Category Archives: blood donation

Bench press tips and football dinner!

Off to the gym this morning. There was frost on the car! I was at the gym a little later than normal by 7:30.  There were only a hand full of people there.  I am liking that a lot.  And nobody really annoying either – bonus!

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell Chest Press 3 sets of 10 with 50# bar Chest
Stiff-legged deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 55# bar Lower body
Seated Cable Lat Row 3 sets of 10 at 50# Back
Decline Sit ups 3 sets of 10 Core
Lying Leg Press 3 sets of 10 at 100# Lower Body
Arnold Press 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Triceps Push Down 3 sets of 10 at 30# Triceps
Standing Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 at 70# Calves

Then a wee bit of treadmill walking before I came home to breakfast!

Lisa had asked me about the bench press and having wobbling happen when using the bar.  Here is a video of me doing the bench press:

I love the bench press with the bar because it is very stable once you get use to it.  When you first switch from using a machine to either dumbbells or the barbell, you will probably have to drop down the weight.  The machine will always do some of the work for you and actually will compensate for your weaker non-dominant side.  When you go to free weights, there will be an adjustment period as the weaker side catches up. This is more noticeable with the barbell than the dumbbells as the arms work in tandem. An empty bar is 45#, so work up to that with dumbbells first – or if your gym has lighter bars, then go for it (although they are usually short bars so you won’t have a rack). When you push, concentrate on keeping the bar even and go slow, which will make your non-dominant side work.

Lunch time included veggie time.

I made an omelet with some ham and laughing cow.  Broccoli on the side because with dinner out, veggies likely not to happen.

After lattes today, we headed out for a blood donation.  They were giving away free tickets to Fright Fest at Great Escape for donors.

Normally I don’t like to talk too much about problems that I have donating because I don’t want to scare anyone out of doing them, but I am finished donating blood.

I had a supervisor do the stick as per usual, but it ended up being a dry stick and pain shot all the way down my arm to my hand. It was a searing pain. She must have hit a nerve. Then she was trying to move the needle and I just told her to take it out.  I couldn’t even get the actual donation done, and then I started crying because it hurt- which I absolutely hate to do in front of strangers (or really to do at all).  I then got an ice pack and settled down (my hands were shaking terribly). I  went to the snack table to wait for John, where I just had water because there were no raisins today.

I have to say that I was fairly traumatized by today.  So, that was it for me.  I have never stopped a donation before, but it just isn’t worth it.  Even for free tickets (which I did still get, BTW).   I don’t have to try to save the whole world.

Anyway, after John finished donating, it was time for my football dinner since I won the picks!  That perked me up so I wasn’t feeling so sorry for myself.  We went to Rock Hill Bakehouse.  They bake all of their own bread and use local meats and other products here.  There aren’t even big corporate drinks there. No Coke or Pepsi products.

I had a grown-up grilled cheese, which is sharp cheddar and smoked mozzarella and pesto on grilled semolina bread.

Served with cracked pepper potato chips.  Man is this sandwich good!  John and I then split a maple walnut biscotti for dessert.  I forgot to take a picture of that.  They are huge biscotti, so you really need to split them LOL.

As you can see, not steering clear of gluten as much this week so far.

Pink item of the day?  My sunglasses!

The Breast Cancer Site

Tonight is Project Runway. We are off to watch that with my mom. We’ll have to kick dad out since he doesn’t like it 😀  Party time!

Question:  What is your TV weakness?

Running and duty calls!

It’s Spring Break around here this week.  Minus the spring, I guess.  Temps of mid to upper 40s and really windy.  At least no rain, though.  I decided to do a walk/run today for the first time in about 6 weeks.  Had breakfast and worked first, though.  I did the 1-minute muffin as a waffle (muffle) topped with peanut flour.

I decided to sprinkle a touch of coconut on there for that extra special Thursday something.

Work somewhat busy in the morning, but then it slowed down. As an aside here, sometimes I am just amazed at people.  Two people recently have had lung cancer and recovered by having lobes of their lungs removed.  And they are still smoking! Still! I know nicotine is addicting, but what does it really take to make you stop? The doctors urged cessation, but both patients declined any of the prescription products stating they were not interested in quitting.  I don’t know about you, but lung cancer would scare the bejeezus out of me.  Okay, sorry about that.

I went out for what was just going to be a  3-mile walk with a bit of running.  Super windy out and about 43 degrees.  So I wore the technical turtleneck.

Yep – I’m stylin’!

After half mile, I started to jog.  Felt fine with the legs and I did probably 1/2 mile of running and I started walking for a little.  Then picked up jogging again.  I am not a person who likes to stop once I start running because it seems harder to get going again.  I would never stop at the drink stations in races for that reason. Just grab and go.  Which meant I wore a lot of the water, but I digress.

I jogged most of the way home. I don’t know my speed as I didn’t note the time when I left, but probably my average of 11-12 minute miles?  I did 1 mile of walking and 2 miles of jogging total.  Everything feels pretty okay today, but tomorrow is when the true story will be told.

Lunch break: I heated up some tomato sauce with a little cream in there and added chopped chicken.  Dang I like that cream/tomato sauce combo!

A little too much sauce, so I had to put it in a bowl so the sauce wouldn’t touch my pear… No food touching allowed!

John and I had appointments to donate blood today, so we made sure to stock up on liquids:

Then it was time to leave a pint behind!

You know I have been having the supervisor do the needle sticks for me lately because of rolling vein problems.  When I got to my cot, I told the tech there I wanted a supervisor to do it because of rolling and scarred veins (sound like a drug addict, don’t I?).  She said “Can I at least just look at it?”  Well, of course she can look at it, but she isn’t touching it.

Me: Sure.

Tech:  I can do this.

Me:  Yes, they all say that.  Then it rolls and a  supervisor has to come fiddle with it.  So I just go to them.  No offense, I just have to feel comfortable.

She was kind of crabby and yelled for a supervisor to come over.  Jerk. Really – my arm is not a challenge for someone to try to do.  It’s not a game.  The only reason I donate with the rolly vein is because a supervisor will do it for me.  Too many times have I gotten the experienced techs totally positive they can do it and then mess it up.  Ever have someone fiddle with a needle once it is in the vein?  Trust me – you just don’t want to go there.

Anyhoo – the supervisor said my vein was a ‘heartbreaker’.  It looks good, but very sneaky.

The stick then was fine and I finished donating with no problem.  Filled up on raisins!

My iron was 13.1 – woohoo!  Oddly, my temperature was elevated at 99.  That was weird and I almost asked to have it retaken.  I know eating coconut oil might raise your metabolism, but really? Self immolation anyone?

John took forever to get finished.  There were all kinds of delays with him. That troublemaker…

Needless to say when we finished up, I was really hungry.  It was dinner time, so I offered to buy dinner.  John suggested pizza, but I wanted a wheat-free option.  Still trying!  So we went to O’Tooles:

It’s kind of a sports bar with all kinds of stuff on the walls and TVs everywhere.

There were plenty of wheat-free options on the menu.  The soup of the day was broccoli cheese (!!!!) and I almost got that, but then thought it might be thickened with a flour roux, so I nixed that idea.  Normally, I don’t eat a lot of meat out in restaurants, but I will at a local restaurant.  Lesser of the corporate evils I guess.  So my choice was the teriyaki chicken with veggies and a tater:

How good does that look?  There were 2 chicken breasts, so I set one aside to take home.  You just might be seeing that tomorrow!  Very tasty.  I was so hungry that I almost thought about eating the other chicken breast, but they were at least 4 ounces each and I knew I just did not need to eat that much.  My ‘full’ sensation does not kick in for quite a while (like an hour).  Sure enough, I sit here now with a pleasantly satisfied tummy and no desire to eat any more chicken.  Mindful eating.

Hooray for iron!

Well, I nixed the gym in the morning.  The amount of snow was not so much the problem, it was the blowing wind.

I knew we had to shovel anyway, so it’s not like there wouldn’t be exercise in there…

I settled in to make a warm breakfast.  Banana custard cream of wheat topped with creamed honey and toasted walnuts.

If you have never tried creamed honey, please do so.  It’s really just honey that is crystallized with super fine crystal and is smooth and velvety.  I am going to try to make my own, I think.  It just takes time and a bit of creamed honey as a starter.

It feels so good to get back to normal eating.  I was eating dinner last night and thought how nice it was to eat my chicken, pears, and brussel sprouts for dinner (yes, I know that seems kinda lame, but I like it).  I ended up not eating a single piece of candy or cookie yesterday.  Not on purpose really, but I think my body had just had enough.  I didn’t even have any honey drizzle on my afternoon latte.  I ended up with a no-added sugar day on accident, so that crosses off 1 goal for the week already!

After breakfast, we went out to shovel.  I bundled up really well because of the wind.  I don’t mind cold too much except when it is windy on top of it.  Meet Nanook of New York:

I actually did some trainer riding as well, just for extra exercise.  After some work and the usual stuff, I was really hungry for lunch.  BBQ chicken sounded good to me, and here it is!

I did feel like a little something sweet today, so I had a white chocolate truffle courtesy of one of my nieces.

Went well with a latte.  Or would have, if I hadn’t finished it first.

The snow stopped and the sun came out, although the wind is just wretched.  We were able to keep our appointment for blood donation. Last one of the year!

I have now gone straight to having a supervisor do the needle stick for me.  I have a very large vein in my arm, but it is a little scarred and rolls a lot, which has caused problems with past donations where they have to fiddle with the needle.  That makes me very uncomfortable (putting it mildly), so I just went straight to the top to have the stick done.  It worked like a charm!  My iron (hemoglobin)  is also really great.  13.4.  Go broccoli!  Not to mention the pot roast we had on Christmas eve probably helped a lot.

I supplemented the iron with raisins after donation.

It was past dinner time when we got home.  I put some clam strips in the toaster oven for us.  I noticed that the nutritional info has these clam strips at containing 70% of the RDA for iron!  Yay!

On a side note about iron and anemia, did you know that your body will store about 2 years’ worth of vitamin B?  That’s why it can take a long time for someone who is a vegetarian/vegan who does not pay attention to their diet enough to become anemic.  Very important to pay attention to that nutrient if you go that route.  Not me, though.  I like my meat.

Evening snack tonight:

Pumpkin ricotta mixture.

I have to work some more tonight, but staying in an snuggled up under a blanket.  Not getting me out again today!

The older I get, the more appealing moving a little more South seems.  Not too far, though, because I like 4 seasons, but it would be nice to have it not quite so cold and windy.

Question:  What iron-rich foods do you like?

Indoor brick and monthly wrap up!

Okay, first – where the h-e-double hockey sticks did September go?  We are getting that tropical rain from Nicole today. That nixed my outdoor brick, so I drove to the gym after eating a Zone bar for fuel.

I did 2 miles on the treadmill, then 10 miles on the stationary bike, then 2 more miles on the treadmill. I was totally soaked by the time I was done. I sweat so much when I work out that it is a little embarrassing. I felt amazing, though. I started to get the high on the 2 mile of the 2nd run. I almost didn’t stop, but I certainly didn’t need to do any more than that LOL! Besides, busy day today.

I had soaked steel cut oats overnight, so they were ready to cook this morning.

Do you love my new bowl? I couldn’t resist 😀 Long-time readers know of my dear love for candy corn, which I have put a rule of none until October (although I did inhale the aroma through the bag a few times while shopping, addict that I am).

Hit the keyboard ground running today with work.  There was a recall on Johnson & Johnson metal hip replacements and my ortho account has had a ton of visits for people who have had these.  Can you imagine? It’s one thing to have a recall of something you can actually bring back to the store, but something surgically implanted??

Lunch munch:

Pretty standard quick fare, but tasty.  My bottle of hot sauce is running low…

So my goals for September (seriously – is it really over already??) were:

  • Team Challenge Ride on September 12. Done and very pleased with it!
  • Concentrate even more on mindful eating.  Not real great with this one. Before meal snacking creeping back in.
  • Do more brick training after the charity ride to get ready for the duathlon in October!  Started doing the bricks.
  • Experiment more with not recording my food every day.   My weight is up a little today, so I think I need to track more again or something.

September was a really busy month.  Birthdays and anniversaries and just lots of things.  I did go down to part time with job #1, so that means I am just working 1 job’s worth of hours.  That is nice.

Snack time:

Larabar and a latte drizzled with some pumpkin spice sauce John made using this recipe:

Tastes like fall!

Afternoon duty calls!  Blood donation time 😀  It was at Great Escape today.

How cool is that?  There were some creepy clowns in costume, and the supervisor had fake blood on his face, which was a little alarming when you are actually donating…

By donating, we got free tickets to Fright Fest this fall (replenishing my iron!):

I have never been to Fright Fest, so I need to think up a costume to wear.  Maybe I should go as Rosie?  I could do the bee again like I did for the Halloween race last year.

Then it was time to go out to dinner.  My mom chose the Irish Times for birthday eats!  I had the beef stew (breaking a local meat rule here, btw):

This was really good.  It actually was a bigger plate than this picture looks like and I brought half home for another meal.

Tomorrow I will post the goals for October.

And happy birthday to my mom!!

Love you, Mom! 😀

Duty calls and a case of the frees

Rest day on tap for me.  That meant sleeping in as much as I could, which really is only about an additional 30 minutes if I am lucky.  I have an internal clock that always pretty much goes off at the same time.

I filtered the cold brew coffee and got out the bread dough from the fridge to rise.  Then made up some Almond Joy cream of wheat!

  • 10 grams of honey
  • 2 egg whites
  • 32 grams of Whole grain cream of wheat
  • 1 tablespoon of dark chocolate chips
  • 1 tablespoon slivered almonds
  • 1 tsp of unsweetened toasted coconut

Cooked the cream of wheat with honey added to the water, stirred in egg whites and did the toppings.  Yum!

Anyone else have these Arby’s glasses with the winter scene on them?  We used to eat at Arby’s a lot!

Then I got to work for Job #1, which was pretty busy.  And watched the Tour.  I don’t know if Andy Shleck has what it takes to beat Contador in the Pyrenees, but I hope so.  Congrats to his yellow jersey today.

Since I was eating early due to no work out, I needed a morning snack because my tummy was grumbly.

One of the only reduced fat cheeses I like.  Cabot brand 50% reduced fat cheddar.  It is quite tasty.

My toaster oven arrived today.

That was fast!  I will do a review on it soon after we do more than just toast in there.  Thank you CSN stores!

<insert lots more typing here>

Lunch time and I was ready to have some fresh baked bread.

It was almost a shame to put tuna salad on this, but boy howdy was this bread good!  From the Healthy Bread in 5 minutes book.

I was able to finish up work early and was FREE for the day.  We had a latte snack before heading out to do our civic duty:

This blood drive was held at the Elk’s Club.  I so wanted to park in this space:

For real? Seriously??

Happy donor post draining:

Happy face because they gave us coupons for FREE ice cream!  1/2 gallon of Friendly’s.  John and I each got a coupon, too.  Sweet.

Plus my post donation snack.  I am liking the raisins.  Go iron!

John asked if I wanted to get dinner out since it was dinner time when we finished donating.  Was I going to say no?  I don’t think so.  He had a coupon for a FREE cheese pizza at one of our favorite places  – East End Eatery.

Started with a bit o’ green:

And then the cheese pizza.

I love John’s hands in the pic.  He could barely wait for me to take a picture LOL.  I had 2 pieces.  I knew one wasn’t going to be enough, so I told myself I could have a 2nd piece, but I didn’t have to eat it all if I was full.  Well – I ate both pieces and felt satisfied and not stuffed, so that was good.

Who knew a plain old Tuesday could end up being so good?

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?

Blood donation day and new things!

Thanks for the comments on my 2009 wrap up post!  Funny how the year looked better on paper than it felt sometimes, know what I mean?

Lots of new goodies to blog about today, but first I must write about my workout!  😀

The gym was pretty crowded this morning (for my gym, anyway).  I think a lot of people must have today off.   Hit the weights today:

  • Chin up:  2 sets of 2
  • Barbell squats:  3 sets of 8 at 85 pounds
  • Widegrip lat pull down:  3 sets of 8 at 60 pounds
  • Pushups:  3 sets of 10
  • Static lunge:  3 sets of 10 with 25 pound plate
  • Prone Cuban snatch:  3 sets of 10 with 10 pound dumbbells.
  • Incline reverse crunch: 3 sets of 10.

I challenged again with 30 second rest periods.  That’s kind of hard, but in a good way.  Then it was 40 minutes walking on the t-mill.  All during the walk, I was thinking about breakfast!  We got a new toy with one of our gift cards:

A waffle maker!  Woo Hoo!  Take that Kellogs and your waffle shortage!  I was dying to try my protein pancake recipe to see how they came out:

Worked pretty well!  I think I am going to try the heat on high to see if I can get them to crisp up a bit.  I am never buying a waffle again, although I do have a few to use up 😉

Snow today.  It was just starting to snow when I left for the gym this morning, and by late morning it looked like this outside:

Sloppy wet stuff.  So, I bundled up for work in the Broncos snuggie my parents got for me for Christmas 😀

Too bad my team stinks this year….  This is my usual work spot, too.  I like it because I can look out the window at the birdfeeder.

Yearly HIPAA training this morning, then break time for lunch, where I tried another new item:

My stocking starfruit!  It turned a nice yellow shade over the last couple days, so it was time to eat.  Served with some tuna salad and FSTG chips:

The starfruit was not really sweet.  It was kind of a cross between a grape and a cucumber.  Quite interesting and quite juicy.  It was a fun food, though.

After more work and a latte snack, it was time for the last blood donation of the year.

It was incredibly crowded.  We were very surprised at the long line waiting.  It actually took almost 2 hours from start to finish, which is double the normal time.  I was pleased that my iron levels were 14.1, again higher than John’s LOL!  Go broccoli!  The tech had a little trouble with my vein, which was annoying because it is very large and visible, but I am pretty sure he was new.  We got a nice t-shirt and I decided on another iron powerhouse for my post donation snack – raisins.

I decided against Lorna Doones today because I got into the Christmas cookies yesterday in a big way.

It was well past dinner time, and I was so hungry, even after the raisins.  I wanted a quick dinner that was warm and came up with a grilled wrap made with chicken, laughing cow cheese, and cranberry sauce – plus the standby broccoli and a clementine.  T’was yummy.

I had to flex hours to donate blood, so I have to get back to work tonight.  Hope the receiver of my blood appreciates that 😆   Picture me in the snuggie again with the laptop and a cup of tea and you’ll have the right image for my evening.

Question:  Do you waffle – be it frozen or homemade?

Blood donation and chilly run.

Woke up this morning and it was again 32 degrees!  I was going to run outside as I don’t like to drive to the gym just to run unless it is precipitating horribly outside.  So, I made some fantabulous oats for breakfast and got right to work:

oats

40 grams of oats, 1 medium banana (part cooked in, a few slices for garnish), blueberry jam, peanut butter.  (Note  it was dark out when I made these, too early).  So freaking good!  Some days food tastes even more amazing, and this was one of them.  Maybe because I was hungry, but not starving like after a workout.

Worked until 10:30 and saw the temp was getting close to 40.  I knew it probably wouldn’t get much warmer, plus we had afternoon stuff scheduled, so here I was contemplating the thought of being cold!

lori1027

….. nice camera……

I am just a wuss, because the cold only lasts about 10 minutes, then I get hot and sweaty when running, even in almost freezing weather!  3.2 miles of sweaty goodness, although I should have snacked before I went out.

Had a fun lunch of Total Blueberry Pomegranate (love this stuff!), lowfat vanilla yogurt and a chopped kiwi.  I have never had kiwi on my yogurt cereal mash before, and I liked it.  😀

lunch1027

After more work, we took a break to donate blood.  It was lickety split because no one was in line, and my veins were really fast today.  I don’t even think it took 1/2 hour from start to finish at the snack table.

My iron was at 15.4  – Broccoli and chicken rock!!  My iron was higher than John’s LOL.

Afterwards,  I had a bottled water and 1 Lorna Doone (my favorite post donation cookie).

dooneDidn’t want the whole pack because we went out for a latte at Cool Beans, where I spotted my pink item:

pink1027

I chose a skim latte and it was tasty.

cb1027

Not too hot, either.  Most times, coffee shops make the lattes hotter than the sun and I burn myself.

Did more work before dinner and then wanted more fall-themed goodness:

dinner1027

Chicken on wheat bread with Cabot reduced fat cheddar topped with cranberry sauce (toasted).  Plus more broccoli – go iron!!

I’ll be working late tonight since I flexed time to donate blood and have coffee.  Plus I have to make more soap.  Busy!  Sitting here snacking on some unpictured cashews while busting out this post.  I admitted them back into the house after being banned for a while and maybe it was too soon.  I’ve eaten too many today.  Think I will put them in the freezer.

PSA:  Don’t forget to donate blood if you are eligible!  It’s a little inconvenient, but you can save up to 3 lives with each donation.  I hope that whomever gets my blood will get a little bit of radiance. 😀

I also found out that it takes 5 days for your body to replace the red blood cells that you donate.  Ooopsss… I have a race on Saturday (weather permitting).  Might be a little slow – or at least that is my excuse and I am sticking with it!

Tomorrow is biking to bagel day, hopefully.  Catch you on the flip side!

Blood donation Day and 4-miler

It was pretty hot and humid this morning, so I decided just to do 4 miles instead of 8 (later this week).  Fueled up with that yummy toast and jam like yesterday.  I could eat 6 pieces of this!  Last of the hazelnut butter.

toast1

I was going to shoot for 10:30 miles and I did that for the first mile.  After that, I was sweating copiously.  The sweat was literally flying off of me (gross!).  I noticed my time slowed considerably to an 11 minute mile for 2 and 3, then I picked up the pace for the last mile and finished in 43:45.  I was totally soaked when I finished.  I definitely do not like running in humidity. Lots of water drinking commenced.

Decided to continue the jam and nut butter combo with some oat bran topped with both of those!  Like a PBJ in a bowl.

oat

Today was blood donation day!  PSA – they are really short on A+ right now.  You can visit the Red Cross site to find a donation happening in your area.

donate

They had an interesting snack available at the snack table:

snack

Raisins!  They had the usual cookies and cheez-its, but I decided on the raisins.  Normally I get Lorna Doones, but the pack size is now up to 6 cookies, which is more than I want.  So, decided on raisins.

Did you know that raisins are high in iron?  1 ounce gives you 8% of your RDA.  Broccoli is also high in iron, and you all know how I eat it pretty much every day.  My hemoglobin test  was 13.9  – how about that?  Yay me!  Higher than John’s.  I need to get him to eat  broccoli  (good luck with that….)

Note the Friendly’s coupon for donating this month.  A free 1/2 gallon of ice cream – d’oh!!

We went out to dinner afterwards to  Panera Bread.  I got the Fuji Apple salad, which has chicken, dried apples, gorgonzola cheese, and pecans.  It is quite good!

salad

The laziest cat in the world trying to stay cool in the window:

pix1

She’s too big to fit in the sill, but she tries!  I am going to imitate her tonight,  as I get to be lazy for donating blood.  Need to catch up my google reader!

Blood donation and kickboxing

Got my blood donation done today. The tech was awesome, I barely felt the needle! She was great!
Wonder which lucky person gets a little bit of radiance?? 😀

And – they had my favorite post-donation snack: Lorna Doones! Yum! It was a good day.

Got a Netflix DVD today called Kickboxing for Dummies. It sounded like fun. The workout was interesting, but a bit complex for my first try – and I was a bit uncoordinated (I don’t know, maybe that isn’t anything new…..). I’ll try it a couple more times. I like the power behind the kickboxing.

I’m excited for tomorrow – my sister is getting some guest passes so my mom and I can join her and the nieces at the Y! We are going to swim, sauna, run and maybe lift a little depending on the time. Then coffee!! Yay – last chance workout on the year!