Running Green!

Ahhhhhhvocado!

I could eat one of these every day! In fact, last week, I think I did.

Cubed over an omelette

Diced in a salad

Added to my favorite fresh from the deli salsa (Adding avocado to tomatoes aids the absorption of lycopene found in tomatoes.)

Mashed in my homemade guacomole

Click here for a link to 10 health benefits of avocados.

While avocados are billed as fattening, 2 Tbs of fresh avocado has 50 calories and 4.5 grams of fat compared to 2 Tbs of full fat mayo which yields 109 calories and 9.4 grams of fat. Compare that also to 2 Tbs of sour cream at 60 calories and 6 grams of fat.

(source: http://www.avocado.org/smart-spreads-and-dips/)

Did you know fresh avocado is a natural beauty "product"?

For tips on using avocado as a hair conditioner, facial mask, moisturizer and exfoliating scrub, go here.

Last week on FaceBook, two of my status updates stated how I could eat guacamole for every meal! I have known for years that the alligator pear was good for me, but until I did a little research, I had no idea of just how nutritious it really is!

I found an Alton Brown recipe for guacamole on Food Network dot com. It has a 5 star rating with 307 reader reviews! It's very close to my version of homemade guacamole. Alton Brown adds cumin and cayenne pepper, while I add diced, fresh jalapeno to mine (minus the seeds).

Ingredients:

3 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled

1 lime, juiced

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

1/2 medium onion, diced

2 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

1 clove garlic, minced

Directions:

In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt, cumin, and cayenne and mash. Then, fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

Have you ever made homemade tortilla chips? So easy and so good.
Using my pizza cutter, I place 3 or 4 corn tortillas on my chop block. Cut them into fourths. Heat canola oil in a skillet. I use a green pan. Lay the divided tortillas in the hot oil and fry one side and then the other to a light golden color. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with sea salt.


Do you enjoy avocadoes? How do you like them best?

Church Lady Runs

I don't know what happened. Friday I did not run. 'Just didn't want to. I think it was due to a case of the "too's."
I was too tired. It was too humid. I had eaten too late. Due to a week on the South Beach diet, I had not had too much in the way of carbs so my energy level was too low.

Ok. One day off is a good thing.

But then Saturday came. And again I did not run.

And Sunday came and I simply had no desire to run. None!
But around 5 p.m. I decided to stop thinking about why I did not want to run and just get ready to run. Stop thinking. Get ready. And go.
That's exactly what I did. I changed into running clothes, laced up my shoes, put on my watch and went out the door.

And do you know what I thought about for at least a quarter mile?
PIE! Yes. P~I~E.
I thought about my famous (in my family, anyway) buttermilk pie.

Years ago when I was a twenty something mother of one, the church we attended in Georgia had some of the best cooks in the world!
Everytime we had one of those fellowships involving food, it was truly a buffet of culinary bounty!
Roasts in crockpots, baked chicken and rice, dumplings, greens (collards, turnip greens and mustard greens), black eyed peas, deviled eggs, yeast rolls, cornbread...OK. I'll stop.

But then there was also the desserts! Banana pudding, chocolate cake, lemon meringue pie, pound cake...

I longed to prepare a dish or two that would win the nodding approval of the church ladies who could outcook Bobby Flay in a Throwdown anyday!

Can I confess to you that my canned green pea and asparagus casserole had only one spoon indention in it's mound? Yeah...since I brought it, I felt I had to eat some of it.

I was embarassed to take the nearly full dish back home with me. Church ladies with culinary chops took home empty pyrex dishes. 

So I got to thinking, what if I could make a really delicious pie? A pie worthy of a church lady! A pie that would have them lining up at the serving table. A pie that people would get with their main meal, afraid that if they waited too long it would be gone! 

So I looked through my Betty Crocker cookbook, my White Trash cookbook and finally my Miss Daisy Entertains cookbook.

Aha! Found it! The perfect church lady pie.
Buttermilk.

So what does this have to do with skipping two days of running and finally getting my bu## in gear to run today?

The only common denominator my running today and my story have in common is pie.

Buttermilk pie.

And if I am going to make buttermilk pie this week (which I promised my son I would because it's his favorite), and if I am going to eat some buttermilk pie this week (which I will because it's also my favorite) then I had better not skip any more days of running.

Not for awhile anyway. Not unless I want a buttermilk pie bu##.

Oh, by the way, my buttermilk pies were a success! I never took any back home with me. The pans were always empty!
Finally, I became a church lady with some chops of the culinary kind.
And I owe it all to P~I~E.

See Mom Run! ~ Laura

Laura's website is one I return to over and again because of the way she so skillfully pens her thoughts reflecting a poet's heart.
Meet Laura ~ wife, mom, psychologist, writer and runner!

When and why did you start running?

I’ve been a runner for most of my life. Looking back it seems it has always been a part of me. It really began in middle school, a crucial time in my young life. It was during those years that my parents divorced and life as I knew it was sort of pulled out from under me. At this troubled time, a friend persuaded me to join the track team. With this decision, something strange and wonderful happened. I fell in love with running and began an adventure that has lasted for over twenty five years now. All those years ago I made a discovery that I think you are running through too, Melanie: running helps to heal. Not only does it strengthen the body, but it empowers the spirit as well.


There have been seasons in my life, of course, when other priorities took precedence over my love for the run. As I put myself through college and graduate school, earning a wage seemed a wiser way to invest my time. And after the births of my two children I found that even leaving them for short periods of time left an emptiness inside of me until I had them in my arms again.
Despite these brief respites, I always knew that being a runner would forever be a part of who I am.

How do you motivate yourself to go for a run?
I have limited time to run, so I know that if I don’t get my behind moving, I won’t get to go! Like most families, it seems like we are always on the go. My husband is a runner also, so we have to coordinate our schedules. Until just this year, we weren’t comfortable leaving our two boys at home alone. They are old enough now to be left for brief periods and so I have a little more freedom. Still, I don’t like to waste my time with them. So I get up at 6 a.m. before they are awake and run for an hour while Jeff is getting ready for work. I work part-time, so I only run on my days off.
I guard my running time jealously and look forward to that time.


How many times a week do you run?
I usually run four times a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but that is my usual.


Do you run alone or with a friend?
I have had various running partners throughout the years, but I am going through a season of running alone right now. Partly, that’s because of the time that I run. I do have a neighbor that will occasionally run with me on the weekends. Those times are always a treat. I like to run with a friend sometimes, but I prefer to run alone.
I did just start my boys on a running program recently. Teddy is 13 and Jeffrey is 11. I have started running a mile with them after I get back from my usual route. We’ve been doing this for about four weeks now, and they seem to like it. This week we are going to try to increase our distance a little.

Favorite route?

Well…I wish I had a gorgeous beach like the one I’ve seen in your photos, Melanie! But I’m landlocked, surrounded by the WV hills. I usually run the sidewalk of our little valley road. I have another six mile route that I like to run on the weekends that is more scenic, but it is a bit spooky to run early in the morning when I usually head out.


What do you think about when you run? (Plan? Pray? Random thoughts? Just try to breathe?)
Just try to breathe! Sometimes that is very true.
Usually my runs are my prayer times. It’s such a peaceful time for me to connect with God. Especially right now. This time of year the sun has not come up yet when I leave the house and I always get the joy of watching the sunrise when I am heading home. That’s pretty special.


What physical benefit do you enjoy most from running? (change in appearance, skin, cardio benefit, enables you to eat dessert?)
I just feel better when I am running regularly. It benefits my mental state more than anything. I have such a sense of accomplishment after a good run. And it’s something that is mine. It’s a pretty big part of my identity.


Dessert is good, too!


What are your running goals?
My personal goal is to keep running my usual six miles. If I had more time to run, I think I would have a loftier goal. But I am enjoying what I do right now and see no reason to change anything.
The boys and I have a goal that they will be able to run a 5k with me in the fall sometime. I think they are less excited about this than I!


Cross-train?
I love to do yoga, which keeps a nice flexibility balance with the running. Since I have been training with my boys, I have been trying to be a better role model. We lift some weights and do some stretching for about half an hour after we run.


How has running helped you be a better wife and mom?
Running has helped me be a better wife and mom in so many ways. My husband runs also, and he encourages me with his discipline. It means so much to have that support. It also means he understands the mental health benefits of running. My husband and I are both psychologists, so we often prescribe exercise to our patients!


I have really been enjoying running with Teddy and Jeffrey. They are at the ages where they really don’t have a lot of time for mom. It’s funny what we end up talking about while we run side-by-side. I think it’s added a fun dimension to our relationship. I hope we can keep it up after school starts.


What is your #1 tip for a mom who wants to start running?
I would say, enjoy yourself. It’s important to have goals and work through the hard parts, but running should enhance your life, not make it more stressful.


I have to be careful about this myself. I have gone through seasons where running has become a stronghold in my life. I can easily overdo it and lose focus on some other very important things by spending too much time running.


Don’t let your running life control you. That’s a big red flag. It should bring joy. If it doesn’t, then maybe there is another form of exercise you might check into. I have had seasons where I felt God calling me to fast from running. He gently showed me that I was putting too much importance on this one part of my life.

~Balance is a good thing~

Do you have a “most memorable” run or running moment?
Before I had my children I ran a very difficult 15 mile race. The course was riddled with hills and was very challenging. I was in such good shape that when I look back now, it seems like it was a walk in the park! I’d like to run that race again someday. And maybe a marathon.

"I’ve learned a lot over the years while putting one foot in front of the other." ~ Laura 

I’ve come to think of running as a metaphor for life. I call it Liferunning,
and I actually wrote a series about it on my blog "a million years ago".


If you think about the parallels between running and life, the lessons are endless. There’s the preparation, the pushing through the pain, the goal-setting, the different roads to take…I could go on and on.


Looking at running this way has helped me to keep it in perspective and also open my eyes to the experience of running every time I go out.
Visit Laura at The Wellspring...where her heart overflows.

Running Rural

Over the past week I ran through 39483. That's the zip code for Morgantown, MS, where my parents retired after years in the ministry.

I ran past the volunteer fire station, the one in which my Mamaw was made an honorary member.

I ran past the church.

I ran around the Morgan's old store.

I ran down a dirt road until the owner of the property caught up with me in his pick up truck.

I offered by way of explanation who "my people are."

He was a man of few words and 3 dogs at his beck and call.

I ran past these pine tree soldiers standing straight and tall at attention.

I ran north on 587, a.k.a. Red Bluff Road.

I ran over this bridge and listened to the creek calling my name to come back soon! (I did. Often.)

I ran to Red Bluff.

But I did NOT run down Red Bluff!

My boy ran with me. He WANTED to run down
Red Bluff. And he DID get too close to the edge for my comfort.

We stopped running to take a picture of the cell like structure built by a mud dauber.

And after each run last week, we ran to the creek. We waded in as the icy water took our breath away.
I ran with one son and was grateful for him alongside me.
And sometimes ahead of me.

I ran with one son and I scanned the blue skies for another son.
Who has gone on ahead of me.
One day I'll run on the Upside of the blue skies with all of my children.

And that will take my breath away.