Weight: 212 (per Wed. morning)  Waist: 42″

(A little rough for wear after work.)

It’s amazing, to say the least, what a clear mind & calmness in life can do for your overall mental & physical state.

I’ve been running non-stop for so many weeks months, and for the first time, I feel like I get to stop and breathe. I feel that work is slowly becoming under my control, and I’ve gotten a hefty chunk of the semester out of the way. That being said, having a calm mind, normal work hours, and time to cook meals, makes me FEEL healthier (even on days when I may not be… like Friday night, when I had cheese pizza & a cupcake for dinner).  It’s a great reminder how connected our mental, emotional, and physical states really ARE.

(Breakfast of champs! Tea, fruit smoothie, & my beloved egg, avocado, Allouette, and high fiber English Muffin)

There are little things that make a vast improvement on my well being, too, like…

• Buying a new pair of jeans that fit. New blouses, skirts, dresses, leggings, all that fit and flatter our body. It makes you look 10 pounds slimmer!
• Eating new vegetables and loving them in that particular dish!
• Swishing and shaking your toosh to great music (and getting hit on by former flames).  Getting that hour & half of fitness in each week!  6 songs with no break makes you feel gooood!
• Getting back in my breakfast eating habits.
• Significantly decreasing my eating out and fast food habits (2-4 times a week is SUCH an improvement over what I was eating, especially a year ago!)
• Buying my 2nd box of veggies from the Hollygrove Market. I get really enthusiastic about them, even if many of the greens last week didn’t make it to my tummy.

(Turnips from Hollygrove! Chomp Chomp. Find my recipe ahead.)

One thing I’d like to talk about is those days and moments we don’t care.  I’m having one as I write this.  While the work week had started off calmly, the shit’s hit the ceiling the past few days.  It’s left me leaving work drained and exhausted.  So I went to the store, bought a six-pack of beer, a couple of treats from the bakery, and indulged while I cooked my turnips.  And you know what? I didn’t care that it made me go over my calorie count, I didn’t care that it wasn’t “healthy” physically for me– because the emotional and mental release it gave me is so unreal.

So what do you do about those days? Does the emotional and mental release and relief act as a “healthy” act– even if through unhealthy means?  What does “healthy” mean?

For me– it’s living a life in moderation.  It’s ordering that pizza Friday night, indulging and enjoying it, and having a beer with it.  It’s knowing that morning I had my high fiber, high protein, high yum breakfast.  It’s moving and shaking my bod in ways that entertain me, that I enjoy, and that make me feel toned and in shape….

Recipes, to share, that I’ve been excited about (via a vegetarian girl friend)

Turnips Anna

3 tbsp butter  (I used Smart Balance)
4 turnips (1 lb), peeled and very thinly sliced
1 shallot, minced (you can use regular onion if you want)
salt/pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Melt butter in skillet and saute turnips til just coated in butter and partially cooked (3 min).

In 8″ round cake/pie pan, arrange layer of overlapping turnip slices. Sprinkle with some shallot; salt and pepper to taste. Repeat with rest of ingredients, ending with turnips.

Bake til crispy and golden (30 minutes).

Ashe’s Notes:
I didn’t have full pound, because there was no way that a) they needed 3 tbsps butter, and b) they could barely cover 1 layer of the 8″ pan. I don’t like the texture of onions, esp. when they’re so “visible,” so I tossed 3 cloves of fresh garlic in with them. I cooked these really poorly, as the little ones were burned and the big ones were soggy, but they are effing delicious. I’d make it again in a heartbeat. And that was without the salt & pepper!

Skillet Greens with Cumin and Tomatoes

3 tblspns olive oil

2 garlic cloves, smashed

1 tspn ground cumin

1 lg bunch greens, cut in 1″ strips (10 cups packed) (can use mustard, kale, collard, spinach, etc.)

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes, drained

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cumin; stir 1 min. Add greens in large handfuls; stir til just starting to wilt before adding more, tossing until coated with oil.

Cook til tender (1-6 min, depending on the greens used). Add tomatoes and saute til heated through (2 min). S/P.

Ashe’s Notes:
I haven’t tried this one yet, but I’m really excited to!