Citrusy Fennel & Guava Salad

First thing this AM before I started working, I took Harley for a quick run/walk interval around our neighborhood trail. It took 20 minutes, I felt like I got a bit of exercise in, and the puppy was content all morning with just laying around. Why don’t I do that everyday?! I’m certainly going to try to start more of my weekdays off like that.

How to Beat Exercise Boredom

In lieu of boxing this evening, I volunteered at the Humane Society. In order to get a workout in today, I squeezed in a weight training + cycling session at my gym beforehand. As I was doing some strength training exercises, and sweating my butt off since I haven’t been doing that kind of workout much lately, I started thinking about how important it is to diversify your workouts.

True, there may be some people out there that can do the same workout over and over and not get bored. Avid runners come to mind when I say that, but I’ll bet that even those people experience burnout at some point. For me, I need to change up my routine to keep myself not only mentally focused and stimulated, but to also keep my body guessing. Your body adapts quickly to a workout, and if you just keep doing the same thing, you probably won’t see the results you’d like, and you’ll also get tired of the same old thing.

In the past week, I’ve boxed, hiked, done yoga and running intervals, weight trained and cycled. I love to do a variety of exercises like this, not to mention that each of these workouts train different muscles in different ways. Let’s just say that I’m constantly sore (especially since I’ve started boxing!), which is a good thing!

My point is that sometimes we get into a rut of doing the same, boring routine and find ourselves lacking motivation to exercise at all. Switching up your workouts and incorporating new forms of exercise into your life can be nothing but beneficial, plus you might even find something new that you love to do. Moral of the story is to not bore yourself, and to be bold and try out new workouts! 🙂

Onto Food…

I got creative with lunch today, and I’m officially in love with what I came up with.

I bought fennel for the first time at the farmer’s market last weekend – what an interesting looking veggie. I know I’ve had salads with shaved fennel before, but have never made something with it myself. I was really surprised with how much it smelled like black licorice as I was slicing it. How odd but neat! This salad is so yummy and I will definitely be making it again (more likely sooner than later!).

 

Citrusy Fennel Salad

Serves 1

• 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced + a few leaves thrown in for good measure
• 1 medium guava, sliced
• 1 large slice of red onion, thinly sliced
• 2 TBSP chopped toasted hazelnuts (Diamond)
• 1 oz. crumbled Feta cheese (President)
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1 TSP olive oil
• Mixed up pepper

Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl. Mix lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper in a small dish, then pour onto salad.

Nutrition stats: 300 calories, 19 g fat, 9 g protein, 28 g carbs

Off to enjoy my pictured dessert of granola + Cheerios + craisins and finish up on some work!