Love This Life

While on vacation in the Outer Banks this summer my girlfriends and I took an afternoon trip into Duck for a little extra relaxation sans children for mani-pedis while drinking fruity drinks and gazing out at the ocean.  The spa carried these cute t-shirts and tanks that said "You Rock" on the front.  I was in the first few months of this journey and was feeling particularly motivated (being at the beach with skinny friends will do that to you!) so I thought it might be a cool thing for me to wear when I worked out.  When I picked it up I found that on the back was the brand's (which is LovethisLife) "manifesto" and I knew I had to have it.  Here is what it said:

LovethisLife...

is about celebrating the moment

and that we're not guaranteed or owed another day

and how cool it is that what we hide

can actually be the fuel towards our glory

and that it's not so bad being proven wrong

LovethisLife...

is about welcoming the blind turn

and the possibility 

that there's no such thing as coincidence

and that empathy is incredibly sexy

and that it's never too late

to pick up a guitar or a paintbrush

or to make an amend or to make a new friend

LovethisLife...

could be about rekindling a past flame

or igniting a new one

or shapeshifting from a dreamer into a doer

or savouring the caress of a love long gone

LovethisLife...

means whatever it is you want it to mean 

because

LovethisLife...

is a celebration of you and your path

LovethisLife...

cuz it could go at any second

you rock.

I picked this out of my drawer today and put it on even though it's a little tight (please tell me these things run small!) because it's a great reminder to celebrate this journey - the ups and the downs.  It's a great reminder to keep on doing what I'm doing, and damnit - I DO ROCK!

New Clay

I can't believe that the upstairs studio space at Clay opened over a month ago and this is the first time I've blogged about it!  If you thought I was in love (or infatuated?) with Clay Fitness before - just wait!

Can you believe this gorgeous space used to be Bel Rio?

See the yellow things hanging from the monkey bars (yes, monkey bars!)? Those are TRX Training Systems. They look innocent, but they are amazing (and torturous) little creatures. They can work every muscle in your body (and Hyam makes sure they do!). 

Somehow I neglected to get photos of the cycling room or the shower (seriously the shower is gorgeous - you gotta see it!) so I will do that some time in the next few weeks.  Or...you could stop by and check it out yourself!

Run Amy Run

I received an e-mail from a friend a week ago entitled "Marathon".  At first I thought she'd sent it to the wrong person.  As I continued to read, however, I realized she was actually asking me to consider doing a marathon with her.  A marathon?  Who was she kidding?  A marathon is 26  miles!  I can barely handle the 3 I do now. No freaking way!

But 12 hours later I couldn't get the thought out of my head. A marathon. How amazing would that be?  Wait - what did I just say?  I have friends who are marathoners and I've always told them that as amazing as I think they are, I think they're equally as crazy.  My father-in-law is a marthoner.  He's 2 inches shorter than me and weighs at least 50 pounds less. Running comes naturally to him.  He's even built like a marathoner.  I, on the other hand, am built more like a sumo wrestler.

I have a long list of things I'd like to be able to say I did someday. Running a marathon has never been one of them.  Now, however, I can't get it out of my head.  I made the mistake of mentioning this to Hyam who, of course, thought it was a fabulous idea!  Before I knew it she had me committing to a training group for the Charlottesville Ten-Miler.  Wait, I'm running the Charlottesville Ten-Miler???

So I'm NOT committing to anything further than 10 miles yet, but that marathon is in the back of my mind pecking away at me.  26 miles.  That'd be all the way to Crozet and back! Wow, that's a long way. 

Priorities

I've struggled a lot lately with trying to make everything that's important and/or necessary fit into a 24 hour time period.  This, of course, isn't something that is unique to me - we are all busy - but for the purposes of this blog I'm going to focus on myself. Sorry.

If you know me even a little bit you are aware that time management is not my strong suit. This makes balancing a schedule like mine difficult at times. I'm very involved in a lot of things, which can be tough for even a very organized person, but for me, well,  it can really suck.  Add to it that the Spicy Chicken is out of town 3 days a week and, you can imagine how far behind I'm usually running. I make it all work out in the end, but often at the expense of sleep, healthy eating and exercise.  Once again, this is probably how I got here in the first place and why I'm trying to make a change.  Change isn't always easy, though, and I am admittedly struggling with it right now.

I remember a friend making a comment several years ago about how it irritated her when people claimed they didn't have time to exercise because to her it was all about priorities.  She thought saying "Exercising is not a priority to me" was much more honest. I hated to admit it, but she was right.  If she, a mother of 3 (now 4!), who owned her own business, had a husband in medical school and was involved with everything from church to Junior League to the local actor's guild somehow found time to work out, there was really no reason I couldn't be doing the same thing.  I just had to make it a priority.  Of course then I'd have to give up a few hours of sitting on my ass... 

So I started this post thinking I'd whine about how hard it is to put my health and fitness first, but came out realizing that maybe it's really not that hard after all.  Just like anything else, it has to be a priority or it isn't going to happen.  

Clean Eating

I'll be the first to admit that my attempt to change my diet during this journey would probably best be described as "half-assed".  I have really good days, but they are easily outnumbered by my not-so-good ones, and there have definitely been a few embarrassingly horrible ones recently.  

Knowing that I've been impeding my own success (I think they call it self-sabotage) one of my New Year's Resolutions was to cook more (or maybe in my case it should be start cooking!).  So yesterday, armed with past issues of Clean Eating (from this summer when I resolved to start eating healthier!) and a few recent Real Simple Magazines I set out to make a plan for healthier, cleaner eating.  Before long I had a pile full of great, healthy and not too difficult recipes in hand and was ready to head to the store.

I absolutely love Clean Eating Magazine. The photos are beautiful (I refuse to make a recipe that I don't have a picture of), the recipes are simple enough for someone like me (and are really explanatory), their Weekly Menu Plan section includes a shopping list, and, of course, they are healthy! Admittedly there are always a few items that I've never heard of or have no desire to ever try, but for the most part it totally jazzes me up about eating healthily. 

I'll be honest and say that when the Spicy Chicken is in town I do more requesting than  cooking, but the important part is that I'm eating well, right.  We started this morning with a modified version of Clean Eating's MacK Muffin from the September/October 2010, which is a healthy twist on the Egg McMuffin.  The recipe is below (we modified with asparagus because someone forgot to buy the spinach).  

THE MacK MUFFIN (Clean Eating, September/October 2010) 

Ingredients

white vinegar, as needed

1 large egg

olive oil cooking spray

1 cup spinach

1 whole-wheat English Muffin

1 tbsp. light cream cheese

1 slice tomato

Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

1 tsp. hot sauce (i.e. Sriracha), optional

Instructions

1.  Bring a large, deep saucepan with 5-6 cups of water to a boil.  Add about 1 tsp. vinegar for every cup of water. (Taste to make sure vinegar is barely noticeable).  Lower heat to a slow simmer.  Carefully crack egg into a teacup or large ladle.  Lower into water and pour egg out as gently as possible, careful not to break yolk. Cook until egg white is formed and set and yolk begins to thicken but is not hard (3-4 minutes). Remove egg with slotted spoon or strainer, set aside.

2.  Heat a medium non-stick pan over medium heat and mist with cooking spray.  Once pan is hot, add spinach and saute for 1-2 minutes, until slightly wilted.  Remove spinach from pan and set aside. (if using asparagus, saute the same way).

3.  Toast English muffin.  To assemble, spread 1/2 tbsp. cream cheese on each half of English muffin.  Place spinach on bottom half of English muffin, then add poached egg and tomato. Season with salt and pepper. Finish with hot sauce, if desired, before topping with other half of English muffin.