Tag Archives: coffee

Mammogram, caffeine and a pleasant surprise!

Okay, here is proof that caffeine is not to blame for my sleeping troubles.  3 days without, and last night was one of my worst sleeping nights in a while.  Couldn’t get to sleep and couldn’t stay asleep.  Finally got out of bed at 6:30 and went for a 2 mile walk.  May as well exercise, right?  It was good 9/11 reflection time, too.

It was so hard to not grab a prewalk snack – I was starving!  I somehow made it to the test without eating.  My blood draw was at 8:30:

arm

Nice thing about blood draws versus donating blood is the size of the needle.  Much smaller for the draw and easy peasy!

Off to brekkie and I couldn’t wait!  John biked and met me. Samantha’s is just a couple blocks from the hospital.

saman

I love the atmosphere here.  Very eclectic and made for sitting and chatting.

saman2

I had the fruit bowl and muffin, which included watermelon, blueberries, grapes, honeydew, strawberries.  Delicious!

fruit

I love that they served this in a vintage bowl!  Perfect for pictures 😀

Mixed berry muffin, which actually wasn’t at big as it looks here.

muffin

Very good and tasty since I was so hungry.  Not pictured is  the decaf I drank with this.  It was so nice to lounge for breakfast, and I love going out with my hubby.

After breakfast was a stop at the library to browse, which is one of my favorite things to do (inner geek shining through!).

Then a stop at one of my favorite consignment stores.  This place is jam packed with stuff, although it is a bit hard to find things since I think they need a better categorizing system.  If you ever need a formal dress – this is the place to go.  Gorgeous, gorgeous stuff!

consign

I can spend forever in here.  Oddly enough, I didn’t find anything here that I wanted to get.  Then it was time to walk back over to the hospital for the mammogram.  You hear a lot of horror stories about how it hurts or pinches or is really uncomfortable, so I was a squidge nervous.

Meet the machine:

mam2

Can you believe I took a picture? I’m such a dweeb. LOL!  I did it while the curtain was closed when I was supposed to be putting the gown on. 😀  The tech was very nice.  She explained everything and then I had the mammo done.  *squish* They did 2 views, and honestly it didn’t bother me at all.  There was some pressure, but it didn’t hurt at all.  I just rolled my breasts back up and put them in my bra 😉

I would choose a mammo a thousand times over a Pap, I’ll tell you!  She let me view the images afterwards and noted that there was a lot of pectoral muscle in the image, which meant I must work out!  Yay NROLW!

Then it was sprint time for a latte!

My beloved caffeine, how I have missed you!  Plus some “on the go” lunch of a chai Luna bar:

luna

Off to a different consignment store, and I fell in love with a new place!  The deals were great and some awesome clothes.  Not nearly the selection of formals like the other place, but really – I don’t buy that much formal wear LOL!  This place also has a lot of other things like jewelry, shoes, books, CDs, etc.  I could spend forever here, too.  Anyway, I found a pair of pants that were an 8P on the hang tag, which is good, being a shorty and all.  I tried them on and they were a little snug, but the length was perfect.  I decided to get them, as losing 3 more pounds should get them to fit quite well (per my September challenge).  Not to mention that they were $4.80!!!

Here is my loot:

loot

1 top, 1 pants, 1 silk jammie set (which was new), a workout jacket, and a CD of celtic guitar music for a grand total of $22.83!!  Who loves a bargain???

The big surprise was this: I decided to take a picture of the inner tag, just to show the size and this is what I saw:

6

😮

No wonder they were snug, but I can’t believe I even got them on!  I had bought a pair of 6 shorts this summer, but I figured it was a total fluke of sizes, but I am almost a size 6!  If the hang tag had said 6, I wouldn’t even have bothered to try them on.  I had to laugh because when I showed them to John, he said you could see my muscular thighs in them.  Them’s biker thighs, baby!

Dang this has been a good day so far!

NROLW and POM iced coffee!

Thank you all so much for the nice comments on my running story.   I didn’t think it would be so much of an inspiration.  Now – go get those sneaks on!  😀 Woke up to maybe a little less humid today?  Hope the humidity breaks soon.

Preworkout snack of Ezekiel bread with apricot jam and PB.

snack4

1 piece of Ezekiel left.  Doubt I will buy it again.  It rained last night, but the morning was clear so I biked to my gym (love being able to bike there!).  I am getting more used to the gym, although still disliking the music.  Guess there are more people that want it than don’t 🙁

Anyhoo, did Stage 4a of NROLW today.

  • Barbell squat/push press:  3 x 8 45#  (can’t seem to progress more than this)
  • Step ups:  3 x 8  30# dumbbells.
  • Dumbbell 1-point row:  3 x 8  25# dumbbells
  • Push ups:  3 x 8
  • Stationary lunge:  3 x 8  35# plate
  • Planks – 3 x 2 minute holds
  • Horizontal wood chop:  3 x 8  40#

I was able to hold the plank all 3 times for 2 minutes without having to touch my knees down!  First plank easy.  2nd plank a bit harder. I thought I was going to die on the 3rd one. Serious breath hissing going on.  I probably got some looks, but I don’t care LOL!  Let them try it!  I am not sure why I can’t increase the weight on the push press – I have been at the empty bar for 2 stages now.  That one is very difficult for me, and I think it is the transition in grip between the squat and the press that is the problem. It’s just awkward.

Got on the treadmill for 20 minutes before biking home, and all I could think of was pancakes while I was walking!  So that is what I had for breakfast:

brekkie7

When we went shopping the other day, it was at a different store so I was able to get my Cedars Lemon Hummus!  Yum!  It was part of lunch today mixed with tuna and FSTG sweet potato chips.

lunch14

A package from POM Wonderful came for me today to sample.  POM iced coffee! This has my name written all over it!  Yay!  There were 2 flavors in the box, Cafe au Lait and Chocolate.  Thank you POM Wonderful!

pom

I had the Cafe au lait for my afternoon snack.  It was very good and tasted a lot like one of those Starbucks frappucinos you can buy in the grocery store, only better.  Nutritionally a little shaky with a lot of sugar, but the Cafe au lait has 7 grams of protein, plus some pomegranate antixodant extract (patent pending 😀  ). I like that they use Rainforest Alliance certified coffee.  Nice touch.  This was a fun treat, but I don’t like to drink my calories, and don’t drink my coffee sweetened hardly ever.    It is nice to know that if I am out and that is in the cooler at a convenience store, I can get a bit of energy with protein without resorting to soda.  Hmmmmm….. I bet this would be good running fuel.  John said the chocolate one was really chocolately, so he was quite happy.

You know how I love those quick dinners!  We like to keep jars of different sauces in the house for things like this.  Kitchens of India has some nice jar sauces.  I have a mild curry one (for John…. wimp), which I used tonight.  This dinner took about 15 minutes to whip up.

dinner15

And yes – strawberries are back!  How I missed them during my blueberry (purple?) haze.

John bought a plantain the other day, and he decided to cook it with dinner.

It smelled very much like a banana here:

plantain

He sliced it up and pan fried it in coconut oil:

plantain2

I snagged one to try.

plantain3

mmmm….. GBD.  The verdict?  Interesting.  It did not taste like banana at all.  It was very starchy tasting and similar to a sweet potato in consistency.  It almost had a tiny hint of sweetness.  Not at all what I was expecting.  I don’t know if this is considered a fruit or veggie.

Question:  Have you ever tried plantain?  If so, how do you eat it?

Granola and roasting your own coffee

Today was the start of my work week!  Had good productivity, so I actually finished up early.  Yay!

The day started with our Sunday bagel and paper reading:

bagel3

No exercise today since it is a complete rest day for me.  Still hard for me to do these days.

Here is the granola recipe that I talked about yesterday.  It’s quite good, not super sweet and I think it actually does better as a topping than with milk.  I might tweak it a bit:

granola

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups rolled oats
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tablespoons of flax meal
  • 1 ounce of chopped walnuts
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup (the real stuff, please)
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 40 grams of chopped dates

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  In a small bowl, combine the vanilla, maple syrup, oil, water and brown sugar and mix to dissolve the sugar.  In a large bowl, mix all dry ingredients except the dates.  Add the liquid mixture and stir until it is all absorbed into the dry.  Spread onto a baking sheet and cook for about 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so.  I found the granola was not quite crunchy right out of the oven, but it crisped up as it cooled.   After cooling, stir in the dates.  I actually also added some chopped dried cranberries later.

Stats:  31 grams (scant 1/2 cup or generous 1/3 cup):  141 calories, 4 grams of fat, 3 grams fiber, 4 grams protein.   Pretty good for granola!

Had a somewhat boring eating day, but thought you might like to see the coffee roasting process from earlier.  We had run out of all coffee in the house (thanks Susan!) so it was time to roast some.

We purchase green coffee from either Sweet Maria’s or Coffee Project.

Here are the green beans.  They actually smell a lot like legumes, or like dried peas.

Green coffee

Green coffee

I have a large roaster, but we have not gotten the wiring done (need 220 boosted) to set it up, so I have gone back to my good air popcorn popper.  Please note that you do need the lid on it, but I took it off to catch some action.  You just fill with about 1/2 cup of beans and plug it in.  You can see the chaff flying off, which is the outer skin of the bean.

As the beans heat up, they start snapping at the water is forced out of the bean and it expands.  You can stop the roasting from this point on and have a light roast.  Not sure if you can hear the snaps or not.

Coffee all done, super hot and smoking.  This has reached the 2nd crack stage and is considered a dark roast.  This bean is Sumatran, which takes a dark roast nicely.  You can hear the beans still snapping.  Roasting coffee is smoky, so you either need to do it outside or have an understanding spouse 😀

I am going outside quickly here LOL! After the beans have cooled and set for a bit, you can grind them up and have the freshest coffee you have ever had!  It takes about 5 minutes or so to do a 1/2 cup of beans, which is around 3-4 ounces.  I do 3 batches in the popper when I roast.