Category Archives: only 8 frozen yogurt

No-oodles and sleep masks

Monday already!  John and I lifted our No TV ban last night.  That was 7 days of no TV.  I honestly hardly missed it at all except for in the mornings when it is my habit to turn on the TV after my shower to check the Weather Channel.  Nice to know that if we had to get rid of the TV for whatever reason, I would be fine – just don’t take away my internet! :mrgreen:

I slept in later this morning until 7:30.  I had trouble sleeping last night.  The full moon filtered in and kept me awake.  We are going to do something about the light tonight.

So, I got up and decided to get right to work seeing as we have been so busy, and we still were!  Feast or famine and I will feast as long as possible.

I did break after a bit and made up breakfast.

The pumpkin cake topped with coconut butter and peach jam!  Gosh, I am liking this!  It does make me a little thirsty, though, which I think is from the coconut flour?  Keeps me full!

Lunch break.  I made a different salad today, how about that?  Last night I made up a honey mustard dressing.

I used 2 tablespoons each of mustard, macadamia nut oil, honey, and apple cider vinegar.  Since they are all equal parts, you can make as much as you want.  I added a little bit of salt and pepper, shook it up and let it sit in the fridge overnight.  The flavor was much better today.  About 45 calories per tablespoon.

I had cooked chicken and a chopped hard boiled egg and added the dressing.

Porch lunch!

After doing more work this afternoon, I grabbed a date and then headed out for a bike ride.  I would have gone tonight, but rain was in the forecast.  Catch as catch can.  That seems to be the biking motto this year.

Solo ride for froyo.  Coopers Cave should be called The Place of Too Many Choices.  This is only part of all their flavor choices.  They customize yogurt and soft serve for each person.

I chose to get rum cheesecake topped with toasted coconut!

See the eagle eye I have on my bike in the background.

So good!

I then booked it home.  Total miles – 15.1.  Average speed:  13 mph.  Calories burned 464 (buh-bye yogurt, and then some).

Then it was back to work until dinner time.  Pixie always steals my seat when I leave.

I just always have to get at that tummy with my hands when she rolls over like this. Too tempting.

I decided to give another psuedo noodle a try for dinner.  No-oodles.

Long-time readers my remember my dislike of the shiratake noodles.  However, these are made with yam flour (aka glucomanan).

The noodles had somewhat an odor in the bag, but not as strongly obnoxious as the shiratake ones.  I made a cream cheese sauce with

  • 2 tablespoons of neufchatel cream cheese
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of milk (1%)
  • salt and pepper

Quick and easy sauce that was, too!  I tossed the sauce with some steamed broccoli, cooked shrimp and the no-oodles.

Looks pretty good, no?

I did like the sauce.  The noodles?  Okay, but still with that odd texture like gummy bears or something. They don’t have the toothsome-ness of pasta.  No way around that.  I doubt I will purchase them again, but they weren’t bad.

This was a lot of food and I wasn’t hungry for my planned pear, so I am saving that for tonight’s snack.

I did sneak out on a mission for Operation Sleep to KMart and found this!

A sleep mask! I just never thought to look in the froofy bath section for these.  And it is bamboo and earth friendly to help me sleep even better 😉  $3.99 is much cheaper than buying new light blocking window coverings.  Now we will just see if my tossing and turning self can keep this on overnight.

Operation Sleep continues…

What’s blooming and lovin’ the leftovers.

Woke up to a chilly, but beautiful sunny morning. It was almost 40, so I knew I would bike to the gym today!

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Cable Squat to row 3 sets of 10 at 60# Full body
Bent lateral raise 3 set of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Back
Pushups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Planks 3 sets of 70 second holds Core
Calf raise 3 sets of 12 at 110# Calves
Low Back Extension 3 sets of 12 at 80# Low Back
Cable Triceps pull down 3 sets of 15 at 30# Triceps
Arnold Press 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Hammer curls 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) Biceps

Good workout today.  Still a little cold on the way home and I was ready for some coffee and steel cut oats that I soaked overnight.

I used 1/3 of a banana mashed into the cooking water, then I sliced the rest and sauteed in a little butter and cinnamon.  You must do this.  So very good!  Plus a drizzle of coconut butter on top.  I was a super happy camper eating this morning :mrgreen:

Just a wonderful gorgeous day today.  We even had to mow the lawn for the first time.

That’s pretty much all of our lawn right there.  Only a strip down the side of the house.  It takes 10 minutes to mow.

Lunch was some leftover souffle with a pear.

So good.  I told John I want souffles all the time now.

Pixie just doesn’t know what she is missing with not eating people food.

She looks like she cares, right?

Work slowed up, so I went out to take some pictures of this week’s tulips.  These are some kind of apricot ones.  I really need to write down the names of the ones I get LOL.

The pretty inside:

I have 2 groupings of this color:

There are a bunch more buds on the other tulips as well.  I thought I had planted some daffodils, but maybe the squirrels got them.

Then John and I took a ride for some frozen yogurt!

I didn’t even need to put on my hat today after taking off my helmet.  Lucky me.

It was fairly windy out today.  Guess that is what is pushing in the warmer air.  16 miles of biking today!

Tonight’s dinner was more leftovers.  I have to say that I am about ready for some meat!  John made a shrimp poboy for dinner and I really wanted one.  Instead, I cooked up a yukon gold potato and put some of the palak chole over it.

Pretty good.  Getting a good carb load for a longer ride tomorrow.  We need to build a better base before increasing mileage.  We jumped from 45 to 66 miles and that was a bit much.  Tomorrow will be in the 40 to 50 mile range.

Sunday is bagel day with my mom for Mother’s Day! See you on the flip side of the weekend!

Question: Are you a leftover lover?

Playing hooky for some froyo

Friday! I know a couple people who took advantage of the sun coming out today!  But first, there was the necessary stuff.

Decided to take it easy on the legs for strength workout today.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff Legged Deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 65# Lower body
Seated Calf raise 3 sets of 12 at 140# Calves
Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 12 at 45# Chest
Bent dumbell row 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Back
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Core
Upright Row 3 sets of 10 at 30# Shoulders
Lower Back Extension 3 sets of 12 at 80# Low Back

Then it was to home and a wonderful bowl of banana custard oats!  I soaked the oats per the Sally Fallon method

Makes such a soft and fluffy bowl with soaking. Topped with almond butter and orange marmalade.

Well, I did not escape yesterday’s run unscathed. My knee is fine, but my left thigh is really, really sore. Just the top quad muscle. It’s like I had a heavy duty lifting workout with soreness, only just in one part of my thigh. It feels uncomfortable and weak. I am not sure why running seems to have regressed for me.  I was okay through the fall, but then over the winter it began to cause me problems.  It’s a little depressing, I have to say.  I don’t know if more running will work that weakness out or if I should just give it up all together.

I wanted a circular lunch today.  Okay, not really, but it turned out that way. John made protein muffins, which I toasted up.

Of course, then I realize he made these with wheat flour.  Ugh – it is hard to remember not eat wheat outside of my bagels!  Needless to say, this month’s challenge has been challenging.

Did some more work and we decided to take advantage of mid 50s and sun and go for a bike ride.  Playing hooky!  We decided to take our first trip to Lake George.  That is about 30 miles round trip.  Normally we do this on a weekend and have lunch there, but decided to just go there, turn around, and hit yogurt on the way back.

The path to Lake George is hilly!  Steep hills. Phew.  We stopped at mile 11.5 after reaching the top of the hill we call ‘the bitch.’  Cause it is. It’s long and then takes a steep upturn at the very end.  Made it up okay, though!  Fuel –

The top of this hill is  a pedestrian/bike overpass – kind of looks like a cage.

Turns out the day was a little breezy, which made the descent really cold!  I had 2 jackets on and was still chilly.

Reached the lake after 15 miles.

I love the off season because the lake is quiet and peaceful with just a few people walking around.  Much different from the summer.

The turn around gives us a 2 mile upward climb on the way back.  That is tough.  My thighs were burning a little bit.  I knew our reward was coming, though!

Mile 24:

Even though it was cold, we were going to have yogurt, darn it!  I had angel food cake flavor with raspberry sauce.

I loved this, but I was shivering by the end of eating it.  Mid 50s is okay, except when it is windy.  My teeth were chattering!

My biker buddy:

Then we finished out the ride:

Total miles: 30.3

Time: 2:39

Calories burned: 887

It felt good, although my left thigh just was kind of tired.  Overall good hill condition for April, though.  It won’t take long to build that up, if I can ever get outside and ride more.

Remember that chicken from last night’s dinner?  It made its appearance at tonight’s dinner in the form of salad.

Topped with pepper bacon and parmesan pepper dressing.  I love bacon on salads.  We cooked bacon in the waffle iron, too.

I’ll be snacking tonight, but not going overboard.  I made a promise to myself that I would eat well this weekend.  Also going to do some stretching!

Happy Earth Day!

Solo Froyo Ride!

I woke up with a frozen yogurt hankering this morning.  I was hoping the weather would at least be cooperative.  I got up and brewed up some coffee and started work early in anticipation of taking a break in the afternoon for a ride!

Breakfast consisted of peanut flour waffles with the blueberry sauce/coconut butter.

I know you all missed the blueberries the last few days. 😉

Confession – I did not shower until much later in the day. I worked in my jammies all morning because one of my favorite doctors uploaded all his files.  He is very easy to transcribe and I can get a lot of files done in a short amount of time (more $$), so I just sat there and typed my little fingers off!  Yay!

I finished his files up about lunch time, so I made up some chicken salad/salad.  This was 1/2 of a granny smith apple, 10 grams of toasted pecans, 2.5 ounces of grilled chicken, and 28 g (2 Tbsp) of light mayo.  Normally I put curry powder in this, but I forgot.  Oh well.

Half  a bag of butter lettuce and I made like a bunny and ate it.

Temps hit around 60 today.  Not like yesterday’s high, but good enough for a ride and sweaty enough for a bit of froyo!  I decided to take the path and see if it was all clear of snow.

Quite clear!  And not boggy at all, which I expected.

Mr. Mallard checking out the canal.

I went past the yogurt place a little and turned back around so that I could get in 15 complete miles by the time I got home.

I had a pistachio Only8 yogurt topped with coconut!

Yummers.

It was actually pretty windy and I was cold by the time I finished this.  Most of the wind was in my face on the way home, so that was a good workout.

This is cinder path and one of the several reasons why I purchased a hybrid bike rather than a road bike last year.

I like biking.  My hair is getting long, too!  John likes the little curl up at the bottom, which I don’t.

I arrived home happy after 15 miles.  It felt great.  Just a little slow, but I am pleased at where my legs are this early in the season.  Totally worth having to work a bit into the evening.  One of the reasons I like my job is the flexibility.

Dinner time was brussel sprouts, scrambled eggs, and socca bread with laughing cow.

Socca is a chickpea flour bread that is easy to do and I really liked it.

I will post the recipe later in the week.

Tonight is finishing up the work and then a trip to the liberry!

Oh, and on the macaroon front?  I told myself I could have one if I wanted.  I broke a piece off of one and that was all I wanted.  Interesting.

Bikes and classic cars

It’s long ride day!  I was up early and came down to make brekkie.  It was 47 degrees out when I got up.  Can you believe that?  That’s what mountain area does.  It did warm up to 80 degrees, though.

I put on a big pot of coffee and made some banana custard steel cut oats that I had soaked overnight:

Missing from this pic is the drool I wiped off my mouth!  This bowl was tasty.  I need to figure out something to do for long ride days, though, as John sleeps a couple hours later than I do, so I eat too early.  Maybe I should have just a small snack and then a bigger breakfast later.

I puttered around in the garden and got stuff ready for the ride.   We decided to pack a lunch today to save a little money and then just spend on a couple snacks.

Fabulously gorgeous day!  It seems every single Saturday has been nice this summer.

15 miles later and we ended up at the lake:

The sky was so clear and the water was so blue.  Nature is the most amazing thing.  The classic car show was going on today.  Always something happening during tourist season.

Delorean – made out of stainless steel.

A Triumph with wooden dashboard panel and a beautiful cranberry color:

Old school mini Cooper:

And a pic for my dad, even though I don’t think he  reads my blog – a Road Runner:

We ate lunch in the park, which consisted of chicken salad and a piece of the bread I made yesterday.

Nice view of the lake:

Hmmmm…. closer look.  Is this man naked?  You be the judge:

We didn’t go around to find out.  Back on the bikes and we continued northwest to Warrensburg.  First time up this way and there was a long slow climb of probably 4 miles.  I was dripping sweat, but didn’t have to stop at all.  Warrensburg is a small town, but cute.

We stopped in at Willow Bistro because we had a BOGO coupon.

It’s very tiny and cute inside.  I would love to open a place like this.   I had a latte and a scone:

Hooray for carbs!

This was around 22 miles or so.  We then headed back the way we came, which was nice going down that 4 mile hill!  Except for the headwind.

We kept going in a really large loop.  At mile 38, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up some ibuprofen since John was getting a headache.  Perfect time for some coconut water!

Nice tip – we froze these overnight  so they would thaw out during the ride.  They were slushy and delicious!!

I was really feeling good at this point.  I wanted some yogurt, though!  We biked off to Cooper’s Cave, which we reached at the 46 mile point:

We parked our bikes next to a Trek and a Giant.  With John’s  Specialized and my Fuji, it was a pricey rack full of the who’s who of biking.

I got something special!  A Mexican sundae with yogurt, which is peanut butter sauce and chocolate fudge on top.  With whipped cream (no cherry as I don’t eat cherries ever).

It. was. so. good.  I jumped around a little after the first bite because it made me so happy.  I think my body really wanted the glucose rush from it.  I was going to get ice cream, but I decided since I had the scone earlier, I would get yogurt.

Then we biked the last bit home.

Ride Stats:

52.9 miles (may as well say 53)

Ride time (not including stops) 4:12

Avg speed 12.6 mph

Top speed 27.5 😯

Calories burned:  1625

Either I am getting used to the seat fast or the anti-chafing gel is amazing because no problems and I know I have another 10 miles in me for the charity ride in 2 weeks.  Of course, I won’t have the breaks like I do on our rides LOL!  I was saying to John at how I was feeling lazy biking today.  Like 53 miles is being lazy!  This was quite a hilly ride.  Good practice for the duathlon in October, and I have no idea what the course is for the charity ride!

The day is almost over.  I get one day a week where I don’t work and it goes by so fast.  I feel so fortunate to be able to spend the day with my best friend doing something I love and eating some good food!

Burgers and bikes

Thanks for all your thoughts on my comparison post yesterday.  In reading the “Savor” book, I realize that there is nothing necessarily wrong with me having those feelings, and acknowledging that they are there doesn’t mean they are true.  The nice thing about acknowledging that is that I don’t feel driven to eat out of feelings.  I actually have to say that I have really not had any snacking disasters for a few weeks now.  My snack habit energy is waning right now.

Anyway, I got up a little before 7.  I was trying to decide if I wanted to run or not today.  I decided I wanted breakfast, instead!  I haven’t had waffles in a while 😀

So good.  I wonder how the protein waffles would be with greek yogurt instead of cottage cheese?  Hmmm….. possible experiment some time.

I got to work right away and worked steadily all day long.  Quite the productive day, I have to say.  I took a lunch break and wanted something fast.

Greek yogurt, strawberries and Kashi Berry Crunch (aka crack on steroids).  I had a sample of this months ago and was so glad the entire box wasn’t in the house.  When we were shopping the other day, John pointed out that cereal and I told how wonderful and good the sample was.  Guess I somehow managed to not give him any of it…..  Anyway, he said I sold him on it, so we got some with the caveat that it go up high as soon as we got home.   I wanted some with lunch, though.

Afternoon latte was paired  with a couple cookies from the Silk & Satin swag bag.

These are very nibbleable (yay for new words!).  The box is in the freezer, but they don’t take long to thaw.  The rest must leave to John’s poker buddies tonight.

Last file of the day was exhausting.  It was a 33 minute dictation!  I don’t know who was more tired at the end, me or the doctor.  It took almost an hour and half to do this one with some breaks.  Phew!  I was glad to be done, but felt quite exhausted.

Dinner was a 3 oz burger topped with laughing cow and some caramelized onions on a small wheat bun.  Country Kitchen lite – only 80 calories and no sucralose!

Those are some of the tiny plums we got at the farmer’s market, too.   They are so good and fun to eat.

Take that Red Robin!

I needed to get out of the house for a while tonight and decided to bike instead of run.  So, Rosie and I decided on an easy yogurt run!  The path is full and green with all the rain we have had this year.

These parts of the path are one reason I hesitate to get a real road bike.  They are a crushed cinder, and I don’t know if road tires would be a good thing to take on them.

Yay for yogurt!

I chose creme de menthe tonight.  Minty and frosty.

I think the blue from my shirt is reflecting onto the yogurt, because it was green LOL!  Very tasty.  I can imagine this with hot fudge on it some time.  Would need a lot longer ride for that, though!

Gonna do some porch sitting and relaxing tonight.  I heard the first  dog day cicadas the other day.  The sign that summer is peaking and going to head for fall!

Question:  Have you heard katydids or cicadas yet?

Quiet day and a much better ride.

Sunday and back to work again.  The weather has quieted down.  Since my chain was not working well and we had to go grocery shopping, we just drove to breakfast.  Back to Panera Bread for bagels!  We need more than 2 bagel places around here within an 8-mile radius.

Blueberry with reduced fat cream cheese

and 3 cups of coffee 😀

We then got all nicely stocked up on groceries.  Lots of fruit.  Strawberries, kiwis, bananas, dates, blueberries, apples, pears.  I we eat a lot of fruit during the week.

Work was slow today, so I ended getting more things done than anticipated.  I scrubbed my bike off and degreased and regreased the chain, and did general cleaning around the house.

Lunch break was chicken with laughing cow and some pan sauteed sweet potato slices.  Good that way.

Plus yummy blueberries!  I need to call the local farm and see if it is picking time yet….

With still no work available, I went out for a leisurely bike ride for 1.5 hours.

Much, much better ride than the craptacularness that was yesterday.  See how happy I am after arriving at the yogurt place?

I had some lemon yogurt with raspberry topping.

This combo was good, but I was expecting a more tart lemon, like sorbet.

See all the choices of flavors to choose from?  It’s almost too much.

Nice ride today.  14 miles round trip.  Active recovery day for me!

Still no work in the late afternoon.  We have to keep checking in every couple of hours when there are no files, just to make sure any stat reports get finished.  So, that is annoying because I don’t earn any money….

I decided to take that time and make an Indian dish for dinner called Palak Chole.  It is a spinach, tomato, and chick pea dish that was really easy to make, healthy and turns out to be vegan as well.  I will put a recipe page up with that hopefully tomorrow.

Yum!  I had mine with 1/2 of a Lavash bread.  Nothing like combining cuisines, right?  If someone had said to me 4 years ago that  I would be eating a dish that combined chick peas, spinach, and tomatoes and liking it, I would have said “Ick, no way!!”.  Oh what I have missed.

Got more weeding done tonight.  Doing good on controlling them this year so far.  Tonight’s snack:

Kashi!

And:

Summertime = berry time!  Yay!

Come bike with me!

Happy Monday! This is the last day of my 4-day weekend, sigh.   There were a lot of great comments on yesterday’s post, so click here if you haven’t read it.  Guess we just never know until time passes whether the weight will stay off.  I think the important thing is to not become complacent.

Anyway, no gym for me today because I wanted to ride!  Not going to strength train on a heavy riding day.  I fueled up with some protein pancakes and cafe au lait.

I added 1 tsp of coconut oil to the batter to help slow down the digestion on this meal a little bit.  Then I showered and got ready to ride.  On days of a long ride, here is what I do.  First thing when I get up, I drink 2 big glasses of water.  First thing before I do anything else.  That way my body will rehydrate what it needs and get rid of the rest before I hit the trails.  Then I eat a good breakfast and let that settle for a while.  Sometimes I will have a snack if the ride is a little later in the morning, like I did today  – which was a homemade granola bar.

I rode solo today, so there are some very important things that get packed into my bike bags:

Tire repair items.  This includes the wrench if I need to remove the back tire, the tire lifters on the left (forget the real name of these, but they wedge the tire out), a spare tube, and a CO2 cartridge and nozzle.  These things are always in my front bag.

My back bag contains these items:

Okay, the helmet goes on my head, but these include sunscreen, a bottle of hand sanitizer, pain reliever, phone (very important when going alone), 2 water bottles, one of which is in my bottle cage, and a map (because I was taking a new route).

Also extremely important:

Not necessary things I bring include snacks, my camera, a brush, and a cap.

Today’s ride was to Lake George, but I went a different route, which was mostly off the path:

I was a little nervous, as the shoulder was kind of narrow for a chunk of the ride, but there was not much traffic.  I went this way to add miles onto the trip while going to the lake and because we thought it would be more flat (not).   Had a snack after mile 15:

I moved away from that trailer there as it had horse poo in it and was fragrant 😡  It was the only pull off spot, though, because of a guard rail.  This trail went up the lake on the non tourist side, so I got to see some beautiful houses and the accompanying views that they have:

Sigh… gotta start buying lottery tickets!

Reached the village after 21 miles.

Beautiful day, although there was a pretty stiff head wind, which you can see with the waves.  Americade is just getting started, which is a motorcycle haven.  I had forgotten about it.

I was the only thing on 2 wheels not powered by an engine.  Lake George gets really loud during Americade.

I had lunch of a half sandwich and a vegan tomato soup which tasted like a rich marinara sauce.  So good!

Plus a packed granola bar:

The view from my table:

(see the wind?).  After lunch, I looked at some of the landscaping:

Aliums in bloom:

Then I decided to head home, as there was some thought of rain in the forecast for later in the afternoon.  I decided to take the path back instead of the way I came.   It was like the Emerald City.

Isn’t that crazy green?  Took a breather after 30 miles:

34 miles done.  Okay, who didn’t see this coming?

This was Angel food cake yogurt topped with raspberries.  Swooooonnnn!  I almost fell out of my chair it was so good.  Surprisingly, I did not finish this.  That has never happened before, but it seemed like a bigger portion than normal and my lunch actually stuck pretty well.

After that rest, I headed home.  Is it possible to have a love affair with a pair of shoes?

If so, I am having one with my clip shoes.  I adore them.

Ride stats:

Total miles:  40.1

Top speed:  25.7 mph

Avg speed:  11.4 mph

Ride time: 3:40  hours  (not including breaks)

Calories burned:  1180

I felt great after this ride.  Not really that tired, even though the hills themselves were tiring.  No walking up any hill today!  Woo Hoo!

I munched some cashews while dinner cooked:

John grilled some chicken and caramelized some onions for dinner, so I decided to spread some laughing cow on top of the chicken and top with the onions.

So freaking good.  These were vidalia onions, too.  I wonder if I would like plain old onions caramelized or not.

What a great way to cap off my extended weekend.  Back to the grind tomorrow, though.  At least until I win that lottery 😀

Cupcake snack calling my name right now……

Brick in training

I am glad you all like the lifting move of the week.  It’s fun to do and keeps the blog from getting boring, you know?

Today is a scheduled run day for me, but I decided not to do it in the morning because it looked like it was threatening rain and I didn’t want to go to the gym and treadmill it.  So, it was breakfast time!  I was concerned that the day would start off bad because of this:

(mmmm…. waffle runoff…..)

But they turned out fine.  Protein waffles with the yummy banana/maple syrup topping (recipe).

I started work early.  Excited to finish up early to start my 4-day weekend.  Yay!  Busy, too.  Busy days go by fast, though!  Soon enough, it was time for lunch.  This was supposed to be an egg sandwich, but the bread John made got moldy (that’s what happens with homemade sometimes).  So I had the egg/laughing cow/hot sauce by itself:

This new bottle of hot sauce has one of those tiny shaker holes on it.  Not gonna work for me, so I just unscrewed the lid and poured.

John has been the foodie king lately.  He made up some of what he calls chocolate chip protein power cookies, which uses brown rice protein powder in them.  I’ll see if I can’t get the recipe from him.  They were pretty good –

Especially with my latte 😀

I finished up work and decided to go out for the run.  It was cloudy the entire day except for the 1/2 hour I was outside and running.  I was so incredibly sweaty because of the sun and humidity.  Nothing like running at 4:30 pm, right?  My leg did pretty well, although my knee had a sharp pain around 2.5 miles and I thought I would have to stop, but it subsided into a bit of an ache so I finished out 3 miles.  That was weird.  Felt stronger, though.  No galloping run this time, so the 5K race next week will be a go.

I decided to flex my post run power a little since I was wearing my trisuit to run in:

Loose skin on the bottom, nice bicep on top!  Flexing actually helps pull up the loose skin.  Wish I could go around all Arnold all the time LOL!  John said he was married to a lifting geek…..

Cooked up some BBQ shrimp for dinner.  Need a trip to the smokehouse – we are out of chicken!!

Had a babybel with it (that white thing) because the shrimp was only 2.5 oz and we ran out of that, too.

Sweet tooth satisfaction:

Homemade chocolate fluff.

I decided I wanted to start my weekend off with a library trip, and John said he would meet me for yogurt afterwards, but then I decided to bike instead of drive!  A pseudo brick in the making!  I have to say that I was pretty tired, though.  I could feel my right leg pulling the clips of my shoes more.  That’s how you get lopsided thighs :mrgreen:

I picked up this book, and had some pistachio frozen yogurt.

Total bike time: 13 miles.  Put the run and the bike a little closer together and it would have been an official brick.  I can’t wait for the duathlon this fall!  Burned a lot of calories today and ate okay, too (little snacky).  Weekend has officially started – woohoo!!

Have a few nice flowers for the Friday blooming series tomorrow!

Making the food pretty.

Slice of Life Giveaway ends on Friday at noon!

Last day of my work week.  Yay!  I woke up a little too early today, and went down to make coffee only to find we didn’t have enough!  So I was on the porch at 7 am roasting coffee in my jammies.  John forgets to tell me sometimes when we are really low (or he tells me and I forget).

I decided on some pancakes today!  Just for something different.  Even though they are the protein ones I usually have.

Doesn’t this picture look extra good?

Topped with more Wymans.  I swear I should get a kickback from them.  I would love to tour their farm some time.

Got right to work.  With medical transcriptionist week, my company also has been doing little medical knowledge quizzes and stuff, and I have entered a few.  Well – my name got drawn out of a hat to win a $25 Visa gift card.  Yay!  It’s my lucky week 😀  So, I shouldn’t complain too much about the elephant.

Lunch time consisted of a little parfait.  The usual greek yogurt, strawberries, all-bran, and honey – only I layered it up.  I thought it would look really pretty in my glass bowl.

I also had a couple dates with nut butter because I hadn’t had much fat yet for the day.

Speaking of nut butter, I got the nicest surprise from Susan in the mail today:

More nut butter!  She made this maple pecan peanut butter and sent me some.  Notice the finger swipe in the container.  Cannot resist… it’s futile.

Thank you Susan!  I do hope to meet you for coffee and a bagel some time 😀

Afternoon latte after I finished up work for the week.

Yippee!  Can you tell I am happy it’s my weekend?  One thing that has happened since I started blogging my eats is that I take time to make the food look nice.  It’s such a habit now and it really does make the meal seem so much more enjoyable that way.  We do eat with our eyes first.

I went out into the garden and found a home for my new babies that came from Bluestone Perennials.

Astilbe and some more rudbeckia.  Hopefully they will take and bloom!

Dinner time was courtesy of Buitoni. I received a coupon for free pasta through the FoodBuzz Tastemaker program.

Whole wheat!  John whipped up some homemade marinara sauce.  He likes his chunky, but I pureed mine.  Not sure why, but I like smooth sauce.

This was 1/2 a serving of pasta, as it was a little hefty in calories for me.  320 for a whole portion.  I do love cheese ravioli.  This was quite good, too.  The ravioli were on the smaller side, so the portion looks bigger because of that.  You could tell it was whole wheat pasta, but still pretty tender.

It was so warm today that we decided on a post dinner yogurt ride.  Safety first:

We decided to go for 15 miles.  That is what I like to think of as a maintenance ride to keep the bike legs.  I needed a good ride anyway to gear up (harhar) for Saturday’s planned big ride.  My leg hurts today more than usual.  I don’t know if it was running the other day or if it would just be doing this anyway, but it’s really annoying today.  Can this thing be done with already? 🙄

My yogurt:

Tiramisu cheesecake flavor.  I nixed a topping tonight because I need to reign it in a little bit looking over the blog recently.  Tasty.  Time to relax!

Question:  Do you plate your food nicely?