Ugh I am having a tough time bloggy friends.  I got hit with a violent stomach bug on Thursday.  I was pretty much stuck in the bathroom from Thursday afternoon to Friday early morning.  Not to be too graphic, but that pumpkin sums up how I felt.  Then all day Friday I felt like you could have just blown me over I was so weak and my stomach still hurt.  I stupidly didn’t cancel a job interview that I had and I went anyway. I managed to act like I was feeling okay and think it went fine.  Now I wake up this morning with a sore throat and stuffed head.  Ugh, I wish I could just sleep the weekend away. The one bad thing about having a baby is you can’t get any time to yourself. 

Since I am sick I am missing my long run today and have missed 2 short runs.  This is always really hard for me, but I try and tell myself that I will be stronger for taking the time off.  What do you do when you are sick?  Do you still work out? Do you push through it and just get it done anyway? I know they say that if you are sick above the head to go ahead and work out, but I just can never bring myself to do it.  I take my sick time and I rest.

Okay as I’ve said  million times I have one sworn enemy and it’s this thing:

Ugh I dread the thought of getting on it, but its been so cold that I’ve had to a few times lately.  A few years ago I made it through spring marathon training with only 1 treadmill run!  Pretty impressive for Cleveland. LOL.  I was reading over my trusty Runners World email this morning and I thought that this article about Treadmill running had some good ideas that I am going to employee next time I have to get on the sonofabyatch.  What do you typically do on the treadmill? Do you get on it often?  If you still want to get outside like me!  You should check out Yak trax, I love mine. You can get a pair at my open sky shop!

Five great run-on-the-mill workouts

By Sarah Lorge Butler

Ahhhh as you know at MonicaOnTheGo I am a big fan of convenience. I try to eat real food as often as I can, but I am known to eat a lot of microwave food too.  Shoot me.  Last night I made this Archer Farms Cilantro Lime Rice. You just microwave it for 90 seconds.  Ohhh MMMM Geeee.  This stuff is so flippin awesome.  It tastes like the rice you get a chipotle. I am in love with you Archer Farms.  The rice is a little more stiff and chewy than if you were to make some boiled rice, but this is wonderful in a pinch.

And then today for lunch I popped this sucker into the microwave. I came back from the gym after a kickass spin class and ab workout.  I needed food QUICK.  This is seriously yummy and the list of ingredients isn’t too long.  The plantains come out the perfect texture, not too mushy or chewy, the combination of flavors is to die for.  Get it!  You won’t be sorry.

PS – Don’t forget to scroll down and enter the Recipe card contest and sorry for the issues with my new blog showing up in your feeds/subscription. We are working on getting it fixed.

Exciting news Bloggy friends!  I am now an Open Sky Shopkeeper.  Are you familiar with The Open Sky Project? It is a ”community of Shoppers, Suppliers, & Shopkeepers working together to change how the world shops.”  Basically as a shopkeeper, I recommend and sell products that I use and enjoy.  You can visit my shop and see what items I love and purchase them through my shop just like you would through any other online retailer.  I am just starting my shop, so I only have a few items in there right now. You can visit it my shop at:

http://monicaonthego.theopenskyproject.com/

Check it out!  In the market for wheatberries, chia seeds, a Garmin 305 or some BeamFit items!  Then you could totally buy them from me. I plan to get many more items added to the shop over the coming weeks and make a weekly update as I add the goods. And I’ll add a page soon linking to my shop and items. Please let me know if you have any questions.  Are there any items you’d like to see in my shop?

*Don’t forget to enter the recipe card contest below!*

Yesterday our neighbors, who are parents to a 5 month old, watched Harper for the afternoon so the hubby and I could get some alone time. We have been doing a babysitting swap for a few weekends now and it’s really great.  It’s nice for our kids to play together, nice for our kids to get used to others watching them and nice for the parents to do something without a monkey attached to their hip.  A very cute monkey!

Since it was so cold we decided not to go hiking, which was our original plan. But I still wanted to do something active so we headed to the Cleveland Art Museum.  I’ll admit it, I want to like art, but I am not a huge fan of art museums, but its nice and big and you can walk a few miles in it and I do enjoy looking at the paintings. I just don’t stand around and contemplate them. I do like the brickabrack you can find at art museums, you know little knick knacks from times long ago.  Like this enamel snail box. It’s from 1790, how stinking cute. 

There is one artist that I truly do enjoy though and that is Van Gogh.  When I was in high school I had the chance to live in Amsterdam for a month and we went to a whole museum of Van Gogh. It was breathtaking.  It was the only time that I have slowed down and read everything and really looked at all the works of art.  I don’t slow down often, its both a character flaw and plus if you ask me!   This painting is from 1889 and is called The Large Plane Trees.

After our art museum stroll, we decided to try a new resteraunt.  We don’t do this often b/c we don’t eat out often.  So, when we do we want to make sure it is good!  But we took a chance and tried The Flying Crane cafe on Larchmere in Shaker Heights. It’s quite the interesting little dive.  It’s just a counter and a few tables.  There is a large chalkboard menu as well as several smaller specials menus scattered about. Visually this place needs a lot of work.  They need to organize and streamline, it is chaotic behind the counter and you have to look way too many places to see what there is to order. They do have smaller hand held menus but not everything is on there. Plus the menu has japanese food, high tea, brunch and a million kinds of drinks.  Anyway, we decided to go with their brunch special. For $10 you got coffee or tea, soup, a brunch special and dessert.  Both Gary and I both picked a quiche. I ordered the tomato parmesean cheese and he got the black bean and sausage soup.  Both of the soups were very good, they didn’t just taste like they poured a can of soup in a bowl. I can’t say that soup and breakfast items really flow well together, but next up was the quiche. I got goat cheese and broccoli and Gary got a veggie one. Both were perfect. Just the right amount of cheese and very fluffy. The side salad and fruit that came with it could use a little work. A little pile of lettuce and a few orange slices isn’t very exciting.  Last up were the desserts, you can get a cookie or lime bar, all of which are made there. We both went with the lime bar. They were just okay, not tart enough for my liking, but the crust was very buttery and nice.  All in all I would give the food an 7 out of 10, the overall atmosphere gets a 6. I would probably go there again for brunch, just b/c you get a lot of food.  I hope they succeed, its a mom and pop shop and so few do, so check them out if you are in the area. 

As anyone out there who is trying to monetize their blog knows, branding yourself is really important. I decided to have some business cards made up and I hand them out to people at the gym and stick them on bulletin boards around my neighborhood.  As with most things in my life, when I wanted cards, I turned to Etsy.   Enter Happy Girl Greetings!  Not only did Laura Beth print me up these adorable, high quality cards, she designed the logo for me!  Isn’t it lovely?  At Happy Girl Greetings you can find business cards, stationary and much more, check it out.

Laura Beth was kind enough to send me some cute recipe cards to giveaway to 2 of my lucky readers!  To enter, go visit Happy Girl Greetings  and leave me a comment telling me which logo on a calling card you like best.  Want an extra entry or two?  Just facebook, tweet or blog about this contest and leave me a seperate comment telling me you did so. I will pick 2 winners using random.org on Friday afternoon.

Today’s yoga class was just what the doctor ordered. I was feeling very tight and creaky after my sub zero windchill run from yesterday.  My favorite pose today was the Shoulder Stand.  Ahhhh sweet relief.

According to A-B-C of Yoga.com, “The Shoulder Stand stimulates and rejuvenates your entire body. In this exercise, you build up both power and a new structure in your back and you relax tension in well-known stress areas like the neck and the lower back. The muscles of your lower back get stronger, the chest and shoulders can move more freely and the back gets straighter. The Shoulder Stand also stimulates the thyroid gland and is good for blood circulation in the chest, shoulders, upper back and the neck. “ 

I have also been told that if you shake your legs about that it loosens up the lymphatic fluid and releases it which is especially good for runners.  I like to keep my legs straight and shake them all about and twist my ankles around.  But you can also go all the way over:

STEP 1: Lie down with your back on a Yoga Mat.
	STEP 2: Your shoulders should lie on the edge and your head rests on the mat. Your legs are drawn in and still stand on the mat.
	STEP 3: Lift your hips off the floor and bring your legs up, over and beyond your head.
	STEP 4: At this point, lift your back and move your legs further beyond your head.
	STEP 5: Straighten your spine and keep your back straight. Move your hands toward your back.

I personally cannot do headstands. I like these half inversion poses though. I am a total chicken and psyche myself out of it everytime I try to do a head stand.  Can you do headstands?  What is your favorite inversion?

I am so in love with the yoga mat bags from Green Trunk Designs. The contest winner is below, congrats Angela, send me your mailing address at mnowac@gmail.com.  She picked the retro rose bag.  For all of you that entered the contest Jaya has extended a special offer!  She is going to give you 10% off the purchase of any of her mat bags!  How awesome is that!  To get the discount, you need to go to her shop, and then send her a message (through the contact Green Trunk Designs link on the right hand side) and let her know you came over from my blog and which bag you want and then she will put the special price up for you. First come first serve.  If you get one, please send me a picture of you with it when you get it and I will put it up on my site!   Seriously, if you do yoga, you need to be sporting one of these bags. I get so many compliments on mine!  I feel a lot more zen when everyone is jealous of my cute yoga bag, lol.

1/27/2010 9:19 AM Angela wrote:
#2 entry…I would love to win the retro rose mat!

The winner of the lip gloss/perfume kit from Tropical Bomb is below.  Congrats Nicole and please email me your address at mnowac@gmail.com. Big thanks to Tropical Bomb, keep them in mind the next time you need some top of the line body care items!

1/25/2010 9:13 PM Nicole wrote:
What a fun Etsy shop! Circus Peanut lip balm??? Oh, be still my beating heart. I think I’ve just found some great gift ideas!

* I apologize for the delay in the contest winners, I will get them up before tomorrow morning*

Ooh baby I roasted up some cauliflower for dinner and it was really good.  I just chopped it into big pieces, sprayed with olive oil, sprinkled with lemon garlic salt and Crazy Mixed pepper and roasted at 450 for 25 mins.  During the last 2 mins I sprinkled on some cheese.  Everything tastes better with cheese!  As I had said before I have been having issues eating broccoli and cauliflower, I lost the taste for it during my pregnancy. This was the first time I had eat cauliflower in a long time and enjoyed it.  What is your favorite way to cook it?

This morning I got up bright and early with plans to run 10 miles. I was going to do 30 mins solo and then meet my friends at 9. I knew it was cold out, much colder than it had been in awhile.  So I threw on my thickest running pants, 2 shirts (one with a built in hood and half gloves) and a zip up vest.  Topped it off with a hat and thin gloves. 

It was about 10 degrees when I started and 10 mins in I was literally in pain. My face was burning, my eyes were running and my knees were creaking. I was really wishing I had worn my full face mask.  It was dreadful.  .8 miles into my run I ran into one of my friends and he is a much better runner than me.  So, thank goodness for him.  I picked up my pace and stuck with him the rest of the morning. It was a seriously hilly run at a local park.  We ran on a paved path.  You basically run 3 miles down a hill and then 3 miles back up. For those of you from around here, we were running from Harper Ridge Picnic Area down to Richmond Rd at S.Chagrin Rez.  It was so tough. I have run 10 miles plenty of times, but I was woozy when we were done. I think it was b/c it was so damn cold, my body had to work extra hard to warm up and it was all just a bit too much. I am so glad I got through it though.  Afterwards we spent the day at my father in law’s house.  We ate cupcakes and played pictionary.  Crazy exciting life we lead   Just the way I like it.  Tonight I think we are going to watch Public Enemies staring my boyfriend Johnny Depp.  If I can stay awake.  Looking forward to yoga in the morning, my legs are stiffff.