Tag Archives: jogging

Warning – deep thoughts ahead.

Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes via the blog, email, and facebook! I was overwhelmed at them all 😀

After the overload of food yesterday, we decided to forgo the bagel ( 😯 I know!) and eat at home. Today was such a rainy, drizzly day. I had the forethought last night to put some steel cut oats in some water to soak overnight, so they only took 10 minutes to cook this morning with a mashed banana in there.

Topped with cashew butter and chocolate fluff. Gonna need a sugar free day this week for sure.

Debated for a long time about whether or not to take a rest day today. I am planning a long solo bike ride on Monday because I have 1 more day off (yippee!).

I was going to show pictures of lunch, but it was the leftovers of last night’s dinner and while it tasted even better next day, it was not blog worthy picture wise.

Since it was rainy, it sounded like a good day to go out to coffee with our respective computers and wi-fi! That way I can play with my new netbook and get used to it before trying to work with it on Tuesday. I bought a little carrying case for it (so cute!) and we went to Panera bread.

I just got coffee because I brought one of my birthday cuppycakes to eat. (I really need a no sugar day this week…..).

We also looked at places and talked about a planned trip to Montreal sometime in July. Going to take our bikes 😀

During my internet browsing, I was reading an article on MSNBC, not sure if anyone else read this about regaining weight.

This statement stood out for me

“By some estimates, more than 80 percent of people who have lost weight regain all of it, or more, after two years.”

more for the reason that I am fast approaching a 2-year maintenance anniversary of 100 pounds.

Then this part:

“Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles analyzed 31 long-term diet studies and found that about two-thirds of dieters regained more weight within four or five years than they initially lost.”

So what happens to me? Will I gain it all back and more? I get asked sometimes about what ‘clicked’ for me and how I know this is the last time. My answer is that I don’t know if it is the last time. I honestly don’t. I sure hope it is, but I know all too well how easy old patterns can be to fall back into if I let them. It’s not like losing the weight necessarily changed any of my hard wiring to eat or propensity to gain and hold on to fat (thank you genes…) There are those days were I am hanging on my the skin of my teeth not to really binge just for the sake of bingeing. There are days where I just eat too much for no other reason than I just want to and like food. I know that people hard wired to be thin don’t do stuff like that, or at least not to the degree that I can.

Is it maybe body image as well? Maybe if you see yourself as fat, you then self-sabotage yourself to become that? I still struggle with what I actually look like at times, even though I have been at a pretty stable weight for 2 years now. I was talking about that with John yesterday when I dragged him into a consignment shop (hey- my birthday, he had to do whatever I wanted!) I saw some pants, size 8 petite – my size. I almost didn’t try them on because I held them up and thought – “These won’t fit”. They did, though, and it’s hard enough to find 8 petite size, so I got both pairs :mrgreen: I said to John that I wondered how many size 8 pairs of pants do I have to own before I realize that yes, that is the size I wear currently.

I do know that I eat differently than I used to, and maybe that is more of a difference that matters. I eat more veggies (although I still need work in that department). I eat a lot less sugar and refined grains. We eat out less than we used to, and when we do, it isn’t they way we ate before (fried, sauced, and extra large).

(BTW, the irony of me writing the majority of this while at Panera and eating a cupcake is not lost on me….)

The other point in the article that miffed me a little was this:

If you decrease your body mass by 10 percent, you would expect your metabolic rate to decrease by 10 percent, but it actually slows down more than that, by about 11 to 15 percent.”

The reason that it miffs me is that I am finding it to be true. And the fact that I have lost about 40%… 40% of my body weight, what the heck has that done to my metabolism, even though I was never super low calorie. Not to mention just the fact that I am in my 40s now.

Only time will tell, I guess. I plan on being on the winning end of those statistics, though.

Anyhoo – the rain stopped, so we decided on a run after dinner.

Kind of a meat mishmash LOL. Chicken and cube steak just to get a whole serving. After letting that settle, we headed on to the track. Finished up 3 miles in 33:43. Getting a wee bit faster each time. It will take me a while before I get back to sub 30 minutes, though – but that is okay. I’m not in any rush.

Question: If you read that article, how does it make you feel?

Don’t let it stop you.

Don’t forget the Maple Syrup Giveaway ends on Friday!

Yahoo!  The end of my work week!  But, I should back up to the start of the day.

Since it has finally stopped raining and was to be warm today, I wanted to run outside, so that meant the early breakfast and planting my butt to work early.  I made a variation on the custard oats.

This bowl was made with 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce added to the cooking water, a boatload of cinnamon, and then the egg whites when almost done.

Topped with toasted pecans.  This was good, but either the apple was too subtle or it wasn’t quite sweet enough.  Worth playing around with in the future, though.

About 1/2 hour before my run, I had a snack of 1/2 of an Arnold Sucralose Sandwich thin spread with a tablespoon of Naturally Nutty.

Um yum!  Then I headed out for a hill run.  I haven’t done the hill run in a while, so it was high time!  The first steep hill didn’t feel so bad.  I remember when I used to huff and puff up the hill.  Now I just huff.  Then I tacked on an extra loop, just to go a little longer.  Distance – 3.75 miles and sunny!  I got my sweat on, too.

I was ready for lunch when I got back, where I tried a protein crepe.  I mixed 1/2 scoop of rice protein powder with 1 egg and 2 egg whites and put in a large pan and cooked like a crepe.  I folded it over some feta cheese.

It was a good idea, but didn’t execute well.  It ended up tough.  I think it would be better with less protein powder (or whey instead) and maybe as as sweet version.  The best part of lunch was this!

I hardly ever eat bananas straight up and I am not really sure why.

Regarding the title of this post, I have read a few blogs recently that have talked about how self-conscious they are about exercising in public.  Some of these people don’t because of this feeling, some people still do it, and some people change what they are doing or stop until the people have gone on.   Most of you have seen my running gear in warm weather – it doesn’t leave a whole lot to guess at.  Does it make me self-conscious?  Yes!  I am self-conscious.  However, I don’t let that stop me.  I can’t control what someone is thinking, so why would I let their (perceived) thoughts  stop me from being healthy?  I am certainly not out being all sweaty and in spandex to entertain anyone.  I think in general, very few people have negative thoughts when seeing someone exercise.  Those that do have them probably have their own issues with self-esteem.  So get out there and do it!

Phew… soapbox put away now, and the latte machine is out!  John was gone this afternoon, so I had to make my own today 😯

With an Attune bar!!  It’s been a while since I had one of my addictions.

John asked if I wanted to go for a bike ride after work.  We were trying to decide on biking for dinner or yogurt.  I was leaning towards dinner, but didn’t want pizza.  After puzzling for a while, we decided to bike to our regular pizza place, but I opted for a turkey wrap on wheat instead of pizza:

There are roasted peppers in this wrap, but you just can’t see them.  With a side salad:

Felt good about that choice.  Not to mention the 290 calories I burned biking 10 miles!   I am going to make a supreme effort to keep myself in control this weekend.  Particularly on Friday, because those are really one of my worst days of the week.  Saturday we have a ~ 40 mile bike ride planned, so I can eat more that day, but don’t want to go overboard.  I should be okay for Easter dinner at my sister’s house, unless she has mini PB cups there…..

Evening snack as I write this post:

Drizzled with a little maple cream – oh yeah!

Question:  Are you self-conscious when exercising?

Last day of the work week for me!  Thursday’s are run days for me.   I snacked on a couple pieces of protein waffles with jam before hitting the gym.  This was a nice snack.  It’s also good to know this recipe does well reheated in the toaster oven.

I ran with a download from jogtunes that was a 45-minute jog with a sprint section.  I did 10 minutes past the podcast and ended up at 5 miles today.  Felt really good.  I am surprised my hammies weren’t sore from the dead lifts yesterday, but I’ll take it!  Also as a side note, Robin from Running Circles Around the Turtle did a running Q&A with me for her blog.

Came home and made some oatbran today.  We got a new protein powder from Puritan Pride.  It’s soy and strawberry flavored.  I avoid sucralose like the plague and it was not on the ingredient list for this powder, and then after I made this bowl, I see that it has acesulfame potassium in it, which is another type of artificial sweetener.  Grrrr….  Tastes way better than Splenda, though, although it made this bowl very sweet to me with only a 1/2 scoop in there.  It has beet powder in it for color, so my oats were a little pink:

Also note that if you make the ricotta/protein powder combo – the soy versus whey makes a huge difference in moisture content.  Here is some made with soy powder.

I actually had to add some water to get this consistency, too.  It almost looks like ice cream, doesn’t it?  Just a heads up.

Regarding all that chocolate from yesterday, almost all of it is up high and out of reach of my hot little hands 😀  Just the bars are in the pantry, which I am okay with (for whatever reason – who knows how my mind really works).  The nuggets are what would be most problematic for me, so they went up last night out of reach:

Lunch time included a fun combo.  I knew we were going out for dinner and I wouldn’t get my broccoli, so I had it with lunch today.  I made an egg/egg white puff in the microwave and put it on a corn tortilla with laughing cow and topped with hot sauce!

Yum.  I love hot sauce.  Those are some peanuts on there.  I was nibbling those while I cooked.

Work went pretty smoothly this afternoon.  Always nice to end on a good note for the week 🙂  Of course, snack time always makes things better.

John doled me out one treasure to eat with it.   Then I realized I didn’t have any fruit with lunch, so I got a kiwi out.

Tart!

Since it is my Friday nights of sorts, we decided to have an inexpensive dinner out.  That means one of our favorite local pizza spots: East End Eatery

We both started with a side salad, which was really small, I have to say.

And then we split a cheese calzone.  Normally we get the pizza wraps, but decided to go for this one.

I usually guesstimate about 500 calories or so for the 1/2 calzone.  It is soo good here.  The staff at this place is really friendly, too.  I am very glad John will split one of these with me, because I could eat a whole one myself, but it would be way too much.

Trying to decide how to spend my night now, either a netflix or just some vegging in front of the TV with my jammies on!

Question: Are you a Splenda lover?

4-miler and snack change-up

Tuesday and it is midweek for me!  Hope you had a chance to read my running post from earlier.

Speaking of running, that was on the agenda for today!  I almost ran outside, as it was 29 degrees, but there was frost on the car and I decided just to go to the gym.  Feeling a little cold wussy today.  I was a little sore from yesterday’s strength session, but not what I was expecting (thinking steam-rolled was going to happen).  My glutes are the most sore (thank you dead lift).  I hopped on the treadmill and did 4 miles.  It felt pretty standard, although a little stiff at first.  No speed work or anything fancy today, just a sweaty run.

Came home thinking bananas for some potassium!  I was needing to replace that:

Banana custard oats to be exact!  I felt like being different and put my oats in a mug!

I am such a rebel…..

I had a little trouble concentrating at work today.  Not sure if it is the mid week hump day for me or what.  We all have days like that, I guess.  I did find out that our favorite coffee shop had closed as of yesterday, though!  The place where we went each Wednesday.  I am so bummed. It was very sudden.  There aren’t that many places to get a good bagel around here.  (Please don’t make me open up a bagel shop….).

I was wanting a sandwich for lunch, so I decided to make a batch of protein waffles to use as bread!  (I have a waffle iron in my Open Sky shop, too 😀 )

This was 3 egg whites cooked in the microwave (they get nice and puffy) with some laughing cow and topped with hot sauce.  Egg whites are boring, let’s face it, so the hot sauce was a welcome addition.  Needs to be hotter, though….

I still have a few more FAQ questions, so after looking at a bunch of my races while compiling the running post, it got me thinking about this one:

What has been your greatest health/fitness achievement to date?

I have to say there are 2 moments that stick in my mind.  The first one was my triathlon last July.  It almost seemed like the culmination of so much work (which it was) combined with rising so far above any expectations I could have had of myself a few years ago.  I cried when I finished, which was not the reaction John was expecting LOL!  The close second was the duathlon.  That cemented to me the fact that I can challenge myself and push myself and *love* it!

You know how I was saying my snack of ricotta and protein powder had some potential? I tried this mix: ricotta, vanilla protein powder, pumpkin pie spice, heaping tbsp of pumpkin.

This was quite good and really hit the spot. Think you might see this around a lot.

I have been playing around with snack times this week, and it seems to be working pretty well.  I added another one into the day between breakfast and lunch, so I could push lunch a little later.  That way I won’t be tempted to snack between latte time and dinner or lunch time and latte time (or both, as I have been doing 😳  ).  So far, so good.   I’ve been making it a protein snack as well rather than too carby.

Dinner time… ding, ding, ding!  I cooked a huge amount of broccoli in some coconut oil.  I just used the rest of the bag, so there is probably almost 2 cups there!

This is a frozen crab cake that I cooked in the toaster oven.  Too many peppers in this for a traditional crab cake, but pretty good.  Yum.  I probably could have used a bigger plate.

I am now proud to say that I have not had a protein bar for over a week now!  Not one Balance Bar has crossed my lips (or any Zone or Luna) since Feb 28th.  This was a major hurdle for me, so I think I will try to make it my goal for March to be store-bought bar free.  I might make some at home, but that’s a different story.

Now if I could get control of these:

You’ll have to stay tuned to find out where we will be having our bagel day tomorrow – we don’t even know yet!

Running FAQ

I got a lot of questions about my running, so like with the weight lifting post, here are my all my secrets 😀

How did you start running/How long have you been running? I started the Couch to 5K program in April of 2008.  Here is the post where I talked about my running evolution last year.  This is still one of my favorite posts. 🙂  So that makes almost 2 years of running now.  Where does the time go, anyway?

When did running become an enjoying experience DURING the run, and not only afterwards? Hmmmm…. this is hard because I don’t always enjoy the running.   When I first started out, I was actually nervous for the jogging sessions of training, literally palm sweating nervous. How bizarre is that?
There are days where it feels really good and I feel fit and the running is easy.  Those days I love.  Then there those days where my legs feel leaden and I think, “What the hell am I doing? This isn’t fun.”  Then I just get over it and keep going, unless I feel something funny that would lead me to believe I might get injured if I continue.  Most times that feeling of yuck dissipates after a while, but sometimes it stays the whole run.  That is usually when I refer to it as ‘slogging it out.’   I do have to say that I love, love the feeling when I am done running.  Knowing that great feeling is coming always outweighs the wanting to stop.  I don’t know if it is the endorphins or the feeling of accomplishment (or a little from both columns), but that is part of what keeps me running.  Ermmm….. is that called addiction? 😯

Did you run as a heavy person?  Sort of.  I tried running when I weighed over 200, and I made the mistake of going too hard, too fast, so I stopped (I still had that all-or-nothing mentality then).  I weighed in the 160s in 2008 when I started again.  It is easier when you are lighter, but there certainly are people much heavier than I am that do 1/2 marathons!  It’s all in how you train.  I do still need to wear compression on the bottom, because I don’t like the feel of loose skin when I run.  It just makes it more comfortable.  My trisuit was the best purchase ever!!

Why do you say you don’t consider yourself a runner, as it seems like you run a lot? I consider myself a biker and a lifter first, because those 2 things I love, and I would bike all the time if I could (and did last summer).  Running is just kind of something I do, but not necessarily what I am.

What shoes do you wear? I have become a convert to Saucony shoes.  I have wide feet and they fit me really well.

What do you eat before you run? Depends on the length of the run and the time.  Usually a protein bar or some type of bread with nut butter on it.  Sometimes dates with nut butter.  Nothing really heavy.

Do you have any running goals this year? I had a mileage goal in mind of 750 miles for the year.  A minimum of 500 (I am sitting at 166 the day of this post).  I had thoughts of doing a 1/2 marathon, but I realized that I don’t love running so much that I want to do it for 2.5 hours.  I think I might get bored, not to mention that it would be really hard.  It’s funny, we are going to do a 100-mile bike ride this summer and that I look forward to that.  I was not looking forward to a 1/2 marathon, so I think that is reason enough to not do one.  And that is okay.  Sometimes I feel like I *should* because there is no reason that I can’t, and it seems like so many others are having fun doing them.  It certainly would be a challenge. I can always change my mind on that one, though.  I am doing the duathlon again, though. Yay!

So, those are just some musings on running.

My first 5K ever in July of 2008 (with my sister)

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?

Strength and being hungry

First off, thanks so much for the comments on my push up video!  (You readers are the best!  That’s one thing I love about the blogging community.  Supportive and friendly!)

I am extremely proud of my strength (uh oh – one of the 7 deadly sins here).  I may not be at the magic scale number, but I am seriously strong. However, it has taken me a long time to build up to this level.  I started serious strength training in August of 2008 using free weights, then the NROLW program (which took 6 months) in 2009.  I started with pushups on my knees and could barely get out a set of 10 to what I can now do.  It takes time and patience – it takes a long time to build muscle.  Jody mentioned having patience today on her blog, and it is so true.   So keep at it!  Doing some of these kickazz moves makes me uber happy.

I had another great workout this morning.  Tuesdays are run days.  I fueled up with a Luna bar and hit the hamster wheel.  I ran 3 miles basically around 5.5 to 6 mph.  Then I decided to do some intervals:

  • 1 minute at 6.5 mph
  • 2 minutes at 6 mph
  • 1 minute at 6.8 mph
  • 2 minutes at 6 mph
  • 1 minute at 7 mph
  • 2 minutes at 6 mph
  • 1 minute at 7 mph
  • 2 minutes at 6 mph
  • super challenge: 1 minute at 7.3 mph!! dying….
  • 2 minutes at 6 mph
  • 1 minute at 6.8
  • 2 minutes at 6 mph
  • 1 minute at 6.5 mph

Then maintained 6.0 to finish up 6 miles.  I wasn’t planning on 6 miles, but the intervals ate up a lot of mileage and I figured “what the heck”!  I had a high when I left the gym.  Good sweaty workouts make me smile, not sure why.  After I am done, of course 😀

Breakfast was fabulous!  Steel cut oats cooked with a banana and almond butter and jam on top.  Then John got out chocolate chips for his brekkie, so I couldn’t resist those.

Work was back up to normal, so I got right to it.  I wanted some extra protein for lunch to have some good recovery superfoods for lunch:

1/2 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt, 1/2 cup pumpkin, 1/2 scoop protein powder, chai granola and a dollop of cranberry sauce.  It was yummy, but cold!

I ended up eating another 1/2 of a protein bar after lunch because I didn’t quite feel satisfied.  I think the run did that to me.  I don’t like being hungry at all.  The Beck book has one section where you write out something called a ‘hunger response card’ which is what you tell yourself when you are hungry between meals.  Here is my card:

This can sometimes be an argument in my own mind over this.  I actually read this card to myself.  I tend to get blood sugar drops when I don’t eat at timed intervals.  Enough to make me sweaty and shaky.  It seems as though I can go from a little hungry to the fall off the cliff blood sugar drop very quickly, so this is a big struggle for me in allowing myself to feel hungry (the fear factor).  One of my biggest in trying to lose the last 10 pounds.  I tend to eat for maintenance, which – duh – doesn’t equal weight loss.  I think you have to be a little bit hungry if you want to be in a deficit, right?  So this is my personal battle and I think probably the last challenge to get to goal.  But patience, right?

Good news on the broccoli front – I got someone to eat some tonight!  We were watching Good Eats last night and I was so happy to see AB doing a show on broccoli!  I was actually cheering 😳  dork alert!  Anway, John said something about trying it and I jumped all over that and got him to agree to try some.  I did my pan sauteeing with coconut oil for him.  He only wanted a little, so that meant more for my plate 😀

Here is his “I kind of am okay eating this, but not really” look.   LOL. We’ve got some work to do.

I am done with work for the night.   These last couple of weeks have been hard.  With a light workload, I have had to work longer days to get in my minimum lines, which often meant working at night as well.  Now we are back on normal schedule and I finished up on time!

Here is my evening snacky snack.

Delicious.  Here’s to a good night’s sleep with the snack!

Cold and cruising thoughts.

If you haven’t checked out my post on how I named my blog, click here!  Thank you for your comments!  I have the best readers 😉

Bitter cold this morning.  One of those days where the stairs crack and pop on the porch  😯   I headed out to the gym for my run.  The plan was to do 5 miles, but I was not feeling it today.  I think it was likely the blood donation yesterday.  I slogged through 2 miles and had the speed at 5.5 mph.  Normally I get a first wave of tired after 1.5 miles and then after 2 I’m okay.  Today didn’t feel good.  I normally increase the speed after 2 miles, but my heartrate was 160 at 5.5 mph!  I knew something was up there and decided no speed work and no faster.  I stopped after 4 miles, choosing to listen to my body say it just needed to quit there.  Still 4 miles, though 😀

Came home freezing cold just from going from the gym to home.  Wind chills of below 0 today.  Ugh.  I made a toasty warm bowl of banana cream of wheat topped with almond butter and jam.

One thing about cream of wheat and oat bran is that they hold heat like the dickens!  John said we should insulate our house in cream of wheat, which I am sure the mice would love 🙄

Also some liquid love of cafe au lait to help warm me up:

Pixie has been a complete heat-seeking lap missile today.  She is stuck to me like glue.  I think she really likes the snuggie, too 😀

Lunch was more tuna.  We got a pick 4 pack (12 cans) of tuna at BJs.  I think I am going to be tired of tuna again pretty soon!

Using up more corporate waffles as bread.  Changed it up with strawberries at lunch, though!

Afternoon warmth:

I cut up the best pineapple today for dinner.  They must be in season or something because they were on sale and it was quite good.  I lurve fresh pineapple!  Along with an omelet mess.

I think I need to mince the broccoli if I am going to try to make omelets with it, because the omelet just falls apart.  Still tasted good, though.

I turned down an offer to go out for coffee tonight, can you believe it?  I just can’t bear the thought of going out in wind chill of -11 degrees!  You know it’s cold if I won’t go for coffee….  The weather is making us so excited for our cruise in the beginning of Feb!  Not sure if I wrote about this or not, but we are cruising to Mexico.  The best part is that the cruise leaves from New Orleans (!!!!), so we are there for a couple days before the ship leaves and we can stuff our faces with beignets.

Then the ship goes to the Yucatan and Cozumel.  This is the first vacation for John and I of more than a weekend in 3 years!  We deserve it.  I’ll be blogging on the trip, too – which will be fun.  Can you believe the cruise ship has wi-fi?  This will be our 2nd cruise.  The first was about 10 years ago, which was also to the Caribbean.  How time flies!

Question:  Have you ever cruised before?

Treadmillin’ and fudge

I have to say, this weather has been really cold!  It has not been above freezing for a couple weeks now, I think.  😯  No precip, so the air has been very dry.  It’s so hard to get out to go to the gym and get in a cold car (but better than biking in this cold 😀  ).

I had a Luna bar as a preworkout snack while waiting for the car to warm up a little.  It actually was slow to start.  Guess 0 degrees will do that….

Hit the treadmill for what was supposed to be 5 miles, but I was feeling good, so did another 1/2 mile extra!  I used pace music and averaged 5.8 mph.  I did a almost 3 miles at 5.5, then 1.5 miles at 6.0 and 1/2 a mile at 6.8 mph.  It’s funny how running a 10-minute mile seems much harder on the treadmill than running outside.  I can do a 5K in 29:30, which is less than a 10 minute mile.  Go figure.

So hungry when I got home and really chilled from being sweaty in the cold.  Made a fabulous bowl of steel cut oats:

Cooked with banana and topped with almond butter and blackberry jam.  I about snorted this bowl down.  I don’t know which was more awesome today, the breakfast or the shower after breakfast!

While I was hard at work today, John was busy in the kitchen.  He was making some of his fabulous fudge!  He pretty much uses the recipe on the marshmallow fluff jar, although he added coffee powder to it and topped half with pecans.

This is still uncut, so I don’t have to worry about snacking on it.  It’s funny how if a bag is not opened, or something is in it’s ‘whole’ state, I have no problem not eating it.  The minute it is breached, however, all bets are off!

I’m feeling pretty good about this last stretch into Christmas.   If I can just keep it up for a couple more days 😀

Finished up work early today (go me!!) and felt like another BBQ chicken salad for dinner.  I was craving the salty feta and BBQ sauce.  When I run longer distances (for me) I crave salty stuff.  I am not only a profuse sweater, but a salty sweater.  I think my body is trying to tell me something about electrolyte balance.

Ornament of the day:

Another horn!  This one is pewter, I think.

Have to clean tonight and get the house ready for company on Christmas!  Also need to resist the siren song of the nutmeg logs :mrgreen:

Look for a post tomorrow about the origin of the name of my blog!

Question:  For those that run, do you find it really different on a treadmill versus outside?

Giant protein and sweet potato yum.

Had a great treadmill run today.  5 miles of increasing speed up to 7.0!  I was sweating like crazy and loving every minute.  Exercise is such a great stress buster, don’t you think?

I spoke with the gym owner this morning, as I hadn’t seen him since last Monday and offered my condolences on his friend and co-owner.  I asked him if there was anything I could do and he  said, “Just keep coming in between 7 and 8 in the mornings like you usually do so I won’t be staring at the walls, since you are usually the only one here.”  That about broke my heart.  It does seem that at least for that first 1/2 hour or so,  I am alone – which I actually like.

I was so ready for breakfast when I got home.  My Luna bar was good for the run, but I was ready to eat!

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I pan sauteed a pear in a tsp of coconut oil, cinnamon and a tsp of brown sugar and topped it onto steel cut oats.  Nummmmmm…….

Regarding the refinance I was speaking of, this is a rental house we own, not the house we live in.  We were refinancing to get a better interest rate because as an investment property, it is quite high.  We are probably just going to put it on the market in January, as there is one tenant in there now who can’t afford the rent by himself (his roommate moved out).  I like the tenant.  It’s just annoying to deal with at this point.  The house was originally a fix-and-sell, but it didn’t sell.

Lunch was some greek yogurt, protein powder, strawberries and my chai granola.

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Yum, but it’s too cold for this now!  I am done with yogurt for a while, I think.

Then it was off to get stuff for Christmas dinner and to use my BJ’s wholesale gift certificate:

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I have a 2-month free membership, so we had to check it out before the end of the year.  Have any of you been to this place?  Everything is giant size!  I died when I saw a 5-pound bag of protein powder:

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Too bad it is artificially sweetened, or I would have gotten it :mrgreen:  We did get some great deals on almonds ($3.99 a pound!) and milk, so we had no problem using up the gift certificate.  The fresh produce wasn’t such a great deal and the bulk buying is too much for just 2 of us.  I don’t think we will get a membership.

After fighting the crowds there, we went to relax at Virgil’s.  A cool thing about Virgil’s is that they ask that you turn off your cell phones and have no laptops there.  The place is full of books and games.

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The atmosphere is cozy and what I would like in a cafe if I had one 😀

Had a delicious skim latte.

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Then we had to hit up the other grocery store to get things we couldn’t find at BJ’s.  I was ready to get home and away from the crowds, that’s for sure!

Dinner was a bit of a mish mash that turned out quite good!  We cooked up a sweet potato and split it in half.  I topped mine with some sauteed broccoli, chicken, and cheese.  I had a lot of broccoli on the side, too.

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John had his half with butter and brown sugar LOL!  Sweet and savory from the same potato.  Warm and yummy in the tummy!

Ornament of the day:

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Cardinals are one of my favorite birds.  We have a pair that had a baby last year and they were so fun to watch!  Debby, I know you will appreciate this ornament. 😀

Off to wrap presents and have a bunch of tea and a snack to keep warm!