Thursday, March 20, 2008

Spring has sprung!

It's the first full day of spring, and although the weather has been typically Seattle springlike (cool and wet, but not reliably wet, so you never know if you will really need that raincoat when you head out for work in the morning), many happier signs of spring abound.

One of the things I love about spring is the element of change. Every time I take a walk, whether around my garden or around my 'hood, something is blooming, sprouting or opening that wasn't the day before. Never a dull moment.

Even though the weather was bleh on Sunday, we got lots o' planting done at the homestead.
  • 30 bareroot coneflowers
  • 17 bareroot Nootka roses
  • 12 forget-me-nots
  • A 4-foot row of edible peas
  • A 3-foot row of sweet peas
  • 10 bunchberries (groundcover dogwoods)
  • 10 Kinnickinnick
  • 12 assorted gallon-size perennials from Costco
  • 5 Camas (a NW native bulb)
  • 1 maidenhair fern
  • 1 hosta
  • 24 assorted oriental lily bulbs
  • 7 assorted dahlia bulbs
Whew!

The weather on Saturday is supposed to be respectable, so I will hopefully get the rest of my ferns (5) and hostas (11) planted, along with my annual fuchsia starts (20), one hellebore and two clematis that are still in their black plastic pots from last year.

Now that I'm starting to plant spring veggies, I need to yank out the last of the fall-winter holdouts. I feel guilty that I didn't eat more kale over the winter, but since it is still in great shape, I have plans to use up about eight cups of the nutritious greens in a fritatta and a turkey chili verde.

I've been entering everything I eat into the free nutrition calculator on Fitday, and it's been very educational to see the results. Given that many foods I eat appear on my menu repeatedly (eggs, sprouted grain bread, turkey breast, broccoli, salad greens, peppers, skim milk, cottage cheese, bananas, apples, avocados, whey protein powder, energy bars, frozen berries, whole grain cereal, nuts, olive oil, yogurt), it's interesting that some days I nearly hit the mark on all of the various important nutrients, and other days I'm way down on a few. Also, some days I seem to hit the 30-40-30 protein-carb-fat ratio effortlessly (within a percentage point or two) and on others I have to struggle to keep the carbs in check.

I figure that once I have a few more weeks of consistent food reportage logged, I can really start tweaking my menus. I'm aiming to have my weight lifting days a bit higher in calories and carbs, and my non-lifting days less on both. Once I start logging one high-mileage walking day on the weekend (for half-marathon training), I can have a higher-carb meal afterwards, too.

Tuesday's workouts:
Morning: Suhaila Salimpour's Bellydance Fitness Fusion Pilates DVD (40 minutes); Darshan's Bellydance Tribal Fusion NYC DVD (drills section, 30 minutes)
Lunch: 4-mile walk

Tuesday's food overview:
1786 calories (33% protein, 32% carbs, 31% fat, 5% alcohol)

Wednesday's workouts:
Morning: Rachel Brice's Yoga, Isolations and Drills DVD (30-minute workout)
After work: NROWLFW "A" workout with kickboxing warmup
Evening: Bellydance choreography class

Wednesday's food overview:
1842 calories (26% protein, 45% carbs, 29% fat)

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