Everyone Needs a Battle to Fight

Everyone Needs a Battle to Fight

February Goals and weekly plan

(transferred from my Sparkpeople blog)


February Goals:
45 miles running, be up to a five mile run by the end of the month.
2000 fitness minutes
lose 10 lbs
No soda! (only had 3 in Jan, but when I have one it really throws me right off course)
Track Food

In March I have my 2nd degree black belt testing coming up and in April I am running my first half marathon so it is most definitely time to get focused and buckle down and make the changes that need to be made. No excuses this month! I need to come up with a better plan for strength training also, the one I am using now is all over the place. I would like to start incorporating the equipment at the gym but haven't quite figured it all out yet. If anyone knows of any websites that have good plans on them I would love to know. I have checked out the plans on sparkpeople and they are not quite what I am looking for.
In January I managed to get in over 2200 fitness minutes and I really watched what I ate and only managed to lose 3 lbs and 1 inch from the waist :( So I think in February I am going to have to get a lot stricter about what I am eating. Time to start watching the carbs and I'm thinking I might give up anything with gluten in for a couple weeks and see what happens. I have been sticking strictly to good carbs but I have a feeling that is not enough. So long to my beloved carbs



Plan for the week of 1/31 - 2/6
(I know I need a rest day, haven't quite figured out where to put it yet)

Monday ~ run 3 miles
strength train
pilates

Tues ~ Core training
snowshoe or cardio
yoga
TKD/escrima

Wed ~ run 3 miles
strength
TKD

Thurs ~ Core training
yoga
TKD

Friday ~ run 2-3
strength

Saturday ~ cardio

Sunday ~ run 5 & strength

Preserve the Bounty Challenge

For anyone interested in preserving their own food naturally without canning or freezing The nourished kitchen website has a great challenge going on for August.

From the website:
Over the course of 5 weeks we’ll cover sun-drying, oil curing, freezing, fermentation and salt-curing – traditional techniques that optimize nutrition and don’t heat up the kitchen like canning. Plus we’ll have some great prizes for participants! You’ll receive an email once a week covering a specific technique for traditional methods of preserving the harvest. So sign up, share it with a friend and hit up the farmers market! Who’ll preserve the most?

nourishedkitchen.com/preserve-the-bounty/

I will be following this challenge and blogging about it as I go. Week 1 challenge of the challenge is Fermentation. As of right now I am planning on trying sour kraut and Beet kavass. My first try at sauerkraut a few years ago was a major disaster so hopefully this goes a little better! I went out and bought a new 3 gallon crock yesterday because my old one has a hairline crack and I have a feeling that may have been the problem, wish i knew how to fix it it's such a beautiful old crock!
Preserving Summer's Bounty: Week #1: Fermentation

How Much Oil Has Leaked Into the Gulf of Mexico?

Going Raw

Well, not totally raw but switching my diet to mainly raw.

I have gotten to the point in the last few months where i have just given up on losing weight, working out and heating healthy. For years now I have been quite faithfully eating healthy, watching my calories and working out on a very regular basis, yet my weight stayed the same. Since maybe Dec I have just pretty much given up, lost all motivation. My fibromyalgia has returned full force for the first time in over 5 years, I actually got a bad cold for the first time in years,I am tired ALL the time and just feel plain crappy lately! I turn 45 Sunday and I am slowly turning in to an old grumpy depressed fat lady! TIME FOR A MAJOR CHANGE!

From what i have been reading there are so many benefits to a raw food diet such as: more energy, foods are easier to digest, more healthy enzymes in the foods, raw foods are more healing to the body and the list goes on. Mainly it just makes sense! Look at pictures of people that eat a raw diet, they look vibrant and and just radiate health! If you look at the pic of Brigitte Mars you would never guess she was 50 at the time of the interview in 2003 and in recent interviews she looks much younger! I'll put a link to a really good video by Brigitte mars on the Raw food lifestyle at the end of this post.
I decided starting today I am going to try doing 75% raw, right now there are just a few things i would find too hard to give up like yogurt, eggs,oatmeal fish, herbal infusions & tea. I am going to attempt to switch from coffee to roasted dandelion root, not raw but definitely better for me :)

I ordered a couple books on eating raw last night too: Rawsome by Brigitte Mars and Raw Energy by Stephanie Tourles, can't wait to get them!

I would love any suggestions to any good websites or books on eating raw, a lot of the websites I have found so far are not as informative as i hoped, mainly because they are all trying to sell you something.

Below are the links to the You tube videos I was referring to, the first one is a 10 part series and the second a 5 part so they are quite lengthy but definitely not boring:

Brigitte Mars-"Rawvolution" Pt #1 (of 10)

Brigitte Mars-Pt.1 (of 5) "Rawsome" Interview-2002