Just Do It

Life is really about the decisions you make. This morning my alarm went off at 6 am, as it has been doing at least three times a week when I get up and go to the gym before work.  Well, after last night I had a hard time thinking about getting up at 6 am.  You see, I went to bed around midnight, tossed and turned, worried that my husband's alarm was not going to go off at 3 am, at which time he had to get up and get ready to leave for California.  I finally fell asleep at some point and was promptly woken up by his alarm at 3 am.  Then at 3:30 I was woken up by my husband telling me he was leaving.  Then, of course, I had to pee.  The next thing I knew it was 6 am and my alarm was going off.

First I hit snooze.  Then I decided I would set my alarm for another hour and go back to sleep. This only made me realize that then I would have to go to the gym when I got home from work tonight.  However, when I get home I also have to make dinner, do homework, and so on so the gym wasn't going to fit nicely into those plans.  Finally I sucked it up, decided to get out of bed at 6:15 and I went to the gym.

Driving to work, I realized I felt good.  Tired, but good.  A lot better than I would have felt if I decided not to go to the gym this morning.  So this is why I say life is about the decisions you make.  Sometimes, the decision I make in the beginning of the day sets the stage for the rest of my day.

My Goal: Couch to 5K

For those of you who know me and for those of you just starting to get to know me through what I disclose in my blog, I am not a runner.  I like to cook, eat, drink, shop (splurge), indulge, and over-indulge.  One thing I hate: exercise.  Not that I hate being active, but it interferes with what little down time I have to sit in front of the boob tube, read a good book, enjoy a glass of wine and a bubble bath, and other such indulgences.

Don't get me wrong, I never REGRET a good workout.  My workouts just tend to be few and far between, like walking for 30 minutes on my lunch break at work when it's nice out (nice meaning not too hot, I don't want to sweat, and not too cold, because then after exerting myself in the cold air, when I come back inside to the heat to work, I sweat).

For these reasons, when my husband ran 14 miles this weekend as part of a relay in a marathon and my step-mother ran 12 and I was surrounded by 13,000 runners, I was inspired to get active and stop sitting on my ever-growing ass.  I have been careful to exercise and not hurt my knees, because they hurt me every day.  Finally I had them checked out.  Turns out it is typical for young females to have knee caps that slide side to side instead of staying in alignment when one moves about.  This sliding causes pain during activities but I found out it is best to strengthen my knees and the surrounding muscles, ligaments, and tendons in order to ease the pain.  Therefore, I am no longer treating my knees gingerly when exercising.

My step-mom was essentially the same way as me prior to running marathons, meaning she did not exercise much.  However, she told me there is a program called "Couch to 5K" for couch potatoes who have never ran before.  DING DING DING!  Bells started going off for me.  That's what I need!

I came home from the marathon and the first thing I did was research the program.  The focus is on easing into the program, not trying to push yourself too hard because then you turn yourself off to running and working out.  However, it says that if you follow the program you will be running over 3 miles in about 8 weeks. We will see.

My first day on the program was yesterday.  It requires that you do the program 3 times a week (I have chosen Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  I am going to strength-train on Tuesdays and Thursdays to keep myself in the habit of going to the gym/working out every day, because habit is what I really need.

The first week, the program tells you to walk on the treadmill at a brisk pace (for me 3.8).  Then you alternate jogging for 60 seconds (I do this at 5.5) and then walking briskly for a minute and a half, for a total of 20 minutes.  In all, you end up walking for 17 minutes and jogging for 8.  It actually felt really good!  My first day in the gym I could not stop smiling, thinking of how good I felt, how I was not panting or out of breath, I was enjoying the music on my IPOD and dreaming of finally working my way down a few pounds.

That was yesterday. Today I went back to the gym after work and worked out my arms and legs for 30 minutes.  Tomorrow morning I plan to get up before work and hit the gym for some more walking/jogging.

Any advice/words of wisdom/words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated!

Cooking Fall Foods

This past weekend I could not get myself out of the kitchen!  The air was chilly, the leaves are turning bright shades of yellow, orange, and red, the scent of fall is carried in the breeze, and all I wanted to do was cook.  Often what I do is get an idea in my head of something I want to try making.  Then I browse through online recipes to see if I find something similar, and then I try to create it in my own way.  My favorite recipe website is All-Recipes.com.  It's fabulous!  You can search for recipes by type of meat, course, or ingredient.  You can even ask the search to not include certain ingredients you don't like.

Fridays I work a half-day at work.  I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and then got to work.  I was having my mother over for dinner Friday night and had gotten a pumpkin from a patient at work, a sugar pumpkin, one that is perfect for cooking.  I decided to make some sort of pumpkin pasta.  Also, since it was cold out and I was craving beef stew, I decided to make a beef stew.  In addition, I was craving apples and cinnamon, so I made a fresh apple salsa.  I also made some French horn cookies, which one of our patients makes and they are SOO GOOD, and I made a poke-cake.

The spicy apple salsa was an appetizer that I served with both blue corn chips and jalapeño-lime corn chips.  I chopped up some apples and soaked them in a little lime juice, then also chopped up some peppercinis and walnuts for the salsa.

For the main course, we had the pumpkin pasta, which was made with grated pumpkin, sautéed for about 10 minutes, then mixed with some tomato paste and water as well as chili powder and light sour cream.  This made a delicious and hearty fall topping for the wheat fettuccine I used.

I also made a Dijon-mustard beef stew that had potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, shallots, and buffalo sauce in it.  This cooked for about 2 hours in my dutch oven and was really delicious, if spicy.

Dessert was going to be the poke-cake but my mother and husband were picking at the French horn cookies that were cooling on a wire rack on the table and after the meal, no one was hungry for dessert.  The cookies are made with a cream cheese dough, then filled with a walnut-sugar filling and rolled up into crescents.  Very tasty, although I have not perfected the recipe as the patient that comes to our office has.  Her cookies are much better.

For the poke cake, all you do is bake a cake, I used yellow cake mix.  When the cake comes out, you use a wooden spoon handle to poke holes in it about one inch apart, and then you layer on and fill the holes with pudding.  I used instant chocolate pudding.  When we finally ate this cake, it was a real hit!  The cake itself was light and fluffy.  It actually sat for a few days in the fridge which made it more moist and delicious!  I also made some poke cupcakes and topped them with both pudding and chocolate frosting...yum!

On Saturday, my husband was working and what do I do when left to my own devices but COOK SOME MORE!!  I made a batch of wheat bread which came out fantastic!  I also made some pesto sauce with basil, pignoli nuts, olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic cloves.  I made some applesauce too, which I have never made before.  I did not realize how simple it is!! You boil apples in a little bit of water, add in some sugar, cinnamon, and whatever other spices you like, and mix it up.  I left mine on the chunky side but you can puree it so it's more smooth too.  Delicious!!  I was quite productive and we had leftovers for days!