A New Day is Here.

It has been a disappointing amount of time since I last posted, but I hope that I am now turning a new leaf today.  After reading many articles, I have decided to deactivate my Facebook account.  I read one article in particular in the International Herald Tribune (which is the international version of the New York Times), about a group formed in Ireland called Europe Versus Facebook.  It was formed by a young Irish man who asked Facebook to send him a hard copy of all of the personal information they had stored about him.  He received a package containing about 1500 pages.  In addition to this rather creepy information storing, I have also realized that while I sit on Facebook and scroll mindlessly through my news feed which consists of an overwhelming combination of annoying gossip, unnecessary complaining, and self-centered gloating, I am missing out on the real world and my life is passing me by.  We will never get this time back again, so why do we waste it by living in a virtual world?

Since I have given up my virtual world, I have decided to jump back into the real world with both feet by signing up for the Amica Seattle Marathon, which will take place November 25, 2012.  At the moment, with 9 months until race day, just thinking about running for roughly 5 hours and covering 26.2 miles, makes me start to break out into a cold sweat and my stomach suddenly turns over and fills with butterflies.  That's why, I am trying to take the training process one day at a time.  My training will officially start on Monday with the first day of an 8 week half marathon training plan from Shape magazine.  I used this same plan a year and a half ago when I ran my first half marathon.  I will start with this plan, run a half marathon in April, here in Germany, and then begin with my official training for the full marathon.  

Before I start my training, I decided to brush up on my history of the first marathon, which, according to legend, took place in 490 BC.   Pheidippides, an ancient Greek soldier ran the 42.195 kilometers from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to carry the good news that they had won the battle against the Persians.  Upon arriving, he shouted "Νενικήκαμεν" (Nenikékamen, 'We have won.'), collapsed, and died.   I truly hope that this will not be my fate, but it is good to know the race's history.

Other than the excitements mentioned above, my life has been going on in a rather 'normal' way.  Cooking, baking, working, running, sleeping, eating, etc. I have been trying many new granola bar recipes lately, hoping to stumble upon some fabulous, extremely healthy, flavor explosion in the shape of a granola bar or breakfast muffin that I can eat along side my morning coffee... One of my friends and coworkers also has a passion for making healthy, low-fat granola, muffins, breakfast bars, and other such foods, so we often share ideas and recipes back and forth.  She recently sent me the link for truly wonderful, no-bake, all-natural energy balls.  They are really easy to whip up in a hurry, and simply delish!  I reduced the honey a bit and also tried them once with a bit of baking cocoa for when I was craving some chocolate.  Both ways were hits, in my humble opinion!  Here's the link:  http://www.recipeforcrazy.com/2011/11/natural-snack.html

Well, now I am semi-caught up on my much belated blogging, so enjoy!  Adieu!