Tag Archives: bagels

Bagel day and Fiber One coupon!

You know it! One of my favorite days 😀 We had decided last night that we wouldn’t bike since the temp was supposed to be 30 degrees this morning. I was actually 32, and I think I would have biked if I was by myself, but John didn’t want to. I was not at the gym this morning since I am done lifting until after the duathlon. Just easy stuff the rest of the week.  So, bundled up with the first wearing of a turtleneck this season!

turtleneck

I look pretty chipper here for not having had coffee yet….. What’s up with that?

New mugs at the coffee house!

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Plus carby goodness. Yum, yum.

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Spied my pink item for the day while there.  I am not totally sure what this is, I think it is a dinosaur?

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Worked hard today, although I had a case of feline disease, which makes it a little hard to type. I just don’t have the heart to make her get up.

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(Yes, I still have the word ‘sucker’ tattooed to my forehead thankyouverymuch).  If I could bottle this cuteness, I would be a millionaire.

Lunch was a Fiber One banana chocolate chip muffin crumbled over some greek yogurt with a little peanut butter.  It’s in a gigantic bowl because it was time to run the dishwasher 😀

lunch1014

Nice combo, but I would have liked more!

Had a Larabar as an afternoon snack.  Last week’s bar wasn’t this small.  I wasn’t sure if it was the kind (peanut butter) or if they just are getting smaller?

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Maybe it is just thicker.

Took a brisk walk after this.  All the while I was thinking that it’s going to be pretty cold Sunday morning!  I wonder how many layers I should wear?

Lucked out with dinner tonight.  John’s choice was to go to Long John Silver (ick), so I grudgingly went with wallet in hand and found out they are discontinuing the healthy grill items.  So, we left (yay!) and went to O’tooles instead.

ottole

This place is fun with a sports bar atmosphere and perfect fire for today!

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I didn’t think I got that guy in my shot, and is he picking his nose???

I was wanting something warm and saw a baked potato on the menu, so that is what I had.  It was yummy!

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Only $5.99 for this.  What a bargain!

Hoping to be productive tonight and get some writing done.

Here is a coupon for $1 off Fiber yogurt.  At least I hope it works.


$1 off Fiber One yogurt by Yoplait

Question:  Do you get enough fiber?

Sunday, sunday

Chilly morning, but we decided to brave it and bike to breakfast to Panera and back.  In the 40s, so we were pretty bundled up.  It was a gorgeous ride, though. Some great foliage with dark skies behind.

Foliage

Foliage

Felt good to get there and have some hot coffee with my blueberry bagel!

Panera Bread

Panera Bread

I forgot my pink item yesterday in the long post.  Here is today’s, and appropriate, I think!

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Definitely a beautiful fall day.  I really hope next Sunday is like today.  I don’t mind the cold, as long as it isn’t raining!

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I just can’t get over the colors.  They almost take your breath away when the light is just right.

Lots of work today to do, which is unusual for a holiday weekend.  At least I am making money!

Took a break for lunch and had a nice tasting plate.  This nectarine was a little dry, though.

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Mutant baby carrot alert!

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I tried another Holey donut for a snack this afternoon, one of the regular size ones and didn’t finish it.  Too dry.  I am really disappointed, I have to say.  I wonder how the cinnamon rolls will be?  I ended up getting an Attune bar instead and was much happier with the dark chocolate!

John and I did a quick and delicious stir fry tonight for dinner.  We bought some Kikkoman reduced sodium teriyaki sauce and used a little sesame oil to sautee the chicken and some pineapple.  Then  I mixed in broccoli for me (surprised?) plus some couscous!  Delicous and a nice filling portion.  Yum!  Throw together dinners can be the best.

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My Broncos won today!  Yay – 5 and 0!  Woohoo.  (I did lose picks, though….).

Had a good eating weekend, which feels great!  I managed to avoid getting candy corn at the grocery store.  That candy is one of my very favorites!  I have to be very, very careful about bringing it into the house.

Question:  Do you have a favorite Halloween treat?

Livestrong day, bagels and challenges

LIVESTRONGDAY

LIVESTRONG Day is the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s 1-day initiative to raise awareness of cancer issues on a global level and in communities across the country.
You can wear something yellow, cook/eat something yellow, participate in any events in your area, or get a health check.

Today was my day for a Pap test.  15 minutes can save your life!  Don’t forget to schedule your mammograms and Pap tests as these 2 types of cancers have great survival rates when caught early.

Even though it is not an official bagel day, I wasn’t lifting, so asked John if he wanted to bike to breakfast.  It’s the start of my weekend, so what the heck?  We went on a chilly ride.  40 degrees!  It really is getting close to the time we will hang up the bikes 🙁

This is downtown for some reason.  Not sure what it is, but it’s cute!

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And then there is that big straw bear… 😉

Had a wonderful warm mug of coffee when we got there

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Plus bagel deliciousness!

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Look – it’s like the parting of the Red Sea in food form!

The rest of the day has been snacky and not the best of eating.  Sigh….

First check-in for Steve’s Hot 100 challenge!

hot100-small

My posted goals were as follows:

1. Duathlon in October.  Signed up and ready to go!
2. Limit the number of eggnog lattes this year to 2 or 3.  Not out yet, phew
3. Keep a redline of weight in mind to not go over during the holidays.  Doing okay with that.
4. Complete the New Rules of Lifting for Women.  Finished stage V
5. Enjoy time with family during the holidays.  Spent some this week!

I am adding a few new ones as well:

6.  Better organization of time to be productive.

7.  Do some freelance writing.

8.  Run at least 2 more official 5K races this year.

I am hoping the rain holds off for tomorrow.  We are supposed to go and check out the course for my duathlon, as the road is supposed to be marked now.

Have a great night everyone!

NROLW, drive by post

Sounds like most of you love cheese like I do!  Yay!

Going to a Tupperware party later, so thought I would squeeze in a partial post in case I don’t get by later.

Preworkout snack today:

chegb

My chewy granola bar.  This was good for over an hour, so I am happy with that!  Biked to the gym under gray skies this morning to do NROLW:

  • 1 arm dumbbell snatch:  4 x 4  at 25 pounds
  • 1 legged dumbbell deadlift:  4 x 4  at 30 pounds
  • Bent over barbell row:  4 x 4 at 75 pounds
  • 1 arm overhead dumbbell squat: 4 x 4  at 15/30 pounds
  • Incline dumbbell bench press:  4 x 4  at 25 pounds
  • Planks:  3 x 2 minute holds
  • Reverse wood chop:  4 x 4 at 50 pounds
  • Leg matrix

John arrived just as I was finishing the matrix and I had to get on the bike for bagels!   This workout took me an hour to do, which I don’t like – too long!

That was a tiring ride after that.  Need to rethink bike rides after the matrix LOL  (maybe I won’t be doing the matrix much in the future.  It’s not my favorite).

Had some delicious coffee and a bagel which I could barely wait to nosh on as I was so hungry!

bagel

So good.  I love eating after a workout because it is so satisfying!

It started to rain on us as we left.  That was no fun.  I don’t mind running in the rain, but when biking the rain blows into my face and is irritating.  It wasn’t heavy rain, so we just continued on to home.  My legs were filthy from a dusty backsplash.

Gotta get a lot of work done early. Talk to you later!

Question:  Do you own Tupperware?

Cold bike ride and tips to fool the bulk eater.

It was 36 degrees (2 Celcius) this morning and we wanted to bike to bagels.  That is freaking cold to bike in!  I had on my technical turtleneck and 2 jackets.  I could barely move my upper arms, LOL!  Plus thin gloves and my biking gloves.  When it’s that cold, it’s really hard to get any speed up, since muscles are just stiff.  All I could think of was hot coffee during the ride. So I had 3 cups at Panera!  Plus an Asiago cheese bagel.

bagel

It was a little warmer after we sat for a while with the temps in the 40s.  The sun burned off the fog so it felt better coming home.  Just absolutely gorgeous, though.  Fall is my favorite season and weather like this is one of the reasons why.

It’s no secret that I enjoy food, and I would eat a lot just because I like to!  However, that is not conducive to weight loss (or maintenance, either…).  While I don’t like those really huge portions that are served at restaurants, I do like to feel that I am getting a full plate when I eat.  You eat with your eyes first, and if you think a portion is too small, you are likely to take seconds or eat more than you need. Here are some of my tips that I use to keep my eyes satisfied.

1.  Use a small plate.  When you see my meals, the plates look full because I use smaller plates.  Or I guess they are considered salad plates.  Anyway – the biggest plate I use is 8 inches across, and a couple are 6 inches.   Same thing with my oatmeal bowls.  They are small.  My eyes see this as a good portion that looks really satisfying.  See dinner here :

dinner

2.  Bulk up a dish with veggies or lower calorie filler.  Vegetables (if you like them) are a great way to make the portion larger without adding a lot of calories.  Couscous is also a good alternative.  While I love rice, the volume of couscous is more for the same number of calories.

3.  Make a tasting plate.  This is a fun way to eat and takes longer, so it seems as though you have more.  Like this:

lunch

4.  Cut food up into little pieces.  Example is lunch today.  I could have done cucumber spears and eaten the kiwi whole, but cutting them up took up a lot of room on the plate, making it seem like more food.   This also takes more time to eat, so your ‘full’ signal has a chance to kick in.

lunch

One thing I have noted about taking pictures of my food is that I pay attention to how the food looks.  Now I do this even if I am not taking a picture because I deserve to have a pretty plate every time I eat.  Give it a try and see if it doesn’t make your mealtime just that much more enjoyable.  You are worth taking that extra minute!

Added a new plugin called CommentLuv, which will show a link to your last post from your own when you comment.  Pretty cool!  I really, really like wordpress for blogging.

Question:  Do you use any of these tips or have any tips of your own on ‘fooling’ your eyes?

Out with the old, in with the new.

Yeah!  Football!  We grocery shopped yesterday.That meant we didn’t need to go after bagels, so we could bike there.  It was nice weather for biking, a little foggy, but not cold.  I was hungry by the time we got to Panera Bread!  It’s about 8 miles each way.

French toast bagel and coffee.  So good!

bagel

Fueled by carbs, we started to push the ride on the way home.  I decided to really go for it for the last 1.5 miles or so.  John was following me with the bike computer and he said we topped out around 18 miles an hour.  I was breathing really hard by the time I careened into the driveway LOL!  Felt awesome, though.  I just kept thinking about how fast I could go if I had a road bike.

After showering – I am all set up for football!

team

I do have to work, but I can do that with the game on in the background.

Lunch before the game:

lunch

Chicken wrap with a Flatout wrap.  Cedar’s lemon hummus and lettuce tucked in there.  Tasty.   Plus a super juicy red pear.

I am so concentrating on eating well today.  Sundays are really challenging for me, for whatever reason.

Those Broncos, I tell you – cardiac team for sure.  They won in the last 20 seconds!  Unbelieveable.

winnersGo team!!   Looks like I will lose my weekly picks, though, and have to take John out for dinner 🙁

Latte snack  – woohoo!

latte

Out with the old and in with the new:

I am embarrassed to show the wear and tear on these running shoes!  I desperately needed new shoes.

treadsneaks

Used my Dick’s gift certificate to purchase these new Sauconys.

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They are so comfy.  I was looking at a pair of Asics, but the Sauconys have a wider toebox, which is wonderful for wide feet.  Plus the heel is a little lower, so no rubbing.  Took them for a 1 mile spin tonight and I loved them!!  I had a real bounce in my step and my feet felt very cushioned.  I am a Saucony convert now!

Yummy dinner and one of my favorites!

dinner

Seawatch clam strips.  These were baked in the toaster oven and come out all crispy.  So good.

Question:  Do you change out your workout shoes on a regular basis?

Bagel day and brussel sprouts

You know what Wednesdays are!  No lifting today, so John and I just headed out on the trail to downtown.  It was much earlier than normal since we just got up an went.

The decaf here is so much better!

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Plus my nummy bagel.  I know food shouldn’t make you happy, but it does for me sometimes 😀

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Day 2 of decaf is going well.  I am not nearly as tired today, and still no headache, which is shocking.

Singularly frustrating day with work today.  The AS team was messing around with the software, which causes glitches that end up interfering with productivity.  Lower productivity = lower pay.  Argh!  One of the large downsides to working on production.  I can earn varying amounts in an 8-hour day depending on the quality of the dictator or software glitches.

Tried a different thing with my wrap today.  I made my usual tuna and hummus wrap, but added cucumber to it.

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It definitely was different.  I really noticed how sweet the cucumber was, which I had never really thought about before.  Still working on this box of clementines, too!

For dinner I made another egg sandwich, but no broccoli tonight! LOL!  I did a variation on Alton Brown’s brussel sprouts recipe.

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I shredded it and pan sauteed it with some coconut oil, salt and pepper, and topped with dried cranberries.  Really good!  Even John liked it.  I think the texture of this is the most appealing, as well as the sweet/salty with the dried cranberries.  I actually think I must enjoy the cabbage family most, as broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts are some of my favorite veggies.  How weird.  You would think that someone who didn’t like vegetables much would like a different family of them!  Brussel sprouts were a food I never in a million years thought I would eat, let alone really like 😀  Thanks to my commitment to the Great Veggie Experiment, I have added some things to my repetoire.

Another good reason to eat from the cabbage family?   Studies have shown that the phytochemicals in them can possibly help prevent some forms of cancer!

Question:  Have you ever tried brussel sprouts?

Bike ride and delicious yogurt.

We finally decided on a bike ride today.  We thought we would get to Lake George, than continue on to Bolton Landing 10 miles further out.  The bike path stops at Lake George, so we were going to go on the road.

Fueled up with coffee and some pumpkin oatbran topped with peanut butter and cranberry preserves.  Yum.

oats

Although I do have to say that I much prefer other nut butters on pumpkin oats, but that’s what we have on hand.

Had a beautiful bike start.  Here is a picture of part of the paved path.

path

Sunny! Good thing it isn’t all like this or I would burn to a crisp even with sunscreen.

Got to Lake George and I had a clementine to get a little more energy.  Then we pressed onward.  I had to take a picture of this house – can you imagine living here?  It’s right on the lake, too.

house

After about 1.5 miles, the road had absolutely no shoulder and there was a lot of traffic.  We pulled into a tiny cul-de-sac for a fire hydrant (should have taken a picture) and decided to turn around for safety sake.  I was pretty hungry anyway.

We stopped at the Bank Cafe:

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It actually is an old bank, and they kept the safe LOL!

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Breakfast served all day, so you know I had a bagel, but I wanted more protein.  Here is an egg/cheese/bacon bagel sammie.

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It was really delicious.  Food tastes so good when you are hungry.

John had a ham panini.  This place serves local meat, which is pretty cool.

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We then relaxed on a couple of Adirondack chairs and watched the lake and all the boats.  There were tons of boaters out today.

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I would have loved something from the Lake George Baking Company again this week 😀  But, we decided to have frozen yogurt instead.  By the time we hit the yogurt place on the way back, we had already done 25 miles on the day, and my bagel was not quite enough for that type of riding.   This place is right on the bike path.

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I got a nice carb hit from the yogurt:

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Cheesecake flavor with raspberry sauce.  YUM!!

That gave me an energy boost to get home with.  We ended up with total mileage of 34 miles today.  Nice.

I am posting this early, because tonight we are heading down to Saratoga for the Saturday art walk and then outdoor music.    There might possibly be coffee involved somewhere….  What a jam packed Saturday!

I am so thankful to have a hubby who loves to be outdoors and active with me.  :heart:

Bagel day and the kitty

Well – I had success last night with the cupcakes.  I planned on having 1 and a cup of coffee, and that is what I stuck to!  I really wanted a second one, but it was the start of my September challenge and needed to be on the correct foot. It was a small cupcake, too 😀

cuppycake

No weights this morning as I had to drop off Pixie at the vets at 8 a.m., which is smack in the middle of normal Wednesday weight lifting.  So, we  decided just to bike to bagels this morning.  I’ll do some weights tomorrow instead.

On the way there, we saw some turkeys!  I think it was a mom and a few little ones.

turkey

Got to our usual place where I had my usual multigrain with maple cream cheese!  Yay!  It was tasty.  I was really hungry.

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Lots of work to do today.  All the doctors are back from summer vacations, so the work is piling up.  Guess that is a good thing 😀

I was excited to try the Chobani pineapple yogurt for lunch.

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I opened it up and found that it was fruit on the bottom, which I don’t care for too much (it’s way too sweet for me).

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This yogurt really had a tasty pineapple flavor, but it’s too sweet.  I mixed in some Kashi Heart to Heart (love).

So, it was a little depressing at the vets office today.  I have shown you pictures of Pixie’s giant feet before.

pixShe has 7 toes on the front, but she also has extra toes on the back feet, which is pretty unusual.  The problem is that some of them are deformed and the claws grow really funny.  The vet recommended I get her declawed to prevent ingrown claws and infection.  She also has this problem on the back feet with one toe (yes, she is just weird!).  I have been putting it off because I really didn’t want to have her declawed, but I have to put her best future interests ahead of my own feelings.  So she was taken in today to have that done.  She will be gone for 2 days!  Although we will go visit her tomorrow.  As if I didn’t feel bad enough, the receptionist handed me a card that Chloe was due for her rabies shot this month.  For those of you who don’t know, Chloe was my 18-year-old cat who passed away at the end of March.  I realize that I had forgotten to tell them that she had passed away, as I took her to the cremation place which is at a different vet.  Of course, they wanted to talk about what happened, as they liked Chloe a lot (she had spent a chunk of time at the office in the last year and a half).  I kept my composure there, but started crying as I walked home.  That kind of put me in a funk today.  Now the house is all empty.  I really miss both of the kitties.  At least Pixie will be back on Friday.  It’s amazing what pets can bring into your life and the hole they leave when they aren’t there.  I am not going to fill that with food, however.

Snack with afternoon latte:

craisins

Not Raisinettes, but Craisinettes!  They are covered in milk chocolate, but I had a coupon and really wanted to try them.  Very good.  Too good.

Dinner was another grilled wrap.  Don’t you love getting into food ruts? LOL.

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This one was the usual broccoli, laughing cow, and chicken, but I added a little A1 sauce to it.  Yum, but a bit messy.

Did some shopping at Dick’s tonight where I got some new lifting gloves!  I’ll take a pic tomorrow of those.  I think I might get some running shoes with more of the gift certificate money, but I can’t decide.  So, we went out for coffee 😀  Decaf Americano:

coffee

I was going to talk about coconut water today, but I will save that for tomorrow since many of you probably didn’t even make it down this far LOL!

Hope all you September challengers are getting off to a great start!

What’s blooming and challenge to myself.

Gorgeous Sunday here, absolutely gorgeous!  And I have to work LOL!  Although it has been really slow, so I am getting stuff done around the house.  Went to Panera Bread for our ritual bagel:  Asiago cheese here:

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Then grocery shopping.  Lots and lots of good stuff, including some new Chobani  greek yogurt flavors:  Pomegranate and Pineapple.  You’ll see those this week.  I was so excited to find them.  I think I embarassed John about how excited I was to find them.  Or maybe it was my dancing to the store music 😀

And these were in and on sale!

clems

So, I after some thinking and pondering, I decided that part of me is just being a baby about getting off the last bit of weight.  It’s because I love food ( ya think??), and tend to not want to limit myself.  I think the possibility of going to Cancun in January also makes me want to work a bit harder. I won’t have to do much, just trim back some of the extras for a bit (like those little cinnamon rolls!).  In general, just tighten up the food.  The exercise portion is totally fine.  So, I decided I am going to give myself a challenge to lose 4 pounds during September.  Those long-time followers know this is going to be hard, I am the turtle queen even when things are going well LOL!

Anyone want to join me in a personal challenge for September?  It doesn’t have to be weight loss; it could be exercise, or eating more whole grains, keeping your desk free of clutter, or saying something positive to yourself each day.  We can just check in once or twice a week here to be accountable.

Lunch was a deliciously sweet/tart kiwi with a grilled wrap stuffed with chicken and cheese spread and broccoli (yep, broccoli at lunch today, not dinner!).

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John made up some homemade chocolate sauce, so I had to have some on my latte today.  We have a squeeze bottle for it so I can make pretty patterns. For those curious, we drink 1% milk at home.

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Met with one of my tenants today (the good one) and he gave his 30-day notice to leave as he is buying a house.  I am a little bummed since he was such a great tenant.  Always on time with the rent, very polite, etc.   Will be speaking with the other tenant in a few days to see what he wants to do.  If he wants to move, I will probably try putting it on the market, but I imagine he will get a room mate and stay.  Anyone want to buy a house? LOL.

It was so nice out that I took a run before dinner.  I just wanted to do 2 miles and hopefully get under 10 minutes for each mile.

Total time:  19:20  (9:40 per mile).  I was pretty happy with that (and sweaty).

sweatyWe were going to make a vegetarian chili for dinner, but I was hot and sweaty, and I wanted something lighter and cool for dinner.  So yogurt, cereal, and berries it is!

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Starting to get some fall blooms in the garden!

Liriope:

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lirope

Sedum:

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Aster:

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Mums will be blooming soon.

Question:  Anyone up for a personal September challenge?