Happy Monday

Happy Monday...because I am finally pain free. Last Thursday night my shoulder and neck seized up and I was in a lot of pain through Saturday, when the massive amounts of ibuprofen I was taking finally started to work. The pain even kept me awake at night on Thursday and Friday, I only slept better again on Saturday night. Luckily I have an appointment with my osteo next week, it still feels like something needs sorting out. But at least the pain is gone.

It felt SO GOOD to get to the gym this morning and get on the treadmill and just run. Felix was with me (a day off school) and he snagged one of those bikes with a comfy seat and its own TV, and I got a treadmill right behind him. I was raring to go and did a nice easy 5 kilometers in 34 minutes, taking a short walk break at the top of each kilometer. By the end, I felt happy, perky and my brain/pain fog of the last few days had lifted - YES!

You truly don't appreciate the ability to exercise, run, walk, move...until you have been out dealing with some kind of physical limitation. Boy, do I feel grateful today.

Healthy Sweets to Share

Our third workshop last night went really well! Everyone is enthusiastic and seems to enjoy rolling up their sleeves and baking. I promised to share some of the recipes, so here is the first one, which has been a big hit with our participants:

Healthy Energy Bars
(Inspired by a recipe in Runner's World Magazine last year, this is a great stand-in for those high quality all-natural energy bars that cost so much at the health food store, easy to make and delicious too!)

1 cup dry oatmeal
1/2 cup dry unsweetened coconut flakes
1/4 cup raisins or dried currants
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
2 T ground flaxseed
3/4 cup tahini
1/2 cup good quality natural honey (best if cold processed, unpasturized and unfiltered!)*

Mix the first seven ingredients in a large mixing bowl with a wooden spoon. In a small saucepan, gently warm the tahini over low heat for a few minutes until it is slightly melted (take care not to burn it). Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly for a minute or two. Then add the honey to the tahini and stir until well mixed. Pour tahini-honey mixture into the dry ingredients and mix with spoon until a sticky ball forms. Wash your hands, roll up your sleeves and form bars, balls, or patties (be creative!) with the dough by pressing it well. Refrigerate several hours to firm the bars up and enjoy! These keep very well for about two weeks in the fridge.

*a note on honey: why cold-processed unfiltered honey? Pure, natural honey has tons of vitamins, minerals and hormones produced by the bees that make it naturally antibacterial and antiviral. But heat will destroy these healthy qualities. Most honey available in supermarkets has been heat processed and is nothing other than sugar with a honey taste, which is a shame, and a waste of the incredible work of the bees. Treat honey with respect and never heat it over 100°F! If you use it in tea, wait til your tea is nearly lukewarm before adding your honey. If you prefer not to use honey for ethical reasons, you can easily substitute brown rice syrup for a less sweet bar, or agave syrup for a much sweeter bar (you may need to reduce the amount to 1/3 of a cup in this case, as agave is very sweet), or maple syrup for a maple flavored bar (I would also use a bit less, since maple syrup is more liquid than honey).

Exercise is Medicine

Our first two workshops went really well, we have a third one tonight and then two more next week. The topic is using healthier ingredients for baking and one of the things we mention to our participants is the positive effect that regular aerobic exercise has on the body's ability to process sugars and how this is hugely beneficial for the pancreas and preventing diabetes. I think nearly every workshop topic we have done the past three years has included exercise as one of the things that can help.

I got a taste of my own medicine today as I woke up with that fuzzy, wooly feeling between my eyes - sinuses blocked, sneezing, feeling cotton-headed. I thought of taking an antihistamine, but decided I would wait til I came back from the gym, maybe it would be better. So I headed off to the gym, did one of the Matt Roberts workouts (three cardio intervals, plus resistance exercises and abs), and guess what? My sinuses are clear! Ha!

To all the friends and family running Turkey Trots today - Good Luck! And to everyone, a very Happy Thanksgiving (the one holiday I really miss)! Enjoy the good times together!

Just one of those days...

Can I just say, I have always had a hate-hate relationship with the grapevine. Today, the first song in Zumba class and there goes the damn grapevine move - I somehow tripped over my shoes and fell right on my behind. Doh! I felt really dumb but got back up and kept going, finished out the class. It must have been one of those days because not only did the teacher call out the wrong instructions more than once, but both straps on her tank fell down at the same momemt during a shimmy and she flashed the whole class with her sportsbra. I was relieved it wasn't just me! All I was hoping for was to get back home again without crashing my bike.

I made it back in one piece, but the computer has been acting up, not wanting to cooperate at all. And darn, my ankle that I twisted thanks to that grapevine actually really hurts! I guess it's just one of those days. Time to hide out, ice my ankle, have a cup of tea, and let it pass. Tomorrow better.

No time!

No, that is not my excuse for not exercising, it is my excuse for not blogging! Things have been a bit hectic since I got back, we had the last part of our middle son's confirmation this weekend and then my husband has been getting ready for his trip to Japan - he leaves today so I am hanging around the house in this morning while he is getting everything packed, and in the meantime I am trying to get some things done for the workshops next week. I have been so TIRED...I have always heard that each hour of time difference means one day to get readjusted, and in my experience, it seems to hold true. So that means it should be another two days before I feel fully back to normal.

My exercise plan for the next three weeks is to get to the gym three times during the week and do a Matt Roberts workout (I am doing the ones from the first month of his "weight loss" program, Fran!), and run a longer distance on Sunday. We are all signed up for the Corrida at the end of December, we will be doing 8 kilometers, so I know I need to get my running in - one of the biggest benefits, for me, in being signed up for a race!

Linda and I have had great response to our workshops again this year, three of them are sold out, the fourth one is almost full, and we added an additional session, which is already half full! The topic this year is "healthy baking - how to make cookies, waffles, cakes and such using healthier options for sugar, flour, butter and eggs". We are going to have the participants roll their sleeves up and make some of the recipes, it should be fun!

Back home and finally functioning!

Thanks to my two great travelling companions, with whom I had a blast:

And congratulations to Mary and Brad, whose beautiful wedding was the high point of the journey! Being able to celebrate the special day with them and seeing family that I hadn't seen in so many years was such a pleasure.



I've been back home in Belgium since early Tuesday morning and today am finally starting to feel a bit back to normal. I was so glad to see Stefaan and the boys again, and happy to find that they also had a great time last week on their "guys only" trip. I headed to the gym this morning and it was good to see familiar faces and energize myself with some cardio and a few resistance exercises. I'm not sure what I'll be doing the next few weeks as far as workouts, since I will be very busy with my workshops coming up, but I will certainly have a plan figured out by Monday to get me through til the beginning of December.

Coronado Island to Carlsbad

Off to a good start - a morning run on the beach is the best way to wake up in the morning.

Yesterday when we finally tore ourselves away from the Coronado, we headed up to Bilboa Park, where we visited the rose and desert gardens, the Timken Museum of Art and met a beautiful white cockatoo named Jojo who was being "walked" by his owner. Jojo was very friendly and even came to sit on my arm and make my acquaintance!

Then we headed north up historic highway 101, passing the coastal towns of Mission Beach, La Jolla, Del Mar, Encinitas before arriving in Carlsbad, where the wedding will take place on Saturday afternoon. We were invited to the rehearsal dinner and it was great to see cousins I probably hadn't seen for about 30 some years! The wedding couple, my cousin Brad and his fiancee Mary seemed very happy to have everyone there for them. A lot of the wedding guests are staying at the hotel, so after dinner a few of us had a glass of wine together in the hotel bar and caught up on old times.

This morning Mom and I got up early along with my cousin Tom's oldest daughter Kelsea and crossed the road to check out the beach, which is wild and rocky at this point of the coastline. We scrambled down a cliff and took a long walk along the beach, picking up pretty beach rocks and watching the surfers along the way. Today we're planning to do some more exploring around Carlsbad and then go back to La Jolla in the afternoon to see the shops, caves, coves, and sea lions!