Category Archives: video

Lifting Move of the Week and John’s Birthday!

It’s John’s birthday today! Welcome to year 42 sweetie 😀

He slept in while I biked to the gym for a strength workout.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Straight-leg deadlifts 3 sets of 10 at 75# Lower body
Close grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 50# Back
Cable Squat to Row 3 sets of 10 at 60# Full body
Planks 3 sets of 90 second holds (dying on the last one) Abs
Barbell Chest Press 3 sets of 8 at 55# Chest
Standing Single leg Calf Raise 3 sets with 10 with 45# bar Calves and balance
Prone Cuban Snatch 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Triceps kickback 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps

Then I walked for about 10 minutes on the treadmill waiting for the birthday boy to get to the gym. We then biked to Panera Bread per his request for breakfast! I have not done a bike ride after lifting in a few weeks and had forgotten how tiring that was….

I was so ready for my bagel!

Asiago cheese. Yum. I started to wolf it down and actually had to tell myself to slow down out loud.  I was wearing Triscuit (my trisuit) today because of the heat and humidity. I felt funny walking into Panera wearing it, and I swear I saw 2 women looking at me and talking to each other. Kind of felt exposed and uncomfortable. I thought maybe I was imagining it, but when we went up for coffee later, they asked where were were riding from. Not sure what they were saying to each other, but I guess it doesn’t really matter.

Lifting Move of the Week:  The Close Grip Lat Pulldown! This exercise works the back and actually gives a nice stretch feel, which I really like.  Most of the time, you will see the wide grip bar used on this machine.  Swap out the wide bar for the V-bar (the little v-shaped handle) for variation.  Make sure your legs are snug under the lap bar.

While this mostly does the back, your rear deltoids (back of shoulders) and a bit of chest muscle is used as well.  When pulling down, think of pulling with your back muscles.  If you hook your hands  on the grip without your thumbs, you will use less arm muscles. These are good practice to graduate to chin ups!

Slow work day today on both job fronts, but I had a lot of other things to do.  Lunchtime was a quick egg sandwich on the yummy bread!

Then I picked up John’s requested birthday cake from Baker’s Dream:

It is a vanilla cake with coconut cream topped with chocolate buttercream.  Total decadence!  We got a small cake so there wouldn’t be a lot of leftovers.

We had cake in the afternoon with my folks, since with dinner and a movie tonight, it would be too late for cake (is it ever too late for cake??)

My slice with some caramel swirl ice cream.

I had my dad’s extra frosting.  He said it was too much frosting.  I disagree :mrgreen:

I got John his own cycling jersey.  It has a poker hand on it, so we both can be cool riding now.  I need to get a photo of both of us all tricked out.

Posting early today as we are going out for dinner (Pizzeria Uno) and a movie – Inception.

Happy Birthday to the best husband in the world!!

Lifting Move of the Week – Captain’s Chair

Geared up for a big workout day today! I started with a Luna bar snack (S’mores).

Then I biked to the gym. I hit the treadmill first. My goal today was to do a longer run, but broken up. I did 2 miles on the treadmill at 5.5 mph (11 min mile) and then took my sweaty self to the weights 😀

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
2-point dumbbell row 3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs (50# total) Back
Forward Lunges 3 sets of 10 (each leg)with 30# Bar Lower body
Flat Chest Fly 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Plie squat 3 sets of 10 with 35# DB Legs
Captain’s Chair 3 sets of 10 Abs
Lower Back Extension 3 sets with 10 at 100# Low back
Lateral Raise 3 sets of 8 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps

Then I did 2 more miles on the treadmill. That made 4 miles total! I haven’t done 4 miles since the day before I hurt my back. No problems with the running, which is good. My knee gets tingly and the skin sort of burns (hypersensitive) on run days later in the day, but there is no pain with my back while actually running.

Then I biked home. Phew! Mega workout.  I burned about 670 calories this morning. Woo Hoo! I was ready for brekkie when I got back. Even though I was hot and sweaty, I still had a hot brekkie.

Banana custard oats topped with cashew butter and pomegranate jelly. Food tastes so durn good after a hard workout!

Lifting Move of the Week: The Captain’s Chair!  You may have seen this apparatus at your gym.  It’s actually kind of fun.

This is a great move for the abs.  You can do several variations, such as twisting your legs or lifting them straight out in front of you to work different muscles.  The hardest part of this move is not swinging your legs and using momentum to lift.  The work should be done with the abs.  Truth be told, you can also do this at home if you have an L-shaped counter in your kitchen 😉

Work consisted of a conference call (mildly worrisome) and then work, work, work at both jobs.  I am beat!  Stopped for lunch:

Lemon pepper tuna salad on wheat bread.

Plus my last pear 🙁   I hope it is a temporary shortage, although the red ones have been gone for about a month.  When do pears come in season, anyway?  I had a burpless cucumber on the side, but I had a can of seltzer with it, so not sure if it was burpless or not.

Pixie was supposed to be hard at work answering the phones for the business, but she was a slacker:

Good thing she only gets paid in catnip….

Afternoon snackage of a latte:

Plus a couple squares of Lake Champlain peppermint crunch dark chocolate.   Sort of local company (Vermont) and yum!

Sitting on a coaster for a plate.  We are pretty sophisticated ’round here.

Finished up work and my brain was tired.  Transcription can be really, really tiring to do.  So much depends on the dictator and the subject matter.  Clinic notes are easy, things like genetics are very hard.  Sometimes I would like a no thinky job.

Dinner time and I used the new toaster oven to cook my clam strips.  They came out perfectly done!  I am spoiled with the convection oven, I have to say.

Last of the blues.  I think I need to go picking again!   I only had 1 ginger altoid while cooking dinner and I didn’t need any at lunch.  I really don’t want to jinx it, but I am getting a hold of that snack habit pretty well.  I’ll talk more about the idea of the habit energy tomorrow, but it makes so much sense.

Off to visit my parents and be social for the evening 😀

Question:  What is your favorite ab exercise?

Lifting move of the week – the deadlift!

It’s that time of the week! Biked out to the gym after eating the other half of the balance bar I had yesterday. My plan was to run 1 mile on the treadmill, lift, then run 2 miles on the treadmill, but that didn’t quite happen.

I did 1 mile on the treadmill, which was fine. I got super sweaty, though. I hate lifting when I am really sweaty.

The iron:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Deadlift 3 sets of 8 at 75# Lower body
Seated lat row 3 sets of 10 at 55# Back
Pushups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Planks 3 sets of 75-second holds Abs
Stationary Lunges 3 sets of 10 (each side) with 15# DBS (30# total) Lower body
Prone Cuban Snatch 3 sets with 10 with 8# DBS (16# total) Shoulders
Lower back extension 3 sets of 10 at 100# Low back
Bench Dips 3 sets of 10 Triceps

Phew. I was sweating profusely the whole time. While doing the plank, I watched sweat dripping off my nose onto the mass (ewwww). After that, I had no gumption to run, so I just biked home.

Lifting move of the week: The deadlift! I have shown the stiff-leg (Romanian) deadlift before, but this is the big girl one. If the squat is king, then the deadlift is queen.  Note that I use the overhand grip with both hands.  Some people do 1 underhand and 1 overhand, and I have tried that, but it isn’t comfortable for me.  Although, it makes it easier when the bar is loaded heavier.  I have done 95# and found the alternated grip easier on the hands.

I even fancied the video up a little bit. If I make you watch me right after I roll out of bed, may as well make it a little more enjoyable :mrgreen:

I was hungry when I got home and made some banana custard cream of wheat with the maple syrup and toasted pecans on top.  I really like this!

I got to work right away.  Job #2 does not require me to have any set work time, but the new account I got moved to (orthopedics) has most of the work in the early part of the day.  I really enjoy orthopedics.  It’s very interesting.  Job #1 I have a set start time for work (10 am) and have to work at least for the first hour before flexing time.

Lunch time and I wanted something fast.  Omelet with a laughing cow wedge tucked in there.  I should start new things so the blog doesn’t get boring 😀

Snack attack!  I broke for a snack at around 2:45 with an iced latte and the last of the Lindt.

Something that I have noticed this week with concentrating on snacking while cooking meals is that I have not had a binge snack all month either.  The last day where I ate too much food (other than big bike days) was on July 4th at the picnic.  Usually I have 1 or 2 days in a week where I get super snacky and nibble at night or in the afternoon.  I don’t know what is different right now, but I’ll take it.  Funny because I am under a little more stress lately, which usually makes me want to plow into the food.

I was ultra productive today and finished up in time to do some cooking!  Grilled up extra chicken for this week.

I love this Coleman grill!

Plus I was chasing another butterfly around.  They are hard to get a picture of LOL!

Some of that chicken was destined for my dinner.

Oh yes indeedy!

I’ve got my snack planned out for later:


Wearing my duathlon t-shirt.  My 2 favorite tees are my triathon shirt and the duathlon shirt!

Question:  Do you deadlift?

Lifting Move of the Week

Lots of rain rolled through last night.  We needed it, too.  It cleared up for me to bike to the gym, though.  I first had a slice of bread with some nut butter on it as my pre workout snack  (okay, a little chocolate  fluff on there, too).

The routine:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Close-grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 60# Upper body
Barbell Squat 3 sets of 8 at 65# Lower body
2-point dumbbell row 3 sets of 10 with 25# DBs (50# total) Back
1-leg dumbbell deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Hamstrings and balance
Reverse crunches 3 sets of 12 Abs
Incline DB chest press 3 sets with 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps
Face pulls 3 sets of 10 at 30# Shoulders

After that, I hopped on the treadmill. I ran 2 miles. I was going to do 3, but I was feeling a wee bit tired, likely from the blood donation yesterday, so I called it after 2 miles and biked home.

Lifting Move of The Week: The 2-Point Row. This is from the New Rules workouts. It is pretty much a dumbbell row at a bent angle instead of with a horizontal back. The other arm is behind the back, not sure why. Possibly to keep the shoulders from drooping. Or maybe just to be doing something with the arm other than let it dangle there.

Slow down Lori!! Geez! 🙄

I was really sweaty because of the run and the return of the humidity, after I biked home so I decided on a cold brekkie today.

Kind of looks like a typical lunch for me, doesn’t it? LOL

Got right to work.  Job #2 has released me from QA after only a week, so I can now work as much as I want.  I need to start thinking of ramping that one up and moving the other one down.  Need to make sure there will be enough work at job #2, though.  Sometimes you just never know.  In the MT world, it can be feast or famine.

Lunch time and I got to try a new find:

Have you seen these yet?  I put it on an scrambled eggs.

Very good.

Here is a funny picture of Pixie.  She has this  ear hair that is really long and curls naturally.  Reminds me of a older professor from  graduate school  – you know what I mean?


She needs a barber.

Afternoon snackage was some chocolate:

Plus iced latte goodness:

This is decaf for a change.  My latte blots out John from the background.  :mrgreen:

I’ve been doing really well on the not snacking while fixing meals, but gosh darn is it hard for me!  I mean really, really hard.  21 days to break a habit and I have 2 down.  I almost nibbled at the chicken that I was cutting up that was part of my dinner portion, but I am trying to break the habit altogether of snacking, so even if it is supposed to be part of my meal I have made it off limits.

It was worth the wait for the giant BBQ salad!

John was gunning for best hubby of the year today by stopping by a farm stand on his walk and bringing me a pint of blueberries 😀  Now I can make it until Friday.

This post is late tonight because we actual were out being social!

More decaf.  Watch I won’t sleep tonight.  I am already thinking about the bike and bagel breakfast tomorrow morning.

Lifting Move of the week and biz-zay!

If you haven’t checked out some of the comments on the IE/ME post, you should. They are interesting! I think they really are 2 different approaches to eating.

It was still hot this morning, but not too bad for riding to the gym for my workout.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squats 3 sets of 8 with 65# bar Lower body
Dumbbell pullover 3 sets of 10 with 25# DB Back
Push ups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Decline sit ups 3 sets of 10 Abs
Upright row 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Shoulders
Cable squat to row 3 sets with 10at 60# Full body
Bench dips 3 sets of 10 Triceps
Barbell Good Mornings 3 sets of 10 at 55# Lower back and hammies

Strength Training Move of the Week: Upright Row. This exercise is for the shoulders.  You basically just pull the dumbbells or bar up to about your chin.  You want to try to not raise your shoulders up to your ears doing this. Also keep your elbows up and don’t let them drop down or you won’t be working the shoulders.

Please note the lovely tan lines I have from all that biking (yes, I wear gobs of sunscreen).  I really need to work on slowing down my reps.  Note I also figured out how to edit the video so you don’t have to see me turning on the camera and getting into frame!

Then I biked home for breakfast.  Too busy to go bike for the usual bagel on Wednesdays (wahh!).  Of course, we are actually going to be moving bagel day to Thursdays anyway most likely.   I’ll be biking there tomorrow, though, rest assured.

Instead, I had some pumpkin cream of wheat.  Totally craving the pumpkin again, which is weird since it sure doesn’t feel like fall.  Wishful thinking maybe?

I did let the bowl sit for a bit and cool down well.

Started work early because of the amount of stuff to do right now with John gone.  Mid morning hunger hit, and I decided to have some blues!

I also had the Tour on muted while I worked (muted0.  I almost never have the TV on during the day except to watch Jeopardy during lunch, but cannot resist live Tour TV.

Speaking of lunch, I broke for lunch when I was hungry, which ended up being about 20 minutes before I normally break for lunch on a time schedule.  Another cool lunch.  Like yesterday only with blueberries instead of strawberries:

We have worked our way through 3/4 of that big bucket of blueberries from Friday.  Of course, I shared with family, but a good deal ended up in my tummy 😀

I had phone training this afternoon for my new job.  Mostly just how to use their specific platform.  Right before training started, I made an iced latte to drink during it.  This is our little cheap espresso machine:

Mr. Coffee.  It’s functional at least.  This is cooled espresso.  I put some milk and ice in a glass, then slowly pour in the espresso:

That makes the pretty layer.  It’s just to look at for a moment, because I stir it up to drink.   Served with a mini dark chocolate mint cup from the fridge!

I did some work for my new job for a while.  I am limited as to how much I can do because they need to audit everything I do line by line at first, just to make sure all is okay.  I’ll probably be released from QA in a couple days.  Then I went back to the  other job and did more work there.  I started to get really hungry an hour before dinner, so I decided to have a pear:

Cold and refreshing straight from the fridge.  This heat is making me want smaller, more frequent feedings.

Took a break for dinner.  I was not horribly hungry, but I have a busy work night tonight ahead of me still, so it was time to eat.

I was going to have a nice cold salad, but my lettuce decided to get soupy.  Ick.  So, I just had the chicken with some sauteed brussels.

I am keeping up so far, but I have at least 2 more hours of work to do tonight, plus some order packing for the business.  I am going to take a break later for some banana soft serve.  Nana is already in the freezer!

Maybe John will bring me a nice present from Atlantic City for doing all this work 😀

Question: Have you ever worked 2 jobs?

Lifting Move of the Week and June recap.

Happy mid week! It was fro yo last night, btw  🙂 It was nice and cool this morning, to the tune of 58 degrees when I biked to the gym! Awesome! I decided to have a few more carbs with today’s preworkout snack instead of more protein, so I had a Balance bar (210 calories).

Tasty.

I got to the gym and had a fantastic workout.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell deadlifts 3 sets of 8 with 80# bar Lower body
Chin ups 2 sets of 2, 3 sets of 1 Upper body
Dumbbell fly (flat) 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Planks 3 sets of 75 second holds! Abs
Pliet squat with dumbbell 3 sets of 8 with 40# DB Legs
Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Shoulders
Nose breakers 3 sets of 10 with 25# bar Triceps
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Seated lat row 3 sets of 10 at 40# Back

Whew! I am almost up to pre-injury deadlift weight. I was at 95# before, so getting closer!
Today’s Lifting Move of the Week: Nose breaker! Also called the skull crusher, both of which are cool names and make you sound hard core :mrgreen:  The key to this exercise is to move your arm from the elbow only, because you want to isolate the triceps muscle.  It takes a lot of concentration to do that, and to not drop the bar onto your face (hence the name).  My arm does move a little, which is what I try to work on for this exercise.

Sorry for the video quality here.  My tripod is on the fritz and I this was the best set up I could do.  You don’t need to see the top of the bar anyway.  I don’t really think you should be seeing any light at the small of my back.  The funny thing is, I keep my abs pulled in to keep my lower back from arching, but I actually have a somewhat indented lower back, so maybe that is normal.  You can even see it when I stand.

I was nicely tired after that workout, finishing just in time for John to pull up to the gym for our bike to breakfast!  The path was nice and quiet this morning.  I was happy to see this sign:

Oh yes.  I had a sunflower seed bagel with cream cheese and a giant coffee!

We sat indoors today because of how chilly it was outside.  Then we biked home.  The ride home felt so good because I had eaten breakfast.  Funny how that food and fuel thing works, isn’t it?

Must be vacation time for doctors.  Work has been spotty at best today, which I am not fond of.  We have 12 hours to finish our line requirement, but I like to work straight through most days (you know, kind of like a normal job).  I don’t always appreciate having to go back and work after dinner because there was no work available during the day.  Maybe it really is a good thing I am taking on this 2nd job.

Lunch break included an egg/egg white scramble with laughing cow and lots of hot sauce!  I would have cut into it to show you, but it would have gotten to messy.

I am going to go blueberry picking this Friday! Yay!

So my goals for June were as follows:

  • Enjoy my birthday (the 5th).   Done and done!!
  • 70 mile bike ride.   Done! It was hard, but we did it.
  • Read more books.   I got out several books from the library, but didn’t finish 2 of them because I didn’t like them.
  • Run a race.  Done!
  • Go sugar free for a few days during the month.   Done. I did 4 or 5 days.  It is a good practice to do, I think.
  • Note I am not making a weight loss goal this month.  Scale stayed put.

I have been doing some reading on intuitive/mindful eating recently – and does it not seem to be in the forefront of the blogosphere right now?  Sometimes I think the internet is like the collective a la Star Trek.  Resistance is futile.  Anyway, this is going to figure into my July goals that I will outline tomorrow.

Random afternoon snackage:

Dinner time was the classic Lori salad!

I have to say that I eat a lot of chicken.  I am always surprised at how much chicken we go through.

After some more work after dinner, John and I headed out to Starbucks to relax.  That is where I am posting this from, too!

That’s a decaf coffee, just so you know!  John is reading Agathie Christie while I type.  Funny how I was quite the party girl in college, and now I like to sit in cafes and drink coffee and surf the web.

Question:  Did you have any goals for June, and if so, how did you do?

Lifting move of the week and some quake shaking!

Last Wednesday I talked about how I was feeling fatigued with the workout and biking to breakfast, so today was the day try a bigger snack.  I had a protein drink with milk and protein powder to the tune of about 200 calories.  Normally I have about 110.  It was really humid this morning, too, so biking felt like swimming on my way in.  I also took a Tylenol PM last night, and it left me groggy this morning.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Deadlifts 3 sets of 8 with 65# bar Lower body
Chin ups 1 sets of 2, 3 sets of 1 Upper body
1-legged dead lifts 3 sets of 8 each leg with 15# DBs (30# total) Hamstrings and balance
Incline bench press 3 sets of 10 at 55# Chest
Decline sit ups 3 sets of 10 Abs
Arnold Press 3 sets of 10 with 12# DBs (24# total) Shoulders
2-point dumbbell row 3 sets of 10 with 25# DBs (50# total) Back
Bench Dip 3 sets of 10 Triceps

Lifting move of the week is the Arnold Press!  This move is for your shoulders.  Named for the famous Arnold, and if you want to be cool, you can pronounce it as the Ah-nold press :mrgreen:  It’s for the front and side deltoid muscles.

Welcome back to my spare bedroom for this video:


It’s pretty much a dumbbell press with an arm rotation for that little something extra.  It took me a few tries to get coordinated at doing it, too.  You can do this on an incline bench as well, for variety.

John met me at the gym and we biked on out.  I was very sweaty for this ride from humidity.  I don’t know as I noticed the extra 90 calories or not from my preworkout drink.

Lookie at the bagels!

They were starting to run low.

I got my wheat bagel with plain cream cheese and we sat outside.

Breakfast biking was 13 miles round trip.

After a slow morning of work, I got a hankering for some eggs for lunch.   On toast with some laughing cow and hot sauce.

Why, when it is hot and humid, do I proceed to make it worse with hot sauce?  Hello brain??

Quite the interesting time this afternoon. There was an earthquake here in the early afternoon:

And we felt it at our house.  I was working and at first I thought I was getting dizzy, but then I realized the house was rocking.  You could see the mirror and pictures moving.  It lasted for a while, too.  Very strange sensation when you are not in an area prone to this!

Snack time:

Plus a latte.

I am posting early today, as we are going to my niece’s moving up ceremony today and having pizza afterwards!  Congrats to Logan for moving up to the 6th grade 😀

Added note: So far, I am still snacky on Wednesdays despite the extra calories.  Need to research more….

Stay tuned for an appropriate hot weather review/giveaway on Thursday….

Question:  Ever felt an earthquake?

Lifting Move of the Week

Glad you all like my jersey! 😀 I purchased it from here.  Woke up a little tired and puffy today.  Had a protein drink and biked to the gym:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff Legged deadlift 3 sets of 10 with 65# bar Lower body
Chin ups 2 sets of 2, 2 sets of 1 Upper body
Split squats 3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 35# bar Lower body
Close-grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 12 at 50# Back
Push ups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Reverse Crunches 3 sets of 12 Abs
Arnold Press 3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Triceps pull down 3 sets of 12 at 30# Triceps

Strength Training Move of the Week:  Stiff-Legged Deadlift. This is one of my very favorites.  Maybe because it is easier than a regular deadlift 😛   Actually, I really like how it works the hamstrings.  With this exercise, it is important to keep the knees from being locked and hyperextended.  Did you know it is very easy for women to hyperextend their knees?  Bend from the hips and not from the waist because you want to use the legs and not the back for this. Also, you want to squeeze your butt at the top of the move, just for that little extra something.  Note how I keep my head looking up during the move.  I found that if I do not do that, then my my shoulders droop and my back rounds out.  Funny how keeping your head up keeps your shoulders back.

Link to video

(I edited out the sound today to something better than the godawful stuff at the gym.)  You can go lower down than this, too, but I find my back rounds too much when I do much lower, or I lock my knees.  My form isn’t always perfect, but I really try.  Also, this can be done with dumbbells.

John was out playing poker last night, so when he didn’t show up to meet me, I wasn’t too surprised and just texted him that I was biking my way to breakfast.   He texted me back a bit later that he was on his way via car (I was about 1/2 way to bagels at this point), so we were able to meet up.  I had a nice wheat bagel with maple walnut cream cheese:

I snarfed this down.  I think I need to eat more on Wednesdays before I leave the house.  I have a protein drink before going to the gym, but I think a strength workout plus a 14 mile bike ride needs more food.  Even though half of that ride is after breakfast.  I have noticed that every single Wednesday I am so hungry for breakfast that it sets up the rest of the day as a snacky day.  Will experiment next week with this.

I ended up just putting my bike in the car and riding home with John because I was feeling a little tired and lazy. 😳

Break from work for lunch.  More tuna.

I laughed when I noticed where I had set the other can of tuna on the shelf after I opened up the package.

Note to self – it is extremely important that you remember there is only 1 can of tuna left.  Do not eat any other cans…..

That cat food is what we call ‘kitty crack’ around here.  Pixie gets 1/4 can a day of this junk, along with her Iams weight control/hairball dry food.  She adores this stuff.

Had a slice of this apple yogurt cake that John made.  It is very good.

I finished it before I even got my latte.  Ooops.  Nibbler is out in full force today.

Cause this happened before dinner:

This was up high and I even dragged a chair out to get some.  Just being honest here.  Today has been a challenge.

I had a hankering for grilled cheese for dinner.  So, I made some using  1 oz of colby jack and 1 wedge of laughing cow.  Then I added some sun-dried tomatoes for an adult version.  I remember the old days of slathering butter on the bread and a boatload of cheese…..  Now I sprayed a little ICBINB on the bread and used Pam to grill it.

I have to say that this was really good and a much healthier version of grilled cheese. The sun-dried tomato really gave it extra flavor.  And it wasn’t greasy in my hands!

So tonight is a battle with Nibbler going on, I think.  Wish me luck.

Question:  What’s your favorite sandwich?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5PlohSHImM

Strength training move of the week.

Chilly night last night. There actually was a frost advisory out for last night. WTH??? Didn’t seem to get any, but it sure was chilly biking to the gym – mid 40s.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squats 3 sets of 8 with 55# bar Lower body
Chin ups 1 set of 2, 4 sets of 1 Upper body
Dumbbell pull over 3 sets of 10 with 25# DB Back
Reverse crunch 3 sets of 15 Abs
Incline Dumbbell press 3 sets of 12 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Reverse lunge with single dumbbell 3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 15# DB Legs
Lateral raise 3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs (20# total) Shoulders
Lying french press 3 sets of 12 with 10# DBs (30# total) Triceps

I was working hard on these today. The barbell squats and the reverse lunges always get my heart rate up there! A little more weight on the squats. Not back at the 115# pre injury, but I’ll get there.

Lifting move of the week:  Reverse lunge with single dumbbell.  This move is good in many ways.  First, it’s good for the legs because lunges just are.  Using the single dumbbell also helps you work on balance – and who couldn’t use a little more balance in their life?

Do this for both legs.  I just filmed one side.  This is an older video, btw.  This was one of the NROLW moves that I like to have in my rotation.  Now that I can do split leg moves again, that’s what I did today!  John met me at the gym and we biked to bagels.  I actually started to bonk on the way there and had to eat a ginger chew.  I think it was not taking a rest day after the ride, plus a harder strength workout today.  I did have a protein drink before leaving the house, but obviously not enough.

I looked for the biggest bagel I could see, and it was a sunflower seed bagel.  Delicious!  I really had to keep from inhaling it 😀

After carb loading up, we headed home.  Total bike mileage was 14.3 miles.

Work went much more smoothly today.  So smooth that I was extra productive and did more lines in less time, so I did more than required.  I’ll take the extra money!  My new netbook is so awesome 😀

Lunch break was some greek yogurt mixed with plain whey protein, granola, strawberries and a little buckwheat honey.

This honey is awesome.  We bought it at the farmer’s market.  Need to get more.

That partial bonk this morning left me with one of those hungry things in my stomach all day.  Dislike that feeling.  I had some chocolate with my latte.

This is good stuff!

Pre dinner was some cashews while I roasted coffee for tomorrow (all done with work by this time).

Nibble, nibble…..

It was raining, but the birdies were keeping me company while I did the coffee:

(my liatris will be blooming soon – yay!)

I had that craving for BBQ from yesterday, so I had some BBQ shrimp.    1/2 of a microwaved sweet potato topped with laughing cow and sauteed broccoli.

I cracked open the Chef Hymie hot BBQ sauce for this.  Boy howdy that has a kick to it!  It actually made my nose run.  Loves the hot stuff….

I have been noticing a soreness in my left thigh lately, and I think I now understand what it is.  Before with the weakness, I was moving my leg, but not really using it.  Make sense?  Now I can actually use my leg and the muscles are sore from being worked again.  Yay!  My knee is still numb, but the feeling has come back in my calf.

Tomorrow will be a rest day for me, I think.  I also will talk a little bit about Nutrisystem, as I had done this for a while a couple years ago and was asked about it.

We are off to Starbucks for some coffee and for me to play more with my little netbook.

Question:  Do you consider the sweet potato a veggie or just a carb?

Lifting move of the week and lost food.

Good old Wednesday! I was up too early again, but such is life, no? Took a protein hit and then biked to the gym.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff-leg Deadlift 3 sets of 8 with 65# bar Lower body
Seated Lat Row 3 sets of 12 at 45# Back
Chin ups 2 sets of 2, 3 sets of 1 Upper body
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 10 (each side) Abs
YTWL 3 sets of 4 (each letter) with 8# DBs Shoulders
Standing leg press 3 sets of 6 at 50# Quads
Dumbbell chest press 3 sets of 12 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Overhead Triceps Ext 3 sets of 15 with 20# DB Triceps
Standing calf raise 3 sets of 15 at 50# Calves

Little extra leg work today.

The lifting move of the week: The YTWL! Named for the shape your arms make when doing the exercise. Kind of like YMCA, but without the catchy tune (although you can hum it if you want). This is a great shoulder exercise because it hits all the different muscles of the shoulder. Start with a very light weight, as it is pretty difficult (and the shoulder is easy to injure).

You can do 4 repetitions of each letter.  I think a lot of women neglect their shoulders, but they really can make the difference in how your top half looks.  Nice rounded shoulder caps help with body symmetry.

John met me at the gym and we biked to our usual addiction bagel.  Nice morning to eat outside!

I was sitting too close to a barberry bush and got poked with a thorn, but it was so pretty I leaned over and took a picture:

It was kind of humid, can you tell? Such a nice morning to bike.  One thing I love about my workday starting at 10 is that I can do all this stuff in the morning like work out and bike to breakfast.

Fairly uneventful at work.  Before I knew it, time for lunch!  I actually found a can of tuna in the pantry.  I thought I had gotten rid of it all, but I guess I didn’t.  So, that was on the menu today.  Maybe it isn’t so bad after all.

Also found 1/2 a sweet potato in the fridge, which I microwaved and topped with laughing cow. Yum!

Somebody wanted some attention while I worked today, and I just cannot resist this face:

I was hungry, though – so she did have to get up after a while.  Made some cashew butter last night.  Dang I forgot how good that stuff is.  I had some on a date for a snack:

It was so good I had another with the latte:

I think the food processor might be on its last legs.  Like a lot of things in our house LOL!  Who needs to win the lottery? – raise your hand!!

John and I rounded up more leftovers to eat.  Funny how sometimes it just seems like there are a lot in the fridge at one time.  I defrosted some of the lentil/rice dish we made with the pan roasted broccoli!

Good stuff.

Going to spend some time in the garden weeding tonight.  My goal to keep the garden weed free is going well this year (of course, it is only early June).  If anyone wants black-eyed susans, please let me know.  I have a 100 volunteers growing that are in the wrong spot 😀

Happy running day to all!  Look at that, I didn’t even run today.  John ran this evening, but I already had done enough for the day.    I ate strawberries instead……

Question:  Do you ‘lose’ food in the fridge or pantry?