Eating, Eating, Eating vegetables (And Deep Fried Kool Aid)

Posted on October 24, 2011 by ZenLizzie

I have far too many snapshots of food and future food.

So, ever since I set my goal to get at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day, I haven’t really had to overhaul what I eat, but I’ve been more mindful to pick those when given the choice. I make sure to keep fruit around at work for a snack, and I’ve been making sure that my Monday-food is packed with vegetables. Since I was too poor to keep doing WW online, I’ve been using SparkPeople. Along with their nutrition, water and work out trackers, they also have this handy Fruit/Vegetable servings tracker.

Ta da!

This week I made extra vegetarian groundnut stew (aka my favorite food) for Sunday dinner, so I’m off the hook today to do other stuff like.. work, school, meetings, and er… blogging.

A few weeks ago, I asked twitter for some soup ideas, and Tina from Faith, Fitness and Fun replied with this recipe for Tortellini Soup. I made a few changes to make it vegetarian, but I have to say it was really good! I knew I was going to save this soup for later in the week, so I used kale in place of spinach since it is a heartier green. I replaced the chicken broth and sausage with vegetable broth, extra kale, carrots and herbs like rosemary and thyme.

Vegetarian Cheese Tortellini Soup

Tortellini soup with vegetables and more vegetables.

For nutritional info for this version, visit my Spark Recipe page. This recipe is 5 WW+ points if you calculate with the vegetables.

I decided to expand my squash consumption to spaghetti squash for some variety. This one I baked until it was soft.

I scooped out at the spaghetti-ish part of the squash and spread in in the baking pan. I tossed it with tomatoes, onions, garlic, bell pepper, Italian herbs and topped with cheese and 1/4 cup of bread crumbs. I’m not sure how long I baked it, but I left it in until the cheesey-top was browning.

Ok, this is super ugly and I haven't even bothered to write a real recipe. But it tastes good, I promise. You can get your fix for Italian flavors without eating mountains of actual spaghetti.

I really liked both of these make-ahead dishes more than I expected I would, and I will make them again.

And, because I am such a dedicated blogger, and because I walked around the S.C. State Fair telling my friends “I want to eat something WEIRD!” … I present.. Deep Fried Kool-Aid.

My friend commented that they looked like peeps. Or dead birds. They kind of did, I'm not sure why they were shaped that way, or if they were supposed to look like something else.

The verdict: Deep Fried Kool-Aid tastes like strawberry pound cake, fried and covered in sugar/Kool Aid dust. I think they must have dipped some other dough into Kool Aid, or made it with Kool Aid.

The verdict: Deep Fried Kool-Aid tastes like strawberry pound cake, fried and covered in sugar/Kool Aid dust. I think they must have dipped some kind of dough into Kool Aid, or made it with Kool Aid.

You have to make crazy eyes when you are about to eat something like this.

I ate this so you don’t have to. We all split the order, and although it wasn’t terrible, none of us were hankering for more. The next time you’re at a fair, look for something else weird to eat.

This is a picture of BFFKatie and me on the ride that takes you over the fair. You can't see our faces, but we were having the "Hmm, what if this ride can't handle the weight of all these people eating deep fried Snickers bars?"conversation and freaking ourselves out. Also, this lovely picture was taken by Tisha and stolen by me off Facebook. The SC State Fair never looked so sparkly.

Simply and Sanely

Posted on October 13, 2011 by ZenLizzie

I love fall. (Photo By Melissa Farlow/National Geographic)

This may be short and/or rambling, but I wanted to share this while it was on my mind. This was the “voice” today in my Verse and Voice email:

“I vow to offer joy to one person in the morning
And to relieve the grief of one person in the afternoon.
I vow to live simply and sanely,
Content with a few possessions.
I vow to keep my body healthy.
I vow to let go of all worries and anxieties
In order to be light and free.”

-Plum Village, A Verse from Plum Village’s, Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist community in France, chanting book

I love this. I love the connection of health, letting go of anxiety and living simply. I want to copy this down and tape it up in all my “probable freak out zones” – work, the car, that place in my wallet where money is supposed to be.

I haven’t had many huge breakthroughs yet during my daily meditation “homework” from my class, and for my challenge to myself. That is probably because, well, those things take a while and most of the time I begin them begrudgingly, but end thinking about how glad I am that I took 15 minutes to do them. But, last night I was doing a guided body scan exercise and had a light bulb moment.

Laura, my instructor and also the voice on the recording, said to be “with” a part of the body – not thinking about how it appeared, but sitting with it and being OK with how it existed. The way that it was at the moment was perfect. This meant so much more than just being at peace with how my back – or whatever body part it was – existed. I realized that I’d been missing the point of mindfulness. I realized I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my restless emotions, rather than being with them.

I’m a great observer and analyzer, and all this time I’ve considered mindfulness in my terms. I could examine what I was feeling, and judge it to be OK, rather than experiencing it and being OK. I’ve been perceiving that I was stressed, or lonely, or whatever, and I could intellectually tell myself that those were OK things to feel, but I’m not sure I was really buying it. I wasn’t allowing myself to have those feelings without judgement, and I definitely wasn’t judging them to be perfect.

So, that is something I’m going to keep working on, because I living “simply and sanely” sounds like a great goal to me.

26 Challenge: October/November goals!

Posted on October 3, 2011 by ZenLizzie

My weekend - tailgating! Health promotion ladies know how to party.

From my lack of posting, you should know that things are either going really well or really terrible. I would say it is kind of both. Life is good right now, but I’m mid-semester overwhelmed. Clearly, not enough to stay home on the weekends, but enough to freak out when it comes to adding the obligation of blogging on top of the obligation I’ve already invested the big bucks into.. grad school.

USC v. Auburn - we lost But the game was still fun!

So, I would say Aug./Sept. was a mixed bag. I did much better than anticipated, but I definitely can’t say I succeed. Although, I kind of expected that after things kind of fell apart in the middle of the month. I’m not beating myself up because that seems kind of pointless, and I honestly don’t have time to waste on that. I’m not abandoning the goal of making those habits stick, I’m just taking them with me into the next months.

So moving on to the two habits goals for October/November..

Healthy Habit: Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. I know this seems like an easy one because I honestly love fruits and vegetables. And when I have time to cook all my meals, I eat mostly fruits and vegetables. But… when I have weeks like last week or weekends like my last weekend.. I end up eating a more “traditional” American diet… starch + protein + sugar. And it makes me feel awful.

I love fall vegetables, and I think this is doable. By making it a “habit,” I want to keep track of the servings per day to keep myself accountable on the days when it isn’t as easy to get them in.

Lifestyle Habit: Do mindfulness practice. At least 5 minutes. Every single day. I just started a mindfulness meditation program at school. And I really love it. The first class, we talked about the importance of mindfulness and we did some guided meditations. Finding a place for that in my schedule was a great decision.

Part of the class is “homework” which is doing some mindfulness practice and recording it. Every day. That sounds like forming a habit to me! So I’m making that homework my blog homework too. Our instructor Laura calls it “dogged compassion.” She also said something in class that really resonated with me: “There is always more right with you than wrong in any given moment.” That’s worth remembering. You can follow her on facebook if you want some mindfulness inspiration.

What are your goals for the fall? Do you feel inspired by the changing season or nervous? I’m a mixture of both. I love the cooler weather, but I have a well documented hatred for the shorter days.

The trouble/importance of building habits

Posted on September 20, 2011 by ZenLizzie

This is a dramatic re-enactment of what I look like watching my online class lectures at night.

I feel like the end of September is rapidly approaching, and I’m not sure I can successfully check off my good habits I had been working on. Before last week, things were going great, like beyond my wildest dreams great. I’d been avoiding night time snacking, getting my work done, going to the gym, planning meals. And then life happened, and I had to go back home for a week. I know that nobody would hold that against me, but life is always going to happen and I can’t just let things totally fall apart every single time.

The lesson this reinforces for me is that building habits, especially at the beginning, is like a house of cards. One wrong move and everything can fall apart. My habits were being built around the structure of my school life, not my home life. So, without a stronger foundation and more success under my belt, the habits didn’t stick. Things are better now that I’m back, if only because I don’t keep a lot of fun snacks at home, but I’m disappointed that I fell off such a huge winning streak for me.

And, as far as the organization goal… You know that nightmare everyone has, where they realize that they have a big exam for a class they forgot they were enrolled in? Well that’s actually my life, except I knew I was enrolled, I just put off watching the online lectures because.. I hate them, and I guess I was just waiting for a day that I might hate them a little bit less to start watching them. So this week, on top of everything, I will be sitting in front of my computer for 12 hours watching class. Boo.

But, in better news… after nearly two months without ANY running, this weekend I set out for a no expectations, getting-back-into-the-swing-of-things run, and ended up jogging for 60 minutes! I was really pleased, and I think that shows the power of cooler weather and cross training, which I’ve been doing all along. I have no goals for running right now, other than to keep doing it.

So, in lieu of a really pertinent question about habits or lifestyle changes.. I would like for you to leave me a link of your favorite procrastination site that I can refer to while taking study breaks. I love Dlisted and tracking the Ryan Gosling tag on Tumblr.

Bye bye, birthday month!

Posted on August 30, 2011 by ZenLizzie

I love cake with non edible things on it!

I realized that I kind of stopped blogging about things I was doing. I swear that wasn’t because I stopped doing things. In fact, I think I’ve actually been doing more stuff in an attempt to put myself out there and say yes to social gatherings. But, now that my friends are tired of my blog and most of my readers aren’t real life friends yet, I’m not sure how interesting these events would be to you. A back-to-school public health social? No. Alternacirque with belly dancing and lots of fire? Yeah, I probably should have thought to take better pictures there.

But the good news, is that slowly but surely I’m starting to feel like my old self. Even with some moments of very high stress in my personal life lately, I’ve still been able to keep my head on straight with a better routine and new habits. Unless you count the times when I just have to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling wondering, “How did I get here? Is this real life?” But maybe those moments have a place in my self-care plan too.

I would give myself a B+ on my first real week of cutting out nighttime snacking. Most of the problems come from poor planning. Having a last meal at 6, then working out til 10, and staying up until 2 doesn’t really work. But, this week I’m looking for high protein, low calorie snacks that I can have immediately after the gym. That way, I’m getting the right recovery foods without it turning into a snackfest.

As for the other lifestyle habit, I’m doing well when it comes to things I have to do. Setting alarms on my computer and phone is helping me keep track of appointments. But I need to be better about scheduling time to read for school rather than just putting it off until I run out of time.

I’m loving my new schedule and how easy it is to get work outs in. I’ve been doing Body Pump 2-3x week, along with some kind of cardio 45-60min 4-6x/week. Now that the weather is starting to feel less miserable, I’m feeling guilty about not taking the opportunity to run. I’ve decided not to focus on any real time/distance goals since my priority at the moment is weight loss, but I’d like to maintain the level I’m at since it took so long to get there.

A new challenge for a new year… 2 x 6 at 26.

Posted on August 23, 2011 by ZenLizzie

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that I have no qualms about running with a theme, no matter how gimmicky or pun-ny I have to be. Last year, when I turned 25 I wrote a list of 25 things I wanted to accomplish that year.

Months ago, I started thinking about what project or challenge I could do for 26. I decided against making another list, because honestly I couldn’t think of five new, interesting things I wanted to accomplish this year, much less 26. Combine that with the challenges already scheduled for this year: Passing my comprehensive exam, finding a practicum, graduating, finding a job, moving…?? All things I need to do before my next birthday.

So, rather than make a long list, I’ve decided to challenge myself to work on two new habits every two months (that’s… Six sets of Two habits). Every two months, I will pick one health habit and one life habit that I want to incorporate and work on. By the end of the two months, hopefully these habits will stick.

I’m starting a little late this month, but announcing my first two habits for Aug/Sept….

Healthy Habit: No more nighttime snacking. I wrote about this in my last blog, and like Summer said in the comments.. “I can go all damn day eating well and then when those midnight hunger pangs flare up, suddenly a handful of chips and some yogurt with granola and maybe a slice of leftover pizza seems like the best idea ever. Ugh. Bad.”

After talking with a lot of people about food habits and weight loss, it seems like nighttime eating is a very specific behavior, and one of the hardest bad food habits to break. I am a night owl, so no food after dinner isn’t always an option. There is a huge difference, however, between a planned snack after the gym and continuous grazing until bedtime. Ideally, I would like to stop eating 3-4 hours before bed since I’m not usually doing much that needs “fueling” during these hours anyway.

Thai Chai and Late-Night Lizzie

For the last few days, I’ve been pretty resolved, and I’ve even shocked myself. Yes, four days without nighttime eating is an accomplishment for me! I’ve been drinking decaf Thai Coconut Chai with milk and stevia when I feel snacky, and the process of making it and drinking it has helped. It is nice to be able to feel good about an entire day, rather than the whole day until I ate all the leftovers at midnight.

Life Habit: Organize my time. I learned the hard way that making general goals doesn’t really work, so specifically this means that I will be using my calendar (Google + Syncing to phone) to schedule everything that actually needs to be done. Using a calendar and sticking to it will not only help me with school and work, but it will also help to keep self care on my priorities list.

Have you made any goals this month? What are your strategies to keep your time organized? Favorite apps or websites?

Living! with ZenLizzie

Live simply, eat mindfully, laugh inappropriately

Tag Archives: 26 challenge