Did you see all the fun posts I wrote while I was on vacation at the lake?

Here’s a list of posts in case you missed any – there are some gorgey photos there (thanks to the beauty of nature):

• Sounds of Relaxation from the Lake – First day at the lake house
• My Own Oatmeal Pot – Because oatmeal isn’t just for at-home breakfasts
• Cozy Lil Porch – Where I blogged from
• Veggie Family Dinner – the vegetarian dinner we whipped up for the fam
• Cherry Banana Short Stack – Pancake breakfast at the lake house
• Portable Blogging – How I uploaded my posts
• Scenes From the Lake House – wordless post, lots of photos
• Bailey’s First Canoe Trip – Did he love it or hate it??
• P-P-P-Poker Face – Poker Night at the lake house
• Butterflies at the Lake – Last lake eats + pretty butterflies
• Fresh Pasta Al Fresco – Italian dinner out to end our vacay

Such fun!

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From old bread to gourmet breakfast!

Despite us taking our leftover bread to the lake, we STILL had some left when we got back! By this time, the bread was far from fresh but still good to eat.

What do you do with old, dry bread?

Well, there are a lot of things you can do but one of my favorites is to make FRENCH TOAST!

Ok, so maybe it’s not “gourmet” in the classic sense but it’s gourmet to me!

Especially topped with blueberries and sliced almonds, with a drizzle of real maple syrup.

I also recommend these uses for old bread:

• Toasting it
• Making a breakfast casserole
• Making a bread pudding dessert
• Making bread crumbs
• Making a panini
• Feeding it to the birds

What’s your favorite thing to do with old bread?

Did anyone catch Glee last night!? Sooo good!

But, this song – I Dreamed a Dream – is haunting me! It’s so beautifully sad. I can’t get it out of my head!

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Thank goodness hubby has been setting the coffee maker…I’ve been dragging this week! lol

Nothing like nice, hot coffee to get me going in the morning.

Breakfast = OIAM (Oatmeal in a mu g) – so cozy in a mug, no?!

Ever feel like less is more? I made plain old oats with rice milk and topped them with flaxseed meal. Not very sweet, but I liked it.

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I’ve been feeling like I haven’t had enough veggies, so I had lots of fruits and veggies planned for the day.

I started my eats with an early snack – hummus and pita bread leftover from dinner plus a banana.

BIG OLE salad – romaine, baby carrots, celery (all organic), sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, Drew’s Rosemary balsamic dressing.

What hummus I didn’t finish with the pita I slapped on a piece of Great Harvest honey WW. Hubby got more bread yesterday but I really wanted some Flax Oat Bran…I haven’t had that in AGES and I’m CRAVING it now! Gah!

Anywho, the plain old hummus on WW bread was surprisingly delicious. Guess today was like simple-eats day.

My sweet tooth got the better of me this afternoon and I got hubby and myself sweet treats- cupcakes! I got double-chocolate. Nom nom nom!

For dinner, I started with some chicken stew, picked up whilst getting groceries at Earthfare. I’ve been feeling a bit like I may be getting a cold or something, so chicken-noodle-ish soup seemed in order.

For the main event – a chicken roll up with pesto, rice pilaf, and that swiss chard from the farmer’s market.

Dessert = pineapple.

Btw, not sure what was sweeter, the pineapple or the cupcake from earlier. Sheesh! I also had a half scoop of Vega health optimizer mixed with some rice milk for extra nutrition.

Hubby and I loaded up on fruits & veggies between yesterday and today:

• organic romaine hearts
• organic celery
• organic baby carrots
• (really wanted some organic grape tomatoes, but they’ve looked old and wrinkly at all the stores…ew!)
• organic gala apples
• organic navel oranges
• (wanted some organic kiwi, but they seemed old and squishy…blech!)
• pineapple (oops, ate that already!)
• organic pears
• (couldn’t find any good organic bell peppers – grow Garden grow!)
• dates (dried)

So good to have fresh fruits and veggies back in the house! They’re more than just good eating…they’re great for de-stressing and recovering from exercise, too!

I’ve been meaning to share these notes with you since I read about them on my Key West trip, but better late than never right…

Use Veggies (and Fruits) to De-Stress!

So, I’ve been reading Thrive by Brendan Brazier , and thought some of the points from the early chapters were really interesting.
Here are some of my favorite points – at least my interpretation:

The Vicious Cycle of Caving to Cravings:

• There are many forms of stress, which can add up to your total stress level.
• Stresses cause cravings. Cravings are good because they’re your body’s way of saying something is wrong (i.e. maybe some nutritious foods would help your body).
• Cravings are often for sweets because the body is used to taking care of itself. People used to satisfy sweets by eating fruits, which are nutritious. Now, people eat empty sweets – doughnuts, cookies, etc., which are not nutritious.
• Not giving the body good foods can cause nutritional stress on the body. Nutritional stress is like any other stress, which can cause cravings.
• See the cycle? Stress causes cravings. If you satisfy the cravings with something nutritionally poor, you are not helping the stress, you’re adding to it with nutritional stress, which will cause more cravings!

When You’re Busiest (and Most Stressed) Take Out May Be the Worst Idea:

• Your body rises to the occasion. When you’re under deadlines, you rarely get sick. Once your deadline is met and your stress levels go down, THEN you tend to get sick. Your body knows to re-coop after time of need is over.
• When I’m most stressed and short on time, when I’m busiest, is when I tend to be more open to short cuts like take-out. I think, oh I don’t have time to cook so I end up getting some unhealthy takeout food.
• Take-out is rarely as healthy or nutritious as a home-cooked meal.
• Good nutrition, lots of veggies, can help your body.
• Elevated stress + unhealthy take-out yields more stress by way of nutritional stress on top of whatever is already causing your stress (work, family, etc.).
• Takeout doesn’t help you by saving you time, it can hurt you by adding another layer of stress.
• So, next time you’re freaking out because you’re so busy you don’t think you have time to cook, think twice before picking up the phone. Your short cut may cause you more harm later by means of nutritional stress. Of course, there are some healthy fast-food alternatives, think salad bars, so make your choices carefully to treat your body the best possible.

Summary Lessons Learned:

• Caving to cravings can cause more cravings. Try to fill craving with nutritious solution. Treat the cause, not the symptom.
• When most stressed and short on time, good nutrition can help lower your stress level. Take care of yourself instead of taking shortcuts.
• FEELING STRESSED? Put down the coffee/cupcake. Pick up an apple. Forget about take-out, get something nutritious! You’ll feel better and less stressed for it.

Myself as a Case Study:

Brendan also talks about how there are different ways for your body to recover after exercise – more sleep, more rest time and also more of a healthful, plant-based diet. I’m usually pretty good about eating heathfully BEFORE my workouts, but I’m just starting to see the importance of proper nutrition AFTER a workout. I tested that theory out a bit this week.

I’ve exercised twice this week so far.

• On Monday, I did an hour of zumba. I was pretty achy after class and my leg was starting to bug me. I had a pasta dinner sans veggie. The next day, I woke up pretty sore and tired. To top if off, my leg was still bothering me.
• On Tuesday, I did an hour of zumba. I was really tired after class and my leg was bothing me a bit more. I had a veggie combo dinner and an apple for dessert. The next day, I woke up not too sore, not too tired and with my leg bothering me very little.

Healthy eating, it seems, can gear you up nicely for a workout, but eating well after your workout seems to improve your body’s recovery so you feel less achy, less tired, more energetic…and quite possibly, you are less prone to injury. It’s almost like fruits and veggies are healing foods! Amazing!

I’m going to keep playing with this and see how things go. I’ll definitely keep you guys posted, but so far the results are fascinating! Brendan has mentioned that a plant-based, whole foods diet has allowed him to train harder for his ironman competitions and I’m seeing how this will be especially useful for me now that I’m training to be a dance fitness instructor (especially since more-sleep is not a viable option for me at this point). With proper nutrition, I should be able to practice more and more often! Sweet!

I hope all the fruits and veggies I had today gear me up for tomorrow!

PS I bought my ticket for the Healthy Living Summit today! I sure hope I can save enough money to go because if I can’t, I’m going to have to sell it!!! Wish me luck!

Do you focus more on pre or post-workout nutrition? Maybe neither? Which do you focus on, what do you try to eat/do, how does it work for you?

This post best enjoyed with Chumbawamba – Tubthumping

My Applesauce (Cranberry) Oat Muffins fueled me up nicely for the rest of the day.

I worked on errands around the house the rest of the morning and before I knew it…it was time for eat lunch and get ready for some fun evening events.

In fact, I ran out of time so fast, I had to cook my tofu while I was blow-drying my hair. Luckily, I had the good sense the marinate the stuff earlier in the day, but still…I was pushing it.

I microwaved some frozen peas and had another two yummy muffins for some time-saving sides.

***

Turning a Failure Into a Success

Remember those auditions I had awhile back? Well, the results are in (have been for awhile, but I wasn’t sure if it was ok to announce or not yet)…

I MADE IT!!!! SUCCESS!!!!!!

I’m currently an official instructor-in-training!

The path to instructor has not been an easy one for me. Some of my older readers may remember when I auditioned the first time…back in 2009. I had just done an instructor workshop a couple weeks before hand. Though I hadn’t done cueing or mirroring for long, I wanted to go ahead and audition. I practiced my audition songs religiously and even got a special top for the event. I thought I had done pretty well, but …well…it wasn’t good enough.

Though I was too embarrassed to admit on my blog (you may have noticed I didn’t bring the topic up again for almost a year), I failed. I’m a very competitive person. I don’t like to fail. I don’t like to do things I don’t feel I’m good at. Failing at auditions made me sad. I was jealous hearing the other instructor trainees getting announced in class. I didn’t want to be jealous…I just wanted to be there with them. I thought about a lot of things. I got really down on myself. I thought about quitting…never doing dance fitness / zumba again.

But…I’m not a quitter. I get knocked down, but I get up again.

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up.” -Vince Lombardi

I decided to not accept defeat. I decided I could either sit around and feel bad for myself or I could do something about it.

“Defeat should never be a source of discouragement but rather a fresh stimulus” -Robert South

I went back to class. I decided to practice and learn as much about being an instructor as possible. I worked on memorizing choreography. I started going up the front of class and practicing mirroring and cueing while I was up there. I got tips from my instructor friends (thanks friends – you know who you are! ). The more I went up to the front of class, the more comfortable and confident I got.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” -Thomas Alva Edison

Fast forward to now and I did it! Failure converted to success…woohoo! The moral of the story: don’t let a failure stop your ultimate path to success.

“Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday.” -Wilma Rudolph

Here are my tips for turning a failure into a success:

• Analyze the situation – what is the lesson you can learn from your failure. I don’t think of failures as empty, awful things. When you fail, the upside of the situation is that you learn something. You learn what didn’t work – what you need to work on. When you know where your weaknesses are, you learn which areas you need to improve.
• Educate yourself – is there some form of education that can help improve your skills? Learn about what you can do to improve your weak areas or make your strong areas stronger.
• Get Inspired – Use inspiration as fuel to keep you going. I like keeping positive energy around me and using quotes to revive my spirit. I’ve interspersed some of my fave in this post.
• Ask for help – Talk to the people in charge. Ask for their advice and guidance. They’re probably more willing than you think to help and may even look favorably upon the fact that you asked for help. I remember in school that I didn’t want to look stupid and ask a lot of questions, but many of my teachers in high school and college really liked when I asked questions. They were always very kind and helpful.
• Remember, what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Sure, I could have tried to get a job being an instructor somewhere where it was easy, but by challenging myself to step up to the occasion, I also challenged myself to become a better instructor. Realize that in criticism is the chance for you to gain strength. Prove to yourself that you can rise to the occasion and you will reap the rewards of growing/improving your skill set.
• Keep a positive attitude – While it’s ok to get down now and again, being upset isn’t going to get you anywhere. Keep your thoughts positive and continue to reach for the stars.

I leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and a devotion to the things you want to see happen.” -Frank Lloyd Wright

Anywho, after lunch, I hit up the mall to get a makeover for…a photoshoot Uptown with my fellow instructors and instructors-in-training!

We got dolled up with Chauna’s accessories – thanks Chauna!

We practiced posing in front of a large glass window. I know it sounds silly, but posing for photos is hard! You don’t know what to do with your legs/arms.

Picture time!

After the photo shoot, some of us grabbed dinner at Brixx. I started with a Carolina Blonde.
Side spinach salad – shot with Jaclyn’s (our photographer) camera. Thanks Jaclyn!

I got the BBQ Chicken Pizza and brought 2 slices home for hubby.
And, I tried to take some pictures of my make-up when I got home, but it doesn’t look quite as good now that I wiped off all the pretty pink lip stuff I had on earlier.

I got my makeover at the Bobbi Brown counter. I just love their make-up! The products are so nice and I like how they style you so natural.
  
Not the greatest photos, but you catch my drift. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share some from the photo shoot! That was so fun!
Reader question: How do you rebound from a failure?

I was hoping for more Flying Biscuit pancakes this morning since I’ve been craving them for the last week, but hubby and I had big plans this morning.

I woke up and caught our rabbit couple chasing each other around our yard. You can kind of see one of the little guys in the circle there towards the back. They were literally running in circles at full speed. Those guys are fast!

I made a quick breakfast of coffee and Power Toast with Great Harvest honey whole wheat toast topped with Barney Butter, sunflower seeds and hemp seeds.

100 Worms

Hubby and I met at a local charity garden for a composting class. The gardens were so cool to see and I loved how they had several good examples of companion planting (planting veggies/herbs that grow together well).

On the agenda:

• Leaf composting
• Worm composting

We learned how to set up and maintain a leaf composting bin. Hubby turned out to be quite the helper, offering to help out on two of the activities (stirring compost and turning compost). We learned a lot and I took a lot of notes – all on my iPhone in the Notes application.

Here are the notes I took (sorry they’re not prettified, but there’s some good tips in there for leaf composting):

• Don’t put bin under tree line (same distance as limbs) – or put cardboard under or a tarp or old carpet
• No grass clippings – smell
• Keep 30 ft from stream
• Not near neighbor (visually not that attractive & can smell)
• Put it somewhere convenient – need to get water to it & u get to it
• Shade or sunshine
• Use 12.5 ft length wire to form bin – can be smaller length wire. Not under 10ft
• When cutting wire, make sure one end flush – one end prongs
• Put hooks on outside
• Pests like scraps – need to bury scraps so they don’t smell it – 6-12 inches
• Hardest work 1st setup
• 4 layers – leaves, scraps (or rabbit food alfalfa) – 30 to 1
• Leaves, add scraps, add water, mix – repeat 3 times – top w dry leaves to finish
• Can’t wet leaves enough
• Can use cow manure but never dog or cat
• Let sit for 1 week
• Can use turkey thermometer to get heat.
• No meat
• Bread good
• Tea bags, coffee grounds good, coffee filters
• Don’t get leaves from pristine neighbors house – might mean they used chemicals
• After 1st week, lift wire bin over and off of the leaves – circle bin & pull up as you go to remove fencing. Can undo twines but they may break off.
• Once bin removed, set into new spot and fill with the leaves.
• Put outer leaves inside. Break up clumps.
• Flip every 3-4 weeks
• To feed (when you insert kitchen scraps, etc) u need a stiff bar-shove in bin. Circle to make larger hole. Add scraps, cover w leaeves. Use marking stick to show where u fed it.
• Should have compost in 3-4 months.
• Important for compost to cure.
• To tell if ready, compost should be cool – about outside temp.
• If still hot it’s not ready-don’t put on veggies or it will suck nutrients.
• If pile doesn’t heat up u may need more water or nitrogen
• Water when u flip

We got enough wire to set up our own leaf compost at home. Too bad we don’t have any leaves right now! I may have to check out some of my neighbors yards!

Next, we went inside to learn about vermicomposting, which is using worms to create compost called “worm castings.”

After a quick powerpoint presentation, we got to see an example bin and then start building our own.

Get your bins.

Drill holes. 8-10 on the bottom. 4-6 on the bottom sides. 12 along top of bin.

Fill with scrap paper or torn newspaper (tear in 1/2″ strips) to 3/4 full.

We took the bin outside, nested it with someone else’s bin (to be efficient with the water so the stuff that dripped from top bin would go into next. We just had to add enough water to soak the paper through.

Our paper shrunk down to next to nothing, so we’ll have to do this a couple more times.

But, for today, we went ahead and got our worms. Hubby and I are now the proud of owner of like 100 worms. Ok, I don’t know how many we actually got, but it must be something like that.

Worm composting notes:

• Use shredded paper or “core” – put in water & it soaks up 5gallons water.
• Core is ground coconut shells
• Food-anything organic. Not meat or PB or oils.
• 50% moisture is for leaf composts. Squeeze rest. Squeeze & if it stays in a ball it’s good. If some water drips – too wet for leaf bin. Good for worms. Worm composts prefer 70% moisture.
• To harvest worm castings, pull compost to one side and start a new side. Worms will migrate to new side. 2-3 weeks.
• Or take lid off put light on drive worms to bottom.
• Or cut a cantaloupe in half and out halves down. 12 hrs later most worms will be in.
• Or drill holes in bottom of new bin. Nest new bin over old one & they’ll migrate up. Like can o worms.
• Water once a week if needed.
• For the first 2 days, leave the bin in a room with the lights ON and lid off. This will get the worms used to the bin and keep them from trying to crawl out.
• Storm bin inside if possible (i.e. in garage) or if outside in shade. If the bin gets too hot, it will kill the worms.

One neat thing to note about the 2 types of composts:

• Leaf composts can take 4 months to yield usable compost
• Worm bins can take 4-6 weeks!!!

I’m planning to set up and maintain both, so I’ll keep you in the loop of how my bins turn out.

After composting class, hubby and I hit up the farmer’s market. We got some brussels sprouts, SC strawberries and gourmet tomatoes.

We also picked up some neat seeds. I went out of my way to find heirloom and non-GMO seeds…not to mention I was looking for some more unusual veggies. I was hoping the squash would fit in one of the corners of my square foot garden but upon addition research, I realized it’s just not going to fit. I’m hoping to possibly set up another bin just for squash…maybe a 2′x8′ bin?

I used some of the farmers market tomatoes along with some organic romaine, organic avocado, and black beans for protein for a lunch salad, topped with a quickly thrown together lime vinaigrette. It wasn’t that great (dressing) so I won’t bother sharing.

Plus, I had a Great Harvest berry oat bran muffin. Gosh these things are delish! I think I even prefer the heartier grains to traditional muffins made with white flour. I am turning into my dad!

Garden Update

Here are the plants I picked out with my mom yesterday after work: swiss chard, red pepper, cilantro, basil, and more marigolds.

I went ahead and planted some bush green beans in one square foot of my garden.

I also added a couple beet seeds in between since I read online beets are a good companion for bush beans (but not pole beans). Not sure how that’s gonna work out, but we’ll find out I suppose.

I noticed something interesting when I went to plant the chard.

Even the roots are brightly colored!!

The garden shops have been telling me not to plant chard yet, but yet they have the seedlings started! They said I may get a month’s worth of chard, so I figured I’m willing to take that risk. Supposedly, the plant won’t die when it gets hot, they just won’t produce much till it gets cold again. I’ve been running out of ideas for summer veggies that aren’t large, so I think we’ll be ok.

Here’s my updated garden. I still have 3 boxes empty. I think I’m going to plant more bush beans and maybe some herbs. It seems like lots of herbs are good at deterring pests, too!

Pretty veggies!

Bell pepper planted.

I also planted a new tomato in the center area of our yard. The dirt here is not Mel’s mix…it looks to be Carolina clay, so I’m not sure it’s going to work, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. Here, I added a Green Zebra tomato plant (these look so cool!) and a marigold. I heard rabbits don’t like marigolds.

I also added a marigold in front of the other tomato plant I put in the circle a couple weeks ago.

The garden is looking good! Now, if I can just keep the insects, pests, rabbits, and birds away, we’ll be doing great!

I also planted a new herb in a container pot on our porch – purple basil! I’ve never seen this before, but it looks so cool. I can’t wait to taste test it!

I totally got sucked in mystery TV shows on a semi-marathon today. Does that ever happen to you, too? I rarely sit around watching TV, but I think after the long traveling weekend last weekend and full work week, I was ready to veg out for a bit.

Reader question: Do you compost? What kind? Any composting tips you want to share?

So, about two weeks ago, I went with some friends to see Brendan Brazier, a vegan ironman, author of Thrive (The Vegan Nutrition Guide to Optimal Performance in Sports and Life) and Thrive Fitness (The Vegan-Based Training Program for Maximum Strength, Health, and Fitness) and formulator of Vega products. Based on the information about the session, I was pretty interested to hear what Brendan had to say, even though I’m not vegan, but I was surprised at how much I learned.

I thought that Brendan’s session would be more geared towards the vegan lifestyle, but there were many things that I learned that I think could be applied to any lifestyle: vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, or any other eating style.

Here are some of my favorite lessons learned from Brendan’s presentation:

• Energy by conservation: You can get energy by conservation by consuming foods that don’t take too much energy to assimilate. For example, gluten is actually hard to digest and can rob your body of energy. If your body has to put more energy towards digesting gluten, then it can’t put that energy towards your workout, etc.
• Same stresses: Stresses are the same no matter the source. Even exercise can be a form of stress on your body.
• Stressed too far: When you’re stressed, your cortisol levels are raised and can lead to adrenal burn out.
• Stress and Weight Loss: When cortisol levels are elevated it can be hard for you to lose fat or gain muscle.
• Stress Symptoms: Raised cortisol levels can cause trouble sleeping, sugar cravings, muscle tone not getting where you want it, etc. These symptoms are actually a good thing because they tell you something is wrong.
• Treating the Symptom vs the Cause: The common problem today is that people mask their body’s red flags. People treat the symptom (often via stimulants), not the cause. People drink coffee because they’re tired instead of just getting more rest/sleep. Brendan had a good example – if you’re driving and your check engine light comes on you can put a sticker over it to make the light go away, but that’s not really helping the root cause (which will eventually become a problem is left untreated).
• Alkaline-Forming Foods Are Good: Alkaline-forming foods are the cornerstone of good health. Greens are the most Alkaline-forming foods. These foods are good for: immune health, prevent osteoporosis, reduce inflammation, increase muscle functionality.
• Isolates Are Acidic: Whey protein isolate, soy protein isolate, etc. are acidic (you want to avoid acidic foods).
• Veg for B12: Good vegetarian sources of B12 are chlorella and nutritional yeast.

I think I really felt a connection with Brendan’s lessons because both he and I share a common interest: what food does for you. In fact, when I spoke with him to get his autograph (yep, totally bought the book after the presentation) and was talking about how I liked his lecture, we totally jinxed by saying at the same time that it was interesting “what food can do for you.”

I left thinking that my adrenals are probably completely burned out at the moment but most importantly I left with a newly refreshed curiosity to research what foods can do for me.

My main takeaways:

• Eat more alkaline-forming foods
• Work on better pre and post workout snacks. For pre, look for foods that are easier to digest. For post, look for good sources of protein that are not isolates
• Treat the cause, not the symptom – I think I’ve been working my way towards this approach over the last couple years, but it’s good to reinforce the idea
• Stock up pantry so I can try some Thrive recipes
• Experiment more with food – learn what works for me
• Continue to be curious about food and learn what they can do for me

I’ve been reading through Thrive for the last couple weeks and I really love it so far. I think the lessons are a little harder to apply to an omnivore’s lifestyle (than a vegan’s) and there are some obscure ingredients utilized in many of the recipes (though I’d like to add them to my pantry), but I’d really like to work on incorporating a bit more Thrive Diet into my lifestyle. In fact, at some point, I’ll be signing up for Thrive in 30. Can’t wait!

Reader Question: Do you treat the symptom or the cause?