Archive for the ‘running’ Category

Posted on August 15, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Lake Ohmihall

Wednesday was an okay evening. No flooding. I made brown rice pasta and sauced it with pesto, and threw some smoked salmon on the side.

I filled out the paperwork to vacate my apartment and made a note to drop it off in the morning. Oh irony, how it taunts me. Not real irony, of course; I mean the Alanis Morissette kind. I mean, my apartment flooding the day that I signed the paperwork to vacate it–that is so like rain on your wedding day.

When my alarm clock went off at 5:30AM, I woke up and stepped into this:

You may ask why I stopped to take pictures when my apartment was flooding and dumping water into the apartment below mine. But this was me in crisis mode: since the guy who lives below me had already called maintenance, I searched for the shut-off valve for the water and, failing to find it, couldn’t really do much else. There used to be books stacked between the two bookcases on the right side of the picture; I moved those to safety, then grabbed my camera and snapped a few pictures of the damage in case I should need them later. Then I took all the books off the bookcases and moved them elsewhere; then I moved the bookcases into my bedroom; then, since the water seemed to be creeping toward my bedroom, I moved my TV stand, since it’s right next to me in the picture.

Later, I moved my other hallway bookcase, my dining room table, my exercise bike, my end table, and my sofa. The floor was wet everywhere thanks to our friend humidity.

Maintenance came and shut the water off, then replaced the water heater, and in the process mucked up my kitchen floor and tore holes in the linoleum.

You can see that at this point I’ve moved out of crisis mode and into “Um, my kitchen is a little messy, I should clean it” mode.

I also practiced making frazzled faces.

Shortly after the property manager came to talk to me, the carpet guys came to do bloody murder on my carpet. They vacuumed up the water, then set up a fan to blow under the carpet…

And a dehumidifier in the water heater closet.

At this point, I was staaarving–I’d managed to sneak in my normal breakfast in between bits of mayhem, but I’d been terribly clever on Wednesday and left my lunch leftovers at work so I wouldn’t have to repack them for Thursday (I’d just thrown the bag of carrots and cheese and the containers of hummus and tomatoes directly into my bag Wednesday morning). This meant my lunch was at work. And I had nothing to eat. So I dinked around for an hour or so trying to decide what I wanted and then ordered side items from Papa Johns. Chickenstrips and cheesesticks, which served me well for lunch and dinner.

After lunch, I intended to do some freelance writing so that the day wasn’t a total waste, but exhaustion hit me like a ton of really heavy objects, so I cleared off space on my couch (which was shoved up against all my piles of books) and slept. Later I took a walk around the lake. Or maybe that was Wednesday. I know I took a walk, though.

Friday morning I went to work and had my breakfast, and then finally had my leftover lunch.

I also had some awesome chocolate covered hazelnuts from Oregon. I love it when visiting scientists bring food!

I left work early to see what was going on at my apartment, since despite the property manager’s claim that she would be in touch, no one called to let me know what was going on. Apparently my leasing office is also good in a crisis, but not so much with the aftermath. I got home to find that nothing had happened in my absence–the fan and dehumidifier where still there–so I left to go to Whole Foods and Target for some grocery shopping.

I came back to discover that people had been in my apartment while I was gone, with no notice before or after (other than this missing equipment). I expected that they’d come pick up their stuff, but it still bugs me that I wasn’t told when this would be happening. It reminds me of that time they let the steam-cleaning people into my apartment on the wrong day and majorly freaked me out.

But my carpet was fixed…

And my water heater closet…was still gross.

I made swiss steak for dinner.

…there’s a steak under there, promise.

Then I took pictures of the shambles that were my apartment. Remember how I had the laundry room, the dining room, and the living room all cleaned and organized?

…okay, it’s not that bad. But you also can’t see the other side of the couch. I got a lot of my furniture put back in the correct spot Friday evening, and subsequently had one of the best nights of sleep I’ve ever had, curled up on my sofa.

Saturday morning I woke up and had some yogurt, then got back to work on moving things back into their antediluvian state. Naturally, I got hungry, so I threw together a big lunch.

Spinach artichoke dip (from the prepped section at Whole Foods), a few bits of broccoli, some salad tomatoes, two carrots, a banana, almond butter, and a piece of cotswold cheese. I made two cheese selections this week and picked this one because it had chives and onions in it and therefore had to be awesome. And it was. But very strong–as I move away from plain cheddar, I’m seeing how one ounce of a good, strong cheese can be plenty.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach here, though–I only ate half the banana and left one of the carrots for dinner.

I did have some of my new chocolate bar (Whole Foods brand of dark chocolate peppermint crisp). Not as good as the Lake Champlain kind, but it’ll do.

My bookcases made it back into the hallway, empty–no point in putting the books back on them when I already took them off and can pack them (when I have enough boxes).

Dinner was a repeat of last night, with less potatoes and onions and the addition of the leftover carrot from lunch.

Note the massive prep bowl of Brummel & Brown in the background. Yes, I ate it all. If there are potatoes on my plate, there is almost always a massive dish of butter or B&B just out of the picture. Don’t judge me, y’all.

Post-dinner snackage…a piece of the dark chocolate peppermint bar, and a piece of the dark chocolate hazelnut toffee bar (one of those ones with the endangered species on it). I wasn’t too impressed by the latter–apparently I like my dark chocolate at 54%-55%, not 70%+.

I totally still ate it, though.

Today I slept in again,  thought not so well as I had the night before, and woke up to more yogurt (I’ve stopped taking pictures of my yogurt most days–same old Liberte Mediteranee yogurt every day!). I then hit the lake trail in an attempt to get some running in, but my fitness has (obviously) decreased since I haven’t been able to run the past couple of months, and because it’s hot outside, so I didn’t get much running in before I had to walk. I’m supposed to start training for my half marathon this week and I’ve already accepted that I’m going to be a little bit behind, but that’s okay. I came home and immediately threw my ice pack on my foot, which has been hurting a little more than it had been recently since I started walking again, but not enough that I’m willing to go back and have it checked out again (yet).

Lunch was some broccoli, salad tomatoes, and carrot sticks with spinach artichoke dip, a dish of trail mix, and a piece of my other cheese selection, mahon.

Mahon is a hard Spanish cheese that taste delicious when eaten with tomatoes. I’m a huge fan of cheese + tomatoes.

I spent the afternoon going all Operation: Clean Sweep on my kitchen and have now checked it off my list–hurrah! That leaves the balcony (entirely gardening stuff), the bathroom (which I’ve worked on twice throughout the week–shouldn’t take long at all), the bedroom (half okay, half not so much), and the closet (um…yeah). I’m happy that I was able to make progress despite having what other, more dramatic people would call the week from hell. (Remember me griping about Wachovia shutting down my bank account on Monday? Oh, the fun week that lay ahead…!).

Well, now that I’ve snacked on a cranberry orange Pure bar and blogged for an hour, my dinner seems to be done. It’s time to eat again…!

Posted on July 11, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

Defyance

[Note: I originally wrote this post on Saturday evening, but my site went down before I could post it. I'm not going to bother rewriting it so that references to today/yesterday/tonight/etc. refer to the correct day. Bah!]

Greetings, all! I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend. I’m having a great weekend because it thunderstormed last night and dropped the temperature way down–when I walked outside this morning it actually felt cool! Of course, then it got up to 86, but that’s so much better than it has been! I wish it would stay this way all summer…

Apparently I wanted to show off my mad cheese portioning skillz, because I took this picture of 1 oz of cheese. First try, baby.

Thursday’s breakfast was Liberte Mediterranee apple crumble yogurt, with which I have utterly fallen in love. I never would’ve suspected that this would be my favorite, but it’s so awesome. (If you’re still eating yogurt with high fructose corn syrup and fake fruit in it, stop and get some Liberte…mmmmm…)

I had a top-secret meeting Thursday morning, to which a co-worker brought Dunkin Donuts. Remember when I said I was trying to eat mostly raw and vegetarian before dinner? Yeah, well. If the meeting bribe had been cookies or brownies I would’ve been able to resist, but donuts are my kryptonite.

[I'd make a joke here about how I'd sell U.S. secrets to foreign governments for the right amount/flavor of donuts, but I work for the government, so that's not really funny. And I can't say I'd sell out my own mother for donuts, because that would be wrong. Plus, she reads this. So just imagine how much I love donuts. It's a lot.]

Anyway, I was informed of the presence of donuts at the meeting early enough that I put off eating my planned mid-morning snack and ate a donut instead. I had a glazed chocolate cake donut and it was dreeeeaaamy…and then I took one for the road…

Lunch was this gigantor salad.

It had romaine lettuce, tomatoes, hardboiled egg, peas, celery, mushrooms, onions, sunflower seeds, the cheddar cheese that I was weighing in the first picture…maybe more, I don’t remember. And I’m too lazy to get up and find the paper that I wrote down all the weights/ingredients on. (Lest you think I’m weighing things for the wrong reasons–I’ve been weighing all these highly veggie-based meals to make sure that I’m getting enough calories during the day.)

I also mixed up some dressing–dijon mustard and lime juice. I added it to the salad, put on the lid, and shook it like a Polaroid picture. Or an Etch-a-Sketch.

Unfortunately, Gigantor Salad was too big and was taking so long to eat that I gave up after eating about a third of it.

I also had this bowl of grapes.

Later in the afternoon, I decided to eat my other donut.

Oh, it was good. Mmm.

Thursday’s dinner is not on the camera and for the life of me, I can’t remember what I ate. I think I wasn’t very hungry so I just ate a couple of cupcakes late in the evening. That sounds right. I’m out of cupcakes now, by the way!

Friday was supposed to be a Lazy Friday–aka, the Friday that I get off every two weeks in exchange for working 9-hour days instead of 8-hour ones–however, I’m completely swamped at work this month. Several co-workers encouraged me to go ahead and take my day off because the work would still be there when I got back, but I knew that if I took a three-day weekend with so much left on my plate, I’d spend it worrying about the upcoming workweek. So I went in anyway, and I got a lot of work done, and left feeling like next week’s workload would be a little more manageable as a result.

—

I’ve mentioned that I’m going to start trying to eat mostly raw and vegetarian before dinner on weekdays, but I keep forgetting to explain why I’m trying this out. There are a couple of completely random reasons.

1.) I feel like I don’t eat enough vegetables and especially fruit, and if you eat raw, that’s what you eat. And since fruits and veggies are so low in calories, you eat a lot of them.

2.) I’ve grown to really like bringing in meals of carrots/tomatoes/assorted veggies and hummus and fruit–I always feel better after eating something like that than if I went and got a hamburger or even if I brought dinner leftovers.

3.) When I bring leftovers, I have to reheat them. My laboratory has about 45 employees/cooperators and we share our floor with a couple of other groups that have probably 20+ employees between them. We used to have four microwaves on our floor; now we have two, and they’re both in the break room, and since most of us take our lunch between 11AM and 1PM, lines tend to form. If my lunch doesn’t need to be re-heated, I don’t have to spend time waiting for a microwave or heating up food.

4.) I almost always eat at my desk, either while I’m working (if I used my lunch break for a walk or if I’m eating a snack) or while I’m checking news or blogs. Finger-food type meals–carrot sticks, cherry tomatoes, grapes, etc.–are really easy to eat while I’m working at my computer, and then I don’t have to wash any utensils or use any disposable ones.

5.) I like meat, but let’s face it–it’s higher in calories and easier to overeat on than fruits and veggies. By reserving it for dinners and weekend meals, I’m helping to keep my calorie intake in check.

There are other reasons, but those are the ones I can think of right now. Of course, I’m new to this all-veggies-most-of-the-time experiment, and it was Friday, and I was stressed, so I had yogurt for breakfast and then acquired a bag of peanut butter M&Ms that I munched on all day. I may also have had some Cheetos and a KitKat. But that’s okay–Fridays have always tended to be my “cheat day” and I did much better this week at eating well than I expected to.

And then for dinner, I made sure to eat well.

I steamed some tuna and the last of one of my containers of broccoli, then served it with some mixed beans and grapes. I went back for a similar-sized piece of tuna and more beans afterward. Tasty dinner!

Heath loves to sleep on my couch, curled up in a ball with his nose tucked into his paws.

Unfortunately, he heard the camera turn on and uncurled from the cuteness. Sigh.

I’ve been wanting to find a cute, not-sleeveless dress to wear to church, because when I wear a skirt and shirt to church I feel like I’m going to work. I’ve also been trying to find a new bra, because the one I wear the most is getting worn out and the hooks are starting to rust. And I remember that episode of House where the lady died because she scratched herself with her bra hook and got a staph infection. It could happen…anyway, I’ve bought and worn several different brands of bras over the past few years and I keep coming back to one in particular that just fits better than the rest. And since it’s practically the only one I wear, it’s definitely in need of replacing at this point.

I decided to take an evening trip to Ross on Friday night. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything–none of the dresses were doing anything for me, and they seem not to carry my bra size (a common problem when I go bra shopping).

This morning I had some yogurt for breakfast, then headed to the Cameron Village shopping center so I could finally go to The Athlete’s Foot and get my new shoes and orthotics. I’ve been dreading going to Cameron Village because there’s always so much construction in the area, and because I’ve never been and I perceive it as a very crowded place. I don’t like to go to crowded places. I knew there was construction on one of the streets I would’ve needed to take to get to Cameron Village, so I tried a different route–and ended up sitting in one spot for 10 minutes while I waited for a flagman to tell me and the mile of other cars that were stopped that we could drive in the one lane of traffic that was open.

In fact, I spent more time sitting in traffic than I did in the store. My experience buying shoes at The Athlete’s Foot was much better than my previous experience buying running shoes at another local shop. At that store, I got the impression that the employee who helped me wasn’t really trained in how to fit shoes. And I felt like when he asked me to walk for him, he was staring at something other than my shoes (if you get my drift). I ended up with my Nikes, which have been good shoes, but I wasn’t really eager to return to that store in the future.

However, today, I was the only customer in the store for most of the time I was in there and the associate who helped me was very nice. I handed him the recommendation form I got from my doctor’s office and after he measured my feet and had me walk (and pointed out that I was walking on my left foot differently than my right one, so I know he was paying attention!), he went into the back and came out with four or five pairs of shoes for me to try on. I tried them on without the orthotic inserts in first, and it turned out that the first pair I tried on was the pair I felt the most comfortable in. And I was happy, because they were purple!

Shopping for running shoes is such an aesthetic crapshoot…you don’t go with what’s pretty; you go with what’s comfortable, and if you end up with ugly shoes, well, that’s life.

I’m very  happy with these and their purple accents, though!

And after I got home, I discovered this little clear window in the bottom, backed with lime green, and I laughed, because while the insoles that came with the shoes were purple…

…the pair of orthotics that the associate felt were the best for me were lime green!

He had me try on the shoes with these green Superfeet insoles (this was the brand that the PA said he liked best), and they felt really weird. Instead of hitting along the middle of your arch, where you’d expect them to hit, they hit toward the back of your arch, more towards your heel. I walked around in them for a minute or so and the sales associate said he could tell I was walking better in them, but he had me try on the “less aggressive” blue insert in my right shoe to see how it worked. I could barely feel it and he thought the green ones would be better, so I went with those.

Now I have this cool purple/green running shoe thing going. Awesomeness! My recommendation form came with a 10% discount and I ended up paying about $135 for the shoes and the orthotics. I hope this helps with my foot issues! Honestly, I’m not feeling very hopeful at the moment, just because this has been going on now for over two months and seems like it will never end. But I will try to be more optimistic…

I stopped in at Marshalls on the way home and checked for dresses and bras, but had no luck. I didn’t even look at the box my shoes came in until I got back to my apartment, where I discovered that my new shoes have the coolest name ever.

Defyance. Bwhaha.

After I got back, I made nachos for lunch.

Then, in the cool dim light of my living room, I took a wonderful afternoon nap. And then I woke up all hot and sweaty. Bah.

I made dinner–a leftover piece of tuna, leftover beans, peas, and grapes.

I headed to Crabtree Valley Mall in a final attempt to find a cute dress. I decided to wear my new running shoes, because I was warned that I needed to break in the orthotics slowly by wearing them for a couple of hours the first day, then a little more the next day, etc. And sure enough, by the time I got done wandering around the mall for an hour and a half, my feet were tired and kind of hurt…

I went to the lower level of Macy’s and while I did find a cute dress that fit (and even fit in a size 8), the neckline was very weird–it looked like it was supposed to be an off the shoulder dress with a cowl neckline, but the neckline didn’t fall right in either of the sizes I tried on. I decided it was the dress and not me. I did see lots of cute sleeveless dresses with cardigans, but I’m not willing to spend $128 on a dress and $49 on a sweater, so I didn’t even try them on.

Then I went to Sears and they had nothing. I took the escalator up, then walked back over to the top level of Macy’s to see if they had bras in my size. Clothes shopping is such a hassle for me–I have a short torso, an hourglass figure, and a small ribcage but a large bust–and bra shopping is the worst because most stores don’t carry my size, and if they do carry it, it’s the lowest band size and the highest cup size they stock and is therefore very hard to find. I’d almost given up at Macy’s when I turned around and found myself staring at the very bra I was wearing. Except, of course, it was a few years newer. I went through the racks and managed to find a bra (seriously, a single bra) in four different styles of that brand, then tried them on and decided to buy the two that fit the best. One was $30 and one was $32, and they were on sale for 30% off, so I was shocked when I paid for them and they cost $36.95 together.

Turns out one of them rang up at $16.99 retail, so it ended up costing less than $12. I’m not sure if that was an accident or not, and quite frankly I don’t care, because I’m a few pounds away from having to special order bras that cost more than a week’s worth of groceries off the Internet and I’ll take what I can get now.

But I still don’t have a cute dress to wear to church.

Posted on June 26, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

The Elephant in the Road

I’ve been following the World Cup in that disinterested sort of way that people who aren’t really interested in sports still follow them to make sure that their country’s team beats all the other countries’ teams, and as such was sad to discover, upon waking from a peaceful afternoon nap being woken from my afternoon nap by loud and violent thunder, that Ghana had beaten us. Again. I’m convinced that the elephant that was blocking the US team’s bus on Friday was actually an evil omen.

Fortunately, I did not encounter any elephants in the road on Friday (Lazy Friday!). I started the day off with some Liberte yogurt and then, knowing that I was going to a food-heavy party later in the evening, I opted for a mostly fresh, raw lunch.

Grapes, cherries, cherry tomatoes, carrots, roasted garlic hummus, and a piece of provolone.

I had a PA appointment in the afternoon and ate half of a Pure cranberry orange bar leftover from Thursday right before I left. I couldn’t find the cranberry orange flavor locally, so I went ahead an ordered a box of them when I ordered my MP3 player. I was a little hesitant because some of the Amazon reviews mentioned the flavor being off, but I love love love them.  Taaasty.

And then I headed to CFPSM because my left foot? Not better. The first time I went to have it checked out the PA told to come back if it wasn’t significantly better in three weeks. After hurting for a couple of days, it went to just hurting intermittently. And then there were a couple of days when it stopped hurting completely, probably because I ran a mile after not running for a couple of months and then everything else hurt. Naturally, this was around the time I had an appointment with my doctor about my blood pressure and since I thought it had stopped hurting I didn’t say anything about it.

Then a couple of days later it started hurting on and off again, and earlier this week it started hurting pretty much all the time, worse than before, to the point that I was limping in the evenings and icing my foot before bed. (If I’m icing something, it hurts pretty bad. ‘Cause I’m stubborn hardcore.) Also, it was radiating to other parts of my foot and my ankle. This is extremely uncool! Especially since I stopped walking/running in hopes that it would get better and it got worse instead. So yesterday, four and a half weeks after my first visit, I went back. The good news is that I had three x-rays and there is nothing structurally wrong with my foot. The bad news is that my feet are made of biomechanical fail, ’cause I walk too much on the outsides of them. I can’t help it, it’s the way I’ve been walking for 24 years.

So now I have a list of exercises to do in an attempt to strengthen my foot muscles and sometime this week I’m going to go to The Athlete’s Foot to get fitted for a new pair of running shoes that address the specific problems that I have. I was given the option of buying some high-quality pre-made orthotics or having custom ones made and decided to try the pre-made ones first. Then I’m going to try that for another month and hopefully it will solve the problem and I can get back to running…November 7 is inching ever closer!

Oh, also, when I was having my vital signs taken, my pulse shot up to 135 and my BP was around 145/95 (don’t remember the exact numbers). Awwwesome. I was actually shocked enough when I was told the numbers that I said, “Damn!” and then hastily added that I-swear-my-numbers-aren’t-that-high-at-home-anymore-really-honest. I did end up with a headache from my BP getting that high, though, which was annoying because I had to rush home after my appointment, grab a couple of things, and then run to the store to pick up the last of the ingredients I needed to bring to the party I was going to…

One of my co-workers decided to invite our female colleagues over for a cooking and eating party. There were about 15 of us total but I ended up being one of the first ones there (after I rushed! bah!). That was good, because I got to eat half of this by myself…

…I lost track of  how many cream-cheese-salsa-and-cracker sandwiches I ate. I could not stop putting them into my mouth.

I also joined another co-worker in breaking into this lemon tart from Trader Joe’s early. I am always a willing accomplice in such matters. Plus she brought the tart and told me I could have some early.

Man, that thing was tart. But tasty.

I also had some Advil. Apparently I looked unwell, what with my headache and my foot that decided to start hurting after being prodded earlier in the afternoon.

Our hostess had made a concoction of lemonade, lime juice, and pineapple juice to drink. I don’t like pineapple juice, but I tried some anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. I could barely taste the pineapple, which is a very good thing.

The aim of the party was that we were supposed to break into teams and come up with a dish–pizza, salad, or dessert–and then bring the ingredients to the party and cook there. We ended up with four or five different pizzas, a couple of salads, and some Chinese dishes courtesy of a researcher who is visiting from Beijing.

We all loaded up our plates in an attempt to try everything, and I was not the only one who couldn’t clean her plate. Too much food!

Let’s see if I can remember what was on my plate…I ate (or tried to eat) a piece of vegetarian pizza with tomatoes, onions, and peppers; a piece of pizza made with pesto sauce, mozzarella, and tomatoes; a salad made with beans, tomatoes, and sage (from the hostess’s garden!)…

…seven-or-eight-layer salad, a cabbage-filled crepe…

…and some dim sum and sweet Chinese rice balls (which I adventurously decided to try even though they reminded me somewhat of eyeballs).

Jamie and I teamed up to make a blackberry, pear, and goat cheese tart for dessert…

…and I also tried some of the giant cookie that someone made with honey instead of sugar.

There were also banana and Nutella crepes, but there was no way I could eat anymore–I was stuffed by the time I left after two and a half hours. I went home to nurse my headache, which never quite went away, and my poor gimpy foot. I sacked out on the couch with some cherry limeade, yogurt, and Six Feet Under.

I woke up on my own before 9AM, had some more yogurt, and noted that my foot, which typically hasn’t been hurting in the morning, still hurt from the night before. Also, I have this half-dollar-sized bruise on my wrist and no idea where it came from. Hmph!

I spent the morning cleaning and being sucked in by America’s Next Top Model, then broke for a thrown-together lunch of nachos, sans ground beef.

I cleaned some more, then decided it was time for an afternoon nap. I fell asleep for a couple hours before some thunderstorms that were passing nearby woke me up. After determining that they weren’t headed where I wanted to go, I drove away to Cook-Out for some fried deliciousness.

But I’m not made of the stuff I used to be. I ended up saving some of my chicken strips for later…

…and also part of my milkshake.

My plans for tomorrow include going to church in the morning and going for a walk-and-or-run, depending on the weather. I’ve decided that I’d rather my foot hurt while I’m exercising than hurt while I’m sitting around watching TV, since for now it’s just going to hurt no matter what. Might as well hurt while I’m improving my physical and mental health. I’m hovering around 151-152 lbs right now (though the scale at the doctor’s office was 155 lbs even) which is great considering that I haven’t been exercising, but I really want to get back below 150 in the next couple of weeks.

I’m headed to bed soon, but first I need to the exercises the ATC gave me for my foot…sigh…