Catch Up!

     For this post I'm not giving you my half-marathon update in my usual format. This is mostly because the last ten days have been so crazy, everything I've done has kind of gotten all jumbled up. This blog post is about giving you the highlights of the last ten days to get you up to speed. So, here we go!


     Let us begin with a training update. Let me tell you I have been on FIRE these last ten days! A few of the highlights would be one day, I had so much energy, I was able to go for a 30 minute run that was immediantly followed by a 65 minute vigorous lap swimming session. Man let me tell you did that feel GOOD! The rest of my days have been filled with runs varying in intensity with some lap swimming and weight training thrown in there for good measure. 


     Back in elementary school I was a VERY active kid. I was in horseback riding, swimming, gymanstics, and karate.  I don't know how I was able to live such a sedentary lifestyle once a got into middle school and the first two years of high school. It was like I never felt like doing anything that didn't involve a TV screen. Now I go stir crazy if I can't get some sort of exercise every day; even on my rest day I go for a walk.


     I have found exercise to be a significant and often much neeed mood booster for me. If I ever feel depressed I go for a run and I come back home feeling pumped up and bubbly! LOL :-D And appartently exercise is contagious because I've gotten my mom to on some runs with me. She can't do my level of intesity so we go speed walking with my doing periodic 1 - 3 minute full out sprints with mom doing some light jogging in between. Together we are going to work on her stamina.


     In other exercise news, I have finally gone back to karate! Six weeks of hip adjustments and physical therapy has all but eliminated my knee pain. I am now only visiting the chiropractor once a week instead of twice a week. This was just in time too because my karate pictures came in just a couple days ago. It was a great inspiration to get back in the game so to speak.

     Next on the agenda is my latest raw food exploits! I have found the perfect smoothie to tantalizes the taste buds, keep me running around hunger free for up to six hours, build muscle mass, and pack in the much needed carbs, calories, and nutrients that I require to function. The. . . 

     

 Banana Date Coconut Smoothie

 

6-7 medium Bananas

4-5 Medjool Dates

3/4 C. Coconut Water

     I also came up with a pretty awesome salad that had a dressing made up of no overt fat!

Tomango Cuke Salad

Salad Fixings:

- 3/4 head of Romains

- 1 Cucumber (peeled if not organic)

- 1 C. Grape Tomatoes, halved

Dressing:

- 2 large Tomatoes

- A hanful of Grape Tomatoes

- 1/2 of a Red Bell Pepper

-1 ripe Mango

Directions:

Take all the salad fixings, chop them up, and put into a bowl. Take the dressing ingredients, pulse in a blender or food processor until smooth, and pour on top of salad. Mix the dressing in with the salad and devour! Yum yum. ;-)

    Also, this last Wednesday morning when I got back from training, a 5lb. box of Florida Chocolate Sapotes arrived from Taylor's Tropicals! At this very moment the Chocolate Sapote are ripening atop my refrigerator. :-) If you would like to order some tropical fruit that is grown in the U.S., and whose produce is of good quality, then go here: http://taylorstropicals.org. As soon as the Sapote are ripe I'll show you a picture of them and let you know what they taste like. I'm sure I'm not the only one whose heard of Chocolate Sapote, wanted to see what they taste like, but never gotten the opportunity to taste one.

     Speaking of trying new fruits, I bought myself an Organic Jackfruit from the Farmer's Market to give it a try. Man the people who described the taste of Jackfruit were not kidding because it really does taste like Juicy Fruit gum!

     Also during my weekly Farmer's Market excursion, I met a Raw Vegan, Sonny, who I learned has been raw for a few years now. Being on the the Gone Raw and 30 Bananas a day forum has allowed me to know and interact with other people who share the same views as me when it comes to diet and nutrition, but to actually meet one in person was quite refreshing.

     And now we come to recreational activities. When I'm not exercising, studying, playing/walking my dogs, raw food preparing, or surfing the web, I like to spend some quality time with my family. This last Sunday my mom, brother, and I drove into Atlanta to visit the Apple Store, Barnes & Noble, and Whole Foods (for lunch). 

     The Whole Foods that my family frequents, had a pretty good selection of food that day, and I wound up having Kiwi, Pineapple, and Grapefruit, with a 16 oz. cup of Clementine juice. Mmmm. . .

     My mom had a sprouted garbanzo bean salad with marinated mushrooms and antipesto with a piece of my grapefruit for dessert. Didn't take a picture though. Sorry guys!

     My brother though, I was so proud of him! :-) Sure he got himself cheese pizza for lunch, but he also got himself this:

     Fruit AND veggies, and he made this salad himself at the salad bar! It makes me feel so happy that he is starting to take a step in the right direction of health on his own.  :-D

     The Apple store in Atlanta is inside Perimeter Mall, so on our way out I just had to stop into my favorite clothing store, Anthropology. They have such quality and classicly styled clothing there. The only sad part is that they're a bit expensive so it's a rare occasion for me to actually buy somthing from them, but that doesn't stop me from looking. Take a look at their latest design.

I think I might try to save up to buy these two pieces.

This one I just that was pretty.

     What is really sad though, is that even though these are quality, well designed clothes, the cloth itself comes from forign countries such as India and China. None  of the cloth itself was made in the U.S. because all but two textile mills are left in this country. Isn't that sad? We don't produce anything anymore with all those jobs having been shipped overseas. :-( I will probably devote a whole blog post sometime this month to discuss this problem in more detail.

     On that note I will end this blog post with a bit of positive news, I have started recieving acceptance letters from various universities! So far I've gotten one from Union College (Lincoln, NE), Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, GA), and University of South Florida (Tampa, FL). Right now I am awaiting for a response from Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO), Whitman College (Walla Walla, WA), Emory University (Atlanta, GA), and Dartmouth College (Hanover, NH). Wish me luck!