Run Crissie Run

I Have a New (Web) Home!

2011-06-27T21:10:00.000-04:00

Okay, so I am slowing migrating from my old blog to a new site – runcrissierun.com

Click HERE to be redirected to the new site.

It will likely take me a couple of weeks to get it all straightened out, but in the mean time, please enjoy your regularly scheduled reading!!! I promise it’ll stay packed full of useless tidbits about my day, the fun food I’m eating (or drinking), as well as my attempts at fitness. The goal of the blog hasn’t changed…just its location.

I apologize if you have to resubscribe to follow me, or re-add me to your Reader. Hopefully the transition will go smoothly for all of us.

THANKS!

I Want a Farm Bus Too

2011-06-26T20:23:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Anniversary dinner wasn't exactly awesome. D was craving a chili cheese dog (of all things), so he wanted to go to Kelly's. I know he picked it because they have a big burger menu - and all their burgers can be made into their veggie burger - so I always have something for me. The kids like it too, so it "should" have been a winner all around. We weren't looking for anything fancy (we really did our major celebration on Thursday), so a little Kelly's was in order.

Unfortunately, they no longer carry any hot dogs. D was really upset, but settled for a bacon cheeseburger (can you tell we didn't get married because we have similar tastes??). It was way overcooked I guess, so he didn't love it. Mine was pretty good, and the kids seemed more or less happy. Our waiter was a little vacant, but at least really nice.

Before bed, I put a batch of overnight oats in the fridge so I'd be ready. I used soy milk and not almond because of R's allergy, and added a small bit of maple syrup in the morning. It really didn't need anything else.

D set the coffee pot up since I was getting up early Sunday morning. On my way out the door, I grabbed a Tervis of black coffee, a bottle of water, my oats, a banana, and a spoon.

Halfway to Richmond I ate the oats. They were SO good. Who knew that chia seeds were so awesome?? And while I wasn't hungry, I ate the banana too since I was heading for a long workout.

Lunch was from the buffet line at Whole Foods. I only got the cold bar, since I definitely took plenty! There was a grilled Hawaiian tofu, some curry rice noodles, balsamic tofu, cucumber and red onion salad, tabbouleh, and bamboo green tea rice. See what I mean...I was STUFFED after this! I need to live near a Whole Foods. Seriously...if they won't come to me, I'll go to it. That's a new requirement on my "will move to" list. Mass transit, vegan restaurants, many cultural activities, and Whole Foods!

By the time I finally got home, I wasn't up to cooking, so D went around and picked up food for everyone. M, A, and I got sushi from Kagura, which just opened close to me. I had a combination of avocado, veggie, and sweet potato rolls. The kids got something fishy. D and R had Moe's.

Looking forward to the work week where raw all day will be nice and easy!

FITNESS

Today was a heck of a day - but a good one!

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, my plan for today was to do the Tri route in Richmond for next month's race. I'm always nervous about hills since we don't have those here. The couple in Smithfield really got me in April, and since Richmond is hillier, I thought it would ease my mind a bit.

Last night I printed off the maps and then wrote them out on small pieces of paper to tape to my bike handles (you know...L on Knuckles, R on Ashland...etc).

I woke up at 615am and was out the door by 645. It's a 2 hr drive, so I wanted to be there in plenty of time to enjoy the workout before crazy heat kicked in. I pulled into the Y's parking lot, checked in (nice thing about the Y - you join one, you belong to them all), and then took off.

As my map and instructions indicated, I turned left on Knuckles. Well, it must have been wrong, since I went a good 5 miles and never saw Ashland. I saw some of the other streets, so I guess I read my map wrong. Anyway - I biked the distance I needed to, but not the actual route. I'm not totally worried since I feel I got a sense of the terrain. The run was easier though - just one road really. Out and back, so that was good.

I will say the nicest thing was the people. When I'm out running in my neighborhood, I almost never see anyone else. I probably ran into a dozen or so people out running and biking. I like Richmond.

After the run portion, I went into the Y, showered, changed, and then took off.

LIFE

Big news...I booked my trip to Portland, OR for the Vida Vegan Con - Vegan Bloggers Conference. I'm going to spend a few days in Seattle visiting friends, and then to Portland for the conference! I'm so excited!!!

Last night D and I both fell asleep while watching a movie. It wasn't bad, just apparently not good enough to keep us awake. We did realize today that we fell asleep around the same part though, so that'll be good for picking it back up!

Before bed, D loaded up the van with my bike, Tri bag, a cooler, and my reusable grocery bags. Since I knew I was going to Richmond, I had to go to Whole Foods.

After my brick workout, I went to REI. My parents got D and I a gift card for our anniversary, so it was perfect timing. I picked up some geocaching trackables for D, a first aid kit (makes me nervous he hikes without one), storm matches, blister packs (he has new hiking boots), and for me, a tank top and a one piece Tri suit! I totally scored. Yet another store I wish they had by me.

After that, I went to the Short Pump mall, perused Crate and Barrel and a few other stores, and then hit Whole Foods. After eating, I went shopping (don't want to shop on a full stomach!). I picked up some nice produce, many organic and vegan snacks, and even a few magazines. One made me happy since it's specific to people with food allergies and sensitivities, and I'm always looking for ideas for R. The other is from Vegetarian Times and is about the bounty from a Farmer's Market. Oh, and they have a salsa bar! How brilliant is that?? I made up a concoction of guacamole with extra red onion, tomato, and cilantro.

Speaking of farms...there was a bus parked outside of WF from a local farm, and you could walk through and pick up fresh produce. It was pretty neat. I wish one came by my house. Sort of like the Book Mobile, but the Veggie Mobile instead!

From there, I drove halfway home to Williamsburg and hit the outlet mall. My eldest needed new athletic shoes, and I needed a pair of non-running workout shoes too. I picked those up, a few workout shorts from Under Armour, and then headed home.

While a busy day, it was a nice day. I got to do a few things I love and spend some quality time with me and my iPod. Granted - there was a good 4 hrs of driving involved - but that clearly doesn't bother me.

I'm looking forward to another good week both at work and working out. Here's hoping!

The S2B Ratio MUST be Perfect

2011-06-25T13:34:00.000-04:00

FOOD

It's been a BUSY week! I'll admit that most of my meals were similar.

Most days, breakfast was a cup of coffee, and then a glass of fresh green juice. I'd munch on fruit throughout the morning, bringing containers of watermelon, cantaloupe, and blueberries to the office, as well as bananas and oranges.

Thursday was a special day. D and I have spent every year for our anniversary taking a solo trip to Busch Garden's without our kids (since we moved to VA 7 1/2 yrs ago). Our anniversary is actually today (Saturday), but we did our annual trip on Thursday. We started out going to the Broken Egg for breakfast. They have my favorite oatmeal - a big bowl of Irish steel cut oats with bananas and raisins. I got that and a bowl of fruit. D got some huge meat lovers omelet, and we took R before taking her to daycare, and she got her standard smiley faced pancakes.

I'll admit that I didn't eat much at all. I think I'm getting so used to having just fresh juice and fruit in the morning, that my stomach really didn't want anything else. I finished off the fruit, had a few bites of the oatmeal, but that was it.

Lunch most days was packed, and I had several awesome salads each day. I also had one dish of spiralized zucchini with a raw tomato marinara that I love too. On Tuesday, I did hit up Quenna's Raw and Vegan for a nice lunch. I had some time between meetings, and stopped for their amazing avocado stuffed tomatoes and a tofu pocket sandwich. I wish I lived in a region that had more restaurants like this one.

Yesterday lunch was a falafel with a salad and a hummus appetizer. YUM.

Dinner on Monday and Tuesday was reheated vegan pizza from Sunday for me. Wednesday I had dinner with S at Carrabbas, where we split a dish. On Thursday (after our BG adventure) we met up with our friends AC and JC for dinner. I had a yummy veggie pasta dish.

Today has been low key. I had a banana for breakfast, and am waiting for D to get back from Moe's with my favorite salad! I'm not sure what dinner will be - if D and I will go out, or just make something here.

FITNESS

I did a swim workout earlier in the week, and that felt good. I love the pool! I went on a run most days, except Thursday, when A and I met up with S for a Zumba class.

A few months ago, A and I were at the gym (she was working on a writing project by observing and documenting all activity for an hour), and she saw a zumba class going on. She immediately wanted to try it, so when the opportunity came up, I must say I was more than a little surprised when she jumped at the chance to go.

We had to get our names on the list - which S took care of. It's a good thing she did, because we got the last 3 spots (and there are 90!). So we probably looked silly shaking it in the gym, but we all had a good time. The fact that A wants to go back is very encouraging.

LIFE

This has been a busy, but productive week. My meeting load was very light, so I got to spend a ton of time in my office getting things done. I'm very much enjoying the more relaxed mornings now that it's summer break. Apparently so is R, because I came upon this Monday morning...

Monday and Tuesday we had nice and quiet evenings at home. I had pretty bad headaches in the evenings, and went to bed early both nights. It's funny that one of the girls who's blog I follow daily, Heather from Where's the Beach? posted the other day a fun post about quirks. We all have some, and I certainly have a couple. One of them is the sheet to blanket ratio on the bed, or the S2B. If it's not even, I have a hard time sleeping. On Tuesday as I'm getting ready to go to bed early, I noticed that they were WAY off. D is a blanket hog, so I usually have only sheet on my side by the time I get up in the morning, but if I try straightening it out too much, I end up with too much sheet on my side. So anyway, just before bed, D pretty much stripped and remade the bed to fix the S2B so I could sleep well. He's so cute, feeding into my silly little quirks.

That was the plan for Wednesday too, but I had a friend who had a rough day, so we got together to "wine" about it.

Right after work on Wednesday, I went to get a manicure. I usually get a pedicure too, but I have two nasty blisters from some strapy black sandals right on the tops of my toes - so I didn't want to get one. Instead, I got home, took a shower, decided to blow dry and straighten my hair....and saw my old foot soaker! What the heck, I was apparently feeling decidedly girly, so I gave myself my own pedicure! I didn't do a great job (no polish change), but it'll get me through for the next couple weeks.

Thursday was an absolutely perfect day. D and I were up early, and at breakfast by 8. We dropped off R, and were on the road just after 9. We arrived at Busch Gardens right before the park opened at 10, parked, and went in.

D by the entrance

We strolled around, went on a few rides, had a couple beers, and just giggled, held hands, and had a really great time. The nice thing about getting there so early was not only the lack of crowds, but it wasn't crazy hot out yet either. All in all - a really amazing time.

1030am snack time! We even bring our own beer cozys....

Bald Eagles. I can't even express how majestic they are

The Griffon. First ride we went on. I never opened my eyes...

just curious where those stairs are supposed to go...

we snuck into an area where they're clearing space for a new ride!

he talked! D and I spent about 10 minutes conversing with him. He laughed, said hello. Pretty cool.

We left right around 130, was home by 230, and while D took a nap, I ran out to the store and then to pick R up. Then it was time to shower and change to meet our friends at their yacht club for dinner. We sat around for a while before eating just talking and catching up, and then walked around the boats afterwards. It was a very lovely evening. We got home around 9 or so, and hung out on the back porch for awhile before going to bed. It really was a perfect day.

Friday was work, and then taking M to get his new transition lenses put into his glasses frames. Then more work before meeting up with a friend I haven't seen in about 6 months to have a couple beers and catch up. We sat on the outside deck of a local place and had a lot of fun. D came and picked me up and brought me home.

Today has been pretty quiet. We're not sure exactly what we're going to do. We know it's our anniversary technically, but we really celebrated on Thursday. We also pretty much approach each day like it's an anniversary, so we don't get this crazy need to do a "date night".

Tomorrow my plan is to go to Richmond, so the bike and run course for my Tri next month, then hit up Whole Foods and REI. I'm excited about it.

But until then, I'm going to go veg with my hubby and enjoy our day. Happy Anniversary Honey!

No Honey, Putting My Glasses Into the Dishwasher Is NOT an Available Option

2011-06-20T21:11:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Sunday was spent largely puttering around the kitchen. The intention was to go out to breakfast for Father's Day, but of course none of us were up and ready to move that early, so we didn't.

I had a 1/2 cup of coffee and another rocket fuel green juice. I munched on cantaloupe the rest of the morning off and on.

I swear that it doesn't taste like a salad in a glass. It sort of tastes like lemonade!

For lunch, I made yet another monster salad and sat out on the back porch with my Kindle and a glass of water.

We did go out for dinner to celebrate, but that was a total disaster! We went back to a pizza place in Norfolk called Cogan's. The first time we went about 3 weeks ago, we had a great experience. Not so much this time. We got seated right away, though it took awhile for anyone to come by. By the time our waiter did, we were ready to order. The kids each ordered off of the menu, and D and I each ordered pizzas (supreme for him - vegan for me). About 40 minutes later, the kids' food arrives, but not our pizzas (and no one's gotten any refills on drinks!). The waiter tells me it'll be another 10-15 minutes for those as "they only have one oven". Ugh. D's getting upset by this point. After 10 minutes or so, the kids are done eating and ours isn't at the table. D goes to talk to the manager, who does her best to recover the situation. D's pizza eventually arrives, but mine doesn't. My husband is quite a gentleman, and refuses to eat until my food comes, so his pizza is getting cold and the kids are really getting bored. We tell them to box up my pizza when it's done along with everything left at the table, and we finally left. We got home, and D and I ate our cold pizza.

vegan cheese, onion, tomato, and artichoke hearts

Guess what breakfast was for me this morning?? Coffee and green juice. I see this as a life long trend... I packed up some watermelon and blueberries for snacks, a big salad for lunch, and a couple salad wraps (with marinated kale, shredded broccoli, onion, and mustard). I thought it was cute that a friend of mine at work knew which containers in the lounge fridge were mine!

My pre-workout snack was a slice of pizza, and my post was a garden whole foods juice in the Vitamix. All in all...a great couple of days of food.

tomato, bell pepper, onion, hot sauce, carrot, spinach, and ice

FITNESS

Today was a swim day! Woo hoo. It was almost a run day (the big storms rolling in have dropped the temps to a chilly 70-75 degrees and I really wanted to run). BUT....I had packed all swim stuff and really, really needed to hit the pool. And once I swim, I don't like to do any other workouts (can't handle being damp and then putting on workout clothes).

After work, I went home to pick up M who wanted to come to the gym with me. I had packed mine and R's swim stuff, and D brought R to the pool just as my workout was ending. R, M and I swam around for about 45 minutes goofing off, then dried off and went home. It was nice.

My swim was mostly drills today. I alternated sprints with pull buoys and kick boards. And I'm already feeling a bit sore.

I set up the trainer in the green room for my bike. With it forecasted to storm the next 5 days or so, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get a ride in. May as well prepare to ride indoors.

LIFE

The whole weekend was very relaxing. I alternated time in the kitchen yesterday with hanging out on the deck with Sammie and reading. D was leaving me an Xbox widow all weekend with his game playing, so I did a lot of reading, laundry, kitchen work, and hanging with the munchkins.

The kids all made cards for D for Father's Day, which really made him smile.

kids squished on a bench waiting for our table at Cogan's. A pretty much never smiles in pictures. It's annoying.

As we crawled into bed last night, I asked D to wipe my glasses off. He does such a better job than I do. After he was done, he advised me to start cleaning them in the dishwasher. I think he was serious.

This morning was a bit different than normal, but will likely be the summer routine. I woke up earliest as usual, took a shower, woke D up, and then we woke up R. While D showered, I made our lunches and got R ready for her day camp. The older two were still sleeping since it's summer vacation. D left with R, I finished getting my stuff together, and left about 15 minutes later for work. It was weird being just the 3 of us in the morning!

Work was a really good day. I had an entire day of office time (save for a one hour conf call). I got quite a bit done and felt very productive. Most of this weeks looks light as many of my colleagues start taking summer vacations, so I imagine I'll get lots done.

I'm off on Thursday for mine and D's annual Busch Garden's (sans children) anniversary trip. We've done it every year since we moved to VA 7 1/2 years ago. This will be the first where we're not doing it on our exact anniversary, but it's on Saturday this year and we always go on a week day. Then that evening we've dinner planned with AC and JC, so it'll be a really nice mid-week break.

Pretty much the only thing I have to complain about is blogger. For the last several weeks, I have found that I cannot reply to comments left on my blog. I read the help files, did everything it told me to, and it's still not acting right. So please forgive me if you've left a comment and I haven't replied. I'm trying!

In an effort to not jam too much into my mornings, I'm going to go make lunches now, figure out what I'm going to wear to work, and get things for tomorrow organized. We'll see how long this lasts ;)

Snakes...Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?!?!

2011-06-18T21:33:00.000-04:00

bonus to you if you caught the Indiana Jones reference

FOOD

For lunch Thursday I made a salad I loved so much, that I ate one today too. It was simple, but filling and cleansing. I made a huge batch of lemon/ginger dressing, so I have been putting it on just about everything. The salad was mixed baby greens, red onion, tomato, cucumber, fresh cut corn from the cob (I'm loving raw corn....), and avocado.

why is it all fun salad ingredients sink to the bottom of the bowl, and you don't find them until the lettuce is gone? It's sort of like finding the treasure treat at the bottom of a cereal box for me....

Thursday afternoon two new cookbooks I ordered from Amazon came, and I spent most of the day reading those, marking them with my sticky notes, and then making a few. One was Ani's Raw Food Asia, and I made a couple of things from them. I made two namul's which is basically a fun Korean word for seasoned vegetables. One was made with cucumbers and one with zucchini's. Both gifts of AT's garden!

For dinner, I made my own little bi bim bap, which is another fun Korean word for mixed veggies, rice, and hot sauce. While I don't have the Korean hot sauce, I do have siracha and used that instead. Yum, yum, though I went a little wacko on the siracha and lit my mouth on fire.

Friday morning was another awesome green juice. I swear - this stuff is rocket fuel. I had a half of a cup of coffee, and then just really wanted the juice. It's the same as the day before; romaine lettuce, kale, cucumber, lemon, ginger, and apple. Ridiculous really how simple and tasty, and yet a fun bright green!

Mid morning, I ate a big bowl of blueberries, and then it was off to lunch with AC for Thai. I really, really planned to eat something other than green curry. I fancied a nice big salad, some fresh spring rolls, or something light like that. Yeah. So didn't happen. So I had the tofu green curry, and loved every bit of it.

I wish I could say I had dinner on Friday. Alas....I met a couple girls out for drinks, and while we munched on some fries and some guacamole, we really didn't eat. We did, however, have beer and jaeger bombs. Whoever decided to mix red bull with jaeger should be both kissed and possibly shot. Just saying. My detox was temporarily derailed, but it was a lot of fun catching up with two of my friends!

Today was spent mostly hydrating. And napping. I did make another of my super salads for lunch, but probably got most excited about dinner. I marinated some kale in the lemon/ginger dressing for about 10 minutes while I shredded up some cabbage, julienned some bell peppers, sliced some red onion, sliced some avocado, and pulled out the rest of the marinated namul cucumbers. Then I used my rice paper, soaked them to soften, and made some fresh salad wraps. Oh wow...so tasty.

FITNESS

Yesterday I went for a great run at the park. My garmin has been acting strange, so I wanted to run where there were some mile post markers. After my rocket fuel/green juice, my run felt absolutely awesome. It was muggy, but not yet hot at that time of morning. I did 4 miles around the lake before heading back to the van.

As I'm walking down the trail from the lake loop to the parking area, I get met by an enormous snake. Okay, maybe it wasn't technically enormous, but it was bit enough for me to notice. And to squeal.

I really need to get back in the pool and on the bike. I have a tri in a month, and the past two weeks have been just running. I was hoping to take a Saturday or Sunday and drive up to Richmond to at least ride the bike and run the course, but I don't think I'll get the chance (next weekend is my anniversary, then it's the 4th of July, then it's pretty much Tri time!). D downloaded the race maps for me so I can look at them on google maps to get a better idea of what I'm in for. I'm nervous because Richmond has hills - and we don't down here. If I can see what the elevation looks like, maybe I'll be less nervous.

LIFE

The past few days have been relaxing. The house is clean, the wash is done, the fridge and cupboards are full again, and I've gotten to catch up with several of my friends.

As a thank you to S and N for taking such good care of my dog, cat, and turtle while I was away, I ordered and had shipped a selection of frozen custards from Kopp's, which was a childhood favorite. There are a few things that are quite unique to WI where I grew up. One of those is frozen custard. While I don't eat it anymore since becoming vegan, I do remember how very tasty it is. It's also a crime to call it "ice cream". I wanted to bring a bit of home to my friends, especially since it's something that can't be bought here. As I had hoped, it was a big hit with them.

I also brought home some Sprecher soda from Milwaukee for AC and JC. It's another thing you can't buy here, and when AC and I were out a few weeks ago, she had a Sprecher Ginger Ale that she liked. I mentioned that they made the most awesome root beer too, and she mentioned her husband JC is a fan. So we brought back some ginger ale, root beer, cream soda, and orange dream for them as well.

The school year is now finally over, though A has to go to summer school (to keep academic honors at her primary high school and still be able to attend her art high school, she has to take summer classes every year - she only takes 2 academic classes a day, and then is at the university for art all afternoon). R does daycare full time, so I picked her up a new Japanese bento box for lunches. It's a fun little ninja panda. The least I can do is make lunch fun!

I'm declaring my container garden a pseudo success. Things are definitely growing, and that's awesome - just not as much as I had thought. Here are some pics of what I have. Enough for a dish or two total, but certainly not enough to sustain my family! R had fun picking what was ready to go.

I've been thinking a lot about the future the past couple of weeks. I think attending a funeral will do that though. I really need to start doing some more solid planning. I have one daughter starting college in two years, and my son following two years after that. And then before I know it, my little one will be heading that way as the older two are finishing. I want to be able to retire at a good age, and even be able to work part time in the last 5-10 years or so. I want to be prepared for any possibilities that my family may face and make sure that we have the savings and everything else in line that we need to make sure that regardless of what the future holds, that we're ready. It's time to brush off and update legal documents, take a hard look at the investment accounts, and have those difficult - but necessary - conversations about long term healthcare, powers of attorney, end of life wishes, etc. I want to work harder at being totally debt free too - that's certainly not something I want hanging over mine or my children's heads. That was a new year's goal, and while I've made some minor progress, I'm no where near what I want to be. I've spent much of my adult life thinking I was still young enough to really do detailed planning "later", but you know what? It's later. And it's time. I have NO clue what that road map is going to look like yet, but I sure as heck am going to spend the next several months doing some detailed research and planning, talking to the lawyers, and financial planners. Sorry to get so introspective. But I think this is a good thing. Tomorrow doesn't always just take care of itself.

SUBJECT CHANGE....

So tomorrow is Father's Day! So far the only thing D wants to do is go out to breakfast. He wanted to do some geocaching this weekend, but aside from it being ridiculously hot, it's also been forecasted to storm every day (though you all know my thoughts on meteorology....how can you say there's a 70% chance of major storms, it NOT drizzle at all, and still be considered correct???), so he didn't actually go. Maybe tomorrow if the weather holds, but I somehow doubt it. If he ever gets around to telling me what he wants for dinner, I'll make that, and probably a cake or cupcakes. I'm guessing it'll be a nice low-key Sunday with my family. Here's hoping!

No Nut Touching

2011-06-16T08:40:00.000-04:00

I apologize yet again for a long delay between blog posts. My family and I had to travel for a funeral, and while I try to keep my posts mostly light hearted, I didn't feel light of heart most of the time we were gone - and didn't think a blog post would be fun to read or write. Below are some highlights of the week.

FOOD

Eating on the road is tough. The first day of the drive was fine; we had a cooler and bags of food packed for the five of us. It was the REST of the trip that was pretty difficult.

We stopped at Timbucktoo in Fremont, IN on the way up. It was a cute place, though a little interesting. I had a small salad and a portabello mushroom sandwich. We were all pretty exhausted by the time we reached this place, so ordering dinner was funny. M noticed that on the menu was a dish or two that contained nuts, and pointed it out to D and I. So when we were all ordering, D was trying to articulate that none of the food that came to our table could have nuts or be made near any nuts, since our youngest has such a severe allergy. What came out of his mouth, however, was that there could be no nut touching. I think the waitress turned red, and we all lost it in hysterical laughter. He was finally able to explain that none of our food could have nuts touching it....but for the past week now, whenever one of us wants to laugh, we just just No Nut Touching and everyone giggles.

We spent the night in South Bend, IN, and since it was M's bday the next morning (poor kid....having to travel on his bday), he picked breakfast. We went to Perkin's.

I did pack my Vitamix and chocolate Vega powder, so I knew at the very least, I could make smoothies - and I did! That made me full enough where all I ordered at breakfast was a bowl of fruit, and I was fine.

Otherwise, most of my meals consisted of oatmeal, salads, or pasta. A week of that gets to be not only very boring, but I also started feeling weighed down. I knew by the last day or so we were gone, that I was going to have to do a cleanse of some sort when I got back home. I can't describe the leaden feeling my body has, and I just wanted to purge it all and do a "reset" back to my normal way of eating. In that vein, I purchased this book for my Kindle and read it on the journey back home. It's a raw food detox book, and since I have been oh so slowly migrating towards more raw foods in my diet (or "higher raw"), I thought this would be a good road map for me as well.

I mostly enjoyed the book, and am always happy to learn more about nutrition and how different foods affects my body. Most of it made a lot of sense, though some of it was a little too off the deep end, even for me. I have decided to incorporate many of the suggestions, but not all of them (no colonic for me, please).

One of the things I liked about the book is that it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Going to hard and fast (cold turkey) into a raw food lifestyle can be uncomfortable as your body detoxes too quickly. She has a graduated approach, and what level you are is based on a quiz in the book to determine what your lifetime of eating habits have been. I was surprised to find I'm only a Level 3 (I had though I'd be a 2 possibly), but am going to follow her advice for a while and see how it goes.

In a nut shell - fresh green juices for breakfast, and as much fruit as I want to eat until lunchtime. Lunch will be a raw meal of my choosing (salads, wraps using raw breads/tortillas, spiralized veggies with a raw marinade, etc...), and a cooked meal for dinner. She calls this "raw until dinner", and I don't think I'll have any problems with doing that as long as I'm prepared. I will update the blog on how I'm feeling (since today is really the first day). Breakfast so far was 1/2 a cup of coffee (maybe I'll get to NO coffee someday!) and a green juice (romaine lettuce, celery, lemon, apple, ginger). I have some cut up melons, blueberries, bananas, and strawberries for when I get hungry until lunch. I haven't decided on what lunch will be yet though!

Last night, I soaked some flax and sunflower seeds, then this morning I ground those up with the veggie pulp from my juice and some spices to make a raw bread, which is going in the dehydrator now. I also juiced a pound and a half of carrots (needed the pulp for other things), but of course can't let that go to waste, so I added some celery, orange, and apple, and will have a lovely orange juice ready for me later. I know I should drink the juice right after it's made, but I'm full from the green juice, so I'm just going to have to wait.

FITNESS

There wasn't much fitness this past week. After the first day of driving, we arrived in IN at about 10pm. I was antsy (you don't exactly expend a ton of energy sitting in a mini van for 15 hrs), so I hopped on the treadmill at the hotel's fitness center. I really, really needed it, though it woke me up even more, so it was after midnight before I fell asleep.

I was shocked and upset to find out our hotel in WI did not have a fitness center. It was surprising because they had an indoor pool. And unfortunately, it was a bit out in the country, so the roads in the surrounding areas would not have been safe to run on....I'd have either gotten lost or ended up as road kill.

There was also no way to workout in our room. Although we had booked the 2 room suite, we barely fit. They were the tiniest rooms I'd ever seen! The kids were stacked on top of each other, and we had to crawl over their pull out bed and cot to get to the other room. I'm sure this lack of workouts very much contributed to that leaden feeling I picked up while gone.

I'm looking forward to getting my workouts and training back on track! I have a Tri in a month...and I need to get ready.

LIFE

Life this past week has been a mixture of things. Sad at having to say goodbye to an important person in my family, happy at getting to see family we haven't seen in years, busy because of the driving and organization needed, and grateful for having a great friend who took care of Sammie, Bumble, and Kiko while we were away. I spent much of it feeling reflective, which can be hard also.

The second day of the trip up to WI was my son's 14th bday. Of course it was a big bummer for him to not get to go to school and spend it with his friends. Fortunately - my brother in law, Uncle M, picked out a great spot for his bday dinner/party. We went to Dave & Busters to have dinner and let the kids play video games. My sister's family was there, as well as my parents, my Aunt, and my Grandma. The kids had a blast, and M mentioned that he thought he had a great bday after all. I'm so happy for my family being able to give him that under the circumstances of our trip.

We had dinner at my sister's house, and also spent an afternoon where the kids and my parents came to our hotel to go swimming, and that was fun. It was awesome to see all the cousins playing together and having such a great time. I wish there was a way we could do that more often.

So here are some more pictures of the week...

So now life is about getting back on track, but not losing sight of all that went on this past week. I have a great family that I need to do a better job at keeping in touch with (how much fun will it be to let the little cousins skype?!), and make a better effort to visit with (it's been 3 1/2 years since my entire family went to visit). It's so easy to think that my individual life in VA is so busy and demanding, that I barely have time for anything else. Out of sight, out of mind can be a dangerous thing. I do not want another sad event to be what brings my family all back together.

Until then, it's time to get my house and family back in order and on track, and then plan trips to see family, emails and letters with pictures, and making sure that the communications stay open and frequent.

The Sun Went Out (So We Bought a New One)

2011-06-05T09:58:00.000-04:00

FOOD

I've had some good and not so stellar food moments in the past 4 days. I am very glad I packed so much food to take down to NC with me, I really mostly ate that.

I had Panera's one day for lunch, which was good, and otherwise lunches consisted of salads from the salad bar at the hospital. I brought bananas with me in case I got hungry, but essentially, I felt pretty well prepared.

The last evening I was there we went out to dinner. It was a cute place called Blue Moon Bistro, a trendy little tapas restaurant in Beaufort. We figured it would be more likely to have food I can eat than most others (as you can imagine, the location is very heavy on the seafood - which is totally appropriate for that area - but really light on the vegetarian/vegan options).

I started with a salad that was really yummy. It was mixed greens and quite a bit of fruit - which I forget I like in my salads and usually never remember to put in the ones I make.

For my other dish, I had asked the waitress what was vegan on the menu. She indicated that she could talk to the chef, and he could make me a rice and veggies dish without the butter and cheese. I thought that was great, and I was looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, there was tons of ham in it, and I obviously wouldn't eat it. The waitress was really upset - and I told her not to be. So they brought me a veggie side dish. It was - essentially - canned corn with some snow peas, tomatoes, and crispy onions.

not a vegan risotto....

tasted just like canned corn, so I didn't eat much of it

Friday morning I had a few spelt cakes and a banana before I drove back to VA. I didn't stop anywhere on the way, but wasn't too terribly hungry either.

Friday evening we went out to Cogan's Pizza and it was awesome. Aside from a nice Irish Pale Ale, I had one of the best pizza's I've ever had. They have vegan cheese, so I wasn't relegated to my usual veggie pizza without cheese (which don't get me wrong...I love). So for the first time in a LONG time, I had a cheese and veggie pizza! It was the vegan cheese, red onion, tomato, and artichoke hearts. Absolutely delicious!

I also ate some for both breakfast and dinner on Saturday! I think it'll be breakfast today too....

For lunch Saturday, my girlfriends organized going out to one of my favorite Turkish restaurants, Pasha Mezze. I had a couple glasses of wine (I was being chauffeured!), the maiden cake, and some red lentil soup. We also had a hummus and olive appetizer. Everyone loved their food, and it was a really nice couple of hours with friends before we leave for WI on Tuesday.

FITNESS

Working out at the hotel consisted mostly of using their treadmill and the 20 minute yoga podcasts on my iPod. I did use my workout DVD one day though - but I forgot to bring my dumbbell's. The front desk looked at me funny when I asked if I could take the weights back to my room for an hour or so to workout, and then bring them back. I said the alternative would be to bring my laptop and DVD down into the little workout room, and anyone else in there would have to watch and hear it. They let me take them to my room!

Yesterday was swim and run. R had her usual swim lesson at 9am, and I swam my laps while she did hers. We were running a few minutes late, so my workout was down to 20 minutes. She got into the pool on time, but then I had to go lock our stuff up in the locker room, so by the time I got into the pool, it was almost 910. I decided to sprint as many laps as I could instead of the steady pace I usually have. I ended up doing 650 yds at a faster pace.

I normally take R to gymnastics too, but because of my girls luncheon, D was doing that. R and I came home, D made a snack for her, and then I went to run. My oldest A sort of came with me. She is working on a photography project for school, and the theme is Becoming. She decided I am the focal point, and it's about my progression in becoming healthy. So she hopped on her brother's electric scooter, and arranged herself along the route (sometimes lying in people's yards) to take shots of me along the way. We're also going to pick up a fast food meal for her to take pictures of, and then dinner tonight, which will be a healthy and typical meal of what I currently eat.

LIFE

This past week was mainly focused hard on work. Aside from the work trip, most of my time when I wasn't at the hospital, was spent in my room working on either the materials for them, or from my regular day to day job. Since I'm going to be out of town, I want to be sure I'm caught up before I leave.

I did spend some time Wednesday evening wandering around by the water. It was a beautiful evening for it.

view from my hotel

I couldn't go into the water here...

so I went to the Atlantic Beaches area just down the road

fun little bird prints

lazy litterbugs ruining our beaches

I left in the later part of the morning on Friday, and was about 2 1/2 hrs down the road when I got a call from Travel Services at work. They had been contacted by the hotel - I apparently left my laptop there. Ugh. I wasn't about to turn around and drive to get it, just to drive another 4 hrs home. I had to have the rental back by 5, so that wasn't really an option. D called, and they're going to ship it to my friends house (the one who is puppy sitting for us while we're away).

D had arranged haircuts for him and the kids for Friday evening at 6. The salon we like has a men's salad (Jake's place), a regular salon (Changes hairstyling), and a day spa (Changes City Spa) in 3 different buildings. D and M went to Jake's, and A and R went to Changes. I didn't get my hair done. They all enjoyed their experience and have great cuts too!

before...

...after

Afterwards, we went to eat. While we were waiting, we perused a comic book shop that was next store, and R got 3 comic books she couldn't stop reading during dinner. It was cute.

In the same little block, there is a small fitness center that had a really funny sign....

Saturday morning I was the first up, as usual. I fed Sammie, and went to turn Kiko's lamp on and feed him. His sun was out, which made me feel terrible. He's a turtle, and he needs his sunlight! So....he had to pretend he lived in Alaska while D went to the pet store and pick up a new bulb.

And now with that last picture....I'm off to hit the gym to work off the pizza I just ate for breakfast!

Speed Limits. Recognize Them. Obey Them, or PULL OVER

2011-05-31T19:29:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Last night was too hot for a real meal, so I munched on some fruit, and that was pretty much it. D and the kids ate though, so I guess that's what matters.

First thing this morning I checked on my crackers. They look so cool....D didn't like them, but he doesn't like bell peppers. I'm looking forward to eating them with some hummus!

Breakfast this morning was coffee (which was better than the coffee I had all weekend because I didn't have to make it!), cereal, vanilla soy milk, and a banana.

I marinated the tofu, whipped up a tofu eggless salad, and a batch of Moroccan lentils too. I'm back in NC for the rest of the week for work, and finding vegan-friendly restaurants was tough the past few times I was here. My hotel has a microwave and fridge, so there was really no excuses to not pack my own food.

tofu marinated in OJ, soy sauce, mirin, garlic, ginger, and cayenne (from Vegan Lunch Box)

after baking...perfect snack sized!

1 cup red lentils simmering in 2 cups veggie broth with 2 tsp of Baharat Spice Mix

Baharat Spice from my Christmas spice kit!

added some onions stir fried with more of the spices and mixed in

tofu eggless salad

my bag of food (and yes...a bottle of wine) for my work trip to NC

I had a quick lunch of the eggless salad on raw bread with a chunk of avocado. It's small, but very filling.

FITNESS

I'm a bit sore today! I imagine that my workout yesterday was bound to do that though. It's not an overdone sore - but a good one where I know I worked hard (and smart since I CAN move!).

I went for a run this morning and it was tough. It was already 90 degrees (with the humidity), and while I left home intending to run 4-5, I only made it 3. I had a water bottle with me, and I burned through that so quickly it was crazy.

I packed plenty of workout clothes, workout DVDs, and of course my yoga podcasts on my iPod. There's a fitness center at the hotel, so if I can't run outside here, I at least have a treadmill available to me.

LIFE

The weather has definitely been ridiculously hot. It hit 100 today as I was driving to Morehead City! There's little fun about weather like this.

We decided to bring out the kiddie pool yesterday and fill it up and let the kids play. It was after 6pm, and was still in the 90's and hot. It's sort of funny watching my 16 and 14 yr olds playing in a kiddie pool...but it was still a lot of fun!

trying (and failing) to get Sammie into the pool

Aside from my workout, the rest of the day was spent catching up on the wash, and then hanging out outside with D and the kids. D and I stayed up a little later than normal, and went to bed around 1130.

Today was work and meetings in the morning, and then picking up my rental car and driving down to Morehead City, NC. My rental is probably the nicest I've had in a long time (it's arranged through work), and I have a 2011 Ford Explorer. It's comfy and everything is touch screen. Down side?? No way to plug in my ipod....so I had to listen to the radio. Somewhere after Elizabeth City, my radio station faded out, and I was given the choice between 4000 country stations, a classical music station, religious radio, and one classic rock station. Since I'm not a country fan....classic rock it was. Some was good (like Def Leopard, CCR, and even an REO Speedwagon song I knew). Some....not so much. Note to self...pack CD's next time.

One annoying thing about this 4 hr drive is the speed limit changes. It's 55 in VA, but jumps up to 70 as soon as you hit NC. Then it goes between 45-75 the rest of the way. I was getting very aggravated being boxed in behind cars going 52 mph in the 70 zone. I tried calling my Dad to whine about it, but he wasn't home. I decided I needed a flashing neon sign to put on top of my car to flash messages at my fellow drivers, such as "speed limit is 70 you moron. Speed up or get off the road!). I wouldn't mind if they just didn't want to speed. Heck..I don't speed anymore than 2 mph over the speed limit (hello....speeding tickets!). So I can understand. But going UNDER??? No excuses for that. Either too old to drive or too distracted to drive. Either way - shouldn't be driving. So get off the road, and let the rest of us keep our sanity!

So I made it here around 6pm, and I have a ocean view room, which is nice. The pool is open and I'm probably going to spend some time sitting poolside, reading, and munching on tofu!

White Girl Freaky and Ghetto Funky

2011-05-30T17:27:00.000-04:00

FOOD

I hate to make coffee. I think I've said that before, but I find it incredibly tedious. I'm a little annoyed that I had to make coffee three times this weekend! You'd think that D would set it up - just like he does during the week - to make my morning's easier. After all...I'm the one who gets up every weekend morning before everyone else does (usually it's because of swimming or Sammie - who does a single bark every 30 seconds after 630 am until someone wakes up and feeds her).

I woke up yesterday around 730am. I was enjoying some peaceful time (the rest of the family are NOT early risers - neither am I usually, but Sammie gives me no choice) drinking my coffee and catching up on blog reading. I even added about a half dozen new blogs to my Reader list - mostly relating to being a vegan athlete.

I made Banana Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding for breakfast, which was really good. I used the last of my frozen bananas, but that's okay. That's pretty easy to replenish.

after all the ingredients were mixed together

thick, chocolaty, banana pudding, ready after just a half hour

Lunch was apparently unremarkable since I can't remember. I know I ate at home - but I have no idea what it was! Knowing me, probably some fruit, crackers, and hummus.

I decided I wanted a summertime fruity drink, so I did some research and took off for ABC (for those that don't live here - it's the ONLY liquor store allowed - it's government run). I picked up some vodka, Bahama Mama mix, Bloody Mary mix (do you have any idea how hard it is to find a vegan one????), Creme de Banana, and then mixers from the grocery - OJ, pineapple juice, watermelons, ginger ale, seltzer, white wine, etc. Yeah - I had a LOT of intentions....now I just have a really full liquor cabinet. Anyway, I made a pitcher of peach sangria - white wine, seltzer, peach juice, and agave. It was really boring and blah tasting, so D dumped in some pineapple juice and more wine. It was still blah, but I had a couple glasses anyway, then ended up dumping the rest.

For dinner, I had a jar of split pea soup that I canned back in the winter with some Thai jasmine rice thrown it. It was really good, and marks the first time I ate one of the soups I canned!

Breakfast this morning was green smoothie from Vegan by Valerie. I followed the recipe exactly except substituting my natural flavored Vega powder for the pea protein powder her recipe has. It was really tasty, filling, and powered me through an intense 3 hr workout without feeling hungry or having a dip in energy. Can't beat that! I did marvel as I was biking that I happen to have all the other ingredients on hand as a normal part of my pantry. My, how my eating habits have changed over the years!

banana, flax, chocolate, spinach, chia seed smoothie

Right before breakfast, I whipped up half a batch of Savory Pepper Flax Chips that is currently going in the dehydrator. I have a LOT of traveling coming up in the next few weeks, and I really need to get my take along food going. I'm really excited to try these, as I love flax crackers, and I get an immense satisfaction out of making all my own food. There's nothing like really knowing what you're eating.

I am spending the rest of this week (starting about 2pm tomorrow) in NC for work. I've been there a few times now, and while I'm excited it'll be hot and I can check out the beach - I know they don't really have food I can eat. My hotel does have a fridge and microwave though, so as long as I bring food I can eat, it'll be fine.

I get back Friday eve, then I have the weekend to do wash, pack, and more cooking - and we hit the road for WI early Tuesday morning. All the more reason to be prepared on the food front.

Lunch was a simple quinoa pasta dish. I took the last of my quinoa pasta (about 2 ounces worth), and boiled it with some frozen artichoke hearts, white corn, and baby peas. I melted a tablespoon of Earth Balance butter into it, and sprinkled with pepper. Not glamorous, but it's always a good standby when I'm hungry. It made two servings, so I can either have some for breakfast, or take the rest with me to NC tomorrow.

I've also had a couple Bloody Mary's. I mean really - why buy out a liquor store and NOT make a drink (or 3)?

I'm also pressing a brick of tofu to marinate and bake up for my trip this week. Dinner is looking like it'll be a raw cucumber noodle dish I came across this morning in my blog readings.

FITNESS

Yesterday I rested. I wanted to run, but I felt really run down. I actually took a nap - which is rare for me. I hadn't slept well the night before, and I think it just caught up with me. I've noticed since early April that my allergies are terrible - worse than normal even. I've always had really bad allergies (I used to get allergy shots every other day for several years), but since having R 7 years ago, they've gotten much better. Anyway, I thought it was just that my honeymoon period of 7 years without regular allergy attacks was over, until I read this. I feel a bit validated that it's truly a terrible allergy season, but it's still wreaking havoc on my life. The Zyrtec I take - which works great - also knocks me out. D has also been hit with allergies, so he tends to snore when he lands on his back, and it always wakes me up. Anyway - I'm already a pretty lousy sleeper, so when he wakes me, it's hard for me to fall back asleep. I started using these foam earplugs - but my ears are shaped weird, and the left one keeps popping out. Not fun. So...to make a short story long, I was too wiped to do much yesterday except nap and read!

Today though, I'd like to think I made up for it! I picked up some wax based ear plugs (that aren't dependent on fitting into my oddly shaped ear canal), and those worked like a charm! I slept a full 8 hrs straight!

After breakfast today, I planned my workout. I biked to the gym (7 miles round trip), lifted weights for an hour (thanks to my ActivTrax printout at the Y), ran on the treadmill for 4 miles, and then swam before biking home! All told - it took 3 hrs. I wore my Tri suit so I wouldn't have to do a ton of wardrobe changes. And since I swam last, I didn't mind being a bit damp during the 90 degree bike ride back home.

I'm not sure what workout options I'll have in NC. When I was there in March, the fitness room at my hotel was closed due to construction - so I'm going to pack some weights and videos, and if I can find a place to run outside that is safe and where I won't get lost, I'm going to do that. There's no YMCA or Bally's there (two gym's where I have a membership), so I'll have to get creative. I did download several Yoga workouts to my iPod just in case too.

LIFE

I mentioned that Sunday was a pretty lazy day. I woke up early, enjoyed my morning, and went to church. Since we moved from Virginia Beach to Chesapeake, I've been trying to find a Catholic church that I really like. I'm from WI (where pretty much everyone is Catholic), but moving to the South 7 years ago - not so much. As a result, I don't go frequently, and that's been eating at me for quite a while. My friend S pointed it out to me the other day, and encouraged me yesterday that I would feel better about the events in my family if I just went. She was absolutely right. I forget how going to church makes me feel. I'll be honest - I'm what you call a "cafeteria Catholic" - I pick and choose what I want. But frankly - a good service makes me feel good. I think my sister put it perfectly several years ago when we were talking about it - going makes me want to be a better person. It's so different from when I was a kid, when it felt (to a child) that it was all about the rules and the repercussions of not following them. Now, it's about Social Justice - paying back to the community and those less fortunate, being understanding and forgiving of others, the message being more important that the literal interpretation, and tolerance. The sermon was great, and talked about the recently confirmed teenagers in the parish. Getting them (or me...as a totally 'wired' adult) to put the cell phones, ipods, etc down for an hour and listen is tough. But get them involved in community outreach (those affected by storms, homeless shelters, soup kitchens), and suddenly there's meaning behind actions. I prayed for/to my Grandma, said hi to her since I know she can hear me, and left Mass feeling whole. Thanks S - even though you may not be reading this. You gave me the kick in the butt I needed.

D wasn't up to going anywhere yesterday (beach, pool, Busch Gardens, Watercountry), so we stayed home. After my nap and ABC trip, we made dinner, and the 5 of us sat down to watch a couple things. First on the agenda - the season finale of American Idol. Now, we're not regular watchers, and frequently lose interest. D and I already knew who won, so we really didn't care. We watched it because this is the second reality TV show in a row where R's favorite won. She wanted Boston Rob to win Survivor - and he did - and she's LOVED Scotty McReery from day 1 on AI, so since we knew he won...we all watched it. It was actually a fun show with Jack Black, Judas Priest (did I mention that the drummer was at my friends wedding last month?!?!? He and the groom grew up together), Tom Jones, Tony Bennett, etc. Fun show.

while I was at ABC, R was apparently lying on my bed playing her Nintendo....

After that, we HAD to watch the first episode of So You Think You Can Dance. This is probably one of our very favorite shows. Really...anyone who watches Dancing with the Starts (which we don't), would dump it after seeing this show and the athletes/professional dancers really dancing. It's amazing. One girl was auditioning in San Francisco, and one of the judges referred to her as white girl freaky and ghetto funky. I thought that was the best line I'd heard in awhile (and perfectly apt for this dancer).

After that, we all pretty much went to bed.

This morning I woke up around 830 (talk about TOTALLY sleeping in!), and D woke up about 15 minutes later. Too bad I had already started coffee :(

We made a big breakfast (smoothie just for me), then I hit the workout. After getting home, it was shower, lunch, bloody mary's, and laundry. I'm hoping tonight we watch one of our Netflix movies (King's Speech or The Tourist), and then I have to pack for my week in NC. If not...maybe some True Blood or Glee!

I'm leaving you with a picture of A that D took Saturday evening when they went to dinner and art shows.

I Have a Tofu Superhero

2011-05-28T19:36:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Yeah...I know...it's been an entire week since I posted. I haven't been neglectful on purpose, I promise. I really need to do smaller posts more frequently than the novels I end up writing...okay, so no guarantees any will be short....but still. Sorry it's been a week (again).

So what's the easiest way to summarize a week's worth of eating? With pictures I suppose! I didn't take photos of everything (like last night's Pho for example), but I did snap a few.

I made two dishes on Sunday, and couldn't decide which to have - so I had both. On the left is a favorite of mine from Love, Veggies, and Yoga (I used Red Thai Curry spice) and a split pea soup recipe from the Candle Cafe.

not pretty, but tasty.

My smoothie one morning came out much thicker than I usually do - more the consistency of ice cream than a smoothie. Rather than let it sit in my glass for 5 minutes to melt, I decided to put it in a bowl and sprinkle the homemade buckwheat granola I made in my dehydrator on it. Sort of like having ice cream for breakfast. I felt a little naughty doing that!

blueberry, banana, strawberry, and chocolate "smoothie" with granola

One night my daughter A and my friend AC went out for Thai food after an art show. I had my typical fresh spring rolls and green curry - though I was annoyed they put mushrooms in it. They don't do that on the lunch menu, and I'm not a fan of mushrooms except portabella's.

lots of veggies! All good - except the mushrooms which I probably removed prior to the taking the picture!

steamed tofu spring rolls

Friday afternoon I met D out for lunch at one of our favorite Japanese places. He had hibachi like he pretty much always does, and I had veggie and cucumber rolls.

After I took A to an eye doctor appointment (contact lens check), we hit Skinny Dippers! It's a local frozen yogurt buffet place where you just pay by the ounce. They often make vegan soy ice cream, and they list every morning on their Facebook page what their flavors are at each location. It just so happens that the one by me had Mint Chocolate Soy Ice Cream. So of course I HAD to go!

mint chocolate ice cream with fresh pineapple and strawberries

FITNESS

I pretty much only ran this week (with the exception of today). It's been a busy week, and it's the only activity I had time for. To be honest - swimming involves a trip to the gym, and biking involves driving to the trails so I can ride safely - and when time is limited, there's nothing like a run from out the front door. No travel required other than what my feet can handle.

I will admit that two of my runs were on the treadmill though. For both, it was over 90 degrees, and I'm just not acclimated to quite that intense heat just yet. It's like VA didn't gradually warm up this year. It was 50 one day, and 85 the next! When that happens, I typically run after dark (after 9-930 pm), but I didn't have that option two days this week. I had evening plans, and had to do a run right after getting home - which was still full sun, full hot, and not comfortable to run in.

This morning I went swimming as I do every Saturday with R. She does her lesson, and I do laps. I only got in 950 yds, but it was due to a wonderful surprise. I was up at 730 this morning (slept in!) and R and I were out the door by 845. D was still sleeping, and I didn't want to wake him, so when we left, we did so quietly (the teenagers were also still asleep). Anyhow, I was coming to the wall to turn around, and I saw an outline of a person sitting right by the lane. I stopped, and noticed it was D! He woke up, realized we didn't say goodbye, so he came to the pool to say hello and give us each a quick kiss. It was really cute, and very much made me smile. We chatted for a few, and then he left.

After the lesson/laps were over, R and I went into the other pool and played catch with the football, hung out in the hot tub, and then hit the showers. Then it was on to her gymnastics class and then home.

I'm going for a run tonight after D and A get home. For once, I wanted to write my blog BEFORE 11pm!

LIFE

What can I say, life has been anything but dull this week. It was definitely a hectic work week, and D and I were both really busy at the office. For me it was the usual - tons of meetings and trying to get things done. On the work front, it was a good week, and I can't complain at all.

Wednesday D and I had a work outing. Typically, we can't both go - A doesn't get home from school until 6ish, so one of us has to be around to pick her up. It's usually D who does. It just so happens that Wednesday was A's eye dr appt at 2, so when it was done, I didn't take her back to school. All 3 kids were home by 430. So we totally had a Haley's comet evening - once in a blue moon, the planets align, and D and I can BOTH attend these. It was a nice and very needed evening.

Thursday was a juried art show at my daughter's art school. I took A, and my friend AC met us there. I was blown away by some of the pieces on display. It's hard to remember sometimes that I'm looking at the work of high school students. One in particular got my attention, and I actually took a picture of it and her description of the work. First of all - I was impressed by her narrative. It made me look that much more closely at the work itself. Essentially - she has grown up in a family where everyone smokes except her (mom, dad, sister). She's struggled with it and seeing their addiction to something they know can and will kill them someday. Over a 3 week period, she collected their cigarette butts and made a very moving piece - completely out of those butts. I just thought it was pretty awesome.

After the show, we walked across the street for some awesome Thai food. As I was looking at the menu and trying to find a dish I wanted to try more than my usual green curry (I obviously failed), I noticed a menu item called Tofu Tod. It sounded good, except the peanut sauce, but I thought the name was fun. So....my daughter brought out her sketch book and drew me a Tofu Tod...the Superhero. I thought that was pretty groovy too.

Friday was a difficult day as we received word of a family event back home in WI - that while we knew was imminent - was sad just the same. We are making arrangements here to be traveling back home in a little over a week to spend time with family and honoring the memory of a loved one.

In typical fashion, my very good friend S came to my house to "rescue" me for a bit and be exactly what a good friend is - just there to listen, comfort, and try to make you giggle. We went for a couple glasses of wine and telling stories of fond memories of family. It was exactly what I needed.

D and I decided that we were going to take the kids shopping. They all needed some new clothes, and certainly needed clothing that was more appropriate for our trip. So after everyone was home, we went to the mall, shopped for a bit, walked around, had dinner, kept each other's spirits up, and just spent time as a family. It was very nice.

Today was a typical whirl wind Saturday. Swimming, gymnastics, lunch, house work, and yard work. All of that was done by 1pm. I left around 2 to take R and M to see Kung Fu Panda 2 (I liked it more than the first one!), and D took A driving downtown (eek...freeway driving) and then to dinner, and right now they're at a senior art show. I imagine this evening will be quiet, with maybe a movie from Netflix after my run and shower and I'm snugly in my jammies.

Holy Rampage Batman...It's Another Novel!

2011-05-21T23:21:00.000-04:00

So this is my 200th post! I can't believe I've been keeping this blog for about a year and a half, and the evolution it's taken in that time. It was initially a way to keep me honest about my training, and has turned into being so much more for me. It's a way to get my thoughts out, keep people I both know and have "met" through blogging updated on what's going on in my head and kitchen, and to connect with people around the world. It's cathartic, it's fun, and I find myself thinking about what I'm going to write about during the day and getting excited to sit and get it from my melon into written word. So thanks to you all for reading....and hope you never get bored with what I have to say!

FOOD

Friday wasn't a very inspired food day. It was too busy to be creative! I did, though, have a certain revelation (if you could call it that).

I wanted to get into the office early (around 730), so I only had java at home, and I packed up the leftover potato/cauliflower Indian curry and brown jasmine rice to have once I was there and settled. It was a fairly large serving since I knew it would need to tide me over until close to 1pm due to my meeting schedule.

Holy cow, am I glad I did that. I ate it around 830 as I was prepping for a 9am team meeting, which then turned into the audit meeting, which then turned into me having to drive from where my office is to another one of our corporate buildings because the silly vendor I work with often sent the software discs to the wrong place and I had to go get them. I got there, and ended up having an impromptu meeting with my boss, which meant I had no time to grab my planned wrap on my way to the tour of our new-but-not-yet-opened hospital. By the time I was headed back to my end of town, it was 3pm and I was more than a little hungry.

I was supposed to have a 3pm finance/happy hour meeting, but it ended up being canceled. I was bummed - I wanted both the information I needed and a beer (not to mention the meeting was with a friend that would give us a chance to catch up). D was going to stop out and meet up with us when he got done with his afternoon meetings, so I decided to go anyway. What the heck - I had my Kindle, I was hungry, and it WAS happy hour after all - so I went and spent about 45min-1hr by myself reading, eating, and having a drink. D got there, he had a beer, we chatted about our respective day, and then it was time for us to go and divide and conquer picking up our girls (R was at daycare, A got home early - 5pm - because their school had an event, and M was already home via the school bus). It was a nice mini-break.

We went to a place that has a very large selection of burgers - with a vegan veggie burger option. I wasn't in the mood for anything fancy, so I had their homemade burger on a whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, mustard, and ketchup. I cut it in half, ate while reading, and was just feeling happy and peaceful. I got full after half the burger, put the plate to the side, and concentrated on my book (and beer).

D and I went over to our friends' house around 9 for a couple drinks, and on the way we had a talk about an NPR segment he had been listening to. It was about Mississippi and the recent declaration that they are the most obese state in the country - which is the most obese country in the world - which makes MS the most obese place on earth. The segment had to do with the correlation between obesity and poverty and the lack of understanding of basic nutrition. I thought it could go a step further than that - I'm working on a research article that takes the data that made experts draw that conclusion - and extends it to education levels and the access to healthcare and healthcare insurance (that's a BIG passion of mine - healthcare coverage).

It was during this conversation that I had a realization about my own journey to being healthy. It was something very small and insignificant to most people, but quite an ah-ha moment for me. I ate half of my veggie burger. I stopped eating when I was full. I'm not sure how I got to this point (FINALLY) in my life, but I can honestly say that there were plenty of times in my past (recent past even) when I would have eaten it all just because it was there - or because it was tasty - not paying any attention at all to the signals in my body that it didn't need nor want anything more. Over the many years it took to revamp my health, my habits, and in turn, my body (losing 70 lbs will do that for ya I guess!), I reached what I felt yesterday was a pretty monumental moment of awareness. It's also been fun the past few days really talking about health and nutrition with D. With him really trying to be healthier, it's been mostly one-sided discussions before, but not anymore. He's always been a great listener and very supportive, but now there's a whole different level to it.

Okay, back to my eating. Since I had such a late lunch (about 4ish), I wasn't hungry for dinner. We went to AC and JC's house, and she had a nice tray of olives, hummus, spicy salsa (because I LOVE spice!), pretzels, and tortilla chips, so I had great light snack - and some white wine.

This morning I woke up much earlier than I wanted (by about an hour), so I made a pot of the flavored chocolate covered cherry coffee I picked up at Fresh Market (which I thought was awesome! D didn't - he's not a flavored coffee kind of guy). Oh well - that's what he gets for leaving it to me to make coffee (I HATE setting up the coffee pot. I love coffee - but I really, really hate brewing it). He usually preps it on a timer the night before. And he irons all my clothes for work. I know...so spoiled :)

Saturday's are always busy, so after my coffee I had half a toasted bagel with Earth Balance, and then I was out the door.

For lunch, R and I went to Moe's for my very favorite taco salad! I got (as always) the Personal Trainer with black beans. I also go the marinated tofu with it this time as well. No shell. I usually get the shell because I feel I've earned it - but I looked it up and the calorie difference with the shell is 650 more! I thought that was more obscene than I was willing to deal with. An 850 calorie salad is insane.

I wasn't overly hungry, so I ate half of it while R raved about her quesadilla. It was a nice girls lunch with my littlest one.

lettuce, black beans, jalapenos, tofu, cucumbers, onions, salsa, hot sauce, cilantro, and guac. YUM.

After we were back home for an hour or so, I had a mild munchies/sweet tooth thing going on, so I made a little dessert plate for myself. I sliced a banana, sprinkled some cinnamon on it, and then put a side of a raw granola I made the other day out of soaked buckwheat groats, raw pumpkin seeds, raisins, vanilla, and agave. It was a recipe I found for a vegan energy bar, and while I couldn't get it to set in bar form, it makes a great granola to sprinkle on things. It was awesome, filling, and just what my sweet tooth needed.

For dinner I made a brown rice pasta with corn and peas, a little Earth Balance, and pepper. Since it was just R and I, I didn't feel like making something elaborate.

FITNESS

My first workout today was a swim. Saturday's are R's swim lesson days, so my swim workout duration is dictated by how long her lesson goes. It's scheduled for a half hour, but typically goes about 35 minutes. Today though, she had a sub who went under, and the class was about 25 minutes. I swam 36 lengths of the pool, so 900 yds. It was mostly just freestyle swimming, but I did a couple drills with the pull buoy. I was annoyed at having to stop at such an unrounded number. Had the instructor gone the entire time, I'd have been able to hit an even 40. Ugh.

I also had a scheduled run today. Since it's been just R and I today, I couldn't run outside, so I had to use the treadmill. It was nearly 7pm before I worked up the energy to do it. I just dread using the treadmill, and 3 miles is about all I can handle before the Hamster Syndrome kicks in. So while R was cleaning (ish) her room, I hopped on the 'mill and got my run in. I do have to say - running on a treadmill is SO much easier than running outside (HELLO...the sidewalk moves FOR you...) so it was probably the easiest run I've had in a long time....but I'd much rather be outside (bug spray and all!).

I have to mention that while I was on Twitter catching up, I learned a girl I follow is in Madison, WI and did a dualthalon near my hometown of Milwaukee in Oconomowoc! I thought that was pretty darned cool. I've heard about the schizophrenic weather up there this year from my family, and I don't envy it. Heck...we've had the air conditioner on for a week now in VA!

LIFE

I mentioned earlier that yesterday was a really busy day. It wasn't a bad one - just busy. My meetings started at 9am, and I thought I was going to have a break between 1130-1 to grab a bite to eat and haul it clear across town to get to my 1pm. The impromptu meeting with my boss (remember...BBE - Best Boss Ever) was both good and bad. Good because we're finally going to get a solid answer on if a particular project is going to get funding and go forward. Bad because I admit - I was getting whiny about something that's been on my nerves for a bit - and I wish I hadn't. I tend to get impatient (okay...I'm almost ALWAYS impatient) and I need to just get over that.

My team meeting was really good. They're a totally awesome group, and for the amount of work they have to do, I'm amazed they stick with me most days. Even the audit meeting was pretty good, and the things they're doing to monitor my systems will just make us better. It's just going to be difficult to schedule the work it's adding into already stretched resources.

Our entire team went on a tour of our new - soon to be opened (August) hospital. It's very pretty! We got to see the areas where our customers will be so we can visualize how the PC set ups will look, and get a general visual of patient flow so we can be sure our applications are optimized to meet their specific needs. This is part of the fun stuff we do.

The early evening was nice, and it was lovely getting to spend some quality time - no matter how brief - with D. He took a quick nap while I made dinner, and then we went to our friends' house for some wine (for AC and I), and beers (for D and JC) and just relaxing and catching up.

This morning I was up early, had some coffee, then got R up to get her ready for swim and then gymnastics. I made her pancakes (really...they should be considered a super food....some of my best workouts are a direct result of pancake consumption), packed up our bag, and we headed out around 845am.

After lessons/swim workout was over, we played for a bit (they have 3 pools at our Y and a hot tub), and then hit the showers. We left around 1015, stopped at the grocery to get a pre-gymnastic snack (banana and crackers and water), and then went to gymnastics. She did her class for an hour while I read (Kindles are awesome), and then we went to lunch and then home.

D took the older two to a local big festival with some of their friends. They left around 1230 (before R and I got home - hence it being just her and I today), and still aren't home yet (it's 1030 pm EST). The festival is at the big city park grounds, and D did some geocaching in the early part of the afternoon. They stayed through fireworks and some rides, and one of A's friends is going to spend the night.

I've spend most of the evening cleaning, doing wash, reading, and working. I caught up on my blog reading, and I really want to highlight one of them. I don't typically do this unless I'm linking to a recipe I've made, but I was so moved by this post that I have to bring it up. It's from H at Where's The Beach and it talks about her motivations to keep working out and eating well. It's such a different perspective than I have, that it really made me think. If you have the time - please - click on it and read her story.

My main motivations for finally taking control of my health were initially family. I watched D be sick off and on for several years with no diagnosis and no idea if he was going to live or die. When he was an inpatient after a particularly ugly episode, I watched him struggle for nearly 2 weeks. The first 4-5 days were hell - he wasn't lucid and was in so much pain it was terrible. It was then that I realized that I cannot possibly continue to be how I was - obese and unmotivated to really change. (have to really give major recognition to my employer here - their mentality is always family first - and I got to spend every second at D's bedside without having to worry about work. BBE and my colleagues handled every detail for me - even brought us dinner - so I could just be there...).

I started to feel selfish - here I am....a perfectly able bodied person who was choosing every day by my actions and inaction's to flush my health and eventually my life down the drain. Who the heck am I to have the right to do that to my children, my family, and my friends?? I was looking at a future of diabetes (type 2 runs in my family), heart disease (yep, we've got that too), strokes (oh yeah...those too), cancer (don't get me started), and many, many things that can be prevented by living healthy. Earlier generations didn't always know what we know now - and I couldn't live with myself if I ended up shortening my life span because I was too lazy to get my life and health under control. There are too many reasons to want to stick around in the best health possible for me to do that to the people I love. Slowly committing suicide via diet and laziness were just NOT going to be my future.

Over the past few years, I've learned to appreciate my body and my improved health and sense of well being. I'm glad I hit that bottom so I could bring myself out of it. It's taken a LONG time and I'm not done yet - but I'm proud that I've come to where I am. I did it the honest way (in my opinion of course), and didn't try for any quick fixes, diet pills, etc. That is right for some people - but it's not for me. I don't think I could have changed my habits and learned the life lessons I needed - the shame I used to associate with food because of how I couldn't stop from overeating - if I had gone about this any other way.

So wow. Again - didn't mean to go off on such a rampage about things so seriously. Sometimes I can't help myself because of how passionate I feel...sorry for the brief (okay, not so brief) tangent.

On a different note, how funny about all the "rapture" stuff today? I can't believe anyone is surprised that it didn't happen! Some 90 year old guy - who incorrectly "predicted" the end of the world in 1994, still manages to make news for something like this? And oh, only the "chosen" will be raptured (is that a word?) today....the world is really going to end in October! Good grief.

Tomorrow should be nice. D and I were talking the other day, and I mentioned how it's awesome how he does individual things with our son (like bball games), but I tend to do all the big things - like taking them to theme parks...things like that. So D is taking R on the first ever Daddy and Me day to a big water park tomorrow. And planning a Kings Dominion day with A (both roller coaster junkies). So that means tomorrow is all about doing my brick workout, and getting a manicure and pedicure!

So it's 1120, and hopefully D and the kids will be home soon. R is passed out on my side of the bed....so I'll have to wait so D and move her (I always wake her up) to her room. Think I'll bust out the Kindle and read until they get back!

I Will Not Be a Buffet!

2011-05-19T21:28:00.000-04:00

FOOD

I finally bought good coffee! D is starting to tire of our Foldger's lifestyle and wanted some good stuff. A couple of weeks ago we had a coupon for buy one get one for coffee grounds from Dunkin Donuts. We thought we liked Dunkin. We were wrong. I think my dislike of it was stronger - probably because I drink coffee black and D loads his up with sugar and creamer so it masks the taste a bit. We tried mixing the grounds with coffee we did like - no luck. Still nasty. My favorite coffee is Illy, but that's REALLY expensive, so I only get it about once a year.

I was at The Fresh Market the other day, and they have two rows with barrels of different roasted coffee beans. I mixed two different coffees together, ground the beans there (I don't have a coffee grinder anymore), and we made it this week. Yummy! Unfortunately - I don't exactly remember which coffees I blended, so I have no idea if I can recreate this week's success.

So aside from a great cup of java this morning, I also made my current favorite smoothie. It's super simple - 1 cup water, 1 scoop Chocolate Vega, 1 banana, and a whole bunch of frozen blueberries. It makes a big 24 oz smoothie, and fills me up for hours thanks to the Vega.

I packed my lunch, but didn't end up eating it. D called to see if I was free to meet him for lunch, and I was, so we met up at a place close to both of our offices. There's a local place called The Cutting Edge that we like to go to. It's the only place in my town I know of that has any vegan menu items (ya know - other than pasta, salads, or things like that). D is a big fan of their turkey and avocado club sandwich, and I love the Vegan Blackened Chick'n Panini. They have several vegan sides, and I typically get the pita and hummus (what can I say...I'm a hummus junkie). I've had the tortilla soup before which is also really good.

okay, so I ate half of the sandwhich and a bite of hummus before I remembered to get my camera! Oops....

After work, I had half of a banana (split it with R), which was just enough for a pre-run snack.

Dinner was what I had intended for lunch; a sandwhich with my latest batch of raw vegan bread from JLGoesVegan - always a master of awesome recipes! The bread came out well, and it definitely has a different flavor than the one I made on Tuesday, so I'm excited about the variety. I layered a red pepper, eggplant, and garlic spread on it and topped with avocado slices, red onion, and cucumber. It was so tasty and filling. Love it!

Don't mind my duplicate pictures. I'm playing with and without flash....nothing fancy mind you - it's my little point and shoot Samsung - but I'm trying to see which takes better photos. Feel free to weigh in :)

with flash...much brighter, but you can't tell those are cucumbers on top

without flash

without flash...

with flash

Just before taking R to her gymnastics class, I made a fresh juice of orange, apple, spinach, carrot, and pineapple. And as I type this...enjoying a nice glass of red wine!

On a totally different tangent....a couple of days ago my husband told me that he wanted to eat more like me. NOT that he's going vegan or anything (he made that clear), but he realizes his diet - left to it's natural devices - is not a good one. With his Crohn's, he doesn't absorb nutrients the way a healthy body does anyway, so to eat mostly nutritionally devoid food is pretty bad for him (worse than it is for the rest of us even). I'm never pushy about the way I eat. I am a very firm believer that everyone has a choice - from religion to politics to dietary habits - life in general. I CHOOSE to be vegan - no one made that choice for me or forced me into it, so I would never do that to another. Because of that, I have spent a long time cooking multiple meals every day. I try to not cook junky meals - I attempt keep them as balanced as I feel I eat, but I do know that when D goes out to lunch or grabs a take out, it's always crap. So I was thrilled when he had this little revelation. I've been waiting a LONG time :) He happily ate the cauliflower/potato Indian curry I made yesterday with brown jasmine rice - and really liked it. He didn't dump a ton of salt on it (which he normally does - but excess salt - common in the American Diet - kills your taste buds and the ability to really taste food - so he's trying there too). So I'm excited to inspire someone I love more than anything to choose to be a healthier person. And lets be honest - I have quite a vested interest in him being healthy and living a very long time...
FITNESS

Today was just a run. It should have been a lifting day too, but I had no time. D had plans this evening, I was on gymnastics duty, and there wasn't time between work and that for both. And you all know - I HATE lifting...which means when forced to choose between that and something else....I choose the "something else".

On my way home from work I stopped off at Target to get some insect repellent. I will NOT be a buffet for the various insectoid life forms buzzing their way around Virginia. I am a vegan. I do not digest the life of a sentient creature - and I expect to be treated in kind. Even if that means I have to stink myself up with nasty bug spray to do it! So be it.

It probably doesn't help that one friend sent me an article on Lyme's Disease today, and another girl mentioned she was assaulted by THREE ticks yesterday - one bit her knee while she was running. Her KNEE! And she doesn't live too far from me, so they're out in force. Deep Woods Off is the closest thing I could find to Front Line for people. I really wanted a nice organic non-smelly option - but all of those only repelled mosquitos. Screw West Nile. I don't want some critter burrowing it's way into my skin and going all vampire on me. No thanks. So stink I will. And refuse to be their smorgasbord.

I will take this moment to reiterate my thoughts on nature. I am a city girl. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE nature. I just don't want it on me. My idea of "roughing it" is a hotel without a bar. So bugs be warned...stay...away....from...me.

LIFE

My day started out early. I bumped my alarm up 10 minutes in my effort to wake early and exercise. So far...that's failing. I'm waking up early and just taking that much longer to get ready in the morning. I'm taking a shower, drinking coffee, making elaborate breakfasts, baking cookies, making elaborate lunches, checking all my emails, reading blogs, reading the headlines...anything but actually do what I intend by getting up that early. Baby steps I guess. At least my butt it out of bed.

I was in the office by 730 this morning which was really nice. My first meeting was a conference call at 8, then another at 9, then an in person meeting at 10. If I don't start work early - I can't actually get anything done because I'm in meetings all day!

I did have a nice chunk of time between 1045 and 1245, so I got a few things done, had lunch with D, and then headed way out to one of our sites a good 30+ minutes away for an afternoon meeting. It ended up being a great meeting - and while I could have dialed in with a conference option, I'm glad that I went in person instead.

After my meetings were all done, I hit the road home, stopped at PetSmart (my almost 9 yr old Lab is taking a joint supplement 2x per day and she needed more. And some toys to destroy), then Target (and they have a food section now! How cool...I bought fresh pineapple at Target!), then to get R from daycare, then home.

R did her homework, M got home from school, and I went for a run while he watched over his little sister. D got home while I was out, and then the evening activities started. I took a shower, D picked A up from school around 6 (she goes to a special art high school in the afternoons from 2-5, and doesn't get back home until quite late), then it was time for R to get ready for gymnastics. I left with her, then D left to meet up with a group of people downtown for beer and pizza, the older two had their typical "fend for yourself Thursday dinner" (aka - leftovers), and now our evening is finally winding down.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day I think. I have a team meeting in the morning, a meeting with audit (okay, so that probably won't be 'fun'), then a tour of our new hospital we're building (have to make sure all my computers are being put in the right places), and then a meeting with a friend of mine that will combine finance discussions with happy hour. Really can't complain about that!

For now, it's time to get the kids off to bed, settle in myself, read for a bit, and then hit the hay!

Ketchup! Oh, I mean Catch Up

2011-05-18T19:32:00.000-04:00

FOOD

I really hate going so long between blog posts. Aside from missing the process of writing, I am now forced to try and remember too many things to write about...AND....you all end up with a novel instead of a post!

So...highlights on the food front since Friday....

Saturday I took the older kids out for sushi. We were doing other things downtown, and stopped in between.

miso soup! I love it - A thinks it's ok - M made a horrible face when he tried it

edamame

my veggie sushi plate

M very excited about his bento box lunch

I made another batch of avocado soup Saturday evening, so I had a bowl of that with chopped tomatoes, broccoli, and some of my crunchy bean sprouts.

with flash...

...without flash :)

my sprout tray

Sunday morning was coffee and then salad wraps with the rest of the spicy quinoa.

Sunday lunch was with S out for Bloody Mary's! I had (aside from Bloody Mary's), a half of a bean and veggie spicy wrap.

Sunday evening I had a baked potato with tofutti "better than sour cream" and Earth Balance, avocado soup, and a salad. Very filling and tasty!

Monday I can't seem to remember at all. I can't remember because I obviously didn't take any pictures, so I have nothing to jog my memory!

Yesterday was A's 16th birthday!!! Dinner was her choice, and she picked chicken cordon bleu, roasted asparagus, and Daddy's Magic Noodles (my husband's only dish - pasta with butter, parm cheese, garlic, and Italian seasoning). And cake of course! For me - I had a shaved fennel and orange salad tossed in olive oil with some black pepper.

I used my new Excalibur dehydrator to make a raw bread recipe from Ani's raw book. I can't get over how much easier to use this dehydrator is. Brilliant kudo's to the person who decided to make it square instead of having that obnoxious hole in the middle like my old cheapo one!

the dough before it went into the dehydrator

dehydrating away!

final product

Breakfast today was a fresh juice with carrot, orange, apple, lemon, and ginger. I also had a couple slices of watermelon. Mid morning, I had some Mary's Gone Crackers and some spicy hummus.

For lunch, I made a sandwich on my raw seeded bread with sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, and red onion. Wow - it was good! I'm so excited!!! I also had leftover fennel and orange salad from dinner last night.

Dinner was a slow cooker meal with potato and cauliflower in Indian spices, rice, and garlic naan. It was a big hit all around, and I'm glad for that.

FITNESS

The last few days have been certainly busy on the workout front, with daily runs (except yesterday). The highlights....

My swim on Saturday was totally awesome. It felt effortless - and like I could have kept going and going like the Energizer Bunny. I was pretty excited by that.

Sunday morning I did a brick at the canal trail. 10 mile ride at a 4 mile run. Both felt pretty good, though I again didn't wear something with pockets, and ended up having to run with my car key in my bra. One of these days I will fully prepare. Oh - and I have to stop eating spicy food right before a hard workout. That's really not fun.

I did see a guy running barefoot. And not at the park - he was running down Cedar Rd (in a very busy part) and I saw him while I was driving. Totally crazy in my opinion. I know there's a big group of people that feel barefoot running is the way to go - but that will never be me.

Today's run was awesome. I felt great, and I missed getting rained on. The only bad part - and I swear things like this only happen to me - I got done and found a TICK...on my BOOB. I managed to catch it right as it "bit" me, so it was easy to brush off. But still. eww eww eww eww eww!

LIFE

Saturday was a busy day, but a nice one. I took R to swim lessons and gymnastics in the morning. Then D took her to a bowling birthday party. It was a little bit of a pain in the butt, but she had a great time. The party was held at the Naval Air Station that is really no where near where we live (the birthday boy's dad is military). And because the threat level has been raised, civilian cars are not allowed on base unescorted - so D had to meet the bday boy's family at the base gates in order to get on. He stayed at the bowling alley since it would be pretty impossible for him to pick R up.

On the way out after the party, D stopped so R could see some of the fighter jets on the base. He used his phone to snap some pretty cool pictures of her...

While D was with R at the party, I took A and M to a couple art shows downtown. A's art school requires each senior student to put on a Senior Art Show. It's an individual effort, and they are responsible for securing space, writing and publishing the press releases, organizing a reception with food, creating and managing the budget for the show (all pieces are also for sale), PLUS create all the art work to be displayed. It's a very big deal, required for graduation, and really an art class and business class rolled into one. Everyone else in the Visual Arts program must attend at least 3 shows and do a write up on them. We hit two on Saturday and M tagged along. It was a really nice afternoon and it was very cool to see all the hard work these kids put into their shows.

D and I had originally planned to go to the movies Saturday night, but there was some nasty storm warnings, so we decided to stay home and watch a movie there!

After my workout and shower Sunday morning, I met up with S for Bloody Mary Sunday. Then it was running errands and then spending the rest of the day at home. After dinner, D and I ended up going to the movies, and had a really nice time. We saw Bridesmaids, and here is my 2 cent review....

It was set in my hometown, which was totally fun for me to see. It was certainly funny, but some of the jokes were drawn out WAY too long, and some of it got on my nerves a bit. It was bascially a 2 hr Saturday Night Live skit. If you're going to see it - don't pay full price. See it as a matinee or rent it when it comes out.

Monday I still don't really remember....

Yesterday was A's 16th birthday!!! Holy cow. Most of her gifts were art related of course, as well as some jewlery and some jewelry making supplies. Her big gift was a dress form. Since she's been making so many outfits, we thought it would be nice for her, and she's very excited about it. Here are a few pictures...

all of her gifts were wrapped in newspaper. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!! (she loved that, btw)

reading the funnies before she'd open it

eating cake and ice cream. Sorry no photos of the cake - it has her name on it, and as you all know, I don't publish names!

no, the wine isn't hers!

D and I went to the service station after dinner and dropped off one of the cars that's due for an oil change. Late last week, the check engine light came on. It went off a day or two later, but we wanted to have it checked out anyway, so we had them run diagnostics today when it was in. Unfortunately, there's about $1200 of work that needs to be done on it - especially before it goes back for yearly inspection next month. Joy. We're going for a "second opinion" at the dealership.

I took D into work after dropping R off at school. Most of my day was spent in meetings, so nothing out of the ordinary there!

Dinner, working out, and relaxing for the rest of the night. And catching up, of course!

Trying to Convince My Eye Dr I Don’t Age

2011-05-13T15:48:00.000-04:00

sorry this post is delayed. The blogger site was down for the past day....

FOOD

Wednesday morning was coffee and a banana at 5am before one of those insane early meetings. I just can’t manage to eat much more than that at such a ridiculous hour. I also didn’t want to risk getting sick during that meeting if I had any lingering stomach issues.

Before I went to work I started soaking some mixed beans to put into my sprout trays (chickpeas, adzuki beans, lentils, and peas mostly). In a few days I’ll have several cups of the crunchy sprouts, which I tend to favor over the seed sprouts like alfalfa.

I had a mid-morning snack of yet another banana, and then my leftover raw zucchini pasta with marinara for lunch. It was just as good the second day, which made me really happy. I wasn’t sure how well it would hold up. I’ve noticed with all the raw recipes, Ani does a great job of explaining that something is good for 1 day, or 2 days, etc, and the servings for each recipe are typically 4 or less since you really can’t do leftovers much beyond 2 days.

For dinner, I met up with a friend of mine for some wine and food. I had a hummus/avocado bruchetta and their “wine country” salad (sans cheese), which was greens, apples, and strawberries in a raspberry vinaigrette. We had a nice time and the food was great.

This morning’s breakfast was the rest of the “untuna” salad in lettuce cups and topped with some sweet pickle relish and some of the marinated onions I made the other day. I also made a 24 ounce juice to take with me in the morning of apple, carrot, pineapple, and orange.

After my eye dr appt today, I was only a little hungry, and munched on some Mary’s Gone Crackers while working and had a banana and a cup of tea. It wasn’t a real meal, but I wasn’t sure where I’d be for lunch (office, on the road, hospital, etc), so I didn’t really pack anything.

Dinner was another lettuce cup wrap/taco thing. I’m really digging those the past few months. They’re such a convenient way to make pretty much every meal portable, and by using lettuce instead of bread, pita’s, or tortillas, it’s keeping the calorie count down and the nutrient count up. Can’t really beat that!

So tonight’s wrap was with a quinoa salad. This is another one of those flexible dishes that is quite forgiving with ingredients. Here’s tonight’s version…

Spicy Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa (or brown rice or couscous)
¼ cup lime juice (I juiced 3 small limes)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 can drained and rinsed black beans
¼ cup (about 1/3 bunch) cilantro leaves, minced or chopped fine
¼ cup diced red onion
¾ tsp chili powder (I used a Hot chili powder from my WI spice kit)
1 hot pepper (optional. I usually go for it because I love spice)
½ diced bell pepper (I use red, yellow, or orange. I’m not a big fan of the green ones)

*Rinse the quinoa very well before cooking to remove the dust that causes it to otherwise taste bitter. It makes a HUGE difference in how it tastes if you rinse it.
*bring the quinoa to boil with 2 cups of water, cover, and simmer for 25 minutes. OR – throw it into a rice cooker and cook on the white rice setting.
*add everything else.

THAT’S IT! I used to add corn, but with D’s Crohn’s, that’s on his banned foods list.

I’ve made variations with no chili powder, or swapping out chickpeas for the black beans and adding mandarin orange slices. The possible combinations are limitless.

FITNESS

It seems that D is coming down with what I just had, so my workout plans for today were slightly abbreviated. I was planning to hit the gym to lift and then run 4 miles. Unfortunately, that would have meant D had to take R to gymnastics, and with him feeling icky, that just wasn’t going to happen. So…no time for the gym after work. I did make it out for my run though.

The run was a mixed bag today. I haven’t run since Sunday, and it was getting on my nerves (and I’m sure that I was getting on the nerves of everyone around me!). I was pressed for time and went running not long after eating, and running on a full stomach sucks. I felt pretty good for most of the run, but slightly uncomfortable with my fuller belly. I'm just glad my dinner was light - had it been a big pasta meal or Thai, there's no way I'd have even tried.

I had just enough time to take a quick shower, throw my PJ’s on, and get R to gymnastics (yes….I wore my PJ’s to her class).

I do have to do a quick product plug. I use something called a Road ID. It’s a simple $15 bracelet that has emergency contact information so if you’re out running, biking, etc (and we typically don’t have room to carry our ID in our running bras) and get hurt, EMS can identify you and contact your family. It’s the world’s cheapest insurance policy and a must for anyone who works out alone outside. My new one arrived on Monday, and I am really excited. I bought the slim one that is similar to a blend between a Livestrong bracelet and an allergy bracelet (and I do have a latex allergy – which is reflected on my Road ID – critical for an ambulance worker who finds me and needs to treat me should I get hit by a car or pass out or something else crazy). I can wear it running, biking, OR swimming – which is pretty cool. As I get more involved with Tri’s and start doing open water swimming, it’ll be even more critical that I have some type of identification on me. Again – not like my bathing suit or wetsuit will have pockets for my driver’s license! I can’t stress it enough – if you don’t have one – GET ONE. It could save your life someday.

LIFE

Yesterday was busy. And any day that begins with a 0445 alarm is NOT a happy start to the morning. I had meetings that started at 7am and went until 12. Then I had to pick each of the kids up (3 of them…from 3 different schools) and cart them off to the eye doctor. All three are great. M just started wearing glasses a year ago, and his prescription didn’t change. A’s been wearing glasses since she was 6, and for years her prescription got stronger and stronger. This year though, her prescription didn’t change, so that was a relief to everyone. R’s vision is great and she doesn’t need glasses. A is going to have to start wearing contacts again though – or get prescription sunglasses. With her now driving and being short like her mother (read….sun visors don’t work for us!), I’m not comfortable with her driving without sunglasses.

We got home around 5, made their dinner really quickly, and then was off to meet AC for our evening out.

Today was the normal alarm time of 0545. A much more respectable hour, though I didn’t sleep well last night (had a nice 130am resurgence of my belly issues), but was back asleep by 230. I had two meetings early this morning, and then it was off to my eye dr appt.

So I’m sitting in the chair talking to my doctor (who – with his wife who is the pediatric eye dr my kids see – is the most amazing eye dr ever), and he starts telling me that, since I’m getting close to being 40, I’m going to start noticing changes in my vision with reading things up-close. Blah blah blah…he’s telling me to buckle up – in the next few years, I’ll need bifocals. My response… “I don’t age”. He laughs and tells me that of course I age, and he’s not wrong – and I’ll need to let him know when I have to stretch my arm out all the way and hold my reading materials and still can’t see – that that will be the key that it’s time to get bifocals. I repeated myself. I don’t age.

To digress a bit…I’m from a pretty fortunate gene pool. The women in my family simply don’t look their age. There were certainly times when it got on my nerves (especially if I was trying to get into a bar and there was NO WAY I looked even 16, much less 21….), but looking younger than my years is kinda cool now. More often than not, I get carded, and the look people give me when they find out how old I am makes me giggle. There’s the occasional idiot who calls me “ma’am”, but I forgive them as apparently needing glasses.

So Dr. G and I go through our little argument about my eyes, and he proceeds to do my exam. At the end he tells me “good news – your prescription is exactly the same still ”. My response? Told ya…I Don’t Age.

After that triumphant moment, it was time to head back to work. D and I were going to try and get lunch together, but he started to not feel well, and ended up heading home and to bed sometime around 1. I didn’t have any afternoon meetings, so I plowed through a ton of emails, set up some appointments, and basically got some great productive office time that I usually don’t get during normal work hours.

Tomorrow is a busy day, but hopefully will be just as pleasant as today was. G’Night!

Maybe I Just Don't Like Blonde Men with Long Hair....

2011-05-10T21:14:00.000-04:00

FOOD

I didn't do much cooking for a few days, but boy did I make up for it today! Buckle up that most of it was courtesy of Ani's Raw Food Kitchen. I have a feeling that - aside from the recipes that contain nuts (which isn't as many as I worried about) - I'm going to work my way through this entire book. I've long been fascinated with Raw Veganism (which I've blogged about in the past), but it's not always seemed so accessible to me. Well - this book changes everything. Not only are her recipes really easy - they're REALLY good (and don't leave you feeling unsatisfied at all). So here I am - practically doing a bloody book review. But in all seriousness - if you have any interest in raw food, this is a phenomenal book. She also discusses ideas for being more environmentally friendly and her journey to being a raw foodist. Good tips and interesting to read to boot!

Saturday night I started soaking some buckwheat for one of her recipes. Basically, you soak the buckwheat and then put in in the dehydrator to make a "rice krispie" sort of thing. I haven't used it yet - but the intent I think is to sprinkle it in puddings, parfaits, etc.

I made a sunflower seed based pate from Ani's book for dinner. I put it into salad cups, added some spicy sunflower seeds, and made wraps.

For dessert Saturday night, I decided to chop up some bananas, apples, and pineapples, and then sprinkle some agave nectar and cinnamon on it. I don't get a sweet tooth often, but that worked!

Sunday I woke up early and had a smoothie and the last of the watermelon (I'm so excited it's watermelon season again!). Then we all headed to the mall for a movie, but had lunch first. I got to have my veggie Pho noodle bowl, which always makes me happy!

I started to feel off Sunday evening, so I didn't end up having dinner. Monday was sort of a blur, and while I did try to eat, nothing stayed put for long. I had some tea and water, and that's pretty much it. Ugh. Every time I ate or drank anything, I got stomach cramps and then sick. I must have picked up some stomach bug over the weekend.

Tuesday morning I decided to brave a smoothie. Even though my stomach objected, it stayed put, and for that I was grateful. I also really craved the nutrients in it. Later in the morning I made a big batch of carrot/apple juice, and that not only stayed put, but filled me up as well as started to give me some energy back.

vanilla soy milk, spinach, blueberries, and flax seed

funny that it's called a green smoothie....it was a purple/black!

simple...day glow apple/carrot juice

Then the kitchen bug set in. After a few days of feeling lousy and totally not hungry, I decided to get some food prepped for the rest of the week and get organized. That's when my Vitamix started getting one heck of a workout.

First - I made the "Save The Tuna Pate" from the raw book - which is basically an "untuna" salad. The recipe called for the pulp left over after juicing one pound of carrots. So....I juiced a pound of carrots, put the pulp into a bowl, and then juiced 6 green apples into the carrot juice to get the vat I made earlier. Hence why it filled me up most of the day....a POUND of carrots and six apples. Even juiced, that's a lot!

yes....I bought a 10 lb bag of carrots....

one pound! Measured and ready to juice...

the pulp left over from the juiced carrots

I used the vitamix to make the sunflower-seed based "cream" for the pate, added the rest of the ingredients, and again made salad wraps with romaine lettuce leaves, some cilantro from my container garden, and diced avocado. Oh. My. Very good. I have to say, that this is the first time I've used the leftover pulp when juicing. I don't have a big garden, so I don't compost (though it's been on my mind), and I found it very satisfying to use the remaining parts I normally would have discarded.

got to use my smaller dry-container today! Made flour out of 2 cups of sunflower seeds, then a creamy paste to mix into the untuna salad

Then I made a mustard-seed based salad dressing for a spinach salad, and THEN a raw marinara (yes...also from Ani's book as well as the fresh basil and oregano from my container gardens). I spiralized two zucchini, and let the marinade sit on it for a while to soften the noodles. While that happened, I marinated some onion in apple cider vinegar, pepper, and Bragg's Amino's (which is basically soy sauce) to throw on my salad. All told, a very yummy dinner. I loved that I was pretty much all raw today, and the fact that everything stayed in my stomach where it belonged. I also love that there were no preservatives or processed foods. I think that made a big difference in how I felt too.

my spiralized zucchini "pasta"

with the highly flavorful marinara (letting it sit softens the zucc so it's more like pasta than raw veggies)

dinner! Come on...if I didn't tell you it was raw...could you tell?? Nope. I think not!

I also made a few other things for the family - including a batch of Mocha Cappuccino chocolate chip cookies from the vegan cookie book my parents got me for Christmas. I ate one (didn't want to push my luck), and they really do taste like a cafe mocha in a cookie!

Fortunately, I have plenty of leftovers to fuel my raw obsession for tomorrow.

FITNESS

I went for a 5 mile run Sunday morning (before everyone else got up), but otherwise. Nada. It's been killing me to walk past my training calendar and miss a workout. I'm going stir crazy. But I will listen to my Aunt M who told me to keep walking past that calendar until I felt normal again. So yes ma'am....I didn't run, or swim, or bike, or lift weights. But I will tomorrow ;)

LIFE

Saturday my husband took our son to a baseball game. The girls were playing, so I got to do some wash, organize the kitchen, and watch part of one of my favorite movies, The Fifth Element. My perfect movie??? Bruce Willis. With a gun. Can't go wrong (Die Hard anyone???).

Sunday, of course, was Mother's Day! I got some beautiful homemade cards (no pics because it shows their names, and I don't publish those), lovely flowers, and D ordered me the dehydrator I've been wanting! (Raw breads and cookies, here I come! Not to mention preserving my container harvest - and any leftover harvest my friends have from their real gardens).

The day's activities were my choice, and we went to the movies! We're big movie junkies, and I picked Thor. So maybe it's me...and trust me...I LOVE movies where things are blowing up constantly....but I didn't love it. In fact, for the first third of the movie, I thought it was ridiculous. Bad plot, bad acting....sure, fun effects, but otherwise nada. And perhaps it's as my blog title suggests...but I think the very best parts of this movie were 1) Natalie Portman - she's adorable. And 2) it set things up nicely for the forthcoming Avenger movies. Otherwise - it was only so-so for me.

There were some awesome previews though (for both movies and TV), and I'm looking forward to Franklin and Bash (which looks hilarious), Captain America, Falling Skies, and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (which I worry is going to suck because #3 did). There had to be more, but those were the ones that stuck out.

Unfortunately, Sunday night the ickiness hit, and I was pretty flattened for two days. Monday I spent lying in bed (close to a bathroom) and reading. Tuesday was pretty much more of the same, but I started feeling better around 3. I talked to my friend in Seattle for a bit (which was nice). I also went to the grocery store, which I really needed to do. Not that you can tell by the picture since the bags are several deep...but we were out of EVERYTHING.

So as I look at the clock, it's 9pm and I have a 7am meeting. So...time to go to bed. Good night :)

Excessive Fun Friday Nights Leads to Lazy Saturdays!

2011-05-07T20:07:00.001-04:00

FOOD

Breakfast on Friday was coffee, watermelon, and banana. I wasn't starving, and didn't want to fill up too much before working out. For my mid-morning snack I had pasta. I finally got to use the cilantro pesto I made a few days ago. It was a simple dish - just some whole grain rotini pasta with the pesto tossed in. There's some cayenne pepper in the pesto, so it has a light bit of heat to it, and didn't need any other seasonings.

I was really excited about lunch, though. I made a raw lunch from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen that was just amazing. I made the Thai Spicy Cucumber Salad and the Avocado Kream Soup. Both were incredible, and I can't wait to make more from her book. The food was hearty and filling (tons of fresh broccoli and tomatoes as a garnish for the soup certainly helped with that!). I ate lunch really late since I had plans for the evening that didn't necessarily involve food.

The evening was a girls night, and we munched on some snacks; my favorite Dr. Kracker crackers, hummus, kale chips, broccoli, fruit, and then once we were out, I had half of a vegan veggie spicy wrap. I feel sort of like an idiot for bringing healthy foods to a girls night of debauchery, but just can't seem to help myself.

Today breakfast was a toasted plain bagel and coffee at the hotel. I was craving something greasy, but didn't give in! Really...the only reason I didn't give in is because I didn't know where to find onion rings at 8 in the morning.

For lunch, I had more of the avocado soup to finish it off. I again loaded it was broccoli and tomatoes, and this time, also topped it with some spicy seeds. SO yummy and filling! Since I ate that lunch so late (about 4pm!), I've mostly just snacked this afternoon. I had some seed crackers, and then made a plate of apple, banana, and pineapple, all sprinkled with some agave and cinnamon. I was craving something sweet.

FITNESS

As planned, I hit the gym to do the strength training routine from the new ActiveTrax system, and then I went running. It's going to take some getting used to the new system. I like that it's dynamic (it generates workouts based on your preferences, and when you're done, you enter how you did, and it builds off of it over time). I don't like it involves having to carry around a piece of paper (Fitlinxx was much simpler), and it has me using pieces of equipment with which I'm not familiar nor comfortable. I got through it though, and will keep at it.

The run was nice - it was a pleasant morning, though a bit windy. I ran through an area I never have been before (on the lookout for safe passage via back streets to the gym), and that always makes me happy.

Today was supposed to be a swim and a run. Sorry - skipped it. I stayed up WAY too late last night, got up too early this morning, and napped away a good 3 hrs from 1130-230. I feel guilty about it, and am thinking of upping the workouts tomorrow to make up for it. We'll see.

LIFE

Yesterday/last night was an absolute blast. It's my friend K's bday on Saturday, and the girls wanted to show her a good time. To this end, I booked two hotel rooms at a new and trendy hotel in the area. My husband had a lot to do with making it a great time too though. He called the hotel several times to make sure we'd have a shuttle to take us to our outing, that our rooms were nice, and he even stopped by (unbeknownst to me) and left two bottles of wine in each room with a happy birthday note for K! He wanted to help make sure everything was perfect (and we were carted around safely), and I love him to death for that.

S brought pretzels, and alcohol (to make mojitos), and K even brought some Captain Morgan's and soda. We were definitely set.

We were all there by 530, sat around, talked, goofed off, and had several drinks. The shuttle picked us up at 815 to take us to the restaurant/bar where we were grabbing dinner and seeing a local band play. We ate, danced, drank (why exactly is it traditional to do shots on birthdays??? ugh...), mingled, and did whatever we could to be sure K had a great time.

That's the birthday girl in the middle!

We took a cab back to the hotel around 1230am, stopped at the bar in the hotel for one more drink, and then went to our rooms to lie around, chat some more, and eventually go to sleep. Not sure when that was, but I'm guessing it was somewhere around 230 or so.

I was home by 1030 this morning, and asleep again by 1130! I suppose I could have been more productive, but that's okay. I'm not exactly 21 anymore, and in order to feel solidly human again, I really needed that nap. And water :)

This evening has been mostly meal planning, grocery shopping, and catching up on the Vampire Diaries. I can't help it - I absolutely LOVE that show. Season finale is next week, and it's making me sad to think about.

D and M are at a baseball game tonight, so it's just me and my daughters. I did send D to Sears on their way though to look a lawn mowers. Ours has been dead since last fall, and I'm starting to get really annoyed. We've talked for weeks, and I'm finally to the point where if he doesn't pick one out, I will, and he'll just have to live with it. It did that a year ago with the weed whacker, and he complained I didn't get the one he would have. Oh well.....don't really care at this point!

I have an update about D's Crohn's. We were both pretty upset by the letter that came on Wednesday from the NP (he usually sees the MD, but this last appt the office booked him with the Nurse Practitioner). Thursday during his lunch hour, D went to the Dr's office asking for someone to talk to him and explain the letter he got indicating his Crohn's is getting worse and he may need to start taking a very invasive medication - as well as the new dietary restrictions. After being ignored for MUCH too long, the practice manager finally came to see him. Turns out - this NP sends this letter to ALL of her patients. It's a form letter, and means nothing. After pulling up D's old results and the new ones - he's actually doing better. There is no need to further restrict his diet or change his meds. He made sure to express his displeasure and disappointment while there...which is good because I'd have been showing up there if he hadn't!

The rest of the evening will be very laid back! I'm going to hang out with the girls, maybe watch a movie, and try to get them to agree to go to bed fairly early :)

No, I Don't Have a Strange Vegan Form of Tourrette's

2011-05-04T21:56:00.000-04:00

FOOD

This morning was an all-staff meeting from 8-11 held at one of the local hotel/conference centers. They're really nice and a chance to see people I otherwise don't get to (we have a really big department). 8-9 is a catered breakfast, and 9-11 is presentations and Q&A about things. Unfortunately, I know that there is really never going to be anything to eat for me. I'm certainly not complaining - I choose to eat the way I do, and I don't get all indignant when large events don't cater to me - but I'm not silly enough to be unprepared either.

I really wish I had taken a picture of my smoothie this morning. It was probably my favorite in a long time...and so unbelievably simple! Alas, I was in a hurry this morning to get out of the house (my husband spent a really long time dilly dallying around, and wasn't overly helpful with the morning routine). So I literally blended, poured into my large 24 oz pirate tervis, and ran out the door.

It was a simple smoothie. A cup of water, an 8oz container of fresh blueberries, 1 frozen banana, a handful of frozen strawberries, and a scoop of Chocolate Vega Powder. While I'm not the biggest chocolate eater, this is rapidly becoming my very favorite flavor of this stuff. I don't use supplements often, but when I know I'm going to be in a situation where I am in a rush or won't have the ability to eat for awhile, this is always great.

Lunch ended up being Thai. I know...shocker, right? It wasn't planned - I had to go out to one of our hospitals that happens to have some great Thai food nearby, and right next to a Border's book store. I picked up a raw foods "uncook" book that I'm absolutely loving, and then got some fresh tofu spring rolls and my every favorite - Tofu Green Curry.

Early evening I made a fresh juice of mango, strawberry, carrot, orange, and pineapple. It was amazing - D and A both really liked it too. Funny story - I posted the picture on Facebook, and just titled it, Mango, pineapple, carrot, strawberry, orange juice! My friends husband replied with probably the funniest thing I've heard in a long time...."It sounds like you have Tourrette's, but based on shouting out fruit rather than swear words".

Dinner was a bit hectic, and I ended up having my favorite cracker and some hummus. Yes, one cracker. They're huge and a single one is very filling. Later in the evening I had some edamame and then some freshly made kale chips (simple - just olive oil, minced garlic, and sea salt). I was too hungry to take pictures!

marinating before baking...

FITNESS

I swear, I tried. I really, really did. Before I went to bed last night, I packed up a bag with everything I needed to bike and then run. And then Mother Nature derailed my plans by doing this....

this was noon....

So I spent the entire day waiting for a break in the weather that would co-inside for when I wasn't actually working so I could do my brick workout. It didn't happen. Eventually - in the early evening - the sky cleared mostly, and I did go for a run. I didn't have time for a brick (I had a 715 appt at the gym). So I ran, came home, started dinner for D and the kids, and then decided that I was going to bike to the gym. It wasn't a brick for sure, but it at least got a ride in.

I packed up a bag with gym shoes (since I was clipped in on the ride), money, ID, towel, lock - all the things I needed. D put the lights on the bike (front and tail), I had my reflector belt L bought me a few years ago too. Even had a grocery bag because I was planning on stopping on the way home to pick up some produce.

Yeah. SUCH A BAD IDEA. I could not find a "safe" route to the gym, and thought I was going to die riding down one particular uber-busy street (with no side walks or even a shoulder). I ended up getting off the bike and walking a good 1/2 mile just to stay in peoples yards, but not in the ditch. It sucked. D had to come to the gym when I was done and bring me home. But...I am bound and determined to find whatever side streets and neighborhoods I can ride through to get me there safely some day. Today just wasn't that day.

The strength training session was good. The trainer was awesome, and we had some really good chats. He set me up on the new ActiveTrax system, and now I'm good to go.

LIFE

Life was pretty status-quo today at work. No major drama or fires to put out, so that was good. I did have to go to multiple locations today, and that stinks. With gas prices what they are, I may just have to start documenting and submitting my mileage for reimbursement!

On a different note - D's test results from last week came back. Good news is that the bone density and Prometheus tests came back well. The bad news is that the small bowel series (where he had to drink the barium) did not. It showed evidence of strong Crohn's activity in his lower intestine, and a possible recommendation for a stronger medication (the strongest actually before they do surgery). He's back on a totally low residual diet (absolutely no fruits or veggies or fiber - and as always, no nuts or seeds or popcorn or corn). He's really bummed about it. The good news is he's not experiencing any pain or flare up issues, but he has to be really careful. And I need to do some research on what can be done from a dietary perspective (he sucks at things like that - or taking the time to care or do much about it).

During lunch I stopped at Blue Ridge Mountain Sports and picked D up a new day pack for his geocaching/hikes. He loved it (yeah), and is looking forward to using it this weekend if it doesn't storm. I'm just glad he's finding a physical activity that he enjoys and looks forward to and actually plans. It's nice :)

So today has certainly been a busy, busy day. Tomorrow I have a few meetings, but if all goes well, I'll do a brick tomorrow (I'm not scheduled to ride, but I'd like to), and then I have the boot camp class at 6pm! It's going to be hard...but I'm looking forward to it. Sort of....

Good, Good, Good...Good Vibrations (GONE)

2011-05-03T21:37:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Today was totally a mixed bag on the food front. On the one hand, breakfast was awesome. Lunch was healthy, but not what I would have chosen had I been given better options, and dinner was just a joke.....

I was out of the house much earlier today than I had anticipated. My first meeting wasn't until 930, but I left home at 730 because I was up and ready. Since I had a bit of time to kill, I went to Yorgo's for another awesome vegan bagel sandwich, but this time I stayed at the deli to eat. I was still at the hospital by 830, so got to get some work done prior to my meeting.

bagel sandwich and hot tea!

My first and last meetings of the day were at the main hospital, so I co-opted an office there and worked all day. Typically, I would have gone out somewhere fun for lunch, like Thai, Indian, or Greek. Unfortunately, I had a LOT come up between meetings, and just didn't have the time. That meant....HOSPITAL FOOD. Ugh. Not much vegan friendly there. So I ended up with cereal, soy milk, a banana (which I never did eat), and....Diet Pepsi. Lunch of champions (or the desperate).

nothing like soy milk. and a cola. mmmmmm.....

Dinner was a team building event at Abuelo's. While the happy hour specials were good - the only vegan friendly thing they have is chips, salsa, and guac. So that's what I had. And a beer. Of course I'm feeling it too...when I don't eat cleanly, I tend to feel less than stellar.

Not my drink, but it was pretty

FITNESS

I DID IT!!! I dragged my butt out of bed at 420 am to workout! Like a good little soldier, I laid out my workout clothes and shoes before bed last night, and D set the coffee pot for 4am so I'd be good to go on all fronts.

I got dressed, had a cup of java, and left at 445. I got to the gym at 453am, waited with the small, dedicated, and slightly goofy crowd for the doors to open at 5, and proceeded to head to the Fitlinxx computer to start my workout machines!

One small problem. Stupid computer system wasn't working and no one there at that unholy hour could help me. They informed me that my beloved Fitlinxx machines have been dying a slow death, and that they've purchased a new system (called ActiveTrax) that I have to be set up on. I went to make an appt, and the one employee/personal trainer was exceptionally rude when I tried asking for help. I found someone else, set up an appt for 715pm Wednesday, and left. I don't know how to workout with free weights (and I was in a bad mood by that point), so I went home.

I did, however, go running. My feet hit the pavement by 520am, and I was back home at 6. I jumped in the shower, was out by 610 (I'm not usually the type to linger in the shower...get clean...get out. Unless I'm sick and freezing or something). Anyway, I woke D up, he had ironed my clothes, so I made breakfasts, lunches, and then was bored by 730. Hence my earlier than planned departure.

So on the one hand, I'm proud that I actually got up at that ridiculous time to workout. Focus. Dedication. Slightly insane. I'm disappointed that I didn't get to strength train - especially since I made an effort to do so and considering how much I hate it. And I'm really peeved that I could have slept an extra hour and accomplished the same thing. So on one hand failure, and the other success.

Tomorrow I'm scheduled for a brick. It's supposed to rain, but since our meteorologists tend to be completely wrong (I still think weather predication is a wee bit of voodoo science!), I'm not convinced. I mean really....if there's a 10% chance of rain....and it rains....should they get credit for thinking they were 90% wrong? Anyway...I digress. My plan is to pack my bag, toss my bike in the van, and workout immediately after my last meeting. That should give me enough time to make it to the Y for my weight lifting. Focus. Dedication. Woo hoo.

LIFE

So the post-vacation feel good vibes are now gone. I spent 10 minutes today trying to figure out when my next day off is (Memorial Day - May 30).

I love my work. I really do (not just saying that to convince anyone else), but there are days where things are tough. I feel like that's been the norm for the past 7 months or so! I get so much work loaded on, too few resources, and each time I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's really just an oncoming train. It's nothing about where I work or who for (I happen to believe VERY strongly that I work for a great company and have the worlds best boss. ever). But I swear...I have projects that just won't go smoothly no matter what we do. It's being dependent on others who don't even work at my company (so I therefore have no control over) that is the biggest problem. Ugh. One day that light really WILL be the end of the tunnel. Then again - I may not know what to do with myself when that happens!

Sorry to whine and get all depressing and stuff.

On the way to work today, the idiot light came on in the van. I spent MANY times running out of gas in an old car because it didn't tell me when it was almost empty. Anyway, I knew I could make it to the hospital, but I likely wouldn't make it back home without filling up.

So after leaving my last meeting at 530, I pulled into the gas station on my way out. I pull up to the pump...and NO WALLET. Ugh. I'm freaking out, D's not home to check to see if I left in by the computer, and I'm pretty worried my wallet was stolen at the hospital sometime. Thankfully, I had some cash in the van, so I put $20 in, and headed to the team building. One the positive side - I had cash. Yeah! On the negative side - I wasn't carded when I bought my beer which scares me that I'm starting to look old!

On that note...I'm off to get some beauty sleep!

Planting Things I Don't Know What To Do With, Boob Soreness, and Pesto!!!

2011-05-02T21:24:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Food was really good today. Not that I don't try to always eat yummy fun things, but sometimes it just isn't possible to have something amazing, so when I have days that I do, it makes me really happy.

First thing this morning I had a cup of black coffee and half a banana. Can you tell this was in attempt to workout in the morning??

After my shower and before work, I made a quesadilla. Refried beans made with green chilies and onion in the tortilla, and leftover Spanish rice, lettuce, vegan sour cream, and hot sauce on top. It. Was. Awesome. I can't believe it took me this long to get a stupid $15 quesadilla maker thingy.

a nice wholesome breakfast!

Lunch was a quick "greek salad" wrap. I put a little hummus, romaine lettuce, tomato, big chunks of cucumber, kalmata olives, and some lemon juice on a whole wheat wrap. It was like a little portable salad. No pictures...didn't think of it until it was half eaten (what can I say....I was hungry).

Because my quesadilla was so filling, I didn't eat lunch until after 3pm. As such, I wasn't really hungry for a real dinner. Instead, I had a small salad, some white wine, and made some cilantro pesto - which I plan to eat on pasta sometime tomorrow.

Cilantro Pesto

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup pepitas (raw pumpkin seeds)

1 bunch of cilantro (my single little plant I planted 3 weeks ago is now HUGE)

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (I imagine almost any white vinegar would do)

1/2 ish tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 cup vegan parm topping (though I can see not adding this at all)

6-7 cloves garlic

5-6 tbsp water

salt to taste

Put it all in the Vita Mix and blend until creamy!

container plant with 2 bell pepper plants and cilantro

FITNESS

I can't get over how sore I am from lifting weights yesterday. I know it's been far too long when every muscle my body does and doesn't have screams all night long every time I move. Sleep last night was quite elusive...I have a tendency to move around a lot (probably where my ninja-sleeping 7 year old gets it from; she has a tendency to beat me up when I let her sleep in the same bed as me), but each time I rolled over or twitched just a little bit, I woke up with angry muscle pains. Honestly - I wasn't mad since it was a "good pain" and not an injury, but it was still annoying.

Still though, I set my alarm for earlier than last week, and managed to get my butt out of bed and go for a 3 mile run before work today. It wasn't bad - especially since I had almost an hour to digest my coffee and 1/2 banana first. Baby steps, honey. Baby steps.

It took almost a half mile to work out the stiffness and get past the pain and annoyance of my muscle aches (ever try running when your chest muscles hurt...with larger than normal boobs? It sucks. That probably woke me up more than the coffee did).

It helped that D ironed my clothes for me (in my defense...I made breakfast and lunches while he did so), but still. I would have either worn something wrinkly or from Chico's travel collection that requires no ironing (though it was too warm for those).

After work I hit the gym for a 1200 meter swim workout. This is the same workout I got off of swimplan.com, and I've decided it's gotten too easy. The first time I did it, it took me almost 45 minutes. Today, it took 34, and I didn't feel like I was pushed too hard. So....my next swim is Saturday, and I've already gone on the site, indicated I needed something harder, and will see how that goes.

I have to say that my body has hurt all day - except while I swam. It's either the miracle of swimming...or the Ibuprofen I took around lunch. I'd like to think it was the swim....

I also finished my summer/fall training schedule! Here it is!!! Feel free to follow along and see if I actually stick to it.....

I have the Tri in July and the Rock N Roll 1/2 in Sept (so far). I figure that's quite enough for now.

So...tomorrow I'm scheduled to punish my muscles some more and then run. Today was nice because I did one workout in the morning, and one in the afternoon. I did the run in the AM since it's more familiar to me than swimming is. I'm a little nervous about tomorrow. I HAVE to do both workouts before work - since my team has a planned drinking/team building event at 6 with one of the technical guys who's been saving our collective butts on hardware. We all want to take him out for a few to show him how much we appreciate him. However - that means getting up at 415am to be at the gym when they open at 5 to lift - which takes about an hour - and then get my 4 mile run in and STILL get ready for work. Me thinks D will be ironing for me again....

LIFE

Today didn't suck so bad for a Monday. I had meetings most of the day, but not all of it, and I was still able to get quite a bit done.

I stopped at the grocery and loaded up on pineapple, mango, oranges, and strawberries. I started running out of things to juice and was afraid of the concotions I'd start making if I didn't hit a produce stand quickly.

When I went outside to my container gardens to pick my cilantro, I took pictures of the progress of my other plants. They're all doing quite well, and I'm really excited (nervously though, since I have a black thumb).

Greek Oregano, Stevia, and Sweet Basil. Don't exactly know what to do with Stevia leaves yet, but I'll figure it out. If nothing else, boiling it with my tea would work great!

flowers blooming all over my topsy-turvey tomato plant. They're going to be tomatoes when they grow up!!!!

my hot pepper topsy turvey. See the little buds in the middle? Those are going to be spicy goodness when they grow up!

On a fun note, D was on his geocaching website to look at the status of his buried treasure. It really is crazy what an entire universe is out there. One of the coins he buried yesterday was already picked up and is enroute "somewhere else". Apparently he put one into a cache in late March down in North Carolina when he was there for work, and it has now made it's way - via two stops in Florida - to Switzerland! This link shows it's progress. It's pretty cool. He's planning to go out on Sunday again, which I think is awesome.

So I need to sign off and get to bed if I have any hope of getting up again tomorrow to work out....wish me luck (it should be pretty comical).

Buried Treasure and Purple Dragon Snuggles

2011-05-01T19:00:00.000-04:00

FOOD

The past few days I haven't done much in the way of cooking, but I've had plenty of tasty food. Breakfast most days have been either fresh juices or smoothies - or both. Lunch on Thursday was leftover eggplant, lentil lettuce cups, and a salad that I brought from home in my awesome Zojirushi Bento container. Dinner on Thursday was R's choice (post gymnastics), and she picked Carrabba's. I had a vegan pasta dish with artichokes, tomatoes, spinach, and mushrooms! AND.....a peach sangria! Between lunch and dinner I snacked on those yummy spicy seeds from Heritage.

the bright green is her leotard :)

Friday breakfast was a treat! I made it downtown faster than I usually do, so I had time to stop at Yorgo's Bageldashery. They are a regular deli, but also offer many vegan options for breakfast and lunch. I picked up a toasted multi-grain bagel with vegan sausage, vegan cheese, and a tofu "egg". It was fabulous!

Lunch was a hummus wrap with sprouts, cabbage, cucumber, tomato, onion, and mustard. Dinner was green curry with S.

Saturday breakfast was a smoothie, and then lunch was again R's choice (she had swimming and gymnastics), and she once again wanted to go to "that place where you can pick your own food....", aka Golden Corall. I had a really big salad that was in no way worth the $15 for a buffet, but still tasty. Dinner was a clif bar and banana from Trader Joe's, and then some fruits and veggies at a wedding reception for a good friend.

This morning I made a tomato, orange, and carrot juice, and then heated up the leftover pasta from Thursday for my breakfast. Lunch was leftover tomato/veggie soup over brown jasmine rice, and a couple lentil lettuce cups to use up the last of the marinated lentils from Wednesday. Those I topped with some of my home grown sprouts.

Tonight will be taco/quesadilla night. I have to do something with that mad bush of cilantro I have growing in the backyard!

FITNESS

Saturday I had a great swim workout. I did drills for much of it (single arm pulls, pull buoy, etc), as well as several laps of freestyle. I swam while R had her lesson, and then she hopped in the lane with me (adding flippers) and swam some laps with me while I finished. Of course she delighted in beating me each lap because she had flippers and was MUCH faster than I was!

I really wanted to run Saturday too - but I feel asleep! I thought I was lying down for 10 minutes until D got home, and the next thing I know, it's 250pm and I have to get in the shower to get ready for a wedding!

Today I went to the gym around 1145 with all the kids. They played and swam while I lifted weights for an hour. Not a fun use of my time, but a necessary one.

I've signed up for the 3Sport Tri in Richmond in July!!! I'm so excited. From everything I've heard - it's a ton of fun and a well done race. AT is may do it with me, so woo hoo....new Tri on the calendar!!!

I also did a brick workout early this evening. A 7 mile ride and a 3 mile run. It was still nearly 3/4 of a mile before my legs felt normal. Otherwise, aside from being windy, it was a nice workout. My running pace average was actually much faster than it normally is, so that was a nice bonus!

On the way home last night, D informed me that he wanted to start hiking. I've been wanting him to find a physical activity he enjoys and to stick with it - whatever "it" is. And it certainly doesn't have to be a family affair - I do most of my workouts by myself, and sometimes that's exactly what I want. I don't want him to feel selfish if he chooses to go somewhere alone. By all means! I need that to maintain my OWN sanity!

When the kids and I left for the Y this afternoon, D left with his geocaching and day hiking gear, and took off for Northwest River Park (a nice state park very close to home). He spent nearly 4 hours hiking and treasure hunting - even found a few and buried some of his stuff too. I got several texts from him while he was gone, but the bottom line is he had an absolute blast. Here are a few of his pictures that I thought were pretty cool.

LIFE

It's been busy, but I can't complain. Thursday afternoon, D and I were talking about R taking more gymnastics because she loves it so much. So she's now taking classes on Thursday's and Saturday's for an hour each.

Thursday our entire region was biting it's collective nails waiting for the storms to hit. DC was hit the evening before, and it looked like things were heading our way. All of the news channels were going crazy with weather updates, storm warnings, and tornado watches. Schools canceled all after school activities, and the skies looked dangerous most of the day. We're still pretty edgy from the mess 2 weeks ago, so it was quite hectic. I even sent my team members to work from home at noon because I didn't want them out in the elements when things rolled through.

We ended up only getting some rain and winds, but nothing damaging or flooding. We got lucky - surrounding areas didn't fare as well - but it really wasn't bad here at all. R still had gymnastics, we went out to dinner, and basically welcomed the break in the heat wave when the cold front rolled through over night.

Friday was more hectic. I had to be all over the area for different meetings, etc, so my day started really early. After work, I got my nails done, picked up a few bottles of wine, and headed to a friend's house who's been home alone all week (hubby is out of town) and seemed a little down in the dumps. So I surprised her, forced myself on her, and we had a nice evening sitting on her porch and getting some Thai food. Good times.

Saturday was an early morning. I got R ready for her busy day, and headed to the gym before swimming started at 9. We swam, played for a bit, hung out in the hot tub, and then showered up and headed to gymnastics. We stopped for a quick snack (I was out of edible bananas), and then class. She flipped around for an hour while I read. D had been out with A getting a hair cut, grocery shopping, and fabric shopping (she has a new candy-inspired dress line she's working on), and they met up with us for lunch at Golden Corall, which was really nice.

Before I left for the morning with R, I noticed Bumble sleeping on my bed near Figment - the mascot for Epcot Center. When I got home several hours later, this is what I saw. My cat snuggling with the purple dragon.

M had stayed home to cut the grass, and then went to a friends house.

I had hoped to get a run in between the after lunch and before wedding time I had (about an hour and a half), but ended up falling asleep. So, skipped the run, but not the wedding!

The wedding was very nice, and then we went to the reception, which was also nice. And I wore a dress, which is pretty much a miracle.

From D's geocaching adventure, he texted me a pictures of a flower, saying "a flower for you". It was cute, so here it is :)

When I got back to the house after my brick workout, the kids were in the backyard. It took me a minute to find my oldest. She was near the top of a large tree in the back yard!

So now it's time to prep for another busy week. My goal this evening is to finish my training calendar, get lunches done, finish the wash, and try to do as much as possible to make life as easy as possible this week!

Allergies, Dinner Fun, and a Birthday Wish to a Beautiful Girl

2011-04-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Breakfast was coffee and a smoothie as predicted. Soy milk, frozen banana, blueberries, strawberries, and chocolate Vega powder, and I was set for the morning.

I made lentils this morning for a marinated lentil salad from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen so they could marinate all day while I was at work. It's a super easy recipe, cooking lentils in veggie broth with onions, carrots, celery, and garlic, and then marinating them in olive oil, red wine vinegar, spices, and dijon mustard.

Lunch was a mish mash of whatever I could get my hands on between meetings. Not the best; bad lettuce salad, almost bad banana, crackers...things like that. I should have packed a lunch, but I didn't and was left to piece together something less than thrilling or healthy. Bad planning on my part.

Dinner, however, totally made up for that. A friend of mine came over (she brought the wine, I cooked the food!). I put the marinated lentils into lettuce cups (butter lettuce, radicchio, and Belgian endive) as well as making a big regular salad. I also made eggplant gratin in a tomato-orange sauce (also from the above named Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen cookbook), lasagna, and homemade Italian bread. Dinner was very yummy, and we had a good time sitting around and chatting. I now have plenty of leftovers, and that's always a good thing!

onion, eggplant, carrot, orange, tomato, onion, garlic, and fresh basil

roasted eggplant slices

tomato orange sauce

eggplant gratin! (before it was cooked)

bread dough rising

fresh Italian bread

the dinner spread

marinated lentil salad cups!

post-cooking eggplant gratin

salad

my plate

dinner!!!

LIFE

Today was a really hectic and exhausting day. It started at 125 am with a wicked allergy attack, where I wanted to claw my eyes out. I tossed around for about an hour before I started checking my email. Probably not the smartest thing, but I was going out of my mind. It's hard to think rationally at that time of day...

Around 330am, I started thinking I needed to do something. I couldn't take Benedryl, or I'd never wake up in the morning for work. I didn't want to take Sudafed, or I'd be wide awake (though I already was wide awake, and if I had been thinking clearly, would have figured no allergies and awake was better than allergy attack and awake. Alas....).

By 430, I finally fell asleep..only to have my alarm go off 10 minutes early at 550am! I was annoyed. I stayed in bed for 10 more minutes (even tho I was up), and then got into the shower, cussing pretty much the entire time.

I walked into my 9am this morning and the first thing my boss says is "you better not be sick". I assured her it was just allergy hell and other than being tired, I was fine. I ran into one of my co-worker doctors, who proceeded to advise me on what to take (Claritin and to get a steroid nasal spray). I haven't used my Neti pot in a while, and I know that would help too.

After work, I went to the grocery and picked up the rest I needed for dinner, went home, and starting cooking. AT came over around 530, and we ate, drank, and chatted until almost 9. It was a great night.

D stopped at the home improvement store on the way home and picked up some sweet basil, Greek oregano, and stevia for one of my containers (which had been empty), so I can have an herb garden. I'm very excited about that!

So while today started off rough, it ended well. Most of my day was in meetings or conference calls, but I also got to have an amazing evening with a friend, good food, good wine, and a very relaxing evening.

I do want to mention in closing that today is my gorgeous nieces 7th birthday! I can't believe how old she is or how big she's gotten. I moved to VA 3 months before she was born, and while I love living here, I think the biggest regret I have is that my niece (and now 3 1/2 yr old nephew) live so far away. My kids and I are photographs and stories my sister tells them. My 7 year old doesn't get the chance to play with her cousin of virtually the same age. My almost 16 year old doesn't get roped into babysitting ALL the kids so mom and dad and aunt and uncle can go out to dinner. While I miss my whole family, that makes me the saddest. So happy birthday beautiful little M. I love you. And I miss you.

Meetings, Swimming, and Sushi. Not Bad for a Tuesday

2011-04-26T21:11:00.000-04:00

FOOD

I have come to the conclusion that there are not four seasons in Virginia. We have the time of year that requires a heater, and the time of year that requires an air conditioner. The "times" of the year that fall in between can be counted in hours rather than months. I love it here...but I'd like a stretch of a few weeks each year where I can just have the windows open and have it be comfortable.

Warmer weather requires different eating than hotter weather. Hot days mean no oven. I'm thinking this is the perfect time of year to keep working on incorporating more raw foods into my life. Goodness knows I don't want to be in the kitchen with the oven on when it's 92 degrees outside and my AC is trying to be sure the temp inside the house is livable....

As such, I didn't spend much time in the kitchen today. Never mind that I was just too busy...it was also just too hot!

Breakfast was cereal and vanilla soy milk and coffee. Unoriginal to be sure, but seemed to do the job just fine. I also made an apple/carrot/orange juice (still haven't gone shopping), and had that on the way into work this morning.

Lunch was reheated dinner from yesterday; brown veggie rice with tomato veggie soup and fresh cilantro! I also had about a quarter of a cup of a raw spicy seed mix I picked up at Heritage a few weeks ago. I can't believe it took me so long to open the package. The stuff is awesome.

I munched on half of a Clif bar about a half hour before my workout. My bananas have turned, or I'd have had those. They are heading into the freezer before bed tonight, and will likely make their way into a smoothie in the morning. With the increase in warm weather also seems to come the increase in morning smoothies. It's a little like having ice cream for breakfast!

Dinner was at Haru Sushi with AT. I had a bowl of miso soup (the best in town), and a some cucumber and avocado rolls. And some Cabernet. Yummy dinner and great company. Can't beat it.

FITNESS

Today ended up just being a swim day instead of swim and run. AC couldn't make it for our run this evening at 5, so I just did the scheduled swim.

I got ahold of a friend of mine who I did the Tri with, AT, and we made plans to hit the pool after work. I had my swimplan workout, and we more or less stuck to it. I'm not sure exactly how far we swam, but we'd do 100 yds...chat for a minute...do 50...chat...repeat for about 40 minutes. We probably should have done more swimming and less talking (who knew swimming could be a social sport??), but we haven't seen each other in a few weeks, and it was more fun catching up.

With the hot season seeming to be in full swing, I really need to do something about this morning workout thing. I've been wanting to do it, but just haven't figured it out (nor really wanted to give up my 6am wake time for anything earlier unless under severe circumstances). I've decided that I should start setting my alarm for 10 minutes early every 5-6 days or so, until I can get up early enough to workout. Yeah. We'll see how that goes. It's that or go back to working out at 10pm once summer is in full swing.

LIFE

Only two meetings today, so bonus for me! One of them was almost 3 hrs long though, so that ate up a ton of my day, but I still have the happy post-vacation thing going on, so I can't complain. The afternoon meeting was a wee more stressful, but not because of anyone I work with. We're just at a frustrating point in our project, and have more than a few roadblocks. This is where "bitchy-Crissie" has a tendency to show herself.

After work, swimming, and dinner, it was time to come home, hang out, and do some cleaning. I got my room, the kitchen, and the dining room floors cleaned, which is a huge accomplishment on a weeknight. I'm prepping the house for the house cleaners! I know...needs to be relatively clean and organized before I'll have strangers in it.

D had his tests today, and he's feeling pretty icky. We expected that since the barium has to find it's way OUT of his system too. He had to drink the nasty stuff, and then have Xrays taken of his digestive system every 30 minutes until the barium was through. We obviously don't know the results yet, but the radiologist mentioned that he was "having a hard time" getting the barium to D's lower intestine. Not sure if that means a fistula or what, but hopefully we'll find out soon.

So I'm off to go get work and school lunches for tomorrow ready and then comfort D, who's stretched out on the bed watching TV and feeling miserable. Hopefully this will all "pass" by morning since he has to go to work.

Driving to Run Feels Dumb

2011-04-25T20:44:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Today has been a good food day. I ate well, and definitely feel great. I've nearly purged myself from the on-the-road eating from vacation, and feel back to normal again!

Breakfast was Kashi whole grain cereal with lots of cinnamon and some vanilla soy milk. I forgot to take a picture :( Of course I had my standard cup of black coffee as well.

Speaking of coffee - a friend of mine posted on facebook today that coffee drinkers should beware - prices are going to go up. Makes me glad I gave up my snobby coffee bean habit for Foldgers!

For lunch I made the same wrap I did the other day - hummus, cabbage, onion, cucumber, and this time I added some sweet pickle relish too for something different.

Snack was some celery and hummus. It's funny - when R and I were on our FL trip, I had picked up some pre-cut celery to munch on in the van. She had gone into the cooler to grab some water and look for other snacks when she asked if I wanted "those green stick things" to eat.

I had another snack after my workout - a fresh juice of apple, orange, and carrot. Time to go produce shopping....

Dinner was a brown rice and veggie combo served on top of some homemade tomato and veggie soup. Oh - and with some fresh cilantro to serve it with FROM MY CONTAINER GARDEN!!!! Woo hoo!

For the rice dish, it was simply adding some peas and chopped orange bell pepper to some toasted brown rice while it was cooking. The soup was tomatoes, onion, peppers, celery, and garlic simmered in a veggie broth with spices, simmered, added soy milk that had been mixed with a bit of flour, simmered, then lemon juice and some sweetener. Top with fresh cilantro, and serve! I certainly made enough to last a few meals, which is always good. Of course I had a glass of red wine with it too!

My sprouts are also done. I started them on Thursday, and they were in the sun today. Yeah - something else to put on my wraps, in my salads, and anywhere else I can think of!

FITNESS

Today I did some running hill repeats. The workout was to run a mile to warm up, run up and down a hill 5 times, and then run another mile. Okay, cool. Only problem, NO HILLS. I live in an area that literally has almost no hills at all. I know of two - one in Virginia Beach that is near the shop where I trained for the Shamrock last year (Final Kick Sports), and one in Norfolk. So what did I do? Drove 17 miles from work to Virginia Beach to run up their hill. The crappy part is the hill is almost a half a mile up, so my hill repeats turned into one heck of a bigger workout than I anticipated - and it was really warm out. I felt kind of like a moron driving somewhere just to find a hill to run up. As much as I don't like the dreadmill - I may have to use it more often to simulate the hills that just don't exist here.

I also did a very short series of exercises when I got home - chair lifts, dead lifts, hip adductions and abductions. Nothing big, but I have to start getting into the habit of some type of strength training.

Tomorrow I'm swimming and, if it's not raining, running with my friend AC after work. I hope it's not raining!

LIFE

Today was life back to routine, and it ended up being a good day. I still have the post vacation feel-good vibes going on, and even a day back at the office didn't ruin that!

I originally had a day jam packed with meetings, but by a happy twist of fate, three of them were canceled! I ended up having several hours to play catch up, and while I'm not totally there, I feel good about what I was able to accomplish.

I even got to spend a good 20 minutes doing my weekly plan (it's a Franklin Covey thing), and have at least one goal in each category for the week. It's actually something I've tried to do for several years now (not always successfully), but the objective is to take on one big goal per week for each role you have. So for work - my goal is to clean up emails. As a mom, it's to schedule the eye dr and dentist appts for the kids, as an athlete, to get my 6 days of scheduled workouts completed (on time - and to schedule them if needed). Things like that.

I went from 950 unread emails to just under 200! Granted - it was mostly deleting garbage emails, but still. It felt good to watch the number go down! My team brought me up to speed on the past two weeks, and feel like things are moving along well. So yeah for that! They're an awesome bunch, which is the only reason I really was "off" when I was on vacation.

I only have meetings in the first half of the day tomorrow, so I get to have a good 4 hrs of office blocked time to keep working towards getting all caught up.

On an unrelated note - I picked up a Groupon that I'm totally excited about! I paid $50 for 3 hrs of housekeeping, so Spring Cleaning...here (someone else) comes! I'm totally excited, and that's another goal of mine for this week to get it scheduled. D and I have decided to finally bite the bullet and get regular housekeeping services. It's pretty much the only thing we argue about, and it gets to be so overwhelming sometimes, that it's just not worth the stress. Granted - we've been talking about this for 2 years, but now that I have that Groupon and really am going to have someone come in, I think it's more likely to become a regularly scheduled activity.

D has a big series of radiology tests tomorrow that will take pretty much all day. It's not because of a current flare up or anything, so that's good. It's been 3 years since he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, so his doctor ordered this small bowel series to see how his insides are doing. It's a highly unpleasant test (drinking barium, and spending 5 hrs or so in a radiology room getting xrays taken), and extremely boring. One good thing - he's taking my Kindle and will finally start catching up on the book series we've been reading (I've read all 5, he's read one). It's one of my typical vampire, werewolf, farie books. Nice twist though - the main character is a Native American coyote shapeshifter who happens to be a mechanic and gets into all sorts of trouble. Fun and quick reads with absolutely no basis at all in reality. Just what I love!

Lazy Days are Gone Again (big sigh...)

2011-04-24T21:16:00.000-04:00

FOOD

Most of my food adventures have been making juices. I've been making at least 2 per day all week long, and totally loving the creations. Most have been fruit juices, there's been one all-veggie juice, and a few have been fruit/veg blends. Here are a couple samplings...

old faithful from the Vitamix...spicy garden tomato whole food juice! Tomato, spinach, carrot, onion, bell pepper, habanero hot sauce, ice, and vegan Worcestershire sauce. Think uber- bloody mary mix without the vodka (though that could be a fun addition as well).

pineapple, pear, and lime through the juicer

cantaloupe, apple, mint

There have been a few more too, like apple/orange/carrot, apple/watermelon/mint (digging the mint thing), spinach/blueberry/apple/orange/mango.

Lunch one day was a simple wrap with hummus, cabbage, onion, and cucumber. This is another dish that I have a tendency to make and load up with whatever I have on hand.

I've had a few other things too. I made a tofu dish for dinner on Thursday night that was pretty good.

Tofu Stir Fry

1 brick tofu, pressed and cubed (I love my Tofu Xpress for this....)

1 head broccoli, cut into flowerettes

1/2 red onion, cut into large pieces

8 ish small red potatoes, cut into bite sized pieces

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into bite sized pieces

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp red wine vinegar

5-6 dashes liquid smoke

I toss all the ingredients in a bowl and let it marinate for a few hours. Heat up a large wok-sized pan (or a veggie grill basket if doing on the grill). Saute until the tofu starts turning golden brown. I usually cover for 5-6 minutes to steam the veggies also.

It's a very simple stand-by recipe that can lend itself to the addition of many different veggies. I've made it with zucchini, cauliflower, even okra. The marinade changes - from red wine vinegar to balsamic, or the addition of something spicy.

served over brown basmati rice

For lunch on Friday, I met up with a good friend for Thai. We were actually planning on going to Quenna's raw vegan restaurant (I've been craving it lately), but when we got there, we found that they were closed for spring break week. Bummer. We went down the street to a Thai place in Ward's Corner area of town. It was okay. Not the best Thai though, and that was disappointing. They fried the tofu in their fresh and steamed spring rolls - which decreased the health factor and frankly - changed the flavor to one I didn't really like. The green curry was nicely spicy, but otherwise only so-so. What mattered most was the company, and L and I got to catch up after not seeing each other for a few weeks.

R really wanted pancakes for breakfast, so I made her some special ones....

...she was thrilled. I know...totally cheesy that I have a pancake/egg mold in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head. What can I say. I love Disney.

Breakfast today was the same as Friday - a savory miso-quinoa-cauliflower dish. Nothing complicated - just replaced the 2 cups of water with 2 cups of miso soup, 1 cup of rinsed quinoa, and a cup or two of frozen cauliflower. Very filling and was a pre-workout meal twice - and both times gave great energy.

not pretty, but very tasty

Lunch today was a salad at Busch gardens, and dinner a bean and veggie burrito with vegan sour cream and hot sauce!

FITNESS

I went on several runs this week, including this morning, but the highlight was the swim on Friday morning. I printed out a 1200yd swim workout from Swim Plan and hit the pool. The whole thing felt great, and I've missed the water a lot.

I also bought a new bike helmet. The night before the Tri earlier in the month, I found a pretty large crack on the front of my helmet. I put my race sticker over it (bad, I know - but if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been allowed to race). Now that I have a new (and pretty groovy) helmet, I can finally hit the road again!

I'm pretty set on a Tri up in Richmond in July called Pink Power. It's a women's only Tri, and from what I've heard, it's a lot of fun. It's also really hilly....but I think I'll survive.

LIFE

This week was mostly about catching up. At home, with friends, some work, and making the most of my time off.

I had lunch with a friend, goofed off with the kids, a girls night out on Friday (that ended with one spending the night - which was fun to have a girl's pajama evening - while D slept on the pull out sofa!), a n 80's themed bachelorette party on Saturday night, and a family Easter Busch Garden's trip today!

I feel energized and ready to get back to work. I will leave you all with some pictures from the week!

My container plants have really grown a ton since I planted them a couple weeks ago. I'm excited that this may actually work!

D and R watching a 3D movie the other day....Journey to the Center of the Earth

bachelorette party!!

soaking wet after a water ride at Busch Gardens