Tag Archives: coffee

The Scale versus The Injury

Happy Earth Day!  The malt was quite good that John brought me last night.  It was made with maple soft serve and malt powder!  I am really sorry that I know how good that combo is….

I went to bed around 10 pm last night, hoping to get extra sleep, but I was up before 6!  I just wonder if my body doesn’t need 8 hours?

Anyway, I got up early and started working so I could finish up early today if possible.  Made a pot of coffee with some fresh roasted beans:

I am sorry that you cannot smell these.  Then cooked up some protein waffles topped with a mix of pumpkin, honey, ricotta cheese and a few dried cranberries.

This was good, although I do like my topping to be a little moister.  Yogurt works better for this instead of the ricotta, I think.

I imagine you all are curious as to how my herniated disk and lack of normal activity has affected the scale.  I was curious as well.  As you have seen on my blog, I am not restricting what I eat all that much.  Not always for lack of trying, though.  I am eating a little less, but still have my snacktacular days *yesterday, cough, cough*, just like normal.  I thought my appetite was going down because of lower activity, but I think it was my prescription pain meds.  Once I stopped those and switched to plain old ibuprofen, my regular appetite returned.

So here is the interesting thing.  All of March, I did my normal hard workouts and lost 1 pound for the whole month.  I have lost 2 pounds since I injured myself and barely moving.  The irony of this is not lost on me.  (Irony has been in my vocabulary a lot lately….). John said the weight loss gods have a sense of humor.  I thought it was a fluke, but I weighed in 3 days in a row and the lower weight stayed.  It can’t possibly be muscle atrophy in only 2 weeks, can it?  I’ll take it, though!  My cruise weight is all gone now – yay!  I’ll be curious as to what happens over the next few weeks.  I have not gone running in 14 days and no biking in 13 days (other than the stationary at the gym this week).

Lunch time!  I forgot I had bought a cucumber this week, so that went onto the plate.  With some tuna salad.

I decided on the pear after waffling between that and a kiwi.  I almost had both LOL!

Got back to work and busted out all my lines to finish up early today.  So, I had to make the afternoon lattes…..

Then I took a walk.  Went a few slow blocks and enjoyed the sunshine!

Did a quick and easy stock dinner tonight.

I cooked the broccoli on the griddle pan to our new grill!  That was pretty cool.

Stopped at the rental house to get the lawnmower and have John help me with a couple things, then back home to relax.  I am snacking on some dates with nut butter tonight and a cup of tea while I write this post.

I don’t have anything earth-shattering (har har) to say about Earth Day.  So instead, I will leave you with some photos I took today on my walk:

A wee bit of lifting

Thank you all so much for your comments on my Shape Magazine debut!  If it inspired even just one person to never give up, that would make me so happy!  It really is worth all the effort.

Since I didn’t post any food or other doin’s yesterday, I thought I would let you know how the first foray back to the iron went.  Mornings are the hardest time for me right now.  I am not sure why, but maybe I am just super stiff after the night of basically sleeping in one position.  I cannot sleep on my stomach or side yet (my 2 normal sleep positions).  So, I am pretty stiff and sore in the mornings, particularly my hip.  I was a little limpy at the gym, which was noticed by people (I got sternly warned not to over do it 🙂 )  There are certain moves that I cannot do currently, which include  weighted squats, lunges, full dead lifts, and floor work like push ups and planks.  Those hurt too much, plus I have a little weakness in my knee.  No pull ups, either, as I have to jump up to the bar and drop off of it.  Not chancing that yet.  I am not going to risk reinjuring myself, so don’t worry about that.  My body certainly does tell me, as well.

I rode the recumbent bike for 10 minutes to warm up.  I was going about 7 miles an hour.  This is my first cardio I have done in almost 2 weeks!  It was a little sore, but not painful, so I was pretty happy.  That means regular biking is not far off in the future!

The lifting:

  • Straight-leg deadlift: 3 sets of 10 with 45# bar
  • Arnold Press:  3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs
  • YTWL: 3 sets of 4 (each letter) with 8# DBs
  • Nosebreakers:  3 sets of 10 with 30# bar
  • Bent over row:  3 sets of 8 with 25# DBs
  • Barbell chest press:  3 sets of 10 with 55# bar

Then I did 10 more minutes on the recumbent bike.  That was enough for a first try.  It just felt so good to get back to it, even if it was light and somewhat limited.  At 2 weeks out from the herniated disk, I think I am doing pretty well.

Now back to today!  Breakfast was a fab combo of pumpkin custard oats topped with a few dried cranberries, toasted pecans, and maple cream.

Dang, that was a good bowl of oats.

I got to work early and fast today!  Lots to do, so I put my head down and started busting out lines.  I stopped for a babybel snack.

I am going to actually post yesterday’s lunch, because it was so good (today was yogurt and cereal combo, btw).  I had seen some sweet omelets on the net, and I cannot remember the original blog this was on.

I mixed 1/2 scoop of strawberry protein powder with 2 liquid egg whites and 1 whole egg, plus some cinnamon and blended in the magic bullet.  Then I cooked it like an omelet and sandwiched in a laughing cow wedge and blueberry sauce

D-licious.  Who knew sweet eggs could be so good?  Note to self:  Spray pan with nonstick spray next time….

I finished up work early today, so I went over to the rental house and started some clean up.  I am able to walk around without crutches now – yay!  The closing should happen on this house on Monday, and you had better believe we are going out for a nice dinner to celebrate!

Came back to make some dinner. Everybody say ‘stir fry’!

I am liking the broccoli slaw.  It’s fun and easy, plus it has some nice color.  With precooked brown rice chicken and I had a 10 minute dinner.  I had a kiwi, too, instead of strawberries so my dinner was color coordinated 😀

Headed out to pick up a few things for the rental house:

Hopefully the last money I ever spend on this particular property…..

My sister was also in town tonight, so we met at Starbucks!

I had a tall skim latte:

Plus a bite of oatmeal cookie.  These actually are really good.

Just to show I am not the only ham in the family:

13 years of marriage, people….  At least he bakes good bread 😉

I also got a package today from the Ginger People – I won a drawing and they sent an amazing amount of stuff to me.

I am actually going to review this stuff because it is amazingly good and unusual!

Tomorrow is another lifting day and bagel time!

Question:  Have you ever had a sweet egg dish?

Chasing away the blues.

Getting better bit by bit.  I am just hoping to be walking pain free very soon.  That would be a giant step forward.  I was feeling pretty blue this morning about the whole thing.  I just wish I had a timeline, you know?

Very sad clown here….  I made a comforting bowl of banana oats this morning, topped with some Nuttzo and jam.

I don’t know if I will ever go back to not adding egg whites to my oatmeal anymore!  I am hooked.

I am looking into getting a foam roller.  I want to make sure I keep my back and leg muscles stretched out, and there is a specific roller exercise for sciatica, so that will be on the list.  I just need to find the right size roller, I guess.

Lunch was cobbled together with the last of the baby carrots, and a super unripe kiwi!

Dang, that was even more tart than the one I had last week.  No wonder they were on sale.  I need to let the other sit for a few days before eating.

One bonus to not working out in the morning is that I can start work early and be done early.  I was finished by 3!

Afternoon snack time:

One of John’s brownies.  I was going to ask for the recipe, but they really are a bit dry and not as good as they look (sorry J!).

I waddled outside  afterward to try and take a walk.  I made it this far:

Our house is the 2nd one down.  I had to turn back and come home because of the pain.  I should have gotten the crutches out for the walk, but I hadn’t needed them walking around the house.

Dinner time was some chicken topped with a laughing cow wedge and salsa – you must try this because it was soo good!

Yum!  John asked me if I wanted to go out for coffee this evening to cheer me up.  Of course I won’t say no that, as you well know.  It worked:

That’s my favorite travel mug – see how beat up it is?  I just can’t find one to replace it that is just right.  John on the other hand,has a ton of travel mugs.  Not pictured is the muffin I had with this….

Had to cover up the rose bushes tonight.  Temps are supposed to drop to 27!  Hope they make it.

Question:  Do any of you use a foam roller?

Lifting and destressing.

Maple Syrup Giveaway!!

Seems like about half of you like tofu and half don’t!  It seems either all or nothing as well.  One of those polarizing foods.

Killer work out today.  No biking, because it was still rainy and breezy when I got up 🙁   Tomorrow, though!  I had a protein snack before leaving the house.

After a treadmill warm up, I did the following:

  • Chin ups:  3 sets of 2
  • Barbell squats:  Warm up of 10 at 45#,  set of 10 at 75#, set of 8 at 95#, set of 6 at 105#, set of 4 at 115#!

Superset:

  • Incline barbell chest press:  3 sets of 8 at 55#
  • Reverse lunge/forward reach:  3 sets of 10 with 8# DBs

Superset:

  • Walking lunges:  3 sets of 8 (each leg) with 15# DBs
  • Push ups:  3 sets of 10

Superset:

  • Front raise:  3 sets of 10 with 8# DBs
  • Triceps kickback:  3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs

Superset:

  • Reverse crunches:  3 sets of 15
  • Lower back extension (machine): 3 sets of 10 at 100#

Then I got on the treadmill again, thinking I would do some HIIT or a little jogging, but I was completely wiped from that workout.   It took about 45 minutes to get through that routine.  I felt really weak, too.   Lifting can do that to you! After 10 minutes, I got off and picked up John for bagels.

I did not try this coffee, but I found the name intriguing.

It’s probably 1/2 caff, which is never on my morning agenda.

I was so hungry that I snarfed my bagel before a picture:

After I ate this, my stomach felt like nothing had even gone in, not even the large coffee!  One of those bottomless pit days, I guess.

Got to work right away with another web conference.  They have been conferencing us out this week!

Kashi cereal sample arrived in the mail (I heart Kashi):

I incorporated it into lunch with greek yogurt, vanilla protein powder and strawberries.

I used half of this sample.  I really, really liked this cereal – which is a problem for me, as I am sure you all know how I have a cereal snack problem.  I don’t know if I would dare have a whole box of this in the house.  The little sample came with a $1 coupon, too! 😯

The sun has been trying to peek out a little today, with little showers.  It’s definitely spring!  I was looking at my garden bed today and more and more things are showing their heads.  Yay!

Snack time!

Plus the last of the 100 calorie organic cookies:

These were also good.

Finished up work early today.  I have scaled back my schedule a little bit.  I was trying to hit a certain $ amount each day with lines and because we get paid more for certain lines than others (speech recognition versus straight transcription), I would never know when I would finish for the day, which was getting annoying.  Plus, you just burn out after too many lines.  I was giving myself some undue stress about it.  With selling the rental house, it is not so imperative to have every line count.  So, I have just been hitting the company minimum and it has made me much, much happier.

Dinner time!  I was still feeling like a bottomless pit, so I sauteed up 2 cups of broccoli to make a stir fry with.  Gotta bulk it up!

Yum!!!  I hope I never get tired of broccoli.

Relaxing evening on tap tonight.  We have an MST3K movie from Netflix to watch.  I just love that show – it cracks me up.  Which really cements my geekdom, I’ll tell you.  😳   This is one of the reasons I will have to keep John around forever.  All of our shorthand jokes based on this show and The Simpsons would be too hard to train  a new husband in. :mrgreen:

Question:  Is your job stressful, and if so, how do you relieve that?

Dead lifts and tofu = nofu

Hello from Rainville.  It has been so wet this week!

We are supposed to get a big warm up later in the week and I am sure the garden is going to go gangbusters after all this rain!  This weather meant indoor running today.  I don’t like running in the rain (or doing much in the rain, really).  So, hopped on to the gym and did my requisite 4 miles.  I really should start doing some speed work, as we have a race coming up in April.  I know my time has slowed since last fall.

After running, I came back to absolutely no coffee in the house ready to go.  That is complete panic!  John forgot to mention to me that he used the last bit yesterday afternoon for lattes, or I would have roasted some up last night.  So, that was what I was doing instead of eating – roasting coffee in the popcorn popper 😡   Although, it does not get any fresher than that!

I made a different topping for my protein waffles today:

This is 1/2 cup of frozen raspberries, 1 tsp of honey, cinnamon, and 1/4 cup of FF ricotta cheese all mashed together and heated up.  It was quite good and a nice change from blueberries.

Went to an old standby for lunch:

This is a chicken sandwich with laughing cow and some strawberry jam!  I love this combo.  However, I found out that the Arnold Sandwich thins now are now made with sucralose (I am positive they were not before).  Yuck!!!!

I want to show you all how lifting heavy does not make you bulky.  I did dead lifts at 95# yesterday (and they were hard).  Check out the tiny lady doing 100# dead lifts (a million of them) and making it look like snap.  Strong does not equal bulky!  This is a full deadlift.  Sometimes called sumo, I think.  Different than stiff/straight leg dead lift.  Probably the 2nd best full body exercise next to  barbell squats.

I bet she felt those the next day….

Afternoon snack was a little protein powder and fluff pudding. New PP today sweetened with Stevia. It’s pretty strong stuff!  I thought I took a picture, but I guess I didn’t.  😳

I finished up work early today!  Yay!  Love those days, especially after a rough day yesterday.

Dinner time involved something new for me:

I had the brilliant idea that this would taste good if pan sauteed with some ginger sesame sauce.  My plate:

With roasted sweet potato chips and brussel sprouts.

2 things were eaten off that plate and I will give you 2 guesses.  Somebody swapped out  a can of tuna for the tofu to get the protein because I didn’t feel like getting anything else ready.  Epic fail on the tofu.  It wasn’t the taste so much (there wasn’t any), but the texture was just awful, awful, awful.  Mushy and gelatinous in the middle.  And this was the firm stuff!  I may try blending the rest up in a shake or something to not waste it, but never again.

After dinner, John and I hit the town for a little shopping.  John needs shoes.  Didn’t score on any foot wear, but we did stop for some R&R:

Tall decaf latte with a shot of protein.  I didn’t realize Starbies still did the protein shot, so I asked – and they did!  Go me!

Hopefully tomorrow will be a biking to bagel day if the rain stops overnight.

Question: Is it rainy where you are?

St. Patty’s and Doggy Diplomas!

Slainte!!  I love St. Patty’s Day!  We have an Irish family, and I have that wonderful pasty, freckled skin 😀

It’s lifting day, and I needed to work off the nice dark chocolate binge I had last night.  It’s not the chocolate stash of mine, but the stupid dark chocolate chips that John snacks on.  They were up high, and I was up there getting some chocolate down for my mom and of course, I snagged some from the bag, and then snagged some more.  I think it is the tinyness of them that makes them so snackable.

It was about 35 degrees when I got up, so I decided to bike to the gym.  I was okay until about 1/2 mile in, when I realized it was pretty darn cold LOL!  I had on double gloves, too.  It’s only 1.7 miles away, so I toughed it out.

Had a nice tiring session today:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of 1
  • Barbell squats:  10 at 45#, 10 at 75#, 8 at 95#, 6 at 105#, and 4 at 115# (YES!!)
  • Seated rows: 3 sets of 10 at 60#
  • Barbell chest press:  10 at 45#, 8 at 55#, 6 at 65#, 4 at 75#  (YES!!)
  • Good mornings:  3 sets of 10 with 45# bar
  • Supine Row:  3 sets of 6 with body weight (These are really hard)
  • Decline sit ups:  3 sets of 10.
  • Front raise:  3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs
  • Hammer curl: 3 sets of 8 with 15# DBs
  • Bench dips:  3 sets of 10 with body weight.

Then I walked on the treadmill until John met me at the gym for breakfast! We elected to stay close to home, as it is a busy day for me, and biking to bagels would take a long time with Ridge St closed.  So, we went to Cafe on the Park!

This place does it old school.  My breakfast was 2 eggs with toast and home fries, plus coffee – all for $2.99!  Can you beat that?


Nom!

Then we biked home.  It was warmer, but still a little brisk.  Sunny, though.  Makes me want to play hooky :mrgreen:  But alas, bills must be paid.

Since it is St Patty’s day, I decided to have Irish Steel Cut Oats for lunch – pumpkin style!  These are the quick cook steel cut oats.

Working all day trying to get as much done as I can.  Pixie visited and this was the best I could do dressing her up in green:

Can you believe I can still get the laptop on my lap with her there?  She makes it hard, though 😀

Afternoon snack: 

I just set it on my thighs to preview how it will look after the chocolate ends up there anyway :mrgreen:

Quick dinner before dog training tonight!  Chicken on a bagel thin.  I don’t even want to use the word bagel with these.  They are just sandwich thins with a hole in the middle.  Lame….

Final dog training class tonight. Storm being very good here:

Storm and Georgia with my sister and I:

Tonight is graduation night for the doggies!  They all did a good job.  I made homemade biscuits for them last night, too.

John came with tonight to see the graduation.  It was a family affair as my parents were there with their dog, my sister and my niece!    John and I headed out to Starbies for a cuppa after class and had a special cookie from my mom (came from QVC).

Skim latte and cookie.  They cancel each other out, right?  Think I need a detox tomorrow or something.  Phew….  I at least need to refocus.

Catch you all on Thursday!

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/HipFlexors/WtDeclineSitup.html

Peeps are the sure sign of spring

Woke up this morning and figured I would run outside today, so I ate breakfast first.  Custard banana oats!

Yum.  We sat and goofed around on the computers for a long time this morning and then when I looked up to run – it was sprinkling outside!  It looked like it would pass, so we waited a little bit and went out.  It was windy and cold.  Hit up the track, where I did 4 miles and John did 3.  Here is me finished.

Don’t be fooled by that smile.  What I really was thinking was “Who’s idea was this, anyway??”  I even voiced that to John a couple times, to which he said “We already established that it was your idea.” 😳

Came home and had a quick protein snack of powder mixed with water and some almond butter (really dry almond butter) before showering.

While getting ready, John asked if I wanted to go shopping! Was I going to say ‘no’?? I don’t think so!  We headed out to Saratoga Springs and the mall down there.  Stopped at Esperanto for a quick lunch.  They just remodeled and the place is a lot nicer.  Very local feeling:

Here I am all cleaned up.

And my hot date (he has windblown hair):

I had the beans and rice dish.

It was quite good, but a lot of food! I only ate about 1/2 of this figuring we would probably stop for coffee in a couple hours.  I was right!

We certainly have been going out a lot the last few days.  Not a lot of money each time, but it can add up.

We hit the grocery store on the way home and you can see the colorful display of Peeps!  That means spring is just about here, right?

I actually love Peeps. I remember when they just used to be the yellow ones!

Could I have put more of my favorites onto my dinner plate tonight?

This was a bagel thin egg sandwich with laughing cow.  Plus my 2 favorite produce partners!  Not that big a fan of the bagel thin, though.  It was pretty much and Arnold thin.

Speaking of berries, I got a great picture from one of my blog readers.  Summer sent me a photo of her at a strawberry festival in Florida last week.

A girl after my own heart….

Chocolate update.  I have been really good with the chocolate.  I had one square of John’s bar yesterday and today I just didn’t feel like having any.  Isn’t that weird?  Maybe it is just comforting to have all that chocolate in the house or something 😀

Question:  Peep lover or do you think they are gross?

Bagel day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Snack of champions to go with my latte.

Speaking of coffee, I got this question:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Question:  Coffee, tea, neither, or both?

Waffles and Flashback Friday!

I stayed up too late watching the Olympics!  Being on the East Coast, the skating didn’t end until midnight 😯  I was still up before 7, though…. sigh.  Hit the gym for some lifting and running.  I had a day off yesterday, but I sure felt tired today.  I think it is the culmination of the pell-mell schedule I have been on for the last 3 weeks and now knowing it’s over.

After a warm up, I did:

  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 2, 1 set of almost 1 🙂
  • Dead lift/row combo:  3 sets of 8 at 65#
  • Split squat with weight plate:  3 sets of 8 with 25# plate
  • Dumbbell pullover:  3 sets of 8 with 20# DB
  • Decline sit ups:  3 sets of 10
  • YTWL:  3 sets of 4 reps with 8# DBs
  • Dumbbell pliet squat:  3 sets of 8 with 35# DB

Then I jogged for 2.5 miles on the treadmill.  Normally I don’t run that long on lifting days, but I did not do my normal Thursday run, so I figure it’s okay.

Here’s a different breakfast for you!

Protein waffles (link) topped with a mashed banana, chocolate sauce, and toasted pecans.  1 tablespoon of chocolate sauce goes a long way!  In case you missed it, here is the link to the custard oats.

Working today for the 9th day in a row.  They haven’t all been full days of work, but they have been full days, know what I mean? I’ll be happy to get back on a straight work schedule.

Lunch time and I wanted something light.  I had some tuna salad, soy crisps and the last kiwi.

This was good, but I wanted just a little more, so I had 1/2 of a balance bar.  Kind of like dessert, but 7 grams of protein!

I about fell asleep while working after lunch.  We are out of milk, so John said with no milk and me working on my day off, we should play some hooky and have coffee!  Am I going to say no to that? No siree….

Now I am a little more awake.

Flashback Friday!  I was going through some pictures and scanning them into the computer today and decided to add this picture of me.  It’s one of my favorites, and I think it is one of my mom’s favorite pictures as well:

Usually in my baby pictures, I was either crying, had just finished crying, or was about to cry – so this is a good one LOL!

Do you ever look in your fridge or cabinets and say “why do we have so much of X”?   I noticed today we have a huge amount of chicken and about 8 pounds of potatoes!  There was a 5# bag of potatoes on sale for $2, so we bought them and we don’t really eat that many.  So, guess what was on the menu for dinner :mrgreen:

I microwaved some potato until it was mostly cooked, the put it under the broiler with feta cheese, butter spray, salt and pepper.  Quite good!  Potatoes and cheese, you really can’t go wrong with any form of that….

So, tomorrow is supposed to be about 40.  I am debating on an outdoor run, although it won’t be 40 in the morning.  Need to sleep on that 😀

Question:  Any fun Saturday plans?

Locks of Love and Lattes!

Happy Saturday!  Thanks for all the guest post offers!  If you want to get them to me by Friday – that would be great.  I might actually save some and run them after we get back 🙂

Got some good sleep last night – yay!  Gym doesn’t open til 8, so I could lounge around in bed for a bit, which was nice.  Then I got up and ate a balance bar before heading out to run!  I couldn’t resist wearing my new Sauconys! :mrgreen:  They are comfie.  I hit the treadmill for 6 miles again today.  Had an interesting comment from a woman who was walk/jogging next to me for a while.  I was in the locker room and she came in and said “I don’t know how you can run for so long without your knees bothering you.”

I don’t know why my knees are fine running.  I have chondromalacia, and my knees sound like rice krispies – but they never hurt.  Maybe because I don’t run all that fast.  Maybe it’s the biking or the strength training.  I talked with my sister about it, and she had read that if you start running later in life, you have less knee problems than those that run starting from a young age.   Interesting.

Came home to protein waffles!

I had to consciously slow down eating these, because I wanted to wolf them down.

My sister,Colleen, has been growing her hair for a long time.  She decided to get it cut and donate the hair.  She asked her girls if she should donate to women or children, and they voted for the children who had cancer.  That means Locks of Love.  They basically provide wigs to children who have lost their hair due to chemotherapy treatments.  When donating hair, it must be 10 inches or longer.  Colleen called around to a few salons to make sure they knew how to properly cut the hair for the program and made an appointment for today and asked me to come take pictures!  Here she is with the long hair:

Now her hair is measured with the rubber bands.

This stylist made it so he could cut the required length, but leave some length to work a cut with – rather than just putting the hair in a ponytail and hacking it off.

Snip, snip

Colleen and her finished ‘do!  Sophisticated and shexsy!

Of course, sisters have to have coffee!  We headed out to Fortunate Cup and had a couple of lattes.  This is a picture of her latte, as it was prettier than mine.

Plus a scone.  Yum.

We are the twinsies now!

I think she secretly wants to be me anyway….. :mrgreen: