Forty-Nine Weeks. We have survived Forty-Nine Weeks. There are three weeks more to go before we begin our Summer Hiatus.

I can’t wait! We’re planning on returning to the trainer in September – once a week – for probably another 6 months. We’ll still be at the gym regularly, but we’re taking the summer off from Training.

The weight has stabilized, the energy is still increasing – and my legs are sore as hell. Just the quads, actually. Forty-nine weeks ago the only quad I knew was a college lawn. I now know lots of different muscles – and how much pain they can produce. I need a break from this routine.

On the other hand, I see muscle definition that has never been present on my body in its 67 years on this planet. It’s not quite in the Mr Universe category, but… I know it, I feel it, I see it. I have absolutely ZERO desire to have six-pack abs and rippling muscles. That is not who I am or who I want to be. Knowing that there is a peek-a-boo bicep or the faintest outline of a quad on my leg is more than enough for me. It’s the fun little things.

It’s my first year of retirement. I’m happy and I feel good.

To quote The Grateful Dead… What a long strange trip it’s been.

Part of the long strange trip is all the produce we now buy. While we were always pretty good on the fresh stuff, we now do a Monday run to Gentile’s every week and have a lot of fun figuring out what’s new, in season, or just looks too good to pass up. Victor pretty much focuses on the fruit and I head towards the vegetables. Meals now revolve around what produce we have and what needs using – it’s a lot more fun than planning things in advance!

Tonight’s dinner came about because of a pineapple.

We picked up a reasonably ripe pineapple on Monday but with all the other stuff we bought, never made it into the fruit salad. Last night we noticed it was ripe and ready to be eaten. A pork tenderloin came out of the freezer.

Pineapple, onion, a bit of bell pepper, and beans from the garden were the vegetable base, the pork, sambal oelek, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and rice wine were the rest.

Those lovely purple beans turn green the minute they get hot. 20 years ago we spent a fortune per pound at a farmers market for them, went to blanche them, and almost died when we saw our purple beans turn green in front of our eyes!

Live and learn.

The final ingredient was a can of bean sprouts. No one sells fresh sprouts, anymore…

A few things harvested from the garden, a fun dinner, and another week of intense workouts behind us.

Retirement really is pretty good.