Staying Alive!

I'm just leaving a quick message in Blogland to let all of you know I'm still alive and kickin! I promise to explain my absence very soon, but not yet. Rest assured that the reason is good and that I'm going into Lake Placid DEFINITELY NOT over-trained :)

Life is good, and I am thankful. I've had an amazing last two weeks and I'm looking forward to the next two as well. Then I'll clue all of you in to my fun news that has been keeping me busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest.

In other news, I'm taking a leave of absence from my regular position at work, and frankly, loving it. Yep, loving it. If you can believe it, it actually has been nice to view things from a different angle.

Kyle and I will still be traveling to Lake Placid this week and even thought things training-wise didn't go as planned, I'm convinced there is so man things that can happen and I'm not about to say I know the plan. Whatever does happen, I'm really thankful I'm healthy and I've always wanted to do see the sights in LP from my bike among friends and I'm going to do just that. Stranger things have happened than people going in a little underdone and still having a good day so I'm just hoping for that. I can't wait to hang with Jocelyn and Jeremy, my Ballou Skies Teammates, and remember what's it's like to race 140.6 miles! Plus I hear it is just breathtaking there so I can't wait.

I hope all my regular friends are still writing (and I can't wait to catch up and read what's going on) and I hope to see all of you on the other side. Thank you for all your support, kind words, love, prayers and ability to see things that I even can't at times. You make my life more enriched and give me the strength to step out and do things I never could on my own. When push comes to shove, it's those people in my life who always believe, always love and never, ever give up on me that I know God has placed in my life for a reason.

Thank you Kyle for stocking my fridge with good food when I was too busy to even go to the grocery store, My Aunt Dena for helping me see that if people have time to bitch they really don't have enough going on in their own lives to worry about and that life is a real gift, every single day.

If I don't get to post before the race (which most likely I won't), I'll take all the thoughts and prayers you want to extend and no matter what happens... I'm a lucky girl just to get to race!!

Talk to you all soon.. and miss you!!!!

USDA MyPlate & Timex Watch Giveaway Winner!

I'm still alive! For those of you that know me, I must be REALLY busy not to post. Well, this week was busy x 4.

I've been wanting to bring you up to speed on USDA's release of the new look for the old pyramid and here it is! USDA MyPlate! Your stomach is not a garbage can (aka it MATTERS what you put in there!). MyPlate offers a visual reminder to make healthy food choices when you make decisions on your meals. The goal is to prioritize food choices by reminding us to make half our plate fruits and vegetables and the other important food groups fall in the other half, which are: whole grains, lean proteins and low fat dairy.

MyPlate or display on a mobile device and snap a photograph to show how and where you choose the best foods to put on your plates when building a healthy meal.">

Image copyright: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

The part you may not know about is that you can head over the the USDA's Interactive Tools page to find information specific and individual to you including your calorie needs per day, number of food groups needed per day, printable food logs and much more! It's a wonderful place to help you or a friend / family member understand appropriate portion sizes, the benefits of each food group and you can even use the food tracker to log all of your meals letting you know how close you are to meeting your goals! It's a wonderful tool that many people can take advantage of absolutely free.

Obviously, along with eating healthy also comes getting more active. For many of us, that's via the swim, bike, run, but for others that can mean anything from walking the dog an additional lap around the park or even taking the stairs instead of the elevator! Don't forget Michelle Obama's initiative Let's Move! to enhance your overall quality of life.

I'd love to see what your plate looks like so feel free to twee it to me @fuelyourpassion! It helps inspire me share how well all of you are doing with the world!

Now, on to the big news! The winner of the Timex Ironman Watch Giveaway is (drum roll plllleeeeassseeee):

Erica! I hope you see this Eric because I see you don't have a blog so I can't comment on yours to leave you a message! Email me at kim@fuelyourpassion.net to claim your prize!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend and if you want to bike tomorrow for any portion of my VERY long ride, let me know!