Healthy Tipping Point

This post is sponsored by SABRE.

The days are pretty short this time of the year, huh? If you’re like me and love to exercise outside, that means you’re probably running in the dark – at least half the time. Daylight isn’t a guarantee of personal safety, but running at dawn or dusk can make you more vulnerable to personal attack or being hit by a car.

November is National Running Safety Month.  Here are four safety points to consider as you exercise outside.

#1 – Practice Situational Awareness:  Try not to zone out while working out. It’s easy to fall into a rhythm and get lost in your thoughts – this is actually one of the things I love most about running.  But if you’re tuned out, you’re opening yourself up to attack or an accident. Keep your eyes peeled for people or situations that seem amiss.  Listen to your gut feelings – if a park that you normally run through is giving you the willies, change your route.

Side note:  A friend recently reminded me about this book – The Gift of Fear.  I’ve read bits and pieces before but really want to go through the entire book again.  It’s about learning patterns of behavior so you can better recognize dangerous situations/people.  The entire book is basically about fine-tuning your gut instinct and training yourself to actually listen to it instead of squashing it.

#2 – Dress Smart:  If you’re leaving for your run at 8 PM, don’t don a black jacket, black tights, and a black hat.  Wear bright and reflective gear.  I absolutely LOVE my reflective vest because it is super light and barely noticeable, regardless of whether I’m wearing it over a heavy winter running jacket or a summer tank.  When you’re wearing a reflective vest like this one, cars can see you from up to 1200 feet away!

Click through for the giveaway!

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Happy Friday!

I hope you had a great week and have a fabulous weekend planned.  I had an amazing week – after too many weeks packed with travel or projects or sickness, the last five days were very calm and fun.  I got a few assignments done, but I tried to focus more on spending time with Henry during the day, with Kristien at night, and all by myself whenever possible.  Life is about to get craaaaazy.  Gotta relax while I can!

(As the sun moves across the sky, they inch closer and closer to the corner to follow the sunny spot – they end up squashed up together against the wall every. single. day. Hah!)

One thing that I’ve been doing LESS OF is spending time in the kitchen – but I’ve been eating MORE VEGGIES.  Kristien and I made a new rule – if one of us is cooking vegetables, you have to cook the whole thing.  Meaning – no half bags of broccoli steamed or just one of the three zucchinis sautéed.  We now have a ton of Tupperwares of veggies in the fridge, but I am much more likely to actually eat green things if they are already prepared.

All I had to cook for this lunch was the tofu – the asparagus and potatoes were already done. 

I’ve also been playing with cooking with tea.  This tofu is encrusted with Sweet Harvest Pumpkin, which is a black tea.  So I also got a caffeine dose – winning!

To make the tofu, I first pressed it between a few dish towels to remove all the extra moisture.  Then I cut it into chunks.  I heated a wok to medium high and added about 2 tablespoons of olive oil plus the contents of two tea bags.  Then I added the tofu in, gave it a good stir, and cooked it for about 10 minutes until golden on all sides.  Right before I took it off the stove, I added a sprinkle of salt and a generous squeeze of honey.  It was really good! I think the key to using tea in this way (I originally saw it used on shrimp) is to make sure the tea is finely ground – it’s more like a flavoring that way as opposed to big ol’ tea leaves.

Whatever you’ve got planned this weekend, I hope it’s a good one.  I hope I get at least one more weekend with Little One baking inside of me!  But you never know…

I may be done with workouts for this pregnancy…

First of all, the strap on my goggles broke!  I was super sad because I’ve had these goggles for five years or so – I’ve worn them for every single triathlon that I’ve ever done. I think I can just buy a replacement strap – but still.  Bad omen.

Second of all, I swam 500 yards on Tuesday and it completely destroyed me. When I got into the water, I thought to myself, “I will try to do 750!” but quickly realized that was probably not the best idea.  I felt good throughout the workout, but two hours later, I was so sleepy (and sore) that I was actually WAVERING from exhaustion.  I almost fell asleep standing up!  And I’m getting to the point where I haaaaate to be unshowered, tired, sore, or hungry for even one second because I’m afraid that’s the moment that I’ll go into labor – hah.

So – I may be hanging up the (broken) goggles for now.   Plus, there are lots of other things that need to be done, like baking Christmas cookies!

I was thumbing through Real Simple’s Christmas issue and stumbled across this recipe for Peanut Butter and Chocolate Thumbprints. I actually initially thought they misprinted the recipe because it doesn’t include flour.  A gluten-free recipe without oddball specialty ingredients in a major magazine?!  Too good to be true.  I texted a screenshot of the page to a few of my girlfriends, and they assured me that they had made similar cookies and the recipe would actually work without flour.  So Henry and I gave it a whirl…

This is a truly awesome cookie recipe.  It would be a perfect recipe for a Christmas Cookie Swap!  The base of the cookie is made with eggs, sugar, and peanut butter, and the chocolate thumbprint center is cream and chocolate.  That’s it!  Super easy, huh?

Again, here’s the recipe —> Peanut Butter and Chocolate Thumbprints.

I used heavy coconut cream + chocolate to make the center, making these cookies dairy-free as well as gluten-free.  It was a pretty straightforward swap.

After eating – you know – approximately one million of these last night, I put the rest in a plastic bag and tossed them in the back of the freezer (which is my #1 trick for portion-controlling homemade sweets).  These cookies are soooo good!  I can’t leave them out on the counter and in my face… Going into labor with spiking and crashing blood sugar wouldn’t be fun, either.

What’s your favorite cookie recipe?

This giveaway is sponsored by Minted.com.

I am super excited to present this amazing giveaway.  Minted is a website that sells cards, stationary, invitations, home décor, and other creative art.  Just check out the fun way they find designers…

Minted crowd-sources design and art from a global community of independent designers, then sell their best designs as fine products such as stationery, wall art, and décor for the home, holidays, and occasions. Minted was an early pioneer of crowdsourcing product design and has held open art and graphic design challenges monthly since 2008. All designers and artists are welcome to enter our open challenges. Designers collaborate on our community platform and provide peer critiques that improve both designers and designs over time. Consumers and designers curate Minted’s product assortment by voting on the entries to each challenge, ensuring that the best designers and designs are surfaced and represented on Minted. Minted produces and sells the winning designs, paying the designer a commission on every sale.

Minted did our holiday cards last year…

As well as Henry’s 2nd birthday invitations.  Cute, right?

I am waiting to do holiday cards until our new baby is born so I can make them holiday/birth announcements.  But I’m sure a lot of you are already thinking about cards, so this giveaway is perfectly timed!

Minted offered to do a $150 giveaway for a reader.  $150 is enough to get some seriously tricked-out cards, envelopes, labels, and more (they even have cards they serve double duty as Christmas tree ornaments!).  There are so many pretty card designs – I know the winner will find something to love. And if you don’t do cards, you can use the prize to pick out stationary, art, or even a 2015 planner!

I love this Wreck the Halls option!  Very funny.  This may be a fitting option for my family with two kids, two dogs, and a cat… If I can get them all in one picture!

And this pretty Christmas tree collage is to die for.

If you’re looking for a more structured collage, how about this one?

But I think my most favorite design is the “Fun Facts” card because it’s kind of a newsletter/card all rolled into one.

To enter the giveaway, use the widget below.  As usual, I’ll be closing comments on the post so there is no confusion on how to enter.  Good luck!  I’ll pick a winner on Monday.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Also – use the coupon code HAPPYHOL15 to get 15% at checkout!