La Vida Fresca

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!

I had an extremely busy day today — barely any time to eat. It went like this:

*chicken byproduct on a bun at about 1:30 this afternoon from the dolla menu

*12-inch turkey and Swiss Subway sandwich at about 8 p.m. (I was so hungry but only ate half, if that. It was sort  of gross.)

*McD’s vanilla cone

Whew. I still have a few things to do but hope to get to bed by 12:30 or 1. Night!

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!