Procrastination...

Oh, I was being so lazy and slow this morning! But I finally had to get off my chair and put my running shoes on and get out the door, or it wasn't going to happen. And that wouldn't be good, since I had 7 easy kilometers on my schedule today, and no free days later in the week to make it up.

So off I went. And it was actually perfect running weather, and there were actually other runners out at the lake (which I used to avoid during the week because it creeped me out to run there alone), and there were some good songs on my Ipod.

And then when I got back home my neighbor, Werner, was out in his front garden, and he asked me if I had "run a little" and I said, yes, 7 km! And I showed him my Garmin which he thought was very interesting and wanted to know all about it.

And now I'm showered and feeling happy and ready to tackle the rest of my day... and oh so glad I didn't skip my run!

Just another Sunday run

I was lucky this morning - after a big storm last night it was sunny out when I got up. Cool and windy, but sunny - yay! I was moving slow so I got going later than usual but I had a bunch of podcasts loaded on my Ipod and was ready to take it slow and easy for 11 kilometers.

And that is exactly what I did - slow and easy for 1 hour 20 minutes, 11.3 km and a pace right at about 7 minutes per km. Perfect! It felt good and I am quite confident that I am ready for the 15 K in two weeks with Fran. Hooray!

Something new!

From Peer Trainer: Today's tip of the day is to stop beating yourself up. Focus on the good stuff you have done. All of the small, good habits that you've started to incorporate into your life should be celebrated as accomplishments.

Well, I tried a new class today at the gym. It's called Body Balance and I was excited to try it because it was billed as a combination of yoga, tai chi and Pilates. I am very familiar with yoga and I did tai chi for over a year a long time ago and I loved it. I've only done about 5 Pilates classes, though, so I'm not too familiar with that. But I was looking forward to being able to do a class like this right in my gym. I had to stop taking yoga classes a few years ago because I simply had too much on my plate and something had to give. I do my best to do yoga at home, but it is difficult to get into a good routine with it, because I find when I am at home it is very hard to set aside the time for it. There is always something else that seems to take priority! So it's hit and miss most of the time except when I do something like the Yoga Journal 21-day challenge I did at the beginning of the year.

Anyhow, I got to the gym early enough to get my upper body strength training done first and I even had time to get a short interval run in on the treadmill (12 minutes but better than nothing, right?) before heading over to the big room where they hold the group classes.

I was surprised at how many people (all women) turned out to try this new class - the room was full!

I have to say I enjoyed the class a lot even though it doesn't compare at all to a traditional yoga class. First of all they played loud music throughout the hour. It was calm music but still, for me, a bit too loud.

Each song focused on a different type of move: there was a warm up song with arm movements (like in tai chi) and forward bends, a song with a sun salutation, a song with lunges and warriors, a song for planks and Pilates-like ab work (I found this to be the hardest part), a song for hip openers and twists, etc. At the end there was even a final relaxation song! It felt very weird to be lying down and resting at the gym, but it was nice.

Even though I would prefer a more traditional type yoga class, I am happy my gym is offering something different for once, and I am excited to be able to get some kind of yoga in every week in the convenient location of my regular gym. I also don't have to pay anything extra to do it! And it worked pretty well after my upper body weights, too. Next week I will have to miss it unfortunately because our plumbers are coming to install some new radiators, but I think after that I will want to attend this class every week.

Have a great weekend!

Just briefly...

Today was one of those days where I really didn't "feel like" getting out and getting my run in. Luckily it was just 6 km easy pace or I might have really psyched myself out! After procrastinating for ages (which means catching up on reading blogs), I finally laced up my shoes at 10 and headed out.

Listening to a podcast instead of music helped me keep my pace easy, and I rather mindlessly ran three loops around the Finnish track and then headed home for the full 6 kilometers and 42 minutes of good exercise. Was it my best run ever? Not really. Do I feel better for having done it? YES! And at least I won't feel guilty the rest of the day...

A Really Yummy Chickpea Burger Recipe

Back to the gym this morning for a good workout with weights and the elliptical. Yesterday I only had 8 km on the schedule so Stefaan ran it with me and we pushed the pace a little bit faster than Smart Coach called for. It felt good to go out faster than normal on a Sunday!

A few people were asking me about what was on the plate to the right... at the bottom left is a simple cucumber tzatziki, at the top is a fennel-orange-red quinoa and black olive salad, and at the bottom right are two of the most delicious chick pea burgers I have ever eaten. I found this wonderfully easy and healthy recipe on the blog Oh She Glows a while back and I have made it several times because it is so yummy, easy and healthy - the three most important criteria for me!

Here is my adaptation of Angela's fabulous recipe:

Ingredients:
• 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup regular oats
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1 tsp coconut oil (optional)
• 2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 tsp tumeric
• 1/4-1/2 tsp sea salt, to taste
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp Parsley flakes (optional)
• 3 T sunflower seeds
• 3 T pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

Directions: Preheat oven to 375F. Grease a baking sheet or line with parchment paper and set aside. In a food processor or with an immersion blender, process the all the ingredients except for the parsley, sunflower seeds and pepitas until somewhat smooth. Stir in the parsley, sunflower seeds and pepitas. Wet your hands and shape into patties. Makes about 6-8 patties depending on how big you want them. Bake about 20 minutes, turning halfway, until golden brown on both sides. Enjoy! These are delicious with some tzatziki on the side.

The fennel salad was pretty easy too - I adapted it from a tapas cookbook I got from the library to get inspired for my workshops. If anyone is interested, let me know and I'll post it!

What's Up?

You'd think having all three of my boys leave the house at 8 and not come home again til 4:30 would mean I'd have a sea of time to wallow in and surely, plenty of time to blog and keep up with my blog friends, right? Hmmm. Not so much, as it turns out. Where the heck does the time go?

• I've been running and working out pretty much every day except Saturdays. I'm busy training for the 15K with Fran in Breda on October 2, and combining four runs a week with three weight training days, and cross training on the elliptical twice a week. So far, things are going well and I think I may have figured out a better way to balance weight training so that it doesn't affect my running negatively: I cut way back on the lower body exercises I was doing and I do most of them with just body weight (lunges and squats mainly). This seems to be working in the sense that I don't have that terrible leaden feeling in my legs when I go out for my runs anymore. Hooray!
• For the past few weeks I've been really focused on healthy eating, mainly following a "nutritarian" or Eat to Live way of eating, which means vegetables, fruits, beans, and tofu, with grains, nuts and seeds in limited quantities. I am enjoying my green smoothies for breakfast, salads, soups, stews, hummus, homemade veggie burgers, and I have also been investing a lot of time in trying new recipes and cooking techniques, as well as reading blogs on this topic to learn as much as I can. The pictures above are a couple of really yummy meals I've had recently - I love eating this way, the food is delicious and it makes me feel so good - energetic and healthy! These are truly "happy meals" to me...
• I've been doing some preparation for the workshops I am going to do with my friend Linda in November. Our topic this year is "Vegetarian Tapas" and we got together last weekend with our husbands and kids to try out a bunch of recipes we both made. It was a lot of fun and delicious, too! Writing the handout and translating and typing out my recipes is not as fun, but has to be done as well...
• September is also the time I usually touch base with my girlfriends and make dates to have lunch or coffee... there are a couple of dates on my calendar already to look forward to!
• Finally, I've been busy taking care of the family and the house, getting things going for the new school year, trying to make a yummy dessert for the boys for when they get home from school every day because they are always so HUNGRY! And oh yeah, trying to find a balance between making them healthy meals and making room for the "junkier" things they love so much! It's definitely a work in progress...

So, these things eat up a lot of my time, I guess... But I will just keep plugging along! My main goal is to keep up with all of your blogs, even if I don't find the time to update mine as often as I would like...

First Day of School!

Thankfully, everybody's first day of school went well! Felix is just starting out his first year of secondary school (equivalent to 7th grade in the US) and Gillis and Florian are in the 3rd and 5th years of the same school. It will be nice to have them all in the same school for a couple of years.

My husband was still on vacation yesterday so he joined me for my tempo run after we got all the boys off to school. It was the same run as two weeks ago: 6 km total with 3 km at 6:15 pace in the middle.

I will say - it was a lot harder to do it without my music!!! I never bring my Ipod with me when we run together, and I did miss having an uptempe song to kind of push me along when it felt hard. But it was nice to have company!

This morning I biked to the gym for upper body weights (my arms feel like jello right now) and an interval run. It was just 15 minutes of one-minute intervals but I don't think I could have done much more as my legs still felt a bit tired from yesterday. Other than that, it went well.

Now I'm off to get things done and hopefully enjoy a bit of the lovely weather we are having for the next day or two.