My First Try At Pumpkin

Good evening Beautiful,

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadian readers! We just got back from Kitchener because we celebrate Thanksgiving every year at my aunt and uncle’s house. I definitely have a little food baby going on right now. We had turkey and ham, white mashed potatoes, sweet potato chunks, green beans, fennel salad, salad, turnip…. Mmm mmm good. There are some really cool things that I learned today about some members of my family! My Aunt Judi has taken to eating gluten free! Woohoo! She’s been doing it for 6 weeks so far, and she says so far so good! My Aunt Janis has been gluten free for a while, and she’s actually going to be helping me out with some guest posts later this year! She’s a naturopath and she grows all her own veggies in her huge massive gardens and has a few yummy gluten free recipes to share with you guys! I also found out that A TON of my family members have taken to eating kale chips J. I brought some today for people to eat, not knowing they make them all the time themselves! My Uncle Dave didn’t like the kale too much, but I give him props for trying them!

Before we went to my aunt and uncles we stopped off at my cousins house (also in Kitchener) to spend some time with them and they’re two little girls, Ava and Ella. The little girls are so darn cute, and they’re so shy but they’re finally opening up to me which is so fun! We even snapped some photos together today J:

Me and Ava! (I wore my fur vest today :))

Me and Ella!

Ok so back to Thanksgiving dinner. I kept it very clean and moderately paleo. I did eat some rice crackers, and some of Aunt Janis’s homemade gluten free granola bars (I’m not sure what was in them, some sort of rice crisp, dark chocolate and dried berries… sooooo good…..), and I ate green beans at dinner, and then my worst cheat of the day was a little piece of pumpkin pie. Ok, so the reason I had the pie (I’m not a huge sweets person, and definitely not pie, I’d rather have cake or cheesecake over pie) was because C actually brought the pies and he brought a pumpkin pie, and I’ve never actually had pumpkin pie before. I’ve been reading a lot of different tweets and blogs about people who are head over heels for pumpkin, so I went for it to see what all the fuss is about.

So, I admit it was pretty good! I had a small piece and I wouldn’t have been able to eat a bigger piece (I can never eat a lot of something sweet. I’ve never been able to finish a small McFlurry before; I’ve never even attempted to eat a Blizzard before). The pumpkin pie was good and I would definitely have another piece, or even attempt some pumpkin baking of my own! This could open a whole new chapter for me… Hm. Let me ponder this thought for a while and get back to you. I’m going to need to do some research! J.

This morning before I did ANYTHING, I went for a run. Actually, that’s a lie. I ate a banana and half a piece of salmon and drank a butt load of water before going for my run, but the run was so great! It was really cold out this morning, and kind of grey and gloomy… my weather app on my phone said it felt like 3 degrees Celsius so I wore capris, a tank top, a long sleeve Lulu running shirt and my Under Armour running toque. I stepped outside and it was chilly!  BUT I love running in weather like that. So I started running west on Lakeshore and hit up the Martin Goodman trails (the trails that run along the water here in Toronto). My run today was the longest run I’ve done since The Zoo Run, an 8km run. So I decided to tackle this run by doing it in the 10:1 format (run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute). I managed to finish the 8km in about 49:32. The last half I noticed I completed faster than the first half. I think when I first started out on the run I wasn’t thinking about time, rather I was thinking about finishing it and feeling good through the whole run! But then as the end was closer, I decided to kick it up a notch and try and finish hard. I was on track originally to over 50 minutes and managed to cut it down to 49:32. Not bad!

I got home and did my stretching and I’ve been trying hard to stretch out my calf muscles. I think I want to try compression socks and see if that helps my calves. Do any of you wear compression socks? I’ve looked at a few different brands, are there any you would recommend? I don’t need them to be any fancy colours, just plain black (so they match everything J). Let me know!

Tomorrow I’m planning on going to the gym to do some resistance training (full body) because it’s been about a week since I did any. I also want to do some recipe experimenting! My mom and dad bought a whole bunch of delicious, organic vegetables from the Amish farm’s we grew up near! I have a TON of different types of squash, beets, spinach, kale, zucchini and then a big jar of homemade salsa and a big jar of homemade spaghetti sauce! All made from the amazing vegetables from the Mennonites farm! They know how to grow vegetables, and I can’t even tell you how cheap they are!! If you live near an Amish farm that sells their produce, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing from them, both to support them and to help your wallet just a little bit J. I have no idea what I plan on making yet…. Another food related idea I’m going to have to figure out!

Anyways – did you eat a lot today because of Thanksgiving? If today wasn’t your Thanksgiving, what did you do? Did you race?

Don’t forget about my giveaway from Allergic Solutions! 4 different types of baking mixes that are all gluten/dairy/yeast/sugar free, you’re able to put what you want in the mixes to suit your needs/wants! You can checkit out here and enter via the rafflecopter!

Stay sweet.
xoxo