Training for Half Marathon - Days 29 & 30

Day 29 - Monday

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     At 10:30 am I went to my regular chiropractic appointment to get my bones popped, have my electro-heating pad treatment, and my physical therapy. Afterwards, I helped my mother on some errands before coming home and made her some of my famous Rawslaw. WIth this recipe she made herself this lovely all low-fat, all raw masterpiece!

Doesn't it look oh so gorgeous and scrumptious?! ;-D

     The rest of the day was spent doing the usual chores around the house and my CSNN studies. However, around 3:30 that afternoon I felt up to a light run. So, I took my mom outside with me (it was bright and sunny, just the way I like it!). We both went for a fast 4 mph walk with one of our dogs, Charlie, while I did 2 minute sprints every other minute or so for 20 minutes. I could have gone linger if I wanted but I had done strength training on my legs in physical training with the leg curl machine. I didn't want to overdo it. The last thing I want to do is strain something, preventing me from training and thus, preventing me from running my half marathon. Yikes!

Day 30 - Tuesday

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     Nothing really interesting happened today except for treating myself to some Durian! Man I love that stuff, but I can rarely afford to buy it with my food budget, however, this time around at Farmer's Market, the price was reasonable enough that I splurged! I was only able to eat about a third of the Durian though, it may be delicious, but it is quite a rich fruit. I put the rest in an air tight jar in the refrigerator for later in the week.

     I didn't go for a run today, instead I made this my weight training/do the heavy duty chores around the house today. I cleaned my bathroom, the kitchen, my room, swept, dusted, and did some laundry. When I finally burned off most of the energy I got from my breakfast, I settled into my CSNN studies until around 2:30. I spent the rest of the afternoon with my dear friend Terra. So all in all, a pretty nice day.

Training for Half Marathon - Days 24 & 25

DAY 24 - Wednesday

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     Wednesday was the day of my brothers 16th birthday. My mom and I got up early to drive into Atlanta to get food supplies from Whole Foods. When we arrived home my mom and I spent an hour or so in the kitchen whipping up some treats. We baked an apple pie for my brother and I made a raw apple crumble.

      I was  able to spend a few hours working on some CSNN work and catch up on some of my emails before heading out with my family to the theater to see Sherlock Holmes. My brother had been begging for us to go see this movie since it first came out, so my mom and I decided to grant him a birthday wish.

     Sadly, my day was kept so busy that I was unable to go for a run on Wednesday. I did, however, manage to squeeze in 15 minutes of weight training before bed. I was just glad knowing that my brother had a wonderful birthday! :-)

DAY 25 - Thursday

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     Today was rough. I woke up bright an early (6 a.m.) and promptly consumed two small honeydew melon while working on the computer. At around 7:30 a.m. I went for a half hour run before it started to rain, so I came home and did 10 minutes doing weight sets before taking a shower.

     After getting dressed I then proceeded to consume a cold, sweet, refreshing, and creamy Minty Papaya Smoothie and five Fuyu Persimmons. Yum yum! :-D

Minty Papaya Smoothie

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- 4 C. Papaya, chopped

- 2 C. Banana, choppes, frozen

- 1 large handful of Mint, fresh

- 1 Tbs. Raw Honey

- 2 Tbs. Raw Probiotic Coconut Yogurt

- Juice from half a lime

- 2 Tsp. Vanilla Extract

- 1/2 C. Coconut Water

Blend until smooth and fell sweet, clean, & fresh!

     

     At 2:30 p.m. my mom and I went to out chiropractic appointments. The doctor popped my my neck (didn't realize I was so tense until he did that! LOL) and then popped my back and hips before  putting the electro-therapy patches with the heating pads on my lower back. 

     While my mom underwent the same electro-message therapy, I was doing 15 minutes of leg strengthening exercises using a leg curl machine. The doctor thinks that this will help with the knee aching. I'm going to see what a month of this does for me.

My mom undertaking her electro-message therapy with heating packs to cause relaxation.

This device is similar to the leg curl machine at my chiropractor's office.

 

          Tomorrow will be raining again, so I believe I might go for a swim at the local indoor pool. My mom and I are also hoping to set a date to drive up to Kentucky to check up on our land. It's been a couple years so it's probably overgrown. Maybe I'll actually get to meet the some of the Amish who live in the area! :-D

Welcoming Autumn with Activity

September is gone and October is here! Here in the South the weather is finally lovely! Last week we had a bunch of flash floods so all the bridges had to be closed down (I live almost right next to two of them) which made getting around town quite difficult. But now the temperature high is in the upper 70z, there is sunny and breezy weather with clear blue skies, and almost zero humidity. Yesterday was the same and I spent a couple hours outside doing my CSNN studies while drinking a decadent Spirulina Smoothie of my own spontaneous concoction!

So I haven't really written anything for a few weeks but honestly I've been quite busy adding things into my schedule. I now swim for 30-40 minutes at Johnson Park about 3-4 times a week and I've started attending my brothers karate studio to finish my advanced brown belt training and hopefully test for my 1st degree black belt by nest Autumn. At the house I've been trying to cram as many hours of CSSN while still keeping the house clean, the laundry done, keeping my brother and mom fed, running errands. . . just life in general.

Despite all this life for me is going alright. Just yesterday the two books I ordered from

Amazon.com came in, the 2010 Poetry Market and Sarma's new raw food book! I love buying

raw food recipe books for when my mom or I has company to blow them away with the delicious

and nutritious wonder of raw food. I bought the Poetry Market book because I am hoping to publish

my book of poetry that I have been working on for 4 years now.

This is what I want to encourage everyone in, stay busy! I find whenever I start feeling depressed

or alone that if I go for a swim, a walk, or pick up a book, start a project, just do SOMETHING productive,

I can temper or even completely eliminate the down feelings I have. We are human and we crave stimulation.

When people don't receive physical and mental stimulation we don't form any new muscles in our

body, and the synapses in our brain don't create new connections. This result in a deteriorated mind and body,

who would want to live like that? I can't think of anyone.

When life is dull and you wonder what's the point, that is the moment you need to reach out

and make something out of nothing. We are the dominant species of this planet. Why? Because we

are smart and resourceful and we have zest for LIVING not just EXISTING. We what to do things better,

we want to do things better, we want to learn, and we want to discover. Society today wants to shove

us in a box with a label and have us stay there for the rest of our lives. Not me, and hopefully not you!

Peace out everybody! Until next time. SMILE!! :)

P.S. And here are some recipes and pics:

My New Book!! I really admire Sarma.

She is an amazing woman.

A kiwilicious breakfast. Did you know that kiwi, along with blackberries, are actually a great source of zinc?

My mom wanted pudding so she asked me to make her a raw pudding. We only had the bare minimum of food left since it was the end of the week, but a managed to whips this up for her breakfast.

Tropical Mousse

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1 large ripe banana

1/2 cup of fresh coconut meat

1/4 cup of dried coconut flakes

1/4 cup cashews (pre-soaking is optional)

1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple, chopped

1 tbs. agar agar flakes soaked for 10 minutes in hot water

1/4 cup agave nectar

1/4 tsp. real salt

juice from 1/2 a lemon

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbs/ coconut water

Blend the 1st five ingredients until smooth, add the rest and blend until smooth and refrigerate overnight.

Serve 4

I made this smoothie as a little treat for my breakfast that same day. Not much left in the house but I'm a resourceful raw smoothie loving girl! ;)

Coco Cacao Beauty Smoothie

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1 cup coconut water

1 cup chopped frozen banana

1 rounded tsp. raw cacao powder

1 rounded tbs. raw cacao nibs

1 tbs. raw honey

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Blend until smooth

Serves 1

While studying this last Thursday afternoon I got really hungry. It was quite warm out so I decided to invent a new smoothie. OMG, I made this tried it, had my mom tried it, and we have both had this every. single. day. for the past three days. This smoothie tastes amazing, is incredibly satisfying, and gives me the most incredible burst of energy and mental clarity that I have ever experienced.

The Green Peachy Keen

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1 large peach (about 2 cups)

11 frozen strawberries or 7 fresh strawberries

2 frozen bananas

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp. Hawaiian Spirulina

1 1/2 "scoops" of stevia ( I use the Now brand)

1/4 cup water

Blend until smooth

Serves 1-2

Wednesday (09/09/09): Not what I expected

Today didn't go or turn out even vaguely close to what I had planned. First, my organic plums turned out to be a bomb. Seriously, it was like eating slightly sweet water! I only wound up eating 2 of the 5 that I had, choosing some globe grapes to make up the bulk of my meal.

Then I had to go back to the insurance agency that morning because of some sort of misunderstanding/mix up that took about 40 minutes to resolve. No sooner had that been taken care of my up to Rainbow Natural Groceries to get more organic dog food. Since we were already in the area my mom and I had lunch at Rainbow and stopped off at Farmer's Market just to grab a few things so we wouldn't have to come back Friday, but instead could hold out until Sunday or Monday.

I get home and head off to TCB to do my CSNN work while my mom takes my brother to karate. Today I studied the important links between the digestive track, enzymes, and nutrient absorption. I also have started into studying the different types of carbohydrates and the enzymes needed to metabolize them.

Afterwards I picked up the dogs from the groomers and ran over to the nearest Ingles to see if they had any Organic peaches, they didn't have any. I guess I am going to have to check the other Ingles tomorrow morning when I go for a swim.

By the time I was settled back at home for the evening, it was 6:30 p.m. and all I felt like doing was making a smoothie and watching another Monk. Like I said, this day, not what I expected. Tomorrow though is another day and I plan to make the most of it! 

Tomorrow is Surprise Thursday, the day that my mom goes to PCLA in the morning to tutor in Algebra, and when she gets back in the afternoon I have a lovely lunch made up for everyone! Since my brother eats mostly cooked and my mom eats some cooked grains and potatoes, I always make sure that there is at least two healthy as possible, cooked dishes on the menu. The rest I make is raw and there for my family if they feel up to trying out one of my raw creations. I have no idea what I'm going to make tomorrow. I never really know for sure until it comes time to start making it! :)

Anyway, before I end this entry I wanted to make a list here on all the things I want to complete before Saturday. I'm thinking that if I list them on this blog that it might motivate me to actually do them and finish them. Wish me luck!

1. Clean bathroom.

2. Clear up garden (weed, prune, harvest)

3. Clean out garage/gym

4. Organize and label stuff in preparation to have a garage sale

5. Carry out Surprise Thursday

6. Swim Laps

7. Look into buying a bike

8. Finish Lesson 5 of CSNN module #1 by Friday evening

9. Get peaches

And off I go!

Tuesday: Insurance, Lettuce Wraps, and CSNN

Today got off to a good start, with my usual morning quart of lemon water followed by 4 cups of freshly cut up sweet pineapple. At 11 o'clock (a.m.) my mother accompanied me to our insurance agency. Now that I am officially an adult it was time for me to get my own insurance. After some thought I finally decided on the 5 year renewable term. 

Being an a legal adult is feeling a bit . . . surreal. I was just a few weeks ago that I was still 17 and under the authority of my mom. Now I alone am responsible for myself, my actions, and the rewards or consequences that come with those actions. I guess I just haven't really gotten used to it yet.

When lunch time rolled around my mom and brother had gone out to TCB (our local cafe) so I got the whole house to myself. :) I decided to throw together whatever was around the housefor lunch and wound up with this:

The filling was made up off locally grown tomato, cucumber, red onion, minced garlic, dried basil, and real salt. Simple, fast, and tasty! After putting it together I sat back and enjoyed an old episode of the T.V. show Monk while ate. Afterwards was just spent doing various chores around the house: laundry, sweeping, emptying the dishwasher, etc.

At about 1:30 p.m. I grabbed a banana and headed out to run a few errands. I headed over to Johnson Park to renew my annual pass so that I can start swimming laps in the morning again, and visited a few local establishments to ask about any part-time job openings. I'll be filling out some applications for a job tomorrow, wish me luck!

After picking up my brother and dropping him off at karate I headed over to TCB to meet up with my mom after she finished teaching at PCLA, and to work on my correspondence study work for the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition (CSNN), I just finished the chapter covering water pollution. Most of it I already from independent research, but still, it blows my mind on just how many chemicals and metals that out in tap water. Yikes!

When I got home I settled in with my nightly quart of smoothie to relax and enjoy the rest of the evening. Tomorrow I'm aiming to work on a few projects as well as some more of my CSNN work. Hopefully all will go smoothly.

My new favorite smoothie! 

A combo of mango, banana, peach, raw honey, and cinnamon!