Los Chupacabras de la Noche Plus…ROAD TRIP!

This past weekend two lovely ladies and I trekked down to San Antonio for the 4th (?) annual Chupacabra 5k/10k run.  The course is as such…

The course runs through heavily wooded dirt trails in the pitch dark. A flashlight or headlamp is required and extremely necessary. The trails can be very rocky with tree roots in places, as well as low branches so paying attention is critical. There are many opportunities to fall and get injured. This is not a trail run for beginners. It is up to you to provide your own lighting so you do not take a spill or run into a branch.

via San Antonio Chupacabra 5K/10K | Run In Texas.

We headed down to San Antonio on Friday to catch the start of the race at 9 p.m.  Now, mind you, none of us are runners.  Nor do we enjoy running.  However, these kinds of runs are fun!  Give me something fun on the course and I’m in!!  So, as the description states, this was a run that took place in pitch black dark through a trail in the woods.  We didn’t do much stopping on the way to SA.  We really just needed to get there in time for the race.

Well, we decked ourselves out in no less than 50 (but probably more) glow sticks, adorned our brightly colored clothes and hit the trail around 9:15.  The first half of the run was great.  I really felt the CrossFit kicking in.  We were passing people one after another, after another.  It felt pretty good to be able to actually pass someone while running!  In the dark…on a heavily wooded trail too!  Mad props to Cari who kept the pace for us.  After a while, we caught up to the people who kept more of the pace we were keeping and we stayed in line with them for most of the second half of the race.  We did end up walking once (maybe twice?) for a little bit but we mostly ran.  I’m really, really proud of myself.  Anyway, final time was around 41 minutes.  I consider that pretty good for running in the dark through a rocky trail!  I don’t have my exact time because the website has my chip time and gun time as the same time…which it wasn’t at all.

So that night we check into our hotel and crashed. (but not after the manager told us that he gave away our room so all three of us would have to share one bed. long story short, we won the argument and he miraculously came up with a room with 2 beds.  a miracle, I tell ya.)

Saturday we decided to float the Comal River.  Thanks to a very helpful local at the race, we got to the river early before it got crowded.  Had a great, relaxing time on the river.  Much needed R&R!!  We did have a little mishap with one of our cameras trying to make a break for the bottom of the river.  But, 30 minutes and one really helpful gentleman later, we had the camera back!  We owe that dude a beer & a shot! whoever he is….

After the river we headed north to Austin, ate at Chuys (mmm margaritas!) and also stopped at Be My Cupcake in Round Rock.

The most memorable part of Austin was most definitely The Savory Spice Shop.  Melissa Joulwan featured this amazing shop on her blog back in March and Cari and I have been no less than obsessed with taking a trip there since then!  Well, Karen (the owner), was delighted to see us and to show us every exotic, tasty, amazing spice in her shop!  She gave me lots of ideas for recipes and uses of each of the spices I bought (plus some I already owned…and had no idea what to use them for! herbs de Provence, anyone?)

The things that attracted me to this shop from Melissa’s blog are what I ended up loving the most about it.  Please read her entire list here at her blog, The Clothes Make the Girl.

Spices I got from this amazing place are:

Ornate Onion Salt – Melissa Joulwan gave a great suggestion for this one.  Mix it with her homemade mayo and voila!  Paleo french onion dip!  Cannot wait to try this!

Tarragon Shallot Citrus Seasoning – for some baked chicken

Mexican Mole – to add to Sarah Fragoso’s already amazing mole recipe!  I also took the recipe card for their Mexican Mole but it calls for significantly more spice than I bought so I thought I would give it a try in my recipe first, then give theirs a go if I like it!

Black Truffle Italian Salt – uh, where has this been all my life?? Just wondering…because this is quite possibly the most amazing spice I have ever tasted.  Three granules (literally!) are more than enough flavor for a taste!  I’m trying this with eggs!

Pink Himalayan Sea Salt – very similar to regular sea salt but a little bit saltier so the lovely shop owner told me I wouldn’t have to use as much!  Also, because it hasn’t been processed and bleached, its got much more of the good nutrients and minerals that are part of natural sea salt.

Murray River Sea Salt – this salt resembles peach colored snow flakes and has an extremely light salt taste. She told me to only use this as a finishing salt as it does not work well for cooking.

Chimayo Chorizo Sausage Spice – to make my own chorizo!

Vietnamese Sweet Lemon Curry – The other lady in the shop (didn’t catch her name!) recommended this to me.  I’ve lightly dabbled in curry and I like it, but I do not like very spicy things.  She recommended this and a couple others to try that were only slightly spicy.  I chose this one because it was a little sweet and a little spicy!  Leighton likes it too!  I’ll be making htis with some mixed veggies.

Grand Garlic Salt – Well, because I use garlic salt like its going out of style and the only kinds I find in the store have a lot more crap in them besides garlic and salt.

Well, that was it! Thanks for reading… 🙂

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Whole9 Nutritional Workshop

I realize this post is way, WAY overdue and by the time I finish it…it will probably be even more overdue! Ah well! 🙂

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to go to the Whole9 Nutritional Workshop in January or not.  I did not want to drive to Houston and back alone all in one day so I was waiting for a willing road trip buddy.  Leave it to my free spirited hairdresser, Lindsey, to chime in last minute to jump in and head down to Houston (aka. The “arm pit of Texas.” Her words, not mine!) on January 8.  You do not believe how thankful I am I ended up being able to go.  I learned so much more the second time around!  And on that note…

I realize now that I never really wrote about the first workshop I went to in October.  That workshop opened my eyes to why the Paleo ‘diet’ was developed in the first place and how its not just another ‘fad’ diet.  There are horrible, no good, very bad things that these foods are doing to our bodies.  My Whole30 challenge only proved what they were saying was true. Anyway, the first time around I was not feeling well and running a fever.  This workshop gets pretty technical and there is a lot of information to absorb.  With that being said, between my sneezing, coughing and fever…I only got the 10,000 ft view of the program.  I learned more after the fact from the Whole9 website but I still did not grasp the biological reasoning behind why we should or should not eat the things we do.

SO…back to the January workshop.

I learned SO MUCH MORE this time around!  Thumbs up to a clear head!

This time I really absorbed the details of the relationships between insulin, inflammation, sleep, mental health, digestion, exercise….EVERYTHING.  I got it.  I am not going to go into the nitty gritty details (I’ll leave that for Melissa & Dallas to do at their workshop…which you should attend when they’re in your area!! 😉 ) but here are some things I took away from the workshop this time.

Some interesting things.

• Stevia is not okay.
• Alcohol is twice as calorie dense as sugar.
• Most tap water is acidifying in the body (because of the chlorine)
• I know what to buy organic and what I don’t really need to if I don’t have the money for it.
• Why there is a need for carbs POST workout but not PRE workout.

Some things that are … just … duh.

• Real food needs no fortifying.
• The U.S. has the highest consumption of calcium and calcium supplements, yet has the highest osteoporosis rate.
• Just because its “paleo” doesn’t mean its okay in lots of quantities. (i.e. bacon)
• Its not about points, blocks, calories, grams, etc. Eat when you’re hungry!

And some things that are just….disgusting.

• 70% of processed foods contain soy.
• Cheese creates a morphine-like response in the body when eaten. wait…maybe that’s not such a bad thing?? hehe
• You are what you eat.  Know what your meat eats.  Usually along with the unhealthy, unnatural corn diet, they are fed miscellaneous animal parts (of their same kind of animal), feces, hair, skin, feathers, plastic (yes, plastic)…the list goes on and on. Also, if you don’t think this happens and these kinds of treatments exist of our food sources, you need a serious reality check.  Ever heard of mad cow? What about all the recent meat recalls? Trust me.  You need to KNOW what your meat eats and the conditions under which it was raised.  Anyway…I’ll save this argument for another blog post. I’ll step off my soap box for now.

I took home from the workshop so much more information than this but these are the things that stuck out to me as really, really important this time.  I got to talk to Melissa & Dallas a little bit and also was able to meet Melissa “Melicious” Joulwan of The Clothes Make the Girl.  Melissa spoke to Lindsey for a little while on how to implement the Whole30 and Paleo lifestyle into a vegetarian diet.  I was so, so happy we were able to talk to them about that because at the last workshop, they really hadn’t given any options for vegetarians wishing to try the Whole30 or Paleo.

The ride home was great.  We got to discuss the plan and how Lindsey and her partner were going to start a Whole30 ASAP.  It gave me a renewal boost of motivation for remembering why I’m doing this.  Its not about weight loss, its not about looking good.  It’s about feeling good and being as healthy as I can during my time on this planet.  Looking good and losing weight are just the awesome side effects. 🙂

Lindsey was certainly not all talk (she never is) and she and her partner, LuLu, started the Whole30 right after she got back from Houston.  I have to give them props. I am not very certain I could have done a Whole30 right out of the gate.  I had no willpower whatsoever when I first learned of Paleo so I really eased myself into it.  Not Lindsey.  She jumped in head first.  I am so proud of them both.  They’re a little over two weeks in (I think) and have done absolutely fabulously.  They are not without their struggles, but they are really pushing through.  I encourage you to read Lindsey’s blog.  She has some great things to say about the program and her experiences with it.  AND, you’ll find she and I have mad cravings for some of the same things (chips anyone??).  They have both seen incredible changes and results within just the first week.  I can’t wait to see the progress after an entire month!!  ….or two months!! I got my hair done yesterday and she told me they are actually going to both be doing a Whole60.  Which is simply amazing.

That’s all for now…

~JL~

My Mini Road Trip

This weekend’s adventures were going to be one blog but I decided to make it two…enjoy. 🙂

Friday, I left work early so I could head down to Schulenburg (well, it was really Swiss Alp, TX…a city so small, they don’t even have a population listed on their city sign) to pick Leighton up from their show at the Swiss Alp Dance Hall so that we could go to Erin’s wedding in Horseshoe Bay together.

Before I started my 4 1/2 hour journey, I had to get my hair purty for Erin’s wedding! 🙂  So I stopped by Lynsy’s salon, Salon Madrid, to get my hairs did.  I always love my appointments with Lynsy. She’s such a great, honest, talented person and I absolutely love our conversations every 4 to 6 weeks! She’s really become a great friend of mine over the last few years.  I highly recommend her!  I love her and my hair looks great…as usual from her! 🙂  I got some new Moroccan oil for my hair.  It is AMAZING!

The rain was torrential the first half hour or so of driving but after that, it died off.  Thank goodness.  I got to Schulenburg right at dark and got to check out Leighton’s new diggs on the bus.  Quite an upgrade I must say!  Smaller living room but everything else seemed like a nice upgrade.  They all have TV’s with DVD and Satellite in each of their bunks, they have a shower now (which I think serves as an extra closet, LOL) and its all in all a nicer bus.  I watched the Casey Donahew Band show and had a few laughs.  A girl begged and begged for Casey to say happy birthday…when he finally did, she screamed and threw her birthday cake hat into the crowd and attempted THREE times to crowd surf…they just weren’t having it.  Her fourth try the crowd finally gave in and she “crowd surfed” for about 5 seconds or so…it was quite hilarious. The show was great! They have changed it up a bit and I think it works great.  Every time I watch them I’m so proud of my husband and of them.

After the show, I got to nap in Leighton’s new bunk on the bus.  No idea how he sleeps in that thing.  Noisy, uncomfortable, ick.  But he does it and I love him for it!!  Around 3 a.m., Leighton came and got me and told me that they were finished.  I got up and we got in the car and drove to the creepy Oakridge Motor Inn and crashed for the night.  Probably the most disgusting hotel I’ve ever stayed in.  The manager came banging on our door at 9 in the morning and tried to slam the door open (and would have had it not been for the chain lock), then he yelled something through the door and slammed it shut.

I promptly got up and started the process of waking Leighton up and getting the heck out of there.  We were hungry so we went right across the parking lot to the Oakridge Smokehouse to eat breakfast.  The best breakfast I’ve had in a while!!! YUMMM!

After our yummy breakfast, we broke out my awesome new GPS and headed to Marble Falls for Erin’s wedding later that day…

More about that tomorrow…