This was the 1-minute muffle topped with some ricotta cheese, a teaspoon of honey and cinnamon.

I liked this, actually, but I would warm the ricotta next time.

I was hoping [...]]]> Thank you Friday!  Slowly getting used to the time change in the mornings.  No gym today, so it was straight up for breakfast!

This was the 1-minute muffle topped with some ricotta cheese, a teaspoon of honey and cinnamon.

I liked this, actually, but I would warm the ricotta next time.

I was hoping to get out for a bike ride today, but it was drizzly and yucky. Booo.  And work seemed to go on forever today.  Don’t you hate days like that?

I was glad to take a break for my morning snack:

It was kind of sleepy day, too.  I tried to get a picture of Sleepy McGee, but then she woke up.

Look of death? I think so.

On the garden front (since it is Friday and all), I do have some seedlings to report!  The allysum and nicotania have sprouted.  Obviously need to thin these when I find out which ones are the strong ones.

See how the allysym are kind of smushed?  That’s because someone thinks the greenhouse is her personal bed.

Sigh….

Leftovers for lunch today. The rest of the chicken from last night.

I have decided I officially do not like long beans.  They squeak in my teeth when eating them, which really bugs me.  Plus I don’t like the taste.  No more of these for me!  On a good note, I am not growing a third eye or any other issues from the giant strawberries, so that is good news.

I was despairing that I would ever finish work today. I swear the clock was starting to tick backwards – I am such a baby!  My job actually requires a lot of concentration each day, so I am pretty ready for the end of the week.  I did get some pep with the latte, though.

I had 2 of those chocolate chewy things, FYI.  Very foamy latte today.  We switched back down to 1% milk from 2% and it makes a lot of foam!

Finally finished up with work.  It felt like 3 days worth.  I actually was done before dinner time and went out for a   little walk prior to dinner to clear my head.  Then I came back and had this:

I wish I could get the Laughing Cow to spread on top of the omelet better, but it still tastes the same. 

Thank you for it finally being Friday night!  St. Patty’s Day tomorrow and John is going to make some Irish Soda Bread.  Not sure if we will go out or not.  It depends on if there actually is Irish music anywhere or just places with any music and booze… 

We are settling in for the night with season 2 of Downton Abbey with my snack:

Pear and rehydrated peanut flour.  Lots of protein in that stuff.  A very good eating day as well.  I really have been doing well on the no nibbling front.  It has been about 3 weeks since my last snack bender, so I am pleased about that.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

He actually appeared just before my shower and scared the bejeezus out me.

Conversation:

L:  Good morning!

The day didn’t start so well for one member of the household.  I went to get  a new can of Pixie’s wet food out and realized that I must have forgotten to pick some up at the store!  She gets dry food and her daily treat is 1/4 [...]]]> Are you ready for some football???  Yippee!!

The day didn’t start so well for one member of the household.  I went to get  a new can of Pixie’s wet food out and realized that I must have forgotten to pick some up at the store!  She gets dry food and her daily treat is 1/4 can of the wet, which she adores.  Me, not so much on smelling that first thing in the morning.

I felt bad about that.  Poor kitty.

I was able to make breakfast for myself, though!   I made the banana bread breakfast pudding topped with coconut butter.

Along side my Broncos mug to kick off football season!

This rain is something else. I grew up in the Southern Tier of NY and seeing all that under water is very sad.  WTF is up with the weather this year?

We did get a break in the rain and I went out for my C25K workout today.  This is week 6 day 2, which was a 5 minute warm up, 10 minute run, 3 minute walk, 10 minute run and cool down.  Took 25 minutes.  Leg is still doing okay, but I am not running very fast.  I think it will just have to stay that way, which is fine (sort of….

Lunch break for me.  I really love peanut flour!  It is packed with protein and I can make it however I want.  I can make it thick and spreadable or thinner like a dip.  I can sweeten it or not.  Good stuff.  I get mine from Netrition.

Not to mention it is pretty good on homemade sourdough!

After lunch, we walked up the street to Agway to get  a can of wet food for the crackhead Pixie.  They did not have any Friskies, which is her favorite. She is very picky.  Morris has got nothing on her!  I did  try the 9-lives and she wasn’t thrilled, but she ate it.

I think she forgave me.

Work slowed down this afternoon and I made up a latte for myself:

Topped with honey drizzle and nutmeg.  Delicious!  Funny how yesterday I was so snacky and today I am totally fine.  Interesting thing is that I felt very satisfied this morning.  Sometimes after I eat a lot like that the next day I feel a food hangover.  Today, I was fine.  Weird.

I decided against leftovers again for dinner and opted to cook up some chicken!

Served with a mix of strawberries and cantaloupe on the side.  I am not sure those 2 fruits go together very well.

Tonight is football! I am so excited for the real season.  Hopefully as a Broncos fan I won’t have to wear a bag over my head this year. It’s also the return of football dinner picks where John and I do picks each week and the loser has to buy the winner dinner of her choice that week.

My prediction for this year’s superbowl?  Saints vs the Ravens.  Watch and see 

I am so rooting for the Saints tonight.  Geaux Saints! Sorry Ali!

Question: What’s your superbowl prediction this year?

I was lucky enough to be asked to particpate in this article in Woman’s Day on blogging and losing weight.  Lynn (one of my maintainer idols) is also featured in there.  I feel honored to be in very good company indeed!

2 years and counting of keeping [...]]]> Welcome to new readers from Womans Day!

I was lucky enough to be asked to particpate in this article in Woman’s Day on blogging and losing weight.  Lynn (one of my maintainer idols) is also featured in there.  I feel honored to be in very good company indeed!

2 years and counting of keeping it off.  Something to be mindful of as I am eating cookies this week!

The weekend went by awful fast.  Or the one day I have off at any rate.

I ended up having my football meal at a new place that opened up called Orange Cat Cafe!

It used to be in an old candy shop, and they kept the old soda fountain and marble counters.

I ended up having an egg sandwich because I was in the mood for breakfast for lunch (surprise, surprise).

I had biked 25 miles on the trainer that morning, so I was pretty hungry.  It was a tasty sandwich, although the home fries on the side were a pretty dinky portion for $2.  They bake their own items there as well, as evidenced by the pastry case!

Didn’t get anything out of here today, though.

I definitely want to come back and try some of their sandwiches.  Good luck to this new place!

Work has been surprisingly busy today.  I was kind of hoping to get a start on some cookie baking.  John did his part with making some fudge and granola.  Having a no-added sugar day this week is going to be extremely challenging.  Extremely.  I am going to try to add 30 minutes of extra exercise to several days this week to help combat the extra goodies that will be appearing.

We received a box from my in-laws, and they included some pipecleaners for Pixie!  How sweet.  That is one of her favorite toys

I then fashioned them into reindeer antlers and put them on her.

I am sure she is plotting my death as we speak.

I have to finish up work and then get started cookie baking for the week!  Hope you all had a great weekend

It was dark and rainy when I got up. I drank a protein drink before going to the gym, which was just plain whey isolate in milk. No flavor or sweetener. The [...]]]> Okay – you guys totally crack me up with the comments yesterday!  Not sure I am going to eat any more Brazil nuts…

It was dark and rainy when I got up. I drank a protein drink before going to the gym, which was just plain whey isolate in milk. No flavor or sweetener. The isolate is the only type I can do this with. I decided today was a no-added sugar day, so I drank it straight up. Yep – I am hard core!

It was pouring when I finished. Good thing I didn’t bike. I went home and picked up John and we had bagels! Off to Panera Bread. It was freezing there, as per usual. What is up with that?? I needed a non sweet bagel, so I decided on a sesame today.

Lifting Move of the Week: The Straight Arm Pull Down:

This is just a nice break from the seated lat pull down. The real trick is to keep the movement happening in your back and not your arms. Practice with just holding your arms out in front of you (go ahead and do it now) and lift and raise and notice the feeling in your back. It helps to draw your shoulder blades back. That is the feeling you are looking for (feeling for?).

Break from work for lunch time!  When you do a no sugar day, it really makes you have to pause and think about what you are eating more than usual.  No yogurt with cereal today!  I decided on a nice omelet with a laughing cow wedge and sauteed broccoli.  Plus a baby macintosh apple.  These are small apples!

I was talking to John about how good it was and he just made a funny face.  He doesn’t like the laughing cow or broccoli.  What is wrong with him, anyway?

I totally got absorbed in work until John brought out my afternoon latte.  He actually had forgotten my no sugar today and put pumpkin drizzle on top of it, but then scraped it off.  Now that is thoughtful.    He also puts some whey isolate in it as well for that protein boost.

Caffeine Power!  Good thing caffeine is not an illegal drug or I would have quite the problem.

Yesterday, Shelley asked when the duathlon is.  It is the 17th, so about a week and a half away.  We actually have not signed up for it yet because it is totally weather dependent on us doing it.  I will not do it if it is raining, as the bike event is scary in the rain (not to mention totally miserable).   I decided if the actual race day doesn’t happen, I will go ahead and do it on my own on a nicer day since I have been training.

John also made dinner tonight.  Not only do we have a plethora of apples, we have a platoon of potatoes!  I don’t know what he was thinking when he shopped over the weekend.  So, he made a low fat bacon potato soup.

It was pretty good.  Think I got enough cinnamon on that pear?  I have probably had 2 tsp today

My evening task?  Coffee roasting.  This is my set up.

I wish I could hook up my 1 kilogram roaster, but it needs 3 phase 200 amp power, which would be about $800 to do.  So it languishes in the garage.

This is decaf I am roasting to have tonight.  I wish I could have some of that apple cobbler tonight, but it will still be there tomorrow (I hope).  I will likely have some more fruit.

Gratuitous Pixie.

For some reason, Pixie likes the umbrella.  She always gets under it when we dry one out.

Pink item of the day!  My camera case, which also doubles as my wallet.  A food/fitness blogger must always be prepared

Question:  Do you go back and read comments on blogs or do you forget?

I zoomed along pretty fast.  I was on the roadway for the first 6 miles, then I hit the path.  [...]]]> I was up early for a pre-heat bike ride today.  With temps expected into the low 90s, I knew I had to get it in early.  I had some toast and jam pre ride:

I zoomed along pretty fast.  I was on the roadway for the first 6 miles, then I hit the path.  Noticeable difference in the quiet.  Lots of other bikers and joggers, too, which surprised me this early.  It was getting hot already.

I stopped for a moment to take some pictures and have some coconut water.

Gotta stop and appreciate when you can, right? There was a headwind on the way home.  It seems like I am always going into a headwind.  What is up with that?  Anyway, I did 22 miles today with some hills and it felt really good.  Good thing I did hills because my charity ride is *Hilly*.  Note the capital H. I will post a graphic of it tomorrow or Thursday.

Brekkie and I wanted to shake things up around Team Radiance today!

Protein pancakes topped with a dollop of vanilla greek yogurt, plus I couldn’t resist that drizzle of chocolate sauce (that was the bike ride talking   )

Yum!!

The winner of Edward Ugel’s  “I’m with Fatty” is

Nancy

Just read Klondike Tales by Jack London

Congrats Nancy!  Please contact me at javaqueen01 (at) yahoo.com with your address and I will send that out!

Lunch break was standard.  So much for shaking things up

So – here were my goals for August.

• Compile my recipes into a cookbook, which I am going to give to anyone who sponsors my Team Challenge ride.  Done!  This took longer than expected and I am still distributing the copies.
• Continue working on the no snacking while preparing meals.  Doing pretty well with this.  I still snack at other times, though.
• Again, no weight goal this month, just being mindful of what I am eating.  I am going to weigh myself when I want to, though.  Weight remained stable for the month – yay!

Things I learned in August:

- I don’t need to record my food each and every day anymore.

- Just because you lock up your stuf, that doesn’t mean someone won’t steal it.

- Working 2 jobs is not for me.

My goals for September are as follows:

• Team Challenge Ride on September 12.
• Concentrate even more on mindful eating.
• Do more brick training after the charity ride to get ready for the duathlon in October!
• Experiment more with not recording my food every day.   Although, I pretty much can keep a running tally in my head of calories, so not sure if this is really ground breaking in any way.

Afternoon snacks:

Plus some sea salt Lindt.

I had to laugh at this.  Do ever fear when moving furniture about what you might find behind the couch?  We moved the couch away from the window for the new windows coming tomorrow.  At first nothing appeared, then all of the sudden we saw this:

These are all of Pixie’s little rolled up balls of paper LOL!  She just jammed them all under the couch.

Who me?

Thank goodness there were no mousie bodies under there….

John cooked up some dinner tonight.  Pork burgers!

I dearly love our local smokehouse.  Good quality and good prices and local.  The best of all worlds.

We shopped for my niece’s birthday tomorrow and had some success.  So of course, we had to stop for some cafe – decaf…

And a snack size pb cookie.

Yum.  I like how places are actually making things smaller sized.  Do you find this happening as well?

I am off to catch up the google reader now!

I woke up to cloudy gloom today. I decided against biking [...]]]> Some great comments on the blogger role model post from yesterday.  I loved all the insights. Thanks for saying I am a role model. I don’t know as I really meant to ask that specifically, but the post title kind of did that.

I woke up to cloudy gloom today. I decided against biking because rain was supposed to be imminent and not ready for new bike and rain yet. Gotta at least pay it off first, right? I got to the gym and ran 1.5 miles on the treadmill to warm up, going between 5.5 and 6.1 mph. It felt pretty good.

Then the iron. Again, lower weights and increased reps:

Then I got back on the treadmill for 1 more mile. I almost stopped at 1/2 a mile because my legs really were having trouble running after lifting, but then they got used to it…. sort of. Reminds me that I need to start brick training for the duathlon coming up in October.

I had a hankering for chocolate when I got home, so I made some banana custard cream of wheat and topped with peanut butter and tiny mini morsels.  You get so many more of these per serving than regular chocolate chips.  The power of surface area. My eyes love that!

My tummy loved it, too.  Num.

Working hard today.  Crunch time to pay off the bike!  I should just need a couple more weeks of this and then back down on one of the jobs.  I keep saying that, but maybe I mean it this time

For your entertainment, here is Pixie being active and playing.   She is playing with a bread tie -proof that you don’t need expensive cat toys  – (so why do I keep buying them??).

Lunch time brought out an oldie, but goodie.  Toast with laughing cow, chicken and fruit spread.

I know it may sound weird, but this is a good combo.  Some of the pear/cranberry jam I made last night.  Who knew that making jam was so much fun?  I think I see a few holiday gifts this year. 

Note the waffle cut carrot that snuck into my bag of baby carrots.  Someone must have been asleep at the switch.

John made me an afternoon latte:

And I had a couple of these to go with:

Antioxidant power!

We got a phone call that our windows are ready and they are going to be installing them mid next week.  It will take them 2 days, since there are so many windows.  I am not sure quite what I am going to do, as I really need quiet for transcription.  Construction does not = quiet.  I can work from the library or Starbucks, but not sure I really want to do that for 8 hours.  Will have to see.  Excited for the new windows, though!

Dinner time.  We got some more Smart Option crabcakes, I had kind of forgotten that these existed until I saw John put them in the cart.

Paired with broccoli and a pluot.  The genius of cutting these up.  My hubby is so smart

More work tonight, and some Monday night football!   17 days until official kickoff!  My Broncos jersey is ready and waiting to come out (I won’t wear it for preseason).

I will be having a little dish of this that we got with our free coupon for donating blood:

Question:  Do you buy toys for your pets?  And do they play with them?

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 [...]]]> 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!