Where did September go... and a food challenge...

How in the world it can be the end of September I'll never know, but I do know I've run more miles this September than I have any month this year (thank you half marathon training!)... there still could be a chance that I make it to 1000 miles this year.  We'll see how lazy motivated I continue to be.  What I want and what actually happen always seem to be paths that travel near each other but never converge.  I need to cancel work, church, kids, and sleep and I will for sure make the goal.  Though I probably would end up divorced, with my own CPS caseworker, and living in a box if I did.  Maybe I should just put in the work the old fashioned way?

I've been thinking a lot about how I eat lately and what exactly I'm putting in my body.  I always wondered why my mom never bought Hamburger Helper and we were the only kids I knew that ate whole wheat bread.  It turns out that my mom knew what was good for us, and while the cooking may have been really simple, it wasn't a bunch of processed crud.  I ended up getting married to someone who had eaten Hamburger Helper regularly and thought white bread was the only way to go.  My mother in law is a great cook - my family has voted her the best cook around - and they are probably right - but, my cute husband still picked up a lot of bad eating habits that I picked up when we got married and I was trying to figure out how to cook and what to make that he would like. 

In the past few years we have been making small changes... no more Hamburger Helper... it's just as easy to make your own goulash type dish.  More fresh fruits and veggies.  Not eating out of the freezer section (OK, ice cream is STILL my downfall). Really thinking about what you put in your mouth.  I've become an avid follower of food and nutrition news and my family is tired of all the food documentaries that Netflix offers. 

If I had it all to do over, I would be a registered dietitian or nutritionist.  My kids talk all time time about how "weird" they are to bring salads to school for lunch or muffins as snacks... made from scratch.  A lot of what I make, it really doesn't take much longer to make than making the "box" version, and I know exactly what went into it and can pronounce all the ingredients.

So, maybe I'm up for this cool challenge I found....making October a month of eating unprocessed foods. The rules are simple as to what you eat:  Unprocessed food is any food that could be made by a person with reasonable skill in a home kitchen with readily available, whole-food ingredients.  You can read more about this challenge and even join here.  I like his thinking that goes along with this... for example, if you don't smoke, there is never any question about smoking a cigarette or not.  Translate this theory to food.  It's much easier to pass up food you don't want to eat this way.  I'm going to try this... my biggest worry is Fall Break this month....  so I won't fail the first day it's a really good thing I found the first Honeycrisp apples of the season yesterday... I'm not going to admit to the house payment insane amount of money that I paid for them, but, they were so worth it! 

So, anybody want to join me in this unprocessed food challenge?

In running news, I was nearly attacked by two Chihuahuas this morning.  One's nose touched the back of my leg, and after I turned and yelled and kicked at them, my last lap around the block ended up 20 seconds faster than all the previous laps.  Maybe I shouldn't have called animal control after all?  I wonder if they are for hire to chase me at the half marathon next week?



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