La Vida Fresca

I hope everybody who was lucky enough to get a three-day weekend enjoyed it! I sure did!

Not much to report on the food front, but we did get in a great kayaking trip down the river/springs and saw lots of wildlife — the usual turtles, birds, and gators, blue crab, plus some of those elusive otters. So cute! No dolphins, but that’s okay. We sat in our kayaks like 15 feet away from the otters and just watched. Kevin got video but I didn’t get any photos because I had just dropped my point-and-shoot camera in the water about a half hour earlier :-( Luckily I still got the pictures off that day and — I can’t believe this — the camera worked today when I turned it back on (gave it the rest of the day yesterday and most of today to dry). Yay.

Back to work tomorrow!

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?

:-)

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!

**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 :-)

What a night. But before I get into that, I want to show you my newest purchase and some food.

One solid week after I placed my order, UPS finally delivered my new water bottles today, complete with splash guard. I try to drink at least 64 ounces a day and using two 32-ounce bottles simplifies things for me.

I looked and looked at all kinds of different water bottles, but in the end I went with the classic Nalgene ones. We have like a dozen of these at home, but these are the first BPA-free bottles I’ve bought. I don’t drink out of the others any more, although I’m sure it’s just a feel good thing because these and all of those other types of bottles are probably equally bad. Anything made of man-made materials is probably not a good thing to drink or eat out of.

But I do like my bottles. The colors are so pretty.

For lunch, I made a most excellent potato salad of: a leftover baked potato from last night (which I made in the rice cooker and was a little too firm for last night’s meal but perfect for this), a big gob of sour cream, about three cups of wilted (more like very steamed because I cooked it too long) spinach sprinkled with white vinegar, four hard-boiled egg whites, and salt and pepper. It was soooo good.

Just out of curiosity, I added it all up and this came out to just under 500 calories with about 20 grams of protein and 50 grams of carbs. Not too bad if you ask me. This was lunchtime and I didn’t even get hungry again until 5:00. You could definitely use Greek yogurt or light mayo instead of sour cream, I just didn’t have any of that on hand. It would bring the fat content and calories down.

I made my own iced coffee today from leftover a.m. coffee. Self portrait fail (no face). Weird Gollum arm impression WIN.

For supper we had Barilla Plus spaghetti (meat sauce for Kevin, meatless for me). I ate about five pounds (told you I have no self control for pasta) and right away proceeded to go on my scheduled run. At least it was 7:45 at night — not dark yet but reasonably cool. A lot of people complain about the Florida summer temps but at night it’s really not bad even before it gets dark.

You know, sometimes runners get to experience a perfect run. The perfect sounds, the perfect scenery. Pretty like on a Runner’s World or Trail Runner cover. A path along the beach with nothing but the sound of your feet and the waves lapping next to you. A crisp trail in the mountains in the fall with reds and oranges and purples swirling about you.

Tonight’s run was not like that.

During my run at the crowded — like sardine-can-crowded — park, there was: a (non-poisonous, harmless) snake in the middle of the track with its chopped off head sitting next to it, what looked like a 13-year-old girl walking a toddler around on one of those baby leashes (most likely this was the kid’s mother), the usual stroller derby, as I call them, and even a couple of airboat-proud guys - one was driving a truck around the parking lot pulling an airboat and trailer (with the airboat engine actually running) that guy #2 was riding on and yelling profanities at people standing on the ground. Oh and it seems somebody has taken to spray painting trees in the parking lot. Lovely. This is all before dark, mind you. Some nights, just after dusk, it’s like the Living Dead out there.

Anyway, I didn’t feel all that great tonight. Big surprise. I was really feeling every spaghetti noodle halfway into the third mile but I didn’t ralph. That’s a good thing. I was a little weary when I got back in the car to leave but when Kevin asked if I wanted a McD’s vanilla cone on the way home, of course I said yes. Just minutes after I was complaining about being queasy. I’m a weirdo. But not as weird as the creatures at the park.

Well, I have to shower now and there’s about an hour’s worth of writing to get done before bed so I’ll stop ranting now and get to it. Peace!

That pretty much sums up my day.

This evening, I got to run in the steam. I ignored the shoulder/neck problem (which still isn’t any better than yesterday, boo) and went out for a trail run.

No kidding, it started pouring as soon as Kevin turned off the ignition and I was getting ready to get out. This was at around 6:30 (according to one of those temperature sign things that we passed, it was 87 degrees). I like to run in the rain but it’s more enjoyable when it’s a light drizzle and you’re not carrying a bunch of electronics with you. So we decided to wait a little while since the sky was reasonably bright and blue and it looked like the rain wouldn’t last. I got a baked potato from Wendy’s for a pre-run snack and the rain had stopped by the time we came back. Actually, it stopped by the time we got less than a mile from where we parked to go run. Oh well. I did the final run of the first week (!) of the training plan. It’s only taken me three weeks. I did some repeat workouts from the week one schedule along the way so it should be fine. The run wasn’t too terribly hot (it cooled down a little bit after the rain) but it was rather steamy. That air was thick.

And for the “Mc” part: Let me just say that this iced coffee addiction is stronger than any budget I can come up with. Ha ha. From the Arches I also got some sort of chicken byproduct off the dollar menu. Ewww. But I was out and about and hungry and had to make up the cost since I was spending a small fortune on a big iced coffee :-) I will have to curb this habit quite a bit though because of the budget issue. That’s not a bad thing because I shouldn’t be drinking them anyway. At least that’s what I’ll tell myself :-)

For dinner we had some vegetables with soba noodles and stir-fry sauce that I threw together from stuff we already had in the fridge. I also attempted a carrot cake inspired smoothie this morning but it was a flop. I didn’t drink it but I have ideas for another experiment along those lines.

You might be wondering where the pictures are of the above-mentioned McMeals, etc. are. Well, my camera battery has been dead all day and I left the charger at work so I was out of luck.

This week I’m going to make dinners mostly from food we already have here. I think I have to now to make up for my McWeakness as of late.  There isn’t much here at home, but I discovered there’re a lot more possibilities once I started looking in the cabinets and freezer than I thought. We’re likely having chicken ‘n’ rice, spaghetti, and beans of some sort for dinner this week. Kevin also requested a baked potato bar, which is funny because he’s never liked baked potatoes before. I couldn’t be happier since loaded baked potatoes are a favorite of mine. Yum.

Yoga might be on the agenda tomorrow.

Oh, and, in the name of frugality, we have decided not to renew our gym membership this month. No more creepy guys in cowboy boots or plumbers in the shower or nekkid old ladies. Darn. (Although that does make for good blog fodder.) What I will miss are the Spin classes, swimming pool, and … I think that might be it.  So for now, I’m going to be doing more run/walking (hopefully just running soon if my legs hold up — please, please, please), yoga, and bodyweight strength moves.

That’s all for now. I’m still waiting to see if anybody has any suggestions for cheap meal ideas :-) Have a great Monday!

Sunday thanks:

• trails
• quiet mornings
• rain
• noodles and any kind of pasta (have I mentioned that one already?)
• mi familia (I know I’ve said this but I wanna say it again)