Hi friends! Happy spring! I kicked off the first day of spring with a six-mile run. While it was a perfectly comfortable running temperature and the sun was shining over the city, I was hesitant about doing this run. 

I did an hour-long yoga class (for the first time in years!) at my gym on Friday, and I woke up Saturday morning with a sore lower back and legs. It makes sense that my legs would be sore from holding poses, but I was surprised about my back giving me grief. I decided to make Saturday a Rest Day and to do the run on Sunday. My back became more sore throughout the day, but I did my rolling, stretching, and heating therapy in hopes to make it better faster. Sunday morning came, and I decided to go through with the run. I'd try three or four miles. 

I felt so good after two miles that I decided to keep going. I was flying. I decided to go six miles.  I get to three miles once I hit the famous Castaways on North Avenue Beach. Once I turn around and run home, that's six miles. I've done it many times with no problems at all. 

I snapped some pictures and then turned around towards the north. 

Then, I was hit by a solid wall of wind. I instantly understood why the previous two miles along the lake were so easy. I then dreadfully  knew that the next two miles would be torturous. The wind was assisting me southward, and now I had to fight it going north. While I've experienced the wrath of Chicago's wind force before,  this was the worst of it. Tears were flying out of my eyes and into the air. I couldn't breathe. I was almost choking on phlegm. I had to stop and walk.

While I walked, I watched other people run past me (struggling, but still going). I wondered how I could ever become a better runner if I couldn't even handle this stupid wind. How could I ever run 13.1 miles? Every time I've tried to increase my mileage in the past, something bad happened (I pulled my sartorius muscle, I hurt my lower back so badly that I couldn't walk [not from running, but it affected it nonetheless], or I became too busy or stressed.). I was stewing in negativity while walking. I quickened my pace to a run again, only to be pushed back by the wind. I was panting. I forced myself to go up a bridge, one foot in front of the other, only to give up and start walking again before I hit the top. Worse thoughts entered my head. Maybe I'm still too tired from yoga.  But yoga was two days ago. I'm pathetic. More people ran past me. I became more discouraged. I'm a failure. I'm never going to run a half marathon. I'm slow. I suck. 

Finally, after another person passed me, I started to run again. I passed the person who just passed me, and I veered off of the Lakeshore path, under the Belmont bridge, and out of the wind. I ran the last 1.1  miles home without stopping (except for at a traffic light). I put one foot in front of the other quickly, even though my lungs burned and I wanted to stop. I made it home. I looked at my phone and saw that, even with my walking, I made it from start to finish in under 60 minutes. I was getting faster. Suddenly, I was hopeful again. 

I stretched, rolled, showered, iced, and simultaneously made myself a smoothie with fresh coffee, a frozen banana, vanilla whey protein powder, natural peanut butter, and cinnamon. Then, I volunteered at PAWS for a few hours while digesting what had happened to me that morning (and my smoothie). 

I know my story will sound dramatic to some people. It's just a run. It's not a big deal. I know that I will never be a professional runner. I'll never win a race. I'll probably never be able to run faster than a 9.5-minute mile during a long race, because I'm just not equipped for it. Running makes my knees hurt. I'm injury-prone. I'm allergic to it. Seriously. I become bright  red and itchy after about five minutes if I go too many months without doing it (outdoors or indoors, any time of the year). Regardless, there is no other exercise that makes me feel more accomplished, gives me more internal struggles, allows more personal time with myself, and pushes me to succeed more than running. Running is the only exercise that gives me a runner's high. Nothing can beat that feeling.

I am going to run a half marathon this year whether I have to walk or crawl. I'll be back out on the path next weekend, wind or no wind. That's the only way to get better. 

I hope that there are others who can relate to this story and put on their shoes and run despite the challenges!

Happy Monday! I hope everybody had a great weekend. If you live in Chicago, maybe you took part in the St. Patrick's Day craziness that sweeps over the city once a year. I wore my green and took part in the festivities on Saturday, but I went for a five-mile run first. 

 The Lakeshore path was eerily foggy on Saturday morning. It was one of those Chicago days where it was so foggy that I couldn't see the skyline heading south. It felt like I wasn't in a city at all. I went one mile to the lake, one and a half miles on the trail, and then I turned around to go home. Here's my running summary from last week:

Total miles logged: 8 (3 on the treadmill on Tuesday; 5 outside on Saturday).
Aches and pains: the underbelly of my right foot at the start and both knees towards the end of the 5-mile run. The lower back is stiff but just needs to be stretched and strengthened. 
Goal for next week: 7-8 miles total.

Once I was showered, stretched, iced, and presentable-looking, Al and I squeezed ourselves onto an overly-crowded train car on the Loop-bound Red Line. It was disgusting for the first stop or two, and then it thinned off as people in green got off the train to go to their respective parties. We got off in the River North neighborhood and went to a friend's apartment in the Trump Tower. 

As a side note, Chicago has a crazy St. Patrick's Day celebration. There are two parades, the Chicago River is dyed green, and the city goes nuts with parties. Everybody can pretend to be Irish for the day. I haven't been able to celebrate for the past three years due to exams or other commitments, so I was looking forward to this  year.

​The group we hung out with does something called a St. Patrick's Day Progressive. This year, we started at the Trump Tower, took pictures by the river, and then went to two additional apartments. Each host had everybody for about three hours and provided food and drinks. Each person paid each host $10. It was much cheaper than going to the bars, and we didn't have to deal with horrific crowds (other than the Red Line). We had a great time, and we took some good pictures. It's a nice view from the 48th floor!

The food was good, too. The second apartment served Lucky Charms treats (like Rice Krispie Treats), and they deserved a photo op! There was also crock pot mac'n'cheese, which was absolutely delicious. Many carbs were consumed on Saturday.

                                                                                 Making a Grocery Shopping List

I'm going to switch gears now and talk about grocery shopping. As much as I love recapping part of my weekend, this is still a healthy-living blog. At the end of the weekend, it's time to think forward to the coming week and plan meals. That's what I started doing when I was living in Australia, and it changed the way that I eat. The more that you buy food from the grocery store and prepare it at home, the more you'll save money and control what you're putting in your mouth (which could help you lose or maintain your weight). It's a win-win situation. While you have to put extra work in by planning and prepping, it gets easier with practice. 

Here are the simple steps I do each week for meal planning and grocery shopping:

1. Review your schedule for the week. Figure out which nights you will be home. This way, you will know exactly how many meals you need to plan. (Yes, schedules can change last-minute. If you make dinner plans after you did your shopping, you can move meals around or freeze foods that you're not going to use.)
2. Create your menu. As you see on my old shopping list above, I wrote out my daily meals on the bottom. You can see that I was going to be out on Friday, so I didn't plan anything for then. For Monday, I picked a Cajun salmon recipe from a cookbook. I also generally search through recipes that I've saved on Pinterest or Facebook to figure out what to make. If you need inspiration, blogs are a great way to start. Just look through the recipe sections of your favorite blogs and pick out recipes that you like. The possibilities are endless!
3. As you create your menu for the week, you can make your shopping list. You can organize it however you want. I usually do mine based on the grocery store sections. In addition,  I'd recommend making your list while you're in the kitchen. This way, you can review your current food inventory.  You want to look at what you already have so that you don't make accidental unnecessary purchases. For example, you don't want to buy eggs if you already have a full carton at home.You can also use your kitchen for inspiration. If you have celery and peppers that need to be used before they go bad, you can plan your recipes around those. 
4. Once your ingredient list is finished, add other foods that you want for snacks. I usually write down apples, bananas, and almonds. 

Now, you're ready to shop! It takes extra time to plan (as you see, there are two steps before you actually start making your list), but it's worth it! Make the list and stick to it. That's all there is to it.  

If you want to go the extra mile to save yourself time during the week, you can prep on Sunday night. Chop your veggies, grill your chicken or meat, and do whatever else is necessary to make the cooking process faster during the week when you have less time. 

Happy grocery shopping, friends!

P.S. I was reading my shopping list above and see that I abbreviate a lot. Bals ving=balsamic vinegar; mac nuts=macadamia nuts; chicken br=chicken broth; 3 ch br= 3 chicken breasts; diced tom w/ gr chilli= diced tomatoes with green chillies; TUPPERW= tupperware. 

Happy Monday! I hope everybody had a great weekend. My Friday night was quiet, because the rest of my weekend was nonstop. Just like a weekday, I was up at 5:30 am on Saturday. Instead of going to work, though, I went to the northwest suburbs for a fun nutrition seminar. 

As registered dietitians, we're required to log a certain number of continuing education credits every five years. This requirement keeps us current with research in our field, and in a bustling city such as Chicago, there are never shortages of options for us to get our hours. 

One of my friends from school caught wind of a half-day seminar by the Northern Suburban and Western Suburban Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and many of us jumped on board after reading the event schedule. It sounded very interesting. Plus, it was even more attractive with this seminar giving us  six continuing education credits (we're supposed to get 15 per year). 

The biggest downside was having to get up very early and drive about 45 minutes. Luckily, I carpooled with two of my friends and we made a pit stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee on the way there. 

Once we registered, we were given a delicious buffet breakfast that was sponsored by the Egg Nutrition Center. I should have taken a picture of my plate, but it included scrambled eggs (makes sense), shredded hash browns with bell peppers, bacon, sausage, croissants, fresh fruit, and coffee. We dove right into the lectures once we finished our breakfasts and had minimal breaks from 8am-2 pm. This was tolling at times, and we were very hungry since we didn't get lunch (just a few snacks from vendors). Regardless, the benefits outweighed the costs. 

I'll hopefully have access to the slides soon and will be able to write more about what we learned. The egg and cholesterol lecture, even though it was sponsored by the Egg Nutrition Center and had me worried that it would be overtly bias, was informative and confirmed what I already believe about eggs: whole eggs are very nutritious foods and eating eggs generally does not affect your blood cholesterol. A small percentage of the population are considered to be "hyper-responders" to dietary cholesterol, and these people are difficult to pinpoint unless they are in clinical studies. The jury is also out on whether diabetics need to watch their intake of egg yolks. 

We also heard good lectures on gut microbiota and alternate day fasting. There is still so much research that needs to be done on gut microbiota (or the bacteria that lives in our intestines that is good for our health), but recent studies on mice have shown that lean and obese bodies have different compositions of gut bacteria. Our diet can largely affect that. Also, taking prebiotics and probiotics are most likely good for us, but there is not one best type to take. Eating fermented foods (which contain probiotics), such as yogurt, kefir, kambucha, tempeh,  miso, and others are good, but there may also be benefits from taking tablets.

The lecturer for the alternate day fasting research was our Vitamins and Minerals professor at University of Illinois at Chicago, so my school friends and I were pretty pumped to hear her speak. I'll probably write another post about her research in the future, but I have been fascinated in the past (from her research) to hear about how eating approximately 1/4 of a person's calorie needs on fasting days (average of 500 calories per day) and eating unrestricted on the other days could lead to successful and manageable weight loss in obese, sedentary individuals. Now that I think about it, it may be easier to eat very light three days per week (and normally the rest of the week) than to constantly restrict my caloric intake every single day. There is still more research required for alternative day fasting, and if you're interested in trying this for yourself, I would highly recommend discussing this with your doctor and seeing a dietitian first! 

We also heard from six panel speakers (one of them was an author of Too Busy to Diet), and then, completely ravenous and slightly stir-crazy, we headed back to the city. My carpool party made a quick stop at L'Patron for tacos once we got back into the city, and then I was dropped off at home. I only had enough time to change, fix my hair and makeup, and put a few layers of polish on my nails before it was time for the next event. 

My parents were staying in the city for their birthdays (my dad is March 4th; my mom is March 6th), and my brother Jon decided to take us to The Aviary for drinks before dinner.  It was so generous of him, and I had some of the best drinks I've ever had. I'm used to going to hole-in-the-wall neighborhood bars and buying the beers on special, so this place was up about 100  notches from that. 

The Aviary is owned by Grant Achatz, who is a culinary genius. He also owns Alinea and Next, which are some of the best restaurants in Chicago. In order to guarantee yourself a reservation for drinks at The Aviary, you need to purchase tickets in advance. While I would usually roll my eyes at that requirement, I had heard excellent things about this place.

This place creates drinkable art in a glass. My first drink (pictured above) was called Up the Ice Ante, which contained oat, horchata, and peach. Our server told us that it was going to taste like the milk in the cereal bowl after finishing Cinnamon Life cereal (or Cinnamon Toast Crunch, as my brother said), and he was exactly right. I also nibbled on the ice cubes once I finished the liquid portion, and they were intensely flavored with components from the drink. Until Saturday night, I had never eaten an ice cube that tasted like a cinnamon peach pie.

Other highlights include my bite-sized melt-in-the-mouth tempura sweet potato on a cinnamon stick that was beyond delectable (above, left), Jon's over-sized ice cube that kind of resembled the Epcot ball at Walt Disney World (above, right), and my brother using a sling shot to break the solid ice sphere that held his beverage inside of it (not pictured). Once the ice shattered, the liquid filled the glass and the ice that used to hold the drink was just the standard ice cubes in the drink. I heard about the sling shot before, but it was fun to see in the flesh. 

Aviary-goers tend to visit for drinks prior to going to Next next door, but we went to a different, more normally-priced restaurant for dinner. While I can't say that I'll go back to the Aviary soon (I would really love to, but my preferred drinks are $5), I would certainly go back there for a special occasion. I'm very happy that I got to experience it. It was a treat.  We also did a larger family celebration in the suburbs on Sunday night for my parents and my grandma (her birthday is today!). We have a lot of birthdays this month!

On Sunday morning, I laced up my running shoes and hit the pavement for an easy four-mile run. It was 39 degrees by the time I left the house, and I was perfectly comfortable in running capris and long-sleeved pullover. I wanted to do my first lakefront run of 2016, so I headed east to Lake Michigan. It's about 1.1 miles from my house to the lakefront trail. Since it was Sunday morning, I was weaving my way in and out of brunch enthusiasts and small children on scooters. I also had to jog in place at some stoplights. Once I got to the park lands, though, I didn't have to worry about traffic lights anymore. 

The lakefront trail, even when crowded and exposed to the whir of cars zooming past on Lake Shore Drive, is peaceful and is a beautiful place to run. I generally plan how many miles I'm going to run in advance, and then I map out exactly where I need to turn around and head back home. For my usual four-mile runs, I go one mile to the lake, another mile to the Fullerton Avenue exit, and then I turn around and retrace my steps. Easy peasy. 

Although my pictures have few, if any, people in them, there were plenty of runners, walkers, and bikers of all sizes and athletic abilities. It's motivating to see all of the people out there. 

Aside from foot cramps for the first half mile, my Sunday morning run was pain-free. I'm hoping to continue with minimal pain as I increase my mileage. 

Total miles logged this week: 7 (3 on treadmill on Tuesday; 4 outside yesterday).
Goal for next week: 7-8. 

Have a great start to the week, friends!

If you haven't heard already, the weather in Chicago and in many other parts of the US has been whack! We're used to freezing cold temperatures and lots of snow (depending on the year), but it's been snowing almost nonstop since New Years Eve. It stops tonight, and then the temperatures are dropping to 15 below zero (and even lower in the suburbs). Ouch! I've never experienced weather like this, so I plan to stay indoors unless I have to take my friend's dog outside. We've been watching him for a week while she's in Mexico. She's supposed to get back tonight, but flights are getting delayed and canceled left and right. 

Charlie is quite the looker, isn't he? He is absolutely head-over-heels in love with my husband. (I also talked about Charlie here.) 

Back to the January insanity, we have a beautiful deck on the 7th floor of our building. In the summer, residents are out here grilling, drinking, and sunbathing. In the winter, you can look at it from the gym and take pictures of the snow accumulating on it. 

It's beautiful, isn't it?

Now I'll focus on the main topic of this post: the South Dakota recap. If I can't be in warmer weather, I can vicariously live through myself in my memories. 
Here are earlier road trip recaps:
Part I
Part II
Part III

We entered South Dakota in the late morning of our third day. Soon, we were within sight of the Black Hills that is home to two tourist attractions: the Crazy Horse Memorial and Mount Rushmore. I was excited to see them, even though I heard bad reviews from people who had been there before us. 

Custer is the oldest town in the Black Hills and located near the attractions. As soon as we saw the sign, we knew we were close. 

We saw Crazy Horse just as we left Custer. We could have driven right by it if we didn't know to look for the shape of a man's head in the side of a mountain. 

The mountain carving began in 1948 and, if it's ever completed, will resemble a famous Native American warrior riding a horse that will be much taller than Mt. Rushmore. Even mid-completion, it looks awesome.  

If you look closely at the photo below, you can make out the sketching on the rock where the horse's head is supposed to be. 

We paid $20 to park at the museum and get a better look of the enormous structure, but we both agreed that we would have gotten just as much out of pulling over to the side of the road and taking pictures for free. For our $20, we were able to go into a stuffy museum with bathrooms, a video to watch if we wanted to go into the theater, and a giant glass window where we could get a closer picture of Crazy Horse (posted above). We also could have taken a bus to the bottom of the mountain for an additional fee, but we already felt like we paid enough. I feel a little bad that we didn't take the time to learn about Crazy Horse and the memorial, but we had a lot of driving to do. 

We got back in the car and navigated the hills to find Mt. Rushmore. Luckily, it wasn't hard with the signs. 

After our Crazy Horse experience and hearing over and over again that Mt. Rushmore was "overrated', we didn't feel like paying to park the car and dodge other tourists to get a few photos. We probably could have parked on the side of the road further down the hill and walked up too (although it could have been dangerous with all of the cars driving quickly around the bends), but we decided against it. Instead of leaving our car, I snapped a bunch of photos from the passenger's seat while Al drove by and turned back around a few times. We got some decent photos, too. 

Mt. Rushmore was pretty neat to see in the flesh, but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it unless I was doing a road trip. I always imagined it being gigantic, but it's much smaller than Al and I expected. I'm glad to say that I have seen it, though. 

On our way out of the park, we went through some crazy Western touristy town that was packed with tacky-looking restaurants. It  looked like a blast, but we had to keep going. 

We ate lunch at McDonald's somewhere near Rapid City (hey, if you get your stuff grilled, ask for light sauce, skip the fountain drink, and split the side of fries with your road trip companion, McDonald's isn't so terrible for ya) and then drove east to the Badlands. We were stoked to see this place. 

The Badlands is a national park in rural South Dakota. I only heard of it last year when a family member mentioned it to me. It's surrounded by flat grassy farmland, which explains why we were so shocked when we set our eyes on these rock formations. 

In parts of the park, I felt like we were visiting a mini Grand Canyon. 

(I didn't pack enough daytime comfy clothes, in case you noticed that I've worn this outfit before.)

We took our time driving around the Badlands Loop, which is just a small paved part of the park that allows you to see the sights in just a few hours. We got out of the car at almost every stopping point and snapped pictures. 

These rock formations are unbelievable. I'm not a geology buff by any means, but it would be fascinating to learn in depth about how these came to be. 

With the panorama feature on my iPhone camera, I was able to get some pretty sweet pictures. 

After the Badlands, we made our last stop for the night in Oacoma, South Dakota. 

Oacoma sits right on the Missouri River. After we checked into our hotel, we drove over the bridge into Chamberlain to grab a bite to eat. 

We didn't see anywhere we wanted to eat in Chamberlain, so we crossed back over the bridge and went to Al's Oasis next to our hotel. It has the same name as Al, and it looked inviting (and tacky). 

It was a cute little place to shop for touristy things and pick up some groceries, but the restaurant wasn't very exciting. It was one of those eateries where, by the look of it, you only want to order "safe" things on the menu. I think I got a turkey sandwich or something. We were in and out of there, and then we went to bed. 

We didn't have far to go the next day before we got to the South Dakota/Minnesota border. We started by crossing over the river for our last time.

We passed some random but interesting statue on the highway. I have no clue what its purpose is. 

Our last stop of South Dakota was also a pleasant surprise. I was looking for attractions in Sioux Falls while browsing on my phone, and I learned that there's a waterfall that goes through the center of town. It had great reviews on tripadvisor.com, so we checked it out. 

We were pleasantly surprised! After paying to see all of these natural attractions, it was nice to see a big rocky waterfall going through the middle of a green park in a Midwestern town for free. 

The reviews warned us that it might smell bad, and they were right. From what I remember, there's a meat plant near the park that makes the air reek if the wind is blowing a certain way. Although it smelled like a rancid dead animal, Falls Park was very enjoyable. 

We just breathed through our mouths. 

That's all for South Dakota. I have one more recap to do!

The sold-out West Loop Craft Beer Fest was an absolute blast. I went with my friend Nicole, her boyfriend, and their friend Amy. 

I was the first to arrive by a long-shot. I showed security my ticket, and they let me past the barricades that were blocking off Clinton Street. I showed someone else my ID that got me the souvenir cup that you see below. I also got a blue wristband, but nobody checked it! Once I was beyond the gates, all that I needed was my cup.  

I needed to get some food in my stomach before I started drinking, so I wandered into the French Market in Ogilvie Station (the festival was right outside of this building). I wanted something full of carbs and delicious and filling, so I headed over to the first sandwich shop I could find. I ran into Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine. I've heard people rave about their food before, so I decided to give it a try. 

I ordered the Caprese Pastorale, which was slices of fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, pesto with fennel, and tomato on a baguette. It was absolutely heavenly. It reminded me of my favorite sandwich shop that my friends and I frequented when I studied abroad in Perugia, Italy in 2007 (a semester before Amanda Knox got there). I always got a similar sandwich there, but it had sliced turkey. The ingredients were very simple, but they were so incredibly delicious when put together that we could not stay away from that shop. Sitting on the steps of the duomo in the square in the middle of the city and eating our sandwiches for lunch were some of my favorite memories of Italy. This sandwich from Pastoral, believe it or not, rivaled my Italian panino. I will be back, Pastoral.

I finished my sandwich and was sipping on my first beer sample when I ran across two friends from high school. We caught up on life and drank some beer together until Nicole and company finally arrived. We ran around and had a blast. There were so many vendors there. All you had to do was walk up to their tent with your cup, and they would fill it for you. It was like wine tasting in the sense that they had buckets that you could spill your beer into if you didn't want to drink your whole sample. I had to dump out a lot of beer so that I could try all different kinds and still live to tell the tale. 

If I was a better blogger and Chicago beer advocate, I would have kept track of all of my favorite brews and maybe told you my favorite three. I can't remember the names of the beers, but the three most memorable breweries (that I had never tried or heard of before) of the day were Solemn Oath Brewery, Revolution Brewing, and Deschutes. 

We survived the beer festival. At 5, we wandered off to Randolph Street for dinner. Randolph Street goes through the West Loop and is lined with some fabulous restaurants. I've never been out over there, so I was excited to explore. We still had time to kill before dinner, so we headed over to RM Champagne Salon for- believe it or not -more pre-dinner drinks. The restaurant is located off of the main street and requires snaking through the alleyways a bit, but it is a hidden gem. It's a cozy little place with chandeliers, fancy chairs, and some very pretty desserts (I tried to take a picture of their dessert cart, but it was too dark in there to turn out well). The rest of the party split a bottle of champagne, while I opted to stick with beer. 

Once we finished our drinks, we walked over to Au Cheval for dinner. It sounds like it's a pricey place, but it's a relatively affordable, laid-back, European-style restaurant. Per Amy's suggestion, I got their famous Bloody Mary. It was loaded to the brim with olives, pickles, and different types of savory relishes. I sipped some and snacked on the pickles, but I ended up giving the bulk of my drink to the rest of the table. It was really good, but I'm starting to think that I don't like Bloody Mary's as much as I think I do. I was also starting to feel the effects of my previous drinks. 

I got a basic burger for dinner. It melted in my mouth and seemed at the time to be the most delicious burger I ever tasted. I have to try it again while I'm not under the influence of a beer festival. Al loves burgers, luckily, so I'm sure we'll be able to make a trip there soon. 

We headed to one more bar after dinner to watch the Blackhawks game, but we slowly started to fade. I walked over to my brother's apartment to say hello to Libby and take her for a quick walk, and then I called it a night. 

Libby is currently at her grandparents' house, because the whole family is going to Mexico on Saturday! My cousin is getting married on Sunday. We're going to Cancun for a couple of days, and then we're spending the rest of our vacation in Tulum. Stay tuned for lots of pictures!