Carb Crazy and Italian Inspiration

I’ve already mentioned in the previous post that me being in the first phase of the intuitive eating path basically equals me eating a lot of ‘bad’ stuff to prove to myself that I can have them.

So yes I eat more sweets, but  most noticeable is my bread consumption.
You see, before intuitive eating I had created this habit of staying away from bread as far as I could for most of the week and giving myself a free pass to eat ‘some’ bread in the weekend. I guess it’s not surprising you that that was not how it went in the weekends, once I started to eat bread I just couldn’t stop.

The intuitive eating book has an amazing chapter about how we need carbs as our basic fuel and of how our body reacts to the absence of it. This  made me realise that it wasn’t because of my lack of willpower or my extreme fancy for bread that I acted the way I did, my body was just screaming for the carbs I did not give it and as soon as I would have some all it could do was ask for more and more and more…

So yes, I am eating more bread now, but paradoxically I might be eating less bread when you look at my week’s total! Crazy business indeed.

And because all of you should get your carbs in – you know, in order to not go crazy and consume everything in sight after I while – I suggest having bruscetta for lunch/dinner/now, just because you feel like having it!

‘Easy Bruscetta’

• ciabatta bread
• tomatoes
• mozzarella
• pesto
• herbs and spices of choice: I used a spaghetti mixture with basil oregano and paprika powder
• other veggies of choice

You can use of fresh loaf or ciabatta bread, I used that kind of bread you still have to put in the oven for about 10 minutes before you can eat it.

If you use the ‘not-yet-baked-kind’, bake it in an oven on 220°C (430F) for a couple of minutes before adding the toppings and place it back for about 8 minutes afterwards. Otherwise just add the toppings and bake/grill in the oven for about 8 minutes on 220°C.

Served with spinach, peaches, avocado and coleslaw.
See I don’t just eat bread you guys 😉

Love, M.

Take Me Out

Let me sniff flowers

Feed me loads of fruits and veggies

Snack plate with tomato, radishes, broccoli and cucumber dip,
grapes, a peach and melon.

Lamb’s lettuce, raw broccoli with more spinach dip, rashes, melon, carrots and coleslaw with soy nuggets

Show me magic

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern,
go buy this pronto, install yourself in a chair in the back yard with a plate of watermelon and prepare to be swept away into a world were dreams come true.

Love, M.

Let the Games Begin

I finally got my hands on a Hunger Games edition!

I’ve been looking for these series for over a year, but they could not be found anywhere in Belgium. Thank god for the people who decided to make a movie out of it, otherwise I might have never found the book at all.
I finished this book in two days. It where busy days filled with classes and social ‘events’ but I just had to read every spare moment I had!

I can’t wait to see the movie but most of all I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. Locating them will be another problem I guess ;).

Now I’m off to study for a while,work on a paper and prepare dinner.
I’m taking another yoga class tonight as yesterday’s noon class was really invigorating and I’ve finally come to the point that I can walk down the stairs and not feel every muscle in my body aching the days after that type of yoga class. I am keeping it low key with an easy flow class though, one ashtanga class a week is plenty for now.

Love, M.

Kitchen Sink Salads and new Reads

Somehow the salads made out of all the leftovers lying around in (and around) the fridge always turn out to be the best ones.

Somehow it also seems you can’t remember what exactly went in them when you want to try to make them next time, there always seems one thing or another missing…

that’s why today’s kitchen sink salad got documented for future use: Lamb’s lettuce, cherry tomatoes, carrots, some leftover tuna, some mashed mango, vitality mix.

Quinoa on the side

Enough about salads now, let’s talk about something serious 😉 the sis and I went shopping today and she bought a super cute winter coat.

The best moment of the day was (of course) our visit to the book shop.
I couldn’t make a choice between two books and eventually the sis helped me out: she had her eyes on those two books too, so we decided to each by one and swap, so we could read both.

The sis got ‘The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake’

I went with ‘When God was a Rabbit’
(I would have bought it just for the cover, so cute) 

Another highlight today: we went for some coffee at ‘ Nosh’, and I ate a bagel for the first time in my life, a peanut butter – banana bagel…  it was pure bliss on a (cute) plate.
Next time I’m in for a breakfast treat, I know where to go.

Love, M.

Monday: many Highlights, one Low

The Highlights

Green apples are back in my life!!
Though I’d say I’m a sweet tooth and I would never give up my favourite Gala apples for any other kind in the world (so far), I really enjoy a tangy green apple from time to time.

My promoter just handed my over this baby, more info for my bachelor paper!

Quinoa salad with tomato and chickpeas, hmmm yummy in my tummy!

My fridge looks rather happy as well, don’t you think?
It’s star components:

Hummus, you always manage to make me smile!

Tofu for tomorrow’s experiment..
Marinate and (with a bit of luck ;)) eat

Pretty vintage shoes!
I found these while cleaning up in my grandma’s attic when they were packing all of their stuff cause they were going to move, I also confiscated a purple pair of shoes… that was a good day.

One very,very,very low…

I’m actually quite ashamed to tell you this…

I still feel so bad about it!
So, this afternoon I decided to grab a coup of instant soup, I still had a new package with peas and croutons lying around in my cabinet and I took that one.
I ate a couple of spoonfuls and something just tasted funny, a bit off.. it tasted a bit like ham or bacon…. (can you see where this is going?!)
I immediately went to check the container, and yes, it was indeed containing ham (ie. pork…. ie. meat!!)

and even though I only ate a couple of spoonfuls, I still feel so bad about it !

I should have checked the package before I ate it, but I remember buying it and taking this one on purpose because it didn’t seem to have meat in it, all of the others had things like ‘with chicken’ on it in big letters on the front of the packages so I thought it was safe…
So yeah, I’m feeling a bit like a vegetarian failure now…

Love, M.

Week Two: Mindfulness and the Body

Mindfulness helps us get better at seeing the difference between what’s happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening, stories that get in the way of direct experience. 

In week two of Sharon Salzberg’s meditation plan the emphasis lies on mindfulness with regard to our own bodies.

Now that we’ve practised to concentrate in the first week, we’re going to try to use that concentration to be mindful and just live in this moment.
Doing the exercises that focus on being aware of your body will also make you more aware of it when you’re not meditating.

In this week the aim is to meditate four times for 20 minutes. The focus isn’t just on breathing any more, but also on sounds that surround us and on our own physical feelings (the emotional feelings will be dealt with in next week’s program).

The different exercises go from a total body scan to a meditation on walking (I haven’t tried that one yet, but it sounds like fun). I really liked the body scan exercise, it made me feel focused and aware of my body.
It made me feel at home in my own body.

Trying to be more aware of small, everyday things can really make a difference. One of the ‘mini-meditations’ mentioned in the book focuses on drinking tea in mindful way.

In my opinion, this kind of meditation is very useful for runners (or people who do other sports for that matter). I’ve noticed some minor soreness in my shin during meditation, because I was so in sync with and focused on my body.
On my next run I remembered feeling that soreness and indeed it was present, hidden behind all the endorphins, but there was certainly a bit of tightness in my shin. I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t practised meditation but now I was able to deal with it before it could become a real problem (I took it easy, put some ice on the tight spot after running) and a couple of days later the tightness was gone.

Mindfulness for Breakfast, anyone?

I’m trying to be more mindful in everyday life, and I’m particularly trying to eat more mindful: not just wolfing down whatever’s in front of me, but trying to really taste and enjoy it. It’s really hard though, I’ve only succeeded in this a couple of times, most of the time I only think about trying to be mindful after I’ve finished my plate, whoops 😉

Mindfulness isn’t difficult,
we just need to remember to do it.

Next post on this subject will be about the third week of this program, mindfulness and emotions.

Other posts on this subject:
Real Happiness: the Power of Meditation
Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation – Introductory Post
Week One: Concentration

6 Things ‘Runner’s World Complete Book of Women’s Running’ taught me

1. It’s all about motivation

To get motivated it’s important to set goals, to stay motivated it’s important to make these goals realistic and to set short-term as well as long-term goals.
It’s also important to choose goals that fit your abilities and interest (Don’t train on speed if actually all you really want is to run an x-amount of miles, it won’t motivate you a bit).

Tip: Keep a training journal to log your distance and speed and add some info about how you were feeling that day or make a running schedule and keep it somewhere in sight.

2. Don’t overdo it

By now we all know that rest days are the most important days in our training schedule but Dagny Scott also talks about ‘minimal training for maximal results’. Following a schedule that’s best for you doesn’t necessarily imply running as much miles as you can cram in your week .
The schedule that’s best for you is a personal thing, it’s the schedule that allows you to run enough miles and have enough training days to get fit and improve but that also allows you to still feel energetic and strong.

Make a balance of what you’re putting into your training and what you’re getting in return. Don’t be embarrassed to make your training less hard or to settle on fewer miles.

3. Mental aspects of running

Dissociation (thinking of other stuff while running to divert your mind from pain, tiredness etc) is only beneficial in lighter trainings. As soon as you’re running further or faster you’ll need your mind to help you to keep going, you need to concentrate to keep your pace. Having a positive attitude will help you a lot to push yourself.

Tip: Practice on keeping positive and on motivating yourself on lighter training days, that way you’ll be able to use this when you really need it on harder training days.

4. Every training has at least one success

There are a lot of negative things you can come up with when thinking about your training (not fast enough, not long enough, already out of breath after 5 minutes,…), but isn’t it more fun to focus on positive stuff. Positive things happen as well, maybe they’re just little things, like going for a run instead of staying in bed like you’d rather done.

Tip: If you’re not feeling like running at all, focus on the beginning of your training instead of the whole training. Often the ‘going outside and start to run’ part is the hardest, after that you just fall in to an automatism. At least try to go out and try to run, but also be kind to yourself, if you’re still not feeling it after 10 minutes maybe you should just take a rest day or do some cross training instead, at least you tried (each training has at least one success!). 

5. Take care of your body

We all know about stretching and warming up/cooling down but the scheme on starting to train again after injuries in this book was really useful:

no running for 1 week = start training at distance you’ve reached before injury
no running for 2 weeks = start training at 1/2 distance you’ve reached before injury
no running for 3 weeks = start training at 1/4 distance you’ve reached before injury
no running for 4 weeks = restart training!

and don’t forget: increase your distance for 10% per week, maximum! 

6. Run safely

• Follow your intuition, if your gut tells you something isn’t quite right, chances are it isn’t quite right!
• Feel confident, look confident (and always bring your phone with you!)
• Don’t run the same route on the same days, change things up
• Let someone know where you’re at, or make sure to write your route in your training journal

On ‘Real Happiness: the Power of Meditation’

Warning: this is a post with just two picture in it and a lot of words 😉
It is also a post without chocolate or PB to distract you, cause it is kind of a book review…

No seriously, if you’re interested in meditation or trying to find something to release tension and to become more contented this can be quite useful.