A few days ago I decided I was going to run a marathon. I have set several athletic-related goals I’d like to accomplish before I am 25. If I finish the marathon this year, my last goal will be to finish a 1/2 Ironman Triathlon. If I finish the triathlon, it would be a huge feat for me and will certainly cause a crippling injury… but that’s for another year..
I live in Milwaukee so I chose to do the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon on October 4th. I think the only problem is that I HATE running. I am excited to do it in theory, but it’s time for the rubber to meet the road.. literally. I have trouble motivating myself, so I have been searching for tangible ways to keep me going. Now that I have rewarded myself with new shoes and cute running clothes, I need some lasting motivation and I think I found it!
I bought a really cool gadget today. It’s the Nike+iPod device. Essentially, you wear a device in your shoe that syncs with a device attached to your iPod and together they are tracking your run as you go. Through your headphones you hear your own personal coach telling you your pace and distance while your favorite tunes are playing. When you’re done, you get a summary of your run and you can upload that information to your Nike+ profile and keep track of all of your runs. It’s pretty sweet. I didn’t realize you needed the special Nike+ shoes to hold the foot sensor, so I kinda freaked out when I got home to play with it. I decided to stick it to the man by simply sewing the sensor into the tongue of my shoe… and it works great. I’m excited to try it out tomorrow and utilize some of the features on the nike+ website.
I’m still trying to figure out how to implant the below “widget” into the body of my blog, but until then, you can track me by visiting this post or my facebook. Don’t get your hopes up… the race is 24 weeks away, so my runs won’t be grueling for a while. Thank God.
The first days of March bring another loss. Dexter D. Doobers had to go live with a new owner a few days ago. When my roomie and I left for work, Dexter would howl all night long. We had no idea he did this until our crazy neighbor to the north told us a few days ago. Allegedly every neighbor on the block can hear him and has complained to her, which seemed doubtful considering her reclusive nature. Well, Joelle video taped him when we left and found out her claims were sadly true. Poor guy just missed us too much! He barked and howled until the memory card ran out of space and couldn’t tape any longer. After realizing she had a huge problem on her hands she couldn’t really remedy, Joelle decided to give her dog to one of my mom’s friends who has 2 dogs, a kid and a live-in grandma… much more company. I think he’ll be better off there. He spent most of his time doing this:
Looking out on a world he couldn’t experience.. He was forced to sleep all night (or stay up all night if one of us was off) and sleep all day. Our space is tiny and he had to suppress all of his energy and desires to run. He was a good pal and such a “lover dog” as my mom would say. But, he’ll be happier somewhere else.
I was all set to post about some killer sweet potatoes I made (from a made-up on the spot totally original recipe). …and I decided not to.
Example A:
The photo I took with my phone makes this masterpiece (if i do say do myself), look like cafeteria food at best. In honor of the food and the money I spent on a DSLR, I’m going to try to take better photos of my food from now on. My buds Catie and Spud are doing amazing work on flickr and I’m super ashamed that my last 2 uploads (hell, all my uploads really) to flickr have been so ugly and myspace-ish compared to their stuff.
PS: I decided to call this week’s recipe adventure “Mom’s Sweet Potatoes”.. Cause I’m weird like that.
In my last post, I talked about using pre-packaged gluten free foods. I took a picture of a delish example. Tomato, mozzarella, and turkey panini made with a Glutino brand g-f bagel with the top of the bagel cut off to mimic sliced bread. Most g-f breads taste nasty. This Glutino bagel is amazing.
Alongside the panini is Trader Joe’s Organic creamy tomato soup. Believe it or not, most name-brand creamed soups are not g-f. Trader Joe’s is extremely g-f conscious and offers many g-f soups.
I made eggs benedict for my family this morning. I made the hollandaise sauce with a little help from a new cook book I bought. It’s called “The Cook’s Book” and it’s a pretty fundamental book written by accomplished chefs. Each chapter has a new author and a specific topic (ie: sauces) with many techniques and recipes. It’s very helpful considering I know nothing about cooking.
I put a poached egg on top of a sausage patty (very classy) and then put them both on a rather tasteless gluten free toaster waffle from Trader Joe’s. The waffle made a great substitute for an english muffin.
The picture doesn’t really capture the tastiness of the meal, but it was really good.
There’s lots of gluten free blogs out there, but most if them are really impractical. I mean, I’d love to make homemade English muffins, but most recipes are made with things like millet flour, tapioca flour, xantham gum, and almond flour which usually cost like $12 a pound. Plus, they’re really hard to come by. I love pre-packaged food just as much as the gluten tolerators. Having a food allergy is already really inconvenient, if I can buy semi-tasty and economical pre-packaged stuff, I’m all about it (thus the toaster waffles). Most of my gluten free experimenting involves using practical substitutes. It sounds funny, but accomplishments like today’s breakfast really makes me feel like this diet is lifelong possibility.
In my last post, I talked about using pre-packaged gluten free foods. I took a picture of a delish example. Tomato, mozzarella, and turkey panini made with a Glutino brand g-f bagel with the top of the bagel cut off to mimic sliced bread. Most g-f breads taste nasty. This Glutino bagel is amazing. 