Couch to 5k: Day 7

I can't go on.

- Megan Leigh 

We had to run for three minutes at a time today. It was hard--but it wasn't THAT bad! I think it is hard for Megan because she doesn't bring her ipod. Music makes things so much easier!

-Kristin

One New Thing: Getting Fitted For Running Shoes

After work, I met my friend Kim in the village after work and we went to Jackrabbit Sports to pick out some real running shoes. When you get there, a salesperson meets you to help you pick the right type of shoe. They have you run on a treadmill and videotape your feet in order to tell what kind of gait you have and what type of shoe would be best! Then you try on many, many different types of shoes to find the one that fits best. It is kind of like going to the eye doctor... "Which is better? This? Or this?" You start to rule out shoes, then when you find a few pairs you love, you wear one on one foot and another on the other foot and prance around the store, winnowing the choices down even further, until there is just one pair left. I found a pair of Saucony shoes that made me feel like I was walking on clouds, and Kim found a pair of very cute New Balances. No, my shoes aren't super cute, but I guess you can't have everything--they are the most comfortable pair I have ever had. It was very exciting, and I can't wait to try them out!

Then, since we were out and about, we grabbed dinner in Chelsea... so I think this also counts as making time to spend with friends. It was a nice evening!

-Kristin

Good Food: Lobster!

Today we had the fanciest dinner we have made so far... maybe ever. Delicious lobster and a caesar salad. I would not have been brave enough to attempt to cook lobster. Luckily, Ben is more adventurous! And he said it was even so difficult. This is what we did:

Boil a big pot of water.

Put the lobsters in it, cover, and bring to a boil again.
Once the water is boiling, cook for 8 minutes for the first pound, and three minutes for each additional pound.

For the butter dip:
Mince garlic and throw it in a pan with a lot of butter. Melt it, and skim off the froth. Pour the clear butter into ramekins to use for dipping.

Watch out, they are juicy when you bust them open! Water squirts out. 

-Kristin

No Meat Meals: Black Bean Soup

Today I made Black Bean Soup inspired by a recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian: Simple Meatless Recipes for Great Food. Not only was it delicious, but really easy to make as well. AND vegan if you leave out the sour cream!

Black Bean Soup

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tbsp sherry
2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 quart of vegetable stock
salt and pepper, to taste
4 tsp lime juice
sour cream and cilantro for garnish

1) Put the oil in a deep skillet or medium saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the onion and cook, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, and cumin and cook, stirring, for another minute.

2) Stir in the sherry then cook for a minute and add the beans, stock, and some salt and pepper. Turn the heat up to medium-high and bring the soup to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat.

3) Use an immersion blender to purée some of the soup in the pan. Or cool the mixture slightly, pour about half of the soup into a blender, and carefully purée.

4) Add the lime juice and stir; taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve garnished with sour cream and cilantro.

- Megan Leigh

One New Thing: The Hamilton Grange Library

Elliot, Megan, and I ventured out to our new library today. It is in a beautiful building on 145th street, and the kid's section is great--it's the entire second floor. We were in a hurry because we didn't have much time, but Elliot checked out the DVDs, futilely scouring the shelves for a Ben Ten or a Power Rangers ("What about a Fairy Tale Theatre?" I said hopefully, hearing how lame I sounded as the words came out of my mouth). Megan picked up some DVDs she had requested, including the first season of the Norm McDonald show, which she is super excited about. I got a step by step book about learning how to swim. It starts with floating on your back, which I can definitely do, so that is a confidence booster. 

There is this amazing old school building down the block from the library, with trees growing inside and poking branches out of the huge windows. Elliot begged us to sneak inside, but I told him you can't be an Urban Explorer in the daytime. Besides, I told him, you are too young. He pointed out that this job is tailor-made for a "little guy," which I guess is true. So maybe tonight I will turn him loose on the city and give him permission to slip into abandoned buildings.

-Kristin

What I especially liked about this library was that they have a woman I will call The Enforcer. She shooshed people, made kids stop running, told adults to get off their damn cell phones in the library.... Every New York library needs one!

- Megan Leigh

Couch to 5K: Day 6

Well we did it for real this time--Irene is gone for good! The weather was wonderful--cool and breezy--and it was a glorious walk/jog. We ran a little too long, because I accidentally hit pause on my iphone, and we ran quite aways before we figured out the run section seemed a little too long. A nice run on a nice day, though. And week 2 is done!

We are both finding that the stretching is becoming more and more necessary. I remember when I was little and we had to stretch in gym, I was so flexible I could never even feel which muscles were supposed to be making the stretch difficult. I looked at people who couldn't reach their toes with a mixture of pity and incomprehension. Not anymore!

-Kristin

Dutch Baby!

Luckily, when we woke up today we still had power. It was raining a little, but other than that... no sign of Irene. So I made a Dutch Baby from scratch for the first time today. Before, I had been using this mix from Williams Sonoma... but then I figured out I was spending an insane amount on what was basically flour and a little salt. Surely I can make these on my own, I thought!

I tried the recipe in The Grand Central Baking Book: Breakfast Pastries, Cookies, Pies, and Satisfying Savories from the Pacific Northwest's Celebrated Bakery. This book was another present from the wonderful Kygers, when they came to visit a few years ago. I was a little suspicious of the recipe at first, because it doesn't contain any sugar. But I think our Dutch Baby turned out even better than the mix--it was more buttery and custardy, and it rose up really high. Beautiful! No, it may not be super healthy. But I definitely believe it fits in the Good Food category. Tasty things being good for the soul and all.

-Kristin

One New Thing: Hurricane in New York

I went to a number of new places this week: a new restaurant, two new bars... but my most exciting experience was to finally experience a hurricane. In Florida I've lived through three "hurricanes", which didn't even compare to a mild St. Louis storm.

I tried not to get excited this time around because I had been disappointed three too many times. But I couldn't help it. The whole city was abuzz with talk of the impending doom and I began to think, now, now is finally the time. They wouldn't shut down the transit system for the first time ever if this storm didn't mean business! Right?

Wrong. As you can see from my best hurricane picture the wind velocity was... almost none existent. No howling banshee winds. No rain lashing with malicious violence against window panes.

I still decided to count my experience as one new thing: My first disappointing hurricane in New York.

-Megan Leigh

Well, I was happy that Miss Irene never showed up. I have a whole fridge full of food! It all would have gone bad if the power went out. That is my worst nightmare--something bad happening to my food. I guess it would have been fun to live by candlelight for a little while, while the wind whistled outside. But I'm a creature of routine,  so no hurricane was just fine with me.

-Kristin

Hurricane Irene Ruined My Jog/Cauliflower Paprikash

Well I set off with a sulking Elliot for the track this morning. I was feeling bright and bushytailed, and figured I would do my sixth day of Couch To 5K before the hurricane struck. Megan stayed at home, nursing her hangover. Evidently not EVERYONE is so committed to running that they will brave a hurricane just to get their jog in.

About ten minutes into my workout, it started drizzling. "Mom, let's go home!" Elliot pleaded. "It'll stop," I told him. "You'll see. It's not supposed to start raining until 2." A minute later, it started pouring. There was a mass exodus from the track--even the big group practicing their flashmob dance gave up and went home. We joined the herd and headed for the park exit. Damn you, Irene!

But I did get in some good food. For dinner, I made cauliflower paprikash, a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks ever, Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day. That book was a gift from my aunt and uncle, years ago, and I use it all the time. This recipe is kind of like a beef stroganoff, with cauliflower and mushrooms instead of beef. Anyway, it turned out great, although the picture doesn't look super appetizing! But I could not talk Megan into trying it, because she hates mushrooms. Maybe one of my goals for this year will be to make her reconsider. I just love them so much.

-Kristin

De-Cyberclutter

In her book, The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, Gretchen Rubin declutters her home and feels great about it. So great that she pesters her friends into letting her clean out their closets too. I would love to do this, but I don't have much to organize. I stay pretty on top of that by going through my clothes once a year (basically my only possessions). But I do have a huge clutter problem on my computer. Tons of pictures that have doubles or are blurry, 1500 podcasts that I have yet to listen to, doubles and triples of songs... So one of my resolutions is to clean up and organize this computer. It's been bugging me for a long time, but I've just never taken the time to sit down and fix it.

Today I started by getting rid of the doubles, triples and sometimes quadruples of pictures in my iphoto library. I think every time I switch computers my pictures get doubled for some reason. When it was all done I had won back more than a gigabyte of hard drive space!

--Megan Leigh

Couch to 5K: Day 5

Well, we dragged Elliot to the track with us again today. I am determined to make him love coming with us! Who doesn't like to go to the park?!

I was surprised to find that today the runs got easier over the course of the workout. By the end, each run felt good--I had this sort of sensation of being free I hadn't had before. If this is normal, I can see why people look forward to their runs. Megan said she didn't feel this way, though--the running parts were uniformly hard.

After we ran, we tried to make Elliot do somersaults and a backbend. I used to love gymnastics when I was his age, and I figured who doesn't like to flip around? He declined, though, and looked at us like we were crazy.

And miraculously, we got our run in before it began to pour!

-Kristin

What To Eat

Today I thought I'd share a book I just read and liked a lot, one that fits in with the "good food' theme. It's called What To Eat, and it's by the nutritionist Marion Nestle.

Basically, this book tells you everything you could ever want to know about the food on grocery store shelves. Have you have ever been confused about what exactly that "organic" label entails? Sure, for plants it's straightforward. But what about for eggs or beef? Or seafood? Do you have a strong conviction that most popular diets are ridiculous, but you couldn't tell someone why exactly they could never work? Do you wonder about what kind of oil to cook with? Or whether your fear of margarine and diet soda is irrational? This book answered just about every question I had about food, and I thought the author did a great job at presenting a ton of information in a very accessible way. I feel like, after reading it, I'm a much more knowledgeable consumer.

For the most part, the book is geared toward helping readers make informed decisions when they go to the grocery store--it's very practical. But a theme throughout was the lack of consumer protections regarding food safety. Especially scary is how meat companies have been able to push virtually the entire burden of infection prevention upon their customers. Straightforward, sensible, and relatively inexpensive methods that could prevent a staggering number of infections are not implemented so that these companies can save a little money. Thanks for looking out for us, FDA! After reading this book, I'm definitely more wary of cooking with meat and feeding it to my kids. Another reason to minimize the amount of meat in our diets I guess. Sigh.

-Kristin

Couch to 5K: Day 4

Well it got harder today. But not THAT much harder. We are still looking forward to our runs, and it felt good to jog outside in the sunshine.

By the end of the run, the front of the joint where my foot joins my leg kind of hurt on both feet... does that mean my shoes are bad? Or that I am running the wrong way? It's not terrible pain, but it doesn't feel good either, so I'm going to try to figure out what's going on.

For fun, I just bought the Runner's World Complete Book of Women's Running. Whenever I do start something new, I like to read tons of books about it, in true dork fashion. I'll let you know how it is! Does anybody have a book about running they recommend? I don't think it's about HOW to run, but I'm putting Haruku Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running on my list. I'm pretty excited about the combination of one of my favorite authors and a new obsession. Life is good!

-Kristin

No Meat Meals: Vegan Paella

Although Kristin and I both share the goal to eat healthier, I want to go a step further and eat meatless. I think it would be a huge boost to my happiness if, with every bite of a meal I take, I don't have to imagine a scared cow right before it (hopefully) gets a bolt shot through its brain. Or a baby chick getting the tip of his beak snipped off. Or a poor pig who has been so genetically altered that he can no longer go in the sun. Recently Kristin put veal in her meatballs and I'm pretty sure a little piece of my soul turned black and withered away after eating them.

So this week I made Fannie Farmer's Veggie Paella found on this blog. Although the general consensus of the family was that is was 'very good', I thought it wasn't the best, but it also wasn't the worst. It was definitely not an easy recipe as it included a ton of vegetables that needed to be chopped. Luckily I had a sister to put to work. Had she not been here to help chop up a storm I don't believe the end product would have justified all of the time and effort. I must say, however, that it was one pretty bowl of food and there were a ton of leftovers.

- Megan Leigh

Couch to 5K: Day 3

We were both looking forward to our run today, so we set out for the track this morning, knowing it was going to be raining all afternoon. We dragged along my son, Elliot. We had seen other kids at the track, running with their parents or messing around on the field, and it looked like they were having fun. Well halfway through our run the sky opened up, and there was a huge downpour. We decided we'd keep running. Nothing would deter us! With a couple minutes left on our cooldown, a huge lightning bolt struck right next to us. At that point we all ran home. I doubt I will be able to get Elliot to go to the track with us after this! Miraculously, we finished our workout though (the last part of our cooldown was us walking home as fast as we could).
-Kristin

Poor Elliot! He didn't want to go with us to the track in the first place, but we forced him. "You will go and we will have fun!" Kristin yelled at him. So he came with the utmost reluctance. At the track he did not have the fun he was promised and then it started to pour. "One more lap!" we yelled as we went by. Seconds later there was a close crash of thunder and we saw him jump and run he was so scared. I have to admit Kristin and I had the same reaction. So we ran back to Elliot and headed home. Soaked, but refreshed! Elliot soaked and miserable. I think it will be tougher to convince him to come with us next time...

- Megan Leigh

One New Thing: Governor's Island

Today I went with my friend Cat to Governor's Island. I've always wanted to go and check it out. So finally we did, and here is what we saw and did:

Roaring 20's party where people dressed in their best 20's and flapper gear and danced danced danced. (I'd like to attend one day after I take a lot of dance lessons and find the perfect outfit).

Picnicked under a tree where me may or may not have seen a tick wandering around on Cat's leg.

Watched a trapeze school.

Swung on Swings! (I haven't done this in forever! I forgot how fun it was).

Ate a snow cone. (Which ended up being pretty much a ball of ice. Pretty flavorless, but it looked oh-so appetizing).

Then the ferry back to the noise of the city, where I had the most surprising experience of the day. The line waiting to get over to the island was filled with people who could have belonged on Jersey Shore. I thought the show must be paying these people to be a little more outrageous than they actually are, but there they were. Neon clothes. Short shorts. Big muscles. Embarrassing accents. Knowing that the cast is actually like this... I'm not sure if this will ruin the show for me or make it that much better!

- Megan Leigh

Couch to 5k: Day 2

The second day of Couch to 5k went amazingly better. Only two days ago I was wondering if I would collapse half way through and today I was able to finish no problem! I think I started slowing down with five minutes left to go. My feet kept getting heavier and heavier, but I kept going! It was very exciting because now I think I can actually do this!

- Megan Leigh

Couch to 5K: Day 1

The first step in our Happiness Project is to get off of our substantial butts and exercise. You would think living in New York and walking everywhere would be exercise enough, but our girths say otherwise. It may have something to do with being able to get cookie dough delivered straight to our door....

We recently moved and are now right next to a track so we thought it would be very convenient if we learned to run. So today we started the running program Couch to 5k. It's a podcast/iphone app that eases you into running by telling you when to walk and when to run. In 9 weeks (3 times a week) we should be able to run a 5k!

This is my first attempt at running and it was rough. Had I been on my own, I would have given up half way through. Luckily I had Kristin as my running partner and if she wasn't quitting then I definitely wouldn't. There is no way I would ever do anything to be considered the weaker sister. Finally, it was over and I felt very proud of myself!

- Megan Leigh

The Harper Happiness Project

After reading the The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Funwe decided to begin the Harper version of a happiness project. I'm Kristin, and I'm starting this blog with my sister, Megan, to chart our one-year journey toward a better life. We live in Harlem, with my husband, two kids, and dog.

I think both Megan and I are reasonably happy already, but there are always things that could be better--so those things are what we are going to be working on this year! Gradually, we're hoping to tackle all the parts of our lives that we would like to improve. We decided to work on exercise, first, since we are both pretty pathetic in that department. Living in New York I think we end up walking a lot in the course of our daily activities... but actually going out and exercising? Well, I don't think I've done that in years. So goal #1: Healthy bodies.

Part of our healthy bodies focus is going to be on eating well, too. In the last few months, we have depended way too much on takeout. It's expensive, it doesn't taste great, and most of it is not especially good for you. We just moved to a new apartment with a great kitchen, and we want to take full advantage! Finding the time to cook is always a struggle, between work and kid stuff and just being exhausted at the end of the day. So hopefully we'll be able to figure out how to find a balance between good food and the rest of our lives.

Aside from getting healthy we also need to learn to take more time for ourselves! So we'll be having other smaller goals thrown in as well such as "do one new thing a week" or "take time to write".

In writing this blog, we hope to hear from other people who are struggling to improve their lives in some of the same ways. There have got to be many of us out there, working towards the same goals!