Always eat breakfast

I love making quick, healthy breakfasts. Here are two of my favorites:

1. Cottage cheese, pineapples, and fiber one:

2. Whole wheat english muffin, peanut butter, and dried cranberries:

My third fave is Greek yogurt (my favorite brand is Fage), granola, and berries (blackberries, blueberries, or raspberries).

When I am in a big rush to get out the door, I grab a banana and a granola bar. I am usually too lazy for oatmeal or eggs, but I really should get into the habit of rotating them in.

And I need a blender to make Green Monsters!

And there you have my breakfast repertoire. I love sweet things for breakfast, so I should try some pancakes or waffles sometime! Or baked apples with cinnamon. Food blogs give me so many ideas.

Dinner with my kitty

I had a delicious dinner tonight. It’s a chicken tenderloin served over broccoli and cauliflower, topped with mango chutney. I LOVE chutney.

Jasmine enjoyed her dinner with me:

Yes, she eats with her paws. It’s adorable.

Let’s talk about running. Cuz I am running! Just not very fast.

I want to get faster. This means I need to do a few things:

1. Run more times per week

2. Run faster during the week

3. Eat healthier/lose weight

So, the plan is this:

Mondays – recovery run 3ish miles, not so fast
Tuesdays – faster run from Fleet Feet, 4-5 miles
Wednesdays – crosstraining
Thursdays – speed work, on track
Friday – rest day
Saturday – long runs, with SacFit. This Saturday we’re doing 6 miles, run/walk.
Sundays – rest from running, possibly cross train

And well, Weight Watchers. Actually tracking. Getting a handle on my eating. Which hasn’t been going so well, honestly. But I am not giving up.

I want to be updating this blog more, and eating better foods to show off. My goal right now is 3 posts per week. Here goes nothing.

Where have I been?

You just can’t predict life. You know?

I’m moved in to my new place. We got internet, it went out, and now it’s back. So I could be posting. This is true.

But somewhere along the way, I lost my way a bit. I try to eat healthy, and it goes to shit. Same old story, you know? Now I’ve got a kitchen but I still feel like a stranger in my own home. Maybe if I get my own kitchen stuff out of storage, I’ll feel more like cooking.

But maybe not.

The truth is, this is hard for me. It doesn’t come naturally – the cooking healthy, the grocery shopping, any of it. Add in some nasty PMS and you’ve got a recipe for disaster (pun intended).

But I’ve got a few things going for me.

1. I joined Weight Watchers. I’m mostly needing the weekly support and reminders. I’m definitely sucking at the tracking so far. But I’m going to keep going to meetings and going to keep trying to track.

2. I’m finally wading through all those magazines that have piled up for the past few months. I’m pulling out recipes that look good and hopefully that will inspire me to make some.

3. I’ve got someone I’m excited to cook for. That’s as much as I’ll say on this public blog, but I do forsee some dinners being planned and having some inspiration to attempt a good, healthy meal will help me get into the swing of things.

4. I’m hosting a girl’s night at my house on Feb 13th and I’m cooking for all of them. Another challenge to get me going.

In the meantime, I did photograph one delicious lunch that I was proud of. It’s a turkey sandwich with greek olive flavored hummus, spread on homemade sourdough bread (which was baked by my friend’s dad). It was fantastic:

I don’t ever envision myself being a daily food blogger, but I’d like to get back into the habit of writing about my running, while adding in cool and interesting meals I’ve cooked. Posting every day won’t be the goal, but maybe three times a week?

I apologize for being so MIA and hope you’ll forgive me as I try to get into the groove. I feel like I have a whole different life than I used to… and you know, I actually kind of do. I live in a different town, my job changed (still at nursing homes, but the locations have changed), I’ve got some new friends and a new distraction. It’s bound to be a little bumpy. But I’ll find my way.

I cooked!

I made Brooke and I taco salads for dinner! Ground turkey and black beans in taco seasoning, served on a bed of lettuce with cheese, olives, and salsa on top. There may have been some unpictured tortilla chips as well. NOM.

Technical difficulties

Well, I’m moved in to my new place, and I’ve even done a small grocery shop, but blogging remains difficult due to no internet at home until the 20th! Makes it hard to take and post photos, you know? But if I make a good meal or go on a run I’m really proud of, I’ll make a quick phone post like so. Just so you know I’m alive!

This morning I am enjoying some greek yogurt mixed with pumpkin, topped with walnut pieces. And coffee, of course, in a cool cup that my brother’s girlfriend got me for Christmas. There are 6 big cities on the cups. It’s like I’m traveling in my own home.

Goodbye, 2009!

Goodbye and good riddance!

2009 was, well, NOT a good year for me. Mentally, physically, emotionally, romantically…..

But by the end there, I figured out that trying to bulldoze my way down that same path year after year was not going to cut it. It was never getting better, and mentally, physically, and emotionally, I was breaking into little pieces. Which is why 2009 was the year of my breaking point.

I have to look at it that it’s good I cut my losses and moved forward, because this year I *can* work on getting happier. I’m going to do things for ME – pay down debts, travel, see movies, get better at my job, lose weight, become a better athlete, start dating… and 2010 is the start of all this.

I don’t know that I’ve ever felt like a New Years was as much of a “fresh start” as this one. Especially cuz I’ve always been in school – January is the MIDDLE, not the beginning. But this time, it’s more about the timing with my life – moving into my new place on Jan 10th with my kitty and all my stuff will really mark the start of me getting settled into my new life here.

So that’s why this New Years seems bigger to me than any other one has. It’s a huge turning point in my life.

Here’s to 2010!

Love,

Healthy Living Holly

Merry Christmas!

Check it out, my laptop is epic:

So, I can actually say I got my Christmas spirit back a little bit this year. The ex-husband killed it, little by little, every one of the 7 Christmases we spent together. Last year was the worst, naturally. Heading into this year, you’d think it would have been brighter just not having him there to spoil the Christmas fun, but actually it wasn’t better at all. Now I was single and lonely, and my life was in shambles. I felt like a terrible Grinch, but I hated being Grinchy and so I was the big catch-22 of self loathing. Not fun at all.

My family and friends tried really hard to get me in to the spirit. My mom made me decorate the tree, go Black Friday shopping, hang Christmas lights, the whole nine yards. I started to suspect something was coming back when I wanted to help my roommate Brooke wrap her presents and I requested Christmas music to be playing in the background. (I did mention that the Prozac might have helped with that a bit too). I knew something was up when about 2 weeks before Christmas I suddenly wanted to buy my good friends MORE gifts than what I’d already gotten for them, when I wanted to find perfect little trinkets they’d adore. I knew when I got my cat a stocking that I was getting the bug:

But I think the nail in the coffin happened when I started receiving wonderful gifts from friends. I got a gift from a new friend and it touched me that she already cared about me enough to put it in wrapping. I got handmade gifts and thoughtful exercise gifts. I got running socks and Gu. But the final nail was from my wonderful friend, Erin. She and I have been online friends for years, and we met this July when she flew out to run a half marathon with me. At that time, she bought our matching tops:

And for Christmas, she sent me a new pink Nike top along with a photo of herself wearing one and a note that said, “So what do you think? Matching tops for May?”

My eyes filled with tears. How did I get such wonderful friends? How did I get so lucky to have people who care about me this much? And I was so grateful to be feeling the love of the season, the good part of it. Sure, the commercialism can still leave me cranky and the scars from my ex-husband’s hatred of Crhistmas and making me cry my way through the day will always be with me. But if I can feel the love of the season just a little bit each year, I think I’m going to be fine.

Today I had a nice Christmas morning with just my mom and my two brothers, and an afternoon where my grandparents and my brother’s girlfriend joined us. Sunday we will have round two, including my mom’s boyfriend (who is a 911 dispatcher and therefore works overnight shifts on holidays) and his three kids, their significant others, plus one of my friends. Plus the grandparents and brothers and girlfriends again. Plus five dogs.

I leave you with a photo of one of my favorite gifts from today, my huge, fuzzy, “plush” body pillow. (Though the long sleeved tech shirt my brother got me was a close second). But with this thing, who needs a husband to hog the bed?

Goodnight.

Blogger awards

Hey guess what guys? I got my laptop! Which means that right now, I’m at my mom’s house, which is where I spend my weekends currently (aka where I have free time), and I’m ONLINE. Oh holy day.

So I want to catch up on two blogger awards I’ve been given. First, an embarassingly long time ago (coughoctobercough), Erin gave me the Over the Top Blogger Award:

To accept this award, I have to answer the following questions with one word answers, and pass the award on to six others. Ready, go!

1. Where is your cell phone? Desk
2. Your hair? Straightened
3. Your mother? Cooking
4. Your father? Alabama
5. Your favorite food? Thai
6. Your dream last night? Blank
7. Your favorite drink? Water
8. Your dream/goal? Happiness
9. What room are you in? Living
10. Your hobby? Running
11. Your fear? Failure
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy
13. Where were you last night? Presents
14. Something you aren’t? Bitchy
15. Muffins? YUM
16. Wish list item? GPS
17. Where did you grow up? California
18. Last thing you did? Wrapping
19. What are you wearing? Pajamas
20. Your TV? Storage
21. Your pets? Talkative
22. Your friends? Awesome
23. Your life? Scrambled
24. Your mood? Sleepy
25. Missing someone? Yes
26. Vehicle? Golf
27. Something you’re not wearing? Bra
28. Your favorite store? Target
29. Your favorite color? Blue
30. When was the last time you laughed? Yesterday
31. Last time you cried? Today
32. Your best friend? Many
33. One place that I go over and over? Starbucks
34. One person who emails me regularly? Brooke
35. Favorite place to eat? Thai

I tag these 6 people to join in the one-word fun: Lauren, Sarah, Andrea, Aron, Laura, Amber

Next, I also got a Beautiful Blogger award from Lauren:

To accept THIS award, I must name 7 random things about myself, and then tag 7 bloggers to pass the award on to. Random things:

1. I have a large lump on the tip of my nose, which has been there since I ran into a hopechest when I was a toddler. I think it gives me character.

2. I really don’t know how to flirt.

3. I was a competetive tap dancer when I was 12.

4. I hate losing touch with people, so in turn I maintain approximately 23948983745 friendships. Social networking helps with this immensly. And texting. I love texting.

5. I always wanted to be an amazing gymnast. I never took lessons when I was younger, and the classes I took as an adult resulted in knee surgery. Gymnastics FAIL.

6. I was born with a bald spot. Under the rest of my hair, thankfully!

7. I hate putting on makeup.

Seven beautiful bloggers I award: Selena, Erin, Danica, Kelly, Holly, Holly, and Holly (LOL).

Phew, now that I’m caught up, maybe some real blog posts will follow soon! YAY!

Cookie Exchange!

Yesterday I spent hours upon hours baking. And then this morning, I baked some more.

Why was I doing all this baking? Because Amy and Jose hosted a cookie exchange!

There were 15 people exchanging traditional cookies, and I think 7 more people trading vegan cookies. I made my favorite Cranberry Hootycreeks for everyone. The past two Christmases, I’ve made the beautiful cookie jars as gifts for people, and they’ve always raved about how delicious they are. So I tackled the huge task of baking 8 dozen of them myself.

You have to get a ton of baking supplies and make two batches at a time.

I have an issue with softening butter. I tend to soften it too much or not enough. Took me a few tries to get it appropriately soft, but the batches all turned out anyways.

But there was a big problem: my mom’s oven apparently does not get hot enough! My first batch just didn’t look like they were cooking, until…. they were overdone. Hard hockey pucks. WTF. Once I turned the oven up to 400 (the cookies bake at 350), I had no more problems.

This morning I baked 2 more batches to replace the hockey pucks, and threw them out. Look how delicious they turned out:

Ok, wait. We need a close up. Food p0rn:

I packaged them up all pretty! 14 half dozens in Christmasy bakery bags, and another baker’s dozen to share at the party.

There was a lovely spread of cookie + party appetizers to partake in:

And a whole TABLE of packaged goodies! I got one or two of each of the varieties:

And now I am left with a tummy full of sugar and butter! I will be taking many plates of cookies to share at my nursing homes this week.

And now, Brooke and I are going to do a kettlebell workout video to burn off a few of the cookies. Hasta!

It’s been a long, hard year

So, a few things.

1. I can’t handle this whole desktop computer and chair business. I am going nuts. Some days I don’t even turn it on. I also can’t handle the computer at my mom’s house that is from the stone age. So…..I ordered a laptop. (I had one, before, and it died right before my move). Estimated arrival date: Dec 22nd. This will make internetting and blogging MUCH easier.

2. I secured a permanent living situation! I will have a roommate in a 2 bedroom apartment in Vacaville, and my kitty will move in with me. This means no more driving back and forth to my mom’s house on the weekends! Moving date: Jan 10th.

3. This also means that I will be challenging myself to start cooking more dinners from scratch, and posting it to this here blog!

Meanwhile, while you wait for my blog to actually become cool in 2010, I will share with you two photos that have stories to go along with them.

I had a hard year. A long year. One that ended with a marathon (and a birthday). Here is my present to myself for completing the marathon:

My birthday was on Saturday. I am beginning my 29th year with a new life. Single, independent, and trying to find my way in this world. My mom took me out for breakfast and had them put a candle in my french toast (and I swear, I only ate half of this madness!)

So, Happy Birthday to me. I may be scarce until the above changes have occurred, but I can’t wait until I am blogging from my laptop, in my new apartment, photographing and eating a delicious healthy homecooked meal. Mid January 2010. See you then!