Category Archives: birthday

7-miler!

Well, I did my longest run to date!  7 miles!  Here is me early this morning with a protein drink prior to hitting the pavement. Cheers!

prerun

I am smiling way too cheerfully for so early in the morning, don’t you think??  I did cover up the hair with a hat, though.

I did a 3 mile loop which brought me back by the house where I grabbed the water bottle and snack I set on the porch and continued down to the high school track for the last 3.5 miles (counting the distance from home to track here).  I had dates with nut butter in a container.

datesI had one after mile 4.5, then I snarfed the rest right when I finished.   It took me 1:24 to do the 7 miles, with a couple water stops.  S…l…o…w…  I actually think I did a smidge more than 7, but who is counting, right?  I have found that jogging at 5 mph is the most comfortable pace for the distance runs.  Who cares if that is a slow pace?  I don’t get tired, I am not panting for breath and I have a good rhythm.  Yay me!

Took the best shower in the world when I got back home.  Usually I eat right when I get back in, but since I munched on some dates, I decided to desweat first 😀

Breakfast was oat bran with some of my yummy banana maple topping with coffee.  Sooooo good.

brekkie2

We went grocery shopping last night and I got some more blueberries finally!  Tired of waiting for the weather and time to pick again (although I am going this Friday, darn it!).   Decided to make my yogurt and cereal with the blueberries.  It’s hot today!

lunch1

Today is John’s birthday.  He is now 41 – just like me!   Happy Birthday to my bestest bud!  Took him out this afternoon for a yogurt treat (although he got the real deal ice cream).  We rode the scooter there instead of biking.

jman

Birthday boy

I had frozen yogurt vanilla/chocolate twist and had some peanut butter sauce on it since I ran 7 miles LOL!  (Gotta justify, right?)

yogurt

And yes, it was every bit as delicious as it looks!

I am taking J out for dinner tonight and we are just about ready to leave the house.  We are going to the Irish Times in Saratoga.  I’ll post pics tomorrow.  Hope it is good!

Catch you all later!

Birthday party and Sunday

Had family over last night to celebrate John’s birthday a few days early (it’s on Tuesday).  We decided on a cheese sampling with crackers, fruit, hummus, salsa, plus cake and ice cream!   We were going to do pizza and cake, but thought it might be fun to do something different and it is what J wanted to do!

The table set up buffet style:

spread21

The 4 cheeses:

cheese

Brie, goat cheese, smoked gouda,Irish cheddar.

Hummus platter with pita points and various crackers.

hummus

Dark chocolate cake with butter cream icing.  Was going to do a nut butter spread in between the layers, but I burned the walnuts…. ooops!

cake

I proceeded to face plant into all the food.  It was all good, though!  What’s that word again?  Moderation?  Hmmmm… missing yesterday from my vocabulary.

This morning, we decided to bike to bagels to atone for some of yesterday.  Sunday is normally a rest day for me, but I had a rest day on Friday to prep for the race.  16 miles round trip.

Blueberry bagel!

bagel1

One of the lovely things about being a landlord.  This is what my rental house looked like:

tenant

The tenants own a St Bernard and decided it was a good idea to tie him to the column on the porch.  Idiots.    The dog ran after another one and yanked the column right out.  After having a come-to-Jesus talk with the tenant today, all should be fixed and paid for in a few days or they have to face the wrath of Lori.  Anyone want to buy a rental property??

We had grapes in the house and grilled chicken, so I made one of my favorite lunches!  Curry chicken salad:

chickensalad

  • 10 grapes (I had black seedless)
  • 1/3 of an apple
  • 3 ounces of chicken breast
  • 1 tablespoon light mayo
  • curry powder.

Chop all ingredients into small bits and mix with the mayo and curry powder.  Enjoy!  It’s so easy when you have cooked chicken in the house (as I love to say).  Served with some leftover pita points from last night.

I have found that I have been doing some stress eating the last few days, which is a little unusual for me.  Normally I overeat just out of love for food, but there are those times when multiple stressors happen at the same time and I find myself reaching for the comfort of food.

I’ll post some tips from the Beck Diet book tomorrow on dealing with stress eating, which I am going to try and employ for this week coming up.

Question:  Have any of you thought about being (or are) income property owners?

Spring Garden and Breakfast

Woke up a little early this morning.  I went out for a run and decided to do another 6 miles.  I ran one 5K loop back to the house, had 1/2 a balance bar and some water, which I left on the porch, then John joined me for the second 5k.  That was fun!  We then met my parent’s out for breakfast – they wanted to take me out for my birthday – thanks parentals!!  We went to Samantha’s Catering, which has really great prices and wonderful food.  I can’t believe that I ordered oatmeal LOL!  But it came with maple syrup and milk, plus a side of homemade wheat toast (carb overload, anyone?)

oats

My parents each got the french toast, which looked to die for.  Think John and I might come and split an order of this:

toast

Been a nice day today.  I got a chance to spend a good amount of time cleaning up my garden bed.  It looks quite good for late spring!  We have had rain and it is nice and green.   Unfortunately, we have almost no free dirt to garden in.  The back of our house has a large workshop and garage on it, so I am limited to the front of the house and a wee bit on the side.

Here is the front.  When they did road work and laid new water and gas lines, they tore up all the front yards, almost right up to my garden, so the lawn looks pretty sorry now, but it is getting better:

front

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Some close ups of my roses:

This is High Society climber that is pretty short right now:

highsoc

This is Sunsprite – and I will talk more about this rose in a couple weeks, it has very special significance (teaser!)

100lb

This is a Knockout Shrub – you can see it is the biggest in the picture and blooms like a son of a gun all summer. Not too fragrant though.

knockout

Here was an earlier picture from May with my black and white tulips:tulips

It’s latte time!  We are going to a New Orleans inspired place for dinner called Bistro Talullah.  Yum!  Good thing I ran 6 miles today, right?

Happy Birthday to Me!!

It’s my birthday….. I am 40 today! Eeeeeek!

4 years ago, I was 250 pounds and size 22/24. Heck, one year ago I was 200 pounds! Now, on my 40th birthday, I weigh 154, can jog a 5K, lift weights, fit into size 12 pants and medium shirts. I am more fit now than in high school, or any other time of my life! The best gift I could have given myself for today.

Had a wonderful dinner. We went to a New Orleans style bistro, which serves half portions of food (thank goodness). DH and I split a bowl of gumbo, which was delicious. Then I had a half portion of cochon au lait. You know that saying “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels”? I disagree LOL! This dinner was absolutely divine!

Then we got a small tiramisu cake to bring home. I did not want a large cake hanging around the house, so we got a small one. Again, very good. I have learned that you don’t have to go whole hog when celebrating. I had small portions of excellent food – and no guilt!

Still did my bowflex workout today, and took a 30 minute walk. No rest on the birthday!