Setting Goals & Eating Carrots

In spin class at the gym on Monday the instructor challenged each of us to set a goal for the week and when she sees us again next Monday we’ll see who achieved their personal goal.  The two things I recognize about this challenge, 1-it gave each of us an opportunity to improve on a chosen goal, 2- it might compel us to return to class next week to boast on our accomplishment!

A few of the chosen goals were; only drink one diet coke a day, drink more water, come to the gym 5 days out of 7, etc…  I thought about my goal while the others shouted out theirs.  I already drink more than the required 8 glasses per day, I make it to the gym regularly and even teach a class on Fridays, I don’t drink diet soda and rarely drink soda at all.  Thinking, thinking, almost my turn….I had recently read an article reminding me that we should eat 5 cups of fruit and veggies every day.  This seems easy except that Miss T and her dad are both a tad picky about vegetables.  They have their “comfort zone” lists of veggies and in comparison to mine they are quite short.  I believe when your list of “likes” is short  it’s easy to get bored with eating veggies as you have too little variety.  After reading that article I’d thought, “I eat lots of fruit and veggies but, do I eat 5 cups a day?”.  I also figured I would simply incorporate more veggies into lunches or snacks, as I am usually on my own at those times.  As my turn came I decided to set that as my personal goal for the week.  I added, to fit cardio in at least three days out of the next seven.  I like my goal and know that it will be a piece of cake to achieve it.

That afternoon I stopped at the grocery and picked up some organic carrots to roast. Carrots are on my husbands list of “likes” so one out of two family members could enjoy them with me.  They were bright, colorful and of course, my favorite color, so I had to take a photo of them.  There is no “recipe” to accompany this post but I will tell you how I prepared them and maybe you will add more veggies to your plate this next week too.

In my efforts to meet my goal, last night I served green beans with dinner and ate a leafy green salad for lunch. I’ve also had cantaloupe, the best one yet this season, blueberries, bananas, an apple and tomatoes.  Now, let me say, apples are not in season but this apple came from Chile where it is apple season and it was a honey crisp, not bad for an apple in May.  Bananas don’t grow in Texas but are readily available in our stores.  Melons and blueberries do grown in Texas and both are favorites of mine.  Adoring hubby told me of a local farm stand on the other side of town he noticed late last week.  I plan on making a trip over to see what fresh, local veggies and fruits can be snapped up to help me meet my goal.  Now to head out for a brisk walk, that will meet 2 of the 3 days of cardio I planned for. If I were guessing I’ll be adding some cardio to the routine in my class this Friday.

Go on…get out there, take a walk, ride your bike around the block or throw the ball with your kids.  And, pile on the veggies and fruits – ’tis the season.

Enjoy!

Roasted Carrots

I scrubbed the carrots and trimmed the tops and ends.  Next I sliced them in half, tossed with olive oil, kosher salt and fresh ground pink peppercorns.  I placed them on a jelly roll pan and roasted with the convection feature at 325* for about 40 minutes.  They were sweet, slightly firm (not mushy!) and tasteeeeee!