Category: Fitness and Diet

Decadent Dinner

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Jon and I just happened to be on Capitol Hill last night to rent movies. Given the later hour, and not having anything at home readily available to cook for dinner, we decided to eat out. We ended up at Quinn’s, which is in the Pike/Pine area of the Hill.

Immediately, I was blissed out to find they had Dogfish Head’s Black and Blue on tap, a delicious beer to start with! Then, I was even more thrilled when our server replied to our question of a peculiar name of a starter (devils on four horses). The answer: Dates stuffed with blue cheese wrapped in bacon. SOLD! We additionally ordered the artichoke skewers special, I ordered the crispy chicken and Jon had the fish and chips.

The dates were toe-curling heavenly, and just about as perfect as possible. The artichoke skewers were deliciously surprising, especially with that lingering sweetness you get after eating a few. Our order was taking awhile due to a large party that came in before us, so we got comped the rabbit pate, which was pretty stellar. At that point, I ordered Russian River’s Damnation, which was a beer style I’ve been craving all week. I wasn’t disappointed. (I’m slacking, no tasting notes for you!) Jon’s fish and chips looked fried and delicious (and they were!), and my crispy chicken (as promised, with greens and cheese grits), was not exactly what I expected.

It was a small chicken breast with a crisped skin on top, layered on bacon-y kale, then layered on the cheese grits. Restaurant chicken usually underwhelms me, but this? This was amazing. The first thought in my head was that it tasted like duck. (I found out later it was braised in duck fat, then crisped in butter). The greens were equal to what Jon makes (which is PRETTY DAMN GOOD) and the grits were just absolutely delicious.

When our waitress returned to us to ask if we wanted dessert, we had to decline just because we had enough richness for the evening.

We were treated well, the wait wasn’t too long, and I’m always happy to find a good beer selection coupled with good food. I look forward to eating there again.

ETA: I failed to mention that our food was running late due to the kitchen getting a large order in ahead of us. We got comped some rabbit pate, which was delicious. It was very, very awesome. Yes.

Running in Bad Weather, Go to the Gym

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Yesterday, the forecast was for winds around 50 miles per hour. That, plus 45°F temps and rain made me want to stay inside. I’m naturally cold, with frosty hands on warm days. I also ridiculously gave my warmer jogging gear to Goodwill because it was too big. Too big is still warmer!

I headed to my gym, which is a small inexpensive place a few blocks away from my house. I haven’t been in for a few weeks as that I’ve been spending most of my exercise time road running. When the weather is nice, who wants to be in a windowless basement gym?

Yesterday, I did. I packed up my padlock and card, threw my North Face jacket over my running clothes and braced for the cold walk to the gym. Once there, I got on the treadmill, and found that within a few minutes I was in a constant state of “Am I done yet?” Running on a treadmill is so unbelievably boring for me, and though I only needed to jog 2 miles, this was 2 excruciatingly boring miles! Thankfully, a completely hyperbolic Law and Order: Criminal Intent was on, and hooked me in the last third of the show. Sociopathic boy? Kyle McLachlan? Creepy and interesting! Complete mind candy! Wow, that mile went by pretty fast.

I’m intimidated because Sunday I have a 5 mile run planned, and hope to do it around Green Lake. I might need to bring my own NCIS on my iPhone if I’m forced to run on the treadmill. I’m just not a cold running person.

How to Tie your Shoes

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I had a subscription to Runner’s World for about a year – and it was about 6-7 months into it that I realized it was mostly the same stuff regurgitated over and over again. It was a cheap subscription, though, and it cost about as much as the few that I was willing to buy off of the newstand.

One article that was useful, and I still find useful, is Fit to be Tied, a tutorial on properly tying your running shoes. I was surprised to find out that I was not tying my shoes the right way – and found that by using their technique, I was able to refrain from double-knotting, as that my well-tied shoes stayed good and tight through a whole running or gym session.

Running

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I started running at the point where I had lost about 65 pounds, which was June of 2008. I’m at an additional 30 pounds lost, and though I have not been running the whole time (probably about 8-10 months off), I’ve managed to stay in reasonable shape.

A few weeks ago, while in New York for a funeral, I picked up a new pair of running shoes, both to take part in some self-care, and to give me a reason to get rid of my battered Saucony’s, which were needing replacement. I got the award winning Brooks Adrenaline GTS 10. I was fitted for them at the Westchester Road Runner, which is a fantastic place to be fitted for a proper pair of running shoes. Right after purchasing the shoes, I did two days in a row of ambitious running. I say ambitious because I hadn’t been on a treadmill to run in months due to a calf injury (from sprinting) in November. I was achy, to say the least.

Flash forward to this past week. I woke up on this past Wednesday with an itch to run a 5K. I did the 5K in about 45 minutes, with about 10 minutes of that walking. On my route, I passed by a sign at the local Sons of Norway Lodge (did I mention I live in a Scandanavian neighborhood?) for a neighborhood fun run called the Leif to Leif 5K. I decided, since it was for the coming Saturday, to go ahead and do it. After all, I was just going to run anyway, right? It’s also hard not to be inspired by a friend of mine (and former gym buddy) who is undergoing a triathlon in Hawaii tomorrow. (GO EMILY GO!)

Yesterday, though I had a bit of a sore throat from seasonal post-nasal drip, I got up and out the door earlier than my usual and headed out to put in my registration and pick up my Norwegian flag. It wasn’t long before I was chatting with other people from the neighborhood, and after the race started, it wasn’t long before I realized that I was supposed to let myself keep a more relaxed pace. A few weeks of jogging does not lend well to sudden bursts of speed!

I was swiftly lagging behind as I left behind one Lief Erikson statue towards the other Leif Erikson up on the water. However, I was also in front of a few others, and managed to do the entire 5K in about 38 minutes, 7 minutes better than my time on Wednesday! After the run, there were complementary waffles with jam, and another bit of socialization, this time with a man who had lost 119 lbs, and this was his first time running ever.

It was great running socially, even if I wasn’t really paced with everyone else. The smiles were infectious, as was the completion as one of the organizers called to someone with a clipboard toward the end, “Twenty-three is coming!” Hey! That was me!

At my heaviest, I would avoid stepping up on curbs. Now I’m running, and it feels good. Sometimes it feels like I can out-run my troubles. So I’m going to keep on running.

Next up: Rock Riot Run 5K, to support the Eastside Domestic Violence Program, and the LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K, to benefit the Lance Armstrong Foundation. I’m raising donations for my LIVESTRONG Challenge 5K – but will not be posting it here (I don’t let my real-name and this blog mix. If you’re interested in making a donation, you can go to here and search for my first and last name and make your donation accordingly. If that fails, please contact me through the here and let me know that you’d like to make a donation.

I look forward to working my way up to a 10K. 🙂

Let the Eating and Drinking Begin!

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Last night was two birthday get-togethers, and today is Fremont Oktoberfest with some friends. (I haven’t been to Oktoberfest in Seattle before, so I’m curious to see if it holds a candle to Cincinnati/Covington or Chicago). It’s getting time for putting on that insulating Winter-weight, and chowing down for the big winter festivals.

It was two years ago that I joined Weight Watchers. I have lost about 80 lbs on WW, and that was lost in my first year. I returned to the plan after 6 months off, and after I took care of medication interference (norethindrone sucks) I’ve been losing. I thought I’d share some of the secrets to my success, both for anyone who reads this, and to remind myself because I still have about 40 or so pounds to go before I’m at goal.

1. Eat bacon, cheese, beer, wine, cocktails, cake and ice cream. Of course, if you don’t eat pork (or are vegetarian/vegan), don’t drink alcohol and/or are diabetic, please read this as don’t deny yourself what you enjoy about food. I’ve heard some people say that they have to totally exclude something from their diet because it’s a binge food, and I can understand that, however, I tend to crave what I’m denied the most. A 3 WW Point desert of Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss Dark Chocolate Bar, which is vegan and sweetened with agave nectar, is a fine way to end a day!

2. Eat real food. Limit eating foods that are fortified with extra vitamins, artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and sweeteners. If it’s a low-fat or no-fat version of a high-fat food, odds are they’ve added junk to make it taste more like the real thing. Same goes with sugary drinks and snacks. I prefer to just eat the real thing, in small amounts, for instance, giving up sugar in things where I don’t need it (morning coffee) in preference where I know I’ll like it (a Babycake from Cupcake Royale.) Instead of going for an energy bar that’s PB&J flavored, just make yourself a nice PB&J sandwich on whole wheat. Shoot for eating foods with five ingredients or less. This leads me to my next point, which is…

3.Learn to cook/assemble your own food. This is the one way you’ll know what’s in your food, and control for those sneaky cooks in restaurants who add extra butter to EVERYTHING. It may seem like a lot of time and effort, at first, but really – it doesn’t take much longer than a boxed meal to assemble some basics, and if you cook ahead of time, make use of left-overs, there’s a lot you can do. Never underestimate the awesomeness that comes from homemade salad dressing (all you need is sugar/agave/honey, salt, herbs/spices, a bit of olive oil and vinegar or lemon/lime juice and a jar to shake it in.) Throw a can of line-caught Pacific albacore tuna on top of some local greens, with some olives, cherry tomatoes and red onion slices, and you have a 4 WW Point (each serving) dinner for two! Check out my aStore for cook books.

4. Do not let the Nutritional Information and/or health promises on packages make your decisions for you. This rule transfers to things outside of food, so use it often. Some of the healthiest foods you’ll ever eat won’t have either Nutritional Information or health promises on them: broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, orange – basically, the entire produce section. These days, manufacturers are adding what used to be just in nutritional supplements to their foods as well as accenting the long established ingredients with labeling that ties the main ingredient to a vogue health claim (lycopene in ketchup, for instance.) The healthiest foods are likely to not come in slick packaging with health claims on it.

5. Limit soy and corn. This is more of an extra credit thing. You see, I already try to shop local, eat local, shake the hand that feeds me, etc. It’s insane just how much soy and corn is in the American diet. Corn is pretty much everywhere, from high fructose corn syrup and corn starch to xanthan gum. It’s fed to cows to fatten them up, in ketchup, in soft drinks. It’s cheap, heavily subsidized, and in everything. Soy is pretty much everywhere, too. It’s a condiment, fake meat, fake cheese, low-carb pasta, milk substitute, frying oil, the list goes on and on. You could actually eat soy in every part of your meal and not realize you’re eating mostly soy. Soy also contains phyto-estrogens and can play a part in endocrine disruption (a favorite article is in Men’s Health.) It’s also used in animal feed along with corn. Every time Soy Joy reps are handing out free bars at the farmer’s market, I think as I walk by with Jon, “Why do you want to emasculate my husband?”

Corn and soy are largely Big Agriculture. It’s lots of subsidies, lots of pesticides, lots of monoculture, and a lot of genetic modification. Also, it’s not healthy to just eat one thing, or things derived from one thing, all the time. Diversity in your food is good. This is why I try to be deliberate about my corn and soy ingestion.

So those are the top fives for what I’ve been doing. Just a few hours from now, I embark on Fremont Oktoberfest 2009. I’m glad I got my jog in earlier today!