Simple Whole & Happy

On New Year's Eve in 2012, right after the countdown, Tyler whispered in my ear that 2013 was going to be our year. I think he may have been right in so many ways. This past year has been such a good year and I wanted to reflect on everything that has happened to us.

All the way back in January I started training for a sprint triathlon and kept plugging away at school. Tyler continued to work at HomeBrewStuff and continue his passion for making beer, nearly every weekend with my dad. I also found out that my diet change resulted in lower cholesterol and overall better health, those details can be found here.

February brought Tyler and me to Bend with our friends Kaz and Shelley, which was such an awesome time. I am thinking Tyler and I will need to do that again as I get the blues usually February/March time and a little trip seems to help quite a bit.

March brought more training for the sprint triathlon as well as I got a job at Weight Watchers. Speaking of, I have recently decided…

Can you guys believe we only have 13 days left of this month! Holy crap on a cracker!

I got to tell you, the last 3 months have not been the best for me. School, work, WW, exercise, diet, my health... all of it seems to just be stressing me out! I recently was introduced to a book call The Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss, which has been helping me reframe some of my thinking. First off, thoughts are POWERFUL and if you think negative thoughts, your body listens and can lead you to feeling ill or low in energy. In contrast, thinking positive thoughts can do wonders for you and your body and we have the power to change our thoughts! I don't know about you guys but this was a bit of an epiphany for me! To know that I have the power to affect my thinking, my body, my health... just makes me feel so much more reassured! I highly recommend this book.

For example, I have been hard on myself feeling like I am not getting everything I need done. I am hard on myself when I skip a work…

Oh man, I am excited for the next Anchorman! We had some gorgeous squash from Brown Box Organics so I decided to get roasty with it... Oh man, I am cheesy, just roll with it.

 Here was the bounty. I roasted all of it and then got to cooking! The acorn and butternut squash got blended in the food processor into a puree  Gorgeous, eh?
Then I put it in a crock pot roughly using this recipe for soup.  It was delicious! Then I added cashew cream, making it even better! Next I took the pumpkin and turned it into a puree to make the above pumpkin bread loaf. I used the recipe from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook Tyler has from around the 70s, which is serious the best cookbook ever. I just veganized it by using Earth Balance instead of butter. I used egg substitute as well. Mmmmm.... steam was rising from this slice  Add a little bit of earth balance and for real, nothing better. Except maybe adding some pumpkin butter... yeah going to have to do that.   And finally, the pumpkin che…

Lately my routine has consisted of Hot Yoga and running outside. I am LOVING it! The Hot Yoga with the cozy heat and then the stillness of the cold has offered a lovely contrast over the past few weeks. Letting go of the strength training has been really nice for me. I miss some of the tightness I was starting to see in my abs but other than that, I am feeling much better. After my half-marathon I plan to go back to including strength training but for now, I just want to run and stretch... my body loves it!
Speaking of running, Danyel and I went for a 8 mile run yesterday, with minimal pain! Of course there was your typical soreness but nothing major. We are trying some intervals: running for 2:30 and then walking for 30 secs. I think that helps so we are not putting so much strain on our joints. However, less than a minute in to the run my left ankle gave way, and I ended up falling on my left knee(see pic below) and elbow, and slightly scraped my right knee too. I am not sure what t…