Category Archives: oat bran

Garden time and giant nose

Happy Glorious Friday!  The very last day of winter, too!  I hopped on the bike and went to the gym.  I’ll be glad when the mornings are a little warmer for the ride there 😕

I took it easy on the legs today, since we have a big ride coming up tomorrow:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1
  • Barbell dead lifts:  10 x 45#, 10 x 75#, 8 x 95# 6 x 105#, 4 x 115#
  • Incline dumbbell chest fly: 3 sets of 8 with 20# DBs
  • Cable squat to row: 10 at 60#, 8 at 70#, 6 at 80#
  • Lying dumbbell pullover: 3 sets of 8 at 35#
  • Face pulls:  10 at 30#, 2 sets of 10 at 40#
  • EZ curls:  3 sets of 10 with 35# bar
  • Bent reverse fly: 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs
  • Nosebreakers:  3 sets of 10 with 30# EZ bar
  • Reverse crunches:  3 sets of 15

Biked home and set to making banana oat bran!  My arms were feeling so weak after my workout that I could barely smash up the banana LOL.  Good thing that feeling doesn’t last all day:

40 g oat bran, 1 medium banana, 2 egg whites, cinnamon, topped with jam and almonds.  Perfecto!

Garden time today on my day off!  Spent the morning getting rid of the old.  I leave all this up for winter interest and for whatever snacks the birdies can find in it.

All cleaned up.

Lots more tulips nubbins coming up, too 🙂 I still need to prune 1 rose bush.  Those are hard to me to hack away because I always worry I will take too much off (which is pretty hard).

Came in for some lunch.  I wanted some color!

Baked sweet potato with laughing cow and sauteed broccoli.  And strawberries.

If you think it looks good, you can be rest assured that it was.

Pixie shot of the day.  John dubbed this “The last thing a mouse sees.”

I know a lot of people have gone to FitBloggin’ this weekend.  I so wish I could have gone.  If it was a month later, I would have been there.  Make sure everyone sends updates!  I’m jealous looking at all the people traveling in my google reader….

Snack time!

This latte might have included a shot of Kahlua…. just sayin’….  And there were a couple clementines on the side.

More garden clean up before dinner.  It was 66 degrees and fabulous outside.  Love it!

More colors for dinner:

Today was one of those days where all of my food tasted so good!  Tonight is going out and meeting my folks for a beverage, so I’m hitting publish early and going to be social 😀 .

*Note * Anyone interested in some Amazing Grass – Jessie is doing a giveaway on her blog for some!

Stay tuned for a giveaway on my blog on Monday!

Question:  Do you like blog giveaways?

Beautiful bowl of oatbran and giant feet.

Normally Friday is the start of my weekend, but it was so slow on Sunday that I am picking up some work today.  Not a full day, but just doing bits here and there.  I went for another foggy run this morning.  The temp was perfect – mid 50s.   Dates and nutbutter fuel.  I ate the last of the dates this morning.  Dates are a food I never knew I loved so much!

dates

I decided on a 4 mile go around.   Felt quite good, although the first mile my legs were pretty stiff from yesterday’s workout.  Finished in 43:36.  My standard pace.  I have not been all that motivated to push the tempo that much.  Guess I should have made that my September challenge 😀

Feeling like fall a bit, and John ate the last banana, so I opened up the big can of pumpkin (be warned there may be a lot of pumpkin items coming up!).  This bowl just screams fall and deserves a large photo:

oats_edited1

  • 40 grams of oat bran
  • 1 tsp brown sugar
  • cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin
  • 10 grams craisins
  • 18 white chocolate chips

So good.  Foodgasm.

Oh, and my nice muscular thighs?  Turns out they could be my key to long life!

Picked up Pixie today – so happy to have her home.  I thought her feet looked big before, but they are swollen today and are like clubs!

pix1

Doesn’t this look like some kind of alien being? LOL.  Poor kitty.

Cold mornings, but the days have been warming up beautifully.  I did work outside including mowing the lawn and string trimming.  It was hard to make myself sit inside and do work, so I haven’t done a whole lot.  We were trying to decided whether to bike for yogurt or dinner, and dinner won out!  That meant lattes at home:

mocha

We went the back way around the bike trails, since the pizza place isn’t too far from our house and we wanted a longer ride.  Of course, the back way includes some really long hills.  Good thing I have those big thighs – they help immensely!

Arrived at Arthurs after going 6 miles where I had a side salad:

salad

And the most wonderful pizza.  It’s like a pan pizza, but the dough is not oily at all, soft inside and crispy outside.

za

John and I shared a small cheese with feta.  These pieces look bigger than they are in real life.  I ate my half – I was so hungry from all the exercise today!

On a whim, we biked to visit my parents, as they are only a mile or so from Arthurs.  I didn’t realize I would get way laid by chocolate chip cookies!  Oops.  They were good, though.  😀  Thanks Mom!

Relaxing tonight.  I am a little tired from all the calorie burn today.  We are trying to decide on a hike or a bike ride tomorrow.  Weather is going to be mid to upper 70s and sunny.  Could it be more perfect?  I think not!

September challengers – have a great weekend!  Weekends can be hard, but stick to your plan!

Question:  Favorite pizza?

Go Glamour!

Woke up to cooler weather this morning, so thought I would do a 5 mile run.  My legs are actually a bit stiff from yesterday’s strength workout, and I won’t even talk about my upper body and abs (thank you plank!).

Preworkout snacky:  Mini wheat bagel.

bagel7

My goal was to finish in under 55 minutes. Did 3 miles pretty easy, then realized it wasn’t so cool after all and the sun was out.  Actually, it wasn’t all that hot, but it was still kind of humid.  I took a water stop after 3 miles then proceeded with the last 2.  My time was much faster for the last 2 miles as I pushed it to come in under 55 minutes, as I was not going to make it based on my time after 3 miles.  However, I managed to finish in 54:33!

I was soggy when I got home.  I am getting so tired of having to wash my exercise stuff every day – I need to buy some more things!  I just love jogging in my trisuit, though – best.purchase.ever.

I saw John had some coconut out for his waffles, which gave me an idea for breakfast:

oats1

  • 40 grams oat bran
  • dash of coconut extract
  • small banana
  • 20 dark chocolate chips
  • 2 tsp peanut butter
  • sprinkle of unsweetened, toasted coconut.

Tasterrific!  Those chocolate chips were 1/2 of a serving (which is 1 tablespoon), so about 35 calories.  That is almost 2 calories per chip.  Pretty scary, huh?  Love them, though!

Got right to work.  Lots of files today.  I have to say that I do not like my backup account very much.  The account rules are almost the opposite of my main account, so I have to really slow down to do those files.

Stopped for a yummy lunch:

lunch11

Fried egg sandwich on a toasted Arnold sandwich thin spread with Laughing cow.  Nummy!

Props to Glamour for putting this woman inside their magazine:

Isn’t she fabulous??  This is what real people look like, and it is so refreshing to see someone ‘normal’ grace the pages of a magazine dedicated to glamour!  And how happy does she look?  This photo got such a positive response, that I can only hope that it becomes the norm and not just an attempt at creating a buzz.  I’d almost (maybe) buy the magazine if it didn’t go against my too-much-paper ideals.  Annoyance factor that she is considered plus size….. at size 12.

What we need is for teen magazines to start putting pictures of real women and girls in their issues to help stop eating disorders and body dysmorphia before it starts!

It almost gives me hope.

Back to the food now!  I made the most yummy salad for dinner:

salad2

Grilled chicken with a chopped apple and some feta cheese on a spring mix base.  Dressing was a POM wonderful vinagrette that I have made before.  This was fresh and yummy.  Sort of my home take on a fuji apple salad from Panera.

Football is on tonight!  WooHoo!  I may bake some biscotti and play with a new recipe to hopefully post tomorrow.

Question:  Would you rather see real woman in magazines and on TV, or do you like to escape reality when you read or view the tube?