Category Archives: treadmills

Under the sea! AKA shrimp for dinner

** Don’t forget to enter the Attune giveaway **

Tuesday run day!  Since I did 3 miles yesterday, I did 5 today (usually 6).  Pretty standard treadmill run.  I was checking my Daily Mile log and I have run 152 miles since January 1st! 😯   And I don’t consider myself a runner first.  Interesting….  My legs felt pretty good.  Normally they are a little tired on Tuesdays after a Monday lifting session, but no lifting this week.  Can I say that I miss it already?  I need to get that lifting FAQ post going, if I can get some extra time…

After the run, I decided on waffles for breakfast!  You know how I love them.

Got started right away with work and I had a little help for a good share of the morning.

Sometimes she is so durn cute.

Cereal has come back into the house in the form of Kashi Go Lean.  I am okay so far with it (of course, I just opened the box).  Here it is mixed with plain greek yogurt, cinnamon, and strawberries.  Yum!

Actually, this Kashi hurts my gums a little bit because it is so crunchy.

I worked on a lot of endocrinology reports today.  That means a lot of patients with diabetes.  I still can’t get over how many medications some people have to take – as many as 12 different kinds in a day.  How do you keep that straight?  Unfortunately, it seems as though many patients just won’t change their diet.  Some do and the results can be quite amazing.  The right food and exercise can really be the best medicine you can take.

Afternoon deliciousness!

I sucked this one down in a hurry, and had a couple of these:

(recycled picture alert!)

Seafood for dinner.  I wanted more protein and a lower carb dinner, so that meant a non-veggie source.  Of course, the chicken was still frozen, but then I remembered the shrimp in the freezer.  That takes just a couple minutes to thaw.  3 ounces = 20 grams of protein! I sauteed broccoli in coconut oil, then added the shrimp, some slivered almonds, and BBQ sauce!

With a pear on the side dusted with cinnamon.  It’s funny how I am not a fish lover, but I loves me some seafood!  Crab is my favorite (especially the claw), then scallops.  I have to confess that I like my shrimp breaded best.  😀  Does shrimp have Omega 3?  I guess I should look that up.

The best part of my day?  Going out for coffee with my hubby!  John and I went out to Starbies for some caffeine and chit chatting.  It’s like date night 😳

Question: What is your favorite seafood?

Maude’s and miles

I loved the things all of you would say to your past selves!  Thanks for the comments on my photos, too.  There is always mixed feeling of shame and embarrassment in putting those up there. …

Saturday morning and out to breakfast!  We took my folks out as a thank you for when we were on the cruise and they watched Pixie and the house for us.  They have not been to Maude’s kitchen, so that is where we took them.  I love Maude’s!

I had my usual cheese omelet!

It was weird eating here before working out, as we have only come here on a gym workout day.  I actually was showered 😀

John got a short stack of blueberry pancakes.  Fluffy white things, so good, but dense.

He could only eat half of these.

I thought these shakers were pretty cute.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

We then spent some time at their house looking at photo albums and laughing at my mullet in highschool from the 80s.   😯  Needed to let breakfast digest for a couple hours before hitting the gym for my run!

I have never been to the gym on a Saturday afternoon.  It was full of preeners :mrgreen:

Busted out 6 miles today:

I would not recommend a breakfast like the above on a longer run day.  I was getting a little bit of heartburn, which is really rare for me.

Segue to this FAQ:

I was wondering what you have to eat pre-workout? This is just me, and it has taken a lot of playing around to find my comfort level of food for workouts.  I exercise pretty much exclusively in the mornings because my work day starts at 10 am, and I don’t always know what time I will finish.  On run days, I eat a bigger snack – usually around 150 to 200 calories prior to going to the gym.  This is either accomplished with a bar of some sort (balance or Luna) or 1/2 a bagel/toast with PB.  Yogurt smoothies are also really good.  On days where I don’t run, but do lifting, I tend to eat about 100 calories of dates with nut butter.  If I have eaten a heavy dinner or had a late snack where I go to bed full, I won’t always eat a pre-workout snack on my lighter days.  I have not found that much difference if I eat or not at those times.  Otherwise, the snack gives me the energy I need to get through a longer workout.

If I exercise later in the day, I don’t bother eating a pre-workout snack as I have been already eating during the daytime.

After my run, I came home and had a snack:

Then a shower and some game playing:

I do like video games, but don’t get to play them as much as I used to!

And John made me this (yes, it is on the floor…):

It’s been a lazy day 😀  and I love it!  It’s also been a really weird eating day.  I never really ate lunch because of the big breakfast, but had a few snacks. I am craving carbs like crazy (yesterday, too).  I think it is PMS, but irregardless, I am giving my body what it is wanting today.  So, I kind of felt like oats for dinner!

Isn’t that weird?  But it totally hit the spot.  I would rather give in to the cravings sometimes rather than eat way more calories trying to eat my way around it if I can’t get satisfied.  Know what I mean?

Question:  Do you give your body what it craves or do you work around it?

5-miler and blood donation

Happy Thursday and the last day of my work week!  Yay!  I *finally* will get 2 whole days off in a row.  I need it.  Headed off to do my run at the gym.  I put on some music from the jog tunes indie podcast and just used that to do my different speedwork with.  That was fun.  I normally use this outside to help me keep a pace.  It’s easy to do on the treadmill 😀   I did 5 good miles today and it felt great!  I am surprised my body wasn’t a little more sore from the shoveling yesterday.  A little in the back, but not bad.  John said he had “shovel back” today.  Shhhh… don’t tell anyone, but he needs to be lifting weights….

I had a little trouble deciding on a breakfast today as I just wanted to eat!  I wanted blueberries, though, so that meant protein waffles!

I am randomly going to answer some of the FAQs over the next few days:

As a NWOL4W veteran, how did you track your progress? Did you update charts each lifting day? Are there any aps for this?

I tracked my progress using the charts at the website.  I just printed out the forms and used those.  It was kind of neat to see how I progressed over time.  I brought those sheets with my to the gym and recorded my weight tallies as I did them. I don’t know as there are any apps for something like that.  Go NROLW!!!

For lunch I was wanting something kind of sweet, for whatever reason.  I decided to make a PB and nana wrap using a Smart Carb tortilla with 1 tbsp of PB and half a banana, plus a drizzle of chocolate sauce.  I then pan grilled it.  It was quite good, although a bit messy.

After more work, it was time to do one of my civic duties!  Blood donation.

There was no line today, which was nice.  I think the weather scared people away, although it was just raining.   I was pleased that my iron was good (hematocrit) at 13.1.  My blood pressure was also pretty good at 118/68.  A little higher than normal for me, but it goes up a bit for donations because I get a bit nervous.  Travel safe to your new home, little blood cells….

After donating, I restocked that iron with raisins!

I so wanted one of the cookie packs, but they were the really caloric kind – to the tune of 300 calories for 1 pack!  Probably full of trans fats, too.  Ah well, the raisins were good.

Dinner time and I felt like some shrimps 😀  We had extra in the freezer from our Mardi Gras dinner, so I cooked some up.  Mmmmm…. pressed and formed shrimplets.

I love how using smaller dinner plates makes it look like a huge amount of food.  We are on the 3rd pound of strawberries we bought on Sunday already.  Guess that is why John calls me a fruit Hoover.  🙂

Working later tonight as I had to flex hours to donate blood (better be getting some good karma back, I tell you).  Then it will be time for the weekend!

Snack time – one of my favorite combos is dark chocolate chips and something salty crunchy – like these whole grain Wheat Thins.

There is some chocolate under there!

Question: What snack texture/taste do you like? Crunchy, smooth, sweet, salty?

Cruising food plans

Another busy day on tap here at casa java!  I got some more great sleep.  I’ll do a more informative post on the 5HTP hopefully this week.  Think it is doing me some good!  Today was a run day.  One thing about my job in transcription is that there is sometimes medical information given that I find applicable to my daily life!  One doctor was treating a patient for a stress fracture caused by treadmill running.  The doctor said that treadmill running can cause a stress fracture in your foot bones because your stride never changes and the repetitive motion can cause the fracture.  So, a good reason for intervals or changing up the speed on the hamster wheel!  So that’s what I did today.  I did 4 miles (on my taper plan this week) in 44 minutes with speed intervals during miles 3 and 4.  It really felt great!  It went by so fast only doing 4 miles instead of 6 (did I really say ‘only’???).  Even John commented that I got back early from the gym.  😀

I was ready for waffles!  This will be the last of the protein waffles this week as there isn’t enough cottage cheese to make any more.

Doesn’t today look much better than yesterday?

It’s amazing what a little sun does for mood!

Lunch was a BBQ chicken pizza made on a Joseph’s pita bread.  I used BBQ sauce, cooked chicken breast and a little mozzarella and popped it in the toaster oven:

Served with an unpictured kiwi.  Yum!

John is sitting on a jury this week, so I have been entertaining myself during breaks from work.  Tried to get Pixie involved in picture taking with me:

She wasn’t all that interested….. 10 pics later and I finally captured a decent one:

So regarding the cruise/vacation eating plan.  We are getting into New Orleans on Saturday late afternoon, and our boat leaves on Monday after lunch.  I will say that all bets are off for the short time in New Orleans.  The food there is fabulous and we are going to take advantage of that.  There will be pictures of beignets, chargrilled oysters, probably some pralines.  It’s really hard to go wrong there.

The cruise itself is another matter.  One thing about cruise lines is that there is always food available.  24 hours a day.  Did you know this ship has a complimentary sushi bar?  😯  Not to mention complimentary room service.  Some people rave about ship food, but I found it to be a little institutional, if you know what I mean.  Not that it is bad at all, though. They are cooking for 2000 people, so that is some bulk cooking!  It’s not really gourmet food.  It’s probably better than most people are used to, and there is plenty of it.   The sit down dining room meal portions were actually ‘normal’ size portions, and I think that is due to  the fact that they have to feed so many people and it isn’t cost effective to serve portions that won’t get eaten.  More restaurants should take note of that…..

Our ship (Carnival) also has an a la carte area to eat on the Lido deck, and that is where we ate the majority of our meals last cruise and what we plan to do on this one.  We are very informal and getting dressed up for meals with a server bringing food is not high on our list.  I would rather get a casual meal and sit on the deck and look out over the water.  There are actually plenty of healthy choices available if I choose to make them.  I am going to try and eat what I would normally eat during the day, and a couple special dinners.  Plus the chocolate buffet 😀 .  Gotta partake in that.  There will be plenty of exercise to be had on the ship.  There is a workout room, or the outside track to run on (which is my choice).

The only variable here is the port of call places.  We are stopping in Cozumel and Progreso.  I don’t know what type of food is available there, and I certainly want to sample local cuisine.

The bottom line is that this cruise is not about the food.  It’s about relaxing and enjoying time with my hubby.  I am going to indulge some, but not overdo it.  Yes, there may be some weight gain, but I am very okay with that.

So, let’s see how well I actually stick to that plan, shall we??

Dinner tonight was an omelet stuffed with a Laughing Cow wedge.  Why have I not tried this before?  It was sooo good!

That’s the last of the strawberries this week!

I am off to my rental house to do the last few things like hang closet doors and replace some baseboard.  2 open houses this week.

Question:  When you vacation do you eat whatever or try to have a plan?

The colors of food

Finished up my work week! Yes!  Now it’s relaxing time.  Sort of.  Lots to do this weekend.  Don’t forget to enter the book giveaway if you haven’t!

Started off the morning with a good run.  While I truly miss my biking since it is winter, I am actually enjoying just concentrating on running.  Over the summer and fall I was doing NROLW, and training for a triathlon and duathlon, so I couldn’t focus on just one thing.  So this has been fun.  I did my speedwork yesterday, so today I put on something from jogtunes and went to town (or rather went on the hamster wheel…).  I varied the speed a little according to the music, but pretty much averaged 5.5 to 5.7 mph.  I did 6 miles today.  It really felt good.  I’m not sure if the runner’s high is real or not, maybe it is just feeling good running that far LOL!  Put me in a really good mood all day long.

Came home and had some steel cut oats cooked with a nana, and topped with those itty bitty mini chips.  I love how 1 serving looks like a billion chips (hello bulk eater).

Plus some delicious cafe au lait:

Everything was so hot.  I was practically dancing around waiting for it to be cool enough to eat or drink 😯

One of the reasons I love  working from home is because I get to work like this:

At least I was showered and dressed, though :mrgreen:

Lunch was a hughjass salad with bbq chicken and feta cheese.  I am addicted to this mixture.  This picture doesn’t even show how big the bowl of salad mix was.  Probably 3 cups or more.

This is such a pretty and colorful lunch.  I used the 50/50 spring salad mix from Salad Express.  Gotta love salad in a bag!

Had an interesting phone conference today.  It involves the blog, so I hope some good things come out of it.   Only time will tell.

Afternoon caffeinated necessity:

Breezed through the afternoon of work.  I won the football picks this week, and almost thought about dinner out tonight, but I am leaning more towards breakfast or possibly lunch!  Go me!  😀  So instead, I kind of wanted some extra carbs (6 mile run will do that, I guess…).  I wanted a sweet potato, laughing cow,and some brussel sprouts, but also needed protein.  I decided on some lentils.  The idea was to put everything on the potato, but it was too small to hold the sprouts.  Ooops!

The lighting isn’t great, but the plate was very colorful while I was eating it 😀  I love laughing cow on a sweet potato!  Who knew.  Funny thing during dinner.  John was kind of looking at my plate a little funny.  He then said that this plate was representative of how much I have changed.  Almost like we were in an alternate reality LOL!  Tastes really can change.

Think I might go out and buy some new walking shoes with a gift certificate I got from work (Christmas bonus).  Mine are pretty  much the worse for wear and I need something to walk around N’awlins and during the cruise!

Question:  What is one thing that you ate now that you would never have imagined you would eat?

Cold and cruising thoughts.

If you haven’t checked out my post on how I named my blog, click here!  Thank you for your comments!  I have the best readers 😉

Bitter cold this morning.  One of those days where the stairs crack and pop on the porch  😯   I headed out to the gym for my run.  The plan was to do 5 miles, but I was not feeling it today.  I think it was likely the blood donation yesterday.  I slogged through 2 miles and had the speed at 5.5 mph.  Normally I get a first wave of tired after 1.5 miles and then after 2 I’m okay.  Today didn’t feel good.  I normally increase the speed after 2 miles, but my heartrate was 160 at 5.5 mph!  I knew something was up there and decided no speed work and no faster.  I stopped after 4 miles, choosing to listen to my body say it just needed to quit there.  Still 4 miles, though 😀

Came home freezing cold just from going from the gym to home.  Wind chills of below 0 today.  Ugh.  I made a toasty warm bowl of banana cream of wheat topped with almond butter and jam.

One thing about cream of wheat and oat bran is that they hold heat like the dickens!  John said we should insulate our house in cream of wheat, which I am sure the mice would love 🙄

Also some liquid love of cafe au lait to help warm me up:

Pixie has been a complete heat-seeking lap missile today.  She is stuck to me like glue.  I think she really likes the snuggie, too 😀

Lunch was more tuna.  We got a pick 4 pack (12 cans) of tuna at BJs.  I think I am going to be tired of tuna again pretty soon!

Using up more corporate waffles as bread.  Changed it up with strawberries at lunch, though!

Afternoon warmth:

I cut up the best pineapple today for dinner.  They must be in season or something because they were on sale and it was quite good.  I lurve fresh pineapple!  Along with an omelet mess.

I think I need to mince the broccoli if I am going to try to make omelets with it, because the omelet just falls apart.  Still tasted good, though.

I turned down an offer to go out for coffee tonight, can you believe it?  I just can’t bear the thought of going out in wind chill of -11 degrees!  You know it’s cold if I won’t go for coffee….  The weather is making us so excited for our cruise in the beginning of Feb!  Not sure if I wrote about this or not, but we are cruising to Mexico.  The best part is that the cruise leaves from New Orleans (!!!!), so we are there for a couple days before the ship leaves and we can stuff our faces with beignets.

Then the ship goes to the Yucatan and Cozumel.  This is the first vacation for John and I of more than a weekend in 3 years!  We deserve it.  I’ll be blogging on the trip, too – which will be fun.  Can you believe the cruise ship has wi-fi?  This will be our 2nd cruise.  The first was about 10 years ago, which was also to the Caribbean.  How time flies!

Question:  Have you ever cruised before?

Merry Christmas Eve!

It’s Christmas Eve!  This is really my favorite day of the year.  It’s the anticipation at its peak 😀

I was up wayyyyy early today at 5:30 so I got up and worked for a while before heading to the gym.  I had a Zone bar before and hit the treadmill for 5.5 miles!  It felt great!  There are those days where it is just easy and flowing and today was one of them.  John walked to the gym to meet me (brrr….) as it’s only 1.7 miles from home and took me out to breakfast afterwards.  I won the football picks last week (finally), and I chose brekkie!

This was at Cafe on The Park and just a few doors down from the gym.  I was so ready for breakfast.  I actually brought a change of clothes with me so I would having something dry to eat in.  Couldn’t do anything about that hair, though! Can’t believe I am in public looking like this

I had an eggbeater omelet with wheat toast and home fries.

When you have worked up an appetite, food just tastes sooooo good!  I ate it all.

John had eggs and toast and a grilled blueberry muffin!  It was good.

Need to try this technique at home.

Work is slow today, so I am posting this early.  We are going to my folks house for dinner and then preparing for everyone coming over tomorrow for the Christmas feast!

I thought I would show the oldest ornament on my tree for the last feature.

This was done for me by our “Aunt Betty” when I was 13.  Everyone calls her that even though I think she would be my great aunt?  Look at the year on the other side!

Have a most wonderful holiday!  I appreciate so much all of my readers, whether you ever comment or not, and I love reading all of your blogs as well!  Stay safe and have a super day!

Treadmillin’ and fudge

I have to say, this weather has been really cold!  It has not been above freezing for a couple weeks now, I think.  😯  No precip, so the air has been very dry.  It’s so hard to get out to go to the gym and get in a cold car (but better than biking in this cold 😀  ).

I had a Luna bar as a preworkout snack while waiting for the car to warm up a little.  It actually was slow to start.  Guess 0 degrees will do that….

Hit the treadmill for what was supposed to be 5 miles, but I was feeling good, so did another 1/2 mile extra!  I used pace music and averaged 5.8 mph.  I did a almost 3 miles at 5.5, then 1.5 miles at 6.0 and 1/2 a mile at 6.8 mph.  It’s funny how running a 10-minute mile seems much harder on the treadmill than running outside.  I can do a 5K in 29:30, which is less than a 10 minute mile.  Go figure.

So hungry when I got home and really chilled from being sweaty in the cold.  Made a fabulous bowl of steel cut oats:

Cooked with banana and topped with almond butter and blackberry jam.  I about snorted this bowl down.  I don’t know which was more awesome today, the breakfast or the shower after breakfast!

While I was hard at work today, John was busy in the kitchen.  He was making some of his fabulous fudge!  He pretty much uses the recipe on the marshmallow fluff jar, although he added coffee powder to it and topped half with pecans.

This is still uncut, so I don’t have to worry about snacking on it.  It’s funny how if a bag is not opened, or something is in it’s ‘whole’ state, I have no problem not eating it.  The minute it is breached, however, all bets are off!

I’m feeling pretty good about this last stretch into Christmas.   If I can just keep it up for a couple more days 😀

Finished up work early today (go me!!) and felt like another BBQ chicken salad for dinner.  I was craving the salty feta and BBQ sauce.  When I run longer distances (for me) I crave salty stuff.  I am not only a profuse sweater, but a salty sweater.  I think my body is trying to tell me something about electrolyte balance.

Ornament of the day:

Another horn!  This one is pewter, I think.

Have to clean tonight and get the house ready for company on Christmas!  Also need to resist the siren song of the nutmeg logs :mrgreen:

Look for a post tomorrow about the origin of the name of my blog!

Question:  For those that run, do you find it really different on a treadmill versus outside?

Giant protein and sweet potato yum.

Had a great treadmill run today.  5 miles of increasing speed up to 7.0!  I was sweating like crazy and loving every minute.  Exercise is such a great stress buster, don’t you think?

I spoke with the gym owner this morning, as I hadn’t seen him since last Monday and offered my condolences on his friend and co-owner.  I asked him if there was anything I could do and he  said, “Just keep coming in between 7 and 8 in the mornings like you usually do so I won’t be staring at the walls, since you are usually the only one here.”  That about broke my heart.  It does seem that at least for that first 1/2 hour or so,  I am alone – which I actually like.

I was so ready for breakfast when I got home.  My Luna bar was good for the run, but I was ready to eat!

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I pan sauteed a pear in a tsp of coconut oil, cinnamon and a tsp of brown sugar and topped it onto steel cut oats.  Nummmmmm…….

Regarding the refinance I was speaking of, this is a rental house we own, not the house we live in.  We were refinancing to get a better interest rate because as an investment property, it is quite high.  We are probably just going to put it on the market in January, as there is one tenant in there now who can’t afford the rent by himself (his roommate moved out).  I like the tenant.  It’s just annoying to deal with at this point.  The house was originally a fix-and-sell, but it didn’t sell.

Lunch was some greek yogurt, protein powder, strawberries and my chai granola.

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Yum, but it’s too cold for this now!  I am done with yogurt for a while, I think.

Then it was off to get stuff for Christmas dinner and to use my BJ’s wholesale gift certificate:

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I have a 2-month free membership, so we had to check it out before the end of the year.  Have any of you been to this place?  Everything is giant size!  I died when I saw a 5-pound bag of protein powder:

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Too bad it is artificially sweetened, or I would have gotten it :mrgreen:  We did get some great deals on almonds ($3.99 a pound!) and milk, so we had no problem using up the gift certificate.  The fresh produce wasn’t such a great deal and the bulk buying is too much for just 2 of us.  I don’t think we will get a membership.

After fighting the crowds there, we went to relax at Virgil’s.  A cool thing about Virgil’s is that they ask that you turn off your cell phones and have no laptops there.  The place is full of books and games.

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The atmosphere is cozy and what I would like in a cafe if I had one 😀

Had a delicious skim latte.

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Then we had to hit up the other grocery store to get things we couldn’t find at BJ’s.  I was ready to get home and away from the crowds, that’s for sure!

Dinner was a bit of a mish mash that turned out quite good!  We cooked up a sweet potato and split it in half.  I topped mine with some sauteed broccoli, chicken, and cheese.  I had a lot of broccoli on the side, too.

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John had his half with butter and brown sugar LOL!  Sweet and savory from the same potato.  Warm and yummy in the tummy!

Ornament of the day:

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Cardinals are one of my favorite birds.  We have a pair that had a baby last year and they were so fun to watch!  Debby, I know you will appreciate this ornament. 😀

Off to wrap presents and have a bunch of tea and a snack to keep warm!

I see why it's called the dreadmill.

The outside run I did last week made me realize that I miss running! Streets and sidewalks are too icy and snow packed to do much outside (not to mention the cold!).
So tonight I went to my parents’ house and ran on their treadmill. I was okay for about 15 minutes, then it just seemed so boring!

How do people just run on treadmills only? Even with a TV on it was boring. I guess I am just used to actually going somewhere while running, and not being like a mouse on a wheel.

So this week I am doing a scary thing – taking a week off of strength training. The books I read suggest doing this every few months to prevent over training. This week I decided to rest those muscles. How ironic when most people are just joining gyms and working out and I take a week off LOL!

Still doing cardio, though. Going to New Orleans on Friday, and my sister and I are actually packing clothes to run in. I can’t believe it! I would never have dreamed of going running on a vacation before. Gotta burn off those beignets somehow.