Time for Change

After visiting the doctor in March and receiving some news that caught my attention, I needed some time to think and figure out what I wanted. The end of March and the month of April were a bit stressful and I allowed that to take my eye off the ball. May has been a good month and now, right now, it's time for me to take action. So here's my plan:

Stealing shamelessly from Michael Pollan, I am going to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I'm not going vegetarian or adopting any other "veg" type food lifestyle, but rather going to rearrange my plate to where the veggies out number the yummy moo moo, chick or piggy that is present. Also, it's a decision to stay away from processed foods. The "Not too much" part comes in with calorie counting. That's right, calorie counting. 

I have a goal to run a 5k in 9 weeks. Yup, that's 2 months. Go to CoolRunning.com to see my plan on getting there. 

Ray and I have talked a lot lately about how positive our weight and health were just five years ago. We've talked about how much energy we had and how we held each other accountable with our diets. The most interesting thing was that our diets had become a lifestyle. They weren't a lot of work. It was second nature to the both of us to choose healthy options. We playfully blame Bob Evans (YUM!) and Friendly's (Double YUM!), but we both know we let each other down.

Ray currently doesn't have any plans to run a 5k, but he will be with me on this journey to lead a healthier lifestyle going forward. Pray for us. We know this isn't going to be easy.

Strawberries

Our first buds appeared today!

First!

We have a jalapeño!

Mini Garden Update

So you know I have the basil, cilantro, rosemary, jalapeño and 2 tomato plants, red and yellow. You also know that I ordered some seeds a while back too. Well here's the pictures of the peat seed starter I used.

They started out as these little peat disks about a quarter of an inch tall. I had to add warm water to them and they started to "grow" and ended up being these little 2" tall piles of dirt with netting around them. I then sowed 3 seeds to each stack and waited. It took about a week for the white cucumbers to sprout up.

The others took a bit longer, but they've finally started reaching for the sunlight! Below are the gherkin cucumbers and the orange tomatoes.

I planted the white cucumbers today and am praying for some sunshine to help them stand back up, but I don't think we'll see any of that until later in the week. They look a bit depressed at the moment.

I have had a couple of tomatoes appear on the red cherry tomato plant, but they haven't ripened yet.

Oh, and I've had my first casualty. One of my basil plants just didn't have the will to live.

We did buy some mint plants and they look pretty good if I say so myself. They will come in handy on the days we desire to have tropical drinks to assist our imaginations take us to warm, white, sandy beaches during this cool weather still present.

And we can't forget the strawberries! I told you I ordered those in my last garden blog. When they came in, they were just root systems in a plastic bag filled with damp paper shreds. I got them planted, but wasn't sure if they were going to survive. 

As it turns out, they're doing wonderful! They're growing like champs!

So there you have it. This has been a lot of fun so far. We only have the gherkin cucumbers, tomatillos and orange tomatoes left to plant when they're ready. After that, we'll see how it all turns out.

If you have any thoughts, comments, ideas or tips, please don't be shy! I can use all the help I can get!