La Vida Fresca

Lest you thought I quit eating, I figured I’d post a little something just to put your fears to rest. Yes, I am still eating. Very well, actually. I was going to post a photo of my new favorite healthy meal, but I only got one photo the other day (I made the meal again tonight but was too lazy to dig my camera out) and that  photo is of too poor quality to post. What is this tasty meal, you ask? I’ve been eating oven roasted eggplant and zucchini, usually with spaghetti sauce and/or ketchup. I’ve been cubing the eggplant in big chunks (sans skin) and either slicing across the width of the zucchini (little circles) or slicing the long way, spraying generously with cooking spray, and sprinkling on salt and pepper. Mmmm. So simple and sooo tasty. Tonight’s dinner was also beautiful, by the way :-)

Since I don’t have a food photo, I thought I’d make it up to you by posting this really goofy pic of me jumping up off the ground while wearing a bike helmet.

Now don’t you feel better?

:-)

Look at my lunch! Sweet and spicy tuna in a de-seeded cucumber. Super light and packed with protein :-)

It could’ve used some mayo but I didn’t have any. This is a great breadless, starchless lunch for those of you trying to eat higher protein/lower carb meals.  I’m planning to make cucumber boats using other stuff soon. I think they would be  good with chicken salad, regular tuna salad, egg salad …

Okay, enough about lunch. Gotta run!

I do not miss the gym. Since choosing not to renew our membership last month, I’ve been running only outside, doing yoga at home (surprisingly good for upper body muscles it seems), and doing a little bodyweight strength training here and there.

I like to run outside. Today I went in to work late so I bummed around the house and didn’t get outside until 9:30. That would have been detrimental to my run normally, but I was lucky because today it was so overcast outside the sun wasn’t shining at all. It was terribly humid, but at least I got to enjoy an outdoor run in the late morning.

I am also lucky to have hills all around me. I know this is Central Florida, most of which is pancake-flat, but the streets around my house are hilly. However, subdivisions do creep me out. Especially big ones like this. It’s also one of those old-school ones that are cursed with a poorly-planned road system and zero sidewalks or bike lands. So I end up having to jump from one side of the road to the other depending on which side has mowed grass. Most of the time it’s neither so I have to run on the pavement or get hit with wet grass taller than my knees. No thanks. My shins aren’t liking this too much though. Don’t worry, soon I’ll get our treadmill out of storage and I”l be able to alternate between pavement and treadmill.

I also like that the gym freaks can’t bother me now that I don’t go there. Although now I am subject to freaks down the street. One man, for example, thought it would be a good idea the other day  to stand in front of his living room window (facing the street) in the nude. Yay (that was sarcastic in case you couldn’t tell).

Today Kevin and I also got in a p.m. bike ride down te raod and through the woods. We now realize our bikes are in dire need of tuning up, but the ride went well and thankfully there were no spills (my specialty).

Well that was a long rambly post with not much of a point. Sorry about that. That’s what you get from a person who hasn’t been able to use here camera all week and is really really tired. I’m now off to get some sleep. I hope everyone has a great weekend full of good runs (or swims or bike rides or whatever it is you do).

Night!

… and so delicious. Here is my lunch. Does it count as a salad if there’re only two ingredients? I piled some guacamole on top of a bed of organic baby greens I splurged on today (they were BOGO, woo hoo).

I also had a huge piece of pumpkin pie, proof of my split food personality.

In other news, I’m really getting into yoga. Or at least I think I am. I’ve been doing headstands every day just for fun and last night and today I landed side crow. This makes me very excited, being basically a complete noob and all. I wish there was a yoga studio nearby but the closest one is like an hour away. Boo. But I’ve recently seen some great videos online, including Polly’s, so I’m just going with that. Other than that I’ve only done audio downloads from yogadownload.com and they’ve all been the short beginner ones.

I also got in a planned run (gasp!) last night. My left shin was acting up (I found a terribly tender spot when I pressed down on my shin — I never have shin pain while running) but I iced it and wore my Zensahs so hopefully all is okay.

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday. Catch ya later!

**I wrote this post yesterday but due to technical difficulties, I could not get the photos uploaded**

Well, I’ve had too much fun (and too much driving and riding in the car). Driving from central Florida to northern Georgia after work on Friday isn’t the most enjoyable thing ever, but we made it. Poor Kevin had a meeting to go to at 8:00 in the morning (therefore up at 7) and we didn’t get to sleep until about 4 a.m.

We were pretty tired but after Kevin was done we got to see some awesome places. I also took our dog Nala to some trails nearby while Kevin was busy at the meeting. Good fun it was. She loved it and so did I. Every time I step into the woods out that way it feels like home.

(Don’t pay too much attention to my appearance. This is my three-hours-of-sleep face.)

The only bad thing was I didn’t bring any water and it started getting hot outside and she is an old dog and Florida native who is not used to those hills (I’ll give you a hint about her age: if she were human, she’d be in high school)  so we had to bum some water off of the nice park lady we saw. She was so kind and gave her a whole bucket full.

Then the three of us went to Unicoi State Park and saw Anna Ruby Falls really quickly. Nala got to splash around in the creek too, which she thought was awesome.

We were going to camp Friday and Saturday night but at the last minute plans changed and we ended up staying in two dog-friendly hotels. Yay for dog-friendly hotels. The second one was a Red Roof Inn and they didn’t even charge extra for bringing a dog. Sweet.

Throughout the trip our main courses were foods I stuffed into the cooler but we picked up a few things at gas stations here and there (and a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts). The stuff we packed was good but there was also plenty of junk along the way, although I found out Friday night no amount of caffeine and sugar could help to revive me.

(There are a few repeat photos up there because I made a mistake I don’t feel like going back to fix :-)). We got home yesterday evening and then it was back to work today. I need a break. Like a day to not do anything. Someday …

I’m looking forward to my planned outdoor run this evening. I didn’t take any photos of my food today (oatmeal, carrots, and a candy bar — oops) because it was rather boring. I’ve decided not to post all of my food so as not to bore you to tears every day. I’ll try to keep it to cool photos, new recipes and particularly yummy/good-looking food. Heh heh.

Have a great week :-)

I only have one measly photo to show you from yesterday and today, and it’s a weird one at that. Today’s lunch was leftover baked potato, leftover Brussels sprouts, and two hard-boiled egg whites with Caesar dressing. Strange but good.

You can tell I’m really being conservative and using leftovers as much as possible. I had a baked potato with the tiny bit of sour cream that was left in the container with microwaved frozen Brussels sprouts and four egg whites yesterday. Was pretty good. I had to have something with it this time, and since we were out of sour cream, I used Caesar dressing I found in the fridge.

I had planned on a run last night but we didn’t even get home to eat until 8:45 p.m. and I was so exhausted I was asleep by 10. I thought maybe I could squeeze in a run this a.m. but didn’t get up until about 7 (and I’m still tired).

Last night (I had technical difficulties then so no Internet and no photos) we had chicken ‘n’ rice with cooked frozen spinach for dinner. Of course mine was covered in Texas Pete. I made the chicken and rice in the rice cooker, amazingly enough. The rice got really mushy though, but I’m blaming it on the fact that I had to work late and the rice sat on the “warm” setting for more than three hours. Yeah, that might have had something to do with it.

This has been one heck of a busy/crazy week and now after work Kevin and I have to drive to northwest Georgia for a meeting he is going to. And we’re camping. We could have booked a hotel but I doubt we’d have gotten out to see any scenery or parks that way. We have to rush back Sunday. Whew. I might not have it all together to be able to post this weekend but at the very least I’ll be sure and get a recap post in on Monday (hopefully with some pretty Georgia mountain photos).

:-)

Have a great weekend!