Catching Up for the Weekend List

Hard to believe the 4th of July is almost here and summer weather is in full swing with lots of triple digit heat days. I always have to remind myself it’s okay to throttle back running miles in this weather and embrace my slower pace when I am running outside because even early morning runs are intense and can take a lot out of me. Working out in our home gym isn’t easy either when I get chihuahua distractions, Leela sees my floor exercises and an opportunity to guilt me into a walk.

And Miko turns on his pouty face for more attention.

I feel too guilty to lock them out of the room when they just want to spend time with me!

This has been a busy week with work, personal stuff, and website drama. So things have been pretty clean and simple with eats like this salad with kicky hummus dressing for lunch.

And a loaded green bean tofu oil-free stir fry where I had to share lots of green beans with the dogs, that might be their new favorite veggie snack.

I just love that there are so many varieties of non-dairy vegan milk alternatives now and tried a new one I grabbed from Grocery Outlet – Suzie’s Quinoa Milk.

I pretty much use milks in coffee and occasionally cereal, but mainly for coffee. This milk is a little thinner and wishy washy compared to almond or cashew milk and it has a strong quinoa flavor. At first I wasn’t a huge fan, but it grew on me after a good shaking and I could see it working well with cereal and smoothies and be another fun way to mix up my coffee.

Friday night we stepped out to Il Fornaio for dinner to celebrate getting through a challenging week and I really like that they’re considerate about labeling the vegan items on the menu. It would be nice to have more vegan items, but I always seem to go for the simple angel hair pasta dish with amazing fresh tomato and garlic sauce.

Paired with wine and their amazing olive and herb breads never gets old to me. Neither does shopping at Lush and there is one in walking distance that we had fun browsing after.

I adore their soaps, but they are not cheap!

And yeah, I have been going to Baagan a lot lately. But we had a great meetup there last night with the local oil-free vegan group and I got the Chana Wrap wrapped in rice paper this time with avocado, jalapeno, olives, and sweet pickles for a fun flavor combo. Whew, the jalapenos were strong in this one!

This was my first outing with the oil-free vegan group and there are more older members that I really enjoyed talking to, many that have been vegan/vegetarian a long time with lots of stories of how much tougher it was not that long ago and how reactions of family members and friends have changed over time. Others new to the lifestyle for health reasons and looking for inspiration, support, and encouragement to continue in a healthy direction. I enjoyed hearing stories and the different motivations from very extreme vegans to more casual, laid back ones. And Baagan is a good choice for the meetup since they have a large oil-free menu to pick from.

Okay, to the list!

I have a new running shopping obsession – JackRabbit.com. I discovered them last week when my favorite Brooks Glycerin 13 running shoes went on sale for $70, much cheaper than anywhere else and great to load up on for marathon training! Because let’s face it, running isn’t always cheap!

You don’t need to run marathons to get the benefits of running.

But Jess’s core workout can help you be a stronger runner.

This guide will help you get started with running.

Running can boast memory by releasing proteins.

Dr. Greger takes a look at the benefits of brown rice for diabetes and artery function. And has a great video on gut bacteria.

Ecorazzi has a vegan’s guide to tackling naysayers, still a tough are for me.

The 300 pound vegan, David Carter, did a great Reddit AMA.

Arnold Schwarzenegger and James Cameron join forces to urge less meat consumption, love it.

And, yikes, I gotta run before the heat kicks in! Happy Sunday, hope everyone has a great day!