Greens for Good!

Greens for Good is up and running! Check it out here:  www.greensforgood.com

Thanks to everyone who followed me here on Chase Daylight! I can’t wait to hear from you more on G4G 🙂

 

Triathlon Relay Amazingness and New Blog Name Announcement!

Why, hello! How are you all? Great, I hope!

This morning went swimmingly well! hehe. Let’s start at the beginning…

My alarm went off at 5:00 AM and I got out of bed after hitting snooze a couple of times. It wasn’t the best night of sleep because I was worried about oversleeping and woke up a few times. Nonetheless, I was running around the apartment throwing things together before I had to leave.

At the last minute I realized my gas tank was empty and I’d have to get some if I didn’t want to break down on the way Moss Park. I really thought I was going to be late but when I pulled in right behind Megan, I felt so relieved.

Caitlin joined us shortly after and we chatted a bit before heading down to the lake where I’d be swimming 1.5km. People were swimming around in the lake warming up so I decided to jump in too and see how scary the water was. It wasn’t bad at all actually…I couldn’t see anything (not even my hand in front of my face) but It wasn’t gross or scary.

When I officially started the race I was amazed by how fast the girl swimmers were going out. I kept my spot up at the front until I totally lost track of where everyone was and started passing some of the guys who had gone out a couple of minutes before the girls. I had no idea how fast I was going. I was tired, taking a breath with every stroke, and trying to conserve some energy for the .25 mile run to the transition area. After what seemed like at least 40 minutes, I was back at the shore and taking off toward the transition area.

Caitlin tore off my chip, threw it on Megan’s ankle and Megan took off! It wasn’t until she was gone that I found out that I’d swum the 1.5km in less than 30 minutes (about 25, we think)! Also, I was one of the first women into the finish! Way faster than I expected seeing as it’s been almost 5 years since I’ve raced and I’ve never raced in open water. My old swimming days served me well this morning!!!

Caitlin taped her knees while we waited for Megan to get back. While waiting in the transition area, we took some pictures of this awesome swimsuit dirt pattern that formed inside my suit while I was swimming.

About 1 hour and 15 minutes later, Megan was back from her 40km ride and Caitlin was grabbing the chip and putting it on her ankle. She took off like a speed demon!

Megan and I hung around the finish line waiting for Caitlin to round up our race and finish her 5.6 mile run. We took some pictures with Megan’s friend Debbie who was super sweet to come out with her fiance, Mike to cheer us on! Megan’s boyfriend Jason also showed us some of the pics he’d been taking with his fancy cam which happens to be the same model as mine! I was excited 🙂

Caitlin clocked in our relay at about 2:37 and rounded out her 5.6 mile run around 53 minutes!

We got some sweet trophies for being the 1st place finishers in the female relay category. Okay, we were the only team, but I think we still deserved our awards!

Funny fact: we were originally in the coed relay category, which I only discovered after remembering what happened at Gasparilla when I was placed in the male standings because of my name. We got them to change it before the times were posted! Phew…remind me to always register under my middle name from now on! 🙂

These ladies were so much fun to do this race with and I hope we’ll do another one soon! It was so much fun for me to be swimming again 🙂

When I got home, Evan had cooked me some “Triathlon Pancakes“! How good do these look? He makes pancakes every weekend with Arrowhead Mills Oat Bran Pancake mix, oatmeal and ground flax. Yum!! I had some organic raspberries on the side 🙂

Okay, now onto my Blog Name Announcement!! (look at the bottom of my shirt)

What do you think?? I love my new blog name! I hope you’ll join me on August 3rd for my first post on www.greensforgood.com!

Until then, I’m off to Washington, DC! See you August 3rd.

 

Announcement!

As many of you know, I am participating in the Moss Park Olympic Distance Triathlon this weekend with Caitlin and Megan. I’ll be doing the 1.5km swimming leg while Caitlin runs 5.13 miles and Megan bikes a 40k. Today Megan and I made AWESOME shirts for our AWESOME tri team…they look great and I can’t wait for you all to see them! I’ve decided to post a race recap not only because this is just too exciting not to blog, but because…

the name of my new blog will be announced in a creative way on Sunday, so check back to either of our tri team member’s blogs on Sunday to see what it is!!

Are you excited?! I know I am!!!!!!

 

The Date is Set

Hi!!

I’ve set a date for the launch of my new blog and I wanted you all to be the first to know 🙂

Make sure you check out chasedaylight.com on Monday, August 3rd to find out where I’ll be blogging from next!

Why the wait? I’ll be in Washington, DC from July 23rd to August 1st volunteering for my favorite non-profit organization, Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (www.hoby.org). I thought it’d be silly to start blogging anytime before that and then take two weeks off since I won’t have regular access to a computer while I am there. So, you’ll see me back in the blog world on August 3rd!!!! Yayy! I can’t wait to show you all what I’ve been up to lately in the creation of my new site.

I’m updating Twitter pretty regularly if you’d like to follow me there in the meantime: http://twitter.com/chasedaylight.

See you in August!

Ryan

 

I’m in Orlando!

Hi everyone! Just a quick update…

We made it to Orlando on Saturday after a long week of packing up Evan’s place in Gainesville. I literally turned around after my 16 hour drive back to Florida from Kentucky and headed to Gainesville. CRAZY!

Thanks to our good, good friends Callyn and Justin, moving was a huge success! We’re a few flights of stairs up, so it was an amazing workout that left my legs pretty sore on Sunday morning.

On Monday I spent the entire day unpacking the kitchen (can you tell where my priorities are?) People were in and out fixing things and setting up cable, so I just went with the flow of things and didn’t leave. Evan had his first day of work and it sounds like it’s going well so far!

Yesterday I had my first day of a new nannying gig I got here. It’s only for a couple of weeks, but has potential to continue in the fall so I am thankful! Last night we had insane storms here and our power was out for awhile.

Today I’m off to work again! I’m hoping to get in some work on the blog, but I’ve got some freelance work that is taking precedence.

Have a great hump day everyone!!!

Ryan

Oh…and…pictures to come of the new place…as soon as I can find my camera. It’s burried somewhere!

 

I Just Can’t Stay Away…

…especially when I have such exciting news for you! It’s been an unexpectedly busy couple of weeks…I know, my life is always busy, but I was really expecting a break after graduation! No such luck, but I think the reason is totally worth it…Evan got a job!!! After 40 or so interviews, Evan accepted an amazing job opportunity in Orlando, FL. After a lot of consideration and figuring out distance/times for driving to Tampa from Orlando (where I’ll be attending grad school classes once or twice a week), I’ve decided to move over there with him 😀

It’s all happened really fast (it’s barely been a week since he accepted the offer), but on Tuesday we went apartment hunting. It just so happened that the area that’s the most convenient for both of us driving-wise is around where Caitlin from Healthy Tipping Point lives as well! In fact the (PERFECT) place where we signed our lease is very close to Caitlin and I am just so excited to be moving near someone I know! Plus Meghann, and I hear Ashley are or will be in the area, so I’m just beside myself happy 😀

Here is what’s coming up for me…

–Today I’m heading back to Sarasota (I’ve been in Melbourne staying with Evan’s family since it’s close and convenient to Orlando for making our arrangements) for my brother’s 8th grade graduation that is tomorrow morning.

-On Tuesday (June 2nd) I’ll be driving to Lexington, KY with my friend Callyn for a Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership seminar where we are both facilitators of a group of 10-11 high school sophomores. HOBY is the highlight of my summers!!! They tell me my vegan diet will not be a problem and they will make sure I have food to eat so that should be interesting! Maybe I’ll luck out and get served some yummy vegan restaurant take-out instead of the crappy dining hall food! I’ll let you know what happens 🙂

-Six days later (June 8th) I’m coming back to Florida and then it’s crunch time because…

–We move into our new apartment on June 13th!!!

Suddenly this month has turned into craziness! Wow…

You’ll be happy to know that during all of this I’ve managed to continue work on the new blog! I have a new blog name, a registered domain, and a general theme I will be sticking with for the blog. I’ve made the switch to WordPress.org and am using BlueHost to host my site and further customize it. Building a new blog takes a lot of work and time so thanks for being patient! I’d love to be up and running in the next month, but we’ll see how quickly my technology skills can catch up to all of the new changes I’ve made 🙂

Okay, that’s all for now. Gotta head back across the state soon!

-Ryan

 

Update and New Blog To Come!

Hey everyone! Who knew that post-college life would still be so busy! Not I…

I wanted to let everyone know that I’m working on a new blog with a new domain and new focus as I’ve changed a lot since the initial creation of chasedaylight.com. Once this happens, I’ll definitely let you know where you can continue visiting me and my food adventures! Until then, you probably won’t see much from me as I want to put all of my spare time into my new endeavor.

If you’d like to help me out, I’ve provided a 3-question survey below asking for opinions and suggestions. It’s anonymous so feel free to say what you want!

Click Here to take survey

Thanks 😀

Ryan

 

Vegan Challenge Summary!

Today marked the last official day of the Vegan Challenge! For those who participated, how’d you do? Let me know so I can make sure my participant list is accurate for when I randomly pick a winner after my graduation and big move this weekend.

I’m going to get right to it…I know you all are wondering if I am going to keep this up after today and the partial answer is yes. I’m going to try to follow a vegan diet from here on out. Quite honestly, this isn’t daunting at all because I’ve been doing it so naturally over the last month. It seems like the easiest and most convenient thing to do at this point! I never thought eating vegan would be easy, but I’ve found it to be easy, simple, and less complicated than the Standard American Diet and what I was eating prior to the Vegan Challenge. Just think, I can avoid nearly half of the grocery store when I go shopping!! Additionally, Whole Foods and natural food stores are like my candy store now with so many new things to try and new foods to experience. I love it! I’ve never felt better with the foods I’ve been eating than I have over the last month and I don’t think there’s any better reason that that for me to keep this up.

I said “partial” answer above because I’m not ready to proclaim myself as a vegan and I don’t know if I ever will. As I’ve discovered in the last 30 days, it’s a very loaded term and label and I don’t think I’m ready to be continuously judged by saying I’m a vegan. Most people don’t even know what that means and the ones who do think you’re an animal loving, tree-hugging, pot smoking hippie as soon as you say, “I’m a vegan”. I don’t identify myself with any of those things, and I’m certainly not choosing to eat this way for animal rights. I love animals and I hate the truths about factory farming, but I’m in this for my health. Call me selfish 🙂 From now on, you might hear me say I’m “following a primarily vegan diet” and that’s the truth.

If you see honey or a product that “may contain trace amounts of milk” don’t be alarmed! I’ve had countless dreams over the last month where I’ve temporarily forgotten that I’m vegan and eaten something like cheese or chicken, only to realize afterward that I wasn’t supposed to eat it. And I feel awful in the dream about it and wake up completely relieved that it didn’t actually happen. Kind of like a nightmare! Those dreams were alarming to me and I realized I needed to let go of strict rules and boundaries and just do what was right for me. I don’t see myself choosing to eat meat and dairy products because, honestly, the thought of them going into my mouth at this point kind of grosses me out. But I draw the line at the ingredients list. If they don’t contain animal products, I’m in!

As I’ve progressed through this challenge, I’ve learned a lot. To me, the most interesting aspect of eating vegan is the concept of the raw, vegan diet. The benefits of this are amazing to me and I’d really like to start incorporating more raw foods into my diet. I’m currently looking into juicers and when I have the cash flow, I’ll be ordering one. I love my green smoothies, and juicing is the best next step up! I’ve been following Kris Carr’s blog over the last month and I’ve found her to be extremely informative and inspiring. Gena from Choosing Raw also joined the food blogging world during my Vegan Challenge and I am absolutely in love with her blog and all of the information she provides to everyone on a daily basis. These are just a couple of the inspirations I’ve had over the last month and I can’t wait to keep growing with all of the new information that is out there to discover.

So with all of this, I’ve kind of hit a little wall in my blogging (you may have noticed). So much has changed since I started this blog back in November. If you don’t believe me, head on back in the ol’ archives and see for yourself! It’s crazy to think about the health transitions I’ve made because of blogging. I feel like I’m heading in a completely different direction now and I think I need to change my blog to reflect that. I’m not quite sure what this means yet, but I’m open for suggestions! Leave a comment here, or shoot me an email. I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, suggestions, anything! I’m hoping that graduating, having the summer off, moving back home and then to graduate school will be enough change to get my wheels seriously turning!

I hope you all have enjoyed following me on this journey and will stick around for more foodie adventures to come! I feel like there’s been a whole new world opened up to me from this and I’m really eager to keep exploring!

Have a fabulous Thursday evening and Friday!! I’ll see you guys after GRADUATION for a complete recap of my weekend with wonderful friends and family!

Love you all 😀

 

Life Got In The Way

Can anyone tell me where that title comes from? 😛

Hello! First, I have to apologize for my absence over the last week (seriously has it been that long?!) It feels like I just posted about Earth Day last night, but the calendar doesn’t lie I guess. Anyway, I’m alive and well and still thriving during the Vegan Challenge (more on that tomorrow, I promise). Life is just extra crazy right now with taking care of my final exams, working double my normal hours this week, spending time with Evan before I move, and stressing out over getting the last 2 years of my life packed and ready to move by Sunday morning. There was also an unexpected trip to the Dr. in there which I won’t get into, but I’ve got my meds and I’m fine now! 😀

I’ve got to run but I’ll leave you with these pictures from the last week (including some from my exciting day with Evan last Thursday!)

 

Changes I’ve Made for the Earth

Happy Earth Day everyone!!! This day really got me thinking about how Earth-friendly I’ve become since last year’s Earth Day. Let me count the ways:

1. I started eating significantly more organic produce and foods, some of which is locally grown and purchased at farmers’ markets.
2. I’ve been eating less animal products over the last year, and in the last month have completely eliminated them.
3. I went from a gas-guzzling SUV to a tiny hatchback car that doubled the number of miles I could get per gallon.
4. I started using more reusable grocery bags whenever possible.
5. I stopped buying bottled water and instead purchased a Klean Kanteen and BPA-free Camelbak water bottle
6. I bought a lunch box instead of using brown paper bags
7. I started washing all of my clothes on the cold cycle.
8. I’ve bought more environmentally friendly cleaning products.
9. I cut my hair off!

Yes, you read #7 correctly. Cutting your hair is earth friendly! How?

• You use less shampoo and conditioner which means less time in the shower washing your hair. Saves water, time, AND money!
• It takes less time to blow-dry and straighten your hair, if you’re styling it. Saves energy, time and money!
• You use less styling products which means less plastic bottles in the trash each year and saves you more money!

My goals for this coming year:

• Use my reusable grocery bags every time I go to the store. I really wish our grocery stores would stop offering plastic/paper bags so everyone would be forced to reuse bags.
• RECYCLE, RECYCLE, RECYCLE. I have gotten better about recycling this last year, but I could do so much better.
• Keep the tires on my car properly inflated to make my car even more fuel-efficient.
• Attempt to buy more local, organic produce.
• Switch my beauty products to items with more natural ingredients (I’ve already done this with my deodorant and toothpaste)

How have you reduced your impact on our planet? Do have any goals for this coming year?

———————–

Today was Vegan Challenge Day 22 and it was pretty normal, including the appearance of two Amy’s products (are you really surprised? hehe)

Breakfast: Umm…I slept through breakfast. Let’s move to lunch.

Lunch: Amy’s Non-Dairy Burrito and an organic romaine, celery, cucumber and sunflower seed salad topped with Annie’s Goddess dressing.

I’m loving the goddess dressing. Yum, yum! You may have noticed I haven’t made many salads (I think this is only #2) during the Vegan Challenge. I’m really not a huge salad person and would rather somewhat disguise my veggies. I’m warming up to the salads more though as I start to crave more fresh veggies.

  

Mid-Afternoon Snacks: organic Braeburn apple and a vanilla coconut milk yogurt with ginger zing granola and added cinnamon.

The question was asked yesterday about my ginger zing granola. It’s Nature’s Path and I get it from the bulk bins at my local health food store. I picked this one because it’s made with molasses instead of honey and doesn’t contain whey protein. It also has yummy cashews added in 🙂

Dinner: Amy’s Enchilada Dinner Whole Meal

I was feeling lazy tonight and didn’t have any inspiration for cooking, so I picked this up after work. It wasn’t very big, but it was actually the perfect amount of food for me tonight as I wasn’t starving. If you’re looking for a lot of food, this isn’t it though. Definitely spend the extra buck and get one of the bowls instead or bulk it up with a bunch of spinach or something.

Dessert: Zesty Lemon Sorbet by Haagen Dazs

I absolutely love desserts with a bit of a bite to them. This one was almost borderline too much sweet and not enough bite. I’m contemplating making my on sometime. Has anyone ever made their own lemon sorbet? I’d love to be able to adjust the amount of lemon flavor!

Okay, that’s it from me for tonight! Stay tuned for tomorrow as Evan and I have loads of fun plans and I’m so so so excited about them! Yay!

Goodnight!!!