My Nose Finally Stopped Burning

It's far more common to hear that one's nose is running or perhaps that one's ears have been burning. In my case this afternoon, my nose was in fact burning. No, I didn't spend too much time out in the sun. I made a salad. Huh? I don't know what's more surprising - that I finally made a salad instead of eating a bunch of junk food or that the salad I made was incredibly spicy.

It all started with good intentions. I had a session with my personal trainer this morning. It was a good workout so I was determined to eat healthy today so all of my hard work and sweat didn't go to waste. I love chickpeas (or garbanzo beans if you prefer) so I dumped a can of those in a bowl and mixed it with assorted veggies, tuna and feta cheese. One of said veggies in my salad was a leftover pepper. It looks like a hybrid of an Anaheim pepper and a jalapeno. Let me go on the record by saying that I had already eaten two of these peppers in the past week or so and they were a very mild but tasty pepper. I don't know what happened but this thing picked up heat somewhere and it didn't occur to me that I needed to handle it with care. I dumped it into my salad after I half-heartily scraped out the seeds/ribs. I don't recall washing my hands, which turned out to be a problem that I later regretted.

I was thrilled to dig into my salad and the first few bites were yummy! And then it happened - my mouth was on fire! No worries, I thought. I'm not a wimp and I love spicy food. That's what my ice water is for. I kept going because that's the kind of trooper that I am. Next thing you know - my nose is burning and I mean B-U-R-N-I-N-G! I must have inadvertently rubbed my nose when it began to run due to the spicy peppers I had been eating. A burning mouth and a burning nose is not a good (or attractive) combo. Shoving a cold, damp paper towel up one's nose is not really a good idea. Somehow it made it worse. I just had to suffer until it went away - about 30 minutes later. Guess what, though? I finished the salad and I'm dumb enough that I'd probably do it all over again. See how dedicated I am to healthy eating? Ok, that's probably a stretch.

I haven't blogged in a while so here's a quick recap:

-I've continued with my personal training sessions. I just completed my 6th session (out of ten).
-I did 15 minutes of cardio on Thursday with my trainer (Mom, you decide if you want to allow me to count it).
-I did 10 minutes of cardio following my session today (pretty please, Mom?).

Oh, I also spent a bit of time outside today trying to get my windblown tree up off of the ground and properly staked. It's a very young tree and can't seem to hold itself up. The previous stake snapped in a storm and the tree fell over but didn't break, thank goodness. I think the current contraption I'm using might be temporary. It's my best looking tree in the backyard so I can't afford to have it beaten up like that. I might need to call in a professional because I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

Have a good weekend!