No Snow Today....do I dare???

It's not snowing and the temperature is actually above freezing, the sidewalks are still a mess and some spots are dangerously slick, but.... I am itching to get OUTSIDE. I saw Lily's post about overcoming her fears with skiing and I thought I should follow her example and JUST DO IT! More later after I get back...

In the meantime, there is a great book giveaway over at Lori's blog - check it out! (Thanks, Fran, for the tip to have a look at her blog!)

NRL4W

NRL4W is the abbreviation for "New Rules of Lifting for Women" - the new fitness program I just started today (and believe me my legs are feeling it from the lunges)! I had been thinking a lot about what program to start next...I got the "Hot Bod in a Box" program by Jillian Michaels for my birthday from Christy, but I don't feel like I am up to doing those workouts by myself yet, I still have a lot of issues about feeling comfortable at the gym, in spite of having made a lot of progress doing Body for Life last summer. NRL4W is more do-able for me right now, Jillian will have to wait a bit longer before I tackle her program!

My intention was to get to the gym this morning but as I walked back from taking my son to school it started snowing, harder and harder, and so I decided to do the first workout at home, even though there were a few adjustments I would have to make for equipment I don't have. Luckily the book does give alternatives for people working out at home.

The book has seven progressively harder levels of exercise programs, and you do each level for several weeks before moving on to the next level. Completing all the levels should take about six months. Each level has two workouts that you alternate. I started with level 1, workout B today (I was better able to do all the exercises here at home on this one than workout A). The exercises were:

• Deadlifts
• Dumbbell shoulder press
• Wide grip lat pulldown (the home variation is a prone pullover with dumbbells)
• Lunges
• Swiss ball crunch (I don't have a Swiss ball so I did regular crunches)

Depending on how far you are in the level, the number of sets and reps changes. Today I had to do two sets of each exercise (plus a warmup set), and 15 reps. As you progress you get more sets and less reps, so the implication is that you should be using more weight in every exercise, every workout.

The instructions are pretty precise, so I was actually glad I was at home so I could keep checking my book to make sure I was doing things correctly, I would have felt too dorky to take my book to the gym. The whole workout took about 40 minutes (rest times between exercises are given very precisely too!) And it is still snowing, so all in all I am glad I went ahead and got it done, instead of hemming and hawing about going out or not going out.

The Happy Award!

Surprise!


Alexandra surprised me by selecting me to receive the Happy Award! Thank you, Alexandra! I do generally think of myself as a pretty happy person, but mostly I think of myself as a very LUCKY person.


In accepting the award, I am supposed to list ten things that make me happy. It's kind of hard just to pick ten, so here are the ones that pop into my head right now:

1. My kids
2. Sunshine
3. A good run
4. Hearing a favorite song and being able to sing it out loud or dance to it (not always appropriate!)
5. Watching old family home movies
6. This video
7. Crossing the finish line
8. Being able to play a piano piece without too many mistakes
9. A hot cup of coffee on a cold snowy morning
10. Connecting with friends, new and old, close by and far away, over a cup of coffee or via blog, phone, mail, Facebook...

Finally, there is one more thing - I get to nominate someone else for this award - and the happy person is my blog friend Fran up in the Netherlands, for her positive attitude and perserverance!

Woo hoo - Wireless!

Finally, after months of trying to figure out how (and some tangles with the Belgian phone company), a good friend of ours (my hero) got it up and running for us today - so I am at last able to write a blog post from anywhere in my home (sitting in my living room now - what a luxury), and - even more importantly - at the same time that my kids are monopolizing the pc upstairs! Woo hoo!

Not much else to blog about today, because we got hit with another 8 cm of snow yesterday (we were stuck at a badminton tournament, but at least the cafetaria was warm and we sat by the window and watched the snow fall and fall) so running outside will be postponed for a little while yet. And guess what, it snowed even more today.

Hope everyone has a relaxing and happy Sunday!

More Snow!

We woke up this morning to another dusting of snow. The freezing temperatures are predicted to last well into the end of next week, and we are supposed to get another snow storm this weekend. It seems like there is no end in sight. At least I got a good workout shovelling this morning! I left the house to walk my son to school feeling freezing and stiff in every muscle; I came back and shovelled the sidewalk and driveway, and by the time I was done, I was toasty warm and feeling a lot perkier. Then it was time to take the lights off our Christmas tree and haul it outside. Not bad for a strength workout!

I still haven't dared to run on the messy and slippery sidewalks outside yet - I admire all those of you further up north who get out no matter how much snow or how low the temp!

Here's a super simple recipe I have been wanting to share - we made this over the holidays as an appetizer and the kids devoured it - which is always a good sign!

Lentil-Walnut Paté

1 can of (Italian) lentils, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T red wine vinegar
1/2 t thyme
salt and pepper

Mix everything in a blender or food processor (I use my hand held blender) until smooth. Great on crackers!

21 Day Vegan Kickstart

A comment on my last post led me to this great program for anyone wanting to try a healthy vegan diet out with a free menu plan for the next three weeks:

http://www.21daykickstart.org/

Even Bob Harper from the Biggest Loser is a coach on this program developed by Dr. Neal Barnard and it's completely free. Check it out!

Snow, Cold, and Food for Thought

We were "blessed" with a few more centimeters of snow on Saturday night. While it made our train trip to Wavre to visit friends yesterday afternoon very beautiful, it was not so nice this morning when we all had to get out to school on the slippery bike paths and sidewalks. I think I told the boys at least a hundred times to be careful.

So today I am making a big pot of bean and pasta soup and getting started picking up, cleaning up, boxing up, and putting away. It looks like the weather is going to stay very cold for the next week so we will just have to grin and bear it! On the exercise front, I am on standby right now, but plans are brewing...

I have just finished reading the latest book by Jonathan Safran Foer, "Eating Animals", an eloquent, thoughtful and thought-provoking search for answers about the real implications of our eating habits. I highly recommend it. It reconfirms for me the global and humane aspects of eating a vegetarian, vegan or near-vegan diet, and really reinforces me in my conviction that, with all the plant food available to us, there is really no reason why we have to be eating animals, certainly in the current huge quantitities that they are consumed. Less meat and animal products is better for our health, better for the environment, better for animals and better for a more just distribution of food and other resources in the world. Just some food for thought for anyone thinking of making positive changes this year!

Hope you all made it through the end of the year happy, healthy and sane!