Category Archives: Orlando Life
The Vegginator
Yours truly has a new nickname, and I’m not sure how I feel about it.
My company happens to be a Relay for Life sponsor, and to raise some final donations for this weekend’s walk, we organized a hot dog eating fundraiser. They secured Frank n Steins, a casual bar in downtown Orlando, to host the shenanigans, and I gleefully followed along with the planning…
Until my name – and new nickname – appeared on the promotional flyer.
Apparently, the rumor around the office is that the resident food blogger likes to eat. I’m not sure what led them to that conclusion…
Five minutes…3.75 veggie dogs…$1,000 for cancer research…
…and with that, we shall never speak of this again.
Or put pictures on Facebook.
I’m a lady, after all. I don’t shove weiners in my mouth for money and then plaster it all over the internet.
Moving right along.
I spent an hour or two enjoying the happy hour that followed before heading out to make dinner with some girlfriends. After going ham on the hot dogs, there wasn’t a ton of room in my stomach, but I still made room to sample the Vegginator-friendly goods 
{Salad of the gods: strawberries, blueberries, gorgonzola and pistachios}
{asparagus with basil pesto}
{deconstructed strawberry shortcake}
Just like that, it’s Friday. Here’s to the weekend!
Ever done an eating contest? Would you consider it?
Run for Life Four Miler Recap
Hello friends! Things are tough to get back in order after a holiday weekend, no? Hopefully everyone had a safe Cinco and transitioned back as smoothly as possible.
Before beginning the salsa-smothered festivities, I kicked off my weekend with a healthier event – the Run for Life four miler. The race had been in the back of my mind for weeks, but I waited until the morning of the event to fully commit.
Note to self: bad idea. The race was so well organized that I had high hopes heading in to it, but my body refused to cooperate. Once my stomach started arguing with my Clif bar and my quads started feeling like lead, my mind dropped out of the race as well. The only thing that keep me going after the first mile checkpoint was knowing how cranky a DNF would make me.
After what seemed like five hours of running, I rounded the final corner. After briefly eyeing up the remaining quarter mile stretch, I realized I could partially redeem my performance and overtake the other two females ahead of me. I’m not entirely sure how it was humanly possible, but I managed to cross the finish several steps in front of the other two ladies.
Even with the last-minute overtaking, I still was plagued with disappointment after I’d caught my breath. My {unofficial} finish of 41:58 was a solid two minutes more than I was shooting for, and despite the flat course, I felt like my body had been through an entire marathon. I skipped right over the post-race activities and requested a face-stuffing stop as quickly as possible.
One of the big qualms I’ve had about racing is that my competitive personality would get the best of me and turn me into a sore loser.
It’s never been an issue of being bitter against the winners of the race – the men and women on the course have worked their behinds off to run as well as they do and I’m incredibly happy for them – but I’m also incredibly hard on myself when I don’t earn the results I want.
I wholeheartedly believe that there’s pride to be had any time you really push yourself and work for something you want – but it’s also tough to be proud of yourself when you feel like you could have given a bit more, run a bit smarter and pushed a bit harder. I understand that not every race can be a PR, but it’s tough to walk away with your chin up when you under-perform.
How do you deal with sub-par performance? Are you able to be proud of “just a finish”, or do you also have to cope with a nagging sense of disappointment after missing a time goal?
Sometimes I Get a Good Feelin’
I graduated college exactly two years ago Tuesday.
Things have changed a lot since then. I haven’t always felt like I’ve changed for the better.
To be perfectly honest, transitioning to the real world kicked my ass. The job fiasco, the stress of my college friends moving away, moving away myself, struggling to make a really unhealthy long-distance relationship work…all while juggling loneliness from living solo, anxiety, low self esteem, depressive bouts..
While I was schmucking through it, everything seemed normal. I told myself this was just the reality of growing up.
Somehow I couldn’t see that my body was practically beating me over the head with red flags.
I hadn’t been sleeping; my appetite was all over the place; I spent a good part of this year’s winter coming straight home and hopping into bed with no interest in doing much else.
Earth to Faith, Earth to Faith…
Something wasn’t right.
Standing on {what I can only assume is the tail end} of the mess, it all seems so obvious. I was trying my damndest to be happy and I just couldn’t force it to happen.
And then, this morning, I woke up, and I felt like something had switched over.
I woke up feeling a way I haven’t in literally two years. Excited for the day. Excited for the projects I get to tackle at work and the people I get to work with. Excited for the run I have on my schedule and the baking project I committed to for tomorrow. Completely content with my life and optimistic about all the fun I’m going to have with it.
I’m claiming my life back. Who’s coming along for the ride?
Now More than Ever
Is the time to go live your life.
To not worry about being too loud:
Or looking ridiculous dorky dancing for your friends’ amusement:
To not worry about staying up past self-imposed bedtimes:
Or how many calories are in fried cheese sticks :
To not worry whether or not you’ll get back on the “healthy” wagon {because you will}:
Just do the damn thing.
{Please meet the boyfriend.}
What do you need to do now more than ever?
Off the Clock
This week’s long run is officially completed!
I’d penciled five miles in on Monday’s schedule, but impromptu dinner plans prompted me to postpone them until Tuesday.
I started working on psyching myself up around lunchtime:
{Romaine, cucumber, carrot, chickpea and gorgonzola salad, side of honey mustard.}
I don’t even have a Pinterest and still managed to spend a half hour browsing running photos for inspirational mantras.
A little later in the day, I put some carbs in the tank with the best flavor of Clif bar known to man:
White chocolate macadamia nut for the win.
To make the run more interesting, I plotted a path through a gorgeous part of town I was introduced to last weekend.
I was taken to the Orlando Science Center last Sunday, and on the walk over, I fell in love with the scenic roads around the museum-heavy strip of north Orlando.
Running past the museums yesterday was almost as fun as wandering through them last weekend!
The only downside to the run was the pretty heavy peppering of stoplights. Yesterday’s route was dotted with at least five major lights {and plenty of other short stops}. The lights are usually a welcome relief, but I’m never quite sure how to handle them when tracking my time.
{Without accounting for forced stops at the traffic lights, the 5 miles took me 52:38}.
Because I have to stop at red lights whether I want to or not {runners may be a crazy breed, but not quite crazy enough to dart into oncoming Orlando traffic}, I’ve been pausing the Soleus while I catch my breath and wait for the walk signal to flicker on.
I have no problem leaving the clock ticking when I take walking breaks on my own volition, but waiting for the longer lights to turn green can chew two or three full minutes off the clock. I don’t want those wasted minutes to skew my final stats.
Unfortunately, race clocks don’t stop ticking, and I also don’t want to chart my training using unrealistic patterns. A break is a break, and if my body is used to them, it’ll be hard to perform at the same pace without them come race day.
Decisions, decisions!
Even though I spent the last mile of my run mulling over my clock-stopping strategy, the debate was quickly forgotten once dinner was underway.
Long run, hungry girl!
My bowl was packed with quinoa, vegan spinach artichoke dip and tomatoes – I’m not sure I stopped to chew, but I am sure that you won’t want to miss the recipe for the dip coming your way tomorrow. See you then!
If you run outdoors with a tracking watch, how do you handle forced breaks for traffic? Do you take a breather off the clock or let the minutes count against your final time?
Central Florida Food Truck Bazaar
Someone around here is a genius.
Throw a dozen plus gourmet food trucks in one location, sprinkle in some live music and awesome people watching, and you have yourself a perfect date night!
We decided it would be a blast to head to Kissimmee for the traveling Food Truck Bazaar. Our game plan was to split a few different plates from the most unique trucks to maximize the amount of awesomeness we got to sample.
First up: the Tastebuds truck, a Latin-themed truck offering a savory and sweet cheese sticks sampler platter.
The tequenos weren’t fried, which was nice – they were just wrapped in a chewy, buttery bread that almost reminded me of a dense croissant. The ones with the guava jelly were my favorite – it added an unexpected punch!
For our next pick, I requested a stop at The Flattery, a gourmet flatbread truck.
I’d had my eye on the veggie-matic, and he agreed that it sounded fantastic. It was my favorite plate of the night thanks to a creamy white sauce, peppery arugula and a heaping variety of delicious vegetables.
The flatbread was actually more filling than we’d anticipated, so we decided to cap off the night with just one more dish.
He was dying to try the fried yucca, and I happily put my own dent in the crispy Cuban goodness.
Like I said, sheer genius.
Are food trucks a big trend in your area? Ever ordered from them?
The Ocoee Kicked My Ass
Some people step away from blogging for a little while because they feel like it’s taking over their life. They feel like it’s preventing them from getting out and living life away from the computer screen.
I totally understand where these bloggers are coming from – I definitely enjoyed filling my time with non-electronic hobbies – but I totally missed coming back here to talk about it with all of y’all! Suffice it to say I almost kissed the Sony repairman with delight when he pronounced my Vaio back in action!
Sans blog, I had one of the coolest experiences of my life this weekend. When two of my death-defying guy friends {seriously, these men kayak through class V+ whitewater rapids on a weekly basis} invited me on a weekend trip to Tennessee, I was packing my overnight bag faster than you can say “do you have an extra life vest?”
{They did, thankfully.}
After quite the drive {that included picking up bottle rockets at a gas station, sneaking into a campground at 2 in the morning, crashing on a dock and waking up to three drunk boaters yapping about the bass and the now-pouring rain}, the guys got me all suited up and we dropped our kayaks into the Cartecay River.
Is that not just ridiculously gorgeous? I’d kill for a summer cabin up in the Smokies someday.
{Note to self: marry rich. Or start a petition for writers to be paid more like professional athletes.}
First river of the day: beasted!
Unfortunately, rocking out the Cartecay inflated my ego to the point where I believed I was a world-class kayaker and could handle a much more quickly-flowing, shallow and intense run down the whitewaters of the Ocoee.
One all-you-can-eat pizza buffet later…
…We arrived at the Ocoee {a class III-IV rapid}. Within five minutes of putting our kayaks in the water, I’d successfully flipped over, panicked, pulled the skirt exit and swam half a mile downstream in the rapids, banging my legs across some rather unfriendly rocks.
I’ll spare you the visual, but let’s just say a quarter of my shin is a remarkable shade of purple, and for the first few hours, a stranger might have believed I had a second kneecap growing out of my lower leg.
Cute.
{Obviously not as cute as the massive pup I befriended at the Cartecay outpost, so rather than smack you in the face with a gnarly bruise, I’ll hit ya with the adorableness of the hound instead}.
Ocoee, I’m comin’ back for ya. You may have kicked my ass this weekend, but next time, it’s on.
What have I missed in your lives over the last week and a half? Any excitement?
Sorry for Walking Into You, Mr. Celebrity
Salads have been popping up around here a lot more frequently, haven’t they?
Not that more greens are ever a bad thing!
My coworker suggested an Eden Fresh lunch run, and y’all know there’s only one answer to that…
On our way out of the building, I may or may not have walked directly into a dude – a tall, tan, sunglass-sporting dude with a blonde chick in tow. I apologized and kept on walking, but my coworker just stood there, stuttering and blinking hilariously fast.
When he collected himself, he informed me that I’d just walked into Johnny Damon, a pretty big MLB player.
According to my coworker, he’s kind of a big ish in baseball.
My response: “Well that’s nice. Can we go get our food now?”
Just goes to show how little I know about baseball. One thing I do know, though, is my food!
These Oskri bars are the bomb!
I picked up a few on clearance at TJMaxx {not sketchy at all, y’all} and at the cashew and cranberry bar before this afternoon’s workout. I really like that the protein is a rice protein and the entire bar is soy-free {instead of the usual “soy protein isolate” you get in protein bars}.
Looks to me like it did the trick – I was full and focused through my entire run, and ultimately shaved 16 seconds off my last two-mile time.
Take that, Johnny Damon 
Ever had a run-in with a celebrity? Do you think you could play it cool or would you be flipping out all over the place?
A Little Bit ‘a This
My favorite weekends are the ones where you get to squeeze in a little bit of everything.
A little bit of calmness: reading the paper with your morning oatmeal {even if it’s last week’s paper that you’re just now getting around to. No judgement.}
A few downtown shenanigans: {unfortunately, the only evidence to show for the night was two rather fuzzy phone photos}
A bit of laziness: taking advantage of my apartment building’s free residents’ brunch rather than whipping something up for myself:
A touch of frivolous shopping: a sale that can only be described as Black Friday madness but with $2 J.Crew sweaters rather than $3 wafflemakers:
{Bet you I wear that sweater before I use the waffle iron I took an elbow for on the day after Thanksgiving…}
As well as a bit of foodie shopping:
I bought that sample of Bangkok Tofu from the Whole Foods hot bar to avoid shopping on an empty stomach, and I only wish I’d dished up more – that dish is one of their best!
The rest of the weekend included time for running, reading {I’m getting irritated with the House of Mirth – Lily is the most vapid protagonist I’ve ever come across} and cooking {a vegan spinach artichoke dip recipe is coming your way later in the week}.
The only thing that was missing was sunshine! Getting caught in the rain is one thing – it’s another when you’re walking your pup two miles from your house and have to deal with wet dog stench upon arriving home. Not as delicious as it sounds, I assure you.
On to tackle another wonderful week. Hope you got to make time for all of your little favorites as well!
Would you rather carve out a day for one specific activity like a theme park, or would you rather squeeze in little time pockets for an assortment of different activities?
