Back to School and I'm the Fool

My babies went back to school yesterday and yes, it is ridiculously early. I would so much rather them go to school all through May and then not go back until the end of August. Like so many other things, it would be so much better if I ran the world. So I am sad that the summer, at least for this family, is officially over. On the other hand, I will be glad to get back on some sort of schedule. My healthy lifestyle has gone woefully off course this summer and it would seem that while my kids pack up their little pencils and crayons, I will be packing up my protein bars and free weights.
Seems like there are a few lessons I need to brush up on. Like, how to get motivated to workout every morning. No choice, no options, just routine. Oh, it's a weekday? Then it's a workout day. (Weekends are still optional/light days)
I also need to relearn how to order off of a menu. . .and enjoy it. I have admittedly eaten some stuff this summer that probably won't be gracing the pages of Clean Eating magazine. Yes, that food was delicious. And I know that they strategically place such things on the menu, usually with big glossy pictures, just to lure you in. But I also know that the same restaurant that offers the delicious chicken Parmesan with all the ooey gooey melty cheesy goodness, also offers a really  fresh and tasty salad with crunchy greens, juicy tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, and other vegis, all topped by a really savory piece of lemon grilled salmon. I just forget about it because it's buried at the bottom of the menu. So I guess I'll be spending more time at the bottom of the menu.
Likewise, a lesson I have never learned, is how to dine out with friends without feeling like the weirdo dieter friend. My friends are amateur foodies in the sense that maybe we don't have our own food network show, but we can definitely compete in the food Olympics. So when we go to a restaurant and I order a salad or some version of grilled chicken for the umpteenth time, they notice. "Oh, she's being good," they coo. Not sure if they are trying to be supportive, but the effect is the opposite in fact. I wind up feeling conspicuous and judged.
I guess I have my work cut out for me. I guess, like most things, that I will just have to knuckle down and do it. I am much better at avoiding, but that is no longer an option. Now maybe my daughter can explain long division to me so I will have a better time of dividing the calories in a restaurant dish.

Goin' to the Country, Gonna Eat A Lot of Peaches

I could wax poetic all day about my love affair with peaches. But I'll try to contain myself. The love I have for peaches is short lived though because while there is nothing better than a fresh, ripe, juicy peach; there is also nothing worse than a hard, bland, grocery store winter peach. YUCK!
Luckily for me, we are right smack dab in the middle of peach season and I am filling my days with ways to consume them. Out of hand is an oldie but a goodie, but I think we can improve upon the concept.
How about peach salsa? Dice up a few ripe peaches, about a 1/4 cup of red onion, 1/2 a red bell pepper, and a little cilantro all tossed together with a teaspoon each of honey and red wine vinegar. Trust me, it's delicious! Try it over salmon or pork chops.
Toss a few slices of peaches in with your fresh green salad the same way you would mandarin oranges. Garnish with almonds and a raspberry vinaigrette. Makes a great side dish or you could add some left-over grilled chicken or fish and you've got a meal for those nights when it's too hot to cook.
And if all of that hasn't gotten you sick of peaches yet, you could try my all time favorite summer dessert. I feel like I could not over state this enough. Words alone are not strong enough for how I feel about this dessert. Not even mentioning the laziness factor alone, this is quite simply one of the tastiest things you will ever put in your mouth. Cobbler Shmobbler.
I'm talking about grilled peaches. Ahhhh. Just the sound of it is sexy, isn't it? Cut your peaches in half, and remove the pit. Brush LIGHTLY with oil, or better yet use no stick cooking spray. Place, flesh side down, on a super hot grill or grill pan for about a minute. Remove to plate. Drizzle with honey and top with one scoop of double churned vanilla bean ice cream or low-fat frozen yogurt. Add a sprig of mint if you're feeling fancy. Now I ask you, what other dessert could be so tasty and come in at less than 250 calories. Plus all the vitamins and fiber in the peach. BooYah!
So there you go. Millions of peaches, peaches for me. Millions of peaches, peaches for free. OK, so maybe they're not free, but they are certainly a lot cheaper when they're in season.

Stuck Between a Peach Pit and a Hard Place

Where I live is rural. We're talking pipe-in-the-sunshine rural. You ever heard that Mark Twain saying? "When the end of the world happens, I want to be in Kentucky because they are always 20 years behind the rest of the world." Well, it's true. And my small corner of it is even further behind than that. I love my local grocery store and feel that it's just as important to buy local as it is to buy organic, but organic isn't even in my stores vocabulary. They've finally gotten on the whole grains bandwagon but times are slow to change.
I'm thankful for my local farmers market where I can fulfill both my local and organic obligations. But I can't do all my shopping at a fruit stand. Even I get sick of farm-fresh peaches after a while. A very long while, but still.
So here's my dilemma. When I really need to stock up do I drive the extra miles (and use the extra gas) to go to the really good grocery store that carries all my produce and frozen favorites? Or do I stick local, thereby saving time and gas, but probably paying a little more and maybe not getting what I want? The time spent works out about the same by the time I have to go to two or three places to fill my list in town as opposed to one stop out of town.
So far I've been able to stock up when I'm already going out of town for Dr.'s appointment and the like. But it's summertime and the livin' is supposed to be easier. I want to lay by the pool not spend all my time in my mom-wagon super cool SUV driving all over hell and half of Georgia looking for local-grown organic leaf lettuce.
So what does everyone else do? Do you stock up or buy as you need? Do you prefer organic or local? Or do you think I'm off my rocker for even devoting this amount of time to it?

Too Hot to Move

Just got back from vacation. Well, vacation #1. The Northwoods of Wisconsin are really beautiful this time of year. It was 75-80 degrees every day with very little, if any humidity. I looooved it. We fished and hiked and our friends let the kids borrow their paddle boat so we laughed. A lot. And of course we ate. But I was pretty good. I indulged in some cheese and beer but I tried to balance everything out. I had my yogurt for breakfast and had plenty of fruits and vegis and I stuck to MGD 64 for my beer drinking. And we were plenty active so I think I came away with only 2 extra pounds which I'm holding out on because we were in the car for 15 hours yesterday and I think there is some fluid retention going on. It's hard to stay hydrated with a husband that hates the words, "I have to pee."
I've got a two day hiatus before we go on vacation #2 to Myrtle Beach. I'm going to use this weekend to power slam some fresh vegis and all the water I can hold in order to try and flush out some of the damage from Lumberjack Land. Activity will be a little hard though. I bet you didn't know that Kentucky was a tropical location, did you? Well, come hang out here for a few days and you will be a believer. According to my deck thermometer it is 92 degrees with 82% humidity. My poor husband is out mowing the grass right now and he really needs gills instead of lungs. My hound dogs are literally spilled out under the fan in my living room. And my dreams of a hike are gone with the wind. If there was any wind. The good news is that it's too hot to cook or even eat. "So I got that going for me, which is nice."
I'll be glad to get to the beach. Where it still may be hot, but I just don't seem to care that much when I have a frozen concoction in my hand and the ocean breeze blowing over my face.

* Recipe for good for you frozen concoction. (well, at least not tragic for you)
1 frozen banana
1/2 cup coconut water, frozen (not coconut milk!)
1/2 cup fresh fruit of your choice (I like pineapples for a pina colada thing)
1 oz. rum
take it for a spin in the blender and enjoy. If you have a little umbrella and an orange slice for the side, more better

Friday Quickie 5/28

Today is the last day of school for my babies. I am looking forward to being lazy with them this summer. No schedule - no problem. But that will have to wait a few days. Tomorrow we take off for another torture ride road trip.
We evidently lost our minds during the planning stages. We're driving about 14 hours to our lake house in northern Wisconsin, staying a week, then driving 14 hours home. Then two days later turning around and driving 9 hours to the beach for a week, then 9 hours back.
There is no good way to take a road trip without stopping at a convenience store. You need gas and if you're me, you need to pee. A lot. Which brings us to road trip food. My favorites- Combos, Slim Jims, Snickers, Mt. Dew - are all off the menu this year. Totally not going to do that to myself. So it will be 90 calorie granola bars, turkey jerky, and if I'm really lucky, a York peppermint patty and a diet Mt. Dew for me.
Pray for my road rage.

10 Things I Hate About Summer

1. The kids are home, which I actually love, but when my husband goes back to work it seriously cuts into my gym time. And if you think that you can get in a good workout with a hula hoop, some hand weights and a treadmill, well, you've clearly never tried to do it to the tune of "Stop it!" & "I'm telling!".

2. Hot dogs. Or more specifically Bratwurst. There is no such thing as a GOOD turkey bratwurst. They are out there, sure, but we're talking about GOOD here. I'm one of those people that is not real big on substitutions. If I can't have exactly what I want, then I'd just as soon have nothing at all.

3. The heat. Oh, God, the heat. I hate it. I hate the humidity. Heat and humidity are not the big girls friend. And let's not even get into what it does to my hair. I'm not one of those blessed with curly hair and I hate it when those girls bitch about how the humidity makes their hair so big. My hair is flat as a flitter and any humidity just plasters it to my head. Not a good look.

4. Teenage girls. Yes, I used to be one and yes, I probably flaunted it. And to be honest, if I had known how annoying it was to thirty-something women I probably would have still done it. But I really hate all of them with their skinny little waists and perky firm boobs. What do they know? Youth really is waisted on the young.

5. The pool. I think that all women, no matter what size, hate bathing suit season. It is such a cliche, but most universal truths usually are. Even though we all have body issues and we know that no body is perfect we all hate putting on that bathing suit and going out among other people. And yes, we really do judge each other. Any one who says otherwise is a big fat bathing suit liar.

6. Cookouts. This goes back to the hot dogs and bratwurst, but it also goes beyond. It seems that every weekend of the summer is filled with someone or another's cookout. Hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecue, potato salad, pie, ice cream. . .

7. Vacation. Sure vacation has its high points. And most vacations are quite enjoyable, else why would we do it. But it is next to impossible to lose weight on vacation. I can almost always manage to maintain, but losing - not so much.

8. Shorts. I don't care what you say. I can not wear shorts. Even when I was younger/thinner I could not pull off shorts. Which is a shame because I actually have pretty long legs, it's just I have never been able to find a pair of shorts that flattered. And don't get me started on capris.

9. Dog hair. I know this has nothing to do with losing weight and the whatnot, but every year at about this time my do decides to shed. I don't know how he is not bald. In the past few days I have vacuumed up enough hair to make a whole other dog.

10. Beer, wine, and margaritas. I actually love those things and that is the problem. To me it is not summer with out hanging out on my back deck with my friends sharing gossip and a glass of good summer wine or beer or margarita or whatever.