July 3: Daily Recap

Breakfast: Coconut quinoa with a teaspoon of maple syrup, plum, cherries, and unsweetened coconut.

Lunch: Salad with spring mix, spinach, cucumber, red bell pepper, savory tofu, Amish butter cheese, pomegranate seeds, hard-boiled egg, and walnuts dressed in honey and Dijon mustard.

Exercise: The Heart Attack on Hogsback--I hopped on my bike again and rode up Hogsback hill five times. Though I don't have an exact time for my first attempt at this ride, I estimate that the ride took me about 33:30 (since my thirty minute timer went off about half way up my fifth time up the hill).

Today was hotter and my body felt like it was struggling much more than it did on my first time. And yet, my time 30:48:52!!!!!!! BOO YA!!!!! I wore a heart rate monitor this time, and my high rate on each hill got higher every time. On my fifth trip, the highest I saw was 181.

Generally, I try never to work over 175, but I'm going for short burst of INTENSE work here, and I'm fine with 181. I will say, however, that my lungs sounded a BIT weezy on my final trip, and I think I should probably go to see a doctor to see whether this is allergy related or if I have either allergy or exercise-related asthma.

My legs? They're gonna be smokin'!

There are some things that I will never be able to give up, diet-wise, even though they're not actually *clean.* One of those things, for me, is pasta with red sauce. I must have room for it in my diet. To make it work, I can make the sauce myself, use whole grain pasta, and make sure my portion size is appropriate. A good way for me to do that is to make sure that half of my dinner plate is filled with veggies.

Today, I took my first crack at trying to recreate the pasta sauce from my beloved Caffe Roma. My sauce wasn't even close, but it was still tasty. I'll keep trying!

Dinner: Brown rice pasta with homemade pasta sauce. Steamed broccoli with a touch of butter. A glass of white wine. And, though I didn't plan to eat any, a piece and a half of the garlic bread in the photo (made with Breadsmith multigrain bread, butter, garlic powder, and oregano).

There were probably some snacks that I forgot to record today. I got a bit behind with my food posting, and I may have missed some macaroons, hard-cooked eggs, and bananas in here somewhere, I just can't remember when they happened!