Tag Archives: running

More Than It Seems

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What a weird day! My internet is AWOL so I’m writing this in a Word doc for posting later. WAH! Where is my IT support? I’ve had a busy morning –  I went for a run with “Runner In Training” (RIT), then I was met Cheryl Harris of Conscious Creations for a “practice” walk in preparation for our Walking Women Mastermind, and then I taught yoga at Beloved. Whew! Now I have a big stretch of time to “get stuff done.” So what do I do? Make pasta salad of course!

Eats
The Pasta Salad That Grew and Grew
What started off as a benign pasta salad has turned into a Monster! I started in this bowl:

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Then, as I kept adding veggies I had to transfer to a bigger bowl:

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Finally I ended up with this (!):

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Yikes!

Here’s what I made – just keep in mind that this made a TON of pasta salad!

Pasta Salad
Makes a billion servings

Ingredients
10-16 oz dry short pasta – I used spirals – cooked according to package directions and cooled. (Use 10 oz for higher veggie to pasta ratio)
3 large carrots, diced
2 large red peppers, diced
½ large red onion, diced
2 cucumbers, diced
1 15oz can artichoke hearats, diced
6 oz sundried tomatoes
½ cup toasted pine nuts
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped small
¼ cup fresh thyme, chopped small
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (don’t skimp here – used the best quality you can get!)
juice of two oranges
3-5 tablespoons red wine vinegar (you may want to use a little more or less so start with 3 and then play around with the taste)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Combine pasta, veggies, and nuts into a super huge bowl. Toss to mix well.
In a small bowl, mix together the remainig ingredients. Pour over the veggies and enjoy!

Anyone want to come over for pasta salad? :)

Run
RIT and I went on our second run today. This is only the second time she’s gone running (well, with me) and this is what we did:

5 minutes walk
20 minutes of alternating 1 minute jog with 1 minute walk
5 minute walk cool down.

That’s it! This is what we did on our first day out too. This might not look like much but when you are just starting out this is plenty! If at the end you feel like you could have run more, that’s terrific. The idea is to be injury-free and feel good. We’ll up the mileage and pace as we progress.

RIT reports that she feels really good after her run this morning. Yay :)

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A Big Running Day

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IT. IS. SO. HOT. OUT. SIDE.

When I drove to the gym at 1030am this morning my car said 91 degrees! The girls are lounging around the house as usual -  they were pretty beat after our walk this morning.
yoga

I got up at 6am this morning and practiced yoga for 1/2 hour. I’m still practicing in the viniyoga tradition – right now I am following a sequence that focuses on neck+shoulders that I found in Yoga for Wellness by Gary Kraftsow. It’s a great book but I didn’t really get it until I studied with Gary last month at part 1 of my Yoga Therapy training. Anyway, the practice might be working because I had a really tight neck all of last week and it’s finally starting to relax.  :)

Run

Man I got a lot of running and walking in today!

First I went for a walk / run with Kate. We went out for about 30 minutes. It wasn’t boiling hot out yet and it felt really good to be outside. It’s so much more fun running with a friend!

When I got home the girls were giving me Big Eyes and so I took them out for a walk. We walked our normal 2 miles + change.

THEN I went to the gym! I ran on the treadmill 6.5 miles at average of 8:13 mph. After two jaunts outside it felt SO GOOD to be in air conditioning!

I really love my Monday mornings – lots of “me” time.  :)

Eats

Breakfast was…guess…c’mon just guess…a SMOOTHIE! Today was:

  • 2 bananas
  • 12 oz lite vanilla soy milk
  • 2 scoops Spirutein Vanilla Protein powder
  • 2 tablespoons Smooth Operator peanut butter
  • 2 huge handfuls of baby spinach
  • cinnamon
  • salt

This made two smoothies.

That was before I went out with Kate. Then after my run at the gym I had a slice of Honey Kissed Peanut Butter Bread with cherry preserves spread on top. YUM! That really filled me up so I wasn’t hungry for lunch until mid-afternoon.

Then, using my Reston Farmers Market loot I made this:

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  • 1 onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1/2 of a huge yellow squash
  • 1 huge fresh tomato
  • 1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes with Italian herbs
  • some fresh basil
  • 1 tablespoon of dried Italian herbs
  • salt
  • pepper

I sauteed the onion + garlic in 2 tablespoons of water until the onions were soft. Then I added in the rest of the ingredients and let them simmer until the squash was soft. I scooped about 1/3 of what I made into a bowl, and after I took the picture I decided to put some mozzarella Veggie Shreds on top. Delish.

While I had that all going on I whipped up a batch of spelt Blueberry Muffins from the Babycakes cookbook.

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I ate one of them while I was waiting for the squash to be ready and then I ate another one after I ate the squash! They were really good. I’ve noticed that when I ate wheat today – in the Honey Kissed Peanut Butter Bread – I felt a little bloated afterwards. I didn’t feel that way after I ate the spelt muffins. Hmmmm…interesting.

Right now Stella The Cat is trying to go up the stairs but Marty The Big Black Lab is blocking her way and just daring her to try it. LOL – I love watching them.

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Random Thoughts on Food, Yoga, Running

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I’m about to go for a run. It’s dreary out and that’s great running weather!

But first – a few random thoughts turning around in my mind today:

  • The strawberry “scones” I made yesterday turned out more like a cake. I need to use frozen Earth Balance, knead the dough, and use dried fruit
    Rosie and Stella Napping Together

    Rosie and Stella Napping Together

    instead of fresh. Can’t wait to try this again but I keep eating the finished products and that needs to stop right now! Any volunteers out there willing to eat the results of my baking forays?

  • I’ve been reading about eating just two meals per day – breakfast and then a later lunch, around 130pm or so. I’m not sure I could do that but apparently eating that way is conducive to better sleep since your body isn’t working on digesting your dinner. What do you think? I ate popcorn last night and then slept horribly so I’m starting to wonder…
  • Since I slept so poorly, I woke up late and missed doing my yoga practice today. I’m going to try to fit it in tonight and if that doesn’t work I’m going to journal about it so at least I’m keeping my thoughts on my practice. Oh and I learned yesterday that it’s actually FORTY days, not 21, to build a new habit. So I’m halfway there :)
  • A student told me today that she’s learned through her home practice that there is tremendous value in the stillness between asanas. Isn’t that awesome?
  • I’d like to vary my workouts. I’d like to get the P90X but it seems like such a huge financial commitment after buying the weights and the pull-up bar and the bands and the videos. Are there any good, less expensive alternatives to P90X out there?
  • I just started brushing M+R’s teeth on a daily basis. It’s pretty easy and only takes a few minutes. They love the poultry flavored toothpaste!

I told you that they were gonna be random!

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Veggie Cobbler + A (Possibily) Surprising Yoga Practice

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Eats

I made a delicous Summer Veggie Cobbler recipe tonight that I found on Oh She Glows. Here’s what I liked about it:

  • Lots of veggies
  • Gave me something to do with the gorgeous eggplant that I got at the farmer’s market last weekend!
  • I already had all of the ingredients on hand
  • Easy to put together
  • Yummy
  • D. liked it :)

I prepared it pretty close to the recipe – a few changes:

  • I used eggplant, summer squash, and cherry tomatoes for the veggie filling
  • I added dried sage instead of fresh
  • I cooked it at 375 for 35 minutes – didn’t need to use the broiler to brown the top as it was already brown
  • I used dairy mozzarella instead of soy cheddar
  • I love lots of crust so I used the entire crust recipe – you could probably halve the crust recipe if you don’t want as much as Angela recommends
  • I used soy milk instead of almond

Here’s the recipe with my modifications:

Ingredients:

Filling:

  • 2 T Butter or Earth Balance
  • 3 T all purpose flour
  • 1 small onion finely chopped
  • 1 cup vegetable broth
  • 1 T dried sage
  • 4-5 cups summer veggies – eggplant, squash, cherry tomatoes (or whatever you have on hand)
  • 1 t fine grain sea salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Crust (on top):

  • 1.5 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
  • 2.5 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/4 t cayenne spice
  • 1/2 cup finely chopped parsley
  • 4 T Butter or Earth Balance, melted
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  • 1 cup plain low fat soy milk + 1/4 t vinegar

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375F and lightly grease a 3-3.5 quart casserole dish.
  2. FILLING: Chop all veggies into small pieces. In a large saucepan, combine the butter and flour and stir until it thickens. Next add the veggie broth and keep stirring. After about 5 minutes add all the chopped veggies. Mix well and then pour the veggie mixture into the casserole dish. Sprinkle with half of the cheese.
  3. CRUST: Mix the dry ingredients, then the butter and cheese, and finally stir in the soy milk / vinegar mixture. Mix well.
  4. Spoon the crust over the veggies and cheese. Top with the remaining cheese.
  5. Bake for about 35 minutes. If the cheese hasn’t browned on top, you can turn on the broiler for a few minutes at the end of the cooking time.

YUM! I love the idea of a “veggie cobbler.” It was similar to a veggie pot pie. I can’t wait to try it again with some new ideas I have for it. How are you preparing your summer veggies?

Run

I ran to the gym today!

  • 11.5 minutes running outside – not sure of the distance
  • 27 minutes on the treadmill, averaging 8.20 mph
  • 11.5 minutes running back home

It was REALLY hot outside this morning. I don’t know how people run outside in this. After 11.5 minutes I was so happy to be at the gym where I could get some water and A/C!

yoga

You might be surprised to hear this, since I am a vinyasa yoga teacher, but here is what I did for my 630am home practice today. It was a balanced practice (no peak pose) and all asanas were in the viniyoga style (not vinyasa!):

  • Started lying on my back, focusing on my breath
  • Apanasana (knee squeeze)
  • Dwi Pada Pitham (bridge)
  • Balasana (child’s pose)
  • Cat / Cow
  • Tadasana (mountain pose)
  • Vira 1 (warrior 1)
  • Uttanasana (standing forward bend)
  • Trikonasana (triangle)
  • Balasana (child’s pose)
  • Janu Sirsasana (head to knee pose)
  • Apanasana (supine knee squeeze)
  • Jathara Parivartanasana (supine twist)
  • Apanasana (supine knee squeeze)
  • Savasana

This practice took about 30 minutes. I had a breath pattern that I used for the standing poses where I went in and out of the pose three times and then stayed for 5 breaths. I really love practicing this way – I feel rejuvinated after the practice and I notice things that I don’t notice during a vinyasa practice, for example today I noticed tightness on the right side of my upper back.

Ok – early to bed tonight :)

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How I Started Running Again

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Someone told me today that my blog should be titled eat.eat.eat. LOL! OK, I guess I need to write about something other than food, huh?

So I’m going to say a few words about running today. I LOVE to run! Maybe it’s the endorphins, I don’t know. But when I run I feel really happy.

It wasn’t always this way. When I was in my young twenties, I strongly disliked running! When I ran it felt like my backside weighed about five thousands pounds and was hanging below my knees. I’ve always had strong lungs thanks to my swimming background, so breathing while running was never an issue. I just found running to be extremely uncomfortable and BORING!

So I dabbled in running on and off for many years. At one point I even ran a marathon! But I never really loved it. Then I injured my ankle and I dropped running like a hot potato. And I never looked back :)

Then last spring I was staring at age 40 head on and decided it was time to get serious about losing weight. I was at my second all time high weight and hoped to drop about 10 pounds. So THAT’S what motivated me back into running.

I started off VERY SLOWLY. For my first “run” I alternated walking one minute with running one minute (at 10 minute / mile)  for about 10 minutes total. I did this every other day and then after a week I increased it to 15 minutes total. Each week I added an additional 5 minutes until I was up to 1/2 hour. Then I worked on running 2 minutes and walking 1 minute.

During this process I often felt like I could go further but I made myself stick to this schedule. I know that runners develop injuries gradually – I mean, have you ever heard of a runner just all of a sudden falling down in pain? Probably not – usually it’s something that develops over time. And often times we push ourselves past what our bodies are ready for – that’s how we get shin splints! Maybe it’s the endorphins? So take it slow and gradually increase your distance, time, and speed.

Today I run about 6-7 miles, every other day. I average about a 8.5 minute mile, and I’ve avoided running injuries. And combined with good eating habits I’ve been able to drop over 20 pounds and maintin it for a year. Not bad for a 40 year old!  :)

Running for Cake

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cakeLast summer I started doing Weight Watchers because I wanted to lose weight. At the time, I was exercising and watching what I ate – thinking that I was eating really well – and completely befuddled as to why I wasn’t losing weight. A friend of mine was doing WW and suggested I give it a try.

WOW WAS IT EVER EYE OPENING!!!

I used to think that if I ran 3 miles, I could then eat whatever I wanted. I mean, I just ran three miles! So after my run I would duck into Giant and grab a huge cinnamon chip muffin. YUM! I deserved this muffin.

What I learned from WW is that the calories burned in a three mile run is equal to just ONE slice of bread! To compensate for my cinnamon chip muffin, I’d need to run 10 miles!

A few other eye openers:

  • My scrambled eggs with mushrooms and spinach + 2 pieces of toast with a tad of butter equals 12 miles of running.
  • A 2 mile walk equals just ONE small banana!
  • Thirty minutes on the elliptical machine equals 1/2 cup of marinara sauce (and that’s not including the pasta!).
  • To work off ONE tablespoon of peanut butter, you’d need to run 2 miles.
  • Ate a slice of carrot cake? That’s SIXTEEN miles of running for you!

So maybe this info will help if you are trying to lose weight and can’t figure out why it’s not peeling off. In general if you want to lose weight you need to exercise more than you think, and you need to eat less than you think. It’s not that you can’t eat things like muffins and carrot cake, but just know how eating those kinds of foods will impact your efforts. Writing down what you are eating and how much you are exercising or joining a program like WW can really help you build awareness around your habits.

(By the way, I have to confess that as I wrote this I ate several handfuls of peanut butter m&ms. Guess I’ll be running 10 miles tomorrow! :)

My new blog :)

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HI!

I’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time so YAY I’ve finally done it!

My name is Julia and I’m a yoga teacher in Northern Virginia. For the last six years I’ve been on a journey of improving my health and have had amazing results and a lot of fun along the way! These days I get a lot of questions about what kind of exercises I do and what I eat, and so this is my way of sharing that info in the hopes that someone out there will find it useful :)

So this site is for anyone who is trying to trying to lose weight, get in shape, eat better, and / or find peace with themselves. In this blog I plan to:

  • Write about what I’m eating these days
  • Share my exercise tips
  • Record my recipes and my forays into the thousands of cookbooks that I already have
  • Mention anything else that comes up – this will likely include stories about my two dogs Marty and Rosie and life lessons that present themselves as I go about my business

Some things that interest me and that will probably make their way onto this blog:

  • Dogs!
  • Running – I am passionate about running :)
  • Being 40. Yep I just hit the big 4-0 in February. Really it has been just fine. But I am noticing changes in my body and it’s really hitting home how important it is to STAY HEALTHY.
  • Yoga! As I said about I am a yoga teacher and I have my own business called Double Dog Yoga. I have a separate blog for my business – I was blogging there about food and stuff but I think now it’s best to keep the two separate. Anywho, feel free to check out my other blog to read about yoga in the news and yoga tips and info by clicking here.
  • Cooking – I try to cook dinner 4 or 5 times a week. Sometimes it’s a big deal dinner and sometimes it’s a quickie. Either way I’ll share.
  • Baking. I LOVE to bake! Unfortunately that doesn’t match my goal of staying under 125 pounds. So that’s a bit of a struggle.

Ok that’s it for now. I’ve filled out my bio so if you want to learn more take a look :)