Jon woke me up this morning when he got back from his run to tell me – all hopped-up on adrenaline and excited – that he got to use his pepper spray for the first time today. I think he’s been itching to spray someone with that stuff since the day he bought it.

Apparently a dog (of unknown origin and breed) aggressively approached him on the street (in the dark) and didn’t back off – instead it charged close enough to him that he sprayed.

My first thought centered around hope that the dog’s ok (because it was obvious Jon was ok) … quickly followed by I WILL NEVER WALK/JOG IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD AGAIN. I think it’s pretty well documented that I have a freakishly bizarre fear of dogs that I have no intention to ever do anything about. I had JUST gotten comfortable (ie startle response low) enough to marginally enjoy walks/jogs around here. Jon will be lucky if HE ever gets to run again. Maybe now I’ll get my treadmill.
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Today has been a very busy day (at home). We have less than 2 months to go before we (I) move and I’d like to leave the house and yard in good shape with the garage, basement, shed, etc. junk cleaned out and/or efficiently organized, etc. So … easy food today.

I should have never brought cereal into our house. Seriously. This stuff is the effin’ devil.

I’ve been eating it as a dessert and not as a meal (to combat sugar cravings with something other than ice cream), but I had it for breakfast this morning since I had a bunch of yard stuff to do. A million degrees + mowing + weeding does not combine well with eggs or anything else remotely heavy.

I love the ice cold milk + frozen blueberries.

Lunch was quick. Amy’s has the only frozen stuff I can do. This is the only frozen full meal I can do, though – the rest give me heartburn. I buy one a month or so and keep them around for days like today. (Burritos, of course, are another story.)

This is funny to me. I’d love to meet the person who eats just one.

LOVE peaches. So glad they’re back.

The farm we buy our meat from had a freezer sale the other day, so we made a special weeknight trip and stocked up on a bunch of frozen stuff – including bacon – and picked up some really fabulous looking tomatoes while we were at it, too. So … I went to the store today and picked up some bread so we could have BLT’s for dinner. I haven’t had a BLT in ages – and was actually a little nervous about it because it’s one of those things that I once threw up and vowed to never eat again. I think I’ve had one or two since I was a kid, so I didn’t exactly know how this would go.

My (extremely vivid) BLT memory? No drinking binge or flu or anything rational like that – I was simply scared because tornado sirens were going off and I was sure the tornado was about to wipe us out. (I was probably 9.) I threw up on the first day of school every single year of my childhood, too. It’s amazing I’m pretty well-adjusted and not popping xanax every few hours, huh?

ANYWAY – weird childhood memory aside, it was good.

(That’s beer in the background, not coke. I – personally – think they’re equally damaging. My sweet husband, on the other hand, believes beer to be “natural” so whatever.)

Definitely doing this again.

I never thought I’d find myself googling “chicken sex,” but here I am.

I’ve recently gotten a few chicken updates from my neighborhood email list. Apparently there’s some super excitement that an Urban Hen Coalition organized and has been pushing for the legalization of hens. Seems like they’ve almost made it … just one more City Council vote.

I don’t get it. I have no desire to clean up chicken shit in my small “URBAN” backyard to save a few bucks on eggs. I care about where my food comes from, but apparently I don’t care anywhere near enough to want to deal with it coming from my own backyard. I’m ok with that.

This whole thing irrationally irritates me for some unexplainable reason. I’m not sure why I even care since I doubt I’ll ever see one – my neighbor is too lazy to mow his yard … SURELY he’s too lazy for chickens – and I’d probably be all excited to see one, anyway. I have issues.

It prompted a pretty lengthy conversation wherein Jon and I learned neither of us know anything about the reproductive processes of chickens, though.
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I’ve been feeling sick all week. I thought maybe I was just tired from the trip and from going straight back to work and having a lot to do each night, etc., but I woke up on Wednesday morning completely exhausted after having slept for over TEN hours (my standard is 8 ) and then felt so poorly all day that I was convinced I had the flu – until I realized it had been over three weeks since I’d taken any iron.

I have to take the pills right before bed because they make my stomach hurt, but I keep the damn things next to my bed in plain sight so I’ll remember. I realized this prior to bed last night … and talked about it … and STILL forgot until I was almost asleep. It’s a GD good thing I don’t have to rely on birth control pills, for sure.

I hate the hassle of the pills – primarily because I can’t just take them whenever/as I remember because of the stomach issues – but I don’t know what else to do. I try, but food doesn’t fully cut it.
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Tonight’s dinner:

A pork chop from the farm people + kale sauteed with coconut oil, red pepper flakes, onion and S&P (that I didn’t eat much of because of the oil – counting points) + spinach from a can.

I am 100% converted to this whole farm thing. I have never been a huge pork chop person, but there’s a seriously big difference between the taste and quality of meat from the farm and meat from a grocery store. I’ve been thinking about where we might put a freezer (in the future – once I’m back in Knoxville) so that we can justify buying half a cow/pig or some other such nonsense … and I swear I never thought that would happen.

Well, we survived.

Last week almost seems like a dream – it’s hard to believe it even happened now that it’s over and we’re back to reality.
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3,600 miles + 7 different hotels on 7 different nights was tiring, but the trip was freakin’ fabulous.

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Our diet was disgusting. There were lots of small towns and a distinct
lack of options as we progressed into more isolated areas. Not surprising – but dang. It was bad. I didn’t
always make the best choices. I didn’t even always make marginally decent choices. I’m ok with that. Nothing I can do now,
anyway.

This was – by far – the least active trip we’ve ever taken. I seriously
felt like my muscles were atrophying by about mid-week since we were in
the car for much of the time. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be up at 5:30 this morning, but I was SO happy to be using my body/exercising. It felt really
good. I’m planning to do something tonight, too, just because I feel
like I need to run or do jumping jacks or SOMETHING. I’m antsy today.
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I know my body pretty well at this point – and I am (generally)
realistic about my actions, so I can usually guess my weight within
ounces. I predicted my exact weight this morning. 5 pounds up.
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So, CrossFit.

I did 2 fundamental classes before the trip and did one regular day
this morning (though scaled for my ability). My thoughts
so far:

1) I really like functional training. I didn’t start exercising to lose
weight, I started exercising to be able to do “normal” things like walk
up stairs without dying. I didn’t know what functional training was
when I began, but I had that purpose.

(I once (in the very beginning stages of exercise) heard a trainer tell
someone that ellipticals are a waste of time because they don’t mimic
natural movement. I thought about that for about half a second and decided
not to use them – and haven’t. Irrational? Maybe. It explains my
thoughts/feelings re: exercise, though.)

2) I have always really liked weight lifting and have always wanted to do more.

3) I want to be strong. Professionally, most of my clients are
incarcerated – and I’m taking my career in a direction that will
hopefully have me continuing in that sort of environment (primarily with
clients who have been diagnosed with a mental illness of some sort).
I’m not typically outright frightened, but there is some anxiety that
comes when the door clinks shut, for sure. I want some of that anxiety
to stick around – and never want to develop a false sense of security -
but I also know that I feel slightly better now that I can at least jog,
if needed.

4) I need outside motivation/a plan/a goal. The YMCA is great, but I
don’t push myself – I did my last squat the last time I trained with the
trainer in December. Books have been good, but I feel like an idiot
trying to figure things out on my own – timing it so that I make it to
the gym when nobody’s there was becoming idiotic and too problematic. I wanted to somehow recreate what I had with the trainer, but in a way
that would require learning vs. performing on command as was my
inclination with her.

5) It’s intimidating. I know – without a doubt – that I wouldn’t be
there if Jon hadn’t done it first.

6) I couldn’t walk properly for several days after the first
fundamentals class that featured squats. I couldn’t roll over in bed,
either, without waking up in pain. See #3.

7) It’s apparent I don’t fall into the market they’re attracting. Additionally, some (well, honestly, MOST) of the stuff I’ve read on the internet
makes it seem crazy/fanatically cultish. So far, this has not been my experience at all.

8 ) Jon really likes it and I really like spending some of our (limited) free time together doing active things.

That’s it. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m sitting in a hotel room in a small town in Middle of Nowhere, North Dakota. I’ve been up – and so has the freakin’ sun – since just after 4.

I had no idea I’d be here this time last week. Jon texted me sometime late last Wednesday afternoon and asked if I could juggle some things and go on a road trip with him this week. I could, so I did, and here I am.

We left Sunday night and drove to a town just outside of Louisville, KY. We drove all day Monday with stops in Chicago (for lunch) and Wisconsin (for cheese) and stayed overnight in Minneapolis. Yesterday, we made it to North Dakota and are currently somewhere on the W side of the state (about 120 miles W of Bismark – mountain time, which is why my sleep is jacked up and why I was wide awake at 4am).

We are having a blast. Seriously. I was worried that spending so much time in the car might be miserable because I’m pretty spoiled and generally like to fly if I’m going beyond a few hours … but I am very glad we did this. It probably helps that we like each other a lot and are so similar it’s a little weird.

I had great plans to exercise every day and to completely avoid junk and all that, but that fell by the wayside almost immediately (as it always does, but I’m convinced that my intentions will pay off one of these days). Turns out – unsurprisingly – that going to exercise after a long day in the car is not as appealing as eating nachos at a bar … until it’s time for bed and time to commence the popping of the pepto bismol (which I brilliantly remembered to bring from my vast collection of bottles from various cities – setting myself up for failure, no doubt).

So … Monday was the declared junk day. We’ve tried a little harder since then.
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Junk day details:

Panera for breakfast – jalapeño & cheddar bagel w/egg, cheese and bacon. We also picked up some bananas and PB from the hotel as we left. We ate the bananas, but the PB was too sweet/creamy. I think I’ve trained myself out of regular PB.

Lunch was spinach/mushroom/tomato/sausage/cheese pizza for lunch in Chicago (because it just seemed necessary).

There was a stop at a Taco John’s in Wisconsin because I’d never seen one and have some crazy friends who love this place. I think this prompted the full realization that I’ve formed a defense mechanism that keeps me out of places like this. Know how some smokers go all militant when they quit? Yeah, that’s me and fast food. I made it through a couple bites before I threw it away.

Jon ate his taco – though he’s as bad as me and likely wouldn’t have admitted it if I didn’t have photographic evidence.

We stopped and picked up some cheese (again, because it just seemed necessary). I’d never really seen or heard of such a thing outside of Little Miss Muffet.

I was deliriously tired by the time we got around to dinner, so of course my eyes/mind went straight past anything remotely healthy. We split two appetizers and took some dessert back to the hotel to eat while watching tv (an apparent travel tradition).

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We brought a cooler with us, so we stopped at a grocery store yesterday morning and picked up some breakfast + lunch stuff. We ate sesame crackers, hummus, turkey, cheese, yogurt, and some more hotel bananas throughout the day – which was really plenty since we were both feeling gross from the previous junk day.

I have no pictures from dinner, but I had grilled salmon and a baked potato at what appears to be the only restaurant in town.
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I’ve been reading The Vegetarian Myth as we’ve been driving and holy shit is that appropriate (if a little too … what’s the right word for ‘extreme/far-fetched but creative/thought-provoking?’).

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We drove through a creepy storm that almost blew us off the road and made me realize we were in the middle of nothing, with no people and no hospitals nearby and no cell phone service … and OH MY GOD.

Jon has no respect for my fear of death by tornado.

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We stopped to see Salem Sue, reportedly the world’s largest Holstein cow – in New Salem, ND.

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Up next – I have no idea.

I had sort of a sad/emotional day that’s a result of stuff that’s completely unrelated to me – but that hits a little too close to home. My typical reaction when I get home from days like this? A STRONG desire to go out and make it all better in a restaurant. I enjoy the escape, the food, the time with Jon, the lack of household distractions, all of it. Can’t do it, though, every time I’m affected by something I hear/learn at work. I’d likely never eat at home. I’m glad I realize this, but I’m feeling a little pissed tonight that I’m not a naturally thin person who COULD MAKE IT ALL BETTER IN A RESTAURANT without outward repercussions. Damn. Even alcoholics get a few years before it starts showing. I gain OVERNIGHT.
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We had a really great weekend. We didn’t do anything productive, but it was nice to be free to do nothing.

I was feeling extremely antsy to get out of the house and do something fun on Sunday afternoon (though we had been to a party the day before – idk what my problem was), so we went on a date. We split some fajitas and then stopped at a gelato place while we waited for our movie (Sex & the City) to start.

I’d never been to this place before and generally have very little idea about how gelato technically differs from ice cream, but it was good. I had a scoop of peanut butter and a scoop of something else that had chocolate and graham crackers. Jon had banana pudding and something else that tasted like chocolate with cinnamon, maybe?

We pretty much did nothing yesterday (Monday) other than go to the gym. Jon made a really good lunch and dinner, though.

Lunch was a sandwich made with lettuce vs. bread. It was messy as hell, but it was GOOD.

And cantaloupe.

He made ribs, fried okra and kale chips for dinner. I’m not a fan of wet ribs, so he created a dry rub and coated the ribs with his concoction of dry yellow mustard, curry powder, paprika, garlic and onion powder. The okra was breaded with almond flour (which doesn’t work well, but tastes good) and fried in coconut oil. SO. GOOD.

For dinner tonight, he made stuffed portabella mushrooms – stuffed with an italian sausage, feta, basil, onion, spinach, red pepper, garlic, egg combo.

Weeks he’s home have to be all about portion control.
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I’m potentially going to crossfit with Jon in the morning. He hasn’t been in a while and is eager to get back – and I have totally FAILED at keeping up any kind of regular strength/weight stuff since ending the trainer in January. I hope I don’t die.