The happenings of my hectic and eclectic life!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The “Mandatory” Rest Week

Who loves a “mandatory” rest week?! I do! I do!

I believe in rest. Yes, this is coming from a lady who goes to bed every night at 9:30 pm and would nap every day if I could. But, I also love it from a workout perspective. I’ve trained for four half marathons while running only three times a week and cross training two days. It works well for my body to rest in between my running days. And I am convinced that I need to just sit on the couch every few days. That’s not only good for my body but my sanity as well.

After running my farthest distance in my running career I decided I need to make myself rest from running for the entire week. I still participated in my regular Mommy Movement Fitness activities (www.mommymovementfitness.com) so Kaleb and I went to Strollers in Motion the day after the race and then I have been attending Core Fusion on Thursday nights.

The rest of the time I’ve been doing whatever I want! As someone who constantly has a list of projects to start and in the works I was really looking forward to this week to tackle some things. This week I’m going to share with you the “mashup” of things I’ve been doing recently and during my rest week.

Lunchtime Vegetarian

My friend Emily turned me on to a vegetarian blog called Cookie and Kate (www.cookieandkate.com) and of course, I’m addicted to it! The recipes are fantastic and the pictures are beautiful. I highly recommend checking it out!

I’m not a vegetarian, but I started eating vegetarian recipes for lunch as a way to incorporate more vegetables into my diet. I’ve been doing this for about three weeks now and it’s been really fun! Are you thinking, she’s got to be kidding? Who calls eating vegetables FUN?! But it’s been a great experience because it’s broadened my horizons. So far I’ve branched out to try brussel sprouts, butternut squash and quinoa and I’ve been baking with whole wheat flour. It’s been a great learning experience! I’m not gonna lie, I am kinda of enjoying hunting things down in the grocery store that I’ve never bought before.

Before you think I’m completely crazy, for me, having a healthy lunch with a 3 year old can be difficult because things get rushed and crazy and I tend to forget about myself. My system for awhile now has been to choose two recipes, make them both on Sunday and then alternate eating them throughout the week. There’s usually a day or two in there where I can mix it up with leftovers. But I’ve found it’s easy to make good choices when the food is already prepared and all I have to do is scoop it out and heat it up!

For the past couple of weeks I’ve picked two recipes from Cookie and Kate and also baked one item as well which I have used either as a side to my lunch or as an afternoon snack. From Cookie and Kate I have tried:

Honey Whole Wheat Pumpkin Bread
Apple Oatmeal Muffins
Butternut Squash Vegetarian Chili
Green Bean Quinoa Salad with Feta Spicy
Sun Dried Tomato and Broccoli Pasta
Strawberry, Basil and Goat Cheese Panini
Baked Chiocciole with Brussel Sprouts, Apples and Blue Cheese
Sesame Soba Noodles
Pear, Raspberry and Goat Cheese Crostini

My favorite so far was the Butternut Squash Chili! I ended up eating half of the chili for two meals and then freezing the other half of the recipe. It froze nicely and then I ended up reheating it another week and finishing it off! Although next time I will be research how to take on a butternut squash cause tackling that thing was the hardest part of the recipe!

I also tried a great recipe for Slow Cooker Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burritos. Delicious and super easy!  http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2012/03/slow-cooker-recipe-for-sweet-potato-and.html

Time to Get Crafty

I got out my crochet needles for someone special….and whipped up this newsboy hat!


Turns out I haven’t crocheted anything in a year! I learned my lesson about cleaning up after myself because all of my crochet stuff was a total mess. But it was fun to get out a pattern and make something again. Thank you to my dear friend Shalyn for asking me to get back in the saddle. Turns out getting back into crocheting really was just like riding a bicycle (or a horse?!)

My next project was making a dinosaur costume for my little one!!  This is something that was near and dear to my heart because I have very fond memories of my Mom making all of my Halloween costumes. I loved going to the fabric store with her to pick out the pattern and fabric. My Mom is a fantastic seamstress and I was spoiled by her skills!

Here’s my Snow White costume my Mom made me when I was little. I told you she was fantastic!


My sewing skills are minimal, so I was ridiculously excited when I was able to create this for Kaleb! And I did immediately call my Mom to make her FaceTime with me so I could show her!  Yes, I was photographing a moving target aka Dino…  


Thank you Just Sew Sassy for this fantastic tutorial! http://justsewsassy.com/2011/01/11/tuesday-tutorial-dinosaur-hoodie/

What Next?

I also spent part of this week thinking about what I want to do next. I love a routine. In fact I had a minor freak out the Monday after my race. I normally run on Tuesday morning so before bed I was talking to my husband about the morning routine. I just couldn’t wrap my head around the idea that I wasn’t going to run in the morning and it completely threw me!

Doing the Johnston’s Half Marathon in April is already on my radar, but I don’t usually start training for that until February. I did my first triathlon this summer and there’s an indoor tri coming up at the YMCA in December. So I think I’m going to give another go! 

It’s time to shift gears and get going again! I hope you spent your week doing something you love and possibly even trying something new!   

3 comments:

  1. Hmm, I think a rest week is good, but for me it was also sort of bad. After I ran my first half (well, only half) I used that as an excuse to take time off. Getting back into the swing of working out was really difficult and I still don't think I've gotten back into it (2 years later!!)

    PS~ Seeing you knock that hat out makes me want to finish my scarf so bad!!

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  2. I finally learned to use the sewing machine I received at my wedding shower, and I love it. Your dinosaur hoodie is so cute - good job!

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  3. You are making me want to crochet!

    Great job on the costume! I remember the first costume I sewed for Steve. He was Curious George, but everyone thought he was a bear. (Even though he had a red tshirt that said George in yellow cursive just like CG!)

    I am excited to check out the website. I have also been eating more meatless lunches, but they generally end up big kitchen sink type salads with chickpeas, beans, seeds, etc. as the protein.

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