We have kept the Reiffenberger tradition going once again to run in the Annual Turkey Day 5k here in Watertown on Thanksgiving. It is always a great way to start the day! “If you want to eat, first you have to move your feet!”
Each year brings different reasons to reflect on for what I am thankful for. This year is no exception. I actually am physically able to run now, which I am definitely thankful for. My daughter Megan is back home from Virginia for good, which no words can describe this! My mom’s birthday was also on Thursday, which makes Thanksgiving even more special. Then, another reason to be out for this event is because it is a great way to support the community, and Watertown DASH!
Nick also made it home for Thanksgiving, and Molly and Tanner made it up later that afternoon. They ran a Turkey Day 5k in Marshall, MN! Everybody got home!
Many of our Watertown Area Run Club members also made it, and we were all out to support a good cause, and to be hanging out with friends. It was a good time to be catching up with some of them as well.
Now, one of the best things I like about this holiday is the food! I love to eat, so I have to keep moving my feet so I earn it. It starts off with the pie at the finish line!
But you have to walk/run the race first. We had another good turnout! Here we are crossing the start line!
Now, I may be running, but the pie was on my mind. And, we were having Sarah’s parents, and sister, over for Thanksgiving, so I knew the turkey and all of the “fixings” were something to work up an appetite for!
My favorite meal! We had already ran, so it was time to indulge a little. We had earned it! If you keep moving, then you can splurge once in a while. That is what life it all about. Enjoy the things as they come, but work on it in between as well. Nothing comes easy! This food tastes even better when you have worked up an appetite!
Here is the rest of the WARC members who came that day! We all earned our meal that day. Now sit back and think about things. What are you thankful for? What has been provided to you in your life now? Good, bad, work, relax…and enjoy! Appreciate what you have, and who you have in your life. And most of all, if you have your health, be extra grateful! You can never take anything for granted, or assume something, or someone, is always going to be there going forward. Live life to the fullest! Strive to Survive. Be thankful…and keep moving everybody!
Thanksgiving is always a fun holiday enjoyed by all as we stuff ourselves and then resort to the couch to watch football or the start of the holiday tv shows. Here are some tips for you to get through the holiday without putting on all those undesired extra pounds.
Survey the entire table before you take any food. Decide what foods are worth eating and what can be ignored, and then stick to that decision. Why waste calories on foods that don’t bring you pleasure?
Eat a snack before you leave home. If you arrive at a party starving, you’ll be more likely to overindulge.
Eat your calories instead of drinking them. Stick to lower calorie or calorie-free drinks (diet sodas, water, light beer, or wine spritzer) instead of punches, eggnogs, and mixed drinks that can have up to 500 calories per cup.
Sip a large glass of water between every alcoholic drink or non-alcoholic punch or eggnog. This will help keep you hydrated and you’ll drink fewer calories by the end of the night.
When you are the host or hostess, include nutritious and lower-calorie foods like fruits, vegetables, and lean meats on the menu. When you are a guest, bring along a lower-calorie dish to share.
Try not to hang out near the food. Find a comfortable spot across the room and focus on people instead of eating.
Watch your portion sizes. Don’t cover your plate completely with food. In most cases, especially when it comes to holiday sweets and alcoholic beverages, less is better. Use a smaller plate or bowl and have just a sliver of pie like the picture shows.
Drop out of the “clean plate club”. Leave a few bites behind every time you eat, especially if you are eating something you don’t really care for.
Enjoy your favorite holiday treats but take a small portion, eat slowly, and savor the taste and texture of the wonderful foods of the season.
Skip the pie crust and go for the filling.
Choose light meat over dark meat.
Use home-made cranberry sauce over canned cranberries that are jam packed with added sugars.
In soups, sauces, puddings, and desserts: Replace whole milk or cream with low-fat milk, evaporated fat-free milk, or nonfat dry milk.
Lighten up your recipes:
To make dips and toppings: Use low-fat or nonfat cottage cheese or sour cream, or non-fat Greek yogurt.
To make salad dressings: Use nonfat Greek yogurt or low-fat buttermilk.
In place of 1 whole egg in recipes: Use 2 egg whites or 1/4 cup egg substitute.
In place of regular cheese: Use fat-free or reduced-fat cheese.
In place of full sugar: replace half with Splenda or reduce half completely.
In place of fats: use unsweetened applesauce or oil (1-1 replacement), or prune puree (1 cup of fat=1/2 cup puree).
More importantly is ENJOY your family and friends and all that have to the THANKful for! Happy Thanksgiving!!
Well, with this time of year, it pretty much is safe to say that it will be dark when we start running in the morning, and will be dark if we run or walk after work. We need to be safe and be able to see where we are going. That is when it becomes important to have the right equipment available to you. The beginning of the “charge of the light brigade”.
Now some of you may be familiar with the poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, a poem commemorating the hopeless charge of 600 British light cavalry against the Russian troops on Balaclava Heights, October 25, 1864. The charge was led by “incompetent leaders”, but the poem wrote about the men involved who served under them, and their bravery, dedication, and passion. Now, as runners, we have a lot of those same characteristics. We will go run under any circumstances, or situation, and brave the elements and the environment. Sometimes with the weather conditions it may seem like we are getting ready to go to battle. We need to learn to be safe, and have it where not only can we see where we are going, but other people, and cars, need to be able to see us coming as well.
Our group on Wednesday night is getting ready to go for a run. We try to stay on the bike trails as much as possible, and that works yet when there is no snow. That will change soon! Safety has to come first for all involved.
Now you can see lights from the front, but the one Sarah is wearing, on the far right, has a headlight beam in front to be able to see where we are going. This is really important. The bike trail, and the road, has dips, holes, uneven ground, sticks, etc, and we need to see where we are going.
The lights in the back help others see us, especially cars. I have said many times, when I go out for a run, I want to be able to come back home again afterwards. Safety! Safety! Safety! My daughter Megan has one of these too, and she was out walking her dog early one morning last week, in the dark, but on the bike trail. It was adjacent to the road though. A car came up beside and stopped, and told her they loved the lights she was wearing because they could see her as they were coming! We want to see, but we need to be seen!
These are the ones we now have. Jenn McElroy had this one, and I thought it was perfect. The lights are important to be seen, but I wanted one with the light beam in front to see where we were going. These work great for going out for a walk as well.
Here we are this AM getting ready to take off, and light beams leading the way! “The Charge of the Light Brigade”, or at least our modern day version of this! We are leading the rest so we can see where we are going.
Bottom line, we are a close group, and we want to keep it that way. Always have safety in mind. We want to see where we are going, but others need to see us coming. We are quite the force when we are all in a group. It is very easy to see us coming from a distance. Because, once again, we want to have these runs together, but we want to be able to go back home again afterwards. Be safe! Be smart! Be seen! Keep moving everybody!
I’m back to the clinic after maternity leave!! I have no idea where the last 12 weeks went–time truly does fly with little ones…but I am excited to be back and work with you all again!! Since it’s been awhile since I’ve posted on here, I wanted to ask you if you have any topic requests? Anything you want to learn more about? Anything you’d like me to post about? I will be covering some holiday eating tips along with other relevant topics to the season, but if you have certain nutrition topics you want to learn more about from me, please let me know!! You can also set up an appointment to meet with me in person if you’d like to have more of an individualized education session and plan set up for you. Email or comment to the blog to connect with me!
I included a few pictures of my little sweeties! Corbin loves his little brother Carson and I am blessed to be their mom!! -Kelsey
We have had Dakota now for over a month. She is getting bigger by the day. This Golden Retriever puppy is quickly becoming a part of this family. She has also become a new Vikings cheerleader as well. Skol Vikings!
We have been having many adventures with our new family member. She is great to sit on our lap reading the paper, or watching TV. We are getting her trained to go walking with us. Suffice to say, she is not really a morning dog! She will get to the end of the driveway, and then just sit. We will have to keep pulling her, and coaxing her to get going. When we finally get to the halfway point, then she is leading the charge to head back home and she will be pulling us!
Here she is on the way out! “I am not going and you can’t make me!”
Then on the way home. “Hurry up! I know there will be a treat waiting for me when we get back!”
Which, of course, she is right! The chew treats definitely keep her busy for awhile, and out of trouble! Day or night we will take her. We just have our lights hooked up, and away we go! Some day she will go running with us as well.
The newest member of our family definitely has our hearts!
And I am pretty sure the feeling is mutual! As a member of this family, she will go exercising with us, even if we have to pull her to start with! She will learn as time goes on, and then there will be no stopping her! She definitely goes full throttle during the day!
Then when she decides she has had enough, she will literally just drop where she is and go to sleep! Hilarious!
She is definitely now a part of the Reiffenberger family for the long term! She is an important part of this family, and is fitting right in. She gets to follow the rules too. She will be exercising as well. Just like us, there are good days, and bad days. Sometimes we feel like we need to get pulled along as well, but the reward afterward is well worth it. They make great training partners…training partners for a lifetime. They give you something else to get motivated by. They so desperately want to become a part of the family…which she is! Welcome to this family Dakota! Keep moving everybody!
The Watertown Recreation Trail Challenge ended at the end of September, having started on May 1, and Sarah was the winner for the most miles walking on the trail during that time. Congratulations! It does not surprise me at all. She is automatically out by 6 AM every morning to take the dogs for a walk. Regardless of the weather, she is out there!
Sometimes, now, she will have two dogs out there at the same time. No easy task, especially when one of them is a puppy, and is all over the place! She still handles both of them, and keeping them untangled as well. Dobby, my daughter Megan’s dog, is always eager to go for a walk, but Dakota, the Golden Retriever puppy, is not really a morning dog. I will expand more on this next week! But it helps when Dobby is along, as he pushes her too!
I don’t know how things will be once we start having snow to go through, but Sarah will still be out there trying regardless! Now this award was just for the walking miles she did. It does not count all of the miles she put in running as well. She was training for how many different half marathons as well, putting a lot of long runs out on the trails during this time period as well.
The most recent half marathon was just last weekend in Lincoln, NE. The Good Life Halfsie Half Marathon. She ran a 1:56, once again breaking 2 hours! That is not an easy feat! Plus working fulltime as a physician as well. There are no excuses for her getting out to exercise as well. In fact, many of the times going outside she is the one to be pushing me! When it gets too cold out, or raining, I would still rather be working out inside. She will go out in almost anything!!!
I think it is probably safe to say we push each other, but she is definitely the one to get out early to take the dogs. Many times I will take at least one of them out after work, but she is always first thing in the morning. Way to go Sarah! She, too, practices what she preaches to her patients as well. No better way to do this, than to do by example! Get out and move–no excuses! Congratulations once again Sarah! Keep moving everybody!
