Tag Archives: challenge

Healthy Heart Weekend February 21st – 23rd

Can you believe this is the 4th annual Healthy Heart Weekend?

hhweek

If you want to see some of the previous years’ results click here,  click here or click here. 

Here’s how it works. During  this weekend, do some kind of activity on 1 of the 3 days of Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.  You don’t have to have a blog in order to join, either.

This weekend is all just about getting moving. If you want to walk, that’s fine. Elliptical bunny? Knock yourself out! Take a long bike ride? Go for it! Play date with the family? Have a blast!  Slinging the barbell around counts, too :D   The only stipulation is that you need to take a picture of yourself before, during or after your event and send it to me. I will post the pictures in a wrap up post. Get creative, too! You don’t have to have your face in the photo if you don’t want to, so have fun with it!

Date:  February 21st, 22nd and 23rd! Feel free to chose Friday, Saturday, or Sunday to complete your event.

Activity: Your choice!

Distance: Your choice. I know many of you are training for an event, so you can use whatever distance fits in with your training plan. It’s all about a healthy heart, not a specific distance or time.

After you complete your event, please email me the photo and what you did at javaqueen01 (at) yahoo.com .

Please post below if you would like to participate and what you plan to do! Feel free to post about it on your blog if you have one and see how many people we can get to participate! You may grab the logo above and link as well. 

I will be giving away some prizes, too.   I will update this post as we go along with the prizes. And since I am hosting – anyone in the world is eligible for the prize drawings!

It’s actually really fun doing a virtual event.  I loved getting in the emails all weekend with photos and what people did. Let’s get a lot of people involved this year!

Football dinner and a little music, please.

Dang it feels like Friday.  Not so, unfortunately!  I slept in a little later this morning, which was quite nice.

Pixie says “Don’t just sleep in, sleep all the time!”

Today is to be a grain-free day.  The challenge will be dinner out – for my football winning dinner!  😈  Poor John.

I made up a banana bread pudding for breakfast:

Topped with coconut butter and orange marmalade.  Yummy!  This is quite filling.

Doing well on my monthly goals.  I did my 3 miles yesterday – all outdoors because of the 54 degree day! Of course, it is always easier at the beginning of a challenge when motivation is high.

I continued working on the goals with lunch.

Two different veggies per day, which in  my world likely is broccoli and *insert other veggie here*

Since I wasn’t sure what veggies would be available for dinner, I made sure lunch included something.

I really put my head down and worked.  Super productive, which is great – so I finished up early!  John had made lattes:

(Does my thumb look weird, or is it me?).

Then I loaded up my mp3 player and headed out for a walk.

This is on my player currently:

Hot Club of Detroit – All 3 albums! (although the first album is my fave).

If you have 6 minutes, listen to this tune.

Hot Club of Detroit – Noto Swing from Mack Avenue on Vimeo.

Awesome!

Also on the mp3: Journey – Greatest Hits, Sweeney Todd Soundtrack, Gaelic Storm, Dirty Dozen Brass Band – 2 albums, Harry Connick Jr,. 25, New Nile Orchestra.

A bit eclectic, eh?

Some scenes from my walk.

Yum! Even if there is a grammar problem with the sign.

Burning bush with berries:

Looks like a murder at the old Scarecrow house!

Personally, I think  it is this guy:

He looks creepy enough.

Then it was off to my winning dinner!

This is a new restaurant.  They are supposed to have local smokehouse products there.  I chose the pulled pork.  It came on a bun, but I didn’t eat it (no grains today)

Good thing I said sweet potatoes counted as a veggie for me this month!  :mrgreen:  These were sweet potato fries.  I had a couple bites of coleslaw as well.  There might have been some kind of starch in the BBQ sauce, but I will just be on faith there.  Good dinner!

Afterwards, there was an early concert here:

It was a free concert by the Air Force Wind Quintet!  A short program, about an hour and quite enjoyable.  It turned out to be a date night!  Really does kind of feel like a Friday  😀

 

Nonbagel day and riding the wave!

Since I can’t call it Bagel Day, I guess it is Biking Day!  It was cool and foggy this morning, like living in the Pacific NW.  I grabbed a quick protein hit and we biked for breakfast.  By the time we got to town, the sun was out and burned off the fog.

I had brought along a 1 minute muffin with some cream cheese and jam.  Added a cup of French Roast.

It was a nice breakfast chatting about where we are going to ride this weekend.  I also enjoyed this lovely flower at the table.

I’ve never had a lot of luck growing hydrangeas.  Not sure why.

After a nice ride home, I settled in to work until lunch time.  I wanted peanut butter, but couldn’t think of what to have, then I decided on peanut flour made into a dip for my pear.  The peanut flour has 15 grams of protein in it, which is awesome!  I mixed it with a little honey, some cinnamon and a tiny pinch of salt.

It took a while to eat this lunch because it was in so many pieces 😀

This guy was eating lunch while I was.

A little white sulfur butterfly.  There are tons of them around here.  Sometimes you see yellow ones, but the whites are very common.

Are you tired of dried pineapple yet?  Apparently I am not:

I try to limit myself to 1 piece as it is 70 calories for 1 and pretty sweet.  This seems to be enough to satisfy my needs for sweet right now.

I found myself wanting to nibble this afternoon and I had a few pistachios, but then I just had a couple mints to stop that.  I was getting mildly hungry, but not over the edge hungry and figured I could wait another hour for dinner.  Sometimes I have to really remind myself that it is okay to be a little hungry before dinner 😳

Speaking of dinner, I got in some superfoods.  Roasted sweet potato slices and my broccoli!

I don’t know if pork is a superfood, but it was tasty.  I just ate it crumbled up instead of a burger because it would cook faster (well, I was hungry).

I am doing quite well on my challenge to date and halfway through!  I really feel like I am in a zone and getting through the weekend being on point really helped out with that.  This challenge is doing exactly what I had hoped for my attitude. I’ll ride the wave as long as I can!

Riding the wave:

(I figured I needed more pictures of me not sweating or wearing a bike helmet on here LOL)

Grain-free for 21 days starts today

It’s Monday.  So today begins my 21 day grain-free challenge. Not just gluten free, but grain free.

This means no:

Wheat*Rye*Barley*Bran*Bulgur*Couscous*Farina*Kamut*Orzo*Semolina*Spelt*Corn*Cornmeal*Rice *Oats*Millet* and a few other grains that I just don’t eat (and have never heard of). It also means some of the derivatives, like no cornstarch and no beer! Not that I drink much beer, but I have to remember.

I did some reading, and it appears that quinoa is not a grain, although often categorized as one. It is actually a seed, so I can have that. That sort of seems like cheating? But then, flax meal isn’t a grain either.

I tried a new recipe for breakfast which I will post the recipe for on Tuesday.  These are something I am calling ricotta puffs.  I got the recipe from the Perfect 10 book, but I changed them up a bit.

With blueberry sauce (which I had to thicken with arrowroot and not cornstarch). 5 ingredients in these little puffs and easy to make. Check back tomorrow for that post.

These were quite good.  I made 6, so you will see more this week 😀

Work was quick during the morning, even though the cable guy came in and had to work on our cable modem and the line to the house because something has been weird with it lately.  No internet means no work.  So I ate lunch while he was here.

Salad topped with some cooked pork, feta cheese, and honey mustard dressing (that I made).  I can’t have my BBQ sauce because it has food starch in it.  Need to shop for a different brand.  Grain free is actually a little harder than gluten free, it turns out.

Afternoon snackage!

Pixie is so annoyed here.  I was trying to put these in place while she was sleeping, but the banana touched her and woke her up.  Ooops.

Dinner was a cheese omelet with Cabot cheese in my Xbox.

I had some omelet run off, though.  Don’t put 2 eggs and cheese in only one of the wells.  Lesson duly noted.

Tonight’s snack?

Grain free day done.  I have done them before, so no problem today.

I think I will have trouble in a couple of days when I miss my bagel.

I already have grain-free meals in my repertoire, so it won’t be so bad at first. These grain-free recipes are going to be in the mix these next 3 weeks:

Palak Chole

1-minute muffin

Peanut flour waffles

Socca Bread

Coconut flour biscuits

Banana Breakfast bread pudding

Now for some relaxing tonight with this while eating above peanuts:

I finally got it at the library!  I am only about a year behind everyone else…

100-mile ride. AKA I am a centurian again!

Finished!  My summer goal complete.  No peloton, no lead out train, just me in my own private break away doing 100 miles.

Let’s ride, shall we?  I was up early to get an early start on the ride.  I did my standard fuel of banana custard oats with jam and coconut butter.

What a pretty day, right?  One of the reasons I chose to go for it today.  Since John has decided he didn’t need to do 100 miles again this year (smart guy), not to mention that his bike is out of commission right now,  I just wanted to finish it out.  I packed up my bike bag and got ready to roll.

I left at 8:00 a.m.

Went north first and it was a good start other than a pretty stiff head wind, which was going to annoy me a few times today.  I passed through farm country:

Moo!

Hi Bessie, thanks for the milk and butter 😀

The traffic was heavier than I would have liked, and this road is 55 mph.  Most of the time there is a really wide shoulder, but I got to where it was more narrow.  It was starting to bother me.  I stopped at mile 17 for a pear.

This road looks peaceful, but the traffic was heavy.  I think a lot of people were going up to Whitehall to launch their boats.

The road got curvier up ahead, and I decided to turn around since the traffic was bothering me.  I was extra conscious of safety today being out by myself.

At mile 25, I stopped for another fruit fillup and to text John with my whereabouts.

Red plum!

I was making good time and feeling strong in the morning. Mile 35 was time for some more fuel. Approximately 5 miles from home.

I wanted more frequent smaller 100-200 calorie fuel ups today as that seems to be what works the best.  I ate 2 medjool dates here.

I rolled in to home for a lunch stop at mile 40.5.  Average speed for the first 40 miles was 13.6 mph. I could have eaten out, but figured I would just go home.  This was Heritage Days weekend and look what was going by the house just as I got home.

Parade!  They must have known I was doing 100 miles.  How nice of them 😀 I love bagpipes.

After chugging a bunch of water, I made a quick lunch.  Baked potato with laughing cow and ground pork with BBQ sauce – and my 4th serving of fruit for the day.

It felt good to get a real meal in.  Snacks are good and all, but sometimes you just want more.  I also had a couple handfuls of cashews.  I was home for about 45 minutes or so, then I headed back out after a 2nd application of sunscreen. Now I had the tailwind, and that was nice!  I was noticing the hills a bit in my quads at this point.  I stopped at mile 51 for refreshment – halfway done:

Coconut water love. I need them to sponsor me.

It was feeling pretty warm today.  Even though the temps were in the low 80s, it was sunny with a capital S!  And it was around 1:30 during this time.  John was actually coming down to Saratoga on his scooter to meet me after giving me an hour head start.  He passed me after I had been on the road about an hour.  I was surprised to see him, but it was a nice surprise when he pulled off the side of the road in front of me.  I forgot to take his picture.  I felt secure knowing that he was only going to be a few miles in front of me.

I was really feeling good.  I felt well prepared for this ride and it was going by fast!  I was surprised at how far along I was by the time I arrived to cupcakes!  Mile 62.  John was already in town, so I texted him to let him know I was there and I got my snack.

I had a large iced coffee with a macaroon.  I definitely like the pistachio one better, but they were out.

Also on board – a peanut butter cupcake!  This was really good.  The frosting was not super sweet or really heavy like peanut butter frosting can be.

My body was loving the instant carb hit from these.  I think I had burned 1800 calories by this point or so.  I actually was a little sad when I finished these because I wasn’t ready to be done LOL.

This was maybe a half hour break or so?  I lathered up with sunscreen again. Then, John walked me out to the bike and said the most horrible thing to me.  He said “So everything okay and no flats?”  Nooooo!!!!  I knew he jinxed me.

I knew the next 20 miles were going to be really tough.  It was right into the headwind and I had already done 60 miles on the day.  And it was tough.  And then at mile 70, there was this:

Yep.  I noticed I was getting a bit of a shimmy while riding (and not in my hips…) and checked my tire.  Not completely flat, but really soft.  That meant a slow leak.  I had thought about trying to keep it pumped up and keep going, but then I decided to just change it.  Cause  I am a rockstar and don’t need anyone to do it for me!  I had 2 people stop and ask me if I needed help, both of which when I was pretty much done and just adjusting the chain.

Now – I can change my tube, but it does take me a while.  That was more what bothered me than anything else was losing about 25 minutes with all that messing around.  I had texted John to update him, but I didn’t need him to come rescue me.

Back on the road and I had to stop 5 miles later  at mile 75 for another dried fruit hit.  Pineapple and dates.

That 25 minute stop used up some of my calorie stores.  I love the dried fruit, although I probably consumed some chain grease as well because my hands were dirty.

My original plan was to not stop at home for the rest of the ride, but I wanted to get another spare tube and properly fill up this tire.  I have a Schwinn portable pump, which actually doesn’t work the best.  John has a Pocket Rocket pump (Yes, please commence to laugh and snicker, because I am always making jokes about it),which I meant to take, but forgot. So I swung by home.

This was mile 85.5. Home pit stop meant dropping my bike lock, saving about a pound in my bag, plus grabbing another coconut water!  And a pointless potty stop.  I was just sweating it out before anything got to my bladder today, and I drank *a lot*.

It was about 5:15 at this point.  I really needed some pep talk to get out there and finish. I knew it was just a little over an hour left.

I have to admit that I struggled for the next 10 miles.  I was tired in funny places, like my wrists and my shoulders.  My legs felt pretty good.  I was also mentally fatigued.  That is really the hardest thing on the long rides.  I was losing some sharpness.  I would hit bumps that normally I would miss because my reaction time was delayed. And the last bit seemed to go on for-ever!

I stopped at mile 95 at a real wall.  I got off the bike and ate this granola bar.

I really just wanted to be done.  I didn’t want to go any further, yet I was so close. And I wanted some real food!  I had seen  some candy in the road, something like M&Ms, and there was a thought to stop and eat it.  5-second rule, right? Only who knows how long it was there.  That set off a giggling fit, so I knew I was really tired 😯

My quads ached when I stopped riding, so that was impetus enough to keep going.  I was so close.  The next couple of miles seemed interminably long.  Then when I was 3 miles from home and on the last bit, I got energized again.  I started pedaling faster to get home.  I watched the odometer roll over 100 miles and with a half mile to go,  then I thought “Hmmmm…. I should just keep going a little more to make it 101 miles.”  Was I insane?? I think so.  Obviously I reeled it in and just stopped.

I made it!

That, my friends, is delirium.  So, so glad to be done.  It was tough.  I physically could have gone further, but I was toast mentally.  I started the day at 8 a.m. and finished at about 6:40 p.m.  Not bad, really, with breaks and a flat tire change.

Ride stats:

Distance:  100.6 miles (161 km)

Ride time:  7 hours 30 minutes

Average speed 13.4 mph

Top speed: 27.4 mph

Calories burned: 3100 😯 😯

I took the most fabulous shower and then we went out to dinner.

I do actually clean up fairly well:

Then we hit up Olive Garden for a bigass pasta dinner!  I told the server I wanted a lot of water and this is what he brought me:

He said I sounded really serious LOL!

After scarfing bread sticks and salad, I had a big plate of ravioli:

Then I came home and ate M&Ms while watching the Tour.

Yay – I am done!  It felt good, but after doing this twice – no more.  I don’t need to be riding 100 miles again.  40 to 50 miles is plenty long enough.

So much more I could say, but this post is long enough for now. Thanks for reading!

Healthy Heart Weekend Roster

Okay!  Here are the results of all who sent me in their entries!  Thank you so much to everyone who participated!  Every time I got a new email in my box this weekend, it made me smile to see what you did.  I hope this starts a new tradition 😀

There was everything from running, walking, swimming, snowshoeing, biking, and elliptical!  People participated who are new to exercise, are training for big events, have injuries, have illnesses, and have personal issues.  Nothing stopped you guys!   I hope I didn’t miss anyone.  Not everyone who signed up completed the weekend, but maybe next time!

A big thanks to Harbinger for the weighted jump rope that will be going to someone listed at the bottom of the post.

Also 2 other receiving either fresh roasted coffee or dark chocolate mint cups courtesy of Team Radiance 😀

Me! 4 miles

 John – 20 miles Kathy (my mom!) 1 hour bike and treadmill
Fran – 8 miles

 Jen A – 5K

 Shelley – 15 mile bike
Jo – 41 minutes

 Rachael – 60 minute Stairmaster

 Cammy- elliptical 5K
Leah – 5K

 Cilla – 6K elliptical

 Ginesa 7.35 miles
Susie – 5 miles

 Helen – 10 miles

 Marisa – 5K
Alissa – 5K

 Debby – 6 miles

 Kathy
Biz – 5K

 Chelsea – Elliptical 5K

 Amy 8K
Jody Run

 Kimberly – 40 swim laps

 Shelly – 3 miles snowshoeing
Jan – walking and biking

 Kim K – 4 mile walk

 Julie – 5K
Laura – 5 miles

 Jessica – 13 mile bike

 Kelly – 2 miles running/8miles biking/2 miles running
Desert Agave – 5K

 Katie – 6 miles

 Pubsgal – 14 mile bike
Pam– 2.6 miles

 Cyndall – 4 miles

 Kim Z – 9 miles

Drum Roll Please!  Random.org chose 17, 26, and 24.

Winner of the Harbinger Weighted Jump Rope:

Debby – 6 mile walk (debbyweighsin).

Winner of 1 box of Dark Chocolate Mint Cups:

Kim K (4 mile walk)

Winner of 1 bag of fresh roasted coffee:

Shelly – 3 miles snowshoeing (Vergence Ranges)

———————————————

Please email me at javaqueen01(at)yahoo.com with your address!

Congrats to all who participated 😀

Running to start the week

Another week begins 😀

I was up and ready for a run today.  Must be all that Super Bowl food I ate yesterday!  Hooray for pretzels! I headed out for the treadmill and did 3 miles with a speed arc going from 5.0 to 6.0 mph and back down over the course of the 3 miles.  All in preparation for the Blogger’s Healthy Heart weekend!  Don’t forget about it everyone (or sign up if you have not).

I came home for breakfast.  No grains today.  I made peanut flour waffles and topped with blueberry sauce.

I had cream in my coffee today, which is really unusual for me, but part of my lower carb experiment.  I think I am going to go no grains for 4 days a week, then have grains 3 days a week.  We’ll see.  I am just playing around here, so enjoy the ride.  When I don’t have grains as part of my carbs, then I am free to have several servings of fruit and dairy.  Obviously this causes all sorts of reactions from people who still consider 100 g of carbs too much, but to each her own, right?  Like I said, this is the Lori-eo version.  I should have an interesting report on this experiment at the end of the month.

I’ve never been an extreme on either end of any ‘diet spectrum’ with the exception of thinking fat was evil.  I remember going on the pasta and Snackwell diet in the early 90s.  You know – eat all you want, just watch fat because it’s evil (especially saturated fat)? That worked well… snort…  I could pack away the Snackwells like nobody’s business (especially the devil’s food ones).  Eat a sleeve of cookies?  No problem – and hey, they are fat free! 🙄

Think I might have to do a dietary fat musings post for fun.  Just need to source up some material.

Lunch time was a large salad.

Most of you know that I have BBQ sauce on chicken in place of dressing.  The reasoning for that is 2-fold:  I don’t like a lot of bottled dressings and those that I do like I never use the bottles up before they go bad.  Okay 3-fold, I just also really like the BBQ 😀  On a side note, I don’t do well making my own.

Here I am in my early 40s and I just had the idea to purchase packets of dressing in the deli section of the grocery store:

Of course, this is still too much dressing for me to put on one salad, but I can save it for another day.  And even if I only use part of it, I don’t feel so bad if I forget to use the rest.  Why this never occurred to me before, I don’t know. There are some things I am willing to pay more for to get smaller packaging that works for me.

So I had this with some cooked chicken, feta cheese, and toasted almonds.  I was quite happy with this.

Afternoon snackage before the latte was something interesting.  My mom made some of this up just for me at the Super Bowl because I had mentioned how much I liked it LOL!  It’s dried beef spread with cream cheese and rolled up.

Sounds gross, doesn’t it?  I don’t know why I like it, but I do. Salty and creamy.  Just a couple pieces go a long way, too.  I nibbled on a few of these.

Then it was time for the good stuff:

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and latte time is my favorite snack of the day!

Spent some time shoveling the driveway this afternoon.  We have a slate roof and the snow and ice slide off in big cascades with huge rumbles.  It’s like being in an avalanche.  Since it was so cold, none of the snow we have had has slid off until the last couple of days.  Giant ice hunks came down, too.  Some of them were at least 6 inches thick and very heavy. Sure wouldn’t want to be standing under those.  More snow on the way tonight, too… Anyway, that was a good pre dinner workout.

I cooked up the last of the pork.

Working tonight and getting ready for more snow.  It never ends, I tell you.  This winter has had a lot of snow, and it’s only the first part of February! 😯

I made up my snack to have for later on, and it is chilling in the fridge:

This is 1/2 cup of pumpkin, a pinch of stevia, 1 egg white, spices cooked in the microwave for a couple minutes.  Topped with toasted pecans.  Like a mini pumpkin custard!

Question:  What strange food pairing do you like?

Last Hot 100 update and monthly wrap up

Happy New Year’s Eve!!  It’s been a nice quiet day.  Very little work to do, but there may be some more tonight.

Since it was going to be 40 degrees out, I decided an outdoor run would be nice to do today.  That meant waiting until it actually got up to 40!  So breakfast it was!

Delicious protein waffles and apple cranberry topping.  I used fresh cranberries instead of dried because we had them.  Good choice.

The last Hot 100 update!  Thanks Steve for hosting this challenge to keep us all in line the last part of the year!

  1. Maintain my weight. The scale is going back down again as I have been eating really well this week.
  2. No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day!   This goal is done.
  3. Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. This goal is also done for the year.
  4. Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least.  Did 4 days.
  5. Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on.  I’m still trying with this.  I wish I could have gotten around to everyone!
  6. Do one no-added sugar day each week.  Success!

Overall pretty pleased with the challenge.  I do have some work to do on my weight, but there is always next year hahaha!

After doodling around for most of the morning, I fixed lunch.

I like baking the breaded shrimp in the toaster oven.    After letting lunch settle for a while and watching Jeopardy,  I decided to go out for my run.  I did have an ulterior motive to this run.  John went for a walk and then our paths criss-crossed so I could use this:

Expires today!  I have had this coupon for over a year and never used it. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.  After 3.5 miles, I had a scoop of apple pie ice cream.

Hooray!  It tasted even better because it was free!

I was so sweaty, too.  Good thing I didn’t wear the turtleneck.  Then I ran the last 1/2 mile to home.  I think one should always stop for ice cream in the middle of a run.  4 miles done for the last day of the year.  Yay!

Now for a look at my personal goals for December.

  • Keep an eye on my portions.  I did okay with this.  I certainly ate a lot on Christmas eve and Christmas. Probably not as good as I did the year before.
  • Relax!  I am very go-go-go and forget to just chill out.  That means more reading and listening to music.  I did read more and played more computer games LOL
  • I will barbell squat 105 pounds with 6 reps by the end of the month.  I am at 95 right now, so I should make it.  Crap.  I did 100 pounds for 6 reps.  It was hard just adding the 5 pounds and getting 6 reps done, let alone 10.  Not sure what I was thinking there. Although I am proud at squatting 100 pounds.
  • Reflect on this past year.  Done!

Now I need to make my ‘to-do’ list for 2011.   No resolutions.  Just things to do and work towards.  No pressure.  I’ll ponder that this weekend.

I am going to sign off early for the holiday.  We don’t have much planned except trying to stay awake until midnight and watching movies.  Maybe playing a few video games:

Have a safe and Happy New Year and see you on the flip side!

Merry Christmas Eve and hot 100 update

Christmas Eve! This is the day I like the best because on Christmas it is all over. I love the festiveness and the lights and the feeling of anticipation on the eve.

One of my favorite things to do is late at night on Christmas eve is to turn on holiday music and sit in the living room with just the Christmas lights on. 😀

I am posting early because we have a dinner to host tonight! I wanted to get my hot 100 update in since I probably won’t post again until Sunday.

I was ready for a good sweat fest at the gym this morning. I ran 2 miles on the treadmill, then hit the iron.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Seated lat row 1 set of 12 at 40#

1 set of 10 at 55#

1 set of 8 at 70#

1 set of 6 at 85#

 Back
Cable Squat to Row 3 sets of 10 at 60# Full Body
Flat chest fly 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Chest
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 10 at 30# Core
Lying Leg Press 3 sets of 10 at 100# Lower Body
Face Pulls 3 sets of 10 at 40# Shoulders
Nosebreakers 3 sets of 12 with 25# bar Triceps
Good Mornings 3 sets of 10 at 55# Low back and hammies

Then I got on the hamster wheel for 1 more mile. That is tough running and lifting so close together. Takes me out of my comfort zone, but that’s a good thing, right?

I was hangry for breakfast and whipped up some protein waffles topped with apple/cranberry topping.

Yeah – good stuff!

Checked in for work.  Slow day.  Not that I mind too much.

Now for the Hot 100 weekly update!

  1. Maintain my weight. Oooops….
  2. No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day!   This goal is done.
  3. Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. This goal is also done for the year.
  4. Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least.  Did 5 days.
  5. Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on.  Visited a bunch last weekend, will do so again this weekend.
  6. Do one no-added sugar day each week.  Success!

So, my weight is up, but that is really no surprise there with the holiday week.  I am going to enjoy this weekend and try not to go overboard.  We will freeze up cookies after Saturday.  We do a family cookie swap, so that is why we have all the cookies 😀  At least they freeze well.

Maybe my sister and I will get up to something like this as we have in the past:

Although we are out of bourbon…

We have the table set up and ready to go.

I love this table service.  It was my great grandmother’s and I adore the pattern on it.

We now have some cooking to do for dinner.  Doing a pot roast with veggies, a sweet potato/cranberry dish, broccoli (surprise!), fresh fruit and then the cookies and my grandfather’s cake.

The sexsay co-chef:

I will try to get lots of pictures.

Pixie wishes you all a meowy christmas!

Enjoy the time with your family and friends!

Hot 100 update

Hooray for Friday! Had a lot to do today, that is for sure. I started with my workout this morning. The furnace was out at the gym and it was very cold in there! It was probably 55 degrees. I don’t mind it being a little cooler because I get sweaty, but my nose was running!

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell Dead Lifts 3 set of 10 at 70# Lower body
Underhand Lat Pulldown 3 sets of 10 at 60# Back
Calf Raise 3 sets of 10 at 140# Calves
Plank 3 sets 1-minute holds Core
Pushups 3 sets of 10 Chest
Face Pulls 3 sets of 12 at 30# Shoulders
Triceps Pull down 3 sets of 15 at 30# Shoulders
Single leg deadlifts 3 sets of 10 each leg with 15# DBs (30# total) Hammies and balance
Low Back Extension 3 sets of 10 at 100# Low back

My legs are still a little sore from the squats the other day.  Working up to the 100 pounds really fries them.  I was so ready for a hot breakfast after this! I had a coupon and tried a new breakfast cereal – Wheatena. Ever had it?

I did it banana custard style, topped with PB and some nog honey.

It was good. Kind of tasted like a cross between oat bran and cream of wheat with more of a nutty taste. Very filling, too.

This week’s Hot 100 Update.  I can’t believe there are only a couple weeks left in 2010!

  1. Maintain my weight. I am up 1 pound after the Colorado visit today, but down from when I first got back. Must concentrate this week…
  2. No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day!   This goal is done.
  3. Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. This goal is also done for the year.
  4. Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least.  Did 5 days.
  5. Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on.  I need to catch up on blog reading after my trip.
  6. Do one no-added sugar day each week.  Fail.  I was supposed to do it yesterday, but at a Balance bar right when I got up.

An okay week.  Will do better the week prior to Xmas.

I did some work and ate a bit of an early lunch because I had shopping/errands to run.  It’s the return of the BBQ chicken salad!  I didn’t have feta, so I had some sharp cheddar on it.

Loaded that up with 4 oz of chicken, too, cause of the lifting

I hit the library and finally found this book:

We shall see if it holds my interest.

I had texted John on my way home so that he would have lattes ready when I got back. Don’t you love how I order him around?? :mrgreen:

Paired with a Luna Bar.  I really like the toasted nuts and cranberry one.

Little more work and I almost forgot about dinner!  John hadn’t started cooking anything and I didn’t note the time.  I wasn’t starving either.  Maybe the Wheatena?

Hot sauce making its appearance today 😀

Today has gone by really fast, I have to say.    I will have a wee bit of chocolate for a snack while working.  I have about an hour of work left, then tomorrow is off!

Need to find something holiday to do – and have John take me out for my football meal.  Yes – after 5 weeks, I finally won the picks!

Question:  Have you read Women, Food, and God?