this week

Hello Everyone!

This was the first week where I planned a whole bunch of cardio and a bunch of it didn't happen. Monday I did my workout at my gym (Mike was away at San Diego pride this last weekend). I thought about doing cardio Monday, but then thought no- Rhonda and I would be going down to a friend's farm on Tuesday and I really thought we'd be picking vegetables. Picking actually burns more calories than you'd think! We went berry picking on Saturday and that burned about 645 calories in 2 hours. So I thought I would wait and do cardio on Tuesday at the farm.

Well, we didn't pick anything. He just showed us around the farm, which was great, but not a workout. When I got home, though, I was so tired (it had been 90 degrees all day, very hot for me) I almost fell asleep 2x before I finally decided to just give it up and go to sleep.

Then I did my second weight workout Wednesday morning and thought that night I would walk home from working at the lab. But Rhonda showed up and told me there would be a birthday party for her mom that evening and asked if I wanted to go with her from work. So no cardio again. And on top of that, a very small piece of cake and 2 chicken strips.

So I was feeling fat, didn't sleep much and then had to go do a workout with Mike the next day. I was sluggish during the workout and don't know if that was just the sleep or a mixture of the sleep and bad food the night before.

But I finally got in some cardio! I used the arc trainer for the first time in a loooong time. I've been doing so much walking downtown to classes and walking home from the gym or classes, and now swimming too, that I haven't used a cardio machine in a long time. I wonder if there is a difference in the quality of the cardio workout when it's a machine workout or a walk or a swim...

This morning I swam for 30 min and I'll walk home from work and then I'll just have one more cardio workout to do this week. Mike said that being this far in and this being the first week where life got in the way of workouts was actually really good. Not a bad record.

So Rhonda and I are trying to switch over to organic meats to go along with our organic fruits and vegetables. In order to do that We re having to find some organic lunch meats or at least free range, grass fed. That's harder than you would think. We have tried a few organic turkey slices and they have a weird texture or weird taste (and it's not that, "Oh wait! This is what meat's supposed to taste like!" weirdness, it's just funky). So we're looking for maybe a meat CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or to find some organic turkey breasts to cook and then slice (also harder to find than you'd think).

Going to the farm was part of trying to really be aware of where our food comes from, who has contact with it, how is it grown and harvested. We have known this farmer, Richard, for a couple years now. We see him almost every Saturday, unless we're out of town. We chat with him and but organic vegetables and fruit from him. He introduces us to things we've never tried before, like Purslane (really good if you can find it) and lemon cucumbers. Seeing his farm and really having an idea of what growing requires, what a small, family farm looks like, and such, gave me a different level of respect for what our farmers bring each week.

Okay, that's all for now. Talk to you again soon!