Category Archives: calzone

What’s blooming and young strings!

Happy weekend! What a fabulous day. It was much cooler this morning biking to the gym, but I’ll take it!
Nice workout today:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff-leg deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 60# bar Lower body
Chin ups 2 sets of 2, 3 sets of 1 Upper body
45 degree Sled Press 3 sets of 10 unweighted (50#) Quads
Dumbbell pullover 3 sets of 10 with 25# DB Back
Rope Crunch 3 sets of 15 at 30# Abs
Barbell chest press 3 sets of 12 with 45# bar Chest
Front Raise 3 sets of 15 with 5# DBs (10# total) Shoulders
Nosebreaker 3 sets of 12 with 25# Bar Triceps

Felt quite good today. The sled press was good because I could focus on pushing with my weak left leg. Then – I got on the treadmill and jogged for 1.5 miles straight – woohoo! And even better, I was able to get the speed up to 5 mph. Maybe I can run that race in a couple weeks. No soreness running, which was good, just fatigue.

Biked home and since I am done with my no sugar experiment today, I sweetened up my cream of wheat with molasses. Is that lame that my first sugar is molasses?

I also popped a couple donut holes that John made while I was at the gym.

He gets up to all kinds of shenanigans when I am out.

Today was spent making soap.  I got another order from my old customer.  I love that because that money is just my spending money for me, and I bought myself something fun that will hopefully be here next week and I am pretty excited!  It’s an early birthday present to me.

I was a little hungry, so I had this:

We are out of dates, so I just had the nut butter on a spoon 😳

Lunch time and you all knew this was coming with sugar back in:

Oh yea!  This BBQ sauce is sweetened with agave, but still off limits for me for the week.

Here’s what’s blooming this week in the garden:

Clematis:

Knockout rose:

Ageratum (floss flower):

I also have some aphids already, so I went and got some native ladybugs to release tonight:

Good organic pest control.  Hopefully it will work!

After some afternoon snackage of latte and chocolate(!!) (I left the camera in the car),  I headed down to see my niece’s 5th grade orchestra play.

They each did a little solo. Logan plays the viola:

They were very cute.  It was a super short concert, too. The other niece enjoyed as well:

Snacks afterwards.  I had a peanut butter cookie, and my sister wanted a picture of whatever blue drink it was she had.  I never did find out what it was.

Since it is Friday night, we went out to dinner tonight.  We biked to East End Eatery.  My favorite dinner companion:

<3

My parents also met us there.  John and I split a calzone.  So good.

Lots o’ cheese, just like I like it!  We were going to go to the library, but found out they closed at 6.  So much for our rockin’ Friday night.

I am off to release those ladybugs and to seek out some snackage after that ride!

Question:  Are you a spoon and nut butter person or always eaten with something?

Last day of the work week for me!  Thursday’s are run days for me.   I snacked on a couple pieces of protein waffles with jam before hitting the gym.  This was a nice snack.  It’s also good to know this recipe does well reheated in the toaster oven.

I ran with a download from jogtunes that was a 45-minute jog with a sprint section.  I did 10 minutes past the podcast and ended up at 5 miles today.  Felt really good.  I am surprised my hammies weren’t sore from the dead lifts yesterday, but I’ll take it!  Also as a side note, Robin from Running Circles Around the Turtle did a running Q&A with me for her blog.

Came home and made some oatbran today.  We got a new protein powder from Puritan Pride.  It’s soy and strawberry flavored.  I avoid sucralose like the plague and it was not on the ingredient list for this powder, and then after I made this bowl, I see that it has acesulfame potassium in it, which is another type of artificial sweetener.  Grrrr….  Tastes way better than Splenda, though, although it made this bowl very sweet to me with only a 1/2 scoop in there.  It has beet powder in it for color, so my oats were a little pink:

Also note that if you make the ricotta/protein powder combo – the soy versus whey makes a huge difference in moisture content.  Here is some made with soy powder.

I actually had to add some water to get this consistency, too.  It almost looks like ice cream, doesn’t it?  Just a heads up.

Regarding all that chocolate from yesterday, almost all of it is up high and out of reach of my hot little hands 😀  Just the bars are in the pantry, which I am okay with (for whatever reason – who knows how my mind really works).  The nuggets are what would be most problematic for me, so they went up last night out of reach:

Lunch time included a fun combo.  I knew we were going out for dinner and I wouldn’t get my broccoli, so I had it with lunch today.  I made an egg/egg white puff in the microwave and put it on a corn tortilla with laughing cow and topped with hot sauce!

Yum.  I love hot sauce.  Those are some peanuts on there.  I was nibbling those while I cooked.

Work went pretty smoothly this afternoon.  Always nice to end on a good note for the week 🙂  Of course, snack time always makes things better.

John doled me out one treasure to eat with it.   Then I realized I didn’t have any fruit with lunch, so I got a kiwi out.

Tart!

Since it is my Friday nights of sorts, we decided to have an inexpensive dinner out.  That means one of our favorite local pizza spots: East End Eatery

We both started with a side salad, which was really small, I have to say.

And then we split a cheese calzone.  Normally we get the pizza wraps, but decided to go for this one.

I usually guesstimate about 500 calories or so for the 1/2 calzone.  It is soo good here.  The staff at this place is really friendly, too.  I am very glad John will split one of these with me, because I could eat a whole one myself, but it would be way too much.

Trying to decide how to spend my night now, either a netflix or just some vegging in front of the TV with my jammies on!

Question: Are you a Splenda lover?

Snack bender

Midweek (my Thursday 🙂  )  Snack last night did not seem to help me get or stay asleep.  I actually was tired when I went to bed a little early and thought I would fall asleep easily, but then my eyes popped open and I was pretty restless.  Got up early to hit the gym.  Happy lady in the locker room  ready to lift!

Today was workout B for January:

  • Chin ups: 2 sets of 2
  • Barbell split squats:  3 sets of 8 at 65 pounds
  • Underhand grip lat pull down:  3 sets of 8 at 60 pounds
  • Step ups:  3 sets of 8 with 30 pound dumbbells (each)
  • Bent over reverse fly:  3 sets of 8 with 10 pound DB
  • Incline dumbbell chest fly:  3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs

Then 40 minutes of walking.  I think I need to try a barbell for the step ups, because I just can’t hold the 30# dumbbells.  My grip gets tired and so do my forearms.

John and I then went for the requisite bagel!  I was different today and got cinnamon raisin with plain cream cheese.

I could tell today was going to be a tough food day after I got back.  It’s the tired/not enough sleep thing.  I decided to protein up for lunch to try to head it off – so I had protein waffles with added protein powder:

Amazing how this same recipe makes 3 smallish pancakes, yet poofs up in the waffle iron to this giant monster!  The extra protein didn’t help.

Then I proceeded to snack in the afternoon on:

  • Balance bar
  • latte
  • 1 christmas cookie (nutmeg log)
  • 2 ramekins of chocolate chip/peanut mixture
  • 1 serving of FSTG chips

Don’t you love it?  😳  I’ll be honest, it’s stress and tiredness.  The house thing is moving along.  I talked with my tenant last night to let him know of the plans.  My rental house will be on the market at the end of the week (YAY!!).    However, with only 1/2 the money coming in for it due to one tenant leaving, it’s going to be tough money-wise until it sells, so that makes me eat.  Okay, that doesn’t *make* me eat, I just do….  I just wish I knew how long it would take.  That’s the control freak in me.  I can’t control how many buyers there are out there or make someone buy it.  I can only send out as many positive vibes as I can 😀  How long can one cross fingers and toes before they get stuck that way?

John’s football dinner was tonight.  Last regular season dinner.  So much for my crazy picks in the hopes I could win! 😀

He chose Arthurs:

It was so warm and cozy in here.  Much warmer than we keep our house set at (66).  I had a salad:

and split a calzone with John.

I love the small pizza joints around here.  So good.  That’s feta cheese in there, btw.

Needless to say I am full right now.  I’ll probably wake up with a food hangover tomorrow.  Is there a cure for that??

Question:  Do you have any insomnia tips?

Black Friday and no shopping here!

I ruminated a little on Jinx’s comment about whether or not I ever let my guard down.  The short answer to that would be no, not ever completely.

I actually ate a good amount of food yesterday.  I did not record the food I ate (except what showed up in picture form 🙂  ).  In fact, I even took off my GoWear fit for the day when I got back from my run. I just wanted to enjoy the day.  With that being said, I have learned some things.  I despise feeling stuffed.  I don’t like it when I am so uncomfortable after eating that I can feel my stomach bulge (something that I could not notice at 250 pounds) or that I wished I hadn’t eaten something.

That last part is so important to me.  I have made it my mission to not feel guilt or remorse over food anymore.  To do that meant to conquer the part of me that would just eat and eat because it was the holidays (or whatever occasion) and the food was there.  I don’t have to eat 5 slices of cranberry bread because 5 slices are available to me.  I don’t believe in deprivation, but I also know that is is okay to *not* want something.  I didn’t have any pumpkin pie last night because I didn’t want any.  I certainly could have had it because it was there, right?  What I really wanted was the cheesecake.  I knew that if I had both the cheesecake and the pumpkin pie, I would have been stuffed.  So, I didn’t have the pie.   I loved everything I ate yesterday (okay, the moose was a little overcooked, but anyway…) I nibbled on the cashews and chocolate pieces probably more than I should, but that happens.

As you all know, enjoying food on a daily basis is important to me to keep the weight off.  That way I don’t feel the need to gorge on particular days of the year, especially since I don’t restrict my calories to the extent that I feel the need to do that.  That is just what works for me.  Everyone is different in how they need to approach these things.

Maybe that is what is meant by everything in moderation?  I don’t know.  That phrase is pretty relative 🙂

Anyhoo, I woke up this morning and thought a nice walk was in order.  It was so foggy that I decided to go to the track for safety sake.  Crazy Black Friday shoppers and all that!  I couldn’t keep from a little running, though.  I did 3 miles and jogged one lap out of each mile.  Nice and easy.

Came back to protein pancakes!

brekkie1127

Full of ‘cleansing oats’ as John said this morning :mrgreen:

John was off today, so it kind of feels like Saturday!  No shopping on Black Friday here.  I don’t like crowds and pretty much avoid the mall from here on out.  I will be participating in Cyber Monday, though!

I won the football picks last week, so it was my choice for a meal out.  I decided that I wanted some pizza for lunch!  We went to East End Eatery, which I lurve!  John and I split a calzone (I so love that he splits meals with me!).  Side salad to start:

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And then the calzone.

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Fresh out of the oven and delicious!

Now is the time to get into the spirit.  Time to put up the Christmas tree!  Pixie wanted to help:

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The rest of the afternoon was spent assembling and decorating!

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I love real trees, but John is allergic – so we have had a fake one for many years.  I would like a nicer one, but the ornaments are the important part!  I think I will showcase one a day via pictures starting in December.

After finishing up, we had lattes and a slice of sweet potato cheesecake.  How thin can you slice cheesecake and still have the slice hold its integrity? This thin 😆  :

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I’ll have to get the link for the cheesecake recipe from John.  This is the real deal, though!  Good thing there isn’t much left.

I realized that yesterday was sorely lacking in fruits and veggies!  I had 1 banana and some cranberry sauce and a few green beans.  Ooops.  So, I decided on another salad for dinner.  2 in 1 day – that is pretty rare!  I had something similar to the other day:

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Turkey (you think??) with BBQ sauce, feta cheese, and sliced almonds on hearts of romaine.  It really tasted so good!

Making more ornaments tonight.  These things take forever!  Staying warm and snug tonight.  Rain is moving in with likely some sloppy snow by morning.  Think I will be going to the gym in the morning to run!

Question:  Black Friday shopper?  And if so, did you score any great deals?

Weigh in day!

Gained 0.2 pounds. So, basically a maintain. Still in the 140s, though! This is going ssssllllooooowwww now.
I lost 4 pounds for the month of June. Went down a whole size, though! Inches changes are much more dramatic at this weight loss pace than they were at 250.

I have just had horrible munchies yesterday and today. I ended up eating foods I hadn’t really planned on. After giving blood today, DH and I stopped for dinner and split a calzone, which I had with a side salad. In the old days, I would have not had a salad and eaten a whole calzone myself! Funny, I still felt hungry after eating that, and I said to myself that I could eat something else if I wanted to after one hour.
An hour and 1/2 later, and I felt not quite hungry, but not satisfied. So we went out for ice cream. Oooops. I had a small, and enjoyed every bite. This place makes their own ice cream, so it was worth it.

I figure it must be PMS or something causing the desire to eat. Or maybe the large amount of exercise I have done this week has something to do with it. Or, maybe it is just the phase of the moon LOL!