Summer Solstice! Full Moon!

Wow! I can't remember a time when the longest day of the year coincided with a night of a full moon. Full sun! Full moon! So much energy! Can you tell it's got me all wound up?! My body is pretty well in tune with the earth and the seasons and cycles of the moon, and I've just been stoked all day — for no particular reason other than today's energy just feels extra special. Also, summer is my favorite season. I love hot weather, tank tops, flip flops, fresh melon, lightening bugs, cicadas, sunburns — the whole nine!

I started my first day of summer with a new running training program. I signed up for my first marathon in December, so I need to make sure I don't lose fitness before I start training for that in August. I downloaded the Runner's World Go (called RW Go) app for my iPhone on a recommendation from the Runner's World podcast. It's got all kinds of training plans, and I selected a Half-Marathon Maintenance Plan that just keeps you at half-marathon fitness. Today's prescribed run was an easy 4-miler. Nailed it! And in my new Run Memphis singlet from my fave local running store, Breakaway Running.

I always follow my morning runs with a breakfast of a protein smoothie or a protein waffle. This morning, I picked a really summery recipe from the Vega website for this Effortless Orange Smoothie (orange, strawberry, banana, almond-coconut milk, and French Vanilla Vega One protein powder). It tasted like summer in a glass!

Then I went to work and had a totally productive day — wrapping up today's news deadlines and getting a head start on a story for next week's cover. I even took a little mid-day walk by the Mississippi River to really soak up the sun (my office is just a block or two away from the river). I'd made an awesome Solstice celebration meal on Saturday to have for lunch today. So I enjoyed this super-fresh summer salad at my desk. It's the Fiery Fruit & Quinoa Salad from the summer salads chapter in Salad Samurai. It has grilled peaches (from the farmer's market), grilled corn, and grilled onions, baked ginger beer tofu, black beans, fresh herbs (from my front porch!), and red and white quinoa. And that's all mixed together with a chia-chipotle dressing, so it's got a bit of spice and smokiness.

I wish I could show my very summery dinner, but I'm saving that picture for a cookbook review that I'll be posting on Thursday. But I'll just tell you that it was a yummy jackfruit bbq sandwich with grilled pineapple from the Minimalist Baker's Everyday Cooking book. So good! So summer!

After dinner, I went to a hoop skills class at my neighborhood hula hooping gym — Co-Motion Studio. It seemed like a good night to dance out all the posi vibes. I came home and gathered all my crystals to charge under the full moon, and I did a little house blessing with herbs to keep out negativity since there's been a lot of that in my life this month.

And I ended my lovely Summer Solstice evening with a mouth-watering slice of Raw Lemon Cheesecake that I picked up from the Raw Girls food truck this weekend. It's a super-tangy and creamy cake made with cashews, coconut oil, cold-pressed lemon, and a pecan crust. Topped with fresh blueberries! I followed that with a hearty locally brewed Ghost River Golden Ale. 

Happy Summer, y'all!