled some fresh minced chives on top. Once we got to my dad's I put it in the oven at 200 until we were ready to eat, which was about an hour later.

Supper was delicious!! I did a gravy with the pan drippings from the turkey. My dad had garlic butter so used that with some flour to create a rue and than added the juice of the turkey and I ended up having to add a splash of water. I added a bit of salt and some pepper and some Worcestershire sauce to add some color, but it was still missing some flavor so I looked to see what my dad had in his cupboard and found some Epicure turkey gravy so I added 2 tsp of that and it was perfect at that point.  We got to play some cards, and had a lot of laughs. Such a great night with family.

I  hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!