Christmas Activities and No-Sugar Challenge

Once we hit December, we've had many Christmas activities including a ward Christmas Breakfast at the church, 

 printing out and sending Christmas cards,

baking lots and lots of treats and cookies for our Christmas Open House,

I literally baked something every day for about 5 days before the party. I made a huge batch of sugar cookie dough and frosting early on in the week, we made the pretzels several days before, then chocolate cookies with candy cane kisses, and candy cane cookies with chocolate junior mint centers, we baked and frosted the sugar cookies (sugar cookies take the most time), and the day of we made candy cane popcorn. 

We also had some appetizers...veggies, 5 layer dip and chips, baked brie with crackers and apple slices, taquitos, and jalapeno poppers. We had SO many leftovers. I planned to have some so that we could have them out for Elisabeth's piano recital she puts on for her students, which was the following day (glad we planned it that way). But we had way more than we needed, even with the recital. I froze a couple dozen sugar cookies, and we had the kids bring plates of treats to teachers, friends etc. It all worked out.  

For the recital, we had about 32 seats, and we filled them all, and that was with the OwYoungs not being able to make it. Elisabeth is planning to add 2 more students at the new year, so we may need to move her recitals over to the church. 

During all this, Annabelle, Nora and I did a no-sugar challenge...well, we could still have one treat a week, and an extra during our open house and on Thanksgiving. We did this from November 18th through December 18th. I'm glad we did, because it helped us to not over indulge too much over the holidays. This was our treat one week: me- popcorn with DelishFish gummies, and Annabelle-chocolate chip cookie.

 We love Saige; we've been neighbors for 6 or 7 years...we were neighbors in our previous neighborhood, and again now. Saige is 10 and has a type of seizure disorder and she has special needs. She'll let us curl her hair for special occasions (it takes a while and she doesn't have the patience to let her mama help), and she was sitting with us at church for a couple of years, though lately she's been staying home. We love spending time with Saige.

 And a couple of other random pictures from the beginning/middle of December:
7-year-old Nora cooking eggs,

 me shopping for a winter coat (my zipper broke on my last coat, last year),

 and me after a sweaty workout. I sweat a lot during most of my workouts. I love to work hard and get stronger so I do it most every day, minus Sunday.

Thanksgiving 2019, Friendsgiving Half Marathon

This picture of Nacho Libre with this phrase makes me laugh. Every. Time. We often use the phrase, "I want to put on my stretchy pants", and we say it in the Nacho Libre, hispanic accent voice, so this meme is perfect.  Have I mentioned before that I am hispanic, or at least, my dad is from Mexico (born and raised...his dad was Aztec Indian which is fascinating). 

 The day before Thanksgiving I made enough rolls to feed an army. I doubled an already very large batch of rolls because we love to have leftovers and they freeze great.  We had Thanksgiving dinner with some friends from our neighborhood, the Watsons and the Sanchez family and we enjoyed their company very much. We also made lots of other things including green bean casserole (my personal favorite), stuffing, yams, pecan cheesecake pie, quinoa holiday salad, turkey wrapped in bacon, raw key lime pie, and mint ice cream oreo pie.

 The roll recipe I use comes from an old friend from my bookclub, Cathy Warner. I don't want to lose this recipe, so I'll record it at the end of this post.

This is Charles and Drew the day before, enjoying a four course feast they made on their own at the Watsons. I know they had mac and cheese and apple sauce and I'm not sure what the other things were, but I heard it was good. 

 Thanksgiving morning I ran 13.1 miles with some friends. A Friendsgiving run. Some of them were new friends. We began at Yellow Fork Canyon Trail, and ran back to one of their houses, which is only a mile or so away from my house.

I wouldn't have gone out to run that morning had I been on my own, as it was snowy...I would've just exercised in our basement, so I was grateful to have these women to run with who are as crazy as me. 

One of the women made medals, and people brought food to share.

 Anyone else candy pecans with maple syrup? I usually will do a large batch in the oven, but this time I only needed a little bit for our holiday salad, and I was short on time, so I cooked them on the stove top.

Annabelle did Nora's hair. We loved the turkey look. 

 Each of the kids helped with something. Annabelle and Charles helped dad with the turkey, Elisabeth helped me with the rolls and green beans...and I'm guessing Jane and Nora did something small, but I can't remember what. It was a lovely holiday. After dinner, we came home and watched a Christmas Hallmark movie!

Sweet Dinner Rolls-  (I doubled this recipe)
*makes 2 dozen rolls

4 cups (1 quart) warm water
1 c butter
1 1/4 c granulated sugar
1 T sea salt
6 eggs
1 c dry milk (I used my food storage powdered milk alternative..morning moo)
Flour (enough to make a soft dough...I want to say I used about 9 or 10 cups...just enough for the dough to start pulling away from the bowl)
2 Tbsp yeast

Place all ingredients in Bosch, in order listed above so you don't kill the yeast, and mix together with the dough hook. Allow it to raise until about doubled, about 1 hour... You can put it in a cold oven, with a steaming pot of water, to speed the process.

Next I used the Lionhouse roll instructions for shaping the dough. Scrape the gouh onto a floured counter. Turn dough over so it is floured on both sides and gently flatten to about 1-inch thick. With rolling pin, roll out to a rectangle about 8 inches wide and 1/4 inch thick. Brush with melted butter. With pizza cutter, cut dough in half vertically to make 2 strips about 4 inches wide. Make cuts through strips of dough every 2 inches. Starting with the short end, roll up one piece of cough with butter on the inside. You can place these on a parchment lined pan or place in a muffin tin (I like the uniform shape of these better). Repeat with remaining pieces of dough. Allow to raise again and then bake at 375 degrees for about 15-20 minutes.   You can freeze leftover rolls, and you can also freeze the dough after you've shaped them into rolls...either way works.

Allergies, Mini Cheer Camp, Peloton App Review

Jane had an allergic reaction to who knows what. Her chest and back were red with white, raised, puffy splotches. We gave her some benadryl and that gave her some relief, but we never figured out what was causing it. 

 Jane and Nora participated in Elisabeth's mini cheer clinic. It was a fundraiser for the girls; Elisabeth gets most of the money they pay to participate. She had four girls sign up using her name which was nice(2 of which were her sisters, so I basically funded half of her fundraiser :))

 Nora's blueberry snowman pancake. Have I mentioned we eat breakfast for dinner every Sunday? Other than that, I don't really make your typical breakfast foods for anyone, unless you count the granola I make weekly and keep in the pantry. In the mornings before school, I always make a green smoothie, which they're welcome to have if they'd like, otherwise they'll have toast, granola, fruit, or sometimes oatmeal or scrambled eggs. Most often it's smoothie, granola, toast or fruit.

 I found a few of these banana muffins I'd made (whole wheat and honey sweetened...You can find the recipe HERE) hiding under this saucepan lid. It looked like someone was trying to save them for later and didn't want anyone else to find them and eat them.

 I signed up for the two week free trial for Peloton this past month and then Scott signed up for a free trial right after. We turned on family sharing with apple so that we could both use it. He's been doing a lot of cycling classes. I've also enjoyed cycling and the treadmill running classes. I also experimented with a few other classes including bootcamp, strength, yoga and cardio. They also have  stretching, walking, outdoor running and meditation classes, but I haven't tried those yet.

Scott and I both really like the convenience of Peloton. We can do it in our house (we have a treadmill and stationary bike, though it's not THEIR tread and bike), at whatever time is good for us. I like that they have filters, especially for the levels (beginning, intermediate and advanced), and for the instructors and language....you can filter out explicit music. Though it seems like many of the instructors swear, so I mostly just stick to the couple trainers that don't, like Matt Wilpers. We really like him. We also love that Matt will explain why he's doing things and how the body works. Very informative.

As of right now, I'm planning to use this app through the winter which I think will be especially useful as I'm getting ready and training for the Boston marathon I'll be running this April. It's $20/month, so I probably wouldn't keep it all year, but it's nice to have during the freezing cold and dark months of the year.

Food Goals and What's In My Fridge and Freezer. The pH Miracle Book.

I am a mom of five kids. I am in my mid thirties. I am a marathon runner. All of these things make me want to be healthy and strong. I want to feel well as I age, I want to have energy to do things with my kids, and I want to be able to continue to run throughout my life. And so, I need to be in good health. I need to exercise and carefully choose what I want to put in my body. I know my body is like an energy factory. It creates energy. I create energy. And in order to create a sufficient amount of energy to sustain me during long runs, or when I go on hikes, or am running around with kids to various activities and cooking and cleaning and doing all the things, I need to be eating foods that will nourish and fuel my body, and then strengthening my muscles and bones through exercise, and getting sufficient rest. 

This is so important to me that I take inventory regularly. I regularly make meal plans for myself. I plan ahead and prep healthy foods for quick meals and snacks.

 I also plan my exercises ahead of time. At the beginning of the week, I know what I'm going to be doing every single day for exercise that week. It's often pretty similar week after week (An hour every day....Monday sprints and spin class, Tuesday weight video and the video changes, Wednesday speed walk 4 miles, Thursday tempo run 4-6 miles, Friday exercise/weight video, Saturday long run 10-13 miles), but sometimes I'll change it up. I make goals for myself and keep track of my progress. Am I getting faster? Am I lifting more? Do I feel strong? Do I need to add something in to make it more challenging/harder? Is there something I would like to focus more attention on? 

A lot of the foods I eat are repeats week after week. I like to keep it simple. I don't like to have to spend a lot of time and brain energy thinking up new things to eat all the time. So I've learned what I like over the years, foods that nourish my body, and I mostly stick to that. I drink the same hot lemon water with apple cider vinegar every morning. I drink the same green smoothie for breakfast each day. I have probably 3-5 things I rotate for lunch: salads, soup, leftovers, oatmeal, or stir fry.

For dinner, I'm cooking for 7, so I'll often make something that's easy for me to adapt for my own needs. For example, if everyone is making burritos, I'll make a taco salad with the same beans and rice and veggies, but instead of a tortilla, I throw a bunch of lettuce and avocado on top. I also make a lot of things I can eat for the family....I often make home made whole grain pizza and I'll have a slice or two with greens(lettuce or spinach). As it's winter, right now I make lots of soups and chilis. Vegetarian chili was on the menu last night. Later this week we'll have grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. Or I'll have pasta and leave the meatballs for them, and I'll load mine with veggies.

Here's a peak into my fridge. We always have lots of veggies and greens, fruit, almond milk and regular milk (no one drinks it but we have it for granola), condiments, fruit jelly (no added sugar), almond butter, peanut butter, salsa, plain yogurt, seeds, applesauce etc.

I always have frozen fruit and veggies, black bean burgers, and we often have coco whip.

I'm currently reading a book called The pH Miracle. It talks about foods that are alkaline which create a healthy environment in your body, versus foods that are acidic that create an environment in your body which allows cancer and other diseases to develop and flourish. Can you guess what foods are the most alkaline? That's right, veggies and greens in particular! Water is alkaline and you should be drinking TONS, lemons are also alkaline which is why I do my lemon water each morning. Very acidic foods include sugar, animal proteins (meat, eggs, dairy), alcohol, caffeine and processed and refined foods.

I am far from perfect in the food choices I make, but I aim for about an 80/20 ratio. 80% of what I eat is good...lots of veggies and greens, good fats like avocados and almond butter, whole grains, but then I also like to have bread on occasion or a dessert or chips and salsa, and so I do.

I also make sure not to graze throughout the day; there is such a thing as having too much of a good thing and eating all the time is taxing on your body as it requires a lot of energy and work to process and digest the food. I find it helpful to drink a glass of water before I eat anything; it fills my tummy temporarily and helps me slow down with the eating and therefore helps me not eat more than I need.