The Salad Life

The good news!  I had my stress echocardiogram last Thursday after a very crazy week at a client's major conference.

The stress test was annoying at it's worst--I got there, lay down, had my uncomfortable echocardiogram (you guys, let's be a bit more gentle on the left side of one's chest.  There are ribs under that skin and fat....)

Then I jumped on the treadmill, and walked up a very steep incline (hi, my hill training is lacking, clearly) until my heart rate got to a certain percentage (I believe 85%), then you jump off the treadmill, lie down as quickly as possible and do another cold gel filled echocardiogram!

From what I gather, everything is fine--she said I could do the marathon, but she had to run because she was leaving the country to see her 88 year old mother and she wanted to schedule a follow-up to discuss.  I'll assume all things are fine.

In less awesome news, I do still have to have my hernia surgery (womp womp) on Nov. 18th.  I have no idea what to expect, other than that I asked them to put all the way under to do it.

What I do expect, however, is to be basically immobile for a couple weeks (immobile means I cannot run).  I was told that I could start "walking on a treadmill" two weeks after surgery.  Sigh.

This also means that I need to very quickly ditch my marathon training eating habits (which I won't even go into right now)

I've been analyzing my diet and once again, fresh food has fallen off the menu.  It seems to be inversely proportionate to the amount of time I have.

In spectacular news, Chadd was offered a new job last week that will put us on the same schedule.  If you've ever lived with someone on the opposite schedule as you (especially someone you love), you know how tough that gets.  While everyone else goes on dates during the week, shares chores, gets up and spends the morning getting ready/getting in each others' ways, etc., you're own your own.  It's been very difficult and very draining at times.

We celebrate this weekend with a bunch of fun stuff we've had on our lists to do--Luray Caverns, massages, dinner out, beignet breakfast, etc.

In short: my life is going to get a lot easier not having to worry about the car, now that I won't be tempted to stay up til midnight to talk with him while he's at work via video chat...I will actually have time to do normal people things like make dinner, fresh lunch, and eat breakfast.  Chadd's a lot better about keeping a schedule than I am.

Bottom line: I'm going to do an experiment to try and encourage veggies into my diet.  I'm going to do a salad for one meal every day.  These salads don't have to be run of the mill--I'm dreaming up one right now with a soy sauce reduction with seared ahi tuna, a bed of edamame, water chestnuts, baby corn, and a crap load of dark lettuce.  See where I'm going with this?

I need your favorite dressings, salad combos, etc.  I'll post my salad every day and a picture.

The experiment will probably start Nov. 8 (I want to have 2 weeks to get used to the low cal life style again).

Salad favorites...and go!