Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great week! I’ve been “recovering” from my race.
Recovering meaning many such things as….

Nibbits! And I also tried…

This wasn’t as good as the Tiramisu one.
So I have been experiencing a sort of post-race let down. I’m still incredibly proud of what I did, but it’s time to get moving forward. Changes in the weather have also got me turning towards comfort food & lots of TV. Also, the change of seasons in the produce aisle has thrown me a little: certain fruit I’ve bought have turned out to be duds – not ripe at first, but just turning to mush in a couple of days; no more fresh spinach; start of apple & pear season, but of course supermarkets then go and use up stock from last year, instead of the latest harvest.
Still, I’ve had one week to recuperate and get my thoughts together, so now I am ready for the ramp up to Christmas! I love Christmas, in case you were wondering.
Autumnal Foods
First change is that I am switching my breakfast from green smoothie + 1 Weetabix to Oatmeal + Oat bran. Check it out:
2/3 of a half cup rolled oats + 1/3 of a half cup oat bran

Place into pan and add 1,5 cups of water (or blend of water & some type of milk). Bring to boil and allow to simmer for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chop half a banana into your bowl.

Pour oatmeal/bran mix into bowl and place a heaped teaspoon of almond butter and a heaped teaspoon of flax onto the mix. Allow the AB to melt a little, then start mixing the flax & AB into the porridge, finally getting to the bottom and mixing the banana slices in.

Add about 1/4-1/2 cup of whatever milk your using and mix in, sprinkle a little cinnamon on top. Tadaa! Yumminess.

Bon appetit!
I’ve also got some seasonal fruit in.

The pears were super cheap! I love Conference pears, they’re just so good! I never thought you could eat the skin of a pear, as my mum always pealed them for us. I’ve started eating the skin since about 2 years or so, when I saw everyone just biting into them as if it were an apple!
We went grocery shopping with a shorter list than normal, as we wanted to save a little and use up what we had.

Can you read Dutch, haha? Although it’s a mix, you can see my meal plan at the bottom has some English. This is how I always write the list: write down the days of the week, figure out who’ll be home when (basically when DH has evening shifts and I’ll be alone) and then plan the meals. We can always switch them around, but we do tend to stick to the plan. With the meals planned, I write down the shopping list.
I also plan on replacing my after dinner snacks (chocolatepotatochipsfrenchtoastohmy!) with Green Monsters, made with kale. So a healthy start to the day and a healthy ending as well! Plus it’s also sweet, so should dim the cravings.

Hmm, not an attractive pic! Baked salmon and some buttered bread. The salmon sucked, as I think there was too much water in it, so it basically just boiled in the oven and turned out rock hard! I still ate it though.

I made North African Chickpea and Kale Soup from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, it was delish! I halved the quantity and kept the spices the same (but didn’t have any saffron). It was very yum indeed! Gotta love veggies in a bowl. Autumn is the start of soup season and I have a thermos which I can fill in the morning so I have a warm soup for lunch at work! Very yum indeed.

I’ve been reading this book The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It is soooo wonderful! I can awsomely recommend this, it is heart-warmng and also brings everything along the way so vividly to life. It’s not a fast story with lots and lots of happenings, but it’s not extremely slow either. It just gets your racing mind out of the busy-ness of everyday life and makes you smile, makes you sniffle a little. Read it! Plus it’s more than 500 pages, which I can always appreciate, to make it last longer!
Autumn Training
So after I decided to register for the half marathon in January I looked up a half marathon training plan and figured that’s what I’d be doing. But I didn’t want to go out and run. Yesterday I finally figured out that it was because it wasn’t challenging enough. It started at a far lower mileage than I had gotten up to. So, I decided I am going to sort-of follow a marathon training plan, to help keep me on my toes. I also like the fact that it should make me even more prepared for the half marathon distance, as I’ll get up to a longer long run.
I plan on following the FIRST marathon training plan, with 3 runs a week. I’ll also be swimming every Friday afternoon, as a fun and healthy activity for DH and I to do together
I also want to incorporate 1 yoga session per week and one strength training session as well. I’ll be setting up a plan each week again, because writing it down makes me do it!
I’m ready to get out there & prevent/delay the effects of less sunlight on my emotional well-being!
Other goals for the next three months:
- Spend less than 50 euros a month on meals/drinks outside the home (not counting a dinner date, but more the everyday stuff: a sandwich here, a tea there…)
- Buy NOTHING. Haha. Um, I sort of mean I won’t be buying anything like clothes, books, magazines, shoes, etc. I will of course be purchasing Christmas gifts. I just need to quit over-spending.
- Continue being coffee-free. If craving becomes bad, I’ll be choosing decaf instead!
- Keep alcohol to maximum of 1 drink throughout the week, and maximum 1 weekend a month with more drinks.
So yeah, that’s it!
What are your Autumn Goals? Have a great weekend everyone!
Oh and I forgot to mention: Michelle from A Shade of Gray (who is sadly discontinuing here blog, due to time issues) and I (and I believe Lara from Thinspired as well) were thinking of setting up some sort of guest blog site. Different people could post different things and especially for those who are having to call it quits on blogging due to time concerns or other stress, they could post whenever THEY felt like it. That way we wouldn’t lose as many wonderful bloggers and they could also continue enjoying blogging, without the extreme sense of responsibility we often place on ourselves.
What do you think of this idea? Do you have any suggestions? Who to ask, how to set it up, etc.?