Author: Lindsay Ingalls

How Do You Stay Active?

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The Hubz and I have been feeling a little bit of the winter blues and bored with our current workout routines as well as a lack of motivation.  With summer around the corner we are getting excited for  hiking and gardening but until then we need to get ourselves in tip-top shape so 15 mile hikes don’t make us feel like we were hit by a truck the next day. In addition to changing up our routine we are also working on an incentives program to help motivate us to stay on track.

For our incentives program each month we have a set of goals to help us stay on top of being active as well as to track our workout progress.The incentive part of it is that  at the start of each month we will each be eligible for $50* of fun money, to be paid out on the last day of the month IF we accomplish our goal.   The goal:

  1. Work out 80% of the days in the month  OR 70% of the days in the month and 1 hour for everyday missed from the 80% (example: March 80% plus Hours goal–>Must workout 25 days and Total of 15.5  hours OR 70% plus Hours goal–>Must workout 22 days and 15.5 hours PLUS 3 hours for the 3 missed from the 80% days so total of 18.5 hours)

AND

2. Work out an average of 30 minutes per days in the month (October-May) and work out an average of 60 minutes per days in the month (June-September)**

March 2011 Goals

  • Must workout 25 days
  • Total of 15.5  hours

OR

  • Must workout 22 days
  • Total of 18.5 hours

So far this month I am on track with the 80% however since I only have 1 off day left I may be turning to the 70% plan this month…..we’ll see. This is where I am at as of yesterday:Today:

  • Days: 10/25 11/25
  • Hours: 6 hours 7 minutes/15.5 hours 7 hours 12 minutes/15.5 hours

Currently my workouts include yoga, walking, elliptical, weight training and most recently Insanity- have you tried this with Shaun T? What did you think?  As soon as the sidewalks and bike path clear out I am determined to start the Couch to 5k again as well. What do you do to keep active? How do you stay motivated?

Lastly I’ll leave you with my current workout playlist (it’s a work in progress):

What are your workout tunes?

*In case you are wondering why cash? Well Neil and I have a tendency to not spend money on ourselves even when we need to.  This money that we earn will be $50 we can use guilt free towards whatever we want.  Originally we were going to set a specific item/service as our goal but then decided that for us it just din’t make sense.  It works better for us to make a decision when the time comes based on what we need then. Additionally the money allows us to save up for more expensive items such as Lululemon clothes or hiking gear.

** June-September is the time of the year that we do hiking, biking, gardening and (hopefully) running so there are days that we may be active as many as 8-10 hours on a hiking trip that is why there is the increase of total hour goals.

 

* Update (Sunday 3/20/11):

  • Days: 14/25
  • Hours:  8 hours 42 minutes/15.5 hours
    • Thursday: Yoga
    • Friday: Day 4 Insanity
    • Saturday: walked with Hubz
    • Sunday: Off

 

Bee-Free Honee Giveaway

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Honey is one of those things I never thought much about until I went vegan and began reading labels and recipes and now I see that it is everywhere. Then came cooking where honey is often found in baked foods, desserts and granola and finding a vegan replacement can sometimes be difficult. Agave is usually a suitable replacement but the consistency is often too thin and the flavor is slightly too sweet.

When I read about Bee-Free Honee I jumped at the opportunity to review and it and of course to do a giveaway. I am even more excited to do the giveaway now because I really love this product and can’t wait to have you try it as well.
The website describes the product best “Bee Free Honee is a unique sweetener with a slightly tart flavor. It is “apple honey” in that it is made from apples rather than by bees! We use only three all natural ingredients, apple, pure cane sugar, and lemon juice. There is nothing artificial, no added color and no corn syrup.”

Although it doesn’t taste exactly like honey, it has more of an apple flavor- because well yeah it is made with apples. But it really is the closest in flavor and consistency to honey and it taste delicious. I have used it in my tea and oatmeal and on apples with cinnamon and almond butter. I haven’t tried it in baked goods or granola yet but that will be my next challenge.

Now that you know more about this wonderful product I am going to give two lucky people to win a bottle of their own. All you have to do is enter- oh and for an additional chance to win head over to Keri’s blog I Eat Tree’s because she is also giving away a bottle.

To Enter: (leave a comment for each entry) The giveaway is open to U.S. residence only. The winner will be randomly selected on Monday, March 21th, 2011 at 11 PM EST.

  • Leave a comment telling me why you’d love to try Bee-Free Honee
  • Visit the Bee-Free Honee website and leave a comment telling me something new that you learned
  • Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment below telling me you did.
  • Tweet, “Enter to win #vegan Bee-Free Honee @cookveganlover http://wp.me/pFVWo-1H2” and leave a comment to tell me you tweeted.
  • “Like” Cook.Vegan.Lover on Facebook and leave a comment below telling me you did.
  • Sign up for the Cook.Vegan.Lover. newsletter, and leave a comment to let me know you did

http://www.beefreehonee.com/

Coffee = Friend

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With the time change and my hectic to do list a big glass of water and a cup of coffee has been my friend lately. I have to say though I have been a lazy friend to coffee and rather than taking out the french press and making myself a cup I have been turning to our Mount Hagan Organic Instant Coffee packets that I found on sale at the natural food store a few weeks ago.  As much as I love my french press coffee I just don’t have the time or patience to clean it and baby sit it while I wait for my cup of coffee.  We are actually thinking about getting a coffee maker- a whole new thing for us- any suggestions?

With my coffee I have been enjoying a big bowl of hot oatmeal with flax seeds, wild blueberries, cashew butter and Bee-Free Honee (giveaway coming later today so keep your eyes peeled.)  I have been loving this combination of creamy nutbutter, sweet fruit and a drizzle of honee.

Also wanted to share a tip I learned (by actually reading the label on the nut butter); when you have natural nut butters that require stirring- stir them up real well until it is all combined and then stick it in the fridge and it will come out looking so good (see below).  No longer will you have to spend hours stirring your nut butter before you can eat it and you won’t end up with an oily top and dry bottom.

Before I head to the kitchen to make myself a bowl of oats I’ll leave you with a mini updated about our new furry companion; he is settling right in and seems to love being with us.  He has the funniest little squeak he makes and when he wants you to give him love and attention he hisses – strange right? He also has come to love to spend his nights sleeping with us.

Newest Addition

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As many of you know from twitter we lots our fur baby earlier this month due to sickness and old age. We miss her but were prepared (as much as we could possibly be) for the day to come that she would no longer have the quality of life she should. Since then we have been debating over adopting a dog or a cat and finally settled on another cat (for now) due to our current living situation and travel commitments.
We found one kitty that we but in our adoption papers for but never heard anything back from the ASPCA. So after calling all week and never getting to talk to a person and never receiving any returned phone calls we decided that it just wasn’t meant to be. So we headed over to the Chittenden County Humane Society to check out  the kitties they had for adoption.  We had already been checking them out online so we had an idea of which ones would be a good fit for us based on their profiles.  We spent sometime talking and interacting with a number of the cats and final decided after spending some one-on-one time with him that Squeakers (yes he does squeak) was the perfect fit for us.  Below is profile from the Chittenden County Humane Society site.

Settling in at his new home

Recipe Special- Lets Have a Fiesta

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Over the past few weeks I have really been lacking in the kitchen; less recipe creating and more eating up grains and veggies.  I also have been unable to spend as much time focused on blog writing as I would have liked.  This will continue on for a few more weeks.  At this point you are probably wondering, well why??? Well I am getting ready to finish up my certification from IIN to become a completely 100% certified holistic health counselor (coach – which term do you prefer?).  In addition to finishing up my work to complete the program the Hubz and I have been spending a lot of time working on my new website for my health counseling practice (by the way if you know a graphic designer who would like to do a logo on the cheap let me know).

So between the IIN completion, website launch, working on new ways to expand my business, I have also been working on recipes for the Cookbook Club and on a number of new projects which I will discuss when things become more concrete.  Needless to say this is a busy month and I hope that come April things will quiet down a bit more and I can get back in the kitchen working on new recipes, new and interesting blog posts and discuss the new projects.

Lastly, I would like to put it out there that if you have blog post requests please let me know because it really helps to drive me to write more, and to write better posts.  I have had a few health and wellness requests lately and will be working on these requests posts- so let me know what you want to read about.

For now I will leave you with a recipe from my last E-book for you to try out: