Thankful for... DAD!

He's the one that reminds you to change your oil...
He's the one you call when something needs fixing...
He's the one who taught you to ride a bike...
He's the one that will be more proud of you than anyone else...
He'll encourage you to "figure it out" and not give up...
He's the one that will make sacrifices to make sure you can go to a great school...
He's the one who was patient enough to teach you to drive...
He's the one to let you know that you shouldn't settle for anything than the best in a boyfriend...

Today, I'm thankful for my Dad! It's not easy raising two kids as a single parent these days. Take the time to tell your Dad that you are thinking of him today. :-)

10 Things for Monday

Howdy Friends!
  So, I was totally not ready for Monday... were you? Work was pretty hoppin' since a few other RDs were out. That also means that the day just flew by, so it wasn't necessarily all bad! I almost feel like I could count all the stair climbing and walking I did around the hospital as my cross-training for the day. Haha! Will and I had a bit of a quiet weekend again so there isn't anything real exciting to report. Instead, I thought I would share a few things I've been thinking about/enjoying of late...
1. Just finished the Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest which is the last book in this 3 book series. I sat down on my couch with this novel on Saturday and was bound and determined to finish it. Good thing it's hard to put down anyways! If you're looking for an exciting read full of crime-solving these are definitely a series you should check out.
2. I had serious craving for some Muddy's cupcakes, so I dragged Will there on Saturday. There's just nothing that can beat these beauties. :-)

3. The farmer's market was overrun with peaches on Saturday. They are sooo delicious! It still surprises me how much earlier the growing season for things are down here. Back home in PA - I always had to wait until August!
4. Will and I celebrated Friday with dinner at Molly's. Of course, Mexican food just doesn't taste as good without margaritas! Everyone needs a little margarita sometime. :-)

5. I wrote a guest post for my running coach's blog. It's just a brief intro to nutrition and healthy eating. I could have written a post that was pages and pages long. It was so hard to decide what to write about! See the post here. Hopefully, there will be opportunity for more fun posts on a variety of sports nutrition things in the future.
6.  Saturday, Will and I cooked up this absolutely delicious curry. Yum! It made a huge pot of it - we both tend to go a little overboard when chopping veggies to throw in. This one also included a bit of tofu for some protein!

7. I got a haircut after the market on Saturday. Not that I didn't desperately need it or anything... ha! This is one thing that I am always terrible about procrastinating. Luckily, through Will, I was able to find a great stylist here in Memphis!
8. I went to a free yoga class at the local Fleet Feet running store. The instructor that teaches these classes is one of my absolute faves. She is a runner herself so she knows what moves to really stretch out muscles that tight from the repetitive motion of running. I only wish her studio wasn't so far away in the suburbs!
9. I've been thinking about and playing around with switching my blog over to a wordpress host rather than blogger. I started transferring some posts yesterday. Not totally convinced yet if I want to commit to the switch quite yet!
10. This Color Run looks like a blast! I just might sign up for this race today!

Chard It Up!

One of the things I love about shopping at the farmers' market is that I can't really predict exactly what produce will be tucked into my reusable shopping bag when I walk out. For example this week, I was struck by how pretty this bunch of swiss chard looked. Love the pink, green, and yellow stems!

These guys have been hiding out in my veggie drawer since Saturday. Ever since, I've been pondering how I should prepare them. This afternoon, Will emailed me about going to the Asian Food-mart after work and I knew exactly how I would be cooking up this lovely chard! On a side note, if you have never been to a little Asian market, you need to go! There are so many unique foods! It's fun to just wander around the aisles and check out all the different foods. We found quite a few fruits and veggies we had never seen before! Plus, this market even had live tilapia, catfish and crabs in tanks in the back! You won't see that at Kroger anytime soon... Haha.
Anyways, back to the chard! I picked up some soy sauce at the market and was super excited to try it on my greens. I love cooking up vegetables in soy sauce - if you haven't tried it, you should! Here's the finished product served up with a cheese-topped black bean and sweet potato saute and green beans. :-)

Asian-Inspired Swiss Chard
Ingredients:
- 1 large bunch swiss chard
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tbsp. dark sesame oil
- 2 tbsp. soy sauce
Directions:
1. Rinse chard well. Cut stems away from leaves. Chop leaves and stems separately. Heat oils in stock pot on stove. Add garlic and stems and cook until stems start to soften. Add chopped leaves and cover.
2. Simmer until leaves have wilted. Remove lid and add soy sauce. Simmer until excess water/soy sauce is cooked off. Top with a sprinkle of black pepper.

Yum!! As you enjoy your chard ponder this - a one cup serving of cooked chard contains...
- 716% of the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for Vit. K - ie. 7x the recommended daily intake for Vit. K
- 214% of the DRI for Vit. A - ie. 2x the recommended intake
- 52.5% of the DRI for Vit. C
- 22% of the DRI for Iron - this is quite a bit of iron for a non-protein food! (Unfortunately it isn't absorbed as well as from meat...)
- Only ~35 calories a serving!

Now that's something to chew on! :-)

Nutrition data for chard from: NutritionData

Taking a Day Off

     Sometimes you just reach a point where life has been so chaotic and busy you just have to take a day off. So I did. Will's Mom was here visiting from Albuquerque, NM this weekend, so I used it as a fun excuse to take the day off of work to spend more time with them. Over the course of the weekend, we made sure to try to show her some of the highlights of Memphis like: Beale Street (of course!), the Downtown Farmer's Market, Elegant Farmer Restaurant, and the Botanical Gardens. Needless to say, it was a bit of a busy weekend! (Hence the delayed post...)
    Sunday, I had a fantastic time running the Navy Nautical 10-Miler in Millington with Emily! (Never even knew there was a Navy base here in Memphis-town!). We paced each other the entire way and did better than either of us expected! The race had kind of snuck up on us and we were feeling a little unprepared to be racing 11.5 miles. Eek! Despite that, I think this is probably one of the most enjoyable races I have ever run. The weather was perfect. I had a running buddy to push me the whole race. Part of the course was even flanked on either side by fields of gorgeous galloping horses. Plus, we kept pace with this brawny guy in a wheelchair almost the entire time - he definitely inspired me to just. keep. running and be thankful that I can! The greatest part was the end when I got to see Will's smiling face cheering me on at the finish! It was so sweet of him to drive out and support me. I'm a lucky girl. ;-)
     This is definitely a race I'd consider doing in the future. The only down-side was having to get up at 4:30AM in order to drive to course to race at 6:00! I admit, I was down-for-the-count on the couch later that afternoon. Ha!

We owned those 10-Nautical Miles!!

The time I did get to spend relaxing, I enjoyed sipping coffee and reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. All the books in this series have been so absorbing. It's really hard to put them down at night when I need to go to bed!!

Oh! I also did #2 on my 25 by 25 list and finally signed up for Twitter! It's kind of fun. :-) Come follow me - @DebbietheRD!!
And speaking of days off... I totally took today off from running group! (Shh... Don't tell my coach!) I figured I needed at least one training day to rest before I start back up on the long 6-month journey to the marathon! :-)

I Decided to Run a Marathon

   That's right. I finally did it. After a few weeks of indecisiveness, I finally took the plunge and signed up for the St. Jude marathon! Yes, I have said in the past, "I don't think I will ever do a marathon." Every half marathon I've raced I always feel so impressed when I see runners at the half marathon/full marathon fork  turning off to do yet another 13 miles. Eek!
    Yet, here I am! In a lot of ways, this just seemed like the best time to go through with it. I've really enjoyed training with Star Runners. There is no way I would have to motivation to go on long double digit mile runs on my own every weekend. Nor would I ever consider doing speedwork or hills for fun. I've come to depend on the accountability of the group - and the great friends I have made over the course of miles of pavement pounding. Since we are in this thing together, I know I can do it with the support of friends. :-)
   The other wonderful thing about having a coach is that I don't have to try to come up with my own training plan - I like having someone telling me what I need to do to run better! Plus, since I still am not totally familiar with all the in's and out's of Memphis, it's so great to have someone else plan out the routes for runs! Also, I know that if I have any questions I can always go to our coach, Star for advice.

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Now that I have bought my marathon spot, here are some of the things that have been going through my head lately...
- Dear God!!! What am I thinking?!?!?!
- Cross-train. Cross-train. Cross-train. Last year, I didn't get to run the St. Jude Half due to injury and I DO NOT want that to happen again this year! So, I plan to be much more proactive about stretching, doing yoga/pilates, and biking.
- This is going to be quite time consuming! Plus, I'll have to give up staying out too late on Friday nights. But I'm ready to commit because I feel like when it is all said and done, I will have no regrets about having gone through with training for and running the marathon.
- I'm really excited to do more research on sports nutrition as well as do a little experimenting... on myself of course! I only wish I would have taken that sports nutrition class in grad school when I had the chance! Will did loan me his sports nutrition textbook from undergrad so I'm hoping to read up on a few things in there.
- Once I finish, I can be cool enough to get one of those 26.2 stickers for the back of my Jeep! LOL.
- My coffee budget will likely increase dramatically as long runs always make me so tired!
- I am going to love my foam roller. Plan to do a lot of these exercises!

Here's to 6 months of training!!!!

Check. It. Out.

So, last week my guest post on the VAntage Point blog for work was published! So exciting. After re-reading it, I realized once again that I use entirely too many exclamation points. It's funny that I try to sound much more excited when I write than when I talk. :-) The whole thing came to be after I tried to start a nutrition blog at work and failed. Shortly after, I volunteered to help with the national Nutrition and Food Service social media group with a few dietitians at VAs all over the country. No VA nutrition blog exists yet so we have been posting on the VA general blog. This was my first post. It's been fun!

Here's the link if you want to check it out. I talked about one of my favorite things - farmers markets!!

Farmers Markets Abound! Article...

Random Thoughts for the Weekend

1. I am totally in love with this blogger Elisa Blaha's "project life book"! I wish I could be that incredibly creative with photos!
2. This is me for the next 4 months of a hot, humid Southern summer. Fun!

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3. I have a new go-to snack lately - market plumcots and unsalted almonds!

4. So, I know I'm way behind all the cool kids on this one... but Will and I just finished watching the first season of Portlandia.I loved it! Plus, it's just chock full of one-liners and inside jokes which make for endless fun. Put a bird on it!

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5. A patient told me the other day that the majority of the meat in his diet consists of pigs feet and tail! What?!?!? Is that even real food? Mmmm... I don't think so!

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7. A girl has brought this puppy by to pet-sitting the last couple of weeks. It's so adorable!!!! I want to keep him! The cutie just begs to be held the whole time!

8. I finally made it to the Peabody Hotel rooftop for live music and a little dancing with some of my book club/Star Runners friends. So much fun! I've been wanting to go up there at some point ever since I moved here.

9. Will and I joined some friends at the park along the river for the Sunset Symphony and fireworks. What a great, chill way to spend the evening!

10. So happy to have an extra day off tomorrow for Memorial Day!!!!