8 Miles on the Treadmill

the "BIG STORM" early last week proved disappointing in our neck of the woods

Last week was a pretty good workout week.
Monday- treadmill speed
Tuesday- treadmill walk
Wednesday- treadmill run
Thursday- rest day since I had to go to the DMV to register our new car (we lost track and waited till our temp tags had almost expired- oops!)
Friday- treadmill walk hills
Saturday- treadmill long run

There was a Scout recharter workshop Saturday morning followed by a birthday party in the early afternoon, so I didn't get on the treadmill until late afternoon. This did not give me enough recovery time before church the next morning- I was exhausted all day Sunday, despite getting a good night's sleep. I'll have to be more careful about when I do my long runs since I need to be a lot more on top of things at church. River must have picked up on how tired I was, because he was all over the place.

I started with a warmup walk for 10 min (0.45 miles), then ran for 30 min, walked for 5 min, ran for 30 min, walked for 5 min, ran for 30 min, walked for 5 min, ran for 9 more min, then ended with a cool down walk for 13 min (0.55 miles).

It took me 99 min of running and 15 min of walking (114 minutes total) to hit 8 miles. My warm up and cool down added another mile, for 9 miles total. 8 miles in 114 minutes is only 3 minutes more than I took to run 7 miles last week. I'm not convinced I ran faster, so perhaps my time and/or distance was a little off.

Our third-hand treadmill is having problems and we'll probably need to replace it soon. The fuse/ breaker/something that makes it stop working popped three times during my workout (it did once before the week before last, and Mr M has had problems with it too, but never this many times in one workout). Every time the treadmill died I had to guess at what my time and distance were at and then figure out how much more I needed to do. So I may have been a little off. Or maybe I really did run faster- I did feel pretty good while running.

Either way, the treadmill is getting annoying, but since we only paid $50 on craigslist 3 or 4 years ago, I can't complain too much. We've definitely got our money's worth, but I hate to have to go through the hassle of finding a reliable replacement.

My total mileage for the week: 17.08 miles, about 1 more mile than last week's total.

Last week I mentioned that I was trying out some compression socks. Back in December I won a pair of compression socks and a gift card from Hylete during the 12 days of Christmas giveaway run by Vacation Races (they're the ones who organized the Great Smoky Mountains half marathon that I ran in September).

I've thought about trying compression socks for awhile now, but I've always been too cheap to buy them, and there's so many options- which to choose? Since I got some for free, I finally got to try them out and see if I like them.

I first wore them while walking and they felt supportive, but not restrictive like I was afraid they would. I then wore them while running short distances on the treadmill. They felt a bit restrictive, but they also helped with the sporadic calf pains I've been having. I haven't been brave enough to wear them on a long run yet, but I have worn them after my workouts. Post-workout is actually my favorite time to wear the compression socks since they make my legs feel so much better! They decrease muscle fatigue and reduce pain, which leaves my legs much less sore then they would be otherwise.

Have you tried compression socks? Do you like them? Hate them?

The High Chair Dilemma

Remember how I said I was going to get a hanging high chair for the little mister?

Well, I did, but I had to send it back.

After googling around and reading reviews, I picked the Summer Infant Secureseat Booster.

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I knew the potential downfalls from reading the reviews, but I hoped they wouldn't be problems for us. Naturally, that wasn't the case. The arms wouldn't allow the chair to be attached to our dining table or our counter. I suspected it wouldn't fit on the table because of the size of the aprons, but I didn't anticipate the counter being a problem. There's not enough depth to the counter for the arms to fully extend underneath.

This particular chair can also be used as a booster (which is one reason I was really hoping it would work out- a twofer would mean less money spent in the long run), but there's not enough space to slide the booster under the table apron when it's attached to a chair, so TLM is too far away from the table surface. There's a removable tray, but the overall setup still doesn't work because the chair has to be so far away from the table- it just gets in the way.

After some deliberation and research, and the realization that all hook-on chairs would have the same issues, as would booster chairs, we decided to give an actual high chair a try. I know, the horror! I hate high chairs and have never wanted one. The giant plastic monstrosities are so ugly!

After looking around, we decided to give the Summer Infant Bentwood High Chair a try:

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The pros: The seat is adjustable: it reclines and moves up and down; the large tray can be moved in our out, the chair folds up to be put away, the trays can be removed and the chair used as a toddler chair, it looks much nicer than the ugly plastic high chairs, and is less expensive than the other wood option we considered.

The cons: There's a weird fixed smaller tray under the large tray that can only be removed when you convert it to a toddler chair, the legs spread out farther than I'd like (though this makes it more stable).

The other wood high chair we considered had a smaller footprint (the legs didn't spread as wide, but the design of them was such that I would probably constantly be tripping over them), and no weird fixed tray to get in the way, but the seat was not adjustable and it was more expensive.

Here's where it pays to google around for the best price and not just trust Amazon to have the lowest price. Frequently they do, but definitely not in this case.

amazon + shipping (no prime available): $296
manufacturer's site + free ground shipping: $180
Meijer (on sale) + free shipping: $119

Obviously, I ordered from Meijer's site. It was the first time I've ordered from their site, but since I was familiar with the store (they're kind of like Target, and there was one in the area when I was in high school), I wasn't too worried about ordering from them.

I'm glad I took the time to comparison shop: $177 is a huge price difference. $119 put us at slightly more expensive than the cheaper plastic monstrosities but a lot cheaper than most higher-end chairs, plastic or wood.

The chair arrived today and only took a few minutes to assemble.

With just the snack tray and the seat raised to the highest level. 

I was hoping it would fit over the tabletop, but no such luck.

The larger tray clipped on over the snack tray.

Full length shot.

Folded up- it fits nicely in the corner next to the shoe bin. 

The large tray clips to the back of the legs for storage.

Final thoughts for now: I like the way it looks, but the snack tray is a pain, like the reviews warned us. TLM's chubby legs go in easily, but it is hard to pull him back out without scraping his legs. We will probably end up just taking the trays off and scooting him up to the table. The harness will still keep him in the chair. Like others mentioned in their reviews, it's a shame the tray is in a fixed position. I think they did that because there's a plastic leg divider attached to the underside of the tray that makes it harder for little ones to slide out of the chair and fall. If the tray was moveable in some way it would solve the problem of getting the kiddos in and out without scraping their legs. Other than that, I think it will work out well.

Some smiles from TLM :)

This week he decided he didn't want to be in his bouncy chair on the floor during meal times- he wanted to be held by Mr M or I so he could see what was going on. I think the chair arrived just in time!

Ranch-less Salads or How I Finally Discovered that Vinaigrettes can be Yummy

I've always been a big fan of ranch dressing: on salads, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, dip for pizza or veggies, you name it. But it had to be Hidden Valley Ranch. Or the ranch dressing from the BYU Creamery (yum!).  However, I recognize that ranch dressing is not the healthiest condiment around and since it's not allowed on GAPS or Paleo I needed to find a substitute.

I've tried vinaigrette dressings before, but always been underwhelmed by them. The sharp, overly acidic flavors didn't complement the salad and didn't entice me to want to keep eating salads that were not topped with ranch.

That all changed last week when Mr M brought home some peach and pear elderflower vinegar from a guy he works with. He mixed it with some olive oil and drizzled it on some salad, and Yum! What a difference! We tasted the vinaigrette by itself and it even tasted good alone.

Mr M's co-worker also told him about a store (Oil & Vinegar) nearby that sells a wide variety of vinegars and olive oils. After realizing that vinaigrettes can actually taste good and would help us in our quest to eat healthier, we decided we had to stop by and see what they had to offer.

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They have a wall with large glass flasks full of vinegars and oils. The guy who helped us was super helpful and let us taste different combinations to see which ones we liked. The problem was that we liked them all :) We had a hard time narrowing down our choices.

LMS was partial to the strawberry balsam vinegar and the chocolate vinegar. The chocolate vinegar was interesting: very reminiscent of a chocolate tootsie pop. This wasn't a bad thing, just a bit… different.

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We ended up picking the blood orange olive oil and strawberry balsam vinegar and cranberry balsam vinegar. If they weren't on the pricey side, we'd have brought home some of each- they were that good! When we finish these, we'll go back and choose some different flavors.

We've actually been eating salads every night, something we've struggled with in the past, and we're all enjoying them, even LMS, who was also a firm believer in the tastiness of ranch dressing.

Even though the oils and vinegars are more expensive than the standard options available in the grocery store, we feel they are well worth it. The higher quality and wider variety of choices makes such a difference in taste and nicely complement the flavor of the veggies in out salads.

What are your thoughts on vinaigrettes?

My New Favorite Baby Carrier

Disneyland, 7.5 months old, December 2006

Our first baby carrier with LMS was a Baby Bjorn front carrier, which we liked, but once LMS got to a certain weight (15 pounds, I think?) it made my back hurt to carry her in it.

Seattle Space Needle, almost 2 years old, April 2008

At that point I started researching other baby carrier options and found the Ergo carrier. I really liked this one and wished I'd found it when LMS was a baby so I didn't need to find a new one several months later. The Ergo worked great with LMS. We used it front facing when she was younger, and then switched her to my back. I carried her on my back a lot when she was young (till about 2 and a half, I think?) and then off and on for another year or two when the need arose. I never did the baby carrier seat thing (we had her in a massive convertible car seat from the time she was born)- so anytime I took her with me, she was in the Ergo. I loved being able to keep her contained (no running off!), though as she got older I had to make sure I didn't stand too close to shelves in stores or she'd grab stuff off them.

image via here

While I was pregnant with TLM I decided I wanted to give the Moby wrap a try, so I found one on craigslist. I know lots of people love the Moby, but I've used it a few times now and I don't love it. I have a hard time keeping the fabric flat while putting it on, and TLM doesn't stay in place very well. All that fabric makes me really warm, even in winter. Since I don't love it, I'll most likely be selling it again on craigslist.

Mr M wearing TLM with the hood up at the Turkey Trot last month

When I was pregnant I also discovered the Boba carrier while at a local baby expo. It's very similar to the Ergo, but with a couple differences that I thought made it worthwhile to purchase it. The Boba can be adjusted to hold an infant- no special insert needed (which is the case with the Ergo). They both have pockets on the main portion, but the Boba also has pockets on the waist band. They both have hoods, though I've found the Boba hood easier to use than the Ergo hood. It's not a completely fair comparison yet, though, since I primarily used the hood when LMS was on my back in the Ergo and I have yet to be able to do that with TLM since he's still too small to be on my back.

There are three things I really like about the Boba that our 7-year-old Ergo doesn't have (maybe they do now, I don't know). The straps on both shoulders that you can snap around your purse strap to keep it on your shoulder are awesome. I could never keep my purse on my shoulder with the Ergo carrier on. The second thing I like is that the Boba has little foot stirrups that attach to the carrier to support the child's feet and legs once they start getting bigger. Mr M thinks it's asking to have the kiddo constantly kicking me, but he could do that without the stirrups, so that's not an issue to me. The third thing is that the neck support area at the top of the carrier body is adjustable, which is great for getting a snugger fit for smaller kiddos while still allowing for future use as the baby grows.

Both the Boba and the Ergo are adjustable- Mr M, who's over a foot taller than me can carry the kiddo in either carrier just by loosening the straps. Tighten them back up, and I'm back on kiddo-carrying duty.

I never got around to selling the Ergo on craigslist, even though I'd planned on it, and I don't think I will for awhile now. The Boba is constantly migrating between the car and the house, and there have been a couple instances now where the Boba wasn't in the car when I needed it. Ever tried holding a baby in your arms while pushing a shopping cart through the grocery store? I was so sore after that experience! So now the Ergo lives in the car for those times when the Boba gets left in the house.

So in my mind, the Boba has a slim lead over the Ergo, and they're both ahead of the Baby Bjorn, which is ahead of the Moby wrap. What carrier(s) have you used? Which is your favorite?

You're never to old to play on a jungle gym

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Physical therapy kicked my bum today.

The clinic recently bought a Lifeline Jungle Gym XT, and they had me do some exercises with it.
Two exercises laying on my back with my feet in the cradles and my body in the bridge position, and one exercise with me resting on my elbows in plank position with my feet in the cradles.

All I can say is, WOW.

I used so many different muscles at the same time.

The great thing is that if I do the exercises properly, I will strengthen my core and hips, which will in turn help with the imbalances in my legs. And you can use it for so many different exercises- it's not just for strengthening the lower body.

Even though I'm taking longer than I wanted to get back to running, when I do start running again I should be much stronger physically and better able to avoid injury.

Mr M and I had seen an advertisement a couple years ago for the TRX suspension system, but couldn't quite get past the $200 price tag. The Jungle Gym costs half that, and seems to have a few less quirks (according to reviews I read on Amazon).  I think we'll soon be the proud owners of a Jungle Gym!

Have you used either product?

Free canvas from Canvas People

The other day I ran across a link to the Canvas People, where they will transform a photo into an 8"x10" canvas for free- you just pay $14.95 shipping and handling. I thought $14.95 sounded reasonable for a photo on a canvas, so I decided to give it a try.

It warmed up a bit on Wednesday (from 5 degrees all the way up to 18 degrees!), so I bundled up and went out to the storage container and dug out our wedding album. I scanned a few photos in, played with them, then uploaded my favorite to the site.

The Canvas People website will let you add effects, but they'll charge you for it, so I just used photoshop to get the effect I wanted. You can also add a frame for a fee, but I passed on that as well.

It was a quick and easy process to upload my photo, enter my preferences, and input my billing and shipping info- it all took less time than it took to fiddle with the photo.

So, I got a free 8"x10" canvas and paid $14.95 for shipping, which I think is an awesome deal. Can't wait for it to arrive!

Go here if you want your own free canvas. If you want a bigger size, they have bigger sizes available and will knock $55 off the cost of one.

Chebe cinnamon roll mix

photo credit

Tuesday night I made some brown sugar almond sticky rolls, using the Chebe cinnamon roll mix. The recipe was on the package, and I followed the instructions as written.

The end result tasted fine, but the texture was a bit gummy. Not sure if they needed to cook longer, or what. The top edges that were cooked through tasted good and weren't gummy. The overall flavor was good- I like that they added cinnamon to the mix.

I'd like to try this product again, but I think I'll follow the alternative directions that suggest rolling the dough into thin ropes and twirling it into spiral. I think it might cook better that way.

New boots

Aren't these some great boots? Brand new Danskos at a great (low!) price on ebay- happy late birthday to me! I've been looking for these boots all summer and finally found them in my size at a price I could live with. They came today and I looove them! I think I'm going to have to find these boots in black, too. They have nice thick, sturdy soles, and I can put my orthotics in them. I'm going to get a lot of use out of these boots! I had a pair of Aerosoles boots last year, and the soles sucked. I only wore them a few times and I ended up selling them on ebay last week....

Some gluten free baking results

Today I made some corn bread using the Bob's Red Mill gluten free cornbread mix. The instructions called for a 9"x9" pan, which I didn't have, so I used an 8"x8" pan.

The cornbread rose nicely (more than I expected, but probably due to the smaller pan), but the center had problems cooking through. If I use this mix again, I'll use a larger pan so the cornbread will be thinner and hopefully not have problems cooking through.

It tasted best while warm- I ate it with some of the cassoulet I made yesterday and it was good and filling. I had some with my dinner, and it wasn't quite as good cooled down- it seemed to get a bit more dense and moist somehow. Not sure quite how/why that happened.

I also made some pumpkin muffins using a recipe from Gluten Free Baking Classics. With all the cold weather we've had this week, I had a hankering for some pumpkin bread.

Unfortunately, for some reason, canned pumpkin is 'temporarily out of season'. Not sure why, but I looked at 3 or 4 different stores, and no one had any. Luckily my mom had some, so I could go forth with my baking experiment.

The recipe made a dozen muffins, and they rose quite nicely. The texture wasn't quite as thick and dense as I remember pumpkin bread being, but I don't think I'll ever have that again, and the result was good, so I can't complain too much.

Next sewing project

Now that I'm down with LMS's Halloween costume, it's time to move on to the next project: re-cover a chair I got a great deal on on craigslist awhile ago. It was a good enough deal to mess with re-covering it, so I went for it. I have to wait for LMS to go to bed before I get started though- need the space to spread out, and I don't want her messing with/stepping on/trying to help.
It's been snowing all day- great big, fluffy white flakes. It's a couple degrees above freezing, though, so it's mostly rain by the time it hits the ground. Only a little bit has actually stuck.
I dug out our coats from storage yesterday, now I think I need to go find the chains and ice scraper too. Gotta be prepared!

Food That Should Taste Good tortilla chips

I've mentioned the sweet potato tortilla chips made by Food That Should Taste Good before. I've finally found some other varieties, and thought I'd mention how much I like them.

The sweet potato chips are very good by themselves. The bag offers suggestions for toppings, but I haven't tried any of them yet.

I wasn't sure what to expect when I tried the chocolate tortilla chips. They were good- not sweet, but you could taste the cocoa. The chocolate and corn made a different, but good, combination. Definitely not your every-day tortilla chip.

The cinnamon chips were another that I wasn't real sure about, but they are very good. The bag suggests topping with hazelnut spread, so I tried some Nutella. Sooooo good! Seriously addictive.

The one variety that I've tried so far that I didn't really care for is the potato & chive. They have a rather strong flavor, which by itself wasn't too bad, but they gave me heartburn. So I won't be eating them again.

There's still lots more varieties to try, the problem is finding them at the store.

Betty Crocker gluten free mixes

A few weeks ago my sister made a pineapple upside-down cake using a Betty Crocker gluten free yellow cake mix. It was quite good- better than I was expecting.

This week I finally got around to making the Betty Crocker gluten free brownies that I bought several weeks ago. I followed the high altitude directions, and they turned out pretty good, too. A little bland, which is apparently a problem when baking with rice flour, so I think I'll add some vanilla next time. Another bonus: they're about half the cost of the other gluten free mixes out there.

Snow!

Today I rode my bike indoors for 60 minutes. I sweated a lot, and it felt good. I also downloaded the Japanese audio versions of the Joseph Smith manual and April General Conference. I can now listen as I read along. I need to get the November Japanese Liahona, then I'll download October conference as well. I really wish they had the Japanese audio for the Book of Mormon, but I guess they haven't gotten that far yet.

While Little Miss Sunshine napped this afternoon, I was tempted to just read, but I edited photos instead. I need to print photos for Nursery class, so I decided to go ahead and compile and sort photos from the last 15 months (that's how long it's been since I last printed photos!). I came up with a total of 950 photos! I did manage to narrow it down to 730, but they'll still keep me busy scrapbooking for quite awhile. It's a big chunk of money to spend on photos at one time, but when you consider it's for all our photos for more than the last year, it's not too bad. It is nice to be able to sort through the photos before printing. Way fewer are thrown away (and wasted) when I get around to scrapbooking. It ended up taking me all afternoon to sort and all evening to upload photos and place my order (I'm trying to place my order as I'm typing this), because the Wal-Mart website kept freezing up.

The weather was a lot cooler today, and this evening it snowed. It's been snowing off and on for the last 3 or 4 hours. I'm curious to see how much we actually receive, and how long it sticks around.

This weekend I did manage to finish the cushion for LMS's stroller. I could buy one, but it wouldn't have been purple (her favorite color) and I had the fabric, so why spend more money? This is the only stroller we've had (I detest those massive plastic things- even folded up they take up a lot of space), and I love it. It's a BOB stroller, and they're the best! They are expensive, but so worth the money. I found ours on craigslist, so I didn't pay full price for it. It was only a few months old then (they had received two as gifts (who has that kind of money???)), and we've had it for more than two years now, and I use it all the time. I love how far the sun shade comes down; most brands of jogging strollers do not have screens that cover so much. The only thing I don't like is the less-than-effective hand brake, but in the more recent models that has been fixed with a rear axle brake (much more effective and safe). They've got tons of features (check the link above), and several different models. They're awesome!

Lovely weather for a run

This past weekend was pretty nasty and cold, so I wasn't sure if we'd have any more nice weather. However, this morning was gorgeous. We went for a really nice run: ran 2.5 miles, walked 1.5 miles. It felt really good to run, not too many twinges or too much pain. I could have gone further except the last quarter mile of the first two miles was uphill, and pushing Little Miss Sunshine in the stroller took it out of me. I walked a half mile after that (had to catch my breath), then ran another half mile, which felt good, though there was a stiff breeze that slowed me down a bit. There was another hill at that point, so I walked the last mile home. 55 minutes altogether, just shy of the 60 I was aiming for.

After I got home I ran through my stretches and exercises (45 minutes worth) which felt good, but reminded me why I never liked weightlifting: it's too stinking boring. I can tell it's going to take some work to make it a habit. I really need to be doing it before I go running, but I took so long to get going this morning that if I'd done my stretches first I wouldn't have made it out on my run. Another thing to work on: not taking so long to get out the door in the morning.

When my dad got home from work this afternoon, he brought another load of gravel for the driveway, so I got to help shovel that. As if I hadn't already gotten enough exercise today...

This afternoon I worked on a pad for LMS's jogging stroller (why buy one when I can make one), but I managed to break the last of my needles, and now I have to buy some more before I can finish the cushion. I have a smaller pad, a Kiddopotamus Snuzzler, that I found on craigslist soon after I found the stroller on craigslist. At the time, LMS looked so tiny in the cushion. It's been a great cushion, but now she's way too big for it. So I'm making a bigger cushion for her. She spends enough time in her stroller that she might as well be as comfortable as possible.

I didn't get around to wrapping all the presents yet, but it's still on my list. I did get my closet cleaned out: I kept a few things in there that I thought I'd use soon, but it'll still be awhile before I get to them, so no point in them taking up space inside. I really like de-cluttering! Now if I could just figure out how to keep my desk clear. There's always paper stacking up on it, that needs to be filed or tossed. It's a never ending battle.

Lara bars

A couple months ago I read in a magazine about Lara bars, so I decided to try them out. They're made of all-natural ingredients, no preservatives or anything. The apple pie one has raisins, dates, apples, almonds, and cinnamon. That's it! I'm not a big fan of raisins or dates, but you can't taste them: they're the base for the bar and everything else gets mixed in with them.

I found a couple different varieties in the local grocery store and tried them and liked them for the most part, and then told my sister about them. The next time we talked, she started going on about the Lara bars and this flavor and that flavor: all ones I'd never heard of. I asked her about it, and she said 'oh yeah, there's tons of flavors'. So I got online, and sure enough, there is quite a few flavors. I had to go to the health food store to find a wider variety, and I proceeded to try them to see which were best.

The results in order of preference:
Good:
apple pie (tastes like apple pie)
lemon bar (has a nice zing to it)
banana cookie (tastes kind of like banana bread)
key lime (tastes similar to the lemon bar)
cinnamon bun (very similar to apple pie, I thought)
OK: (they're good, but not as good as the good ones)
cherry pie
pecan pie
Yuck:
Jocolat chocolate mint (I love anything chocolate and mint, but this was just too weird: the chocolate and mint with the raisins and dates just didn't do it for me. Not as yuck as the chocolate coconut, though.)
chocolate coconut (even LMS didn't like it, and she likes anything sweet. I like chocolate and coconut, so again, I think it was the combination with the raisins and dates.)

There's way more flavors, but these are the only ones I've gotten around to trying. They're a good alternative to all the bars out there that have all sorts of unpronounceable ingredients in them.