CHANGING MY GOALS... AGAIN

Alright, so maybe I should have waited until I’d completed more than one pain-free run before I started penciling new race dates on my calendar. Then maybe I wouldn’t have been so disappointed when I was running yesterday and my leg started hurting at mile 1.25. The day before I made it 3.55 miles without any pain at all and I had enormously high hopes for the rest of the week/weekend because of it. All hopes have been dashed. F-you mysteriously leg pain.

Ross and I agree that I should take a few MORE days off from running, but this time I’m not going to sit on my lazy ass feeling sorry for myself. I’m actually going to go to the gym and get in some non-running cardio in an attempt to not lose any more fitness before I’m back pounding the pavement. I’ve already accepted that it’s not the end of the world if I don’t run the Austin Marathon in February. It’s also not the end of the world if I don’t run the Rock-n-Roll Marathon in Dallas in March. I don’t have any upcoming races that I’ve paid entry fees for and have to miss, so for that I should be grateful. I have a full 12 months ahead of me to achieve the goal of “Run a Marathon” in 2013 so I don’t need to stress so much about it now.

In the mean time I am going to focus on my diet and making sure that I’m working towards goal #6 on my list. This goal was originally stated as “Get down to my ‘racing weight’ – 125lbs (i.e. clean up my diet).” However, since I’ve set this goal I’ve realized that I don’t really care about it, at least not the way that it’s written.

I started reading the book Racing Weight and even though I haven’t finished it yet I’m pretty sure I don’t care about getting down to my “racing weight.” I am not an elite athlete, I do not want to start counting calories again, I do not want to attempt to track my fitness and my weight and interpret the correlation between them, and I do not want to monitor the ratio of carbs, fat, and protein in my diet. What I do want to do is get leaner and eat healthier. Therefore I’m amending my Goals for 2013 and #6 is now simply, “Clean up my diet.”

Specifically, what I want to do is stop cheating on being vegan (just because I got non-vegan candy as a Christmas present does not mean that I have to eat it), further eliminate processed foods/refined sugar from my diet and gorge on them less in social settings, and eat more vegetables. I think that all three of these are reasonable and that I can really benefit from them, so hopefully I stick with it! Today is Day 2 of the 28-Day Challenge through Whole Foods and I’m off to a good start so far! Yesterday I had leftover chili for lunch and made a great vegetable soup for dinner.

Sometimes I have a love-hate relationship with vegetables, as in I love them but I forget that and think that I hate them. I found this great recipe for vegetable soup a few days ago and decided to make it last night. As I was cooking it I thought to myself, “Wow. This is A LOT of vegetables in one pot. Nothing but vegetables. I bet it’s going to taste like crap and I’m going to have to force myself to eat it.”

I am happy to report that was definitely not the case. I actually really liked the soup and am looking forward to having it for dinner again tonight. It’s super easy, fast, healthy, and tasty. What more could you want from a soup recipe? So, here it is.

Pure Veggie Soup – serves 6

• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3 medium carrots, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 leek, light green and white part chopped
• 3 large roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 medium zucchini, chopped
• 1/2 bag frozen kale (or 6 fresh leaves, chopped)
• 6 cups of water
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, rubbed between your fingers
• 1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon Ume vinegar (this is really important. If you don’t have some, go buy it!)

1. In a large pot (I used a Dutch oven) saute onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and leek over medium heat for about 7 minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes, zucchini, oregano, thyme, salt, and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes.

3. Add the water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

4. Add the kale and cook for another 5 minutes.

5. Add the Ume vinegar, stir to incorporate, and serve.

When I make a soup I consider two full ladles worth to be a serving because that’s what fills the bowls we have at home. Sticking with that, this soup makes 6 servings.

As you can see, this soup is super good for you but not a lot of calories. I ate mine with two E2 Crackers and about 1/3 cup homemade hummus (recipe here - used regular chickpeas, not sprouted), which was probably about 300 more calories.

Along with the healthy soups I’ve been making I have also been juicing like crazy! Danny and Lisa got me a juicer for Christmas and I’ve used it no less than twice every day since then! For breakfast this morning I had:

• 2 large kale leaves
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 frond of the fennel
• 1 green pear
• 1 green apple

It was so freaking good!

Right now I’m drinking:

• 2 kale leaves
• 1″ piece of ginger
• 2 beets
• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 orange
• 1 apple
• juice from 1/2 a lemon (squeezed into the container before I started juicing to help against oxidation since I knew I wouldn’t be drinking it for a few hours)

and it is amazingly good as well! Another favorite of mine that’s super easy:

• 2 full stalks of broccoli (crowns and stems)
• 2 green pears

This one I was nervous about because who wants to drink broccoli juice? Apparently me because it’s delicious! I am so in love with juicing that I think everyone should go out and buy a juicer (and also watch Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead). The one I have is only $55 (buy it here) and it works great! Ok, that’s all the juice love I’ll share for now. I’ll be back with more next week! : )