Category Archives: chinese food

Good and bad foods

Still in cool morning weather mode.  It was in the 50s when we got up this morning to bike to breakfast, so that meant pants and a jacket!  It was sunny though.  Here is the temp when we arrived to breakfast.

True Adirondack day with cold morning and warming up to about 80 in the afternoon.

I had my delicious bagel.  I honestly don’t think I could ever go grain-free forever.  And I really don’t want to.  I actually eat much less wheat than I used to and I definitely notice a difference when I don’t eat it, but I enjoy all aspects of food.  I am just not so regimented that I could deny myself of any one type of food forever (except mushrooms and olives – I will gladly never eat those).

Maybe part of that comes from not viewing any food as inherently good or bad.  Certainly there are foods that are a better choice nutritionally than others, but a slice of chocolate cake in and of itself isn’t bad.  Food doesn’t have morality – it just is. Once you put food in those categories, how do you feel about yourself if you eat a ‘bad’ food?  My guess is bad.  Then why bother eating it if it going to make you feel bad about yourself?  That’s how you get stuck in that diet mentality trap or the all-or-nothing trap.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed that little side train there.  😀

My lunch:  Greek yogurt with blueberries and shredded gluten wheat with some honey.

Tasty.  I don’t regard the lunch as any different than breakfast, either.  Nutritionally different, yes, but not as far as whether or not I should be eating  either one.

Another thing I look forward to?

John made my latte today and it is extra fluffy.  He has the magic touch.  This picture makes my hair look really short, but I am growing out the layers and they are tucked behind my ears.

At the end of the day, we thought about biking to the Wednesday Take A Bite.  It runs through the end of the month.  Then we just decided to walk up the street to pick up some Chinese food for dinner.  I do like Chinese food, but I get sodium bloat for days normally.  Solution?  Steamed broccoli and shrimp!

This order comes with 12 really large shrimp.  I had 6 in this bowl (probably 4 ounces of shrimp). I don’t know how they season them before steaming, but they are tasty.  I actually think they might be breaded shrimp that goes into the steamer and whatever seasoning is on the breading stays on the shrimp.  Whatever it is, I love it!  I went back for seconds on the broccoli.  I have enough of my dish leftover for a meal tomorrow, too.  Plus there is enough rice to feed all of upstate New York.  I had to measure out 1/2 cup of rice or I would just plop a huge amount in a bowl with a little butter and salt and go to town 😀

We watched the Tour of Colorado on TV

Go cycling!

Then I had my fortune cookie.

Love this:

Funny thing?  John got the same fortune!

Riding and family fun!

Another gorgeous Saturday in the Adirondacks!  After such a bad winter and crappy spring, this summer had more than made up for that with some wonderful weekend weather.  John and I decided to head to the lake today.  We had ice cream on our minds as it was going to be in the mid 80s, so we packed lunches and headed out.

It’s still so green along the path:

This picture is just to the left from this shot, which is 10 miles into the ride:

We arrived at mile 15 to our destination. Lake George was bumping on Saturday.  There was some sort of craft show going on.

We browsed around a little bit and then sat down for lunch.

I packed up some pineapple, a coconut biscuit, and some peanut butter.  I ended up not eating the cheese.

My lunch buddy:

We walked around in the bright sunshine.

Parasails were out today.

This would be a little scary for me.  You are tethered to a boat, but still scary.  We were going to have ice cream in Lake George, but we weren’t quite ready yet, so we decided to go ahead and ride back and stop at Cooper’s Cave at mile 25.

I was going to get ice cream, but then I decided I wanted toppings instead and got a mexican sundae, which is peanut butter sauce and chocolate fudge – a fabulous sweet/salty combo:

I had that over top of chocolate frozen yogurt.  I was so hot and sweaty.  I told John that the yogurt or ice cream just tastes so much better when we are active before getting it.  I think because my body is ready for the carb hit, plus how cool it feels going down.  I was loving this sundae!

I was so sweaty.  I always have a hat in my bike bag because it is scary when I take my helmet off. Even my forearms get a sheen of sweat on them.  Ewwww. I had to put sunscreen on 3 times in 3 hours.

While at ice cream, I texted my sister and decided to invade our parents’ house for dinner.  Don’t you love how we invite ourselves over?  With the offer of bringing takeout.  Once that was settled, John and I continued our ride.  We just decided to knock out another 13 miles and call it a day.

Ride stats:

Total miles: 38.5

Ride time:  2 hours 52 minutes

Average speed:  13.3 mph

Top speed: 29.1

Calories burned: 1251

A nice ride.  It was so hot, though, and humid.

After cleanup, John and I picked up Chinese for dinner.  I was worried being grain free about what I could eat, but found an awesome dish.  I got steamed shrimp with broccoli and carrots.  They make this without any sauce, so I didn’t have to worry about cornstarch or anything.  Or the sodium, although after this ride it wouldn’t really have hurt me to eat it.

I think they must have seasoned the water or something because these were not bland at all!  I would get this again and again.  I had another plate just like the one above.   I started to put a little brown sauce on there, but then left it off.  I wasn’t sure what was in it.

After dinner my dad  got the fire going:

Time for roasting.

This is such a nice back yard, isn’t it?

Who has the bigger mouth?

I think I win by a long shot.  After I ate 3 marshmallows, I realized they were probably made with corn syrup, so I had a small slip up with no grains there.  No biggie – it wasn’t intentional.

What a wonderful day.  Good ride, good food and family!

66 Miles to China

Another weekend just zoomed by!  There was some gardening, some listening to music, some bagels, and oh yes – a bike ride!

We decided on a longer ride, but with shorter breaks.  The plan was to go after an early lunch.  I started out the day with a big bowl of banana custard oats:

John mapped out our ride.  Here is the elevation map:

The first 2 “bumps” are to Lake George and back around.  Since the plan was for 65 miles, I wanted to front load my calories for the day as I have trouble getting in enough calories during the ride.  Shortly before the ride, I had some chicken.  Preride calories were around 800 total with breakfast.

We set out on the path:

At mile 15, we arrived to Lake George.  The lake was very high from all the rain and snow melt:

Normally you would see the legs on these piers.  We had our first snack here:

Me and my best friend:

Stores were sprucing up getting ready for the season.  John said you could just feel the lake getting ready for the tourists.

We didn’t stay long.  Just to snack and make a potty stop!  We then left and headed back up the long hill and to Saratoga.  We had a nice tail wind on the way down there and make quite good time.  Normally the wind comes from the other direction.  We stopped for another snack at mile 32:

Pear Power!  Legs were feeling good, although my quads were kind of achy, which was weird.  What a gorgeous day, too.  Mid 60s.  If  not for the wind, I don’t think a day could have been more perfect for riding.

At mile 42, we reached Saratoga.  Of course, you know what that means!

Cupcake Lab!  Normally we have lunch and then cupcakes, but we ate lunch before leaving.  I have to say that the granola bar and the pear were just barely enough to get us through 40 miles, even after eating lunch just before leaving.  Still learning about how to fuel before and during these really long rides.  I was ready for a big carb hit!  I had 2 cupcakes.  One was Saratoga Whiteout, which was a chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache filling and white buttercream icing.

With some coffee:

Thank goodness for hats.  No one wants to see my helmet head!

The second cupcake was a Mocha Espresso, which was a coffee flavored cupcake with chocolate bits in it. Buttercream frosting, which may have had a coffee flavor to it as well, but I can’t remember right now.

The pistachio cupcake is my very favorite, but I think this one edged out the raspberry to become #2.  Yum!

After a nice break here, we filled up water bottles and headed back home.  This became a tough leg.  The wind was stiff and in our faces.  Normally we make up a lot of time on the way home because it usually is at our backs.  Our average speed on the way down to Saratoga was 12.6 mph for the first 42.  It fell to 12.2 by the time we finished the last 24 miles!

Stop for my favorite beverage at the top of a hill at  mile 54:

I got my second wind right here.  I knew there would be no problem for the last 12 miles after this.  I sing to myself a lot when riding.  Maybe that helps.  I sing things like “Just keep peddling” and “You can do it”.  And then I was singing “I want to ride my bicycle” by Queen! :mrgreen:

We took one last break at about mile 62. Just to stop from the wind.  It was really brutal. Especially when we got to some open flats.  That was the least enjoyable thing about this ride.  I actually got wind burn on my face.  I finished up my coconut water here, but I had no appetite at all – and I really should have if you think of the calories burned and what I took in.  These long rides suppress my appetite like crazy.

Then we did the last 4.5 miles home!

Ride stats:

Total miles: 66.6 – more than a metric century!

Ride time: 5 hours 35 minutes (not counting breaks)

Average speed 12.2 mph (darn wind).

Top speed:  26.2 mph (wheeee!!!)

Calories burned: 1997  (wow!)

This is what I look like after riding 66 miles.

Now for something you just never see on this blog.  After cleaning up, we decided that a really long ride day was a good day to do this for dinner:

Unassuming sign, but we think this is the best Chinese buffet in town.
I had a lot of calories to take in.  I figured I had consumed about maybe 1700 calories for the day – (guestimating about 250 calories for each cupcake), and with burning almost 2000 on top of a normal daily burn, I had to eat.  I still wasn’t that hungry until I took a bite of food and then my stomach woke up!

Lots of seafood on this buffet, which is really nice.  I had another plate, too!

Crab rangoons are my favorites!  I also stole broccoli out of the chicken and broccoli for both plates. Probably not kosher, but I wanted it.

Okay – I do need some help with my fortune, though.  What the heck does this mean??

I feel like I am missing the fortune that came in front of this one to make any sense of it. LOL!

All in all a great day!

Comfort zone challenges and big broccoli

Happy Thursday and the start of my weekend!  I managed to consume a fair amount of dark chocolate chips last night.   🙄 It was one of those evenings where I couldn’t seem to make myself stop.  So, I got up for a treadmill run today.  I ate a toasted waffle with a bit of jam on it before heading to the gym.  Then it was 5 miles!  I decided to have a little fun (??)  and push out of my comfort zone a bit.

Mile 1:  Gradual increase from 4 to 5 mph.

Mile 2: Upped to 5.5 mph.

Mile 3:  At 3.5 miles, I started increasing the speed on the treadmill by .1 after each minute, so that I was up to 6 mph by mile 4.

Mile 4:  Spent 1/2 a mile at 6 mph and then did the same trick to increase by .1 after each minute to get to 6.5 mph by mile 5.

Mile 5:  Here was my challenge.  I stayed at 6.5 for a couple minutes to get comfortable, then increased by .1 each minute to 7mph!  I stayed at 7 mph for 1 minute and then backed down to 6 mph and finished out the mile.  Then cool down.

Funny how when you go at 7 mph and back down to 6, it seems so much easier.  This made the time go by really fast, too.

Since we got cheated out of bagels yesterday (thanks mother nature!), we decided to go this morning!  I picked John up and had my multigrain.  Sure makes it feel like Wednesday to me.

bagel1210

Had a hard time staying focused at work.  Ever have days like that?  Just kind of blah and knowing it’s my last work day of the week.  Plus, my sister’s elderly cat passed away today and I feel very bad for her.

Wanted something comforting for lunch, so I decided on protein pancakes.  Topped with mashed banana and a tablespoon of maple syrup.

PC100009

Sure was good….  I love nice filling lunches.  Lunch always seems to be the meal that doesn’t stick with my very long.  Not sure why that is.

John won football picks *again* this week (stupid Ravens!!! 👿  ) and he decided on Chinese.  We went to an inexpensive little takeout place that has brown rice.  What else do you do when waiting for your food?  Take pictures!

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Love the neon lighting :mrgreen:

Now this is a bowl of broccoli I could get seriously into!

broc1210

My meal was teryaki chicken.  Hello sodium bloat! It was actually a little m’eh.

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My stirfry last night was much better.  Sometimes I love eating out and other times I am very disappointed.

Ornament of the day:

grinch

Mr Grinch! I love this ornament.  Of course, it is my favorite Christmas special, too 😀

I am so glad it is my weekend!

Question:  When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone?

Biking and chinese food

Phew – I am feeling a little overwhelmed and busy lately!

A couple people commented about not seeing my triathlon videos – so here is the link to the post of the recap!

I did really well last night and didn’t eat any carrot cake that was for Mom and niece Devon:

cakeI just had tea and snacked on cantaloupe and grapes.  Thanks for providing those, Mom!!  😀

I was going to do a brick today, but decided I just need a long nonstop bike ride to the tune of 15 miles.  My duathalon is a 16 mile ride, so I need to keep doing the full 15 instead of breaking it into biking to breakfast/coffee, eating, and biking back home 😀

This was along the same road we did Saturday, although not the really hilly part.  It was a long and lonely road today since I was by myself.

road

Pretty durn cold, too!  It was 40 degrees and cloudy – plus a stiff wind. Check out this flag:

flag

At least the wind was blowing at my back on the way home.  Took me 1:21 to do the ride.

I had a Zone bar preride, which was good.  They just seem to last me a good while, so even though I want to cut them out of my life, it doesn’t seem too bad to have them in there.  I just have to not snack on them, but use them for a purpose.

I couldn’t decide what to have for breakfast and finally decided on warm and filling protein pancakes!  My Winney Farm blueberries are gone already, so it’s back to Wyman’s (which I also love).

breakfast

These were so warm and good in my tummy after a cold ride.  Plus coffee.  And speaking of coffee –  Hooray for caffeine!  Here is an article on some benefits of caffeine from one of my favorite blogs: Workout911

Spent a good portion of today training on a new account.  It’s nice to know they think highly enough of me to keep adding accounts, and it means that I should always have a steady flow of work.  Productivity does go down when learning, though.

Have you tried Attune bars?

attune

These are so good!  90 calories and full of probiotics and antioxidants.  Found in the refrigerated section. A little spendy, but I had a coupon 😛

Check out the chunks of raspberries in this:

attune2

So, John won the football picks this week, so that meant I had to take him out to dinner.  He wanted Chinese, so we hit up a place that has steamed brown rice available!  Isn’t that great?  Hope more places follow suit.  I broke one of my rules of not eating corporate meat because I needed protein.  I chose the beef and broccoli bowl with brown rice.

chinese I tried to eyeball about 1/2 cup of brown rice.  There was easily 1.5 cups in the bottom of this bowl.  It was pretty good!

We were going to bike there, but it started to sprinkle.  John still wanted to get a run in this evening, so I decided to join him for a bit.  We went to the track and he ran 3 miles while I did a run/walk combo.  If only my duathlon could be spread out like that with the bike in the morning and run at night!  It was weird running in the dark, though.

Question: When do you like to do your exercise?

Run, new workouts, Chinese food

Well, last night we went out to a Chinese buffet for dinner. We have not eaten at a buffet in probably at least a year. I can’t believe it has been that long. I had kind of been wanting to go Chinese for a month or so, so when John suggested it, I was game.

This buffet was quite good, and there were a lot of healthy selections. I did eat some fried things, but only had one crab rangoon – which are usually my big downfall. Ate mostly unfried meat with some noodles, and a couple interesting breaded seafood things. Avoided the rice and picked some broccoli out of one of the dishes to make sure I got some veggies. Then I had a bit of ice cream for dessert. Not a horrible amount of food, but really much more than I am accustomed to eating. The scale showed the dreaded sodium effect this morning, though LOL! Probably take me all week to get rid of it.

It was really a nice day here, cold but sunny – so a perfect day to get out for a run. I went 4 miles today at a steady pace with one sprint section in there after the 3rd mile. I am still waffling about doing a 1/2 marathon. That’s a long time to be running. I’ll probably try a 10K to see what happens. I officially signed up for a Turkey Trot on Tday morning, so I am committed weather bad or not! Could be pretty cold at 8:30 am.

Tomorrow starts my new lifting program. I am kind of excited, I really love the weights. I need to get some more for myself, so I need to check one of those used sports equipment stores and see what’s available.

On a good note, I did stop at a consignment shop yesterday. Got 3 pairs of pants to try on, 2 size 8 and 1 size 10. The 10s were way too big (yay!!), one size 8 was too small, and the other size 8 was just right. And they were only $4.50. Gotta love a bargain!

Chinese food meltdown

So, I’m eating good on plan today, did my 3 mile jog and my strength training. Went to my parents’ house tonight, they wanted chinese food. I haven’t had chinese food in probably 6 months or so. I ordered steamed dumplings, thinking they were veggie – but they were meat filled. I ended up having some lo mein and sesame chicken as well. I did manage to avoid the rice, but I don’t even know if that could be considered a victory at all. Chinese food isn’t portioned, so that is very difficult for me. I am not an intuitive eater, and when given multiple portions to eat from, I tend to eat too much.

I then had 2 mini poppyseed muffins. There does seem to be some stress at my folks’ house when I go there, especially with all the boxes around and just general stuff.
So, I am not really pleased with myself at the moment.

We have a 30 mile bike ride planned to Lake George and back tomorrow, so I will work off the dinner. I must find some better way to eat when I visit my parents now that they only live 3-4 miles away now.