Hair Affair

Did I tell you I’m trying to change up my hair washing routine? I have always heard you don’t need to wash your hair everyday and that it will be healthier if you don’t. I have never been able to skip days. NEVER! My hair is relatively thin and the grease just comes right through. Likewise, I have never been a night-time showerer. I must shower and shampoo in the morning. I don’t wake up feeling fresh when I shower at night. What if the bedroom is hot and I sweat? Then, you’re walking around wearing last night’s sweat all day. Pass.

The problem is, I work out nearly every day. So, I shower and shampoo in the morning to start my day and in the evening following my work out. Murder on the hair, skin, and amount of product I go through. A couple weeks ago I vowed to try something new. And here it is: wash my hair only once a day.

But, how could you possibly get away with this, Ashley? You ask, knowing what you’ve just read. Well, it’s rather simple, you see. We’ll start in the evening. After work, I either run, do yoga or go to zumba and then I shower and shampoo. In the morning, I still shower (see above comments: sweat) but I skip the shampoo. GENIUS! For now, I just pull my hair back but there’s a chance, at the risk of feeling like a 70 year old, that I might purchase a shower cap. Following the shower sans shampoo, I still style my hair. Previously, I would just blow dry my hair straight and that would be that. Nothing inventive, same style every day. Now, because I don’t waste the time shampooing, conditioning, and drying, I have time to curl or straighten to my heart’s content. C’est si bon!

Admittedly, the first few days of the experiment did not go well. As I expected, my head felt greasy and I thought I looked disgusting (though John said I didn’t). But, the longer I stuck with it and the more I curled instead of straightened, the more I liked it. Straightening flattened it against my head too much. I’m now even able to set my alarm 5 minutes later (surprise added bonus!) I stopped using my salon products because of the cost so I’m hoping my new drugstore brand (Aveeno) coupled with this new shampoo schedule will help my hair to be the shiny, healthy hair I know it can be.

Sunday Slumber

I don’t have a Super Summer Sunday Salad Supper for you this week (or next week) but I do have a Sunday-related topic for you, even though it’s Tuesday. More of a complaint, if you will. For me, Sunday night provides the absolute worst night of sleep out of the entire week. I never wake up rested and it always takes far longer than normal for me to finally fall asleep. This has been the case throughout my life but it just keeps getting worse and worse. It makes for a very tired Monday, already an inauspicious day to be sure.

Try as I might, I cannot keep to the same sleep schedule on the weekend and I know this lapse is detrimental to my Sunday slumber. Who wants to go to bed at 10:00 on a Friday? Well, if I’m home, usually I am asleep on the couch by 10:00 but that’s beside the point. I also do not bother to wake up at 5:30 on Saturday or Sunday. Who would?! On Saturday, I get up to take Sadie out in the morning when she jumps off the bed but then I fall promptly back to sleep for a couple hours. Sunday mornings, however, are John’s day for morning Sadie duty. It’s so peaceful to just roll over when he takes her out, roll over again when he can’t fall back to sleep and finally gets up to make coffee for us. What a delight!

All of these things, combined with, in all likelihood, a glass or two of wine to unwind on a Sunday night and we have quite a tossing, turning problem on our hands. I realize I am impeding my own sleep progress by throwing off my schedule AND imbibing the wine but what fun is a weekend if you can’t break the routine?

What is to be done about this insomnia? Probably nothing I’m willing to try.

The Girl Who Played with Fire

I didn't expect to make it up the list so fast for Stieg Larson's second book in the Millennium series, The Girl Who Played With Fire. But, I did! So, I put my other book on hold so make it through this one. If you haven't read Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, start there. Just a suggestion. Girl Who Played with Fire picks up where Dragon Tattoo left off.

Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is riding the publicity wave off his book about his side of the Wennerstrom affair published by his magazine, Millennium. His relationship with hacker Lisbeth Salander has fizzled to nothing. In fact, Lisbeth has just spent the past 2 years since Hedestad incident out of the country, traveling around, doing her hacking, etc. and so on. Another writer named Dag approaches Blomkvist and Berger, Millennium's editor in chief, about publishing his book about sex trafficking. His girlfriend Mia has also been researching and writing about the topic. Together, they plan to expose the roles policeman and low ranking criminals in the sex trafficking business.

One night after Lisbeth returns to Stockholm, Dag and Mia are found murdered. Lisbeth's prints happen to be on the murder weapon and she is accused of committing the murders, and the murder of her guardian, Nils Bjurman. Trouble is, the authorities can't track her down. Blomkvist is convinced Lisbeth is innocent. The police are convinced she's guilty. What ensues is a breath-taking race against time for everyone!

Again, that was a super brief and full of holes summary of The Girl Who Played with Fire because I don't want to give anything away. I really liked this one! I think it was better than Dragon Tattoo because we were already familiar with the characters. Larson's first book had a lot of exposition and this one cut down on that. Read this one for sure!

I'm 20th out of 73 on the hold list for his latest (post-humous) release, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. I'm hoping I'll make it to #1 by Labor Day for the cruise. I think it would be a great vacation read.

Sadie Sadie 2x4

On Tuesday, John and I made an impromptu visit to the vet with Sadie. She had been all out of sorts since we were visiting family in Cleveland a week or so ago. I was chalking it up to the heat but she had a very suppressed appetite and was not going regularly, if you know what I mean. John, ever the pessimist, jumps directly to the conclusion that she has cancer and she certainly has a long hard battle ahead of her. I’m happy to report that she doesn’t have cancer but we did discover something at the vet on the scale.

Sadie is a little porker! She had been consistently holding at 20 lbs for I’d say the last year or so. Now, she has ballooned up to 22.8 lbs! That may not sound like a major increase but she’s just a little pup. Imagine strapping a 3 lb. weight to a small dog. Not good. So, Sadie is on a diet. As much as we’d like to think she doesn’t get fed people food, we are probably way wrong about that. Every time I make a salad she comes running for cheese. As soon as she hears the bag, she’s at my feet in a flash. And I give in. Not much, mind you, just a few shreds but still, nearly every day. She also is a big fan of Cheez-its. Baby girl LOVES the cheese! She takes after her mother. Again, I don’t think we give her too much but I’m probably wrong. The one thing we’re good about is holding back on actual dog treats. Truth be told, since they’re lean we ought to give those more freely and cut back on the other stuff.

Anyway, we’ll be cutting back her food portions from now on and trying to exercise her more. That’s hard in this Ohio heat but she needs to drop 3 lbs pronto. Otherwise she’ll start to lose her girlish figure, and her puggle boyfriend Stanley will start to lose interest in her. The horror! Don’t worry. She’ll be shipshape in no time at all.

A Running Request

Dear Inhabitants of the Neighborhood Where I Run,

Please refrain from grilling between the hours of 5:30 and 6:30 pm on the days that I decide it's temperate enough outside for me to run. The delicious aromas wafting from your Webers are mouth-watering. While this may entice some and certainly put smiles on the faces of your diners, I do not care to smell your tantalizing temptations. The burger fragrance interrupts my running groove because from thence forth, I can think only of a big fatty burger or dog, dripping with ketchup on its way to my mouth. This means I'm not concentrating on my breathing, stride length or increasing my times.

I'm sure you can see where this might be slightly off-putting to a jogger. Joggers, by nature, are in the act of attempting physical fitness. Fitness cannot necessarily be achieved by consuming your grilled cuisine, not that you invited me to sup. Furthermore, I cannot use my own grill on my balcony and so it's doubly frustrating to smell but not taste. I beg of you. Just let me and my nose run in peace and nobody gets hurt.

Sincerely,

Famished Fitness Fanatic

Super Summer Sunday Salad Supper - part deux!

I feel like I've been a lazy blogger, once again. I'm sorry. I just don't feel that I'm terribly exciting as of late so I don't know what to write about. I'll keep trying to find my mojo. I think part of it has to do with these long books I've been reading. Have you noticed I haven't reviewed a book in awhile? It's throwing off my whole system. Anyway - today I am back with another summer salad. This one has a southwestern theme!



I started with spinach and then threw in a whole can (drained and rinsed) of both black beans and corn (hello, fiber!) John seasoned up some chicken with cumin, chili powder and seasoned salt and threw it on the Foreman. Then, I found this light and creamy dressing recipe. Oh yeah I'm all over that. Part of the problem with eating light dressing is that you sometimes miss out on the creamy consistencies. Mix this up for a refreshing and not at all heavy dressing!


Creamy Southwestern Dressing (adapted from Real Simple magazine)

1/3 c. plus 1 Tbsp. light sour cream
2 1/2 - 3 Tbsp. lime juice
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
pepper to taste

Whisk together and voila!

This was a delicious, healthy and hearty supper salad.

Yoga for me!

I have been trying to incorporate weekly yoga workouts in the hopes of looking like a celebrity. You know how celebrities always say their fitness secret is yoga? That's what I'm going for. I don't go to a studio to take classes because that costs money and takes lots of time. Time that I don't have with all the driving and whatnot. When I do yoga at home I can start dinner, do yoga, shower and then eat. It's a beautiful thing.

My yoga workouts are On Demand on my TV. This is super convenient because the workouts happen in my living room at a time of my choosing. The part about this that's not so great is that I've done them all many times and unlike the other cardio and strength workouts, the yoga routines aren't rotated as much. So I am super bored with them. The other day....all that changed.

My new yogi Steve Ross is awesome! I met him on the Oxygen channel. He graces my living room with his presence from 6:00 - 7:00 am every weekday. I have taken to DVR-ing them to store up seeing as how I leave for work at 6:30. His practice is intense. Also, he plays really groovy music that isn't yoga-like at all and I totally dig it. Steve is crazy flexible. He has so many poses in his arsenal it's not even funny. A true yogi. There are times when he folds his body in half with his legs all pretzel like and his head on the ground and he does it all with a big smile on his face. I'ts insane!

Today, Steve helped me master the Wheel. If you're unfamiliar with the practice of yoga, it looks like this.

Photo from fitsugar.com

That will help me look like a celebrity, right? I think so. Steve will help me.