Tag Archives: coconut water

47 miles to yogurt!

Saturday was the most beautiful day for a ride.  Just gorgeous!  We took a pretty relaxed approach to the day, as one should for a weekend.  Breakfast was a banana bread breakfast pudding.  I am so liking these!  Plus some cafe au lait.

John then planned out our route.  We decided to go a different way down and hug the river, which was a great idea (that means less steep hills).  It was beautiful.  Most of the first part of the ride went right along the river.  I think I found where I want to move to. Better ask for another raise…  😀

In part of the Hudson, there is an island and somebody has a house on it.  They built a little covered bridge to get there.

I would love to have a covered bridge at the entrance of my driveway!  I am so jealous.

Want to live here?

Indeed.

At mile 11, we stopped for snacks.

My favorite – dates!

If you look close, you can see my black moustache.  Smarty me fiddled with my chain and I propped it up with the gloved part of my hand to keep my fingers from getting dirty.  Well, during the ride I proceeded to wipe sweat off my lip with my gloves and smeared chain grease on it each time.  Good thing John was with me and told me or I would have gone around town that way. 🙄

There was hardly any traffic for the first 18 miles or so and I was loving that.  We both agreed this was our new favorite way to Saratoga.

We arrived downtown at mile 23.5. Since I am in the midst of the no grain challenge, we had to think about where to eat.  Stopped at Esperanto.

But then I got waylaid by this sign and it’s creepiness and had to take a picture.

Esperanto has different dishes from all cuisines.  Most of them had some sort of wheat or rice base.  I decided on the coconut chicken curry.   I asked for them to hold the rice.

They seemed to feel I needed some grain with it, because while they left out the rice, they put some tortilla chips on the side LOL.  I gave those to John.  This was really tasty.  It had carrots, potatoes, and chicken in a coconut curry sauce.  The picture doesn’t look so good, but it sure tasted good!

We strolled downtown for a while doing some window shopping.  In Saratoga, window shopping is about all we can afford.  Cute jacket on sale that was still $100 after being marked down 50%.  Then there are the places I am just not sure about:

😯

We stopped in at a glass studio where one of John’s poker buddies has his stuff.  He is a glass artist and does some beautiful work.

Then it was time for dessert!  I had a coupon to try Plum Dandy.  This is one of those build your own yogurt places.  I have never been to one before.

Here is half of the topping bar.  The chocolate and sprinkles and candy were on the other side.

My yogurt was cake batter flavor and I topped it with strawberries, fresh blueberries, toasted coconut and little yogurt and passion fruit pearls.

Those were like the big tapioca pearls, only they had a liquid center when you bit into them.  I kind of liked them – very different.  My biggest beef? Only 1 size bowl and it is so big that you want to fill it up with yogurt.  It was really hard not to do that.  We still spent $10 for 2 yogurts.

John got all kinds of chocolate stuff, addict that he is.

Yogurt fueled to go on, we headed home the same way.  The only busy part was getting out of town and for a few miles down the main road.  Then it was back to peace and quiet and farms:

We stopped at mile 39 for my other favorite ride fuel:

This was right on the bank of the river at someone’s boat launch.

My buddy 😛

The only thing I don’t like about going this way is the last 1/2 mile to our house.  It’s a steep hill and a tough slog, especially after already doing 46 miles, but we made it!

Ride stats:

Total miles:  46.8 (eh… 47)

Average speed:  14 mph

Top speed 31.5 – woohoo!

Calories burned:  1504

This was such an awesome day!  I immediately came in and had a protein drink and another date before showering.

I do have a hard time eating after ride days and tend to really nibble, but here is what I had.  Dinner was carbs and fat (it’s what I wanted):

Teddie crunchy peanut butter is my favorite!

Then I had a latte at home later with some cashews to get my calories up.

This is where I would normally be eating cereal and chocolate.  I am not avoiding chocolate or anything, I was just craving salt as I sweated profusely on this ride.  It’s really important to listen to what your body wants when you expend a lot of energy.

I just thought you might like to see what I do eat after a ride refueling carbs without grains!

4 score and 8 miles of biking (AKA 88 miles)

Dang what a day.  This was a long tough ride!

The plan was for 80ish miles today.  We got up early and had a nice breakfast.  I decided to have some banana custard oats to fuel up.

Topped with Teddie peanut butter and strawberry jam.  I also had 1.5 cups of almond milk.  Approximately 500 calories before we left the house.

Packed up our bike bags to head out.  I brought along a granola bar, a pear, coconut water, dried pineapple, and one of my favorite ride snacks:

Dates!

We checked weather.com and the hourly forecast had 10% chance of rain.  It was a gorgeous morning when we set out.  At 10 miles, we stopped so I could take some pictures.

This was a side route we take, but normally going the other way, so this was fun to ride it in this direction.  I also had one of the above dates at this point. John had to fiddle with his tire as he either ran over a rock or stick and it made a bulge in his wheel.

We were making pretty good time.  We continued on for another 9 miles and stopped at mile 19 for a potty stop and a snack:

Anyone in NY will recognize Stewarts!  This is the convenience store you want to stop in if you have to use the restroom.  Always clean.  See what a gorgeous sky there was this morning? Too bad it didn’t last.  We passed through Saratoga and on to Ballston Spa, where John asked for a stop for a map check, which always makes me nervous.  He is the map planner for our rides.

We were trying to wind our way to the Zimm Smith mid county trail.  We hit at at about mile 30 and then stopped shortly thereafter for a snack.

Can I say that I adored this path?

We were on it for around 7 miles and it was awesome!

I was starting to get hungry at this point. We knew it was going to be around 40 miles to get to Clifton Park and all the food choices.  It ended up being 42 miles and I was about bonking at this point.  I should have stopped at mile 40 and had a date, because the last 2 miles was an upward climb! Of course with it being the holiday, some places were closed.  And the one pasta place we wanted to go to was gone.  So we went to Mocha Lisa’s, which is a place I haven’t been to in a while!

John happy with 42 miles:

I was feeling pretty good.

Mocha Lisa’s is a neat coffee shop with a lunch menu.

Lunch was a chicken and pesto panini with roasted red peppers and provolone.

Excellent!  I tried not to wolf it down.  After this, I had some more dried pineapple.  We filled up our water bottles and continued on.  We were going to loop up a different way, but we enjoyed that bike path so much that we backtracked to go back on it.  At mile 57, it was time for some coconut water.

We had stuck these in the freezer overnight and this was slushy cold and delicious!  I think coconut water might be an acquired taste for some – but I lurve it!

I saw these really cool wild lilies along this path.  Actually, there were tons of wildflowers and it was so pretty.

Of course, it cannot be an official ride without one of these 🙄  :

Ugh!  Actually, to be fair, this flat was a leaking patch.  I am not sure why John didn’t change out this tube with a new one before such a long ride.  You aren’t really supposed to ride on patched tires – they are just supposed to get you home.  Anyway, he put in a new tube and we headed out.

I started to have some chain problems around 60 miles.  Every 12 pedal revolutions and my chain would go ‘clunk’.  It was like a link was sticking or something.  We lubed up the chain, but it was weird for the rest of the ride periodically.

Mile 66 and we made it back to Saratoga.  Both cupcake places were closed for the holiday, but Saratoga Coffee Traders was open!

Giant iced coffee and a 7-layer bar.  I made sure to eat and drink this slowly so my stomach wouldn’t cramp up.

We also played a little coffee trivia game:

Yum!

Food tastes so good when you are working hard.  This was at about 4 hours of ride time by this point (not including breaks and lunch).

Sky was looking a little ominous as we left.

As we headed out, John got another flat.  Can you believe it?  We pumped up the tire and got to the nearest gas station.  We checked where the leak was in the new tube and I examined the tire and found this embedded in it:

It was like some tiny metal pin or something.  Good thing we found that because he had to use *my* spare tube and it would have gone flat as well.  So, we got that all fixed and continued on.

At mile 70, it started to rain.

Apparently 10% chance of rain really means 100% chance of rain.

Thanks weather.com…

After the rain lessened, we started going again and then it really started pouring!  This was at about 6 p.m., too.  We waited for about half an hour, but we knew that we had about 18 miles to go and were going to cut it a little close to get home in daylight.  We just sucked it up and kept riding.  We rode about 10 miles in rain.  Not fun.  My toes were squishing in water as I pedaled! I have to say, though, that I was feeling pretty good. My legs were strong and not really too tired at all.

At mile76, we stopped for a quick snack.  I probably wouldn’t have needed something if we didn’t have that half hour rain delay.

We stopped 1/3 of a mile from home to pick up some ice cream and then rode the last bit home.

Ride stats:

Miles:  88.7

Ride time (excluding stops and breaks) 6 hours 40 minutes

Average speed 13.2 mph

Calories burned: 2745

If we hadn’t had a rain delay, we could have just done 100 miles, and we had thought about it earlier until we had the tire issues and the rain.  If only there was an hour of daylight left to finish it out.  John may not do 100 miles with me, but I am ready to finish that task and get back to normal riding.

Pixie was happy to see us and check out my shake.

After the best shower EVER!!, we are now watching more biking:

Time to eat some leftover pizza and a few more carbs tonight.

Hope you all had a happy 4th!

Welcome to your new life Mr. Bike.

What a gorgeous morning.  It was nice and cool overnight.  I got up and made some banana custard oats with the soaked steel cut technique

Topped with some homemade fluff and peanut butter.  I then took the bowl and my coffee and sat out on the porch to eat.  It was cool enough to need a jacket out there.

I also saw my first hummingbird of the season!  I heard this loud buzzing noise and I was about the freak out at what I assumed was the world’s biggest wasp, but looked up and saw the hummingbird!  He buzzed around the feeder (which had old syrup in it) and flew away.  I quick ran inside to put fresh stuff in there, so hopefully they will be back through.

Today was a long ride day.  This is the first typical type ride with the new  bikes. We loaded up the backpacks since we are still waiting for the replacement bag frames to arrive.  Still have the bike bags, just not the rack to put it on.  1 week ago today and our bikes were stolen.  Still hurts.  Since we got a later start than usual, I had a Luna bar before leaving the house.

It was a gorgeous day.   I swear every Saturday has been so nice this summer.  We didn’t end up stopping for any snacks, as John had a late breakfast and I had that Luna bar.  I did need to stop around mile 15 to put on some more anti-chafing gel.  😳 My bike is so clean.

I need to save this look for posterity.

I don’t know if I will name the bike or not.  I never did name the old one and I had it for almost 6 years.

I’ll have to see if a name comes to me.  Right now I still feel like it is Mr. Fuji since we are still getting to know each other.

20ish miles later and we arrived in Saratoga at the Cupcake Lab!

This is getting to be a habit.  I actually was pretty hungry by this time.  I saw the perfect sammie for me on the menu, which I think was new.   Ham and brie with granny smith apple panini-style.

This was sooo good!  It had honey mustard on it.

John had the mac and cheese.

This was good and very, very rich.

We sat around and chatted and then had coffee and dessert.

This is our coffee being brewed individually:

Of course.  I chose a raspberry cupcake.

It had a raspberry filling in it as well and so delicious.  I think it is my new favorite.

John had a S’mores cupcake.  It was good as well, although hard to eat with the marshmallow on top.

It was cloudy by the time we left for home.  It was definitely cooler today as well.  We stopped at the usual point around mile 30.  I just drank a little water as I didn’t want the same nausea I felt the last time I drank too much at this rest stop.

My bike was zooming up the hills and the flats were easy peasy.  This bike wants to go!  I actually was holding back some.  John was finding his seat to be pretty uncomfortable after 30 miles and started to not enjoy the ride.

This is my seat:

It is not as wide as my old seat, but actually fairly soft.  I think I will keep it for now.  It’s just chafing, which is more of a problem with my shorts than the seat and I do have the Lanacane for that.

I hate my water bottle cage.  I got an adjustable one and it has a sharp edge on it that scratched my thigh when I would get on and off the bike.

I had even more scratches by the time I got home.  That has to go.

After mile 36, we stopped at a drive in  for some coconut water. 

Enjoyed in the shadow of this man:

Finished up:

Total miles:  42 – this is actually not quite right.  I think I have the tire size too big on the bike computer as this ride is actually more like 45.

Top speed:  26.2 mph

Avg speed:  14.0 mph – much faster than the old bikes.

Calories burned: 1339 – woohoo!

I am feeling a lot more comfortable on the bike.  It is just going to take time.  It is much more responsive than my old bike, so I tend to over correct a little bit, which makes me slightly nervous at times.   The brakes are also much touchier, so I have to be careful not to hit them hard and fly over the handle bars.  The first of many long rides in the books.

I have no appetite now.  Not unusual after a long ride.  Had a light dinner of toast with laughing cow and some blueberries:

I’ll eat some chocolate later to get in a few more calories.  Doing 40 miles is like running a 1/2 marathon.

Question:  Did you do something fun today?

Will bike for cupcakes

Unbelievably gorgeous day today!  It was chilly this morning, though.  I was ready for a warm brekkie.  I had forethought last night to soak some steel cut oats, so they were quicker to cook this morning.  Love that technique.

I did the usual banana custard style topped with some strawberry jam and cashew butter.

My mouth and tummy were happy campers!  I got a chance to catch up on blogs and some emails while waiting for John to get up 😛

We packed up some snacks and got ready to hit the road for a long ride.  I am so happy to go riding!

Headed down to Saratoga today.  It was such a beautiful day for a ride.  I kept saying that until John got annoyed LOL!  (Did I mention it was a beautiful day??)  We stopped around mile 12 as I wanted a snack.  It’s hard to wait longer when I ate breakfast about 2 hours earlier than John did.  Product placement:

This was in the swag bag from the Silk & Satins race. I wanted to see how Craisins did in place of my usual dates.  They did fine.

Does anyone smell ham?  I do:

(He thinks he is so cool now all decked out in the new jersey….)

I started to have chain problems around mile 16.  Uh oh.  I messed with it a little.  There is one link that if it gets the smallest dust speck in it, it tends to stick.  This is after wiping off my hands.  Ick.

It seemed okay after that for the rest of the ride.  After 22 miles, we got to Saratoga.  First stop?  Cupcake Lab!

We wanted lunch and a little something else.  It was nice not to be dripping sweat since the day was so nice.  Did I mention that already?

I love this saying:

Of course, anything that says coffee is all right by me…. My choice for lunch was the breakfast burrito.  I got that forgetting it had sausage in it (I thought it was the local bacon).  They get the bacon locally, but not the other meats.  Not quite sure why that is as the smokehouse they get the bacon from is where we buy all our meat.  Anyway – here is my delicious burrito in a honey wheat wrap with egg, cheese, potato, and sausage.  With a perfect strawberry on the side.

Yum!  I was so hungry that I kind of woofed this down.  Ooops.  Trying to be mindful, but really hard when you are hungry.

We wanted dessert, of course.  How can you go to a cupcake place and not have anything?  Choices, choices.  I wanted a peanut butter frosted cupcake:

We also had the Almond Joy, which I was remiss in gettng a picture of.

And some fresh brewed coffee.

They brew each cup individually with a filter, which I adore!  I got a coffee called Witches Brew.  Very smooth coffee. I would probably brew this a little stronger, but everyone I know says we make our coffee too strong. 🙄

Then the owner brought out a new flavor cupcake to us to try on the house.  How nice is that?  She actually recognized me from my blog.  First local recognition!

This was a coconut cream cupcake.  Vanilla cupcake with coconut cream filling topped with buttercream.  It was really good.  Very coconuty.  Again, I like this size of cupcake because it isn’t monstrous in size.

John proclaimed the almond joy to be his favorite.  I like the peanut butter frosted.  I like anything nutty anyway.

After this, we walked around town.  Big horse.

Saratoga is horse town, as the track runs during the summer.  It is track season now, but downtown was surprisingly uncrowded.  Guess everyone was at the track itself.  Stopped in to Borders just to see if Caitlin’s Operation Beautiful book was there, but it was not.  Boooo on Borders.

We were trying to let our cupcake babies settle for a bit.  I was a little full.  Hopped over to the bike store and got some much needed chain lube.  Chain all better now!  Yay!

Then we rode home.  My legs felt quite good.  After 30 miles, John asked if I was warmed up yet.  Hardeehar.  Such a comedian.  After 32 miles, we took a break for some coconut water.  More product placement!

Maybe Zico would sponsor my Team Challenge ride?? (I wish!!)

Long road behind us.

This is the entry to someone’s driveway.

It’s all gravel.  That has to suck in winter time LOL!

We hit a big hill right after this and I think I drank too much water and coconut water, because I was getting a side cramp that lasted for about 3 miles.  Ugh.  Then I felt fine.

It was an awesome ride today!  Great weather can make all the difference in how a ride feels.  I could do the 62 mile Team Challenge ride tomorrow.  Well, maybe not tomorrow since I did 45 today, but I am ready now.

Ride stats:

45.6  miles

3:25 of actual ride time

Top speed:  24.8 mph

Avg speed:  13.4 mph

Calories burned: 1440 (good thing after those cuppicakes!)

I have to say that I feel so strong right now.  I still have work to do on my leg, but I don’t think I could ask to be more in bike shape than I am right now.  The scale is just a box with a number on it.  It does not tell me that I am strong and beautiful.  It does not know that I can bike 100 miles in a day.  It does not know that I can squat and deadlift in the weight room with the guys.  And I don’t care what it doesn’t know about me – because *I* know it 😀

40-miler by way of change in plans

Woke up to a nice morning for breakfast on the porch today!  I made some protein waffles and did a fun sandwich combo out of them.  I mashed a banana and put it in between the waffles and topped with the last of the chocolate homemade fluff.

Very, very good!

Then I got caught up on emails and blogs while waiting for John to get out of bed.  He was out playing poker again….

I needed a pre ride snack before hitting the road.

Gosh this bread is good.  The plan was to head south to Saratoga as we had cupcakes in mind.  Life had other plans, though 😀  About 6 miles in, John’s derailleur came off:

In doing so, it bent a link of his chain, so it made it difficult for him to pedal.  We decided to not keep going to Saratoga, but instead loop back around to Queensbury and Inside Edge bike shop.  I drooled over some new bikes while John had his chain fixed right then and there.  They only charged him $5.  That is good service.  We had done about 12 mile at that point, and decided not to turn around and go back to Saratoga, or it would have been way longer than we wanted to go today.  Instead, we bike a little bit more and popped into The Silo for lunch at mile 15:

This is a restaurant with a barn store attached to it:

They have a little bit of everything!  I saw a special on the menu board that said Maryland crab melt on a waffle brioche, so that immediately caught my eye.  I probably should have stuck with the breakfast all day thing.

Looked good when it came:

Unfortunately, it was made with fake krab!  I should have guessed by the price, I suppose.  It also had a ton of onions in it, so I had to pick out a bunch of onions and celery and peas (?).  I basically put the crab on the brioche and ate that.  I did eat most of the fries.  The watermelon slice was awesome though!  I have to say I was a little bummed at this meal, as we generally love the Silo.

After lunch, we decided to bike on to Lake George, as it was only 10 miles away.  It’s tourist season!  Lake George is a mix of natural beauty:

and the tacky:

Lots of candy and ice cream shops – here is some dip for candied apples!

We sat in the garden and had some coconut water and blueberries:

Also met the cutest little puppy.  Only 2 months old:

Then I chased this guy around for a while before I got a good shot:

Time to head home.  Since we didn’t get a cupcake, we decided to get yogurt instead.  I had rum cheesecake topped with coconut:

I asked John if he was enjoying his yogurt:

Do all almost 42 year old men act like this?  Maybe it is the result of living with me for so long….

Finally reached home:

41 miles.  Burned 1200 calories!  Woo Hoo!  I am kind of tired, I have to say.  It was a hot day for biking and hilly!  The shower felt amazing and perked me up quite a bit.

I wanted just a bowl of cereal for dinner, but we are out.  Need to go grocery shopping.  So, I made a bowl of cream of wheat topped with nut butter and some chips.  I let this cool way down before eating:

Love carbs after long rides.  I am thinking about doing a 60 mile charity ride in September, which would involve a fundraising drive.  I am not sure, but I might give it a go.  Guess this is turning out to be the summer of biking.  I have just rolled over 1000 miles on the bike since we got the bikes out in March!

Bike ride video and be a good egg!

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I did a switcheroo today like I did on Tuesday and worked out later in the day.   So, I started off with a combo I have been thinking of for a while – mocha oats!   Susan and I were on the same wavelength.

coffeeoats

  • 40 grams oats
  • 3/4 cup coffee
  • 1 small banana
  • 4 grams cocoa powder
  • 10 grams chopped toasted pecans

I used the coffee in place of the water.  This was very strong brewed coffee, too.  It was a very unusual flavor, I have to say.  I couldn’t taste the banana at all, just a bit of sweetness.  It was eye opening!

My wonderful husband bought me some memory for my camera!  I was talking about getting some because I can only take so many pictures and very short video with it.  And then he said not to buy any because he got me some.  Early Christmas gift for me!

memory

Isn’t technology amazing? 2 Gigabytes and the size of my fingernail.

Today was my hardest training day before taper week before the duathlon.  I did a 1.5 mile run, then 16 mile bike ride, then 2 mile run.

As promised, here is a little bit of my bike path. It’s like my own Blair Witch Project LOL!  I took so much video today, it was fun.  This is just one piece.

I am such a nerd LOL. I feel like a bit of a goof. I held the camera in one hand while riding. Actually surprisingly steady for that.


It was the most gorgeous day today.  So beautiful.  I kept stopping to take pictures:

fallpath3

sumac-1

Stunning, just stunning. I wish I really could capture this on camera.

After the bike ride and before the 2nd run, I had some of this!

zico

Zico, would you sponsor me, please?? 😀  I love this stuff.  It’s coming with me on duathlon day!

Pink picture of the day:

bands

This is a local laundromat. That color is on purpose LOL!

I felt really good when I finished. I did take more breaks riding that I should have, but I realized that I will be able to finish the duathlon. I know that now, and if I have to take a few breaks, it’s okay! I am getting excited and nervous about it. I can’t wait to see what kind of weather we will get next weekend. Mid October could be anything!

Question: Do you have fall photos to share? List the link, I would love to see!

Brick training day!

I actually slept until 7 a.m. this morning!  Yay!  It’s so hard for me to sleep that late, although I didn’t get to bed until after midnight.

It looked pretty cloudy this morning, so we weren’t sure if we were going to be able to ride or not.

Breakfast was so yummy:

chocoats2

  • 40 grams oats
  • 4 grams cocoa powder
  • 1 small banana
  • cinnamon
  • Topped with peanut butter and (oh no she didn’t!) a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

Yum!  After dinking around on the computer for a while and checking the radar, it seemed clear and I really wanted to check out the duathlon course since the road was all marked up for the race in 2 weeks (!!!!).  I actually was overdressed for this, as the closer we got to Albany, the warmer it was.  It was probably close to 60 and really humid.  Ugh!  I had on jogging pants and a long sleeve technical shirt.

We started on the bike route and first thing is a big hill, a steep hill!  Holy crow.  This is a tough course.  It is a beautiful course, though, I have to say.  It’s going to be awesome with fall colors in 2 weeks.

With the humidity, I just wasn’t feeling at my peak and was slow on the climbs.  John actually went ahead of me, which is pretty rare.  We stopped at mile 8 to have a snack (Balance bar).  I likely won’t do this on the actual race day, but I needed it since it had been several hours since breakfast.

snack

Then finished up that route.  After we got back I wanted to do the 2.2 mile run and John decided to go with me!  I about fell over.  Drank some coconut water and headed out.  After about 1/2 a mile, there was a hill…. a long hill…. a really long hill.  Probably 1/4 mile or so.  We managed to plod up and keep going.  This was the big reason I wanted to do the course ahead of time, because I didn’t want there to be any surprises, and now there aren’t.  I do have to say that I am a little scared though.  Remember that I have to do the run *twice* – once before the 16 mile bike ride and then at the end.

I think I can do it – does my face look scared? It is.

sweaty

This was after we did the run part.  I was drenched in sweat.  I just don’t do well in humidity.  GoWear fit said 658 calories burned for the bike/run. Sweet.

I think I scared the geese with my sweatiness – they are running away!

geese

It was time to eat then and we stopped at Pasta Factory:

pf

Ironically, neither of us got pasta 😀

I did have an awesome pear and gorgonzola salad with walnuts on a bed of spinach.  It was sooo good!

salad

Shopped for a while and looked at some fun Halloween stuff.  The mall had one of those giant costume stores that seem to pop up this time of year.

Then a stop for a latte!  Yum, yum.

latte

They made it all purty for me, too!

I am pretty beat.  I feel a mix of both being excited and nervous about the duathlon.  It is going to be tough, no 2 ways about it.

Throwback for dinner!

eiab

Eggs in a basket!  This was fun, since we actually had bread slices big enough to do this with (Nature’s Pride)

So – lucky you guys to have an early post from me tonight!  Tomorrow is back to work for me, and then football where my Broncos take on my dad’s favorite team the Cowboys (booooo!!!).  So we will be watching the game together.

Question:  Ever have eggs in a basket?

Coconut water and easy mac and cheese.

Since I didn’t lift yesterday, I went to the gym today.  I am starting to recognize the regulars there.  They are always doing the same stuff!  It was nice when I first got there, I had the place all to myself.  That only lasted for about 15 minutes, but it was fun while it lasted 😀

New lifting gloves:

gloves

About $15.  I like them – the padding isn’t too thick, but it is sturdy enough so that gripping the weights is comfortable.  Hopefully these will hold up better than my others!

Did a misc routine today as I have finished this stage of NROLW:

  • Romanian deadlift with upright row (my favorite!)
  • Dumbbell squats
  • Incline chest fly
  • Seated lat row
  • Horizontal wood chop
  • Planks
  • Arnold press
  • Then treadmill walking

Came back and made delicious protein pancakes!  I have found that adding in 1/4 tsp of baking powder makes them nice and fluffy.  And if you add protein powder, it should be brown rice or soy powder.  The whey protein makes the pancakes tough, in my experience.

cakes

In response to some coconut water questions, here is some more info about it.

coc1

Many people confuse coconut water with coconut milk.  They are really very different.  Coconut water is the juice from young, green coconuts and is pretty much clear.  It has a very light coconut taste and almost sweet, but not quite.  It tastes kind of like water with some coconut extract in it.  I think if you drink sports drinks, it will likely taste very bland to you. I actually like the flavor.  I got some with Mango extract in it and it was quite tasty.  I purchase it in the natural foods aisle at Hannaford stores.  I am not sure if megamarts carry it or not.  You can check where nutritional supplements are sold, because it might be there.

Unlike coconut milk, coconut water has no fat.  It has more potassium than a banana (670 mg per 8 oz),which is why it is great post workout!  It also has magnesium, calcium and phosphorous.  The only thing it is missing is more sodium (for a complete electrolyte drink).  The calories are very similar to Gatorade – about 60 for 8 ounces.

Compare to Gatorade:

Coconut water ingredients:  Coconut water (fruit extract, if used), ascorbic acid (vitamin C)

Gatorade: water, sugar, table salt, carbohydrates, electrolytes (110 mg sodium, 30 mg potassium, 93 mg chloride), high fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, glucose, fructose, and sugar. Then there is the kind with the sucralose.

I really only use this to supplement long exercise sessions.  If I run for over an hour, I will have some.  Or a really long bike ride or brick.  Otherwise, I just fuel before the workout.  I am always amazed at the jolt I feel right after drinking it during the workout.  Guess that means my body needs it.  Too bad races can’t get sponsored by a coconut water company instead of Gatorade!

John and I went to visit Pixie at the vet’s today.  She was the only animal in the kennel area.  She started meowing right away when she saw us.  She was still a little groggy, as they have her on pain meds.  3 of her feet are all tightly wrapped up.  They looked so small!  Of course, that was just because of the compression.  She was purring and seemed fine.  The staff said she was getting a lot of loving and was being very friendly with them.  Wish my new doctor was like the staff at the vet!  She’ll be coming home tomorrow.

Made the quickest and easiest mac and cheese ever for dinner!  It took 3 ingredients:

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While the pasta cooked, I pan sauteed the broccoli.  Then I added 1 wedge of laughing cow to a bowl, topped with the broccoli and the drained pasta and mixed well:

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Perfection.  I rarely eat pasta as you don’t get much for the calorie buck and I am more of a bulk eater, but this was definitely yummy!

Question:  Do you drink any sports drink?  Which one do you like?

7-miler, new doctor and chilly weather.

Woke up this morning somewhat early as per usual.  Wanted to sleep more, but it was not to be.  Checked temp – it was in the low 40s!  So chilly.  I wore a jacket over my trisuit.  It was also very foggy out, so I nixed any street running in favor of the safer track.  Fueled up with this:

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I love these.   I only get them when we shop at Price Chopper, since that is the only place I can find them, but we only go there once a month, maybe.

I also took some coconut water with me.  This stuff is absolutely amazing!

coc The plan was 6 miles.  I was going to do 3 and 3, but I was in a groove after 3 miles, so actually ran 4 before taking a break.  I drank 1/2 the coconut water and did 2 more miles.  Then I drank the rest of the coconut water.  It was like a shot in the arm and I decided to go around 1 more mile (I must be nuts).  So, 7 miles down today.  I don’t know how long it took as I didn’t wear a watch.  Probably 1:20 or so.

It was still cold enough to see my breath walking back home and I wanted something warm for brekkie in my favorite bowl:

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Oat bran made with a bit of brown sugar and topped with blueberry sauce.  I actually layered it in the bowl with sauce on the bottom, then oat bran, then the rest of the sauce.  It was so good!

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Had a quick lunch before my doctor’s appointment:

lunchChobani low fat (not FF!) plain yogurt, strawberries, and Kashi Cinnamon Heart.  This is new and tasterrific!

So, I met with this doctor for the first time.  I also found out that I am not 5’2″, but 5 1-1/4?? WTF???  When did that happen?  I don’t think that is right, because John said he was about 3/4 inch shorter than he thought, too.

Anyway, I was discussing with the doctor about how I had lost some weight and was having some trouble getting off the last 10 pounds. She basically interupted me and said “Exercise more.”  Hmmm….  So I started to say that I did already exercise a lot and she cut me off with “No, you must exercise more.”  I was really irritated at that point.  Especially as I had run freaking 7 miles this morning!  So I asked if I could tell her what I did for exercise and listed everything.  She was writing it all down and then said “We’ll check a thyroid.”  Not that I really expect anything to be up with my thyroid, but it won’t hurt to have it checked.  It just irked me that she automatically dismissed my efforts as not enough.  Helloooo…. I trained and did a triathlon! Then we actually talked about how much weight I have already lost and she was very surprised (and impressed).  She actually didn’t say I really needed to lose any more weight, but she didn’t discourage me from it, either.  She was just happy that I have kept off 100 pounds for more than a year, as she said how that was the real accomplishment.   She also said that eating healthy, maintaining my weight loss, and exercising were better than any pill could be to stay healthy!

So, with the initial exam over, now I get the over 40 treatment in the next month:  Bloodwork, mammogram (squish), Pap, skin check – the works!  Wheee……

Dinner was like a little clam bake in spirit.  Grilled corn, clam strips and broccoli!

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The corn was a little immature and not the best.

Going to my sister’s house tonight for a little get together for my niece’s birthday.  She is 10 today – a tween! Look out world!  Need to maintain cupcake control tonight.  Wish me luck!  That’s a way to start out the September challenge LOL!