You have to start somewhere.

Every adventure starts with a beginning.  Hobbies, School, Jobs, Workouts.  The beginning of something is always my favorite part of an adventure.  Which makes me super excited to start this blog!  It's so easy to get lost in the rush of everything if you don't keep your goals in check and continue to motivate yourself.  I'm hoping for this blog to help me keep track of everything that is going on!  Within the past 8 months I've had a couple of new beginnings:

• I started a new job after graduating from college
• I moved back to Houston...this time as an adult making my own money
• I started a twitter account...Seriously I always told myself I would never tweet!
• I began (and have already completed) my goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon
• I rekindled my love for yoga after losing touch with it for a while

Throughout college I learned how important it is to goal set, and how it is impossible to get through the beginning of a project if you don't know where you are heading towards.  Currently I have a couple of Monthly and a few longer term goals going on to keep me motivated. I won't go too into them right now as there are probably too many...one including to dry my hair every morning! I think it's most important to write your goals down so you can see them.  I like to write my weekly goals in my planner so I see them every time I open it, my monthly goals on my bathroom mirror and my longer term goals in the back of my planner in the notes section so I remind myself of them frequently and so they're always in the back of my mind.

• Longer term: I'd like to train towards breaking a 2:30 Olympic Triathlon and when marathon season comes around again next year I'm aiming for a low 3:20 marathon...if not faster!  I've ben blessed to have wonderful people to help me train and look forward to more PR's to come!!
• Short term: Try at least 1 new recipe per week for the month of February; I used to bake and cook all the time and be so excited to try something new, since beginning my job I've abandoned this a little and would love to rekindle my love for baking and experiment around with new recipes again!

Which brings me to.......................

Vegan Lemon Chia Seed Muffins

I've tried multiple times to cook gluten free, vegan, this, that, whatever it is, I've tried it! And I'm never too impressed with how whatever I'm baking comes out.  These I LOVE! They're unbelievably easy to make, and using Chia Seeds means extra nutrients!  (Even though I try to stay away from fad foods...and this is 'the new super food') And no worries if you have to take a drug test for work since there are no poppy seeds! (A very specific episode of Sienfeld comes to mind!) This recipe, (used from www.peasandthankyou.com) was a great start to trying some vegan recipes and makes me excited to try some more!!  I even took a couple to work to share with some of my friends, and was so excited to tell them how proud of these I was--and I'm usually not one to say how good something I bake is!  Maybe a modification of this to make it gluten free will be next, although I love baking with whole wheat pastry flour!

Ingredients (Yields 12 muffins)

• 1/2 c. non-dairy or organic milk
• 1 1/2 t. lemon juice
• 1 c. whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 c. unbleached organic flour
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/4 c. chia seeds
• 1/3 c. coconut oil
• 2/3 c. agave nectar and/or maple syrup
• 1/3 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1 t. vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 T. lemon extract
• 1 T. lemon zest

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• Combine milk and lemon juice and set aside.
• In a large bowl, combine flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chia seeds.
• To the milk mixture, add coconut oil, agave or maple syrup, applesauce, vanilla, lemon extract and lemon zest.
• Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined.
• Fill each well of a muffin tin that has been lightly greased or line with muffin cups 2/3rds of the way full.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until slightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Thank goodness it's only Friday and the weekend hasn't quite yet started.  Although I could go for a rainy weekend to keep me inside and cuddled up in bed with a good book (currently reading: Twilight; Breaking Dawn....yes I'm still reading Twilight) I'm looking forward to getting up early to ride with Sugar Cycles and get a good ride in before the rain is supposed to come!  Hopefully I'll get the best of both worlds and after riding can curl right back up in bed and look for something yummy to bake for the Superbowl!