Tag Archives: nrolw

NROLW and more camera woes.

In an effort to be extra green this week, I decided that I was going to bike to the gym no matter what this morning. I didn’t even check the weather to see the temperature, I just bundled up and went. I knew it was above freezing because there was no frost on the car 😀

I have 1 week left of New Rules of Lifting!

Barbell squat: 2 sets of 8 at 85 pounds
Dumbbell squats with heels lifted: 4 sets of 15 at 20 pounds
Overhead shoulder press: 4 sets of 20 with 12 pound weights
Step ups: 4 sets of 15 with 25 pound dumbbells
Underhand grip lat pulldown: 4 sets of 15 at 60 pounds

Man oh man. I am not liking this part very much. I love lifting, but this is pretty intense. I tend to take a little more than 30 seconds between sets and that is what makes this so rough.

Walked on the treadmill for a bit and then biked home. The sun was bright and shiny, so the ride wasn’t bad at all. I cannot believe I am still getting on my bike in mid November LOL! Biking makes me so happy.

If you read my post earlier, you know I had steel cut oats for brekkie. Num, num.

I will show you a pic of my cafe au lait that accompanied it – even though the Broncos do *not* deserve to be featured on my blog right now…..

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Annoying day at work today. Tough dictators makes for slowness and frustration. Ah well, not every day is quick and easy, right?

Took a lunch break for another waffle sandwich! I am so into sweet and savory right now.

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This sandwich was roasted turkey breast, laughing cow cheese, and apple butter! And yes, to answer a question, I do toast the waffles.

So, my new camera is acting up. Okay, my refurbished camera is acting up. You can see what is happening on this post. That pinkish hue gets on a lot of my photos and the LED screen gets all funked up. It doesn’t happen all the time, but too many times to just deal with it. It’s under warranty, so I was on the phone with Olympus to get it straightened away to send to them. Of course, they won’t tell me if the repair is under warranty until they see the camera, but come on!

I am so addicted to taking pictures that I am panicking about not having this camera again. Although my mom is going to let me borrow her new camera.

Snack with my latte:

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So yesterday evening was not a good eating time for me. You know how I blogged about wanting to eat yesterday? Well I did. I managed to have some toast with apple butter, some dark chocolate chips and pretzels and a little leftover bread pudding during the course of the football game last night. And I did not feel full! What the heck is up with that? How could I possibly not be full? Bah! So, today is really one of those days where I leaned out the calories to make up for that.

No broccoli for dinner tonight! Heehee. I did a basic sauteed chicken breast and roasted brussel sprouts, plus some applesauce.

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A-1 sauce for dippin’. I am in a roasted, sauteed vegetable rut. Like you all couldn’t see that for yourselves! Although, I like my ruts. Guess that’s why I get in them!

Evening snack for MNF:

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This is pretty good. Nice coffee flavor, although I don’t drink sweetened coffee, so it was a little weird to have a sweet coffee flavor in my mouth. I like the gingerbread larabar better. What I really need to do is make more of my own.

Question: Are you in any kind of rut now?

NROLW and falafel

It’s my weekend! I think I am resigned to just wake up early no matter what. About 6:45 and I got up to hit the gym.

Barbell dead lifts: 2 x sets of 8 at 75 pounds

Static lunge with rear foot elevated: 4 sets of 15 with 25 pound plate
Push ups: 4 sets of 15
Romanian deadlifts: 4 sets of 15 at 65 pounds
Bent over barbell row: 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound weights

This is exhausting, I have to say, with the circuit. This last stage is definitely the hardest! I then walked on the treadmill and did 5 minutes of jogging to see if it would bother my back. It didn’t, so I think I am okay on that front! I haven’t been running since Sunday.

Came home and had a relaxed and lazy breakfast chatting with John:

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Pumpkin Cream of Wheat with pecans and cranberry sauce. Warm and filling. I used to eat Cream of Wheat a lot when I was little, it’s nice to discover it again!

Do you ever have those days where they go by so fast and you didn’t even do anything? That was today for me. I did spend some time making a list of priorities and projects I want to accomplish and got a head start on one of the biggest ones, which is refinancing my rental property. I really hope it works out. Sometimes lists help, sometimes they freak me out!

Lunch break was protein powered yogurt!

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Kind of like breakfast, I had pumpkin in the yogurt with some vanilla protein powder. Topped with a packet of animal crackers leftover from Halloween.

Took a few more things to the consignment shop. I think some of my things sold, or at least I hope so because I didn’t see them. They are only inventoried up through the middle of October, so anything sold after that isn’t on file yet. Bummer because I was kind of wanting to shop some 😀

Something different for dinner!

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This is a mix you just add water to and cook. Deep fried would be best, I’m sure, but we pan fried them. I also shredded and sauteed some brussel sprouts and made a bed for the falafel patties and topped with dried cranberries.

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I realize looking at these pictures that I had cranberries with each meal except my afternoon snack (not pictured).

John asked if I wanted to go Christmas shopping tomorrow! I love my hubby It will have to be after a longer run tomorrow. Going to do at least 5 miles, I think.

I’m going to sign off and get working on those ornaments so I can get something done by Christmas LOL. This isn’t a very exciting post, sorry about that. I sure know how to live it up 😳 Have a great night!

Question: Do you make lists?

NROLW and art with breakfast

Happy Wednesday! And Happy Veterans Day. Thank you to all veterans and those currently serving our country!

Another New Rule workout this morning. Ate 1/2 a Zone bar, bundled up and biked to the gym as it was 39 degrees

What a routine this was, too:

Barbell incline bench press: 2 sets of 8 at 55 pounds
Seated lat row: 2 sets of 8 at 60 pounds
Dumbbell squats with heel lifted: 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound dumbbells
Overhead shoulder press: 4 sets of 20 with 10 pound dumbbells
Step ups: 4 sets of 15 with 20 pound dumbbells
Underhand grip lat pull down: 4 sets of 15 at 60 pounds

Dang these are hard! The last 4 exercises are done in a circuit with 30 second rests. For the dumbbell squats, I used 2 plates on the floor to put my heels on. John texted me and was not feeling well enough to bike, so he told me to meet him at the coffeehouse and he would drive. I hopped on the bike and hit the path. How things change in a few weeks:

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Bagel and hot coffee to warm up!

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This cafe showcases local artists, and there were some nice pictures by our table:

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My back started bothering me again during the ride there, so I actually am glad John drove because I just put the bike in the car after breakfast and came home with him. It has something to do with the pushing motion on the pedal on my left side. I didn’t want it to feel as bad as it did on Monday, so I was smart for a change and took the ride home.

Another waffle creation for lunch (guess it is Waffle Wednesday!). I love my waffle sandwiches. Plus some homemade cashew butter and a local honeycrisp apple.

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I can’t tell you how many times I am transcribing files about the H1N1 vaccine and how it isn’t available. Is it ever going to be around?? There is only 1 company in the US that makes the vaccine and they were unable to meet their promised production. Losers. I don’t want the H1N1 vaccine, but there are a lot of high risk people that need it.

Break time was a latte (not pictured) plus an Attune bar. Dark chocolate bliss…

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Was feeling the pasta vibe for dinner. Cheese ravioli with a sprinkling of mozzarella. And more broccoli! Think I should have named this blog Finding Broccoli instead of Finding Radiance 😉

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I’ve been doing really well on the snacking front. Or not snacking front, I should say. Keeping cereal out of the house has made a huge difference. It’s funny how just a small change like that and the scale starts to drift downwards.

Hot 100 update:

1. Duathlon. DONE!!!
2. Limit the number of eggnog lattes this year to 2 or 3. Have not had any.
3. Keep a redline of weight in mind to not go over during the holidays. Under redline.
4. Complete the New Rules of Lifting for Women. Started stage 7 (Ow!!!)
5. Enjoy time with family during the holidays. Breakfast with my mom tomorrow

6. Better organization of time to be productive. Maybe a bit better?

7. Do some freelance writing. Pretty lame here this week.

8. Run at least 2 more official 5K races this year. 1 down, 1 to go

Talk to you all tomorrow!

NROLW and soap!

Hello again! Did you guys make a plan yet? I woke up before the sun today, which meant 5:30! Too early. The time change is messing with me 😕 I laid in bed for awhile before getting up. Got dressed and stood outside for several minutes deciding whether to bike or drive to the gym. It was 28 degrees, and I kept trying to talk myself into it, but wimped out and drove.

Last day of NROLW stage 6

Reverse lunge single dumbbell: 4 sets of 4 at 25 pounds
2-point dumbbell row: 3 sets of 4 at 30 pounds, 1 set at 35 pounds
Dumbbell push press: 4 sets of 4 with 20 pound DBs
Back extension (machine): 4 sets of 4 at 100 pounds
Incline revers crunch: 4 sets of 4

Then I walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes. Simple workout today. I am going to dink around on the weights for Wed and Friday before starting the final stage of NROLW next week!

Came home feeling the pumpkin today!

Cream of Wheat with pumpkin, brown sugar, craisins, cinnamon, and toasted almonds. Really good!

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So, all that soap that I made last week was ready to ship out. Here are the blocks ready to wrap:

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Each of those blocks weighs 2.5 pounds. So you are looking at 60 pounds of soap right there. Each block yields 10 bars of soap (240 bars). It’s a little dull on the color palate, just due to what this customer ordered. This customer cuts the blocks into bars.

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Back when I had my shop, I would do this much or more every day! It’s hard to do when you work another full time job LOL! Too bad luxury soap doesn’t sell as well in tough economic times, or I might start doing it again on a regular basis. Makes the house smell wonderful, I have to say – at least until it shipped out this afternoon!

Yesterday was shopping day, so waffles are back in the house and I got to have a waffle sammie for lunch!

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Plus a kiwi and strawberries. I’ve gotten on a bit of a kiwi kick lately.

I also had a coupon for more of these:

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😀

Had to flex some work time to get that order packed and out, so I’ll be working late tonight. Took a break for dinner. Clam strips! Another oldie, but goodie.

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All settled in now with my 10 kernels of candy corn (can you believe how long this bag has lasted??) and a cup of Constant Comment. Hoping the Saints win tonight!

NROLW, omelets, and pumpkins, oh my!

Packed a lot into today! I tried to sleep in a little later and managed to sleep until about 7, which was good. I needed to wait until it was light enough outside to bike to the gym. Temps were upper 40s this morning, so definitely doable.

NROLW Stage 6 A: last workout!

Negative chinups: 3 sets of 1
Wide grip lat pulldown with slow release: 1o sets of 2 at 70 pounds
Barbell split squats: 3 sets of 6 at 70 pounds
Pushups: 3 sets of 6 with feet elevated.

I was encouraged on the chinups today. The first one I hopped up to the bar and held myself up for quite a while, much longer than when I first started. The other 2 were the usual length. I think given a few months, I could progress to actual chinups.

John met me at the gym and we biked 5 miles to Maude’s Kitchen for my football meal!

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This place is cute as a button inside! It’s like from the 50s:

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The breakfast menu is made up of dishes that Maude’s children loved. I think she had something like 9 kids. I got the biggest kick out of this one:

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I had an omelet with home fries, and John had oatmeal with a side of ham and toast. Switcheroo for us!

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A most excellent breakfast and I could watch them cook it at the griddle, so it was all fresh! This spread for the 2 of us was $13. Can’t beat that! I was so hungry after the workout and bike ride and ate all but about 1/2 the potatoes.

Pink item of the day at our table:

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Pumpkin shopping time at the garden center after I got home (and showered 😀 )

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They also had Christmas lawn stuff out for sale. Looks like the reindeer got into Santa’s eggnog again:

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I spent about 5 minutes giggling over this outside. 😀

Lunch was pretty delayed and just a Zone bar because of the big breakfast. I so have Maude’s on my list to revisit. I spent a good deal of time picking out my pumpkin pattern and contemplating a new career in dentistry 😉

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I used a pattern for a scary clown:

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John did a free form, sort of alien thing:

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Dinner was almost pizza, but then we decided we could cook up shrimp and grits really quickly and it was delicious!

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We just sauteed a bit of lean bacon with some chopped onion, sprinkled flour over it and some vegetable broth, then added the shrimp. Served over grits. Yum!

We are running a 5K tomorrow on Halloween! Provided it isn’t pouring rain, but weather looks okay for now. I am going to try to dress as a bee using yellow duct tape over a black outfit. I have the antennae made with a headband (which Pixie found to be quite fascinating). It should be interesting at any rate.

Question: Do you have your pumpkins carved before Halloween?

NROLW and camera is here!

No biking to bagels this morning. My eyes popped open at 6:30 and wouldn’t go back to sleep. It was raining, so I just drove to the gym in the dark since I didn’t have to wait for it to get light like I do biking.

New Rules of Lifting: Stage 6 Workout B:

Reverse lunge, one dumbbell on shoulder: 3 x 6 at 25 pounds
Dumbbell 2-point row: 3 x 6 at 30 pounds
Dumbbell push press: 1 x 6 at 15 pounds, 2 x 6 at 20 pounds
Back extension: 3 x 8 at 100 pounds
Incline reverse crunch: 3 x 8

Assessment: Increased the dumbbell weights on all of the first 3 exercises! 20 pound dumbbells on the push press was hard, though, and unwieldly. Also, the lunge with more weight is hard on the balance, which I guess is good.

Picked John up and off we went to bagels! Delicious warm coffee on a cold and drizzly day:

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Plus numminess….

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My replacement camera arrived today! Hello beautiful –

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And hello camera 😉

The camera and I are both pink items in this picture!

I proceeded to take a 1000 macro shots of everything. How I missed my in-your-face food shots LOL! Even Pixie was getting annoyed with my picture taking.

pix1028 Can’t you just hear her saying “Enough already, I’m trying to nap here for goodness sake!”

I had a chill all morning and decided on breakfast for lunch:

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Pumpkin cream of wheat with the last of the cranberry sauce and some dulce de leche. It’s all flecked with vanilla bean goodness. Yum!

I had some snackage problems today.

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Plus some unpictured cereal. Not sure if it was the blood donation or something else. I need to nix cereal from the house. I never actually eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast. It is pretty much only for having on yogurt, but I have found that I really love to snack on it. It has become red light for me, so off to the dungeon it goes for a while. Will I never learn???

Shaking it up for dinner:

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You don’t see that on my plate very often! Little cheese raviolis. So good and they really hit the spot tonight. I don’t have pasta too often because of the small amount of food for the calories. Although with mini cheese raviolis, it looks like you get more. A serving of these is 240 calories, which isn’t too bad.

More soapmaking in progress as I type this. Tonight’s menu is gardenia, applejack, and coconut.

Stay tuned tomorrow for one of my thinking posts!

NROLW and busy, busy!

I thought long and hard about biking to the gym today, but my limit is below 40 degrees and it was at the freezing mark when I got up!! Brrrr….. I had to scrape the car off, too. The gym was nice and quiet this morning, guess other people thought it was too cold to even go out!

NROLW (New Rules of Lifting For Women) Stage 6 A

Negative chin ups: 3 sets of 1
Wide grip lat pulldown with slow release: 10 sets of 2 at 70 pounds
Barbell split squat: 3 sets of 6 at 65 pounds
Push ups: 3 sets of 6 (real style)

I am not getting any better at the chin ups. I am very strong, but I am just too heavy to have that much upper body strength (that’s not me knocking myself, just being realistic about my upper body strength). Then I walked on the treadmill for 25 minutes. This man got on to the treadmill next to me and he had the worst breath! I swear he ate an onion quiche with a garlic chaser. I almost got off because I couldn’t stand it, but I didn’t want to be rude and move to another treadmill. That’s why it was 25 minutes for me until I couldn’t take it anymore 😛

Returned home to make some Cream of Wheat with pumpkin, cranberry sauce and a tablespoon of dulce de leche that John made yesterday :0

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Very good, but dangerous. I could eat that stuff straight off a spoon. It was Alton Brown’s recipe, although he used 1% milk instead of whole to lighten it up a bit.

Remember the little kitten that I rescued last month? He got a new home! He was nursed back to health and is happy in his new place. That makes me feel great! This was a picture during his foster care – he is so durn cute!

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Lunch today was more homemade goodness. John also made some clam chowder this weekend. It’s only 150 calories a cup and so creamy and good. I think the recipe was modeled on Dave Lieberman, but I am not completely sure. I’ll have to ask J and get a link for you. So good. I don’t think I ever want canned soup again.

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Winding down on the pink pictures for the month of October!

Here is today’s pink item:

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This is another one of our soap colorants. This is sparkle pink mica. It’s actually the same stuff that is used in making cosmetics like eye shadow and blush, but just the pure colorant without any binders. It’s one of my favorite colors of mica (although gold or copper are even prettier!). I was contacted by an old soap customer and am working on a large order for her – so it is keeping me hopping on top of working full time. That means those Christmas ornaments are put on hold. Remember how I said it was a good thing I started them early?? Hahaha!! Maybe in a couple weeks I can get back to them.

Doing this soap almost makes me want to start doing that again. I kind of miss it a little bit now that it has been a while. Does that ever happen to you? Where you can’t stand doing something you used to love so you stop, then get the hankering for it again? We’ll see how long that lasts. I’ll take some pics when I get most of the order done.

Dinner was my standard trifecta:

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This was the best shot I took. The old camera doesn’t quite know what to do when the food is steamy. My replacement camera shipped today! It’s crossing the country, so I probably won’t get it until the weekend.

So, feeling a little swamped and overwhelmed – but I’m keeping it together. I did snack on some cashews today – more than I should have, but part of that was the nibbles I get due to lack of sleep. I am going to bed early tonight, since John is out playing poker. He had better win, since he has to take me to dinner this week 😀

NROLW and thoughts of christmas!

It’s the start of my weekend! Fridays still just don’t feel like the weekend, even though I have been working at this job since February with that schedule. Still up early, though! I waited until 7:15 to bike to the gym, just so it was lighter. Pretty durn cold, too! I think we can start counting down the days before the bikes get hung up.
New Rule of Lifting Stage 6 B:

Reverse Lunge, one dumbell on shoulder: 3 x 8 at 20 pounds
Dumbbell 2-point row: 3 x 8 at 25 pounds
Dumbbell push press: 1 x 8 at 15 pounds, 2×8 at 20 pounds
Back extension: 2 x 8 at 100 pounds
Incline reverse crunch: 2 x 8

Push press increase to 20 pound dumbbells! That is really hard. That little extra push helps with heavier weights. Short and sweet workout with 25 minutes on the treadmill after that.

Pink item at the gym:

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The wallpaper in the women’s locker room :eyeroll: Sorry for the pic, the battery died on my camera just as I took that. Too bad, because I was going to make more videos. Are there any moves you want to see on video that you can think of? Hopefully, I will get the ones I have made compiled onto my workout page at some point 😉

Since the battery was charging on my camera, no pictures of breakfast or lunch! I kept myself busy making peanut butter and some blueberry jam.

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I cannot wait to get back onto my regular computer. This old one is really giving me fits trying to do posts and pictures. Grrr… Cord hopefully will be here tomorrow.

Anyway, I made a Halloween inspired latte today, complete with spiderweb!

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Pixie likes having me not working, too. She gets the full lap instead of sharing it with my laptop!

pix1023 Finally also taking some time to have fun! I wanted a little more bling on the christmas tree this year, so I am making some sparkle ornaments. Here is the first shot of what will hopefully be a colorful ornament when I get done: orn84

This started as a clear glass globe, and I used gold spray paint and am now doing the glitter. I see that this will probably take me a few weeks to get these done LOL! Colored glitter to be added tomorrow after this dries. Good thing I started now.

This computer is frustrating me with this post, so I think I will sign off now. I am going out with my mom to see a bluegrass concert at the revamped train station in town. Should be fun! Admission is a can of food for the food bank 😀
Question: Are you crafty?

NROLW and bagel day!

Back to the gym today! It was dark when I got up, so I put a reflective band on my leg for biking. Then I realized that I forgot to put my bag rack back on my bike after the race on Sunday. D’oh! So, by the time I got done fumbling that on, it was much lighter out. 😀

I have missed my lifting! I am backing up into stage 6 a little since I took a week off. Workout A:

Negative chin ups: 3 sets of 1 (still just dangling there).
Lat pull down: 10 sets of 2 at 60 pounds (slow release)
Barbell split squats: 2 sets of 10 at 65 pounds
Pushups (the real way!): 2 sets of 10.

John arrived just as I was finishing the pushups and off we biked to bagels! Oh how I missed my bagel. Haven’t had one since last Wednesday!

Come to momma!

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And le cafe.

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Really nice day for biking. I wasn’t sure if my legs were a little twingy from the workout or a little leftover duathloning, but it was so great to be back on the bike! My favorite sport.

Spied my pink item while at the cafe:

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I love Wednesday mornings. I don’t have to start work until 10, although sometimes I start early – but not on Wednesdays! I enjoy the time with my hubby and relaxing.

I decided on something way different for lunch:

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Microwaved sweet potato topped with pan sauteed broccoli and chick peas with a wedge of laughing cow (plus some cumin seeds thrown into the saute pan). I give this a thumb’s up and it was very different for me. I never used to like sweet potatoes.

I was having so much fun playing with food today that I decided to carry that on for dinner! We had cooked chicken and I had made the cranberry sauce last night. Well, in the spirit of fall, I made a sandwich panini style! I used an Arnold sandwich thin, sliced chicken breast, cranberry sauce, and Cabot light cheddar cheese and smashed between 2 hot pans:

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All that was missing was some stuffing and it would have been totally perfect!

And you know a girl needs her chocolate! Love those Attunes!

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Question: Are you a meal inventor, or do you follow recipes?

NROLW with video!

Last strength workout before the duathlon! Stage 6 workout B:

Reverse Lunge, one dumbell on shoulder: 3 x 8 at 20 pounds
Dumbbell 2-point row: 3 x 8 at 25 pounds
Dumbbell push press: 3 x 8 at 15 pounds
Back extension: 2 x 8 at 100 pounds
Incline reverse crunch: 2 x 8

Then a 30-minute walk on the treadmill. Quick and easy workout today. I was done in just under an hour!

This video is the Dumbbell 2-point row. It’s basically like a regular row, but the weight is held perpendicular to your side instead of parallel. I feel this more in the chest than with the weight parallel. You also pull the weight up more towards your abdomen, which helps keep your shoulder from hunching up. The other arm is placed behind the back. Because you do this with one arm and while standing (rather than with one knee on a bench), it also works on balance. Enjoy.