Wii Can Do it!

Once again I have gotten caught up in the hype and love it! For New year's with our Christmas bounty my hubby and I went on one wacky adventure complete with funny salespeople, odd circumstances, and just those surreal moments but by the end of the day we walked into our house with a Wii System and the Wii Fit Plus. It did take me a couple of days to get over the intimidation of trying out the System but with butterflies in my tummy I slid in the wii fit disk. They kind of get down to business and before you know it they are configuring your BMI and your fitness age. They estimated my original Wii Fit Age at 43. Ummm I'm 29. That's not a compliment. And just in case you didn't catch their drift they say that is fourteen years above your actual age and that means you are weaker than you should be. Well nothing like tough love. But there are moments like wow it really does know me. "Your balance is not so good, do you find yourself tripping a lot?" I DO!!!! and then it told me to avoid afternoon snacks , Do they have a video camera that is my worst time for the munchies ;) It is fun and though it is not the most strenuous activity I appreciate that it is encouraging consistency. In nine days I have used the system four times. Getting more consistent by the day. I am excited to share my Fit Age is down to 34. I am only five years away:) Not bad when you consider I was fourteen years aged a little over a week. I like the variety and the cute images. There is a Run program where you chase a cat. It makes me giggle:) I also don't have the coordination but love the stimulated cycling. But the program that really motivates me is called FREE STEP. The program is designed for you to watch a tv show while it coaches you to complete a step routine. Granted it is one inch off the ground but at least it is movement. It feels good to have hope and to have enthusiasm to get home to play, excuse me I mean work out:) It's late and I still have much to share about this but it will just have to wait. I hope your HealthFULL Journey includes enthusiasm, surprises, and a little wackiness. 'Til we meet again. . . .

Coal-Robbie? What?

Or should I say kohlrabi! That is the new produce of the week. I had planned to prepare this produce last week after hearing several ways to prepare this vegetable. If you see this vegetable you would say to yourself, this must be a root vegetable. It looks that very easily it would burrow into the ground. Also if you translated kohlrabi from its German roots it would be even harder to sway you. "Kohl" means cabbage and "rabi" means turnip. Sounds like a root to me. Except here is the catch, it grows above ground, which takes it out of the root vegetable category (parsnips, turnips, potatoes, rutabagas, ect.). However after tasting the green leafs you could easily guess that it belongs to the Brassica oleracea family with broccoli. The tastes are very similar.

The vegetable could be art. I'm serious! They are very intriguing to view. First it has these huge crinkly, ruffled, and thick leaves sprouting on the top. The leaves are a gorgeous deep green and are edible raw and I would imagine lend themselves easily to cooking because of their thickness. When added to a salad they add great color, nutrients, and a heartier, more filling texture. Then at the stem of these gorgeous leaves are the most interesting object. I read on several sites it looks like a pale green or deep purple (called red - think the color of RED cabbage) sputnik. I would have described the shape as an upside down budding rose. This intriguing shape is how it is named after a turnip as it too resembles a spinning top. I mentioned the two colors as we bought both to try and compare side to side. I would say the difference in flavor is as noticeable as the difference between a red apple and green apple. Some will notice instantly and others might notice. The red kohlrabi had a sweeter taste. When peeled they are hard to distinguish (again think apples). The kohlrabi can be eaten raw and would add a little crunch to a salad nicely, but we chose to saute them as matchsticks. Great, mild flavor. Once you cut away the leaves please don't discard. What a waste! Even if you don't want to eat the leaves (but why, they truly are so tasty!) We used them as a base of our salads with dinner last night (Baked eggplant parmesan, YUM-MY! Totally worth eating close to midnight - long story about my mis-time management skills!) And my husband even turned to be and said that the kohlrabi greens added a lot of flavor to the salads. I couldn't agree more. And if you don't have a great greens recipe I highly encourage that you use them for floral decoration. They truly are that pretty.

So once the leaves are cut away. It is time to attack the turnip, rose, sputnik-like veggie. I probably did this wrong as most directions said cut away the woody bottom and then peel away from that cut. I had difficulty peeling and ended up using a knife to discard the thin colored peel. Once you get to the flesh inside it cuts so easily into matchsticks. Tiny matchsticks. We threw a little olive oil into the pan (just a thin layer to cover the bottom), sweat some onions and a little bit of garlic. One recipe included ginger but we didn't have any fresh on hand. After your onions cook down throw in the match sticks. It doesn't take long at all, no more than a couple of minutes. We then took advice from another recipe and added a little chili powder, lemon juice, pepper, and salt. Don't leave out the lemon juice. It pulls out the gentle sweet flavor from the kohlrabi. Delicious side, kohlrabi matchsticks!

I will say looking at this vegetable it can be intimidating. But so mild and tasty. Hopefully, you come across some fun challenges worth trying. Remember (as I say to myself) you don't have to like everything you try, but don't deny yourself anything out of unfounded fears. May your HealthFULL journey take you places you could never imagine. 'Til we meet again. . .

Turn it Up with Turnips!

Are you a fan of mashed potatoes? I am a Midwestern girl at heart, so I proudly will tell you I grew up as a fan of potatoes, especially mashed. There is such a comfort of warm filling food that requires little to no chewing. (How lazy does that sound? :) As I got older I started to add tasty (but not that healthy) additions to the mashed potatoes: garlic and onions (not really unhealthy until you add, "scary music") extra butter, tons of cheese, possibly sour cream, and even a bacon crumble perhaps. This was a bowl of gluttonous comfort. And if I am truly laying the cards on the table I am going to say french fries or mashed potatoes made up 75% - 80% of my vegetable intake for several years. But I am proud to say no longer do they play a significant role in my veggie intake. Though there are days they truly are that little bowl of yummy comfort. So was it the flavor of mashed potatoes I enjoy? Not really, if I am willing to add pretty much anything to up its flavor. Its that texture and warmth that radiate from the bowl. Well it is time to take the flavor and nutritional value and Turn It Up. Or should I say time to add the heavyweight cruciferous root vegetable, the almighty powerhouse, TURNIP. Can we say yum? What keeps you from trying new foods, especially fruits or vegetables? My number one reason that selecting new produce can be frightening is what can I do with it? And how do I select "the right one"; or more accurately "the ripe one". Plus, as children we were exposed to certain vegetables and fruits that seemed very unpleasant. Because as kids are taste buds are extremely over-sensitive and undeveloped at the same time. There was probably a fruit or veggie as a kid that you tried and spit out immediately. I challenge you to revisit that offender and prepare it yourself. First, as the adult you get to choose how to prepare them. You can choose what ingredients to blend and what type of heat to use or choose no heat at all. Second, no one is going to force you to clean your plate if the produce selection is still not your favorite. I think you are going to find some neat surprises. I sure have!!! My top three tips I have learned when approaching new produce include: the produce should feel heavier than it looks, the colors present should be vibrant and not faded, and though the produce doesn't have to be blemish free and polished avoid produce with overly dark spots, deep gouges, and/or spongy spots. Happy shopping! Now, back to the tasty nutritional powerhouse known as the Turnip. Aren't they pretty? Turnips can either come with the greens attached (which sound wonderful and super easy to prepare) or tops removed. I chose Turnips medium size that already had their green leafy tops removed. They have a roundish shape again comparable to an apple. The colors are usually half white with shades of purple, reddish pink, or green. And I loved this next line from www.alive.com "If you choose yellow, chances are you’re holding a rutabaga–a cousin to the turnip." I think this made me laugh because a) I love the word rutabaga, it just sounds funny. And b) I really took some time debating if I wanted to prepare the rutabaga or the turnip. Kind of a worthless debate as I started to look through recipes and saw for the most part rutabagas and turnips are easily interchangeable and are close in flavor profiles. Again, back to the turnip. My choice was medium sized, no top, and with a beautiful purple tint to the skin. This vegetable can be prepared so many different ways and its flavor profile allows it to blend well with most ingredients. Turnips are root vegetables so any way that you like to eat potatoes or sweet potatoes you can use the same method for the turnip. Turnips have a peppery note that finishes slightly sweet. If you choose smaller turnips most articles state they are even sweeter. As I mentioned I was a big fan of mashed potatoes. We first peeled the beautiful skin and then cubed them. They are a hearty root and after they were peeled they reminded me of a young coconut; milky white skin with a distinct shape (like an upside down house). Then the turnips were cubed for quicker cooking time. We put them in a pot with a couple of cubed potatoes. We boiled them with water barely covering the vegetables. You don't want to over boil as turnips have a good amount of water already in them. Mash 'em up and add what ingredients you choose. We used a little butter and sour cream to create a creamier texture and added a couple of spices to draw out the turnip's peppery notes. The turnip mash reminded me a lot of a cauliflower flavor profile. Where that spice flavor lasts a millisecond and then finishes off sweet. It was a very tasty and comforting dish. Turnips are a nutrition powerhouse. The following nutritional information is from the website www.nutritiondata.com "It (Turnip) is also a good source of Riboflavin, Magnesium, Potassium and Copper, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber, Protein, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E (Alpha Tocopherol), Vitamin K, Folate, Calcium, Iron and Manganese." Great site that also shows you graphs like the glycemic load (turnips have a low glycemic count) and Amino Acid score (turnips qualify as a complete protein). On your HealthFULL Journey may you also have a chance to revisit childhood favorites and conquer childhood fears. 'Til we meet again. . .

Dear Me,

Dear Me, I am sorry to say it is time for some tough love. This letter has been a work in progress. But then much of your life seems to head in that direction. What I am going to tell you will not be news, it is not meant to hurt, but this is meant to motivate and help. You're struggling. You and I both know it. You've whined, you've reflected, and now it it time to do the work. You want this journey, but you're terrified. Take a moment to really hear that. Yes, you can do this, but it means changing everything. Doesn't that sentence sound loaded? Too much to do. Too much to change. Too much to imagine. But now, here is the good news. That's the prize! That's where all the efforts and attempts and hopes are aimed. That everything is going to change. That you deserve to feel more energetic. That you stop feeling extremely self conscious (of yourself and those around you). That both the critical and fearful voices calm themselves. The journey is certainly not easy, but it was never promised that it would be. I know when we were in the full swing of things working hard, feeling great, and then nothing. After a long period of time without any weight change the journey became super frustrating. But think back to when we were putting in the effort, the time, and the heart? Weren't you feeling better? More confident? More energetic? And just. . . happier? The numbers on a scale are not the only measure and you know that. But after a couple of months there should have been a change. That created a whallop slam against the motivation. However, let's be honest, there could have been a little more tweaks in the system on both the meals and the exercise. No one is expecting you to be flawless, except maybe yourself. Were you doing good? Absolutely! Were you doing great? Sometimes. Was their room for improvement? Yeah, and that was all the scale was saying. A few more tweaks in a couple of different areas were needed. Again, this is a journey not a sprint. No overall transformation has to take place overnight, nor should. Tweaks, changes, those can happen in a second. String them together, taking only one moment at a time, and the overall will G-R-A-D-U-A-L-L-Y change. Now, it is time to refocus. Some bad habits quickly recaptured their place in your routine. They can be quickly ousted. It may be harder to recommit. You've stumbled, and once we come across a roadblock it is easy to get discouraged. And that's something that weighs especially hard on your heart. You may easily find triumphant energy, but the other side is that discouragement can quickly snatch that victory away. We gotta work on that! Enjoy the good moments, learn from the rough, and never succumb to the ugly. So what big changes can we work towards in baby steps. First, let's accomplish the LIST. The ever-present always adding List of Undone. That list grows continually. I know good-byes and closed doors are not your thing. But on your list is over twenty-five things that are up in the air, to worry, to weigh on your shoulders and heart, to suck up time, at a second's notice. Now this isn't your daily to-do list. This is the list that you carry every day, through every year, going on decades now. And let's discuss this fondness for lists briefly, lists are great to get organized but they don't count as actually doing. Remember that! So, let's take the List of Undone and Finish it. Each item falls into three categories: Finish, Forgive, or Forget. Let's look at some examples. Finish: Get the Christmas Cards Out, PRONTO! Forget: this one is going to hurt, brace yourself, forget your dream to return to Covenant Players. I know that you want to honor that commitment, but life has changed and picking up to travel isn't going to become a viable option soon. Think of different ways to honor them. Forgive: Apologize to the world about the wedding thank yous. Tell the World "I messed up! I wanted to send out the world's most perfect thank you from the heart that was to be charming, impressive and showing creativity but overlooked it was an opportunity to just humbly say thank you for celebrating one of life's biggest blessings. So often I have thought how to send them out in a cute manner even as late as our six year wedding anniversary. I originally addressed the envelopes before the wedding so that I could be timely and efficient and found them two weeks ago when I lamented that life just kept throwing the craziest ironies our way. I feel like the world's biggest schmuck and all I can say is Thank you and I am so sorry I didn't make it more personal in a timelier manner. " I truly believe by just competing the List of Undone a lot of weight (pun and literal) will begin to finally release its hold on your life. It is time to clear out the clutter and the chaos. And Fully Understand Life by Living. I think the other two steps in the HealthFULL Journey include going back to the original objectives and to just do them. No procrastinating, no lamenting, no complaining, no half-way attempts, do the best you can and move forward. Not everyday is going to be perfect. But every day you are going to try your best and that's it. No worrying or fretting about more or the route of perfection. And Third and lastly, Enjoy the FULL approach. Count your blessings and truly embrace the last two-thirds of this "planned" Journey. You can do it. Find your rhythm, figure out what results you want, and then Embrace it. This is gonna sound schmeepy but I am proud of you. and I think you know, I love you too. So, to sum up this long-worded but needed letter. I want you to complete the List of Undone, to review your goals and planned actions for this HealthFULL Journey, and then to Embrace the idea of Fulling Understanding Life by Living. I'm glad we found the time to talk. Now, get to work! :) <3 Always, Me who is also You :)