My Gluten Free Week

It seems like everyone is gluten free these days.  There is a lot of information and misinformation about gluten, Celiac Disease, and Gluten sensitivities out there.  I've read going gluten free can benefit everyone, basically were all sensitive to it even if we don't know/feel it. I've also read there is absolutely no need to cut out gluten if we don't experience symptoms of a sensitivity.  Soooo much info!  Whatever. I decided to try it, however, I have never had any symptoms after eating pasta, bread, etc... to lead me to believe I am at all sensitive to it.  I just wanted to see if maybe just maybe I had some untapped energy source under all that gluten waiting to be unleashed.

So I bought gluten free bread, went without any bites of my kids fishies, and munched lettuce over pasta.  Here are a few of my observations:

• Going gluten free was incredibly easy for me.  I don't really eat bread anymore except for my morning toast, which was a simple switch.
• As far as grains go, I cook quinoa more than anything, and even if I needed pasta, there are tons of gluten free options.
• I don't really snack on things that would contain gluten. My normal snack foods are nuts, popcorn, and hummus/veggies.

• I didn't feel any different.  There wasn't an increase in energy for me or anything.

The verdict. I think I'll continue to limit gluten.  Why not.  However, I love pizza, and I will eat it. Once or twice a month.  I also realized there is a lot of stuff that is gluten free that I normally eat anyway. Oh and Injera bread is gluten free.  It's Ethiopian and Ethiopian food is the BOMB!
I think it's my favorite. I wish I could eat it everyday.

Some Gluten Free eats:

Ethiopian... it's sooooooooo GOOD!!!!

Salad: Romaine + Chedder + Turkey + Egg Whites + Balsamic

Broiled Salmon + Quinoa + Veggies

Granola = Gluten Free oats + Flax + PB + Almonds + Cinnamon

 One thing I can say about avoiding gluten, is it made me a much more mindful eater. I didn't just take a bite of my kids food those bites of chicken nuggets and gold fish add up! When thinking about snacks I went for hard boiled eggs, string cheese, nuts, hummus, and yogurt, instead of a sandwich or crackers.

On a totally different topic I ran 12 miles on Saturday. My hip was really sore after, it was sore yesterday too.  I'm not sure how it will feel on my run today. Hopefully it will be ok. I need to be 100% without injuries. 


Question

Are you gluten free? Why? How has it helped?

Happy Monday!  Can't wait for the Olympics to start!!!!

WIAW and my new FAVORITE snack

It's been a while since I've done an WIAW. Mostly because I ALWAYS forget to take pictures of my food and a little bit because I eat pretty much the same things day in and day out.

Breakfast is ALWAYS egg whites, I'm trying to get into the habit of adding veggies.  Sometimes I do sometimes I don't.  The key here is to have them prepped before hand because chopping veggies in the morning is just not something I'm going to do every day!

Lunch is difficult for me, I can't eat meat more than once a day (I can, I just don't, I'm not a huge meat person).  So, I either have egg whites, hard boiled egg whites, a protein shake, or sometimes a veggie burger.  Boooorrrrrinnnnngggg.

These are amazing! My homemade "lara" bars and they are soooo easy.
Yesterday I made these:

Just blend the following in a food processor

 1 1/2 cups of pitted dates
1 cup almonds (raw)
1 cup walnuts (raw)
1/4 cup coconut (optional)
2 tbsp (cocoa powder)

+ a little water to make it all come together.

Than just press out into a pan, refrigerate, cut and eat!

I also did apple pie bars (my fav)

 1 1/2 cups of pitted dates
1 cup almonds (raw)
1 cup walnuts (raw)
1 apple
1 tbsp cinnamon

As you can see the possibilities are endless!

I snacked on hummus and hard boiled egg whites yesterday (it's good!)

Dinner was Kale salad, roasted veggies, and roasted turkey (yep I made a turkey in July)

I've actually been running this week, finally!  And my legs are feelin it!

Today is abs + arms + 5 miles.
There is a new workout from beachbody called body beast.  I haven't heard anything about it, but it's designed to pack on 10 lbs of muscle in 90 days! Crazy right? I don't want to gain 10 lbs of muscle, maybe 5? Plus I'd like to lose 5ish lbs of fat... but that's neither here nor there. Anyways... I really want to try it.

Do you workout at home or at a gym?

Do you follow any particular programs?

If you can't take the heat...

Get out of the kitchen!
Sunday's cooking failure...

Snapper Veracruz... A blurry mess!

That is Snapper Veracruz, basically Snapper cooked in a tomato sauce with onion, garlic, olives, and capers. The sauce was good, really really good, the fish was, in my opinion, UN-edible, hubby ate it. That isn't saying much (boys eat anything).  We purchased a whole fish from Dekalb.  Hubby cut it and and filleted it.  I seasoned it and baked it.  It was fishy.  Really fishy, and I guess seeing it go from whole fish to meal time kind of grossed me out.  I'm a meat eater, but I could really do without, and I try to not to put too much thought into it, or it makes my stomach turn.  Oh well... upward and onward. I have a whole turkey breast to cook this week, I'm sure I'll do much better with that!

Saturday morning, I planned a long run, remember? Well I woke up with some sort of stomach issue and didn't end up running until 1pm. I didn't feel great all day and only got in 6.5 miles.
 Also, it kinda killed most of the day. 

Sunday was much better.  Breakfast at the Flying Biscuit Cafe and the most amazing salad ever really made up for it.

Not my picture, Mine looked EVEN BETTER!

This is a BLT salad with Turkey bacon, fried green tomatoes, goat cheese, and some sort of AMAZING jalapeno cashew relish.
This salad was seriously legit. I am obsessed with salads especially creative unique one's, so whenever I come across a winner it really makes my day. I'm easy to please!

Add in a trip to the Dekalb Farmer's Market and I'm one happy chick.

Oh and the Yankees taking 3 of 4 at Fenway, just put it over the top!
Going into the All Star break with the best record in baseball, mean while, Pettite, Rivera, and Sabathia are injured??? PRICELESS!

Alright, I really dropped the proverbial ball last week, as far as running goes.  Time to get back into the groove.

Happy Monday!

Finally Friday

I don't know how I feel about this whole day off in the middle of the week thing. It kinda throws everything off. Oh well I'm glad it's Friday and I have plans to run an actual long run tomorrow. Not a stop at 8 miles and call it a long run, but like a real one, where my quads are sore afterwards.  We'll see how that goes.  I really need to get on the ball with running again. I've been in the 25 ish mile a week range when I used to easily hit 40.  I blame the heat and my foot. I still get that weird,  heel/ankle pain when I run more and/or faster than normal and the heat just makes every run seem so strenuous to me.  I get frustrated when I'm not running as fast as I like and when it's hot I cannot keep the same paces. I love love love the temps but I don't love them as far as running goes.

Since I've become obsessed with this whole homemade Lara Bar thing I will be going to Dekalb to buy a very very large amount of dates this weekend.  I try to go only every other week because it's so far from my house, plus it's so crowded and it frustrates me, but I can't help and am there every weekend.  I also try to spend less than $100, I can't do that either.  What can I say I really really love produce, olives, quinoa, and 4lb bags of almonds.

egg salad + greens + patriotic plate

Greens+ chicken lunch meat + quinoa salad + grapes

Turkey zucchini meatballs + crispy Kale

All of this hot weather has me craving lighter meals.  Lots and lots of salads, smoothies/protein shakes, and food that is no hotter than room temp.

The sassiest little baby

Have a great weekend! 

Weird Week

With 4th of July falling on a Wednesday and no plans, the odd middle of the week day off makes for a very strange week.
I was worried I wouldn't get my normal workout in yesterday with everyone at home. But I got it in and feel great.  We had a mini bbq and attempted to set off some fireworks. After going to sleep way too late, I am sure I'll be having a mid-afternoon cup of coffee today. Today is also cardio only and I'm planning on 7 miles. 

I took a try at homemade Lara bars and ummm let me tell you, I feel like they came out too well!
Seriously, they taste too good.
I'm going to play around and come up with some more flavor combos and I'll be back with hopefully a few recipes.  Plus, they are so easy to make, and for those Paleo peep's they're paleo friendly! Well most of them anyways.

Happy Thursday that feels like Monday!

July Goals

I don't normally make monthly goals, but little by little I am seeing myself get off track.  From cutting my runs a bit short, to shaving 5 minutes off a strength routine, an extra cookie here. You know what I mean, it's not much but cumulatively it adds up. So here it is my get on stay on track goal for July:

• Post more!  If I am posting daily eats and workouts etc... I will be accountable.
• Every week I make a rough plan for mileage, long runs, etc... be a bit more aggressive with that plan and stick to it. Every. Single. Day.
• Focus on clean eats.  Cut down sugar. Stick to whole unprocessed carbs.
• Eat more often.  Throughout the day I tend to skip meals if I get busy. We all know what that leads to.
• Get more sleep. It doesn't get dark to well after 9pm these days. That means kids stay up later. When the kids are up later, I'm up later and it's getting out of hand

This is not any different than what I always try to do. But I need to put it down on the proverbial paper  blog post?

Moving on...
It's HOT. I can't believe how hot it's been. My poor A/C units are going to explode.
With weather like this, there is not a lot of playing outside going on and that does not make for happy kids.
We ran a lot of errands this weekend.  Dealt with car troubles. Went on a date. Hosted a kiddie play date. Shopped. And ate.  That makes for a good weekend. 
Wanna know what makes for an even better weekend?

That would be 4 pairs of shoes from Macy's for like $50.00, amazing!

 This definitely comes in second.  Eating sushi.  Or rather an iphone self portrait of us eating sushi.

I'm hoping for rain today or at least clouds. Something that helps it not feel like a sauna in my house.

Today's workouts:
an easy 5 mile run (legs are still sore from Friday) + Chest & Back + Abs... should be fun!

Happy short week but in a weird kind of way!

All the guts NONE of the Glory

This is definitely a healthy living blog, but this is definitively not a healthy living post.
This is a rant... please read on at your own caution...

I'm am a mom of 2 children, that does not work outside of the home.  BUT, I do work from home, and act as stay at home parent to my 2 kids. This day in age there is not a ton of glory in being a stay at home mom. My childless friends think I'm lucky, my friends with children think I'm lazy, the teachers, dr's, and dentists, think I have all the time in the world, and my brother thinks I sit at home doing crafts all day. 
Let me tell you what I really do.  I cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 4 people. Let me emphasize cook because that's what I do, no drive-thrus, or boxed mac and cheese over here. I work on this computer far longer than what a normal 9-5 would be, plus weekends. I workout 6 days a week. I run errands, clean, take kids to playdates and bday parties, clean, kiss boo boo's, and clean some more. With a 4 and 2 year old there is A LOT of cleaning to be done.  Most of the time when people ask if I stay at home with my kids I just smile and say yes. I don't find a need to tell them I also work from home full time.  It's really none of their business. But even if ALL I did was be a stay at home mom, that's a hell of a lot of work!  I don't expect praise, it was my choice to have kids and really it is a job, a very rewarding one. Lately, there have been a lot of articles about the new "stay at home dad"
STOP THE PRESSES
It is with utter amazement and disbelief that a man can stay at home with his kids. Those same people that pity me praise the man doing the same thing.  I'm sorry I cannot get on board with that. I just can't. My husband did it with our first for almost 2 years, while I worked outside of the house. This wasn't a reversal of roles, it was reality and it was great. He loved being at home with our son, as do I. I loved working and being around adults as opposed to kids all day. There are merits in both.
I don't want a medal for what I do on a daily basis, my life is exactly what I made it and I really truly love it. My friends have it right I am lucky, and no, it's not because I have time to shop all day (try going to the mall with 2 kids, just try!).  It's because I am able to do what I want on a daily basis with my kids, with my work, with my time.  But, I don't want that medal passed down to the dad because he is doing the same thing.

Rant Over.

Enjoy your weekend.

XOXO