The new training accessory comes in snakeskin-

print. Ha.

It's raining threads in Leipzig and since I need to move my butt, but would love to do so without getting wet feet, I've got myself pretty awesome:

snakeskin-print rubberboots

I know, I'm now the coolest walker ever. Haha.

Woodwork pics coming up tomorrow. XD.

My tendons around the left knee misbehave daily, haven't done any yoga yet.

No other news.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!
(Preferably in stylish rubberboots. Ha)

4 + 20 + Mg = Improvement

As you can tell from the title I succeeded yesterday in walking more then 4 k, cycling 20 k and drinking my Magnesium! Wohoo. I also had a piece of my second favourite cake the "Donauwelle". My favourite cake is Starbucks Chocolate Truffle Cake.

My mood has improved too, since I had a nice evening with my friends, my birthday dinner (we had selfmade cold spring rolls and some cheese'n'baguette).

Really funny was that I got the book "Eat Pray Love" from Elizabeth Gilbert in English from my friend K. Which is by mere chance the book, which I had put back on its stack in the bookstore on Tuesday evening, because I thought that the german translation is probably awful and that I should buy it sometime in English. What are the odds for something like this to happen? It's a fluke. (K was literally shocked by how many books I own and to think that I already have sorted out tons of them! *snicker*)


I also got two developed films back with really cool pictures. I just love photography. And my friends praised me for my organization of my photographs. Yeah. Since I've always been the dishevelled (or is "messy" the correct word?) one in our circle of friends, this praise does mean a lot to me. I'm on a good way.

I'm not so happy about finding out what will help me with my tendons. It's YOGA. I don't like yoga, I took a class once which was pure boredom.
I have two books on it though. A really beautiful one by Christy Turlington and an ugly one for runners by Jean Couch (what a name). In case you are wondering I mean the books layout in terms of ugliness and beauty. Seems like I don't get around it, since I want to run again with smooth tendons and muscles I have to do yoga. *grumble* As soon as I move to my new city I'll look for a yoga class and a triathlon club, until then I'll have to use the books.

Have a great day!

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

3 days in a row

Magnesium that is.

I also walked about 4 k and did a bit of cycling yesterday. Mood isn't that much better though.

Physio went well and it seems that the "knee" problem is actually a problem with my tendons, which tend to get hard and stay that way, this way resulting in the pain I have. I will look into this and find a solution. Remember: Nutrition is key.

Today I went to my doc for a blood check, should be interesting to get the results next week. Hopefully we find out, why I have this weird tiredness-problem. It's annoying.


Nevertheless I managed to design my new bed yesterday, since all the beds I really like are way out of my priceclass. Can you say 3500€ just for the frame? No, well me neither. Since I don't want to invest this amount at the moment and I don't see any reason to invest in a frame that I don't like, I've decided to design and "build" my bed on my own.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Can you decide that

something is your "drug"? Well, I don't know now if it works, but I did so and we'll see if it works out. It's a good "drug", no alcohol or chocolate or whatever. Don't you worry.

As you can tell from yesterdays post my mood is down in the cellar these days. Because nearly nothing works in the way I want it (job, flat, eating habits, training, bike). However yesterday evening in the streetcar I've had a few uplifting seconds. When I looked at my reflection (It was after 8 PM and already dark outside and the street car pretty empty, so I couldn't help it.) I liked what I saw and even more did I like that I seem to move in the direction I want to go stylewise. It was the first time that I looked at my reflection and felt like a grown up woman.

Today I feel more like an athlete who's done some necessary training. I've done some easy (legs full length on the bed) push ups. I don't remember the count (I don't need it, because I do pushups until my arms tremble and then two more), but obviously it was the right intensity and amount for a training effect, because I have sore chest muscles now. Good thing I have some physio therapy scheduled for today.


I also walked about 10k fast. Mind you, I don't mean this old lady sport walking, where you put on sport clothes, though I wore my Nike Free shoes I also wore jeans and my red trenchcoat. I walked to a furniture store up the road looking for a bed (they didn't have any beds that I liked) and later I walked to the city (approx. 5k). The tendons and muscles around my left knee weren't too happy about this exercise, but it didn't exactly hurt. I was only uncomfortable.

On the positive side I finally drank my magnesium two days in a row, that's a huge accomplishment (normally I'm good when I trink it once a week). I also had one of my proteine days yesterday. And though I also ate a lot of sweets, it was less than the days before.

Okay, got a lot of things to do and go to. Have a great day.

Read Keiths comment to my last post, it's amazing and it provided a b... kick I needed.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

How to plan a plan or why

after four days of planning to plan my training plan I still have no plan?

Seriously, I had this point of planning my training ("a plan that I will stick to" does something like this even exist in this universe of the multiverse?) on my tasklist for four days now. And while I finally do some strength drills again (yes, I stopped. Again...), I still haven't sat down to write down a training plan that I will stick to (or not).

I mean seriously I have some high goals (Ironman Hawaii, remember?), yet I don't get my b... moving. Instead I ate tons of chocolate, over the day, not in the evening, so the thing my doc did works well. Unfortunately I said nothing about no sweets for the whole day. Whoops.

Maybe I'm just in a phase of high self-sabotage?! Could be true.

So here I'm standing more or less on the same spot I started last year. Well, if that isn't an accomplishment. Yada, yada, yada.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD! (ahhaaa, as if I would!)

Taste Bud Adventures - Espresso

Over the last few months I had nearly no motivation to try anything new foodwise, which changed luckily a few weeks ago.
This week is a peak with lots of new tastes, like: Starbucks Chocolate Mocha, Bulgogi and Kimchi (Korean food on my birthday, yummy) and a newly made up pasta dish with soba noodles and salmon. So far I really like this week. ;-)

Anyway, a few weeks back I decided that it's time to try something new and this was the Espresso. I never drank coffee and still don't like it. However I thought that its time for some experimental stuff.

(I took those pictures.)

HOMEMADE ESPRESSO
It was the week of the car manufacturer interview. I spend the weekend with a very good friend in the Black Forest and when I told her, that I wanted to drink Espresso for the very first time, she got really excited and offered me that we drink some together, freshly made with her stove espresso maker. She bought Lavazza Rossa for this little adventure, since she hadn't been drinking espresso for a while and therefore no espresso at home.
When we got back from our trip to Basel (Switzerland) it was 10 PM and we had a small but very tasty dinner, with chicken on salad and fresh figs for dessert. Afterwards we really commemorated my first cup of espresso. The special part: We used the Starbucks espresso cups that I had just bought her as a gift in Basel. (Since we always go more than once to Starbucks, when we spend the day together in Basel. They come without the saucers.)


As you can see in the picture, it doesn't have a crema. The scent resembled interestingly enough not the fragrance of the powder, which is something that surprised me. When you make tea, the scent doesn't change this much.
The taste: "bitter". It was the first thing I thought, when I sipped it. The next thing I registered was that it only tasted on the tongue front and middle, not on the sides. It was also quite tart.
After a few small sips I added some sugar, but it didn't make it any better for me.

However, I slept quite well after this late coffee, when I went to bed at 4 AM (we had talked till 3 AM). Good thing next day was Sunday. ;-)

STARBUCKS ESPRESSO
A week later I decided to try an Espresso at Starbucks. I ordered a single shot of Espresso. It had a crema. The scent was different from the one I had at my friends apartment, but I can't say something like: "Well, I could smell that this was a variety from Colombia, from a region with a mild climate and the farmer had tarragon and blueberries planted too and drives a red Camry, the soil there is definitely rich with quartz and kryptonite." Or whatever a coffee afficionado would say. It smelled different, not better or worse just different.
The taste: "Ugh, I don't like coffee". Interestingly I tasted Starbucks coffee more on the sides of my tongue, though I can't really describe it. Adding sugar made the taste worse for me.

CONCLUSION
I don't like Espresso!
Neither homemade or Starbucks and I won't try any other varieties in the next few months, since it's a waste of money for me. I like tea, just now I'm trinking organic applemint tea and it tastes fantastic.


Have a great weekend and don't forget to

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

And the knee goes on...

Okay, glad that AZ will keep the skirt lessons in mind. ;-) Funnily enough I saw a lot of girls in the city with even shorter skirts and dresses the next day. Maybe it's just getting used too. Still waiting for the companies decision. I just hope that if there's a no, they don't give it to me tomorrow, this would totally ruin my birthday mood.


Anyway. Friday I went to my Doc again. Concerning the knee I get one more round of physiotherapy in the hope, that if all my muscles and ligaments are free, my knee get's back to normal. Until then it's bike and swim. I also got some stuff to help my connective tissue to get rid of the toxins it harbors and get the lymph flowing, which might lead to less inflammation and therefore a better knee, too.

And we got rid of my bad evening and night eating habits including my preference of sweets, wohoo. It seems to work, though it takes some getting used to on my mind/habits. I strolled out Saturday night, took a good look on the fridge and the kitchen cabinet with the cookies, but I didn't like anything and went back to sleep, which is new. Somehow Eliot (my dragon, that lazy a**) seemed to think on the weekend: "Ooouuuhh, no more eating in the evening? We need to compensate!" Which lead to stuffing myself over the day. Ts,ts,ts.

Hopefully the new way of eating is thoroughly implemented now and I'll finally get rid of the excess fat. It worked well with the nosespray (4 Months already, Wohoo.) so it will work with sugar in the evening, too.

Chris and I went for our usual round, but on Saturday and went by bike to some art exhibitions yesterday. Very sporty weekend. Even though I slept a great deal. Sleeping in the warm sunshine is pure luxury for me. I even did it on a beach on Big Island Hawaii. Pure bliss.


Okay, got some stuff to organize and look up some new job offers and apply.

Have a great new week everyone.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!