The Interesting World of Food Blogging

I debated whether or not I wanted to post this but in the end I feel like it is important! I definitely do not consider myself a strictly “food blogger” meaning I do not post every meal I eat or take pictures of everything that goes into my mouth. I typically post a good dinner recipe and then other than that I feel my blog is just my personal “diarrhea of the mouth”. I blog about my exercise, running, movies, etc…but it is does not revolve strictly around food nor do I want it to. There is a lot more to me that just what I eat. With that said, I know a lot of food bloggers DO post every meal and snack that they eat throughout everyday. That is totally fine and I see no problem with that either. I think everyone has a blogging style and when they find it they go with it.

So, I find it so heartbreaking when other bloggers give themselves a hard time when they eat what they consider to be “bad foods”. They compare themselves to other bloggers and feel like a failure if their eats aren’t gluten-free, raw, organic, or healthy. Who ever said that pizza and beer is not okay? Or having nachos at the bowling alley was bad?! Or, gasp, busting out a TV dinner when you are too tired to do anything else? Who said?! Certainly not me! I have had my fair share of TV dinner nights and pizza and ice cream moments. It is OKAY! Really, it is!

I think the food blogging community is such a good one because I find recipes, tips, friendship and love. But I DO NOT compare myself to other food bloggers. Everyone has different eats and sometimes I see something that someone posts and I think I HAVE TO TRY THAT and other times I think…well if they liked it…good for them! But the point is, I am Kelly and that doesn’t mean I have to be like “Sally” or “Jane” or “Susie Q” I just need to be me. I need to eat for me and enjoy the things I like. Yes, I chose to eat healthy and gluten-free 90% of the time. Yes, I avoid dairy and soy and yes I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. But I do the “traditional crap food” too just not all the time.

So I just want to tell all of you followers out there (whether it is my blog or someone else’s) don’t compare what I eat or what someone else eats to what you eat! If you want to make a recipe of mine or someone else’s YAY! Do it. I love that! But don’t label yourself a failure simply because you don’t follow my same eating patterns. No one is perfect and everyone has those days where they just don’t care. Everyone. Everyone. Everyone.

The food blogging community is AWESOME! (let me repeat that, AWESOME!) But I think it can also drive you crazy if you are constantly in some kind of internal competition with yourself and your food. Enjoy the community but be YOU! Take the tips you read and apply them to your life if it makes sense for you! Try new ways of eating (Vegan, Gluten-free, Raw, etc.) and see if it works for you. If it doesn’t…that is OKAY. It really is!

Okay…that’s it from me today. I hope I didn’t offend anyone! I just hate to see people beat themselves up for not being like someone else!

Love you all….

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Take THAT Monday!

Good Monday morning to YOU! It seems everyone really enjoyed my Remember When post from yesterday! It was definitely fun seeing what you guys remembered from the 80’s too! I hope everyone is now ready to ease back into the work week! I had a NICE 14 mile run this morning averaging 8:40 pace. Take that Monday morning! 🙂 As predictably as always I am drinking slurping my coffee, enjoying my egg white scramble and my protein brownie. Which I did slightly differently this morning…1 scoop vanilla whey protein, dash of baking soda, 3 T. liquid egg whites, and a drop of coconut extract…another HIT! So good!! 🙂 Then I am off to work! 🙂  

Dinner last night was a new experiment! I made Mustard Maple Chicken in the slow cooker! (JENN…are you reading?!?!) It was excellent…both Keith and I enjoyed it very much and it will be another make again! Basically, on Sunday morning I could already tell I wasn’t going to want to put a whole lot of effort into dinner that night so I raided the refrigerator and pantry to see what I had!  

Look at all that color!!

MUSTARD MAPLE CHICKEN  

• 1 lb chicken pieces (I used chicken thighs because this was all I had)
• 1-2 cups chicken broth (I think I used probably 1 1/2 cups total)
• 2 medium (or 1 large) sweet potato, peeled and chopped
• 1 onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp mustard (either Dijon or stone ground…I used stone ground because, again, this was all I had)
• 3 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Put chicken in bottom of slow cooker and toss with thyme, maple syrup and mustard.  

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes and add to pot. Next, add the onions and garlic.  

Pour chicken broth on top (enough to cover) and add the bay leaves. Cover and cook on LOW 6-8 hours or HIGH 4-5 hours.  

Serves: 4  

258 Calories; 4.6g Fat (1.4g saturated fat); 87.8mg Cholesterol; 640.3mg Sodium; 29.9g Carbohydrates; 2.7g Fiber; 9.3g Sugar; 22.3g Protein  

Next, I really need to give a shout out to Nicole for giving me the Sunshine Award!! The sunshine award is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world so I was very excited to get this!  

Sunshine Award

 So I am passing it on to a few of the bloggers who inspire me on a daily basis! Thanks to all of you for being the sunshine in my life!  

Pen of Pen At Peace  

Kate of The Eggplant Executrix  

Lily of Lily’s Health Pad  

Lee of In My Tummy  

Lindsay of Goodies Galore  

Katie of Making Food and Other Stuff  

Anna of Newlywed Newly Veg!  

Finally, tell me what the BEST part of your weekend was? Mine was definitely Sunday afternoon with the temperature topping out at 75 degrees! Woot Woot! Keith and I washed our cars…which means it will probably rain today, huh?  

What was the best part of your weekend?  

Oh and go here for an AWESOME give-a-way from I Heart Wellness! This looks like a good one peeps!! Or here for an AWESOME give-a-way from What Kate Ate!

‘Remember When’ Sunday

Last night Keith and I were totally going down memory lane. It was so fun. But what makes it so fun with Keith is that I are a decade apart! He was born in 1970 and I was born in 1981. So my ‘remember whens’ from childhood are more like Keith’s teenage ‘remember whens.’ But here a few notable things we covered last night:

Do you remember troll dolls?

Do you remember slap bracelets?

Do you remember New Kids On The Block?

Do you remember Saved By The Bell?

Do you remember Hypercolor Shirts?

Do you remember The Goonies?

Do you remember old school Oregon Trails?

Do you remember Keds?

Do you remember CapriSun?

Do you remember Brach’s Neapolitan Candies?

 

Do you remember Fun Dips?

Do you remember Rainbow Brite?

Do you remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

Do you remember Etch-a-Sketch?

Do you remember Rock-Em Sock-Em Robots?

 

Do you remember Starter Jackets?

And lastly, do you remember crimped hair?

What are some of your favorite ‘remember whens?’

IT CAME!

So I have been lucky enough to become friends with Katie! She is pretty incredible and I HIGHLY recommend checking out her blog! Anyway…aside from being a PhD student (in biology no less), an active runner, and a foodie blogger she also sews! She has a store, Katie Jo Sews, and sells some cute stuff! Well I asked her to make me a custom order for a cute gym tote! I am a Nutrition Manager and active gym nut and I wanted a cute bag to hold all my junk! And boy did she deliver!!! Check it out: 

The cutest bag EVAH!

 

The inside...love all the pockets!

 

Be jealous fellow gym goers!

 

THANK YOU KATIE! And seriously people…go check out her store! TODAY!

Toenails Are Overrated!

Happy Saturday everyone! I am one happy gal right now! I have finished my last run of the week. All 10 miles of it! (Happy dance is ensuing) and I am showered and drinking my coffee! I have an egg white scramble going on the stove and I am pairing that with a protein brownie. Sheesh…am I predictable or what?!?! This week was a GREAT week for me! I logged 61 miles, 2 Body Pump Classes AND 1 H20 Water Fitness Class. What a GREAT week! 

What was the best part of your week? 

So I am giving myself an award! Yes! A very well deserved award! I am giving myself the UGLIEST FEET AWARD! Don’t believe me? Check these puppies out: 

Yes, I am actually posting a picture of my feet! What on earth am I thinking?

 These are classic (or so I tell myself) runner’s feet. As you can see, I am missing toenails on both feet and the tops of my toes (I am sparing you pictures) are so calloused and rough. But I love my feet! Why? Because they are fast and they get the job done!! And they are actually quite small! I only wear a size 5.5 shoe but I am 5’6″ tall. Crazy huh? Let’s just say that grace was never my forte and I tend to be a tad klutzy! 🙂 

 According to Jeff Galloway, running Guru, almost everyone who runs gets a black toenail. Getting your first one is a sign that you’ve moved your training into a higher level. So I embrace my black toenails! I have actually had 4 total. They don’t hurt at all….they’re just ugly! So all you runner’s out there, I ask: 

Do you “Got Toenails?”  

P.S. I totally NEED this shirt: 

 

HAPPY SATURDAY!

Ask Me!

Thanks to everyone who submitted anonymous questions via my new ASK ME! Page. I am going to be answering all the questions every Friday so keep them coming!!     

But first, I need to say THANKS to all your supportive comments regarding my Water Class this morning. It was AWESOME! Let’s just say that running under water is flipping hard!! But it felt so good on my joints and especially my hip flexors! Your range of motion is a lot further in water and it felt so good to extend my legs and not feel any pressure! I am totally hooked and will be doing this every Friday for sure! If you have an opportunity to take a Water Fitness Class…DO IT! 

 Okay onto the questions…. 

Question: What is your favorite book?     

Oh man, this is a HARD question! My favorite book of all time would probably be To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I have read that book over and over a million times! My copy is a paperback and it is totally torn and falling apart. I just love the story. I feel like it is a classic that everyone needs to read at least once in their life.    

    

Question: Did you grow up eating healthy?    

Yes! My parents were fantastic about cooking healthy meals for my brother and me. They really proved that eating healthy did not have to be gourmet or difficult. Sometimes it was as simple as baked chicken legs with a side of green beans and corn. We always had a protein and either two vegetables or a vegetable with a starch (rice, pasta, potato, etc.) and we always had to try what was on the plate. We also always also got dessert if we finished dinner. I remember eating a lot of frozen yogurt as a kiddo! I loved the banana split flavor!! 🙂 Yum! My parents really did feed us healthy but we also got to enjoy plenty of kid treats!! I think the idea of a healthy balance was always present. Not necessarily spoken but definitely displayed through my parents actions. But, I think one of my favorite unhealthy kid treats was poptarts!    

    

Question: how tall are you & how much do you weigh?  

I am 5’6″ and I weigh around 115. Everyone has their feel great weight and this is mine but by no means does that mean that it should be someone else’s feel great weight. When it comes to weight, I think you should find a number that works for you both from a performance standpoint and a sustainability standpoint. I perform really well at 115 and it is a weight that I can sustain without feeling deprived in any way.  

Question: Is it hard for you knowing that Keith is a personal trainer and works with a lot of women on an up-close basis?    

I get this question A LOT because 90% of Keith’s clients are women. I have traditionally always been a very jealous girlfriend but not with Keith. It is funny because it was like as soon as we got together I had complete faith and trust in him! I just never worried about it. Keith has this infectious personality and everyone loves him! People are constantly coming up to me and saying they have a “crush on my husband!” And honestly all I can think is, ME TOO! He is a fantastic man but what makes him so special is that he is so devoted to me and he never makes me guess where his heart is for one iota of a second.    

MY HOTTIE!!

Question: Do bloggers ever worry about stalkers or just creepy internet people? I think if I were a blogger, I’d worry a little about that…    

I don’t really worry about it too much. I don’t ever post my home address or anything like that. And typically if people ask me specific questions about where I work or what area I live in I respond privately via email rather than in the comments section for everyone to see. I think there is probably always a risk but so far I haven’t had any problems!    

Question: Do you take any vitamins/supplements to aid in muscle recovery or to help with muscle lethargy?    

The supplements I take on a daily basis are a basic multi-vitamin and Omega 3 fatty acids. That’s it. Sometimes if my joints start to flare up I will take glucosamine for a few days. But typically that is all I do. Sometimes after strenuous workouts I will take a protein shake and I really like the recovery powder made by Luna. But mostly I try to get my nurtrients from real and whole foods.   

Question: It seems that you and your entire family are in the Texas area. Where does the obsession with Peyton Manning and the Colts come from? Shouldn’t you be more of a Tony Romo fan?   

I get this question a lot too! I honestly don’t know where my obession for the Colts came from. I think I just always liked Tony Dungy. I thought he was such a class act and the Colts organization was the same way. I am really into biographies and I read a few books on the history of the Colts (starting out in Baltimore) and then I read Tony Dungy’s book and that led me to read Archie Manning’s (Peyton’s Dad) book and it just started from there. I love the new coach, Jim Caldwell, and have really started to follow all the players. My obessesion for Peyton came from 2 things: First I think he is SMOKIN HOT (haha) and second, he is just so talented! He is one of the (if not THE) smartest QB’s ever and I just love watching him run his offense. It is really an amazing thing to watch as he figures out the defense and adjusts the play at the line of scrimmage. So I have turned into a HUGE fan! I am NOT a Tony Romo fan AT ALL! I grew up loving the Cowboys (and my husband lives and breathes by the Cowboy’s season) but for some reason they just don’t hold the kind of clout that the Colts do in “Kelly’s World”.   

   

 Question: I just found out that baby #2 is on its way. I’m probably only a month or so along. What I was wondering is if there are any ab exercises that I can do while I’m pregnant. Once I’m at the point where I can’t lay flat on my back.   

Generally you CAN continue doing crunches/sit-ups up to about your 4th month; usually somewhere between 16 and 20 weeks is when you should stop doing “normal” crunches/sit ups. At this point you need to elevate your body when working out. You don’t want to do anything flat on your back after this point because the weight of your uterus will compress your vena cava which will cause your blood pressure to drop! So just be sure and elevate your back either with a pillow underneath your hips or by using a stability ball and you can still continue to do crunches and sit ups. Building a strong core during pregnancy is still important because it will make your labor easier.   

What workout and running schedule did you follow when you ran a 1:30 half? How many miles were you logging a week? Where you lifting weights or doing any other cardio at the time?   

I wasn’t following any special training program. Before I ran my first half I followed this schedule. I just did my own thing that typically involved 5 days of running with 1 day in the middle of cross training (typically Wednesday or Thursday). I logged between 50 and 60 miles a week (which is A LOT…don’t feel like you would need to do that in order to run a half…I am just a runner and I tend to go overboard! haha!) I tried to get weights in once a week on my cross training day but self admittedly was not great at sticking to that. I am trying to work on that now and am doing Body Pump twice a week to get the weights in! (It IS important). I also always force myself to run negative splits…meaning in every training run I would progressively get faster so that I could simulate that in the actual race at the finish line. And lastly…PACE GROUPS! Never underestimate the value of a pacer or a pace group. That way you don’t have to think about it! I had a pacer when I ran my 1:30…it helped so much and I am not sure I could have done it without him!   

  GREAT QUESTIONS!!!! KEEP THEM COMING! 🙂  

   

 

Happy Friday

It’s Friday! It’s Friday! It’s Friday! In honor of the Friday goodness that awaits us all I thought I would start the day by posting some fun (but useless) facts that will hopefully kick your day off with a smile!

• Rubberbands last longer when refrigerated
• Peanuts are one of the ingredients in dynamite
• There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar
• There are more chickens than people in the world
• Almonds are a member of the peach family
• An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain
• A goldfish has a memory span of 3 seconds
• A cat has 23 muscles in each ear AND
• There are only four words in the English language which end in “dous”: tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.

Truth…I have no idea if these are true but I did find them humorous! Hope you did too! And with that…let’s get going with Friday biz-nas! 🙂 Today’s morning run was AWESOME! I rocked an easy 11 miles at 8:40 pace (I needed a recovery from yesterday’s interval run + Body Pump goodness!) and later this morning I am going to try a new class called H20 Athletic Training. Here is the description: A combination of cardio and muscular training to help improve strength and endurance. Implements concepts, practices, tips, and skills for efficient and effective athletic training.  Class held in the pool area. Please be dressed in proper swim attire. I am definitely excited about this and will report back later on how it went! I am a dork, but I always get nervous before trying a new class.

Do you get nervous before starting a new exercise class or regime?

Come back later because, as promised, every Friday afternoon I will answer all the anonymous ASK ME! questions I got this week! And there were some GOOD ones this week!! 🙂

A Picture Worth a 1000 Words

Keith & Kelly

This is a picture of me and Keith as kids! (sorry for the quality) Keith in his football uniform and me competing in one of my first track meets! This is one of my favorite pictures in our house! But it also speaks volumes to the types of lifestyles we led as children and have now carried into adulthood. We were both such active kids. We were both involved in sports and camps and we were never idle! Granted we didn’t have cell phones, twitter, computers, or Nintendo Wii back then either! But we did have television, Gameboy, and Nintendo! But we were much more interested in being outdoors! Kudos to our parents for making sure we were active and healthy! So here are some scary statistics about todays youth:

• 60% of children in America are obese children. 
•  The obesity statistics of 2002 said that 22% of US preschoolers were overweight. Can imagine how big the problem is now??
• Studies also reveal the fact that 40% of obese children and 70% of obese adolescents become obese adults. Indeed, by the time an obese child turns six years old, his/her chance of becoming an obese adult is over 50%.

And here was the statistic I found to be the MOST interesting:

• Research studies show that most of the lifelong eating and physical activity habits are established in children by the age of 12!

SO….this means that by the age of 12…your patterns of eating and exercise start to become established…and we all know that habits and patterns are HARD TO BREAK!!! This scares me! Truly! I don’t know the answers here and I am not about to pretend to! I know all the arguments:

• It is the parent’s fault
• It is the school’s fault
• It is the food company’s fault
• It is the industry’s fault
• It is too expensive to eat healthy
• And the list goes on and on and on and on and on…

LET’S STOP PLAYING THE BLAME GAME AND INSTEAD WORK ON THE SOLUTION! I bet collectively we could name tons of ways to make childhood obesity less of a problem! It is going to take us all working together as a nation to beat this. This is a SERIOUS problem and thankfully I feel like America is starting (albeit slowly) to treat it that way!

List one thing that you think could help decrease childhood obesity rates?

I’ll start: Have mandatory gym class in school for at least 45 minutes every single day!!

All Business Thursday!

Good morning everyone! I can not believe it is already Thursday…for that matter I can not believe that February is half over! But it is what it is, right?

Last night for dinner, Keith wanted turkey burgers. Easy enough. We love Applegate Farms…that is our go-to brand of choice! But upon opening the freezer I saw we only had 2 patties left! (Keith is a 2-patty burger kind of a guy) but thankfully I still had some black bean patties frozen that I had made a few weeks ago..crisis adverted! Turkey burgers for Keith, black-bean burgers for me! Hum…sounds like a pretty darn good night! I served mine open faced on GF Udi bread with some cheddar almond cheese on the bottom! Add some broccoli…deelish!

Dinner is served!

KELLY’S BLACK BEAN BURGERS

• 2 cups black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/4 cup onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 dash black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 dash salt

Food process all ingredients except breadcrumbs. Add breadcrumbs by hand and from 4 patties. Grill on George Foreman Grill until desired doneness. Easy enough!

Makes: 4 burgers

147 Calories; 1.0g Fat (0.2g saturated fat); 0mg Cholesterol; 93mg Sodium; 26.8g Carbohydrates; 8.1g Fiber; 1 g Sugar; 8.8g Protein

 So this morning I cranked out 10 treadmill miles interval style! Here is what it looked like:

Miles 1-2 @ 6.9, Miles 3-4 @ 7.0, Miles 5-6 @7.1, Miles 7-8 @ 7.2, Miles 8-10 @ 7.3. I was SWEATING all over the place! But it felt awesome! Now I am fueling up (coffee, egg white scramble, and a protein brownie) because I have day 2 of Body Pump in about an hour! Woot! I can already feel my muscles getting stronger!! 🙂

Then after Body Pump I have my weekly meeting with Fion’s to keep on settling the healthy menu! The plan is to debut with a tasting party on March 23rd! For those of you who are new to the blog I have been working with a local resturaunt to design a healthy living menu with entrees that have less than 700 calories. It has been fun and the menu is going to ROCK! Sorry that’s all I can say right now….but trust me this is awesome food!! 🙂 It has been a really fun experience to work behind the scenes with a chef at a resturaunt. It is really interesting to see how it all goes down from the  purchasing side to the cooking side. But this opportunity has been AWESOME and I can’t wait for all of you locals to go check out “Kelly’s Corner” at Fions!

Do you like it when resturaunts offer healthy menu options or is ignorance bliss?

Work It Out Wednesday

Hey everyone…Keith here. I thought this week I would put together a list of the most commonly asked exercise questions that I hear. I figured many of you might have these same questions yourself. If you have one that I didn’t address please feel free to ask in either the comments section or send Kelly an email I will get it back to you. So here goes:

I hear the term BMR all the time, but I don’t know what that is?

BMR stands for basal metabolic rate. This represents the amount of energy (calories) needed to keep the body functioning at its most basic level to keep the body alive. (Breathing, organ function, temperature regulation, etc.) It accounts for about 60-70% of our total daily energy expenditure but it does NOT include any energy (calories) used for physical exercise or digesting food. To find your BMR:

Women: BMR = 655 + ( 4.35 x weight in pounds ) + ( 4.7 x height in inches ) – ( 4.7 x age in years )
Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x weight in pounds ) + ( 12.7 x height in inches ) – ( 6.8 x age in year )

Which is better, free-weights or exercise machines?

Free weights, in my opinion, are better for you. Here’s why: free weights FORCE you to simulate real life lifting situations and promote whole body stabilization. They also allow for a greater range of motion and allow you build muscle more effectively by forcing you to control the path of the weight yourself; rather than having a machine do it for you. This is not to say that machines do not offer some benefit too. They can actually sometimes be better for beginners because the machines’ handles will only move in the direction they are supposed to, and they are typically accompanied by instructions and illustrations. My recommendation would be to do workouts that are 80% based on free weights and only 20% based on machines. If free weights intimidate you then start slowly and incorporate them more and more as you become comfortable.

What is a workout plateau and how do you avoid it?

If you have reached a halt in your weight loss despite continuing exercise or have noticed that your muscles have stopped growing despite continued training, you have reached a plateau. Our bodies are naturally programmed to adapt to repetitive training and stopping the progress of weight loss, strength and endurance. The best way to break out of a plateau is to mix it up. Try different forms of activities and different workout routines. If you typically cycle 3 days a week try changing one day of cycle to a day of swimming. If you always do the same pattern of weights try adding some different weight-bearing exercises into your routine. Also be sure to get enough sleep (at leat 7 to 8 hours a night) and evaluate your nutrition. Try some new foods and new ways of cooking. Breaking your routines is a sure-fire way to bust out of a plateau!

How many calories do I have to burn to lose a pound of fat?
 
One  pound of fat is roughly equivalent to 3500 calories. If you’re goal is to lose 1 pound of fat per week you will need to increase you activity levels by 500 calories per day, reduce you caloric intake by 500 calories per day or settle on a combination of the two.

 How often should I exercise?

I feel most people should participate in some physical activity for at least 30 minutes 6 days a week. I do understand how busy our lives get. That said, I typically recommend an absolute minimum of one hour, three days per week.

How accurate are the calorie-burning counters on cardio machines?

 The short answer: Not very. They tend to over-estimate calorie burn by a fair amount — up to 30 percent, depending on the machine. Stationary bikes, treadmills, and machines that allow you to enter your weight tend to be more accurate; but my recommendation would be to get a heart rate monitor where you can plug in your own body statistics and let that be your guide to your caloric burn.

Should I eat before or after a workout?

Ideally, both. Before you workout you want to eat something small that is higher in carbohydrates to fuel you with energy. A piece of toast or 1/2 banana with a small amount of jam or peanut butter (if you stomach can handle it) or a handful of raisins would be good. After a workout, you want to replace the carbohydrates and glycogen (stored glucose that’s used for energy) that were depleted or you’ll be more susceptible to injury and burnout. And the sooner you eat (ideally with 30 to 45 minutes) the more likely those nutrients will go to the place where they were expended and are needed most. Research suggests that a snack with a carb-to-protein ratio of four to one is the most beneficial.

How often do I need to buy new workout shoes?

The general rule is every 500 miles or every 6 months.

So there you have it! I am sure I missed some so please let me know if there is something specific you want to know! Challenge for this week: Break out of your routine and try one new form of exercise that you don’t normally do!