Category Archives: 3 miles

What’s blooming and decompressing

I made it to today! Yay! Yesterday’s post was kind of fun to do. I actually had the window open and just jotted things down as I noticed stuff. I slept pretty well last night, although up a squidge early today. I had a Luna bar

and proceeded to have an awesome stress busting workout. First was the 10 minute bike to the gym.
Then the iron:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Deadlift/row combo 3 sets of 8 with 65# bar Full body
Lying leg press 3 sets of 10 at 50# Legs
Underhand grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 60# Back
Calf raises 3 sets of 10 at 100# Calves
Planks 3 sets at 75 second hold Abs
Barbell chest press 3 sets with 10 at 55# Chest
Face Pulls 3 sets of 10 at 40# Shoulders
Triceps pushdown 3 sets of 12 at 30# Triceps

Did the leg work early because I knew I would be hitting the treadmill after that. I got on the mill closest to the fan :mrgreen: Then I ran 3 miles with some interval work in the last mile. I haven’t done intervals in months! They weren’t much, just alternating between 5.5 and 6 mph. I am hoping to get back down to a steady 10 minute mile pace for running by the end of the summer.

Then I biked home. 600 calorie burn and I felt fantastic. Got rid of all the stress from yesterday.

I was craving chocolate cream of wheat for breakfast, so even though it was hot – that is what I made.

With a mashed banana and topped with cashew buttah. I let it cool for a bit before consuming. Delicious!

Regarding the 2 jobs front, it isn’t a permanent thing. I am just making sure this company will be a good fit for me before leaving my other job. And right now, I am limited with work until I am off the quality check. There is just such a difference between the 2 companies. I can’t even tell you. One has so much tension and negativity. The other is easy going and so much less pressure. I think I might like it there. 😀
I will probably go down to part time with my first job for a while, then leave it all together.

I actually am working the 2nd job today and some of the first job for a bit just to get caught up with lines. This week was crazy, that is for sure!

Lunch time!  I made some chicken curry salad and it was cool and delicious!

John said it looked healthy and delicious like all my meals.  I do love my food.

John brought me home a box of chocolates from his trip:

I had one after lunch.  Sweet!

The garden is still in full swing right now.  It actually does pretty well in the heat, although some of the flowers look a little tired by the end of the day:

Couple of my very favorites are blooming.  The Doppelganger echinacea

Liatris (kobold)

One of my little garden dealies (present from my mom):

Interesting color snap dragon.  I like getting the mixed, because you never know what you are going to get (right, Forrest?)

View from my porch:


After doing some work, I convinced John to take me to the library and stop for some yogurt.  We took the scooter:

Safety first!

These helmets are so heavy.  Not like the light bike ones.

Treat after the liberry:

This was white chocolate macadamia yogurt with raspberry topping.  Deeeelicious!  And so good on such a hot day.  It was melting fast here.

I wanted another cool, light dinner tonight.  It was just kind of a snacking plate.

Not pictured is the extra serving of crackers I nibbled on while waiting for my broccoli to cook.  In this mindful eating practice, I have really found that I have a terrible habit of snacking while I am preparing meals.  I knew I did that, but I guess I never thought much about it.  At least I am more aware of it now.

I will do a little bit more work tonight and then chill out.  I’ve got some blueberries to munch on later:

I have been in fruitopia lately.  Not a bad place.


Question:  What is blooming in your garden?

Warning – deep thoughts ahead.

Thank you so much for all of the birthday wishes via the blog, email, and facebook! I was overwhelmed at them all 😀

After the overload of food yesterday, we decided to forgo the bagel ( 😯 I know!) and eat at home. Today was such a rainy, drizzly day. I had the forethought last night to put some steel cut oats in some water to soak overnight, so they only took 10 minutes to cook this morning with a mashed banana in there.

Topped with cashew butter and chocolate fluff. Gonna need a sugar free day this week for sure.

Debated for a long time about whether or not to take a rest day today. I am planning a long solo bike ride on Monday because I have 1 more day off (yippee!).

I was going to show pictures of lunch, but it was the leftovers of last night’s dinner and while it tasted even better next day, it was not blog worthy picture wise.

Since it was rainy, it sounded like a good day to go out to coffee with our respective computers and wi-fi! That way I can play with my new netbook and get used to it before trying to work with it on Tuesday. I bought a little carrying case for it (so cute!) and we went to Panera bread.

I just got coffee because I brought one of my birthday cuppycakes to eat. (I really need a no sugar day this week…..).

We also looked at places and talked about a planned trip to Montreal sometime in July. Going to take our bikes 😀

During my internet browsing, I was reading an article on MSNBC, not sure if anyone else read this about regaining weight.

This statement stood out for me

“By some estimates, more than 80 percent of people who have lost weight regain all of it, or more, after two years.”

more for the reason that I am fast approaching a 2-year maintenance anniversary of 100 pounds.

Then this part:

“Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles analyzed 31 long-term diet studies and found that about two-thirds of dieters regained more weight within four or five years than they initially lost.”

So what happens to me? Will I gain it all back and more? I get asked sometimes about what ‘clicked’ for me and how I know this is the last time. My answer is that I don’t know if it is the last time. I honestly don’t. I sure hope it is, but I know all too well how easy old patterns can be to fall back into if I let them. It’s not like losing the weight necessarily changed any of my hard wiring to eat or propensity to gain and hold on to fat (thank you genes…) There are those days were I am hanging on my the skin of my teeth not to really binge just for the sake of bingeing. There are days where I just eat too much for no other reason than I just want to and like food. I know that people hard wired to be thin don’t do stuff like that, or at least not to the degree that I can.

Is it maybe body image as well? Maybe if you see yourself as fat, you then self-sabotage yourself to become that? I still struggle with what I actually look like at times, even though I have been at a pretty stable weight for 2 years now. I was talking about that with John yesterday when I dragged him into a consignment shop (hey- my birthday, he had to do whatever I wanted!) I saw some pants, size 8 petite – my size. I almost didn’t try them on because I held them up and thought – “These won’t fit”. They did, though, and it’s hard enough to find 8 petite size, so I got both pairs :mrgreen: I said to John that I wondered how many size 8 pairs of pants do I have to own before I realize that yes, that is the size I wear currently.

I do know that I eat differently than I used to, and maybe that is more of a difference that matters. I eat more veggies (although I still need work in that department). I eat a lot less sugar and refined grains. We eat out less than we used to, and when we do, it isn’t they way we ate before (fried, sauced, and extra large).

(BTW, the irony of me writing the majority of this while at Panera and eating a cupcake is not lost on me….)

The other point in the article that miffed me a little was this:

If you decrease your body mass by 10 percent, you would expect your metabolic rate to decrease by 10 percent, but it actually slows down more than that, by about 11 to 15 percent.”

The reason that it miffs me is that I am finding it to be true. And the fact that I have lost about 40%… 40% of my body weight, what the heck has that done to my metabolism, even though I was never super low calorie. Not to mention just the fact that I am in my 40s now.

Only time will tell, I guess. I plan on being on the winning end of those statistics, though.

Anyhoo – the rain stopped, so we decided on a run after dinner.

Kind of a meat mishmash LOL. Chicken and cube steak just to get a whole serving. After letting that settle, we headed on to the track. Finished up 3 miles in 33:43. Getting a wee bit faster each time. It will take me a while before I get back to sub 30 minutes, though – but that is okay. I’m not in any rush.

Question: If you read that article, how does it make you feel?

Thanks and a little more running

Happy Memorial Day!  A big thank you to all who have served and our going to serve our great country.

I have to work today (not complaining, though, seriously), but it still feels kind of like a holiday, you know?  My gym is closed today, so no strength workout.  That means brekkie a little sooner 😀

After letting breakfast settle, John and I went to the track for a run.  Feeling optimistic here:

I figured I would let my leg be the judge.  For the first mile, I was concerned about even doing 1.5 miles.  My left leg is fatigued.  But, I kept going.  It was strangely smoky out, too.  I think someone was burning brush.  I thought that was slowing John down, because he only passed me a couple times.  It never dawned on me that I might actually be going faster than I did the other day (duh).

After 10 laps, I was actually running okay still, although my leg was tired.  I talked to my body.  Heart said “Doing fine, this is slower than normal cardio anyway”.  Right leg said, “Doing fine, as long as you don’t ask me to carry the load of the left leg.”  Left leg said “Geez, Lori, I am pretty tired, but I will give it my best shot.”  So, I kept going for the final 2 laps.  My gait was starting to look a little funny by the end and I pep talked my way through the last lap with “Come on leg, you can do it!” “Just a little more.” “Don’t give up!”  John said he heard something, but didn’t know what I was saying.  Probably a good thing.

Anyway – I did 3 miles!  In 34:45.  That’s only about 5 minutes off my normal pace, so I couldn’t be more pleased.  I am almost back.  Or like John says, I am in the general vicinity.

Post workout drink:

Got to work and it was busy, surprisingly.  I kind of had that mental expectation that it would be a slow holiday and got a shocker.  Oops!  Does that ever happen to you?

Lunch break!

John made these wheat rolls for the picnic on Saturday and they are perfect for a little egg salad sammie.

And fresh blueberries at a good price.  It’s about picking season!  I can’t wait to get the first 4 pound bucket of blueberries again so I can be in an antioxidant coma with blue teeth soon…..

One thing about living on the main road in town, we don’t have to drive anywhere to see the Memorial Day parade as it comes right in front of our house!  It’s kind of nice. This is the view from our porch:

A bazillion emergency vehicles, which they love to do around here:

And then the little league teams that throw candy:

Very short parade (small town), but cute.  John made lattes when it was over:

and I had a bar:

Regarding what I was saying yesterday, 105 is *not* my goal weight.  I just wanted to clear that up.  That was what I was told it should be when I had lost weight in my 20s.  I was so bummed that I still had 45 pounds to go (when I actually looked pretty good), that it seemed insurmountable.  So I gained more :D.  Now my goal is actually 135, which is quite a bit more reasonable, and truthfully, there really is no reason I shouldn’t shoot for it at 5’2″.  That way I can keep my muscles and my curves (and my food).

Dinner time!  John threw a couple of ears of corn on the grill in the husks.  So good.  I love grilled corn.  It adds a little extra sumthin sumthin to it.

This is how Pixie spent the holiday:

She just barely opened her eye as if to warn me not to disturb her LOL!

Evening snack:

Plus we are going out for a coffee.  😀  I am paying the piper for the run earlier (this is my new favorite saying).  I have no strength in my leg left because I used it all up.  Oooops.  Guess tomorrow will be an easier day.  I’ll recap May and set new June goals tomorrow.

Question:  How did you spend Memorial Day?

Bloggy run day

It’s Sunday and back to work for me… sigh… The weekend goes all too fast.  We headed on down to Saratoga for a different bagel today.

It has such a nice atmosphere inside:

John and I both got the same banana nut bagel today with honey walnut cream cheese!

Got home and worked, worked, worked!  Really busy today (which is good).  Stopped for a quick lunch of a scrambled egg wrap with Laughing Cow and a plum.  These are starting to make a comeback in stores now!

Then I had a little dessert:

Worked a little more and then participated in the blogger run day by doing 3 miles!  It was so beautiful outside – 50 degrees and sunny.  The track was dry, so John came with to walk while I ran and take some action shots.  Still big snow piles everywhere, though:

Nice shot of me running away – don’t I look speedy?

Leave it to my husband to take a picture of my butt.  At least he didn’t zoom in….

Just passin’ by:

I have to admit that I just was not feeling this run at all.  I almost never run in the afternoon anymore, and my calves were complaining, which is really weird, but I think that was probably from biking yesterday.  It was a real slog getting through this.  But I finished!

I needed a pick-me-up after we got back, and this hit the spot!

Mmmmm…. lattelicious.

So an update.  The scale isn’t budging for me on my desire to go for 140, but my snacking has gotten bad again.  I really need to get serious and quit dinking around.  I am actually going to reduce my cardio a little bit, too, which will help with the snacking, I think.  I will have a running FAQ post up this week (I promise!).

Dinner was an old friend I haven’t had for a while – clam strips!  With some brussel sprouts and strawberries.  Tasty.

Done with work for the day and need to make a strength training workout for this week.  Back to lifting – yay! :mrgreen:

I don’t watch the Oscars, but I guess those are on tonight.  The only movie I have seen in theaters in at least a year was The Princess and The Frog.  Can you believe that?  And the movie before that was Batman with Heath Ledger.

Question: Do you watch the Oscars?

Crazy Month in Review

Boy, you sure all want some of that Attune chocolate!  Not that I blame you.  If you haven’t entered yet, get moving :mrgreen:  Sorry for the non-US residents on this one.  I’ll have another giveaway this month that will be for everyone! 😀

This week is a non lifting week, which feels pretty weird.  Makes for short gym sessions, too.  I almost ran outside, but some sidewalks are a little sloppy still – so maybe later this week. We have temps in the mid 30s this week!  Spring is coming, you can just feel it.

Anyway, I did a 5K treadmill run.  The treadmills at my gym have a 5K button, so I thought I would give it a try to see what it was.  Well, it was an incline workout!  What I thought were going to be speed increases were actually incline increases.  There was a 5 minute segment at 3%, which is more steep than I usually do.  I kept my pace at 5.5 mph to challenge myself on that section.  I was sweating a lot when I finished.  I am such a sweater…  even at 3 miles. 😳

Lovely brekkie this morning of custard oat bran.

While this was good, the egg didn’t make these creamy like they do with regular oats.  I forgot how dense and filling oat bran is.  We have an embarrassing amount of oat products on our shelf in the pantry.  I should take a picture of it.

Had one of those frustrating days at work where instructions were not clear, which led to mistakes and time wasting to get things figured out.  The company I work for is not always the most ‘with it.’  Sigh…..

I tried something different for lunch – a corn tortilla!  I like the Smart Carb wraps, but there is something so tasty about the real deal.  I put some laughing cow on it and an egg/egg white mix.

It was really, really good!  You’ll see more of these (the package is big LOL).  Is it me, or is there something funny about this picture??

In looking back at the past month, what a crazy month it has been for me!  I squished a lot into the month:

Went to New Orleans and then on a Cruise!

Dr Oz show

photo shoot

I also learned an awful lot.  I realized that I am normal.  I decided to try to make the scale move again.  It’s just been a crazy time.  I have no idea what is in store for me for March.  I am only hoping for one thing, and that is the sale of my rental house.

Dinner time meant Hughjass salad!  We had cooked chicken in the fridge, which makes meal times so easy.

This is super quick, too.  I just chop the chicken and mix with BBQ sauce.  I don’t need any other dressing that way.  Top onto a big bowl of lettuce and crumble on some feta.  Slivered almonds are a nice touch, but I forgot them 🙂

Didn’t forget these, though! 😀

Made a new protein snack that has some interesting potential.  I mixed some FF ricotta (John bought this) with some protein powder and cinnamon, and it kind of is like a cheesecake filling.

This combo was chocolate PP.  Last night I tried vanilla.  This would probably be quite good spread on a graham cracker or topped with some jam!  Stats are good at any rate.  115 calories and 19 grams of protein!

Good eating day today – yay!

Question: Was February interesting for you in any way?

More thanks and my camera is back!

Hope you are all having a great holiday week so far!  I woke up and noticed the temp was around 40, so I went out for a quick 3.2 mile jog.  I normally do not jog 2 days in a row, but tomorrow will be a rest day in case I run the Turkey Trot on Thursday.  It might rain Thursday, and if so, I will run at my gym.  Odd that my gym was closed on Columbus Day, but will be open for Thursday morning. ❓   Try to figure that one out….

Had a beautiful crepe this morning, only used Aunt Jemimah wheat pancake mix instead of Bisquick.

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Topped (and filled) with blueberry sauce with a tablespoon of ricotta cheese on top.  Yum!

My camera arrived right before lunch.  Olympus is fast!  The camera left my hands last Wednesday, and it is back in my hands today.  Now that is customer service!  (All under warranty, too 😀  )

You know you want to see the macro:

lunch1124

More things I am thankful for:

  • John (did I already say that?? I will again!)
  • That I live in an area with 4 seasons
  • I am so thankful for all of you blog readers, both lurkers and non!
  • That I have the ability to move around every day
  • That I have been able to maintain a 100 pound weight loss for almost a year and a half.

Snack of homemade granola bar:

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Delicious!  Pixie could not care less about the excitement of having my camera back:

Pix1124

She was sleeping next to me while I was working. 🙂  Our nickname (one of many) for her is Pixie Peanut Butter because it looks like someone wiped peanut butter on her nose.

We were having trouble with the router for our internet connection today.  I work via the internet, so that was really frustrating – but I am so thankful (another thankful!) that it was just the router and not the laptop, which is what I thought it was.   Funny how I realized while I couldn’t get on the internet that you can actually use the computer for other things….

For dinner, I had some brussel sprouts with scrambled eggs and feta cheese.  Simple stuff, but delicious!  Plus a little Forelle pear.  Isn’t it the cutest thing?

din1124

For those that don’t know – I work as a medical transcriptionist from home.  That’s why I am working on Thanksgiving.  Even though I don’t work actually in the hospitals, they are open 24/7 – and the medical files for every visit need to be done within 24 hours.   I work Sun – Thurs, so Thanksgiving falls on one of my regular work days (although we get paid extra).  Lucky for me, Christmas and New Years fall on my days off this year!

Agenda for tonight: I will be making my special cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving to bring to dinner.

Question:  Do you have a dish that only you can make for special occasions?

Running for me and beer?

Thanks for you comments on my musings earlier LOL! Back to regularly scheduled programming…..

Woke up too early again today.  It was a little after 6:00 and I went to bed  after 11:30.  I really do better with 7 hours of sleep, so why does my body persist in waking up early?  Anyway, I just got up and had an early start to my day.  Cooked up some protein pancakes.  Since I can’t be tall, I thought I would stack my breakfast high!

cakes1029

Again, dark for breakfast!  Weird….

Worked for an hour and it warmed up to about 45, so it was time to get in a run.  I decided on a ‘me’ run today.  I went out without a watch, and just put on the Sweeney Todd soundtrack and let my body tell me how fast it wanted to go.   I sped up when I felt like it and slowed down when I wanted to.  I did 3.2 miles and felt very refreshed afterwards (and super sweaty).  I spent so much time basically since March having  fairly regimented fitness routines to train for all my events, so it feels good now to relax a little and just enjoy flexing my fitness, so to speak.

In my effort to get the cereal out of the house, I incorporated it into lunch 😀  Yum.  There is cereal under there, I promise!

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Kat asked for a macro of my ring – and here it is:

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This is actually now my wedding band.  John and I had channel set diamond bands that matched.  Both of us have had problems with rings being too loose, especially in colder weather.  John had taken to wearing his ring on his pinky, and low and behold, one day it wasn’t there and we couldn’t find it anywhere.  We retraced as many steps as we could think of in the previous day, but to no avail.  John was actually more upset about it than I was.  I would rather lose a ring than lose him, know what I mean?  Anyway, we had been contemplating new bands, and really wanted one with a celtic knot design.  Couldn’t afford the ones we really liked, though.  On a trip to Colorado to visit John’s folks in early 2008, we shopped at ArtMart in Boulder (which is a cool place) and we saw these rings there.  $20 each!  We both loved them and figured they would be good bands in the interim until we can get some gold ones (maybe for our 15th anniversary).  It’s so funny because we both get so many compliments on these rings than we ever got on our other bands. Go figure.

It’s my weekend starting tonight, so John and I had a little celebration:

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We split this beer – cheers!

weekend

I look so tired in this picture.  Guess that is because I am LOL!  The beer is good.  Hints of pumpkin and spice.  Dinner was a stirfry made with a batata, which is a Mexican sweet potato.  I’ll do a GVE on it tomorrow in detail.  It tastes kind of like a chestnut, but has the texture of a potato.  Kicked it up with some chopped seranno peppers, too.  Bring on the heat! Fun!

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In true weekend decadence fashion, we ate in the living room on the couch with the TV on.  Sometimes it just feels good to be really casual.

I am so happy it’s the weekend!  It feels so great to be free for a couple days.  I am just about done with that soap order.  I’ll finish up the last 2 batches tomorrow.  Then I need to get a couple pumpkins to carve if I can still find some around.

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Pink item of the day!  Only a couple more days in October for this.

I am going to have a relaxing night with my 10 candy corn kernels, some tea, and Project Runway (if I can stay awake for it….).

I am shaking things up with the football dinner and am having John take me out for breakfast instead!  Hopefully we can bike there in the a.m.

Question:  Do you ever eat in front of the TV?

Faster than a speeding bullet

Having a nice quiet moment today. I woke up early, as per usual. Decided to get up and go for a jog. Since today is a holiday, there is no construction outside the house, and the streets are very quiet. Just me and the little birdies out for a run. Gorgeous weather, too – about 55 degrees and sunny. I pushed the jog just a bit, not too much and lowered my time even more: 3 miles in 33:50

Distance: 3 miles
Time: 33:50
Pace: 11:17

Mile 1 – 11:30
Mile 2 – 11:10
Mile 3 – 11:10

I felt like I was pushing a little in the last mile, but I think I actually was flagging and the push kept me on the 2nd mile pace.

On to face a birthday party today! Have a super holiday everyone!