could be a little weird

We may go to the Asparagus Festival in Stockton tomorrow. I've wanted to go for the past couple of years but it hasn't worked out. Doesn't fried asparagus sound tasty? How about asparagus ice cream?

Do you attend food-focused festivals?

~♥~

morning mug muffin

One Minute Cocoa Flax Muffin

Ingredients

1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 egg
1 tsp butter
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 tsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a large mug and microwave for 50 seconds.  Pops right out – you don’t even need to grease the mug.

[Recipe source: here.]

Saw this recipe and thought, "Hey, I have all these ingredients, a microwave & a few coffee mugs." So, I tried it.  

Something different in the morning besides oatmeal or eggs. And, honestly, does it get any quicker & easier than this? Only if a big bird flew through your kitchen and dropped a muffin into your outstretched hands.

What I'd do differently next time:

• more cocoa or maybe use a darker cocoa
• salted butter (only had unsalted to use this morning)
• top with a smear of natural peanut butter

~♥~

Adidas giveaway winners

Congrats to Amy, Leslie, Kim, Brian & Amy. Stay tuned, more product reviews and giveaways to come...!

~♥~

current biking playlist

I seem to be going through a U2 remix phase.


Current Biking Playlist 

Beautiful Day - U2

Keep the Car Running - Arcade Fire

Calamity Song - The Decemberists

Heavy Cross - Gossip

Heavy Metal Drummer - Wilco

Float On - Modest Mouse

Jump - Madonna

All the Sand in the Sea - DeVotchka

Lazy Eye - Silversun Pickups

Giving Up the Gun - Vampire Weekend

Even Better Than the Real Thing (remix) - U2

American Girl - Tom Petty

Where Not to Look for Freedom - The Belle Brigade

Helena Beat - Foster the People

Ritual Union - Little Dragon

Pump It Up - Elvis Costello

Run Right Back - The Black Keys

See the World - Gomez

Lucky Guy - The Belle Brigade

Ray of Light (remix) - Madonna

Satellite - Guster

Don't Stop - Foster the People

New Year's Day (remix) - U2

She's Got You High - Mumm-Ra

Country Lane - Telekinesis

I Melt With You - Modern English

Vagabond - Wolfmother

Airstream Driver - Gomez

Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie

Before the Light Takes Us - Darkness Falls

Bang a Gong (Get It On) - T Rex

We Are All Made Of Stars (remix) - Moby

Naive Melody - Arcade Fire

Down By the Water - The Decemberists

Underneath the Sycamore - Death Cab for Cutie

Back to Me - Kathleen Edwards

15 to 20 - The Phenomenal Handclap Band

What's your favorite song on your workout playlist?

~♥~

shake it up!

Introducing my sort of new iPod:

Click on image to enlarge.

Are you thinking you might be seeing something engraved? You are correct. It is the free engraving offered by Apple. So what if it's invisible to the naked eye. It was free and I know it's there. It's from a favorite Joni Mitchell song: No regrets, Coyote.

Here's what I discovered the other day -- I can 'shuffle' my biking playlist. About 99.8 percent of the time, I ride my road bike on the bike trail that goes along the American River toward Sacramento. It is a fantastic bike trail. Really. But, I've ridden it many, many times. You'd be surprised how much of a difference it makes to let the iPod spirits do their shuffle magic on an oft played playlist. Well, it's like falling in love all over again. :)

Dear Red World AIDS Day iPod Nano, I love you.

~♥~

Ah, spring is here

"Notice the color purple" (The Happiness Project)

What a gorgeous time of year! Birds are signing and so much is in bloom. The downside is allergies. I used Simply Saline nasal spray and downed a Claritin D before setting off for a 20 mile ride yesterday. I have to do this year round now as my allergies have been wicked this year. I've also had asthma for the first time in my adult life. Yesterday's ride was the best I've had in a long time with regard to allergies. Usually, my eyes start weeping and my nose runs the entire ride. Attractive! Exercising is so much more enjoyable when you can see & breathe.

Do you have allergies? Have you found ways to effectively manage them?

~♥~

for the weekend

 Getting outside this weekend? Or heading off to some place special?

~♥~

a weak spot

Mesquite Dunes Death Valley

You know what's a good workout? Walking up and down big sand dunes. Unfortunately, it was too good of a workout for my right calf. This is where I had a muscle tear a couple years ago and something about walking a mile or so on these dunes in Death Valley National Park made that exact spot become very sore. Still, it was worth it to hang out there to watch the sun go down.

Do you use arnica for muscle soreness? I tried both oral and gel types for my sore calf. Seems to have helped but not sure if I would have healed the same without using it.

It's the first truly warm day of the year today. Time to break out the biking shorts.

BTW - There's still time to enter the giveaway for the fresh scented, designed-by-athletes Adidas shower gels.

~♥~

Giveaway - get fresh with adidas

One of the things I like best about being athletic, is taking a nice, long shower after a bike ride. I recently had the opportunity to try a special product from Adidas designed just for that post workout shower. Now, Adidas 3 Hair & Body Wash was developed for men so the main trying out duties fell to my husband who is a runner and cyclist. I tried it too because I wanted to see how it lathered and how it felt on my skin.

My husband's observations:

He liked all three scents but favored "Extra Fresh" (the light blue with mint extract). He liked how it lathered and how the bottle was easy to grip and to open. It was "OK" as a shampoo but better as a body wash. I thought he smelled great after using each of the Adidas 3 Hair & Body products. Giving him the sniff test after his shower was my favorite part!

I, too, thought the product lathered nicely and the scent lasted a long time. My skin didn't feel particularly hydrated but it didn't feel dry either. My skin felt clean & normal. I didn't try it as a shampoo.

I recommend this product for all the male athletes in your life and for YOU, if you happen to be a male athletic type person.

Giveaway -

Adidas is generously providing five sample sets. If you'd like to win a full-size sample of all three scents, leave a comment below. Be sure to include your email address so I can contact you. For another chance to win, go to the Fitville page on Facebook and "like" it. The five winners will be selected randomly on April 23rd.

Good luck!

Note: Giveaway is open to residents of USA & Canada.

NOTE: This giveaway is now closed. The winners have been selected using the number generator at random.org. and contacted. Thanks to everyone who entered. More exciting giveaways coming soon!

~♥~

what's your fitness passion?

[Source: Experience Life]

"...the mistake many people make when it comes to fitness: People assume they dislike all exercise because they haven’t found that one thing that really inspires them. And that’s a shame, says Andersen, because “life is too short to hate what you’re doing.”

When I was first figuring out what I needed to do to shed the 30 pounds that had crept on in my mid forties, I turned to weight loss blogs and started this one. I read with avid interest about the exercise routines people raved about on their blogs. I bought DVDs thinking that I'd found just the right thing for me. Turns out, I can't stand trying to follow a fitness workout on a DVD. Hate it in fact. Doesn't mean they are a bad idea in general or that I was misled. I just didn't take into account that I don't like to watch TV that much, especially during the day. I like to be outside.

Find Your Fitness Passion
Not wild about working out? Maybe you just haven’t found the right activities for you. Here’s how to start falling in love with physical activity.

This is a terrific article about how important it is to find your fitness passion with step by step suggestions for figuring it out.

So, here's a suggestion from me if you're just starting out on your quest to lose weight and gain fitness: if you are curious about the DVD workouts people talk about, see if you can borrow them from friends, family or your local library first.

Turns out my fitness passions right now are biking (both road and mountain) and walking the local trail. I plan to try hiking in the nearby mountains more this summer.

Have you found your fitness passion?

~♥~

Best Weight Loss Blogs 2012

Recently, this blog made it onto two lists of notable weight loss blogs. I'm amazed by this and also feel incredibly honored. I'm very grateful to the persons who thought of Fitville when thinking about blogs that may be helpful to people seeking support during their weight loss/fitness journeys.

Be sure to check out both of these lists for links to some extremely good blogs. There are some you won't be surprised to see because their awesomeness is pretty widely known but there will be some wonderful new discoveries guaranteed.

Greatist 60 Must-Read Health & Fitness Blogs for 2012

Cranky Fitness Best Weight Loss Blogs 2012

~♥~

March was...

The weather sent mixed messages.

March was a lot like February in terms of my exercise goals. I walked my age in miles (yay!) and fell far short of cycling my weight in miles. Cycling was impacted by weather (yes, winter finally arrived here in nor cal) and by what was hopefully my last oral surgery. Adios frankenmouth!

Getting to my goal weight range has taken some time -- months actually. I'm happy to be right in the middle at 133. I don't keep a food journal but I think my eating has been a bit cleaner this month too.

When I first started  this blog, I had a steep learning curve. I was eager to learn what was needed to lose weight while pushing fifty and if it was possible to stay at a healthy weight. I learned about replacing unhealthy eating habits with healthier ones. I discovered "clean eating." Figured out that finding a form of cardio exercise that you like, maybe even grow to love, is essential. But the lesson of this past year, hands down, is that patience is an absolute requirement in maintaining weight loss and fitness levels.

BTW - You're invited to visit Fitville on facebook for daily recipes, wellness research and stuff.

~♥~