Food, Sleep and Yoga. I’m running my first marathon tomorrow!

I have quite the Saturday planned: food, sleep and yoga! I’m taking it super-easy today since I have my first marathon tomorrow morning :)

I began piling the food in with a big bowl of oats with a naner, ground flax, soy milk, cinnamon, vanilla and a whole bunch of PB- served with a side of OJ. Yum.

I’m planning on drinking tons of water today, including veggies with lunch, limiting my sugar and hopefully getting some pizza for dinner. I think I deserve some Mellow Mushroom, right?!

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Yesterday was incredible with fun friends, New Moon, Lululemon, H+M, Whole Foods, pizza and brownies. Great Friday, right?

Friday mornings are usually when I do my long runs so it felt weird doing nothing but walking the dog for 20 minutes. A nice change, I guess.

I met Lindsey at Ryan’s house and the three of us visited Lululemon. I found an awesome race outfit I can’t wait for you to see. I don’t need to test the outfit out on a long run because it’s the same material, seams and size as the Lululemon pants I wore on my 20 mi. run.

foodies in action!

At Whole Foods I wanted a little somethin’ somethin’ so I picked up a little trail mix with pumpkin seeds, nuts and dried fruit. Yum :) Back at Ryan’s we munched on Sabra hummus with carrots/cucumber…

…pizza with Ryan’s vegan pesto, tomato sauce, garlic and spinach (simple but delicious!)…

 (I’m waiting for some photos from Ryan, but in the mean time we’ll use a photo of Lindsey flipping the dough!)

… and some of Lindsey’s AMAZING pomegranate brownies! Perfectly themed for New Moon :)

(Photo to come!!)

Caitlin and Ryan’s friend came over after and we all headed to New Moon! My gosh. There was definitely a lot of screaming, moaning and body chills coming from my seat. Between Edward’s undying romance and Jacob’s shirtless scenes, it was intense. I will definitely be re-watching this movie several times!!!

Like I’ve said before, I am so lucky to have such awesome girls close by!

I’ve got to go get my relaxing and eating on. Big day tomorrow! Two years I couldn’t run 1 mile, one year ago I was training for my first half marathon and tomorrow I’m running the full 26.2! I can’t wait to come back with a recap!

What do you do to prepare the day before a race?

Changing Normal

Almost nine years ago I stopped eating all meat and have been apologizing for it ever since. Seeing Food, Inc. left me feeling empowered and proud of my food decisions now and nine years ago.

My decision to first change my diet happened when my family had a small farm. We had chickens, ducks, geese, goats, pigs, turkeys, lambs, cats, dogs and a horse. The animals were a result of my love for animals and I was so happy to have them. One day I went out to feed my chickens after school and was startled to find my favorite chicken, Fryer, mangled in pieces. It had been attacked by some intruding animal. Sure, what happened to Fryer was natural, but to a 12-year-old girl it is traumatizing.

One week later my mama goat Noel died after several days of (very loud) suffering. The moment I found out was the moment I stopped eating meat: October 3, 2000. I made that decision because I couldn’t justify being so upset when my animals died and then causing other animals to be killed for my dinner. It didn’t make sense to me.

My Nana told me no boys would take me out on dates. My mother said it was too inconvenient and too unhealthy. My dad bet it would only last a year.

Lasagna with mozzarella; eggs, bacon and cheese; pizza; greasy hamburgers with all the toppings; meat and potatoes- this is the food I was raised to believe is normal. It’s normal to buy what meat is on sale at the grocery store. To be a bit healthy buy low-fat. This is what is normal. So by avoiding certain products because of personal convictions I made myself abnormal. And so I entered into nine years of defense and apologies.

From the moment I decided to save animals by the way I eat I have had to defend myself. I defend myself in restaurants when I want to know how the food is cooked; I defend myself to the many people I encounter who are certain I must not be healthy; and I defend myself to my boyfriend’s parents who want to be sure that I won’t make a vegetarian out of their son. Adopting a vegetarian diet has been all about doing the unnatural and defending myself for it.

I decided to also cut out dairy and go vegan one week ago mostly for my own health. Defending myself for being vegetarian is nothing compared to defending myself as a vegan.

Watching the movie Food, Inc. definitely turned the tables. I watched chickens deformed by growth hormones, too unstable to stand or walk. I watched injured cows be prodded by a trailer. I watched the chickens, who don’t have room to move at all, be kicked and thrown into a truck to be sent for slaughter. Watching the cruelty before my eyes was almost too much for me to handle. From that moment I decided no longer will I apologize for living cruelty-free and no longer will I consider the unregulated, horrific practices of mass food production normal. Never again.

The decision to eat meat and animal products or abstain from it is entirely personal. But the decision to support farms where animals are treated with respect is entirely necessary.

With every meal you support how your body is nourished, how a corporation is run, how a chicken is handled and how a farmer is paid. Your choices do count and after watching this movie I hope those choices are handled with radical care.

My essay inspired by Food, Inc. focuses mainly on the treatment of animals in factory farms. There were definitely many more important issues covered. Please see the movie yourself!

Challenging

Happy weekend everyone!

Today’s star dish was definitely dinner at Ethos Vegan Kitchen with Ryan, her boyfriend Evan and David.

The atmosphere at Ethos is warm and welcoming. It’s open enough that an omnivore could feel at home.

David ordered the Pumpkin Seed & Pesto Penne Pasta: Penne pasta sautéed in a creamy pesto sauce and tossed with tomatoes, squash, zucchini, and topped with roasted pumpkin seeds. It was good, but neither of us would order it again.

Per Ryan’s suggestion I branched out and ordered the What's the Dilly, Philly?- Sautéed marinated seitan with onions, red and green peppers, mozzarella cheese, and veganaise. 100% vegan, this was the greasiest, most delicious and most satisfying meal I’ve had as a vegan, vegetarian or carnivore. Amazing!!!!

After dinner at Ethos we headed out to see Food, Inc.

This movie was way more than I expected. It strengthened my commitment to veganism, deepened my feelings of how others eat, made me outraged by politics… and so much more. Really, I just don’t know what to say now. I simply came home and loved on my Dixie thanking God nobody will ever hurt her. More on this later.

The rest of the day’s eats:

Our fridge is in need of restocking so I had no idea what to make for lunch. That led to an interesting combo of vegan Mexican spring rolls! (inside was spinach, refried beans/salsa, carrots and pieces of chopped tomato)

Apparently they were pretty good since David actually asked to have some of his own for lunch! Another vegan, nutritious meal for David!

Around 4pm David and I snuck out of the house for a quick 13 mile bike ride. Mid-ride I had two Clif Shot Blocks. Love those :)

Have you seen Food, Inc.? What have you read/watched/heard that changed your way of thinking?

Quantum of Silence and Sexual Objectification

The U.S. paperback cover for the Quantum of Solace book

Yesterday David and I went to see Quantum of Silence. I could not believe how prevalent the objectification of women was throughout this film, particularly during the intro. The introduction features a series of silhouettes of naked women against moving backgrounds. Sometimes the women are plentiful, coming out of a gun or dancing in a row. During other parts you see clips of a giant woman moving up out of the sand. Rarely do the woman have visible faces. They are bodies- sexual objects. Meanwhile James Bond prances around in his suit with his gun. (Take a look at a combo of intro's here.)

I'm not going to analyze the entire movie and look into the possible correlations of women in films and why women are paid less, etc., but I wanted to bring this up. Have any of you noticed this? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I am in full support of women looking sexy and being physically fit, but something inside me doesn't like when a woman's bare body is flashed across the screen and reduced to an object. As a woman watching that I felt belittled.

FYI: According to Wikipedia: Sexual objectification is objectification of a person. It occurs when a person is seen as a sexual object when their sexual attributes and physical attractiveness are separated from the rest of their personality and existence as an individual, and reduced to instruments of pleasure for another person.

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Update on my "Get-Fit-Before-the-Biggest-Month-of-Your-Life-Challenge": I ate too much tonight and wasn't able to fit in my planned run, but I was very happy and enjoyed a lovely Sunday with David. Tomorrow I go back to my apartment and that's where it really counts. Tomorrow is the start of a week where I could either lose or stay the same. I'm pushing for losing.

Now more than ever I'm learning how food really is fuel. Since I've been running more I am so sensitive to the foods I eat. Crap feels like crap when I'm running. I love how I'm becoming more aware.

Don't forget about the Giveaway!!

More Movie Reviews

Step Brothers.
THE BEST. This is the funniest movie, hands down. I want to see it again tomorrow. And every day after that. No other words necessary. See it. Seriously, come to Florida and I will see it with you.

Tropic Thunder.
Since I love comedies, I was really looking forward to this one. It stunk. It was baaaaadddd. I laughed maybe 3 times- and those 3 times were kind of forced. I spent most of the time thinking of how I could run home and post about how disastrous this film was to spare you all the waste of time. Ugh.

Movie Review: Dark Knight

Per the fabulous MizFit's request, here is my review of the Dark Knight. I usually don't like to do movie reviews, because I'm easy to please when it comes to movies. I have to be entertained and the acting must be believable. Well, the Dark Knight fit the bill!

This movie grabs your attention from the start and doesn't let go. There is an intense story line with tons of twists and turns. Nothing is expected. The characters cover emotions that are easy to relate to, so I became quite impassioned during certain scenes!

I'm not good dealing with scary movies, but this one was just fine. It is scary, but not the "nightmare" kind of scary. I can't explain that one too much. Still, don't bring the kids.

The effects were out of this world. Every bit was up to par.

Overall: A+
Yes, it is amazing! The Batman voice is super annoying, but other than that this movie takes the prize. It covers humor, love, jealousy, action, greed and so many aspects of real life. You will love it.

Baby Mama Review

On a scale of 1-10, I give Baby Mama a 9. And a 4.

- a lot of the funny parts were in the preview
- the beginning was verrrryy slow
- the funny parts were "OMG! I'm going to pee my pants!" funny
- has anyone noticed how gorgeous Tina Fey is?
- good storyline with a few twists and turns
- the acting was just so fake!
- seriously- the funny parts were so funny

Overall rating: Go! The funny parts are really funny and will make up for the slow times. Go!

Baby Mama