I apologize for the delayed post, but my face has been stuck in food for the past two days – not even kidding. My little “only indulge on Thanksgiving and on Friday” rule didn’t really go according to plan. Anyway, let me start with my first 10k Turkey Trot!

I woke up around 6 am – this time fully rested – changed into my running gear and headed to the kitchen to brew some coffee and make toast and peanut butter (my running fuel.) Georgia got to my house right on time at 7:15 and I had her folded piece of toast with peanut butter in a zip lock bag for the road. The race was about 45 minutes away in a north suburb of Chicago. I looked at the directions online, but apparently didn’t study them enough because at 8 am  (the race started at 8:25) I realized that I was oh, about 12 miles too north (you’d think I’d put the address in my gps system, but I guess I was just too excited to be thinking clearly!) So, we turned around and made it to the nearby parking garage with 5 minutes to walk run to the start line. Guess you could say that was our warm up!

The course was beautiful, but entirely  uphill and downhill. We started off faster than we anticipated (I guess that typically happens from your excitement.) We managed to run to mile three at a sustainable pace with no walk breaks.

 We kept an average of 11:50 pace throughout the whole race – no walk breaks!

At the 6 mile mark we decided to just sprint the rest of the way to the finish line – I actually captured the sign too and the photographer was making fun of me thinking that I was texting (wouldn’t be that surprising if I was.)

We obviously had to take a picture with the giant turkey…

We could not have asked for better weather! Such a perfect running day – especially because of the amount of food that I was about to consume later on. I started my food-for-all with a peppermint mocha from Starbucks – sugar.com. Got all dressed up (thinking it would prevent me from eating too much – false) I then went to Georgia’s house for pre-appetizers.

New you new “do”

Appetizers included: Tiropites (Cheese Pies)

Homemade real Southern Corn Bread: (the missing piece is mine of course)

Followed by a traditional menu of turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, veggies, corn bread, mashed potatoes, stuffing and the Greek item Mousaka:

and this…

and this…

and it keeps on coming…

The moment I have been waiting for (can you feel my excitement)… Dessert: Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Coconut thing

Cookie Platter: Peanut Butter, Chocolate Truffle, Pupmkin Cookies, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip

Amazing Pumpkin Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting:

As you can see, I was set up for failure. There was no escaping this paradise! The good news is I did run on Saturday and today. Starting tomorrow there will be no more of this food nonsense! Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving mini-vacation!

Thanksgiving – so close, yet so far! I really love Thanksgiving (I’m sure you haven’t noticed by now) and I think it’s because – for me- it marks the start of this wonderful holiday season. It’s the first of the family gatherings and it just sets the tone for the following to come.  This weekend I decided to get a head start on my desserts so I wouldn’t be rushing like a madwoman this week.  I chose to make the “Pumpkin Ice-Cream Pie”  first since it was a very simple recipe.

To make this recipe even simpler, I bought a 10″ pre-made graham cracker crust instead of crushing my own.  I also made the mistake of buying Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice cream as opposed to just Chocolate Chip, but it’s chocolate – can you really go wrong with a little more of it?!  I think not!

Step one: 

I couldn’t take a picture of step two because the ice-cream melts really quickly so I had to move fast, but here is the final product:

The recipe also didn’t call for extra dark chocolate chips on the top, but like I said – how can you go wrong with more chocolate  After I finished that I decided to try another recipe I found at eatingbirdfood’s blog, called “Chocolate Chunk Pumpkin Bars”. I know, I don’t know what got into me on a Friday night, but I was in the baking mood!

Chocolate Chunk Pumpkin Bars

Makes about 15-20 squares

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour **
• 1 Tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
• 1 Tablespoon canola oil
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup pumpkin, canned or fresh that’s been roasted and pureed
• 1/2 cup dark chocolate, cut into small chunks (or chocolate chips) – I used Ghiardelli Dark chocolate chips

Ready for baking!

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Spray 13 x 9 pan with non-stick spray.
3. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. In a large bowl mix sugar, apple sauce, yogurt, oil, egg whites, and vanilla until well combined. Stir in pumpkin.
5. Slowly pour flour mix into the wet ingredients and mix well until everything is combined. Stir in chocolate chunks.
6. Pour dough evenly into the greased pan. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck into the middle of the bars (about 30 minutes).
7. Cool completely, cut and lift from pan. Enjoy!

Alright, so the moment of truth has arrived this week and I’m disappointed to say that my weight has stayed the same. However, this came to me at no surprise so I can’t really be that disappointed about it.

How was this not a surprise you ask? Well, my “cheating” got a little out of hand last weekend and I guess you could say early this week too (late night nut consumption.) Although I’m not cheating on horrible things like chips or cookies, overdosing on nuts and raisins isn’t that much better when you’re on a mission. This is a perfect example of how overeating healthy foods can still weaken your weight-loss efforts. Now, it’s obviously better to be eating foods that have nutritional value, but when it boils down to it nuts have a lot of fat (good fat) and raisins have a lot of sugar (natural sugar) so when you combine those in proportions big enough to cause a stomach ache, the results will not be satisfactory.

To point out the positive angle of all this, I have managed to maintain my three pound weight-loss, kept up with my workout routine and have been eating better-for-me foods overall.  Also, this little bump in the road will motivate me further to not grab that extra handful of peanuts while watching Revenge tonight.

On a lighter note, I finally made my decision on what dessert(s) I want to make for Thanksgiving. The first is a small variation to Martha Stewart’s “Chocolate-Glazed Pumpkin Cookies.” Instead of glazing with chocolate, I’m going to glaze with cinnamon cheesecake frosting made from scratch.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour ( I will probably substitute with whole wheat pastry flour)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt; set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat until smooth. With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture in two parts and pumpkin puree in one, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined (do not over mix).
3. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto two baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating sheets once during baking. Immediately transfer cookies to wire racks, and cool completely.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 C (half stick) butter, room temperature
• 1 t vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon (add more to taste)
• 2-3 C powdered sugar (add more or less to make it a stiffness that you like)

1. Mix cream cheese and butter well.
2. Add vanilla and cinnamon.
3. Add powdered sugar.

Read more: http://www.cupcakeproject.com/2008/09/cinnamon-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe.html#ixzz1dt0C3HHk

The second is an Ice-Cream Pumpkin Pie. Who doesn’t love ice-cream?!

Ingredients

• 18 graham cracker boards
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon sugar
• 1 pint chocolate chip ice cream, softened
• 1 pint vanilla ice cream, softened
• 1 cup solid pack pumpkin
• Chocolate curls for garnish, optional

It’s Hump Day, hooray!! A quick update on my workout(s) last night. As you know, I wasn’t really up to par yesterday, and I almost let myself get away with it until I received some encouraging messages from George, a good friend of mine.

When I get home from work I’m usually hungry, but I didn’t want to eat dinner right then because I tend to get the lazy-girl syndrome after that, so instead I ate a de-licious Kind Bar – gluten free to boot. If you’ve never had one or heard of it , it’s a fruit and nut bar that’s far better for you than any protein bar (in terms of ingredients.) I had the apple cinnamon and cashew one – so good!! It was just enough food to give me energy for my upcoming three mile run. I ran it outside – as it was around 70 degrees and perfect. As I was running, I couldn’t believe how “fast” I was going and I didn’t even stop for walk breaks. I kept telling myself “you got this” and apparently I was right because I completed the run in 32 minutes – my fastest time ever – averaging a 10:39 min/mile. Usually, I’m around 11:30 min/mile. I went from wanting to go straight to sleep to running my fastest three mile run -incredible how that works. It doesn’t stop there peeps. Somehow, I also managed to make it through an hour of Zumba and abs for a grand total of an hour and 30 minutes of exercise! Yep, it’s possible!

That being said, it’s also pretty amazing how exercise affects your energy. As I stated in my last post – to regain your energy you need to be active (even when you are tired as hell.) True story – today I woke up thirty minutes earlier than usual and had energy prior to drinking some coffee. Miraculous. The moral of this story is that, “a body in motion stays in motion” so get moving!!!

Moving on to the interesting stuff. I came across this recipe last week and practically salivated as I read the title.  As I was reading the ingredients I noticed “Pumpkin Butter” and had no idea what that was or at least I had never heard of it before. Being the curious cat that I am, I researched it and found that it’s incredibly easy to make on your own.

I chose to try this recipe from Eating Bird Food’s Blog.

Maria’s Homemade Microwave Pumpkin Butter

• Scant 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon clove
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups (15 oz) canned pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling mix)

Pumpkin Season

Fall is – by far- my favorite season of all and it’s right around the corner!  I can’t help but think of warm pumpkin spice lattes – thank you, Starbucks. Just about anything pumpkin, really. Everything – from the weather, to the color of the leaves, to the food, to the fashion – and dare not forget, HALLOWEEN!!! Fall – is - just – fabulous!

This fall, I want to set some goals for myself- but before I go into those, I want to talk more about fall and how we can make it the most fabulous one yet! I don’t know about you, but this Summer felt like one big BBQ. I love-love bbq’s, but my scale… not so much! The time is now. The time to kick into high gear because before you know it, it’s Thanksgiving dinner and you’re wearing sweats at your aunt’s house because you have muffin top in every other pair of pants that you own! T-N-O.

One of the dietary theories I learned about in school, was Ayuverda. According to Ayuverda, there are three seasons: Fall-Winter, Spring and Summer. So, the basic principle is to eat what’s in season. Sounds obvious, right? Well, it’s so incredibly easy now-a-days to do just the opposite. When you go into a grocery store, you will find products from all over the world and that’s why you see some fruits and vegetables available all year round. Let’s think about this logically. Why do we eat watermelon in the summer and not in the winter? You’re thinking – easy… because watermelon is cooling and refreshing, so it wouldn’t make sense to eat it in the winter when you want to stay warm. Well, you’re exactly right. (You guys are so brilliant)! That my friends is, essentially, all there is to it. Eat in season. Simple. Mother earth has created a system and every single fruit and vegetable grows in a specific season for a reason! (rhyme was not on purpose- cute though).

One of my goals- and should be yours too- this fall, is to eat more seasonal foods. Unprocessed, of course. Here is a site that lists the top ten autumn comfort foods (thanks for sharing, Renata) along with a brief nutritional description. This list is just the “comfort foods,” but there are other in-season veggies too, like one of my personal fav’s: squash! (I make squash fries all the time – slice, spice, and bake. done). Here is a link to a printable grocery list.

Below are the comfort foods listed out:

1. Apples (Green have the lowest GI)

2. Cranberries

3. Pumpkin (mix it into your oatmeal- quick and easy!)

4. Garlic (pick the right time and place for this one, peeps)

5. Ginger

6. Parsnips (Link takes you to a great parsnip fries recipe – from a blog I love)

7. Kale (Basic Kale chips recipe- amaze)

8. Sweet Potato (Make sweet potato fries- notice the fries theme)

9. Cinnamon (Amazing spice. Helps speed up metabolism too! Use in everything.)

10. Pepper

My next goal this fall, is to register for my first 5k race! That’s the other great thing about fall – there are so many races coming up (or maybe I’m just more aware of them now.) Fortunately for me, my fabulous friends agreed to join me, which makes it that much more fun and exciting! Plus, you’re giving back - always wonderful Now, I’ve been pretty active this summer because I do sit behind a computer for 8 hours, and it’s super easy to pack on the lbs, but in order to get into this whole race thing, I plan to kick up my workout routine to 6 days a week and adding more runs.  I know, I know… working out isn’t that pleasant for most people- including myself, but when you want something you need to work for it. Period. So do what you gotta do… brainwash yourself and go into – what my friend Lea likes to call- ”robo-mode” (it works.) Another great trick is positive reinforcement (thank you, my psychologist friend, Nina.) I put a sticker on my calendar for every day that I workout and it really helps! Try it if you don’t believe me

My ultimate goal is to run 3 miles in 30 minutes, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves now. I’ll be updating you all on my workouts and seasonal foods that I incorporate into my health kick this fall. Doing that also keeps me accountable because I can be quite the cheater – but at least I’m not quite the liar  My final “goal”, is to come up with a fantastic halloween costume!

What are some of your favorite fall foods? What do you plan to do this fall to kick into high gear? And most importantly, what are you going to be for halloween?!  Let me know!

PS: I didn’t forget about fall fashion. Lets be serious- that gets it’s own post!

*Vicky