Tag Archives: bagels

Bagel Wednesday

Gorgeous day today!  Woke up to no power, though.  That was weird.  Light out, but had no idea what time it was.  Turns out it was 6:15.  John calls that TFE  (too freakin early).  I just decided to get up.  My leg decided I was done sleeping at that point.  I made myself a protein shake, played with Pixie for a while, and then headed to the gym.

15 minutes on the stationary bike at 10 mph.  My knee was was aching doing this, but that is normal and not different than pain I feel in it most times.  Interesting how I have learned to quantify my pain LOL.  Actually, that is pretty important when listening to your body and knowing the difference between it whining and really hurting.

Then I did some weights:

  • Railing body weight squats:  3 sets of 8, very slow
  • Lateral Raise:  3 sets of 10 with 8# DBs
  • Seated row:  3 sets of 10 at 40#
  • Incline pushups (can’t do regular ones yet)
  • Crunches on a bench:  3 sets of 15 (surprised I could do these)
  • Triceps push down:  3 sets of 10 at 40#

Then I did 5 more minutes on the bike.   Just like physical therapy.  Going slow.  I have been faithfully foam rolling and stretching each night as well.  I am working very hard at not overdoing anything at all.  Moving is actually one of the best things I can do to recover.

Then it was bagel time!  John biked to Cool Beans and I drove.  Even though I am injured, I still felt lazy not biking when John did.

I could drink all of these airpots.

I had a sunflower seed bagel with plain cream cheese.  Yum!

John was all happy because they have maple cream cheese again, and that was the only kind he really liked here.

One thing I love about Cool Beans is that they strive to be green:

Then it was to home and work.  Yesterday was really busy, today is really slow.  You just never know what the work load will be any given day.

Lunchtime was scrambled egg and egg whites with feta cheese.  Covered in the hot stuff.

I am craving salty stuff right now.

Then I had a chocolate bar because I knew I wouldn’t be getting my afternoon latte.

After a little more work, it slowed down again, so I headed back to the rental house to get more work done.  I spent time outside and it was so wonderful and warm, although it started to rain on me!  All the little fixups are done pretty much.  Just need a last vacuum and mop of the floors.  I’m just really slow right now.  My mom came and helped out today – (thanks Mom!)  I got home at dinner time and was just beat, though.  John was cooking a stirfry, but I just wasn’t feeling it, since I had that last night.   Ever have nights like that?  Couldn’t get enthused about anything, so I ended up just having some yogurt, honey, strawberries, and All Bran flakes (sent from FoodBuzz).

Is that a cat hair in the bowl??  I think I see that now, which means I probably ate it, because I didn’t see then….

Then I had a small bowl of Bran Buds and some cashews.

Have a serious snack thing going on tonight!

Gratuitous Pixie shot of the day:

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………………..

Nighttime confessional:  John is walking down the street to bring me back a small vanilla malt from the ice cream place while I work.  First trip there since it opened a month ago!

Bagels and biking and bread!

Triple B today!  I woke up early today because of pain.  Just a momentary gripe here, but I will be so glad to finally wake up pain free – or just be pain free period.  This is getting really old.  It’s better mind you, a lot better, but not much fun.  Patience…..

We headed out to Panera Bread, where I had a french toast bagel.

I really took the time to slow down and eat, too.  Sometimes I wolf my food down because I am hungry and it tastes good 😀

Then we went grocery shopping, with me on crutches.  I can’t walk long distances without the crutches yet, although I can get around the house and such without them.  After checking in with work and it being slow (as in dead), we packed up some food and headed out to catch the Battenkill pro bikers along their route.  This bike race is 124 miles long.  Lunch in the car for me was some broccoli slaw sauteed in coconut oil, 1/4 cup of rice and 1 egg/2 egg whites scrambled.  With some hot sauce.  This was quite good!

Poor bikers – it was a cold day and rainy.

We had a cup of coffee and I ate my strawberries while waiting for the bikers.  We were excited!

Poor John, I always cut his head off :D. We actually timed it pretty well (or John did, I should say).  It was quite exciting.  I have never seen a live bike race before.  I have been to plenty of running races, but the tempo of this was so fast compared to that!  Here is a video of the main group.

You can hear me start to freak out about how close the bikers came to us and you can hear them hit their brakes around the curve.  It was a hard left curve. We were on the curb and not even in the road and they came so close!  I actually got a little scared 😳

That was a rush.  They were so colorful, too. I can’t believe how close they ride together at that speed.  Average speed is around 25-30 miles an hour on this course.

Then other small clusters came by.

They were also going fast.

Ooops  – missed the biker here :mrgreen:  He just shot right past my camera.

One lonely Trek rider, way behind.

It was all over so fast.  Next year, I want to go to the finish area, but it is another 1/2 hour away, so we couldn’t do that today with my work.  I want to ride so bad!

Also noted were some lovely azaleas!

Had to get back to work, although it would have been nice to hang around and see the bikers come through again (they do a double 62-mile loop).   Got to work and there was some to do, so I got busy.  John made lattes and I had a snack to go with:

Granola nut clusters.  Addictive!

John made up some of the 5-minute healthy bread from the book I bought him:

It was perfection!  I had a slice with my dinner salad:

I am going to have to work some of this into my eating this week.  So good.  John is happy because the recipe worked!  There is more dough in the fridge, so he can bake whenever he wants.

Pear for dessert:

Well, that fun today comes at a price of having to work late tonight, but it was worth it!

Tomorrow I will talk about me being in Shape and more pictures from the photo shoot we did a couple months ago! 😀

I am also going to venture to the gym for the first time in almost 2 weeks to do some light lifting.  I need to get back into some routine again.

Nooch? I think not.

Thanks for the cheer ups from yesterday’s post.  I can look pretty sad if I want to, and I am not above using it on John at times 😈

I am done with the feeling bad, though.  I now declare my attitude to be:

Whining is not radiant, and that’s what I want to be.  It’s just going to take as long as it takes.  I should see about some PT.  My doctor basically said to work on regular activities and my injury would let me know how far to take it.  I have ordered a foam roller today.

You know what Wednesdays are!  We went to Panera today.  Doesn’t this case look good?

I had myself a blueberry bagel.  Yum, yum.

Nice relaxing breakfast. Then it was time for work.  My work partner today:

She slept next to me for 7 straight hours while I worked.  Lazy, lazy cat.

Lunch time and I felt like a smoothie.  So I made a protein shake with banana flavored protein powder, some pumpkin, and some Kellogg’s Bran Buds (which I got as part of Food Buzz Tastemaker program), with ice and water and a pinch of glucomannan.

Pretty good.  Not totally sold on the banana flavor protein powder; it was pretty strong.  I also had a side of steamed broccoli with nutritional yeast, aka nooch.

Tastes just like parmesan cheese my a**!!  I did not care for the taste of it, although I like the nutritional stats.  Smells funktacular, too.  I have a big bag to use up.  Eeep!

Latte time!

After work, I did a strength workout with the gym in a bag with biceps, triceps, chest and back exercises.  My back actually feels pretty much normal now, it’s just my leg.  I tried doing some pushups, but my leg couldn’t support me, so those are out for a bit still.  I also did a longer walk today, but I took the crutches so I could rest on them (which was a good idea).  Getting there!

Dinner time involved lots of color!

Yum.  These strawberries are so darn good.  Almost gone, too.

Last night I practiced my guitar for the first time in months.  My fingertips hurt LOL!  I am going to try to go 5 days a week of practice.  Part of an effort to be a little more unplugged.  I am working on the classical style of guitar – why I try learning the hardest style is beyond me.  Guess it is because I like it 😀   I would love to be like Sharon Isbin, whom we saw in concert.

Evening snacktations for movie time!

Granny Smith that I cut the middle out of and microwaved for a couple minutes.  Then I mixed some ricotta cheese with bran buds, cinnamon and agave and stuffed in the middle.  This is pretty good!

Ever tried nutritional yeast? I need help with ideas!

Bagel day and improvements.

Bagel day!  I slept back in my own bed last night, which felt pretty good.  I was very stiff and painful this morning, though. Mornings seem to be the hardest time for me pain-wise.  After taking forever showering and such, we headed on out for breakfast at Panera.  I was hoping to not have to use the crutches, but I needed them.  I decided on a chocolate chip bagel.

Chomp!

Yum!  Plus about 3 cups of coffee.  I was babbling away at breakfast, I think it was the Vicodin talking or something.  I think John finds it amusing…

Got to work, and luckily there was some to get started with.  Sunday mornings usually are slow, so I was glad to see there was work available.  I have been getting up every hour to walk around, and I was able to ambulate without the crutches by lunch, so either I loosened up, or the pain pills are really working better today.

It feels good to be doing more for myself now, and I made my lunch today.  John went grocery shopping by himself while I was working (can’t imagine how long it would have taken me hobbling along with him in the store).  He brought back some amazing looking strawberries – and they were delicious!

Tuna salad and brussels as well.

My appetite really does seemed to have adjusted to my lower activity.  I was worried because on my regular rest days, I am usually a bottomless pit – so I thought it would be days and days like that with me being inactive.  I still have the mind desire to snack, but not so bad that I can’t control it.

I have found there has been a little return of the fear of food, though, which bothers me.   John wanted to take me out to eat last night, and I got thinking about where I could go that would be healthy enough and low calorie enough for me where I would actually enjoy it.  I couldn’t think of anything, so we stayed home (plus it is just exhausting to move around so much).  I don’t like thinking about food that way.  Those are my old ways of thinking.  It’s only temporary, I know, but it’s hard to draw that line between being sensible and being neurotic about it.   I am also fighting a bit of the pity eating.  You know how you want to pamper yourself with chocolate because you can’t do stuff?

However, I satisfied that with a sensible snack of a latte and an Attune bar!

I am glad the cheap person in me keeps me from scarfing these down :mrgreen:

Dinner time was a veggie dinner.  No meat thawed out, so I made do with what was on hand.  1/2 a sweet potato topped with laughing cow and sauteed broccoli and 1/4 cup of chickpeas in coconut oil.

Quite good.  I don’t need to load up the protein right now like usual since I am not moving a lot.  I did go for a very slow walk for about a block tonight with the crutches.  I did not take anymore Vicodin today – I switched over to the diclofenac, because I don’t want to really like the narcotics, know what I mean?  The pain is tolerable.  Might use it for sleep, though.

I am hoping I’ll be biking again by next weekend!  This is driving me nuts.

I have a fun idea for oats tomorrow and I hope it turns out good!

Anyone do anything fun and exciting this weekend?

Happy Peep Day!

Happy Easter!  We were up pretty early thanks to Pixie playing outside the door.  She kept banging on the door… grrrr…  So, it was off to bagels!

And some coffee:

No grounds, either!  Woo Hoo!  We had a nice relaxing breakfast and then some grocery shopping.  The guy bagging our groceries had a lot of comments on what we were buying.  He saw my medjool dates and then was mumbling about all the great stuff we were buying like strawberries and brussel sprouts.  I think his comment was “This is where it’s at!”.  I wonder if he would have said anything if the cart was full of junk food….

I had to keep checking in with work today.  Not much to do, but some.  Since clinics are closed, it is only PICU work, since hospitals don’t close for any holiday.  I had a quick protein shake, and then it was off to my sister’s house for Easter dinner!

We had a nice spread:

I made the fruit bowl pretty:

My favorite mints arrived via my Mom.  We called these great grandma’s mints, because she always had them.  I think the real name is french creams:

My plate:

Plus seconds on broccoli and some fruit.  After eating, we took the puppies out for a walk (okay, 1 puppy and 1 older dog)

Honey went into the water for a little fetch:

My BIL is the manager for the tree nursery and part of what the nursery does is to grow the flowers for the DEC owned state campgrounds.  Here are some Norway spruce seedlings:

The greenhouses have seedlings!

Sigh…. I love flowers….

It was time for dessert when we got back!  Lots to choose from:

Jelly bean cake, which actually had jelly beans baked in it,  kind of weird.

My sister’s birthday choice.  This was good!

And a selection of little pastries.

My plate:

Plus another eclair piece.  These were good.

After this – it was bonfire time:

Because there were some of these in the house:

Peep roasting time!  Peep brulee anyone?

Past the point of no return here:

Now we all smell like campfire!  I did not have any roasted peeps, although I kind of wanted one.

Good times.

I need to keep checking in with work tonight for a while longer and eating a little ham snack for dinner.

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

Vegging out.

Back to work time today.  Ever get a little out of routine and it messes you up?  I start every day with a glass of water.  My water glass was not in the bathroom, since it was in the dishwasher, so I didn’t get started with that, and then I left my camera at home for bagel day!  Ooops!  I would have forgotten our reusable grocery bags if John hadn’t brought them, too.

Here is approximately what breakfast looked like:

Asiago cheese bagel!  Move over Picasso….

Stopped for groceries and got a whole bunch of fruit.  I wonder if I eat too much fruit?  Also extra veggies (will explain later).

Had a busy start to the work day, which is a little unusual for Sundays, but I’ll take it!  Then broke for lunch:

Egg puff on tortilla with laughing cow.  I loves me some hot sauce!

Regarding the 100-mile bike ride.  Sometimes I forget that I haven’t posted or written about something, and then mention it later to much confusion.  There is no specific ride John and I are doing, but I wanted a challenge to myself this summer and that sounded like a nice way to do it.  So, we are going to do a day of 100 miles this summer (after we are better conditioned for long rides).  It will take us all day long, so it has to be during maximum day length.  We are trying to map a route that will allow stops for rest and eating along the way.  I am excited about it 😀

Work slowed down in the afternoon, so I went for a nice leisurely walk.  Have to take a rest day, so I consciously walked slower.  This little guy was having a snack!

Speaking of, I came back and made lattes.

And some fruit:

John cooked up a pork loin for dinner that was oh-so-good!  You will see this a few times this week, as there is a lot left.

So, regarding the extra veggies.  My goal this week is to have more vegetables.  That means I am going to make sure I add a serving of vegetables to lunch each day as well as having them for dinner.   Seems appropriate for National Nutrition Month! Anyone want to join me on this challenge this week?

Giveaway tomorrow!

Question:  Extra serving of veggie challenge anyone?

Happy Pi Day!

Did you all remember to change your clocks?  It actually made me sleep a little bit later, but not by much.   Started off Sunday and the beginning of the work week with the glorious bagel!

Trail mix with cream cheese.  I decided not to bring my own cream cheese/protein powder mix today and just have a carbier (new word alert!) breakfast for my rest day.  I need today’s rest.

I need to learn how to rest and relax like Pixie does.  She has it down pat.

Slow work day today. That means a little exploring on Facebook today 😀

Doubled up on protein for lunch with greek yogurt, a little PP, strawberries and my choco protein granola.

Did you know it is Pi Day today (3/14 – get it)?

Last year, we went out for pie.  This year, John decided to make a pie to celebrate.  John is a total whiz at math, and has an undergraduate degree in mathematics.  He double majored in music and math.  He is Mr. Smartypants.   His contribution to Pi day:

An apple cranberry pie.  The crust was a graham cracker crust that he made using apple juice concentrate instead of butter.  I think the crust needs a little tweaking, but that has some good potential! Went well with my latte…

I am really hungry today.  Sometimes that happens on Sundays to me after I have a hard week of exercise.  I am trying really hard not to snack, but I did eat some peanuts and crackers while cooking dinner, which was….

Now I have chicken cooked up for meals this week.   I still have to do some work tonight.  Blah.  Evening snack will be a pear, or possibly some cottage cheese.

Question:  Are you good at math?

Chocolate mother lode!

Wednesday and a busy day for me today!  Started out with a nice lifting routine.  After a warm up walk, I did the following:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1
  • Barbell stiff-legged dead lifts: 1 set of 10 at 45#, 1 set of 8 at 65#, 1 set of 6 at 85#, and 1 set of 4 at 105# (go me!!)

Superset

  • Dumbbell side squat: 3 sets of 10 with 25# DBs
  • Upright row: 3 sets of 8 with 25# EZ curl bar
  • Cable squat-to-row:  3 sets of 10 at 60#

Superset:

  • Wide grip lat pulldown: 3 sets of 8 at 60#
  • Push ups:  3 sets of 10

Superset:

  • Preacher curls:  3 sets of 8 with 35# EZ curl bar
  • Nose breakers:  3 sets with 30# EZ curl bar
  • Decline sit ups:  3 sets of 10
  • Lower back extension (machine): 3 sets of 8 at 100#

Good workout, although it felt a little random.  Maybe that is because I wrote it out at 11 p.m. last night! 🙂

So, we hit up a different spot for bagels called Cool Beans.  We like this place, but it is a little further away and not much seating inside, so you never know if you can get a table.  In summer it’s okay because you can sit outside, but not in winter…

Look at the coffee urns!

I had a sunflower bagel.

I actually brought my own cream cheese today (yes, I am a dork).  I know you are all going to get tired of seeing the extra protein, but I need it for this lifting I am doing.  (I am trying to get to at least 100 g per day.)  So, I mixed some vanilla protein powder in cream cheese with a tbsp of pumpkin and spices to make my spread for the bagel.  It was pretty good and gave me about 15 grams!

Busy working today with a little helper.

I love her expression here.  It’s like she is annoyed that I am bothering her with my work.  This is how it is most days in the morning with Pixie.

A box came for me today this morning, and I opened it up and was thrilled to see this!

A dark chocolate jackpot!  I won a giveaway on Apple Crumbles (great blog, btw) and Hershey’s sent me this.  Yes – that is a case of chocolate bars there!  They are the 100 calorie bars, so not so bad. :mrgreen:  This stuff must go up high or John just might come downstairs one morning with me passed out and chocolate smeared all over my face.

I wanted chocolate for lunch after opening this box, but I resisted.  I made up this mix, which included 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt, 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce, cinnamon, protein powder, and some grapenuts.

It was quite good.  It was a little runny, but I sprinkled in some of that gluccomannan and it thickened up a lot!

I broke into the chocolate stash for the afternoon snack.

Good stuff.  Chocolate and coffee are like a match made in heaven.

It was so beautiful out today.  Wish I could have gone for a bike ride, but a lot of work to do, and then dog training in the evening!

Needed a quick dinner, so guess what that means?? Salad!

I tell you, having precooked meal components is really a lifesaver when you are busy.  It takes me about 5 minutes to put this together.  A meal that actually takes longer to eat than it does to make!

Had a good training session.  I think I might be working with Storm for real in May.  Kinda scary!   I stopped afterwards to chitchat with my sister at McDonald’s of all places.  That’s because this one wanted a happy meal:

I tried something from the McCafe for the first time ever.  I actually haven’t been in a Md’s in at least a couple years.  This was a nonfat latte:

The verdict? Not bad.  For an automatic espresso machine, it was about what I would expect.  At least it was fresh!  No topping bar available, though – so no cinnamon or nutmeg to dust on top (okay, I’m a snob, I admit it).  It was also hotter than the sun…  gheesh!  Why do places make their lattes so hot?

Now relaxing time.

Question: Do you precook foods for easy meal preparation later in the week?

Bloggy run day

It’s Sunday and back to work for me… sigh… The weekend goes all too fast.  We headed on down to Saratoga for a different bagel today.

It has such a nice atmosphere inside:

John and I both got the same banana nut bagel today with honey walnut cream cheese!

Got home and worked, worked, worked!  Really busy today (which is good).  Stopped for a quick lunch of a scrambled egg wrap with Laughing Cow and a plum.  These are starting to make a comeback in stores now!

Then I had a little dessert:

Worked a little more and then participated in the blogger run day by doing 3 miles!  It was so beautiful outside – 50 degrees and sunny.  The track was dry, so John came with to walk while I ran and take some action shots.  Still big snow piles everywhere, though:

Nice shot of me running away – don’t I look speedy?

Leave it to my husband to take a picture of my butt.  At least he didn’t zoom in….

Just passin’ by:

I have to admit that I just was not feeling this run at all.  I almost never run in the afternoon anymore, and my calves were complaining, which is really weird, but I think that was probably from biking yesterday.  It was a real slog getting through this.  But I finished!

I needed a pick-me-up after we got back, and this hit the spot!

Mmmmm…. lattelicious.

So an update.  The scale isn’t budging for me on my desire to go for 140, but my snacking has gotten bad again.  I really need to get serious and quit dinking around.  I am actually going to reduce my cardio a little bit, too, which will help with the snacking, I think.  I will have a running FAQ post up this week (I promise!).

Dinner was an old friend I haven’t had for a while – clam strips!  With some brussel sprouts and strawberries.  Tasty.

Done with work for the day and need to make a strength training workout for this week.  Back to lifting – yay! :mrgreen:

I don’t watch the Oscars, but I guess those are on tonight.  The only movie I have seen in theaters in at least a year was The Princess and The Frog.  Can you believe that?  And the movie before that was Batman with Heath Ledger.

Question: Do you watch the Oscars?

Bagel day!

The Attune bar giveaway ends on Thursday, so don’t forget to enter if you haven’t yet!

It’s Bagel Day!  I love my bagel days 😀

Since I am resting from lifting this week, I decided not to go to the gym this morning.  I didn’t really want to run 3 days in a row, so I decided to do  it old school today with a Walk Away The Pounds DVD.

I kind of forgot how annoying Leslie can get 😀  (just kidding…kind of).This is a nice workout, though.

Then it was a shower and off to the cafe.  They probably didn’t recognize me because I was showered and not wearing my hat.  Noshing ensued:

I can feel spring coming!  I so badly want to break the bike out with temps in the upper 30s.  Too bad the bike trails are still covered with snow.  When I see the tulip buds, then I know we are on the way.  But, the snow has to melt first.   I decided to think even warmer and have a Mediterranean theme for lunch – tuna and hummus topped with sundried tomatoes on a tortilla (okay, a little Mexican thrown in there).  Plus some brussel sprouts.

That was a change up for lunch!  Then there was a lot more working.  Busy right now.

Snack of champions to go with my latte.

Speaking of coffee, I got this question:

Do you have any coffee before your afternoon Latte? Do you have any in the morning with breakfast or before your workout? why or why not?

Oh my, yes.  I do have coffee every morning with breakfast.  We make cafe au lait, where we heat up 1/2 cup of milk, froth it up and fill the mug with coffee.  I just don’t take a picture of it because I am usually drinking it 😀  I have 2 of those with breakfast (to equal 1 cup of milk).

I do not have coffee before my workout just because I don’t have time, as I just eat my preworkout snack and go. I don’t want to make some and try to slug it down.  I like to savor my coffee.  However, if it were already made when I got up, I would probably drink some before leaving the house. If I could get John’s butt out of bed at 6:30, maybe he could make the coffee….

I didn’t get a picture of dinner, but it was Kashi cereal and a tortilla on the way out the door.  Now that is nourishment for you.  I had to leave the house at 5, so it didn’t leave time to fix dinner.  Dog training tonight!  Storm is my job.  He is better at this stuff than I am, since he gets training and I just wing it each week 😀

Look how he loves me.  It’s really because I was the keeper of the cheese tonight.  Food rulz for doggies.

Then there is my dad and Lizzie – she is getting big.   6 months old now.

Speaking of the snack of champions, I brought home stellar nutrition for John and I after class was over.  Did I mention that Dunkins is only 1/2 mile from my house?

Flash picture, sorry about that.  Now I have to get back to work and finish up a little bit.

Question:  Coffee, tea, neither, or both?