Kayaking Guist Creek Lake

Yesterday we decided to try out a new kayaking location with the McDowell's in Shelbyville, Ky called Guist Creek Lake.  It is a 317 acre lake primarily used for fishing, but it also has a water skiing area to the left of the marina and a great kayaking area to the right of the marina, all in a no wake zone.  There is also a campground and Jon boat rentals.

We got a later start than we wanted to because a storm rolled through that morning, but we were launched and on the water by 11:30 and paddled around for a few hours.  We stuck to the right of the marina in the less busy, fishing area and explored a few coves.  It was pretty windy and we had to paddle back against the wind so we didn't go too far on our first trip out.

It was a very nice lake to paddle around or fish in and I'm sure we will go back again.  The water was fairly clear given all the rain we have had for the last several weeks and was a nice 85 degrees. We saw the usual Great Blue Herons, water turtles, a woodpecker and a few fish during our outing. We got some fun in the sun and got to visit a new place - a very good Sunday!

Riceless Stuffed Pepper Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 Pound of Ground Beef
• 2 - 4 Green Bell Peppers, chopped
• 24 oz Spaghetti Sauce
• 1 Tbs Worcestershire Sauce
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 tsp Onion Powder
• 1 tsp Italian Seasoning
• Salt & Pepper to Taste
• 1.5 cups of Mozzarella Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F
2. Cook beef in skillet until almost browned; drain beef.
3. Place beef back in pan and add chopped peppers, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt and garlic.  Cook over medium heat until beef is completely cooked and peppers begin to turn tender.
4. In 2 1/2 quart casserole dish, stir in sauce, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and 3/4 cup of cheese.
5. Add in beef and stir until combined.
6. Place the rest of the cheese on top.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese begins to brown.  Let sit 5 - 10 minute before serving.

Note: If you prefer your peppers stuffed, use this same recipe, just hold out some of the sauce mixed with Italian seasoning to put on top of the peppers after they are stuffed, then top with cheese and bake.

Couch to 5K

This week I decided it was time to try a new fitness routine since I can't seem to stay motivated with anything else (aside from kayaking, but that's more leisure paddling than a workout).  I've always wanted to run, but the times I've tried I've not done well because I didn't pace myself and ended up with aching knees.  (I have a bad knee that generally gives me fits).

So as the weight I've lost over the last 8 months is creeping back, it's time to do something about it and get on a routine.  I started back on strict low-carb eating on Monday and started the Couch to 5K running program for beginners.  I purchased the $1.99 mobile app for my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 with some of my Google+ credits I had hanging around.  I chose this one because it allows me to play my Pandora stream ( or any music I want ) and the app will break through the music to instruct you on when to walk and when to run.

Since the program starts off with just 30 minutes three days a week and I'm extremely new to even attempting to run, I decided to begin in my driveway.  I have a very long, mostly flat gravel driveway that I could easily run up and down to start out.  ( This part of the driveway also runs along the dog yard fence-line, so I had a couple of running buddies without having to put them on a leash to trip me up - they seemed to enjoy it, too! )

The first week of the program is a five minute walking warm up, then alternating jogging for 60 seconds and walking for 90 seconds for 20 minutes, followed by another cool down of walking for five minutes. I technically started the program on Monday, but I only made it to the second iteration of jogging before I had to quit because my lower back was killing me.  I wasn't sure if it was where I was running, my shoes, or my general very much out of shape body rebelling against me.  So today I tried again with a different pair of shoes and voila - I made it through with zero back pain and zero stops. Yay me!  It's been raining non-stop here for almost a week, but I went out when it was just drizzling and it was actually quite nice!  I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would and look forward to my second full day on Friday.  Hopefully I can keep this up - I'd love to do a 5K race one day and be able to run it instead of walk it.  I'll try to post updates here on occasion to track my progress.

Since I didn't get a full day in on Day 1 I decided to use that week as a trial warm-up week before my "official" C25K start.  So I officially started on July 13, 2015.


I had to quit during week three.  My knees just aren't handling it very well.  I will try again once I drop some weight.  :/

Day 1 - Driveway Run

Day 2 - Driveway Run (Logged wrong as Day 3)