Category Archives: blueberries

Challenge Day 9 and workouts

Today was a bit of a struggle food-wise. I fueled with a protein drink before hitting the Y.

Ran for about 3.5 miles with pace work and then did one of the bonus workouts from NROLW. This was to show the progress I had made and was supposed to do as many reps as possible with the starting weights from 2 months ago. It would probably have been more dramatic if I had started with no weights LOL!

For today:
Squats with the 25# bar = 30 reps  (finish weight was 110#)
Shoulder press with 15 pound dumbbells = 21 reps  (finish weight was 25# dumbbells)
Wide grip lat pull down at 40# = 25 reps (finish weight was  60#)
Lunges with 20 pound dumbbells = 20 each leg (finish weight was 30# dumbbells)
Swiss ball crunches = 32

I definitely have gotten stronger in the last 2 months. I will post workout B in a couple days after I do that. Then a week off from weights!

Anyway, I was eating well up until dinner, and I just got a snack attack big time while we were cooking dinner. I started munching on wheat thins and then some Kashi cereal. Ugh. Probably an extra 400 calories (so much for the run today). I did stop myself from having a donut though, John wanted to go to Dunkins, which is only a mile from our house. So I walked with him and had a coffee with skim milk and decided against the donut, which I really, really wanted – but certainly did not need. I am fighting that “It’s not fair” feeling today.  Think it is PMS or something.  Ever get those feelings?

I did try something new today:
attune

I had some coupons for these, they are really expensive, so it was certainly a treat.  These are very, very good!   3 grams of fiber and 100 calories, sweet and crunchy.

Plus it had blueberries in it!  I also had some fresh blueberries today:

blueberries

I am a berry girl.  I eat strawberries almost every day – for some reason, upstate NY has berries available at a really good price year round, which is amazing.   Fresh blueberries only come in season in early summer, so I eat as many as I can during that time!  The pint packages are available now, which makes me happy!

No artificial sweetener dieting

Okay, I have to say that it is hard to find products that fit into a lower calorie lifestyle that aren’t full of artificial sweeteners. I don’t like the taste of Splenda, it is very bitter to me, and can only take they tiniest amounts.

For those of you in the same boat, here is a nice pancake topping – where you don’t need fake maple syrup!

1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries
1 tablespoon of cold water
1 teaspoon of cornstarch

Put the blueberries in a small sauce pan and heat on medium until thawed. They should be hot, but not boiling. Too hot and too much juice will be released. In a small bowl, mix the water and cornstarch. Add to the sauce pan and stir until thickened. Use this as a fruit topping for pancakes or waffles.

The blueberries are about 60 calories for the cup and 10 calories for the cornstarch.