In Eats and Exercise.
Memorial Day has always been one of my favorite holidays. Of course, I appreciate the opportunity to be reminded of and be grateful for our troops’ sacrifices. But I also love how it’s the unofficial First Day of Summer. The day begs for meals outside, fun and games, and some serious sunshine. Seriously – has the weather ever been yucky on Memorial Day? I’m sure it has rained somewhere on Memorial Day, but I think I’ve always lucked out with warm temps and blue skies.
As the First Day of Summer, I always think of Memorial Day as a fresh start – kind of like New Year’s. An opportunity to kick summer off with a bang. A fun, healthy Memorial Day bodes well for the rest of the summer, don’t you think?
On that note… Here’s how I spent my Memorial Day – in eats and exercise!
Breakfast: blackberries, Trader Joe’s hashbrowns (which, by the way, are so delicious), eggs and greens.
Followed by a trip to the gym for 30 minutes of swimming. Laps, laps, and more laps. I’m doing a new thing where I swim by the clock, not by lengths, in an attempt to extend my swim distance. So much of swimming is psychological! I swim further when I’m counting the minutes – not laps.
Post-workout snack – a spoonful of sunflower butter and a fresh-squeeze juice (which I think was beets, oranges, and apples).
And later – Lunch! A salad with tomatoes, white beans, cucumbers, sharp cheddar, and balsamic. And olives on the side. Oh, and fresh basil from the garden on top. A taste or two of basil is so delicious with tomatoes and cheese.
After getting cleaned up, we took Henry’s photographs for his 11th month. Two weeks too late, but still – I feel accomplished. We’re going to move onto yearly photos after his birthday. Every month is too hard to remember. And boy – does time fly!
“Where’s my ballie?!â€
Our Memorial Day plans included a trip to the community pool, which opened this weekend. WAHOO. I predict that my family will spend many, many days by the pool. Henry loves the water, and he loves interacting with other children. At one point, he had two 7 year old girls doting on him, calling themselves his ‘babysitters’ and showing him how to write his name on the cement with a wet paintbrush. Play on, kiddos. Play on.
Before leaving for the pool, I had a glass of soy milk, and while there, I snagged a bunch of roasted almonds from my brother-in-law.
When Henry started to yawn, it was my signal to leave the pool. We drove home, he plopped into his crib for a nap, and I hopped on the indoor trainer. I’m really, really trying hard to be more diligent about triathlon training. I’ve been doing lots of two-a-days or back-to-back workouts, and I’ve been focusing more on cycling than ever before. Running, swimming, and spinning with a baby is easy (thanks to the jogging stroller and childcare at the gym), but cycling on my actual bike is hard. I don’t like to cycle outside around my house (not safe enough), and it’s hard to coordinate bike rides with naps because I usually work during naps. But since setting up the indoor trainer on my deck, I’ve been logging more time in the saddle than ever before – even if mainly in short bursts. Better than nothing!
I got 30 minutes in before he woke up.
We split a banana as part of Henry’s dinner.
Adult dinner – quinoa, greens, onions, carrots, grilled tempeh, all doused in Earth Balance ‘butter.’
And two apricots in an attempt to tame my sweet tooth. Fresh apricots are > than dried. Right?!
Alas, fruit did not satisfy me. So then I ate an entire dark chocolate bar + a glass of almond milk while cuddled on the couch with the Husband, watching TV.
All in all – a perfect Memorial Day, and a great way to kick off summer.
What was the best thing you ate yesterday?
That really does sound perfect! You have beautiful pictures 🙂