Thursday, December 9, 2010

December 9

I went to a funeral this afternoon - for a man whose life was stolen by alzheimer's. We have another friend who is now in the early stages - such an awful disease.

Training


I've been out running - short and easy - only 30 minutes on Tuesday because I had to get back in time to take the boy to guitar lessons. I figured a 30 minute run was better than nothing. Shins are still dicey but ok.

Today I did the "Leg and Core" workout at home. I've been able to adapt most of the exercises and do them using the exercise ball and the therapy bands. I haven't been as consistent as I'd like, but I think I'm getting back on track now. Maybe blogging will help.

Meat

Today is the third day in a row I've not eaten meat. I wasn't planning to go vegetarian, in fact I'm still not, but it is interesting. It's not that hard to go meatless for breakfast and lunch - I do that most days - but it is a bigger challenge to not eat meat at dinner time. It's not so much that I love meat - I could probably live without it most of the time - but it's such a pain in the ass making two different meals - one for the boys and one for me. Some things are simple to make meatless, but others are not.

Last night we had burgers and I realized that I usually only eat half the meat in mine anyway, so I decided to make a big pile of fried mushrooms and build myself a mushroom, cheese, and veggie burger. It was delish! I liked it MUCH better than hamburger.

Today, I made chili and I bought a package of that fake Ground Round from the soy department. I didn't tell the boys, and I put a lot more veggies in that I usually do. The chili was great and although they did eventually notice the meat was a bit "different", they said it tasted great and agreed I could make it again.

So now that I have had 3 days of no meat, how many can I go? My only concern is how to get enough protein - I believe I need at least 60-70 grams of protein per day and I don't know how I can get that much without eating meat once in awhile. I do still eat dairy products (plain unflavoured yogurt in the morning, 1 % cottage cheese for lunch), but I need to do some calculating and figure out how much protein I would get if I cut out meat.

Undiscovered Talents

On Wednesday, I went to a water colour painting workshop to teach us how to teach kids. Of course, in order to teach painting, we need to experiment ourselves. I was so frustrated at first - I couldn't make the brush do what I wanted but after a bit of playing around, I started to have some success and I managed to make a couple of Christmas cards. I left wanting to head to the art store to buy paint and brushes and watercolour paper. I don't have that natural artistic ability that my super artsy kids have - they can pick up a pencil and scribble and suddenly an image blossoms on the page. Me - I can only copy other people's work - I don't seem to have that creative vision. However, I had a lot of fun and I think it would be great to sit down for a few hours every now and again and play with paint..

Here's my favourite - Merry Christmas!




3 comments:

Rick said...

I just discovered your podcast and have subscribed via itunes. I had
Googled "triathlete podcast" or something close to that and you were probably on page two or three. Very nice job! As to getting enough protein, it's hard not to get enough if you are eating whole foods (not bagels, oookies, chips, and white pasta). I've been 100% vegan for a year and a half and maintain steady weight and strength. Check out plant strong Rich Roll at his blog -no protein deficit there.

Anonymous said...

LOVE that Christmas tree! I wish I was artistic - you are very talented!

Glenn Jones said...

Very nice Christmas tree Barb!