Day 69: Workout Scrapbook

Workouts. . .
5 min. walking, 30 min. run (2.6 miles); 10 min. stretching/yoga (318 cal)

For years, I’ve been one of those anarchists who tears things from perfectly good magazines and hordes them in piles, neglectfully, hoping to come back and make use of this recipe and that particular paint style. When the new year clanged to a start in ’07, I subscribed to a ton of magazines with vegetarian lifestyle issues and nutrition on the forefront of my brain. The usual fitness regimens I’ve always cut and stacked grew fatter and sort-of spread across the floor of my office, waiting for attention. I gave it to them today. I’ve been working on this idea of making a clipping booklet for workouts, and today it manifested and grew into two distinct books. First, there’s one for the home workouts — and I must say I ended up tossing a huge amount of the workouts using weird equipment that I’ll never buy and can’t be replaced with other household items, like that stupid balancing thing with the ball on one side. Purpose? Yeah. Anyway, the second book contains the training cycles, like weight routines, that I feel are missing in my usual gym routines, or slight variations of things I know, or entire systems of workouts for speed drills or extra aerobic kicks when I’m too lazy to think of my own. I trimmed the edges of my magazine pages and placed them in page protectors, so I’m easily able to transport a single page or the entire book to the gym. Plus, the home workout book is on a nice spine, so it’ll stay flat, which always annoys me about library books when I check them out and they gracefully and slowly close when you’re just out of arm’s reach. So, at least the organization part is done. Now I just have to use them.

I’ve been looking at this triathlon training program I tore out of an old runner’s magazine. They have an A plan for beginners and a B plan for advanced, which is nice because I’m a good swimmer, so I can use the B plan for that and still see the A plan for cycling, if that makes any sense. But it’s a 12-week program, and I’m thinking about starting it following my family-festival the next two weeks. I’ve only been running for two days and this morning I already woke up itching to go again. I love this about summer. If anyone hasn’t been to the USATF website , go now! It’s a map site. Punch in your zip code, and you can see (via satellite or map or hybrid of the two) your neighborhood. You can actually trace routes and it gives you distance for everything. The very coolest thing in the world and number one on my web bookmarks for both encouragement and easy access. I love this thing!

Today’s recipe, Sabbath Roast, came from an old church potluck. It’s supposedly a version of a Jewish dish, but I have no proof of that except the name. Regardless, it’s made with vegetarian burger, any kind you like so long as it’s not dried out or you must rehydrate the stuff first and use the water in the recipe. Anyway, it’s similar to a meatloaf, but it doesn’t dry out, which I think is nice. George ate it and liked it, oddly enough he’s sort-of digging the veggie burger. What I used for burger is from Worthington foods again, called Vegi-Burger, and it comes in a 16-oz can. I’ve used those Morningstar Burger crumbles (in the frozen foods section) before as a substitute too and it should work just as well.

Sabbath Roast
4 T butter
1 onion, diced
6 slices toasted whole wheat bread, cubed
4 eggs
16 ounces of vegetarian burger
1 c. grated cheddar cheese
1/2 tsp oregano
a pinch of sage

Topping:
2 T brown sugar
1-1/2 c. ketchup

In a large pan over medium-high heat, melt butter and sauté onions. Add bread cubes and toss to coat, continue to sauté until browned. In the meantime, beat the eggs and mix with the burger, cheese, oregano and sage. Add the onion and bread cubes and mix thoroughly. Press mixture into an oiled or buttered lasagna pan. Mix up the ketchup topping and spread across the top. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

What I ate today. . .
8:30 a.m. – tea with 1/3 c. milk
9:30 am – apple, toasted wheat English muffin with 2 T peanut butter, two thin slices of cheddar
11 am – 1-1/2 blueberry muffins (homemade)
2 pm – large serving Sabbath roast, baked potato with 1 T butter and 1 T RF sour cream
5 pm – tea with milk
7 pm – handful of tortilla chips with scoop of refried beans, handful of cheddar, sour cream and salsa
9 pm – 1-1/2 oz potato chips (starving!) and mint tea