28 Day Engine 2 Challenge at Whole Foods Overland Park, KS
It’s March already! February was a busy month for the Mackey family. We kicked off February with a 28 Day Engine 2 Challenge at the Whole Foods Market in Overland Park, KS. We had such a great group of participants, so many already knee deep in plant-strong goodness, learning more each day to ensure their success. I am so proud of all your progress and it has been a joy talking with you at class and via email. Tomorrow night at 6pm, we celebrate the end of the 28 day challenge with a wonderful plant-strong dinner and a Skype session with Rip Esselstyn! This evening of good food and community shouldn’t be missed!
Sign up now so we can be sure to make enough food for all in attendance!
http://www.acteva.com//booking.cfm?bevaID=234953
In other news, my daughter left on February 5th for a 10 month term of service with AmeriCorps NCCC. She has been training in Iowa and gets deployed March 10th to Memphis for a 2 week project with Living Lands and Waters She will be part of the Great Mississippi River Clean Up and then on to Illinois to work on the Million Tree Project. I am so proud of her and her team as they work hard to give back to communities all around the midwest. She has also been cooking plant-strong meals for her team. The Happy Herbivore Butter Bean Cookies were a huge hit!
volunteering with AmeriCorps
February also brought a lot of boxing our way. My husband fought his second Golden Gloves Masters Division bout on February 9th. He lost a close decision and continues to train hard several times a week. Bill is also volunteering as a coach now as well and divides his time between coaching and training. One of my plant-strong students was anxiously awaiting her first fight on February 9th as well, but will have to wait until March 23rd for her debut as no opponent wanted to fight her in February. Karisa has come a long way, losing over 30 pounds by following the Engine 2 way of life since last summer. This aspiring Golden Gloves boxer has been working hard. Her favorite plant-strong recipe is Jeff Novick’s Burgers.
Bill coaching Karisa
We traveled home to Minnesota for a few days in February as well. Our front yard garden is covered with snow, but it is garden planning season! We plant a variety of vegetables and herbs in our front yard garden. Do you grow any food at your house? Even if you don’t have a garden plot, you can grow vegetables in containers and all kinds of planters. Even on an apartment balcony you can grow some tomatoes! I’ll be chatting about growing vegetables, starting your own vegetable garden and getting involved with a community garden on Thursday, March 7th at 9pm EST/6pm PST in the E2X chat room. Not yet a member on Engine 2 Extra? Sign up today! http://engine2extra.com
front yard veggie garden…kale, cucumbers, squash, beans, lettuce and more.
February was also busy for Plant Based Adventures as well. I conducted several cooking classes for folks learning about plant-strong living here in Kansas. We covered cooking in bulk, Jeff Novick’s bean burgers and roasted potato fries, several other recipes, cooking without oil, how to use spices effectively and more. It is always a joy to roll up my sleeves and help others get healthy by cooking plant-strong dishes at home. We traveled to Columbus, OH this past weekend to attend the Arnold Sports Festival. It’s a huge event with sports competitions and a sports expo. With thousands in attendance, we went as coaches for my plant-strong student Cam, as he competed in the boxing tournament there. He won!
Me and Cam F. Awesome after his fight for the championship
We stayed at a hotel near the Whole Foods Market Columbus/Dublin so we would have easy access to prepared foods that are E2 approved. We were not disappointed! The WFM Columbus/Dublin had an amazing array of E2 foods and prepared Health Starts Here recipes that were E2 compliant as well. Keep up the good work WFM Columbus/Dublin! It was a really nice coincidence that some firefighters were inside shopping while we were there!
Whole Foods Market Columbus/Dublin and Engine 11 from Columbus – couldn’t pass up the photo opp!
March and April has me traveling quite a bit, so I won’t be teaching any classes this month. I will keep you posted about my upcoming adventures in future blogs though! I will be spending a week in Spokane, WA at USA Boxing Nationals – cooking up plant-strong fuel for Cam F. Awesome, more on that to come as well! Thanks to Lindsay at Happy Herbivore for having me as Herbie of the Week too! If you haven’t checked out her latest book…what are you waiting for?!
