Monthly Archives: September 2009

I got home from work tonight and took Murphy for a twenty minute walk. During the walk, I tried to make up excuses of why I shouldn’t go for a run tonight. I was hungry, I could do it tomorrow, I could go to the gym and do it. I realized that I was being stupid. It was a gorgeous evening and there was absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t do my run. I knew that once I strapped on my ipod and got going, I would be glad I did.

And it worked. After the first mile hill, which always sucks, I found my stride and had a nice 4.5 mile run. The weather was perfect. It was probably in the 60s which feels quite cool compared to the 90+ temps we’ve had all summer. Of course, I was glad I went. That always happens; I don’t want to run because I’m tired or hungry but if I just make myself go, I feel good after. If I skip it and satisfy the other thing that I want (lying on the couch, snacks, a glass of wine etc), I end up mad at myself. The moral of the story is that if I have no real reason not to run except that I don’t feel like it, I should go anyway, it will be worth it.

Woo, woo, season premiere of The Hills tonight. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll like it without Lauren. I also don’t know if I’ll be able to stay up until 10.

It took me nearly three years before I had this realization. My office building has a gym. Actually, I knew it had one, but I’d never really paid it much attention. It has a membership fee (albeit only $5 a month) and it’s small with old equipment. I’d always rationalized that it was stupid to pay for a second gym, when there is an LA Fitness right down the road that I already belong to. Only problem is by the time I get to LA fitness and change my clothes, I’ve already wasted 15 minutes of my hour lunch break. Basically I can only work out for a half an hour and always felt very rushed. I pretty much gave up on working out on my lunch break.

So I had the realization last week that I should pay the $5 a month and use the office building gym. I wouldn’t drop my LA Fitness membership, of course, but it would be something to do at lunch other than napping and I wouldn’t feel as rushed as I did at LA Fitness. So I went to the property management office and signed up.

And wouldn’t you know it? I forgot my shoes. Yes, again. So I worked out in my socks. I guess that’s a little known benefit of using a small office gym; no one is going to say anything about my shoeless feet. Actually no one was even in there. I did a 5 minute warm up on the elliptical and then:

2 sets of 15 deadlifts, 15 lb weight in each hand
2 sets of 15 shoulder presses, 10 lb weight in each hand
2 sets of 15 lat pull downs, 50 lbs
2 sets of 15 lunges (on each leg) , 10 lb weight in each hand
2 sets of 8 situps on an incline bench with an oblique twist at the top

For dinner tonight, I decided to try something that I hadn’t really had before – okra! Considering I’ve lived in Atlanta for seven years, it was about time. I seasoned it with a bit of olive oil and Emeril’s Essence (love this) and put it on a baking sheet. We cut a few pieces up and left most of them whole.

With the okra, I made fish. I think this was some sort of Roughy. It was previously frozen and I’d defrosted overnight. I chopped up some cherry tomatoes.

And washed some spinach.

I seasoned the fish with some spice mix that we bought in Mexico.

I cut up some parchment and put the fish on top of the spinach and tomatoes. I baked it for about 15 minutes at 450 degrees.

And the finished result.

I liked the okra but we both agreed that the cut up pieces were much better than the whole ones. They got crispier.

I’m off to relax.

Thanks for everyone’s suggestions about the drunchies and what to do to combat them. I am feeling much better about the situation today. I just get a wave of guilt that washes over me sometimes when I’ve had a little too much fun the night before. As a few of you pointed out, there are way worse things calorie-wise to eat late-night so I don’t think I did too much damage. Plus I was drinking light beer.

Today turned out to be great. The weather was perfect. I was concerned that it’d be another rainy day, but it was the opposite. Sunny and in the 70s with a little bit of a breeze. Perfect running weather. My friend Joan and I, along with her friend Adrian, decided to run 7 miles on the Silver Comet Trail. The run was rather uneventful. I had brought some Sport Beans and ate a few at the halfway point. Not sure why, but this particular flavor (cherry with caffeine) left a weird aftertaste in my mouth. I’m sticking with my favorite, Fruit Punch, from now on. The first six miles were easy and then I started to struggle a bit during the last one. We made it though. Props to Adrian, who had never run more than 5 miles before. I think she is going to do the race with us too. It’ll be nice to have a new friend to run with.

I feel good about myself today. Running always does that. I feel like 7 miles is a distance that I should be proud of. I’m trying to decide what to do with the rest of my day. My goal for the weekend was to clean my house and I haven’t gotten very far, so there’s always that. Or a nap might be good too.