Resistance Band Workout

 It looks so innocent curled up on the floor but this thing almost killed me today!

I bought these bands several years ago after reading about various exercises.  I tried the DVD that came with them once, decided it was impossible, and threw the bands and DVD in the bottom of my closet. 



Lately I've been looking for exercises to strengthen my shoulders and arms.  My yoga workout did not go well yesterday.  I really struggle to hold my arms out in the T-position (in warrior pose, for example).  I'm in pain after about 30 seconds.  So today I pulled these bands out again.  The cover of the DVD says:

• Stretch and strengthen
• Increase aerobic stamina
• Improve posture and balance

Great!   I need all of those.  Well right from the beginning I had issues.  It came with 3 bands of different difficulty.  I've never used anything but the easiest but last winter my husband used the medium band to rehab his collarbone.  So first I had to move the handles from one band to the other.  It took me at least 15 minutes to accomplish that.  Not a good sign!

Finally I was ready to actually start the workout.  I managed several times to get myself tangled in the band and a couple times collapsed to the floor!  I'm sure I looked ridiculous.  There are three people on the disk and I was following "Jim", an older, slightly chubby man - possibly bad knees.  I couldn't keep up with him!  There were points when I didn't have the strength to get into the starting position, let alone stretch from there.  I know my form was a mess.  I spent a lot of time pausing the disk and rewinding trying to figure out how to accomplish these exercises.

When it was done (keep in mind it was only 30 minutes), my arms were so sore I could barely lift a glass of water to my mouth.  As I was lying on the floor, exhausted, I was thinking that next time I should go slower and focus on my form and not worry about keeping up with their pace.  And that is when it hit me - I was planning to do this workout again.  Running has taught me that no matter how bad you do today, just keep going and you will get better.  Don't give up.

The cats sat in the window watching the whole sad event.  I'm sure they were wondering why I do these crazy things!

Broccoli and Chickpea Pasta

On Democracy Now this past Monday, Amy Goodman interviewed Michael Pollan about his new book "Cooked" (which I immediately requested from the library).  It was a very good interview but his final line really hit me.  He said "Cooking is the key to health".  I feel like this is something people need to be reminded of daily until we become a country of home cooks.  Everyone knows that home food is healthier than restaurant food.  It is also cheaper.  Also, eating family meals helps kids become better people.   There are no downsides to home cooking.  So why won't more people cook?!

I am very diligent about making out a weekly food plan and creating a grocery list from that.  It is the most important step in sticking to a budget and not wasting food.  This week, though, I decided to just wing it.  I bought broccoli, asparagus, spinach, Swiss chard, avocados, and cilantro and decided to figure it out as I went.  This is a terrible idea!  But I did manage to come up with this recipe last night at the last minute and we all liked it.  I doubt I'll have the same luck the rest of the week.  But whatever we end up eating, it will be home cooking!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Broccoli and Chickpea Pasta

1 tablespoon olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
1 pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
Zest of one lemon
1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 pound penne or your preferred pasta shape

2 crowns of broccoli cut into bite-size pieces
Juice of one lemon
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet, saute the garlic in oil for 1-2 minutes until it starts to sizzle.  Add the pepper flakes and lemon zest and stir to combine.  Add the chickpeas.  Cook for 10 minutes stirring often.

Boil the pasta for the time stated on the package.  When there are 5 minutes left, add the broccoli to the boiling water.

Add the pasta and broccoli to the chickpea mixture and cook for one minute.  Add salt and pepper as desired.  Right before serving, add the lemon juice to the pan and stir to combine.

Lunch Salad

I've never been very fond of salads.  Part of it is just me being rebellious because so many people think that all vegetarians eat is salad!  The main problem though was that they don't fill me up.  Last summer I came up with this combination that works great for lunch all by itself.  Sometimes I use different nuts and fruits but this is my favorite combination.  Another benefit is that you can make the dressing and tofu one day and be able to throw together your lunch for the rest of the week.

Lunch Salad

2 packed cups of spinach
2 tablespoons thousand island dressing (see below)
1 handful chopped pecans
1 handful chopped dried apricots
1 cup baked tofu (see below)

Toss the spinach and dressing until all leaves are evenly coated.  Add other items and eat.

Thousand Island Dressing

1 cup vegan mayonnaise
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon pickle relish
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

Mix all ingredients until well combined.  Chill at least one hour.  Will last up to one week in fridge.

Baked Tofu
(This is Isa Chandra Moskowitz's recipe.  Sometimes I change the seasoning.)
3/4 cup vegetable broth
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon fresh
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 block tofu

Chop the tofu into bite sized cubes.  Combine the other ingredients in a shallow pan.  Add tofu and marinate in the refrigerator at least one hour. 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Lightly spray a cookie sheet with oil.  Spoon the tofu cubes


out of the marinade and place them in a single layer on the pan.  Bake for 30 minutes, turning and basting once.


As an update to yesterday, my unemployment issues were solved without too much hassle and I have a good job lead.  I also had a fantastic run this morning.  I have to remember that every bad day is followed by a good one.

This is me after beating my best 5K time by 57 seconds!  I also lowered my first mile time by 6 seconds.  Running is hard but it was a good morning!

Note to Self

You always feel better when you exercise.  Always!

Today started off with all of us waking up late and it just got worse after that.  I was already feeling frustrated and then I made a mistake on my unemployment claim (which I didn't notice until after I hit "submit") and I quickly became more and more irritated.  Luckily I'm home alone because I spent the rest of the morning moping around in a grouchy mood. 

Finally after killing time on the computer and watching TV, I decided to do some yoga and abs.  I almost immediately felt better.  All the issues from the morning are still there but my outlook is much better.  

What a waste of a morning but at least I have the rest of the day to make up for it.

On a good note, we will soon have strawberries!

Comfort Zone

This is a sign hanging on my daughter's wall.  I love it.  Every time I want to give up on anything, I think of this sign and ask myself if I'm at the end of my comfort zone yet.

Two years ago, we were very surprised when our daughter came home from school and told us she had signed up to be on the cross country team.  She had never shown any interest in running.  I pointed out that the meets were 5K.  She still wanted to do it.

During the summer they had practice 2 times a week and then she had to train on her own the other days.  She was already starting behind the rest of the team since she had never done this before so I decided to run with her to help her train.  While she had never shown interest in running, I had shown outright disdain for it!  Even back in high school, I couldn't make it once around the track without stopping.  The fact that I was even considering running proves that I would do anything for her!

I went online and found a program called "Couch to 5K".  It started with running for one minute and then walking for 90 seconds.  You repeat this for 20 minutes.  That didn't sound too bad - until I started running.  I survived the first minute but by the second one I could barely breathe.  Somehow I made it though the first day but it was so difficult.  Then I went home and collapsed on the couch.  I'm sure my daughter felt pretty good about her running after watching me!

I stuck with it for her.  If it had just been me, I would have stopped after the first day.  During the third week, the running stretches to 3 minutes.  I didn't think I could do it.  We had been running at a school track but on this day we decided to go to the park.  When I finished the first 3 minutes, I couldn't wait to tell everyone!  From then on, I was hooked.  I had become a runner and I was doing it for myself

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Running is still hard.  But I do it and I love it.  Some days I can barely run 5 minutes without walking but I just push through it and remind myself that I'm not to the edge of my comfort zone yet.  Then I have days like today.

This morning I started with 1 hour 15 minutes of yoga.  This was a longer and more challenging routine for me.  Just that would have made me feel good.  Half way through the yoga, I decided that I would also run a mile.  I ended up running 20 minutes 30 seconds without walking and reached the 2 mile mark at 23:50.  But I kept going.  I ended up going 3.13 miles in 40:11.  My normal run/walk is only 30 minutes and 2.5 miles.  Then, just to prove I could, I did a plank for 42 seconds!

I never thought I could do a work out like that, but I did.  And it made me feel alive.

Lemon Asparagus

I love asparagus.  I think that is partly because I only eat it when it is in season and, since there isn't much else in season at the same time, I can really focus on it.  I eat it constantly for about a month and then spend the rest of the year waiting for it to come back.  I often just steam it but sometimes I add it to pasta dishes or make a soup.  This is my favorite though. 

 Lemon Asparagus

One bunch of asparagus
4 tablespoons olive oil
Zest from one lemon
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
Lemon juice

Whisk the oil, zest, salt, and pepper together in a bowl.  Dip the asparagus tip into the mixture so that it is completely covered.

 Then slide the rest of the spear through the oil mixture for a light coating. 

Place the asparagus spears on a cookie sheet (they can be close together).  Cook in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.  The tips will get slightly crispy.  Sprinkle with lemon juice before serving.

I should have taken a picture once they came out of the oven but I was too focused on eating them!  And, because I'm very classy, I ate them with my fingers!

Donation

 My back door looks like this at least once a week.  No, that is not garbage!   Those are bags waiting to go to Goodwill.

When I first lost my job, I had a moment of panic.  Along with my job, we lost half our family income. Even though we have always been very good about living within our means and I had been preparing for this for a couple years, you can't help but worry that you miscalculated somewhere along the way.

One of the first things I did was clean out several closets.  These were the places where we hid things that we didn't want sitting out but also didn't have the time to deal with properly.  Since I now had my whole day free, I decided to take advantage of all that time and get them organized.  It had the added advantage of keeping my mind distracted from other things.

I was amazed at how much could be donated, especially since I had been making regular trips to drop things off at Goodwill for years.  After 6 months (exactly) my closets are all neat and organized along with most drawers and shelves but I still manage to fill at least one bag with donations a week.

I never thought it would take me this long to find a job and I still worry sometimes that an unexpected expense is going to cause my carefully planned budget to fall apart.  Whenever those thoughts start to overwhelm me, I remind myself that there are other people much worse off.  The fact that we still own items we don’t need is proof that we are doing OK.  I keep looking for that next bagful of items because I know that there is someone out there who could really use this stuff and it seems irresponsible to leave it unused and taking up space in my house.

 

This is an extra photo to show that we have our third beautiful day in a row.  As proof of how cold this spring has been, these tulips just opened yesterday.  This is the first time in 16 years that they haven't opened within a day of my daughter's birthday, April 15th.  Better late than never!