Staying Healthy: Eating & Exercise (3/27 – 4/2)

We ate well this past week, especially on Wednesday, our anniversary Day of No Cooking. We ate meat that day and on another couple of days in the Asian chicken wrap sandwiches we bought at Costco, and even though all was delicious we decided at the end of the week that we preferred not eating meat. We’re not ever going to go full vegetarian or vegan, and meat will appear again in the future, but only very occasionally. We just feel better overall when meat is not a part of our diet, even in small amounts.

I’ve also started thinking this past week about what we’ll take with us to the condo for our last eight days on Kaua’i. The condo comes equipped with a small refrigerator, microwave, toaster, and coffee maker. It would be easiest to take things like pastries and other quick items, but with some effort we can continue healthy eating in our temporary quarters. I see avocado toast and Kodiak protein toaster waffles with fruit in our future for breakfasts and sandwiches and vegan/vegetarian entrees for lunch and dinner. We’re determined to take along everything we will need when we move up to the condo and not spend on eating out (except for one meal out with a friend).

Since we no longer have a dining table we have to hold our plates in our laps these days. We picked up some healthy, vegan/organic, and easy options at Costco last week including bean, rice & cheese burritos, vegetable & barley soup, and our favorite vegetable spring rolls with edamame, so we’re mostly good to go for the next few weeks. It will be interesting to see how it goes when we have soup.

Below are our dinners last week. We each ate just one of the Asian chicken wraps, and had the other two halves for lunch another day. My vegan platter from The Beach House was the highlight of the week for me – the vegetable preparations were amazing.

Sunday: Chick’n pot pie

Monday: Vegetable spring rolls; rice; sweet & sour coleslaw

Tuesday: Costco Asian chicken wrap sandwiches

Wednesday: Local vegetable platter (Laura), and seared ahi; garlic mashed potatoes; and sautéed broccoli (Brett)

Thursday: Bean, rice, and cheese burritos; spicy coleslaw

Friday: Thai peanut mini pizzas

Saturday: Sweet & sour shrimp; rice

We finished the red velvet cupcakes and coconut cake last week, but Costco didn’t have any fudge cupcakes when we shopped so we instead bought some vegan chocolate ice cream made with avocado and a package of chocolate-filled crepes for our desserts for the next couple of weeks. Both are very yummy and both have fewer calories than the cupcake quarter or slice of coconut cake, an added bonus.

I’m looking forward to next week’s menu. None of it is difficult to fix and some of it will use more things up. It does sort of feel like we’re camping though.

• Vegetable curry

• Vegan corn dogs

• Shrimp risotto

• Mini pizzas

• Macaroni & cheese

• Vegetable & barley soup; toasted cheese sandwiches

• Zaru soba; hayayakko

Hiking was once again a mixed bag last week. On Monday we did a full hike on the Old Hapa Road trail. It was a breezy day, and we went later than usual so that the sun wouldn’t beat down on us (there’s no shade out on the trail). That’s one thing I love about this time of year: the sun goes down later and we can walk later in the day. Tuesday we did our not-so-big shop at Costco and Walmart. It always involves a lot of walking, and although it’s not as brisk as a regular hike we’re always end up feeling more worn out and tired than we do from a regular hike.

There were lots of stunning views to take in around Nawiliwili Harbor. The various lava formations were also fascinating, but they made walking difficult at times.

Wednesday’s hike was on the east side shore path, around Nawiliwili Harbor and Ninini Bay. If not for Brett’s previous visits I would have never known the path was there as you have to drive through a golf course and resort to get to the parking area, and access to the trail is not well marked. There were LOTS of interesting lava formations to check out along the way, but they were also very difficult to climb/hike over – I was in constant fear of falling. The views were spectacular however so a good time was had. The weather that day was sunny and HUMID, a good preview of what summer will be like in Nashville!

There are two very small, private beaches on the shore of Ninini Bay (although swimming there would be dangerous). The rest of the shore is lava rock. Nene, endangered Hawaiian geese, were spotted on our walk down to the bay, always a happy sight.

Thursday we headed back to the Old Hapa Road, but had an early turn-around because it started to rain. Friday and Saturday were both very stormy, with lots of rain and very strong winds. Both were good days to stay indoors and read and accomplish other things. The week coming up doesn’t look so good either, but we’re hoping to get out as much as we can.