Things have been a bit crazy lately, both at work and at home with training for upcoming races, so yesterday I decided to take a mental health day.

To me, a mental health day is a day off from the daily grind.  It’s a day for relaxation and fun.  A day to unwind and reboot.  I took a vacation day from work.  I didn’t set my alarm.  I woke up and enjoyed a couple of relaxing cups of coffee, knowing that I was in no hurry to do anything.  No time schedule.  My husband had the day off, too, and weather-wise, it was supposed to be a beautiful day, so we decided to go hiking.

But first, breakfast:

Oatmeal with blueberries and chia seeds, sprinkled with some maple and pecan granola!

My husband and I went hiking at a local lake that has about 5 miles worth of trails.  One of the nice things about hiking on a weekday is that the trails aren’t crowded.  We ran across a few other walkers with dogs, and saw a runner, too, but otherwise, we had the trails all to ourselves.

We hiked about 4-1/2 miles.

Next, we stopped for a late lunch.  We had very hungry bellies at that point!  Check out the hummus plate I ordered:

Delicious!

After lunch, we stopped at the grocery store to get some groceries and then we headed home to shower and then relax in the backyard with a beer before dinner.  Dinner consisted of grilled zucchini, a veggie dog, a mixed variety of baby potatoes that I roasted in the oven with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and broccoli slaw.  YUM!  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.  Boo.

We ended the evening by watching last week’s episode of Doctor Who that I had recorded.

It was creepy!  Loved it, though!  I really love this season of Doctor Who so far!

It was a wonderful mental health day.  I recommend that everyone should have one every now and then.