Napa

I hope everyone is having a great, short week! I definitely am having an amazing time-I have all week off!

This morning, I woke up early for abs class and spinning on my own. I’m already sore from abs! For spin, i did the same class I did last Thursday, but on a different type of bike-on “real” spin bikes it was definitely harder! I left completely drenched.

Once home, I experienced one of the great lies of the world.

Flavored coffee. It smells amazingly delicious-this one was French vanilla-and then…it tastes like coffee. I mean it wasn’t bad coffee-just a disappointment. 

I also had this bar-pretty good!

After more furry kitty time (and therefore sneezing and itchy eyes), it was time to make the drive to Napa!

We stopped at the Genova Delicatessen, one of our longtime favorites.

This local favorite features sandwiches, interesting packaged foods, and housemade pasta. I always order the egg salad-it’s amazingly rich, so my mom and I shared a sandwich, along with a side of Greek cucumber salad.

We also sampled some desserts-Bananas Foster and Caramel Apple pies.

Everything was delicious. I brought some kombucha that I bought yesterday as well-guava is a new to me flavor, and while not my favorite, it was still delicious, and more special than just water for a deli meal.

We have a tradition of going to Ross Dress for Less in Napa every year at Thanksgiving, so we spent a couple of hours combing the shelves there. I ended up leaving with a new shirt and some photo props for some Christmas-bloggy things. 

We then checked in and took a walk around the grounds.

The lighting was perfect, and I was actually wearing real people clothes (well, jeans and a scarf-not workout clothes!), so we took advantage of the situation and took some artsy photos. 

A nice snowy day!

HAH. If that was actually snow, I would be wearing about 10 more layers. It’s sand!

Then, we settled into our room for a cozy night and room service. I ordered a chicken Caesar salad, but the dressing was a little too anchovy-y for my taste. 

For dessert, I had a slice of Cranberry bread and a chocolate shortbread cookie. 

I’m feeling pretty confident about my ability to stay healthy and sane during the holidays this year. So far, I’m choosing foods that make me feel good, but also enjoying the treats in moderation and not stressing about it. I had a lot of stress going into the holidays last year (rowing, adjusting to college, being away from home for the holiday season, just finding out I was not longer trying to drop weight to row lightweight…), and I think it made me go a little crazy. I somehow managed to gain 6 pounds last year over the week of Thanksgiving. And I’m not talking about the “oh, too much turkey in my stomach, but it’s gone in a few days” pounds. I’m talking about lasting weight-do the math and think about how much I would have had to eat to accomplish that. I’m in SO much of a better place this year! It really is amazing how much I’ve grown and improved in the last year. 

And, I’m getting really excited for my Turkey Trot! It’s weird because I basically haven’t trained for this particular race at all, so I feel really unprepared! I know I’m not though-I’ve still been running! 

What are your holiday traditions?