Round of Applause

If you're going to blog, you're going to commit yourself to a looooot of people (perhaps, even ones you don't know). 

You're personal, and honest. Well...most of the time ;)

Two of my good friends (here and here) recently started blogging about their weight loss goals and I'm so proud of them. I think along with being very personal, it takes great courage to lay it all on the line for everyone to see.

This goes for all bloggers.

Blogging seriously makes you accountable for your success or failure (which I hope is not the case).

Bringing me back to my favourite category: goals.

My two lovely friends made their blogs to keep them accountable but to also reach their goals.

Here's what I learned (and some relearned) about setting goals:

• You should get a notebook and each morning when you wake...I repeat each morning when you wake up, write down your goals...
• What are my goals?  These should be 8-10 goals you wish to achieve in the next 12 months that you will write in this notebook everyday
• By writing everyday, you are convincing your subconscious of these goals
• Always write your goals in the present, without negativity

Example: I am a non-smoker vs. I don't smoke, I weigh X amount of pounds by: __________

So get writing and get reaching your goals!!!

Here's a clip from a great, great motivational speaker, Brian Tracy, who makes goal setting easy and shows you how it can be successful.

If you haven't thought about setting goals lately, what are some that you can think of off the top of your head?

Would you be willing to write down your goals everyday if it meant you achieving them?

Brian Tracy: If You Could Achieve One Goal in 24 Hours

To Gluten Or Not To Gluten

That is the question.

I've been seriously considering this for the past few days, because within those past few days...ok, ok it's more like the past few weeks, my stomach has been hurting.

Am I just combining food badly?

A few days ago, when my stomach was reeeeally aching, I asked my hubby if his stomach was sore and he said "no." So now I knew, it must be me!

I'm not sure if blaming gluten is the right place to start, but I figured it's probably the most likely answer and have tried to cut back (minus, making and eating better banana bread).

This cut included first and foremost with bread; I switched to a vegan bread for when I do decide to eat the stuff. And last night we made pizza using a spelt flour pizza crust that I got from the Farmer's Market yesterday...which was soooo good!

I think the more I monitor, the better chance I have of reducing the stomach soreness.

Sore stomach = not-so-happy Char.

I'm seriously considering starting a food journal as well, so if my stomach does start to hurt, I can look back and see what I ate earlier. And make the change!

The joys of having a fussy stomach!

Are there any foods that upset your stomach?
For others who have problems with gluten, are there any resources on the internet that you look to? Or have any suggestions? =)

Now, it's off to do some chem (goal #7) and also, today's the day to introduce the new food challenge item. It's...

endive!!


I'll hopefully have a (successful) post here by Saturday. And, if anyone has tips for working with endive, I'd greatly appreciate that as well. I'll try and do my homework better this week, than I did last week with molasses (which totally stared me down in the grocery store yesterday!)

Happy Sunday!

The Last Few Days...

Ahhh-HHHHHHH....I got my macbook back!!!! It was long awaited and very overdue!

It's very refreshing to know that I have it back...and from now on, I will back it up (every month, which is one of my goals)!

So let me take it back 2 days ago...my husband normally has Tuesday's and Wednesday's off (it sucks that he doesn't exactly get the weekend off, but we make the best of making Tuesday and Wednesday the weekend), so on Tuesday we decided to stay in and make some pizza.

This pizza was so delicious. We used fresh and local goat cheese, eggplant, spinach, zucchini, cremini mushrooms, onion and peppers. This is the first pizza I've ever made AND had where it wasn't covered in cheese (I really enjoyed having the majority of the pizza covered in veggies instead - plus one of my goals this week is to not eat cow's products).

We also got a soup from Natures Fare (local, organic grocery store) to go with the pizza:

This was just amazing! It was a Moroccan spiced soup with yams and turkey. I would eat it again...as in, I was craving it the next day!

Also, we decided to make cookies!! Cookies with peanut butter because I love peanut butter! For the longest time Skippy was always my favourite brand, becoming more healthy I eventually switched to organic peanut butter, and boy had I been missing out. If I had known all along that organic could taste better than hydrogenated oiled peanut butter, I would have switched years ago! I also enjoy almond butter!

In this case, these peanut butter cookies actually asked for peanut butter cups (oops!) so, not as healthy. I chose this cookie recipe though, since it contained no milk! Tyler and I are an awesome team...he greased the trays while I finished mixing up cookie mixture:

He went a little butter crazy:

Boo! We burnt them!

















Ah well. Better luck for us next time!

Apart from burning them...we had fun.

On Wednesday, I attempted to golf with my hubby! He was super excited to fiiiiinally take me out and to tell you the truth...I actually didn't do that bad. My first time golfing in a year and a half, and I actually hit the ball the first time! It was nice to get out and try at least. I might even attempt it one more time before the season's over!

Since we're more than halfway through the week, I'll update you on how our goals are doing. Here's the summary with how we've progressed:

Tyler:

• Practice (golf) - 4 hours/2 hours short game  ~ practiced today.
• Workout 3 times ~ worked out once so far (shot hoops)
• Play golf 3 times ~ played Tuesday morning, then yesterday afternoon with me!

And mine.

Char:

• Eat foods that contain no cow's milk ~ so far, so good.
• Make a dinner with fennel ~ hoping for Friday to do this.
• Workout 3 times this week (run at least once and climb stairs) ~ climbed stairs yesterday and calves are KILLING today!
• Get a food journal ~ have been recording it on a whiteboard (oops, forgot today so far).
• Make a new recipe and/or create one of my own ~ we kinda did this with our pizza...but I'd like to fully make a new one, so hopefully before Monday!

There you have it!

What have you accomplished so far this week that you're proud of?

Goals, Goals, And More Goals!

I know I talked yesterday about goals (yes, I'm still motivated), but I really want to reiterate the fact that they are so important. Last night, the hubby and I wrote down our goals for the week. I made us do this because I knew that if we didn't commit to them in writing then chances are they wouldn't happen (unless one of those goals happened to be something we were thinking about for quite some time). And here they are:

Goals for week of September 20th, 2010:

Tyler:

• Practice (golf) - 4 hours/2 hours short game
• Workout 3 times
• Play golf 3 times

Char:

• Eat foods that contain no cow's milk
• Make a dinner with fennel
• Workout 3 times this week (run at least once and climb stairs)
• Get a food journal
• Make a new recipe and/or create one of my own

There you have it! Let's hope we succeed..

Now onto the big thing. I changed the name of my blog. I knew I wasn't completely happy with the name of it; which lead me to 'Perfectly Picked.' I've always been a picky person and I don't consider that a flaw in anyway. Actually, I consider it a trait. I know what I want and I go for it (it took my husband a little longer to learn that than I'd hoped!). Although I consider it a trait, it can be hard on me sometimes because it can set me up for disappointment, but it helps keep me level that way!

I decided that 'Perfectly Picked' described me in a muuuuch better way. I can relate it to anything, which is what I want my blog to be about. I think, in a way, I was a little limited with 'food&fitnessRfun' since this was virtually the basis of my blog, but there's sooo much more I actually want to express! Now I'm set and feel much better!

Now I know the weekend's over, but let's not be depressed that it's Monday, another start to another week, let's celebrate what we can achieve this week. I found this quote and I think it's amazingly brilliant and true:

Try a thing you haven’t done three times. Once, to get over the fear of doing it. Twice, to learn how to do it. And a third time, to figure out whether you like it or not.
—Virgil Garnett Thomson

What are you going to try?

What are you most scared of trying?

What are you going to do this week that you enjoy?

It's A New Day

Have you ever heard this song by will.i.am? It's great! If you haven't heard it...then listen!! I think we should treat everyday like it's a new day! This song sticks out to me for 2 reasons:

1) We have to appreciate everyday...even when we think the day 'can't get any worse';
2) After Tyler and I were pronounced husband and wife, we had this song played.



Just make sure you take the time to stop...take a deep breath...and be happy you're here.

On that note, it may be a new day, but it's not a nice new day here. In all honesty, it hasn't been nice here for the past few days. So I took it upon myself to make chili a few nights ago. I decided to just go at it, add whatever and hope that it resembled chili. Guess what...it did!!! Loved every bite of it (and so did the hubby). Because I almost never have a camera available to me (Tyler takes it to work everyday to video golf swings), I make do with what I have -- my BlackBerry camera! Keep in mind: the chili tastes better than it looks (I have a whole new appreciation for good cameras. Man, can they make anything look good!)

Not So Chilly, Chili

Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time:  30 minutes

Ingredients:

Spices:

• 1/4 tsp oregano


• 1/2 tsp cumin


• 1/2 tsp curry powder


• 1 tsp cayenne pepper


• 4-6 tbsp chili powder

Other remaining ingredients:

• 5 tomatoes, diced (you can remove peels if you like, I kept them on, but they will roll off on their own in chili)


• 1/2 sweet onion, diced


• 2 small carrots, diced


• 1 small zucchini, diced


• 1 medium sweet potato, diced (once again, your decision for skin on or off)


• 1 cob of corn, kernels removed


• 1 med green pepper, diced


• 1 stalk of celery, diced


• 2 cloves of garlic, minced


• 1/4 to 1/2 cup of vegetable or chicken stock/broth


• 1 jalapeno pepper, diced


• 1 can each of red kidney beans, black beans and pinto beans, rinsed and drained


• Fresh cilantro, chopped for garnish


• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1) In a large pot, add tomatoes and oregano. Cook over med-high heat for 5-10 minutes (or until tomatoes are tender and juices run)

2) Reduce heat to medium, add to pot: onions, carrots, celery, sweet potato, jalapeno, and garlic, and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

3) Add remaining vegetables (zucchini, corn, green pepper) along with remaining spices (the four C's: cumin, curry, cayenne and chili poweder),  cook for another 4-5 mins; at this time, if consistency is getting too thick with all the veggies, start adding broth/stock according to how runny or thick you want your chili to be

4) Add the beans to pot, continuing to cook until everything is well-heated.

5) Add salt and pepper to taste

6) Move to a serving bowl and top with fresh cilantro

This really is hearty and makes you feel good with all the veggies you get to enjoy in it. I had leftovers for a few days after. It's a great recipe to make if you do want leftovers, then there's plenty to freeze and save for another day!

I've been thinking a lot about goals, which is why I even made a tab for them, and how important it is to stick to them!

One of my goals was to cook with a new fruit or vegetable each week, and this week, I have decided to use fennel!

Do you know any good recipes that use this ingredient?

Know what your goals are. Write them somewhere, where you can look at them everyday. The only way to make them happen is to be consistent with them, by keeping them fresh in your mind and vision. Happy Sunday!

What are your goals for the week? Month? Year?