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Haaa, I had some extra time when I came back home after my walk today, and I thought, "You know what, I'll do a few sets of crunches and planks."

Hooo boy, I don't know what I expected but I'm getting what I deserve. :'D Feels good, though!

Some people are like, "crunches don't do anything" and... yes and no. Like, it depends on what your goal is. I've heard people try them because they think it'll give them ~abs~ and like... lol, no. But if your goal is to be able to do a whole bunch of crunches, then yeah, you can do that. It's a measurable type of progress, and some people find that helpful.

I've also heard people say that stuff like walking and yoga is useless as exercise, and just... sigh. Yeah, sure, if you want to ~lose weight~ and ~get muscular~, it's not going to do what you want. But if you're interested in improving your cardiovascular health and flexibility, yes! It's great!

I took the stairs up to my apartment this morning, and I notice a marked difference in how easy it is for me now compared to this time last year. I'm really pleased with that. I've been doing a lot of walking up steep hills lately, and that's probably helped.

Anyway... Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good lately. Man, it's going to be such a pain in the ass when it gets colder. I think I'm going to need to buy new jogging pants - I won't be able to wear my shorts much longer.

[Recipe rec] Moroccan chickpea and carrot stew

Maaaan, I made this Moroccan spiced carrot and chickpea stew the other day, and it was so good. A++ would make again, highly recommend.

It's from the blog Occasionally Eggs, which is focused on vegetarian recipes. I picked up the cookbook by the same title from the library the other week, and while there wasn't anything in the book that I wanted to make, I liked what I saw enough to investigate the blog itself. I'm not a vegetarian, but I loooove vegetables, so it's always nice to have a new place to look for veggie-focused ideas that I can either do as-is or add meat to. And the upside of this particular recipe is that it required stuff that I already had on hand. (It can be such a challenge to make things by-the-book sometimes; it seems like every recipe requires stuff that I can't find in this city. Not so with this one though.)

( Recipe copied over under the cut )

My additions/adjustments:

+ I cut up a smoked sausage and added it after the chickpeas. Still would've been great without it, but it did add a nice little something-something.

+ When I make it again, I'll halve the black pepper and either reduce the cayenne or swap it out for hot Spanish paprika. I made it as directed this time and it was very delicious, but it was pretty close to the edge of my heat tolerance, whew.

+ Might be nice with a potato added to it, too. Going to have to try that next time.