This looks like a GREAT recipe site!

A friend shared this great recipe site with me Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes

I have not yet tried any recipes from here, but some of my friends have and say it is GREAT!  The site calculates weight watchers points for you.  I am not on weight watchers, although I have been in the past.  I can't speak to the points calculations.  For me, I judge by the ingredients if it is healthy - if I am looking for a particular focus (i.e. high protein, high fiber, etc) I would take the time to break it out by the ingredients.  So, I have heard the recipes are great - I only wish the actual nutritional information was included, but that is something I can also calculate.

I plan to start on Sunday with the chicken chili.  Let me know what you make and how you like it!!!

Getting Back on that Horse!

So, it has been quite a while since my last post.  A myriad of health issues (nothing major) with my two children and then myself has caused my writing time to dwindle.  It also caused, for almost two weeks, my workout time to dwindle.  However, the workouts picked back up way before the writing.  So, to fill you in on what I learned, even though it took a long time to share it with you, I am finally back!

First, you are always going to have setbacks.  It is how you deal with those setbacks that defines your level of success.  Whether it be children, a large project at work, a planned vacation, or perhaps an unexpected need to travel, your routine will inevitably be disturbed.  The key is getting back to it!  I was proud this time around that my workouts faded for about a week and a half, but I got back to it. 

Second, you have to be willing to adjust your goals.  This admittedly has been the hardest part for me.  I am typically all or nothing - and so often end up with nothing.  I have had some health issues that have caused my goals to shift.  Nothing life threatening - but just enough to curtail my running and force me to either slow it down or walk.  That has been hardest for me - I was finally beginning to ALMOST like running.  And now I need to slow it down.  Honestly, it took about 4 or 5 days for me to just mentally get past that and get out there and walk - and walk really hard!  And, frankly, it is still challenging.

I may also need to forego a triathlon this year, and that really hit me hard.  Finally I felt like I was on the road to DO IT!!!  And, wham, now I may need to wait a year.  That was a big mental block for me.  But, I decided that in that year, I will develop healthy eating habits, become more physically fit, and strengthen my body to be ready to truly TRAIN and train HARD in about a year. 

So, the biggest lesson I have learned is be flexible - and flexible does NOT include giving up.

Now, let's get back to exceeding those Limits!

Hurry - free 200 caloroie portion DiGiorno Pizza

While not the healthiest by any means, if you need for pizza fix, DiGiorno is now packaging a product in a 200 Calorie portion.  Better yet they are giving away coupons to try it for FREE!


Go here to get your free coupon - this will go fast so hurry, hurry, hurry!

Thanks, For the Mommas!

As If The Olympics Weren't Inspiring Enough .......

As those who know me in real life can attest to, running is not my favorite sport. I keep striving to "find the love" because I know it can be a fantastic activity for health, fitness, and overall wellness (I have to admit, my time running is my "therapy" time). However, it sometimes frustrates me beyond belief that I can't "love it more." So, imagine the sense of camaraderie I felt when I learned that Apollo Ohno at one time had similar feelings regarding running!




First, I am not a devoted Apollo fan. I definitely respect him, but early on I felt he had this young arrogance, in spite of his athletic ability, that, well, just turned me off. Over the years I think he has matured and, well, maybe I have softened, and I find myself more of a “fan.” You can’t deny his athletic abilities and superb sense and execution in most races (did you see him in the qualifying race on Saturday? That blew me away!).



Anyway, Apollo, in an article in March’s Runners World, describes his early struggles with running. I was surprised to learn that early in his career he was known as “Chunky” and had a hard time finding both success and joy with running. But, like I also know in my own head, running proved invaluable in his training and he has learned to love running (I am still working on this part!). I also found it interesting that he does his best thinking while running. That does parallel my own feelings, running is a time I sort most of the most complicated life, professional, or training dilemmas. I usually write most of my posts that I publish here in my head first while, you guessed it, running. My time running, for the most part, is the only time no one demands anything of me other than me, which is, in some ways, extremely liberating.



Even more inspiring was Apollo’s discussion of how running was so different than his skating fundamentals but it was an integral part of his training success. I have to say, it was also a relief to hear how, in the beginning, he was a horrible runner even after elevating to a high enough level to train at the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid. While I don’t ever think I will reach any sort of Olympic Athlete status, perhaps there is hope for me and running yet! I have to admit, I can honestly say when finished with a run I feel like I can conquer the world, so that is probably a pretty good start!



If you are interested in reading the entire article, it can be found here.



On a more general note, I LOVE the Olympics and find them extremely inspiring. Every athlete had their challenges and following their stories of surmounting their own personal demons always pushes me to do more. I also firmly believe that my preschool age child is getting a tremendous life lesson from watching the Olympics. During last the last Summer Olympics she was glued to the coverage of swimming. She was just over two years old and kept asking about the stroke styles, the races, and even wanted to hang the Michael Phelps photo of him swimming that was published in our local newspaper on her wall. The Winter Olympics this year has proven to be a slightly different experience. She is very focused on the win or lose aspect of the Games, but is beginning to understand what a tremendous accomplishment it is to actually get to participate in the Olympics and that even if an athlete loses (or gets silver or bronze) that they are very fortunate, very talented, and, most importantly, worked extremely hard to get there. She keeps describing how this athlete or that athlete had to practice and practice to get there. That little mental connection alone has been priceless.



Admittedly, while sitting in front of the television isn’t exactly the healthiest activity, the Olympics can provide tremendous inspiration and learning experience for both adults and children.



What has been your favorite Olympic moment either thus far this year, or in the past?

An Unintended Experiement on How NOT to Fuel Your Body.

For those of you that are Facebook Fans you may have seen that my run Friday morning was less than stellar! I started my normal warm up (stretching, then walking on the treadmill for 5 minutes at 3.5 - 3.8 mph). Then I started jogging at just under 5 mph. Within minutes I was just spent, and annoyed, and discouraged. I thought just push through it; it will ease as you get going. Just not the case. By 8 minutes into the run, I was kind of panicking by how horrible I felt. Two minutes later, I was back down to a walk.


I was discouraged and already thinking "If this happens, how on earth am I going to finish that 5K at the end of a sprint triathlon!" Oh, the power of negative thinking, right? Then I started to wonder why this was happening. I turned immediately to what had I eaten that previous day.


On Thursday I was extremely busy and on the run. I had those dreaded errands to run during lunch, my fridge and pantry were showing the signs of just not having the time to effectively shop for the week. I was late for work in the morning, so I grabbed a couple of bananas, and apple, and made myself a sandwich with two tablespoons of peanut butter and two slices of low calorie whole grain bread. I never ate breakfast, per se, but I had eaten half a banana before my run and shoved the rest in my mouth on my way out the door.


At 11 am I was hungry, so I decided to eat half my sandwich, but finished the whole thing (I was seriously hungry after running that morning and failing to eat any "real" breakfast). I ran my lunch time errands and, I was so proud of myself for not throwing a candy bar in with the Valentine's I needed to get for my child's preschool party the next day! I returned to work and ate a banana. That was it for the day before dinner.


We had planned on plain old baked chicken (we throw it in the oven with a sprinkling of bread crumbs), baked potatoes, and a vegetable. When I got home, it was more of the same craziness. My spouse, while trying to make my life easier, ordered a pizza. I didn't even know it until it arrived at the door. So, I ate two pieces of pizza. I love pizza, but know it is far from a nutritious meal, and I can usually always predict scale results after eating pizza the night before, and those results aren't results you hope to see (yes, I am using the pound goal, but perhaps this is a good thing in this circumstance!).


That was my day. I can't even recall, but I don't even think I had a glass of milk. I drank sufficient water, but that was about all that was sufficient about Thursday's diet!


It became clear why, 16 minutes into my run, I was spent. Now I had eaten a small pre run snack, but even that wasn't my usual snack. I usually eat half a banana with a tablespoon of peanut butter on it about 20 minutes before I run. Friday morning I skipped the peanut butter! So, even after eating very little protein the day before (a couple tablespoons of peanut butter, maybe some negligible protein in my pizza in the cheese and ham) I further deprived my body of protein by skipping it in my usual pre-run "snack!" And, right after that epiphany, my stomach gave a little confirmation by growling out of hunger.


So, some things I have taken away from my unintentional experiment:


1. Plan my week better, recognize deficiencies in my nutritional supplies, and try to stock up so I don't find myself hungry for lack of variety of nutritious foods.


2. Be creative if you find yourself depleted in time, money, or just sanity, to think about nutrition. I was so excited I passed up on the candy bar, but couldn't I have found myself something suitable to eat? I passed three grocery stores on my errands, and I could have simply even stopped and gotten some deli meat for a snack (and eaten it with the uneaten apple I had brought from home) and perhaps added a small container of low fat milk, and given my body more of what it requires to just operate!


3. Communicate more effectively. If I had been better at communicating my need to eat a well balanced healthy dinner I could have avoided the unnecessary purchase of a pizza by a well meaning spouse. Our chicken dinner for four may have cost $5-$7 but instead we spend $14.00 on a pizza (and that was with a 50% off coupon!).


4. Have a plan to execute the healthy dinner as I walk in the door. I was seriously stressed. If I had communicated my needs as discussed in (3) and then had a plan to get it started as soon as I walked in the door, it would have been cooking and ready as I dealt with all the other insanity while it was cooking. All it would have taken would have been thinking about the plan for less than 5 minutes of my 30 minute commute.


Many of the things I learned are subjects I have a million ideas and confirmed tricks to deal with, but even I have crazy days where they are not so second nature as to kick in when things get a little nutty.


Now, in my Facebook post I also mentioned how my horrific run turned into something positive. I am not forgetting that part, believe me! When I hit the treadmill on January 4, 2010, I noticed and committed to memory my distance at thirty-five minutes. Even with walking more than usual on Friday, and admittedly struggling and feeling horrible, questioning my abilities, and then being frustrated with my lack of attention to nutrition for the previous 24 hours, I reached that distance 3.5 minutes sooner than I had January 4. And, here I thought how my workout was such a failure - but really, that failure was still so much better than my "best" had been not even a month and a half before! That was inspiring! So much so, although I had planned to quit, I added another run interval and kept moving for 10 minutes more than I had planned as my run began to fall apart!


So, here is the question for you, my readers - When you have a crazy day, what is one thing you can have readily on hand to provide adequate nutrition to fuel your body? And, can you make it a priority to make sure this weekend, as you hit some store, you be sure you pick some up to have it on hand? Let me know what you decide on and how it works out for you!

Could $50 off a $100 purchase at Old Navy help you exceed the Money Limit?

Old Navy has a website Old Navy Weekly which usually updates every Thursday.  On that website, when it updates, there is a loyal following that hunt for coupons that could be as good at $50 off a $100 purchase!  In the past, they even had $75 off $100 coupons, although those haven't been released since before the holidays.  It is not always easy to find these coupons, and it takes some searching and clicking, not to mention an agonizing wait throughout the day because they never update it at the same time (and, on occasion, it doesn't happen until Friday).

However, there are some ways to make it easier.  A fellow blogger at Dealseekingsource maintains a chat room where a loyal following sit, chat, and frankly share a whole host of deals waiting for the update.  They have very specific rules and procedures but when the site updates, the room guests share when they find the high value coupons and how to get them.  Most days, many of the participants score a high value coupon!  You can read about the "rules" here. 

So, head on over to Dealseekingsource and see if you can score yourself a great deal.  Old Navy has some really cute workout clothes, some very good deals on kids clothes, and I love their jeans and fleece (the fleece are perfect for layering on the colder outdoor workout days!).

Good Luck tomorrow!

Your Goal - A Means or a Limit?

So, I will let you in on a little secret. Before launching this blog, I spent months developing a topic list I thought I could cover here effectively based on my experience and perhaps some additional follow up research to give authoritative references. On that list in my scrawled handwriting sits “Goals.” What is it about goals that make them so hard to discuss and give advice on? Well, for one, everyone’s goals are so personal, so individual, how can I pretend to understand everyone’s struggles with goals. Furthermore, the individuality of goals makes me apprehensive to try to suggest what others’ goals should be. Well, frankly, one FANTASTIC reader gave me some insight, and here I am, discussing goals. See this reader’s comment to my question “what are YOUR Limits?”


Here are the ultimate questions: Do your goals act as a means to exceed the Motivation Limit and Confidence Limit, or, do your goals BECOME your Limit? Drilling down further, how can you prevent your goals from becoming your Limit? This seemed to be the reader’s dilemma. I can only offer what I have learned from my own experience.

My goal, this year, is to finish a sprint triathlon. I have to admit, this was my goal in 1997, when I was single, childless, and had nothing to do but go to graduate school and train. I was training with two goals in mind really, do the sprint triathlon and ride the STP (Seattle to Portland bike ride) in one day. Two great goals, right? Well, sort of. They were such huge goals, even with three hours a day of training and a ridiculously low body fat percentage, it fizzled. The goals were MONTHS away, and there was nothing to sustain my motivation. So, my goal this year is to do a sprint triathlon. I bet you are asking yourself, what is different (besides dropping the STP goal)? Well, my January goal was to run a 5K three times a week consistently, do a core workout four times a week, upper body strength training three times a week, and an extended stretch workout five times a week. I was moderately successful at reaching my goals. Candidly, I wasn’t 100% successful, but I came close, which is about 400% more than what I was doing in November and December to reach my ultimate goals.

My goals for February? Run a 5K three times a week consistently (can you guess which goal I let slip in January?), shave three minutes off my 5K time (I am REALLY slow so that isn’t all that aggressive), get on my bike at least five times for a 10 mi ride at whatever pace I can muster, and continue the stretching, upper body, and core workouts. My goals that perhaps slip, I carry over. I may not be as fit as I was in 1997, but mentally I am many moons closer to reaching my triathlon goals! And, even if some goals carry over, I am excited about my March goal to begin my swim technique training offered by my FAVORITE triathlon team! Looking ahead to the next month helps keep me motivated.

Now, for my reader’s goal, which she calls her Limit. Pounds, pounds, pounds. First, for me a pounds goal is tough because, frankly, my “pounds number” will always be high. I am big – both in structure and muscle. So even when I shaved my body fat percentage down to under 10% (and, by the way, the jury is out for me on whether that was healthy for me or not!) I weighed over 150lbs. It is a mental struggle for me. Not to mention, you can work really hard, improve your physical fitness level, and reach a better health status, and lose very little in pounds, particularly if you haven’t done a lot of exercise in your past or even the recent past. Let’s face it, most of us know muscle weighs more than fat, and, when you train, you will build muscle. As an example, since early November I have lost about 12 lbs. I went, however, from a size 14 to a size 10 (and, really, almost an 8 except I am too lazy and financially challenged to go buy new pants!). Honestly, I don’t think 12 lbs reflects that. I am tremendously more flexible, I sleep better, I walk taller, I am overall 100% happier, and my confidence (even for me) soars more and more with every workout! Those are things that just cannot, in my mind, be measured by a scale.

In addition to pounds in general being a tough goal, when you have a lot to lose, when they don’t drop as fast as you see contestants on the “Biggest Loser” drop them (really, it is ok to admit you watch it, it is inspiring, isn’t it?) sometimes it can’t help but be discouraging. First, those contestants, while admirable, are so concentrated on training, their food, health, and lifestyle, of course they can lose massive amounts of weight in a week. They aren’t running the kids to school, practice, doing laundry for four people, cleaning their house, working their job, just trying to get by in today’s hectic world. And, for them, that is great, and I am sincerely jealous. But we are dealing with all those things and, usually, more!

So, what can we do about goals then, if not pounds? Well, first and foremost, how about break it up into small amounts. I like the 10 lb increment if you have more than 25 lbs to lose. Or, if you really could stand to lose more than 10% of your current weight (generally if you fall into the obese category), then the 10% mark is a good one too. Losing 10% of your current weight significantly lowers your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other obesity related diseases. What better goal is that?

Or, how about some athletic goal? I neglected to mention, one of my first “mini” goals is to run our St. Patrick’s Day Dash, which is a 5K. Of course, I haven’t registered for it yet, but I need to! I have NEVER run a 5K race (I have run 5K but never an official race). I would be so happy to finish! Maybe you aren’t ready to do a 5K (I have NO doubt I couldn’t have done it in August of last year!), but how about a 1 mile fun run? Or how about even a charity walk? As spring approaches, there are many such events, just Google them for your city! (or email me, I will find you one if you need me to!) Or, maybe running/walking isn’t your thing – I only do it to bike and swim, in all honesty! How about a charity bike ride? I have to say, my all time favorite ride is Ride for the Children in Phoenix!

Other goals could just be to walk for a half hour or an hour three times a week. Honestly, if that is more than what you are doing now, it is a FANTASTIC goal. Any additional movement is a goal worth making. And, reward yourself when you reach your goal – no matter how small!

If your goal is your Limit rather than a means to exceed the Motivation and Confidence Limit, then it is time to change, or at least segment, the goal!

Please share your ideas for either changing your goal from a Limit to a means, or, keeping your means from becoming your Limit! Or if you are struggling, share your goal, and maybe why it is a Limit, and perhaps a fresh perspective can be given by another reader or myself! Sometimes it just takes someone else to look at the goal and they can help turn it into a means rather than let it linger as a Limit!