NEW BEGINNINGS

Today marks the start of two things I’m really excited about:

1. Day 1 of the 28-day Challenge through Whole Foods

2. Getting back to running and following a training program

Yesterday I sat down and calculated how much of my training I had really missed so far. In the past 12 days I was only supposed to have 3 scheduled off days from running. Instead I took 11 days off from running, amounting in a total of 67 missed miles. That’s not really good for marathon training.

I was really nervous when I set out for my run after work yesterday. I really didn’t want to get all bundled up to face the cold (it was 40 degrees when I left the house) just to get to the end of the block before my leg started to hurt. I was also really hopeful, thinking, “Today is going to be the day I can run again!” and I didn’t want to be disappointed (again).

I ran three and a half miles completely pain free!!! It felt so amazing to be running again. It was seriously f*ing cold out there but I didn’t even care. I’m going to head out again today for 5 miles and hope that I feel just as good as I did yesterday. I’m also going to sit down today and rework my training schedule to accommodate a new racing plan. Expect a post with those details soon.

The other thing I’m excited about today is the start of the 28-day Challenge through Whole Foods. I talked about this challenge in my last post and today is the official start day. I am seriously ready for this challenge because I’ve been eating junk food lately like it’s my job. Seriously. Ross’s mom gave us tons of junk food in our stockings and I made it my personal mission to eat as much of it before today as possible so it wouldn’t go to waste. For the past 5 days I really feel like I’ve been alternating drinking a super healthy juice or stuffing oreos in my face. My body isn’t really sure what message I’m trying to send right now.

To keep with the theme I had going, I decided to make a big pot of healthy chili last night while eating cookies to tide me over. I wanted to make something simple and fast, but delicious. I also didn’t want to have more than three bowls of leftover chili because I’ve got a lot of other recipes on my radar that I want to make. I wasn’t really pleased with any of the recipes that I found so I picked at a few of them and made my own.

Quick and Healthy Chili – serves 4

• 2-3 full-sized carrots, diced
• 1/2 large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 bell pepper, diced (I used red)
• 2 cans of beans (I used kidney and garbanzo)
• 1 can fire roasted diced tomatoes
• 3 tbsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp chipotle powder (optional – makes it spicy!)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste (optional)
• 2 tbsp + 1 cup of vegetable broth or water (I used water and 1 tsp powdered vegetable bullion)

1. Saute carrots, onion, and garlic in a large pot (I used a dutch oven) with 2 tbsp of vegetable broth over medium heat for about 7-8 minutes.

2. Add all the spices (and tomato paste if you’re using it) and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.

3. Dump in the tomatoes and beans with all their juices, add the cup of broth, and continue to cook (covered) for at least 30 minutes, reducing the heat to low after 10 minutes and stirring occasionally. The longer it cooks the more the flavor builds.

NOTE: I didn’t use the tomato paste because I hate opening a can of tomato paste and just using some of it. The rest just goes to waste! But I would honestly prefer the chili with it, so I might suck it up and use it next time. Also, I added about 1/3 tsp of chipotle powder to the chili and it made it really spicy! Spicier than I like, so I probably won’t use it again. I might add in a couple tsp of liquid smoke though and see how I like that!