Thursday, August 30, 2018

Sweet Potato and Turnip Skillet

A couple weeks ago Hungry Harvest had a box that included a turnip.  I have to admit I've never cooked with a turnip before.  I don't think I've ever eaten a turnip before!  The box also had a couple sweet potatoes so I went searching for recipes that had turnips and sweet potatoes since I figured root vegetables generally go well together.  I found a lot of recipes for gratins with cream and cheese but I was looking for something a tiny bit lighter (and plant based given my recent cholesterol issues).  So I kept looking.  And I found this Herb Roasted Sweet Potato and Turnip Skillet from Jessi's Kitchen.  It was so easy to put together and a pretty delicious way to eat these veggies!

I mostly kept to the recipe as written, just changed up a tiny bit based on what I had on hand in my kitchen.

Trying to make it pretty while layering

Serves 4

Ingredients
1.5lbs sweet potato (I only had 1 pound of sweet potatoes and it was still fine) 
1lb turnips 
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 Tbsp butter (or more oil to keep it plant based)

Right out of the oven

Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 425.
  2. Thinly slice the sweet potatoes and turnips - I used a mandolin set to 1/8 inch.
  3. Toss in a bowl with olive oil and seasonings.
  4. Layer in alternating pattern.  The original recipe calls for a cast iron skillet but I ended up using a glass baking dish instead.
  5. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
  6. Remove foil and add the cubes of butter around the skillet (or brush the top with oil). Broil on high for 3-4 minutes or until top is slightly crispy.
  7. Let it cool for a couple minutes and dig in!
 
We served it with a salad and it was delicious!

 I'm linking up with Deborah and Sarah for Meatless Monday.



 Jalapeno Quinoa Lentil Slaw



Monday, August 27, 2018

Columbus Nationwide Half Marathon training - week 2

I hope everyone had a good weekend!  I had a bit too good of a weekend and ended up skipping my Sunday long run.  But I still think it was the right decision since I based it on some soreness and inflammation in my foot.  But here are the details.

Monday -  Rest day

Tuesday - Lower body strength training at home since I still had some neck/back pain.  But I had a massage last week and I asked her to concentrated on that area.  It was like magic!  I felt so much better after the massage.  And she gave me advice to keep gently moving that area throughout the day (shoulder rolls, shrugs, etc.).  Before that, I had been trying to keep it as still as possible.  So I think that change helped as well.

Wednesday - Speed work on the treadmill, 1 mile warm up, 1.5 miles 10k pace, 1 mile cool down.  I didn't get a photo of the treadmill data and the garmin data is off based on the speeds I had chosen on the treadmill.  The speed intervals should have been closer to 13 minutes per mile.


Thursday - 30 minutes on the elliptical and body pump


Friday - 4 easy miles - I sadly waited until the afternoon so it was hot and sunny


Saturday - 5 easy miles in the morning


We also went out in the evening to an 80's themed dance party.  I knew this wasn't the smartest idea with a long run (including tempo miles) the next day but it was a lot of fun!  I really enjoyed the music and we got some fun dancing in.  I only had one beer and we left before midnight so I thought it would be ok.

Sunday - Unplanned rest day.  But when I woke up the next morning, I could feel it in my foot :(  I'm not sure if it was the dancing or the speed work earlier in the week.  I mentioned in last Friday's post that the speed work had been resulting in pain in my arch.  So I decided to take a break.  I did lots of icing and foam rolling plus some recovery yoga in the evening.  Thankfully my foot is feeling better today after all that icing yesterday so hopefully things are back on track.

So that was last week.  The plan for this week is below.

Monday - 3 easy miles
Tuesday - Speed work with 1.5 miles at half marathon pace
Wednesday - Body Pump
Thursday - 4 easy miles
Friday - 5 miles
Saturday - Rest day
Sunday - Strength training plus yoga

I'm linking up with with HoHoRuns and Taking the Long Way Home for the Weekly Wrap.


 

Friday, August 24, 2018

Health update

August is almost over and I haven't participated in the Friday Five since July!  This is a great link up hosted by Running on Happy & Fairytales and Fitness and I'm excited to be joining up again.  I talked earlier in the year about how I had various health things going on so I thought I'd take the time to provide a quick update.  It helps that the news is pretty much all positive!
 Friday Five Linkup 2.0

1. Thyroid - One of the things I had found out earlier in the year that the dosage of the thyroid medication I had been taking for years was all of a sudden too high.  So my doctor lowered the dosage pretty drastically and now the dosage is too low.  So we've moved to a middle dosage and I'm feeling pretty good so I'm optimistic that this is the right dose.  But at least I know to keep checking more frequently for now so we can keep monitoring the dose until we get it right.

 
Vegan ramen noodles for lunch earlier this week

2. Cholesterol - Yay!  My cholesterol numbers were significantly down.  They're still high but much less concerning then they were last time.  I'm not sure what I did that got this result.  I have started taking a high dose of vitamin D since those levels were down too but that can have a side effect of lowering cholesterol levels.  I've also been trying to transition to a more plant based diet.  I'm not always successful but I think heading in this direction has been helpful too.

3. Foot - I'm back to running 4 times per week and my foot has been feeling pretty good!  I've been noticing some pain in my arch after speed work so I've been trying to be good about icing afterwards.  Fingers crossed on this one but the tendinitis seems to be staying away for now.

4. Knee - I have one more PT appointment I need to schedule but this seems to be behaving as well.  It was my calf and hips that had led to the knee problem and I've been good about calf stretches though I probably need to work more on hip strengthening.

Back to body pump this week!

5. Neck - The neck thing had only started a couple weeks ago.  I think it was a muscle strain in my upper back or neck but I had a massage earlier this week and it was like magic!  I can turn my head again and I finally made it back to body pump yesterday.

So that's how things are going for me.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with how things have been progressing over the Summer and fingers crossed that the forward progress continues :)

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Bullet Journal

I started using a bullet journal last year and I realized I hadn't talked about it on here.  It's been really helpful to me as a way to stay organized so I thought I'd go ahead and share my process.

First of all, my bullet journal is purely functional.  There are a lot of examples online of amazingly beautiful bullet journals with great artwork.  That is definitely not what mine looks like :)  That's one of the reasons I wanted to share mine.  They definitely don't have to be instagram worthy pieces of beauty, they really can still work to keep you organized even when they're just messy scrawls.


Another thing is I wasn't sure if this would work for me.  I had tried to use regular planners before but for some reason, I couldn't stay engaged and I always stopped using them after a while.  I'm not sure why the bullet journal clicked in a way those didn't.  But since I wasn't sure at the beginning, I didn't want to put a lot of money into it.  My bullet journal is just a free notebook I got at a conference I went to once.  So you really can use any notebook, you don't have to buy something special if you don't want to.  The things I find useful for the journal to have though are lined paper, a built in book mark, a place to hook a pen on to, and a size that's small enough to be portable but big enough to get all the information in.

And it's blank when you start.  Unlike traditional planners, the calendars and lists aren't already printed in for you.  This may seem like a downside at first since it's extra work, but it's one of the things that makes this a good system for me.  You can customize it to meet your needs and set it up the way you want.  Also, having to go in every week and create the next week's pages keeps me engaged.

So how do you set it up?  There are some easy steps.

1.  Leave a couple pages at the front for an index or table of contents so things are easy to find.


2. Future log:  A listing of all the months of the year where you can jot down appointments or events that are more than a month away


3.  Monthly log:  I create this page for each month at the beginning of the month.  It's a calendar and task list of things I need to do that particular month.  I continue to fill it in as things get scheduled for the month if its more than a week away.


4.  The daily log:  I set mine up a week at a time and do it on Monday mornings so I can see what I've got scheduled for the week and how I can get everything in, including my work outs.


5.  Bullets:  I have mine set up with different types of bullets so it's easy to see what type of task/activity I'm referring to.



6.  Optional items:  And this is where you can customize and add in things that fit your needs.  I have a couple lists at the end of my journal of restaurants I want to try and books I want to read since I was always getting recommendations from people and then forgetting about them when I was looking for a place to eat or new book to read.  It's nice to have them all in one place like this.  I also recently added a habit tracker to help me track things I want to get in the habit of doing, like my PT exercises, foam rolling, taking vitamins, meditating, etc.


And that's it!  It sounds like it's more work than a normal planner but somehow, that's what keeps me engaged and coming back to it.  And if I miss a week or two, that's fine.  I just start up the next week and skip even putting those missed weeks in the book.  But I think the fact that it's customizable to you and your needs is key!  Another downside is that it's paper and not electronic, so you don't always have it with you.  But if I don't have it with me, I'll make a note in my phone and then transfer the information to the book when I get back home.  I'm not sure why but again, this keeps things more organized for me than just trying to use an online calendar.


Monday, August 20, 2018

Columbus Nationwide Half Marathon training - week 1

I hope everyone's doing well!  I just realized that my next half marathon (the first one this year!) is just about 2 months away.  So I'm officially back in training.  I've been pretty good about getting in my four runs per week this Summer so I'm feeling positive about getting back to training and feeling positive that my foot can stand up to it without the tendinitis coming back (knock on wood).  My neck was still giving me some problems last week so I just stuck with lower body strength training at home instead of going to body pump.  I've been taking ibuprofen and it seems to be a lot better.  I have full range of motion back turning to the left but I'm not quite there with turning to the right yet.

So here are the details on this week.

Monday - rest day

Tuesday - lower body strength training at home

Wednesday - 3 miles easy


Thursday - unplanned rest day but I did get in an afternoon walk at work.


And this was Mike's birthday so we went out to dinner to celebrate.  I had cauliflower steak and Mike had actual steak. It was restaurant week so we had a full three course meal with appetizers and desserts.  It was all delicious but so much food!


Friday - 3 miles easy


We also went out to for dinner and a show in the evening.  It was a fun, cabaret/side show style show.


Saturday - 4 miles with speed work (1 mile warm up, 2 miles at half marathon pace, and 1 mile cool down)


We had some friends over in the afternoon for a game night to celebrate Mike's birthday.  It was a fun, low-key celebration and Perry loved all the attention he got.  Shelby hid most of the time.

Sunday - 4 miles with a friend followed by yummy breakfast


The cats were out in full force for cuddling today :)

Lined up waiting their turn :)

So that was last week.  The plan for this week is below and hopefully I can go back to body pump.

Monday - rest day
Tuesday - Body pump
Wednesday - 4 mile easy run in the morning
Thursday - 3.5 miles with 1.5 mile at 10k pace
Friday - Body pump
Saturday - 5 miles
Sunday - 8 miles with 5 miles at half marathon pace

I'm linking up with with HoHoRuns and Taking the Long Way Home for the Weekly Wrap.


 

Monday, August 13, 2018

Weekly Review

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  It ended up a pretty good weekend for us, and I managed to get in most of my workouts.  I had some weird neck/back issues so I didn't go to body pump because I felt like the back and shoulder weight lifting was a bad idea.  I'm not sure what caused it, maybe sleeping badly while camping?  But here's what I did get done last week.

Monday - Rest day

Tuesday - 3 easy mile.  I ended up doing these on the treadmill and I haven't figured out an easy pace on the treadmill yet so I know this was a bit too hard.


Wednesday - 45 minutes on the elliptical and lower body weights on my own.  I skipped body pump because of my neck.


Thursday - Speed work - 1 mile warm up, 2 miles at half marathon pace and 1 mile cool down.


Friday - Unplanned rest day.  I had planned to do some strength training during the day but I ended up having to go into the office instead of working from home.

Saturday - 4 easy miles


Sunday - 8 mile long run with a friend.  It was nice to have some catch up time during the run.


So that was last week.  The plan for this week is similar and I think my neck is better so hopefully I can go back to body pump.

Monday - rest day plus an evening meeting
Tuesday - Body pump
Wednesday - 3 mile easy run in the morning
Thursday - 4 miles with 2 miles at half marathon pace
Friday - Body pump
Saturday - 4 miles
Sunday - 4 miles

I'm linking up with with HoHoRuns and Taking the Long Way Home for the Weekly Wrap.


 

Monday, August 6, 2018

Weekly Review

I hope you all had a great week!  My week ended up a little complicated last week because of some travel but I got in all my planned runs.  Here are the details.

Monday - 3 mile easy run


Tuesday - 1 mile warm up, 2 miles at half marathon pace, and 1 mile cool down


Wednesday - Rest day and flying back home from Atlanta

Thursday - 4 mile easy run


Friday - 4 mile easy run plus driving out to West Virginia and a little hiking in the rain when we got there.


Saturday - More hiking.  We were staying at a beautiful camp site next to a creek with some swimming holes so we were able to spend some time in the water too.  We were lucky and managed to avoid any rain on Saturday.


Sunday - rest day and driving back from West Virginia.

I spent some of the morning relaxing in this hammock

So those were my workouts last week.  This week looks like it will be more rain but fingers crossed that it will work out for my running dates.  Here's the plan for this week.

Monday - Rest day
Tuesday - 3 easy miles
Wednesday - Body Pump
Thursday - 1 mile warm up, 2 miles half marathon pace, 1 mile cool down
Friday -  Body Pump
Saturday - 4 mile easy run
Sunday - 8 miles

 I'm linking up with with HoHoRuns and Taking the Long Way Home for the Weekly Wrap.