Training and more training for the Carmel Marathon:)

So excited for this.... June 11 2011

Beth's wisdom. (A day with Beth:)

It was the BEST day! My friend Beth invited me over to her house to hang out. She is the most inspiring women I know. She has Breast cancer for the 2nd time and she deals with it with so much grace. She is also taking control of her life by eating raw foods. Because she wants to do everything she can to live healthy and fight cancer. Amazing she is! I spent the day eating and learning. She made all these yummy foods for me to try. She taught me so much.


She showed me this ice cream that is healthy for you:)

This is just a glimpse of the things I learned to use. Loved it!

I am still starting slow but I have decided that we are only going to have fresh fruit and fresh veggies. I started this thinking that my family would throw a royal fit BUT... they love it. They loved the fresh steamed spinch,broccili and carrots. Starting slow has worked out the best for our family. They love the smoothies and now the fresh veggies and fruit. Thanks Beth!!

My first attempt at my power smoothie.

Since I had to cut back on the ingredients, this is what I ended up with: 1 avocado 1 cup of frozen strawberries 1 cup of almond milk 1/4 cup of cocunut water 1 tsp flax seed 1 tsp chia seeds It was so yummy!! Success:)

Whole foods market- a little scary

This was my first visit to this wonderful store. I was so excited to go shop here. I had my list of smoothie essentials and I was on cloud 9. I walked in and straight to where I needed to go. Then it hit me. It was so expensive:(. I gathered all my ingredients and then figured out that I would be spending all my grocery money for the week on one smoothie recipe. So I regrouped and figured out what I could do to make a great smoothie at a little better price. I bought Chai seeds, coconut water, almond milk,flax seed, avocados, strawberries and pineapple. All in all I felt great about my choices and I headed home on a mission to make the best smoothie I could make......in the morning.

Frist things first, Smoothies.

I have decided that I am starting small. I need to get my good smoothie down and then move forward.

I am starting with the green smoothie and my super power smoothie. They are both really good for you and I am learning so many great things about Coconut water and that is in the smoothies. I choose the super power smoothie for my husband and kids because I read that if you try the green one first with your kids they will never try them again.

Alkaline Green Smoothieyield-

1 smoothie approx 12-16oz

6″ piece of cucumber

3 medium Kale leaves, torn

5 stems fresh mint

3 stems fresh parsley

1″ piece fresh ginger

1 avocado

1 cup coconut water

fresh juice of one lime

1-2 tsp udo’s oil

1-2 tbsp hemp seeds

2-3 drops stevia or a tsp of agave

Method

Place all ingredients into high speed blender and mix until smooth, adding a little filtered water if needed for consistency. Enjoy!

Super Powered Smoothie 1/2c unsweetened almond milk1

1/4c coconut water

1c blueberries- pref frozen

2/3c raspberries-pref frozen (you can use frozen strawberries in place or in addition to)

1 avocado (slice in half, remove seed and then just squeeze each piece in half right into blender)

2 tbsp agave syrup or 2 tsp xylitol or stevia or a mix of 2 or 3 of these – I often use a combination

3 tbsp fresh coconut meat if you have some on hand (this makes it taste smooth and creamy-yum)

1 tsp vanilla- alcohol free liquid or pure ground vanilla powder

1/2 to 1 tsp super greens powder (very concentrated)

2 tbsp omega 3 oil (Nutra Sea +D is apple flavoured and tastes nice)

3-4 tbsp raw hemp nuts Method

Place all ingredients in blender and blend well to mince the raspberry seeds, adding additional coconut water for consistency if needed. It becomes a nice thick creamy mixture as the avocado whips up quite nicely-as though there was yogurt in the recipe. I use a vitamix blender, it’s my most used appliance besides the juicer. Yields approx 4-5 cups

Next up is my granola.

Mantaining is what I am.

For the last couple months I have been just maintaining myself. BUT I want more, I want a better way of living. I want to run faster and be healthier. So I am making a better workout for myself and now I am at the point where I need to change my eating habits so that they are helping me not hurting me. This is where I have been for a while now. This week I have made some goals that I am excited about. I want to learn more about nutrition and my overall well being. I want to get certified to be a nutritionist. I am in the process of finding the right school for me that will help me with that. Next I have been reading/researching food and the best way I can make work for me. I found so many things that have helped me. My favorite is this book that is inspiring. This is my next step. Read and learn:)

The reason for change.

Over a year ago I decided I needed to change my life. I had gained so much weight and I felt gross. I started January 2010, It was actually January 1st because I could wrap my head around starting this life change on the first of the month:) I was determined to workout at home since I did not want to pay for a gym membership. I went to the library and rented all the work out DVD's they had. Next I went and bought some weights. I woke up the morning of January 1st and was off to the races. My plan was that I would work out until April when I was going to California with my sister, mom and niece. I had my workouts planned out for everyday. I also made a decision that if I was going to work out I needed to eat better so I had a plan all laid out for my meals. I rented tons of nutrition cookbooks I tried tons of recipes, some good and some bad:). I took pictures pictures of myself to see my progress. The weight loss was slow at first but I was feeling amazing so I kept moving forward. The weight started coming off and I was shrinking:))). This was the most surprising thing to me. I thought I was going to become like (and look like) Jackie Warner (trainer on my workout videos) but it did not work like that, I was still me it was me just a shrunk me. All the fat rolls were there but they had shrunk. I figure since that was what I was working for I kept moving forward. By April 1st I had lost 35 pounds, I was loving life and feeling great! One of the BEST things that has come out of my life style change is that I discovered that I LOVE running. When the warmer weather came I started running through my neighborhood this is where the weight came flying off. The next thing I knew I was running 5-6 miles a day and training for races. My first one was a 10K, then several 5K's and in October I was running my first half marathon. I loved it so much I decided to run another one 3 weeks later. Running to me is such a great stress reliever. For once in my life I was in charge of my body and not the other way around.

My very first race. 10k

Our 5K in honor of my friends mom.

10k Circle the city

My 1st Half Marathon!! Loved every minute of it.