Stuff

Exercise: 50 mins elliptical, 20 mins strength with lots of planks

Music Man is in Nashville for the week doing musicky things while Little Man and I are holding down the fort. We spent the early part of the week in Laguna tending to my parents (playing at the beach.) where Little Man decided to get a nasty cough and not sleep for 2 days.We are home again, for awhile hopefully, and sleep has still eluded us. Arrgghh. I feel pretty drained and exhausted but still got up at 5:15 to work out before the little dude woke up (for the 5th time last night.) Cross your fingers for me that we get some much needed rest tonight.

I've also been in an organizing frenzy for some unknown reason. Perhaps the heat or lack of running? I've made a good dent in our laundry room, which was a nightmare, by buying some colorful boxes and separating art supplies and hardware and all the various other junk.

I've also tossed a bunch of stuff. I'm not sure why I have a ton of 1/8 full cleaning products. I combined the ones that wouldn't create a toxic hazard and tossed what wouldn't be used. I love how much more space we have so I can accumulate more stuff!



Our house has a funny lay out with a funny little addition. There's a lot of weird space that we've tried to maximize but some has ended up wasted. So to combat this weird space we've made the living room the dining room and the dining room has now morphed from sitting room into a play room. It definitely makes the space less formal but it works really well for our needs and now we have a living room with zero toys. We just repurposed some shelving and storage units and added some boxes and voila, organized play space!

play room

dining room

I'm sure this will all change again in the next few weeks. That's how we roll ;) We're in the market for more modern chairs and benches to contrast the large, rustic table which should make the space look a little sleeker. We also plan to hardwire a pendant or chandelier so the space looks more defined. Right now we just have a swagged cord with a remote switch, which is fine but I'd love something more permanent and maybe blinged out a bit. That might be a hard sell with the man, but we'll see.

Lastly, we moved another dining table we have (my grandmother's old kitchen table) into our living room because we had a pretty large empty space to fill when we banned the toys. Ideally there would be a desk with a cute chair or a nice chair with ottoman there but for now it works as a game/puzzle/craft space which is pretty nice.

So that's what I've been up to since I haven't been running much. Hopefully I'll get a run in tomorrow but I'm not going to stress it. If I could go to the gym (if Little Man wasn't afraid of child care) I would definitely run but it might be too hot to run with the little dude. Temps are hovering around 105 in the valley and it's pretty terrible.

And here's what Dude has been up to.

The boys hangin' out

He's really into sitting in buckets and boxes

Have a great rest of your week!!!

Back in the LBC

Exercise: 3.75 mile run/walk

Saturday's workout was a 13.1 hilly, technical, and character building :) trail run. My legs are still recovering so I took it easy today and just did a little shake out. Lucky for me I'm at the parental unit's once again so at least the weather was decent.

Today has turned out to be pretty decent for a Monday. My mother is feeling under the weather so Little Man and I came back down to the LBC to keep her company/ lift her spirits. It worked. And in return we get to be lazy beach bums. Well, lazy front yard bums. Little Man is enjoying his redneck hot tub:) and I'm enjoying not having to think about stuff that needs to get done around the house.

Here are a few photos from the past few days. Have a great week!

The Bees are Coming

Exercise: 30 mins steady state elliptical, 20 mins arms and core

Last weekend Music man and I spent a few days in Laguna celebrating his birthday. It's perfect because we get free babysitting at the beach. It's the best vacation. What could be better? We arrived Thursday so we could ride together on Friday. We did a nice 33 mile ride around Laguna, Newport and Irvine. Nowadays we really prefer spending a few hours riding as opposed to formal "date night."

On Saturday we arranged to meet some friends at Stone Brewery in Escondido for Music Man's main celebration. It's like Disneyland for beer enthusiasts. They have gardens, tours, a huge gift shop and a pretty fun restaurant. I'm a bad blogger so I didn't take many food photos, but honestly, the food was really secondary to the beer. The menu isn't large so we probably shared half of the menu items between all of us and I wasn't super impressed. The standouts for me were the vegetables; the housemade kimchee and the greens that accompanied the sausage platter were out of this world. We also split the blueberry blue cheese jalapeno cheesecake and a brownie sundae for dessert. The brownie sundae was pretty straight forward and delicious. The cheesecake was definitely an acquired taste. A few of us enjoyed it but I think the majority thought it was really weird. Personally, I think there were too many components, I think blueberry blue cheese or blueberry jalapeno would have been enough. But I wouldn't kick it out of bed.

But the beer, totally worth the drive! I was DD so I nursed 1 beer and sipped a few others. They were all delicious. I was already a big fan of Stone, and all the tap beer really sealed the deal for me. So much so that  I decided to advertise for them...on my boobies ;)

http://stonecompanystore.com/store/product/2600/ABA-Women%27s-SS-Jersey-MD-Red/

Sunday was Music Man's actual birthday so I woke up bright and early to make blueberry pancakes and bacon. Soooo yummy. And then Music Man and I went out for another ride. We were both pretty tired from beer and my arduous 4 mile trail run the day before, so we decided to keep it to our normal 22 mile loop. It's still pretty difficult with a category 3 climb in the beginning and ending with the final 7 miles on a pretty congested and extremely windy highway. 

The ride was pretty relaxing and uneventful up to about mile 18 when I felt a searing pain and realized I had been stung by a bee. I swatted at the evil thing but it held on for dear life. I was ambivalent to stop due to lack of shoulder, the long line of speeding vehicles and a parade of mountain bikers enveloping me. I finally freed the bee but it's huge stinger was still embedded in my leg and I could not get the darn thing out. I flagged down Music Man, in tears, and my leg shook violently as he extracted the stinger. Luckily the pain really eased when the stinger was removed but I was still in shock.

A few months ago I was stung by a bee while running. I don't know if it's because it stung me through my capris or because I got the stinger out so quickly but I just had a little bump and rash, no big deal. But this time... my thigh swelled up like crazy and I had a huge burning lump on the inside of my thigh. I'll spare you the visual but it was like 1/2 a grapefruit sticking off my leg. By Monday morning I couldn't put any pressure on my right leg so walking was difficult. After seeing the doctor it turns out I'm a little more allergic than I have been in the past. I was prescribed a steroid which I took 1/4 of a dose of and that turned out to be enough to get the swelling to subside. By Tuesday I was feeling much better. It's still rashy and itchy but at least I can walk now.

Because of the pain and swelling I haven't run since Saturday. I have 13 hot trail miles on the schedule for this Saturday and I'm hoping to just get through it happily, no pace goals. And I now have an epi pen  that will always be in my camelbak or jersey from now on to make my run or ride a little safer.

Oh, I almost forgot, Music Man got stung on Wednesday while riding. He got stung on the inside of his mouth and his poor lips were huge. So he'll be carrying an epi pen from now on as well. AND, because it's a weird coincidence, I have to tell you Music man's dad got stung on his ear on Friday. If you're related to me, watch out. The bees are out to get us!!!

Lastly, Little Man woke up a little early this morning and I woke up a little late so I did my work out while he was awake, which I try not to do because it's crazy distracting. The whole time I was on the elliptical he yelled "Sit down, Mommy!!!!!" and when I started my strength he questioned "What doing Mommy?". "Why  doing that?" I explained to him that I was doing it to be healthy and because I liked it and he said "Yes, Sure, Weirdo" Ha!

Allow me to illustrate the real weirdo of the family:

Nice Diaper, Darth

Time to watch some Olympics! Have a fantastic week!

1 Week Down

Exercise: 18 mile bike ride, 17.5mph avg speed

Music man wants to make sure I train on my bike at least once a week so he made me go out for a ride this morning while he watched Little Man. Twist my arm ;) It was such a lovely, cool morning that I decided to go for a longish ride on our nearby bike path finishing in just over an hour. I felt really speedy and realized I really enjoy riding.

When we were in Laguna a few weeks ago we stopped at The Path bike shop in Tustin on our way home and picked up clip pedals and shoes with cleats for me. (If you are in the OC and need a bike, gear or tune up this place is awesome!!!) Today was my first time riding with clips and I chose riding the bike path for that reason; I wanted to make sure I was safe since I was using new gear. I've come to realize that riding in traffic may be safer than riding near pedestrians. People out exercising seem to use good road etiquette but people out for a stroll just meander all over the path, jump out or stop right in front of you, and just aren't that courteous. I think I've felt safer every time I've had to ride in traffic.

Today is day 8 of the 17 Day Diet. I actually lasted for a whole week of a challenge! I got on the scale this morning and I am down 7.8 pounds in one week! It's pretty crazy because I don't think I have that much weight to lose so I'm surprised to have all that water hanging around. The diet is working really well for me thus far so I want to note why I think that is.

1. No alcohol for a week. One of my downfalls is that I'm a lush and it is not out of the ordinary for me to have a couple beers or glasses of wine on the average weekday night...and even more on the weekend :O
2. Eating whole foods. This eating plan is all about eating whole, unprocessed foods. And I've followed that for the most part. I love that there aren't any shakes or bars they try to sell you. Huge selling point.
3. For a lower carb diet you get to eat fruit. It's only 2 servings a day but at least you get that sweetness. This is one thing I haven't followed, I am definitely eating 3-4 servings of fruit each day. But this is good thing for me as I've always been great at eating tons of vegetables, but fruit, not so much. So the fact that I reach for strawberries as a snack is a great thing.
4. No counting calories. I don't feel super restricted, if I'm hungry I eat. I have cheated here or there and had a spoonful of hummus with my carrots or pb with my apple. This has not seemed to slow down the weight loss too much though.
5. Doesn't feel like a diet. I'm not eating much differently from my normal diet except for the lack of grains and legumes. But I get my spinach omelet or yogurt and fruit for breakfast, a huge salad for lunch and I'm eating the same types of dinners but where my quinoa or sweet potato would be there's a side salad instead.

I don't have many bad things to say about the diet. I do miss my lentils and rice but that's my problem, not the diet. Also, I get a few servings of those things in cycle 2.

But it is a diet so it's not geared to very active people, I think they recommend 17 minutes of exercise a day, ha. I am 4 times as active as that! You can't run 10 miles with such little fuel so I have cheated a bit. I have eaten a few bananas, higher sugar fruit like melon, and before and after my long run I had extra carbs like homemade granola, baked sweet potato wedges, and some homemade popcorn. I also cheated at a party the same day as my 10 miler with some olives, manchego and 2 small slices of baguette but I have zero guilt about those nibbles. 10 miles needs refueling ;)

Cycle 2 seems like a better fit for more active people so I'm looking forward to it. It's a coincidence that cycle 2 begins on the day of Music Man's birthday party at his favorite brewery so the extra carbs will give me a little leeway and ability to enjoy the day more. We will also be taking a big ride that morning so beer me up!

I'm looking forward to the second week being as successful as this first week has been. I've gotten creative with meals so I hope I can stave off the boredom. last night we had a really delicious eggplant lasagna with layers of eggplant, zucchini, carrots, pasta sauce and lowfat cheese baked for an hour at 375. Next time I will add spinach and lowfat ricotta to make it even more like lasagna. It was a little soupy too, I kept draining the liquid so i was thinking of dehydrating the veggies a little next time. maybe in the oven for an hour at 250 like i do to firm up my tofu. I bet the texture would be awesome then. It was paired with grilled chicken to complete the meal.

I had the leftovers for lunch,

along with a small scoop of 2 ingredient chocolate ice cream; just  frozen bananas and cocoa powder blended in the Vitamix. My MIL (Hi Cathy!) reminded me of how delicious this banana ice cream was and now I've been eating it nearly every other day. Delicious!

Have a great rest of your week! And because I am sentimental, here's a photo from exactly 1 year ago ;)

Oatless Oatmeal

Exercise: 50 mins steady state elliptical, 3 mile run 9:05 avg pace

So far this has been a pretty great week. I feel like I am in the groove and I haven't felt that way for awhile. Sleep has been fantastic which has definitely been a part of it and that's probably due to eating so much better. And not having an alcoholic beverage in almost a week.

 So breakfast has been the hardest meal for me to get creative with. Spinach omelets are great but after almost a week they've gotten pretty boring. High protein, no grain breakfasts are pretty hard to come by; it's really eggs, meat, or nuts. Today I made Tina's Oatmeal Minus the Oats for a change of pace. I shouldn't have told Music Man the ingredients because he had a hard time getting past the visual of eggs as oats. But I have to say I think it was a success.

I followed the basic recipe but added in an extra banana, a few T's of chia & hemp seeds and an extra splash of almond milk and it was perfect for the 2 of us. I topped mine with blackberries and blueberries and Music Man had a drizzle of local honey as well. I did like it but I think it could have tasted a bit better minus the ground flax. I used Trader Joe's and it tastes like motor oil to me so I need to find another flax meal I like.

Not only was this breakfast a nice change of pace, it also held up really well. I didn't get the case of the munchies until lunch. Music Man had the same experience and he even did a 20 mile ride with lots of climbing post breakfast. This meal passed the test but I think I may leave the flax out all together next time. I also think protein powder might be a tasty addition.

After breakfast Little Man and I went to the splash pad in Oak Park and he had so much fun playing in the water with his little friends.

That's my big day! Next on the agenda: Target with 2 toddlers. Say a prayer ;)

Have a great Tuesday!

A Wonderful Beginning and Homemade Granola

Exercise: Easy 30 mins elliptical, 10 minutes core work

Yesterday I got up early and ran my first trail 10 miler in quite a few weeks in preparation for the Bulldog. I finally registered for it last week and have 6 weeks to go! The run went really well so I'm getting super excited for the race. It's the first 10+ I've completed in the last few months with zero pain. Woo Hoo to that!

Even though I've been eating pretty grain free I fueled my run with Fage 0, blueberries and 1/4 c of homemade granola. I use this recipe and I sub unsweetened coconut for the sweet stuff as well as only using 3 T honey and 3 T agave for the sweetener a splash of vanilla and 2 T of oil. I also added some chia and hemp seed for good measure. This time around I threw in the end of an open box of cornflakes st the very end of cooking. This granola is super delicious and the breakfast fueled me pretty well.

To top off my awesome run yesterday the Little Man slept in super late today. Music Man and I got over 8 hours of sleep and it was glorious! I am hoping for a repeat tonight, but not expecting much. No matter what,  it was a great start to the week.


Actually, the whole day has been pretty great, not just the morning. We were able to eat breakfast as a family and spend the morning running errands. The Little took a 2+ hour nap and then I took his friend Ethan and him to a Monday afternoon birthday play date. How awesome is that?

Because we have so many members in our mom's club instead of each of us having huge birthday parties to accommodate all the kids and parents we have a daytime play date each month for the kids and moms that have birthdays that month. It's all ages and extra celebratory and usually includes cupcakes. so much fun for kids and moms alike. And today was just great; the party included a craft, a homemade boxcar race track and not only cupcakes but frozen bananas. Loved it.

While we were at the party Music Man did the grocery shopping. This is quite out of the ordinary but so appreciated. And I didn't get one call or question because I made the list according to the layout of the store.  I should really do that more often, even for myself, because it saved so much time. And because my husband rocks, he also came home with these.

When we got home we had a lovely dinner then Music Man and Little went to the garage to fix a bike while I cleaned up.

I took one step outside to go check on their progress and immediately went back in because I needed a jacket! In the valley! In July!

And the Little Man requested a blanket for our evening walk. We got this wagon on a trip to Laguna a few months back and it is the best $15 purchase we've made. He loves to get in it and go for walks, to the zoo, and we even had to take it back to Laguna over the 4th because it's his favorite mode of transport.

Now it's relax time. Music Man and I settled into the couch to spend quality time together, with our electronic devices ;) I was feeling snacky so I made us some dessert yogurt with plain Fage 0, cinnamon, figs, blueberries, the biggest, sweetest blackberries ever, cherries and then topped it with a few chopped raw almonds. It was dreamy.

Have a great night and a wonderful week!

Eggplant as Bread

Exercise: 4.15 mile jog/walk: 13:31 avg pace

Today was an active rest day. Not planned but my body needed it. I had planned to just walk but was pressed for time and had to pee so I figured a light jog here and there wouldn't hurt. It was so so nice not to worry about pace or intervals and just enjoy the gorgeous post rain morning.

After my walk Little Man and I got ready and headed to the beach to meet up with friends and babes. Sadly, I took no pictures but I was covered head to toe in sand. Little Man has had a love/hate relationship with the beach but today he loved every second of it. Maybe he just needed some kids his age to play with. It was really a lovely morning.

We also had a  beachy picnic lunch which is always(never, unless you enjoy sand in your food) fun with toddlers. But since starting this new eating plan I've had a hard time coming up with yummy foods I actually want to eat. I looked at some 17 day diet recipes and blogs but there wasn't much new stuff or anything that struck me as awesome. I figured it was similar to paleo diet but with dairy so I looked at some recipes and one person mentioned eating cod for breakfast. After I threw up in my mouth a little I decided I just needed to get more creative.

One of my favorite meals is a simple sandwich. Two pieces of bread filled with yummy cheese, meat, avocado, veggies, etc. You can't go wrong. So I looked at the list of veggies available on the diet and realized eggplants are pretty big and when sliced they kinda resemble bread. So I Googled around and found a recipe for eggplant as bread. Score! But it wasn't exactly right for my needs. I needed something that would hold up after a few days and pretty fat free. So here's what I came up with.

Eggplant as Bread:

1 avg size eggplant sliced in 1/4 to 1/2 inch circles
2-3 egg whites or 1/4 c liquid whites
2 T milk (almond, soy, dairy, etc.)
1 1/2T chia seeds
1 1/2T hemp seeds
1/2 t garlic powder
S&P to taste (maybe 1/4t each)

So I know the seeds are another 17 day diet no-no but the fat and calories are so negligible, adding 20 calories tops to each slice, I decided it didn't matter and I liked the idea of the nutty consistency. If you're doing paleo I couldn't find either seed on the lists of encouraged or avoided foods but almond meal would be awesome and then you could use the leftovers to make an awesome paleo parmesan like this recipe.


Salt eggplant slices on both sides and let sit for an hour on a cookie sheet or plate until juices appear
Rinse and pat dry slices
Heat pan to medium high and add cooking spray, olive oil or a little coconut oil
Mix all other ingredients together
Dredge eggplant in "batter" ( I actually scooped up some seeds to manually put on the eggplant slices)
Transfer slices, in batches, to pan
Cook for 1-2 minutes each side until fairly brown but you want the eggplant to remain firm
Allow to cool before storing

I refrigerated mine overnight and they were a little soggy the next day. But because they were still firm I threw those puppies in the toaster and they were amazing!!! They were almost the consistency of a refrigerated pancake or waffle before toasting but they got a bit crispy and made a great sandwich that held up at the beach. Eggplant flesh is pretty spongy so it's a pretty great stand in for bread.

I have to say it again,  I LOVED these. And's it's a welcome change from a lettuce wrap which is still good but lacks substance and flavor.

Lastly, Music Man's birthday is at the end of the month and the last few years haven't been celebrated properly due to the Little Man taking up a bit of my time so I want to make sure we have a nice celebration this year. I have been scouting out presents and have a few things in mind but found this card yesterday, which is so appropriate. I couldn't wait to give it to him so we just get to celebrate for a few weeks!

Have an awesome weekend!