91 Days: Farmer's Market and Spider Face

What a wonderful weekend it has been, and it's only Saturday morning! No work Fridays are really my new favorite thing. I got back to Chapel Hill Thursday night, woke up Friday and deep cleaned -- and I mean deep! -- my apartment. Washed the walls, baseboards, windows, blinds, vacuumed and dusted every corner, washed the floors, the toilet, the tub.. gosh I felt so GREAT by noon! I also went to the Teet and they had packs of fresh chicken Buy 2 Get 3 Free! That's $1.99/# people. A steal for chicken there. So I loaded up. Another positive note for yesterday, I was back down to normal weight when I stepped on the scale first thing of the day. A relief to say the least.

This morning I went to Carrboro's farmer's market for the first time ever--but not before stepping out of my door into a spider web and having a spider run across my face. That was fun... I was impressed with the farmer's market, though. It was nicely organized and was easy to navigate - which is comforting to someone who must see everything. I got some peanut almond butter (obsessed with any and all peanut butters)--made of peanuts, almonds (obviously), wildflower honey and sea salt--jalepenos, and arugula. Lunch today is going to be an orgasm in my mouth possibly. I'm drooling already, can't wait!

This time next week I will be reunited with Blizzard! It has been so long I can't wait to give that pretty girl the biggest hug in the world! I need to go shopping for her for a treat or new toy. I feel so bad having to abandon her all summer :( Although, I'm pretty sure she's had a blast swimming around at home with the big dogs. I already have so many play dates and adventures planned for us!

Speaking of going to Iowa, this week is going to be quite the adjustment for my workouts and meals. To make it work, I'm taking Friday off from the gym (since I'll be sitting in a car 16-22 hours) and working out this week Monday-Thursday, and Saturday, and then I'll get back on track the next week on Tuesday as usual. I'm planning my food as well for the trip. Everything has to be made and packed in serving size containers so that I know what to eat when, and has to be able to make a long trip in a cooler without going bad. I'm thinking turkey burgers and hard boiled eggs for my protein, almonds, lots and lots of veggies, sweet potato muffins (a new recipe I've been wanting to try out), etc. Once I make all the food and have it planned out, I'll share it with ya'll. It's going to be one crazy week, but I'm so excited to finish up with "work" and get back home to my family and friends.

Today's plans: make an mp3 CD with ~500 bluegrass songs for my road trip, plan my road trip food so I can cook tomorrow, do my online evaluation of my clinical, and buy books for school since it's the tax free weekend. Exciting day. And hopefully have time to spend laying in a field somewhere and just relaxing, as long as it stays this cool, beautiful weather. Have a happy day friends. Life is good!

New Goals

I'm in Iowa and I'm bored. It's not that I don't love my home and family and dogs, it's just that when I am here, I do nothing.. literally. Today for example. I woke up at 8, after my alarm went off at 4:30, 5:15, and 6:21. I never turn my alarms off when I'm on vacation, because what if I forget to turn them back on? Exactly. Anyway, woke up at 8, played ball with the dogs, made my mom and I some breakfast, and played with the dogs again while picking up their poop. Eventful morning. Since then, I've been sitting on the couch writing my workout plans for the next four months and petting Blizzard. See, literally I have done almost nothing. Have I showered today? No. Am I okay with that? Obviously. And I have the worst headache in the world. Sometimes I think it's because I don't shower and my hair just is weighing down my head. More likely, though, it's because I haven't had enough protein today.

I guess my new goal of competing has been bouncing around in my head for about 13 weeks now. That's how long ago I decided to get serious and start working out and eating right again. And now I am so used to getting 140+ grams of protein a day that when I don't it really throws me off. I love chicken. I was doing a 12-week program I found on bodybuilding.com and it was really great and now that it is over, I'm trying to set up my own program for training. My goal was to compete by the end of this year, but now that I hurt my ankle and can't workout lower body or do any cardio (let's be honest, I don't mind giving that up) I'm waiting to see when I can get back to it to decide when I want to compete. I think I need a good 7 months training prior to the show to be ready, 3-4 on my own and then I'll work with a coach to get the posing/logistics/etc of the whole thing down. But I'm excited to have this new goal in sight.

Lets talk about this dang ankle shall we? So last Saturday (like over a week ago) I rolled it playing soccer in the first 15 minutes. It popped pretty loud, and hurt like a.. well you all know. So I went out for maybe 25 seconds and told myself to suck it up, mind over matter, and all those great motivational tools of abuse we use. Went back in and played the rest of the game because we had no subs. It wasn't too bad playing, hurt to cut but I could run straight. By the end of the game though I could feel how swollen it was and could hardly walk once I took off my gear. The rest of the day Saturday I was on crutches and cursing so much Blizzard thought I was mad at her, poor girl. That week I was able to put more weight on it and was "walking" Sunday and even worked out Sunday and Monday upper body. I drove to Kansas on Wednesday --18 hours just you and a dog.. that's always a good time -- and it wasn't too bad but ever since then it's been awful. Too much swelling and bruising. I started wrapping it to get the swelling to go down and now it's hurting more-top of the foot, back of the ankle, front of the ankle, halfway up my leg, you get the idea. I think I'm going to give in and get an X-Ray when I get back to NC because I have a game in 2 weeks I do not want to miss. Oh the joys of being stubborn.

Well, time to catch up on this past weeks guilty pleasures! Night people!