Monday, August 19, 2013

Age, Location, Weather

After the kid and I got back from visiting my family, we still had a few days before having to go back to school/teaching, so we took one last trip to Lake Tahoe. It was great to spend some quality time together.

In fact, it was the best trip we have ever taken together. First, the kid is at a great age to travel (especially shorter trips). While I enjoyed all the trips we took when the kid was younger, they were a lot of work and not very restful. This was the first trip where I felt I could actually relax. Second, we stayed right in the center of South Lake Tahoe, close to everything (including the arcade – very important for the kid!). Lastly, the weather was perfect. We are very thankful for a great trip and amazing memories.

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When we travel, we usually try to stay in a place with a small kitchen so that we can prepare most of our meals ourselves. This time, we didn’t have a kitchen, but we had a small fridge, and I packed a lot of fruits (cherries, grapes, melon slices, bananas, and blueberries), veggies (carrots and cucumber slices), cheese, almonds, trail mix, corn chips, and hummus. The hotel provided breakfast, including some delicious oatmeal and fresh fruit. Hubby also enjoyed the eggs, potatoes and various sausages. I also had a few sausage patties to get some more protein. 

While I usually don’t like buffets, we decided to go to a buffet one night, mainly because of the great view from the restaurant, which overlooks the lake. I enjoyed a big plate of salad and delicious sushi as well as a glass of sparkling wine. There were amazing dessert offerings (most of which I couldn’t eat as they contained flour), but I found a perfect, small chocolate covered strawberry. I also picked up a little chocolate cup which I thought was filled with some sort of cream. Once I started eating it, I realized that it was a tiramisu cup, so it had some ladyfingers on the bottom. I decided to eat it anyways. My stomach wasn’t too happy later that day as well as the next day. In the future, I will make sure of what is in something before I eat it…

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We walked quite a bit while we were away. I forgot to wear my Fitbit several times, so I’m not sure about the exact steps/miles, but I know that we hit 10,000 steps every day and often more than 15,000. That was a lot of walking, especially for the kid and considering the high altitude.

While it was nice to get one last, short family trip in, it’s good to get back to a regular schedule. I look forward to planning our meals again and getting back to a regular yoga/walking/workout schedule. Hubby and I may also do another Conscious Cleanse in September. While I’m pretty happy with the way we ate during the summer, there is definitely room for improvement, and a cleanse is a great way to focus on us and how we treat our bodies. Since the last cleanse, dairy, condiments (especially ketchup), and snack foods have made more of an appearance again than I’d like. It’d be nice to clean my eating up a bit more again…

Questions: What was the highlight of your summer? I am very grateful that I got to visit my family with the kid in July. I’m also very thankful for our Tahoe trip and the time together and the memories we made there. Do you usually eat “better” during the summer? I feel I eat “better” during the summer months because of all the fresh veggies and fruits that are available. However, there is always room for improvement…

Be well,
Andrea