Tag Archives: challenge

1500 calorie week done!

Hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was fairly uneventful, which actually was kind of nice. Plus, I made it through my 7-day 1500 calorie challenge to myself! (more on that below) Now I can get back to regularly scheduled eating on Monday. Even with lowered calories, I was still able to eat my bagels. Like breakfast this morning:

Gingerbread bagel at Panera!

Yummers. I was really hungry for this as I woke up early and got on the bike trainer for a while instead of waking John up to go to breakfast. I am such a good wife.

John made eggnog this morning, but decided to leave out the egg whites. So, I figured I would use them up at lunch time today! I tried something way different for me.

I put 4 egg whites into the magic bullet with 1/4 cup of FF ricotta cheese and blended. Then I made an omelet with them and tucked in some sauteed broccoli. Or sorta made an omelet. I kind of fell apart on me. Topped with a chile con queso laughing cow and salsa:

Interesting, no? With an apple and cinnamon. This was good, but I honestly have to say that I do miss the yolk.

This week was really good for me in a lot of ways with my calorie experiment. I learned that my meals are actually just fine portion wise. Where I get in trouble are with unplanned snacks. My normal snacks will have higher calories, and that is where I trimmed my calories from the last week – and maybe a little off of a meal or two here and there. Where I was having trouble was the extra snacks.

I have decided that chocolate chips really are not something I can snack on. 1 tablespoon of chocolate chips has 70 calories. That is all fine for topping oatmeal, but I usually want more than 1 tablespoon as a snack, and often paired with nuts. That kind of snack can easily end up being 300 calories. Not that there is anything wrong with a 300 calorie snack, but not if I have already had 2 snacks during the day already. It is most annoying at how easily that stuff adds up…

I do much better with an Attune bar or a couple of dark chocolate mint cups. I am not sure what the difference is between the chocolate chips and those other things. Maybe it is the quality of the chocolate? Or maybe it is just my brain

Speaking of snacks, John made eggnog lattes for the afternoon snack with the nog he made earlier:

Another thing I did last week was to decrease my exercise. As I had mentioned to Shelley in the comments the other day when she asked me if I felt deprived – the answer to that was no. Part of that was because I lightened the exercise up. I didn’t want to shoot myself in the foot with lowering calories and keeping up a high level of exercise. That combination would really have made me unhappy. Ironically, I actually felt exercise deprived! I love working out (who is this person??) and will be glad to have more calories again so I can do longer workouts. I don’t exercise to eat more – I eat more because I exercise!

Since it is Sunday, I cooked up a bunch of chicken for the week. Included in dinner with some roasted brussels:

Tonight’s snack? I made some cinnamon raisin bread yesterday (recipe coming Tuesday):

Knowing I had a specific calorie budget really helped keep me from scarfing half the loaf yesterday. Because I wanted to, and I was home alone LOL! I did have some extra calories on Saturday because of the bread, but I was totally fine with that. That was another thing I noticed this week is how much I had been letting rarely eaten foods in more often. Stuff just has a way of sneaking in.

So, I really do call the calories experiment week a success!

Calorie tally:

Saturday calories: 1650 – little higher, but I am okay with that for a Saturday with fresh baked bread in the house.

Sunday: Preworkout: 110, Breakfast: 590, Lunch: 276, Afternoon snack: 186, Dinner: 286, Evening snack: 144. Total: 1593

New gloves and Hot 100 update

We enjoyed the concerts last night. Here is a pic of the drums they played:

Last lifting day of the week. Wahhh…. Maybe I will think about doing a split body routine next year for some variety. I had half a S’mores Balance bar before heading out. I started with a 1/2 mile jog on the treadmill, then set to work.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Stiff-legged Deadlifts	3 set of 10 at 75#	Lower body
Underhand grip lat pull down	1 sets of 10 at 50# 2 sets of 10 at 60#	Back
Pliet Squat	3 sets of 10 with 40# DB	Lower Body
Reverse Crunch	3 sets of 15	Core
Barbell Bench Press	3 sets of 10 at 60#	Chest
Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 140#	Calves
Face Pull	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Shoulders
Kickbacks	3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Triceps
Lower Back Extension	3 sets of 10 at 100#	Low Back

By the way, here are my new gloves I got in a giveaway on Jody’s site.

I needed them, too, as my others ones were ripped (and not in a good way). They are Harbinger gloves. They have a nice stretchy mesh, and at first I thought they felt tight (size M), but the leather loosened up after a couple wearings, and they are quite comfortable.

Here is the palm side.

I like that these are washable leather – yay! The only thing I wish the gloves had is an absorbent pad over the top of the thumb/first finger area. My old gloves had that and I would wipe sweat with it. That doesn’t work so well with these gloves. I have had a couple comments on my new gloves, too. The black looks pretty badass at the gym.

Still having some shoulder issues. I can do pushups and bench presses now, but still no fly or incline presses yet. Ah well. That’s what happens in your 40s, I guess.

I then popped on the treadmill to jog another mile and then I was so ready for breakfast! I made waffles with the apple cranberry topping, but using fresh cranberries instead of dried.

A little fluff sneaked on there after I took the picture. Love!!

Now it is Friday and Hot 100 Update time!

Maintain my weight. Scale starting to drop Tday weight. Funny how watching portions will do that…
No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day! This goal is done, so I will remove it now.
Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. This goal is also done for the year.
Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least. Did 5 days. I really think this makes a difference for me.
Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on. Doing.
Do one no-added sugar day each week. Completed

Doing pretty good now. Just need to ride it out for the next few weeks.

Lunch time! This was so good yesterday that I had it again today. 1/2 cup of cooked quinoa mixed with sauteed broccoli and a wedge of chile con queso Laughing Cow.

Easy and delicious! That’s my kind of cooking

I was supposed to meet a friend for coffee today, but that got canceled, so I went with John instead. I had a skim latte and about 1/3 of this piece of coffee cake.

Tasty. The cafe is all festive right now. It’s feeling mighty Christmasy around here.

Aren’t these chairs fun?

I was spacing my work all day today, which is not a bad way to work! Soon enough it was dinner time and I had popcorn shrimp.

With hot sauce! I opened this bottle of sauce on 11/29. I marked the bottle because I want to see how long it takes me to go through it.

There will be dates for a snack later.

All in all a very good food day for me. Fridays have been tough for me lately, so it was good to continue the good eating. We shall see what the weekend has in store…

Calorie Tally: Preworkout: 105, Breakfast: 520, Lunch: 337, Afternoon snack: 226, Dinner: 328, Evening Snack: 60 Total: 1575

Lifting Move of the Week: Lunge with Forward Reach

Welcome to December! It really seems as thought the older I get, the faster time goes by. It’s kinda scary. I had a protein drink before heading out to the gym.

Kind of looks like John’s eggnog, doesn’t it? I wish that it was.

Pubsgal asked about what warmup I do before lifting. Normally I hit the treadmill for 10 minutes or so when I don’t bike, but don’t mention it here for boredom sake. I also will do some unweighted moves before I start loading up the weights on the first couple exercises.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Reverse lunge with forward reach	3 set of 10 with 8# DBs (16# total)	Full body
Barbell Split Squats	3 sets of 10 at 65#	Lower body
Dumbbell Pull Over	3 sets of 10 at 30# <—- increase	Back
Horizontal Wood Chop	3 sets of 10 each side at 30#	Core
Barbell Bench Press	3 sets of 10 at 60# <— increase	Chest
Triceps Pull Down	3 sets of 15 at 30#	Triceps
Upright Row	3 sets of 10 at 30#	Shoulders
Good Mornings	3 sets of 10 at 35#	Low Back and Hammies

Then I walked for a little more. Headed back to pick up John for Bagel Day! We were back at Cool Beans, which was all decked out for the holidays:

I had a sunflower bagel, which was oh-so-delicious!

It’s time for Lifting Move of the Week! It is the reverse lunge with forward reach. This is from the New Rules of Lifting for Women. It will get your heart rate up, that is for sure. The move is basically a reverse lunge while simultaneously reaching forward with your arms while stepping backwards. Try this move without weights at first, because it also works on your balance and coordination. Apologies for the fuzzy video. Not sure why it uploaded like that.

I like to twist the weights so they are horizontal to the floor because that just feels more natural to me. You also don’t want to go too heavy on the arm weights. This move is much harder than it looks. For a super challenge, do this from a step.

Today was a challenge to stay around 1500 calories. Tomorrow I will talk about why I chose that number, so come on by for that. I like to eat bread (duh) and that really is where a good chunk of daily calories come in. Most times I can lower my calories in a day just by ditching a bread item from the day. Well, not today! Good thing the Cool Beans bagels are small, but still doing a bit of guestimation on calories here. It’s all relative.

I would have liked a piece of bread with lunch, but I refrained and ate my tuna with lemon pepper straight up.

I always eat my clementines in sets of 3. I don’t know why that is, but I rarely vary from that. Guess I am just showcasing some odd habits this week.

While I am sipping on my unpictured latte with some protein added, I will entertain you with my December goals.

Keep an eye on my portions. Even when I finish up this 1500 calorie week, I am going to really pay attention to portion sizes (also known as snacking) and keep the creep from happening. I plan on really enjoying the Christmas feast, but it is only a couple of days and not 4 weeks, you know?
Relax! I am very go-go-go and forget to just chill out. That means more reading and listening to music.
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.
Reflect on this past year. Another reason why I love blogging – I can do that easily LOL!

That’s enough for December. It’s hectic enough as is.

Today has been pouring rain and incredibly windy. The temps got to about 60 degrees, which is amazing. I keep thinking about how much snow this would be if it was colder. I think we would be talking feet!

I wanted some eggs for dinner, so it was time for an omelet! This had laughing cow and sauteed broccoli in it. I love this combo.

Snack time tonight will be this:

It’s sitting in the fridge waiting for me! This is a mix of fat free ricotta, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, stevia and 1 tbsp of cranberry sauce. Surprisingly tasty!

Calorie tally: Preworkout: 110, Breakfast: 526, Lunch: 350, Snack: 165, Dinner: 282, Evening snack: 95. Grand total: 1528

Question: Do you have any December goals?

Running breakthrough and monthly wrap up.

I made it through yesterday! I had one more date last night because I was hungry, but fine otherwise. I don’t know how people who weigh more than I do eat less food than 1500 calories. Maybe I will just need to get used to it again. It’s been so long in maintenance where I do just the balancing. I have really forgotten what it is like to be in true losing mode and not just dinking around mode. Know what I mean? But I can do anything for a week.

I got more good sleep last night to the tune of 7.5 hours. Yay! I had breakfast first because I wanted to run a bit later outside. I made up some pumpkin custard oats topped with pecans, honey fluff, and crystallized ginger.

That’s what I’m talking about! Yum! I love how the fluff gets all melty.

I worked and let brekkie settle, then set out for an outdoor run. It was 39 degrees and not windy, so all in all a good run scenario. I did 3 miles at a nice steady pace. It was feeling good and easy. The last 2 or 3 runs I have had have felt very different from all of the ones since I herniated my disk, which has been about 8 months now. I feel like I have turned a corner and am getting my running mojo back. I have accepted the fact that I likely have permanent numbness in my knee and that my thigh may feel tight forever, but I am getting pretty used to that. It was the running ease – relatively speaking- that was missing, and I have felt that the last couple of runs.

I am feeling good enough about it that I am seriously thinking about a half marathon next year. Maybe.

Lunch time! I just flopped an egg scramble on a pita with laughing cow and hot sauce.

There was no room for the pear on my plate, so it was on the side.

This was a dry pear… booooo….

Goal check! These were the goals set out for November:

Lose weight this month. I am not putting a number on how much to lose, just some. I lost 1 pound this month, too bad I gained 4 in October LOL! I actually had lost more, but this was the post Tday weigh in.
Do a turkey trot on Thanksgiving. I took part in a virtual turkey trot hosted by Alissa and did 5 miles!
Organize my bedroom closet (scary!). I have pictures of this. I did pretty well on neatening it up, but need to purge more and keep it that way (the hard part).
No eggnog until Thanksgiving (latte or otherwise). I made it to Tday without the nog!

Looking at that, I feel pretty good overall. I will post some December goals tomorrow.

Afternoon snack time! Homemade eggnog latte. If you missed the earlier post, here is John’s lightened up eggnog recipe!

The banana is pictured here for blog space sake, but I didn’t eat it until about an hour after the latte.

John won football picks *again*. I am going to have to get a 3rd job to pay for all these dinners unless I start winning some weeks around here! Stupid Colts. For those that wonder, John and I do have our own separate checking accounts, although the business account pays for most of our living expenses. It just makes life easier that way. Maybe that is why we are still married after 14 years?

So his choice was Pizzeria Uno. I perused the nutritional info and noticed a most annoying thing. They gave the calories for a serving size, and then noted that 2 servings came with each meal. WTF? Serve me one portion or give me the tally for the whole plate thankyouverymuch.

Anyhoo, I just went for a basic tonight. House salad with grilled chicken and blueberry pomegranate dressing- which was 2 servings. Shall I count lettuce leaves to get my single serving? Actually, I ate both portions since it was about 400 calories with the dressing, of which I used one.

Rainy evening in tonight. Here we thought the tree was safe from Pixie. Doesn’t she look all “who me?” in this photo:

Now she says, “How did that ornament get on the floor?”

She likes shiny sparkly things like her owner does…

Tonight’s evening snack/dessert. Attunes! I haven’t gotten these in a while.

Have a great night!

Calorie Breakdown: Breakfast: 489, Lunch: 330, Snack (latte and nana): 221, dinner: 410, evening snack: 90. Total: 1540

Focus challenge to myself.

It’s a newly minted, fresh and shiny week! I got some good sleep last night, which was nice. I had a quick protein drink and headed out to workout.

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Squat	1 set of 10 at 45# (warmup) 1 set of 10 at 55# 1 set of 10 at 65# 1 set of 8 at 75# 1 set of 8 at 85# 1 set of 7 at 95#	Lower body
Seated Lat Row	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Back
Captain’s Chair	3 sets of 10	Core
Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 140#	Calves
Push Ups	3 sets of 10	Chest
YTWL	3 sets of 4 each letter with 8# DBs (16# total)	Shoulders
Lower Back Extension	3 sets of 10 at 100#	Low Back
Bench Dips	3 sets of 10	Triceps

No cardio in the morning as I had to get home, shower, and walk to see the dentist for a checkup. I was their first appointment of the day. I didn’t even get breakfast except a cup of coffee. $150 dollars later, no cavities, and they gave me gifts!

So what do I do after getting teeth cleaned and polished?? Eat blueberries and drink cafe au lait, of course!

I was pretty hungry. The dentist is only a 5 minute walk from home, so pretty convenient. I do like this dentist even though he is a little expensive (I think).

So, I have initiated a strong and specific challenge to myself this week. With the scale bumping up from Thanksgiving and with a trip coming up to my in-laws in a couple weeks (which is usually a bit of an eating nightmare), I am going to try to laser focus myself. I am going into a weight loss mode by trying to stick to 1500 calories per day. I will help myself out by eating more vegetables (particularly at lunch) and having fruit for snacks instead of chocolate. Not that I won’t have some dark chocolate, but less of it. I will also work on breaking the nibbling that has snuck back in while cooking dinner. Hello Altoids!

We will see how it goes. I will be putting up a calorie tally at the bottom of the posts, just so you can see a breakdown of my day as I normally don’t do that and I get a lot of questions about it.

Lunch time! I tried something a little different. I spread a tomato/basil laughing cow in the pita with tuna and spring mix. It was pretty good.

Filling up on cucumber and clementines. Funny how I don’t like my cucumbers sliced in sticks like this – so I really don’t know why I did it. It tastes better to me sliced in rounds. I am weird that way.

Surprisingly steady drone of work with job 1 from the get-go, which is really unusual for a Monday. I’ll take it though! After I finished up that work, I made lattes today:

While I was steaming the milk, I was thinking about how I wish I was one of those people that just loved veggies. It would make life so much easier that way and easier to fill myself up. I like more than I used to by training my taste buds, but it is really, really slow going. Hence the reason you mostly see broccoli and brussels on my blog. Like in dinner!

I made a pseudo hash with broccoli, turkey, and a chopped up Morningstar sausage patty – all sauteed in coconut oil.

It was tasty, but needed some kind of moisture. Not sure what, though.

I’ll be working tonight and watching football. This will be my snack later, which I have portioned out ahead of time:

Yum! Today was also my no-added sugar day. That always makes the dates taste extra sweet

Calories: Preworkout: 110, Breakfast: 411, Lunch: 295, Afternoon latte: 110, Dinner: 317, Snack: 217. Total for the day: 1507.

Saying bye to the garden and Hot 100 update

It’s Friday! I was hoping to sleep in a little, but it was not to be. I headed out to the gym for the lifting:

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Split Squat	3 set of 10 at 65#	Lower body
Wide Grip Lat Pull Down	3 sets of 10 at 50#	Back
Barbell Chest Press	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Chest
Captain’s Chair	3 sets of 10	Core
Alternating Side Lunges	3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Chest
YTWL	3 sets of 4 each letter with 8# DBs (16# total)	Shoulders
Nosebreaker	3 sets of 15 at 25#	Triceps
Good Mornings	3 sets of 10 at 4#	Low back and hammies

I lightened up the weight a bit for my lower body today as we might be doing a long bike ride tomorrow (fingers crossed with Mother Nature).
I was going to do some treadmill work after lifting, but decided to just go home and get outside later because the temps were predicted for mid to upper 50s today!

Home to brekkie and I made some Reese’s Oats.

Banana custard style with cocoa powder and topped with nut butter. Good stuff.

This week’s Hot 100 Update:

Maintain my weight. Scale stayed the same this week. Won’t lie – a little disappointed..
No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day! They are available now, but I have resisted.
Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. Did the home duathlon. 5k done on October 30th
Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least. Did 5 days!!
Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on. Did not get to as many as I would have liked.
Do one no-added sugar day each week. I did 2!!

Overall not a bad week. I had some stresses in there and one snacky day. I was hoping to see a bit of a loss this week, but such is life. This week will be a little challenging as I will have extra work to do and I tend to snack during these times.

I did some work, then stopped at my folks house and dropped off a laptop for my mom to use for a bit. I snagged a couple of these while there:

(And for those that ask, yes, that is my wedding band.)

Lunch break today –

Kind of looks like a breakfast, eh?

It was so, so nice out today that I decided I will finish up work tonight. I wanted to spend time outside. The garden is pretty much a shell of what it was.

I cut down a lot of the growth and pulled up the dead annuals. Leaving up the sedum and the coneflowers as they will stay upright under the snow, plus the birdies eat the seeds.

Those mums are on their last legs. We have been in the 20s overnight, so they are starting to wilt. I remember when it looked like this:

John made lattes while I was working outside.

He has almond milk, since he has some lactose problems. They look different (almond milk on the right). He is going to try the lactose pills, as he does like his milk.

I also had some nuts.

Thinking about another 5k race possibly next weekend. I also signed up for this one. If any of you are looking for some motivation to run/walk a Thanksgiving 5K – Alissa is hosting a virtual run!!

Good way to burn off a little stuffing and have a sense of community with other bloggers!

We decided to walk for a slice of pizza for dinner tonight. Too bad it gets dark so early and it wasn’t as warm, but still a nice night to head out. It’s half a mile each way. I had the buffalo chicken pizza:

Yum! Could have used a lot more hot sauce, though. 2 slices and a drink for $5. We each have a slice (they are pretty big) and John drinks the soda. I bring my own water bottle. Pizza – so simple and yet perfect in that simplicity, don’t you think?

I am so excited for tomorrow – we are taking the bikes back out and going on a 40-mile cupcake ride! Hope my legs make it

Now it is back to work for me for a couple hours. Nice way to spend a Friday night, but at least I got to enjoy the nice day!

Question: Are you a dairy person?

Month in rewind and November goals

Last night I put the flannel sheets on the bed. It was so hard this morning to wake up in the dark and think about going outside to go to the gym! But until I set up a squat rack at home, off I go.

It was very quiet at the gym this morning. Maybe a candy hangover from Halloween?

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell Squat	1 set of 10 at 45# 1 set of 8 at 65# 1 set of 8 at 75# 1 set of 6 at 85# 1 set of 5 at 90# <—- yippee!	Lower body
Dumbbell Pullover	3 sets of 10 at 25#	Back
Barbell Bench Press	1 set of 12 at 45# 2 sets of 8 at 55#	Chest
Reverse Crunches	3 sets of 15	Core
Calf Raise	3 sets of 10 at 140#	Calves
Lower Back Extension	3 sets of 10 at 100#	Low back
Lying Triceps extension	3 sets of 12 with 12# DBs (24# total)	Triceps
Single leg Deadlifts	3 sets of 10 each leg with 20# DBs (40# total)	Hammies and balance
Upright Row	3 sets of 10 at 30#	Shoulders

I tried doing some incline chest work, but that caused shoulder pain, as do full push ups and holding a plank. Grrrrr….. Getting better, but still annoying. I am pleased about adding weight to the squat, though. 100# by year’s end – pinky swear.

Came home to make up some breakfast:

Did you look around to see if you were on Finding Radiance? LOL. Yes – I had eggs for breakfast! This omelet had a laughing cow wedge and a crumbled morningstar sausage patty in there. It was quite tasty. Today is a no-added sugar day for me and I felt like something different.

Here were my goals for October:

One no-added sugar day a week. Done!
Get the scale back below red line as it crept up in Sept. Not done.
Hopefully do the duathlon with a goal to beat 1:55. We ended up doing the home duathlon, but completed nonetheless.
Work on the side garden bed. Done!
Run the goblin gallop 5K . Done!
Post a photo of something pink each day to raise awareness of breast cancer. I missed just one day. Hopefully a lot of you clicked and helped provide free mammograms to those that needed. Thanks!

So, overall a good month. I did not lose weight during October. That was just a matter of too much snacking. So, that will be first and foremost on November’s agenda. I’ll get to those goals in a bit.

Here is the garden bed.

I just did a 10-foot strip. That’s our neighbor’s driveway. Hope they don’t drive into my new bed… It will take a few years to do the whole side of the house. I will be dreaming up lots of stuff over the winter time for this fresh patch of soil!

Slow work morning. Somebody at job #2 fell asleep at the switch and didn’t batch files until the afternoon. So, I did get some chores done.

Lunch time was some vegetarian chili I made last night from this recipe:

So, here are the goals I have for November (some of these coincide with the Hot 100 challenge, which I am also still doing).

Lose weight this month. My pants are feeling tight. I am not putting a number on how much to lose, just some. I don’t want to focus too much on a specific number. I will do this by reducing snacking and trying to match my caloric needs with my meals and exercise.
Do a turkey trot on Thanksgiving. I doubt I will do the organized one, but I want to run at least 4 miles on Thanksgiving day. Maybe also just increase my mileage a bit this month as biking is winding down (at least until my trainer arrives).
Organize my bedroom closet (scary!). I’ll even post a picture before and after.
No eggnog until Thanksgiving (latte or otherwise). Those that know me know how dearly I love the nog. It’s on the scale of candy corn love.

Speaking of lattes: Latte time!

I just sprinkled cinnamon on top. I don’t miss sweetness in this drink because I don’t drink sweetened lattes. I just may put a little honey or chocolate drizzle on the foam, but not the drink itself. BTW – we purchase cinnamon in a 1 pound bag

It was hard not wanting to snack before dinner, and I did have a couple Triscuits, but at least it wasn’t a bunch spread with Nutella! I heated up some chicken (with hot sauce) and added one of the macintosh apples we picked up on Saturday.

Oh my gosh was this a good apple! Sometimes those humongous apples don’t have the concentration of flavor that smaller ones do, and really fruit in general, I think. More cinnamon sprinkled on this apple and it was soooo tasty! You would think that I would eat apples more considering Johnny Appleseed is in my lineage, wouldn’t you? I need to figure out where the pears and berries come in.

Tonight’s snack will be Halloween leftovers (with some cashews). This is what we got:

I am very okay with having pretzels in the house. If they were Reeses PB cups, that would be a whole ‘nuther story!

Tuesday’s recipe of the day will be Almond Joy Oats, so hope you check in for it

Question: Do you have lots of Halloween leftovers?

What’s Blooming and Hot 100 update

Okay, I guess I am a complete dork with the sandals and socks (along with Jan LOL).

It’s Friday! That means only half a day of work for me, yippee! I also did not go to the gym this morning as I am running a race tomorrow, which means no lifting the day before. So, I started right in on work to get it done for the day. Then made some Fall breakfast. Pumpkin cream of wheat topped with fluff and pecans!

Gotta use that candy corn dish

When I was poking in the garden the other day, I saw some new blooms, can you believe it?

Expected: The burning bush.

We planted this 3 years ago as a tiny bush and it now looks lovely! We tried growing them in IL, but the bunnies kept eating them to nubs, so I am happy now. Don’t those daylilies look like some kind of squid next to it?

Of course, the mums just give a hand to the frost and keep going:

The knockout rose bush is *still* going. If you have a black thumb, get the knockout. You cannot kill it.

Surprise gaillarda:

And a hidden doppleganger ecchinacea. This is sheltered amongst other plants and actually has 2 buds on it.

My personal truffula tree:

And the pink item of the day – snapdragons!

You wouldn’t think it was almost Halloween, would you?

Lunch tine and I had a hankering for peanut butter. Homemade blueberry jam on top.

I am glad I only got 2 of these plums…

Okay – here is this week’s Hot 100 Update:

Maintain my weight. I really need to work on this big time.
No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day! Not in stores yet.
Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year. Did the home duathlon. 5K coming up tomorrow!
Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least. Did 6 days!!
Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on. Been visiting.
Do one no-added sugar day each week. Done.

I am doing fine on all but the eating. I really am struggling with the snacking. It’s the evening stuff that is the problem. I am having a tough time regulating the less exercise with eating less.

So, with that update said, this is the snack I had. Remember last night I said John had out the puff pastry? He made apple strudel.

Yeah – it’s good. At least he made a small one LOL!

I finished up work and did some retail therapy at TJMaxx. I picked up some Philosophy shower gel! Yay!

Dinner time had some extra carbs in it in the form a potato!

I want to also say good job to the people involved who intercepted those explosive devices. Scary stuff…

Tonight is keeping warm, as the temps at race time tomorrow will be 37! That is a chilly race. I plan on being a bumblebee, but I may nix that in favor of warmth

More brick and Hot 100 Challenge

I’m glad you liked the squat post from yesterday. That seems to be an exercise that a lot of people have a strong opinion on. Not quite sure why exactly, but nothing heats up a weight room like talking about squats.

Normally we bike to bagels on Thursday now. I was up a little early and doing work (as per usual) with a protein drink waiting for John to get up.

We got all dressed and ready to go when John noted that his tire had gone flat. This was the same tire that had gone flat from a nail the day after he got his bike. He patched it and we have rode a lot on it, so maybe the patch wore out or something. I wasn’t about to let that stop me from a bagel, no sir! We drove there in our biking clothes

Seasonal coffee is here:

I drink my flavored coffee with just milk and no sweetener. Am I weird?

Plus a sunflower bagel. Nom, nom!

I said to John that this actually gave me a chance to get in a brick later in the day. I was wondering when I would fit in another this week, as I didn’t want to do it on Friday with lifting, so today was the perfect opportunity!

That meant I stayed in my bike clothes for the first half of the day and unshowered. Gotta love working at home! Pixie is my only coworker and since she licks her own butt, I doubt she has a problem with me not showering.

Lunch time! I realized I needed to use up some brussels that were in the fridge, so I quick sauteed them and added the heel of the bread for a PB&J.

Quick lunch. I am trying not to get stressed as it got pretty busy for me this week. I received a large soap order request, so I am working on that in the evenings after working the 2 jobs. Plus my TV vice of Project Runway is on tonight!

After working more, it was time to take a break in the early afternoon for the brick. I realize that some people may not know what I am referring to with the brick. This is basically doing 2 different workouts back to back. That’s how you train for multi-sport events like triathlons, decathlons, etc. So, for me this means bike and run training back to back. Temps were around 70. I had a quick snack:

Then set up my transition outside. I did bike/run today.

And yes, I do need a reminder to remove my helmet. There is always somebody who forgets to take theirs off in an event. That’s okay at that time, but I didn’t want to go running down the street with my helmet on today

First up was the bike. I did 13.5 miles at a decent clip, but not super fast. I had to stop a lot for traffic. Afternoon rides are much different than early morning rides.

Came home and drank half the coconut water and remembered to take off my helmet! Then I ran 2.2 miles. I forgot how much harder the bike/run transition is. Boy howdy. It was a good mile before I felt semi normal. The pace just seems so slow, even though I typically start faster than normal, and you can really feel the impact of running. Yep – that feeling is coming back from last year doing the triathlon and duathlon training.

I was feeling pretty good when I finished, but covered in gnats! What’s up with that??

Then I had to shower and get back to work. There are more perks to working at home, which is the ability to flex my time like this.

Popped some chocolate chips as a post workout snack x2

It was such a beautiful day that I put some chicken on the grill. You know what cooked chicken usually means –

The classic BBQ chicken salad! Yay! It was quite tasty, if I do say so myself.

So the Hot 100 Challenge starts today. I had to think some about the goals I want to achieve for the last 1/3 of the year. They are:

1. Maintain my weight. I am not going for any loss right now anyway, so I want to stay below my red line.

2. No eggnog lattes until Thanksgiving day!

3. Do the duathlon and at least 1 more 5K race before the end of the year.

4. Do stretching exercises 4 days a week at least. I am remiss about stretching.

5. Visit one new blog each week that is participating in the Hot 100 Challenge and cheer them on.

6. Do one no-added sugar day each week.

Let’s rock challengers!!

Camp Challenge ride

Hello!! Another day, another dollar I headed on out to the gym. I wanted a lighter day today, so I just biked to the gym and did some weights:

Exercise	Set/rep/weight	Muscle worked
Barbell deadlifts	3 sets of 8 at 80#	Lower body
Seated lat row	3 sets of 10 at 60#	Back
Dumbbell Incline Bench Press	3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total)	Chest
Decline sit ups	3 sets of 10	Abs
Alternating side lunge	3 sets of 10 (each leg) with 15# DBs (30# total)	Legs
Seated Calf Raise	3 sets with 10 at 110#	Calves
Arnold Press	3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total)	Shoulders
Bench Dips	3 sets of 10	Triceps
Good Mornings	3 sets of 10 at 55#	Lower back and hammies

Then I walked for 10 minutes on the treadmill to cool down before biking home. I actually did not have a preworkout snack today as I felt absolutely no hunger at all when I got up. I ate a bit too much yesterday, and it seemed to hold over. Anyway, I was hungry for breakfast, though! One of my new bowls I got yesterday:

John says “Another bowl?”

I had banana custard cream of wheat topped with cashew butter and beer jelly.

My bowl almost isn’t big enough LOL!

So, I have decided to put my mouth where my pedals are. I signed up for the Camp Challenge ride in September.

I will be riding the Metric Century ride (62.5 miles) on September 12 and raising funds to support the Double H ranch in Lake Luzerne. The Double H ranch is dedicated to providing services to children who have life threatening illnesses and their families. The Camp Challenge ride is to raise funds to send these children to the camp for free. My goal is to raise $250. This is the first time I have ever done a fundraising type of thing, so I have a lot of work to do! If you would like to support me with a donation, you can do so here. If half of my readers donated $1 – we would be pretty close! As I alluded to yesterday, I will be working on a cookbook of all my recipes that I have done on the site and will be giving a copy of this to anyone who donates (when it is finished). Or, you can support by passing my link on to anyone you know who might be interested in this. FYI – there are 3 of these rides on that day, so anyone who lives near Lake Luzerne; Ashford, CT, or Lake Hughes, CA can do a ride as well! (15, 30, or 62.5 miles). You can email me if you have any questions at all.

I am pretty excited about it!!

Lunch break included some tuna salad and lime FSTG chips. I do like these. That pear I had yesterday was under ripe – so I need to give the others a chance to ripen up! Strawberries it is

Pixie is ready to open a can of whoopass on a kitty outside while I am preparing my food.

Break time! John made me a latte with some protein in it and I had a snack of dark chocolate.

Yum!

Work was slow at first, but then picked up and I finished up both jobs. I may (or not) do more work tonight to make up for yesterday.

I do need to do a wee bit more shopping for Mr. J – as his birthday is Wednesday and I need stocking stuffers for him. Not that he gets a stocking for his birthday….

Needed something fast for dinner because I was hangry and really wanted to snack. So it was baked clam strips and brussels.

This plate was really colorful and pleasing to my eyes. Being mindful of not just the taste of the food, but noticing how it looks and appreciating that .

Made a stop at the library to get something to read. I actually got several things, but this was fiction:

I kind of like historical fiction. This book is about Eleanor, the granddaughter of King Edward I. Hope it’s good!

Gonna make a snack and decide whether I am going to work or read… hmmmm… wonder which I will choose….