Category Archives: eating out

Running breakthrough and monthly wrap up.

I made it through yesterday! I had one more date last night because I was hungry, but fine otherwise. I don’t know how people who weigh more than I do eat less food than 1500 calories. Maybe I will just need to get used to it again. It’s been so long in maintenance where I do just the balancing. I have really forgotten what it is like to be in true losing mode and not just dinking around mode. Know what I mean? But I can do anything for a week.

I got more good sleep last night to the tune of 7.5 hours. Yay! I had breakfast first because I wanted to run a bit later outside. I made up some pumpkin custard oats topped with pecans, honey fluff, and crystallized ginger.

That’s what I’m talking about! Yum! I love how the fluff gets all melty.

I worked and let brekkie settle, then set out for an outdoor run. It was 39 degrees and not windy, so all in all a good run scenario. I did 3 miles at a nice steady pace. It was feeling good and easy. The last 2 or 3 runs I have had have felt very different from all of the ones since I herniated my disk, which has been about 8 months now. I feel like I have turned a corner and am getting my running mojo back. I have accepted the fact that I likely have permanent numbness in my knee and that my thigh may feel tight forever, but I am getting pretty used to that. It was the running ease – relatively speaking- that was missing, and I have felt that the last couple of runs.

I am feeling good enough about it that I am seriously thinking about a half marathon next year. Maybe. 😯

Lunch time! I just flopped an egg scramble on a pita with laughing cow and hot sauce.

There was no room for the pear on my plate, so it was on the side.

This was a dry pear… booooo….

Goal check! These were the goals set out for November:

Lose weight this month. I am not putting a number on how much to lose, just some. I lost 1 pound this month, too bad I gained 4 in October LOL! I actually had lost more, but this was the post Tday weigh in.
Do a turkey trot on Thanksgiving. I took part in a virtual turkey trot hosted by Alissa and did 5 miles!
Organize my bedroom closet (scary!). I have pictures of this. I did pretty well on neatening it up, but need to purge more and keep it that way (the hard part).
No eggnog until Thanksgiving (latte or otherwise). I made it to Tday without the nog!

Looking at that, I feel pretty good overall. I will post some December goals tomorrow.

Afternoon snack time! Homemade eggnog latte. If you missed the earlier post, here is John’s lightened up eggnog recipe!

The banana is pictured here for blog space sake, but I didn’t eat it until about an hour after the latte.

John won football picks *again*. 😡 I am going to have to get a 3rd job to pay for all these dinners unless I start winning some weeks around here! Stupid Colts. For those that wonder, John and I do have our own separate checking accounts, although the business account pays for most of our living expenses. It just makes life easier that way. Maybe that is why we are still married after 14 years?

So his choice was Pizzeria Uno. I perused the nutritional info and noticed a most annoying thing. They gave the calories for a serving size, and then noted that 2 servings came with each meal. WTF? Serve me one portion or give me the tally for the whole plate thankyouverymuch.

Anyhoo, I just went for a basic tonight. House salad with grilled chicken and blueberry pomegranate dressing- which was 2 servings. Shall I count lettuce leaves to get my single serving? Actually, I ate both portions since it was about 400 calories with the dressing, of which I used one.

Rainy evening in tonight. Here we thought the tree was safe from Pixie. Doesn’t she look all “who me?” in this photo:

Now she says, “How did that ornament get on the floor?”

She likes shiny sparkly things like her owner does…

Tonight’s evening snack/dessert. Attunes! I haven’t gotten these in a while.

Have a great night!

Calorie Breakdown: Breakfast: 489, Lunch: 330, Snack (latte and nana): 221, dinner: 410, evening snack: 90. Total: 1540

Going to Moe’s

This morning was one of those where I was so snuggly that I did not want to get out of bed. I love that feeling! I decided on no morning workout today as I ponder what I will be doing. Very off the cuff. I knew what I wanted for breakfast, though! Protein waffles.

These are sprinkled with a bit of toasted, unsweetened coconut.

Pink item of the day used in the making of breakfast:

Yes – that is a couple days past the sell by date. If I don’t post tomorrow, you will know why. Work is busy for both jobs, so I just logged in early and started working. I like it much better when it is this way than waiting around for work to show up.

In thinking about events to do, with the winter the way it is here, there are no events until spring pretty much after the last few 5Ks coming up – the coldest of them being in early December (reindeer run) when I think it was 15 degrees last year? 😯 Yeah – that is cold. That makes it hard to set a goal for any type of training because events are so far into the future. I might just try working on getting more of my strength back. I was looking at old logs and I was doing deadlifts and squats over 100 pounds at the beginning of the year, which I still have not worked back up to yet after my herniated disk. So that is something to shoot for at any rate.

I am running the goblin gallop at the end of the month or at the very least on my own as part of Fran’s virtual run (click here if you want to virtual run).

Lunch time! Just some quick eats.

These pretzel crackers from Ritz are really good!

I was able to finish up work earlier in the day since I started early. That is always nice. John made up lattes as I wrapped up. To add the protein, we just put in about 1/4 scoop of whey into the milk when steaming. It works really well and adds about 7 grams of protein to the cup.

Pixie looks pissed off for some reason. Probably because I was bothering her while she was soaking up the warmth on the warm dishwasher! (We have a portable).

You may not have noticed, but I am doing a no-added sugar day today. I am going to rock the Hot 100 this week.

I went out for a nice 3-mile walk before dinner. I decided I didn’t feel like running, so I didn’t! Speaking of dinner, John chose to have his football meal tonight (thank you Packers and Ravens 😮 ). A new place opened up here last month:

One thing I liked about this place is that they had junior burritos. I like burritos, but they are always so big and never do well to take half home. Here is my junior Homewrecker:

On a whole grain wrap with chicken, rice, pico de gallo, lettuce, sour cream and cheese and it was about 450 calories. Quite good for all that goodness in there:

Here is a shot for showing the size:

It was just the right amount. It did come with a side of tortilla chips, and I just ate 4 or 5 of those. While the small burrito size is nice, I have to say that everything was a bit bland. I prefer Chipotle.

Relaxing night on tap tonight. I am going to have some pineapple and do some TV watching and reading.

Question: Have you been to a Moe’s?

Brick and eating healthier at Denny’s?

I conked out early last night and got up to do my brick. Then I checked the weather:

35 degrees? No thank you! 35 feels a lot different in February versus September. And I like how the little sun was pcitured and the sun wasn’t quite up yet…

So, I instead had some cafe au lait:

Then I worked some and made breakfast. I was so wanting something warm. We don’t have the furnace on yet and the house was 64 degrees when I got up (which is only a couple degrees below where we keep it anyway).

After a couple hours of work, the temps rose into the mid 40s and it was time for the brick. I decided on run/bike today. I set up my transition outside:

Last year, I didn’t have clip shoes for the duathlon, so I will have a little extra to do in the transitions this year.

Did 2.2 miles, then hopped on the bike and rode 10.5 miles. It felt just fine going from run to bike, but I think that is a much easier transition anyway. I certainly am ready bikewise LOL. I almost did a run afterwards, but figure I should ease into the bricks a bit. Plus I needed to get back to work.

Kinda hungry after this, but it wasn’t lunch time, so I had a cafe au lait and put some whey protein in it. Worked pretty well and made a good recovery drink. I got really sweaty on the run and chilled on the bike. Not a good combo.

I did break for lunch and hit the veggies! I knew we were eating dinner out, so I wanted to pile on the veggies for lunch. However, I had a quick snack while cooking (oops)

I stirfried 2 cups of broccoli and cauliflower in some coconut oil and teriyaki sauce and tossed in some chick peas.

Plus a pear and cinnamon. Pretty good. I did get hungry an hour later and had a Pria bar. And then my latte!

Cheers!

So, John won the football picks this week. Grrrrrr…. His choice? Denny’s! Eeek! You think Grand Slam and patty melts and all that fried stuff. John was nice enough to print out nutritional info for me to take. Thanks for having that Denny’s

I was not in the mood for a dressing-less salad, and you know I love breakfast for dinner. Well, wouldn’t you know that they have a make your own omelet and have egg whites available?

I had an egg white omelet with smoky cheese. Surprisingly, the hashbrowns were less caloric that other options.

The nice part is that Denny’s doesn’t charge extra for having an egg whites! It’s nice to savor the cheese by leaving out the egg yolks. Very tasty and not a huge portion either (which I was also worried about). I love eggs.

After dinner, we stopped at K-Mart. Denny’s and K-Mart in the same night… oh my…

Anyway, check this out:

Come on! It just turned to fall! It was like we stepped into a time warp, minus Rocky Horror.

End of the heat wave and Date night!

The heat finally broke! Lots of rain rolled through and it was much cooler this morning, although still a bit humid. Cool enough to have breakfast and coffee out on the front porch this morning!

Early mornings are the best time to sit out here because there is less traffic. We live on the main road through town, so all the trucks and cars go by. That will be a big bonus when we get our new windows in the house – less street noise.

It was a nice relaxing morning of reading after breakfast, then catching up on blogs and watching the Tour de France without interruption! Another good stage today. I can’t believe how long they go without any breaks. So many miles day after day.

Lunchtime involved a chicken bbq wrap with laughing cow. Really good!

After goofing and making sure the rain was gone for the day, we decided on a bike ride. Just a short 17 mile ride today. It’s amazing after doing those long rides that 17 miles is really nothing to do.

It’s all about perspective. 17 miles used to be a big deal! Anyway, 10 miles into the ride, we stopped at the Chocolate Mill for an afternoon snack – delicious display case:

There was a little tart in there made just for me:

Would you like a closer look?

Delicious. Enjoyed outside with a glass of iced tea!

Another of the Adirondack decorated chairs:

We walked around downtown a bit. Then we biked home.

John wanted to take me out to dinner as a thank you for all my hard work this week watching the business and doing my jobs. I wasn’t going to say no to that! Decided to make it a date night and look nice 😀

We went to Wholey Crepe for dinner:

Sat outside on the patio because it was the perfect night. Cloudy, so no sun, cooler, and no breeze. Just perfect! It is so nice to be able to spend time outdoors again without melting. I had the Oscar special, which was a locally made chicken and pesto sausage in a crepe with peppers and onions.

Delicious! Of course, when going to a crepe place, you must have dessert. John and I split the s’mores crepe.

Filled with marshmallows, hershey’s chocolate and graham crackers:

Dang this was good. I can’t imagine eating a whole one, unless it was as a dessert only with no meal… and after a long bike ride….

John said the nicest thing to me during dinner. He said I looked so happy and that I was the definition of radiance at age 42. Awwww…..

And to show me an even better time, he took me grocery shopping after dinner! Yay! We didn’t need much and I want to bike to breakfast tomorrow, so we picked up stuff tonight.

Here is another shot of Pixie awake:

There was a neighborhood cat under our car and she was having a fit about it. She used to run around outside when she first came to us, but not anymore. Indoors only.

More time to spend on the porch on a beautiful night!

What’s blooming and paper weights

Long weekend ahead! Yes! Need to tread a little carefully as there will be some eating out this weekend and celebrating. (Saturday is actual birthday).

Zee protein hit:

Then biked to the gym:

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Stiff-leg Deadlift	3 sets of 10 with 65# bar	Lower body
Chin ups	2 sets of 2, 2 sets of 1	Upper body
Stationary lunges	3 sets of 10 (each leg) BW	Lower body
Plank	3 sets of 1-minute holds as superset	Abs
Push ups	3 sets of 10 as superset with plank	Chest
Cable low row	3 sets of 10 at 50#	Back
Face pull	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Shoulders
Triceps Pulldown	3 sets of 15 with 30#	Triceps

That was enough for the day. My legs were a wee bit tired from yesterday. I realize how my stamina is still down. Good news is that I could do the stationary lunge with no pain! My leg felt tight, but it didn’t hurt. Yay! That means I can do more split leg moves again. It’s probably going to take me a couple months to build my left leg back up again.

Biked home and made up some cream of wheat custard style and topped with 16 g of cashew butter and 12 g of chocolate fluff.

I made the cooked version of the fluff and it is even more like the jar stuff. I just added a tblsp of cocoa powder to the liquid ingredients while cooking. Num.

I puttered around in the garden today. I could spend all day doing this stuff and be perfectly happy. Here’s what’s blooming right now en le jardin de Lori:

Deutschland Astilbe (one that I got a few weeks ago, small but blooming!)

The knockout rosebush with its plethora of blooms. This bush is amazing.

Flowering tobacco (Nicotiana)

My folks wanted to take me out for lunch today as an early birthday meal since we are going to be out tomorrow. We went to Samantha’s. I love this place!

I had a turkey sandwich with cheddar and granny smith apple slices on it. Hold the mayo. On burlap wheat bread that they make there. Not sure why it is called burlap, but it’s tasty.

After lunch, I went back to my parent’s house and helped set up their new little garden. They had a tree cut down and put in a little garden in its spot. I brought along some cone flower and black-eyed susans to fill in. Baby garden in progress:

You can almost see the plants we put in there LOL! I’ll take a picture later this summer to compare (okay Mom, pressure’s on 😈 )

Came home for a latte and a protein cookie to read with the weekly free paper:

And of course, somebody didn’t want to be left out of the action. As soon as I opened up the paper, I received a paperweight:

I know all of your cats do this, too 😀 Probably dogs as well.

Dinner time was something pretty tasty. The last piece of sausage with laughing cow and a couple egg whites. I haven’t had real sausage in forever and it was sooo good!

Rye bread on the side. I was going to make a sandwich with this, but the bread didn’t rise very well for some reason.

Baking cupcakes tonight to pass around for the birthday tomorrow. We are using what we call ‘grandpa’s cake’ for my birthday. It’s kind of a special praline-type frosting that we would have for my grandfather’s birthday (which was on Christmas Day). I love it, so why not for me?

I can’t believe I have another 3 days off. I really should use more vacation days this way. Tomorrow we are biking to birthday breakfast (I am making John get up early, most likely heehee) and then hopefully spending the day at Yaddo Gardens to see what’s blooming there if the weather cooperates.

Have a great night!

Golden Corral throwdown and return to running

** Non US residents are now able to enter the gummy vitamin giveaway!**

Hey! I decided to let myself sleep until 7 am this morning. And let me tell you, my upper body is s.o.r.e. from yesterday’s workout! It think it was the incline hammer curls that really did it. My upper body has not felt this sore in months! (Yay, though, it’s a good sore).

I needed some good protein repair for brekkie, so that means the protein waffles!

That white blob on there? I made some homemade fluff. It was easy and not something I really need to know how to make, know what I mean?

Got to work straight away so I could finish up early as today is my dad’s birthday (happy b-day poppa!) and we were going out to dinner.

Lunch time was a chicken sandwich for more protein. This was made with BBQ sauce (from my Open Sky shop) and Laughing Cow.

This was a really good sammie! Plus a delicious red pear. Lots of fruit eating today.

Nibbles with the latte.

I finished up work early and decided to try my hand (feet) at running again. I walked down to the track. I almost chickened out. I went one lap around walking, then I jogged the 2nd lap. It felt really weird and lop-sided. Kind of like Quasimodo, although John said I just looked slow and a little hunched forward (thanks…).

My inner eye was turned so far inwards to assess myself that diamonds could have been dropping out of the sky and I wouldn’t have noticed! I was concentrating really hard because running with a weak leg certainly feels odd. I kept waiting for it to give out. It only did that a little bit once, but I just had to hop skip to catch it. So, I alternated walking a lap and running a lap 4 times. That meant I ran a total of 1 mile today! Long way to go, but I now have a starting point to work with. I am shooting to run a 5K race in 3 weeks if all progresses okay. John is hoping for a PR at that race. Today he did 5K in 26:33 – he is Speedy Gonzalez!

So – out to dinner at Golden Corral. How many of you have been there? If you haven’t, it’s a huge buffet like Ponderosa or Stuckey’s and the like. We haven’t been there in a few years. Not really the best place to try to eat sensibly (although you can). I still can have real issues with buffet eating. That was where my dad wanted to eat, so off we went!

I channeled my inner Rosie and walked through the doors.

My plan was to allow myself all the veggies and fruit I wanted, some lean protein and 1 dessert item. No rolls/bread and no junk lettuce. This was round one:

That’s clam chowder, about 160 calories for that bowl according to the website. The brussel sprouts were lame. I was excited to see them, but I think they were frozen because they were mushy, so I didn’t eat them. Not like my good roasted ones! 1 piece of fried okra just to see what it was like. M’eh.

The fruit plate along side:

Then I went for more fruit and veggies:

That was one limp asparagus stalk. Ick! I was glad to see some nice options here. I almost got some fish, but I should quit kidding myself that I am going to like it. I wish there was some shrimp or some other kind of seafood protein on the buffet. No other corporate meat allowed, so I was lean on protein tonight.

Happy birthday to dad!

He actually winked for this picture, but I just missed it and he looks annoyed 😀

My dessert:

I am extremely pleased at how I ate. I stuck to my plan for a change! I did eat more than normal, but it was all pretty good stuff.

Golden Corral: 0

Lori: 1

Question: How do you handle buffets?

Peeps are the sure sign of spring

Woke up this morning and figured I would run outside today, so I ate breakfast first. Custard banana oats!

Yum. We sat and goofed around on the computers for a long time this morning and then when I looked up to run – it was sprinkling outside! It looked like it would pass, so we waited a little bit and went out. It was windy and cold. Hit up the track, where I did 4 miles and John did 3. Here is me finished.

Don’t be fooled by that smile. What I really was thinking was “Who’s idea was this, anyway??” I even voiced that to John a couple times, to which he said “We already established that it was your idea.” 😳

Came home and had a quick protein snack of powder mixed with water and some almond butter (really dry almond butter) before showering.

While getting ready, John asked if I wanted to go shopping! Was I going to say ‘no’?? I don’t think so! We headed out to Saratoga Springs and the mall down there. Stopped at Esperanto for a quick lunch. They just remodeled and the place is a lot nicer. Very local feeling:

Here I am all cleaned up.

And my hot date (he has windblown hair):

I had the beans and rice dish.

It was quite good, but a lot of food! I only ate about 1/2 of this figuring we would probably stop for coffee in a couple hours. I was right!

We certainly have been going out a lot the last few days. Not a lot of money each time, but it can add up.

We hit the grocery store on the way home and you can see the colorful display of Peeps! That means spring is just about here, right?

I actually love Peeps. I remember when they just used to be the yellow ones!

Could I have put more of my favorites onto my dinner plate tonight?

This was a bagel thin egg sandwich with laughing cow. Plus my 2 favorite produce partners! Not that big a fan of the bagel thin, though. It was pretty much and Arnold thin.

Speaking of berries, I got a great picture from one of my blog readers. Summer sent me a photo of her at a strawberry festival in Florida last week.

A girl after my own heart….

Chocolate update. I have been really good with the chocolate. I had one square of John’s bar yesterday and today I just didn’t feel like having any. Isn’t that weird? Maybe it is just comforting to have all that chocolate in the house or something 😀

Question: Peep lover or do you think they are gross?

Maude’s and miles

I loved the things all of you would say to your past selves! Thanks for the comments on my photos, too. There is always mixed feeling of shame and embarrassment in putting those up there. …

Saturday morning and out to breakfast! We took my folks out as a thank you for when we were on the cruise and they watched Pixie and the house for us. They have not been to Maude’s kitchen, so that is where we took them. I love Maude’s!

I had my usual cheese omelet!

It was weird eating here before working out, as we have only come here on a gym workout day. I actually was showered 😀

John got a short stack of blueberry pancakes. Fluffy white things, so good, but dense.

He could only eat half of these.

I thought these shakers were pretty cute.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

We then spent some time at their house looking at photo albums and laughing at my mullet in highschool from the 80s. 😯 Needed to let breakfast digest for a couple hours before hitting the gym for my run!

I have never been to the gym on a Saturday afternoon. It was full of preeners

Busted out 6 miles today:

I would not recommend a breakfast like the above on a longer run day. I was getting a little bit of heartburn, which is really rare for me.

Segue to this FAQ:

I was wondering what you have to eat pre-workout? This is just me, and it has taken a lot of playing around to find my comfort level of food for workouts. I exercise pretty much exclusively in the mornings because my work day starts at 10 am, and I don’t always know what time I will finish. On run days, I eat a bigger snack – usually around 150 to 200 calories prior to going to the gym. This is either accomplished with a bar of some sort (balance or Luna) or 1/2 a bagel/toast with PB. Yogurt smoothies are also really good. On days where I don’t run, but do lifting, I tend to eat about 100 calories of dates with nut butter. If I have eaten a heavy dinner or had a late snack where I go to bed full, I won’t always eat a pre-workout snack on my lighter days. I have not found that much difference if I eat or not at those times. Otherwise, the snack gives me the energy I need to get through a longer workout.

If I exercise later in the day, I don’t bother eating a pre-workout snack as I have been already eating during the daytime.

After my run, I came home and had a snack:

Then a shower and some game playing:

I do like video games, but don’t get to play them as much as I used to!

And John made me this (yes, it is on the floor…):

It’s been a lazy day 😀 and I love it! It’s also been a really weird eating day. I never really ate lunch because of the big breakfast, but had a few snacks. I am craving carbs like crazy (yesterday, too). I think it is PMS, but irregardless, I am giving my body what it is wanting today. So, I kind of felt like oats for dinner!

Isn’t that weird? But it totally hit the spot. I would rather give in to the cravings sometimes rather than eat way more calories trying to eat my way around it if I can’t get satisfied. Know what I mean?

Question: Do you give your body what it craves or do you work around it?

An Egg-cellent day!

The end of the work week has arrived for me! It’s been a busy week, that’s for sure. I am so ready for New Orleans and the cruise (9 days and counting…..).

Today was a run day at the gym. Seeing more new members, which is good (as long as they don’t take my favorite treadmill!). I noticed it is definitely lighter out in the morning now when I leave the house. Spring is coming! Right?? 😉

I put on Harry Connick Jr today (25) and hit ‘start’. While I like this album, I think it was too mellow for running. I did 6 miles, and did the last 3 miles at 6 mph. Felt good! I was incredibly sweaty today, though, more than usual (which is already pretty scary). I’m getting used to 6 miles as a base distance now….. maybe.

Came home and wanted oats today, and decided to make them custard oats! I used 1 serving of liquid egg whites. I almost used a regular whole egg, but I wanted the fat on top in the form of peanut butter! One thing I love about the egg white in the oats is the volume you get out of the bowl. For only 30 calories and it about doubled in size.

Cooked with a banana mashed in and topped with peanut butter and some peach grand marnier jam that was made locally. So awesome!

One of the reasons I posted my snacks yesterday is that I do worry that there are people who copy what I eat or who email me saying I don’t eat enough 😯 , and I want to make sure that people understand that I actually eat a lot of food, particularly because I work out so hard, or just because I eat too much sometimes I don’t like how I tend to snack so much, because it isn’t always hunger. It’s not really boredom either, since I am working. It’s one thing to bring snacks to work and eat them, but since I work from home – there is *always* stuff around to eat, cause I live here!

I was in the mood for a waffle sandwich for lunch, so here comes the 2nd installment of eggs:

There was an egg in the waffle mix, plus the egg/egg white fluff on the sandwich with laughing cow. Plus an awesome red pear. I think red pears are my very favorite pear. Bosc pears, not so much.

I rocked on the football picks again. Okay, I just squeaked out a win this week, but I’ll take it! I decided on dinner instead of breakfast out. Our original plan was to go to Rock Hill Bakehouse, but when we pulled in it was incredibly crowded. I think it was open mic night or something? So we went across the street to Wholy Crepe.

I already had eggs for breakfast and lunch, so why not dinner, too?

I had a chicken and broccoli crepe. How sad that I can’t get out of my rut even when eating out 😳 It had a dill sauce with a tiny bit of cheddar cheese in there. Served with a side salad.

Delicious!

Of course, when you are at a crepe place, you must get a sweet one. We decided to split an apple crisp crepe.

Not sure how they formed this to be a bowl, but it was a cool presentation. The crepe was filled with apple crisp, drizzled with caramel and had a most fantastic whipped cream with it. Sooooo goood! I wish they would get rid of the florescent lighting, though.

Now for a relaxing evening and Project Runway! I have a lot of things to do on the day off, including working on the rental house to get ready for the open house and broker open.

Question: Have you ever had crepes?

Stress eating and scented gifts

Check out the gingerbread cookie recipe if you haven’t already! I didn’t put nutritional info there because it really will depend on the size of the cookie and whether you use the protein powder or not.

I took last night off from blogging and the internet in general. Unplugging is a good thing at times! I had half a post written, but that will go to internet recycling. Sometimes I feel a pressure to post every night, but then I realize it’s okay not to do it! I just really enjoy it most times.

It was soooo cold when I got up this morning. 0 degrees F. I slept in since it’s my weekend!

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All layered up! I love this sweater. John and I got up to put on the coffee pot and have a leisurely breakfast instead of me exercising:

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There’s a layer of blueberry sauce on the bottom, too

I blew the snacking today. I gave in to some stress eating. Turns out we won’t be refinancing the rental property after all. I am pretty bummed, but it was a lack of detail reading on my part. Can’t refinance for 3 years on this house, not 2. Sigh….. So many phone calls later and dipping my hand into the honey roasted peanut jar while on hold and such. It’s okay, though. I was very upset for a little while, but it’s only money, right? There could be many, many worse things. We just need to hash out a new plan.

Even after eating nuts, I still wanted lunch 😀

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Egg salad! This is one of my favorite sandwiches. I grew up thinking I hated egg salad, but what I really didn’t like was egg salad with pickles and soggy with too much mayo. My egg salad is a little more on the dry side.

We got a nice gift from one of our suppliers. Usually they send candy or nuts or chocolate or something scary, so we looked at the box with some trepidation. Well, this was inside! Nice scented things 😀

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Will have to see what the other companies send. Fingers crossed they are more like this one!!

Afternoon this:

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Included a little bit of this:

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Hey, it’s my weekend, right?

Ornament of the day:

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Another one I made this year. John says it looks like a spider, but it is supposed to be a snowflake!

I will give you dinner pictures and end this post – look what happens when I take a day off = epic post! Is anyone still here??

John’s football dinner that I was required to purchase included a side salad and we split a cheese stromboli.

strom1218

It’s basically a calzone that is rolled up instead of folded over. I think there is less cheese this way? Although there was still enough 😆 I am so glad John splits these things with me!

On a side note, is anyone receiving RSS emails from my blog anymore? They stopped on the 11th and I am getting a feed error that I cannot get rid of for the life of me. I may have to reburn my feed, I don’t know. Can you believe I am thinking of taking some PTO just to get my blog cleaned up and organized?? 😆 Now that is a dedicated blogger!

Question: Do you fear food gifts?

Finding Radiance

Trying to live a fit life loving food, cycling, gardening and everything in between!