Welcome! I’m Caroline
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Ingredients
- 1/2 cup oatmeal
- 1 cup almond milk (or other milk/water you choose)
- 1.5 tablespoons molasses
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 heaping tsp ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1/8 tsp allspice
Cook oatmeal in the microwave or on the stove. Stir in molasses and spices after cooking and enjoy!
Easy enough, and absolutely delicious! I tend to use a little more molasses, but I like it strong. Feel free to adjust the amount of each of the spices that you use. I tend to just shake a few times into the bowl instead of specifically measuring it all out.
Do you change up your favorite foods for the season?
I quickly ate breakfast, did a short warm up, foam rolled, and changed before heading over to the race start. There were maybe 40-50 people; smaller than other races in the town, but understandable given the cold temperatures. I think only the dedicated runners show up on a day like that.
I should mention that I had zero intention of going in and really racing this race. I got my 5k PR already for this season, and just wanted to enjoy myself. With the very cold air, I knew that my muscles would need a little more care and my lungs would be burning from the air.
We were given bells to tie on to our shoes, and Christmas music was blasting from speakers. The Christmas spirit definitely helped temper the freezing temperature. There was an entire cross country team from a local college there. I decided to throw my normal race day plan out the window and just go with whatever I felt like. I decided to try to keep up with the team as much as possible, and when I needed to drop back, I would. I ended up running the first two miles with someone that went to the same college I did, but we hadn’t ever spoken (I recognized her name). That was quite a bit of fun, but between the ice, cold air, and talking, and was pretty done with the pace we had been running.
I dropped back right about mile 2.3 and just ran and enjoyed the Christmas music. I didn’t have any IT band pain, but my throat was starting to hurt from the cold air. Somewhere right before mile 3 I realized that I, in fact, was going to be the final person to cross the finish line.
I felt a little sad and embarrassed at first, but then reminded myself that I wasn’t out to run a hard race and that I was keeping with a very typical 5k time for me. As I got near the finish line people were clapping and cheering, but I was just wishing there were people behind me. So- there’s a race first: I was the final person to cross the finish line. The course was 3.3 miles at 36 minutes, meaning that my solid 3.1 5k time was 34 minutes. That’s only 3 and a half minutes slower than my 5k PR, and a very typical time for a normal run that I might have. My legs take much longer to recover than others do apparently (hey thanks POTS), so this was actually my fastest paced run since before my half marathon.
I’ve never been to a race where every participant finishes 3.1 miles in under 35 minutes, but it’s what happened today. That’s what happens when there are no walkers and people move fast because it’s so cold.
Afterwards they drew names for various door prizes that were donated by local businesses. I ended up winning a sample-sized 3 pack of Starbucks Holiday Coffees. Worth it 🙂
Now it’s your turn to share! Have you ever come last in a race (or one a race or age group of a race) before? Are you celebrating Christmas with a run this year?
Has it really been a week since Thanksgiving now? Is it really December? Do we really have less than a month before the year is up? I feel like every week of the year goes faster and faster, and I can hardly keep up! Here’s what I’m thankful for right now:
Grace. Can you imagine a world without grace? I need grace and I choose to give others’ grace, and the world is a much better, healthier, and loving place because grace exists.
Safe travel. I spent 21 hours round trip driving to see my parents for Thanksgiving. It’s lots of minutes where things can go wrong, and I feel so very thankful that everything stayed safe around me as I traveled.
Sweet friends. This year I think I’ve been more acutely aware of how wonderful my friends are than in almost any other year. I’m so blessed to have the friends I do. They are awesome.
My boss. I’ve heard some real horror stories from people about their boss’s. The boss I work for is very supportive of each of our careers, but is supportive of and cares about our personal lives as well. Maybe it helps that we’re all counselors? I’m often so thankful that I work in the place that I do, and this week has been one of them.
For THIS SONG. I’ve listened to the song repeatedly over the last few weeks, and it’s one of my all time favorite Christmas songs. Listen to it (but read the story first!).
What are you thankful for today? What’s your most listened to song at the moment?
Ingredients:
- Bun
- 1-2 large pieces of ham
- 1 piece of swiss cheese (I use kraft brand since it has 0g of lactose)
- 1.5 tsp butter (I use Earth Balance)
- .5-.75 tsp mustard
- 1-2 shakes of poppy seed
- 1/2 tsp minced onion
Put butter, mustard, onion, and poppy seed in a bowl and microwave for 20 seconds on half power. Stir together. Assemble sandwich (butter mix on both sides of the bun with ham and cheese in the middle).
Heat oven at 350 degrees and put the sandwich in until the cheese starts to melt.
These are so simple to make and are absolutely delicious! When I first became lactose intolerant I was SO sad to miss out on these sandwiches. Now that Kraft makes 0g lactose Swiss cheese and I’ve found Earth Balance, I can once again enjoy these delicious sandwiches and maintain my holiday tradition!
Do you have a favorite sandwich that has become a tradition for you?
© 2013, Caroline
Before and After the Race
The race started at 8:30, and snow flurries were in the air which made it really pretty. I haven’t gotten my usual pace back since my last half marathon, and my legs just weren’t feeling it. Since I haven’t run in the cold like this so far this year, I figured I’d be a little slower as my muscles just aren’t used to it.
This is the first race (I think) where I had to stop to re-tie my shoe. For all big races I double knot my shoes so that I know I won’t ever have to deal with it, but on Thursday I wasn’t even thinking as it was a fun run. I crossed the finish line in 34:17, which is definitely slow, almost 4 minutes slower than my 5k PR.
But this was a fun run. Being Thanksgiving, I spent a lot of the race thinking about how grateful I am for so many aspects of running and exercise in my life. This was race #12 for the year, and I’m thankful I’ve had the chance to run as many fun races as I have this year!
Did you run a race on Thanksgiving? Does it take you awhile to adjust to running in cold weather?
I’m choosing to incorporate gratitude daily into my life. The fact is that, no matter what unfortunate and painful events we have going on in life, there are SO many things to be thankful for in our life as well. Gratitude isn’t meant to negate the bad things that are going on (it’s important that we own our entire range of emotions and experiences in order to be a happy person and we don’t need to be fake about our reality), but gratitude balances our negative experiences. Gratitude allows us to recognize the blessings and the little things in our life, even though we have pain and struggles as well. It’s about keeping the good and the bad balanced so we stay healthy.
In that vain, I’m planning to start a gratitude journal. It’s something I’ve recommended to clients, and for those who have done it, it has been very helpful. Gratitude is like a muscle that we have to work out over and over so it becomes stronger. I’ve been focusing on building the muscle throughout the year, and have loved the results so far.
Once you’ve picked out a notebook or a journal specifically for gratitude, pick a number for the things you will list each day (i.e. “I will write 3 things I’m thankful for every day). Try not to repeat items.
Start with the things that are simple. “I’m thankful for fresh water, food, the grocery store, heat,etc…” Think about the things that you enjoy doing, and what you’re thankful for within those things “I’m thankful for feet to carry me through the miles that I run, I’m thankful for my bike pump that allows my tires to be filled, etc…”. Think about the people, situations, and experiences in life, and write about those as well.
The more we build up the muscle of gratitude and allows ourselves to sit in the experience of gratitude each day, the stronger we get and the easier it is to tap into those things we are thankful for throughout the day. You’ll be doing something that is healthy for yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
So who is with me? Are you ready to commit to a regular practice of cultivating gratitude in your life?
Happy Thanksgiving!!
This has been BY FAR my least favorite Thanksgiving ever. This year has been incredibly difficult for many reasons for me, mostly because of issues in others’ lives around me that I have no control over but am impacted by. But that doesn’t mean I’m not thankful. I think I’ve found and felt more gratitude in my life during this difficult year than in any previous year.
I have so much in my life to be thankful for, and I have tried to make it a daily habit to recognize that. I’m thankful for all the amazing and wonderful people I have in my life, for a body that can exercise, for the races I’ve been able to complete, for a job that I love, for enough resources to pay my bills and travel, for a place to live/food to eat/heat and air conditioning/ fresh and safe water, etc… I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the things that I’ve been given this year.
This song has been on my mind a lot recently:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup dry oats
- 1 cup almond milk
- 4-5 heaping tablespoons of pumpkin
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1/4 cup craisins
- 1 handful of sliced almonds
- 1/4 cup marshmallow (optional- I found pumpkin spice marshmallows this year and throw these on top for my oatmeal desserts)
Put the oats, milk, and pumpkin a bowl together and heat either in the microwave or on the stove. Top with craisins, almonds, and pumpkin spice. Enjoy!
Looking for other fall inspired recipes? Try some of these: Maple Glazed Parsnips, Carrots, & Sweet Potatoes, Hearty Fall Soup, Cranberry Sweet Potato Quinoa Salad, Cranberry Apple Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Pumpkin Spice Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Pumpkin Spice French Toast, or Pumpkin Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies
Now it’s your turn to share! Do you make pumpkin spice oatmeal (or other holiday themed oatmeal)? What’s your favorite breakfast food topping?
As holidays come and go each year, I like to pause and think of these holidays in the past. Right now, I’m thinking of Thanksgivings past and the memories that I hold dear from this. For today, I’m thinking about memories from Thanksgiving when I was little, and I thought I’d share a few with you:
- Back when I was 6, my aunt (who had just gotten married that previous May to my uncle) and uncle came for their first official Thanksgiving as a married couple. My cousin (who is my age and was also a flower girl in their wedding) and I were horrified and intrigued at the idea of kissing, and after seeing my aunt and uncle kiss at their wedding, we were interested. We made “please kiss” signs and hung them all over their room and the house. I even remember that we hung a sign on the inside of the toilet seat. So strange, right?
- One year when creepy-crawlers were popular, my cousins and I spent hours every day making them. We then proceeded to try to hide them in the adults food after meals were dished up. Nothing like biting into a small little creepy crawler, right? I’m pretty sure we were pretty annoying to have around…
- Every year my church does a Thanksgiving-eve service, and when we were growing up they would have a time where anyone in the church could get up and share what they were thankful for in the past year. For a few years in elementary school my cousin and I would get up together and say something. One year we got a little embarrassed and tried to run back to our pew, and I tripped on the microphone stand. Oops.
- All my cousins and I would make a haunted house almost every Thanksgiving weekend in my basement. It was so much fun for us to do, and I’m sure it was absolutely ridiculous to actually walk through. It’s a great memory though!
- In elementary and middle school, my cousin and I would make paper chains to countdown the days from Thanksgiving to Christmas (when I would see my cousin again). We made this out of green and red construction paper, and we set a time each night that we would both tear off our chains. We would make them for all our other cousins as well.
I think about each of these things every Thanksgiving, usually accompanied with a smile, laugh, or text to my cousin.
Now it’s your turn to share! Tell me a favorite childhood Thanksgiving memory that you have!
It’s a holiday week! These sorts of weeks are fun as there’s a great energy in the air at work, and this week I only work Monday and Tuesday 🙂 I know that this week is busy for lots of people as we’re busy cleaning, packing, traveling, and cooking as we prepare for Thanksgiving, so I’ll keep this short and sweet.
Holidays can be a really happy time, but when stress exists in our life (especially tension in our family), holidays can be stressful. For today’s “mental health monday” post, I thought I would pull together a few other posts I’ve written in the past few years that talk about healthy holidays:
Surviving The Holidays With Family: Basic tips to stay healthy when you’re interacting with family
Grounding Techniques: Particularly stressful if a fight is going on and anxiety is increasing. This helps keep us grounded.
Owning Our Reactions: This is of particular importance when stress runs high and we get frustrated with those around us. This goes back to the series on boundaries.
Grief During the Christmas Season: While the title of this post was “Christmas”, I think a lot of these things listed here are applicable to Thanksgiving as well.
REBT Self Help Form and The Thought Record: Both of these posts go through different forms and step by step processes to keep our thoughts and feelings in check when we start to feel anxious, depressed, frustrated, and stressed.
Catastrophizing and Black & White Thinking: Two posts I did on two different cognitive distortions. These can easily come out in full force during holidays and family get togethers.
Reducing Stress During the Holiday Season : Practical steps to decrease stress.
Now it’s your turn to share! What do you do to try to stay healthy on Thanksgiving?