I am so lucky to live in a warm weather climate. Swimming laps, yesterday, thinking about how October will soon turn to November. This swimming thing, really got me this year. I love how it feels to glide through the water, not sweating, not pounding, and still getting in some great work for the entire body. Keeping my fingers crossed to keep swimming at least through the fall.
Great fun last night at dinner. Thanks to Derek, Mishell, Pete, James, Sara and mystery guest, Chippy, for bringing their appetites and their wonderful energy to our dinner table. How nice of Chippy to come in with dessert. Ironically, I sort of forgot all about dessert last night. Though I spent way too much time in the kitchen yesterday, there is nothing like a good breakfast, for dinner. Tofu scrambles (I used 2 blocks) go a long way and filled with fresh veggies, it’s a very healthful meal. I still refuse to consider potatoes a bad carb and cooked on the grill with fresh herbs and not too much olive oil, they are neither high in calories or anything else bad for us! Bagels and muffins put this meal over the top in too many carbs, but the kids can afford them and I was able to limit myself to 1/2 a grain bagel and no muffins or cornbread. Leftovers went home with the kids and everyone was happy.
So the news on Halloween candy is that if you want to eat the least calories, the least fat, you’ll snack on a few tootsie rolls. I happen to like them a lot but the easy part for me, in keeping away from the candy, is that most of it is not vegan. Not to say I haven’t or won’t eat a few…but just a few. There are some good vegan options when trying to satisfy the sweet tooth. Licorice, vegan. Lots of the junk candy is…the ones that are JUST sugar. Cocoa is vegan. Ghiradelli makes awesome chocolate chips and they are vegan. I buy those at the grocery store and use them for baking, but honestly, they are delicious right out of the bag. Chocolate covered gel rings (like we eat at the Jewish holidays) vegan. When looking at ingredients, milk is the obvious one as in milk chocolate. It’s the much less obvious ingredients like “gelatin” which could be animal or vegetable based, but unless you are really extreme, an occasional animal product isn’t going to kill anyone.
On the sports fitness front, there is a really interesting article in this months Men’s Journal, regarding ACL injuries and new studies showing surgery isn’t always necessary. Maybe physical therapy might be enough for some. This was exactly what I contended when Blaze hurt his leg 2 years ago. Though he is not perfect, he also did not have formal therapy. When you go to a surgeon, they often want to operate. Think about it. Sometimes, of course, there is no other alternative, but other times there is…how do you know? I think anyone who rushes a person (or especially an animal) into surgery that is NOT an emergency, might want to do the surgery before you begin to see yourself healing without it.
The first of our tomato plants has a couple of tomatoes growing. Lots of activity going on in the garden. The herbs are doing really well and Mitch and I have expansion plans in the works. I can’t wait till the day I need to bring a basket out there with me…
Off to walk Blaze and then go for a run. Then it’s off to Whole Foods for a “field trip,” which I always look forward to!