Category Archives: work

Ch.ch.ch.changes…..

Lanacane review/giveaway – don’t miss it!

Ah, the last work day of the week.  I decided to take a rest day and make it a no-added sugar day.

Last night involved a moving up to 6th grade for my niece:


They were all singing here.  We were in the very last row way in the back, so I am surprised I could get a shot at all.  2 really good pieces of advice were given to them before heading to the big middle school next year:

– Choose your friends wisely

– Wear a helmet  (Safety first, as I love to say)

Sound advice, no?

We had pizza and a cake that Logan made and decorated all by herself:

Also, some pretzel M&Ms were had by me, since my sister bought them!  Twice in one week – eek!

That kind of inspired the no-added sugar day today.  I started off with oats cooked with egg whites and made parfait style with my blueberry sauce:

Then got to work.  It has been a frustrating week.  Poor John is probably really tired of hearing me complain about my current employer.  I decided to accept a position with another company, but I am going to start part time and see how the fit is before I give up my current job.  It pays less and I won’t have my benefits, but the plus side is that I can work whatever hours I want, so I can mesh my work schedule with John’s (and no more weekends unless I feel like it).  They also seem very relaxed and laid back, which is a big change from my current whip-cracking company.  They also were understanding about me starting part time to test the waters with them (I was up front about that).  So, not sure when that all starts, probably some time next week – which means I will be busy!

Lunch break for some tuna salad and crackers:

Tuna is starting to wobble back off the ‘like’ list LOL!

When I do the no sugar days, I eat dates to satisfy my sweet tooth:

These are so soft and sugary, too.  Maybe it defeats the purpose, but at least I get fiber and potassium with the sweetness.

Very good paired with a latte.

Dinner involved an experiment:

Roasted radishes!  I actually like radishes on salads, but I thought I would try roasting them to see what happened.  I have to say that I prefer them raw.  They got soft and lost that bite that radishes have.  Maybe if I roasted them longer (20 minutes), they would have gotten crispy.

I have lots of paperwork to fill out tonight for the new position, and a nice walk in store.

Tonight’s snack will be some clementines!

John got these at the store, surprised to see them at this time of year.  They are very juicy and oddly pale.

See you tomorrow for more what’s blooming in my garden (there is a lot!).

Cold, cold day.

Thanks for the comments on my loose skin pic.  It’s always a little nerve-wracking posting pics like that as I am still a little self conscious about it.  But, that feeling is much less than it used to be.  I will say that over the past year the skin has tightened up a bit, but I doubt that it is going to do any more than that.  I would never trade any of it for having all that weight back, though!  Glad you like the new headers.  There are 3 rotating ones.

I actually got a good night’s sleep last night.  I tend to have trouble sleeping for a bunch of days, then crash and burn, which was last night.  I fell asleep with the lights on, and never woke up when John turned off the lights, set up the humidifer, and turned off the electric blanket.  Good thing he wasn’t an intruder 😯   So I got 8 blissful hours.

So cold today.  It was minus 8 degrees F when we woke up.  It doesn’t look that cold, does it?

Brrrrr…….. Braved the cold and went on the usual bagel Sunday!  Panera still has gingerbread bagels, so I had that along with some craptacular coffee.

There was a sludge of grounds at the bottom of my cup, and unfortunately, that is not unusual for Panera.  But, it’s caffeine and hot at any rate :mrgreen:

Shopping at the grocery store after breakfast revealed no strawberries.  Nooooooo!!!!! The Florida freeze and no more berries for a while… sniff.  Frozen berries just aren’t the same.  Good thing there are clementines in season now, so I had some for lunch along with pizza that John made:

Back to work today.  Only a couple weeks left until vacation!! I cannot wait.  Workdays have felt long lately and somewhat stressful when accounts fall behind, like they were today.  Kinda makes me snacky along with my latte:

Then a granola bar….  I was so wrapped up in work that I didn’t fix the chicken biryani that I had planned for dinner, so it meant staring at the fridge for a while.  I was feeling blah about the food today, ever get like that?  Feeling a little unsettled or something that I can’t quite put my finger on?  Couldn’t make up my mind, so decided on the standard go-to egg sammie.

The pear was incredibly juicy.  I should have gotten more than 2 at the store this week.  I’m loving the pears lately.

Gratuitous Pixie picture: This is what happens when it is too cold to go out and do stuff.  Pets can be the source of endless entertainment.  Pixie sleeps like a log, so we decided to decorate her with a fork, the remote and writing utensils:

Nary a whisker moved.  She is such a good sport 😛

Stay tuned for a giveaway this week!  Open to all, too 😀

Question:  Do you have a go-to quick meal?

Gingerbread bagel time!

Fa-la-la-la-la!  It’s that time again at Panera 😀  Gingerbread bagels!

We almost biked to PB since it was in the upper 40s, but it was wet and soggy.  I guess it won’t hurt me to have a day off, anyway.

Check out this baby!

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I think if someone made a cranberry bagel with eggnog cream cheese I might pass out in a foodgasm. 😆

My work week started today.  I stepped on and broke my work headphones (sigh….) and have been using these now:

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Makes me look like I should be on a runway directing planes!  I love the sound on these, but not wearing them for 8 hours, as they make my ears sweat… ewwww…

Lunch was some greek yogurt, strawberries and Hemp granola (140 calories for 1/2 cup!):

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I have been having another super productive day.  I managed to make more batches of soap for this customer (she ordered again), roasted coffee, worked all my lines, and got my refinance loans scanned and uploaded!  I don’t know what is going on with my organization and productivity, but I will take it 😀   Way more productive than this one:

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However, I have been too snacky today.

Some of this:

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Okay, a couple of those…. and a Zone bar.  It’s one of those days where I just want to *eat*!  Frustrating.

We found some crab cakes at the grocery store yesterday, and each one has 150 calories and 8 grams of protein.  Not bad stat-wise and quite good taste-wise!

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Tonight is some football watching since I got so much done today.  I think I lost the picks this week.  Last week we tied, so we didn’t get dinner out!

Question:  What is your favorite flavor of the season?

Netflix and comfort foods

I never thought there were people who didn’t know what Netflix is!  The ads are so ubiquitous, but guess that is just the US.  I love that not only get you get movies, but you can get exercise DVDs, documentaries, classics, TV series, etc.  Not to mention the instant download to watch movies on the PC!  Guess I should get something from them for the endorsment….

I am glad you are all liking the videos!  Wish the quality was better, but it is my digital camera after all.  Of course, too fine of a quality and you will really see me in my morning state!  Note the hat will almost always be on in the mornings 🙂

Rainy day today, so no biking to bagels.  I caught myself almost starting to drive to the Y, as I have biked to my new gym since I joined there and it was weird to drive!  I had to get John so we could have our bagel.

Mmmm….. don’t you want some?

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At the coffee shop, I spied my pink item for the day!

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A bar of pink handmade soap!

Work today was slow.  It always seems like when I breeze through a day, the next day is full of tough files and my productivity takes a nosedive.   Weird.   It was chilly and damp, so I felt like something warm and comforting for lunch and decided on this:

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I added some protein powder and did my blueberry layering technique (patent pending).

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This really was comforting and warming!

Afternoon snack was a new (to me) Larabar flavor:

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For some odd reason, this bar really, really reminds me of a raspberry zinger.  Think it is the coconut texture.  I used to eat those a lot.  I remember the good old days when a Charlie Brown special came on TV and they were always sponsored by Dolly Madison.  I’d say I was dating myself, except I have my age posted right on the sidebar anyway 😛

I had trouble deciding on what to eat for dinner, and decided on a wrap with sauteed broccoli, chicken and some Laughing Cow spread.

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Looks boring, but quite tasty 😀

If the weather is nice tomorrow, I will take you on a bit of the bike path via video 😀

Question:  Ever have Dolly Madison treats? Which one was/is your favorite?

Humidity gone!

Finally, the humidity and heat is gone.  It was in the upper 50s when I got up and I was actually looking forward to going out for a run!  Snacked on a couple dates with PB.

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Trundled on outside and started jogging.  The plan was to go 4 miles, but that didn’t happen.  My thighs were so tired that I had to keep taking walk breaks!  I was not out of breath or anything, but the legs just didn’t want to go.  Ever have days like that?  It tends to happen to me when I do squats the day before (like I did yesterday).  I ended up doing 3.25 miles and called it a day.  It was so nice out, too!

Breakfast was banana oat bran topped with some PB2 that I did with a little extra water to make it more of a sauce (with cafe au lait!).

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Got an early start to work, which means finishing early – yay!  Lunch break was another X-box omelet.

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1 egg plus 2 egg whites and some feta cheese.  It comes out so fluffy and perfectly cooked.  Guess I do like this machine LOL!  I really should use it more.

Pixie usually sleeps at my feet, but today she sacked out on the couch.  It almost looks like she is on a cloud and she looks so comfy!

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John made me a latte this afternoon plus one of my whole wheat biscotti.latte3

Ended the work day on a bummer note.  I try not to let my work affect me, but sometimes the stories are very sad.  My very last file I did was about a man who was just diagnosed with late stage lung cancer.  He had no idea he was sick, but had an upper respiratory infection with some shortness of breath, so they did a chest x-ray and found out he had lung cancer.  No symptoms.  And he had just gotten married in February this year.  The doctor spoke about how she counseled the patient that curing his disease was unrealistic, but they could try to delay the progression.  Ugh.  I just felt so bad.  You just never know.

I almost wish I could work a little more to not have that be my last file, but can’t do overtime.

Dinner was kind of lunch-like.  Chicken wrap with some laughing cow cheese and spring mix.  I really love spring mix in wraps – it is so much better than iceberg or romaine.  Lovely strawberries!

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I have my post weeding snack all ready to eat.  Just wanted to take a picture and upload, so it is unwrapped.  This is a Special K chocolatey pretzel bar.  Pretty good.   90 calories.  It is a little dinky, though 😀

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Hmmm….. most of my pictures are blurry today.  What is up with that?

I am going to go out and enjoy this gorgeous evening in the garden!