juicing

For a marathon runner, I don't eat as well as I should. We eat well--but I'm known to skip breakfast and enjoy an afternoon cookie.

Until I started to feel a tugging at my heart to change the way we eat. To cut out all the crap. To fill our plates with veggies. And then, just like when you buy a new car and see it EVERYWHERE, I began to see healthy eating everywhere.  Jami Nato blogged though cutting out sugar.  I got a random text from my husband that said "Want to try a fruit and veggie cleanse?" I went home with a massive sugar/caffiene induced migrane and watced two food documentaries back to back that I randomly found on Netflix. If you haven't watched "Hungry for Change" and "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" you need to. They're available to stream. 

So we took the plunge and coughed up the money for a juicer. Found some good recipes online (I'll be sharing my favorites on here) and bought literally 30 pounds of fruit + veggies at Costco.

And now, it's Tuesday afternoon and my breakfast has been a yummy concoction of cucumber + apple + lime juice. It's good. I'm getting food but fighting my brain that wants bread and eggs and coffee. Really, really, fighting the coffee.  I'm also reading though the Youvision app devotional "Made to Crave" because really, this is a big heart issue. And I'm a believer that my heart + soul + body are all connected and all given to Christ. I just skip out a lot of giving my food over to Him. 

It's going to be a tough 5 days. I'm hoping to shed a few pounds and re-start my body. To give it nutrients and a clean slate. To treat it right.

UPDATE: May food challenge

we're now on the last home stretch of this month.

if you remember, for this month Sam and I decided to change a few things about our diet:

 

and it's been great.

honestly, I haven't missed cookies and ice cream like I thought I would.

and most of our dinners are now coming from SkinnyTaste,

which has tons of yummy stuff.

and I started finding that a lot of my pinterest food was pinned from there anyways.

so, we eat 90% of our dinners from there now.

and we're using MyFitnessPal to count calories.

that part's not as fun, but we're learned a lot about how much certain things are.

like cheese.

if you're on there, leave your username at the bottom and I'll friend you.

because I could use a couple more friends on there to keep me accountable. 

Sam's lost a few pounds, but for me, I'm at the same place weight wise.

but I do notice a change in how I feel.

so, for now, I think we'll keep some of the changes long term.

less ice cream in the fridge for sure.

and with that, we're having a friend in town for Memorial Day weekend

and off for mexican food tonight.

Now through Monday night (5/28) at midnight, use the coupon code
MEMORIALDAY
for 20% off!

may food challenge

i like dessert.
cookies, ice cream, chocolate.
i'll indulge in it all. way too often.
like i'll probably have one of those every night.

and i know that part of my diet has got to change.
we're not vegan, vegetarian, or any of that.
and we might reach that point one day, but for now, it's baby steps toward healthier eating

so, for the month of may, I'm making some changes.
I know they might seem small (and most of you probably have got this under control)
but for Sam and I, we want to live, long, happy, healthy lives, and so I've got to take inventory of what we're eating.
ANDDDD I've always heard that weight loss/health is 80% nutrition and 20% excercise. we're pretty good about the excersie, but I know our nutrition could use some work.

so, without anymore rambling introducing:

Now, these rules mostly revolve around dessert, but I will be attempting to make changes around the rest of our eating. like, all this week our meals have come from Skinny Taste, an absolutely wonderful website that has all sorts of mouth watering recipies done in a healthy way!

I would love your input.  do you struggle with diet? do you have favorite healthy recipes? share! favorite websites? I want to know!

and the biggest question of all:  what are your favorite "healthy" desserts?

545 am runs and a new 1% change

Yes, I woke up at 545 this morning, of my own choosing. and I don't have to be at work until 830.
and NO I do not take that long to get ready in the morning. the hubs and I went running.
because running at 5 and 6 in the evening when it is 100+ degrees outside
is about what I imagine Hell to be like. nd I actually like running.

You may remember my 1% change of getting out there and running more often.
well now, there's a little more modivation behind that

Yes, it's true. I am signed up for a new race. a half marathon
In Flordia. and I get to go to Harry Potter land.
(sidebar: I have 50 pages left in the 6th book, and don't know the ending. If you leave a comment and ruin it for me, I won't be your friend anymore.)

I am excited to be training again. I love training, but after the races I seem to fall off the running bandwagon. my hope for this time around, and with this 1% change is that it will be a life change, and I will be a runner for life, not just runner for this race.
(keep your eye on that little mileage counter down there in the bottom right)
I'm counting on you guys to hold me accountable.

Our 1% change for this week involves our food.

The hubs and I both want to be healthier people. to be around for each other, and kids, grandkids, and great grand kids. so I cleaned out our pantry. and threw out the crap. (which, there was a lot of). we made a huge huge HUGE mistake on Saturday. In a moment of weakness, we ate churches chicken. I felt like silmy greasy regret immediatly after. and I knew all the work it would take to rid that from my body.

and now I am seriously comitteed to seriously looking at the labels of everything we eat. and the goal is that most of it will be fresh--fresh veggies, fruits, and not have labels at all. lots of fiber, lots of grains. We kicked it off on Sunday by eating a raw dessert that I saw on a friend's blog a while back. it was kind of intimidating, but once I made it--super easy. and my body felt good.

I am excited to hear ya'll 1% changes!

1% Changes

what is a 1% change, you say? as Jessi said over on her blog at naptime diaries

"If you're new to the phrase, it's basically the idea that in an effort to be healthy, you make 1% changes every day or every week. Just tiny (yet still costly) changes that you can sustain and that add up. You can apply it to anything - your physical health, your marriage, your decorating, your relationship with the Lord. Just slowly, by grace, getting a little closer to your goals day by day."

and I don't think I could have said it better.  so we are going to 1% change it up this week.

Samuel and I recently ish (june) got rid of our gym membership.  it was just a bill that we didn't need to be paying each month, so we let it go.  we talked about it.  we don't want to give up working out, but wanted to find ways around pays tons of money to get a good workout.

so we've been running.  or walking.  some of both.  we have a nice mile and a half track around our house, and it has been our main form of excercise. 

so what's the change?  to get out there at least 5 times a week.  I would love to be able to say I am running all of those times, but as long as I am getting out there; I'll be happy.  we're aren't complete slackers, but as of now, we are getting out there around 3 times a week.  yark. gross.  it's time to change.

you can hold me to it.  ask if we've been out. 

what's your 1% change ?