Just Checking In..

What’s up Goal Crushers!

I hope you that you had a happy and safe New Years. For most of us, the New Year signifies a fresh start. I personal believe that you don’t have to wait to the new year to start over. In my eyes, every day is a chance to do right, to go after your goals, to change your life, or to be great. Don’t let the Monday/New Year mentality hold you back from being the greatest you that you can be…

I have not been around for a while so thought I would check in and let you know what is going on with me.

This past week I had to make a very tough decision and that was to withdraw from the 2015 Brigham and Women’s Hospital Boston Marathon Team.  It was a hard decision and I’m kicking myself for it because It’s one my dreams to run the Boston but I don’t think 2015 was the year for me to run it, so it’s now a dream deferred.

I had my reasons though… 2 car accidents; one in January another in October and now this mystery stomach pain that haven’t been resolved.  It’s safe to say that I had a rough 2014. Even though I felt like I made the right decision by withdrawing, a part of me feels guilty. As if I should have had more faith in the situation and myself that things are going to work out.  Have you ever felt like that?

Besides being stagnant with my fitness and running injured, my 2014 wasn’t all that bad.  I received a master’s degree, I bought a house, and I officially started my public speaking business.  Those are great milestones so I really can’t complain… That much 😉

As far as this blog is concerned, I’m struggling with posting on a consistent basis… It was something that I was good at doing but now it’s like pulling teeth.  I feel like I don’t have much to say if I’m not actually running. Many of my family and friends told me to write about how much it sucks being injured but I’m not the complaining type. So I just go through the motions… I know I said that I was going to do better but my actions haven’t proved it yet. So I joined a writing group and hopefully it will spark my interest for writing again… I think it’s what I need to get the ball rolling…

I know I’m a work in progress and I want to thank all you for your support. Whether it’s a comment, a message on Facebook or a tweet I appreciate all your love and patience as I try to work through some of this stuff. I’m taking it a day at a time that’s all I can do right about now.

I’ll talk to you guys soon

Chase Values. Crush Goals …300 Pounds and Running

5 Tips to Increase Vegetable Intake

One of the major changes I made during this weight loss journey was to increase my vegetable intake. Being a man I thought that only consist of eating salads (rabbit food) every day. After a while I just got sick and tired of eating rabbit food. The problem then became how do I get enough vegetables without eating rabbit food? After a few months a trial and error here are a few tips that I’ve found success to increase vegetables in my diet.

5 Tips to Increase Vegetable Intake

Eat Soup: There’s nothing better than a warm soup on a cold winter day. They are very easy to cook; it consist of only a few steps; chop up veggies, add liquid based (low sodium, low fat of course) , set it in the slow cooker and forget it. Looking for some soup recipes? Martinus got you covered here are some soup recipes from my fellow FitFluential Ambassadors. Check them out and tell them Martinus sent you.

Make an omelet: This is by far one of my favorite ways to add vegetables to my diet. Chop up your favorite veggies and put it in your omelet.  Don’t have time to make an omelet? Scramble the eggs with the veggies and you’re golden!

Single serve you veggies: After going grocery shopping take 10 -20 minutes to wash, chop and bag your veggies into single servings. This will give you a head start for the week. This will make your vegetables easily accessible when you are looking in the fridge for a snack and the only thing you see is your veggies individually wrapped waiting on you.

Get Creative: Carrots and celery can get so boring at times. Get creative and try other types of vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, zucchini and etc.; for added bonus use hummus for a low calorie, full flavor vegetable dip.

Drink them: Dust that blender off and experiment with different combinations of fruit/veggie smoothies. Your smoothie is too thick? Try using a cheese cloth to strain the smoothie. Here are couple smoothie recipes to get you started.

By incorporating some of these tips into your daily routine your vegetable intake will increase significantly and you might even find new vegetables that you like. Now it’s your turn to “weigh in”! What are some things that you do to increase you vegetable intake? What is your favorite tip from today’s post? What are the best tasting vegetable soup/ smoothie that have ever had/made? What makes it so good?Also here are some other recipes that so you should check out.

If you like what I’m doing please subscribe. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter:@300lbsandrunnin, Like the 300 Pounds and Running Facebook Page, if you are on: Instagram I’m @300PoundsAndRunning, Dailymile: @300lbsandrunnin, and Nike Plus:@300PoundsAndRunning. Lastly I’ve create a group on Facebook called Crushing Goal Together… This is a new support group to help anyone plan, track, and crush goals, be sure to check it out.

Until next time I’m 300 Pounds and Running