Hi Bloggies, how’s your Tuesday been? Mine has been great, but I am wiped out right now! Why you ask? Well for starters, 5.5 hours of sleep is clearly not enough for anyone on a regular basis and sadly, that’s been the norm for me for the past year or more. However, now that I am committed to training for fitness competitions, I can feel how this is just not going to work and that I need to prioritize my sleep, period. No more 3am nights, midnight just has to mean lights out for me.
That said, I got up at 6:30am today, left the house at 7:15am, and went to the gym for my first solo weight training session! My trainer yesterday had given me a list of exercises to do, and we ran through 30 different exercises at his gym on Monday. However, that was 30 all at once, and my head was spinning a bit from all the new info and machines and terminology, plus this was at his gym not the one I have a membership at, so needless to say, I was a little worried about going to my gym, alone. I googled everything last night just to make sure I knew what I was doing and wrote my own little shorthand list for myself.
I thought that if I needed help strutting my stuff in tiny shorts and a tight tank top would help get me some much-needed attention, but I was wrong. I didn’t bank on the fact that all the trainers at the gym were tied up with personal clients, clueless, and not interested in helping me. It’s ironic because I actually teach yoga there. When I asked one girl who’s a trainer there where the seated row machine was and she said I don’t know, that was my clue that I needed to just Figure It Out On my Own! Which is what I did.
I had my exercise list and found all the free weights and machines that I needed to use, did what I needed to do, 3 sets of 15 reps each, got in, got out, and left high on life. Since the treadmills were all taken and I hate treadmill running anyway, and it was a beautiful morning, I went for a 3 mile run outdoors before I drove home. Perfect start to my day! I loved it! And I am so glad I was forced to just “figure out” the weights, machines, exercises, and everything on my own. It feels so empowering to know I didn’t need a gym stud to help me. Not that I would have been complaining, but ya know.
Tuesdays and I get along well because lately My Blogger Meetups seem to fall on Tuesdays.
See the Tuesday Meetup In This Post with Alyson of Nourished Fitness!
In This Post there was a Tuesday Meetup with Maureen
Here was my Most Recent Tuesday Meetup with Alyson
Well today I met up with my local friend, Madeline, and also there was someone new at our coffee clutch: Jenn of Girl-Heros!
Jenn’s in Arizona visiting and she and I planned a meetup a few weeks ago but when I realized that Madeline had off today, it was just the more the merrier!
And a merry time we did have chatting, exchanging life stories, and getting to know Jenn better!
Jenn was so Thoughtful that she brought Madeline and I each some Tea
Her Favorite kind she told us, made locally in the part of California where she lives. Can’t wait to brew it and Thank you, Jenn! It was awesome to hang out with you and Madeline, today!
After we said our goodbyes, I browsed around WF’s, but remember I treat this store as a museum. Look but cannot buy.
So I grabbed my Pita Chip Hound and we came home and I got to the mail, but before I do that…
I wanted to thank you all who chimed in with voices of support for my decision that I posted yesterday about beginning to train for fitness and bikini competitions! I wasn’t sure if I was going to dive in or not, I was really leaning towards it, but after my First Training Session with my Trainer Yesterday, it sealed the deal that this is something I want to do! Thank you for supporting me and cheering me on! I am sooo incredibly excited and pumped up (no pun intended) and am thrilled that you guys are rooting for me, too!
And I loved hearing about Your Motto’s and Approaches to Life. As I mentioned, I am a go-getter, I give 110% to everything, always. I also believe this is innate. It was interesting to learn that most of you seem pretty hardcore and driven and that you, too, believe this is a nature, not nurture, type of trait. Good stuff, bloggies. And I loved all your Life Motto’s and Words To Live By that you shared in the Comments.
Seems it was my day for Tea! After my blogger meetup today, I got the mail and received some tea from LeafSpa.com
I am normally such a coffee girl. Can you Tell?
Kona & Fudge Brownie
But this Mint Chocolate Rooibos Herbal Tea from LeafSpa.com Just looks and Smells Beyond Amazing!!!
I can’t wait to brew a cup of this and I bet the Mint Chocolate Tea will make an Awesome Iced Tea, too!
Remember how I love my Iced Coffees?
And who doesn’t love Creamsicles? Yum! Can’t wait to Try Creamsicle Tea!
And I bet the Black Grapefruit Tea will be really refreshing, too
And Paper Tea Bags and a Re-Usable Metal Tea Bag that rests on the edge of your cup while the tea is steeping.
Green Food was Dressed with a Combo of Vegan Slaw Horseradish Relish Dressing that I mentioned yesterday. And glad to know there are some horseradish fans in the house. For those of you who have never tried it, if you’ve tried wasabi, it’s along those lines but not quite. Spicy with a kick for sure though!
I’ve seen other bloggers put ketchup on their salads before and since I’ve done mustard, horseradish, Vegan Mayo (Veganaise), and Evan mentioned yesterday in the comments that his fave condiment is ketchup and I had a taste for it. So, I figured what the heck, let’s give it a whirl.
I didn’t really love it, but it could be that the bottle of TJ’s ketchup, although unopened, was just sitting around too long in my fridge and was a little funky. I’ll try again with some new ketchup.
My Dessert was Popcorn with Coconut Oil
Coconut Oil is Such Awesome Stuff!
Remember This Post, when I added some Pumpkin Pie Spice in addition to the Maca, Nooch, Cocoa Bean Extract and all the other toppings I’ve been piling on The Popcorn
Well I decide to Add some Chinese Five Spice Blend Powder to The Popcorn today!
I love the in the Chinese Five Spice Blend: Anise, Cinnamon, Star Anise, Cloves, and Ginger
Perfect with the laundry list of Other Toppings I’ve been smothering my kernels in!
Yoga Today is an Olympic Event in 2012 ??
It was an April Fool’s Joke and as I mentioned, I don’t like April’s Fools Jokes. Gabriela sent me this great link and I was all excited about Yoga Getting Recognized at the Olympics, til I realized it was a joke. Sigh. Yoga is not a Joke!
Check out this Post of Mine if You Have any Doubt. All Things Yoga: Yoga FAQ’s
Tip of the Day: My Cuisinart Food Processor in Stainless Steel Give Away!!!!!
Do I Need to Say More? This is an Awesome Give Away and I Hope You’ve Entered to Win It!!!!
Questions
1. Ever tried Chinese Five Spice Powder? Do You like Anise? You either do or you don’t on that one. I didn’t use to, but do now in small doses.
Ever tried ketchup on your salads? Or mustard, salsa, hummus, tahini, maple syrup & dijon, agave & Orange Juice or anything else unique?
Click on those Links for Dressing Recipes I have made with those ingredients!
2. Do you want to know or care what I am doing in the gym? I will never be as detail-oriented posting my workout info as April, Janetha, Susan, Naomi, or many others are, but I could write a sentence or two on it, if you care. If you don’t care because you have no interest in what someone else’s workout is, I totally get that, and won’t bother wasting my time posting it or yours reading it! haha! So just let me know!
3. In This Post I mentioned that Skylar had free access to “treats”, some cinnamon sugar coated pretzles, but only chose a few bites.
And in Yesterday’s Post, she Chose Books over Candy and thanks to everyone who wrote telling me you noticed her choice and thanks for giving me a pat on the back for that. You all are too kind!
I believe that if you give kids choices, and access to things, and don’t squelch their ability to eat intuitively at this tender age, that they will eat “good” foods, by and large. I mean, who wouldn’t choose a piece of juicy, fresh fruit over a dry packaged cracker or highly processed foods? Well I guess that’s a silly question because looking at the number of unhealthy people, clearly many people are choosing Twinkies over Raw Veggies. And I am a fan of Sweets and Desserts, but it’s just one small part of my life; I’d say 95% of my diet is wholesome foods.
For me, healthy food tastes great and it’s easy for me to “choose” the healthy option and Skylar seems to do the same. I don’t provide Twinkies in the house, but I also don’t shun or “forbid” sugar, fat, or desserts, the kind I make of course which are high raw vegan, and she seems to take a few bites of desserts, but then she’s done.
I don’t think her eating habits are any different than what nature intended. Meaning, provide the right foods, and the choices become easy. I haven’t read it word for word, but what the Intuitive Eating proponents advocate is a much more fleshed out version of my own thoughts. I provide an array of healthy foods from those, she can choose what she wants. If you never provide hot dogs with fillers and Mac-n-Cheese out of a box, then kale chips and raw veggies are just what kids eat. That is our biological normal, provided the mechanism hasn’t been skewed or “messed with”.
However, this mechanism of choosing healthy foods and self-regulating processed, sugar-laden, trans-fat-containing foods can become totally out of whack. Clearly, if we look at the obseity and chronic health problems that we have in the US, obviously people are not able to choose intuitively. I won’t belabor Jaime Oliver’s latest endeavors because I think it’s been discussed plenty the past few weeks, but I think what he’s doing is great. People are so far off track from what is healthy that anything and everything anyone can or wants to do to help others regain balance is wonderful. Shoutout to Kelly who is passionate about the problem of Childhood Obesity. She’s doing her part to try to help & educate others, you rock, Kelly!
So somewhere between what we were born with, which I believe is the ability to self-moderate and self-regulate our food intake, both in terms of quantity and quality of foods, and say early adulthood (sometimes childhood), many people have lost this ability. Why??
My Questions For You…
Do you eat intuitively? Do you find it easy to choose broccoli over cheesecake, a peach over processed crackers? Does making healthy choices come naturally to you, or not? And I realize that everyone’s definition of healthy is different. A whole wheat bagel with cream cheese is infinitely “healthier” than a fast-food fried and greasy breakfast burrito but for me, the gluten in the bagel and the dairy-containing cream cheese is very unhealthy because of my Food Allergies.
If eating healthy and making the choices that I believe are intuitive within us (provided this mechanism hasn’t become skewed or out of whack) comes naturally to you, what do you attribute this to? And if it does not come easy to you, what are you doing to stay on track?
Additionally, do you think that kids with “free access” to all types of food will self-moderate or do you think they can’t handle it and will just stuff themselves with junk food if given access to it?
We all know people who grew up in a house where there was no junk food whatsoever and when they were out of the house, they went overboard and ate everything in sight. And then there are kids who have junk food in the house, and they still go overboard and childhood obesity is such a problem. Sigh.
How did you grow up? How has that shaped your food choices today and your relationship with eating and food?
Stay Tuned For Grocery Finds…
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