The Chocolate Hoard

I mentioned my chocolate hoard the other day, and I am not sure whether this is a problem or not, should I be ashamed or proud that I have a chocolate collection?  I eat chocolate most days of the week, less the last couple weeks because I have been HUNGRY; I need more volume for my calorie buck lately.  Chocolate is the key to my dieting success.  It is one of those non-negotiables.  If I couldn't have chocolate, I couldn't stick with it.  Even on the days where I do not eat chocolate, the fact is that I could eat chocolate and without guilt.  That keeps me going.  But when I looked at the sum of my chocolate stash, I thought hmmmmm....this may not be "normal."


There are boxes of Christmas chocolate, Valentine's Day chocolate, Mother's Day chocolate, four Easter PB eggs, a container of dark chocolate and turbinado sugar coated almonds, KIND dark chocolate and almond bars, cocoa dusted almonds, Lindt sea salt and dark chocolate (absolute favorite), and trail mix with mini PB cups.

I guess I should be proud of the fact that I have this stash because before if I got a box of chocolate for V-day it would be gone in two days, and here it is almost June and still half full and stale.  What isn't normal about it is that if I didn't have my chocolate hoard, I think I would freak out a little bit.

Less Is More

Sometimes it hard to remember that less can be more.  This pertains to many things, but in this case I am referring to cheese.  I like to make semi-homemade pizza with store bought whole wheat crust.  I use one pound of dough divided into four portions, 1/2 cup of sauce, 2 oz goat cheese, 2 oz fresh mozzarella, 1 T parmesan, and some carmelized onion, (mushrooms too if I have them, but I didn't.)The cheese does not cover the pizza, but this lets the other flavors shine through.  High quality ingredients make all the difference.  I baked it in the oven this time, but sometimes I like to grill it.  360 calories of YUM!

Side Note:  I ran 4.3 easy miles today.  HA!  I love saying easy miles.  I never understood when people said that.  Everything about running was HARD.  My lungs and my heart have just recently caught up to my legs, and if I choose not to push it, a run can be easy.  That is my record for distance.  I could have ran forever today, but I ran out of time.  Funny how some days two miles feels like a million and some days I don't want to stop.

Who Stole My Cookies?!?

I opened my freezer yesterday and let out a gasp of horror when I was greeted by the following:

An empty Thin Mint box, almost empty, one lonely cookie!  MY emergency box of Thin Mints!  Mine.  My kids had plenty of GS cookies.  This one box was Mama's box.  I had eaten exactly four of the cookies.  I knew who the culprit was, my little junk food junkie sneak.  Ohhhhhh......someone is in trouble!!!!  THEN A horrible thought came....did he get my Reese peanut butter eggs too???  Nooooooo!  I ran back to the freezer- literally ran and this time I let out a big sigh of relief, he hadn't gone that far!  Even a junk food junkie sneak has his limits. 

In order to be more diplomatic and less accusatory, I asked all three kids together, "Who ate my Thin Mints?"  The suspect said "I had one or two."  Ahem.  "One or two?"  Then he said he had an accomplice, his little brother also had "one or two."  BUT his little brother cannot reach the freezer.  He said he was sorry.  He said that it had been in there so long that they were probably expired.  My hero!  Saving me from food poisoning.  You see, he was really doing me a favor.  I took a deep breath.  I assessed the remainder of my chocolate hoard, then all was forgiven.  There is always next February.

The chocolate hoard is an entirely different post.  I think I may have an issue.....



You Found Me

I had a running experience Saturday that was indescribable.  No matter how I put it down on paper or words, I won’t be able to do it justice.  While seeking a safe place to run in unfamiliar territory, I came upon a park and decided it would do.  It more than sufficed.  It unexpectedly fed my soul in ways I had never experienced.  It was beautiful, and surreal, and every step felt like magic.

I was alone in this park on this grey misty Saturday morning.  The first thing I noticed was the newly seeded neon green blades of grass.  I had never seen that color in nature.  Almost immediately I knew this run was different.  I thought “This is God.  God is here with me.  This, this place, this moment, THIS is my God.”  A robin landed in my path in the distance, directly facing me, chest puffed out, and that bird stared me down, not moving until I was five strides from it.  I ran on a wet, slippery wooden bridge over a river, and into a path called “Amy’s Walk”—my name.  You can bet I RAN that path.  I noticed a trail off the paved path and turned down it.  It turned into a clearing in the woods, a large field of grass surrounded by tall trees.   I stopped running, pulled out my ear buds to hear the birds singing, breathed in the cool, wet air, and just stood there staring up at the overcast sky, feeling this moment.  It was absolute magic.

I am not a tree hugger.  I do not believe in the God represented in the Bible.  I do believe in a higher power, a God, just not the traditional form I was taught in Sunday school.  I can’t describe this moment, but maybe spirituality isn’t meant to be explained, just felt and embraced.  It was a run that I won’t soon forget—running into God isn’t something that happens to me every day.

One of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands, The Fray, You Found Me.

Kicked My Own Booty

Ugliest race T-shirt ever!  I wore it with pride all day long!

I ran in a Mother's Day race this weekend.  I had a few friends who said they would do it with me, but then for various reasons they all backed out.  It is so much easier to get friends to eat and drink with you than is it is to get them to exercise with you!  I can't blame them though; I wasn't sure I was gonna stick with running it either.  I had nobody to watch my kids.  Then I thought, wait a minute I have a nearly 13-year-old child who is capable of watching his brothers for a short time.  So, I took a drive out to check out where the race was being held to make sure it was a safe location and ended up registering.

I started the race, and exactly like last time, before I was even a 1/10 of a mile in, I thought I can't do this.  I don't know why that is?  Because my body does not like running in the morning?  Because my brain does not like the thought of HAVING to run 3 miles without the option to stop?  But the race had started, and my brain was right, stopping was not an option, and so I ran on.  I recently started using a Nike+ app on my ipod.  It keeps track of how far I have gone and very half-mile it tells me my pace.  It is kinda fun.....unless you are running a race and it is telling you your pace is slower than your normal jog around the neighborhood pace.  My goal was to beat my first 5K time, 34:09.  At the rate Nike+ was telling me I was running, I was not going to beat my time.  How deflating, but still I ran.  I saw my kids waiting for me near the finish line, I smiled, gave them the thumbs up sign, then I looked up and the timer said 29:17.....WHAT?????  No more smiling and waving; I had to get to the finish line before it hit 30:00!!!!

Final time 29:28.5 seconds.  I totally kicked my own ass, and I was so excited!  Finished 87th of 219 runners, 8th female in my age group of 26 women.  And it was so much fun!!  Party atmosphere.  Great  people. Amazing weather.  A BBQ by the pool afterwards.  Could not have been better.

My boys are so proud of me when I run a race.  I am always proud of them when they are on the field, so it is a cool new dynamic to see their pride in ME.

Health, fitness, accomplishment, joy, my Mother's Day gift to myself.

Chicken Pineapple Roll-ups

I like quick and easy lunches, but I do not like diet frozen meals.  I can make my own lunches with equal calories, more bulk, and better taste.  I always start the week out with some cooked chicken.  I either bake several pounds of bone-in chicken breasts, or I grill boneless, skinless breasts.   I make enough to cover the next few days lunches, and usually throw a quick family dinner together one night a week with it too.  Today's lunch took about 3 minutes to prepare, was 325 filling, delicious, nutritious calories, and BONUS it was pretty.  I love beautiful food!

Pineapple Chicken Salad Roll-ups

2 LaTortilla tortillas

4 oz chicken

1/4 cup fresh pineapple chunks

1/2 T dried cranberries

1/2 T chopped pecans

1 T Fage yogurt

Lettuce leaves

sprinkle of salt

Evolution for the Family Too

So, I have three growing boys, and I have icecream, and candy, and chips, and Little Debbie.  I am embarrassed at the grocery store check-out line.  I have changed my eating habits, and now is the time to slowly start incorporating changes into the kids daily eating habits too.  I make a healthy meal most nights of the week, include fruit when I pack lunches (along side that Little Debbie), and morning snack is most likely to be a fruit and a mozzarella stick.  Most nights of the week, my 6-year-old will choose fruit over icecream or chips, but my two older boys will pick junk for their snacks.  A couple nights a week, I will insist they have a fruit instead, which is met with many complaints, moans, and groans, and I don't feel like living through the whining the next night and drop the subject for a few days.

This time though, I gave them fair warning.  After I grocery shopped on Sunday night, skipping the icecream aisle entirely, I let all three boys know that for either their after school or evening snack they must choose a fruit.  They can pick anything available in the house for one snack, but the other MUST be a fruit, no exceptions.  Small changes.