Quinoa & Smoked Tofu Salad

Quinoa & Smoked Tofu Salad

Food Rules, Take Two

1-Food should be eaten at a table and/or with someone else. Preferably both.
2-Never consume the food at coffee shops - just the coffee
3-Food should not be eaten after 8pm (ish)
4- Ingredients should only contain real food (not something made on the new jersey turnpike)
5-Whenever you have to choose between sugar and fat - choose fat
6-Limit consumption of sugar and carbs together (unless you want to feel puffy)
7-Food should not be consumed in a car (see rule 1)
8- Eat 5-9 veggies a day (OK, some can be fruit)
9-Eat as much variety as possible (need to refine this a bit)

That's it for now...

Happy Anniversary

to me. One year of being thin or thin-ish or whatever I am. But it has been a year. I've spent this year concentrating on my health - trying to eat well, exercise well, and be well mentally. It has been hard work sometimes and rewarding other times. What I've learned this year is that health can be as hard or easy as you make it. To sometimes let go and just be. What I am wondering now is that I've spent a year concentrating on this one thing - is it time to move on? With this anniversary and some other changes (my yoga teacher is leaving me, preschool starting up again) my husband suggested I shift my priorities elsewhere. Like a job - uggh, but it makes me wonder. Is my year of health over?

I have achieved a lot. 25 weight loss maintained. household eating overhaul. olympic triathlon. balancing pincha mayurasana.

Happy Anniversary.

And my next goal is: ????

I'm kinda

pissed. Because in my entire life when I have I ever wanted to go running? Let me answer that for you. NEVER! But now, that I want to, crave it, something that gives me peace - I can't - or shouldn't at least. My hip hurts. It aches. It gets worse when I exercise. What is the one thing that gives me a semblence of sanity? Exercise.

I'm tired of it hurting. I haven't run in a week. Have only worked out once. Now I feel like a big, fat, sluggish fatball of goo. So Saturday I'm going running. And the first three-four miles will feel ok. And then after that I will "feel" my hip. And then the next day it will ache and hurt and then I'll be pissed all over again.

I might be whining because at 35 this is my biggest injury. Well, longest recurring. And that says a lot from a soccer player of 20 years. A soccer player of 20 years whose hip hurts because I did yoga yesterday. Yoga. (I snorted as I said that cause I'm kinda pissed.)

and on. and on.

Riding the Wave

I am so obsessed with food right now. It feels like a wave - I ride it as it grows and grows and then roars and crashes. All I can do is ride it out and hope that I don't get sucked under the water. Ride it out and keep making the best eating choices I can. Ride it out until this obviously female cyclical thing cycles back to a managable level. Hope I don't crash under the weight of tears and preschoolers and responsibilities and the massive number of fast food restaurants that loom. (that last one won't happen)

Huh. Even I seem to have some inviolable food rules that I can't EVER break.

Sweeteners

*I am so overwhelmed about sweeteners right now. *

Having grown up in a chubby family in the 80s we all drank (umm, still drink) Diet Pepsi. Aspartame being the sweetener of choice. Cuz you know sugar will make you fat. So will fat, of course, so in the nineties it was a sugar free, fat free explosion.

So now I research and research and research. I still don't have an answer. I thought agave sounded good, but it still is processed and just recently saw an article that it has more fructose than HFCS. Oh jeez. So there is sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, HFCS, molasses, honey, agave and maple syrup. They are all sugar. What is a girl to use?

I have replaced aspartame in my coffee thinking that at least less processed is better. Most doctors say that stevia is best, but I don't know a single person who actually likes that stuff. Nutrition is such a baby science, if a science at all, and it can't give me the answers I seek. I know I shouldn't eat much sugar, but is it best just to stick with the source? Sugar, less processed, minimally used, but sugar? I think so. for now. Wow, this 90s girl has come far.

Endurance

Words used to describe my life as an athlete: quick, fast, aggressive, confident, strong
Words NEVER used to describe me: enduring, mental fortitude, stamina

It made sense to me in a way when I started doing spring triathlons 3 years ago. They were short distance events. I have always loved swimming and the others were short enough distances that I knew I could do it. It attracted my athletic side that had languished since quitting soccer three years before. I did one my first year (9 months post partum) and then two more the next summer. I even finished in the top ten that third one. So why the Olympic length? I had no design to run far, it seemed to boring, and I really didn't think I could swim that far. It was something out there like a carrot - something I couldn't do - except I don't really accept that and kept it in my mind this whole time.

Last fall I decided to start running further. And here I am three years after my first triathlon (with a one year break), having tripled my running distance, about to compete in my first Olympic Triathlon. Is it a big deal? To me, yes. To all those triathletes out there that run Ironmans, absolutely not. So, I will run my race to the best of my ability and not worry about all them. With that in mind I made a list of "Things I love about triathlons."

Swim-the absolute silence (with earplugs in) and concentration on all your muscles working together to move with grace
Bike-the 33mph I can get to going down a hill
Run- the kick I have at the end of a course

Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it!