Crockpot Oatmeal

As promised, I am here to report on my crockpot oatmeal trial. It was so nice to wake up this morning to hot, fresh, yummy oatmeal! The flavour was different than how I usually eat my oatmeal (I love cinnamon), but was very delicious. I really enjoyed this recipe and found it filling and satisfying for hours. I would like to mix it up a bit and try it again with other variations of fruit/nuts. I love a good apple-cinnamon oatmeal, so I might try that next. For now, I'll be eating this oatmeal for a few days now, as it was a big batch, but maybe next week we'll mix it up.

Here are some pics of the crockpot oatmeal...when I put it all together the night before, it looked pretty gross, but by morning it was looking great!







Tonight I made another recipe, this time from The Kind Diet. I am trying the barley casserole. I already ate dinner, but thought I would make it to have for tomorrow's dinner. Casseroles are always good the next day anyway, so this will be so great for tomorrow. I love coming home and knowing that dinner is waiting for me. It's so nice to not have to think about what to make for dinner, especially if I'm tired after a long day. That's when I'm most vulnerable to eating poorly. Having this casserole ready will ensure that tomorrow I'm going to be having a healthy dinner. A healthy, vegan, dinner...not that I'm vegan, or even vegetarian for that matter, but it's fun to make different dishes and try new ways of eating. I guess I'm a vegan flirt ;) And it's always fun to be a flirt. Here is a pic of the casserole before it went in the oven (it's still cooking right now, so no after shots).



Oh! Oh! The homemade larabars from last night turned out AMAZING! They were SUPER tasty! Here is a photo of one of my bars...I sliced them up and put them in separate baggies.

The recipe search is on.

I've pulled out some of my neglected, but well-intentioned recipe books. I recently purchased and received as gifts the books, The Kind Diet, Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook, and Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook 2. Although I had read through some of the books, I hadn't taken the time to actually create any of the recipes. That all changed today! I pulled out the recipe books last night and flagged many of the recipes that look very delicious. I went shopping today for ingredients and found most of what I need. I had some trouble finding a couple of the ingredients needed for recipes in The Kind Diet, but I'll check out my local health food store tomorrow and hopefully find what's required. I'm really excited!

The first thing I made tonight was some homemade "larabars". This recipe wasn't from a cookbook, but instead what a variation of something I've made before. I just used an equal ratio of unsalted, raw peanuts to medjool dates, with some rolled oats added for texture and flavour. They turned out awesome and taste like peanut butter oatmeal cookies! Easy and healthy!

The second creation is one from the Eat-Clean Diet Cookbook. It's called Crockpot Oatmeal and contains all kinds of oats and grains. I just put all the ingredients in my crockpot and apparently by the morning I'll have a delicious, healthy, and hot breakfast waiting for me. Right now it looks like sewer water, but I have faith. Stay tuned.

I haven't disappeared...

I haven't posted in over a month, but I really do have a good excuse this time! Really! I became very ill about a month ago and went under the knife for surgery exactly one week ago today. Without getting into it too much, I was in a significant amount of pain up until I had the surgery and am still experiencing some discomfort, but getting better each day. I'm actually going back to work tomorrow. It's been awful being off work for so many weeks, and as a psychologist, I felt so guilty about suddenly abandoning my clients without any notice and with no idea when I would be able to return to work. Of course I had another professional to cover my clients with me, but it's not the same as talking to your regular therapist who knows your history, etc. It's going to be a hectic week back and I shudder to think of how many emails I'm going to have to wade through upon my return.

On the bright side, I've lost some weight and get to update my blog. I'm down 6.5 lbs from the last time I updated this thing, for a total of 33 lbs down! That means I hit my 10%! Yay!! The weight loss goal associated with health benefits is always a good goal to hit. Who knows how much of this weight loss may come back from my recovery from surgery, but I'm looking forward to trying to keep it off by getting back into exercising! I literally have not been able to do ANYTHING even remotely physical in the last 4 weeks, which has certainly hampered my prep for the upcoming 5K I signed up for. Talk about timing! I'm still going to do the 5K, though I'm not as confident about running it now. It's amazing how my stamina is shot now after 4 weeks of couch surfing and a surgery. I feel like I'm starting all over again building up my cardio. At least I'm not getting winded just getting up to go to the bathroom (like I was for days after the surgery!)

Surprisingly delicious brownies!

The only reason I say these are SURPRISINGLY delicious brownies is because they are not only vegan, but also raw! Given that I'm not vegan or even vegetarian, I was super surprised at how awesome these brownies are!! Seriously!! No dairy, no milk chocolate, no white sugar! And there's even icing on them! They are very tasty...and not just "tasty for a vegan brownie". They are tasty. Period.

Here is the link to the recipe They are aware winning brownies courtesy of Deena at Eat, Drink, & Be Vegan.

As a vegan/vegetarian "flirt" (aka I enjoy eating veggie/vegan meals, having meat-free days, etc), I frequent a few veggie blogs to get some meal ideas. I came across this recipe one day on Deena's blog and was impressed to see that she won a recipe contest, a recipe contest that included non-vegan brownie recipes. I was intrigued and immediately printed the recipe.

And on a side note, this recipe totally gave me the excuse to use my often-neglected, very expensive, food processor. Yay!!!

It's official!!!

I've signed up for a 5K run!! I'm excited, but also nervous about it! I signed up for the Earth Run in Barrie, Ontario on June 12th. It'll be my first 5K race and I still have a lot of work to do to be ready for it. I have done a 5K walk before, but my goal is to work towards jogging the entire 5K(or most of it) and finishing in 45 minutes. My best 5K time right now is 55 minutes, so I have just under 12 weeks to get ready. Lots of time, right?

If only I had access to my treadmill downstairs. I can't wait for this renovation to be done! I'm heading outside right now to do a wee 2K run...it's +9C outside and sunny! Beautiful! :D

PS...this website is AWESOME for figuring out how far you run/walk!
Map My Run

Tick Tock

I had a birthday since the last time I posted. I am officially 31 years old. This birthday was difficult for me. At first I wasn't exactly sure why, but I spent quite a bit of time thinking about it and came up with some theories. I've never been one to have a hard time with getting older, so that's why it seemed so odd that 31 would bother me. I would have thought that turning 30 would have been more difficult. Turns out, I was fine with being 30, but now I'm officially INTO my 30s. It's not that I think I'm old, because I know I'm not. I don't feel old, and honestly, I can act pretty immature at times! I think I'm more hung up on what I haven't accomplished yet at this age. Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased with a lot of aspects of my life, but I set some goals in my mind and didn't hit them. I really hate it when I don't reach goals I set for myself!

One thing is that I really didn't think that I would still be struggling with my weight like this at this age. I'm feeling frustrated with myself and disappointed to face the same issues day in and day out. Sometimes it just feels like Groundhog Day! Another issue that is tied up with my weight, and is also related to age, is the fact that I'm now very much aware of my biological clock ticking away. I'm in the place in my life where I am ready to have a family (it took a while to get here), but I don't feel like I can actually do this now because of my weight. I feel like at the weight I am, a pregnancy would be putting myself and a baby at risk. So obviously, I want to get close to my ideal weight before getting pregnant. The problem with this is, I'm continuing to have a hard time losing weight and now I'm very much aware of the clock ticking. I also have the issue of PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome) to contend with, if and when I decide to try and get pregnant. So yeah...I'm aware of my age in a new way I haven't been in the past. Tie this all up with a stressful time at work and a home renovation, and February has been a rough month to say the least. I'm looking forward to making March a much better month.

My weight is the same, so there's nothing to update there. I went up a couple pounds and then down a couple pounds this month. I had a difficult time fitting in exercise in February, which is a real shame given how much I worked out in January! I was on a roll! I blame the home renovation on that...I used to work out downstairs and I'm missing that space and my equipment. I've tried to make due in other ways, but it's just not the same. I can't wait until the basement is finished!!!

So for now, I just keep trucking away. There's not really any other choice. Continue to exercise more and make better food choices. That's what it's all about, isn't it?

A helpful review

I just took a few minutes to skim through and reread some of my older post. I can't believe I've been blogging since Aug 2009!!

I just wanted to repost a goal I set for myself for the summer of 2010 that I never achieved: tree-top trekking.

I would like to make this a goal for myself once again for this coming summer. I'm closer to the weight limit now and have less to lose. As I keep chipping away at this weight, I know I'll get to fly along the tops of the trees soon enough!

A punch in the gut.

So I had this information when I posted my last blog post earlier this week, but I chose to instead focus on the positive gain I made. And let me tell you, I needed that concrete positive achievement to help refocus me.

So here's my confession: I got news this week that I'm too fat to insure.

I'm talking about life insurance...we in Canada thankfully don't need to purchase health insurance. I have extended health benefits through work, some of which includes life insurance. I DO have life insurance through both my work an my husband's work, however I applied to purchase some additional optional life insurance to increase the benefit. Turns out I was rejected. When I called, no one would tell me over the phone why my request was declined, so I had to wait for a letter to arrive via snail mail to find out why I was uninsurable. Turns out I'm too FAT! My weight to height ratio is undesirable. Great. (Note the obvious sarcasm). My initial reaction was, "Huh...so apparently I'm so overweight and such a risk for death, that I'm uninsurable". Not a good thought, but also not something I can ignore. My insurance company has informed me that I'm welcome to reapply for this coverage once my weight is reduced to 242 lbs, and maintained for 12 months. *sigh*

I'm not going to lie. This hit me like a punch in my gut. It hurt.

The good news is that I'm already 26 lbs down and planning to get well below 242 lbs, but this still felt a little like a setback. Needless to say, I needed that "win" later that day with my new time for 500 steps.

Just another reason to never give up and keep moving forward until I reach my goal. The cost it too great if I throw in the towel and walk away.

So close...

I'm getting closer to hitting my goal of doing 500 step-ups in under 20 minutes. The last time I posted about this goal was back in October 2010. My best time at that point was 500 step-ups in 33 minutes and 19 seconds. Today I blew that time out of the water! I completed 500 step-ups in 22 minutes and 13 seconds! Woohoo! Amazing to cut off over 11 minutes. INSANE! I'm pretty impressed with myself actually. This helps to elevate and motivate me. I've had a rough week and gained 2 lbs, so I was feeling kind of defeated...feeling like, here I go again stuck at this number on the scale. I've been working hard to counteract these negative automatic thoughts, but they come up pretty frequently. Tonight is the first time I've felt positive about my progress again in over a week. This is just what I needed. A nice reality check to show that, even if the scale doesn't show me what I want, I AM making progress towards becoming a healthier person. I'm so glad I track my progress, so I can remind myself how far I've come. It's easy to forget where we've come from when the progress is slow and essentially make up of babysteps. This reminds me of the Buddhist proverb:

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep walking.

Weird thrills

Today on the treadmill, I hit a new 1 mile time: 16 minutes, 03 seconds. A new personal best for me, and one that I'm thrilled with! Back when I started trying to jog my first 1 mile time was 19 minutes, 50 seconds...and believe it or not, that was WORK for me. I am happy about this new time, and trying not to undermine it with negative talk about how slow it still is. Every once and a while those negative, automatic thoughts pop in and I try to jump in and interrupt them. This quote comes to mind today, as I respond to a thought that was undermining my new achievement:

"If you run, you are a runner. It doesn't matter how fast or how far. It doesn't matter if today is your first day or if you've been running for twenty years. There is no test to pass, no license to earn, no membership card to get. You just run." -John Bingham

Today I just ran :)