Tag Archives: blueberries

Lifting and Nibbler visits.

Happy Flag Day!

Got some good sleep last night and feeling no after effects of the race yesterday. Of course, I would have felt it yesterday if there were problems. I drank a protein drink and biked to the gym:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squat 3 sets of 8 with 55# bar Lower body
Chin ups 3 sets of 2 !! 1 set of 1 Upper body
Pliet Squats 3 sets of 10 with 35# dumbbell Lower body
Barbell chest press 3 sets of 12 at 45# Chest
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Abs
Standing straight arm pull down 3 sets of 10 at 50# Back
Reverse fly 3 sets of 10 with 12# DBs (24# total) Shoulders
Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps

Then I did 20 minutes on the stationary bike because it was supposed to rain later in the day and I didn’t know if I would get a ride in.  Then I biked home (redundant, no??)

I was hangry!  In the mood for protein waffles, but with a different topping.  I decided on bananas and chocolate fluff!

This was quite tasty, I have to say.  I almost never have a banana in its whole state.  Usually mashed and cooked into something.  Not sure why, but they do make me burp when I eat them straight up.  (Bet that’s a fact you didn’t need to know…)

Worked straight through to lunch.  Yesterday was pretty slow, but not today!  Took a break for lunch and made a tuna wrap with lemon pepper.

Don’t you love my snack bowl of Kashi.  Uh oh…  I had 2.  It’s in the house.

I have this like/dislike thing with tuna going on.  Not strong enough to be a love/hate relationship, which is why it comes in and out of my diet.  I like the protein in tuna, and I like that it gives me Omega 3s, and sometimes I enjoy the taste.  Then I decide I don’t like the taste, and I don’t like the smell, and I don’t care about my Omegas (I do take flax oil).  Then it goes away for a while.   Currently it just wavered back into the like after a hiatus.

Afternoon snackie with my latte:

Last of this chocolate.  Now I am sad.

Now that I got that first race out of the way, I can think about a few more.  The next one will be another 5K in July, which is sort of my race because it was my very first 5K 2 years ago.  I know I am going to do the duathlon again for sure in October, and I even convinced John to do it as well!

Now we are just working on increasing those bike distances to do the 100-mile ride.  We are hoping to do 70+ on Saturday.  I got my coolest of cycling jerseys and I need to take a picture of me in it.  I love it!

Dinner time was stir fry time.  Cooked chicken, broccoli, coconut oil and stir fry sauce.  Love those easy meals.

Blueberries representing!  It’s almost picking time.

Tonight involved more of this:

I need to name my snack monster.  I think Nibbler is in order.

Nice walk tonight and some cleaning to do!

Question: Do you have a food on the love/hate list?

What’s blooming and where’s my hair?

Weekend!  Yahoo!  I slept in until about 6:50 before I was unable to keep my eyes closed anymore.  It was raining when I got up, too, so I drove to the gym.  I did a warm up on the treadmill (I got it up to 3.5 mph!!!)

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell straight leg deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 55# Lower body
Dumbbell chest press 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Chin ups 1 set of 2, 3 sets of 1 Upper body
Rope Crunch 3 sets of 15 Abs
Bent dumbbell row 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Back
Railing squats 3 sets of 10 Legs
Front Raise 3 sets of 10 with 5# DBs (10# total) Shoulders
Skull Crushers 3 sets of 15 with 25# bar Triceps
Preacher curls 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Biceps

This routine took about 40 minutes.  Then I came home. Going easy on the cardio today because we are going to shoot for a longer bike ride tomorrow, and I want to make sure I don’t over do it.  I decided to do breakfast in a jar today.  I see this a lot online with the nut butter jars, but we have small jars that wouldn’t work (not to mention I lick them clean).  However, I did have a jar of fluff that had maybe about 1 serving left in it!

I cooked up some cream of wheat with a couple egg whites, then made some blueberry sauce and layered them parfait-style in the jar!

Label off to see how pretty this was.  Anyone have a magic window when they were little?  I did.

Can you believe this big jar was about 230 calories?  Think I liked it? 😉

Then I was productive for the morning.  I cleaned and straightened out my closet (instead of leaving clothes on the floor).  Then per John’s request, I made some peanut butter.  This went pretty quick – it only took about 6 minutes of processing to get this butter.

I had to taste test.

It passed!

The sun came out and I puttered around in the garden a little bit.

I am waiting for some mail order plants to arrive, but I shifted around some volunteers and put more mulch down.  Not much new flowering now except these:

Trillium and

Lily of the Valley.

It’s amazing to me how fragrant these tiny flowers are!  If you cut them and put them in colored water, they will get little colored stripes in them, too.  Neat.

Lunchtime!  I roasted up some brussels to serve along side this open face egg sammie (with laughing cow.).

I almost put hot sauce on there, but didn’t 😀

So, I made an appointment to get my hair trimmed.  I started the day looking like this:

And now I look like this:

Eeeeek – I cut it off!  I decided to go shorter for the warmer weather and biking.  I think I will like it a little better when it grows out just a touch, but it’s fun!  My hair looks a different color, but it’s just the lighting.

After lattes, I took my mom to look at some flowers.  I picked up a few more for the potted containers.  I got back a little late, and just whipped up a quick stir fry for dinner.  I was hangry!

Plans for tonight are a scooter ride to get some yogurt and then maybe a movie.

Question:  Any fun weekend plans?

How does my garden grow and injury update

Such a gorgeous day outside!  Last nice day for a while, too.  I hobbled on down to make some breakfast.

Protein waffles!  Looks like a bow tie, doesn’t it?

After breakfast and checking in at work (there was none), I went out for a short walk.   It’s much easier to use the crutches still.  John came with and I went further than yesterday, which is good.  Also took the plastic off the garden plants.  They seemed to have survived the freezing okay.  It’s getting greener all the time!

Look – I have my own fiddleheads!

Lunch time was an egg white puff with a ladle of hot sauce on it 😀  I could drink hot sauce.

I spoke with my doctor again today, and it is likely that what I have is not just the muscle pull, but  because I still have numbness in my knee and referred pain down the leg – I have a herniated disk in my back, which is what is still causing the sciatica.  Unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done for this other than time.  This means probably about 6 weeks.  I can still progress activities as tolerated, but any thoughts of running are going to be at least many days out from now.  😐  Biking may happen sooner, but I still have to walk first (baby steps and all that).  I’m not going to let it get me down.  I won’t talk about it too much anymore unless something changes.

Latte time included one of my favorites!

I bought a whole box of these Attunes (with coupon LOL).

I still was hungry, so I nibbled on some Bran Buds.  Fiber rules!

We tried out our new Coleman portable grill for dinner tonight.  Love it!  John grilled some sirloin while I cooked a sweet potato.  Topped with sweet potato with some of the pecan/maple syrup combo that we had on the parsnips the other day.

This steak was amazing.  Local meat just tastes to much better!  We don’t have steak too often, and I just love it.

Going out for snack time!  Today is free coffee day at Starbucks if you bring in a mug, so we are on our way out the door for that tonight!  One thing I like about this Starbucks is that they have ceramic cups so you can get ‘for here’ drinks in  them and not waste a paper cup.  Of course, I will bring my own if it means anything free!  Yay!  Will be meeting my mother there and chatting away to start off my weekend.

Have a great night!

Bike rides and birthdays!

What a wonderful Saturday!  I actually didn’t sleep very well last night.  It was hot and we had changed the flannel sheets off the bed, so not sure if that made me restless or what, but I would like to have slept in some before the ride.  Nevertheless, coffee and breakfast always make things better 😀

Superfoods to fuel up!  After a leisurely breakfast and some housework, we packed up some snacks and were ready to hit the trail.

Biker thighs are ready 😉  I look 4 feet tall in this picture, but I am really 5’2″.  Today was a 40-mile scheduled ride.  The bike path along this route is actually a wide shoulder of a main road for most of the way, so it isn’t quite as nice as the regular path.  We cross over the bridge leaving town here:

To avoid the instate overpass, we detoured around Moreau State Park, and I jumped up and down when I saw these along the side of the road:

Yay!!!  Little pops of color.  Actually, you can just see the faintest shimmer of green in the trees as the buds are starting to pop.  Green is coming!  The ride there is very hilly and challenging, not to mention the headwind.  We stopped half way and had a snack.  Phew!  20 miles from home and we arrived.

Today is my sister’s birthday, so we met her in Saratoga and took her out to lunch at Ravenous:

The crepe place!  Yum.  I had a crepe filled with scrambled eggs (redundant, I guess), cheddar cheese, and broccoli!  Served with pommes frites:

Happy birthday Colleen!!

John and I decided to walk around town after eating and window shop.  Saratoga is really a very cute city.  A little spendy, but cute.  I kind of would like to live here, just for a little more nightlife :mrgreen:

Needed dessert, and a new cupcake shop opened up called Betties Cakes.

It’s very retro.

Yum:

One thing I appreciate about this place is how there are 3 different sizes of cupcakes.  They actually bought this business from Spa City Cupcakes and redesigned everything.  I got the medium size cupcake, which was the perfect size:

The flavor?

Blueberry pancake, which is a blueberry cupcake topped with maple buttercream frosting.  I  had it alongside a cup of coffee.  It was outstanding!  I could have sat there happily with a bowl of this frosting and a spoon. 😳  This just makes me want to open a cupcake shop….

After this, we hit the road back home.  Interestingly, it was much faster coming back than getting there, and we shaved 10 minutes off the time.  I don’t know if it was just the tailwind or if the hills were more up on the way there?  Maybe both.  Or maybe we were powered by cupcake. We cruised home pretty easily, although the last hill to our house is just a killer.  I was kind of tired at that point.

Distance:  40.5 miles

Time:  3 hours, 5 minutes

Average speed:  12.7 mph  (11.9 first half, 13.6 second half)

Top speed:  27.7 mph (Hills – woo hoo!)

I felt great after we got back.  I could go farther, but not sure how much.  It feels so good to have these kind of bike legs in early April!  All that winter work paid off.  I know I can bike 100 miles this summer.

Calorie burn for this ride is probably about 1,000.  I give myself between 20 and 25 calories per mile, depending on how hard the ride is, just to be conservative. Snacks consumed during this ride included a homemade granola bar, some dried pineapple, and an apple.  Then another granola bar after we got home.

Dinner time!  Easy cooking stuff since we are a little tired.  Brussel sprouts, strawberries and Pierogies!

I ate these all the time when I was younger and forgot how good they are.

Company coming over tonight and lots of relaxing in store.  We are having Easter lunch/dinner at my sister’s tomorrow, but I also have to work, as per every Sunday.

Did you have a fabulous day?

Doing it all over again

The start of the weekend!  I got it going with a fantastic weight lifting session.  I got to the gym at 7:15 – I sure know how to sleep in on my day off, don’t I?

I jogged 1 mile on the treadmill for a warm up, then hit the iron:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1 (this is never going to change….)
  • Barbell squats: 1 set of 10 at 65#, 1 set of 8 at 85#, 1 set of 6 at 95#, 1 set of 4 at 105# (YES!)
  • Barbell bench press: 1 set of 10 at 45 pounds, 1 set of 8 at 55#, 1 set of 6 at 65#, 1 set of 4 at 70# (new high weight)
  • Reverse lunge with single dumbbell: 3 sets of 8 with 20# DB
  • Dumbbell pull over: 3 sets of 8 with 25# DB
  • Face Pulls:  3 sets of 10 at 30#
  • Lunge with bicep curl: 3 sets of 8 with 15# DBs
  • Triceps pull down: 3 sets of 10 at 40#
  • Reverse crunches: 3 sets of 15

Man was I feeling it at the end!  Getting done with a good lifting session feels so different than running or biking.  It’s way more exhausting and I feel drained (but in a good way).  I am *loving* these longer workouts.

Do you love this or what? :mrgreen:  I so need this on a t-shirt.

I was staaaahving when I got home.  Needed those protein waffles to fill me up.

Sprinkled with some toasted coconut.  I had to consciously slow myself down with the eating.

Spent the morning relaxing, blog reading, and making some chocolate protein granola, which I had with lunch.  I will post the recipe tomorrow.

I had some of my newly minted granola with lunch topped on some greek yogurt, vanilla protein powder, 1/2 of a mashed banana, and cinnamon.

And yes, it was quite good!

For flashback Friday, I thought I would answer a question that Susan posed for me:

If you were to do it all over again (lose the weight) knowing everything you know now, would you do anything differently?

This is a really tough question, or I am making it tough to answer, I guess.  I try really hard not to regret any decisions I have made in the past or think about how things would have been different if I had done something differently.  There is part of me that wishes I could go back to my teenage self and tell her how to eat properly and exercise in a fun way so that I could have spent the majority of my life being fit.  Learning it right from the start instead of doing fad things and not learnin’ nuthin’ but how to yo-yo.  With that being said, I almost wouldn’t want to change a thing, because I really like the person I am now and I don’t know if I would be this person if I had been thin at a young age.  Know what I mean?  Maybe I might talk to my plateauing self a few years ago and really kept on her about not giving up, though.  That would have made things a little easier 🙂 This was probably a more complex answer to this question that was necessary, but that’s me in a nutshell LOL!  Short answer would be you can eat more than you think and lose weight.

Afternoon out and browsing shops led me back to the Chocolate Mill for some coffee.  They really improved their lattes quite a bit since the last time I was here!  Last time they were pretty substandard.  This time –

Nice latte art.  Maybe a touch bitter espresso, but still much improved.  John met me there, which is also nice 😀  I managed to just have the skim latte and avoid all of this:

(It’s funny, these pictures look like nighttime, but it was 3 in the afternoon!)

I just didn’t want something that rich today.  Think it is because I actually have eaten quite well this week and have gotten a lot of the sweet tooth out of my head.

Came home and started on dinner prep.  I bought a rutabaga at the store – and roasted it up along with some sweet potato.  I also made broccoli in case I didn’t like the rutabaga LOL!  It was pretty good.  I need to do a GVE post on this.

With some chicken and BBQ sauce.

Saving some fruit for an evening snack tonight!

Might top this with some nut butter or laughing cow.  Not sure which yet.

Think tomorrow will be an outdoor run day – woohoo!

Power lifter!

I totally rocked the weights today!  I puffy heart lifting and I missed it last week, but my muscles were glad for the break.

Today I tried some pyramids with a couple of the exercises.  That involves increasing the weight on each set while decreasing the reps.  Hard!

  • Chinups: 1 set of 2, 2 sets of 1
  • Barbell deadlifts: 1 set of 12 at 45#, 1 set of 10 at 65#, 1 set of 8 at 85#, 1 set of 6 at 95#
  • Seated Row:  1 set of 12 at 45#, 1 set of 10 at 55#, 1 set of 8 at 70#, 1 set of 6 at 75#

Supersets:

  • Barbell push press: 3 sets of 10 with 35# bar
  • Hammer curl: 3 sets of 8 with 15# dumbbells
  • Bench Dips:  3 sets of 10.

Supersets:

  • Dumbbell chest press:  3 sets of 8 with 25# dumbbells
  • Planks:  1 set at 1.5 minute hold, 2 sets at 1 minute hold

Superset:

  • Split squat:  3 sets of 10 with 35# plate
  • Good mornings:  3 sets of 8 with 35# bar

I was a shakin’ after I finished!  It felt so good.  No cardio today, just a little walking warmup on the treadmill.

Came home and made an interesting breakfast – I almost wasn’t going to put the photo on the blog, cause it doesn’t look so good LOL!

This was custard oats cooked with frozen blueberries.  Normally I make the blueberry sauce and top the oats with them, but thought I would save a step.  You know, the blueberry flavor was less intense this way, so I will go back to topping again.  John said it looked like black beans (ewww…)

Mid morning protein hit:

This is some protein powder mixed with water and cinnamon with a little nut butter.

So, with regards to exercise, I realized that I was doing a lot and I don’t really have an event to train for right now.  Not to mention that any smaller event (like a 5K) – I am totally ready for at this moment because of what I have been doing.  It’s almost like I am actually in training mode with no goal, which can be a scary thing because I don’t have a plan.  I have noticed a little fatigue and the insomnia is starting to creep back, so rather than risk over training, I am cutting back on cardio a bit and lifting a little more.  I don’t need to be running 6 miles at a pop if I am just scheduled for 5K runs.  Make sense?  I find myself incredibly hungry on those days and I eat too much extra (more than the 700 calories I burn).  I don’t want to feel like I am trying to out train a bad diet.   So – I am going to scale the mileage down a little with a max of 5 miles per run.

Lunch was an interesting experiment:

That thing that looks like bread is actually a modification of the 1-minute muffin.  I got an email from PubsGal that she made pancakes out of the recipe and they were very good!  So, I thought I would try a non sweet version for bread.  This was 1/4 cup of flax meal mixed with 2 egg whites and 1/4 tsp of baking powder.  I cooked it on nonstick skillet (which I should have sprayed, still).  This has a lot of potential, I have to say.  It was bland, but I topped it with some chicken mixed with hummus.  This will go into the experiment-on-again pile 🙂 Served with pineapple topped with cinnamon.

Afternoon latte snack and a little fat to go along with it:

I always thought I was a crow in a former life because I like sparkly things, but maybe I was really a squirrel based on how I love nuts…

We bought a new stirfry sauce this weekend:

This stuff is really good!  I made a shrimp stirfry with broccoli for dinner.

I *loved* this dinner.  Nice ripe pear, too.  With cinnamon.  Think I eat enough cinnamon?  I put it on almost everything that isn’t savory (and sometimes that, too).

Tonight’s snack will be the protein powder/ricotta cheese mix.  Need to maximize that protein for today’s lifting!

Pixie also wanted you all to see her after she is freshly brushed.  You can also tell spring is coming because she is starting to shed again.  She has such a mane, doesn’t she?

Can you believe she is actually awake? Seems like most of my pictures are of her sleeping.

Question: What is your favorite protein source?

5-miler and blood donation

Happy Thursday and the last day of my work week!  Yay!  I *finally* will get 2 whole days off in a row.  I need it.  Headed off to do my run at the gym.  I put on some music from the jog tunes indie podcast and just used that to do my different speedwork with.  That was fun.  I normally use this outside to help me keep a pace.  It’s easy to do on the treadmill 😀   I did 5 good miles today and it felt great!  I am surprised my body wasn’t a little more sore from the shoveling yesterday.  A little in the back, but not bad.  John said he had “shovel back” today.  Shhhh… don’t tell anyone, but he needs to be lifting weights….

I had a little trouble deciding on a breakfast today as I just wanted to eat!  I wanted blueberries, though, so that meant protein waffles!

I am randomly going to answer some of the FAQs over the next few days:

As a NWOL4W veteran, how did you track your progress? Did you update charts each lifting day? Are there any aps for this?

I tracked my progress using the charts at the website.  I just printed out the forms and used those.  It was kind of neat to see how I progressed over time.  I brought those sheets with my to the gym and recorded my weight tallies as I did them. I don’t know as there are any apps for something like that.  Go NROLW!!!

For lunch I was wanting something kind of sweet, for whatever reason.  I decided to make a PB and nana wrap using a Smart Carb tortilla with 1 tbsp of PB and half a banana, plus a drizzle of chocolate sauce.  I then pan grilled it.  It was quite good, although a bit messy.

After more work, it was time to do one of my civic duties!  Blood donation.

There was no line today, which was nice.  I think the weather scared people away, although it was just raining.   I was pleased that my iron was good (hematocrit) at 13.1.  My blood pressure was also pretty good at 118/68.  A little higher than normal for me, but it goes up a bit for donations because I get a bit nervous.  Travel safe to your new home, little blood cells….

After donating, I restocked that iron with raisins!

I so wanted one of the cookie packs, but they were the really caloric kind – to the tune of 300 calories for 1 pack!  Probably full of trans fats, too.  Ah well, the raisins were good.

Dinner time and I felt like some shrimps 😀  We had extra in the freezer from our Mardi Gras dinner, so I cooked some up.  Mmmmm…. pressed and formed shrimplets.

I love how using smaller dinner plates makes it look like a huge amount of food.  We are on the 3rd pound of strawberries we bought on Sunday already.  Guess that is why John calls me a fruit Hoover.  🙂

Working later tonight as I had to flex hours to donate blood (better be getting some good karma back, I tell you).  Then it will be time for the weekend!

Snack time – one of my favorite combos is dark chocolate chips and something salty crunchy – like these whole grain Wheat Thins.

There is some chocolate under there!

Question: What snack texture/taste do you like? Crunchy, smooth, sweet, salty?

Lifting and what makes me happy!

Good football games over the weekend, no?  I am a little bummed because the Saints play the Cards, and I like both of those teams (the Cardinals have a lot of spots on my fantasy team).  One of them has to go down….

It feels much warmer today – in the 20s!  It’s a heat wave, break out the shorts 😀  There were more people at the gym today.  People seem to really get out there early in the week and then peter out.  I did a nice strength workout:

  • Chin ups:  3 sets of 2
  • Barbell split squat:  3 sets of 8 at 65 pounds

Superset:

  • Incline dumbbell chest press:  3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs
  • Underhand grip lat pulldown:  3 sets of 8 at 60 pounds

Superset:

  • Lunges with short barbell:  3 sets of 8 with 35# bar (beats using dumbbells!)
  • Bent over reverse fly.

Hopped on the treadmill and decided to tack a mile of running into my normal Monday walk.  I am gradually increasing miles each week, which means I am going to run a little on other days – or else it means forever runs 3 days a week.  On the cruise, I will be running every day on the boat, so I need to get used to that (3 weeks and counting…………)

I already had my mind made up for protein waffles and blueberries!

Oh waffle maker, why did we wait so long to purchase you??

Work went by fast today, yay!  Lots of babies going home from the NICU it seemed like by all the files I did.   Lunch break consisted of greek yogurt, canned pumpkin, cinnamon, protein powder, 1 tbsp cranberries, and some shredded wheat biscuits.

Normally this bowl would have strawberries, but until the freeze impact is over, don’t think there will be many on my blog….

Susan tagged me for Happy 101!  I have to list 10 things that make me happy and then pick 10 other readers for the same 😀

These are not in any particular order.

1.  Coffee – and lots of it!  I love my morning coffee and my afternoon lattes!

2.  I love snuggling in my electric blanket on cold nights.  I just get like a cocoon and wriggle around because it feels so good.

3.  My garden makes me happy.  Looking at it and puttering around in it.  Even seeing it in its winter state makes me happy because I know what is slumbering under the ground.

4.  My bike.  I know it looks like I am a runner, but riding my bike really and truly makes me the happiest.

5.  John.  His being in my life is pure happiness itself.  Even after 13 years of marriage.

6.  Music makes me happy.  I have so many emotional ties to music since it was my career for a while.   Listening to Strauss Alpine Symphony as I type and it’s just so moving…..

7.  My thighs make me happy.  They have done a lot for me over the years and now they are strong and powerful, and that makes me smile sometimes.

8. My pottery for eating.  It’s silly, but it makes me happy to eat my oats out of my favorite bowl!

9.  My readers!  All of you and your comments and your blogs make me happy to read and share.

10.  My size 8 pants.  All of them.  Knowing I wear size 8 makes me pretty darn happy.

I pass on to the following readers of my blog, picked from comments left over the weekend:

1.  Barb 2. Kimberly 3.  Ashley 4.  Jody 5.  Alissa 6.  Fran 7.  Ang 8.  Gina 9.  10. Trish

Anyone else may partake of the award and spread some radiance around :mrgreen:

This post is getting long, so I will leave you with a shot of a purty bunch of broccoli that I got at the store yesterday:

I ate the whole thing with dinner 😀

Book giveaway coming up on Wednesday!

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!

cold1218

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:

oats1218

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

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 😀

lunch1218

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 😀

scent1218

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:

kah1218

Hey, it’s my weekend, right?

Ornament of the day:

PC070034

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?

Lori’s rules of lifting

Hello and happy Monday!  I am glad you enjoyed my winter pictures from yesterday.  I love my camera (even though I drool over DSLR!).  I made up a lifting program to do for the month of December.  It will be 2 alternating workouts for the next few weeks.  Today:

Big muscle group start:

  • Chin up (I am just going to keep trying a couple of these to build up strength each workout):  2
  • Barbell squats:  3 sets of 8 at 85 pounds

Then alternating sets of a pull and a push move:

  • Widegrip lat pull down:  3 sets of 8 at 60 pounds
  • Pushups:  3 sets of 10

Then alternating sets of lower body, upper body, and core:

  • Static lunge:  3 sets of 10 with 25 pound plate
  • Prone Cuban snatch (video below):  3 sets of 10 with 10 pound dumbbells.
  • Incline reverse crunch: 3 sets of 10.

Here is a video of the PCS – since I know you are all giggling about the name (turn the sound down before starting 😕  ):

Hit the treadmill after that.  I loaded up my mp3 player with Christmas music!

Came home and made up some of my patented layered Cream of Wheat:

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Half of the blueberry sauce is under the cream of wheat.  I could bathe in these Wyman’s blueberries! I love them so.  Sometimes brands really do stand out.

Busy work day.  They are moving over to a new platform, and I was one of the first to use it today.  Gotta love being the guinea pig!  It went pretty well, though.

Stopped for lunch.  We had some egg whites in the fridge and I decided to make a sandwich with them.  Just stuck them in the microwave and got a *giant* puff of egg whites (from 4 eggs).   I had to mash this sandwich down to what you see below.  Hello protein!

lunch1207I used laughing cow and a slice of Canadian bacon on it as well.  I kind of missed the yolks, but the cheese and bacon made up for it.  How could they not?  😉  It’s quite a low calorie and lowfat sammie, too, which is a bonus.

Ornament of the day:

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This is a blown glass acorn.  I love glass ornaments, but I am scared to have too many.  John and I call stuff like this ‘breakware’ because that is what we do to it.  My mother bought this for me last year and I love it.  It fits all my requirements of shiny and sparkly. :mrgreen:

Please forgive dinner, as it is another of my BBQ chicken salads!

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Even the gourd snowman was getting ready to enjoy it.  Plus a plate of strawberries on the side:

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These are really, really good berries.  We’ve been here for 3 years and I still cannot get over $2.99 a pound strawberries year round.  I don’t know who the buyer is for Hannaford, but they should get a raise!

Question:  Are you brand loyal?

Product review coming up tomorrow……