By Jenny Grace from Miss Grace’s Disgrace

Between working full time and parenting full time, food can really fall by the wayside, especially when it comes to feeding myself. I’m generally pretty good about feeding my son meals that more or less end up balanced, but when it comes to me? During the work day? You have got to be kidding.

Over the years I’ve gotten better about (a) remembering to eat at all and (b) having something on hand so it’s not just straight from the vending machine into my belly.

I rely heavily on the following strategies:

Read the rest of this entry

By Christina of ThatGirlRuns

“Time and Balance! One of the continuing challenges we hear from runners is finding the time to run and balance running with all the other priorities in our lives.  How do you do it?  What are one or two things you have found that help you find time or make time for your runs.  What do you struggle with in balancing what you want to do with your running with all you “need” to do?”

This question was asked about a year ago on one of the running forums I follow. As I was starting to think about this issue I realized that it never really has been one for me. The daily run has been part of my life for so long that it is not a question of when and how, but merely another routine not dissimilar to brushing my teeth. And although I have definitely shifted the time of day for the run around many times over the years, it has not ever been a consideration to skip a run altogether because something else takes priority. Even if that means getting up at 4 am or running on an old and outdated hotel treadmill for three (!!!) hours (I am not quite ready to revisit that experience though…). Running is part of my day, it is really as simple as that.

Read the rest of this entry

By Katie Workman of Cookstr.com

If you’ve been a slave to that blue box of mac and cheese, you owe it to yourself and your family to whip up a vat of homemade mac and cheese once in a blue moon.  I keep changing up the cheese, depending on what I have lying around, and it never tastes the same twice, which I find part of the thrill. You should by all means toss in other interesting cheeses that you have around, like goat cheese, Fontina, Manchego, even that leftover hunk of  brie (remove all rinds you wouldn’t want to see floating around your mac and cheese).

The Dijon mustard and red pepper flakes give this a little kick, a little edge, and save this dish from being too intensively rich and creamy (not that there’s anything wrong with that).  This photo shows the topping-free version.

And, no, this isn’t low fat. Thanks for asking.

For the topping (optional):

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 3 cups panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
• 1 /2 cup coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar or  Gruyere cheese

For the pasta and sauce:

• 1 1/2 pound ziti, penne, or any short pasta
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
• 4 1/2 cups 2% or whole milk (however indulgent you’re feeling)
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 6 cups coarsely grated firm flavorful cheese (this is the part where you use up whatever you have around; some good basic cheeses to start with are extra-sharp Cheddar, Gruyere, and Swiss)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
Read the rest of this entry

By Angella from Committed: The Ties That Bond and Dutch Blitz

I should start this off by saying that I am in no way at all an expert on fitness. I am just a woman who has managed to, for the most part, fit exercise into her life for the past nine years.

My first true stint at exercising was when I was a newlywed living in Vancouver. There was a gym next to my office and I would attend exercise classes either before work or during my lunch hour. My firm promoted fitness and allowed me a longer lunch in order to go to class.

Read the rest of this entry

By Kami Lewis Levin

Ladies, we were flat out lied to.  Period.  All those teachers, parents, adult role models, and TV characters who constantly reiterated to us girls that we can do anything we put our minds to were effing liars.  They didn’t find it necessary to share the fine print with us.  They didn’t consider disclosing the gravity of the situation to us.  Just like nobody told us that giving birth hurts like hell, nobody told us that choosing to be a working mom is a one-way ticket to our very own three-ring circus.  Except the clowns are our children.  And sometimes our husbands.  And we are the tightrope walkers, fire-eaters, hoop-jumpers, trapeze artists, and lion tamers.  And, on occasion, the lions.  I am woman.  Hear me roar, damn it.

After my second kid was born and operating under the mistaken assumption that I could give both my family and my job 110% of my energy (I was never very good at math), I spent the better part of the past year experiencing my own very special brand of culture shock.  The kind where you just have to go to bed by 8.  The kind where getting dressed to impress is simply not an option (you know, the whole drool, snot, poop, spit-up factor).  The kind where a date with your husband involves a drug-addict like dependency on Netflix.  The kind where your personal identity decides to go on hiatus, leaving a confused, spent, and in my case, fat, out of shape and depressed, shell of a person behind.

Read the rest of this entry