WTK!!!! - Recipe'o the month!

WHAT THE KALE!!?? LOL!


Ok so last year I tried out Thankful Thurs...this year I am going to do 'Recipe'o the month'. I LOVE looking through health magazines or healthy cooking books and looking for new, healthy, tasty food...cause I still DO love to eat :P

When I do the first 6 week sessions with a new client I bring new recipes to them as well BUT I am also trying new ones along the way and sometimes my clients share new recipes they have come across....so let's share the love!!!

Now I do have a few 'rules' that I have involving new recipes....mostly if it has an ingredient that I have no idea what it is or where to find it..it's out! Now I have on occasion 'googled' the item to learn about it and see if I could find a place that I am able to get it....but most of the time I don't have time for that.


Ok so a client gave me a recipe for warm Kale salad she said it was really easy to make, tasted great and even hubby liked it. Plus I have heard that Kale is SO good for you.......but just never knew what to do with it.......so she e-mailed me the recipe and I bought the Kale.......

....now I do remember another friend on Facebook saying that she had made some Kale chips....so I asked her for the recipe. That one was SO easy and had 3 ingredients ...so that's the one I tried....don't worry Heather I will try yours next time. ;)



So here you go~ Kale chips:

One bunch of Kale
Olive Oil
Sea salt

Ripe off all the leaves of the Kale and put them in a bowl, drizzle a bit of oil over them and pour in your hand a bit of sea salt (not too much) sprinkle over the Kale. Now mix it all with your hands and wilt the Kale a bit....it will turn a dark green.

Lay out the leaves on a flat pan, do not layer. Bake on 200 for 30min


* FYI in this picture is about less then half of what I made. I was eating it so fast and realized I should take a picture for the blog! LOL*

They are really good. My kids even tried them and said it tasted like popcorn!! I ate the first batch to myself LOL!!!!

SO easy! So yummy!....enjoy!

Please feel free to send my any recipes that you think are awesome, yummy AND healthy. I'll be looking all year long for a recipe each month. Send it to livelovelaugh3@hotmail.com with the subject 'Try my food!'

Looking forward to see what comes from this new challenge :P






'Live in YOUR Awesome!'


*ive
*ove
*augh!
*******

It's sign up season!

Ok so at the start of the year I have a look at what races we are going to do this year and check to make sure the dates don't conflict, budget for them and am sure to sign up for them in time to get the 'gift' they give away for the early bird sign ups and to pay the lowest price :)

Now with my races AND my 5yrs races AND the team races hubby is doing with me, it needs to be planned out. My new goal this year is to do two Triathlons...one at the start of the summer and one at the end. The only thing I am worried about with that is that the first Tri of the season is a co-ed one and I haven't done a Tri with men before (little worried about getting pummelled in the water! ) AND I don't have a wet suit brrrrrrr! :Z

So here are the races I have set out for us so far...I attached the links in case YOU want to sign up and I'll see you out there!!! :-D


The race that kicks off the race season for our family is:

April 6- Good Friday race ( kids bunny hop 1K & I do the 5K) AND!!!!! my 3yr is signed up to do the bunny hop too!...it's his first race! OMG! OMG!!! SO exciting! :-D And we dress up with our bunny ears and tail :)


June 2 - Moon in June (this is the first race we ever did back in 2010. We will all run the 1K and then I will run the 10k after)
June 24 - Kids Triathlon (my 5yr will do this)



July 21- Warrior Dash (Hubby and I will be doing this together, it's the first time for both of us!)
July 28- THE NEXT WEEKEND!!!! 4hr RockStar Adventure race!! (this will be hubby and I as team 'VanAwesome'. Our 2nd year)


Sept 2- Woman's Triathlon (will be training through the summer with Mommy's/Babe's in Motion for this)
Sept 23 - Island Girl race (this is the race I will do my Half Marathon in)


Oct 12- Trek or Treat (this is the race that ends the race season for our family (the family does the 'Creepy Mile' with our costumes on, then I run the 5k OR 10k after) really fun night race :)



'Live in YOUR Awesome!!'


*ive
*ove
*augh!
********

I think I AM a 'runner'

One time I had someone say to me, " Are you a runner? You look like a runner"....my first thought was... REALLY!! I look like a runner!!! :-O

My response was, " Well...ahhhh...I run, but I don't think I am a 'runner' " I guess I wasn't willing to commit at that point yet! LOL!

Well these days I find me self noticing other people who are out running. And during the holiday season I wasn't able to get out for a run because of my knee causing me issue but mostly because there was just NO time (we do 4 Christmas's in 3 days!)....but as we would be driving to the house where each Christmas was at I would see people out running and think how lucky they are and how I wish I could be doing that too.....OR seeing some of my friends posting on Facebook about their Christmas day run (it was such a nice sunny day that day too) or about their first run of the year and I would wish I had gone out too...

...so I have been getting treatment on my knee and I was told to go for 2 runs before the next time I got treatment again to see how everything was going...

So I did yesterday morning, in the freezing wind and snow...but also sunny! And I LOVED it!!! My fav part was when there was no wind and I was in the sun, my least fav part was when I was running up hill, into the wind in the shade..brrrr! LOL!!!.....but still there was something in me that loved it and felt good and strong mentally and physically for getting through a run in those conditions.....it was at that point where a little voice inside of me said, "Uh Gail...I think you're a runner!"

So if you are out running and a car passes you with a woman's face planted against the window, watching you with envy...that's ME!!! LOL!!!



So here goes.......Hi! I am Gail Van Awesome and I AM a runner!! 8-D




"Live in YOUR Awesome!!'


*live
*ove
*augh
******

As they say on Twitter.... #FAIL

Ok so how did the cleanse go? FAIL!!! LOL!!

Ok so it's really too bad cause this came at a bad time for me. I have been having some MAJOR withdrawal from some meds I went off and been having a hard time keeping down normal food never mind these juices. I thought it would be ok and that I could just drink them and be fine but ....NO!!!

So I just want to say that this is only my experience and nothing against the Raw Raw company, cause from what I hear the other girls where enjoying it.

However after trying some sips from the first juice of the day on Wed and then doing a big gulp and then moving the pots out of the sink fast enough so that I could throw it up, I knew this wasn't going to work :z...I did however try the next one of the day but it was one with beets in it and although it smelled better then the first, it had chunks of beets in it and I just couldn't do it. I tried 3 times to drink it and my body/mind was like nooooooooo!

So now I have over $100 worth of product sitting in my fridge! What do I do?.....well at dinner that night I said to my husband..."You want to do a juice cleanse?!" LOL!!!

So for the next 3 days he did it.....for real this guy is my hero. I text him the first day to see how it was going. Some of the texts I got back were as follows....


"That beet one is like drinking something off of Fear factor!"

" I can see how the the spicy one will really clean out your colon"

"You owe me big time for this!"

LOL! LOL! LOL!....for real my hero!! I told him I would get or make him ANY food he wanted when he was done :-)

Now on the plus side he did say that he liked the feeling of his stomach not being full and bloated all the time and that made him want to be sure not to eat too much or bad foods. I also noticed a change in his energy level too...now I'm pretty high energy and on the go a lot and at one point I found myself saying to HIM, " Whoa just slow down a min!" LOL!!! WOW! THAT'S a change!!

So ok I learned my lesson...no more strange food or juice things for me I just can't handle it. There's only so far that I am willing to go with the ruffage :)


I just asked my husband if there was anything he would like to add to this blog he said, " The journey was ruff but the end result was worth it!"

So there you go hubby just put the awesome in Van Awesome!





'Live in YOUR Awesome!'


*ive
*ove
*augh
*******

Raw Raw for the New Year!!

Ok SO it's 2012 now...WOW I can now say I've been at this for over 2yrs!

My first new thing I am trying is this Raw Raw Juice Cleanse. I have never done one before and never could have before.....That means that I always knew that there was no way I could do something that involved limiting my food intake cause I would fail. That's why I never tried Weight Watchers or anything....I just knew it wasn't in me to be different yet.

However now I am use to proper amounts of food and healthy food to boot AND I like it :)

So the Phat Chicks put out a challenge for the group of us to do the cleanse together....so challenge accepted!!! :-D

I did read up on it first to see what the deal'o is and I was impressed that it's ALL natural, they even make it for you the day before you start and it only will last 4 days since the juice is 'live' (the cleanse is 3 days) and you have 6 juices a day.

The names of the juices are:
Clean greens
Ginger Berry
Cool Melon
Citrus Spice
Maple Almond milk



So I'm not doing this for weight loss (although I will be weighting myself tonight and at the end just to see if their was a difference) but I'm doing it to jump start more healthy eating. I find that healthy eating and exercise encourage each other. So I just want to infuse my body with good healthy stuff :)

So here goes....I'll let you know how it goes!!