Finding Radiance

Geared up for a big workout day today! I started with a Luna bar snack (S’mores).

Then I biked to the gym. I hit the treadmill first. My goal today was to do a longer run, but broken up. I did 2 miles on the treadmill at 5.5 mph (11 min mile) and then took my sweaty self to the weights

Then I did 2 more miles on the treadmill. That made 4 miles total! I haven’t done 4 miles since the day before I hurt my back. No problems with the running, which is good. My knee gets tingly and the skin sort of burns (hypersensitive) on run days later in the day, but there is no pain with my back while actually running.

Then I biked home. Phew! Mega workout.  I burned about 670 calories this morning. Woo Hoo! I was ready for brekkie when I got back. Even though I was hot and sweaty, I still had a hot brekkie.

Banana custard oats topped with cashew butter and pomegranate jelly. Food tastes so durn good after a hard workout!

Lifting Move of the Week: The Captain’s Chair!  You may have seen this apparatus at your gym.  It’s actually kind of fun.

This is a great move for the abs.  You can do several variations, such as twisting your legs or lifting them straight out in front of you to work different muscles.  The hardest part of this move is not swinging your legs and using momentum to lift.  The work should be done with the abs.  Truth be told, you can also do this at home if you have an L-shaped counter in your kitchen

Work consisted of a conference call (mildly worrisome) and then work, work, work at both jobs.  I am beat!  Stopped for lunch:

Lemon pepper tuna salad on wheat bread.

Plus my last pear    I hope it is a temporary shortage, although the red ones have been gone for about a month.  When do pears come in season, anyway?  I had a burpless cucumber on the side, but I had a can of seltzer with it, so not sure if it was burpless or not.

Pixie was supposed to be hard at work answering the phones for the business, but she was a slacker:

Good thing she only gets paid in catnip….

Afternoon snackage of a latte:

Plus a couple squares of Lake Champlain peppermint crunch dark chocolate.   Sort of local company (Vermont) and yum!

Sitting on a coaster for a plate.  We are pretty sophisticated ’round here.

Finished up work and my brain was tired.  Transcription can be really, really tiring to do.  So much depends on the dictator and the subject matter.  Clinic notes are easy, things like genetics are very hard.  Sometimes I would like a no thinky job.

Dinner time and I used the new toaster oven to cook my clam strips.  They came out perfectly done!  I am spoiled with the convection oven, I have to say.

Last of the blues.  I think I need to go picking again!   I only had 1 ginger altoid while cooking dinner and I didn’t need any at lunch.  I really don’t want to jinx it, but I am getting a hold of that snack habit pretty well.  I’ll talk more about the idea of the habit energy tomorrow, but it makes so much sense.

Off to visit my parents and be social for the evening

Question:  What is your favorite ab exercise?

Thanks for all your thoughts on my comparison post yesterday.  In reading the “Savor” book, I realize that there is nothing necessarily wrong with me having those feelings, and acknowledging that they are there doesn’t mean they are true.  The nice thing about acknowledging that is that I don’t feel driven to eat out of feelings.  I actually have to say that I have really not had any snacking disasters for a few weeks now.  My snack habit energy is waning right now.

Anyway, I got up a little before 7.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to run or not today.  I decided I wanted breakfast, instead!  I haven’t had waffles in a while

So good.  I wonder how the protein waffles would be with greek yogurt instead of cottage cheese?  Hmmm….. possible experiment some time.

I got to work right away and worked steadily all day long.  Quite the productive day, I have to say.  I took a lunch break and wanted something fast.

Greek yogurt, strawberries and Kashi Berry Crunch (aka crack on steroids).  I had a sample of this months ago and was so glad the entire box wasn’t in the house.  When we were shopping the other day, John pointed out that cereal and I told how wonderful and good the sample was.  Guess I somehow managed to not give him any of it…..  Anyway, he said I sold him on it, so we got some with the caveat that it go up high as soon as we got home.   I wanted some with lunch, though.

Afternoon latte was paired  with a couple cookies from the Silk & Satin swag bag.

These are very nibbleable (yay for new words!).  The box is in the freezer, but they don’t take long to thaw.  The rest must leave to John’s poker buddies tonight.

Last file of the day was exhausting.  It was a 33 minute dictation!  I don’t know who was more tired at the end, me or the doctor.  It took almost an hour and half to do this one with some breaks.  Phew!  I was glad to be done, but felt quite exhausted.

Dinner was a 3 oz burger topped with laughing cow and some caramelized onions on a small wheat bun.  Country Kitchen lite – only 80 calories and no sucralose!

Those are some of the tiny plums we got at the farmer’s market, too.   They are so good and fun to eat.

Take that Red Robin!

I needed to get out of the house for a while tonight and decided to bike instead of run.  So, Rosie and I decided on an easy yogurt run!  The path is full and green with all the rain we have had this year.

These parts of the path are one reason I hesitate to get a real road bike.  They are a crushed cinder, and I don’t know if road tires would be a good thing to take on them.

Yay for yogurt!

I chose creme de menthe tonight.  Minty and frosty.

I think the blue from my shirt is reflecting onto the yogurt, because it was green LOL!  Very tasty.  I can imagine this with hot fudge on it some time.  Would need a lot longer ride for that, though!

Gonna do some porch sitting and relaxing tonight.  I heard the first  dog day cicadas the other day.  The sign that summer is peaking and going to head for fall!

Question:  Have you heard katydids or cicadas yet?

Mid summer means lots of different kinds of squash!  At the farmer’s market, I decided to get some patty pan squash.  It looks like a sunflower, doesn’t it?

Also called scalloped squash or cibleme.  This squash is a good source of vitamins A and C, plus magnesium and niacin.

1 cup of squash has about 20 calories.

I actually am not a huge fan of squashes as I think the texture is too soft for me, but these looked so cute!  I decided to give them a crust and pan saute the slices.

I made thin 1/3 inch slices of the squash:

Then I made the dredging station.  I used 2/3 cup of Uncle Sam cereal ground up mixed with salt and pepper.  The other bowl contained egg whites:

I dipped each slice in the egg, then the cereal:

Then I put them in a preheated skillet with a couple tsp of coconut oil.  I really should have used a bigger pan.

Cooked for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden brown and delicious!

Then removed to a cooling rack.

The verdict?  Pretty good!  The outside was crispy from the cereal and the inside was soft.  The squash flavor was pretty delicate, so I was glad not to season the coating with anything.

Not sure I would necessarily buy one again, but it was fun to try!

What a refreshing morning! The humidity is gone and I actually needed a light jacket biking to the gym today. Felt so good to breathe cooler air! I decided on weights only this morning and did a good workout.

I actually worked biceps today, how about that??  Funny side note here:  I was doing the nosebreakers with the 30# bar, and I think a young guy (maybe 18) was watching me.  A little bit later, he goes to do nosebreakers with the 30# bar and then had to go get a lighter one LOL!  At least he didn’t try to stick it out and injure himself.

Biked home, really enjoying the non humidity and decided that I wanted the pumpkin cream cheese thing I had last week!

Delicious, although I used leftover egg whites from regular eggs instead of liquid egg whites and had some chunks in there.  John is making pumpkin ice cream and used up the yolks!

Steady work at both jobs today and good dictators, so life was good.  Except for the one doc who was eating while dictating and she was just smacking up her food while talking.  That was really gross.  Nothing like having someone chewing in your ear….

Lunch time!  Egg sammie with some tomato/mozzarella laughing cow.

This had a nice seasoning to it, and definitely a stronger flavor than the chipotle one.  I still added hot sauce, though.

I was thinking about that race the other day.  Although I normally don’t do this, I sometimes find it very hard not to compare myself with others.  I feel that people are so much better than I am at so many things.  With running, they run faster, they run more, they improve faster.   People who recently started running and already are faster than I am after 2 years of practice  or  are running really long distances.  On bikes, people go so much faster than I do (okay, I probably have the mileage…).  It was the same way losing weight, too.  I have always been a turtle with losses.  There are people who started after I did and are at goal.  People who lose multiple pounds in a week, you know the drill.

I know that this is not a way to think.  I know that.  But those thoughts are there.  Sometimes I don’t know how to get rid of those thoughts because I am not in competition with anyone and I never have thought that I was, so I don’t always understand why I even notice what others do.  I really love how far I have come and the things that I can do now that I never would have been able to do 100 pounds ago and I am very proud of that.  I do strive for more, however, and maybe that is where that comes from? I really can only be in competition with myself and can only compare against what I have done in the past.  I don’t really have negative thoughts about myself (I  don’t do negative self-talk), but sometimes I just feel…. inadequate maybe?  I am not even sure that is right, but it will do.

Moving on.  I decided not to have a latte today (gasp!) and instead had some dark chocolate and more blueberries for my afternoon snack.  Yay!

Then I finished up work with my working buddy:

She is glad I have the netbook because that means there is more room for her in my lap!

One of my finds at the farmer’s market was patty pan squash.

These were just too cute to pass up.  I decided to incorporate them into dinner.  I dipped them in egg whites and crushed Uncle Sam cereal and pan fried in a little coconut oil.  They were pretty tasty.  Will do a GVE post on these tomorrow.

It is such a gorgeous night that I will be going out for a walk and then having an evening snack!

Question:  Ever tried patty pan squash?

You know it’s Sunday when you see bagels and biking in the title!  Here is  a picture of my trusty bike:

Nothing special.  Just an old Schwinn hybrid type that I got used about 5 years ago for $140.   You don’t need anything special to ride 100 miles , although it would be easier with a road bike.  I made myself a little protein drink and we headed to Panera.  We went a circuitous route today to add a few miles.  Met my mom joined us for bagels today!

Yum.  This was after 11 miles and I was quite ready to eat.

Then we headed home.  Total round trip was 19.5 miles, and average speed of 13.3.  Not too shabby for a breakfast ride

Hit the ground running typing at work today.  I think a lot of MTs have just left job #1 company (or got fired) as there has been a backlog of work and they are hiring now.  That’s what happens when morale is down.  Maybe I will be one of those people soon (the leaving, not the fired, hopefully).

Lunch break!  Pumpkin and vanilla greek yogurt with Uncle Sam’s cereal in it.

Plus one of the last pears I have.  No more in stores, so I will have to put aside that favorite for a bit.

Do you want to see something really crazy?  In the comments from yesterday’s race is someone who did the same race as I did (AJH).  Read her recap post and check out the picture of her at the finish.  The man in the green shirt right next to her is John!  How about that for a coincidence??  Kinda spooky….

Latte in the afternoon.

I am drinking this sitting in front of the fan LOL!

Pixie just doesn’t know how to do her job.  She is supposed to scare the squirrels off of this bird feeder, and all she does is watch them.  That squirrel could care less!

Now that the Starlings seem to have moved on, the woodpecker is back, too!

I was pretty hungry for dinner.  Luckily John had cooked up some chicken earlier, so you know what I had to have!

Plus some strawberries on the side:

Lucky for you, I used up the last of the BBQ sauce and the salad mix, so I will have to come up with some different dinners this week

I decided on a double dip ride again today.  Wanted to bike for a bit more tonight, so that meant yogurt!  I asked John how his yogurt was:

I guess his goal is to ham it up in every picture now,even though he knows they are going to end up on the internets.

I had pistachio yogurt, one of my very favorites!

Anyone have any good suggestions for an anti-wrinkle cream?  Seriously.

Total bike mileage today was 32 miles.  I so love my bike….  Just in case you are curious, today’s calories tallied up to 1710 (give or take a few).  I was surprised that it was that low, actually.  Big reason is because I didn’t nibble.  Funny how that works, isn’t it??

Off to foam roll and stretch!

We were up early for the race today.  This race benefits the Special Olympics New York and is one of the bigger races we do.  It was also my very first 5K 2 years ago, so it is a little sentimental.

Had pre run fuel of banana oats topped with cashew butter and jam.  Plus coffee.

Then we hit the road – too early!

Pre race face:

Lots of people milling around at the registration line.

There were 700 preregistrants (including me) and a huge line for race day registrants (including John). I would estimate around 1000 people or so.

The race corrals stop at a 10 minute mile, so we line up in the 8-9 minute mile because people always start further up that really should be farther back.  This race was no exception.  It took about 45 seconds to cross the start line, which gets added to your time unfortunately.  There was a large clog at the beginning and when they called out time at 1 mile they said 11:50. I was surprised at that time because I know that I was running a much faster pace than that.  I felt pretty good, although it was really, really humid out.  Yesterday was cool, but today is upper 80s and humid, as in swimmingly so.

I was passing quite a few people, as expected.  It wastes a lot of energy to weave around people. Maybe I should start farther up, even though I am no where near a 7 minute mile.  Right before mile 2, there was a sound system going and it was playing the theme to Rocky.  How awesome!  I got a big smile and matched the pace.  It gave me a good boost of energy.

Mile 2 and time called out was 22:15.  Much faster pace, so I knew there was some fudge up with where they start the clock.  Right then, a bunch of people passed me.  I think when they hit the 2-mile mark, they pushed it, but then I passed them again a little later.

During mile 3, I had my pace music on the 6.5 mph pace for 5 minutes.  I was drenched in sweat at this time and kind of wanting the race over at this point.  1/2 mile from the finish and I got a bit of a stitch in my side, but I just pressed on and crossed the line at a about 32:50.  So, I don’t know what to think about that time, but it doesn’t really matter.  What matters is that I finished! Woo Hoo!

It’s also opening day for the Saratoga Race Track, and we were parked by the warm up track.  See how foggy humid it is?  This is post race and about 8:45 a.m.  or so.

Horses are such beautiful creatures.

I didn’t have any post race snack, as we wanted an awesome bagel in Saratoga, but we did grab our swag bags and then went to the farmers market first.

Post race face.  Little more awake here! I did mop off my face before taking this.  Even my forearms and shoulders were sweating, so you know it was humid.

Such lovely produce.

We got some of these tiny plums.  They look like cherries, don’t they?

They are very sweet and delicious!

I also picked up some hot peppers and patty pan squash.

Then it was time for Uncommon Grounds!  I had a cinnamon raisin bagel with honey nut cream cheese.

View from Mount Bagel.

Yum.  Best bagels around.

Can you believe all of this done by 10 am ??

Here was the swag bag from the race:

Plus a t-shirt.  I am going to keep a few of the cookies and ship the rest off with John at his poker night, as the guys will eat those.

The drink is a cranberry/pomegranate one, but sweetened with Splenda.  Booo….  John will get both bottles (we got identical bags!)

Trest of the day was spent mowing the lawn (too hot, good thing it is small), some weeding (too hot), porch sitting (too hot),

snacking because I didn’t want a sit down meal:

Plums!

I ate each time I got hungry.

Watched the tour.  39 seconds Contador won by…..hmmmm…. that’s all I’m sayin’.

Afternoon hunger assuaging.

We are headed out for dinner now.  I want an omelet and we don’t have any eggs in the house!  Need that breakfast for dinner.  Have a super evening!

Garden time post!  But first, I must get to the very important thing of breakfast.  It is the start of my weekend, although I had to work job #2 for about an hour.  No biggie.  Today was a rest day before the race on Saturday, so I was kind of lazy this morning.  It was much cooler and drizzly as well, so I had a hankering for pumpkin.

This is pumpkin custard cream of wheat topped with pecans and some cream cheese with powdered sugar mixed up (yes, we can call that cream cheese frosting   ).  My trick when I want something really decadent on top is to have the cream of wheat instead of oats.  That saves me 50 calories, so the topping can be more indulgent and I still stay within my preferred calorie range for breakfast.

Ate on the porch with some coffee!  This was soooo good.  I then browsed catalogs online and ordered some fall bulbs.  I need to double check where all my others are planted.  Good thing I take a lot of pictures of my garden.

Speaking of – here is what is really the crowning jewel of the garden.  My butterfly bush.

This is 5 feet tall.  I would have taken a picture of me standing by it if I wasn’t in my jammies and unshowered.  I was so afraid this one got killed by frost because it had started leafing out really early with the warm spring and then the hard freeze, but it survived.  It normally is more arch shaped, but I think the frost kill made it grow a little different this year.

The butterflies just love this plant. These flower cones are about 8 inches long and smell like honey.

The globe thistle also started blooming.  Actually a bit late on the photo of this one. I’ll try another one this week on the other blooms.

My first successful attempt at this plant.  2 other times they never grew for me.

Another potted geranium and allysum:

The purple trillium (??) keeps blooming, too.  This one wandered into my garden bed, and I think I will take it out.

One thing I like about perennials is that they come into their own all summer and fall, so there is always something new.  I still have plants that won’t bloom for another month or so!

I cleared out all the volunteer black-eyes Susan’s on the left side of the path, so you can actually walk through it now.  Hopefully the other plants will get sun and get bigger on that side.

Lunch time!  I made more tuna/hummus on toast for lunch.  I almost tried the tuna and cottage cheese, but I just couldn’t make myself do it LOL!

Delicious plum on the side.  Plums are awesome right now!

I had to go out and run errands, including picking up food for Pixie (and some hairball stuff….).  There was the sweetest dog at the pet supply shop today.  Meet Buddy:

Is that the cutest face or what??  He only has 3 legs and is their mascot.  So sweet.

I then convinced John to play hooky for a while and go out for a treat.  We are buying his birthday cake from Baker’s Dream in a couple of weeks, so we went to go see what flavors they had to choose from, and had to have a little treat to go with!  I had a vanilla cupcake.  Perfect size.

Plus some coffee.  I actually brought a jar of 1% milk with me to add to it, as Baker’s Dream only has half and half, which I just don’t like in my coffee.  It coats my mouth or something, but I just don’t like it.  I am not above bringing things I want when going out to eat.

It poured all afternoon.  Good thing it was a rest day for me and I wasn’t planning on a bike ride or anything….

Dinner time:

Chicken curry salad – minus the bed of lettuce.  It was cold enough today that a salad was unappealing to me.

The blog was down for a bit this evening.  I have to say that I actually like my webhost.  I use justhost.com and they knew about the problem and got back to me right away about how they were working on it.   Customer service really goes a long way to stand out in a crowded arena.

I had a few extra things to eat today, some blueberries and one of these:

I’ve been very hungry, which seems to happen on my rest days.  I don’t mind a few extra carbs for tomorrow’s race.   Going to bed early tonight as the race starts at 8 am, and it is 15 miles away!

Question: Do you ever bring your own food out to an eatery?

It’s the new bagel day! Slept in until about 7, which was really nice. Fueled up with a bubbly protein drink and biked to Cool Beans.

It was a very nice morning for a ride. I do have to say that my legs were actually sore after my workout yesterday.  I hardly ever get sore anymore. Must be the deadlifts.

Debby brought up a point about wondering the difference between a squat and a deadlift. If you use dumbbells, there really is no difference. When you move to the bar, you have the barbell on your shoulder shelf behind your back for a squat versus in front of you with the deadlift. When you use a barbell, those 2 moves feel very, very different from each other.

Ze bagel!

I totally refined it today with a sesame seed bagel.  It was really good.  I haven’t had one of those in years!  I got it because the other bagels looked really dinky.

Nice tailwind for the ride home afterwards.  I didn’t push or anything because of the sore legs.  I have a race on Saturday, so I am completely resting tomorrow.

Last day of the work week for job #1.  Yay!  The day went slow on that front though.  Plodded through files today.

Lunch break included something sent to me by Attune Foods!

I guess Uncle Sam is a brand by US Mills, which also has the Attune brand.  Didn’t know that!

This cereal is good.  It is not sweet at all (1 g of sugar per serving), so I think it would be good used as a breading for chicken or other savory dishes.  Might have to try that.  It’s got 10 grams of fiber per serving, too

I also had the last of the blueberry muffins I made the other day.  This meal kind of looked like a breakfast LOL.

Watched more of the Tour in and out while working.  I wish Andy had been able to shake Contador, but no dice.  They both worked so hard.  It’s actually good to see no hard feelings between them. Think Contador has it pretty much wrapped up unless something drastic happens.  Now it’s back to watching Cavendish and Petaki (sp??).

Afternoon break of a latte and a Luna bar.

I was really hungry.  I must have jinxed myself saying I wasn’t feeling snacky lately.

I spent the next couple hours trying not to snack.  I was not hungry, but I think I was just wanting to avoid work.  I kept saying to myself to go ahead and eat, but then I somehow got a handle on it and waited until dinner.  (Who is this lady?)

Dinner was something different.  I wanted a BBQ chicken wrap, but decided to put it in the waffle iron to heat it up.  Sort of panini style.

Very tasty.  This pile of brussel sprouts was only 4 sprouts (is that what a single one is called??).  They were ginormous! Sliced thin and sauteed in coconut oil, salt, and pepper.  My favorite way to eat them.

I just finished up work for job #1 for the whole week, so I only have job #2 tomorrow.  Yay!  I will work some on Friday, but Saturday is my no work day ever.  The one day I have to spend with John, so nobody gets to interrupt it unless I say so.

Evening snack will be some bread with nut butter.  I just made up a loaf of maple oatmeal bread.  Yummers.

Be back tomorrow with some more garden blooms.  Couple new things popped open this week!

Question:  Have you ever tried Uncle Sam’s?

It’s that time of the week! Biked out to the gym after eating the other half of the balance bar I had yesterday. My plan was to run 1 mile on the treadmill, lift, then run 2 miles on the treadmill, but that didn’t quite happen.

I did 1 mile on the treadmill, which was fine. I got super sweaty, though. I hate lifting when I am really sweaty.

The iron:

Phew. I was sweating profusely the whole time. While doing the plank, I watched sweat dripping off my nose onto the mass (ewwww). After that, I had no gumption to run, so I just biked home.

Lifting move of the week: The deadlift! I have shown the stiff-leg (Romanian) deadlift before, but this is the big girl one. If the squat is king, then the deadlift is queen.  Note that I use the overhand grip with both hands.  Some people do 1 underhand and 1 overhand, and I have tried that, but it isn’t comfortable for me.  Although, it makes it easier when the bar is loaded heavier.  I have done 95# and found the alternated grip easier on the hands.

I even fancied the video up a little bit. If I make you watch me right after I roll out of bed, may as well make it a little more enjoyable

I was hungry when I got home and made some banana custard cream of wheat with the maple syrup and toasted pecans on top.  I really like this!

I got to work right away.  Job #2 does not require me to have any set work time, but the new account I got moved to (orthopedics) has most of the work in the early part of the day.  I really enjoy orthopedics.  It’s very interesting.  Job #1 I have a set start time for work (10 am) and have to work at least for the first hour before flexing time.

Lunch time and I wanted something fast.  Omelet with a laughing cow wedge tucked in there.  I should start new things so the blog doesn’t get boring

Snack attack!  I broke for a snack at around 2:45 with an iced latte and the last of the Lindt.

Something that I have noticed this week with concentrating on snacking while cooking meals is that I have not had a binge snack all month either.  The last day where I ate too much food (other than big bike days) was on July 4th at the picnic.  Usually I have 1 or 2 days in a week where I get super snacky and nibble at night or in the afternoon.  I don’t know what is different right now, but I’ll take it.  Funny because I am under a little more stress lately, which usually makes me want to plow into the food.

I was ultra productive today and finished up in time to do some cooking!  Grilled up extra chicken for this week.

I love this Coleman grill!

Plus I was chasing another butterfly around.  They are hard to get a picture of LOL!

Some of that chicken was destined for my dinner.

Oh yes indeedy!

I’ve got my snack planned out for later:

Wearing my duathlon t-shirt.  My 2 favorite tees are my triathon shirt and the duathlon shirt!

Question:  Do you deadlift?

Seems a lot of people like the tuna/cottage cheese combo.  I am so not sure about that one…..

Woke up early today, thanks to Ms. Pixie.  I forgot to feed her dry food last night, so she was pushing on the door at about 5 am this morning   I got up and gave her some food, then tried to get back to sleep, but no dice.  I figured I would get up and run, then.  I had a protein drink and headed out to the track today.  I noticed these nice gladioli blooming in someone’s yard!

Purty.

I’m a flower stalker, what can I say?

Here is the lovely track I run at when school is out.

It was a good morning to run, as there was a foggy mist and it was in the 60s.  I don’t like running in the sun unless it is winter time.

I did 3.25 miles.  That’s an extra 1/4 mile just because I felt like it.  I think I might be ready to get my mileage back up now that I am running regularly again.  I do have a race on Saturday, though – so nothing heavy duty this week.

Even though it was not sunny, I still sweated a lot! LOL

Bags under the eyes courtesy of Pixie….

Came home to some protein waffles.

Yummers.

Workity workity today.  Both jobs very busy.  Whew!  I was ready for a lunch break pretty soon.

Greek yogurt, Bear Naked Banana cereal (very good), and blues.

Plus 1/2 of this just to get a few more calories because I felt like I really wanted more to eat.

For some reason, running makes me really hungry.

I have to tell you all that I really, really want to weigh myself.  It’s been about 3 weeks now and I am dying to know if the scale is up or down (or the same).  I have this strange fear that it will be up 5 pounds.  After looking at all the videos of myself I did yesterday, I am feeling mildly down about my lower body.  Not too much, and it will pass, but not weighing makes me have to sit and deal with that feeling without any reassurance.  Is there a lesson to be learned there?  I don’t know.

John made me a latte and I had one of the blueberry cornbread muffins with it.  Toasted it up and sprayed some ICBINB on it.

For a more positive note on this month – I have been doing great with the no nibbling while preparing meals!  I have been going through some Altoids, though LOL.  I guess I would rather have 15 extra calories of those than 150 extra calories of nibbles, know what I mean?  It’s still really hard, though, I will admit.

Dinner time was a stirfry of broccoli and shrimp with ginger sauce on a sweet potato.

John said my dinner looked weird.  I liked it, and that is all that matters.  He doesn’t do savory sweet potatoes, so maybe that is why he thought it looked funny.

I finished up both jobs and have a free night!  I think I am going to drag out the beads and make some jewelry, maybe.  Thank goodness the ice cream shop down the street is closed on Tuesdays