Getting back into shape sucks and peanut (!) peanut butter (jelly)

Note to self:

Getting back into shape sucks. Am I seriously the same person who would run 20 km every weekend? Plus cross-training, yoga and speed/hill repeats interspersed throughout the week? I'm having a hard enough time getting back to running 10 km ... cumulatively ... throughout the week :(

Anyway, I've discovered how to do something new and exciting... ok, it's new and exciting (to me)... making my own nut butter! It's SO easy. Why is this exciting? You can make your nut butters to taste! And you can avoid all of the nasty hydrogenated oils that are added to pre-made nut butters. I had thought that it was cheaper to make my own peanut butter, but once I factored the cost of the electricity to power the oven and food processor and the gas/time to obtain materials - I think it barely broke even. HOWEVER, homemade nut butter tastes SO much better!

The process:

Step one: Acquire nuts. I picked up raw peanuts from Bulk Barn, but any nut will do.

Step two: If nuts are not roasted, roast nuts by placing on some sort of oven safe tray, turn on oven (350F) and place tray inside oven and close door. Check nuts obsessively every 30 seconds to make sure they are not burning. Get distracted by re-run of How I Met Your Mother and start watching show. Realize at commercial break that nuts are in oven, proceed to panic, run over to oven and pull out tray.
Step three: Let nuts cool. Sample delicious freshly roasted nuts every 15 seconds. Burn mouth and fingers each time, complain about the burny pain and then continue sampling delicious freshly roasted nuts. Once nuts are cool, place nuts in food processor and turn on. Wait for magic to happen...


You can add a touch of oil to help the process along a bit. I added a drop of sunflower oil. Once it became buttery, I sweetened it up with some agave syrup. We're almost there...


Yay, done!! Can you tell which one is mine?

michelle sits on her ass and does nothing

Ugh, I've been so lazy lately, I've been thinking about renaming my poor neglected blog, "michelle sits on her ass and does nothing"...

However, this is about to change! I have two 10-k races coming up in May and I am hell-bent on getting a personal best on at least one of them. Hopefully it shouldn't be too hard, since my last recorded 10-k time is a pathetic (yet cool), 1:11:11.

What does a former runner turned couch potato do to get back into shape? For the last few weeks, I've been going out and doing 5k runs a couple of times per week to get back into the groove. Next up, I'm going to start to incorporate yoga and spinning into my week. I bought a 10-class hot yoga voucher from team buy a couple of months ago. I think it's time to give it a try. I need to make up a training calendar to put on my fridge. I like to put pretty stickers on the days where I successfully complete a workout :)

I suppose I should change up my diet a bit. I did enjoy eating processed foods and cheese with every meal...now I CRAVE junk food all of the time. My energy levels have become perpetually low and my mood sucks! time to go back to experimenting with healthier non-processed foods and superfoods! Although I did just replenish my snack drawer at work, maybe I'll start eating healthier once that's finished? It's just wrong to throw out delicious cookies!!! Besides, what's wrong with eating cookies (and chips) for breakfast, anyway?!??

Most importantly, I've refreshed my ipod with new running music. I did love listening to musicals while training for my last half-marathon, but it's starting to drive me crazy!! When the Phantom of the Opera comes on my ipod now, I need to restrain myself from throwing the damn thing down the street. I've gone back and loaded up my ipod with new Eminem. Yay for getting iTunes giftcards for Christmas! I LOVE running to Eminem. Till I Collapse by Em and Nate Dogg has been my favourite running song for years now. Not only to the beats match up nicely with my natural running cadence, but the combo of Slim yelling at me and his lyrics keep me going when I feel like dying. Since my blogging has become like my lifestyle (lazy), I'm going to sign off on this post with a few snippets from my most favourite running song:

'Cause sometimes you just feel tired,
Feel weak, and when you feel weak, you feel like you wanna just give up.
But you gotta search within you, you gotta find that inner strength
And just pull that shit out of you and get that motivation to not give up
And not be a quitter, no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face and collapse.
......
Until the roof
The roof comes off
Until my legs
Give out from underneath me
I will not fall,
I will stand tall,
Feels like no one could beat me.