Category: health

midday walks

I’ve decided to try and let the Fitbit motivate me again. I wear it for work because we get insurance benefits if we average 5,000 steps per day (which I do), but I rarely hit my 10,000 step goal no matter how many challenges I join. Lately my workouts have been only yoga and weight lifting, so I don’t get “credit” for those. (Although I do plan on adding running back into the mix once I get a little more used to the weights.)

I love the idea of taking a long walk after dinner. Going by myself and listening to a podcast or audiobook would be such a treat, although that particular set of circumstances won’t be happening anytime soon. I would love to take the kids on a walk, even, but they only want to go to the park which is just a block away. So it’s hard to get a good evening walk in.

My solution, for now, is midday walks. We have not been all that busy at work lately, so it’s possible to leave the clinic for a bit. It’s about 2,000 steps to do a full loop around the hospital grounds. And even though it is scorching hot outside, inside it is like an icebox so I need about 2,000 steps to thaw.

August 12, 2015
using frugal real food meal plans

The other day I found an old journal of mine from 2010. In it, I documented some goals that were more like ideals of how I want to be living. Here is what I wrote for the “food” category:

Looking back, this was also right after I read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I would say that this is the time my “real food” journey began.

My real food journey

Since then I’ve had a lot of ups and downs with the process. Having kids to feed was a big incentive to do better. Completing whole30 was a huge step. Nowadays we have some health issues in our family – nothing huge, and nothing specific like food allergies – but nevertheless, it’s given me the kick in the pants needed to take this to the next level.

For the past year I’ve been pretty good about meal planning and cooking; it’s been necessary because of how tight our budget is. However, some processed foods have remained in our diets, the Chick-fil-a dinners became a little too frequent, and we had amassed a store of too much candy and unfortunately Meredith knew where to look for it. Also, to be honest I had gotten lazy about trying new meals and I think we were all getting tired of eating the same things over and over.

So I was inspired to give Frugal Real Food Meal Plans a try. I have been following Tiffany’s blog for some time, and it has just been the most incredible resource. I was pretty sure I would like the meal plans, but just to be sure I downloaded the 14-day sample plan. I wanted to see the meals and the setup – and sure enough, it looked great.

I wanted to test out the plan for a month before committing to an extended subscription, so I signed up for the month-to-month option ($15). Then if we like it and find that it’s helping us, I think I’ll sign up for the 3-month, and eventually go for the year-long subscription to get the best value.

Meal Planning

So here is what I did, in kind of a step-by-step way, to get us going eating (almost) all non-processed food using the meal plans:

1. First I read through the plan. It’s almost 200 pages long, but most of that is recipes. I read all the notes, all the prep, all the lists, and skimmed the recipes.

2. I crossed out a few of the recipes that I knew wouldn’t work for us. For example, I do NOT eat seafood. So we won’t be making the clam chowder. :)

3. I read through all of the recipes carefully. This was time consuming. Some of the recipes have ingredients that also have to be made from scratch. When reading I was trying to decide how long the meal would take to prepare, and whether prep could be done ahead of time. Basically, I needed to know if it was suitable for a weeknight, after-work meal or whether I’d have to make it on the weekend. Next to each recipe on the plan I wrote: short (10-30 min), medium (30-60 min), or long (an hour or more). If it was more than an hour I tried to estimate how long it would take and I wrote that down too.

4. I printed out a blank calendar for the month and put in any events that we had scheduled that would affect our dinner plans.

5. I filled out the blank calendar with the meals on it, but personalized for us. I left off the meals we wouldn’t be eating, and rearranged a few due to time constraints and scheduling. I made sure to notice if one meal used leftover ingredients from a previous meal, and in that case I kept those meals in order.

6. I scheduled the meal prep. If something can be done ahead of time, I want to do it. On the calendar, I wrote in red what prep needs to be done each day.

7. I decided what I was going to be buying instead of making from scratch. Maybe one day I’ll be able to make everything from scratch, but I don’t want to get too overwhelmed. For now, I’m going to be buying: canned beans, tortillas, corn chips/taco shells, bread, and yogurt. I’m going to try to make from scratch all sauces.

8. I read through the recipes again, this time focusing on ingredients. At the same time, I made my shopping list. I decided not to use the one that was provided because of all the adjustments I made, and I want to do our shopping on a weekly basis.

After all this, I felt like I had a really solid plan. I’m not going to lie – it took me several hours. But I had a really good feel for what the process is like, and a plan for the entire month. The second month I used the plan it all went MUCH faster, too.

Doing it!

There were just a couple more prep steps for me. First, I cleared our kitchen of almost all the processed & junk food we had built up. I threw some of it away and donated the rest. Then, I sent David shopping for my grocery list!

For me, the actual “executing” of the meal plan started on a Sunday. I don’t even want to tell you what all I had to YouTube that day, but it included things such as “how to seed a cucumber” and “how to slice brisket.” Guys, there is a LOT about cooking that I don’t know! That day I spent probably 2-3 hours in the kitchen, but I got a meal made and lots of things prepped for the week.

I’ve been using the plan for two months now and it’s been a big success. We still eat processed food sometimes, but at least I know that most of our meals are going to be nutritious. Everything has gotten easier and it fits in to my working mom lifestyle. Eventually I’d love to branch out into making more things from scratch, but for now – baby steps!

I highly recommend trying out Frugal Real Food Meal Plans, OR another option is to purchase the Ultimate Homemaking Bundle for $29.97:

You get an entire library of homemaking ebooks and ecourses, and these meal plans are included! SUCH a great deal. It’s only available until next Monday though! I’m a huge fan of these bundles and can’t wait to dig into this one. Let me know if you have any questions!

April 22, 2015
updates to my natural beauty routine

Last year I wrote a long post about all the natural personal care products that I use. Recently I’ve made a few changes and wanted to share those with you. I still stand by all the products in my original post, and if a change is not mentioned, I still use them.

Face

The only change I’ve made to my facial care is that I’m now using handmade body butter as a moisturizer at night, and in the morning too if I feel extra dry (which is often, during the winter). I also started using a tinted moisturizer during the day, but I consider it more of a makeup item.

Makeup

My skin has been too dry recently to use powder foundation; all my little wrinkles were standing out clearly. I switched to Tarte Amazonian Clay BB Tinted Moisturizer with spf, which has a light coverage but it gives me just what I need. On top of that I still use a little powdered sunscreen to take away the shine and set it in place.

Right now I’m using bareMinerals Flawless Definition Mascara. I think it’s just as good as Tarte Lights Camera Lashes (what I’d been using before) and it’s cheaper.

I also added a brow pencil, Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz, to the mix. I’m in love! My eyebrows have been thinning as I get older and this looks so natural but really defines my face.

Miscellaneous

I started using Everyone Lotion for my body (apart from face). It’s perfect.

I carry around Honest Company lip balms. Still love Lanolin but these are easier. :)

Two things I’d like to try:

1. A physical facial exfoliator, like a Clarisonic Mia, or maybe this cheaper version by Olay. Anyone have either of these? I wonder why there is such a price difference?

2. Lipstick! I’ve never worn it, but I think it might be fun for church and outings.

Anyone use any of these products? Anything else I should check out?

February 25, 2015
katy half marathon recap

So I ran another half marathon.

In hindsight: signing up for two of them within three weeks (never having done one before) was maybe not the best idea. Also in hindsight: donating blood the week leading up to the race probably didn’t help either.

Despite feeling burnt out and tired, I finished and I am reminded that I can do hard things.

It was cold that morning, and extremely foggy. My feet, hands, and ears were all numb when we started. In fact, I wasn’t able to feel my feet until around mile 5. That was uncomfortable. I also had no idea where we were for the first half of the course. Every now and then a landmark would suddenly loom in front of us and I would think, “Oh, we’re on the street by the mall,” or whatever. Weird. Water droplets kept forming on my eyelashes. That was weird too.

My friend Joanna and I ran together pretty much the whole way this time. My mile-by-mile breakdown is pretty simple:

Mile 5 – I can finally feel my feet.

Mile 5.5 – Short water break. Take off my outer jacket.

Mile 9.5 – I see my parents spectating and stop for a quick pic with my mom (above). Another water break and I eat an energy chew.

The rest of the way – I am pretty miserable with pain in my hips and legs.

Mile 11-ish – Turn on some music on my phone because it’s a long, boring stretch to the finish and I’m having trouble focusing on anything except the pain I’m in. The music actually worked though.

Being a smaller race (and in its first year), my family actually got to see me finish. My dad took the photo above of me crossing. It was a great moment to see Meredith sitting on David’s shoulders during the last few feet. She was watching all the runners with such an intense look of concentration!

As we were running, Joanna and I were comparing this race with the Aramco Houston Half we just did. I told her, “I am looking forward to seeing the kids at the end of this race.” She responded right away, “I’m looking forward to not running at the end of the race.” Amen.

So my total time was 2 hours 20 minutes, slightly slower than my last race, but I’m happy with it. I’m glad Katy (my town – it’s a suburb of Houston) has this race now, but the lack of spectators was sad and it could use a little more organization or signage at the finish.

I’m glad I’m done with half marathons for awhile. I’ll probably do another one, maybe next year, but for now I’m taking a week off and then going to revamp my fitness routine to include shorter runs and cross training. I’m definitely looking forward to doing some different things like yoga and strength. And I also can’t wait to have 2-3 hours of personal time back to myself each weekend!

February 10, 2015
race recap : 2015 aramco houston half marathon

This past weekend was so crazy for me. It was Liam’s first birthday (and his party, which I will share more about soon) and my first half marathon. In addition I had a work dinner to attend and my niece’s 3rd birthday party, so all in all we had very little time at home. I overextended myself because I ended up catching a stomach bug on Sunday night, but thankfully the rest of the weekend went fairly well. Today I just want to recap how the race went!

Start time was 7:00 a.m. so my friends picked me up at 5:00 a.m. We got to the convention center in plenty of time with no stress and just got ourselves ready, went to the bathroom (twice) and checked our gear. There were 31,000 runners and it was just so busy.

I had been nervous leading up to the race and focused my nerves on being prepared with the right clothes and such. I ended up wearing a tank top with a very light long-sleeved shirt on top. It was around 41 degrees at the start but it warmed up to in the 60’s and I didn’t take a jacket, gloves, or ear warmer to the race. I was very happy with my clothes decisions, because after a few miles I just pushed up my sleeves and I was comfortable the rest of the race.

A little before 7 we walked to our assigned corral. My friend Joanna and I were in corral C – not the slowest! :) We didn’t end up crossing the start line until almost 17 minutes after the race had begun. Soooo many people!

I was ready to get running, but once we started I felt intimidated at how far we had to go. But the atmosphere was awesome; there were spectators for pretty much the entire course. After a couple of miles we were in a groove. I also started to feel like I had to pee again! Here’s the rundown of how it went:

Mile 3 – we drank some water, walked through it just long enough to drink.

Mile 5 – we sucked it up and used the port-a-potty. Felt much better, but I was bummed to stop because I had been feeling really good and it was hard to get going again.

Mile 5.5 – saw my friend Mandi who I used to play soccer with and who is now a super runner, but she just had a baby so was spectating. Gave her a quick hug. It really gave me a boost to see a familiar face.

Mile 6-7 – we walked through another water break and ate our energy chews. Around this time I started to feel some pain in my leg muscles and joints.

Mile 8 – the marathon runners split off and I was super glad I didn’t have to go all that way.

Mile 9 – saw my parents, my brother, and my sister-in-law. That was awesome! I think they took a video of me running but I haven’t seen it yet and I’m kind of afraid to. :) Another big boost of energy.

Mile 10 – my muscles were feeling pretty tight and I was pulling ahead of my running buddy a bit so I just went ahead. I realized it would be better to just go a little faster and get it done. It actually felt better on my legs.

Mile 10-11 – ran by a donut shop and it smelled soooo good. I don’t even like donuts all that much but I really wanted one.

Mile 11-12 – there was a gradual incline and it was really tough. The entire course up to this point had been flat so I can’t complain too much but it was hard to have it come at the end.

Mile 13 – leading up to the finish line the street was packed with spectators cheering and it was so exciting. I really pushed myself to keep a steady or faster pace toward the end and I felt I really finished strong. Me after I had just finished:

Some thoughts:

>The spectators helped a lot with morale. I liked it when kids were there giving high fives, seeing people’s dogs, and the creative signs. My favorites were “worst parade ever,” “run if you think I’m sexy,” and “run faster, the Kenyans are eating all the food.”

>Couldn’t have asked for better weather.

>I finished in 2 hours 18 minutes, which is about a 10:32 pace per mile. That was a lot faster than I ever do my long runs usually, so I was really happy.

>Leading up to the race I had been considering taking on a full marathon in the future, but now I’m not so sure. It was pretty painful at the end and I was so glad to be done! I have another half marathon in a few weeks, but after that I’m going to stick to shorter distances for awhile.

>As I mentioned I spent that night awake with a stomach bug. At first I thought it was because of the race but I actually think it was unrelated. The next day my muscles and joints were way less sore than I expected, I was just super weak and tired from being sick all night.

Overall it was an awesome experience and I feel such a sense of accomplishment. I never thought that I would be able to do something like this but now I see it just takes time and dedication, like so many other things. So glad to have this in the books!

January 20, 2015