Rants, Recipes, and Running

And to begin my Wellness Wednesday, I think I may win the award for Cheesiest Lamest Title !!! :-) First off, I am feeling more " well " this Wednesday. I just finshed my FINAL DRAFT of the Capstone paper, my presentation is complete - and I finished writing all papers for the rest of this course. Which means...I just finished my LAST PAPER of my undergrad !!! But, now to my wellness Wednesday. I "So-(y)" don't want to get heart disease ! Soy Milk . As I revealed Monday, I will be beginning marathon training soon. Because I am very paranoid about Bone Health - I am stepping up my "calcium intake". However, being a little bit Lactose Intolerant - I can't really drink plain skim milk as much anymore. So, Ryan & I have started incorporating Silk Soy Milk Light into our "Grocery Staples". But, before this plan was implemented - I did a little research on Soy, and here is what I found! In 1999, the FDA acclaimed the bene...

No, when I said "My ass"...I was not referring to "Hey guys! I'm going to give you a great workout to make you have tight buns".............. I am being cynical. And grumpy. I am sorry for the profanity. 3 clinicals this week. I leave the house at 5:40 am, get home at 8:30 pm. Almost 2 hours of that day is spent driving. I officially hate where we live right now. Cannot wait for that golden day when we move. (construction signs should be be more honest, instead of "Delay ahead" -- they should just say " You're probably going to want to drive your vehicle through a cement median during the next 3 miles. Hey Don't feel so bad!--It's your tax dollars going to great use! ") I'm skimping out on my "Wellness Wednesday" today.  I have an online class, where, if the internet wasn't so public -- I would be ranting on and on about how I feel about many issues surrounding this class. Oh, if the day had more hou...

The last weeks of nursing school have been quite frazzling lately. And the best way to "burn out" any frustration, stress, and nerves - for me - is a good, hard cardio session! So here I am going to leave you with my favorite cardio work-out to get my heart pumping! I know we are all at different fitness levels, or maybe we aren't all runners. But this workout can be applied to walking, running, biking, etc. It's a cardio workout that involves INTERVALS. Make you sure pick a good baseline. IF you don't have a tredmill/exercise machine - then judge your intervals by the "breath test". How hard are you breathing and exerting yourself? So here it is! (I'm doing this running style at my pace, since that's how I "roll") 1-3 min...........Warm up (7.5 mph) - The pace ou pick here should be your "baseline" 4-8 min...........Interval 1. Each minute increase your pace a little more. ( ex: 8 mph, 8.2, 8.5, 9 mph) 9-10 min........

Sometimes I have evenings where I don't feel like marinating meat, prepping vegetables, seasoning the meal to perfection, and cooking a delicious concoction. However, to stay in the budget and healthy - eating out isn't an option either. So, I resort to comfort food. Nights like this occur when: -the husband is out of town -Sunday evenings after a busy weekend -at the end of a long, crazy, never-ending day But often comfort foods/easy-quick meals include frozen pizza, mac n' cheese (ish), macoroni & ketchup (one of my favorites). But here is something I've found as my "go-to" comfort meal. And it's full of good fiber and veggies! And it's even gluten free (for my GF readers :D) Painfully easy, but delicious! Trust me on this one. -1 can black beans or kidney beans or red beans (whatever your feeling or whatever is in your pantry!) -1 can stewed tomatoes -Chop up some red/green/yellow peppers -Chop up some onions -Throw a few spr...

Greetings! Being this allergy season (here in Tucson, anyways) has been especially "present" this summer...one of my most frequent "Google searches" has been allergies. I have spent more money on varieties of eye drops this month than I have in my entire LIFE. So I figured I do a little post on managing allergies! I did some reserach, and I found some "dietary" changes we can make to help this. And I threw in a few other tips. Some of this may be "no-brainers" to you guys....but here it is anyways ;) Been outside much today? Rinse off in the shower and wash that hair! Your hair is just a nest for all those nasty pollens and allergens! Drink, drink, drink fluids to flush as much crap through your system possible! Apparently, historically, the "Crete" Mediterranean islanders had less allergies. They found a link to their Mediterranean diet high in grapes, healthy fats, nuts, olives, tomatoes, and apples protected them against all...

So today my Wellness Wednesday focus in legs! My favorite muscle in the whole body to work out! Now, obviously running, biking, elipicalling it will tone your legs and burn fat. But, adding some weight/resistance training will really do it! Plus, if you get good muscle in your legs and butt? -- that will burn tons of calories! So here are a few of my favorites. It's my "garage leg burn-out". Meaning...I do all this in our garage. 1. Jump rope 100 jumps (regular jumps - both legs) 2. Skip jump rope x 60 ( Right leg first) 3. Skip jump rope x 60 ( Left Leg first ***The jump ropes get your calves & heart! 4. Lunges 15 each leg (3 times) - holding weight as tolerated 5. Resistance/stretchy band steps    ***Place a stretchy resistance band around your ankles and walk side ways    ***15 steps to the Right, 15 steps to the left 6. Squats + Shoulder Press (15 repititions x 3)    ***Holding a bar or weights squat butt to the floor (knees di...

I am beginning a segment! We all know that I'm kind of a health nut. Therefore..... Every Wednesday (hopefully I will stay true to this) I am going to write a "wellness related" segment. I might be a work out plan, a healthy recipe, maybe a home-remedy, or education about something health-related! I hope you enjoy! So to kick this off - I'm going to give a little history on WHY I have chosen to strive for wellness: First off, I was the chubby kid in elementary school/junior high. Not like I was HUGE, but I definitely got the occasional "tease" from my peers. So, high school started and I got determined to start taking care of myself a little better. I "over-did" it. And through that, I feel like I've gained a sense of "wisdom" that I now live my life by:.... All is good in moderation! Striving to be "thin" instead of "healthy" didn't really make me all that healthy! In all honesty, I screwed my...