Weekend Update ;)

Let me start by saying that I love the Olympics! They've pretty much consumed my free time at home, but we still managed to get some things done this weekend. I had a great hike Friday after work. It was hot (around 100) but I had time so I took the longer trail up. Friday night we usually don't plan our dinner and end up making something based on what produce we have left. This Friday ended up being a pasta with pesto, squash, tomatoes and kale. It makes me feel good that our kitchen is well-stocked enough to do that, and that we're not wasting money/calories by eating out all the time.

Saturday we went to see 2 YMCAs in the area. When we went to the first we found out our membership would be good for all the Y's in the area, so we checked out the one that's closer to my way home. They were very different, but offered a lot of things we'd like. We have to decide if we want to spend that money on the Y or on bikes. It's really a matter of what Carly thinks she'd use more. We spent the rest of the day cleaning. I'm going up to NY to visit family tomorrow, and Carly's parents are coming here Wednesday to visit her so we had to deep clean for the week. I took the day off from working out, but I couldn't help myself from doing some light arm and ab exercises while we watched Women's Soccer.

Saturday night we met some new friends at a Mediterranean restaurant. It was really good. I'd scoped the menu online and felt pretty comfortable, but I also asked the waiter to check on some of the food I wanted to order to see if it was vegan. I also asked him to ask the chef if he could make me a pasta dish with whatever veggies and tomato sauce. Luckily both appetizers (hummus & eggplant dip) were vegan, and they subbed raw veggies for the buttered pita. The chef made a pasta that was delicious but lacking in the amount of veg. It had about 4 pieces of artichoke and 5 or 6 mushrooms. It was still yummy though!

Vegan pasta at Ilios Noche

Sunday morning I went to the gym and had a really good workout. I guess knowing that I'll be able to mix up my workout options in the near future was enough to get me out of my funk! I tried the strength setting on the Arc trainer for 25 minutes and I liked it a lot. It was 45 seconds of level 20 or 25 and then 15 seconds of level 70, so I worked as hard as I could for the low resistance sections and then "recovered" during the heavy resistance. I usually don't feel any soreness in my legs after a Sunday workout but I'm feeling it today. I went back to my preferred 10 reps slow & heavy followed by 5-10 of lighter & faster reps on the strength machines. I feel good all over today in terms of soreness and shape. Yesterday was 5 years since we adopted our beagle, so I took her for a nice long walk when I got home from the gym. For lunch my wifey was in the mood for Qdoba so I had a black bean veggie burrito...I'm a little addicted to burritos right now!!

Veggie burrito from Qdoba

We spent the rest of the day cleaning, packing & watching Olympics. For dinner we made a riff on this recipe for Zucchini (Summer) Paella with a few tweaks. It was fantastic! I think we were both happy to eat something with a different flavor profile than what we've been eating recently. We used long grain brown rice instead of short, used more broth, more spices, and added a pack of frozen spinach and used a full can of chickpeas.

Paella

 Traveling tomorrow will be interesting. My first trip being plant based! I scoped out the Detroit airport (where I'll be connecting and will need lunch) and it's actually rated highly among plant based eaters for options. I've also been using Happy Cow to scope out places to go in NY. It'll be nice to have a few days off!