November!

Happy November 1st!

Wow…I can’t believe the holidays are already upon us….this year has definitely been the craziest of my entire life and it just keeps on goin’!

Sorry for not doing my specialty 1 a.m. post last night but I ended up meeting a friend for a beer then just hanging out and talking until really late and by the time I looked at my watch it was, like, 1:15 and yeah…..the computer definitely just did not open. And I totally forgot about setting my clock back! I’m a mess!

Last night for dinner I made a huge salad with organic greens that I picked up at a farm stand, local heirloom tomatoes, homemade bread and butter pickles (homemade from the farm stand, not by me hah) and a falafel sunshine burger…topped with hummus and hot sauce!

On the side, I had a whole wheat arnold’s sandwich thin!

Now, I’m sure I’ve done some sort of product review for these before but I really really love these. To me, they are the perfect little snack item to have in the house because each sandwich thin is only 100 calories and you can get really creative with the toppings. My favorite topping is chocolate peanut butter and banana. The whole wheat ones almost have a sweet honey taste to them!

I felt so domestic as I stayed in and handed out candy to kids! I snacked on a little TJ’s trail mix so I wouldn’t devour the entire candy bowl

This morning I was excited for my first November bowl of pumpkin oats!

Mmmmmmmm

I used:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/2 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• almond butter
• maple syrup
• sea salt, cinnamon

Today I’m doing these activities in this order: church, target, trader joe’s. And then tonight starts the beginning of a three day very special event that I can’t wait to reveal to y’all! I think you are going to like it….I know that I’m SO excited!!!!!!!

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And now, the ankle update!

I wanted to address this because I’ve been getting emails on the subject and instead of writing the same thing over a million times I figured everyone would want to hear it too and it would make a great discussion!

To answer some questions:

1. NO, I have not been exercising at all.

2. NO, I have not altered my eating or counted my calories since I stopped exercising.

3. NO, I have not weighed myself at all but I’m pretty sure I’ve put on about 5 lbs since moving to California….I know my body and while I still fit into all my clothes the same way, I just feel a bit “softer”. It’s not a horrible thing and I’m honestly not stressed about it at all because in the grand scheme of things it’s just not that big of a deal. I’d rather weigh 5 lbs more and enjoy my life the way I like to (by eating fine food and drinking aaamazing wine) rather than restricting myself and just eating carrots and broccoli. Life is meant to be enjoyed and savored, and for the first time in a long time, I am really enjoying life again.

I’ve had a really difficult time though not exercising. I mean, I really LOVE to break a sweat and get my endorphins pumping. As y’all know, my favorite form of exercise is yoga and I’d love to just be able to do yoga and run forever…which I’m sure I will be able to when I heal. However, I haven’t even done yoga in the past week because I was REALLY hurting myself and not letting myself heal. All those balancing postures and warrior ones just were not working for the ol’ sprain and finally I just had to relinquish control and give it up. Actually, it’s been quite humbling! For the first couple days I went a little stir crazy but now I’m just trying to be still and learn from this experience.

Since I’ve stopped, I’ve noticed that my ankle is feeling a lot better and the swelling is finally going down a little bit. I’ve started icing three times a day (I should have been doing this all along….) and really trying to just stay off my feet as much as possible. How has this affected my eating? I find that I’m not as hungry! Like yesterday, I had no desire for an afternoon snack. I haven’t cut my portion sizes down or restricted myself AT ALL but I definitely don’t have that same ravenous appetite that I did when I was running, say 10 miles. Obviously. Am I stressed out and worried about gaining weight? No, not really. If gaining a few pounds is the worst thing that happens to me then so be it. I can easily lose the weight when I am able to start working out again. There are soooo many bigger things out there to worry about. Like I said, I feel a little “softer” now…I’ve definitely lost some of my muscle tone and just feel out of shape, but I know that when I’m able to work out again it will all come back quickly.

Well, those was my Sunday morning deep thoughts. I’ve gotta jet!