This Weeks Workshop...

In the workshop this week, we’ll be learning how to Meal Plan. You can meal plan for one day, three days or a whole week – it’s up to you. We’ll take a budget savvy approach as we learn how to incorporate foods packed with nutrition and turn today’s dinner into lunch for tomorrow. The cost for the class is $15 per person or buy 5 get 1 Free! Plan on arriving 10 minutes prior to class to check in and bring a friend with you to share in the fun. See you at the workshop! Villari’s Martial Arts & Well Being 22642 Lambert St. #403 Lake Forest, Ca 92630 Wednesday November 5th 5:30pm & 6:30pm

Nutrition Workshop Wednesdays

My friend Maria over at Villari's Martial Arts and Wellness in Lake Forest (http://www.villarisoc.com/) invited me to come do workshops which of course I am thrilled to be part of.

Our initial meet and greet was held last night and it was a Huge success! The groups came up with great ideas for topics which will give me new avenues of nutrition to explore. If you have an idea for a workshop topic or would like to attend "Workshop Wednesdays" please join us. Currently the workshops are held at 5:30pm and 6:30pm in their Lake Forest location. 22642 Lambert St. #403 Lake Forest. The cost is $15 per workshop or buy 5 get one FREE. Each Thursday I'll post the nutrition topic for the following Wednesday. On Wednesday November 5th the topic is MEAL PLANNING. Each interactive workshop is 40-45 minutes in length and will sometimes have homework assignments too. During the next few weeks, I'll be inviting some of you to join us at the workshops and my intention is to expand into other workplaces. If you have a work space to hold wellness workshops, let me know. Together we can create healthy happy long term employee partnerships. Eat Happy. Nutrition Matters.

7 Consecutive Days of Hot Yoga

After 4 weeks of a fitness boot camp, I was ready for a more relaxing form of exercise.  I say relaxing, but let me tell you, hot yoga requires muscle, balance and a great core.  I thought I had a great core and had no idea how challenging this hot yoga stuff really is.  I took a class across town and absolutely loved the teacher.  I left the hour long 100 degree classroom sobbing uncontrollably and ready for another class later that day.  I felt a sense of release and a sense of belonging.  

These classes begin with some basic warm up like a sun salutation which for those of you who don't know is a series of roughly 8 moves that flow together like a sort of dancing burpee.  After about 10 minutes, it starts to get super hot and I started sweating like crazy!  I personally found this to be extremely comfortable and soothing.  After 40 more minutes of trying to follow along, we ended with corpse pose, which is exactly what you might imagine.  Lying flat on our backs with our palms facing up trying to regain our normal rhythm of breathing coupled with a complete sense of relaxation.  This last 10 minutes is used as a meditation to calm the mind body and spirit, which is when I felt the release - a release of my own perfectionism, my own judgement of self, my negative thoughts of self and replaced it with completeness & acceptance.

Later in the week, I signed up with San Clemente Hot Yoga, which offers unlimited yoga for $69 per month.  I was still doing boot camp at the time so I couldn't fit in as much yoga as I would have liked.  As soon as the boot camp ended, the yoga studio began a 21 day challenge.  I hung in for the first 7 days and enjoyed the routine, enjoyed the heat and have started to become more flexible.  Oh, and my intention was to simply improve my posture, which has improved tremendously.  

Each week, I log onto see the calendar for the coming week and schedule my classes accordingly.  I skipped yesterday after my honesty revealed I was doing the challenge for the wrong reason.  Today begins week 2 and honestly, I'm looking forward to it. 

2nd Barefoot Run

So, this morning I'm running along the beach.  The air is cool, the sand is cool and the sun is coming out to warm up the day.  Perfect for me!  

At first, I planned to be running on the soft wet sand near the water.  When I got there, I was quickly reminded that hole in the fence doesn't have sandy beaches.  Mostly pebbles and rock.  So, I ran in the soft dry sand closer to the road.  There were tire tracks from the lifeguards and I stuck to that mostly in an effort to minimize the chances of impalement of any kind.

My first barefoot run last week left my feet tingling, which I was greatly looking forward to this time.  But that didn't happen.  During the run however, I noticed a couple of things that caught my attention.  First-- the splaying of my toes in the sand.  I was landing on the ball of my foot and my toes happily spread apart helping my legs propel me forward.  It seemed like I was using more of my entire upper leg instead of just my calves and quads, which felt all together more of an efficient stride.  The next thing I noticed was I was keeping my torso upright.  This is a big deal for me as I have always leaned forward while running.  That's how I was taught!  Recently, I have put a lot of work into strengthening my core and it makes running a whole bunch easier and more enjoyable.  My feet and legs wanted to keep going, but since I haven't run since Long Beach 1/2, my cardio didn't want to keep up.  I also remembered that my posture has to be right and if I can't maintain it, I need to stop and reset.  At this point, I have to get my cardio back up so I can even reach that point with my muscles.  I ran by "time" today because my watch is low on battery so it won't properly measure distance. I ran for 20 minutes up and back.  Tomorrow I shoot for 25 after my core workout at the Y.

Brownie Fudge-Love

WOAH! Attempt No. 2 was something Magical...


I am dumbfounded as to why I pulled out a hand mixer to make brownies?  Everyone knows that the less you stir, the thicker and gooie-er they come out.  So, this time I made a few modifications.

2/3 c honey
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1/2 c earth balance (melted)
1 c almond flour
1/2 c cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt

Mix up all the wet ingredients by hand with a whisk.  add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined and moist.  If I had a sifter, I would have used it to break up the dry ingredients better.  Pout into a greased 8x8x2 baking dish and bake 350 for 25 minutes.

thick, rich, gooey, brownie fudge.  Absolutely Amazing.  They might not last the whole day...

Brownie Bust

Baking during the Fall is an integral part of life here at the Mercer House.  I can't get enough Pumpkin Spice everything and my local grocery stores have an amazing selection right now.  Since I'm in baking mode, I came across this Almond Brownie recipe and tried it.  Damn it if I mixed it up for too long and cooked it for too long too.  As Brownies, it was a bust, but as a chocolate cake - definitely a winner!!  I'm taking the remaining cake to our YMCA as my kids have snubbed it.  Oh well, back to the drawing board...

Roasted Bell Pepper Chipotle Lettuce Wraps

My very First recipe!  And to top it off, it is truly just made up all by myself.  

Like many other recipes out there, this one starts with "I'm hungry - What do I have in the fridge to eat?"  

3 Simple Ingredients:

Iceberg Lettuce Leaves (any lettuce will do)

Seasoned Ground Turkey Meat (Left over from taco's last night.  You could use beef or chicken too!)

Mezzetta Sandwich Spread (roasted bell pepper & chipotle, of course)

Simply smear 1 Tbsp of the roasted bell pepper & chipotle spread into the middle of the lettuce leaf, top with 2 to 3 heaping spoonfuls of ground turkey and wrap up the leaf like a burrito and Enjoy!

If you are making the ground beef/turkey from scratch I recommend using McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning.  It turns any meat into something sensational.  

I ate 3 of them for lunch today and loved them so much, I decided to share with you.

My Left Foot

Yesterday, I decided to take it easy and go on a shorter 7mi walk with a friend of mine instead of my planned 10mi run.  Somewhere along the way I hurt my foot.  I wish I could build the suspenseful details, adding in some funny commentary, but I can't pin point the incident.

Day of Rest

Thursday's & Sunday's - are my days of rest.  On my current schedule.  Thursday becomes cleaning day and Sunday is just a good ol' day of rest!  Today began as a productive sort of day, cleaning the guest bathroom that more closely resembled a boy's dorm room than it does our guest room.  I had some laundry going when I saw a missed call from Palisades Elementary.  Then the phone rings and I see it's Brad.  He informs me that Kaden is coming home - that he threw up and the school policy is that he has to go home for at least 24 hours.  We all tried explaining that it was because he ate 6 cups of watermelon for breakfast, but they didn't want to hear it.  (Kaden has begun a petition at school to get chocolate milk back in the cafeteria, so I know that for once he actually did not want to stay home sick from school.)  More on that nutritional piece later...  


Today's rest was much needed as my knees were saying "enough" AND my Aunt "Flo" is coming to town any day now.  This also means I've been consuming more chocolate than I'd like to admit.  But I will admit to juicing today and making the very BEST vegan burgers I've ever had.  OMG.  The kids scarfed them down to which Kacie's response was "delicious."  





It blows my mind how easy  vegan food is to prepare.  Put all ingredients into food processor - blend - shape into patties & bake for 15 minutes, turning once.  How easy is that?  It has occurred to me that I should be posting my recipes too because they actually do taste great and I've been cooking directly from blogs for years.  Quick and Easy are two words I like to hear on Thursday's for dinner.  Brad doesn't come home until late which means I get to cook WHATEVER I want so it's a good day to try new recipes.  So stokked that this one turned out amazing!

Friend on the Trail

I had to post another blog today after my run.
The original plan was to run 6 miles according to my ultra training program.  Fellow runner Greg B posted that he was going to run 50 miles this week (a challenge!) which I responded to by changing my mileage to 10.

As it develops

The running has been the best ever.  Literally.  I am running faster, recovering better and I have a few suspects as to why that is.

First I have not ingested animal products for two months.  I think that helps with my stamina and overall health. Second, I'm fueling much more consistently during my run.  I lose A LOT of salt and margarita shot bloks along with electrolyte drinks seem to help there.

My New Blog...

On my morning run with Phedipidations, Steve inspired me to get back to blogging.  Unfortunately, I inadvertently deleted my previous blog.  What do they say, #%@! happens?  However, everything happens for a reason, So here we are again.

I anticipate this blog will be about plant based nutrition and my running with little blurps of my family life mixed in.  Since my husband lost my camera (of which he denies entirely) I have not been able to capture life on film since Easter.  More to come on that piece later in the show.

With that, it's time to get the kids off to school.  17 days of school schedules left and then it's summer vacation. This is a super fun time in the Mercer Home.  We begin with a 10 day vacation up to Yuba City, followed by 7 weeks of movie nights, beach days, field trips, play dates, Boys & Girls Club and ends with another 2 week trip up to southern Oregon in the RV.  Lotts and Lotts of opportunities to blog and connect.  Stay Tuned  =o)