Today, I went for a short run before my skating session. The last few weeks, I’ve been treating these sessions like a workout: rolling out of the house without warming up or stretching. Running about 1.25 miles helped me get more into athlete mode when I stepped on the ice this morning.
And yesterday, I ran 3 miles by Alamo Creek. That was my first time hitting 3 miles and it felt good. Doctors, nurses, older people and anyone with an opinion like to remind me that things tend to go downhill with a woman’s body when she hits her 30’s. I figure running, yoga and skating will help me battle that downhill trend. Besides, it all keeps me sane with my graveyard shift.
Plus — I need that exercise because I like to eat food like this. One weekend in Sonoma, we did lunch at the Bistro. We were the last lunch customers seated before the restaurant closed for its afternoon break. It was small, intimate spot with tasty food. I seared my tongue on the spicy tomato broth over these mussels. The shellfish tasted fresh and plump. I finished the broth with my bread and spoon.
My supervisor said she met a nutritionist/workout coach with an extreme vegan lifestyle. The nutritionist said she gave herself a break from her strict diet on Fridays. My supervisor asked her what she let herself eat on that days, imagining a chocolate bar or something more decadent. The nutritionist said she had yogurt-covered almonds on Fridays. Then she asked my supervisor, why would you want to put disgusting things, like coffee, chocolate, fat and grease, into your body after working out?
My answer: Because it tastes good!
I don’t see the point in keeping your body pure if you can’t enjoy all the pleasures of food. So I run hard, twist my body into yoga poses and fly over the ice, all so that I can eat what I want. I understand there are benefits to keeping your body free of butter and fat. However, I also think there are also benefits to living a balanced life: working out, staying healthy and enjoying life.
Enjoying life for us means eating well and going on weekend adventures to nearby towns. Over the last month or so, we spent a few weekends sampling the food and wine around one of the most iconic wine regions in California: the Napa Valley. One weekend, the Valley saw 90 degree temperatures. While everyone headed to the wineries on Highway 29, we had downtown Napa all to ourselves. It was like a ghost town, with a sprinkling of locals and die-hard wine fans haunting the shops and bars.
On that hot weekend, we stumbled on the Ceja Wine Tasting Room. I was tickled by the classy lounge atmosphere and
our friendly wine server introduced us to several nice glasses of Ceja wine. It’s a family-owned winery that started out selling grapes to other vineyards. I fell in love with the 2004 Merlot.
We spent another Sunday in Sonoma. Plenty of history buffs and tourists checked out Spanish Colonial sites like the Mission San Francisco Solano. We ended up doing dessert at the Mission. We bought some tasty chocolate truffles at the Chocolate Cow, across the street. We sampled them on a shaded bench next to the mission. I was dazzled by the chocolate fillings of Zinfandel, Merlot, Champagne Kahlua and Wasabi.
Next – a pictobrowser album of more food and wine from Napa and Sonoma. I don’t think this will show-up in an RSS reader or Facebook. So, if you want to see the pix: please go to my brainpickings.