Day 25 ~ I love life

I woke up at about 9.30am this morning and it was wonderful to have the morning again.  I spent the morning sorting small things out and making breakfast.  I've given the smoothies a short break to try out some organic yoghurt with granola and fruit - something I used to eat a lot.  I'm starting to consider breakfast options for the winter.  I've done enough diets to be familiar with a lot of recipes but rediscovering them is both daunting and exciting.

Like I said yesterday, I managed to rope my Sister into going running with me today.  You may recall that I also went running yesterday so it's been two days in a row and I'm so proud I did that.  Last night, I walked 1.77 miles and ran 0.39miles.  I decided that I did well but I needed to push myself further today because I no longer had bladder infection as an excuse and it was a beautiful day.  To warm up out bodies we walked the 1.18miles route and then half ran half jogged the same route twice!  So I estimate that we walked 2.36miles and ran about 1.18miles altogether.  Of course the 'running' was a bit more like a jog but there were some parts we pushed ourselves to run longer or faster.  I am aching tonight but I feel so good to have soaked up the day in the park.  The most fascinating thing was that I saw more joggers today and a lot of them were actually very old.  There was a very old man who was pacing around the park and I thought it both admirable and inspiring. 

We spent a lot of time running errands after that and even though we were both tired, my Sister expressed that she would like to do this morning and possibly we could do it every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.  Expect to hear a lot about running in the future everyone!  Also, everyone was right - running buddies really are the shit.

Today I made a lasagne for the first time and it was a low fat vegetarian one.  To be honest I never really calculate calories in dinner because I have the responsibility to cook for a lot of people quite quickly.  I've adapted to cooking a lot of low fat meals and I've become able to estimate calories and portion sizes - something I really thank Weight Watchers for.  I thought I'd post up the process of my low fat vegetarian lasagne.  This is my first time so I want to make some other ones in the future.

The vegetables lightly fried: Green & Yellow peppers, onion and carrot

The passata I made blitzing up chopped canned tomatoes and adding herbs and seasoning

Topping the vegetable filling

Sprinkling mozzarella  cheese on top

Using Sainsbury's Basic Lasagne Sheets. It's OK, it's just wheat flour, no weirdness! 

Another layer on top

The finishing product

Voila, dinner is served.

It was a lovely dinner and I ate well today.  I'm still not drinking as well as I could be and I've somehow fallen off the raw wagon so starting from tomorrow I will try and fit in more raw foods.  As the colder months charge towards us in England, I'm also beginning to think of warmer food options.  I've decided to make some batches of soups soon and I will fill you in on that.  I think my first one shall be broccoli and cheese (maybe ham) because we've come into a lot of broccoli recently. 
I live in a take away shop and the shop uses a lot of broccoli florets however they usually throw away the stalk.  We've recently had a talk in our family about saving what we can and so I was handed this during the day:

 

It's such a waste and I know it's not the florets but it still tastes great.  Personally I love the stalk because it tends to be sweeter especially when eaten raw.  I decided to cut it up and freeze it so I can make soup some other time.  You can also use it in things like lasagne or stir fries.  I wasn't going to let it go to waste and I know it's not organic but food is a gift and I won't allow it to be wasted.

Isn't it beautiful?

My life is beautiful at the moment.  I don't have a lot of money and I'm not partying as much as my friends, I may not have a job at the moment and I might still be overweight but I'm quite pleased about the way things are and excited about how much it will change.  I'm finding the beauty in a lot of small things I missed in life and I feel like exercising and being away from my computer really helps.  This is definitely a part of my life I will always keep up with and there are so many possibilities.

I spoke to my Sister today about goals and dreams and we jogged side by side, fantasising about what we want to do and what we hoped for.  I thought about the things I hope to achieve and while there are many, one of the significant things would be to become very fit and healthy and excel in some sort of sport. I want to have a sport.  I want to take people on this incredible journey and this is just the beginning.  I want to make things happen for me and eventually, everything will be wonderful.  I just know it. 

Helen

PS.  Here's a question...how much oil do you use to fry things?  If you're not using the calorie sprays which I used to fry the vegetables, how much do you use to fry chicken?  I use a teaspoon for two large chicken breasts.

A teaspoon of oil (it spreads fast because it's getting hot!)