Category Archives: green smoothie

Return of the biker babe

Sunday heralds the new work week for me, and the requisite bagel!

Today was blueberry.

Then it was time for the other pre work Sunday ritual:

Freshly stocked with produce and dairy!

Work was a little slow today, so I got down to making some soap.  I still have a business that I periodically make soap for, and she contacted me this week.  It’s near cherry blossom time, so I have been making a bunch of cherry soap for her (which I can’t stand, oddly enough).

John had run some errands and brought me a little marshmallow egg with caramel.  Gotta love sale Easter candy LOL.

Then it was lunchtime and I had some carrots:

Plus a green smoothie made with pumpkin, brown rice protein powder, Barlean’s Omega 3 and cinnamon.

Didn’t like this combo very much, I have to say.  At least it was nutritious.

After a little more work, it got slow again 🙄 , so I decided to give the bike a try! I nabbed a date and some nut butter and headed out to test the asphalt.

Look at this happy biker:

I missed it so much in the last 2.5 weeks!! The ride went well.  Not really much pain, but I have real weakness in my left leg.  I cannot go fast.  My brain is telling my leg to push harder and it just won’t go.  It’s like when you run in your dreams and you run really slow, even though you are trying to run fast (does anyone else dream like that?) Hills were a little funny that way because I just kept getting slower and slower as I went up.   There were only a couple small hills, which was the plan.  I actually went to see my folks (unannounced).  My dad wasn’t there, but I was able to visit with my mom.  Then I biked home.  6.5 miles – so  good start to get back on the bike!  Overall very pleased with my injury progress.  Biker babe is back in action!!

Had to make a snack when I got back!

Got a call that the closing on the house is scheduled for Tuesday.  I can’t believe it’s actually happening!  Now I need to decide whether to try to flip another house, start a business, or keep doing what I am doing.  Too many choices.

Dinner time was a constructed BBQ chicken salad since we got new lettuce to replace the produce soup I had to toss on Friday. 😀

I’ll be working late tonight to finish up if there is work to be had, plus more soapmaking, foam rolling, and stretching.  And I need to ponder an evening snack……

Bagels and a new fish!

It’s Sunday, so you know what that means!

Like how I put the bagel on a nutrition paper? 😀  March is national nutrition month, so I am going to try to work in some posts on this topic.

We stocked up on so much fresh produce at the grocery store.  I am making an effort to eat extra clean during March for nutrition month and lay off as much processed stuff as I can (I’m looking at you Balance bars), and get in more fruits and veggies.  There will be a great veggie experiment this week, too!

Lunch showcased my increased veggies with a brown green smoothie!

Included in this was several hand fulls of raw spinach, 1 scoop of chocolate protein powder, 1 serving of frozen raspberries, 4 grams of oat fiber.  Doesn’t look all that attractive, but it was pretty good.  I actually got 2 glasses out of this, which I drank while working.

Snack time was the usual latte and couple of these:

The fresh produce brings up another FAQ:

What about the quality of food vs. the quantity? Food without pesticides, growth hormones or antibiotics, for example. I’m wondering how you feel these factors might contribute to weight loss!

I answered this a little in the comments that day, but I will post with a little more detail:  I don’t know as those really matter all that much to me personally.  We already eat hormone-free/antibiotic-free local meat and dairy. The pesticides – well, we just can’t afford all organic stuff. Hate to say it, but there it is. It’s too spendy up here. I would have to seriously cut back on my fruit and veggie consumption if it had to be organic. If it works into the budget, we purchase the organic version.  As far as quantity/quality goes, I would likely get the same sense of fullness from an apple irregardless of whether it was organic or not.  I think eating clean matters more than eating organic. I think it is better to eat regular grown strawberries than a 100 calorie snack pack any day.  In a perfect world, organic food would be the norm, and I wish it was.  Maybe it is moving towards that.

Also of interest, Cammy from Tippy-Toe Diet posted comments regarding how several bloggers measure success (including me).  Interesting comments!

So, out of my food comfort zone for dinner.  I decided to try fish (again).  I was just looking at the fresh fish case and I saw some silver Hake (also called whiting).  What caught my eye was the sign that said Hake was similar to sole, which is one of the only fish that doesn’t taste ‘fishy’ to me (but it costs $$).  So on a whim, I bought some and John pan fried it up with some lemon pepper for dinner.

The verdict?  I actually liked it as much as I have liked any fish.  It was good, but I’ll take chicken any day over fish.  It had almost a buttery flavor and clean tasting.  Not dry at all and very tender.  I would probably give this one another go around.   Yay me!

I’m liking doing these FAQs in bits and pieces.  I will be doing 2 separate posts one on running and one on lifting because a lot of questions centered on these, so they deserve their own posts!

Overall a good eating day today, and a nice rest day from exercise.  The last few days were not so good on the eating front.

Stay ‘tuned‘ for a give away on Monday!!

Question:  Do you eat organic?

Sunday snow and bagels!

Glad you all liked the granola recipe!  It’s so good and spicy.

I slept in again until 7:30!  Yippee!  Out for the usual Sunday bagel, only my mother met us there after she got out of church!

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It’s always fun to have company at bagels.  We all had a gingerbread bagel, too – triplets!

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It was looking so nice and sunny and not cold, I thought I would be able to sneak in a run outside after lunch.  Speaking of, I decided I need a dose of vitamin S to make up for the pralines yesterday:

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  • 3 big handfuls of vitamin spinach
  • 1 tablespoon Barlean’s Omega Swirl
  • 1 scoop vanilla protein powder
  • 1/2 cup fresh pumpkin
  • pumpkin pie spice and 1 cup of water

Blended up to make this:

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I deliberately did not put ice in this because I was already a little chilled and didn’t want to make it worse.

No go on the run, as it looked like this an hour later 😯

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It’s actually snowing, but you can’t see that in this picture.  This is my view while working.  Work went by quickly today.  Sundays are like that, not sure why.  I’ll take it, though!  Break of a latte with a granola bar:

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Doing really, really well on snacking today.  Yesterday, not so good.  I have to really focus now and not let the scale creep up the next few weeks.  That is just not acceptable to me.  I am going to set some mini weekly goals to do this week to keep that under control.  Something to sit and ponder on tonight.

Keeping in an extra veggie theme, I made a Flatout wrap with chicken, laughing cow, a touch of blackberry jam and salad mix.

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With a side of broccoli and a forelle pear.  I liked the blackberry jam on this wrap.  Sweet and savory, although I think it would have been excellent with maybe a sharp cheddar instead of the laughing cow.

Since I didn’t run yesterday and not today (not even walking in this weather), I decided to dust off the old DVDs and get in a good workout!

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Love the Firm.  I have not done these since probably last February?  Right before I joined the Y last year.  It was a little scary with the tree up, ornaments were a shakin’ !

Ornament of the day:

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Does this not say it all?  My name on a coffee cup.  Too bad this is thimble-sized or I would drink out of it :mrgreen:

Don’t forget to check in for the giveaway tomorrow, although I hate to say it is open only to US residents (if I were shipping it, all would be entered).

NROLW and eating my colors

I think I have found the perfect fuel for workouts.  It’s half a bagel with nut butter.  This is the 2nd time I have had this and both times I did not get hungry at all during the workout!  I try to keep my preworkout fuel to around 100-150 calories.  The bagel and nut butter might be a bit closer to 200, though.   I should have known that my beloved bagel would do me good!

Since yesterday was a rest day, it felt good today.  I jogged for 40 minutes (split in half with the weight workout)

NROLW Stage 2 B workout
Barbell deadlifts:
1 x 10 75 pounds
1 x 10 85 pounds

Bulgarian split squat:  2 x 10 with 25 pound plate

Underhand lat pulldown
1 x 10 50 pounds
1 x 10 55 pounds

Reverse lunge with forward reach: 2 x 10 with 10# dumbbells

Prone cuban snatch:  2 x 10 with 10# dumbbells

Swiss ball crunch:  2 x 10

Reverse crunch:  2 x 10

Lateral flexion  2 x 10

Prone cobra:  2 x 60 second holds

I am not used to picking up the “light” 10# dumbbells, but some of these are really hard.  The reverse lunge with forward reach is quite hard on the arms.  I don’t know if I would be able to do more than 15# dumbbells, but won’t try that until next week, probably.

Came back to delicious banana oats topped with almond butter and a sprinkling of dark chocolate chips.  Decadence and I inhaled it.

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This kept me full until lunch (unusual).  I decided on another green smoothie for lunch:

smoothie1This was peacherrific!   Into the blender went 1 extra ripe peach plus some frozen peach chunks, 1 scoop of Jay Robb strawberry protein powder, several handfulls of spinach, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1 cup of water.  John liked the taste, but he can’t get past the color.  I think the bright green is beautiful (emeralds are my favorite gem anyway!), better than muddy brown like when I did the strawberries.   I didn’t taste the nut butter, but this kept me quite full for the afternoon, so the fat probably did that.

Had one of those quick dinner that I love – John cooked up some pork on the grill last night, so I chopped that up and sauteed it with some broccoli (1.5 cups!!) and maple bbq sauce.  Gosh that was good.!

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Precooking makes life so easy and no excuses!

Went to the mall looking for some active wear that will be suitable for my triathlon.  I want tri shorts so that I can swim in them, then bike and run.  Bike shorts are no good, because the padded seat will get soaked and I don’t want to run in them.  And I am *not* going to run in a swim suit.  I need some compression for the loose skin on my thighs.

Couldn’t find anything except this:

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Skim decaf cappucino from Starbucks.  So, no success there.  Might browse online for something I can afford  ($5 outfits anyone??)