Dude! I cooked something!

I'm not what you would call 'domestic'. Not even a little bit. I once had a friend tell me that I really needed to be a good cook if I wanted to find a husband. (I'm not even kidding that she said that and she's a prosecutor, for crying out loud!)

(source)

Anyway, it's not that I can't cook, it's that I choose not to. Besides, I think the fact that I would rather see movies where things blow up than girl movies makes me an ideal girlfriend and not my housewifely abilities, but whatever.

(source)

Anyway, I made a gluten free pizza casserole.  It's also fairly low carb. Now, I'm not a celiac but gluten sensitive, so I can't guarantee that there's no gluten at all in the ingredients I chose, but there's very little if you are sensitive and if you are celiac, well, there's definitely certified gluten free options for all of the ingredients I used.

Okay, this is super easy and super delicious.

First, I browned a package of extra lean turkey meat with some oregano and garlic. I'm sure fresh garlic would be better, but all I had was dried.

Try not to notice how dirty my stove got. I'm not an expert!

You can also use ground beef, but I'm bringing this for lunch tomorrow for me and my work BFF, Tiana, and she likes turkey better. Plus, it's a lot less calories. (Although, I make up for that with my other ingredients!)

Only gourmet ingredients for mah
masterpiece, thank you very much!

Once the turkey is browned I added most of this jar to the frying pan and let it simmer on really low heat for a few minutes while I cut up the vegetables.

I ate an embarrassing amount of this while it was cooking.

And by 'vegetables', I mean two: an onion and a green pepper. Yes, that is a tiny cutting board. It used to be much bigger until I broke it.

I also don't own proper chopping knives...

I considered just dumping the veggies into the casserole without sauteing them first, but I thought maybe that would make the casserole watery, so I popped them on the stove with a little garlic.

Next I put the turkey and veggies in a small baking dish.

The veggies taste much better browned.

Then I added a layer of pepperoni.

And then a layer of mozzarella cheese.

And then another layer of pepperoni.

I said low carb, not low cal...

Top it with a sprinkle of oregano and bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes and voila! A masterpiece is created.

Yum!

Okay, so this recipe doesn't yield a lot of actual food, but the ingredients are very filling. You can really use anything that you like on your pizza. The pepperoni adds a lot of flavor and while it looks really bad for you, 10 slices of that pepperoni is 130 calories and I used a total of 16 slices for the entire thing.

So that's my once in a blue moon contribution to the cooking world. Maybe I will try something else. But don't hold your breath. Oh, I almost forgot! I also ran on treadmill for almost an hour tonight. Woot!

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Insanity

I've made myself seriously sick.

I'm feeling pretty mad at myself because I had planned to go out and do a 6 mile run tonight, but I've been sick most of the day. The cause? Eating things my body rejects.

Yup. I'm a dummy.

Now, I've been pretty dedicated to a gluten free lifestyle, because I've already proven (multiple times. See a pattern?) to myself that gluten gives me horrible heartburn and stomach cramps. The problem is, I will often just skip grains all together, and I think that makes me feel even better.

Then slowly, I start eating more and more of things like rice and other gluten free carbs and after awhile, I start to get sick. I'm also suspicious of having a problem with dairy since I've been sick after eating too much of it several times...like today.

Now I don't want to sound like some whiny whackadoo. Trust me. I love all things made of gluten. I could live solely on bread and pasta. Then add cheese and I'm in heaven.



I know, me too.

I'm actually a little depressed over this because, hell, what am I supposed to eat? Just meat, fruits and veggies? I guess that actually sounds pretty healthy, but yikes. Boring as hell. But the other option is to feel poorly.

If someone tells me I have to give up coffee, I may throw myself off of a bridge. For real.

Now I'm behind in my marathon training, which at this stage in the game, is probably not that big of a deal. I'm still beating myself up over it, though.

Hopefully, I will feel better by Monday and can start anew.

                       Stupid baby is showing me up.           (source)

Sickly

Nice circles under my eyes...

Should this be my new Blogger pic? I look sexy as hell!

This is how I was feeling today, although I will admit, it was more to entertain my coworker than a reflection of my emotional state.

Last night, I gorged myself on sushi, despite knowing better. I paid the price and my stomach didn't feel great for most of the morning. For those that don't know, I have a sensitivity to gluten and grains.




Chinese food was brought in for lunch today at work, but I was strong and got myself some gluten free lunch elsewhere.

Then something happened later in the day. Any and all self control flew out the window and I snarfed a bunch of left over rice.

I know, I know! Stop yelling at me!

So, despite the fact that I even changed into my running clothes at work and was ready to head over to the gym, I ended up going home because I felt sick to my stomach. Now I'm mad at myself because I have plans tomorrow night and won't be able to run then, either.

I think I'm more sensitive than ever. It used to take days for bad eating to catch up with me, but now it seems like if I have too much grain-based things I will not feel right pretty much within hours.

Hee hee, it's sad how true this can be.

It's like I have to convince myself over and over that I really do have an intolerance to these things. Isn't that the definition of crazy? Doing the same things hoping for a different outcome? Well, I wouldn't be the first time someone called me crazy!

T is for Thunder From Down Under

Oh, yeah. Thunder From Down Under....mmmmm.


When I turned 21, but dear friend, Rebecca, took me to Las Vegas where I experienced what most of you are thinking of: hot men.

Yes, please!

However, hot oiled men are not what I am referring to.

I've been leaving work every night and going straight to the gym to log miles on the treadmill. My body and brain were just not feeling it today. So instead of going to the gym - despite the fact that I had already changed into my running clothes before leaving work - I drove home. I got a text from my friend, Kristy, telling me that I needed to come to the barn, have wine, and then go eat dinner because she "needed chocolate Thunder from Down Under". That's a direct quote.

So not only did I not work out, I drank wine and ate too much. C'est la vie. It was worth it.

Yes, my work out regimen does include chocolate.

The chocolate Thunder From Down Under is gluten free. Score! Night, all. It's been a loooong day.

G is for Gluten and Grains

G is for Gluten and Grains

I've been (mostly) gluten free for about 6 months. I discovered I had a gluten intolerance by accident.

In the fall of 2010, I went gluten free for a few months as sort of a weight loss/get healthy kind of thing. I had spent the summer training for my first half marathon and suffered from bouts of heart burn but at the time, I chalked it up to the extreme AZ summer heat and the amount of Clif Shot Blocks I was snarfing while running. I didn't really put it together that I went gluten free after that summer to lose weight.



Falsely accused!

As the weather cooled, my heart burn faded, only to return with a vengeance in the spring. My gluten free diet had faded after the first of the year, but my symptoms came back so gradually, I didn't make the connection. By the spring of 2011, I was living on Prilosec and had to take Tums just to be able to run a few miles. I tried giving up coffee, Coke, tomatoes, etc., etc., etc. It finally dawned on me that the reason I had felt better in the fall was because I had given up gluten.

Trust me, I was in denial. The symptoms would come on so gradually, that I wasn't quite convinced I had a gluten intolerance. In July, I had gone to NYC on vacation for a week after eating gluten free for a few months and by the time I had spent a week eating all sorts of gluten-filled deliciousness in NYC, the symptoms slowly came back.

By August, my heartburn was out of control and I was starting to have horrible stomach cramps randomly. I hit bottom in the middle of the Disneyland Half Marathon 2011 when I got incredibly sick in front of hundreds of my closest friends!

The next day, even though I was still on vacation, I tried to limit my gluten intake (which is HARD at Disneyland with all of the churros everywhere!).



oh, how I miss you! (source)

I felt better within 24 hours. A week later, I went completely gluten free. Now, I'm not one to preach. Giving up gluten is a personal choice and hey, if you can eat it and not have problems, then enjoy some pasta for me! It took me awhile to finally stick with it and I haven't had any heartburn since last summer.

And yes, my BFF coffee, and I don't have to end our lifelong romance.

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I read this article awhile ago and just reread it today. Try to ignore the horrible title, but it makes a lot of sense. Besides being gluten free, I think I'm going to try to be completely grain free. I've mentioned going grain free before, but I love me some carbs so I have a hard time giving them up. Sniffle, sniffle.

Carbs! Rooooar! (source)

I'm going to attempt to give up grains for the rest of April. Wish me luck, cuz I'm gonna need it!

Funk-y Town

I've been in a total funk.

It's perfectly normal to share personal stuff on the interwebz, right? Well, since I only have three readers, I suppose it's not really sharing with the world.

Everyone has times in their lives when things just feel crappy. Major life changes. Losing someone you care for. A pet dying. Stress at work. Sometimes things just suck. Things have felt sucky for too long now. I've been way too sad, too tired and too unmotivated. And today? Suddenly, things felt completely unsucky today.

What? Your coffee doesn't smile at you?

Yeah, I can be a whack-a-doo. But let me explain:

Run on the Sun and I tend to make science projects out of food. Currently, T is obsessed with glycation. I would attempt to explain it, but it's beyond my mental capabilities. All I know is food has a huge impact on everything. I know, duh. But for some reason, it never really sunk in that food can affect things other than the number on the scale - which is creeping up.

Oh yeah? Well, no one likes you, scale!

Around Labor Day last year, after getting sick smack dab in the middle of the Disneyland Half Marathon, I made the decision to be gluten free. I had been fighting the gluten thing for a long time and was in denial that gluten was making me sick. Try throwing up in front of hundreds of your closest friends at a Run Disney event. It's so miserable that you finally have to figure out what is wrong. Not to mention, I had such severe acid reflux for almost an entire year that I was living on Prilosec and had to take a handful of Tums just to go running for 10 minutes.

I won't bore you with all of the ins and outs of finally narrowing my ailments down to gluten, but at least I don't have to give up my very best friend:

I love you...we can be together forever!

So anyhoo, back to the science of food and being in a funk. I have a horse show coming up which requires that I wear breeches. White spandexy, stretchy riding pants look good on approximately .00000002% of the population. Hence, crash diet time!

Yeah, that's not me. (source)

I don't really condone crash dieting, folks. But I do believe in limiting carb intake. And no, I don't believe that works for everyone and I still eat lots of veggies and fruits. I decided I need to get back on track and take control of my funk (never under estimate the fear of wearing white breeches in public!) So I ate protein, veggies and fruit and no grains of any kind today.

The result? Emotionally, I felt better than I have felt in a long time. I was even motivated enough to get my ass out and go running at the park near my house. Which strangely, has bathrooms with no doors on the stalls...

Weird, right? And gross. Someone call housekeeping.

I've always thought that my body has a hard time dealing with too much carb intake. I'm like a crack addict when it comes to carbs. Even without gluten, there is carby goodness to be found everywhere!

Also, not me...but close enough. (source)

It's something to think about. Can sugar and starch really be affecting me this much? I'm going to do a little research and see what comes of it. I know each person is different, but I always feel better physically when I limit my carb intake and to be honest, my mood always improves, too. I thought it was just because the scale was going down, but maybe something chemically is happening in my body makes things seem better when I go low carb. Stay tuned!