To Jicama with Love

Do you know this little gem of a veggie (or is it fruit)?
Have you tasted of it's goodness? If not, let me introduce you. Meet my friend Jicama. I realize it looks a bit scarey, but under that ugly, splotchy skin is a crunchy, delicious delight. And before going any further, I must thank my sweet friend Jen Crandall, 'cause she is the jicama queen. With her ready bag of it every summer at workshop, I discovered that this is a delightful little no calorie treat. Now, Jen, I may need a real lesson on proper jicama preperation, 'cause mine came out a bit messy.

We're halfway there. And my flash sucked up the pic, but whatev.

There she is, all cut up and ready to go. A quick, easy snack that won't end up on your bum.

Mmmmmm! DEE-lectable.

Now, WHY am I doing a post on jicama? I'll tell you. Each week of this triatholon training Dixie presents us with a new challenge. This weeks challenge is to ONLY eat fruits and vegetables when and if snacking. NOTHING but produce for snacks. I'm telling you, nothing makes you more aware of your eating habits than challenges like this. I realize, I quite enjoy crackers, chips or little cookies for snacks. Heaven forbid I eat the amazing oranges sitting outside my doorstep on my tree. WHY would I eat the 5 lbs. of grapes in my fridge? Who needs the cut up cucumber in my fridge? Good grief. So anyway, I went to Sprouts last night and stocked up on some lovely celery, carrots, peppers, lettuce and jicama. Clearly I'm most excited about the aforementioned crunchy goodness.

So, if any of you are interested in just taking on these challenges on your own, I'll just let you know what they are.

Week 1: No soda of any kind. Let me just say, SO SUPER grand for me, as I'm not a pop drinker.

Week 2: No eating after 7:00. This one made me realize what a snacker I really am.

Week 3: Get in at least 5 servings of fruits and veggies each day. This also takes more thought on life, for sure.

Week 4: No snacking on anything but fruits or veggies.

So, go for it, I dare you! Give them a try. They really are great for making you think, and just helping you make a change in lifestyle, not dieting!

And, while I'm at it, why not just give a little update on my progress. In biking I've made some great strides. I can now stay fairly close to Dixie which makes me really happy. I'm up to about 13 miles in 48 minutes, or at least that's what the bike tells me. The biggest improvement is, I can keep my RPM's at a much higher rate for a much longer time. This morning I stayed in the 90's for MOST of the 33 minutes. On the treadmill, I've actually RUN at a 5 for consecutive minutes. That is HUGE for me people. I do NOT do running. I've also run at a 7 for 30 second spurts. 'Cause I said, if that HUGE boy in biggest loser who wells 100+ more lbs. than me can run a 7, even if it was only 10 seconds, I CAN RUN on 7 too. My next goal is to break freaking 2 miles. In swimming, I swam a full 800 without stopping on Monday morning. My arms are a tad bit sore today, but it's all good. So yeah, even if I still feel so fat, and don't think my clothes look better, I know that I'm making some pretty great physical strides. The next step is, allowing myself to push hard enough to barf, or almost barf. Apparently, according to "my trainer" that's a good thing, and it'll usually take you to the next level. So, we'll see.



In other news........

Look who just lazed away the morning and snoozed until 10:00 today. Yeah, HE did! Well, he did wake up at 7:00 for some grub, then he snuggled in with Daddy and fell back to sleep. I seriously had to keep going in and checking on him, 'cause it was freaking me out that he was still asleep. However, I was able to get a lot more done in the morning.

And that's the sweet look I got when he decided to grace me with his awakeness.



And lastly...when the girls are driving me nuts and I need them to get out from under my feet, you know, I send them to our lovely dirt patch. So this morning Maggie was all kinds of screamy, so I finally said, how bout you go push your baby outside. She LOVES to push her stroller. So, she trotted right on out with Brooklyn following closely behind. Then scooted there babies back and forth for quite some time. It's really so freaking adorable. Especially because Brooklyn is SUCH a good little Mommy. She's always feeding, patting, wrapping in blankets, putting them to bed, worrying abou them. AND, she feels it is her personal job to make Max happy, which she does quite well at. She'll sit at the foot of the swing and talk to him, play with him, put his binky in, etc. This morning she kepts saying, "Come on Maxy, show me your happy smile." And when she started calling him Bubbers ('cause we do) it nearly killed me. It's a good thing she's cute and such a good helper, 'cause it really offsets her NAUGHTY side! Oh and she IS that!

And with that said, I'm off to vaccuum up all the cracker crumbs that Maggie enjoys crushing, grinding and spreading throughout the house. Then a quick dusting, finish cleaning out the fridge and then lessons. Oh man, too much to do before Thursday.

Peace in the ghetto,

Allyson