Where's the Beach?

I'm sure most of you have heard the news by now...today is National Running Day . I don't normally run on Wednesdays for a few reasons: Jason gets up for swim, it's so dark at 5 am that I don't feel comfortable to run on my own, then it's too hot by lunch to run at that time. But, today was a special day. In the back of my head, I had semi-planned to run 2 miles. But only if everything fell into place a certain way: IF when Jason got up for swim and I woke up and my legs felt ok after yesterday's leg workout. AND IF when Jason got up for swim and I woke up and couldn't go back to sleep OR I happened to wake back up as the sun started coming up around 5:45. So that's not exactly what happened. What ended up happening was that I heard Jason get up at what I assumed was 5 am. Then Jason got back into bed. I got up to potty and took note of how my legs felt. They felt ok, but I got back into bed to see just how sleepy I really was. Then Jason...

Sunday Salad Night Last night we ended up going the grilling route for dinner. I had lots of fresh veggies on hand since I just went to the grocery store. So I grilled veggies (squash, zucchini, sweet potato, red and green bell peppers) and tempeh for a tasty Grilled Tempeh & Veggies Salad .   I love these grilled salads because you can use whatever veggie you like and protein source as well. It would have been just as good with grilled tofu or even your favorite bean. Monday oh Monday Today started off swimmingly. Definitely a Monday. I got to work and realized I didn't have my badge to get into my office. As a reminder, I get to work at 7am. Not many people are around that early. I had to sit and wait until another co-worker showed up. Happy Monday! Needless to say, it was just one of "those" days. I had no energy or desire to get in a workout either. I had my bag packed to either hit the gym or go for a run. In the end, I went home after work, declaring it...

Step and Weights Jason got up at 5 am to go swim. While it was tempting to just stay in bed, I got my lazy self up and did 3 step combos from Low Impact Circuit's cardio premix plus abs. It was a nice wake-up workout. Not too high in intensity, not too complex in choreography - ideal for 5:30 am. I ended up doing my weights at lunch. I had planned on running some errands then doing weights after work, but changed my mind. Today is the last day of Week 7 from the 8-week rotation. It was 3 sets of 12: Biceps - Zottoman curls Triceps - Weighted dips Quads - Squats Inner thighs - Plie squats Chest - Flat bench dumbbell press Back - Underhand rows Legs - Alternating lunges with pulse Calves - Calf raises (theses I did 3 sets of 20) Shoulders - Upright row Shoulders - Rear delt raise Also added Deadlifts for hamstrings. Next week I get to do it all again, only as a superset! Wednesday Rewind Today happens to be my nephew's birthday (my sister's son). He turns four. It's ...

2 on Tuesday Last night I set the alarm for 5:22 am (I have an issue with setting it at odd times like 2 mins extra sleep makes a difference) so that I could get up and do 30 minutes of kickboxing and abs. For once, I only woke up one time during the night and was snoozing hard when the alarm started going off. I thought I could quickly reset it and go right back to sleep. The stupid thing would shut off though. At first I thought I was hitting the wrong buttons, but I wasn't. I simply would not turn off. It does really quirky things from time-to-time when I try to set it (it was a cheapo purchase). But it's never not turned off. So, needless to say, I did indeed get up after all. I ended up doing 35 minutes of Kick, Punch, and Crunch plus stability balls abs. Jason and I had planned on a lunchtime run today as the weather was supposed to be nice. He was complaining about a bad crick in his neck though, so I wasn't sure the run was going to happen. But, he said he'd g...

Last night Jason tackled dinner. He had found and purchased some vegan shrimp at Whole Foods a few weeks ago. I had no idea what to do with them and had been asking meat-eating friends what they did with shrimp. I was hearing pasta suggestions, grilling suggestion, even salad suggestions. We had a heavy, unhealthy lunch of pizza, so a light, brothy soup was sounding pretty good. He found a recipe on the side of the box of Thai Kitchen thin rice noodles (another item he picked up randomly) that he used as a basis for a miso, shiitake mushroom, bok choy, and "shrimp" soup. It was topped with fresh cilantro, green onions, and squirt of lime. Admittedly, he forgot to taste for the spices until the end. Nothing that a little bit of Sriracha Chili Sauce couldn't fix! It's definitely something we'll likely try again ("shrimp" or not). Today felt like a real Monday if you know what I mean. Almost impossible to peel myself out of bed. No real motivation t...