Lake WA Loop Plus Some

 

On Saturday, Kim and I completed the our longest ride yet for this season, 60 miles.  Our original plan was to do 80 miles with a group of Kim's friends but we quickly realized that their speed was much quicker than ours and that trying to keep up for 80 miles would be no fun.

 

 

So we ended up backtracking from Montlake to I-90 and back, watched some of the UW vs Cal races on the Montlake Bridge above the cut, went back and forth a bit in Kirkland, got caught in downpour rain for about 10 miles in Renton, but overall had a good, adventurous ride.

 

 

{Un} Inspired

Recently I have been uninspired.  I feel like my life is too routine and I am bored with it.  Go to work, go to the gym, go home and make dinner, go to bed.  Five days a week this is my life.  Until yesterday, the weather has been so crappy that you can't even go do fun active things on the weekends.  Dismal weather + dismal mood = one very grumpy Stephanie.

Even on beautiful days like today, I am stuck indoors all day.  All day in meetings.  All I thought of as I dressed today was how I would love to throw on workout clothes instead and go on a bike ride/walk/hike, anything to get me outdoors and active.

A friend suggested I start to make a bucket list, from small to big things and focus on ticking those off.  While making the list was inspiring, I am not able to tick any items off in the near future.  Which makes me sad and uninspired even more.

Maybe I just need a vacation.

My Thoughts on Boston

I still feel in shock when I think or read updated reports of the Boston Marathon yesterday.  I feel more struck and more affected by this act of terrorism and hate than I have by other senseless and cowardly shootings and tragedies.

I feel connected to the athletes and spectators hurt by the bombings because I am an athlete.  While I have never ran a marathon, I have ran a couple halfs and have done various other endurance events.  We are athletes.  We have the same goals, same lifestyles, same feelings of pushing our bodies to accomplish events.

I am horrified at what happened, to hear about amputations and worse of the athletes and spectators.  I can easily place myself in their shoes with my family and friends at the finish line.  These cowardly attacks leave many questions in its place: why?  who would do something like this?  These questions have been asked before with  no answer.

This one struck much too close to home.  Pray for Boston. Pray for the athletes.

Attempting Seattle to Portland in One Day

This year, Ashley, Kim and I will be attempting to complete the Seattle to Portland bike ride in one day.  It is going to be a doozy.

Total distance: ~205 miles
Total elevation gain: 4,828 feet

 

Post-Holidays Juicing Update

I know I stopped posting about juicing a while ago, so as a wrap-up, I juiced for all meals for 7 days and lost a whopping total of 3lbs.  Sigh.

However, the juicing is clearly not sustainable as I was miserable (did I mention cold?) and bored with my meals for the full week.  The secondary week I switched to juicing for breakfast and/or lunch and although that was much more do-able, I wasn't enjoying it much.  I am not sure how others have juiced for multiple months.

After a lovely holiday back home I am back to reality today.  My juicer currently sits forlorn on the counter and I eyeball it once in a while, contemplating a return.

For the next two months I will be busy studying once again so while I may make a juice once in  a while (a lot of the recipes were really tasty), I will not be regularly juicing again in the immediate future.

Juicing Day 6 - Lots of Pulp

There is so much pulp leftover after I make my juices.  I felt bad just throwing it away (as I don't have a garden or compost) so I looked up some recipes to make with the pulp.

Once recipe was to make vegetable stock, which is great to use in making soups.  The recipe is simple, add the pulp, water and spices and simmer for a couple hours.  Strain the pulp from the liquid and you have your stock.

Pulp simmering

If I had a strainer cloth this might have worked better, but overall it didn't make much stock.

Not a lot of stock

 

I did cheat a little bit this weekend, I had a glass of wine at a party and made butternut squash and apple soup.  I know I am only supposed to do 'juices' but having warm soup helped the emotional side so much that I didn't care.

 

 



Jucing Day 3 - Warming Up

I have realized that doing a juicing cleanse in fall/winter is not a good idea.  While I crave hot tea, coffee and soups, I have to sip on refrigerated juices.

To help me keep myself from freezing and going crazy, I will be making puree soups out of veggies.  I found a bunch of recipes and am planning on going to Costco tonight to pick up the produce needed.

I had back-to-back meetings 10am-4pm today so I only had a small juice in the morning and then a small juice again after my meetings.  This definitely went against the juicing schedule, where they have you eat every 2-3 hours.

 I am so looking forward to warm soups

I am going to brunch with a couple of friends tomorrow so it will be my first real challenge - to go out to eat and not actually eat.  I will see if they have any vegetable soups and if not, then get some fruit to munch on.  I am ok with doing what is needed for my lifestyle, ordering and eating (!) fruit and such at restaurants. 

Juicing Day 2 - Tired & Cold

Super tired.  Had a really hard time waking up and felt half asleep through my morning meetings.  Whether this is due to the juicing, the fact that I suck at sleeping or that I have low iron (just found out) and haven't purchased supplements yet, I don't know.

Still freezing at work, I think I will bring in a space heater to blast directly on me for the day.

Felt much better by the afternoon but I was so miserably cold that I didn't finish 1 1/2 of my last juices for the day.

By the time I got home I was so cold and tired that instead of my dinner juices I ate 2 avocados.  I know I am not supposed to 'eat' anything but I was so sick of being cold that I couldn't stand it.

So, with my avocados, I curled up under a blanket on the couch, snuggled with the kitties and watched Harry Potter.