Laugh out Loud Thursday!

Only one more day 'til I can say..."Happy Friday!"

-the little sister, em

Get your Fat Devil on...

Found a new delish recipe for an appetizer or a light dinner on MarksDailyApple (my favorite paleo/primal site). It is SO GOOD and more importantly EASY that I've had it twice in less than a week! So per the request of the eldest sister here is the recipe and some photos from my meal last night.

Ingredients:

2 hardboiled eggs

1/2 avocado

1 teaspoon hot sauce

1/2 teaspoon lime juice

salt and pepper to taste

Peel eggs and separate yolk from whites as you would to make deviled eggs (get it... fat devils...). Put yolks into bowl with 1/2 avocado and add hot sauce, lime juice and salt and pepper.

Mash together with fork until it begins to resemble guacamole. Scoop into empty egg whites and serve. Great with taco salad and some coconut milk!

Ps. I know mine don't look as good as the image up top, but A. I had to entice you with something that looked as good as they taste and B. they were much better than they look. Deeeeelish!!!

Happy Tuesday!

- em, the little sister

I needed it...

Happy Thursday! Just one more day to go!
-em

A Word to the Wise

Okay, girls! So my issues are definitely different from yours. I applaud all your efforts because I know that I didn't make those same efforts when I was your age. Oh, I did go through cycles of exercise and diet. I remember loving my early morning walks (during and after the "paper route era"). But I wasn't particularly disciplined about it.

I have been giving some thought to that. Discipline, that is. I'm beginning to think that it really is all about discipline. Well, discipline and moderation. You can't just eat everything you want. And you can't just vege out in front of the t.v. Okay, let me say that differently: I can't just eat everything I want and I can't just vege out in front of my computer.

One reason is this. Our family has a history of diabetes. Diabetes is now the disease most doctors are focusing on as pre-disposing us to all the things that can kill us later in life: heart attacks, strokes, breast cancer, blindness; all these things are more probable if you have diabetes. Now, it doesn't me happy that the medical profession and our government are becoming militant about this. But the truth of the matter is, if your blood sugar goes over 100, they're going to label you pre-diabetic, especially if you have any weight problems. Here's a link about pre-diabetes: http://diabetes.niddk.nih.gov/dm/pubs/riskfortype2/index.htm

After a little research, I found that a recent study shows that people who follow a low-fat, low-calorie diet and exercise 30 minutes a day, five times a week, have a far smaller risk of developing diabetes. A word to the wise: if you develop diabetes, it will be more difficult for you to get health insurance. So I encourage you to avoid the stigma of diabetes by making those changes now.

-marmy

a moment of zen

At one place i lived there were daily 'reflection' times -- 9am and 9pm (10pm on sundays). It was an interesting part of life in our community of residents; i think most of us had a love/hate relationship with the whole thing. For me, I loved the moments of zen, the shared experience, the unexpected. The long-suffered moments of obligation and awkward attempts at meaning, less so. My job description included a requirement to lead (or to coerce to someone else to lead) twice a week without fail - and i eventually developed a repertoire of two or three reflections I was happy to deliver pretty much at the drop of a hat.

My favorite reflection to lead was one I only did in the mornings. I would hand smallish stones around to the group and invite everyone to just relax. To lay on the floor and close their eyes if they liked. To feel their muscles relax as they thought through each - starting with the toes and ending with the fingers holding the stone. To breathe.

In the quiet moment I would read aloud a statement, quote, turn of phrase. Anything that had recently inspired, motivated, relaxed me.

Here is a quote for today:
"The kind of beauty I want is the hard-to-get kind that comes from within - strength, courage, dignity" --Ruby Dee

(middle sister)

hormones can overcome sickness

This last year it seems we have just been sick sick sick. At least every other week someone has something. It sure makes exercising difficult. I came down with strep throat Friday last week. Because Becca (sister and "training partner") was in town, I went ahead and ran anyway. Oddly, this was the day I ran 25 minutes and felt like I could go another 25. No, I hadn't received any drugs for my sickness yet (I didn't go to the doctor until Saturday). My theory is that I have more energy depending on my monthly hormones. And I was just ending the week of the flow. I started noticing the energy uptick when I was playing sports and way more in tune to my body. There is, for me, a silver lining to the pain. Plus I do celebrate the fact that my body is working the way it is supposed to during this time. It's a good feeling.

Are you Raw?

This last weekend I visited my old college roommate, Lori, for the first time in 3 years! (btw, this is waaaay too long!). As we picked up some tea at Tully's and wandered the local farmers market we caught up on old college gossip and as we are both fitness and FOOD lovers, talked about our exercise endeavors and eating habits.

Lori shared with me that she had gone "raw" in 2009. I was surprised because she works out alot and I wouldn't think she could run her October marathon (yeah, she's a marathoner) on just a raw diet of fruits, veggies, nuts etc... But she said it was great! She had to do a lot of prep and was shopping at whole foods multiple times a week, but loved it. To see more on Lori's story, follow her blog, http://runlori.blogspot.com/

Here is a delicious looking website that sells only raw treats called PURE2RAW. MMM... looks SO GOOD. In fact they are running a contest right now to win FREE raw treats on their blog, so check it out!

Another great site for raw that I haven't had a chance to try is... http://paleotreats.com/

Tell me these cacoa treats don't look delish!

Have you gone raw? How did you like it? Do you have any good raw recipes?

-the little sister, em.

4 Ingredient Recipe that is MMM..mmm.. good!

Okay, so I stole the mmmm mmm good from campbells (which is not in this recipe), BUT, it will give you that warm fully tummy feeling that heartily deserves the MMMMMMMMMmmmm.

Only 4 ingredients and I bet you already have 3 of them. I was hesistant to try, but with less ingredients than mac & cheese, it was worth a shot. And... survey says, DELISH! (ps. I got this recipe from Mommy Needs A Time Out- check out her blog sometime.)

Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds Brussels sprouts

3 tablespoons good olive oil

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Cut off the brown ends of the Brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves then, cut in half long-ways.

Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt and pepper.

Pour them on a sheet pan and roast for 30 to 35 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly.

Finished Product (brussel sprouts and coconut milk- a nice light dinner... if i had chicken it would have been perfect)

Enjoy!

em -the little sister

What's the goal?

Hungry? Sore? Disillusioned? Join the crowd. As a blog I read this morning stated, 'If it were easy, no one would be overweight.' But I'm beginning to think that there has to be some way that this all becomes a lifestyle, not unlike that of our forbears who ate and exercised as part of their regular daily work. We're in this spot because we don't work in the same way they did. Instead we sit at desks. And we don't eat the way they did, either. We have food fixed and frozen or packaged for us with stuff we'd never put in it ourselves.

I'm thinking all the admonitions to climb stairs and park at the far end of the parking lot may really be the way to put "exercise" in my day without me feeling put-upon. And I'm also thinking that losing weight has to be for the long haul and, if so, then it will also be a 'long haul.' Maybe 8 months is too optimistic for losing 50 pounds, because if I lose it even that slowly, it will still not be slow enough to maintain down the road.

So, what is the goal if it's not weight loss? Is it mobility? Is it endurance? Is it balance (as in equilibrium)? Is it flexibility? Is it prevention of accidents? Is it appearance? Yep! All of those things result in a better quality of life and make me capable of doing whatever I am called to do. That's a good thing. Are those things measurable? Well, except for appearance, probably not. I may not see results; instead, I will experience them. That means I need to be alert to identify my successes. Feel free to provide help along those lines!

One question I'm struggling with this week is why do I have such a hard time eating a normal portion at dinner? It tastes so good and I enjoy it! I want MORE! This has got to be some kind of emotional issue, right? Any ideas out there?

Update: blood pressure's back to normal-ish. Weight is down. Blood sugar is normal-ish. I lengthened my cardio workout by five minutes and upped the number of reps for the ab machine. Hooray for incremental progress! Hang in there everyone! Marmie