I woke up today wanting more fun with hot peppers. After nibbling on a habanero pepper while driving to the gym, I swear my tongue was sweating. Holy s–t! It was so hot and literally felt as if my tongue was perspiring…seriously. Here is what I’ve learned about foods giving off natural heat…the trick is to embrace the heat. Once you accept that your tongue is burning and on fire, it’s not so bad. I mean, afterall, we’re talking about habanero peppers. Once the lovely endorphins kick in, it’s a walk in the park.
Later in the day I made nori rolls for my boyfriend (not a fan of nori, myself – too “fishy” tasting), while I feasted on various fantastic smoothie concoctions (bananas, apples, celery, jalapeno peppers, sprouts, fresh mint, spinach and raw chocolate – not all in one smoothie. I made a couple using the aforementioned ingredients). I finished the day with a huge salad (the produce section was truly lacking at Wild Oats and Whole Foods today – wtf?). Oh well, my salad consisted of spinach, pea sprouts, carrots and celery topped with delicious Raw Italian Dressing. It doesn’t really matter how simple a salad is when you have a fabulous dressing to go with it. I wanted to slurp up the leftover dressing that glazed the bamboo bowl. So good. And, the more simple a meal, the more properly the food combined. See? The glass is half-full in my mind when the store is lacking produce variety.
Exercise
I was definitely jazzed once I arrived at the gym…after all, my tongue had a head start in the perspiration department and I was eager for my body to follow (nothing like the reward of a good sweat – and since I’m Raw, my sweat smells lovely if I do say so myself. Uh-oh, is this TMI?). Anyway, the endorphins kicked in and I was all too happy to be at the gym; quite giddy actually. I started doing a little dance between weight lifting sets (making anyone laugh who happened to watch, I’m sure). I was pulling out all of the old moves (the sprinkler, running man, cheese grater and a few I made up). I don’t think anyone regarded me as too crazy. I was sure to laugh while dancing and I had a Reebok step near me so I could hop on between moves. They probably thought it was some fantastic new routine.
Weights
Back and biceps (overhead wide-grip pull down, close grip row, overhead rope row, barbell curls, hammer curls). I finished up my weight routine by doing 15 minutes on the eliptical while watching Larry King. (Is the eliptical machine really supposed to be exercise? I have to laugh…I think it’s pretty hard to get a “hard” workout on one of those. It’s adequate for a moderate level of exercise I suppose, which is better than nothing.)