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!