Okay, I kind of have to control myself here. When I started this little blog in 2009, it was mostly to chronicle my running adventures and to showcase my girls and how fast they are growing. Most of my readership in the early days (on my blogspot account) consisted of my ultra-training group as we trained together for our first 50K and 50 mile races. It quickly grew however as people from all over the nation followed our training and were commenting on my posts. That blog was a labor of love but sadly, when my running slowed down, so did the blog posts.
When I purchased the Trailmomma domain name, I wasn’t sure what to do with this blog. The name alone lends itself to being a “running” blog which it is and of course it still encompasses my family and our adventures, but I have always felt that something was “missing” from www.trailmomma.com. It wasn’t a true reflection of me. If a stranger were to ask my friends or family what three things define me as Trailmomma, I would think they would say 1. my girls & family, 2. running and 3. living a plant-based lifestyle.
Deep down, I have always wanted to HELP people with my blog and I guess in the early days I did by way of motivation to train for ultra races. Once that stopped though, my following dissipated.
My current readership is primarily my awesome family and some really close friends which is expected when all I write about are my running adventures with a dash of Peanut and Squeaker on the side. Sadly, I don’t garner the comments I used to when I was posting about a 20 mile trail run through a massive rain storm while battling some injury. I miss all the comments that I used to get. I like comments (hint hint). 🙂
Fast forward to a week or so ago, I wrote this post about my new adventure with Rouxbe’s Online Cooking School and their Professional Plant Based Cooking Certification. After I posted that, I received a comment (yea for comments) from Rouxbe’s CEO and co-founder Joe Girard. Shortly after that comment, I received an email from him. His emails always seem to have these unbelievable offers that he makes really difficult to ignore.
You see, Joe wants to help ME… help YOU! I think he can tell how passionate I am about living a plant-based lifestyle while battling the realities of 2 kids, work and life. For those that follow me on Instagram, Twitter (@trailmomma) and Facebook (no official Trailmomma page, yet), you know that I sometimes post photos of meals that I have prepared with some comment about how “easy” it really is to enjoy wholesome plant-based food even with a hectic day-to-day lifestyle.
Let’s get one thing straight, I do not want to be a food blogger. Don’t get me wrong, I love food bloggers (a lot) but that isn’t who I am. I am just your average Jane trying to help people realize that eating healthy is not that hard. I want people to think about what they are putting into their bodies and how they feel or perform after they eat it. One of my favorite quotes of all time is by Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr., “Genetics loads the gun lifestyle pulls the trigger.” You have the ability to change your health, you just have to know where to start.
And thanks to Joe Girard and Rouxbe, you can start right here!
As I mentioned in my last post, Rouxbe is an online cooking school. While they offer many different courses, I am currently taking their Professional Plant-Based Certification course. It is 100% online and you have six months to complete the course working at your own pace (a mother’s dream). The next session will start in October and I won’t lie, the tuition is not cheap but I am here to help you with that.
For the very first time on trailmomma.com, I am offering a give-away!!! Joe and the people at Rouxbe have offered me the chance to give-away ONE free enrollment to one of my readers. FREE! Let me say it again, FREE!! Excuse me?! That is a $1,500 GIFT …. FOR FREE!!!!!!!!!
People, this is no joke and truly the chance of a life-time. Please do not pass up this opportunity to improve your health and the health of your family!
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I am going to give you FIVE opportunities to enter. The winner will be chosen via www.random.org but of course the more times you enter, the greater your chances of winning and jumping on the train to better health.
Here is what you need to do. Each of these will constitute one entry into the contest so be sure to comment for each one:
1. Facebook a link about this contest and leave me a comment on this post that you did (provide the FB link);
2. Instagram about this contest and leave me a comment on this post that you did and use the hashtag #plantbasedtrailmomma;
3. Tweet a link about this contest and leave me a comment on this post that you did (tag me in the post);
4. Comment on this post and tell me WHY you want to win this and what it will mean for you (*a bonus entry will be awarded to more thorough responses – so put some thought into it!);
5. Instagram (yes, another) a photo of your favorite plant-based meal and use the hashtag #plantbasedtrailmomma
That’s it! All you need to do is comment here five separate times with a with the above requests and you will be entered in the chance to win FREE tuition into Rouxbe’s next Professional Plant-Based Certification Course that is starting in October (valued at $1,500).
The contest will close Sunday, August 31st at mid-night (PST) and I will announce the winner on Tuesday, September 2nd.
So what are you waiting for?! Do you want to feel better, live better and have a healthy family? Have you always been curious about a plant-based diet but did not know where to start? Do you want to be better and more efficient in the kitchen? Then let the comments begin!
Happy Trails!
~Trailmomma
*The tuition entry prize is given by Rouxbe. I did not pay for any of it nor am I employed by Rouxbe in anyway.
*Open to anyone regardless of residence (that is the awesome part about it being online!).
*Contest ends mid-night (PST) on Sunday, August 31st The winner will be picked via www.random.org and announced on Tuesday, September 2nd.
WOW Pam, that is an awesome deal. I would dearly love to participate, but I know me and I probably
wouldn’t be able to stick to it. I sure hope you will Share some of what you learn with me though. It is
funny how I am really leaning more toward a plant based diet myself. Salad, Green Beans and Cherries for dinner last night. I find that I don’t really crave meat anymore ( I used to think that you HAD to have some meat with your meal). Thanks again for the inspiration!!
Idahodeb, did you know that you can have (and SHOULD eat) healthy starches as well? Like potatoes, rice, lentils, beans, corn etc…. you don’t have to live on just salads and fruit… take a look at http://drmcdougall.com and Dr. Esselystyn’s site as well (already mentioned by Trailmomma). Good luck Idahodeb!
Pam, I also posted this on Facebook, but can’t figure out how to copy the link in here from my phone… https://m.facebook.com/sjdeweese?ref=bookmark
Guess it worked after all – love technology. I instagramed (is that a verb now?) a picture of my favorite plant-based meal, eggplant stir-fry bake. It is simple. It is delicious. My husband devours it! #plantbasedtrailmomma
Consider this tweeted! @lebovicwrites
Why I Want to Win a Rouxbe Plant-Based Cooking Class:
Because there are many reasons that come to mind, I am going to frame my response in somewhat of a list… (1) My aunt died on pancreatic cancer in less than 6 months of diagnosis. She is younger than my mom, but already gone. Doctors still do not understand what causes this type of cancer and cannot treat it. (2) My husband has been a vegetarian for 23 years but still struggles with his weight (even though he has better blood levels than me who has only been a vegetarian for 3 years). I think this might be due to not consuming enough variety in his vegetarian lifestyle. We eat a lot of overly processed fake proteins because we don’t really ever know if we are eating enough protein. If we could really study how much protein is in a typical plant-based protein we might be able to cut out the overly fake ‘crap’ foods and the weight with it. (3) My sister took this class and absolutely loved it. Cashews have become her Prosac as a result of what she’s learned. I want to understand how to make food my medicine and listen to my body better. There has to be a better way of eating then chugging back some Pepto-Abysmal after meals. (4) I’m an 8th grade public school English and literature teacher. Students already know I’m vegetarian and ask me many questions about it, but I would like to have more answers. It is easy to say I’m too busy during the school year to take anything else/new on, but I want to find a way to cook better and easier regardless of our work schedule.
Again, there are many thoughts as to why I need to do this class. Thanks for reading!
Congrats Sarah! You won!!! See today’s post! Email me so I can get the necessary info and connect you with Rouxbe!
http://trailmomma.com/2014/09/rouxbe-winner/
Hi there, Trailmomma! Thank you for this opportunity. A friend of mine who cares a lot about plant-based eating shared this link on FB, and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to check out what this course entails and the ability to potentially win a place on it. Having lived a majority of my life in the Deep South of the U.S., I am no foreigner to culinary delights and to problems one can face in trying to balance out taste and nutrition. I was raised to be primarily vegetarian but deviated from that as I got older and dabbled in all kinds of exotic cooking, developing a flexible set of taste buds and coming to enjoy the rich flavour of meats. However, at some point early in college I became very involved in sustainable farming and agriculture ethics debates, and I realised I wanted to scale back on the amount of processed foods and meat that I ate and to try to be conscientious about the origins of what’s on my plate. I have personally suffered from mild to severe health problems associated with eating dairy, meat, and carb-heavy diets in the past few years and have tried to implement many gradual changes in my life to combat these issues. I recently started training full-on for a half-marathon and regularly do a lot of strength training, ballet, and yoga as it is anyhow. As part of training, I’ve also been working on reorienting my relationship to food, namely to sugar and carb-heavy dishes without relying too much on fish for a majority of my protein. I’ll admit it hasn’t been easy, and I don’t feel like I get as much energy as I need to get through my hectic schedule sometimes. I’d love to learn how to be efficient while on a UK graduate student’s budget to cook some amazingly delicious and healthy plant-based dishes that don’t rely on dairy and carbs and provide enough protein for training. It’d be nice to learn how to do so easily without spending over an hour in the kitchen every night and to experiment with a whole new variety of cuisines. The Baha’i Faith to which I adhere also makes clear that the world’s future is a vegetarian one and that fruits and grains are the choice foods for humanity. There are many pearls of wisdom in the scriptures I read. I care very deeply about this topic, as I think our collective current agriculture and eating habits are driving inequality and some infectious disease emergence, not to mention ongoing chronic disease trends. I don’t have a smartphone so don’t really do much with mobile social media, but I will share this with friends and hope to be considered for a chance to win this empowering gift! Thanks!
My Aunt Ciry sent me here! I have shared the link to this page, but I’m not sure how to show that I did….
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10102480848326963&id=10229220
I am thrilled to find this blog, as a aspiring runnermama, healthyeatingmama/foodallergymama!!
Thanks for the opportunity to enter, and informing me about this plant-based nutrition program. Here is my story… I am a 12 year vegetarian, turned wanna-be runner, turned mommy. I have loved my vegetarian lifestyle since the moment I made the decision to to steer away from the overly processed, mass-produced chicken patties that I found myself living off of in the dining hall during my first semester away at college. Through trial and error, and countless google searches, I still considered myself a novice-vegetarian, but with the added responsibility of head chef for my young family, I have the need to take our complex nutrition needs to the next level. Two years ago, my first son was diagnosed with an egg and soy allergy. This was a protein game-changer. My husband is also coming to the reality that he is significantly gluten intolerant. Our most recent menu alteration has been sparked by the discovery of our infant son’s milk allergy. We have welcomed our dietary challenges, and tried to jump in with both feet into what is essentially a gluten-free, vegan lifestyle, BUT I would love some HELP! What I have learned so far is that it can be done, it can taste great, and that I feel AMAZING and stronger than ever. I would like to gain some confidence that I can provided nutritionally balanced, creative, toddler and grown-up friendly food for my family. Thanks again!
Having a vegan babysitter has been such a great experience for both me and my kids.
I believe that being informed on what you put in your body is so important and so many people dont really know or care.
I am really looking forward to your posts so I can learn even more on how to raise my kids on a planet friendly diet.
So Good luck with your classes and keep on posting your info!
One done -https://www.facebook.com/amyjean.cookleblanc Amy-Jean Cook Leblanc (sister to Lou Cook). this is awesome btw.
I would love to share this on instagram, but apparently I am a little inept at instagram. I can’t figure out how to get the link on there without taking a picture of my computer. LOL – I liked your post on it through my phone, but still don’t even know if posting on my computer is an option. I am stumped!!! 😛
Pam –
Thank you for this opportunity.
Winning this class would be amazing for so many reasons. I think sharing my history a little will help you understand why. I am 48 – I am happily married for 27 years now and have 2 sons, 26 and 22. For most of my adult life I was significantly overweight (according the doctors view morbidly obese). I am sure I ate bad things for all the wrong reasons, but one of those reasons was I didn’t know how to cook. I spent most of the kids childhood feeding them frozen or fast food. Needless to say one of my sons had a weight issue too. I am telling you I was so bad at cooking I literally ruined a pan because I burnt water. NO JOKE!! Our idea of veggies was canned and even then I was lucky to get anyone to eat them. When I was 42, I joined a Biggest Loser challenge at the local gym and lost 55 pounds. Leaving me still overweight, but STRONG!!! I learned to cook differently. I still had a lot of processed food in my diet, but I had tweaked things to a “healthier” version. My trainer encouraged a change to more whole foods, but for me that was the next step in changing my lifestyle – for me I know I need baby steps. I changed hamburgers to turkey burgers, added more fresh veggies and fruits and decreased the amount I was eating. I was testing my cooking skills and found that I had some. It was still not easy for me. I get stuck in a rut and do not know how to think outside of my little box. I would love to but somehow experimenting with food didn’t always leave me with something edible, especially for the family who was always a little apprehensive about my cooking. We all knew I was cooking when my smoke alarm went off. Again, no joke!! While my changes were happening I noticed my family joining in. They were making little changes too. In fact, my youngest son, started making huge changes and spent a year as a vegetarian and is now a vegan. I started taking a lot of cues from him. I read some books he suggested and found that I was not excited about meat as I used to be. I would enjoy some of the meals he cooked, but honestly he still eats a fair amount of processed foods – yes a lot of whole foods, but I’d like to see him cook more often, because I want to taste what he cooks and learn from him (teehee). December 31, 2013 I had my last bite of meat. It’s been about 223 days without meat. I have found that I can cook some things, but the box for me seems to be even smaller. I get very stumped as to how to cook or prepare a multitude of the beautiful foods that are out there. I want to, but I lack the knowledge and confidence. I get overwhelmed with all the steps and some of the foreign embellishments (although I am better than I was a few years ago). What I also noticed is that I no longer cook for or with the family. I find that my husband will cook his own meal and I my own. Or if I am lucky enough to have all around to eat together I am making several things to accommodate everyone. I do make a great meat lasagna and a vegan lasagna. Everyone likes it when I cook those. But I’d like to be able to learn how to make more meals that are plant based and may be something my husband will eat. He is not big on veggies, so it’s extremely hard. I don’t know how to make food that will be a family meal. I know that won’t always be the case, but if I am cooking something that will excite him, he may be more apt to enjoy my new way of eating. I would love for my son and I to be able to view this class together and learn how to improve the little bit we already know. I have kept off most of the weight that I had lost 5 years ago, but I have noticed that I have put a little back on (too much for my liking) and I believe that if I can make the healthier decisions, because I know how to cook the healthier versions of food that I will succeed in being healthy and strong and bring my family together to eat again. The benefits of eating healthier together as a family will perpetuate my sons to carry on a different approach to feeding their children (when they have them). I want everyone to learn healthier approaches to eating and cooking and maintain a clean bill of health. We have witnessed far too many family members suffer through illnesses and preventing that through our eating is just the best possible thing I can think of. Thank you so much again for this opportunity.
I have shared this on FB and instagram. Can’t wait to see what happens.
This program is really cool – I keep telling myself I need to meal plan and get a new rotation of things to eat – seems like it is too easy to just resort to the “usuals” (chicken nuggets, mac and cheese…..). (sorry guess I won’t win bonus points for my answer – but would still love to win).
and I shared on FB….
I shared on FACEBOOK a few times 😉
I shared on Instagram too!
I want to win this contest so that I may make good use of these online plants based cooking courses since I am vegan it would benefit me in many ways.
Currently I am unable to get to and from school very easily, so it would benefit me to do online courses so I can flexibly cook healthy and nutritious meals for the children I watch, as I am a daycare provider and it is hard to make time for school with my busy schedule between taking care of the kids, taking them to and from school. I would like to give the kids I watch the healthiest choices to choose from as well as give them enough knowledge to make their own healthy choices.
I would like to teach them about different types of diets.
I shared with instagram
I tweeted on twitter
I shared on myspace since i have so many active users connected with me
I shared the contest on facebook.
I shared contest on google plus
Tweeted all about it!
What a great opportunity! I have posted this link to my facebook account!
I have tried a few times to rely make the switch to plantbased eating only to go to way too much vegan junk food and call it good. So just today I was looking for help to fully make the switch. Somehow surfing brings me to this post. Today. Of all days, and the contest is still going. Sure it finishes tonight and I have to get right on it, but it is still open!! Are you kidding me? What a blessing to be able to enter the contest. I am the amateur chef in our house and this would be a great blessing. I certainly appreciate that you are offering this. What a generous thing to do on your part and on the part of Joe Girard and Rouxbe. Best wishes to all who have entered. This will be fantastic!!
@trailmomma, I have tweeted, Facebooked, Instagrammed, and commented! Thank you do much for hosting (hostessing?) this giveaway! You are so awesome for doing it!
Best of luck everyone!
@trailmomma, have you already completed the course or are you enrolled for the same course starting in October?
I enjoy eating more plant based meals…but I have a hard time making them interesting (and kid friendly) enough for my husband and youngest daughter. I wondered if I’d really have time to put forth the time involved in learning a new way to cook…but after the last week, I can say that absolutely I would make the time. Topping vegetables with bacon doesn’t really count towards being plant based. Help me…save the pigs. 🙂
Just posted to FB!
Sarah’s +1 entry
Emily’s +1 entry
Aimee M’s +1 entry
Amy-Jean’s +1 entry
Beth’s +1 entry
Allison’s +1 entry
jscottsmiley’s +1 entry
Chrissy’s +1 entry
sj22’s +1 entry