Triathlon Itch....I'm Feelin It
I went to my first triathlon store this past weekend and was so intrigued! I was looking for the SwimP3 underwater MP3 player that I was told about, but ended up having to order it off of Amazon instead. In the mean time, I looked around Triple Sports and really started to feel the itch to try a triathlon!
I am going to be really good at swimming by the time I am well enough to register for my first race! I tried on a few swim suits, and ended up leaving with nothing because they were out of the SwimP3. I tried my luck across the street at Tribe Multisport, and they didn't have it either. I did find a suit and a bouey there, though, and talked to a couple of really cool people. Look! It's pink!
That same day, I went to the Original Chopshop again in Tempe, and had a fantastic salad for lunch.
I had the Danish salad, which has house greens, arugula, smoked almonds, Danish bleu cheese, shaved pears and apples, dried currants and dates, and red wine vinaigrette. I really liked the shaved pears and apples and the dates. I've never had dates in a salad, but am inspired to try it myself! The tea I had was jasmine strawberry iced tea and was really good as well.
After I got home, I decided to order the SwimP3 from Amazon. The company that makes it, Finis, actually redesigned it and now calls it the Neptune. It is supposed to be a better quality product than the SwimP3, and not have as many software issues. I got it on Monday and set it up with a bunch of my good running songs.
It wasn't too hard to set up, but there is one minor detail that will make the difference between it playing songs and not playing them. Make sure your songs are in MP3 format before you upload them. You can change them to MP3 in iTunes very easily. The instruction manual includes all of these details.
I've made two really awesome smoothies so far this week. The first one had all of the above ingredients:
Perfect healthy and nutritious breakfast! I threw some beet in there, as well. Beets are good for a lot of reasons, including improving circulation. This helps endurance athletes, and in my professional extrapolation, must help healing because healing tissue needs blood flow. Am I right? May be a stretch, but I'll take what I can get right now :-).
This is a terrible picture, but I threw together frozen banana, frozen blueberries, sunflower butter, almond/coconut milk, ground flax seed and ice. It was incredible!! I am on a smoothie kick again. Thanks Clint for your inspiration ;-).
I decided to dust off my old curling wand and play around the other night, and I was very pleased with the results! The last time i used it, my hair was several inches shorter, and I used much smaller pieces. This time, the curls turned out looser and more natural. It was much faster with larger pieces of hair, too!
I used up the rest of my small jar of almond butter, and decided to use it to make overnight oats. I am on a roll with these, too. Mix together oats and Greek yogurt the night before, then add whatever you want to it in the morning. I added blueberries, more almond butter, chia seeds and ground flax seeds and it was great! Nothing like scraping almond butter off of the inside of the jar with every bite!
I threw together a great salad for lunch yesterday. Kale, arugula, spinach, black olives, tomatoes, beets, quinoa, dried cranberries, fat free feta cheese, dried corn, pepitas, and some dressing. SO good!! Still obsessed with salads, and I'm not complaining,
I went by Sprouts today to get some fresh produce and tart cherry juice, and was given a sample of a yellow pluot by the produce guy. Have you guys ever had one? He said they are a combination of a plum and an apricot. They come in three varieties-red, yellow, and some other kind that I forget the name of. The yellow ones were by far my favorite! I got some to go with my plethora of other fresh fruits and veggies for the week.
Just a year ago, over half of this would have gone bad sitting in this basket. I have come along way in cleaning up my diet! Yes, I still like my no carb Rockstars....but if that is my worst habit to date, I cannot complain!! I crave fresh fruit now. What a great thing!
I have to give a HUGE shout out to two of my fellow AZ Bloggers and wonderful friends Ari and Nicole for getting a story in the AZ Republic about their blogs!! How exciting is that?!! Congratulations ladies!! It's only going to continue getting better for you guys, because you're awesome!! Pay them a visit and show them some love :-).
I have no idea who this is, but it made me lol in the car today so I wanted to share it with you.
I just made an amazing dinner tonight, and can't wait to share the recipe with you guys!! I will be reporting back on the Neptune soon, as well. I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your week!!
Happy Trails!
Stacey