Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Hello From The Road!


I've been stuck in a car for approximately 9 hours today. I am still currently in the car as we speak. I forced the cousin to the gym with me this morning for a last horrah before being on vacation for 12 days.


I did HIIT and I am so glad I did because I am going absolutely bonkers sitting in the car for hours and hours. I've been having some anxiety about being away from my routine for almost 2 weeks, but I have to keep reminding myself that it's worth it. Exercise should come second to living your life, and on this island, we are truly living life.

Since my mom has been out of town for 3 weeks and will be gone for another week, Moe has to stay with Uncle while I'm gone. He was not happy about it. He actually put himself in the car while we were packing up. He generally avoids the car at all possible costs.


We made it safely to Oregon. Okay, we only live 90 minutes from the Oregon border, so it was just the beginning of this long journey.


Confession: before boyfriend and I started dating and I started visiting Washington at least twice a year, I had been to Hawaii more than I had been to Oregon and I had never been to Washington.

We found a random, awesome little authentic Mexican place thanks to Yelp to eat.


I ordered salad with carnitas and it was the best decision of the month. I actually scooped up guacamole with slices of avocado. I have an addiction.


It's illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon, which feels really weird to this native Californian. So while we were waiting for the gas to fill up, boyfriend and I did a few exercises and then I got the lovely job of stretching him.


We got to Portland right at sunset. I swear the sunsets get prettier the farther north you go.


We are finally driving through Washington and almost to our destination for the night. We will sleep in Seattle before waking up to get to our island in the afternoon. I cannot wait. It's like a different world up there.


I hope everyone is having a fantastic Wednesday!

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

So Many Visitors!

I have been MIA from the blogosphere for the last day or so because I have been so busy with many out of town guests. Sunday night (around 2am), my old roommate and her boyfriend got into town.

Monday morning we thought that our hike had worked and that the baby was coming, so my entire morning consisted of this:


I felt so bad leaving my guests to fend for themselves (they spent time with my other old roommate), but I really thought baby was coming. When it had been a few hours I forced myself to the gym.


My run was kind of hard and all I wanted to do was fall asleep because I had been woken up several times in the middle of the night. Then I went to the weight room to do my back routine and I was literally the only female lifting weights. I was not amused.


I don't mind being the only lady lifting, but when you get stared at blatantly, it feels really uncomfortable. 

After I showered, I met up with the out of towners for dinner.


I had blackened chicken salad that was absolutely delicious. We then wandered around and hit up a local used bookstore for text books and played dress up at a thrift store.


The night ended with us watching a movie and catching up on each other's lives. 

This morning I had to drop them off for hair cuts. She had hit a raccoon on her drive up here and it somehow managed to rip her radiator almost all the way out, so she was reliant on us for rides. Beware of those scary mechanic raccoons, they do some damage! The. I made it to the gym to run.


Today's run felt much better. I was well rested and hydrated. Then it was time to hit the weights for chest/tricep day. Ad I wasn't the only lady lifting. It felt much less uncomfortable.


Boyfriend's cousin came into town shortly after I got done. Boyfriend has been working since Sunday because we are leaving for paradise tomorrow. This is also the reason his cousin came into town. She's joining us on our journey up north. So, I picked her up and we met up with the rest of the bunch for Pho. I had been far too long since I had eaten it.


Notice the baby is still in my sister's belly? She decided that she wanted to stay in a little longer. Of course, we couldn't complete the night without a little froyo.


My out of town guests had gotten their car back while I was picking up the cousin, so they left to go home after froyo. Cousin and I drove south to visit boyfriend's grandma and her dogs.


Now we are home and both crashing because we are hitting the gym early before we leave town for paradise. I cannot WAIT to be there, especially after these two very hectic days. I mean, look at this magical place.


Who were your last out of town guests?
Where is your magical place?

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Slowing Down and a Hike

When I woke up this morning, I really didn't want to run. I had to read running blogs to motivate me. My body is tired. Really, really tired. But, I got up and did it. I decided to run slower this week and actually change my pace as my body needed it. And I actually did. I was pretty proud of myself.


It helped that another magazine was waiting for me on the counter at my dad's house when I got there. I read  this tip that I thought was really interesting.


I got a text from my sister right as I finished inviting me to go north to check out the blackberry festival and go for a hike. We are still trying really hard to get the baby out. The blackberry festival was a complete bust. It was basically 4 booths in someone's front yard and absolutely no blackberries! So, we went to get lunch at Aztec Grill, where my brother-in-law ate a burrito the size of his future daughter.


My food was really delicious. It's really strange how good a Mexican place in a gas station is, but the food is always so fresh and my grilled chicken platter even had broccoli!


Then we headed to our hiking spot. It started off really steep and my sister needed a little help up the mountain.


We definitely took every photo opportunity we had.


She also had a few major contractions, which made us really excited, but her water didn't break, so we were sad about that.


I have been on this hike about a bajillion times and every single time my breath gets taken away by the sheer beauty that I get to live in.


It was an absolutely beautiful day, as well, so there were tons of people on the beach and boats in the water.


The hills were a great addition to the 9 miles I had already run.


Sometimes I take this place for granted because I have lived here for 25 (almost 26) years, so it's really refreshing to remember that I live in an incredibly special part of the country.


I mean, look at this view.


The ocean definitely is my happy place and reminds me that all of the worrying about being fast enough, lifting heavy enough, eating well enough is just really not important in the scheme of things.


My second favorite part of the day came in a bowl.


Tonight my old roommate is coming into town and hopefully we will be going to the river tomorrow. And only two more days until we head to Washington to my very favorite happy place:

Counting down the minutes until I get to this island.

What's your happy place?

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Waiting For Baby

Yesterday I attended my last day of summer school. While it will be nice to have my summer days back, it also felt a little sad. I made quite a few new friends in that class, but most of them were FINISHING the the program while I was starting it, so they will all be teaching come fall. It was a little sad to have to say goodbye so soon. I am just glad the woman I am the closest with will be continuing on in the fall with me.

I did get out of the first part of class early enough to get to the gym in between class, which made me really happy.


My run was nothing special. I did have the treadmill on an incline for the entire run and I put it a few seconds faster than my comfortable pace, so I felt slightly uncomfortable for the entire run, but not so bad that I was dying at the end. My best friend was also able to meet me there for our strength training portion. 


She's moving to San Diego tomorrow to begin law school, so this was our last workout together for awhile. I am seriously going to miss her. 

I got to be home at a decent hour since I had gotten my workout out of the way. Boyfriend had gotten off work in the morning, so we went to Costco and then to our local natural foods store to get me a salad that I had been craving.


We had made plans to see a play with my old roommate and her boyfriend (who is also a best friend). They hadn't eaten dinner beforehand, so we ended up at the only place in town that serves food after 9pm--- Denny's.


I didn't get to sleep until 1:30am! I was crazy last night. ;-) 

This morning we had planned on going to The Orchard for some rafting, but we decided it was too long of a drive for just 2 hours of rafting. Especially when we had a very important 12 hour drive coming up in 3 days!

So, I ended up heading over to my sister's house to hang out with her. She is moments away from giving birth, so she's literally trying everything she can to induce labor. She tried doing 50 squats yesterday, which made this fitness sister really proud. Today, however, we baked.


She's in nesting mode, so I went right along with her. Baking takes so much out of you! We made chocolate chip cookies.


We also made oatmeal cookies for her to take with her to the hospital. She's so thoughtful!


I was exhausted by the end of it. It was really fun just being with her waiting for her water to break while the boys played video games. 

Boyfriend and I came home and I forced him to do two videos from Fitnessblender. Then he made me dinner and now we are sitting on the couch watching Netflix.


I am really hoping my godchild comes before we leave for Seattle on Wednesday! It was a perfect Saturday.

How was your Saturday?


Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Weirdest Most Delicious Thing I've Ever Eaten

Today in class we got to play tag. Sprinting around a field for an hour is one of the best ways to spend an afternoon. We are learning about Adaptive PE and how to make changes to physical activity to suit our students needs. Like if a student has a difficult time running, make it so that everyone has to walk. It's amazing how one little change can make a game fun for everyone involved.

It was a great warm up to my run at the gym.


I decided to get crazy and switch leg day to Thursdays instead of Fridays to see if that would make a difference in my long runs on Sunday. 


The most devastating thing happened while I was doing squats. I looked down and noticed my brand new headphones were broken.


Boyfriend is going to fix them when he gets home from work. 

I had bumped into the ex at dinner last week and invited him over to make dinner sometime this week, so he came over tonight. He also brought someone very special.


I haven't seen the Milo in 3 weeks, so I was so happy he came to visit. He does love living with his daddy, though, because he gets to find chicken food scattered in the yard to eat.

I made a sweet potato hash with ground beef, sweet potato, onion, garlic, and kale. I totally made the entire thing up and it turned out pretty good. I also added cucumber on top.


Since I was in charge of dinner, he was in charge of dessert and he made the weirdest most delicious thing I've ever eaten.

Yeah. It looks like brownies, but it's not. This is the ex that follows the Paleo diet and who got me started on my nutrition journey. While I don't eat Paleo, I do try to eat the most natural foods I can. These brownies were made out of avocado! 


We topped it with whipped cream (which we all know is my favorite food in the entire world). I could have eaten the entire pan. I kept going back for more slivers. Even the dogs knew it tasted delicious. Too bad there is really dark chocolate in it, so we couldn't share with them.


By the end of the night, Milo didn't want to go back to daddy's house, but he had to since I will be going out of town on Wednesday and didn't want to leave my brother with 3 dogs to look after.


Tomorrow is my last day of summer school. It really flew by. I am getting more excited about school in the fall by the minute because I have already made some good friends and have learned a lot in just the few short weeks.

Here is the recipe in case you are interested.  To make them sweeter, you can add a cup of honey instead of the half cup or you could use less intense chocolate (like 70 or 80% instead of baker's chocolate.  We were also thinking mint extract would make them even more delicious.  The recipe is from Fast Paleo.

Avocado Brownies

Ingredients

  • 4 oz Baking Chocolate
  • 1 T Coconut Oil
  • 2 Large Avocados
  • 1/2 c Honey
  • 1/4 c Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
  • 1 T Vanilla
  • 1 T Coconut Flour
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1/2 t Baking Soda, 1/2 t Baking Powder
  • 1/2 t Salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

In a microwave safe bowl, stir together the coconut oil and baking chocolate and nuke for about 20 seconds at a time until melted, stirring in between so it doesn’t curdle. 

Puree the avocados in a food processor–make sure there are NO LUMPS. We want brownies, not guac. 

Fold the chocolate into the avocados in a large mixing bowl. 

With an electric mixer, beat the remaining ingredients into the batter until smooth. Grease an 8×8 pan and pour the batter, smoothing out the edges. 

Bake for 30 minutes, stick with a knife or toothpick to see if cooked all the way through.

What's the weirdest most delicious thing you've ever eaten?