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A tale of two quinoa

Behold, the newest addition to my kitchen army!

I have been wanting and needing one of these for a long time! This little baby is a Zojirushi induction-heating rice cooker, we bought him with Christmas money we got from family.

Take a peak under the hood…

Yeah, tons of cargo space. This is my kind of hot-rod.

Before heading out to the gym today I filled my new toy with 1 cup quinoa and 2 cups water and set him to cook while I was gone.

That may look more like rice than quinoa to you because it is rice. That’s a shot of some rice I made last night that didn’t turn out too great because I had it on the wrong setting, but I forgot to take a picture of the quinoa before cooking, so this’ll do.

When I got back from the gym I had this waiting for me…

Perfect, fluffy quinoa ready to eat and still warm!

There was a ton of it so I decided to make two different preparations, one sweet and one savory.

For the sweet one, I added the following:

  • handful of chopped almonds
  • 1/2 cup or so mixed dried cranberries, golden raisins, and goji berries
  • about 1/4 cup desiccated coconut
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • zest of a small orange

I then made a dressing with the juice from the orange and a spoonful of honey, and heated it in the microwave so it would be thinner and distribute better. I just tossed it all together for this delicious sweet treat.

That one will be awesome in the morning with some almond milk drizzled over, or piled on top of yogurt. I’ve made a sweet maple cinnamon breakfast quinoa before, but this one is even better!

For the savory one I added:

  • half a red bell pepper, chopped super small
  • one chopped scallion
  • one carrot, grated
  • a handful of spinach, chopped finely
  • zest of a lemon

For the dressing I used the juice of half the lemon, a pinch of salt and pepper, about 2 tsp. white wine vinegar, 2 tsp. tahini, and olive oil whisked in.

To make I just grated the carrot directly over with a microplane to get it really fine…

And added the chopped spinach…

Having a quality knife has been so wonderful!

Mixed in the dressing and here it is!

Believe it or not, this one was even better than the sweet one!

I had both for lunch with an apple dusted in cinnamon.

The quinoa gave me a big dose of protein to repair my sore muscles after today’s workout. Both preparations were so delicious and I managed to whip up both of them in about 20 minutes total.

I am hopelessly in love with my new rice cooker. I can’t wait to try cooking millet, farro, oatmeal, and of course rice, in it!

Look for many, many rice cooker recipes to come!

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Back in the gym

So sore today!

I missed working out. I finally started with a new gym yesterday since I’ve realized I’m just not into running in the freezing cold. If I were training for a race that was going to take place in frigid temps then I’d make myself do it, but since I’m not in training currently, the treadmill is fine.

I haven’t lost any ability during my time off but I have lost some flexibility. Too much sitting in front of the computer all day in an unsupportive chair. I need to make it a point to make a chiropractic appointment this month, get all loosened-up again.

This year is about fitness for me. I’m gonna get my money’s worth outta these shoes this year, for sure.

I’m narrowing down a few races for my first 5K of the year, I’ll make an announcement when I’ve signed up!

Also: Thanks to everyone for your comments on my post about understanding what motivates you. I feel like you guys are proud of me for kicking the nail-biting habit, and that makes me proud of myself all over again. Thanks!

What goal are you tackling first this year?

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Understanding what motivates you

Subtitled: Why it took me 25 years to quit biting my nails.

As I started looking back on the last year I was amazed at what I was able to accomplish. Losing weight, planning a wedding and honeymoon, moving to a new part of town, starting a blog, and many other accomplishments great and small all got done completely and in the time I had allotted for each of them.

I have always been a major procrastinator. For most of my life I have just whined and sighed and wondered why everything was always so hard for me and why I never got the things in life that I wanted. I really thought that I was working hard enough and that somehow the whole world was just always fighting against me.

I know now, that I was just being lazy. But the truth is, even if I had realized then that I wasn’t doing enough to get the things I wanted in life, I probably still wouldn’t have done any better for myself. I would never motivate myself to make the changes because back then I had no idea what would motivate me, and then I would just feel bad all the time that I wasn’t doing what I should be doing.

Last February, I figured it all out. Believe it or not, the thing that taught me how to motivate myself wasn’t learning how to read, write and speak a new language or even learning how to exercise for basically the first time in my life. It was teaching myself how to quit biting my nails that illuminated to me exactly what my motivators are and just how to apply those same motivators to even bigger problems to get the same results.

I have been trying to quit biting my nails for my entire life. I could never go more than about 2 weeks before I would suddenly realize, too late, that I had just chewed off every nail on my hand all the way down to the painful quick. My cuticles were dry, thick, and ragged-looking. I was embarrassed to get fake nails put on for special occasions because the nail techs always made fun of me and scolded me. I did not have pretty hands, and I was always self-conscious of them, but I just couldn’t stop biting.

I wish I could tell you that I discovered some secret quirky little technique I employed to psych myself out of biting my nails for good. The fact is though that I really didn’t do anything special, I just decided to stop and I never started again. I found the transition completely effortless this time, unlike the hundreds of times before where all I could think about was biting. So what made this try different? Why was I able to do it so easily when I never could before?

The answer is that I was being motivated to succeed by my two biggest motivators at once: swiftly approaching deadlines and shame, specifically shame from people I care about.

I had very little time before my wedding to get my hands looking nice before immortalizing them in pictures and before they became the focus of attention as Jeff slipped the ring on my finger during the ceremony. So there it was, I had an exact deadline to accomplish something by and I had the shame of sporting trashy ragged hands on my wedding day in front of my family. Bingo, recipe for motivation.

Before then, I had never had a greater reason to stop biting my nails than just because I wanted to have prettier hands. That wasn’t good enough, there was no sense of urgency in that, and so I never succeeded. This time, with the correct motivators in place, I was able to do something I never thought I could and I’m still going strong. I no longer desire to bite my nails because I stopped doing it long enough to shake the habit.

Many of the other things I had to accomplish last year were affected by the same motivators, and so they got done with the same ease and efficiency without having to think too much about them. But towards the end of the year, those motivators disappeared. I no longer had deadlines to make and no one was holding me accountable, it was up to me to figure out what would make me push myself.

Now that I know what motivates me though, I can apply it anywhere. When I really need to get something done I either give myself a deadline, ask Jeff to hold me accountable, or both! It has really helped me to push myself to do things I don’t really want to do.

I think it’s great that I can take something negative, like feelings of shame or guilt, and use them to make positive changes in my life. I feel really guilty when I disappoint people, even people I don’t know. I used to not like that I put so much pressure on myself to perform well, and of course those are feelings I need to keep under control, but now they have also become a constructive force for change in my life.

So what motivates you? Do you put forth your best efforts when you get a reward, when you get lots of praise or affection, or when you have someone holding you accountable? Do you accomplish things better as an individual or as a team? You have to be really honest with yourself, it may be embarrassing to realize that you do your best when you know you’re getting a present, but if you’re accomplishing your goals then maybe you deserve one. For me, figuring out my ideal conditions for completing work has been a life-saver, so I’m no longer embarrassed by my true motivators.

I think……I may get my first manicure ever this year. I deserve it!

What is it that inspires you get up and get things done?