Creating Color in a Rock Garden

I would like to begin this post by bragging on my family's ability to garden.  My great-grandmother grew fresh vegetables until she was ninety.  My Grandfather was a farmer.  Both of my grandmother's have beautiful flower gardens.  And, despite what she may say, my mother has a beautiful yard full of beautiful gardens.  I like flowers.  I love herbs.  I am grateful to my beautiful, hearty knock-out roses that have beaten the odds and thrived in my backyard.  That being said, we recently grew tired of our crazy out-of-control yard, so we overhauled our front garden area.  When we bought the house, it was a lovely manicured area full of high-maintenance shrubs and things.  (I know they have names, but I am a little plant-ignorant.) We ripped out all but a few plants and "planted" rocks in their place.  We love it!  After a week, we decided it needed some color.  Remembering that we have neither the time nor the talent for gardening, we decided on mums, marigolds, and potted herbs.  I turned wrought-iron center pieces used in our wedding reception into planters using cheese cloth to keep in the dirt.  I hope it doesn't all wash away after the first rain.  In the mean time, it has the potential to be just the pop of color we want.

 

Vegetable Stock

After prepping a good bit of vegetables, keep your vegetable scraps.  Vegetable stock is great for boiling pasta, adding to casseroles, or as a base for soups.  

Making stock is simple.  Get a big pot.  Throw all your veggie scraps into the pot.  Fill it with water.  The vegetables should be fully submerged.  Bring the water to a boil.  Let it cook at a gentle boil for a few hours.  Once it has turned a nice golden color, turn off the heat and let it cool.  Siphon out all the vegetable bits using a fine strainer.  

* If you are making stock from meat, let it sit over night in the refrigerator so that the excess fat floats to the top, then skim off the fat.

My suggestion for bagging stock (I learned it from my father-in-law):  Use ziploc freezer bags.  Measure out 1-2 cups of stock in each bag.  Seal it tight.  Line a cookie sheet with a paper towel.  This is to keep the bag from freezing to the cookie sheet and it helps in case of leaks.  Lay the bags of stock flat on the cookie sheet.   Once they are frozen, they can be stacked and easily stored. 

 

Learning to Love Vegetables

In an attempt to eat healthier, my family bought lots of vegetables.  The problem with fresh vegetables is that they go bad before we eat all of them.  Celery turns into a science experiment in my refrigerator.  Solution:  freeze them.
To save time and energy after a long day, we decided to chop the vegetables before freezing them.  My husband and I like to cook and are fairly handy in the kitchen.  We cleared off the table, got super organized and decided to pre-mix the veggies for various "staple meals" in our house.

Bag 1:  celery, bell pepper, onion
-This is a good base mix.  Most casserole-type recipes start with this "trinity."
Bag 2:  cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots

-My kids love when I saute these in a little butter or evoo, salt, and mild spices that match the rest of the meal.  These veggies cook well together because they need to be steamed.  When working with frozen vegetables, ice forms in the ziploc bag.  This creates a good amount of steam for the vegetables.  Saute, cover, and steam.
Bag 3:  Stir Fry Mix
- red bell peppers, snap peas, cauliflower, carrots, broccoli, onion
Bag 4:  carrots, onion, bell pepper, celery
Bag 5:  zucchini and squash

These have been used almost every night for the past week.  I highly recommend these to anyone who is too tired on the week nights to think about what vegetables should be prepped for that night's meal.  The work is already done.  Just throw it is a skillet and enjoy.

Oh.  One more thing... I love garlic, but don't add it to your prepped vegetable bags.  Garlic does not take as long to cook.  If you cook it too long, it will burn and turn bitter.  Mince your garlic and add it a few minutes after starting the other vegetables.

2 mile run

Now you would think that this is the easy part! I would bet that most triathletes start as runners and add biking and swimming. I hate running!! It hurts my Achilles' tendons terribly. It's boring. It feels awkward and plodding. I hate it. I have tried to get into the 5k craze like the rest of America but I just hate every step. The only running that I enjoy is a short sprint - that's what I ran in track back in the day, so I guess that's just what I learned to do. I have practiced at the track, on the treadmill, down our road at home. Nothing. 

But last week I decided to try our new walking track. It's about a mile around and it's very nice. I still hated it but I hated it less and I can see learning to like it. On a really really good day, I can run 2 15 minute miles on the treadmill. Somehow I will have to get that down to 2 10 minute miles on pavement. 

11 mile bike ride

This is what actually gave me the triathlon idea! The bike ride! We have a Rail to Trails trail nearby called the Tanglefoot Trail. It's a total of about 40 miles end to end (New Albany to Houston). I decided to see how far I could go on my granny bike. On my first try I rode 4 miles and turned around for a total of 8 miles. It wasn't very fun. Then a friend of mine from junior high messaged me to say that she rode bikes 2-3 times a week and would I like to join her. I did and we made it to the "whistlestop" in the little town of Ingomar - about 12 miles round trip. That was fun. But exhausting. 

I have learned that I absolutely must get a hybrid bike or a road bike if I'm going to get anywhere with this leg of the training. I am saving for a hybrid but may get a cheaper road bike. I don't know yet. 

This week I timed myself and I rode about 6 miles in 40 minutes. To do the race I would have to about double that distance in 40 minutes. I am anxious to see how much a bike with gears helps. 

In the meantime, I love my bike route. It's beautiful and peaceful ...... And unfortunately hilly. 

300 meter swim

Swimming will be the easiest part for me. Not to say that it's easy.  But I'm a good swimmer and I took a lifeguarding class in college so I have done this part before. I had been doing a little swimming already. But it's really physically challenging so my efforts were pretty pitiful. I have discovered that our pool is 25 meters long (sure feels longer) so I will have to swim 6 laps (down and back).  I had worked up to being able to swim 5-6 free style laps resting.......actually gasping for breath....at EACH end of the pool before I had this triathlon idea. 

Now I have gotten strong enough to swim a lap with no break and I can even do 1.5 laps with no break but it's pretty frightening to watch......think drowning victim. Last week I decided to time my laps: I can swim a lap in 55 seconds with a 2 minute break before the next lap. That's a total of 18 minutes in the water. 

I looked at time results for some past triathlons and I will have to get that time down to 7 minutes. Which of course means swim six laps with no break. I have no idea how I will ever accomplish that but I am stronger every week. And this part is actually fun.....well, not the drowning parts. 

Triathlon

I started working out at my local gym in March of 2014 (17 months ago) because my friend wanted to loose weight and thought she would do better with a group. I didn't want to do it. I had tried the gym several times and hated it. But I agreed to try. We hired a trainer and and worked out with her twice a week and ate her meal plan for three months. Finally, finally I began to see some progress. I was getting stronger and I was getting more lean. And I was having fun! Ever since then I have been on an upward spiral toward healthy living. 

One thing I know about myself, I get bored and quit things if they don't change. So since we have ventured out on our own (March) without our wonderful trainer, I have been looking for something that will grab my attention and will be fun. After several different experiments I have settled on "training" for a triathlon.  I have chosen one that takes place in April in nearby Tupelo. It is called a "half sprint" and is supposed to be great for beginners. 

It consists of 300 meters in the water, an 11 mile bike ride and a 2 mile run. I am physically able to do each of these three things already. Not NEARLY in the expected time frame and certainly not back to back. I am going to write one separate blog on my initial efforts in each area. 

I have told myself that it doesn't matter if I ever actually compete in the race. It is enough just to train.  Anyway, feel free to follow along with me on this adventure. 

Me & The Peanut Butter Jar

"You can't out-exercise a bad diet."

We've all heard this one.  And it's true--you can't.
Oh, yeah, once-upon-a-time, perhaps in your teenage years, when it was all Doritos, grilled cheese sandwiches and Sonic Happy Hour, sure.  The metabolism was like jet fuel--pure octane and jacked-up past the speed of sound.  Late night pizza?  Sure.  Batch of chocolate chip cookies at 2 am?  Sounds good.  Burger & fries twice a day?  Uh, yeah?

Yeah.  Those days are O-V-E-R.  At least for me, anyway.

So, I'm trying to eat cleaner, healthier & smarter, now.  Good carbs, good grains, and lots of protein.   Fruits, veggies, lean meats, nuts--healthy, right?  Good for me, right?  Right.

BUT.

 Nine pm rolls around.  That's a really hard time for me.  'Cause one of my favorite things to do about 9 pm, is to read.  It's usually quiet, I'm tired, and I finally feel like it's okay to sit down and relax a little while before I go to bed.  Wash my face, don my ugliest, most comfortable pajamas on, snuggle into my corner of the couch with a Diet Coke over ice & Stephen King novel & just fall into that book.  Yep.  That's a little slice of heaven right there....especially when I have a jar of peanut butter and a spoon to go with that book.  You know, you'd be surprised how much peanut butter you can consume in 10 or so chapters.  And that stuff doesn't come cheap--it's about 90 calories & 8 grams of fat per tablespoon.  Depending on your reading speed, that could get real serious, real quick.

So, I had to break up with my peanut butter.  I assured it, "it isn't you, it's me.  You're great & you're wonderful, and I will always, always love you.  We just need some time away from each other right now.  I hope that we can still be friends."

I think it took it very well.

Me?  I just can't talk about it, right now.  Maybe someday.  But not now.  

Tanglefoot Trail

Saturday I was invited to go with an old school friend of mine to ride the tanglefoot trail. The tanglefoot is a 47 mile trail that "ends" - begins? in New Albany. It is part of the rails to trails program and follows the path of the old railroad track that was home to a narrow gauge engine that Ripley's Colonel WC Falkner named Tanglefoot.
I had ridden the first 4 miles of the trail on my granny bike but I had a feeling my friend planned to do more than that!  She lives near the trail and bikes 8-15 miles two or three times a week. Never one to back down from a challenge I agree to go.
We left at 7:30 am and made it to Ingomar before I cried "uncle."  That gave us a nice 13 mile ride! Not bad for a granny on a granny bike. During the ride we switched bikes so that I could try out her hybrid to see the advantages. I am hooked!! If you are thinking about taking up biking, this is the way to start. A hybrid has gears and brakes, but it is sturdy, wide, has wide tires, and a comfortable seat. If you are looking to compete, you of course need a sleek road bike.  I will be saving my $$ for a hybrid!
Now I love my granny bike! But everything I love about it is also true about the hybrid ....except for my cool basket on the front!! Where will I keep my snacks?
I encourage you to check out the tanglefoot trail. If you are not from the area, you can spend the night at the beautiful Inn on the Square in Ripley and go visit Col. Falkner's statue in the cemetery. Then head south to New Albany for a lovely ride.
I hope to train up to making it to Ecru:
http://www.tanglefoottrail.com

Do Overs

Ever need a "do over"?  I do. I have let the twin evils of sugar and flour creep in and become a "normal" part of my food intake. Over the past year I managed to break both habits and reserved flour and sugar for rare social occasions. The past three months have blown all of my hard work! But, never fear, I will just call a do over and start again.  I am declaring a moratorium on sugar and flour for the month of July. If you want to join me in this, please believe that it's not easy. Flour and sugar are as addictive as crack cocaine. But they are not fuel that your body needs. Imagine packing a parka to go to the beach. Useless. Takes up room that's needed for things you do need. It's very worth the pain of breaking the habit.

I will list some of the things that I will ban: soda, diet soda, packaged sweeteners, dessert, sweet breakfasts, wheat bread, white bread, pancakes, syrup, corn bread, most cereals, juice

I will keep local honey and all fruits on the line up. 

Let me know if you decide to take the challenge with me. 

Blueberries

Mrs. Shackelford's blueberries are ready!! If you have never picked blueberries before, I recommend it! She is a delightful lady to be around. Her farm is about 10 miles (I'm not good with distances) east of Ripley on highway 4. Go early in the morning. Take a bucket or bag. Bring cash. 

Motivation

Motivation.

Perhaps the most important question you will ask yourself when beginning to change your lifestyle is: "Why?".

For me, there were two main motivators.  First, quite honestly,  I did not like being overweight.  I had never been before, and at 33 years old, I did not think it was time to give up just yet.

Secondly,  I had a new little girl and I was already chasing her around.  I realized that I wanted to be active and set a good example. I had always loved exploring and I wanted to be able to show her the world.  I didn't want to be an out-of-shape mama !

If a more healthy life is something you are considering,  take some time to figure out why you want to make the decision.  Once you are motivated, those first steps are full of purpose.

Goals

Goals.

Have you ever set out to do something big, only to fall short of the desired outcome? 

Of course you have ... unless you're one of those people, you know, the ones who seem to always finish projects, accomplish tasks, and knock out to-do lists regularly.

I believe those people have learned a skill that is key to getting things done: setting reasonable goals. 

Goals are best when attainable and, more importantly,  measurable.  If you want to see a change, it's a good idea to create an atmosphere of success. 

Attainable goals are those which are within reach of your current situation.  Don't sign up to run a marathon next month if you are currently not regularly exercising.  Sounds silly to say that, but how many times have we set out to realize a dream only to fail?  Try to divide those larger goals into smaller parts and watch yourself meet each of them in succession toward that impressive feat.

Measuring progress in a timely way is another key to meeting goals.  Figure out what you can do each day to show progress. Add that up to set a weekly goal, a monthly goal, and so on. Each goal met is a victory claimed.

I have a yearly running goal of 2014 miles.  I divided that into about 180 miles per month,  or about 5.5 miles a day.  I set this goal each of the past 4 years, and finally reached it last year.

Write out your set of goals and keep a journal.  Notice your progress, celebrate, and be good to yourself as you work hard to reach success.