Another university tip - just in case, Romani. We have a hotel that is on the ground of our uni - if we are members of our university fitness center, we are allowed to go in and use the hotel’s fitness center/pool. Now, that may be partially because our fitness center on our campus does NOT have a pool, but really from what I hear, that hotel pool is rarely used - ever! It’s a hotel pool, so not worthy for laps, but for water exercises and gentle swimming it would be great!
You might also check with a hotel near you and see if any of them offer the community to use it. Or see if you have a friend who works at a hotel and could get you a deal to go use it! Hotel pools are so lightly used it seems - unless it’s a weekend when families might be traveling or summertime vacations.
Pups are EXCELLENT for getting humans to move! About to take mine out now. At 20 degrees outside, it’s not what I really want to do!!!
Oh- that’s a great idea, abasket. I have quite a few hotels around me with pools- I will definitely look into that! That seems like a perfect plan if they allow non-guests to use the pool.
@romanigypsyeyes – my husband recently taught our dog (the one with way too many energy) to play “find the toy.” He hides the toy and the dog hunts the entire house for it. He started easy–hid the toy with the dog watching–stepped up to hiding the toy in one room while the dog was behind the door in another room–and now he can hide the toy anywhere in the house. It provides a lot of mental stimulation and a lot of trotting around the house and two or three rounds of “find the toy” seem to let him settle and rest for the evening. Perhaps your dog would enjoy it as well.
Lots of beach walking and shell hunting today. We walked to each end of the island and back for 10 miles. We carried along a few pounds of shells as well. The air was better today–not too much coughing with the red tide. No Ash Wednesday service for me today, but I did try to be a good human by flinging back to the sea a gazillion stranded starfish and live conchs.
Healthy and delicious dinner tonight, recipe by Chef Massimo Bottura courtesy of the WSJ, of a soy-ginger marinated chicken breast with sauteed spinach and brown rice.
@dmd77 funny enough, we tried to train her to do that with the help of her trainer. She is skittish of objects though and won’t go behind them to get her ball or anything. My house has an open floor plan so it’s not easy to hide it anywhere other than behind something. It’s sad but sometimes funny. We were hoping that as she gained more confidence and became more secure, she’d grow out of it. No luck. She won’t even push doors open if it’s not open wide enough for her to go through
With that said, we’re going to get her another kong toy that she can get the treats out of. We tried one from a CC suggestion that she can’t figure out how to get the treats out of to save her life… so we’re going to get her one that’s a little easier (we gave the more difficult one to my parents’ dog and she got the treats out quickly, so she got to keep it).
Happy to report that I got my 7 mile run in this evening. It wasn’t as bad as I was fearing. Cold, but tolerable. I really enjoyed the nice hot shower afterwards, though!
PlantMom-I love the image of you walking along the beach flinging the stranded starfish and live conchs!
I read the NYT article on “why we get running injuries” and all the conversation regarding how the foot strikes. I have thought a lot about how I “strike” when I run. It was something I read about early on and made note of what I was doing. I definitely don’t heel strike. And I often think I do take short strides - and have wondered if I should be trying to take longer strides - seems not!
16,900 steps and counting!!! Ate really badly tonight, so will have to live up to my gluttonous sins tomorrow. Mr. texted me a photo of the luchtime donut carnage in their lunch room… Uhm. People. All those pampushki and paczki were supposed to be eaten by now!!!
I know, its overwhelming at times. There are so many good sources of info coming from different directions at the speed of the internet that it could make your head spin. Sometimes I yearn for the good old days when all you had to do was go to your mailbox to get the next edition of your monthly magazine subscription. The coconut oil link caught my attention only because over the last year or so it had taken on a fad appeal as a “healthy” alternative.
I bought a small container of coconut oil that I use occasionally - I use such small amounts of oil I am relatively unconcerned. I am hoping that olive oil continues to be a reliable source of good fat because that’s what I primarily use.
Bitter cold here this morning - went to the gym for some treadmill time, then home to walk the pups. They don’t care how cold it is!
I am hoping for Meb and Kara. I’m excited that the race will actually be televised!
Even olive oil has its limits. If used for cooking at high temperatures, it turns into a carcinogen!
While I like the taste of coconut, the couple of times I tried coconut oil in cooking, I found its taste was too pervasive and overwhelming to make it a cooking staple for me.
Interesting. I use coconut oil when I want to cook at a higher temperature than olive oil will permit. I used it on the sprouts this past weekend. I’m not sure why I bought it - one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time, and I hate to waste anything!
abasket, I think the trials are on at 1 pm (EST) Saturday on NBC.
Thanks, everyone, for answering my question about dairy fat. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one struggling with all the variety of info available! The article posted above about coconut oil is another example of the information avalanche I’ve been wading through. I’ve been using a tablespoon of coconut oil for popping popcorn, and it’s delicious!
In the dairy products I’ve been comparing, the low-fat versions replace the fat with things like guar gum, xanthan gum, vitamin A palmitate, and carrageenan. What do you think of that trade-off?
