Almost vegan: the edited Trader's Joe Greek Salad

Trader's Joe has a Greek packed salad. It is 2.5 portions and has some chopped lettuce (not a lot), same red cabbage, chopped cucumbers, olives and roasted red peppers, onion, a little bit of feta (that is why I call myself almost vegan) and an envelope of dressing with what it looked like oil, vinegar and herbs. When I've tried the first time I mixed all the ingredients and firstly it was waaay to sour (to much vinaigrette) and I as I had romaine leaves in my fridge I added quite a lot of them. The taste of rest of the ingredients still came through, maybe except the onion. 

The next time when I bought this prepacked salad, I added extra onion, cucumber lettuce and it became a favorite very quick to put together salad that could feed few people also didn't wilt so I could refrigerate it and have the leftover the next day.

On one of this "next day" as I saw there was still lots of vinaigrette on the bottom of the salad bowl I thought to add some beans, I had cannelloni beans around (meanwhile I tried with pinto beans also) and it was soo good.

I played with adding plant protein. Here is a pic with the salad with added garbanzo beans, but I do prefer this salad with the cannelloni or pinto beans.

Fourth week of July

Monday my skating went quite badly. I was very stiff. It may be because I haven't skated from the previous Wednesday, or I had a very static work weekend, or it was very hot outside, or all of them combined... I took a fall on my left knee, it was an uncharacteristic fall/ stiff, so I decided to take it easy to ease myself back into softer knees.

Wednesday and Friday I didn't feel well. I've got headaches and body aches, I think from the air conditioning. I could have gone and skate "easy" but Monday skating made it clear that I don't enjoy taking it easy.

What I've done is I contacted my coach to hopefully schedule a lesson, just one for now. I hope that would carry me through till fall. As there will be more ice available and I will be able to spend less time/ energy driving to skating and actually skate more. And maybe also I could set a regular lessons schedule.

Third week of July

Monday and Wednesday were kind of the same. I was a little tired maybe because of the bad air quality, or maybe because it is quite hot. I went to the farther away rink, the session is just 1 hour and I was slightly late each day. That didn't give me time to play with the blade alignment for the newly stretched boot, but I do think there is improvement and also slight room for improvement, I am happy about that!

I've ran through all my exercises and the Tenfox, they all go reasonably well but I feel sloppy and without much flow.

I'm trying to improve the back spin (on which I felt a breakthrough the previous week when I've got a long spin on an accidental inside edge). The good news is that if I get on the inside edge the spin goes better, but I cannot get on it consistently, I think I'm leaving the upper body behind, as I used to do with the forward spin.

The next thing I work on consistently are the Twizzles. The CCW is rotating twice, the CW still not, maybe once- it almost did. I'm drilling short/ flat3 turns, 2 foot spins in the CW direction and Mo and FI 3s in the CW directions, I think that helps. I've also observed that everything, including Twizless, go better when I have a good posture day. I'm planing to observe if the posture and core engagement is better after days when I work my core muscles.

I couldn't skate on Friday.

Second week of July

Monday was a pretty good skating day, so good that I had very sore muscles. I've ran through all my exercises for Adult Gold Skating Skills (the moves in the fields now are called skating skills) and for dance, and the Tenfox. I even took a fall and that is said to be proof that the skater works hard and pushes over comfort zone to be able to progress.

Wednesday was not so good, I was surely a little tired and it was crowded. It rained heavily and I guess people that couldn't do their activities outdoors, came in for a skate. I didn't feel safe to ran my usual exercises on the lenght of the rink, so I worked on spots. I did have breakthrough on the back spin that had up to then an inconsistent number of rotations and it always ended with loss of balance. Now I accidentally hit a strong inside edge on the spinning foot and the spin kept going, I was able to repeat it several times. Fingers crossed it will show up on the next test session. The forward spin is finally where it was 2 years ago when I started to look for new boots, is is crossed and centered. I see the strong skaters centering with the free foots extended and then crossing it, I cannot do that, I'm rushing to cross, I guess worrying to not lose my balance, but that is something I want to work on. I even try some change of foot spinning, with one successful try at low speed. I'm avoiding to spin too much as I still have a temporary mount on my blade. I'm still not jumping for the same reason. I also work on FI twizzles whenever I'm on ice. On my right leg, so counterclockwise rotation, I get 2 rotations (a tiny bit wobbly but improving). The left foot is stuck on 1 revolution. Like with all moves that are better on one side, I analyze the good side, the bad side and compare... I've realized that on the right foot I'm pressing in the boot and on the blade, on the back part of my arch, and on the left foot I cannot get an uniform pressing, and so, of course, I'm wobbly. I'm getting back to the idea that I have to have the left boot stretched a little more. It is slightly small and I feel my big toe is pushed towards the middle and I think that is why I cannot keep a constant pressure, for twizzles, but for obviously for everything else.  As I'm going through all these, suddenly Wednesday doesn't sound so bad.

Friday morning I've called the bootfitter and he answered! (I called occasionally during the last 2 months and either he didn't answer, either our schedules didn't align) and we agreed to drop the boots after I skate and pick them up Saturday morning. Skating felt good, I ran all my usual exercises. I paid more attention to the twizzles and I've felt the same need to stretch the front of the left boot. I've remembered about the back spin very late, and... it was semi successful. I cannot wait until Monday to work on it again! And on twizzles, as I'll have the boot streatched.

Almost vegan: lentil stew with soy mashrooms

Being that I am almost vegan I eat lots of plant base protein like all kind of beans and legumes. I like to cook my own so I can add some aromatics (like bay leaves), to control the salt and avoid the potential health issues of eating canned products packed in metal cans. I cook big patches and I freeze some portions. I also try to have in the pantry cans with every variety of beans when I need them and I don't have in the freezer. 

However there is one type of legume that I loved cooked by me, and cannot tolerate canned, and that is lentils. Luckily they cook quickly, in 20 minutes. I add flavor and sweetens by starting with sauteing a small onion with turmeric, black pepper, bay leaves and coriander seeds. Then I add the lentils and water and it is done.

I pair the with lots of things. One of the latest paring was with mushrooms. I start by sauteing the quartered mushroom without salt (salt makes them watery) and after they they brown a bit I salt, pepper usually garlic and whatever I'm in mood for like more garlic, wine, parsley, and this time I remember seeing a recipe with soy glaze... so I added soy instead of salt. It cooked down to a glaze very quickly and it had more "umami" than my other versions. And it paired really well with the lentil stew and a simple mixed green salad on the side.

Monthly skating review: progress and goals adjustment

The plan for last month was to get back into skating and to develop awareness of positive and negative factors affecting my skating so I can plan better for the future. More specifically, I planned to skate 3 times a week, work continuously on the blade alignment, pay attention to building muscles, stamina, add more protein to my diet (plant base protein, as I'm almost vegan), and work on finding goals and motivation.

It was not easy, the first 2 weeks I had to push myself to go skating, there were also moments of doubts that I could get myself to skate regularly and enjoy it. But by the 3rd week I started to feel less tired, the boots felt better and better. I also found one more rink I cold eventually skate at, and with more sessions available, there are more chances to do skate 3 times a week, so less pressure. I kind of did it! I feel I've finally got where I was planning to get 6 months ago, after I've got the new boots (well 2 years ago if I make it about boots, because it was 2 years and 4 pair of bots that I've went through). Anyway, analyzing all the points from my post last month...

- Equipment (boots and blades) is a big issue, I think it is the biggest deciding factor in keeping skating. The boots are still not as tight as my previous ones (because of the new high toe box design of Riedell), I feel hesitant when I change the lobes/edges quickly. The harder I tie them, the better, but I've got feet pain.The blade alignment is not worse than I had 2 years ago, the issue is the same, I pronate on my right foot so I would need corrective insoles, only I have hyper mobility and the corrective insoles gave me  plantar fasciatis. I am stuck with commercial insoles and wedges between the blade and the boots. I may try again some extra wedge in my right boost, the left felt fine for few sessions in a row.

- Rinks: My home rink and the hockey team rink are in the city, they are at 15 minutes drive without traffic, up to 30 with traffic, the advantage is that I can run errands in my way to or from the rinks. I went occasionally for lessons at rinks on north suburbs at 30 minutes without traffic, to 45 minutes with regular traffic, drive on expressway. BUT, there is big repairs done on the expressway so I get 40 minutes towards the rink AND between 1 hour and 1 hour and a half coming back... that is just not doable for my life. My home rink doesn't have ice that fits my schedule in the summer, and before the summer, it was very crowded anyway. The hockey rink has a different schedule and level of crowdiness every day, plus days without ice.  But, I found Monday, Wednesday, Friday noon public skate, not crowded for the 2 sessions I went to, at a west suburb at 30 minutes driving both way, hopefully it will work! 

- Food, the attention to add more protein, I think had a bigger impact than I realized. The half portion of vegan protein shake that I succeed in drinking after skating (it is too sweet for my taste o drink more of it) definitely helps. Keeping track of the more successful recipes with added plant base protein, was also a good idea, because I have plenty of less successful, so less enjoyable ones. 

- The muscles felt better as I skated more regularly. I also went to a weekend gentle yoga class, that felt more like restorative yoga, and it felt great, I hope to keep it in my schedule. I'm trying to add some arms and core exercises at home, with mixed success.

 - Motivation. As I expected, when I started enjoying skating, I wanted to go... I didn't have to push myself. The only thing I figured out that helps with motivation, is consistency, or it is actually the other way around, lack of consistency hurts motivation. For now, I just wanted to get back into a rhythm, and consistency is the key, but if I'll work again for progress I know I will get frustrated  so I need too keep looking for things that help.

For the next month I plan to keep an eye on all these. Ideally I would take a lesson, maybe start to really work towards future tests... I thought that if this month will go as the last 2 weeks of last month I will be happy enough. This week I skated Monday and it was fine, Thursday a complete disaster (I was stiff and distracted, and the public session at the hockey rink was crazy busy), then it was better but not good on Friday. So  think it is a wise plan to take it as it comes...