I completed the Tobacco half marathon this morning.  It was my second half marathon.  It was really humid.  I was completely drenched by the end of the race and it was a personal record so I am very happy overall.  I am already looking into my next half marathon event (most probably in the early fall).  The tobacco half marathon is a very popular race, everyone was lined up by 6:30am at the starting line (for a 7am start).  It's great that all finishers' get a medal for half and full marathons because if you've ran or walk the distance, you've definitely earned the medal.

I didn't train as much for this race but most probably am physically stronger and mentally more prepared than the last one.  I just wished I started racing earlier in life!


In the meantime, I am looking forward to begin my training for my first triathlon (early fall).  I have about six months to prepare for it.  A year ago, I couldn't complete a 5k without stopping and walking by mile 2, now I am training for my first triathlon.  Anyone can train for a race, as long as you dedicate the time to practice.

In about 12 hours, I will be running the Tobacco half marathon (my second half marathon).  I am very excited because I have been looking forward to running another half marathon.  My husband will be a pacer for the race so this is the first half marathon which we are running together.  The proceeds of the half marathon goes to the Triangle Rails to Trails Conservancy and the Wake County Parks and Recreation.  We love the American Tobacco Trail and quite possibly decided to move to North Carolina because of the trails and parks here.  

The weather is suppose to be about 50 degrees tomorrow.  We picked up our packets at the Embassy Suite hotel / race expo location.  There were a number of great deals there (50% off a number of designer running shoes).  In training for the half marathon, I have ran a 2-3 miles with my son a few times, pushing my daughter in a jogging stroller.  It is great to run with kids because they are not conscious of the pace or any arbitrary goal.  The pure joy of running is all that they care about.  

My son hopes to run a 5k before the end of this year.  I hope to pass my love of eco-friendly living and a number of other passions to my children; it is great to see them embrace these passions as their own.

February is Heart Health Month.  The number one cause of death for women is cardiovascular disease in the United States.  It is recommended by most health experts that individuals should take at least 10,000 steps per day to remain healthy.  New studies have shown that even this may not be enough to ward off heart disease.  

In addition to training for my second half marathon, my goal is to complete my first sprint triathlon by the end of this year.  Training, working full time and caring for kids sometimes (if not always) make meal planning a challenge.  So far, we have managed to cook most of our meals during the week. We simply plan at least two days ahead what our meal options are.  Initially, it was rather funny for my family to start thinking of meals ahead of time, but it reduces a great amount of stress when you know what your kids will eat in a few hours as oppose to scrambling to cook a meal with cranky hungry kids hovering over you as you cook.    As part of this months' heart healthy theme, we are celebrating Valentine's Day by making our own organic pink lemonade (with strawberries, grapes, lemon and water).  We are also planning to make our own valentine's day cards.  We use recycled red construction paper and cut/glue images from print advertisements onto our homemade cards.  Here is an example of one of our homemade valentines (using an image from a print ad).  

You can use print advertisements (Sunday editions tend to contain the most print ads) for many other holiday celebrations as well (Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.).

Contact your Congressperson today and save greenway/bike path federal funding programs!!!
TrekBikes and the League of American Bicyclists have shared that there is federal funding that is about to be eliminated!

On Thursday, February 2nd the House Transportation Committee is voting on the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, a bill thateliminates crucial funding for biking and walking. We stand to lose $1.2 billion and over 3,000 potential bike and pedestrian projects, including Safe Routes to School programs.   We need your help to preserve these dedicated biking and walking infrastructure funds.   What can you do?    1. Pick up the phone and contact your elected official. Find their phone number here. 2. Send an email to your elected official. Find their email here.

5minutes of your time, contacting your Congressperson via the link above will help save these necessary programs.  Without bike paths and greenways, people will use more carbon emitting vehicles and continue to pollute our environment.  ACT NOW!

As part of my overall eco-friendly healthy living goal, I've decided to reduce our family consumption of meat by 25%.  Going completely vegetarian was not an option (meeting a lot of resistance), so we figure we will compromise.  I am able to achieve my goal by active meat reduction.  For example, instead of cooking everything from the pre-packaged container, I make a conscious decision to only cook 3/4th of the chicken breasts and placing the rest in another storage container.  That way, we are consuming less meat and I compensate by adding fresh organic tomatoes (since we love tomatoes) to almost every dish.  So far, it's been a successful month.  The kids don't even notice having less meat portions (thank goodness).  I have officially stopped eating beef for almost nine years!  It's been so long.  I don't miss eating steak (the first 3 months were tough) at all.  Maybe by year end, we can reduce our meat consumption in half!  I noticed we are saving more money on our grocery bills as well.  Fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits are usually priced less than meat.

So instead of considering being a vegetarian vs. not, you have other options and might want to consider overall meat consumption reduction.  Bon appetite.

Ten days into the new year and there are already people who are back to their old ways or on "auto-pilot."  By now, most of us realize that in order to achieve any goal (small or great), we need to make a conscious effort and live like it matters.  

It is the end of another year and time for new year resolutions.  I am looking forward to 2012.  Here is a list of some of my eco-friendly new year resolutions for the upcoming year:
- 100% donations and/or giveaways of outgrown clothes and toys
- Learn how to make jewelry using recycled materials
- Learn more about recycled metal art (I came across a website  happyscraps.net that highlights metal art made from recycled metal and look forward to seeing their gallery of work at a local spring festival in 2012).
- Expand gardening goals to produce 20% of more of my meals from my own garden (very ambitious given the size of my garden)
- set up a rain barrel (finally, I have been wanting to do this for years!!)
- learn how to quilt so that I can recycle some worn clothes (that have sentimental value)
- participate in a family park replanting event (with my family)

Here are some of my other new year resolutions:
- complete second half marathon (with a new Personal Record)
- complete my first triathlon 

Looking forward to another year!

We love cooking, especially during the holidays.  Homemade pumpkin pies are easy to bake and provide a lot of antioxidants and nutrients.  We simply follow the baking recipe that is on the pumpkin can (yes, I use the pumpkin from the can as opposed to carving up my own, although I hope to try preparing a pumpkin pie from scratch next year).

I am excited to offer you this free Chocolate kit giveaway.  My kids enjoyed making our own chocolates.  It tasted great (not too sweet) and the instructions are easy to follow and fool proof.

Make Your Own kits are available in Make Your Own Chocolate, Make Your Own Chewing Gum, and Make Your Own Gummies, these activity kits are all-natural, educational, and eco-friendly. With pre-packaged ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions, everyone aged 8 and up gets a real kick out of making candy from scratch. Focusing on the history behind and the origin of these candies, each kit is designed to captivate your interest, connect you to the global community, and create something yummy to eat in the process! 

You can have a chance to win a free chocolate kit giveaway.  In order to qualify for the free Make your Own Chocolate giveaway, you need to:

1) Sign up for the FREE eco-friendly living email newsletter (I do not share your email with anyone and send quarterly (4 x / year email messages)).  

2) Sign up for the free Glee Gum newsletter: http://www.gleegum.com/contact-us.htm

The giveaway will be selected randomly by December 31st, 2011.  Best of luck and have a joyous new year!

We enjoyed spending thanksgiving with our extended family.  Instead of stuffing ourselves with all of the extra food, we ate reasonable portions and my sister in law showed me how to freeze the leftovers (which I have never done before).  When you freeze food, it usually lasts two weeks longer than just refrigerating leftovers.  To prepare/defrost frozen food, you need to place the food in a microwave safe container, add some water (you need to add some moisture) and then heat it up.  


We are getting our Christmas tree ready for Christmas.  We've used the same plastic tree for over ten years and plan to use it for many more.  We also save the Sunday newspaper so that we can use them as wrapping paper.  In keeping with an eco-friendly tradition that we started a few years ago, we will not be lighting the Christmas tree (to save energy, electricity and money).  Although most probably we will light it up on Christmas Eve for a while.