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Posts Tagged vacation

Key Lime Overload

Sep 28

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 5 Comments

Hi blog buds!  OK, here’s the last recap from our trip.  Thanks so much for following along – I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing some of the sights!  If you missed our other stops, check out Part One:  Miami & Nassau and Part Two:  CocoCay.

Our last port of call on the trip was Key West.  And I was SUPER excited for this stop.  No particular reason other than I’ve always thought the Florida Keys seemed like a neat place to visit.

Early risers again on this day, we were 3rd in line to get off the boat.  Literally waiting for them to unhook the chain on the gangplank!

The first place you come to is pretty much Front Street and also Mallory Square.  We got a ticket for a little trolley ride that would take us all around the island in 90 minutes, which was the perfect way to check out where we wanted to go after the tour was done.

Can you tell I’m excited for the trolley?  :)

We spent the majority of our day touring up and down Duval Street and the blocks surrounding it.

We walked through the grounds of the oldest house on Key West.

We checked out the WILD ROOSTERS!  There are hens and roosters all over the city.

Do you see the rooster in this one?

(He’s chilling in the shade between the two columns on the right side.)

We made up our own “Key Lime Crawl” of sorts and decided we’d try out the Key Lime Pies at different stops to see which one we liked best, as well as other Key Lime themed things.

A piece at the Key Lime Pie Company (they were featured on an episode of “Throwdown” with Bobby Flay.  Rumor has it their pie beat his.  It WAS darn tasty!)

Then we tried a piece at the Hog’s Breath Saloon.

We thought we liked this one better.  Then funnily enough we learned that they source their pie from… Key West Lime Company!  Ha ha!

Our neighbor said we had to hit up Sloppy Joe’s while there, which is a corner bar and restaurant.

But this time I ordered my Key Lime Pie in a liquid (and alcoholic) version. Cory’s drink in the background was Key West Lemonade.

I also got (and didn’t photograph) some Key Lime TAFFY!  I thought I’d bring it home but it didn’t last an hour…!

Last but not least, I had to try something made with CONCH while on this trip.  I chose to roll with a 3 pc fritter that came with Key Lime Aioli.

They were like crab cake balls with chewier seafood.  :)   But the aioli was AMAZING!

By this time, we’d had our FILL of anything even remotely lime.

We saw the southernmost point of the continental U.S.:

The Key West Lighthouse:

The restaurant owned by Kelly McGillis (from Top Gun):

We also walked by Ernest Hemingway’s house (although we didn’t do the tour):

And by Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville:

An old theater that was remodeled into a WALGREEN’S of all things!

And so much more!  We walked our legs off that day.  And ate SO MUCH FOOD!  We got back to the boat in the late afternoon, had a “mango cooler” in the air conditioned lounge…

… and played hookey from the fancy dinner…

…so that we could sail off into the sunset!  (OK, in our case, we were sailing AWAY from the sunset!)  :)

We had such a nice time on our vacation.  And it will most likely be our 15th anniversary before we do another one like this!  Every five years seems to be the trend!

Today’s topic:  What is your favorite KEY LIME food?  If you’re a Key Lime pie lover, where did you have your favorite piece?

Have a wonderful day everyone!

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CocoCay

Sep 27

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 4 Comments

Hi friends!

Oh boy, after spending a week at sea level, eating lots of food, and only walking for exercise, let me just tell you that this morning’s hilly interval run back at 6000′ above sea level was ROUGH.  Rougher than I anticipated it would be.  (Could be due in part to the mild dizzy feeling I’ve had since getting home – like I’m still on the boat.  I didn’t have this issue the first time I went on a cruise.  I’m on the 4th day with it and crossing my fingers that it rights itself soon!  It’s like I put on my “sea legs” but then my “land legs” never showed up at baggage claim.  :) )

Here’s how dark it was at the start of the run this morning:

We were up with the deer this time around! But as is usually the case with running, it was great at the end.  It was a gorgeous sunrise, 55 degrees and I was happy to have been out in it.

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Some of you commented that you enjoyed seeing the pics from the trip – thanks for letting me know!  I LOVE to look at people’s travel photos.  Two of my Facebook friends recently posted pics from each of their different trips (one a tropical honeymoon and one a trip to London) and I just think it’s really fun to look through them.

Our second stop was CocoCay, Bahamas.  A couple of the cruise lines apparently have each purchased their own islands – I believe Disney has their own and I know Norwegian’s was right next to the one we were on.  CocoCay was previously known as Little Stirrup Cay before being purchased by Royal Caribbean.

With this stop, the ship can’t get in close so they anchor way out and then take you to the island by ferry. Being the early risers that we are, we were on the first ferry over.

Sunglasses and sunscreen – MUY IMPORTANTE.

Bye boat!  See ya after lunch!

Welcome to Coco Cay!

We wandered all around the little island to check it out and see where we most wanted to park ourselves for the day.

And ultimately picked a spot that had a little bit of shade.  It was HOT even at 8:30 in the morning.

We’d anticipated renting a couple of mats to just float around on in the water.  But we saw WAY too many of these jellyfish everywhere in the water and didn’t want to get stung.  Do any of you guys have any experience swimming with these?

But I wasn’t at all scared of the iguanas.

I tried to convince this one that he would like Colorado and my dogs if he wanted to hop in my bag.

The turquoise water is just beyond words.  Absolutely breathtaking.

After the lunch that the cruise line served on the beach, we hung around in hammocks.  I need a T-shirt made that says “I went to the Bahamas and all I got were these stupid freckles”. I don’t really TAN.  I just get pink and freckly!

We decided that some air conditioning sounded good so we took the ferry back to the boat in the afternoon.  We watched a bellyflop contest at the pool and had a drink, then got cleaned up for dinner.  The sun really zaps your energy, so shortly after dinner we were ready to call it a night!

Especially since the next day was the stop I was most excited for:  KEY WEST!!  (Key Lime Pie, wahooo!)

– Shari B. =)

 

 

 

 

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Back to Real Life

Sep 26

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 6 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Thank you so much for reading and commenting last week while I was out of town and not able to respond to your messages.  I am thrilled that my ‘auto post’ function worked in WordPress so that you had something to read while I was gone.  And I was happy to see that Cindy was able to snag one of the Trufflehead apps – who got the other one?

Most of the time when you hear me talk about traveling lately, it’s been for work.  Last week was purely for FUN!  Back in the spring we came across an AWESOME deal for a little autumn cruise that we just couldn’t pass up.  We decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a little early and celebrate the completion of school a little late.   Granted, we know it was so cheap because it fell SMACK in the middle of hurricane season for the location – but we decided to take our chances.  And then one of our ports of call was recently hit by Hurricane Irene, so we started to get a little nervous as the time drew near. But in the end we got SO lucky with the weather.  It couldn’t have been more perfect!  And as is always the case with me and travel (whether for fun or not), it always feels really great to return home and get back into my own bed, my own routine, and of course, my own FOOD!  After all the food we consumed this week, I feel like all I want for the next week is green smoothies and kale salads!  :)

We departed from Miami, FL and then had 3 stops.  The first was Nassau, Bahamas.  The second was CocoCay, Bahamas.  And the third was Key West, FL (which I was most excited about!).

I thought you might enjoy seeing some of what we saw – so here is a recap of the Miami and Nassau parts.  I’ll share the rest in the next few posts to keep this post from getting too long.

Evening in Downtown Miami:

View from breakfast:

We had time to kill before going to the pier, so we walked for about 2 hours just taking in the Miami air (and by that I mean HOT and HUMID air) and scenery:

Bon voyage!

Ready for the first night’s dinner:

Mmmmm… the food choices were delicious!  I didn’t end up taking any photos of food in the dining room – we had 10 people at our table and it just seemed like it might have been bad manners.  So I kept my camera tucked away. But I did get a few shots of the menu that was posted outside the dining room.

 

The sunrise as we pulled into Nassau – GORGEOUS!

Me before my coffee:

And after:

Colorful Nassau, Bahamas – the first stop:

While there, we took a $3 ferry ride to just walk around the grounds at the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island, rather than paying the CRAZY amount of money for the group excursion.  And we had so much more fun on our own for no money!

We were even able to check out the aquarium from a distance (we didn’t take the tour – just “happened” to find our way into one end of it)  ;)

The manta ray was the size of a queen-sized bed and I’m not exaggerating – this thing was huge!

He even came to say hello – he looks like he’s frowning  :(   I could have hung out here all day long.

Is there anywhere that Starbucks doesn’t have a storefront? (Would you believe me if I told you I did NOT go in?)

I really didn’t!

Back on the ferry to get back to the ship:

Because it’s time to eat again – gotta get ready!

Frozen MOJITO?  Oh YES please!

LOVE the towel animals!

We were tuckered out at the end of this day!  We packed it full of fun, sun and food.  It was definitely time to call it a night!

In the next post, I’ll recap CocoCay.

Have a GREAT day friends!  Thanks so much for reading!

– Shari B. =)

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Gift of Good Weather and Recipe Suggestion

Dec 20

Posted by Shari B. in Cooking, Do Something Daily, Keeping Fit | 10 Comments

Hi blog buds!

Happy Monday!  How many of you have the week off from work or school?  If so, I hope you are enjoying it!  Although I must admit that I have always loved working the holiday weeks (at least in the office settings where I’ve worked) because everyone always seemed to be in a great festive mood.   So if you ARE at work today, spread some cheer!

It’s ANOTHER beautiful day in Denver with warmer-than-usual temps.  I got up this morning and did an Upper Body Tabata workout and then when I saw that it was 48 degrees outside I had to add on a 45 minute power walk.  I absolutely love to walk and feel sunshine on my face.

I am off to the grocery store in a few minutes to pick up some food for the week (I wanted to avoid the SUNDAY rush at the store) so that I can have some cooked food to actually SHARE with you!

In the meantime, here’s a link to a recipe I tried last week that we REALLY enjoyed and it was pretty quick to make as well:  New Mexico Chile-Glazed Chicken (or Tempeh) on Hominy Polenta from Epicurious.com.

The main addition I made was I added TWO chipotle peppers (the kind that are canned in adobo sauce) to the blender when I made the sauce, and it added some serious heat.  If you like less heat you might only want to add one (or even a half) chipotle pepper.

Using yellow hominy to make a “creamy polenta” was genius AND tasty.  And the sauce just got better the next day.

And if you have vegetarians in the house, you can make it with tempeh in lieu of the chicken.  The stars of this show are really the hominy and the sauce so you could sub any protein source you like.

If you try it, let me know what you think!

Here’s how my tempeh version turned out:

(And of course I shot the photo BEFORE I put the beautiful red sauce on… I must have been hungry!)

Do you eat HOMINY?  Do you buy it canned or do you buy it dried and soak it back to life? When I was growing up my mom used to make me fried hominy for lunch sometimes and I just LOVED it.  To this day I still love it and every time I open a can of hominy, I think back to those lunches with her.

Have a MARVELOUS Monday everyone!

– Shari B. =)

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Vacation Dance

Dec 18

Posted by Shari B. in Do Something Daily, Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

Good morning FitFeat friends!

Happy Saturday!  It’s especially happy because I am officially on a 2 week break from school.  So last night I did the Vacation Happy Dance when I got home.

It looks a little like this:

Then I had a glass of wine and ate a Kraut Wrap with my homemade sauerkraut.

Spelt tortilla, red cabbage sauerkraut, sprouts, romaine and a drizzle of ginger vinaigrette.  Quick, easy, GONE!

This morning I got an early start on homework.  Then did a Tabata workout for my DDSD.

  • Static Ball Wall Squats with Side Lateral Holds – 4 minutes
  • Speedy Light Stiff-Legged Deadlifts – 4 minutes
  • Surrenders – 4 minutes
  • Planks and Side Planks – 4 minutes
  • Calf Raises – 4 minutes (oh the burn)
  • Combo Set – Eagle pose left, Eagle pose right, jump lunges, chair pose hold, repeat – 4 minutes

My right ear is still feeling achey but not as severely as yesterday.  It seems to come and go.  While I didn’t go as high intensity as I typically would, I feel good that I got in a workout.  I have an extra one to add in this weekend to make up for yesterday (unless 8 blocks of walking counts!) so I’ll keep ya posted.

In an effort to keep my immune system happy and strong while I’m fighting this weird bug, I’ve been eating lots of probiotic and healthful foods:

Probiotic pills, fermented miso, fresh fruit, kombucha tea, and fresh squeezed wheatgrass juice.

I’ve also been grating fresh ginger and steeping it in hot water with a squeeze of lemon juice and a squeeze of raw honey (this REALLY helps!).  And Thursday night I even resorted to eating 3 cloves of raw garlic smeared on some Ezekial toast.  While healthful and helpful, don’t do that if you live with other people. :D I slept in the guest room with my stinky breath – that no amount of tooth brushing and Listerine gargling could seem to conquer.  And I could STILL taste it the next morning. And when MSP opened the door to the guest room he said he could smell garlic.  Yikes.

After my workout I had a great chat with my mom, then ate a Christmas present from one of my classmates.  A “Satsuma” tangerine.  It was almost too pretty to eat.

Today I’ll be continuing on with my homework assignment (I’m making progress!) and when it gets dark, I might have to break down and watch one of my favorite holiday movies.  My two favorites are comedies.

I adore “Elf” – here’s a fun clip reel someone put together on YouTube:

“Christmas Vacation” with Chevy Chase – it’s not Christmas for me until I watch this movie (every year!).  I can’t believe it came out 21 years ago!

I also love “Bad Santa”, “A Christmas Story” and “Four Christmases”.  Yet I’ve never seen “Miracle on 34th Street”.  And I’ve never watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” all the way through.  Do you love holiday movies?  Funny ones or sentimental ones? What are your favorites?

Have a great weekend friends!

– Shari B. =)

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Time Flies When You’re Unplugged

Sep 13

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation | 6 Comments

Hi blog buds!

I can’t believe how fast the time has flown by since my last post!  When I last left you I was getting the house ready for the impending arrival of my mother-in-law, and then in the blink of an eye the visit it already behind us!  I had figured I might squeeze in a blog post or two during her visit, but we were having so much fun and kept so busy that it just never happened!

We were busy having Grilled Pita Pizza parties:

Posing for self-snapped pics:

Playing Wii games (even Mr. Potato-Head blinks for photos!):

Taking sunrise hikes:

Viewing the wildlife:

And taking in some of the AMAZING scenery Colorado has to offer:

Also, we shopped, we talked, we ate, we talked, we drank, we talked… there is a theme here.  My mother-in-law and I love to chat.  I think MSP’s ears may have been bleeding by the end of the weekend!  ;)

She was a great sport at trying some “Shari” foods, like green smoothies, black bean brownies, salmon cakes, Ezekial toast with almond butter, falafel plates – all of which she liked.  The vegan mac-n-cheese?  Not so much a fan.  (For the record, neither was MSP.  I love it for some reason…!)

We walked every day, did some Bob’s Yoga, and also danced ourselves silly to the Wii game “Just Dance” (which I still maintain should be worn with a heart rate monitor and counted as a true cardio workout).  I was sweating and beat after an evening of trying to keep up with the crazy dance moves in that game.  It’s so much fun and my abs hurt from laughing so hard!  We all also suffered through “The Backup Plan” (J-Lo, what the heck were you thinking when you signed on to that movie??)

And then next thing you know, four nights had flown by and it was time to head off to the airport!

I know many bloggers still write posts while they are on vacations or having super busy times.  I learned after being on the RV trip with my mom and grandma last year that I had missed out on some of quality time because my blog was new and I didn’t feel right about missing any days.  It made for some stressful moments on my part when I couldn’t get internet access or when I was focused so much on my laptop and not on my family.  I regret that now, as time with our families is so important.  Other than an occasional email check and some work that I had to do, I’ve been UNPLUGGED since last Wednesday:  no Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, WordPress.  And it made for a very nice visit!

Do you find it nice to UNPLUG every once in awhile? Or do you get antsy without daily technology? I find that some days when I get started trying to catch up on Google Reader, Facebook, Twitter, etc., hours get “lost”.  Meaning I may have intended on 5 minutes in front of the PC and then I end up at 16 different sites, or reading way more than I should and now that time is forever gone.   Does this happen to you?

***Last week I made the spicy tofu enchiladas and the vegan mac-n-cheese and promised to post further info on them.  I’m starting the mac-n-cheese one right now so you’ll see it post sometime today!

Have a GREAT day everyone!  Thanks so much for hanging with me during my absence!

– Shari B. =)

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Happy Homecoming!

Sep 29

Posted by in Fit on Vacation | 3 Comments

Hey there FitFeat friends! 

I’m blogging today from my own desk again!  YAY!  It sure feels good to be home. 

My dogs were SO excited to see me last night, which I truly wasn’t expecting.  Here’s why:  When we take them to their favorite dogsitter’s house (Auntie Tricia’s) and then we get back to pick them up, they act like we’re chopped liver.  They have such a great time at her house that I think they are like “aw, darn – now we have to go home!”  So I figured that since they were already home with MSP, I’d walk in the door and they’d act as if I was just coming in from the grocery story.  But they actually went nuts, especially my Weimaraner, Riley.  And she kept it up most of the evening!  She dropped her ball in my lap repeatedly and she had ‘crazy eyes’ going on (where her pupils are so dilated they are solid black) and she was panting like she’d just been sprinting.  I love that my dogs love me so much.  :)  

They are going to get one heck of a wog today for sure!

Here’s the recap of my travel day Monday.  I started the morning early again, this time at 4:30 AM.  I read my Kindle in bed for an hour before getting out of the warm bed.  I went downstairs after my mom was awake and had my coffee and a piece of Ezekial toast with a side of more Kindle.  :)   I’m still trying to finish the new Dan Brown book.  If anyone had told me that I’d go on a 12-day vacation and NOT finish one whole book, I’d tell them they were crazy and must not know me very well.  I thought I’d read at least 3 while I was gone.  But I just didn’t have a lot of time to read during this trip. 

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After the sun tried (and failed) to peek out, Mom and I did a couple of miles on this trail in a forest park near her house:

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We interrupted the breakfast of these deer:

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It was FREEZING outside so by the time we got back I was ready for some oatmeal to warm me from the inside out.

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Later, we ate a quick lunch before we had to head out for the Detroit airport.  I used all of my leftover veggies and made a HUGE salad (spinach, cucumber, HB egg, carrots, pepitas, sundried tomatoes, celery, a Gardenburger, pepper and a drizzle of bleu cheese dressing.)  On the side, I had a couple slices of homemade pickled beets.  I really think I am a little burned out on Gardenburgers for awhile. 

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I knew that the minute I was checked in at the airport I’d be hunting down a latte since I was once again near a large city.  I thought for sure they had a Starbucks in this airport, but no such luck.  Caribou Coffee would have to suffice.  This was my first soy latte in over 2 weeks.  I enjoyed every last sip and might have licked the foam out of the lid had I not been in a public place!

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A slice of pie goes great with a latte, so I had a Pecan Pie Larabar as I sipped my beloved elixir.  :)

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Then I boarded the plane and was headed toward beautiful Denver.  It was nice and warm when I got off the plane.  I practically ran to baggage claim because I could not wait one minute longer to see MSP.  I missed him so much.  I got a little choked up when I saw him waiting for me – he didn’t see me because I’d missed a turn, so I got to sneak up behind him with a bear hug. 

Since I knew I didn’t have any veggies in the fridge at home, we swung by his favorite place (Chipotle) on the way to pick up some din-din.  I ordered a veggie bowl.  Once home, I portioned out half of it, and added some baked Tostito Scoops with which to eat my guac.   

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Then we settled in for some serious couch potato time, since I’d been missing all of the season premieres while I was gone.  We watched Hell’s Kitchen, The Office, and Community.  It was the perfect homecoming.

Eating Chipotle always requires a taste-change afterward, so I had a little chocolate.

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Well kids, now I’m off to tackle this mess: 

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Then do some sort of workout, then grocery shop, then catch up on some blog reading and what feels like a million other things on my list of playing “catch-up”. 

When I grocery shop today I’m going to look for some new and interesting veggies to try.  I’ve missed my kitchen and am really ready to try some new recipes.  Do you have a favorite vegetable?  Or one that you’ve wanted to try but haven’t?  Drop me a comment – I’d love to hear what veggies you are eating as inspiration for my shopping!

Have a TERRIFIC TUESDAY!  I’ve got a LIST of topics that I want to cover this week, so keep checking back for new posts!

– Shari B. =)

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Bittersweet Departure

Sep 28

Posted by in Fit on Vacation | 1 Comment

Hi everyone! 

It’s a blustery start to the week here – I’m looking forward to getting back to the dry, warmer climate of Denver.  Here in Ohio it’s 55 degrees, very windy and it just started to rain.  I looked at the forecast back home and it will be 75 today and 85 tomorrow.  Thank you Denver for giving me some warm weather to come home to, because I’ve been freezing my hiney off here this vacation.  :)

Sunday was a good day.  It started early at 5:00 AM while still staying at my brother’s house – and as is typical for me, I was up hours before everyone else.  I made a cup of coffee with a side of Ezekial toast with agave. 

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I spent some time that morning with my little niece, reading her “The Three Little Pigs”.  Then I packed up and drove back to my mom’s.  On the way I ate a part of Banana Bread Larabar.  Here’s what was left: 

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At lunchtime, I had another Gardenburger in an effort to continue cleaning up all of the food I bought when I first arrived.  (I still have one more burger to go, which may or may not be today’s lunch, because I also want to get a green smoothie in today too.  I may have to take the smoothie in a to-go cup for the drive to the airport!   I am looking forward to getting some more variety back in my diet – I’ve been eating essentially the same foods day in and day out while I’ve been here because I only made one trip to the store, and it certainly doesn’t make for exciting blog reading!)

I topped my burger with a slice of tomato, some chopped Walla Walla onion and some spicy mustard.  I had “fries” on the side (my baby carrots) and a spinach salad with pepitas, sundried tomatoes, red peppers, nutritional yeast and my last two pieces of dulse. 

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My mid-afternoon snack was the other half of the Larabar from the morning.

Then for dinner it was time for the Lake Erie Walleye broil.  My brother, sister-in-law and niece came over for our last family supper together, probably for the next year or more.  I was so excited to eat this dinner that I forgot to take picture of the fish!  I got a pic of my huge salad that I ate while the fish was broiling, but then I was at the dinner table chatting away with the family and I completely missed the photo op!  (It looked a lot like the broiled whitefish I ate on Lake Superior.)  No batter – just topped with with a squeeze of fresh lemon.  It was REALLY good!  I expected it to be really ‘fishy-tasting’ for some reason, but it was very mild and very tender.

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We didn’t end up watching TV or football.  For some reason I had forgotten that morning & afternoon NFL games are shown in their local areas, so when I thought I’d be seeing the Broncos, they were airing the Cincinnati game.  We were all too busy enjoying our last family evening together though, so even had the Broncos been on here, I now realize I wouldn’t have ended up paying much attention. 

I said my goodbyes to my brother and his family, and  of course I cried. 

Mom had some of that AMAZING cake leftover from my aunt’s anniversary party (it tastes like wedding cake and is seriously one of the best cakes I’ve ever had.)  So this little piece of heaven turned my frown upside down:

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I’m sad to be heading home today because I know it’s going to be a long time before I get to see my family again.  But on the flip-side, I am REALLY missing MSP and my pups.  I’ll have to tell that Frontier pilot to put the pedal to the metal and get me home in a jiffy!

I’m also really looking forward to getting back to my normal blogging pattern – I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on writing while I’ve been here so the FitFeatures have been few and far-between.  Thanks for joining my on my trip and when I post tomorrow I’ll be back at my own desk again and ready to get busy!

Did any of you do a ‘commercial break’ exercise last night? 

Hope your week is off to a great start!

– Shari B.  =)

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A Challenge for Football Fans

Sep 27

Posted by in Fit on Vacation | 1 Comment

Hi blog buds!

Ahh, relaxing Sunday.  It’s my last full day of vacation visiting my family and it sounds like we might spend some time this afternoon watching football and enjoying some of the fish they caught locally over the summer.  It’s been so long since I’ve eaten walleye that I don’t remember what it tastes like or whether I like it — but I’m looking forward to trying it tonight!

In yesterday’s post I covered the Guest Room Workout and run that I did for the day’s activity.  Let me be the first to tell you, IT WORKS!  Oh boy do I feel my hamstrings and chest muscles today! 

Before yesterday’s workout, look what I found in my brother’s kitchen cabinets:

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 A Starbucks mug!  It felt just like being at home :)

Then before my run, I fueled up with a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar. 

After the run, I was craving a green smoothie.  This time around I used 8 oz of water, a big fist o’ spinach, frozen mangos & peaches, 1/3 apple, 1/2 cucumber and 2 stalks of celery.  I was also feeling the need for some protein, so I threw in a heaping spoon of vanilla rice protein.

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I love the cups my sister-in-law has – they make a green smoothie look so pretty! 

Later in the morning we were getting ready to head to the anniversary party and I knew I’d be eating a variety of things there, so I just munched on a few handfuls of pepitas.

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Then came the party food!  I think my mom gave my aunt a heads up on my eating style, because when I got there my aunt told me she had all my bases covered on the healthy food.  It was very thoughtful! 

My aunt’s kitchen was ENTIRELY covered with food.  I asked her if she had been cooking all week!   Since we did a lot of grazing through the day and I never really made a plate, I’ll just show you the spread:

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(As I uploaded the photo I just realized my adorable niece snuck into the picture too!  Isn’t she a cutie-patootie??)

This layout of food had swedish meatballs, hot chicken sandwiches, a cabbage-n-noodles dish, baked beans, BBQ pork sandwiches, veggie trays, jello salads, shrimp cocktail, assortments of cheeses and crackers, a huge fruit tray, a fruit salad, lil’ smokies, chips & dips, deviled eggs.  Every table in and out had bowls of peanuts, mints or chocolates.  I am SURE I am forgetting plenty of what was there.   My family members all know how to throw a good shindig.

After we got there, I started with the shrimp cocktail and a lot of veggies (cucumbers, celery, red pepper) so that I could fill up on lighter foods and not overdo it on a lot of the denser treats later.

Next, I ate a few crackers, and tried the noodles-n-cabbage dish.

Later in the day, they had a champagne toast and cut the cake.  I first had a half-piece of the white cake filled with raspberry, and then tried a sliver of the chocolate side (because I needed to compare you know…!  ;) )

My cousin’s toast to the Happy Couple of 40 years brought tears to everyone’s eyes - it was truly touching.  40 years of marriage is remarkable these days! 

On into the evening there were backyard games of frisbee with Wii games inside – by then I’d worked up an appetite.  My ‘dinner’ was a bowl of baked beans along with couple of deviled egg halves.  The recipe my mom and aunt use for baked beans has always been one of my favorite ‘comfort food’ dishes -  a trip home to visit the fam would not be complete if I didn’t have those beans!

None of what I ate was a full meal per se so when we made the hour+ trip back to my brother’s house, we were hungry again.  I had a few bites of leftover Cappellini Pomodoro from Olive Garden.  Then we put on our pj’s and stayed up chatting into the night.  :)   It was a great day, seeing a lot of people I hadn’t seen in years and just having some good family time.

My cousin’s husband and I traded green smoothie stories (yay, a health food ally in the family – I’m very happy I’m not the only one).  He uses broccoli and kale often in his mixture. I haven’t tried broccoli in mine, so maybe that will have to be in one of my upcoming concoctions!

OK, so here’s your FitFeat Challenge if you are a fan of football and watching today:  do something active during every commercial (and I don’t mean 12 oz curls… !)    NFL football shows a LOT of commercials!  Pick a couple of body parts and go to town.  In one commercial break, do some ab work with bicycles or crunches.  In another commercial break, try to hold in the squat position for the entire commercial break.  In the next one, do pushups.  You get the idea.  Drop me a comment with what you did during the commercials – maybe we’ll all learn a few new moves!  Add the team you support too!  I support the Denver Broncos (who will be playing the Raiders at 4:15 EDT today) but because I am also a Jay Cutler fan, I now keep an eye on Da Bears here and there. 

If you won’t be watching football, do this with your TV show of choice.  It’s a good way to fit in some movement without feeling like a couch potato.

Have a beautiful Sunday everyone!   See you again tomorrow!

– Shari B. =)

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The Guest Room Workout

Sep 26

Posted by Shari B. in Fit on Vacation, FitFeature | 1 Comment

Good morning and happy Saturday!

I hope that you all had a fabulous Friday yesterday!  Mine was full of fun with my niece and family.  Originally the plan was that I would be Friday’s daycare, but as it turned out I got the whole family instead so that was a BONUS for sure!  We ended up taking a trip to the Toledo Zoo and had a really fun time.

There wasn’t any ‘organized’ exercise on Thursday and Friday to speak of but I was exhausted at the end of each day — I definitely got activity but in a ‘running around’ sort of way.

I tried to make up for it a bit this morning by doing some strength work AND a run.  I present to you the Guest Room Workout for today’s FitFeature (or “Shhhh, Everyone’s Still Sleeping”):

I woke up this morning at 4:48 AM (yes, very early.  I SO wish I could sleep in!)  I had my usual coffee and it was too dark out to head out for a run.  I realized that I hadn’t done any strength work since last Sunday while on the road in the RV so I decided to see if I could very quietly get a workout in while waiting for the rest of the household to wake up.

I had packed my exercise bands to bring along with me, as they are lightweight and take up no room at all in my suitcase and knew they wouldn’t make any noise.

  • Warmup with BW Squats and arm circles
  • 20 Modified Pushups
  • 15 Stationary Lunges (per leg)
  • 20 Modified Pushups
  • 15 Stationary Lunges (per leg)
  • 20 Modified Pushups
  • 15 Stationary Lunges (per leg)
  • 20 Tubing Single Arm Rows (per arm)
  • 20 Glute Raises (per leg)
  • 20 Tubing Single Arm Rows (per arm)
  • 20 Glute Raises (per leg)
  • 20 Tubing Single Arm Rows (per arm)
  • 20 Glute Raises (per leg)
  • 20 Overhead Shoulder Presses w/ Tubing
  • 12 Side Laterals w/ Tubing
  • 20 Overhead Shoulder Presses w/ Tubing
  • 12 Side Laterals w/ Tubing
  • 20 Crunches
  • 20 Overhead Shoulder Presses w/ Tubing
  • 12 Side Laterals w/ Tubing
  • 20 Crunches

While this wasn’t a heavy strength workout by any means, I did get my heartrate up fairly high by performing it as a circuit without rest.  I went with higher reps to aim for some semblance of muscular fatigue without having the heavier weights I usually use.  Had I been outside, I would have liked to include some step-ups or explosive lunges to really work my legs but because I didn’t want to wake the 2 year old sleeping in the next room, this was what I went with.  It’s definitely better than NOT doing anything, and it will hold my muscles over until I get home next week and can get back to working them harder as I usually do.

The moral here is that if you WANT to workout when you travel but don’t have access to a gym or equipment, there’s always something you can do to improvise a program to stay fit.  This can also be said for someone who would prefer not to work out in a gym setting and wants to get started at home without a lot of expense.

So there you have it:  my Guest Room Workout.  :)

After it finally got light outside, I then went out to jog around this great small town on foot.   It was a very enjoyable 3.5 miles and I feel ready to tackle the day!  It will be another busy one, as we are headed off to a big family gathering.

– Shari B. =)

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