Kate Curran's Blog: The Klutzy Athlete, page 4

Summer Smoothie Results

Green Smoothie Recipes

So I didn’t try all the smoothie recipes from my last blog because I discovered it was really easy to experiment on my own. Using a handful of spinach, about a ½ cup of kale and ½ cup of water as my base, I blended these ingredients first, then I added some fresh pineapple and frozen strawberries. I didn’t really measure anything, I just tossed in a few strawberries and pineapple. This mix was okay, but I found adding half a banana really improved the taste.

Next I tried the same base ingredients, but I used blackberries and banana. I love blackberries, but not in this combination.

My next attempt I used the same base, added a ¼ cup of coconut milk, banana, frozen strawberries and frozen pineapple, plus half a packet of Stevia. This is hands down my favorite blend so far.

I’ve been making this for my afternoon snack, and it’s incredibly filling. I started making half the recipe, and it’s a perfect size snack. I have one more combination I want to try and it is with frozen mango. I will share in a future blog how that combination worked.

New Recipe

I’ve also been searching for some new recipes, and I came across a recipe for stuffed peppers with quinoa that I modified to use up the leftovers in my refrigerator. I had pork and brown rice that I included.

Stuffed Quinoa, Pork and Brown Rice Peppers

2 cups cooked shredded pork
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup cooked brown rice
½ cup chili verde sauce
1 teaspoon cumin
¼ cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro
Salt and pepper to taste
3 peppers (I prefer orange and yellow peppers)
2 cups of cheese (I used Mexican mix)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Stuffed Peppers

Combine the first eight ingredients, plus one cup of the cheese and set aside.Cut top off peppers and remove stem and seeds. Boil a large pot of water. Precook peppers for three minutes, then carefully remove them from the pot and place in a casserole dish. Stuff the peppers all the way to the top. Add a quarter cup of water to the bottom of the dish, cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle the last cup of cheese on top of the peppers and cook for 15 minutes.

Cole Slaw

To top off the meal, I made corn bread and Cole Slaw. It was delicious, and I’m adding this to my throw together meals list. Chicken could easily be swapped for the pork, or for a meat free meal, use black beans instead of meat. A few chopped jalapeños could also be added to the mix.

Next time I’m going to stuff my favorite turkey meatloaf recipe in the peppers.

What’s your favorite stuffed pepper recipe?

The post Summer Smoothie Results appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Summer Smoothies

I have been talking about being sedentary and the health risks associated with it. I’ve been doing better in getting more active during the work day, but I still find at crunch time that I’m sitting longer than I should. My new office is still a few weeks out, so it will be some time before I know how much the standing desk helps. But I will report back.

I have also found that just about any exercise works, including keeping weights around just to shake up my routine. And I have to say, I’ve shaved off a few pounds with this new plan, so an added benefit.

Vegetables

But today I want to talk about meals. I have been making pureed vegetable soup from Rebecca J. Clark’s newsletter author of The Checklist Diet (check out my earlier blog for the recipe passionate about diet and exercise blog).

Now that summer is almost here, I’m searching for a new way to get my veggies in, and I’m investigating smoothies.

Smoothie Recipes

I went hunting for some new and exciting recipes and here is what I chose:

collard green smoothie

kale smoothie

green piña colada smoothie

green kiwi berry punch smoothie

cranberry green tea smoothie

Sampling

Since I had all the ingredients for the green piña colada smoothie I decided to give it a try. I found a couple of challenges, mostly trying to make a smaller recipe. Once I got the fluid content down it was easy. I followed the recipe exactly and found I needed it a little sweeter for my taste, so I added a quarter of a banana and really liked it.

This week I will experiment with some of the other recipes and report back. Since spinach is an easy vegetable for me to eat, I want to explore some of the other vegetables and see what I can come up with.

Do you have a favorite vegetable smoothie? Please share.

The post Summer Smoothies appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Sedentary—Exercise

Last week I blogged about my job and my concerns about how sedentary it is. I’ve worked to change my work habits, and I have been successful.

Start Exercising

First, I reduced the amount of time I sit. If I’m on the telephone, I stand up and move around so far as the phone cord allows.

Second, instead of sitting and editing, I print the edits and ride the exercise bike or stand at the kitchen counter and do leg raises. An added benefit is, I’m getting more fiction writing done.

Third, I’m investing in a standing desk, but that is still a few weeks out.

While I’m pleased with the changes, I still have to remind myself to get up and move.

Exercise Sources

I also went in search of some exercises and came up with three great suggestions.

The first was Rebecca J. Clark, author of The Checklist Diet. Rebecca suggested:

Sit and stand from a chair
Standing side leg lifts (already on my list!)
Get up and down from the floor

“You don’t ever want to be the person who’s ‘fallen and I can’t get up’,” Rebecca said.

Next, I was sent some great links for yoga from Toni Patrick, a yoga instructor and speech therapist.

Yoga Anonymous 6 Best Yoga Poses
Yoga Journal Breaktime Shoulder Stretches
Yoga Journal Office Yoga

I tried one from each and love them!

Kickboxing Aerobic instructors Gloria and Dana Warren offered these suggestions:

Seated or standing calf raises
Pushups off the desk
Squats
Stand on one leg then the other (good exercise and a great way to build balance)

Gloria says, “Almost any exercise can be incorporated into this, depending on how much time the person wants to spend, and how many disruptions they are willing to allow.”

Deadlines

As I was putting this blog together, I was interrupted with a two hour edit that was a high pressure deadline, but I was determined to limit my sit time. I incorporated leg lifts from Rebecca J. Clark, yoga poses from each of the yoga sites recommended by Toni Patrick and squats and calf raises from Gloria and Dana Warren.

How I worked it was, I sat for 30 minutes, then I had intended to take a break and a few exercises, but instead I found I could do 30 minutes of exercise while I edited from the computer. I just stood in front of the monitor and read while I did leg lifts, calf raises, squats, and shoulder and thigh stretches.

After the 30 minutes of exercise, I sat again, but got up and moved around every 30 minutes and the time flew by. I got the edits done and off, and best of all, I felt great afterwards instead of exhausted like I normally would.

I am finding this easier to incorporate than I anticipated, and I’m excited to continue on this new quest of my weight loss journey.

How about the rest of you? Did you have any success this week?

The post Sedentary—Exercise appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Get Up and Move

Sedentary Equals Health Risk

Even though I’m a fairly active person, my job puts me at risk because it’s sedentary. And if I’m under deadline, I can sit for long, long periods of time, which is part and parcel with being a writer, but these facts are making me rethink those habits.

Research

The Mayo Clinic reports research has linked long periods of sitting to increased problems with:

Blood pressure
High blood sugar
Excess body fat around the waist
Abnormal cholesterol level
Obesity and metabolic syndrome
Cardiovascular disease
Cancer

Adults spending less than two hours a day in front of the TV or other screen-based entertainment compared to those who spent more than four hours a day had nearly a 50 percent increased risk of death from any cause, and about a 125 percent increased risk of events associated with cardiovascular disease like chest pain or heart attack.

Exercise Isn’t Enough

I thought I was combating these risks with my exercise routines, but research is showing this is not the case. What does this mean for the Klutzy Athlete? It means, I’m going to have to make changes in my routine, something that doesn’t excite me because I’m a creature of habit.

Here are some things I’m going to try:

Stand when doing telephone interviews or when talking on the phone
Invest in a standing desk
Pay attention to how long I’m sitting and get up and move every 30 minutes, by walking, stretching or doing some yoga poses
Walk to get the mail versus drive (it’s a five minute walk each way)
Go outside and enjoy my new backyard with a waterfall and pine trees

There were also suggestions of walking laps with colleagues rather than gathering in a conference room for meetings, and getting a treadmill mounted with a computer screen. I know writers who do this and love it. That may be in my future, too. Eating standing up was also suggested, but I personally disagree with that one as I’m working on eating slower and savoring my food because I tend to eat faster when standing.

Making Changes

All of this is going to take mental adjustment for me, because change always impacts my productivity. But who knows, this could be a good impact because research is showing that making these changes increases energy and burns more calories. I don’t know about you, but I can always stand to burn some extra calories!

This week I’m setting small goals that I know I can achieve and build up over time. I’m going to cut my sitting time by 15 to 20 minutes per day and aim for two to three hours less sitting time per day. I’m going to remind myself that standing burns twice as many calories as sitting. And guess what? I did the edits for this blog standing up! Progress.

Do you have a sedentary job? What have you done to get up and move?

The post Get Up and Move appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Emotional Eating

Last week I talked about my issues with stress or emotional eating. Usually blogging about something helps me get back on track, but not this time. All week long I found myself eating when I wasn’t hungry and unable to stop.

With everything going on, I’m eating for reasons other than hunger. Because I had several other readers comment that emotional eating is an issue for them as well, I went online and found a site that helped me, How to Recognize and Stop Emotional Eating.

The opening paragraph resonated with me. “We don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort, stress relief, or as a reward. Unfortunately, emotional eating doesn’t fix emotional problems. It usually makes you feel worse.”

This has been so true for me because afterward I still have the emotional issue, but I also feel guilty for overeating.

Many times just recognizing my eating triggers is a big step, and it turns out just reading this made a huge difference for me. Yesterday I finally felt like my old self again.

Emotional hunger can’t be filled with food.

Emotional hunger can’t be filled with food really jumped out at me and made me realize no matter how much I eat, I will never be satisfied. I have to deal with the emotions to find satisfaction. Eating will give me a temporary high, but when I come down, I will still have those pesky emotions to contend with.

The difference between emotional and physical hunger

Emotional hunger comes on suddenly, whereas physical hunger is more gradual. Emotional hunger craves specific comfort foods—fatty foods or sugary snacks. Emotional hunger often leads to mindless eating.
Emotional hunger isn’t satisfied once you’re full.
Emotional hunger leaves behind regret, guilt or shame.
Emotional hunger isn’t in my stomach, it’s in my head.

How do you know if you’re an emotional eater?

Here are eight signs of emotional eaters from How to Recognize and Stop Emotional Eating:

Do you eat more when you’re feeling stressed?
Do you eat when you’re not hungry or when you’re full?
Do you eat to feel better?
Do you reward yourself with food?
Do you regularly eat until you’ve stuffed yourself?
Does food make you feel safe?
Do you feel like food is a friend?
Do you feel powerless or out of control around food?

Three of these I do regularly, and two more I have issues with off and on, so I would say that makes me an emotional eater.

Mountain biking Spense Mountain, Oregon

I’m finding that exercise makes a huge difference in my ability to cope with stress and emotional eating. This week I am going to pay attention to my hunger and hopefully determine if it’s emotional or physical hunger.

What are your triggers, and what have you found helpful when you’re eating for reasons other than hunger?

 

The post Emotional Eating appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Stress Eating

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I kicked off the new year with a huge life change which has generated plenty of stress good and bad. We sold the house we’d lived in for 20 years and moved out of state. We have been homeless for the last five weeks. Even though we found a home, we couldn’t move in for six weeks after we sold our house.

Our empty house

Now, five weeks after our move, I’ve started to settle in, but in 10 days we move again—the second time in less than two months.

Stress

I’m beginning to feel the stress again. No regular meals, no time to prepare meals, no time to exercise, and a to do list that feels never ending. And as that pressure builds, I find myself grabbing foods that aren’t as nutritious for convenience and frankly stress relief.

Mountain biking in our new home

Squeezing exercise in is also going to be a challenge, and when I exercise less, my sleep is impacted, which increases my stress.

Eating makes me feel safe. It calms me. It occupies my hands and my mind, but this is not how I want to handle my stress.

Managing Stress

So today as I was contemplating what to blog about, I came across Diane Carbonell’s blog, Stress Eating: How to Manage and Stop It. She offered seven suggestions for managing stress eating.

Acknowledge that you are stressed. This helped me recognize I was ignoring the stress and pretending it wasn’t there, which often caused me more stress.
Stay active. Exercise is a proven stress reducer and a guaranteed way to stay out of the kitchen. This is one area I will make every effort to work on.
Get enough sleep. Sometimes this is easier said than done, but I’ve found that when I’m exercising I sleep better, so if I exercise, I will get more sleep as a result.
Get help from friends and family to manage your stress and avoid overeating. Brainstorm ideas for solving problems that are stressful.
Eat in moderation. I never pay attention to what I’m eating when I’m stressed. The next thing I know, I’ve eaten twice as much as I normally would have if I hadn’t been stress eating. Portion control, portion control, portion control will be my mantra.
Eating healthy foods is crucial for me. Not only do I control my calories better, but my body feels better when it’s getting good nutrition.
Recognize the warning signs of stress in my body. This is definitely something I need to work on because I’m usually knee deep in stress before I realize I’m stressed.
I’m adding number eight. When I eat, I will sit down and be aware of what I’m eating.

Paying Attention to Stress

My goal this week is to pay attention to the stress I’m experiencing and deal with it, not stuff it with food.

Have you found ways to manage stress eating?

The post Stress Eating appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Eating Challenges

Eating Challenges

I wish I knew why some eating challenges were harder for me than others. I’m still struggling with eat when I’m hungry and savor my food. I have a feeling these will be a life long issues for me. Currently, I have to make a conscious effort to think before I eat and take the time to enjoy each bite.

Before we moved everything was clicking away and flowing smoothly, but the move and still being in temporary housing has disrupted my eating habits. And getting them back in place is taking longer than I anticipated.

I have made progress since I blogged last week. More often I am eating when I’m hungry. I do well until late afternoon and evening. I find myself eating almost immediately after dinner even though I’m not hungry.

To combat this, I went back and reread The Checklist Diet but Rebecca J. Clark, and I have started asking myself if I’m hungry, thirsty, bored, or tired. The majority of the time I’m not hungry, so I start with either a glass of water or a cup of tea. If I still want to eat, I start checking my emotions and I find that I’m either bored or tired.

Fatigue

Many times it’s fatigue, but when I’m stressed I don’t sleep well, so it becomes a vicious cycle.

I also find when I don’t sleep well, I’m not getting enough exercise, so I’ve been working on getting back into a regular exercise routine. With the move, I lost my kickboxing aerobic class and I miss it a lot. In fact, there won’t be another class just like it, so I have to accept that and look for a class that is similar.

Exercise
Mountain biking Bend Oregon

The good news is, I have plenty of options in my new town that I didn’t have in my old one. I have tried a few yoga classes, and I have been doing yoga more regularly. There is an indoor swimming facility, and I’ve been swimming once so far. I’ve also gotten back into my weight lifting routine. Weather permitting, I’ve been mountain biking, but that’s not as regular as I’d like. And I bought Nordic skis, so hope to be out using them a few times before the season is over.

All in all, my exercise is coming back, so where I’m really putting my energy is eating when I’m hungry and savoring my food. At some point, I will turn my attention to eating slower as that is and always will be a challenge for me, but I’m taking it one step at a time.

Goals

This week my goals are to eat when I’m hungry and savor my food.

What are your struggles? Are you setting any goals?

The post Eating Challenges appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Eating Challenges

Eating Challenges

I wish I knew why some eating challenges were harder for me than others. I’m still struggling with eat when I’m hungry and savor my food. I have a feeling these will be a life long issues for me. Currently, I have to make a conscious effort to think before I eat and take the time to enjoy each bite.

Before we moved everything was clicking away and flowing smoothly, but the move and still being in temporary housing has disrupted my eating habits. And getting them back in place is taking longer than I anticipated.

I have made progress since I blogged last week. More often I am eating when I’m hungry. I do well until late afternoon and evening. I find myself eating almost immediately after dinner even though I’m not hungry.

To combat this, I went back and reread The Checklist Diet by Rebecca Clark, and I have started asking myself if I’m hungry, thirsty, bored, or tired. The majority of the time I’m not hungry, so I start with either a glass of water or a cup of tea. If I still want to eat, I start checking my emotions and I find that I’m either bored or tired.

Fatigue

Many times it’s fatigue, but when I’m stressed I don’t sleep well, so it becomes a vicious cycle.

I also find when I don’t sleep well, I’m not getting enough exercise, so I’ve been working on getting back into a regular exercise routine. With the move, I lost my kickboxing aerobic class and I miss it a lot. In fact, there won’t be another class just like it, so I have to accept that and look for a class that is similar.

Exercise
Mountain biking Bend Oregon

The good news is, I have plenty of options in my new town that I didn’t have in my old one. I have tried a few yoga classes, and I have been doing yoga more regularly. There is an indoor swimming facility, and I’ve been swimming once so far. I’ve also gotten back into my weight lifting routine. Weather permitting, I’ve been mountain biking, but that’s not as regular as I’d like. And I bought Nordic skis, so hope to be out using them a few times before the season is over.

All in all, my exercise is coming back, so where I’m really putting my energy is eating when I’m hungry and savoring my food. At some point, I will turn my attention to eating slower as that is and always will be a challenge for me, but I’m taking it one step at a time.

Goals

This week my goals are to eat when I’m hungry and savor my food.

What are your struggles? Are you setting any goals?

 

The post Eating Challenges appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Eating Out

Eating Out

I’ve spent the last month literally on the road between moving, a speaking engagement and a conference. I faced many eating challenges, but my greatest challenge was eating healthy when eating out.

Meals

Generally, when I’m traveling I eat out, but it’s only a couple of meals—usually dinner or lunch. Breakfast, I tend to bring food to eat and many times for lunch, too, but my last trip, I had no way to bring an ice chest.

Not only is it expensive to eat all my meals out, but I find it difficult to eat healthy. There are only so many salads I can eat, and honestly, even those can be high calorie dishes, even if I order the dressing on the side. Eating out occasionally is a fun treat, but I find that when I eat out day after day, I crave home cooking.

Back To Basics

So, now that I’m settled for the next few weeks until we move into our new house, I’ve found I’m having to go back to the basics and concentrate on eating when I’m hungry and stopping when I’m full. Eating has emotional ties for me. I eat when I’m bored, stressed, anxious. I can come up with just about any reason to eat.

And all that traveling also meant I got very little exercise, which is a twofold problem for me. If I don’t exercise, I will start to gain weight, and I don’t sleep well. And when I don’t sleep well, I want to eat more frequently. But when I exercise regularly, I have more energy, I eat less and I feel better. So, it’s a vicious cycle. When I’m not exercising, I sleep poorly, eat more, and I feel bloated and lazy.

I also stopped savoring my food when my life went into high-octane, crazy mode. I’m still struggling with that. For me, the first step is becoming aware I’m not savoring my food.

I went back to Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat by Dr. Michelle May. Choosing a random page, I came across her strategies for fearless eating. The section where she advised eating food mindfully jumped out at me. I haven’t been mindfully eating or exercising, but now I plan to:

Exercise regularly
Eat when I’m hungry
Stop when I’m full
Savor my food

As I ate breakfast this morning I made a conscious effort to savor my food, and I enjoyed it so much more. Then I had an orange for a snack, scarfed it down and didn’t appreciate it at all. It took away the pleasure of eating, so I will focus on savoring my food, or mindfully eating as Dr. May says.

As I have said many times, I am a work in progress, so I will continue to work on my eating challenges.

How have you been? What are you struggling with?

The post Eating Out appeared first on The Klutzy Athlete Kathy Coatney & Kate Curran.

Satisfying Cravings

I’m sorry I didn’t get a blog out last week. My life has been turned upside down with the sudden sale of our house and the hunt for a place to live that is still ongoing. Needless to say, my blogging may be hit and miss for the next several months.

Temptation

But enough with the excuses and on with the blog. Today’s topic is temptation and satisfying cravings. I don’t know about you, but temptation is a continual battle for me in my weight loss quest. Frequently I’m offered a dessert and many times I don’t want or desire it, but I feel deprived if I turn it down.

Hours after I refuse it, I still think about that dessert, wish I’d had it even though I didn’t want it. If I accept it, then I’ll be consumed with regret, and I don’t get the same satisfaction eating it compared to if I’d really wanted it.

Why? Because I didn’t crave it, and it’s just not as satisfying if I didn’t desire it.

Satisfying Cravings

When I’m craving something sweet, it’s all I can think about, and generally what I really want is a piece of See’s dark chocolate candy with the buttercream chocolate filling. I want that burst of sugar and chocolate melting in my mouth as I savor each morsel, and it’s the only thing that will satisfy my craving.

I had that craving last night after dinner and I used the three bite rule Rebecca Clark, author of The Checklist Diet, talks about in her book. The three bite rule is, stop eating when the food stops tasting good.

“Next time you have the craving for something amazing and sinful (like cheesecake), take the first bite and savor the deliciousness. Eat it slowly…” By the fourth bite the taste has diminished, Rebecca says.

I’ve mentioned the three bite rule in many of my blogs because it really works for me, and I’ve found it has a twofold benefit. I eat something I love, and I savor the texture, the taste, the experience it gives my taste buds! Long after I had the candy, I could still taste it without wanting more. The craving was satisfied with only one or two pieces, and it lingered, giving me a pleasant afterglow.

This was so much better and worth the wait to have exactly what I craved rather than having a desert I didn’t want just because everyone else was having it.

The key for me is—have the treat when I crave it, and only when I crave it.

Has anyone else found this to be the case? How do you feel when you satisfy a craving?

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