Meat or No Meat

So for the next month starting  yesterday, I have decided to accept the challenge of eating NO MEAT.  My health & fitness guru friend Kelly has put anyone & everyone up to this challenge, and I quickly accepted.  She wants to see if there are any significant differences with a 'No Meat' diet.  It's not a full vegan diet with no dairy nor meat, so i can still have my  yogurt parfaits. :)  It's interesting to see how much meat I normally would eat in my diet.  It wasn't a whole lot, but now that I am restricting myself from all meat, I have noticed when I would normally choose to eat a little ham, tuna, or chicken.  I am excited to see the changes in how I feel, my energy level, and any other differences in my body.  Because of my recent and temporary change in diet, I am looking into different meals to serve.  Tonight I am going to make Tabouli.  Pax & I first tried it at a dinner we were invited to from a couple in our ward.  It's an Israeli meal with bulgar wheat, parsley, mint, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, green onion, tomatoes, & cucumber.  Once I try it out tonight, and if it's successful, I'll post the recipe.  It is DE-LISH-OUS! 

Anyway, here are my tomato plants and to the left are my green beans.  The tomato plants smell good- like tomatoes may actually come from it, so I'm just waiting and watering and waiting and watering more.  How fun.  Then the poor green beans- I've stabilized it with string so they don't fall over.  They don't seem to be growing much more.  I think birds or bugs are eating the green beans.  I don't know what to do.  I didn't even take a picture of my poor spinach.  They're still just little sprouts.  I think I may have planted them too late in the season.  At least my tomatoes are taking off!   

I just recently finished New Moon-- well almost. I have the last epilogue left, which I will finish tonight.  But now I'm looking for anyone that has the 3rd book Eclipse.... so if anyone is willing to lend it for a little while... I would love you!

And last but certainly not least- I ran my fastest mile today! Yipeee!  But let me just precede with a little story.  So last Saturday Paxton & I ran the bleachers at the Hebron H.S. stadium.  I think I ran up & down 7 times- across the whole bleachers.  Anyway, I was still feeling really good, not really phased by it, so I ran a 'snake.'  I don't know what else you call it, but it's where you run up & down the 5 yard lines across the whole football field.  I did that once, stretched and we went home.  I wasn't feeling sore that whole day, but Paxton was already sore by mid-day.  The next morning, I woke up with really sore calves and quads.  Pax & I could barely walk around normal.  It was ridiculous.  And that soreness continued on through Monday as well, so sadly I didn't get a run in.  Come Tuesday morning, I am pumped, feeling a little sore, but ready to get a good long run in.  So this is where my record fastest mile comes in.  I ran almost 5 miles with my first mile being at a pace of 6:07.  Yay! I was super excited.  I believe the bleacher workout strengthened my muscles, helping me run faster.  I will always be grateful to Kelly for teaching me those sweet track workouts.  I'm for sure keeping those up.  I just need to brush up on those few yoga poses you taught me.  Yeah- I can't remember any of them really.  

Ok, see ya for now.