Pa-PIE-ahhh

Does anyone else ever get their second wind at oh, say 11:00 pm? Well, well, well, I sure did last night. I think it was the papaya post that was looming over me, I couldn't sleep. Aneta and I picked this glorious fruit to report on this week and I just wasn't sure about it at first.

I mean, look at this thing!


I know I have had papaya before, but I couldn't remember if I liked it or not. So this was a good excuse to buy one and give it a review. I also thought papayas were smaller like mangos. But no, this baby weighed something over 3 pounds. I tried to find the smallest one because I wasn't sure if I was going to like it and well it was like $1.00 something per pound!


I am trying to figure out what to with all this fruit... did someone say pa-pie-ahh? Yep, I'm turning this baby into a pie, because seriously there is just too much papaya for one person.

So let's cut this beast open already!


Once you cut it in half, you must scoop out the seeds. Haven't you always wondered what the inside of a papaya looked like?


Since I am using the fruit in my pie, I chose to cut off the outer skin. Which was super to ease to remove with a knife.


Then you slice into pieces or cubes (for the pie) and enjoy!


So the aftermath...tasted similarly to a melon to me. And I hate to say it but I am soooo not a fan of melon. It's not as pungent but there is a little melony taste lingering. I did enjoy the soft texture of the fruit though.

The pa-pie-ahh recipe has a better chance I think.

What you need to make Pa-Pie-Ahh:
- half of papaya cubed
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup oatmeal
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp salt
1 pie crust

Basically just mix all the ingredients except the papaya in a bowl. Once mixed thoroughly put 1/3 of mixture in the bottom of pie crust.


I mixed 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract into the papaya cubes before pouring them into the pie crust. Then top the papaya with the remaining mixture from bowl and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.



Holy Yum! Okay so the end result is that the papaya taste is very very mellow in the pa-pie-ahh. But fresh out of the oven and mixed with the yummy mixture it tastes like a cobbler. Mmmm Mmmm... And it was SOOOOO easy to make.

Any suggestions on what to do with the other half of the papaya? I just don't think I can stomach eating it alone. But I didn't mind it mixed up in the cobbler pie! Also don't forget to head over to Aneta's for her take on this freakishly huge fruit.

Happy Feet

So you may have noticed that my PILE ON THE MILES for the month of December was pretty much non-existent. This had A LOT to do with my foot scare from a few weeks ago. The one where I thought I had a broken bone or better yet that I might need surgery.

The doctor informed me that I had a bruised bone and a new pair of running shoes was in order. I opted to take it easy on the feet until I could follow doctors orders.

Well I seized the day on Saturday and did what any good girl would do. I broke down and bought myself a belated Christmas gift. That's right, I finally bought some new running shoes.


These babies are Asics. I hate to admit it, but I was a little nervous to change shoes. I was previously wearing New Balance.

I did however, go to my favorite SHU Shop in Boise. It's called Shu's! They gave me the full foot analysis and watched the way I walked. I even got to jog around the outside of the store a few times trying different shoes. The Asics felt liked heaven.



You can tell that it was time for something new. And my feets were surely thanking me today after my glorious run yesterday.

The boyfriend and I went on another leisurely run together. This time for 3.25 miles. Sunday's run was all about trying out the garmin and SPIbelt. Monday's run was all about the Pink Runners! I have to say that my body was still feeling heavy from the Christmas Overload and I was not running my usual pace. I usually keep it in the low 10 min/ mile. But oh no, not yesterday.

My splits:
Mile 1: 10:29
Mile 2: 11:05
Mile 3: 11:06
.25: 3:17
Total: 35:59

All you runners out there, I need a little running shoe advice. I was originally told when buying my first pair of running shoes that it is a good idea to go up a half or full size when buying shoes to give your piggies some wiggly room. So I ended up with size 8 1/2 running shoes, (I normally wear 8's). So the new shoes ended up being a size 8 running shoe when I got them home.

Is this normal? The Asics are a lot more fit to my foot, but I will have to invest in thinner running socks. The New Balances always seemed a bit big that I overcompensated with thick thick running socks.

Just curious what your rule of thumb is when buying new running shoes? I have 30 days to try out my new shoes and I can return them if I don't like the way they feel. So far so good.

On that note, the Pile on the Miles numbers will be spiking as I am so overjoyed with all my new running digs! YAYAYYAYAYAYAYAY! That is my excited scream! :)

Ready To Run!

Oh yeah!

Ready, ready, ready, ready...ready to run
(The Dixie Chicks said it best!)



I promised to give you a full report on some of the special running items I received from Santa. I definitely felt like a little kid this Christmas with all the fun stuff I received. I didn't know that there were so many gadgets and gizmos out there for runners. So that made my Christmas list really easy this year. Anything that can help me run or help motivate will be awesome!

I am still building up my running clothes wardrobe. As I have not yet been running a full year, I still haven't all the right warm and cold weather clothes yet. That is until I received this awesome Nike long sleeved moisture wicking shirt!

It is light-weight and great for layering. I found it very comfortable and no chaffing problems.



I was in need of all types of wicking shirts, so you can believe my surprise when I saw that I got a short sleeved pink one! I like to layer the long sleeved then put the short on top, usually covered by a wicking jacket for the cold weather runs. It's great for keeping the core warm.



The biggest issue I have had since I began running was wear to put my keys and cell phone? I seriously do not feel safe running without a cell phone and have roughed it up until this point. That was until the SPIbelt came into my life.



Oh lovely SPIbelt, how I love thee. One word to describe the SPIbelt...AWESOME! It fit my cell phone, I.D & keys perfectly. The boyfriend tried to call it a fanny pack, like that was a derogatory thing. Oh well, it got the job done. It didn't shift around while running. And honestly I never even noticed it was there. YAY!



And the biggie...the thing that I really really really wanted most. I am hugely motivated by numbers, times, distances, ANYTHING really. I recently lost my i-pod and nikePlus which gave me a pretty accurate reading of distance and times when I ran.

I found that the GARMIN Forerunner 405 also does this and much much more! It tracks my pace, distance, time running, heart rate and all through GPS.



Garmina,(I decided to name her this morning) is my new running bff. Her and I are going to rock it in 2010. We are going to run a lot, we are going to run fast, and we are going to run far. How far? Well 26.2 miles to be exact! She is going to motivate me through my marathon training this coming year.

I was so excited to try out all my stuff that I geared up for my first after Christmas run!


I am definitely sporting the layered shirts, the SPIbelt and Garmina! I have to admit I was a little scared at the high-techness of Garmina. I wasn't sure if it would be easy to operate while running. It was so easy! The whole watch is touch sensative. And it shows your pace & distance on the screen as you run. This is a great tool for me as I am working on my speed per mile. I can also use it to track my distance when I start branching out on longer runs.

I ran a 2.5 mile run today. A lot shorter of a distance than normal but it was only 27 degrees and I have not ran in a week. I just wanted to give all the gear a little test run. I am so blessed to have received such useful and thoughtful gifts! I had a great runners christmas and am now seriously ready for any run!

A Christmas Re-cap

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I know I sure did. There was an abundance of family, food & fun. The only thing that was truly lacking was the running, oops! I was able to squeeze in a little shredding action on Christmas eve and today. Our Christmas went as follows....

There was some of this.


It is Christmas tradition that my dad and I make lasagna for the entire family for Christmas Eve dinner. We are Italian and we take this job very seriously! So the key to having the best lasagna ever is "wine at nine". Yes, you heard me. The lasagna tastes better with a little wine in our systems. So as you can barely read in the picture above we had our first drink at 9:59 am. We almost didn't make it!



And lots of this.


Well this is not lasagna, but it was really delicious. Playing cook all day really works up an appetite. So we made our new favorite treat, un-stuffed mushroom's.

The grocery store was out of regular full mushrooms so we ended up buying sliced portabello's and pre-sliced mushrooms and lightly sauteing them and topping them with goodies -a little left over sausage from the lasagna, some celery, sprinkle of Parmesan and cooked in a bit of sherry. AH-MAZ-ING! :)

So I also sported the mini-Bronco tree!













The tree is blue and the lights are orange (BSU's colors!). Boise State Broncos will play in the Fiesta Bowl this year on January 4th and I hoping the tree brings them luck. The last time I rocked the bronco tree they won the Fiesta Bowl and that was 2007. So here's hoping!

People started arriving and Mom got her christmas attire on. Isn't she cute?


My grampa was wearing his new mobster-esque hat. He looked good!


And grama was looking super cute too!


As mentioned before, there was tons of food. I still can't believe I didn't take a single picture of any of it. The best family you could ever ask for! And tons of fun. We played JENGA together. It's been years since I have played that game!

I did also have the stinging reminder of The 30 Day Shred level 3 in my quads all day. I am not kidding when I say you can feel the burn in level 3. There are planks, and plank-jacks (you are in plank position combined with jumping jacks), scissor sit-ups, lunge jumps, and sumo jumps. The intensity is there and YOU WILL FEEL IT THE NEXT DAY! So due to a few unanticipated days off last week I may be extending my 30 day shred challenge a few days longer. I am afraid my awesome results from last week may have co-mingled with the food & wine induldance had at ALL my christmas activities and left me at square one.

I will be back tomorrow to give a full report on the special running items left from santa! :)

Goody Overload

So moment of truth here. Is anyone else really scared of all the temptations that will be dangling themselves in front of your face this week?

The mouthwatering trays of cookies, the delicious cheese plates, the cheesecake, the endless supply of wine and the appetizers galore. I must say if this week is anything like last week I am going to be in trouble.


Last week went like so...

Monday: Office Birthday Party

Wednesday: Office Baby Shower

Thursday: Office Christmas Party

Friday: Friend's College Graduation Party

Saturday: Christmas Cocktail Party


SERIOUSLY PEOPLE! I dunno if I can do this for two more weeks. Our backroom at work is stacked high with goody baskets. There is fudge, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate covered cherries, more cheese plate, fruit basket (saving grace), and this huge 10 gallon bucket filled to the brim with bags of chips, candy, beef jerky etc.

It's as if these people think more than 9 people work in my office. But no, there are only 9 of us. For the record at least 3 people will be out of the office this week, leaving all this lovely goodness for 6 people.

And I guess I wouldn't be so upset about the office goodies if all had gone the way it was supposed to last week. But by Friday night all logical and healthy thoughts and decisions had gone out the window. Just trust me when I say it was bad!

So I have to start this week as a clean slate and hope that I can make better decisions. Like way better.


I can do this.


I have a little mantra that I have written on a post-it note and put in every room of my house & at work.

"COMMIT TO EXCELLENCE EVERYDAY"

I am going to stare at this little post-it every time I even have an inkling to head back to that break room. Because I am SO close to finishing the Shred next week with progress made. And so close to ending 2009 in a deficit!

WISH ME LUCK! :)

Fruity Friday!

So Aneta & I are back with a brand new to us exotic fruit to taste and tempt your taste buds!

I love this project because so many times I have eyed some of these weird fruits and wondered what fruity powers they held. Now I have an excuse to buy them guilt free and taste away!


Today we present you with the Pummelo.


I have never even heard of this fruit and actually almost walked right by it thinking it was a cantalope or something. But oh no, this thing is far from a cantalope or even a melon. It is a part of the grapefruit family.


It clocks in at 1.5 pounds! I just read somewhere that it's the world's largest citrus fruit! The picture above is my rendition of a Pummelo medicine ball. Seriously, I could do some sweet ab workouts with this thing!

So to prepare this fruit for eating is similar to that of an orange. A very LARGE orange. I found a great You Tube video on how to peel a Pummelo. They advised piercing the skin of the fruit and making a circular slice around the fruit from top to bottom. Then peeling the outer skin in the same pattern.


Once you have taken off the outer skin you need to pull off the white inner skin. Just like an orange! Except, there is a lot more to it!



So what I liked about this fruit was that is slightly tangy like a grapefruit but without so much *PuCkeR* sour. It was as if a grapefruit & an orange had a giant baby! lol. Seriously though.

It was delicious and I will be eating if for DAYS because this colossal beast is just that big!

The downside is that there is a lot of preparation to eating this thing. The white skin protecting the yummy fruit is a pain to cut off and took a lot of time.

I give the Pummelo two thumbs up! And don't forget to stop by Aneta's blog to hear opinion of this freakishly huge fruit.

And please join in the fruity friday fun and let me know if you have ever tasted this fruit and what you thought about it.



Oh and can I just say that I watched the movie Julie & Julia last night, you know the one about Julia Childs? I had NO idea that Julie was a blogger and I was cracking up the whole time! I have only been blogging about 2 months and I could definitely identify with Julie. Doing these fun blog projects just makes me think of Julie's 365 days and 500-something recipes she had to cook. Awesome!

Happy Friday Everyone!

A little over halfway!

Well I have definitely felt like this.....




And hope by the end of the 30 day shred to look like this!


Ha ha ha! I got this card in the mail from Gold's Gym. I thought it was pretty clever to use a gingerbread cookie in conjunction with getting fit. But it really makes me want gingerbread cookies now!

So my 30 Day Shred Challenge has me at day #18 today. Which leaves me with 13 more shreds (including today). And level 3 starts next week - eeeeek!

My Shred results so far....

- My body feels tighter

- I fit perfectly into my size 12 jeans last night (haven't been able to wear these for at least a year, and before I started this challenge was a sure size 14. (And this is the first time I have openly admitted my size for the whole world to know, kind of liberating...)

- My muscles are noticeably stronger when you touch them

- I cheated and stepped on the scale and am down 3 pounds since starting the shred! :)

- And I was finally able to do 10 regular non-girly push-ups without stopping. (This was a hard one for me! I liked to stop at 9 a lot). -

This is my halfway check-in point and I am super stoked with these results thus far! I thought about saving my results for the very end but thought I was too proud of the progress I have made this far. I wanted to share the little victory as a way to keep myself on track.

Do you celebrate the little victory's? If so, does the results good or bad motivate you to keep going stronger until the end?

(Sometimes if I see that I making good progress I am more lenient on myself and then end up losing momentum. But not this time!)

The Power of a Vision

Having a vision or a goal has always been important to defining my path. I feel lost without it and use it to motivate and keep me on track.

Once a year my family and I get together and do a goal brainstorm session. It's always been a positive way to gather our thoughts and really think about what we want our future to look like. It's a time to set goals and even recognize progress we have made. *Warm fuzzies*

The first year in which we embarked on our vision board project I had no idea how powerful it would be. I just cut out pretty pictures and words I liked. When we were all done we were supposed to share our visions.

Mine had a athletic looking girl who was running through a neighborhood. I liked her because she resembled me looking fit. (Two years ago I was not working out and was not healthy, this girl was my healthy fit vision of me).

This past September the family wanted to get together and reflect upon our old vision boards and make new ones for the 2009-2010 year. So I pulled out my old vision board and was surprised at how it sort of told the future.



The fit looking girl was a runner! Yes, running with determination on her face. This girl was ME! I was stunned. When I made the vision board I just wanted to get healthy and in shape. I had never even thought about running, let alone running races or even a marathon.

Pretty crazy huh?

Well, the above picture is actually my vision board for this year. I liked the idea & picture of the running girl so much that I cut her out of the old vision and put her into my new vision board.

The other part I really like is the YOU vs YOU saying. It totally is ME vs ME. I am the only one who can make this happen. I am the only one holding me back. But not anymore. I am going to prove to myself that I can do this. I can lose 20 more lbs and I can run a marathon and nothing or no one is going to stand in my way!



I love this project so much and suggest anyone to do it. It really helps to put your vision into something you can see. It's nice to be able to pull it out at anytime to reference your progress too. And with the new year upon us is a great new years resolutiony thing to do. Create your 2010!

And you just never know how powerful your vision is. Sometimes it takes you above & beyond your minimal goals. So watch out!! Marathoner coming through! (Seriously, I had never in my life thought about running long distances.) Who knew that Destination 26.2 would be my vision?

Checking off the list...

Making a list
Checking it twice...



Okay not that kind of list.



But this kind of list.


A weekly workout goal list.


I have seen a lot of people posting their weekly goals and thought it would do me good to do the same. I have had alot of excitement toward setting my goals but I have not been very good about being specific. I am living in a big picture world right now. Doing workouts here and there and waiting for the results. I did not realize that I was kind of bouncing around, not being consistent and well possibly with no real direction. I now see how important setting daily & weekly goals are to being successful.

This week brings a lot of fun and exciting things and to start things off we will start with yesterdays goals.


Monday:
6:00am Shred Level 2 (Check!)
7:30pm Zumba Class (Check!)

ZUMBA! Well awhile back I heard Kara talking about this Zumba class she took. Then I noticed that my gym was finally offering this class and I was EXCITED. It took me about 1 second to decide that I must join in the fun.

Zumba is a high intensity super fun salsa infused dance class. There are mamba's, cha cha's and meringue numbers. Each song has a different dance routine. They were mostly easy to follow. At times I felt like I was clubbing it up on a Saturday night! A few moves were a little embarrassing.. tee heee... And a whole lot of HIP SHAKING! Shakira is going to be my new best friend! By the end I was wiped out.

Zumba Video - Click here to check it out. This looked similar to my class but the music a bit different.

I forgot how much fun dancing is. I used to do it ALL the time. But this is a great mix of cardio and dancing!

I decided to put it into my list of workouts so that it had to be done! I know that by having my weekly goal list I will be a lot more focused and accomplish a lot more. By next week I hope to be a lot more specific in my individual goals. Such as run X miles at X speed... or something like that. I hate to be too specific, but know now that I am not being specific enough.

What works best for you? Do you like to wing it on the workouts or does a detailed plan work better? I'm trying to find tricks to be successful but not feel overwhelmed.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S + Pancakes = <3

Can’t you see that it’s just SNOWIN'
There ain’t no need to go outside.

But baby, you hardly even notice
When I try to show you
This song It's meant to keep you
From doin' what you're supposed to
Like wakin' up too early
Maybe we could sleep in
I'll make you banana pancakes
Pretend like it's the weekend now
~Jack Johnson

Ahh... Such a lovely way to start my Sunday. I have to say that these banana walnut pancakes were unbelievably delicious!

Just take your normal pancake recipe add a half cup of mashed up bananas and a handful of crunched up walnuts and you have scrumptious pancakes. I added more bananas on top for extra banana-ness.

After my breakfast I got right on to shredding it up. I have now graduated to level 2!


The 30 Day Shred level 2 definitely steps it up. The cardio seems to be more intense and harder. I looked like I just stepped out of my kickboxing class after my 20 minute Shred session (I was that sweaty!).

The Shred in itself is a 20 minute work out. It consists of 3 levels. 1 being the easiest and 3 being the hardest. Each 20 minute work out consists of 3 sets of 3 minutes of strength workouts, 2 minutes of cardio and 1 minute of abs.

The thing I like the most about it is that it goes by fast and I actually feel like I am working myself. You have the ability to make it harder or easier by how you push yourself.

I have to admit some days I just don't want to do it but once I get started and Jillian is staring directly at me I know I better do what she says. Oh Jillian! Her and I are becoming besties these days!

If you haven't shredded yet but have questions please feel free to ask. I am loving it so far and am really starting to feel results. My abs feel tighter and I feel stronger.

And my favorite... J. Alabama (the boyfriend) grabbed my arm yesterday and said "Babe, your muscles feel bigger/stronger" - or something like that. He definitely noticed a difference by feeling my huge muscles! ha ha! That gave me a huge boost and made me feel that I am on track!

Pear Compear

Today I was rocking the side 80's pony tail. As a girl born in the 80's it's sort of a right of passage and today felt like the day to show it off to the world.

I started my day with another awesome session of Cardio Kickboxing. This class was a little rough today due to the fact that I rocked it last night. I had the day off today and wanted to take advantage of attending it as my schedule usually only allows me to go once a week. So back to back kickboxing made me a bit sore but it was such a great feeling.



Today was also a day in which I wanted to indulge in the PEAR COMPEAR challenge. Aneta at Confessions of a Rambunctious Runner and I have talked about reviewing fun & exotic fruits. Our lovely pick for this week was the Prickly Pear.

Now how to eat such silly looking fruit? It is actually fruit of a cactus which I did not know before this project. With the name like pear I had my suspicions on how I thought it would be.



First you cut each end off and then make a slice down the middle only piercing the skin of the fruit.


Then the skin peels off easily, like so.


A.Bomb (the brother) seems to be undecided. He was weirded out by the seeds. He said it had the consistency of a pear but seeds like a pomegranate. He said he would probably buy it again.


Dad on the other hand wasn't impressed with this particular prickly pear. He has had it on a different occasion and explained that it didn't seem ripe enough.


Hard to gage after his explanation. I found it to taste of watermelon, very watery. But not a whole lot of spunk. I thought the juicyness would hold a new and exciting taste but it was calm and unexciting. I did however like it better than the persimmon.

I was even more surprised to read Aneta's comparison which was very similar! Let me know if you have had the Prickly Pear experience and feel free to compear the pear with us!

Missing in Action

I'm BAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

(Did you miss me?)

I would just like to say that I have missed the bloggy world this past week and all of your encouraging blogs and words. I wish I could say that I was vacationing on some tropical WARM island, or running a grand race somewhere. But I wasn't doing any of those things.

Though, I was lucky enough to be working many long hours for my job which was actually pretty darn cool. I got to hang out with all the Idaho County Sheriffs for the past 4 days. I was the conference coordinator for their annual conference.

The upside is that I learned A LOT of cool things, met some really interesting people and did what I love (event planning and execution). LOVE LOVE LOVE!

The downside is that my days ran long up to 13 hours one day, leaving little or no life left in me by the time I arrived home. I managed to shred it up on monday, but by tuesday & wednesday I was done.

I felt as though I was letting you all and myself down by not forcing myself to shred it up these last two days. But I realized that sometimes you just have to say no and that's okay.

I think it's important to listen to your body and to give it what it needs. Today is a new day though and I have accomplished not only Day #11 of the Shred, but an hour of Cardio Kickboxing class and quick mile on the treadmill. Woah, double duty hardcore-ness! I know! :)

So thanks for understanding, I really really really wanted to do 30 straight days of shredding. But I am back on the horse people. So here's to 19 more days of shredding craziness! Oh and level 2 starts tomorrow! Wish me luck!

It's been there all along

My favorite place - Cinque Terre, Italia


So I am hearing alot about about people planning fun trips in the near future. Gina is headed to New York, Marlene is going to Cuba, Caitlin is going to England and my friend & former roomie Tracy is going to Italy and ALL over Europe!

There is a special place in my heart that has been saved for Italy. In 2002-2003 I had the opportunity to live in Torino, Italy for 9 months during my time in college and was matched up with the four most perfect roommates! It was pure chance that we got roomed together and all actually liked eachother.

We called ourselves the "Moncal Girls"
(We lived in a flat in a little city called Moncalieri)

(Linzi, Tracy, Katrina, Leeza, Casey)


It was these ladies that actually showed me the ropes and introduced me to physical fitness & running (the first time). I did have a few opportunities to run with them around the city and workout at our fabulous little italian gym. It was all new to me then and was shortlived when I returned to the states. That is until this year! :)

Thinking about my wonderful times spent in Italy got me thinking to that Halloween in particular.

How ironic is that we decided to dress up as the Torino Marathon Team?








Or was it the Torino Drinking Team? Hard to tell in these photos.... :)

But I look at these pictures and though no actual running took place as it was Halloween it's the mindset that I was a marathon runner! It's been in there all along and I had never even realized it until this halloween the connection.

I take it as a sign that I am fulfilling a life purpose of mine. I know people run marathons ALL the time, but not everyone can say they accomplished something of this calibur. I am excited to take this challenge on and excited to know I am on the right path.

Maybe someday the Moncal ladies and I can gear up and do a Torino race. That one is going on the 'Fitness Bucket List'.