Trying to be held accountable.

My training has been…off, for the last few days. I did my long run of 8 miles early, last Thursday, and since then I’ve been slacking. I loved, loved, LOVED Easter, and the break with my family was amazing – but I’m getting a tad bit discouraged when it comes to running on my own. Especially with school back in session. When I have time to run is the evenings, and I hate running in the evenings. My body and brain are ready to wind down by then, and I end up not giving it my all. I can cram a run in in the morning, but I rely on the treadmill for that – and that is NOT working for me right now. You’d think the problem would be treadmill boredom – you’d be wrong. It’s pain. Specifically in my right butt/hip/shin. And it’s only when I run on the treadmill! Quel mystère! I think I MUST change my stride to accommodate the thin(ner) belt, or the tough surface is just no good. And I feel like I’m MURDERING my treadmill when I run with a slight incline. (Note to self – save $3,000 and buy a new heavy-duty treadmill, stat.)

Despite all this, I have a run “planned” in 45 minutes. Outside. In the evening. At the track.

I’m actually grumbling as I write this, because right now I want nothing more than a nap! But I’m going to PUT ON MY SHOES and CHARGE MY GARMIN and go out there, because it’s likely that 10 minutes in I’ll feel happy that I got out and tried.

Dr. Phil!

I don’t know if you guys watched, but the subject on today’s and tomorrow’s Dr. Phil is about fat/body image/ social acceptance, and they’ve got a panel of Meme Roth, Kelly Osbourne, and Jillian Michaels – to name a few! I find the subject fascinating so I’ll definitely be watching.

The story continues!

According to plan, me and my cousin set off for 8 whole miles at the beach!

After Monday’s good experience with the run/walk ratio of run 1 mile, walk for 1:30, I asked my cousin if we could try that for our longest distance to date – she said yes. The result was perfect! Even with water stops and a pause to help a child who had fallen off of his bike and gotten his jeans stuck in the chain (my cousin’s choice to stop, not mine…I don’t really like children ) we ran our fastest time yet, despite our longest distance yet! Perfect. Although I was preeetty exhausted by the end, and was cursing at my Garmin, hoping to influence it to beep into our walk break sooner!

For a former couch-potato, finishing this run at all is a ginormous/huge/gargantuan event, meant to be celebrated with confetti, streamers, live orchestras and champagne! We were short on all of the above, so instead we opted for a post-run high five and stretching session We also went out to the water to take in the gorgeous view and draw cake patterns in the sand, which brings me to my next header…

Easter Cake!

Since my moo moo (mom ) is celiac, and we’re both of the vegan variety, I think I’m going to bake a bunny cake à la Babycakes NYC! I hope that pouring the batter of the vanilla cake into 8 inch cake rounds doesn’t ruin the recipe –they’re supposed to be cupcakes. *Crosses fingers*

I think it should be a fun undertaking, though max 3 of my family members would actually try it. They usually gag at the sight of my GF/vegan treats – oh well, more for me!

Homemade “silken tofu”

I used to love to bulk up my morning oat bran with 1/2 box of silken tofu (the tetra box). Yes, I know my soy intake is probably excessive.
Anyways, those boxes of tofu add up to at least $1.39 per box, which is two servings. I decided to try a little something different, and came up with this recipe! It’s inspired by Katie of Chocolate Covered Katie and her recipe for agar-agar pudding base.

1 1/3 cups soy milk (I use Costo, plain)
~1 tsp agar agar powder (these pouches of powder are less than $1.50 each at 99 Ranch markets!)

Stir in a microwaveable glass/pyrex container, and microwave until it starts to boil over comes to a boil. Remove, stir, pour into mold of choice (I happen to have perfectly sized square tupperwares) and let cool. It’s the perfect consistancy, and it comes out to cost only cents per serving!
There are about 18 tsp of powder in these packets, and they look like this:
 

So around $0.33 for the soymilk, $0.08 cents for the agar = cheap! Money in the bank.

Have a HAPPY Easter!

2nd beach long run – completed!

Saturday morning I met up with the cuz to do 6.5 miles along the beach “boardwalk”? I think a few people thought I meant running on the sand, but they would be wrong. I probably should try that for a couple miles at least, but for 1/2 marathon training purposes I’ll stick to the asphalt/cement combo. (I should mention that I HATE the cement portions of the road. Le pain!)

Stats! It took a jolly 78 minutes to finish, as we run/jog slow and steady-like, and never hesitate to to take walk breaks or hit the water fountains up.
I actually felt kind of bad on this run. My right shin felt a little off, and I took off in my old shoes instead of running in my new pair for fear of blisters! Something about the run just felt off, and I was breathing heavier than normal.

This week is spring break and I’m pretty determined to get 100% of my training runs in! I did 5 miles yesterday, which means I have 4 miles tomorrow, followed by 8 on Thursday – 8 miles! I’m excited! We’ bumped our long run to an earlier date for scheduling purposes

Poppy Seed Butter

Well, it didn’t turn out quite as planned. Or as tasty. I got more of a poppy seed paste, though with more processing I might be able to butter it up a little bit more. It had a crumbly consistency that resembles the Oreo cookie topping on those dirt/pudding desserts that kids like.
But I’m not one to waste! I’ll add it to every savory food I consume.

If he can do it…

Have you guys seen Eddie Izzard’s show Marathon Man on BBC?
You can catch it here on YouTube – it’s amazing! Totally makes me feel like I could pull off a marathon. It wouldn’t be the SMARTEST thing in the world for me to do with so little training, but it could happen.

Watch it!

xoxo

How to win at everything

Well, maybe not everything, but a few things!

The lovely people at FitCeleb.com  held a Crest Sensitivity Prize Pack Giveaway last week, and I was lucky enough to take home the prize!

First, a mysteriously large brown box appeared on my doorstep. It was light as a feather, and my curiosity got the best of me, despite my late departure for my Pilates mid-term!
I ripped open the brown box, dug through layers of fluffy pink wrapping tissue, and found this beauty, which I carried to the car with me!

You can BET that I ripped that pretty bow off in seconds.
Lo and behold:

Teeth-friendly goodies galore!
2 toothbrushes, some Puffs To Go!, floss, and the star of the show:

I love toothpaste.

The cool guys at Crest hand wrote a little note:

…and it made my day.

Maybe I’m a freak who loves dental hygiene, but I was psyched to win this!

Thanks Crest and FitCeleb.com !

xoxo

Butter me this, butter me that!

Ever since I tricked my father into investing in a Vita-Mix when I first went vegan in 2006 (4 years already?!) I’ve known that possibilities were endless when it came to food. I experimented a little at first, but I was afraid to break it or work it too hard, so I mostly stuck with the fruity smoothies and thick shakes, occasionally grinding some coffee or seeds, or making my own fresh flours.

But as time went on, and I got more comfortable with our Vita-Mix (which I just decided to call Pelosi, as Mrs. Pelosi tends to scare me every bit as much as our Vita-Mix does!) I ventured into making nut butters.

First I tried Almond. A partial success, no doubt. I ground, and I ground, and I found that 1 1/2 to 2 cups of almonds at a time yielded the best results and had enough volume to push itself through the blades while not overloading the engine.

Then I discovered TAHINI at our local grocery store, and let me tell you…it was not cheap. It was SO FREAKING delicious on apple slices, that I KNEW I could not give it up – but I couldn’t pay the price. So what to do? Vita-Mix it!
I ground similar amounts of sesame seeds (unhulled!) as almonds, 1 1/2 to 2 cups, and got good results with time and patience. It was never quite as smooth as store-bought, but it was fine with me!

I made my own peanut butter, which I discovered was cheaper to just BUY at the store.

Then things got fancy.

HEAB made a fancy post about COCONUT BUTTER, and I knew my destiny. I had been eyeing the Artisana brand coconut butter for a while, but I couldn’t part with the $$$ to even try it!

Let me tell you, it changed my life.
Dry, unsweetened coconut flakes + Vita-Mix (+patience) = foodgasm.

Yesterday I tried my hand at Sunflower seed butter after researching and checking the typical ingredients – salted? Sweetened? To roast, or not to roast?

I decided to roast the seeds that had been sitting miserably in my freezer for longer than I’d like to admit, then grind, salt AND stevia-fy.

(I think it was good, but I MUCH prefer my next discovery…)

Then I tried roasting hazelnuts, letting them cool, peeling them by rubbing handfuls between my hands to get most of the skins off.
Then I just grind away! At first I thought it wouldn’t be that amazing, and that I’d have to salt and/or sweeten it (or add chocolate!) but it was FANTASTIC plain. Words cannot express! I loved it.

But all of that wasn’t enough crazy for me.
No, my friends.

My next venture is to butter-fy…

*drumroll*

 

 

Poppy seeds.
I’ve never heard of poppy seed butter. Maybe it exists, maybe not. Maybe it tastes like poo.
But I can’t rest until I find out!

I bought my supplies, and the experiment will begin shortly.

I will report back to you with the results!

KJ

Roll with the punches!

I had a scheduled 6.5 miler this morning at the beach with my cousin, but life happened and she was unable to make it She called me right at 8 and said that she bought a new phone and set the alarm on it – but she doesn’t know how to work it, and it didn’t go off
I missed her! I took off for 5 miles (2.5 out and back) walking with my mom down to the pier. There were lots of people sitting out there with their fishing poles and coffees! It was a cute scene – but then I saw the “fish cleaning tables” and my heart kind of sank – poor fishies! I don’t think I could ever be a pescatarian. Ever. I’m happy in my veganism!

My Garmin route looked like this:

and I couldn’t help but giggle when I saw that it looked like we had walked out to our death in the ocean!

But it was just the pier

I had pre-eaten a Chocolate Chip Clif bar and a Babycakes NYC chocolate chip cookie. I guess I love chocolate chip anything!

When I got home I made a quickie protein smoothie, then set off on the treadmill for at least a LITTLE running. I ended up doing 3.4 miles with a little incline training incorporated.

After a shower I settled down on the couch to watch the end of The Ugly Truth (the first half is WAY better than the second!) and some SNL. Jude law was pretty funny! And I loved the Twilight Zone skit.

Workouts this past week have been pretty scarce – I did about 2 30 minute incline training sessions, one hour of yoga and maybe 30 minutes of Pilates because it’s Mid-Term time, even in PE classes so they’ve been cutting the workouts down and adding in long sessions of lecturing/note taking. Good for my brain, bad for my booty.

I felt a little fatigued this past week, and I’m unsure why. I assume that it could be hormones or lack of sleep, or weather changes (it went from 60’s to 80’s!), but I kind of rolled with it and let my body rest. But unfortunately, coupled with my sense of tiredness, I had a major appetite and some cravings. I’m leaning towards hormones as the culprit.

Races

I officially signed up for the Revlon Run/Walk For Women in LA on may 8th!

I’ll be in a good crowd – my bib number is in the 22,000 range! Holy moly!

That’s it for now!

I need a song for my bad day

But nothing really fits.

I’ll keep this short and sweet:

• I haven’t worked out today
• I’m having ginormous family issues regarding mental health
• I fear/feel an big earthquake in our future (4.4 at 4:04am. Weird, right?)

I feel drained and exhausted from dealing with the spawn of satan, who I should really have more sympathy for considering that she isn’t acting evilly from her own free-will – it’s her disease speaking. But at this point there is nothing that I or anyone can do because she is over 18.

I need to go cry and make an earthquake kit.

6.5 at the beach!

There are my slow, slow stats, but I must say I’m proud of my former out-of-shape behind.

I had a blaaast with my cousin!

The day went as follows:

7:13AM Wake up naturally, stop alarm early.
(bathroom duties)
7:30AM Drink green tea with stevia (did I mention that I won a giveaway?!)
7:45AM Eat a Peanut Butter Crunch Clif Bar (YUM.)
7:55AM Go get dressed, try on 3 outfits, debate wearing HR monitor
8:00AM Put on sunscreen, fill water bottle
8:20AM Hit the road!
8:52AM Arrive, park, pee
9:00AM RUN! It took us 1hr 16 minutes of beachy fun to complete. It was an out and back, but sadly there were NOT enough water fountains for me, so I was pretty thirsty a lot of the time.

We took about 4 walk breaks, all due to me You know how some days you’re just on (like my 8k day!) and other days you just aren’t feeling it 100%? Well today was the latter. I didn’t feel AWFUL, and I knew I could complete the scheduled mileage, but I didn’t feel INCREDIBLE and invincible.

I’m ahead of my schedule (this is an updated version, I’m using the old one!) by a few weeks, as my 1/2 marathon is 7 weeks away (49 days: 11 hours : 48 minutes: 53 seconds!), and I’m on week 6 of 8 of my training plan! That equals 5 extra weeks of mileage increases, if I want! Meaning that I can go from the max of 10 to up to 15 miles for a long run! I doubt that I’ll do that, but even running 11-11.5 instead of 10 will give me a little mental edge.
I’m beyond excited, because with every little improvement I make I dream of the future improvements that I can make! For example, after I run 13.1, what’s stopping me from increasing to running 14 miles a couple weeks later? Or 16? Or 18? Or a WHOLE MARATHON?
Nothing. That’s what!

Music

I LOVE new tunes for a workout. It’s IMPERATIVE for me! My latest favorites:

• Paranoid (LMFAO Remix)  – Kanye West      
• Shots  – LMFAO ft. Lil Jon          
• LA LA LA (HYPER CRUSH REMIX) -LMFAO Ft. HYPER CRUSH             
• Work It Out -  Lil Jon ft. Pitbull      
• How Low (Official Remix #2)   -  Ludacris ft. Ciara & Pitbull            
• Eenie Meenie (feat. Justin Bieber)  -  Sean Kingston   
• Limelight (Radio Edit) – Alizée
• Ghetto Techno (Edit) -Jay-Z     
• Feel It Ft. Tiesto, Sean Kingston, & Flo-Rida – Three 6 Mafia
• Over (Dirty) –Drake
• Shake It For Daddy -Nicki Minaj
• Remedy  – Little Boots  
• I Love You  – Nicki Minaj   
• Little Freak   – Nicki Minaj   
• Bedrock (Part II) -Lloyd Ft Lil Wayne & Drake               
• Bed Rock    – Young Money featuring Lloyd     
• Make Her Say ft. Kanye West, Common & Lady Gaga  -  Kid Cudi   

Pretty consistent

Speaking of consistent – have you seen Lady Gaga’s and Beyoncé’s new video for Telephone?! It’s amazing(ly long)!
Did Tarentino produce it?

Along with my hip hoppy RnB songs, I jammed to a little iQuartet, a local (and talented!) Jazz ensemble. I like to switch it up sometimes!

School

I just thought I’d throw out there that I got 25/25 on my Social Dance exam! That’s 100% !!! I knew the steps, I had the rhythm… and I danced solo (sola?). That was the trick. No offense to the guys in the class, but I didn’t want to be held back by being lead! I wanted to do all the steps that I knew, and not wait for a guy to initiate my movement!
I’m kind of sort of a feminist, so the whole idea of a guy “leading” me is irking.

My solo ways paid off.
I’m never going to have a boyfriend.

Giveaway options

After winning that Stevia, I’m pretty pumped and SURE that I’m on a winning streak, so I’d like to take this time to announce that Averie of Love Veggies and Yoga is having a FAB raw/vegan cook-book giveaway!

I don’t know about you, but I’m very into the whole raw-foods movement. I was 100% raw for about 2 years time, after which I decided that it meant too much to me to be able to eat a huge bowl of STEAMED Brussels sprouts or broccoli than to be 100% this or that. I don’t like labels very much, as it sets you up for failure, and when it comes down to it I’d rather live a little with a bowl of steamed veggies than be eating a typical SAD (standard American) diet!

Raw foods rule, however. Most raw desserts beat out the cooked ones ANY day, for me. And once you check out Averie’s raw goodie recipes, I’m 100% ( ) sure that you’ll agree!

Now I’m off to enter my 5 comments/entries on Averie’s blog! Happy weekend!

I won!!!

**Diana of Soap & Chocolate  just posted on her blog that I WON STEVIA from NuNaturals!!!!
This marks my first ever blog giveaway win!

And I couldn’t think of anything better to win.

Stevia holds a very special place in my heart, and I’m convinced that I couldn’t live without it!
Perhaps it’s not the BEST habit to add Stevia to everything, but I don’t drink, smoke or do drugs, so I figure a little stevia addiction can’t hurt

Training

I’ve been following my usual schedule of Yoga, Pilates, cross-training (Incline!) and running to a T!

On Wednesday I got to set out on a fun run with mi amiga, who is actually running the half with me! We completed 3.5 miles in…I don’t remember the time, I haven’t gotten around to plugging in my Garmin
It was a blast and went by WAY faster than slow runs on the track or treadmill by myself.

Tomorrow I have a BEACH RUN with my cousin! She mentioned 6.5 miles (!!!!!) which I thinkkk I can pull out, but we’ll see. In fact, I KNOW I can do it…I just don’t know how much pain/heavy breathing will be involved.
But everything is fun with my cousin.

LIFE

Today I have my Social Dance exam!!! EEEk! We were supposed to have this exam last week, but after a quick run-through the teacher basically said that we all SUCKED and that she would post-pone it, because she couldn’t bear to grade us based upon that awful performance. Thanks, teach.

Needless to say, that should my confidence and I’m worried that …*gasp*…I could be a bad dancer!

…I kid. I know I’m awesome.

Wish me luck! I’ll provide a more in depth post later on (possibly after the beach run tomorrow!), but I just had to post a quickie about my win!

KJ x0x0

Post blood donation

Today I laced up my kicks for my first “workout”* since donating blood. Technically I worked out on Friday in my Social Dance class, but it was short and unsatisfying so I won’t count that.

I hit the treadmill with Season 1 of House M.D., set the incline to 7% and speed 3mph for an easy low-intensity hit.

44 minutes later…no problem. I really should have turned up the intensity and done my long run as planned, but…shoulda woulda coulda isn’t my style. No apologies here! I can run tomorrow. Or Tuesday.

My eats

I started the day with:
1/3 cup oat bran cooked with 2/3 cup water
1 TBSP each soy and rice protein powder
1/2 tetra box silken lite Mori-Nu
1 TBSP cocoa
Stevia
Vanilla
Instant coffee crystals
Capella Flavor Drops – Crumb Cake

and topped with homemade PBU – that is a blend of 50% peanut butter 50% vanilla soy milk. Deeeelish.

(insert workout)

then I hit up the veggies in a major way, steaming a huge bowl of Brussels sprouts and slathering hummus on it, and tossing some grape tomatoes on the side. MMMM. I have a Brussels sprout addiction!

Later I had a green smoothie in disguise –
A Spiru-tein protein shake with a couple handfuls of spinach blended in for good measure – I need to refill my iron stores!

I have no idea what dinner will be, but I DO know that I have a fridge full of veggies that must be inhaled eaten soon.

School

Tomorrow I embark upon my first Spanish test of the semester, and I’m slightly nervous. I usually do RIDICULOUSLY well on language tests, but I’ve been slacking a bit this semester, mostly because I’m being passively aggressive against the whole CA college system/state budget. 
They don’t like me, I don’t like them…which leads to me taking it out on my poor, innocent college courses. Must stop that.

Zumba

Welll I did my research, and it turns out that to get a job in the recommended location I’d have to:

• Become a certified GROUP fitness instructor within 1 year of employment
• learn CPR + first aid (a given, really)
• do some extra-curricular learning at the gym
• plus the actual Zumba certifying

all that adds up to more than just the original ~285$ cost of becoming Zumba certified, but if my fall turns out the way that I EXPECT it to turn out – that is, badly (College related) then this is my GO-TO plan, and I’ll do it all. ANY class or exam they throw at me, I’ll do it, because…
1) I’ll have nothing else to do
2) income = possibly moving out!
3) I could move anywhere and always have that backup

I know it pays diddly squat, but something is something. And it will be nice to have something to work towards in lieu of college classes to attend.

Plan B accomplished!

-KJ