Spartan!!

So I accomplished a Spartan race!!  Although not really a race, it took my friend and I, 4 hours and 44 seconds to accomplish it. Online they say 13 km but a few people with watches to track, said it was 14 km. Here's a few photos that I was able to get online cause there was no carrying anything on you with getting wet and dirty

So to the left I'm carrying a 30ish pound bag that I had to walk up and then down a hill. To the right, yup a bit of swimming. It wasn't to far but this is towards the end. And here is the start

Yes that hill you see off in the back, is what we had to climb, then we had to walk back down and repeat a few more times. We were not expecting to walk up and down such a steep hill, so my quads were so sore for a few days!!  Even my feet hurt cause it was just as hard going down cause it was so steep that you had to be careful. At one point we were walking through a trail which had a lot of rocks and tree roots so it was quite the bumpy hike in the woods, which also included a lot of hills. We had many walls to climb up and over and back down, we had to crawl under a barb wire, there were a few monkey bars type set up, and even walls that you have to walk along with either just upper body strength or on very little feet and hand grips. Also a few more heavy objects to carry, one was a container that was awkward to hold, and it was about 35 pounds, again up and down a hill, and the other was a 60 pound cement ball to walk across the grass, drop it, do 5 burpees, then lift it back up and walk it back. If you didn't do an obstacle or couldn't accomplish it you were doing 30 burpees. It was tough!!!  I am so proud of us for accomplishing it though!!!

The medal is amazing! It's heavy and it's got two parts to it. We also got a t-shirt at the end as well

Samantha is the only one that took a selfie of both of us at the start, which I'll have to ask her to send me a copy of that. I do also have some of her photos online since a few of them include both of us in it, but don't want to post those in case she doesn't want them posted on here.

It was a lot of fun, but also very tough! Happy to say that I did accomplish a spartan race! It's a very good challenge, a way to really push yourself, and an insane workout! Would I do another? I think I may but I will need to train harder next time because I was very sore for several days. I also did get a few bruises, and tiny scrapes, mostly on my knees from crawling, and I got a really big bruise under my right arm, and a smaller one under my left, my left elbow was also bruised up, and I have this really big bruise on the right side of my left knee, and another light one on my shin. No big injuries which is a good thing. I will keep working out, which I really do need to keep up with weight training to help me get stronger instead of only doing mostly cardio.

I haven't done to much cooking lately, just the usual, but I do want to try to make more new things, and I am also wanting to plan ahead for lunches, so it's easy for us to grab in the morning instead of spending time in the morning figure out our lunch. A while ago I did make a stir fry with chicken for 2 lunches. I had cooked some quinoa with lentils so I used that for the rice portion, and I cooked up the chicken and veggies in a pan in the oven, and did a teriyaki sauce with it. I do need to get more groceries cause we don't have a whole lot at home. For supper I plan to make pasta with ground turkey, tomato sauce and also add in some pesto for a nice basil flavor to the sauce. I don't even have much veggies right now so I'll add in some carrots, onions, and I think I'll do spinach since I don't have much else on hand.

We went out of town over the long weekend. Left Friday afternoon and came back late last night. Giving us some time today at home to get some things done before starting work again tomorrow.

Will try to post more recipes soon

Training and in the kitchen

Now that the half marathon has come and gone, now it's time to train for Spartan which is at the end of July. I'm varying my workouts more so I can handle different obstacles for the 13 km race with 25 obstacles in between. This week I started the Liift4 workout from beachbody. It's tough and exactly what I need. It has a mix of lifting weights, cardio and core exercises. The cardio part is a variety of things like running with your knees up, doing mountain climbers and a bunch more tough moves. I'm also going to add some running, spinning, and walking. I do play baseball as well so it's a pretty good mix of exercises.

Today I ran 3 km and then did the 4th workout of Liift4 for the week. It is 4 workouts each week for about 30-40 minutes. Today was legs and core, so I will feel that later!

Last weekend we went home to Sudbury to celebrate 3 birthdays. So when we showed up Friday around 3 pm, we hung out for a while and then went out to celebrate 2 birthdays since it was that night for both, and we went to Milestones. We shared their bruchetta

Yes there's one missing cause I grabbed one right away and then thought oh I should take a picture lol. It was delicious!! I had a chicken dish with mushrooms and a white sauce. It was really good! We got some dessert to.

The next day I got to do some shopping with the girls and we went to check out a yard sale downtown. They closed a street and there was a lot of people! We went to Chapters after for a while, went to lunch at Kelsey's and then I hung out with my cousin for a while and then went to the birthday party. It was a good turn out, and the cakes were delicious!

It was a great day! We had a BBQ, burgers, and hot dogs, with different salads, and there were games. The kids had a bouncy castle to play in, they set up a few games, and there was texas horseshoes, and some other game that I don't know what it's called.

Later at night we got a fire going, but there weren't many people left and we didn't stay to late. The mosquitoes were really bad!









On the way to Sudbury we also got to see this guy

The week was busy, and I went to the health food store the other day in hopes I can get more hazzlefluff from the veg fest, but unfortunately they didn't have any. I did find some delicious crackers to go with my vegan and dairy free dip, and also decided to buy some kimchi. If you don't know what that is, it's fermented vegetables, which tends to be with cabbage. Never tried it before until my brother pointed it out when we were together for lunch at sushi. It was spicy and different so took a bit of getting use to but I do like it. The one I bought is also spicy, but here's the bento box I put together for my delicious lunch on Friday

So top left is the crackers which you can see the bag there on the right. They are tasty and completely healthy! Next to the crackers is the dip, then some ham, and under some cucumbers and carrot, which the carrots I enjoyed with some of the dip as well, and then my kimchi. It was such a tasty lunch!

Yesterday was more of a relaxed day and now that my workout is done, I will get busy in the kitchen. I want to prepare a dip, chop up some veggies and cook up some fish to make more bento box lunches this week.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Half Marathon and Veg Fest

My half marathon went really well. We didn't hit our goal time which was under 2 hours and a half but we came close. Here I am at the start of the race

I finished in 2 hours, 36 minutes and 53 seconds. Samantha finished about a minute and a half faster then I did

Very proud of us! It was a beautiful day, and it was tough but we made it!

The medal is really nice! The center (Parliament) does spin. Happy that I have finally done the Ottawa Race! We went to an Italian restaurant after, close by and it was nice to sit and relax. My quads were sore for a few days, so I have been taking it easy this week.

Yesterday I did have a great time with 2 friends at the Veg Fest at the RA center. It wasn't huge but it was a good turn out. I got to try some really good vegan food! I of course bought a few things

The muffins I made today, they are the caramel sticky buns. I am pretty sure I shared the recipe a few posts ago, they are so good! It's with lots of eggs and some coconut flour, coconut oil and maple syrup. The topping has some cinnamon and walnuts. So to the right is Blue pomegranate kombucha and I also bought a beet lemonade one as well. I love the glass jars they came in. On the blue lid is a hazelnut chocolate mousse, to the left of that is a carrot caramel. I haven't tried the caramel yet but looking forward to it. I also fell in love with Le Grand, they make "yogurt", dips and pesto's that are so yummy! I think the yogurt was made with almond milk instead of cow milk. The dips, which I got two of the chive and onion is dairy free as well and so delicious! All natural and healthy ingredients. Apparently they sell them at Costco but not their yogurt yet. I may have to make more trips to Costco with my dad so I can get more cause it is really good! The pesto I got tastes just like eating fresh basil! It's so good!!!! The chimichury is also very tasty! I also bought a chocolate cupcake from another vendor there, which I also bought the caramel from and it was really good. I only had a bite of it, and hubby had the rest. I wanted to get him something from the event since he didn't come. It was a great girls day out though. We went to eat at Lonestar after, then walked around and shopped a bit. Got home in time for supper and relax. I also had the opportunity to donate for animal rescues. I am always happy to help animals.

It's been a nice weekend although today it's rainy and gloomy. I have been relaxing at home and giving me a chance to spend time in the kitchen. I boiled a few eggs as well, and I was going to make some homemade crackers but I noticed I have some healthy ones in my cupboard that are going to expire soon so I will eat those up first. After my race last weekend, my dad and I went by the market, I needed to buy some potatoes and my dad decided to buy some homemade bread. She offered him to buy a second one for only $2 so he did, and he gave me one. I did get the chance to eat some and it's really good bread! Thinking maybe to make an egg salad sandwich with the eggs I boiled and with the fresh bread as well. Will make a good lunch. I do plan on doing bento boxes with the dip and crackers, and of course I'll pack up a muffin and some vegetables. Looking forward to lunches this week. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

I have my herb garden back!

Today was my Friday off work, and so glad that it was! It was a great day! Hubby took it off as well so we got to sleep in a bit, had breakfast and relaxed and then I decided to tidy up a little and got ready and I headed downtown to meet up with a friend. It was lunch time so we walked over to Mad Radish. It's really healthy there and it's a nice little place. There's not a tone of tables but there's a few and we got lucky with the two remaining seats so we can eat. We got their already prepared salad, it's nice and small so we can then get their chicken shawarma pie which isn't to big either

The drink is a smoothie, mine was almond milk, banana, peanut butter and can't remember if there's anything else but it was really good! It was a good amount of food. She got the same as I did but she had the berry smoothie which she said was really good as well. The salad was with tofu, greens, chickpeas, and a vinaigrette.

We then walked over to the Shaw Center so I can get my race kit. I got a bag with my t-shirt, bib which has the chip attached to it and of course pins so I can pin it to my shirt. I also got a gift card to hello fresh. Since the bag went nicely behind my back and we were next to the canal, we went for a nice hour walk! It was a beautiful day out today! The walk was really great and then I got to pick up my herbs in the market. I also grabbed some carrots and radishes. I would have liked to get more but I already have enough veg in my fridge but next time I do want to buy a lot. I came home, had supper and then was busy putting my herb garden together

The top photo is my chives. In the background is my plant that smells like lemons, then the bottom photo I got basil, thyme, mint, rosemary, dill, parley and cilantro. They aren't to big right now but once they do start growing it's going to be amazing to have them on hand. Really excited and happy to have my herbs again, and I got a good deal, well I think anyway, I got 9 herbs for $20, and it's something that will last me until weather gets cold. My chives look big cause I got two of them. One didn't seem like enough.

Now that I have had a busy and wonderful day, it's time to relax! I do have my race Sunday so rest is important so I'm in top shape for the half marathon. Oh I also had another wonderful bento box lunch this week

So top left is green beans, carrots and cucumber, the last two cucumbers I cut didn't fit so I put them on top of my coleslaw, which is a kale, carrot and broccoli slaw, and the top right is shrimp that I had cooked on the BBQ and then under that, one of the balls I made from my last post and two raw balls. It was a very tasty lunch. It's a pretty simple bento box but was still really good.

My next post will be about my half marathon that I'm doing with a friend in 2 days. I really do hope we reach our goal time of under 2 hours and 30 minutes. Wish us luck and I'll tell you all about it soon!

No bake balls

I love it when I have a long weekend, I always get more done and also more time to relax before starting a new work week. Yesterday I watched a few cooking shows and it gave me an idea on something to make for a dessert/snack, and luckily I was off to do groceries so I can get what I need to make them. We went to a friend's place for supper yesterday as well and she bought me this for my birthday

I'm so excited to check it out. I only glanced at it really quickly but I saw a lot of delicious looking pictures. I will have a closer look and I do want to try some recipes. She is on the food network, and when I discovered her cooking show I fell in love with her show. She has some great ideas on twists for recipes and she makes some really amazing food!

It was a beautiful day yesterday so we sat outside to eat supper which was a delicious burger with all the fixings and a potato salad. For dessert she made an amazing key lime pie from scratch, courtesy of a recipe from Ricardo. It was so delicious!! I didn't think to take a picture of it, but I do want the recipe! She also had me try this drink she made, which was also very tasty! It was simple syrup, so 3/4 cup sugar with 3/4 cup water and then some lime juice and a lot of water, I think she said 10 cups of water. It wasn't sweet, it was just a nice refreshing drink, which I plan to make as well.

Today I did try my dessert/snack idea that I got from the pioneer woman but I made it healthier, so in this saucepan

I mixed up 1/2 cup each of coconut sugar, maple syrup and all natural peanut butter with a splash of vanilla extract and melted it all together, which didn't take long. I took it off the heat and in a bowl I mixed in some homemade granola that I made from a recipe I got from Ricardo and you can find the recipe here. Then added about 1/4 cup of hemp seeds, about a cup of the granola I made with a cup of nature's path brown rice crisp. I also added about 1/4 cup of dried cherries and half a small bag of dark chocolate chips 71%.

I rolled them into balls, and I put a layer of parchment so I can add more on top and put them in the fridge for about 2 hours so they can firm up. I tried one a little while ago and they are delicious! Maybe a bit to sweet for my liking, I think because the granola also has maple syrup, so I may try either cutting back on the maple syrup or try a different granola recipe or just mix in some nuts/seeds instead of granola. They are very good though! I did use natural peanut butter cause with the coconut sugar and maple syrup it was sweet enough. With natural peanut butter the only ingredient is roasted peanuts, instead of the one you find in store with added sugar.

I was tempted to make more caramel sticky buns but my fridge is on the full side and we do have quite a bit of no bake balls. Plus I did also make some guacamole that we can snack on with salsa and some chips.

So there's exactly 1 week left until my friend and I are running the half marathon. Part of me doesn't feel ready but I'm sure we will do great. I ran 10 km on Friday after work and I plan to run 5 km tomorrow and do some lunges and stuff for a great leg workout, including core exercises. Baseball season has arrived and I play Wednesday and Thursday so I'll get more running done there. Then it's all about allowing my legs to rest up Friday and Saturday so they aren't tired for race day. I get to pick up my race kit between Thursday and Saturday, which is exciting! I'll be sure to take some pictures and let you know how we do.

Hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend!

Running and Endometriosis

This past weekend I wanted to get another long run in, but not quite to long, cause race day is in a little less then 2 weeks so I don't want to tire out my legs for race day

When I did an 18 km run with my friend that I'm doing the race with, we went down this path, and I wasn't sure how safe it would be to go down on my own but when we went I noticed houses and there were a few people going down this path and I even saw one girl on her own so thought I would go on my own and it was great! It leads to Merivale Road so I had to go down the side walk for a bit to reach 5 km and then I turned around. I went once around my street and then called it quits. I wanted to do 14 km but with playing baseball twice last week, and doing a 5 km run my legs were feeling tired so I stopped at 11 km. My time wasn't good at all but I got through the run and I'm proud of that.

This coming weekend I will only run 10 km so that my legs are in top shape for the following weekend. I'm suppose to play baseball tomorrow but with all this rain, not sure if they will cancel the game or not. I will be running 5 km tonight though. Next week I play Wednesday and Thursday for baseball so I'm thinking running 5 km on Monday, and then the two games of baseball and then rest up for race day on Sunday. It's coming quick and I'm excited but also nervous. I hope to get a good time in and hopefully not to sore at the end.

I mentioned a few posts ago that my endometriosis pain is back. Today I went to get an ultrasound done and saw my gynecologist. He said nothing serious going on in there in terms of the ultrasound which is a good thing and rather then going for surgery again, he's suggesting meds first to see if it helps. I have tried a few different things way back when and most of them didn't really help but apparently there's something new for the endo world to help with pain so he wants me to try it out. It's one pill a day to help with pain. It's called Visanne. I of course had to do some research to know more about this and here's what I found:

Visanne is used for the treatment of the painful symptoms of endometrial lesions (displaced tissue of the lining of the womb). Taking one Visanne tablet every day leads to the shrinking of the endometrial tissue and reduces associated complaints such as pelvic pain and painful monthly bleedings.

There's quite the list of side effects but from what I read there's not many people that get any side effects. The most common side effect in people that my doctor told me is spotting which is one thing I don't have to worry about. If you want to read about the side effects, you can check out this site.

I'll give it a try and I'm hoping it will help keep pain away and hopefully no side effects for me. I see my doctor again in a few months to see how things are going. I will be sure to keep you guys in the loop as well.

For the kitchen, I haven't done much this week. Just did another batch of kombucha and that's about it. This coming long weekend I'm thinking to get busy in the kitchen, just haven't decided what I'll make yet. For my birthday I did get a book on nice cream, but it hasn't been warm enough outside yet for me to crave some sort of ice cream. I hope it does get warmer soon so I can give it a try. I know I could still make some even though it's not warm out but not really hungry for any right now. I'll save it for when I really want some. I do have some frozen bananas in my freezer waiting. Hopefully I will have a delicious recipe to share on my next blog post.

One Part Plant

Last weekend my friend came over on the Sunday and we went for a nice long run outside, 18 km. It was a beautiful day, and we got to run along the trail close by. It wasn't quite long enough so we ran till we couldn't any longer and then turned around and ran back. It's such a beautiful trail with so many great trees around. We each had our music and we did really well. Once we were out of the trail we were still doing well so I took her to another one close by to finish our 18 km run. At about 12.5 km in, I needed a bit of a walking break. The tiredness was kicking in and it was nice to walk for a bit, but it was hard to start up again. We got to 14 km and then turned around to make our way back to my place. Both of us were really starting to feel it, just sore in the legs/feet and tired but we made the 18 km!

Come race day I'm sure we will do fine, yes tired and sore still at the end but we will have a lot of people around us to motivate us to keep going and I haven't had the feeling in a while but that feeling is amazing at the end on I have done it! I have never done the Ottawa Race weekend so I'm excited to be there. We stretched after our run and I made some really great tasting smoothies with lots of spinach, one banana, two scoops of Vega Vanilla protein powder, some cherries and almond milk. They turned out delicious and a great way to re-fuel after such a long run. Before she went home I sent her off with a few muffins that I made, they are vegan and really good!

A friend of mine from work shared this cookbook with me

She found out that I have endometriosis and ended up seeing this book and told me about it. I read about it and it caught my interest. Since my birthday was coming up and my dad asked me for gift ideas I made sure to include this book and he did buy it for me. I already read through it. She only does a shout out to endometriosis and explains her journey into one part plant. It's a good read and the recipes look amazing! When I saw the recipe for these vegan muffins I wanted to give them a try.

They turned out great! It's with chickpea and brown rice flour. They aren't a really sweet muffin but they are still tasty. The chickpea flour makes them a little more doughy but I really like them.

Above is also a picture of a potato salad that I made. I did shaved carrot, celery sliced, green onion, I roasted the potatoes in the oven and to cut back on the mayo I added in an avocado and put in some lime juice to help stop the avocado from browning. For spices I put in some dill, paprika and pepper and a touch of salt. It was really good!

Tuesday we had a date night, we ended up going to Kelsey's for supper and then went to the movies to see End Game. I was craving a burger and I could have gone veggie patty but I was really hungry for a beef patty

It was really good! He had the fish burger, which he did enjoy. That would have been another great option for me to help avoid endo pain but I just really wanted a true burger and I did enjoy every bite.

This weekend I've kept really busy. I had Friday off as my compress day off, so I cleaned up the house and went for a 10 km run. Last weekend was tough so I don't want to over do it in training so I only did 10 km. Yesterday I had borrowed my dad's carpet cleaner so I got that done with the help of my hubby to empty out the living room. I did a major clean up in there which it really needed it. I guess part of some spring cleaning. I also got busy in the kitchen and tried a recipe that a friend sent me, they are banana muffin cookies. I made them slightly different, I still stuck to the white flour but instead of white sugar I went for coconut sugar. They turned out great! I also made our favorite muffins, made with lots of eggs and some coconut flour. I have made them many times and will keep making them from time to time. Hubby requested it and since I had the ingredients, I made them. I had to wait for the carpet to dry so great opportunity to spend time in the kitchen.

As of tomorrow though, I want to be on an cleanse, my own version of a cleanse. I will keep things on the light side this week. Breakfast will be a smoothie with almond milk, lots of greens, some fruit, vegan protein powder and some chia seeds. Snack will be a drink that I'll put together with coconut water, lots of greens and a little fruit. Lunch will be salad with salmon or shrimp, and supper will be a miso soup with a lot of veggies. I haven't been eating as healthy and I feel like I could use a bit of a detox and then I'll get back to my endo diet. Doesn't mean I won't have a treat here and there but I do want to get back on track. As her book above states it's all about at least having one plant meal each day. Race day is coming, and we did sign up for Spartan and thinking to sign up for a full marathon to so I want to be nice and healthy which also means more energy and a lot less pain. Which my endo pain still comes up here and there but when I did cut back on meat and cheese my pain went away a lot, so before things get bad again it's time to cut back. I do try to stick to more gluten free as well.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, especially since it's beautiful out there! I went out this morning for a 5 km run and it was so great! I'm into a new book now, Let it go by Peter Walsh. It's all about de-cluttering and how to do that when there are items that are very emotional. A friend of mine told me about it and I do have a lot of my mom's things, along with a lot of my own stuff, therefore I thought I would read through it and see if it will help me.