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Making Beef Bone Broth

December 30, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

I made beef bone broth yesterday using the bones left over from the roast I served on Christmas Day. The roast was from a local butcher with pastured raised beef, so it was delicious though expensive. I had several bones left over and hated to just throw them away, so I decided to make some bone broth.

The last time I made beef bone broth was several years ago. I used my slow cooker to make it. The problem with the slow cooker was that it was indeed slow. I had to let it cook for over twelve hours to get the most nutrients out of the bones.

This time I decided to make the beef bone broth using my Instant Pot. I did a little online research for recipes for beef bone broth using the Instant Pot and realized that I could speed up the process a bit.

Making Beef Bone Broth

Here’s how I made my beef bone broth. Because I had roasted the meet the day before, the bones were already roasted. Therefore, I could skip the step that many recipes suggested, roasting the bones before making the broth.

I put the bones in the bottom of the Instant Pot and then added some roughly cut onions, carrots, and celery. I also threw in a couple cloves of garlic and a couple bay leaves.

Finally, I added a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. The vinegar is supposed to help release the minerals from the bones.

Then, I filled the pot with water, up to the Max Fill Line. My Instant Pot has a soup button that lets me set the Instant Pot for four hours so that’s what I used.

Because the Instant Pot was full with lots of liquid, it took a long time to come to full pressure. Once it started to cook and some time went by, I bumped the time back to four hours again. Therefore, I cooked the beef bone broth for probably about 5 and a half hours. I also let the Instant Pot release naturally. Again, because the pot was so full, it took a long time for the pressure to release fully.

Once the pressure was released, I remove the lid and saw a pot full of beautiful broth and all of the cooked vegetables and bones. I removed the bones and vegetables with a spoon and then poured the broth through a fine strainer into a large Pyrex measuring bowl. Then I decanted the broth into some Mason jars. I placed the jars into the refrigerator and once the broth had cooled, I removed the fat that congealed on top.

If you want to see some controversy, just ask about removing the fat from the broth. People who are following a Ketogenic diet often keep the fat in the broth. I felt like there would be sufficient fat in it even with me removing the fat on top.

I drank a cup of the beef bone broth that afternoon. First, I heated some in the microwave and then sprinkled some Himalayan pink salt on top and drank it. Wow! It was good.

Recipe for Beef Bone Broth Using the Instant Pot

I guess I should write this up as a recipe for you. Here you go:

Ingredients

Approximately two pounds of beef bones of any kind, or how much you have

Roughly cut onion, carrots, and celery or whatever you have on hand.

1 or 2 cloves of garlic

Bay Leaves

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Pepper

Enough water to cover the bones and vegetables.

2 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar

Directions

Place the roasted bones in the bottom of the Instant Pot.

Add the vegetables, garlic, and bay leaves.

Pour in enough water to cover the bones and vegetables. Do not exceed the Max Fill Line.

Add salt and pepper and the Apple Cider Vinegar.

Stir together.

Add the lid and set the Instant Pot to high pressure for five or six hours, if you can. Mine only goes to four hours so I set it to four and then added another hour once it started to cook.

Let the pressure release naturally.

Strain the broth and pour into jars.

Refrigerate the broth and remove the fat that has risen to the top.

Use the broth in soups or sauces or just drink it straight. I added salt to mine for drinking.

Lift to Get Lean with Holly Perkins

December 28, 2021 / Chris Brown / 2 Comments

Episode 97 Lift to Get Lean

In episode 97, Jill and Chris interview Holly Perkins, a women’s strength expert, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and the author of Lift to Get Lean.

Holly helps women create the body they need to keep up with the life they love, through her proven system of strength training and intentional nutrition. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition from The Pennsylvania State University. Holly has worked with many famous people and celebrities… and even a presidential candidate.

Her advice is frequently featured in Women’s Health, Shape, SELF, Prevention, BuzzFeed, and LIVESTRONG.com. With 30 years of experience in the field, Shape magazine named Holly a “Top Trainers to Follow”.

We discussed:

Why women over 50 need to do more than cardio exercise
The five types of considerations to fitness (cardio vascular fitness, muscular strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and body composition.)
How to begin or return to the gym after a break
What to do at the gym to see progressive results
Holly explains when you build lean muscle mass, the magic starts to happen.
She describes the important Muscle Tipping Point: This is the point on your strength training fitness journey where it really starts to impact you and your body in profound ways. Your metabolism is faster, you burn more fat, you are burning more calories at rest and reducing your osteoporosis scores.
Lean muscle helps you age gracefully, keeps you young, and keeps your body fat down. The only way to get there is through progressive muscle strength training.
Five muscle groups to work out with 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps.
The challenge of the last 2 reps and why it is so important
What she thinks about fasting workout and intermittent fasting.
Foods she takes with her while traveling in a car or airplane

Sound bites:
“We are not men in their 20s.” “Do something harder to get better.” “Creating the body that you need, to live the life that you love.”

Important Links:

You can download a free 6 Week Strength and Cardio Plan at https://hollyperkins.com/offer.
Learn her approach to nutrition with the 14-page premium guide and signature proven approach to learn how to balance macro nutrients so you can feel better, have more energy, and release body fat at https://hollyperkins.com/macros
Holly Perkin’s website: https://hollyperkins.com/
Amazon Paperback: Lift to Get Lean: A Beginner’s Guide to Fitness & Strength Training in 3 Simple Steps
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollyperkins/
YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/c/HollyPerkinsFitness/videos

Mind Games for Working Out

December 19, 2021 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

I realized this morning I spend a lot of time doing mind games for working out.

Just getting to the gym can be a mind game for me. If I make it easy to find my workout clothes, I have less internal resistance for going. I set an alarm about 45 minutes before I plan to be at the gym. One that says, start to get ready with your water bottle full and near the door. Fifteen minutes later, there’s a buzzing to remind me that I’m going to leave in 15 minutes, so I should start getting my clothes on and finish up whatever I’m doing. Of course, I have a little alarm that says “Leave Now!”

Setting my clothes out well ahead of time, with shoes right by the door, is another trick of mine. Pack the bag the night before!

It’s minor nagging but keeps me remembering that I made a commitment to myself to get back to the workouts. Once I get to the gym, I have a whole other set of mind games!

If it is circuit training, I find my favorite exercises and promise myself that I can be rewarded with those after I do the ones I’m not so crazy about. I make sure I have modifications for exercises that hurt my toes and fingers. (Burpees for instance.) Instead of slamming down my feet into the back burpee position, I will modify to walking mountain climbers where I can more slowly send my feet back and not aggravate my toe knuckle joints. This way I don’t give up because the exercise in the circuit training isn’t one I should be doing.

Anytime the circuit training involves kettlebell, I look forward to the majority of those exercises. The KB exercises I love help me to get thru the tough ones. I might even do an extra one of the reps because I love the KB so much. I see great improvements in myself with the single leg kettlebell deadlifts. Better balance. Better form. Heavier weight. That feels great!

Counting Down Mind Games
If the reps are set to 15, I like to count up to 8 and then down to 1. (1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 & 7 & 6 & 5 & 4 & 3 & 2 & 1 &) For some reason, if the highest number is 8, it doesn’t feel like I’m really doing 15.

When I’m able to move up in weights for an exercise, I find I like the exercise even more! Doing Chest Flys with a heavier weight or Lateral Raises with a heavier weight feels like a real accomplishment and I spend the majority of that exercise congratulating myself. It’s easier to stare in the mirror and be smiling because I increased weight.

Positive Reinforcement Mind Games
The super tough exercise – like bear crawls or pushing weights on the carpet – I talk out loud to myself. I try to whisper but mostly because I’m out of breath. “You can do it.” “You got this.” “Come on now, just a little farther.” I really feel I accomplished something when I finish those!

I am still working on my mind games for the TRX machine. Today I did some, but the pikes and hamstring curls psyched me out. I found I didn’t even finish the rows – exercises I know I can do. Why? I think the TRX got into my head and I started the negative talk.

Does anyone else talk in their head with mind games to themselves during a circuit workout? Any ideas on what I can say to really convince myself to start and finish those super tough TRX ones? Leave a comment below. I would really appreciate it!

Ten Tips for Staying Fit and Strong Over the Holidays

December 16, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

This year many of us are having a more festive time than we did last year during the pandemic shutdown. After all of our work throughout the year to be fit and strong, we sure don’t want to undo everything. However, we still want to enjoy the festivities that come our way. In 2019, I wrote about enjoying the holidays but today I want to focus on actually trying to stay fit and strong.

Ten Tips for Staying Fit and Strong Over the Holidays

Not to worry. I have some ideas that might help you not lose ground or gain weight but that will still allow you to celebrate the season.

Keep moving. Remember all of those tips about how to get in extra steps? This is the time to use them. Yes, take the stairs instead of the elevator. Park further away from the door at the store. Carry multiple grocery bags in from the car or take multiple trips, depending on whether you want some strength work or more steps. Exercise sometimes falls away during the holidays but at least keep your body moving.
Drink lots of water. Stay hydrated. It’s easy to get out of the routine of drinking water while we’re enjoying the holidays but water helps us in so many ways. If nothing else, it helps you feel full and it helps flush your body of all the not-so-good-for-you things you’ve ingested.
Plan your meals. I mean, make sure you’re eating before it’s time to go to a party. Make sure you’re not starving when you go to the grocery store. Don’t forget to eat according to your schedule.
If you are using an intermittent fasting plan, don’t break your fast with alcohol or junk food. You’ll feel terrible. Trust me on this one.
Pay attention to alcohol. If you drink too much, you’ll lose restraint and eat things you didn’t plan to eat. You’ll wake up feeling lousy. Of course you can enjoy some drinks during the holidays but don’t overdo it. This might a good time to include some sparkling water into your routine. It helps you with drinking water (see tip 2!) and helps you avoid over doing it with the alcohol.
Schedule a workout. Go to your regular yoga class or strength class at the gym. Jump on your Peloton bike (or other indoor bike!) and go for a ride. Do something to keep your body active. This might be the time to forget those lengthy workouts and go for a quick HIIT session.
Plan in advance for food you want to eat. If you’re going to a party or someone else’s house, take something that you know you’ll want to eat. Maybe this could be a veggie tray or cut up fruit. Shrimp Cocktail is a great source of protein and is a standard holiday treat. Of course, take plenty so you can share.
Make sure you’re getting your sleep. Try to keep to your normal schedule as much as you can and practice good sleep hygiene if possible. You know, turn off the screens earlier in the evening, have a cool, dark space for sleeping, and anything else you do to sleep well. Remember that alcohol can really mess up your sleep so that’s another good reason to limit your alcohol intake (Tip 5).
Plan on indulging. I know that I have a couple of days during the holidays when I’ll be joining family and friends for celebrations. I’m not going to refuse to eat delicious things and have a good time. This might be a good time to consider portion size, though. If I’m going to eat that decadent cake, I will enjoy it but perhaps I only need a small slice. Maybe not but I should at least consider it. Either way, I can go for a fantastic dinner one night and the next day get back on track with my standard meals.
Focus on yourself for at least a few minutes every day. Perhaps you meditate or do some deep breathing exercises. Just be still and find your inner self. Celebrating and spending time with family can be stressful even when it’s enjoyable. And many of us have more stress during the holidays than we do enjoyment. Either way, taking a few minutes to relax, reflect, and recharge can only help.

What do you do to stay fit and strong over the holidays? I’d love to hear some of your tips.

Living Energized and Nourished with Amanda Nighbert

Living Energized & Nourished with Amanda Nighbert

December 14, 2021 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Episode 96 – Living Energized & Nourished

In episode 96, Jill and Chris interview Amanda Nighbert, a registered dietitian who specializes in weight loss nutrition. She is also an avid fitness enthusiast.

Amanda is passionate about empowering people to break the all or nothing mindset. She wants us to find how to make changes that are sustainable and let us find long term weight loss success.

She has worked in the weight loss field for over 19 years to help thousands of people reach their wellness goals, but is a strong believer that dieting is temporary and it is more important to focus on lifestyle changes to see long term weight loss success. Amanda offers a custom LEAN program (LEAN stands for Living Energized And Nourished), coaching services, and a variety of other offerings to give us the tools and resources to find our best selves. She also gave a Ted talk in March 2021 on this topic.

Discussed in this podcast:

Factors need to be overcome to lose weight and keep it off for women going through peri-menopause or already in menopause.
Sleep matters. You can help set your circadian clock by getting get light into your eyes in the morning.
Reduce inflammation to help reduce abdominal fat, heart burn, and joint pain.
Strength building for increasing muscle mass and improving your body composition.
Habit tracking is a key. Share your email with Amanda and receive a free habit tracker: https://amandanighbert.lpages.co/habit-tracker/
As we age, we lose muscle mass and we need to be eating enough protein. Sarcopenia is the loss of muscle mass. Our body’s ability to utilize protein lessens.
The most important macro nutrition for weight loss.

She stresses the importance of strength training. Women often replace strength training is often replaced with cardio. You want to build muscle mass because your strength work out benefits you up to 36 hours after lifting.

Amanda recommends:

* We should focus on progress, not perfection.
* Focus on eating healthy 80% of the time, not 100%.
* Start somewhere, because something is better than nothing.
* Snacking has ruined us, we should do 12 hours of fasting everyone from a 1 year old to a 101 year old.
* Intermittent Fasting Facts and Myths: Myth: you are starving yourself and it slows down your metabolism. Fact: we are very efficient and productive in a fasted state.

Some of her food favorites:

* having breakfast for dinner example, like an egg omelette
* tacos
* salad
* spaghetti squash
* zoodles (zucchini noodles)

Links mentioned during this episode:

https://amandanighbert.com/resources/ The resources from Amanda include Intermittent Fasting Guide, Meal Planning guide, Habit Tracker, Low Calorie Drink Guide, weekly health and nutrition tips.
Website: www.amandanighbert.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/amandanighbert
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandanighbertrd/ #leanwithamanda
Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvoikSqNT7E

Ten Ways to Develop Sustainable Fitness

December 9, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

How do we develop sustainable fitness? Last week I wrote about what sustainable fitness is. Basically, it’s doing things that you can continue to do long term. It’s focusing on ways to continue to be fit once a short term goal is met.

Sustainable fitness is figuring out how to be able to continue to move through our daily lives and be able to accomplish what we want to accomplish.

Chris and I have talked about wanting to be able to lift our own suitcases. That’s what sustainable fitness does for us.

So here are ten ways to develop sustainable fitness.

Accept that there will be ups and downs in your journey. We will deal with illness, either our own or someone in the family. We may experience injuries. The point is that we have to be willing to deal with those bumps in the road and not let them deter us.
Be consistent. It’s hard on us to work out hard and then quit for a while and then come back to it. It’s better to focus on consistency. Do something every day even if that something is the decision to take a rest day. If you know you work out in some form six days a week, then it’s fine to rest for a day. Just be consistent with what you do.
Find things you enjoy. If you love playing pickle ball, then play pickle ball. If you hate going to the gym, then don’t go to the gym. It’s a lot easier to work on things when you enjoy what you’re doing.
Accept that you’re not going to love every moment. The flip side of finding things you enjoy is that sometimes we know we need to do something even when it’s not our favorite thing. So if you are committed to doing some form of High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and you don’t really love it, you are still doing to figure out a way to do it.
Remember that you’re in this for the duration. You’re not just trying to accomplish a goal by next month and then be done. You’re going to continue on your fitness journey, even after those short term goals are met.
Find things to celebrate. You can now deadlift a higher weight? Celebrate! You ran a longer distance? Be proud of yourself! It’s not just the big things that we should celebrate. It’s all of the progress we make over time. Be thankful that you can do what you do.
Be realistic. If you haven’t been to the gym in a year, don’t expect yourself to be doing what you did then. When I returned to bootcamp recently, I realized that I was really deficient in some of the cardio exercises we were doing. I can’t expect myself to do what I was doing two years ago without giving myself time to improve.
Look for ways to train every day. You don’t have to go to the gym every day but you do have to live your life every day. So maybe that’s carrying in your groceries or carrying laundry. It could be walking up the stairs instead of taking the elevator.
Enjoy being able to do things. If you’re carrying your groceries, be proud that you can do that. If you suddenly can run up a hill, enjoy doing it. Look for the ways that working on your fitness allows you to improve your living. Maybe it’s being able to get on the floor to play with a grandchild. Just relish your mobility.
Find support. If you’re going to the gym, seek out others to discuss your progress. Find friends who share your fitness enthusiasm. You can get support from online communities, like the Becoming Elli Facebook group. Just surround yourself with people who will cheer for you on your way to develop sustainable fitness.

Share your ideas on how we can focus on the long term and enjoy doing it.

What is Sustainable Fitness?

December 2, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 3 Comments

I read a book a few years ago by a woman who was over 50 and lost a lot of weight. It was both her personal story and some advice on how to lose weight and develop some fitness. I didn’t remember a lot of the details but when I went back to the book recently, I realized that she said she lost 60 pounds in four months. Who knows if she actually did or not, though that seems extreme but I know it took me a long time to lose 60 pounds.

I had thought of her because I thought perhaps she’d be a good guest on the Fit Strong Women over 50 podcast. (You do listen to that, don’t you?!) We like to talk with women who have made a change in their lives and then manage to keep the weight off or to remain fit and strong. I can’t find her. The author of the book does not seem to be around. I Googled her, searched on Amazon, looked on Facebook, and just can’t find her. No big deal as far as the podcast goes but I don’t know if she is still at her ideal weight and is still working out or not. I’m now sort of curious.

Quick Fix Fitness

This got me to thinking. It’s hard to stick to a way of eating or of working out when your initial goal was to look good for a wedding or a reunion or any other one time event. Yes, you might reach your goal but after that event, what happens? Most of us slide right back into our old ways and we gain that weight back and lose that muscle we’d built.

I knew a man who lost over 100 pounds so that he could go on a rugged camping trip with his son. You had to be under a certain weight based on height to be allowed to participate in the event. He did it and he went on the trip. Immediately upon his return began to eat ice cream and candy again. You know what happened. He soon weighed more than when he started on that weight loss journey.

I think it’s more important to focus on long-term fitness or what I’ve seen called sustainable fitness.

What is sustainable fitness?

I’ve now read several articles about sustainable fitness. Basically, sustainable fitness is a long-term plan. It’s doing things that you can continue to do regularly and frequently.

It’s setting goals that get you through the long term.

For example, when Chris and I ran our second relay race in the Akron Marathon, we had a couple of team members drop out at the last minute. We scrambled around and found a couple of women who were willing to be on our team and were able to run the five or six miles.

I said to Chris, “that’s what I want to be able to do. I want to be the kind of runner that can run five or six miles without notice.”

So the goal of running the relay race was a short term goal and there’s nothing wrong with those. Unless, of course, you just stop once you reach that goal. Many of us do that. We run a marathon or half marathon or whatever distance we’ve selected and then once we accomplish it, we stop running.

The goal of being able to run five or six miles at any time is part of sustainable fitness.

My ability to run five or six miles has fluctuated since then but I’ve managed to be able to run something. Right now, I could certainly fill in on a relay team as long as nobody wanted me to be fast.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about fitness or food. The best way to approach either or both is to focus on what is sustainable. What can you do on a regular basis?

Let me know how you maintain your fitness or weight or general health.

What I’m Thankful For This Year

November 25, 2021 / Jill McCauslin / 0 Comments

Today in the US, it’s Thanksgiving so I’m going to share what I’m thankful for this year. Those of you not in the US, I’m sure it gets tiresome listening to us go on about being thankful every late November because really, shouldn’t we be thankful a little more frequently? Well, yes, we should. However, I don’t think it hurts to actually stop and think about it. As we head into the end of the year and facing the beginning of a new year, it doesn’t hurt to contemplate what we can be thankful for.

I know that many of us have had some very rough times the past almost two years now. I’m certainly not ignoring that but I think I can come up with some things to be grateful for.

So here goes my list.

Family

First of all, I’m so happy that my son and his wife now live close by. It’s a pleasure to be able to see them more often than when I had to drive seven hours to visit.

Also related to family is that I didn’t have to make any emergency trips to help someone out this year. I’m sad about that in a way because both of my parents passed away last year. They were the ones who usually needed help. I certainly miss them. It was good, however, not to have to make those frantic, last-minute trips.

I went on several camping trips this past summer and had some wonderful times. My trip to West Virginia was fantastic. That’s where I experienced a Zip Line for the first time.

Becoming Elli

I’m grateful that the Becoming Elli community is growing. Our podcast, Fit Strong Women over 50 is going well and I love the people we interviewed this past year. We have some momentum going, I think, so I expect next year to be even better.

Fitness

I’m thankful that I was able to run a half marathon this year. I accomplished that goal by trying a new style of running. This time I used a run-walk routine. I was not fast but I finished the race and was not injured.

I also managed to continue with my strength training this year. Perhaps not as strenuously as I would have liked but I kept at it.

My gym also managed to remain open for which I’m very grateful.

I’m also thankful that I was able to return to my bootcamp class without too much difficulty. I certainly identified some areas that I need to work on but I was pleased that I made it through my class.

I’ve also been able to do some of my indoor bike rides using Zwift. I’m certainly thankful that I’m able to make it through my rides even if, once again, I’m not very fast.

Penny

Penny continues to be a great companion for me. She is learning to run with me but it’s still a challenge. She’s easily distracted by squirrels and fascinating smells. She is a lot of fun to have around. She is such a happy soul that even if she never really runs with me for any distance, I enjoy having her.

Feel free to share what you’re thankful for this year. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Live Your Dreams with Ultra Kayaker Traci Lynn Martin

November 23, 2021 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

Episode 95 – Ultra Kayaker

In episode 95, Chris and Jill talk with Ultra Kayaker Traci Lynn Martin. who is a Guinness world record holder as the fastest solo female to kayak the entire Mississippi River at 55 days, 8 hours, and 17 minutes. The previous fastest time for a solo female was 61 days.

Besides conquering the Mississippi River, Traci Lynn has circumnavigated Lake Huron, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, the 3 largest lakes in North America – over 3000 miles paddled.

Traci Lynn, a 54-year-old nurse from Kansas City Missouri, has a medical diagnosis of Rheumatoid Autoimmune disease. She wants to inspire other people with chronic health conditions, to know that their life is precious and valuable, and they can still find the strength to get up and do the things that they love.

During this episode we discuss:
* Her training to strengthen her core and upper body.
* How she handles her Rheumatoid Arthritis
* Mental strength needed for Ultra kayaking
* Why she has taken on such hug challenges like circumventing the Great Lakes and traveling the entire Mississippi
* How she fuels and eats as an ultra kayaker

Links:

Website: https://www.justaroundthepointe.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JustAroundThePointe/
Facebook public group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/453369874831383
Personal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tracilynn.martin

Focus on Family and Food

November 22, 2021 / Chris Brown / 0 Comments

This week I have a lot of focus on family and food. It is Thanksgiving week and I’m texting lists of food with my sisters. We are trying to figure out who is bringing what part of the meal! We’re planning to have a family get together and my Mom wants all the traditional fixings.

Because we skipped Thanksgiving last year, I think this year has a whole lot more to be thankful for. I’m very thankful for the vaccine. Without it, I don’t think we would be gathering again this year. Even so, it will be a smaller group than in years past.

I went shopping several times this past week in preparation for Thanksgiving. Most recently, When I looked into my cart, I hardly recognized it. A huge bag of potatoes. Five loaves of bread. Several huge yams. A pumpkin pie. Mushroom soup and French fried onion rings. Not my usual cart, that’s for sure!

I know I could probably revise each recipe a little (or a lot) to make them more healthy. I’ve done that many times on other years. I’m still going to bring a spring mix leafy green salad and roasted vegetables. Most of the dishes I am making will have lots of leftovers that will go home with other people.

Afterwards, I always love making a turkey vegetable soup and I think I love eating that during the next few days more than the actual turkey dinner.

I also know most of the discussion that afternoon will be about recipes and food and meals we’ve had in the past. I’m going to go with the one plate plan on Thanksgiving.

This year will be the year of photos I think. Before, during and after dinner! I want to count my blessings even more this year.

Exercise
Besides family and food, one tradition that I’ve kept to the last ten years, (except during the 2020 pandemic,) is the special Thanksgiving classes at the gym. I’m looking forward to their special Thursday morning classes for turkey day because I usually get some things going in the crock pot before I head to the gym and everything is well under control when I get back from the gym.

One tradition that I’m really missing is the annual turkey trot. Jill and I did it several years in Twinsburg (see photo on the left from when Jill won an age group award!) and although it was a five mile race with hills, the weather usually cooperated.

My first turkey trot was in 2009 in Aurora and I didn’t realize that it was four miles. I had only trained for a three mile race, so I felt very accomplished when I crossed the finish line!

Due to ongoing issues with my Achilles tendon, I haven’t run much at all during the past several years. I have done bike riding, group exercise classes and some weight training, but I gotta admit I do miss the fun we had at the running races!

Do you keep family and food as your tradition during thanksgiving… and what about exercise? Any fun traditions that you would share?