Who Said You Couldn’t Eat Guacamole for Dinner?

As important as it is to maintain a regular exercise schedule, it would be meaningless if you didn’t also maintain a relatively healthy diet. That being said, I came across the following recipe from Lisa Rosen and decided to give it a whirl. Being that I am, in no way, shape or form, a cook; this recipe is simple and doesn’t require too much in the way of prep time. As an additional bonus, it is both delicious and good for you!Black Beans & Guacamole Rice Dish
What You’ll Need:

  • rice (any kind that you prefer)
  • (1) can of black beans, rinsed and drained
  • (1/2) cup of salsa (it’s ok to eyeball it)
  • (2) avocados
  • (1/4) red onion, diced (I used a food processor)
  • (1/4) cup or so of lime juice
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions for Black Beans & Salsa:

  • Using a rice cooker (or simply following the directions on the rice), cook the rice as instructed. 
  • While the rice is cooking, rinse and drain the can of black beans and then dump the contents into a medium size saucepan.
  • Add the salsa to the saucepan, straining as much of the juice out of it as you prefer (the more liquid you keep, the more soupy the beans will be).
  • Heat the contents of the saucepan over medium/high heat until hot and then lower heat until ready to serve.

Directions for Guacamole:

  • Fill a small bowl with water and ice cubes.
  • Place sliced onion into bowl and allow to sit for approximately 10 minutes (The ice water reduces that oniony aftertaste).
  • While the onion is soaking, prep your avocados: cut each one in half around the equator. When you twist the two halves apart, the pit will stick in one side. Carefully use a sharp knife to remove the pit. After that, score the flesh of the avocado like a tic-tac-toe board and then turn it inside out. Use a spoon to scrape the squares off of the peel into your bowl or food processor.
  • Depending on whether or not you have a food processor, simply add the avocado and onion into the processor and pulse a few times until evenly mixed. If you do not have a food processor, mash the avocado by hand using a fork.
  • After avocado and diced onion are thoroughly mixed together, add lime juice as well as salt and pepper to taste.

Presentation:

  • Add finished rice to a plate and pour desired amount of black bean-salsa sauce over the top. Add guacamole at the end.


To safeguard one’s health at the cost of too strict a diet is a tiresome illness indeed. -La Rochefoucauld

I Ran Anyway

he next time the weather report says that it is 75 degrees outside, I will definitely be sure to look more closely at the details.

As soon as I saw that the temperature outside was reasonably cool, I quickly got dressed and headed out the door to go for a run at Umstead Park. However, what I failed to realize was that the weather report also mentioned that it would be extremely humid today….unbearably humid. I hadn’t even started my run, and already I could see the sunblock that I had shalacked onto my legs, bubbling up into tiny beads of moisture.

Whatever.

I began my run, and about five minutes into it, I considered turning around and going to the gym: the nice . air-conditioned . non-humid . gym… But I had already committed to running outside; so if this was what Mother Nature was doling out to the runners and cyclists today, then so be it.

My original plan was to run an extremely hilly 9 +/- mile loop, and in the beginning, I was hoping to finish it in around an hour and three minutes (which would have put me running at around 7 minute/mile pace. However, with the weather being as uncooperative as it was, I changed my mindset to just hoping that I could even get through the darn run.

When the Going Gets Tough; The Tough Gets Chanting?

There is one part of this particular loop that I was running today where you have to make a steady 10-minute uphill climb right smack in the middle of the run on a trail named “Cedar Ridge”. With my shirt fully soaked through with sweat and humidity only thirty minutes into the run, I found my myself focusing not on the hills before me, but rather, on my boyfriend’s favorite coffee beverage:

a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..
a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..
a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..
a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..


Now, anyone who was running with me during those ten minutes would have thought that I was nuts, but guess what? Before I knew it, I had traversed the hilly terrain and was enjoying a brief break from the hills before having to make the next climb on the main trail. Who knew that coffee could be such a lifesaver?

In the end, I wound up finishing my run two minutes slower than what I would have liked, but instead of being disappointed with myself, I couldn’t help but be proud. I knew how crappy the weather was. I also knew that as I stood there stretching beside my car steadily gulping down ice cold water, with my sweat-soaked shirt slung over the sideview mirror on my door-that the vast majority of “normal” people were still in bed. And out of those people, I knew that upon waking up, their first thought was definitely not going to be, “Let’s see how far I’ll run today..”

Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. -Lou Holtz

I Ran Anyway

The next time the weather report says that it is 75 degrees outside, I will definitely be sure to look more closely at the details.

As soon as I saw that the temperature outside was reasonably cool, I quickly got dressed and headed out the door to go for a run at Umstead Park. However, what I failed to realize was that the weather report also mentioned that it would be extremely humid today….unbearably humid. I hadn’t even started my run, and already I could see the sunblock that I had shalacked onto my legs, bubbling up into tiny beads of moisture.

Whatever.

I began my run, and about five minutes into it, I considered turning around and going to the gym:  the nice . air-conditioned . non-humid . gym…  But I had already committed to running outside; so if this was what Mother Nature was doling out to the runners and cyclists today, then so be it.

My original plan was to run an extremely hilly 9 +/- mile loop, and in the beginning, I was hoping to finish it in around an hour and three minutes (which would have put me running at around 7 minute/mile pace. However, with the weather being as uncooperative as it was, I changed my mindset to just hoping that I could even get through the darn run.

When the Going Gets Tough; The Tough Gets Chanting?

There is one part of this particular loop that I was running today where you have to make a steady 10-minute uphill climb right smack in the middle of the run on a trail named “Cedar Ridge”. With my shirt fully soaked through with sweat and humidity only thirty minutes into the run, I found my myself focusing not on the hills before me, but rather, on my best friend’s favorite coffee beverage:

a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..
a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..
a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..
a large, quad, vente, skim, decaf, iced mocha…..


Now, anyone who was running with me during those ten minutes would have thought that I was nuts, but guess what? Before I knew it, I had traversed the hilly terrain and was enjoying a brief break from the hills before having to make the next climb on the main trail. Who knew that coffee could be such a lifesaver?

In the end, I wound up finishing my run two minutes slower than what I would have liked, but instead of being disappointed with myself, I couldn’t help but be proud. I knew how crappy the weather was. I also knew that as I stood there stretching beside my car steadily gulping down ice cold water, with my sweat-soaked shirt slung over the sideview mirror on my door-that the vast majority of “normal” people were still in bed. And out of those people, I knew that upon waking up, their first thought was definitely not going to be, “Let’s see how far I’ll run today..”

Ability is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. -Lou Holtz

2 Pieces of Chocolate Cake, and 1 Guilt Trip Later…

Dear Self,

I promise to work out later this afternoon so that I don’t wind up feeling guilty about devouring those two HUGE pieces of yellow cake with the creamy milk chocolate icing, which I decided to have for breakfast….

Yours in Guilt Until Then,

Me

Yup. Not only did I sleep in this morning* (and by ‘sleeping in’, I mean I slept until 7:30am instead of my usual 5:30am), but on top of that I decided to nix my morning routine of exercise-opting instead to head directly for the kitchen where I knew I had baked a delicious cake the night before. And two slices of cake later, I was just as full of milk chocolate creamy deliciousness as I was of guilt for stuffing my face.

Should I feel ashamed?

I guess I probably would feel like a pig if I found myself doing this every other day. However, this was not the case. But it brings up a good point nonetheless. I think the problem with a lot of people who overeat or who eat the wrong things is that they make excuses for themselves. For instance, I’ll often hear other people saying, “oh, it’s not a big deal if I eat this now because it’s not like I eat it every day…” or the infamous, “once in a while can’t hurt you….”. But what do these people typically look like? What is their day-to-day routine of activity? How much free time do they have, and how are they spending that free time?

I don’t profess to be an absolute health nut, though I am, admittedly, neurotic at times. However, I do keep my health at the forefront of my life. Each piece of food that goes into my body is a conscious decision that I made to put it there. There is a saying that you should treat your body like a temple, and it’s true! If you care about your overall health (not to mention the amount of money in your bank account), then you owe it to yourself to be more careful about what you eat.

But, It Was SO Delicious!

Even though it was definitely not the “breakfast of champions,” I’m not going to beat myself up for having a couple of generous portions of cake this morning. I’m tempted to, but I’m going to hold off on it. I know that in order to maintain some relative semblance of sanity when it comes to healthy eating, you’ve got to leave yourself a little wiggle room for the occasional treat, otherwise you’ll just wind up binge eating at some point. Look at most people who stick to strict diets. Sure, most of them do great in the beginning, but then they wind up losing their self control. If you want to find out what these guys are up to, just check aisle 10 of the grocery store, where you’ll more than likely find them going nuts over the candy and potato chips. It’s not pretty.

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

I was running late for work & didn’t have time to make myself something healthy.

I got home late and was exhausted & didn’t have the time to throw something together for the next day….

The kids had to go to soccer practice, and I didn’t have the time…

I couldn’t find the time…

If coming up with excuses for things was a sport, than we’d all be elite athletes. You know, the funny thing about time is that we always make room for it when something is really important to us. That being said, why can’t health be an important enough issue for the majority of people? 

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease. -George Dennison Prentice

Spontaneous Combustion Run

90 degrees.

That’s how hot it was at 8:45 this morning as I stood with one foot inside of my apartment and the other on the landing, debating whether or not going for a run outside was such a good idea.

Screw it.

Running is a fickle occupation. If you’re looking for consistency, then this is not your sport. For instance, on a Monday, you could run a p.r. on a really difficult running route, and then on a Friday, you can find yourself barely able to get through one mile on the treadmill without feeling like you’re going to keel over. Like anything that requires a decent amount of physical exertion (i.e. exercising), I knew that if I didn’t, in that instance, will myself to fully step out of my apartment and shut the door behind me, that I wouldn’t run at all. I also knew that I would feel horrible about not working out because exercising genuinely makes me feel good!

That being said, I jogged down the three flights of stairs to my car and drove over to Umstead Park. By the time I started my run at 9:03 a.m., the sun was really beating down. At one point during my run, I remember thinking that I might spontaneously combust if I didn’t strictly stick to the shaded areas.

It’s All Downhill From Here!

Even though I was running alone and at a good clip, each step felt like torture. It was one of those runs where you secretly hope that you don’t run into anyone that you know and then you sorta’ kick yourself for having not gotten up earlier to run. Yeah- that was me. And as luck would have it, about fifteen minutes into my run, I saw one of my old college teammates running towards me with another group of young women. Of course, they were running downhill towards me, and I was running uphill, but I still managed to straighten my posture and work up enough leftover energy to smile broadly and yell out a hearty “hey!” as I waved in passing. Then for the next ten minutes as I trudged up the rest of the hill, I wondered what my teammate thought when she passed me:

“Gee, I wonder how long she‘s been running- she sure looked exhausted!”

or

“Wow, she looked like she was in great shape!”

Time to ‘Fess up…

Few people who have run on a semi-professional level will admit to it, but many of us still carry a lot of pride when we go out for a run. What do I mean by this? Well the example above is one instance of how you never want other people who you’ve run with when you were in your prime to know how bad you are sucking now that you don’t run on the same “level” anymore. I, for one, used to have this huge fear of going for a run at a park and being passed by another runner. I used to think to myself, “I can’t go out there and run by myself- If I get passed by some other runner, I’ll never be able to get over it!”

It seems so silly and quite frankly, downright ridiculous, but it’s true. It’s as if we have a hard time dealing with the fact that we’re simply not on the same competitive level that we used to be when we were in college. Granted, there are some runners who continue to run beyond college and who are even talented enough to be sponsored by a brand. These are the same people who go out and compete in road races, marathons and train with teams of other like-minded individuals. For them, even a “fun run” road race gets turned into a competition where if you’re going to run it, you had better rank among the top five finishers- otherwise, don’t waste your time.

Admittedly, running road races “for fun” is something that I have (and continue) to struggle with. Part of me would love to see where I stand now that I have been away from the world of competitive running for a few years, but at the same time, I also know that I would be devastated if I wasn’t at least where I left off in college. After all, the last thing that I want is for someone to see the results of some random race that I recently ran and be shocked that I ran so poorly. How embarrassing!

If It Was Easy; Everyone Would Do It…

Today’s run was difficult. I’ve only been back in North Carolina for less than a week, having traveled a lot over the past three weeks and missing out on sleeping, etc. Despite this, I still wanted to get out there and run at a high level this morning- all the while knowing in the back of my head that I was setting unrealistic expectations for myself. And when I saw my teammate approaching me from a distance, I thanked God for small blessings. After all, I had just started my run, which meant that I was still relatively fresh, and she was heading in the opposite direction as me, which meant that I didn’t have to suffer being passed by someone I knew (oh, the horror!).

There also comes a time when you’re running alone through trails at a park where you may feel a momentary wave of panic wash over you. It usually comes at a moment when it’s just a little too quiet….when there aren’t any people around and you start to think to yourself of all the possible ways that you could be attacked. Many professional runners, such as Joan Benoit Samuelson, advocate thinking over the worse-case scenario stuff while you’re running because it helps you stay on your toes. The good thing about running by yourself on trails is that you can almost always tell when you’re nearing the end of one because that’s when you start to see more and more people.

Wrapping it Up

11.5 miles later, I made it back to my Jeep having only stopped once (50 minutes into my run) to get a drink of water from the water fountain. The one thing that I really appreciate about running is that it always teaches me something about myself; and I know that this is an area that always has room for improvement!

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. – William Shakespeare