Yesterday I went on a short run. I took Suka with me. She walks about as fast as my slow paced run - LOL :) I wanted to take it easy because I still need to order my knee sleeves. It was awesome to run without pain! A few months ago I would have never thought that would be possible.
I am really excited for Halloween tomorrow! Billy and I are going to sit in my parent's driveway and hand out candy. Billy's mom will even be there!
For the next two weeks Billy and I are house sitting for the Q's. It's awesome because my parents live right across the street! Today was such a LONG day! Right now we are getting some dinner ready. We are having some of this and some spicy chipotle baked tofu. I put so many hot sauces and spices in it is going to be awesome!! :)
I have been runnning back and forth between the houses and Payson is a very confused puppy. My mom and I took the dogs for a walk this morning. There were a lot of people out and about at 6am.
I am going to buy these so hopefully that will help my knees out! I have been cross training and doing lower body stuff - which should help as well.
Early this morning I got up to get a drink of water and when I laid back down Billy scooted really close and put his arm around me. Made my whole day :)
After dinner tonight my husband disappeared into the kitchen. I asked him what he was doing and he said he wanted to bake me something. While I was making dinner he was working on his company's website and he felt bad for not keeping me company. Please note he made a heart and a bird with butterscotch chips. Aw!!
This afternoon Billy and I went to the gym. I did the elliptical and my IT bands hurt a little bit. When I got off the elliptical I did some lower body exercises. When I walked over to the treadmill where Billy was running I had a dull aching pain in both of my knee caps. There are so many people that don't like to work out - why is it that the people who enjoy it have the struggles? I have late meetings tomorrow and Thursday so a couple days of rest will be good :)
After the gym I made dinner.
Spicy Baked tofu:
- 1 block of Fresh and Easy tofu - Open one bottle of red wine to share with your handsome hubby :) - Wrap tofu in a bunch of paper towels and place between two plates. On top of the plates place several cans of veggies. - Preheat oven to 375 - In a small bowl mix EVOO, honey (1 tbs. or more to make it sweeter), a lot of chili powder (tbs. +), couple shakes of Tabasco (I seriously cannot cook without this stuff, lol!), pinch of kosher salt, a shake of sesame oil, a few shakes of white pepper (we are out of black), a smidge of teryaki sauce, and some love. In all honesty the essentials are EVOO, honey, and Chili powder...I just start adding in extra stuff to add some variety :) This is the best recipe. You can do a ton of variations on it! - Microwave for 30 seconds. - Grease a baking sheet - After 30 minutes thinly slice the tofu (to avoid mushiness :P) - Dunk the tofu in the sauce - Sprinkle with paprika - Sprinkle with red chili flakes - Bake for 30 minutes or so (baking time will depend on thickness of your tofu)
I could eat tofu for every meal but I thought we should have something to go with our tofu. We had about half a package of cooked spaghetti in the fridge so I tossed that with some EVOO, Garlic Powder, Chopped tomato, and a couple leaves from Sir Arthur, and a piece of shredded jalapeno cheese.
Everything was super delicious!
Billy has 16.6 days worth of music on I-Tunes so we listened to some Kings of Leon:
Today has been a very productive day. I wanted to do something nice for Billy so I went to Einsteins and got him a bagel with cream cheese and some orange juice. Then I stopped by Starbucks and got him the New York Times. After he finished his breakfast I decided to clean out the outside storage closet. I was half expecting to find a dead body in there. Billy was a big help! His truck bed is filled with junk (or should I say a treasure to someone else) that we will be taking to Goodwill.
It's been a really great Saturday so far! Billy and I went to the gym (elliptical/weights). We go to one a little far form our house but we both like it better than the closer one. I just had some veggie soup ...or should I say Tabasco soup. Oh! I have a genius idea! Tabasco should make extra spicy soups (vegetarian friendly of course). In about an hour or so we are going to some some street fair with my parents and Scotty and MK.
Me and Billy before we left:
Some art:
We thought it was going to be 3D Chalk art but it wasn't. However, there was some pretty cool stuff! Unfortunately it was uber hot outside.
Tonight Will is coming over for some dinner. Billy is going to make chipotle mashed potatoes. His jalapeno mashed potatoes are AMAZING so I am sure the chipotle ones will be too!
I love Fridays! They are probably the my favorite day of the whole week! I remember in first grade on Fridays we would wash our desks and it would make me so happy. :)
A couple of minutes ago I decided I was a landscaper and I should use our leaf blower. Well about 45 seconds later I decided this is not what I want to be doing right now so I turend it off. I turned around and there was Billy. Husband to the rescue!
Today I ran around the park while Billy and Jennifer played soccer (FYI: Jennifer won). It was a lot of fun! I stopped running from no energy - not from my knees hurting. It was awesome!! I am slowly increasing my runs and it feels amazing. Before physical therapy I seriously thought I would never run again. Anytime I saw people in public with running shoes on it made me sad...even when it was obvious they hadn't done any physical activity in a long time.
Tonight for dinner I am making baked tofu (recipe here) with brown rice, green beans, and broccoli. Yum! Plus Jennifer is here so that's a lot of fun too :)
When Billy came home from work this is what he gave me:
He said he thought a bottle of red wine would be better than a card. He is the most wonderful husband ever! He is always doing cute little things to show me how much he loves me. I really am so lucky!!
I would like you to meet Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the Second. He's British (ancestors from Scotland), he wears velvet robe in his library, he is a bit pretentious, he smokes cigars, and he writes mystery novels. Oh, and he's organic.
I love (LOVE!) the library! It is probably one of my all time favorite places. I love that I can read as many books as my little heart desires for free! Every time I go to the library I feel like I need to check out every single book I’ve ever wanted to read, LOL :) Sometimes I do searches for specific books but most of the time I just walk down random aisles and pick out books that catch my eye. Right now I am reading Chew on This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson. I just got it so I don’t have anything to say about it just yet. The library now has tons of DVDs to check out. I have a tendency to not return videos on time. Once I had to pay $99 to Hollywood Video! It’s so nice because with the library I can check them out for 2 weeks at a time. If I don’t think I am going to have time to get the movie back in time I have to go online and renew it.
I have been running since I was 14. Starting in February I began to have pain in my knees when I ran. So I went to my doctor. She gave me some stretches to do. I also invested in good running shoes (Asics). I love them!! Then in April I was running on the treadmill and it felt like something on the side of my knee tore. I went to the doctor and she suggested physical therapy. For approximately 2 months (and $511 later - I used my tax refund money) I went to physical therapy 3 times a week. Physical therapy consisted of doing the elliptical for 10 minutes and then doing various strength training exercises. The key message was to not run every single day. My physical therapist suggested taking 1-2 days off between runs. After I completed physical therapy I started running for 10 minutes, then 12, then 15 and so on. I was doing great! Then I fell and had my whole arm in a cast so running was out for a little bit.
I've recently started running again. Here is my plan: run until I feel pain in my IT band and then walk. My physical therapist said I will have some pain because my muscles need to get used to running again. I can run with mild pain but if it gets worse I need to stop. I am continuing to do the exercises I learned in physical therapy and lunges. On Sunday while Billy kicked around the soccer ball I ran around. It's nice because I can run as slow as I'd like (which is basically walking speed according to Billy ... lol!). I am basically running in a square so once I have knee pain I am only a short distance away. If anyone has successfully recuperated from a running issue please let me know what worked for you!
I have a problem...well mainly an e-mail forwarding problem. I forward every single e-mail I get. I am not sure what horrible thing will happen if I don't. For a few seconds I debate hitting delete but I just cannot bring myself to do it.