This is a story about my snowy drama in Northstar.
Thankfully it ends well.
Thanks to the generosity from the Northstar team, Vegas and I were able to sneak in one more snowboarding trip this season. Remember that Northstar travel guide I wrote last month? We re-lived it… but bigger with a TON more snow, new-to-us food stops, and a bit of drama.
This is how my Monday started out in the parking lot…
…
I don’t even bring a camera when I travel anymore.
Disclosure: The following post is sponsored by Fitfluential LLC on behalf of Verizon Wireless.
When I got my first smart phone, it changed my world. I’ve never liked having to carry multiple devices or go to more than one source for tasks.
Verizon offered me the chance to upgrade from my iPhone 5 to a 5s and I pounced on the opportunity. From the solid, light-weight of the metal-casing to the fingerprint-reading lock, I am impressed. I also love the new iOS7 system. It offers iTunes Radio, which is like Pandora but better because you can tag songs as favorites to remember to purchase later. I’ve wished for this feature on the radio SO many times!
The light weight and the radio features allow me to travel light on a plane or the gym – just grab the phone and my in-flight entertainment or energy-inducing jams are there. I love being able shake up my music songs – my playlist was getting OLD after all this competition training.
Since I spent the weekend with Heather in Colorado for our competition, I joined her for a final workout. Radio up and headphones in, I killed the last back/tri workout I’ll do for 2 weeks (it’s REST time!). It was SO much fun to be able to do it with a friend, and to shamelessly ask gym employees to take iPhone pics for us.
Best of all is the super-fast Verizon 4G LTE service. I’m extremely impatient, so being able to over-share instantaneously via Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter is a must. I did just that alllll weekend long from Colorado!
I’m drafting this on a flight home and the internet is painfully slow, so the full recap will have to wait. In the meantime, here’s the iPhone-powered Cliff’s Notes:
Heather and I didn’t get top 5, but we had a blast. AND we got to cheer Lisa, who placed 4th in Bikini Class C.
We celebrated in style at one of Denver’s best restaurants, Fruition. Kait joined us too – it was so great to meet her for the first time. I ordered pasta carbonara with hand-made cavatalli, pork belly and a 6 minute egg (I ordered that solely for the #yolkporn) and duck confit pierogi with caramelized brussels, kumquat marmalade, and roasted apple pan jus.
The food was great, the service was perfect, and the company couldn’t have been better… but I’m still amazed I didn’t fall asleep in my (unpictured) dessert.
Sunday was a beautiful morning – not a cloud in the sky! Heather, Kirk (her husband) and I slept in and headed out for coffee and a hike.
We headed back to meet Lauren and Greg (her husband) for brunch. We sipped on a Kirk-and-Heather whiskey barrel-aged homebrew (out-of-this-world good!) and shoveled a cheese plate in our mouths while Kirk prepared the meal The smoked salmon eggs benedict was one of the best I’ve had!
I’m sad to leave, but made a ton of good memories… and rekindled my desire to MOVE to Denver! It was all pretty marvelous.
***
I am so grateful for Heather and Kirk putting up with me me up for the long weekend, and to everyone who commented/tweeted good luck messages. It all made the weekend that much more special. Thank you! <3
Are you an iPhone or Droid lover? What are your favorite apps? I’ve become addicted to LINE camera.
Do you like to hike? That’s one of the reasons I want to live in Denver!
I like to apply myself.
My grade school teachers would laugh… they always wrote on my report cards “if Laura would only apply herself…”
With age came discipline. And the iPhone, which I use to keep me on track with my fitness. Every day I use my top apps. It may be a little OCD, but it works for me.
I will never be a morning person, but this gem makes waking up a little easier. Sleep Cycle uses the accelerometer in your iPhone to monitor your movement throughout the night an determine which sleep phase you are in. It wakes you up in a 30 minute alarm window that ends at your set alarm time, depending on when you are in your lightest sleep phase.
I need more hours of sleep…
I’m lumping these together since I’m sure most of you are already familiar. I love social media. Maybe too much. HootSuite is a big time saver because it allows me to manage Facebook and Twitter in one place. I also use the Facebook app to interact with friends and post random quotes and resources on my page (click to “like” Sprint 2 the Table!).
And my beloved Instagram. What did we do before this? When I can’t decide what to eat, it’s my first stop for inspiration! That first pic was for a recipe I was going to post today… but the pics were SO bad in the night lighting.
The app is great for tracking my water throughout the day. I drink 120 ounces… it’s hard to keep up with that in my head! There are a lot of apps that will do this for you; I use FitBit because I already use the pedometer.
I use my actual FitBit One device daily to track steps, distance, and stairs. It also give you a calories burned number… but I don’t think it’s accurate. It’s value – to me – is that it motivates me to keep moving. When you have a desk job, it can easily lead to a sedentary state. Yes, I work out regularly… but in reality it’s only about 1.5 hours a day. The rest of the time I am at a desk.
I drink 120 oz a day… yes, I pee a LOT.
I just started using this app to track my progress in the gym. I can record workouts, reps, and the weights I use easily and in real-time at the gym. A pen and paper will do the trick… but I hate carrying that stuff around, and I can never remember exactly what I did by the time I get home.
This app also track progress graphically, making it easy to see improvements over time. Heather just wrote a great post about the importance of measuring your progress. I love her point about setting benchmarks – it is SO important to keep challenging yourself so as not to stagnate. We don’t work this hard to stay the same, right?
I haven’t used the following features but… if you don’t already have a routine, the app offers 25 pre-defined workouts (with pictures and instructions), cardio exercises, and stretches. It also offers a calorie counter.
This is both an app and an online service. While the name is Lose It, I use it to gain. This service allows me to track the foods I eat, complete with macros! Their catalog of foods is pretty extensive, but if you can’t find something you can scan the bar code or enter it manually.
One of my favorite features is the ability to enter recipes. You can choose the number of servings and enter all of the ingredients into dishes you make, then save it for future use. I use this to calculate the recipes I post on this site. Like that recipe on Instagram last night… this is coming soon!
Another cool feature is that you can enter exercise… and the calories burn is pretty accurate. Lose It! asks your age, weight, and height when you sign up, which I supposed really can give a good idea of the calories you burn. I was skeptical.
To confirm its accuracy, I used my heart rate monitor. Most of the time the calories burned match, give or take 20-40 cals. I will never understand how this is possible.
The Lose It! review is part of a sponsored campaign with Lose It! and FitFluential, LLC. All opinions are my own (and I was already using the app). Learn more about Lose It! on Twitter.
***
That chili recipe is coming as soon as I get some good picture-taking daylight… it was GOOD!
What are your favorite apps?
How much water do you drink in a day?
Have you guys been following the cell phone news?
They may cause brain cancer.
Lovely. As someone who spent the better part of college with a phone glued to her ear, I’m not amused.
I turned to NPR (dork). Apparently the culprit is the radio frequency electromagnetic fields cellphones give off. They could be carcinogenic. Could be.
Know what else could be carcinogenic?
Basically, I’m a goner.
Honestly, I don’t like talking the phone anymore. Can you grow out of that? I use mine primarily to text and email. And tweet.
___________________________________________________________________________________
In happier news, I’ve had a great time this week eating green foods! Despite how it may look from the smorgasbord I posted yesterday…
1. Tami’s Green Gazpacho:
My modifications included the addition of 2 jalapenos, using a whole cup of cilantro, and reducing the water by a cup. I also bypassed the bread and topped it with Greek yogurt (which was amazing!).
Next time I’d reduce the salt a bit, but other than that it was a fantastic summer soup. The perfect cool lunch with insanely hot weather!
2. Salad… con mucho color.
I had some fresh mozzarella left over from my Peach Caprese Salad, so I used that to make this Spinach–Carrot–Tomato-Caprese-Salad. With hummus. And… an embarrassing item.
See the falafel-looking things? Those are “Chicken Bites.” They are made by a company called Happy Bites. They make sneak veggies into their frozen kids snacks… yes, I’m almost 28 and I buy over-priced children’s foods. You can find them at Whole Paycheck Foods… the Veggie Tots are good too.
3. Averie’s Avocado Banana Ice Cream.
You guys know I love avocados in smoothies – it makes them deliciously creamy. Why not in ice cream? I trust Averie.
Did I mention it’s VEGAN ice cream?
I used So Delicious unsweetened vanilla coconut milk, omitted the sugar, added 1/2 a packet of Stevia, and used maybe 1/2 C of ice cubes. My Magic Bullet blended it like a champ. Then I threw it in my mini-ice cream maker. And immediately devoured 1/2 of it. Before dinner because I’m not a Happy Bite-eating kid.
***
I’m off for a morning run before A) it reaches 90 degrees and B) Souper Jenny’s Underground Supper Club tonight. It’s so underground that I don’t even know where it is or who the chef is yet!
Do you like to talk on the phone? Will you change your usage habits in light of the potential cancer-risk?
PSA: Sleep Cycle is the best app ever.
Wild ass claim…
From their website, Sleep Cycle is a “bio-alarm clock that analyzes your sleep patterns and wakes you when you are in the lightest sleep phase.” Since using it, I have woken up on time (or early!) and not pressed snooze the first time.
By far, the most useful app I’ve downloaded to-date. I’d give it an Oscar. For the second morning in a row… 
I had time to go to the gym!!!
And make a tasty breakfast:
Roasted grapefruit with fresh nutmeg, cinnamon, and coriander. Side of Greek yogurt + chia seeds. Coffee.
If you’ve never tried a roasted grapefruit, I highly recommend it. It is an easy and grapefruit is in season right now.
For a “how-to,” check out this post.
____________________________________________________________________________________
This week has inadvertently become Indian cuisine week… (more after the jump) …
I am in App-heaven.
So far I’m loving:
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Remember when I mentioned trying Katie’s voluminous oatmeal trick?
I made them to runny in Round 1. This morning I did it again, sans liquid overkill. FTW.
Blueberry-Banana-Style Voluminous Oats
In my mix:
Microwave 4 mins, let stand for 5 mins, place in fridge over night (according to Katie’s instructions).
Added in the morning:
Mix using an immersion blender (a.k.a my new BFF), and heat in microwave until warm.
Toppings that would be delicious: banana pieces, chocolate chunks, walnuts, more berries.
***
This weekend I posted about my distaste for McDonald’s oatmeal.
Apparently, I am not the only one who thinks they are scary. Check out this New York Times article. (Why couldn’t they have at least made all that artificial taste good?!)
What to do you grab for breakfast in a pinch? Is fast food a consideration?
Happy President’s Day!
It seems that most people had to work, but we had the day off since we didn’t get MLK Day.
Productivity was high! Checked off my to-do list:
The run this morning was slow going, but I was fine with that because I was sore from having a GOOD run yesterday!
I attempted a run last weekend and had to quit because my jaw bones were shaking (I have no idea how else to describe it… but it’s like I can feel my bones moving) and my head was pounding.
Anyway, yesterday I did a 5K in 26:40. Then ran/walked another 1.25 miles.
So a less-than amazing run today was fine by me. And I treated myself to a post-run latte at Caribou Coffee while reading the paper.
Now I need to figure out endurance before the Tough Mudder on March 12th… follow up with the Doc tomorrow… hopefully he won’t make me stop!
Any way, also in honor of my President’s Day off, I tried a new oatmeal method. Chocolate-Covered Katie’s Voluminous Oatmeal.
I added a little much liquid, but I’m re-doing it tonight to perfect tomorrow morning. This morning, I added a scoop of vanilla protein powder (post-run refuel!), cinnamon, and peanut butter. Tasty, if I may say so.
The BEST part of any holiday is the present!
I got an iPhone!
.gif "iPhone 4")
Thank you, Verizon
My first picture with the Hipstamatic app…. it was stressful trying to get everything set up!
***
So, now that I’ve joined modern society…
What are you favorite, must-have apps?
