I'm Not Special: 90 Days of Fitness

Note: This post was written about a month ago and sat in "draft" status until today. I'm not sure exactly why I didn't want to post it right away, but reading it a month later, I know it needs to be shared. 

My name is Veronica and I worked out every day for 90 days.

And I'm not special.

But I am so very, very tired.

Over a year ago, I thought it might be cool to work out every day for 30 days. I even put it on my Vision Board for June of 2011. That didn't happen. After staring at that little post-it note of failure, I wondered if maybe that was too easy. So in May of this year, I decided that my Summer would be quiet enough that I could probably go for 90 days. And so, on June first I very quietly started my journey. I didn't want to tell anyone because I was afraid I wouldn't follow through and then I'd look silly (not that anyone would hold it against me...). After about a week I realized I could do it and started sharing my goals with others.

June

I read somewhere that if you're going to set a goal like this, you should keep a calendar and mark off each successful day with a big red "X" that way it's painfully easy to see missed days. I considered the fact that both July and August had 31 days so I could potentially skip 2 days and still get 90 days within the summer months. I'm far too much of a rule-follower for that, though!

July

I managed to overcome some obstacles like having our niece and nephew here and going out of town a couple times. By working out in the early morning hours I was able to avoid the extreme heat (but not the humidity) and I got it out of the way so I didn't have to think about it. You'll notice one day in July I did "abs and pushups." I had put off my workout until the evening hoping to run/ride bikes with the kids. Well, the atmosphere had other plans and we were stuck indoors. So I just did a small workout at the house.

August

So why am I not special? Because this could just have easily have been you. OK, maybe you're not ready to log 6 mile runs or 1000m swims, but can you take a 30 min walk? Do you have access to a pool where you can walk laps? I'm sure there's a Yoga DVD collecting dust somewhere in your home. Shoot, if you have a Netflix subscription you have access to hundreds, probably thousands, of hours of fitness videos. Here are a few things I noticed were required for this challenge, none of which are "being in shape."

1. Commitment to yourself - Promise yourself that you'll allow 30 min each day for you. Even something like meditating is healthful! 
2. Plan ahead - I was always looking ahead and asking how I would get my workouts in. When we were travelling I made sure I had everything I needed to go for a run. In Wichita, I forgot my toiletry bag at home which contained my hair ties and barrettes, but I made do. Planning is so very key to health. From meal planning to scheduling workouts, it's what keeps me on track. Google Calendar does wonders.
3. It's not about the distance/intensity - The last two weeks of the challenge were particularly rough. It was clear that I was getting burnt out and when I looked at my calendar it wasn't hard to see why. I was starting to think that every workout had to be direct training for a couple upcoming triathlons and a marathon in November. Turns out, rest is also very important!
4. Do it first thing in the morning - I laughed out loud when a friend of mine said how impressed she was that I "got up in the middle of the night" to workout. Ok, so 5:30 am Bodypump classes aren't for everyone, including me, but if you go to bed a little earlier and set the alarm 30 min earlier, you can probably squeeze in a morning walk, yeah? Being summer in South Texas, it's a great way to beat the heat. Also, it's an awesome feeling to get off work and know that I have the whole evening to do whatever I want!

Texas Summer Vacay!

Mike and I have frequently talked about how we'd like to take his nephew and niece, Landyn (8) and CJ (5 then, now 6 at the time of this writing), for a week or so over their summer vacation. Since we're in San Antonio, there are SO many things to do with them! Earlier this summer, Mike mentioned that he had a "free" 5-day weekend for the 4th of July if he stayed in town. I suggested that this would be a perfect time to have the kids come visit and he agreed! We quickly made arrangements with his sister to meet them halfway and bring the kids home with us.

We met Courtney and the kids in Beaumont, TX so no one had to make the full 8-hour trip!

We brought the kids home on the 4th of July and boy did we hit the ground running. Only Mike and Veronica Holtz would drive halfway across Texas in the morning and host a 4th of July party that evening for 20 guests complete with sprinkler-playing, s'mores with homemade marshmallows, and fireworks! There were some other kids at the party so we broke two sprinklers and the cat and chickens were thoroughly terrorized.

Sprinklers

Sparklers

I got the four of us matching Old Navy flag shirts and made them all wear them to the party. I'm so my mother's daughter! :) (Hey, at least I don't know how to sew everyone flag shorts...)

There's a whole series of shots like this as we were egged on by the kids and onlookers.

In the days that followed we took the kids...

...to the San Antonio Children's Museum

...to at least 5 or 6 different playgrounds (a few more than once!)

...on a drive-through Wildlife Safari!

....to a petting zoo at the Wildlife Safari

...spelunking. (Note: children are sometimes scared in caves....also sometimes claustrophobic aunts, too.)

...to Sea World

...on a Riverboat tour

...to the Alamo

...on bike rides

...to the Witte Museum (they're on-air meteorologists with floating heads!)

Swimming was a VERY popular activity while the kids were here. Mike and I belong to a gym with a crazy splash pool and ginormous water slide. We really don't use this amenity much (there was that one time we went down the slide in our tri gear, goggles and all), but we were so grateful to have it for them. We may or may not have gone overboard with pool gear at Target. :)

Snozzles and Googles! (Snorkels and Goggles)

Landyn must have gone on the slide about a billion times

Another popular activity was ice cream eating. Aunt Veronica was quite the enabler...

The kids ended up staying with us for two and a half weeks. We put them in day camp at Lackland AFB while we were at work. They got to do things like go skating and swimming. We checked out a bunch of books at the library and we would read a couple books every night before bed. We even got Landyn to read a couple to us. :)

The second weekend the kids were here, we decided to take them to the beach in Corpus Christi. CJ had long wanted to go to the beach and it was on my summer bucket list, so why not? We stocked up on beach toys at Target (everything was on clearance!), loaded up the 4Runner, rented a canopy when we got there and had a blast!

On our way out of town, we stopped at Rudy's for some BBQ.

And then we stopped for some ice cream on the drive home. :)

Mike's Mom and Step-Dad, Mr. Bo, came to pick them up when it was time for the kids to go home. Mr. Bo has had some health issues recently so we were very happy they made the trip out to see our home and enjoy San Antonio.

Mike, Mr. Bo and Landyn hanging out at the Pearl Brewery during the  Farmer's Market.

Fish Tacos with Avacado, Tomato, and Corn Salsa

This week's ingredient is....

CORN!!

I was having trouble making a grocery list a couple weeks ago and I saw that Mike was reading his Racing Weight book by Matt Fitzgerald. I asked him if it had any recipes in it and he said it did and that he would look through them and mark the ones he was interested in. 

Lucky for me, he picked this recipe for fish tacos with avocado, tomato and corn salsa! How perfect for this round of Feeding Friendship! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Two 7-ounce fillets of firm white fish (I actually used one fillet of tilapia)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels (or canned corn, drained)
• 2 small tomatoes, chopped roughly
• 1 avacado, chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• Salt and pepper
• Small red chili, finely chopped
• 1 tsp of cilantro
• 4 small whole wheat tortillas

1.  Preheat the oven to 350 or so. Wrap tortillas in foil. Throw them in the oven to warm while preparing the fish and salsa.

1.  In a shallow dish, combine olive oil, ground cumin and paprika to make a paste. Brush the paste onto the fish and set aside.

 

2.  If using fresh kernels, cut them off the cob and boil for 2 minutes. See picture below for Rachel Ray's technique for getting corn off the cob.

Put a small bowl upside down in a large bowl. Cut the tip of the corn off to get a flat edge. Stand corn on top of small bowl and use a knife to shave kernels off the cob. Kernels will fall into large bowl for easy collection!

3.  Combine corn and tomatoes with chili, lime juice and chopped cilantro. Gently fold in avocado and season to taste. 
(For what it's worth, I actually made the salsa ahead of time. I'd say you could leave this in the fridge for up to 2 hours before it starts getting kind of watery.)

4.  Heat a shallow pan to medium-high heat. (I sprayed it with some olive oil, too.) Add fish to pan and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. 

5. Top warm tortillas with pieces of fish and salsa and enjoy!

 Since the Hatch festival is going on at Central Market, we enjoyed our tacos with a side of hatch pepper tortilla chips and Native Texas salsa!

 

Impromptu Trip to South Lake Tahoe!

A few weeks ago Mike and I had a conversation that went something like this:

Mike: So my boss is taking a week off in a couple weeks, so I would be able to take some leave during that time.

Veronica: We should go somewhere. We have those two free Southwest tickets...

Mike: Let's look at where they fly. How about Tahoe?

Veronica: That sounds good! Let's do it!

We then spent the better part of a Sunday morning booking flights and hotels and then Mike spent the following week researching activities and on Tuesday, August 2nd we left for 3 days in Tahoe! 

We spent the first night in Reno since we got in at about 11pm. We stayed at one of the big casinos there and when we booked the hotel we got 2 free breakfast buffets and $10 in slot play! We woke up SUPER early (the buffet didn't open until 7:30 and we were ready to go at 6:30) so we went to play our $10. We finished up $1.46, which isn't bad really. 

(We had to put in $5 to play the $10 which is why the voucher is for $6.46...)

The breakfast buffet included a diverse representation of cuisines to include Mexican and Chinese food. We ate as much as we could and then it was time to head back to the airport to pick up our rental car and head to Lake Tahoe!! The drive up was really beautiful. 

Scenic Route!

On the way we stopped on the northern side of the lake for a couple rounds of mini golf at a quirky course.

Take 1st shot seated?!

Kick the golf ball?!

Mike won a free round, which suckered us into playing a 2nd!

After some lunch, we took the "long way" around the lake to our hotel in South Lake Tahoe. The weather was absolutely beautiful and it was very refreshing to get out of the Texas heat.

That evening we went down to the shore and took some really great pictures of the sunset. One of the benefits of South Lake Tahoe being on the southeastern shore is the beautiful sunsets!

We went to bed early because the next day was going to prove to be very challenging.

Something you don't get a lot of in KS/OK/TX is legitimate mountain biking. You know, on a mountain? Mike did a lot of research and booked us each a bike to take along the Flume Trail. Reviews online said it was a challenging trail, but not death defying. The folks at the bike rental place set us up with our bikes and away we went!

The beginning part of the trail was mostly uphill, very uphill. No big deal. I knew it was only the first 4 miles of a 14 mile ride. There were some points where I had to walk the bike up:

But for the most part we were still smiling:

...and showing off.

We encountered some breathtaking sights:

And we even had to ride our bikes THROUGH the water!

That's me!

And then things started getting hairy. After going through a very technical part of the trail, which I chose to walk through, we were all of a sudden on the SIDE OF A MOUNTAIN. We're talking a path that was maybe 18" wide with a 1500 ft drop to your left. Oh. My. Gosh.

Mike was very patient (for the most part) because there were a lot of points where I was just walking my bike. It was just too scary. When we did take a break, however, the view was awesome!

When we were finished with death-defying part, we got to the downhill. This is the easy part right? This is what I worked so hard for in the beginning! No. No, no, no. It's white knuckle the whole way down. I felt like I would be thrown over the handlebars at any minute. I kept waiting to smell smoke from my brakes burning out as a result of my death grip on them. So scary. Meanwhile, Mike is getting the whole thing on VIDEO. As in, riding with ONE HAND! He is braver than I.

In the end we made it to the bottom in one piece. There was a family of four that came in behind us (we passed them at the beginning). They didn't seem prepared for that "big" of an adventure, either. A shuttle picked us all up and took us back to the beginning.

We made it back to the hotel in time for a Sierra Nevada beer-tasting event:

Afterwards, we had a nice dinner at the steakhouse in Harrah's and then returned to the hotel to make s'mores! It was really fun making s'mores despite the fact that we were the only ones over the age of 8. Of course, we enjoyed the marshmellowy-chocolatey-graham crackery goodness, but the real highlight was watching all the kids melt down. It was 8pm, so getting close to bed time. Most kids got upset when their marshmallow caught fire (they hadn't yet learned the "way of the s'more"), but one kid just stared at his flaming mallow until his mom blew it out - THEN he broke down. We each got 4 crackers, a hershey's bar and 4 marshmallows. That is A LOT. I couldn't eat all mine so I gave my last set of ingredients to a girl who'd lost one of her marshmallows to a fiery fate. Her father and I lamented at how the kids just didn't get it. Later he said he explained it to her and sure enough, she burnt the one I gave her and enjoyed it!

The next day it was time to go home. We had breakfast at a place recommended to us by a friend and then made our way back to Reno. The drive back was much less impressive. Kind of depressing, really

On the way to the lake we saw an In-n-Out Burger. We decided that we should probably stop on the way to the airport, just to say we went...

We had a great time escaping the crazy heat and seeing what Lake Tahoe has to offer. I think I'd enjoy it in the winter time, too, however Mike isn't into skiing, really. Perhaps if he gets deployed in the winter time I can go with some girlfriends!