by Sam Tackeff | Sep 20, 2013 | Blogging, Fitness
This is how I started my day – with a walk along the waterfront, ambling my way towards the office and a long workday ahead of me. It’s always a peaceful stroll from where we park – about a half hour away from the office – and I make an effort to head out on the Harborwalk (the longer way) when I can. I had a breakfast date with Devon at Sportello, and although he could have driven me after that, I decided to walk the normal way to start things off right. That’s my happiness tip right there: start the morning off with a walk, and no matter how the day goes, you’ll already have accomplished something. Okay, so the same goes for making your bed. Do both, and you’ll be golden.
Our office was buzzing today – the exciting type of morning in startups: our app was a) somehow above Pinterest yesterday afternoon in the app store rankings. Yes, Pinterest. And then we made Time 50 best apps of 2013. And then someone realized that Jay Leno had actually mentioned RunKeeper on the show, and the video started circulating the office. I got to run our weekly Twitter chat – and I do *love* Twitter. And the afternoon highlight was a team-effort bug bash complete with a gavel spray painted gold with plastic bugs glued to it. For such a hard working group, it’s delightful how silly folks can be. And then my longest meeting was a walking meeting, accompanied by my coworker Rebecca, and her dog Connor. Here he is in the throws of ecstasy. Gotta love that pup!
After work I decided that I’d walk home (Newton home, not New Hampshire, although that’d be a new type of adventure). My plan was to take the “short” way, along the Charles, from Boston, to Allston, to Brighton, and over to Newton. The long way would be on the river itself, but that’s about 9 or 10 miles including all of the curves of the river.
I wasn’t actually sure I’d make it, and I left a little too late to ensure a light passage the whole way, but why not try? Sometimes I amuse myself with these “ambitious” ideas. And by ambitious, I mean, slightly off-balance. I should mention here that I am still sore from working out at the gym on Wednesday. So much so that I was getting up and down like a geriatric (but not my grandmother – she does Tai Chi and Zumba), with stiff limbs all day, and doing a lot of that achy waddling that you hope nobody notices. A run tonight seemed unimaginable, but the one thing I can do, even when sore is walk, so I just left the office with my bag, and started off. Here’s what I came across.
7.77 miles and nearly three hours later, I made it home. And now, I’m expired on the couch. And all of my favorite takeout options have already closed, and I haven’t had dinner yet. And if you’ve made it this far, you might have one last laugh with me: last night, after my second attempt at watching my recorded episode of Broadchurch, Devon fell asleep 8 minutes in, and I paused it. Tonight, I have yet to have eaten, and I’m pretty sure that attempt three is going to be a bust. C’est la vie!
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 19, 2013 | Challenge, chicken, Fitness, Restaurants
Before I even bother mentioning any part of my day, isn’t this a glorious sunset? You can’t quite see it, but the moon was huge on the horizon tonight. As I took the long way back from work there were dozens of people stopped taking photos on the Harborwalk. Folks had iPhones, iPads, you name it directly in front of their faces to get a shot of this thing. Yes, yes, I know, why can’t we just stop and enjoy things with our eyes? But who will know that we saw it?!
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I hope you don’t mind that this blog has turned into a serial novel. Now where were we here? Oh yes, we left off last night as I was about to watch Broadchurch. And then I posted my little essay on the interwebs, and promptly passed out. Turns out that two hours at the gym has a soporific effect.
Today was a sad day at work, as a coworker who I’m particularly fond of left to move onto new things. We had a big team lunch across the Charlestown bridge at the new Papagayo location, ate massive amounts of guacamole, and witnessed said departing coworker’s first ever tequila shot. (I’m not actually sure how that one is possible, but there is video documentation) I ordered the shrimp and avocado salad with mango and jicama, and a little side of black beans. It was good, but I think I’d like to recreate it at home with slightly riper mango!
It pushed me right into nap time territory, but I think that could have been because I had been walking all morning long, rather than the food. I racked up 16,000 steps today, which I managed to track with my Fitbit, Jawbone, and several RunKeeper logged activities. Can’t have too many measurements! Here’s what the Jawbone app looks like – that’s my main page on the left. The purple bar is sleep time, and the red-orange is steps. You can zoom in on your daily step total (on the right), and see the breakdown of your activity time. Neat!
After walking over to the car, I met Devon and some coworkers at Atlantic Beer Garden, where I turned down burgers, fries, and a half a quesadilla, alas. When I got home tonight, despite my activity level, I was actually not very hungry. (Might have been the extra guacamole which tided me over?) Here’s dinner: a bowl of spinach and cherry tomatoes, and a leftover spicy chicken leg from Capitol Grille. There may… or may not be a small bit of ice cream in my future.
And before I go, here’s one last photo – the seal that caught me checking him out in the mirror at the aquarium tonight. I try to pass by the window on a regular basis, because, come on, these guys are too cute. (I decided to hold back from posting the screen shot of my mom as I FaceTime’d her seeing the seal, but, man is it great knowing that I have that shot on my phone.)
Because we’re going full circle here, I’m headed to attempt Broadchurch again. Goodnight all!
by Sam Tackeff | Sep 18, 2013 | Challenge, Fitness, Meal Planning, Seafood
Hello! Today was a quiet day, I dropped off Devon at work at 8, and headed over to Trader Joe’s to pick up some food so that I wasn’t lost without options. Newly armed with chicken thighs, broccoli, and several samples, I headed over to Formaggio Kitchen to pick up my cup of George Howell coffee, and an egg salad sandwich on caraway bread for lunch, and made it home in time for my first meeting.
I worked from home today, and it was largely full of meetings, calls, coordination, and follow up work. It was blissfully uneventful… except for a small period of panic as I waited patiently for the iOS 7 release. After several false starts: “Sorry, your phone is too damn full, this program needs 3.1 GB of storage!“, and “Sorry, you’ve waited two hours but Software Update is unavailable at this time, sucker!“, I can finally say that in my hands is the flat design and brand-spankin’ new features we’ve all been waiting for.
Actually, I’m having trouble adjusting. But I just don’t like change.
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If you are only around for the food, warning, fitness rambling ahead! Just go ahead and skip below the fold for my dinner notes.
For the past few weeks, I’ve been missing many weekday CrossFit classes because I haven’t been able to make the commuting work, so a few months ago I decided to commit to Wednesday afternoons to head in for the WOD, and for Olympic Lifting class. Despite my attempts, because of traffic, I was barely making it to the later classes, so a few weeks ago I decided to try working from home on Wednesdays so that I’d avoid the nearly two hour rush hour trip from Boston to Needham. Many folks in my office work from home a few days a week – and unlike at Yahoo, we get things done! – and I feel so fortunate to have such flexibility. Today’s workout was the scheduled Lurong Paleo Challenge workout, and although I’m not competing, I jumped right in with the group.
B. “The Triplet Tester”
21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps of:
Wall Ball 20/14
Deadlift 115/75
Box Jump 24/20
For this workout, there was an 18 minute cap. I chose the prescribed weights, and the wall balls nearly killed me. I knew going in it would be hard work, but I assumed that I’d get closer to finishing – but… no dice. I made it through the 21 and 18 round with a rough time on the wall balls, and only made it through 12 wall balls of the 15 round. This was *not* my best work, and I kept missing the wall target. But, I do still feel quite sore from the weekend, and I’m not going to beat myself up about it. It felt so good just to be in there working hard.
After the workout, I stayed for Lifting class – we spent an hour warming up, doing drills, and practicing Squat Cleans. I’ve been trying to get back to heavier weights, but I know that I need to commit to the best form possible, even if that means a light bar. I spent most of the hour focusing intently on leaning back, pulling the bar close, and getting my elbows up. I know these classes pay off in the end, but man, is it an exercise in patience!
After the gym I headed back into the city to pick up Devon from work before heading home.
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And then we eat!
When I got home, I was keen on prepping dinner quickly – it was already past 8 when we walked in the door. After 10 minutes at the fish counter debating flounder (on sale) or scallops, the scallops won out. I think it was Adam Roberts’ instagram that got me hungry for them this week, and I knew I wanted to take them home and sear them in butter. Butttttttah.
I took out my stainless steel pan, added a few pats of Kerrygold butter, and let it heat up until it was just starting to foam and brown. The scallops, which were quite large, got seasoned with salt and pepper, and I popped them in the pan and let them sizzle in the bubbling butter. I gave them about three minutes on the first side without so much as poking them, flipped them over, and let them have another two. Afterwards I let them rest on a plate while I reheated some asparagus (leftovers from Devon’s dinner last night at Capitol Grille – I can’t complain, because yesterday I was eating lobster), heated up his small piece of leftover filet mignon, some potatoes, and cooked some pre-steamed fairytale eggplant and cherry tomatoes in the buttery dregs of the pan. After I plated, I sprinkled the eggplant and tomato with some sherry vinegar, and dinner was served!
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And now? Tonight’s episode of Broadchurch. Are you watching it? It’s the newest series to premiere on BBC America – a small seaside town crime series starring the former Doctor, David Tennant, and it’s completely captivating! Are you watching it? Do you have a favorite BBC series?
by Sam Tackeff | Aug 12, 2013 | Books, Fitness, Meal Planning, Random
Meal planning again – I really do look so forward to this process. Usually, the beginning of my weekends are spent curled up with a new cookbook, reading it from cover to cover by Saturday afternoon, meal planning for the week, shopping and prep cooking on Sunday. This weekend I was totally swept up reading Naomi Duguid’s fabulous Burma: Rivers of Flavor – the ultimate armchair vacation cookbook.
On Saturday I set to work making a little list of what was left in my fridge that I wanted to use up: asparagus, baby spinach, ham, cucumbers, two zucchini, coconut milk, feta, bacon, beets, basil succotash, basil oil, brussels sprouts, Anson Mills rice, eggs, carrots, avocado and tomatoes. Of course there are plenty of bits and bobs, sauces, condiments, and probably things in the way back of the fridge that I just haven’t noticed for a while – all fair game too. And then my pantry is stocked for the apocalypse, so I like to build upon the fresh stuff, but sometimes pantry goods get the starring role in the meal.
When I went to the store, I tried to pick up some meat, some fruit for the week, things to round out my lunches, pantry staples I was running out of: sardines, Red Boat fish sauce, an extra avocado. And by store, well, that’s a lie, we all know that I have a problem. “Store” is more like, three or four or five stores. By choice. For pleasure. Sometimes I stop by Trader Joe’s just for the sample first, you know, to clear my mind. Then I’ll head to Russo’s in Watertown to see if they have Chip-In eggs (they didn’t), or interesting peak produce. Then to Whole Foods for Sunday night fish and an olive sample and a little cup of bionically filtered water, and Trader Joe’s again (to see if they have the free range organic chicken thighs that I eat a lot of (they did.) And another sample.
So here’s what I came up with, accounting for a few days that we’ll likely be eating out because of our super late schedule:
:: Grilled Blue Fish, Mashed Potatoes, and Asparagus with Mustard Vinaigrette. I try to do fish every Sunday if I can because I know that I’ll be able to cook it right when I get home, and usually it’s a quick bet after an afternoon of prep cooking.
:: Saucy Spiced Meat & Potato. This one is from the Burma cookbook. It’s sort of like a spiced stew with ground beef (actually, reminds me a lot of sloppy joe mix.) and I’m not quite sure what I’ll pair it with yet – a big mess of sautéed spinach, and likely a simple salad. I think it suggests an okra/shallot stir-fry in the book, which would be nice, but I don’t have okra.
:: B.L.A.T. Salad. Yep, bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato salad. The feta might go in here too. And beets on the side.
:: Burmese Grilled Chicken. Also from Burma – chicken with an exciting! marinade of ginger, turmeric, garlic, chile, and fish sauce. I’d bathe myself in Red Boat fish sauce… I’ll probably pair this with a quick pickled cucumber salad.
:: Ham & Cheese Omelette. I have leftover ham. And leftover cheddar with hatch chiles (sucker purchase after eating a sample). And eggs that are a little old, but not too old, that I really want to use up. And I like to channel my French side in the summer time. On the side some stewed zucchini, tomato, and garlic, and a side salad. Ooh la la!
:: Coconut Rice Pudding. I have rice, coconut milk, and some delicious Nielsen–Massey Organic Fairtrade Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract that was sent to me to try out for my blog. (Really good timing, P.R. folks – I usually make my own, and I’ve just run out of a large batch that had lasted for months.) I really love Thai mango sticky rice, so I might do some sort of play on that.
And fitness? There’s plenty of that too:
The three miles of walking on weekdays is my usual their and back commute walk. Our evening strolls are walks, although this week we’ve been adding in some running intervals. These aren’t always what I end up doing, but I find that if I schedule out my workouts, I’m more likely to commit to doing them.
Monday: 3 mile walk + 6 mile slow run
Tuesday: 3 mile walk + evening stroll
Wednesday: 3 mile walk, CrossFit Olympic Lifting Class
Thursday: 3 mile walk
Friday: 3 mile walk+ evening stroll
Saturday: CrossFit (or day off)
Sunday: CrossFit Class + Open Platform
What’s on your plate this week? Also, for those of you who have Burma, have you cooked from it? I have lots of notes, but I’m not sure what to tackle next…
