Exciting!

I can't tell you how giddy being able to post this badge on my blog makes me!

Pizza For Breakfast

I know what you're thinking. Who hasn't eaten pizza for breakfast. Cold pizza is awesome. Yes, yes it is. That's not what I made though. I made breakfast pizza!  Last night on FB, TJ posted a picture of pizza she made for dinner. She mentioned that it was a Greek yogurt crust. ??? I had to find out about this. It's one cup of greek yogurt, one cup of self rising flour (plus more for kneading), baked at 450 for 15 minutes. Well, I don't have self rising flour, but that's easy enough to make, and since I was making it myself, I'd make it with a gluten free flour blend. Since I only had vanilla Greek yogurt, I figured I might as well make a breakfast pizza.

My hands got seriously messy making this.

 Here it is, patted out on my pizza stone. Note to self: USE PARCHMENT PAPER UNDERNEATH THE DOUGH NEXT TIME.

 I used more of my vanilla greek yogurt as the "cheese" for my pizza, and topped it with lots of  berries.

 15 minutes later, browned and crispy pizza!

Okay, so here's why I need to use parchment under the dough next time I make this. I totally had to scrape the pizza off of the stone. So, it was messy. It was still really tasty!

Come Play In May - Day 2: Define Yourself

 

Your mission, Kyra, should you choose to accept it, is to define yourself in an uncommon way. I'd say the picture below does just that. I am a virtual running geek. These are some of my really cool race medals. There's Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Half Marathon, the Firefly 14 k and (hidden behind it) the Firefly 14 mile, my Jedi Challenge 10k (Han Solo, frozen in stuff) and my Cyberman Delete Delete Half Marathon. Coming soon will be my Sherlock 22 mile medal.

What this picture doesn't show is that I am a total mush when it comes to dogs. The Doctor Who race raised money for Boston service dogs, The Firefly race raised, and the Sherlock race is currently raising, money for Galgos (Spanish Greyhounds. If you have a heart, look in to their plight.) The Cyberman race raised money for the AMAA Youth Fund, and the Jedi Challenge race raises money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

So, there you have it. I am a geek. And I am awesome. At least that's what I am telling myself right now.

Want to come play with us?

Fortune Cookie Friday

One of my food "addictions" is take-out Chinese food. Before The Aussie and I moved down from the NYC area, I told friends that I was going to miss our local Chinese food place. "Oh, but there's such good barbeque in Texas." Yeah, like that's a good comparison. (I rarely eat barbeque) For the first few years, the only Chinese restaurants we found were buffet style, with not many menu options. Occasionally we would stumble upon a halfway decent Chinese restaurant, but nothing very close. Fast forward to about a year and a half ago, and viola! A take-out Chinese restaurant opens up about a mile away from us. Yay for me! As much as I like cooking, some nights I really don't want to or have the time to. And to let you in on a little secret of mine, I collect fortune cookie fortunes.

This is a vase that's almost half full of fortunes. I tell you, I've been saving them for a looonnng time. I was throwing crap out cleaning up in my office the other day and I came across some fortunes that I brought with me from my last office in NYC. Wow. They've been hanging out, collecting dust, not socializing with the other fortunes. So I popped them in the the vase with the others. Then I realized, why don't I make the fortunes earn their keep? So, I decided that Fridays will now be "Fortune Cookie Friday." I will pull a fortune out at random and write a blog post about it.

Here goes....

Ooh. This is a good one for the inaugural FCF.

True friends. These may be friends that you've known for years and years. They may be people you haven't met in person yet.  They may be friends that you've gotten to know online through the Fitbloggin FB group. True friends will have lend you a shoulder to lean on when you're going through difficult times. True friends will have your back when you are struggling to get back on track, but won't hesitate to give you a kick in the ass when you need it. True friends will yell your name across a crowded room before they rush over to give you a hug. True friends are people who "get you." They're your Tribe. True friends can be you, too. So give yourself a hug and go be awesome. 'Cause there's no off switch on Awesome.

And now, back to your regularly scheduled program

I have to confess, this week has been a little light on workouts. More functional fitness than scheduled fitness. The elliptical and I have an appointment this afternoon, so I'll at least have that on the books before tomorrow's long run with The Moms.

This week we'll be running for 75 minutes, continuing with our 2:1 intervals. I swear, that 1 minute goes by really quickly. I'm still super slow, but forward is a pace, and the miles all count towards the virtual races I'm doing. So far, I've completed the Firefly 14k and the Firefly 14 miler. Now I'm doing the Sherlock 22 mile race. I like virtual races because you do them at your pace. Even dog walks count if you track the mileage. The cause for these races is great, too. It's to raise funds to rescue and rehabilitate Galgos (Spanish Greyhounds), and to raise awareness of their plight. To learn more about this race and the cause, go to http://sherlockrun.weebly.com/     The group of people involved in this race are amazing, and the community that has evolved around these races are great. Hopefully I will meet some of them in real life one day. :)

Have a great weekend!

Kyra

It's been thirteen years since we lost you

It's hard to believe this, but it's true. Today is the thirteenth anniversary of my father's passing. The pain is still there, but the crazy chaos that is daily life somehow dulls it. Not that it's less, but that there's so much "noise" that you can't hear or feel everything at once. I'm reminded more of his loss because I am running in the Rock N Roll Half Marathon here in Dallas with Team In Training in March. So many people have been touched by leukemia and lymphoma. I wish I wasn't one of them, but I am. If my fundraising helps spare even one family the heartbreak of what my family went through, then it's worth my every effort. If you are at all able, please consider making a donation to help me with my fundraising efforts. http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/momsnt14/KyraStuart

1935 - 2001

Yup, I'm registered



I didn't go in 2013, but I'm looking forward to seeing all of my friends in Savannah this June!

Why I signed up for a Team In Training event

This weekend I spent some time with a good friend of mine. She told me about a meeting that she had attended on Saturday morning. It was a kick-off meeting for the new North Texas Moms In Training chapter of Team In Training. She said she was going to start training to run a two person relay in the Rock 'N' Roll half marathon at the end of March, and that she'd love it if I would be her relay partner. While I have never participated in a Team In Training group, many people I know have, and I have tried to support them when I was able. Well, to make a long story short, I decided that I would sign up, train with her and the new group, and start raising funds. This particular thing is not easy for me, but, in memory of my father, I am going to try. You see, he had leukemia, but he lost his long fight with this horrendous disease in February of 2001. I am raising funds to help fight this disease, so other families don't have to go through what my family did. 

If you could take a moment, and go visit my fundraising page, I would appreciate it. If you could make a donation, no matter how small, I will say thank you, thank you, thank you.  http://pages.teamintraining.org/ntx/momsnt14/KyraStuart

Dallas Marathon (relay), here I come

It's been a while since I've run any great distance. Great being more than two miles. Time to lace up and start training again. A friend is putting together a relay team for the Dallas Marathon, pka White Rock Marathon, and I've said I'll take the second leg. Since she's never done a big race before, I said she should take the final leg so that she has the finish line experience. I chose the second leg because it winds through the Turtle Creek area. If you aren't familiar with Dallas, that's were a bunch of the rich folks live. I may as well have gorgeous houses, whose property taxes are probably more than The Aussie and I make in a year or two, to drool over while I'm running.

On missing #Fitbloggin and how real life takes over...

There's a lot of buzz going on this week on the interwebs about Fitbloggin. I remember hearing about it a couple of years ago from fellow fitness/health/weight loss friends. Timing wasn't good for me the first couple of conferences because of family events. Last year, though, timing was good. I saved my money, bought my earlybird ticket, and then put it out of my mind until the conference drew near. Then I started freaking out. I'm not an extrovert by any stretch of the imagination. If I'm comfortable with you and it's a small group, I'm ok. If I don't know many people and it's a large group, I'm going to latch on to familiar faces and stick to them like a barnacle. Whether they like it or not. Just ask Steve, Meegan and Tara, and Jack. Oh, no. It's you again.... sigh.

Much as I will miss seeing old friends I met at Fitbloggin 12, meeting new friends, hugging lots of friends, and posing for pictures while wearing a purple wig and pink feather boa, I will not be going to Fitbloggin 13. This year, my life has been turned upside down and taken turns in directions I never thought I'd be heading. (See my new blog page to see the first glimpse of what I've gotten myself in to.) I've also not been blogging very much these last several months, so I could scarcely justify needing to go, or the expense. Heck, after I got back last year I went and got myself a wordpress site. Have I blogged there? Once. Did I buy Wordpress for Dummies recently in the hopes of getting off my ass? Yup. Some day, when I'm not hauling brush, digging up stuff and pruning overgrown shrubs, I'll get back to it. In the meantime, I hope everyone has an amazing time at Fitbloggin 13. Tell Roni I say hi. Oh, and be sure to tell her "thank you." She works her ass off putting this together.

Spark

Wow, I really dropped off the face of the earth. Well, not exactly, but I sure haven't been blogging much these last few months. Life happens. I can't say that I'm happy to see 2012 in my rearview mirror. I had some good times, for sure (hi Jen and Heather!!!), but I also had some really sucky times. Australia: it's a nice place to visit. The flight is hell. Add the reason we went, and it's doubly so.

So, here I am in 2013. The Aussie and I survived the end of the Mayan calendar, Texas White Christmas snowmageddon / icemageddon, had a great visit from my sister, and had a quiet New Year's Eve with The Aussie and our gang. That's over now, and it's time to regroup, get my head out of my *ss back in the game, and start treating myself better.

Mentally, I have been struggling to get my act together. I'm not the only one. My dear friend Shannon has put out the call and is rallying the troops! We all need to find our spark. I've been reading "It Starts With Food" and "Practical Paleo." I'm not sure I'm looking to go so extreme as to give up my milk in my coffee, but I do need to feed myself more  nutritious food and cut back on the processed "food" that I gravitate towards. I seldom have fast food or soda, so they aren't big concerns of mine. I do, however, like my chocolate and wine. And Chinese food. And cheese... Darn you, TJ's for those lovely little mini brie bites. 

Unfortunately, I've found that the older I get, the harder it is to get weight off.  It isn't just how I deal with food that needs a spark. I finally set up my Active Link and am getting a better picture of how much I am and am not moving. I haven't been doing too badly, but I need to do more. I signed up to run Bold In The Cold 5k in a couple of weeks. My cousin and I have done this the last two years, so it will be good to keep the tradition going. It won't be pretty. He hasn't run all year, I haven't since the summer, and we both have put on some weight. I don't care. I'm doing it anyway, won't even wear my Garmin, and all I have to do is finish.

Healthwise, I finally got myself to a doctor to discuss my owngoing health issues. I'm not looking forward to it, but I have an endoscopy scheduled. Hopefully some light will be shed as to why I continue to have a problem keeping certain foods down.

I also signed up to do Roni's diet bet challenge. I had never heard of this site, but thought "why not?" 4% in a month is a reasonable goal. I can't believe how much activity this challenge is generating!

All in all, January should be an interesting month. I wish all of you the best blessings for your health, well being and prosperity in this new year.

Peace.

Life is too short

When I signed on to FB this morning, one of the first things I read totally shocked me. An old friend that I knew back in the Northeast died yesterday. He fell from a ladder while working on his house. He was a wonderful guy, married to the sister of a very good friend of mine, and was the father of 13 year old twins. At only 51, he has been taken too soon. He will be sorely missed.

H. Brian Mc Farland

Rest in peace, my friend.

Memories of Egypt

Along with the rest of the world, The Aussie and I have been watching the events unfolding in Egypt on television. This is a new chapter in their history. We had the privilege of travelling to Egypt several years ago and met many lovely people. We wish them well.

The view of the Nile from our hotel. Tahrir Square is to the right of the first bridge

Outside the Muhammad Ali mosque

My first glimpse of the pyramids

Cairo at night

Entering the Khan el-Khalili market

The Great Pyramid

The Aussie and the pyramids

First camel sighted

The Sphinx, with the pyramids in the background

The crowds at the Sphinx were overwhelming

The Temple of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel shortly after dawn

Carvings at Philae

Philae - stunning place

Balloons at dawn on the Nile

Valley of The Kings

We can be...

Always on the lookout for new music to run to, I downloaded the Taio Cruz album on iTunes during lunch. I've heard the singles, lighthearted, fun songs. As I was listening though, another song stood out. I stopped what I was doing and really listened. And it made me think of so many of my twitter/FB/blogging friends. This is dedicated to you, who have touched my life in so many ways. Monique, Eddie, Lori, Nadeen, Joey, Jen (the whole lot of you!), Jenn, Shannon, Sue (all of you!), Jan, JB, Ryan (both of you), Terri, Trish, Kerri, Steve, Karen, Tara, Jack, Stephen, Mandy ... the list just goes on and on...

Together we are all stronger. Thank you.

13.1

This spring I had the goal to run my first 5K before I turned 45 in June. I accomplished that goal, and set about looking for the next one. How strange. I kind of liked running. Whodathunkit? In July, someone I know IRL suggested doing the Half at White Rock in December. You know, that doesn't sound like a bad idea... Say what? If you told me a year or so ago that I, an overweight woman in her mid 40s would be running a half marathon, I would have politely (*snort*) asked what you were smoking and if you were nuts. Yeah. Well. Maybe not so nuts after all...and I have the aches, pains and YES!!! a finisher's medal to prove it.

Me, before the race. It's about 36 degrees out and I'm very cold. I'm also feeling rather anxious, hence the cheerful expression on my face. You can see the big ferris wheel on the Texas state fair grounds in the background, which is pretty neat.

This is the course map. The half runners didn't get to run around White Rock Lake, but other parts of the course were really beautiful. I was in the last corral, so I didn't actually start the race until it had been going about an hour. NOT FUN. Standing around in 36 degree weather with limited clothing on is not a good time. In fact, we had just started and were less than a mile in when we saw the elite half runners coming in. They were screamingly fast. Very impressive.

Odds and ends that stick out in my mind from the race: the really cute black lab puppy I saw at about .25 mile in (yes, there is a dog theme here!); the historic houses on Swiss, between miles 1 and 2, were beautiful; the BRIGHT BLUE Bentley that I saw somewhere just after mile marker 3 (I didn't know they made them in that color); the wait in line for the first port-a-potty stop took waaay longer than I wanted; the gorgeous golden retriever that I got a high five from around mile 4; being thankful for the hill down McKinney as we headed onto Turtle Creek; how beautiful the Turtle Creek, mile 5, area is; how disgusting the energy gel that rhymes with eeww is (IMO only); how beautiful the Lakeside area is and how impressive their holiday decorations are; running for a little while with the friends from church around miles 5.5; seeing their family cheering us on Lakeside around mile 6; getting a call from my husband when I was nearing mile 7 - he was trying to figure how to get through the street closures to come see me; the neon yellow sign held by a guy at mile 8 who totally reminded me of @damanlovett saying "congratulations total stranger"; seeing my husband just before mile marker 10 and getting a hug and kiss from him (I also got to leave my purple hoodie with him since I'd really warmed up); the cute yellow lab around mile 11 who'd just gotten to say hi, along with his mom, to a family member running. He sooo wanted to join in and run too!; seeing other runners along the route getting hugs and kisses from their family members; seeing a police officer get out of his car to check on a man who was crouched over by a telephone pole near mile 12. The man did look a bit wobbly, but he was just trying to stretch out his legs and he was okay; the sheer number of people stretching their legs in the last few miles (including me); the bands that were playing along the way - very interesting musical selections some of them were playing; seeing the marathoners, still so full of energy and speed where the courses met back up again. They were so impressive; the crowds cheering and other runners who'd already finished clapping and cheering us on, saying "you're doing great runners, keep it up, you're almost there"; being acknowleged as a runner by these amazing athletes just because I showed up to try and do this race; CROSSING THE FINISH LINE!! My chip time was 2:58:28; making it into the automobile building, covered in my mylar wrap, and being handed my Finisher's Medal. I have worked so hard for this medal. I started to cry a bit when I got the medal. Heck, I'm tearing up writing this, remembering how it felt; Getting a huge hug from my husband after the race, hearing him tell me how proud he is of me; meeting up with Mary, Syble and Ben afterwards; the LONG walk back to the car; my husband handing me a bouquet of roses - 13 long stemmed roses and 1 short rose for my 13.1 miles.

I sent text messages to both @FitInMyHeart and @damanlovett to let them know I'd finished. They, along with @DareToBecome, @whiskyd, @foodiemcbody (who also ran her first half yesterday!!!), @KCLAnderson, @MizFitOnline, @tidbits_of_tara and so, so many more, have been so full of encouragement. It means a lot to me that there are so many supportive people out there in twitterland. You guys rock!

I'm about to cross the finish line in this picture. I'm just behind the person in bright red in the middle. If you look closely, you can see a tiny bit of hot pink in there!

We've all got our bling on!

Now on to more adventures in running! The story continues...

My Thanksgiving menu is set...

After some hemming and hawing on adding extra sides and which appetizers to have, I've finalized the menu for Thanksgiving dinner. Some things are traditional, some aren't. For example, I roast a chicken, not a turkey. When there's just a few people, there's no need to have a 10 pound turkey. Besides, The Aussie doesn't care for roast turkey. The skin doesn't get crispy enough. Other things, like the Pepperidge Farms stuffing and green bean casserole are old school, and I totally love them.

Appetizers:

baked brie in puff pastry

shrimp cocktail

Dinner:

roast chicken

crispy roast potatoes

stuffing

roast butternut squash with cranberries

giblet gravy

green bean casserole

cranberry relish

rolls

Dessert:

creme brulee and coffee

I've never made baked brie or creme brulee before. And I've only ever made soup with butternut squash, so this should be fun! And Yay! We have a cold front coming in, so I'll be able to have a fire in the fireplace! These 70-80 degree days in November are getting old. ;)

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with laughter, great food, and good times with friends and family.

Blessings,

Kyra

All hope abandon, ye who enter here...

In an attempt to make amends to my tastebuds for the recent black bean brownies episode, and in honor of MizFit and Talk Like A Pirate Day, I be bakin' a decadent favorite for the crew!

RUM CAKE

Here's your cast of scallywags, I mean ingredients:

* 1 yellow cake mix (can be made with gluten free cake mix. My neighbor is gluten intollerant, so that's how I make it when I bring it over for dessert)
* 4 eggs
* 1/2 stick butter (or half cup oil if you're dairy free)
* 1 package instant vanilla pudding
* 1/2 cup of rum (I like dark rum, but feel free to use whatever kind you like or may have on hand)
* 2/3 cup water
* 1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine all ingredients, except chopped pecans if you're using them, in a large mixing bowl and mix with electric mixer for 4 minutes, until there are no lumps.

Grease and flour a bundt pan. If you're using the nuts, sprinkle them in the bundt pan. Pour batter in to pan. Bake for 50 minutes.

Viola. A baked rum cake. Now this is where it gets fun. Time to make the glaze.

GLAZE

1/4 cup rum
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 stick butter

Combine in sauce pan. Slowly bring to a boil, and let boil for 3 minutes.

Pour the glaze on to the cake while it's still in the pan and is warm. So Miz, this 'tis for you, a slice o' cake with a wee bit o' grog in it. Enjoy!

Yum. Well you didn't expect me not to taste it and make sure it was good enough for other people to eat, did you? I would never be that thoughtless... ;-)

Accomplishment and Challenges

My friend Jeep Jenn wrote a guest post today over at Journey of Hearts. Something she said really rang true with me today. Actually, a few things she said did, but this in particular:

“When you accomplish something that’s a challenge, change your view of yourself!”

My view of myself is changing, or at least starting to change. Outside, I still view myself as a somewhat frumpy, heading towards middle-age, overweight woman. Funny, pictures of me show that too. On the inside, though, I'm viewing myself as something more. I'm viewing myself as someone who's becoming a runner, someone who's setting goals and is pushing herself towards accomplishing them. Jenn also says “Try something that you’ve always wanted to do, something that SCARES you!” I'm scaring myself these days by training for a half marathon. I can't say it's something I've always wanted to do. In fact, before this year it isn't something I ever had thought about doing at all. The Aussie pointed out last week on the way home from the airport that 13.1 miles is roughly the distance from our house to DFW. Say what? Am I nuts? Yes, probably. But I have a lot of friends in the jar of mixed nuts to keep me company!

Wordless Wednesday

Two of the Bestest Doggies Ever

Last Friday evening I got to spend a little time with two of the bestest doggies ever. Aside from my own furry children that is. Tueser and The Boy have moved to Arkansas ahead of Dog and God and The Alpha moving there. I will miss their furry faces.

Me and Tueser

Me and The Boy - with his going away present

Pretty Tueser

The Boy - actually sitting still! (Tueser "killed" the toy!)