Category Archives: John

Happy birthday to John!

Okay, a day late since Monday was his birthday! 😀  He is now 46, just like me!  I am not the older woman any more.

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I know it is probably pretty obvious, but I lurves him to the moon and back.   😳

He decided dinner out was to be at Alibaba in Lake George.

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That oven back there is where they cook the puffy lavash bread!

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It comes with a dill yogurt sauce, but I think next time I would get hummus with it.

John had the falfafel platter:

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I decided on chicken curry.

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Very tasty!  The green beans on the side were a cold dish and had been roasted probably in that oven.  They were good!  I didn’t like the pickled cabbage, though.

I do like the food here, but the service was a little lame.  

We went to downtown GF and saw a concert in the park, so we stopped and listened to a couple tunes of the jazz band:

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We like to spread birthdays out around here, especially when going out to eat.  I don’t know about you, but the last thing I want is a huge dessert after eating out.   That means that family cake will happen a day later (tonight).

John’s request was a chocolate cake and I made the whole thing from scratch cause I love him.

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Seriously – this cake used almost a whole tin of cocoa powder between the cake and the frosting!  I hope it is good 😀

Happy Birthday to John!

My best friend turns 45!  Now he is the same age as me 😀

It was birthday weekend around here because we don’t just do 1 day for this kind of stuff.  I told John whatever he wanted to do we would.  So, we did a little biking and a stop for ice cream.

We went out to dinner at 132 Glen Bistro in Glens Falls.  It was so nice out that we sat outside.

Happy Birthday to John!! <3

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We had never tried this restaurant before other than at the Take a Bite, but they serve a lot of fish and seafood, so that is why we went.

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John had the swordfish and I had the crab cake stuffed flounder with seafood sauce:

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I really liked this, except for the rice.  It almost tasted like instant rice.  I was happy to try another fish and like it!  I like sole and I think flounder is also a flat fish?  So, I thought that would be good to try.  I have had their crab cakes before during the Take a Bite nights, so I knew that I would like that part.

After dinner we ventured down to Saratoga Springs.  It’s a lot more hopping down there.  Here is a pretty view from the roof garage:

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I also saw Betties’ bus!  Normally we go to Bettie’s for cupcakes on long ride days and go to the shop.  They have a double-decker bus that drives around, sort of like a food cart, usually closer to Albany.

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We didn’t partake in cupcakes, though!

Sunday was cake time!  John requested “the cake”, which is the cake that was made for my grandfather’s birthday every year, which was on Christmas (and we still serve at Christmas now).  It’s basically a white cake with a praline type icing.  The frosting is very temperamental and really a labor of love.  It goes on hot and can sometimes run down the side of the cake before it firms up, and I was trying to keep pushing the frosting back on the cake. It always tastes good, but sometimes it looks less than stellar, such as this year!

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I kept singing “Beware of the blob!”  while watching it  :mrgreen:  This frosting really needs a day to fully crystallize and set up, so I made it on Saturday

It looks much better cut into a slice:

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(Sorry Debby!)

We all love this cake!

Here we are singing to John!

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We played games, too.  Mad Gab!

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The answer to that would be ‘North American”.  :mrgreen:

 

Happy, happy birthday John!!

 

 

Happy Birthday to John!

Saturday was John’s birthday and as one of my goal’s this month was to make sure he had a good one, I let him do whatever he wanted.

We started off with biking to breakfast.  It was already warm and muggy out when we got up.  Ugh!  We biked to Coffee Planet.

My bagel was poppyseed for a change.  It just looks burned LOL.

The birthday boy!

John wanted to get a long ride in on his birthday, but with the heat coming on fast and furious, we cut the ride short at 20 miles.  He didn’t get his 44 for 44, but that’s okay.

Since it was such a hot day, his choice of activity was a movie.  We went to see a matinee of Dark Knight Rises.

Honestly, I have to say I didn’t care for this movie too much.  I really liked the second movie, but not this one.  It was fairly violent and too long! LOL. I do have to say that I was starting to feel a little anxious during the movie as well.  This is the first time I have been in a theater in over a year.  Can you believe it?  The last movie I saw in a theater was Planet of the Apes last year (which I really, really liked).  I just am not finding too many interesting movies that I am really willing to pay and see in the theater.

Anyway, I was thinking about the Aurora shootings during the movie, and then it didn’t help that a few times an attendant came through the theater doing a little sweep.  The movie itself was okay, but it was starting to border on over-the-top shenanigans, which is not what the first 2 movies were like. Plus, I had trouble understanding Bain and kept thinking of the movie Predator.  (I made this with PicMonkey)

It’s not just me that sees this, right?

I am getting sidetracked from the birthday here.   :mrgreen:

We kept cool in the mall after the movie and then went out for dinner.  John chose Siam Thai Sushi.

We tried some food at the Take a Bite and liked it so much we wanted to come back.  I decided to try a bubble tea for the first time.  This is a pineapple flavored  bubble tea.

Bubble tea, for those that don’t know, is a sweet milky drink with large tapioca pearls in it (or boba).  This had black and regular pearls in it.  It comes with a giant straw to suck up the pearls with.  I was a little scared:

It was interesting and kind of fun, but I probably wouldn’t get another one.  Not sure I like to chew my drinks LOL!

John had a Thai iced coffee.

Our food was fantastic!

I had Cashew Nut Shrimp, which had bell peppers, ground cashews, carrots and onions (which I didn’t eat) and shrimp in a spicy chili sauce.

Really good food, but the lighting is terrible for a food blogger.  John had mango curry with scallops.

This was a coconut mild based red curry with mangos, carrots, bamboo shoots, peppers and basil with sliced scallops.  We so need to try to recreate this at home!  Yummers!

We picked up a cake at Chocolate Mill to take home after that. I was going to bake a cake for John, but with the extreme heat, we didn’t want the oven on this weekend, so a purchased cake it was.

This was a chocolate cake with coffee butter cream.  We had the folks over for cake.

Happy birthday to the best hubby in the world! Welcome to 44 😀

Maintenance from a man’s perspective – aka the John files.

John lost 43 pounds over the course of 2009 and hit goal in November of 2009.  He has maintained his loss for 6 months now.

Before:

Shexsy after!

Here are answers to the questions you (and I) posed to John:

1.  What kind of weight issues have you had in your lifetime?

I have had from 20 to 40 lbs to lose ever since I was about 10 years old.  I was always really poor in gym class, always picked nearly last for team sports.  In adulthood I went through various phases of trying to lose/losing some/ gaining it back slowly; you know the drill.

2.  What made you decide to lose weight?

I was inspired, about 2/3 by Lori’s lasting weight loss, and the other 1/3 by just wanting to not be another overweight American.  I don’t have health insurance, so I’ve got incentive to get healthy on my own and reduce my contribution to soaring health costs.

3.  What were your strategies to lose?

First, I recorded everything I ate using The Daily Plate (now part of livestrong.com).  After four months of that (which really helped remind me of how many calories are in a lot of foods I encounter regularly), I starting using my own take on Weight Watchers points to keep a count.  I just let 1 point = 50 calories (never mind about the fat and fiber part of the calculation — they pretty much cancel each other out).  It just makes it easier to count.  Instead of “gee, I had eaten 775 calories today, and dinner was 460, so… how much have I eaten now?“, I now just round everything to the nearest point and keep track of points in the notepad on my cell phone.  So a 485 calorie breakfast is 10 points, lunch of 425 is 9, snack is about 6 points, and I am at 25 points for the day, easy.  I’ve never actually been a member of WW, I just like the point system.  Now I don’t even write my point total down at all, I keep it in my head.  It is nearly always the same or very close because I have a very regular routine (10 points for breakfast, 8 for lunch, 6 for afternoon snack, 10 for dinner = 34 points)

Then there was the exercise part.   When I started I was 213 pounds, and allowed myself 2000 calories or 40 points a day.  (Today at 170 I get about 1800 cals on maintenance, plus exercise calories).  Whatever exercise I did I got a credit for those calories burned.  I started Jan. 1, 2009, so for the cold months it was mostly just walking, from 30 to 60 mins per day of fast walking.  Starting in late March to early April I began getting in bike rides and running.  I had never been able to run more than about 8 minutes at a time in my life, but I worked on it, alternating walking and running and covering 5k.  I gradually increased the amount of running in spurts, from almost none, until the end of the summer I could run the whole 3 miles.  Biking had been part of my life for many years, but I got more serious about that and took longer and longer rides with Lori.  It is great for fat burning, and for burning enough calories to really eat something!  I don’t know if it’s technically correct but I give myself 2 points extra food per mile of walking, 3 points per mile of running, and 3/4 point per mile of biking.  I find giving myself credit for those points really gives me incentive to exercise.

4.  What was the hardest part about losing?

I think the hardest thing for me is controlling what I eat for desserts and snacks after dinner.  We tend to eat dinner by 5:30 and be done by 6pm, so that leaves a lot of time there to wander to the kitchen.  Lori likes to stop eating after 8pm, but I find it works better for me to try not to eat anything until at least 8pm, then have something which keeps me satisfied until say 10pm and maybe at the most have one more small snack before bed.  If I eat before 8 I am liable to keep snacking semi-continuously.

Also to help out my sweet tooth, I started keeping hard candies around.  I can pop one or two after a meal instead of wanting a dessert right away.  I have to be careful not to abuse them by having 5 or 6, but even when I do, at 20 calories each it is not a big sin.  I will never vanquish my sweet tooth, I just have learned to work around it a bit.

5. What would you say is the key to your success in maintaining?

I think a regular day-to-day routine, portion control, and limited eating out have been the most important.
Most restaurants are in the business of making the food as rich and satisfying (to American tastes) as possible without regard for calorie-content or health.  Everyone is on guard when it comes to fast food chains, but you also have to worry about casual dining eateries that I call collectively “T.G. McChiliganbee’s” (an amalgam of some places you can probably recognize), and just local mom-and-pop restaurants as well.  You have to be so careful if you eat out on a regular basis.  I think it is no coincidence that Lori and I reached our peak obesity at the time I was making a lot of money and we ate out daily at least, and often multiple times per day.

6. Do you have to work as hard as Lori does to maintain?

I’d like to say yes, but that could result in divorce.  No I don’t.  I don’t lift weights at all.  She’d go on 5 or 6 mile runs (before her injury) while I do 3 miles max.   I get close to 2000 per day, while she does not.  It generally seems easier for men, but then again I have 2 uncles with serious weight problems, while my sisters have never had trouble with their weight, so maybe it’s genetic.

7. What has been the best part of losing the weight?

Buying new clothes and looking better in them.  Feeling stronger and healthier is its own reward.

8.  What do you for fitness? I know you ride a bike, but what about lifting? Do you love it like Lori does? (Editorial note here, Lori laughed and laughed at this question)

No I’m not a lifter at all, I don’t go to the gym.  This spring is making me think I’d like to get a stationary bike setup of some kind at home, to stay in better shape over the winter.  Up until now I have just switched to walking (outside) during the winter months.  But it’s a looonngg winter here and I was surprised how much strength and endurance I lost this year.

9. Which is harder for you, losing weight or maintaining and why?

In the past, maintaining was always difficult, mostly because at some point I’d get at least a bit depressed and just stop caring.  But I heard about a recent study that says that exercise is actually more important for maintaining weight loss than it is for losing the weight in the first place, and I am exercising a lot more this time around.  Although I don’t much like running itself, I do notice and like the seratonin lift I get after finishing.  I think that has helped me avoid the depression (along with an excellent e-book I found a few years ago, called ‘The Way Up from Down’, by Priscilla Slagle, a psychiatrist who suffered from moderate depression herself.  It is available for free download at www.thewayup.com.  She recommends a regimen of certain standard amino acids, tyrosine and tryptophan, plus vitamins.)  This time I’ve gotten through Thanksgiving, Christmas, the SuperBowl, 4 days on a floating 24-hour buffet they call a cruise, and our Mardi Gras and Easter dinners with basically no gain (okay, 1 lb).

10.  Favorite foods that fit into your healthy lifestyle?

I love breads, so I guess I will never be a low-carb dieter.  Dark chocolate shall be eaten daily, by me, amen.
Love of food should be part of your motivation!  If you let yourself go, someday a doctor is going to tell you not to eat this or that anymore.  And you are going to be forced to give it up, and probably feel like sh** too.  With control you can eat smaller amounts of the foods you love and take care of your body.

11.  What are your plans now for future fitness or healthy living?

I have no desire to run marathons, climb mountains, or become an ironman right now, but I’ll let you know.
Eating wise, I will just keep enjoying a variety of foods and avoiding anything resembling guilt.

What is one tip you can give to someone who is struggling to stay on track?

Don’t remove favorite snacks from your house completely.  But, never take the whole bag or box with you out of the kitchen (and don’t stand in the kitchen eating from it (ahem, Lori)).  Get some very small dishes (we have a set of 4oz ramekins).  Fill one up and put the bag away.  Set it down and see if you can wait til the top of the hour before you eat it.  Drink a big cup of tea or other non-calorie liquid with it.  Enjoy!

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Thank you, John!  I am so proud of you.  I am glad you are fit and healthy now because I want you to be around for a long, long time 😀

Bloggy run day

It’s Sunday and back to work for me… sigh… The weekend goes all too fast.  We headed on down to Saratoga for a different bagel today.

It has such a nice atmosphere inside:

John and I both got the same banana nut bagel today with honey walnut cream cheese!

Got home and worked, worked, worked!  Really busy today (which is good).  Stopped for a quick lunch of a scrambled egg wrap with Laughing Cow and a plum.  These are starting to make a comeback in stores now!

Then I had a little dessert:

Worked a little more and then participated in the blogger run day by doing 3 miles!  It was so beautiful outside – 50 degrees and sunny.  The track was dry, so John came with to walk while I ran and take some action shots.  Still big snow piles everywhere, though:

Nice shot of me running away – don’t I look speedy?

Leave it to my husband to take a picture of my butt.  At least he didn’t zoom in….

Just passin’ by:

I have to admit that I just was not feeling this run at all.  I almost never run in the afternoon anymore, and my calves were complaining, which is really weird, but I think that was probably from biking yesterday.  It was a real slog getting through this.  But I finished!

I needed a pick-me-up after we got back, and this hit the spot!

Mmmmm…. lattelicious.

So an update.  The scale isn’t budging for me on my desire to go for 140, but my snacking has gotten bad again.  I really need to get serious and quit dinking around.  I am actually going to reduce my cardio a little bit, too, which will help with the snacking, I think.  I will have a running FAQ post up this week (I promise!).

Dinner was an old friend I haven’t had for a while – clam strips!  With some brussel sprouts and strawberries.  Tasty.

Done with work for the day and need to make a strength training workout for this week.  Back to lifting – yay! :mrgreen:

I don’t watch the Oscars, but I guess those are on tonight.  The only movie I have seen in theaters in at least a year was The Princess and The Frog.  Can you believe that?  And the movie before that was Batman with Heath Ledger.

Question: Do you watch the Oscars?

Working for the weekend

Woke up to a big change in weather today!  Cold and windy.  Hit the gym for 4 miles on the hamster wheel.  It went by so fast – yay!  I think I like 4-5 miles as just a good solid run where I don’t get too tired, but feel like I got a great workout.

Came home to make some quick-cook steel cut oats made with a mashed nanner and a blob of PB and jelly!

Tasty. : It creeps and leaps and glides and slides across the floor:  Anyone?

John is back at court again today for deliberations.  They had better hurry up and finish! 😯

The weekend cannot get here fast enough!  Today should have been my last work day of the week, but I am going to have to play some catch up tomorrow.  We are getting trained on new software stuff for work, and the training was so superficial that it left a lot of us confused.  So, we could ‘volunteer’ for extra training to help understand it, which means unpaid training.  During the conference call, even the trainers were unsure of stuff.  One of my biggest pet peeves I have is time wasting.  It’s especially noticeable when you work on production.

Grrrrr…..  that kind of made me angry and frustrated today.  It makes my work day longer, because I still have to make my line commitments on top of the unpaid training.  I talked to my supervisor about how I felt it was unfair and all she said was “I know it is”.  ❓  WTH?  I like working at home, but sometimes I think I would be better served doing something else.

Lunch was a tuna wrap and some baked lays, all of which I munched while I had the phone muted for the conference call today. Even if other people waste time, at least *I* can multitask. :mrgreen:

My frustration led to some chocolate chip snackage.  I hadn’t eaten any chocolate chips since Sunday!  It doesn’t help that we ran out of milk this morning, so I did not have an afternoon latte as per usual.  I knew I was doing it, but sometimes the “I don’t care” voice is stronger than the voice of reason….

Regarding the Attune bars – check for them in the refrigerated section of your grocery store by the yogurts.  Or if your store has a ‘natural foods’ section, try there (again refrigerated).

Look at what it looked like outside at 2 pm:

Don’t you just get cold looking at this picture?  It didn’t last long and the sun came back out, but it is cold and windy.

John came home for an hour in the afternoon as they got a break from deliberations, but he has to go back!  Deadlocked since last night.  They fed the jurors lunch and they are getting dinner for them tonight.  I had some of the leftovers for dinner tonight.  My tax dollars at work paying for 1/2 of a calzone!

I miss my hubby.  It’s almost 7:30 and he still isn’t home yet.

Have to get back to work tonight and I have to start packing at some point 😀  Gotta find my shorts.

Hopefully I will get caught up on some blog reading tomorrow as well!

Question:  What is one of your pet peeves?

John made goal!!!!

John officially made his goal weight today! He lost a total of 43 pounds since January 1, 2009.

He did it the old fashioned way with diet and exercise!

Check out that happy goal smile this morning.  Pre-coffee, even!  😆

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Before:

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During:

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Who is that sexy running man?  Why, it’s my husband!!

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Us being athletic together (you know I have to get in this post somehow)

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Way to go John!  I am so proud of you!

I think I need a guest post soon……..