About thefasteryoupedal

Hi! I'm Liz and I am a 38 year old teacher from Las Cruces, New Mexico. I'm also a fan of mountain biking, road biking, running, and traveling. I'm always up to try something new! This blog is for me to share ideas and also to receive new ideas!

Slow Cooked Turkey Legs

Posted on June 12, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I was browsing the meat aisle of the grocery store and saw that Turkey Legs were on sale. My first instinct was to BBQ them, since everything tastes so much better on the grill. If I owned a deep fryer, that would be even better, but I don’t. It’s been 100 degrees outside and not so pleasant to stand outside and barbecue, so I went to my back up plan.

When in doubt, use the crock pot.

I added a whole bottle (yes a whole bottle!) of barbecue sauce, and then to give it a little kick, about 3/4 cup of Frank’s Red Hot Sauce. I added about 1/4 cup of water and stirred it up. I wished I would have put some onions or fresh garlic in to spice it up some more. Place the turkey legs in. Give it about five hours on low heat.

I was worried it was going to be dry, but the barbecue really holds in a lot of the juices. When I put the leg on a plate, I took some more of the sauce and put it over the top.

Love how flaky it came out. Crock pots rule. For a girl who didn’t own one until about five years ago, I was missing out!

Question: I’m in desperate need of recipes with turkey. Do you have any suggestions?

Three A Day Workout

Posted on June 12, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

WORKOUTS

I actually was pretty impressed with myself for working out three times today. Working out in my terms means doing some kind of physical activity longer than 30 minutes. Thankfully on Mondays and Wednesdays, there are a group of girls who like to play volleyball at my local church, so I was able to go. Then I was headed over to the gym for some elliptical and weights. It feels good to start getting my arms back. I can’t wait til I can get my Les Mill’s Body Pump DVD/set. When I got home, my husband wanted to go for a road ride, so we did some laps on a coarse called the “Ocho” in this really nice golfing community on our side of town. It’s a three-mile loop that makes a figure eight. It’s about six minutes of pure climbing, and then the rest is all downhill. My goal tonight was four laps, and I did it!

ORGANIZATION

So one of my areas of focus this summer for my “Summer of Fitness” was to organize away the house. Since I am on a budget this week and can’t go too crazy buying bookshelves and stands (which I would go crazy at Target doing), I decided to go through the “easy and cheap” things that need to be organized.

I have always had my clothes color coded from dark to light. Its nice so when you walk in the closet, and say that you are in the mood to wear red, then you know where all your red shirts are. The hubby’s side of the closet had random shirts thrown in there. Every once in a while I will hear him say “I haven’t seen this shirt in a while.”, because of how disorganized it is. I decided to help him out and color coordinate his side of the closet too.

I also found this organizer at Wal-Mart for $4.95, which you pretty much hang from your door. It has a bunch of hooks and you put all your purses on it. Most of my purses are piled in a corner in my closet, so its nice to have a visual on it. Now to just get more purses to fill it. 🙂

Here is the picture of the “vision board” I was telling you about. Mike and I have done it the last three years on New Years when we make all of our resolutions. One side is dedicated to my goals, the other side for him, and then anything we both want to do I put in the middle. This last year I put a list of all the goals we accomplished in a “newsletter” and then posted it up there. We usually put biking goals, education goals, a lot of physical goals, and other stuff. I try to make them really easy, like “take a class” so that way I can take a simple sewing class to accomplish that or a college course towards my nursing degree. Something like that.

Question: What are some organizing things you do around the house that are inexpensive?

The Summer of Fitness

Posted on June 10, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

From kindergarten til now, I have dedicated my summers to something. When I graduated high school, I went straight on through college, and immediately started teaching at the age of 21, I have always had summers off. (Very lucky, I know. I get told that all the time!) By August, I have had to either go back to classes or back to work. I have never known what it feels like to not do.Twenty seven years later…..I am in the same situation.

(This is my vision board when I was living in Utah in 2005. I got the idea from a Oprah Winfrey episode on things to do to achieve goals. I made it to remind me of all the fun things I like to do and to remind me of all the friends and family around me. Usually a vision board is for goals you have. Mike and I have one in our second bedroom. I’ll put it in a future post. )

When I was in college, I dedicated my summers to traveling. I went and worked in Orlando for a summer at Walt Disney World. I went to Utah and spent a summer at Brigham Young University learning the college life on campus. I went on four different cruises to different tropical places. I dedicated summers to dating right. Other summers to educating myself. So many different things!

Starting Memorial Day Weekend, I made a pact to myself that I was going to make this the “summer of fitness”. I have been addicted to working out since about 2004, when I started taking group fitness classes. I slipped down to my lowest weight and felt great. I was especially excited when I found Les Mills’ Body Pump class and started to build muscle and tone out. I have been interested in eating right and have bought almost every Fitness, Shape, Cooking Light, and Self magazines as the years have passed on.

This year was a very disappointing year on my body. The stress from my job took a toll on me. I gained almost 15 pounds from August until May. I even went as far as going to my doctor about it. I am an avid mountain biker and still raced, and was even getting faster on the bike! Why was this happening to me?? With a lot of research and discussion, I concluded the weight gain to two things. 1. Stress. 2.Eating Right.

(Before And After)

I can go on and on about how I concluded this, but I will spare the details. So instead, I am going to explain how I am going to get myself back to a “comfortable” physique. I am not going based on weight, I am going by how I felt. Being thirty, I have to be realistic that age plays a role, but I am also going to not let it hold me back. I still want to be healthy. My goal is to feel “confident” by the end of the summer. A confidence where I am not embarrassed to sit down and not use my purse to cover my stomach. A confidence where I am not embarrassed to wear a short sleeve shirt, because I am afraid to show off my arms. A confidence where I can stop complaining every second I put my clothes on.

Here is the game plan. A successful way to diet and exercise is to keep a journal, therefore I will be keeping a journal on this blog through posts:

1. Two a Day Workouts. It doesn’t mean I go to the gym twice a day. It means I complete at least two workouts a day.

2, Food Journal. Keep a list of foods and meals eaten. Keep healthy meals on hand. Watch portioning.

3. Make life more fun. Since stress is such a big factor in my life and physically makes me sick, I am going to work on at least one thing a day to relax my body.

4. Organize my life. When I am organized, things are so much happier around my house. I love organizing and consider it a huge impact on my success in teaching, as well as my success personally.

So here it goes guys. I send this out into the cyber world! I will get back to you daily on one of these four subjects, or on all four of these subjects. Wish me luck. See you in August!

Facing Your Fears

Posted on June 8, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

My last two days back from vacation have been pretty much getting organized and turning things around after a very hectic school year. After my ten years of teaching, this year felt like my hardest and I am hoping that things will turn around for the best this next year. I feel like they will.

The days consist of to do lists that are lying around the house. I have post-its, three or four calendars, as well as two different planners. I consolidate all of them into one big list of the day. I don’t mind having lists because they help me remember. A lot of people feel like it’s just one more thing to nag them, but I feel quite the contrary. I tend to worry less knowing I wrote down the things I wanted to get done.

P.S. One of my compression socks from www.zensah.com went missing! Don’t you hate it when you put socks in the washer and then they mysteriously disappear? We have lost so many mountain bike socks that way! Of all the things, you guys know how much I love these!

Back to the point of my blog post today, I am reading the book “Quickie Chicks Cheat Sheet to Life, Love, Food, Fitness, Fashion and Finance” by Laurel House. I am really into “How To” books lately. I am learning “how to” build a deck, “how to” organize finances, and “how to” eat right through all the books I am reading right now. I love them. My Kindle is blowing up with all this stuff right now.

Anyway, in the first part of the book she starts off with facing your fears and what exactly are you afraid of. I have a professional problem this last year that I have been fearful of and have been thinking about a lot lately and this is perfect for me to address. So here is what Laurel has to say about that. She asks you to write down your fears and think of people whose careers you admire. I personally have two people whose careers I am insanely jealous of. Laurel asks you why you are intimidated my them. To me, it is all about confidence. The plan is to then try to think of ways to lessen your fears and then list the steps of how to make it happen. Love it.

So many times I have opted out of something because of intimidation, but why? I really am thinking about that a lot especially since I read this post by Julie from the blog Peanut Butter Fingers. You guys need to read this post: http://www.pbfingers.com/2012/05/31/changing-yes-but-to-yes-and/

So to recap, here are the four things to ask yourself:

1. What are you really afraid of?

2. Who do you know that you admire? What intimidates you about them?

3. How are you going to lessen your fears?

4. What steps will you take to make it happen?

Question: How do you conquer your fears? What advice would you give someone who wants to switch careers but is afraid?

San Diego Last Days In A Nutshell

Posted on June 7, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

So I fell a little behind on blogging the last couple of days in San Diego. Honestly, we contemplated leaving early because of the dreary weather, but when we woke up on Tuesday, it was beautiful! Why couldn’t it have done that the other three days we were there?

Again, we spent our breakfast at Starbucks. Love my perfect oatmeal. We thought about going to the gym instead of riding all around San Diego because of how cool the weather was, but we sucked it up and went out anyway.

We rode out to a pier with a bunch of crabs and enjoyed the marina. There were like twenty stray cats hanging out there. What a perfect place for them to hide…all you can eat crab!

We then headed over to Mission Beach along the boardwalk and then up to La Jolla. It’s so fun to ride along the boardwalk and people watch. You see some crazy people. We take a side street up to La Jolla from there. I say up, because it has the hugest hills to ride on. I love the view in the background.

It ends on top of Mount Soledad which is a monument above La Jolla that gives a great panoramic view of the city. Mike wanted pose like Rocky with his bike. This was before he decided to mountain bike the side of the mountain with a few onlookers watching him.

We went to the San Diego LDS Temple the next day, where you can see it from this mountain also. Of course, the sun decided to come out this day (which was the last day there), so we had to take advantage of the sunshine.

It was fun to tour the city on the bikes. Later on we had to stop at our favorite Wahoo’s and get some fish and shrimp tacos. I used to order the fish tacos all the time and you can see my recipe where I try to remake the whole plate under my Recipes section. This time I switched over to shrimp and they were awesome! The calorie count is a little bit lower so its good if you are watching your waist. Also,I am on the hunt now for Mr. Lee’s Chili Sauce that they have at the restaurant. I can’t find a link for it anywhere.

And then we headed off to Old Town to check out the sites, including the Mormon Batallion Museum.

I love Old Town. It is so fun to walk around and smell all the aromas of the restaurants, as well as the museums. Mike makes fun of me because I like to go to museums. He says I’m an old fart for liking that stuff, even though he goes with me and enjoys it as much as I do.

We spent our last moments at the beach where Mike boogie boarded while I sat and read. I love the ocean, and I love to swim in the ocean. But I can’t swim in the Pacific without a wet suit. Give me the Atlantic any day or the Gulf of Mexico, and I will be in the water, but I can’t get myself to go into the Pacific Ocean. Maybe if I went to Hawaii or something?

Question: If you could go anywhere in the United States on vacation, where would you go?

Clouds, Cold….San Diego?

Posted on June 5, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

Sunday. Day two of our trip. This was the day I really regretted not doing what I originally planned to do. I decided way back in March that I really wanted to complete the Rock and Roll San Diego Half Marathon. I even planned out the whole vacation around it. Then when it was time to sign up for it, it was so expensive and I didn’t feel at all ready for it.

When we got to the hotel, everyone was here for the race and one of the guys suggested I “ghost run” the marathon. I guess a lot of people jump in on these huge marathons without paying for it. Have any of you done that before?

I ended up not doing it. But it was very intriguing. O.K. enough regretting and on to the day we had. 🙂

BREAKFAST

We’ve had a little bad luck this trip when it comes to the weather. It’s been very cloudy and overcast which makes us a little depressed. So we decided to find a gym and workout while we waited for the sun to come out on our BEACH day. We headed to the local Starbucks and had some apple juice (no straw included) and some perfect oatmeal.

I’ve talked about this before when it comes to breakfast how the oatmeal is a perfect pre-race meal, but it’s also so inexpensive. Yes, I know I just mentioned something inexpensive at Starbucks when a lot of people complain about how expensive they are. We were able to get all of this for about ten dollars.

WORKOUT

Mike and I found a local fitness club that let us pay for a day pass. We both headed to the elliptical and were excited to get going. We have never sweat so much in our life! I am attributing it to the humidity, but it was awesome! It really made you feel like you were doing a great workout. We then took an hour on weights.

We are trying not to take the gloominess of the last few days as a sign or anything (because we may be a little superstitious), but come on! After talking to a guy at the hotel gym and a desk clerk, San Diego has a term called “June Gloom”. I guess this is pretty normal. Then again we usually come in May or July. We learned our lesson. No more June! If you have to wear shorts and a shirt to the beach and can’t lay out, there is no use going to the beach .:)

The husband found it very intriguing that the elevation was four feet. We are used to the 4000-6000 feet rides we do and love the fact that we ae at sea level. It feels good on the lungs.

He also managed to go in the freezing, cold water and body surf too. He said he found it “refreshing”. Nut.

I was more intrigued by the awesome seagulls walking around. Most people think of them as annoying creatures, but they are kind of funny to watch. They absolutely refuse to fly unless its their last resort. I found this out when this guy kept getting chased by a little girl and refused to take off and just kept running in circles.

DINNER

Dinner was amazing. We found a sushi place the last time we are here that was also a seafood buffet. I was partially through my plate when I took this picture, but you get the idea. It’s a little pricey, but the quality of food is excellent. You can find it in the Mission Valley Mall. It’s called the Onami Restaurant and Sushi Bar. Highly recommend it.

Not to mention, they had these bad boys. Does anyone have an easy recipe for Chocolate Covered Strawberries? I really want to learn how to make them without making a huge mess in my kitchen.

San Diego Day One

Posted on June 4, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

We finally were able to make our yearly pilgrimage to San Diego. We usually try to make it later in the summer, but we just couldn’t wait. Plus we are coming mainly for our anniversary too. Happy 3rd anniversary to us! Three years have flown by and we have so many awesome memories together. We have been very lucky.

Since I am a little behind on blogging, I thought I would get up early at the hotel and do some blogging before we go out today on a MASSIVE bike ride. When I say massive, I mean at least forty or fifty miles away from town, in the hills, and across the whole city of San Diego. Last time we did this, we ended up about thirty miles north of town watching people glide off cliffs. Stay tuned to see what we find today. 🙂

We finally made it. Mike makes fun of me because I always have to have my hands on my hips. I never know where to put my hands. I call it the “awkward hand pose” because if I don’t put them on my hip, I look extremely awkward.

First thing we did was head to the beach and noticed it was super cloudy and cold. Boo. We never have weather like this on our trips. Mike didn’t let it damper his mood, so he found a blow up bat and decided to joust with it on his bike.

He then was trying to ride his bike along the ledge and thankfully stopped before he hurt himself. It’s nerve-wracking when people stop and say they are going to film it on You Tube for you.

Dinner consisted of shrimp tacos at Wahoo’s Fish tacos (which I forgot to take pictures of) with a side of Cajun rice and black beans. I’ve never had the shrimp tacos and they were awesome! I can’t say which one I like more, the shrimp or the fish, but I highly recommend both!

Cabbage and Pulled Pork Pizza

Posted on June 1, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

I am a huge fan of the Lavash Bread from Trader Joe’s. Ever since I was told about it, Mike and I have had so many different combinations of pizza. Mike prefers the “supreme” with sausage, peppers, onions, and red sauce. I prefer more the Ragu Light Alfredo Sauce with spinach and chicken.

Since we are due to go on vacation soon, we really needed to clean out the fridge. We had some leftover pulled pork and cabbage. I decided to put both of them on a pizza and top it with my favorite cheese (Sargento’s 4 Cheese Mexican Reduced Fat).

I know it sounds strange, but it actually tastes really good! Add a little bit of garlic to the top and its pretty tasty!

We Did It!!

Posted on June 1, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

We went up to Ruidoso for a 12 hour race. The night before, there was a massive storm so we were a little concerned. P.S. We did this race in early May, but I forgot to blog it!

Mike and I had to do the annual picture of riding past the Red Bull tent.

We are standing in the order we rode. All the boys did under an hour and I did exactly an hour on each lap. But we ended up getting first place!!!

This is at the cabin we stayed at the night before where we all got ready and prepared. What a fun race! We were very happy to get that first!

Memorial Weekend 2012

Posted on June 1, 2012 by thefasteryoupedal

We had an awesome labor day weekend. We met with the brothers and started to ride the sport loop. It was super hot, but we were going to tackle the jeep road.