As I write this up, i’m just finishing up my 10th day of Vegetarianism. I’ll say so far that I’ve zero problems adjusting food-wise to my new lifestyle. I’ve enjoyed trying new foods like quinoa, and trying new combinations of food together. I think I’m starting to develop a slight obsession with fresh cilantro. Tonight was made another nice concoction of food goodness tonight. Lucky for you, I’m going to tell you all about it. I saw a recipe on line called “Mexican Pasta”. I thought it looked yummy so I book marked it and saved it for later. After my run tonight I wanted to make an actual meal, and I thought his would be a good chance to try this one out.

I boiled up some shell pasta, and “browned” up some Boca meatless crumbles. The recipe called for black beans, but I have already eaten up all the black beans I had purchased, so this would be a good substitute as well as try another new product. While those were cooking, I cut up a green pepper and some fresh cilantro. I was lazy and just bought a can of diced tomatoes. Basically, take all those ingredients, combine them together, as well as mix in some peach pineapple salsa. Then I topped with some cheese and went to town. One thing to note: If I had a larger pot, I would have combined them all together in said pot and it all warm up together. I had to nuke my bowl to warm it all together.

It turned out pretty great if you ask me. I made enough for lunch and probably and easy supper tomorrow night. Yay planning ahead! We washed it down with some freshly made peach tea. A serious weakness of mine.

If you remember early on, when I was kicking around the idea of trying this out, I had planned on not keeping the diet after my challenge. If I had to give an answer today, I think I would say that I was going to keep it for the foreseeable future. I like this change in my life right now. Physically, I feel the best that I have in a really long time. I’m struggling a little bit with my physical strength though. I feel like I haven’t as much energy lately to be doing my planks, push-ups and arm curls. I’ve been still running on days that my son isn’t with me, and been pushing myself on those days while running. I just feel like I don’t have the strength be working on my muscle building exercises. Some days are better than others. I’ve made sure that I’m getting plenty of protein and iron in my diet, so I think my body is just adjusting to those changes yet.

As far as running goes, things are getting better and faster. I ran into some knee pains during a run Monday night, so I had to cut the distance shorter than what I had wanted to. Tonight, I wanted to keep pushing down my two mile time. I’m happy to report that I broke the 16 minute mark that I was striving for. I was able to finish in 15 minutes and 47 seconds. I want to see how fast I can push myself for a mile now. A few months ago I was able to run a mile in seven and a half minutes. I wonder if I could get that down to or under seven on a good day? Maybe you’ll find out.

I’ve decided with all this running and training, I want to start running 5Ks this fall. There’s one next month in North Liberty I’m looking at and in October in Cedar Rapids. I don’t think it’s for any real purpose other than just something to do for myself. I’m by no means wanting to become a competitive runner. I’ve been running so that I can become more comfortable in my own skin; I’m almost there.

I’m still watching the fluctuations in my weight on a daily basis. This week I’ve been around 193 most times of the day. I set an arbitrary goal of 190 pounds as my weight when my challenge was up. This was basically 10 pounds lighter than what I was when I started. If things continue going as they are now, 185 might not be out of the question. I’m not sure where I want to be for my ideal weight. I’m working building more muscle on my frame, so we’ll see where everything’s at in another 20 days.