My Fun Filled Weekend

     This post was supposed to get published last night; however, I had to wait until I was able to upload all the pictures I wanted to share with you guys. This weekend was probably the BEST weekend I've had this school semester, and I hope to have more just as fun (or more fun) than this one.


Friday Afternoon/Evening/Night:

     Friday afternoon, after  classes, Jamie (my BFF) and I got to head out for my very first concert: The Songs and Stories Tour featuring Steven Curtis Chapman, Josh Wilson, and Andrew Peterson! Located at the Barrean Church, we got there early because we had purchased special tickets that allowed us to attend the soundcheck and ask Steven questions before the concert.

The soundcheck

The concert! =D

My armband to get into the soundcheck.

A tour poster signed by Steven Curtis Chapman!

  
     We got arrived at the church at 5:30 and didn't get back until 10:30, and the next day my voice was hoarse from screaming, singing, and the smoke machine...it was the best night EVER! The artists were such real and down to earth guys, and their incredible Christian music made for the perfect sabbath opening. I can't wait to go to another concert. =)

Saturday:


     On Sabbath I spent most of my day sleeping, watching TV shows on my computer, and doing a bible study with my mom over Skype. However, I did go for a long afternoon walk with Jamie. We spent approximately 90 minutes wandering around Lincoln staying on the look out for any good rentals, and checking out the cool architecture and landscape of the houses in the area.

I discovered, thanks to Jamie, that rose 

hips are edible and quite tasty.

Some people had really cool yard decorations. 

This one was my favorite - A bottle tree.

During are walk we finally got to see the rare black 

squirrel that we had heard lived here in Lincoln.

     I forgot my camera so the pictures above were taken on Jamie's phone, so the resolution isn't that great, but I think it still captures the awesomeness that was our walk.

Sunday:

     Sunday was mostly spent doing homework, but I made sure to make the time to workout. I swam 1.75 miles that morning at our school pool and cycled approximately 7.65 miles on my interval trainer while I did my assigned reading for my religion class. I also took a couple of homework breaks.

     After Jamie got out of her final Scuba class (she is now Scuba certified, you go Jamie!!) she treated me to a drink at a local coffee shop because she had won a free gift certificate for the place at work. 

Jamie had a double mocha latte made with almond mylk.

And I had an iced Yerba Mate tea.

Good Eats!


     I also ate very well over the weekend. I had lot's of fruity goodies, but my two favorites were the two scrumptious creations below.

 My new date sauce recipe with Honeycrisp apple slices.

 My latest tropical green smoothie creation!

     You can find out what is in these two recipes when my recipe e-book is released January 1, 2012.

     Until next time... eat fruit, run fast!

Spring is Coming, Spring is Coming!

     Today was my first day back from Spring Break, and what a beautiful day it was indeed. Classes kept me indoors for the first half of the day. However, this afternoon I was able to go for a short 4 mile trail run at Turner Lake Park. Turner Lake is probably my most favorite place to run because it's only 5 minutes away from my house, and the only other trail runs are 30+ minutes away. Today was perfect running weather: 72 degrees, a slight breeze, clear skies, and trails bursting with fresh spring flowers and greenery!

   Turner Lake's trails are a perfect place to work on increasing my running speed, strength, and endurance.  Today I chose to hilly route and aimed "power through" the hills, pushing to go as fast as I can up them, instead of slowing down (which is what my legs and lungs wanted me to do, but I told them no and kept going. LOL),

   After I got home and took a shower I had just enough time to grab a dozen dates before accompanying my mom to the grocery store. I had promised her that I was going to make her a special raw vegan dinner, and we were out of a couple ingredients that I needed. When we got back my mom was famished, so I quickly set to work on preparing some Jicama Nori Rolls.

   This delicious meal is salt free and 100% raw vegan, and best of all, my mom adored it! It's hard for me to come up with savory raw dishes that she likes, mostly because her taste and mine are so different. I was just so happy that I was able to concoct a recipe that was tasty, healthy, satisfying, and raw.

My mom is camera shy when it comes to putting her face on the internet.

 However she did allow me take a photo of her chopsticks, 

getting ready to tuck into her meal.

   This recipe will be featured in my our upcoming health & lifestyle/recipe book, as well as my LFRV recipe book. So stay tuned to find out the secret ingredients to my special Jicama pate! =)

   Now, once my mom was settled into her food, I wasted no time in whipping up a fruity green pudding smoothie.

Kiwi, Mango, and Spinach (a dinner that Popeye would love)

   The rest of my evening was filled with homework, returning emails, and working on my recipe book. It was only just a few moments ago that I realized how late it is; this time change had really thrown my internal body clock off. It's amazing what a difference just one our can make isn't it? Oh well, hopefully by the end of the week I'll be back "in tune" so to speak.

Must have sleep!

     Hey guys! Sorry I didn't post last weekend, I was sick. Last week both my mom and brother were sick, and much to my dismay, they passed it onto me. I normally have a very strong immune system and don't get sick. However, with my training, homework, chores, and taking care of sick family members I wasn't getting nearly enough sleep. With my weakened immune system "the bug" was able to infiltrate my body, and it was NOT fun. It just goes to show you that you are only as strong as your weakness. This time my health weakness was sleep, and I payed for it. I was only sick for three days but that put me behind school, so I've been scrambling to catch up this week, leaving me little time for any sort of training let alone blogging. Thankfully today I have finally caught up on all my work and have started training again. 

     Just because I was out for the count last week doesn't mean that I wasn't able to snap some pictures here and there. The following pics cover my two week gap between posts. Enjoy!

Lunch from Whole Foods

     I've read articles from professionals who say that eating too much fruit is bad for you because it can cause high blood pressure. I found this highly unlikely. Fruit is an unrefined sugar (carb) that our bodies were designed to easily assimilate. Still, I decided to see for myself using the blood pressure machine at a   local pharmacy.

Blood pressure 30 min. after a 2 hr. workout (5 hours since last fruit meal)

Blood pressure 10 min. after an 8 banana & 6 date smoothie.

As you can see, there isn't a very significant difference. Fruit rocks!

When I was sick my mom made this lovely Get Well Strawberry Banana "Ice Cream"

     My latest fruit bounty:

Honeydew

40 lbs. of Organic Bananas

 Nothing is as beautiful as a fruit filled refrigerator!

 Fuyu Persimmons

Chocolate Sapote, Pineapple, & Spinach

Watermelon & Mangos

 Tangerines, Strawberries, & Blueberries

Heirloom Tomatoes

     Not pictured was 2more boxes of Mango, 2 more packages of Persimmons, and a liter of fresh Coconut Water. I hit the fruit jackpot for sure this time around!

 Training Update: 2/6 - 2/20

Peace!

My "Chocolate" Pudding Three Day Weekend

     I just love weekends, particularly the ones that last three days instead of two. I spent all day Saturday relaxing. I slept in, laid in bed and read, took our family dog, Charlie, for a walk with my mom, and went crazy with my Chocolate (Black) Sapote. 

You remember this decadent fruit from my last post?

     I had bought quite a few sapote from jourdansbeautifulfood.com. However, unlike the last batch, these sapote ripened all at once. Yikes! Now don't get me wrong, I love eating massive amounts of sapote mono meal style, but after a while I was ready for a new spin on this scrumptious fruit. So I turned on my culinary creativity, went to work, and came up with this luscious meal that I dubbed. . .

Chocolate Silk Breakfast Pudding

     Despite its name, I love this meal so much that I have it for more than just breakfast. I often enjoy this pudding 2-3 times a day and as a result, I'm almost out of sapote. Oh no! I better go order some more. Chocolate Sapote only comes around once a year and I want to have my fill of it before the season ends.

Yum yum. . . eat em up! LOL 

Another meal that I have been enjoying 1-2 times a day lately is this tropical thirst quencher. . .

Punchy Pineapple Smoothie

     I just love how rich the color is because it gives the food the aesthetic appeal we humans often need to enjoy our meal. 

     The ingredients and prep work is really simple: take one ripe pineapple, chop it up, put pineapple pieces in the blender, add enough water to blend (I just use a splash of coconut water), and blend until frothy. That's it, your all done! Now just pour yourself a glass and enjoy. =D

     The rest of the weekend went well. By Sunday it was time to stock up on food, so the entire morning was spent making the Whole Foods and Farmer's Market rounds with my mom. I was really lucky that all my favorite fruits for the season were ripe (or almost ripe) and were being sold in bulk (it really saves me money). I ended up buying a box of large pineapple (6 pineapple), 2 boxes of persimmon (28), 2 lbs. of red grapes, 4 Organic red mango, 15 lbs, Organic bananas, and 2 Organic Hawaii Papaya (score!). I also got a bunch of greens and un-sweet fruit (e.g. tomato, bell pepper, cucumber) for giant dinner salads.

     Today(Monday) went less smoothly then the rest of the weekend. My college classes are supposed to start tomorrow and this morning all the classes I had registered for have somehow managed to unregister themselves and I can't seem to get them back. Hopefully someone in the administration office can help me get that sorted out tomorrow morning. 

     Then this afternoon I accidentally drove all the way to the gym and back with my emergency brakes on. I feel like such an idiot about that. I'm just praying that I didn't total the emergency break. *sigh* I guess I'll find out when I have the car checked out later in the week. *chuckles* The things that life throws at you huh? I just do what the penguins did.

     Well, it's getting late and I have a full day tomorrow, but before I wrap this post up, my weekend workouts:

Saturday

• Day off - 20 minutes walking dog and 20 push-ups

Sunday

• 8 miles cycling - avg. 16 mph pace
• 1 hour of yoga (my 2nd class and my arms are still feeling it!)
• 20 push-ups

Monday

• 1 hour run - 6 miles - avg. 6 mph pace

Let the Training Begin!

     Today was the first day of my New Years resolution to up my training and better my athletic performance. Today I drove over to our local LA Fitness and became a member. I can afford it because the cost of attending our local community college isn't very high and I'm make monthly payments for membership and can terminate my membership whenever or if ever I need to. What's also amazing is that they have all sorts of classes that I can attend without any extra cost (e.g. yoga, kick boxing, pilates, modern dance).

     I spent the next 2 hours working out and having the time of my life! =D I would have like to have done more running but I didn't want to over do it seeing as my right ankle is still recovering from an overuse injury. 

• Cycling: 13.56 miles - 60 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
• Elliptical: 1.3 miles - level 5 - 20 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
• Running: 2.56 miles - 25 minutes + 2 minutes cool down
• Rowing: 5 minutes
• Weights: 10 minutes   

     Now for my food for today. . .

• Breakfast - Smoothie: papaya/blueberry/pineapple/banana/clementine
• Lunch/Recovery meal -  Smoothie: pineapple/clementine/banana/blueberry/spinach/coconut water
• Dinner Part 1 - Fuyu persimmons
• Dinner Part 2 - Honeydew melon
• Dinner Part 3 - Fuyu persimmons
• And loads of water through out the day - 3.5 quarts

Couldn't fit in quite as much food into me as I wanted but still very close.

Post Recovery Smoothie (Lunch)

This is only half of what I ate. I almost forgot to take a picture! LOL

     One other lovely addition to my day was the arrival of my Chocolate Sapote from Jordan's Beautiful Foods. Jackpot!

Currently ripening

Zonked

     Hello all! I almost forgot to post today!! After coming home this evening (5pm) and eating dinner (6pm) I passed out on my bed for a good solid two hours. I'm just about ready to climb back into bed and go to sleep again, however, I wanted to give you guys a breif shout out along with a summation of my day first. 

Today. . .

Sleep: 6 hours (plus my 2 hour nap)

Sunshine: 10 minutes (too hot & humid outside to get anymore)

Water: 2 liters

Food: Watermelon, Figgy Carob Pudding with sliced Banana on top, and a mango/coconut water smoothie with a bowl of Cherry & Grape Tomatoes

Exercise: 27.1 miles on bike (avg. speed: 14mph) mostly uphill, 1.5 mile walk uphill 4mph with random sprints 7mph, and some housework (e.g. sweeping, scribbing, laundry, ect.

Total Calories Burned from Workout: 815

Dinner!

     Good night and pleasent dreams to you all!

Fruity Friday

     A few weeks ago, my mom and I were at Sears when we stumbled across a refrigerator on sale for $175 ! This was an amazing opportunity since I had been on the lookout for a refrigerator for my fruit. In the winter time it was ok to leave half of my fruit out on the counters when we ran out of space in my mom's refrigerator, but in the summer fruit can rot and/or fruit flies and spiders come into the house to get at them. Most refrigerator with any sort of decent storage space had been way out of my price range. 


     In the end I bought the refrigerator and about two weeks ago it arrived safe and sound. However, in all the joy of finding, buying, and recieving this refrigerator, I had forgotten in considering where I was to put the thing! Up So up until last Friday, my poor refrigerator sat in my mom's kitchen, laying dormant, awaiting to be used. 


     Last Friday was Farmer's Market day and there were lots of good deals in bulk buying organic fruit this time around, so I really stocked up. When my mom and I got home I knew that we weren't going to be able to fit my groceries and my mom's groceries into her refrigerator. It was then I convinced my mom to let me get her to move the refrigerator into the garage. 


Behold my brand new refrigerator and its first load of fruit and veg!! 

     It didn't take me long to devour all of this! My mom and I split the figs and oranges between us, but the rest was all me. Sunday is whe I get to replenish my supplies. Luckily my Mango and Dragon Fruit order came in over the course of the week. I also bought a watermelon today at my local Publix so I should be good until Sunday.

The fridge was filled with:

- A large Yellow Watermelon!

- Organic Black Mission Figs

- Organic Navel Oranges

- Organic White Cherries

- Organic  Georgia Peaches

- Organic Strawberries

- Belize Papaya

- Organic Grape Tomatoes

- Cherry Tomatoes

- Organic Iceberg Lettuce

- Organic Asparagus

- Organic Radishes

     As for today I had a completely clear schedule! I was so excited at the prospect this morning and decided to use it by spending most of the day exercising in whatever way I felt like! I didn't have to rush through the workout because there wasn't anything I urgently needed to get done and there was no one that I had to meet at a specific time. 

     When I finished working out, I was able to take my time in the showers and getting dresses, and I even stopped off at Starbucks to buy a water and eat my lunch (a bunch of bananas) in the sun! During my lunch, a few people looked at me as if I were mental! However, I might have misread their facial expressions and they might just have been jealous of my yummy bananas! LOL.

My lunch set-up (from left to right): Garbage baggy with banana peels inside, organizer, yet to be eaten bananas, journal, and Runner's magazine.

In summation of my day. . .

Sleep: 8 hours (getting better) 
Sunshine: 2 hours 
Water: So far 2 liter (working on my 3rd liter at the moment)
Food: Dragon Fruit, OJ, Bananas, and a giant Mango/Banana/Peach smoothie
Exercise: 22 minute run 6mph pace, 20 minute 3mph walk with my mom and the dogs, 10 minutes lifting weights (tried a new routine and felt muscles I didn't even know I had!), 18.5 mile bike ride (approx. 80% of the course being uphill) at an average 15 mph pace, and 22 minutes swimming laps freestyle as hard as I could!

I hope everyone enjoys there weekend and that it is filled with warm sunshine, a cooling breeze, refreshing water, and juicy fruit!! =D