Today, I am going to start a little rant on a food product I LOVE to eat. It's Sheila G's Brownie Brittle.
There is little more in life that makes me more mad than being lied to. That's precisely what food packaging does. It outright lies to consumers. The worst part is that these lies are perfectly legal, and they work - they definitely persuade consumers to buy a food product.
Today, I am going to start a little rant on a food product I LOVE to eat. It's Sheila G's Brownie Brittle.
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Today’s post is about survival. It’s a parable about how, to me, running is so relatable to the struggles of everyday life.
Today I ran the worst race of my running life. I had no intentions of even signing up for this, because who runs a race at 7:30 in the morning on July 4 in Myrtle Beach? It’s never NOT going to blazing hot. However, I was given a free entry by a friend, and no real runner turns down a free entry to a race. I set my expectations to just 2 goals: don’t die, and cross the finish line. When I started this blog, my goal was write a post once a week. Since I have this terrible habit of not following through with things for myself, I promised myself that if I could do this for four weeks in a row, I’d actually pay Weebly the small monthly fee to have my own domain hooked up. As it turns out, on the fourth week, I was traveling and haven’t blogged since. #fail
Today, I am back. I am on vacation, and if you can’t find time to blog while you are doing nothing but sitting around a hotel with your beagle, you just should just throw in the towel, right? While I was laying outside by the pool with Sammy listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast, I was contemplating life again. I do this at least on a weekly basis. At 43 years old, I still don’t know what I want to do with my life. Thus, a blog post has been born. Could this be the most random title of a blog post ever? Perhaps. OR you might be surprised to find out that when a 43 year old girl who doesn’t enjoy interacting with people in groups is coerced into building a haunted house AND acting out a part, some realizations about life can happen along the way.
Last week was a running anniversary. Today marks a whole different kind of anniversary for me. It’s been exactly 365 days of straight food journaling. Not every single day has been a perfect day of journaling, but still…365 days straight is pretty impressive to me.
Some people will argue on whether there is any value in food journaling because it’s not 100% accurate. Here’s my story on why I do it, and why I recommend that everyone does it, even for just a few days. Today marks the 5 year anniversary of the inaugural Myrtle Beach Mini-Marathon. This also happens to be the 5th anniversary of me running my first half-marathon at this event. It holds a special place in my heart. In spite of that, this year I decided not to run this race because I wanted to focus all my energy on the Myrtle Beach half-marathon in March 2016, and breaking 2:00. Because summer truly about kills me every single year, I decided I would just get through it the best I could, and not torture myself more than necessary, just to feed my ego and run longer distances on Saturdays. This race would not move me any closer to my goal of breaking two hours. If I ran it, it would simply be for the experience of running another half.
As it turns out, this decision saved me about $75. Why? Because in spite of doing all the right training things, my knee is injured. Again. This is quite infuriating. It’s infuriating because when you only run 3 days a week and keep your mileage to under 20 miles per week, when you are careful to buy new running shoes every 300-500 miles, when you build yoga into your weekly workout routine to make you more flexible and balanced, when you do some seriously hard core work to strengthen all the body parts that support you when you run, when you eat a diet full of nutrient-dense food, when you supplement this diet with anti-inflammatory vitamins and minerals like magnesium, turmeric, and glucosamine, YOU STILL CAN GET INJURED! UGH! During the course of my year-long holistic health coach certification training, nothing stuck with me more than the devastating effects of sugar on the body. This is one area of nutrition that ALL EXPERTS will agree on. Most of us know that sugar isn't good for us, but I had no idea the havoc that it wreaks in our bodies.
This is just my second post here, and I really was not intending to start a rant post so early in the life of this blog. But life happens, and so, here it is.
A few days ago, I found out that a high school friend died of breast cancer. She was 43. Less than a month ago, a co-worker lost her life to the same disgusting disease. She just turned 40. Another high school classmate of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and has bravely been fighting it. I've sent encouraging words as she went through chemo, and would rejoice from afar as she completed each round. Rejoicing, as poison was being sent into her body to attempt to kill this awful thing. According to cancer.org, in 2015 there will be an estimated 1,658,370 new cancer cases diagnosed. These are NEW cases...JUST in the United States. Cancer does not discriminate. It does not care if you are rich or poor; black, white or yellow; man or woman; old or young. I LOVE COFFEE. There. I said it. I love everything about it - the smell of it when I open the bag of beans, the smell of it when it's brewing, watching the steam floating through the air as I pour it into a perfect mug, the feel of the warmth when holding the mug in my hand, and finally, the amazing taste. You might think with this obsession, I would be one of those people who drinks coffee all day long. I am not. It's not that I have anything against a few cups of organic, non-junk-laden coffee. There's enough evidence on both sides of this fence that makes me believe that for most people, in the worst case, it's not going to kill you, and best case, has some health benefits. For me though, I am generally not a thirsty person, and if I'm sipping a cup of coffee all morning, it means I am not drinking water. I NEED to be drinking water. So, alas, I generally savor my coffee experience on the weekends only. I look forward to that Saturday post-long run cup ALL week! I thought I had been drinking the perfect up of coffee for the last several years after we discovered Gevalia's Peruvian Organic. It's a perfect roast with low acidity, and nothing has been able to come close to competing; I would challenge any fancy coffee shop's best cup against this stuff. Unfortunately, Gevalia stopped making it, and I've been on the hunt for several months for a replacement. Coincidentally, I've started listening to Davey Asprey's Bulletproof Executive podcast. I had previously seen random posts about his Bulletproof Coffee - you know, the stuff made with butter - and you can't listen to a single episode without at least some mention of the stuff. The premise is a mold-free coffee blended with grass-fed butter and a medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) that he has branded as Brain Octane Oil. These are high quality fats which are great for your brain and provide energy to the body. I was hesitant to try butter in my coffee - that just seems weird. But curiosity got to me. Now, I didn't go all out, and buy the actual Bulletproof Coffee and Brain Octane Oil. I used an organic, decaffeinated French Roast bag of Wicked Joe with Kerrygold butter and some organic coconut oil. Both the butter and coconut oil I bought at Costco. If you are going to consume butter, grass-fed is the way to go (that's a post for another day). I blended it up in my Ninja for a few seconds, and out came this gorgeous concoction. It was frothy, like a cappuccino, but is denser - not just weightless foam on top. AND...IT WAS DELICIOUS! This has passed the husband taste test, as well. And he is one of those people who has been drinking coffee full of hazelnut, chemical-flavored junk for years. Have you tried this amazing stuff yet? I'd love to hear your opinion! If not, give it a shot - you may be surprised on how much you love it too! If you are reading this blog post, you have probably also read 100s of other health/fitness blog posts. Why have I chosen to add to the clutter of all the other blogs out there? Over the course of the last several years, I've come to realize my true passion in life is wellness. Not just the state of being well, but the science of it, the pursuit of it, watching and learning from other people's experiences and how they lead a life full of health and vitality.
I am a certified holistic health coach. While going through the education I needed to become certified, I learned that there is so much information (both scientific and opinionated) available to people, it's enough to make your head explode: dietary theories, nutritional supplements, detox plans, fitness "do"s and "don't"s...the list goes on and on. Life is hard enough; shouldn't eating and being fit be simple? I would say that answer should be yes - simple, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it is easy. Even for someone who is trained in this field, like me, it can be a constant challenge. That is why I am writing this blog, and why I believe that wellness is a persistent journey. Wellness isn't a quick fix - it is a way of life. I want to share my trials and tribulations on my journey. I'll share some facts, some opinions, some recipes and some stories along the way. I hope you enjoy it. ~ Melissa |
Melissa Kavanagh
I'm a wife, dog mom, chocolate lover, runner, wine drinker, fitness enthusiast, and certified holistic health coach. I am passionate about helping people learn to live a healthful life. Archives
September 2016
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