Tag Archives: monthly goals

September Wrap Up!

Dang, where did September go?  This week has been crazy busy, that is for sure!  I did the orientation for my literacy tutoring yesterday and it has been a mad scramble to get in work – although I caught up nicely.  Enough to be able to watch Project Runway last night! (Josh M go home already!)

I made up some yummy oats for breakfast today.  This was banana custard oats topped with maple cream and toasted pecans!

I managed to flip most of this bowl into my lap while at the computer (because I admit, that is where I usually eat breakfast)  I saved most of it, but that was annoying because I had to go change.

After breakfast I took a walk and then spent at least an hour on the phone with the photo shoot coming up on Monday.  That is causing me some stress, and I am stress eating a bit.  It will be fun, but I also feel fairly self conscious about it.  At least it is being done in my home and I can feel relaxed there.

Lunch time:

It kind of looks like dinner, doesn’t it?  Dinner out tonight, so I wanted to make sure I got in my broccoli!

Are you ready for a complete cuteness overload?

Ms. Pixie sleeping on me today.  I really wish I could market her cuteness.

Anyway, here were my goals for September and how I did:

1. Do 1 new recipe and post it each week. I did 3 meals.  Pork with Peppers and rice, GF Banana Bread,  Country Captain Chicken. I just got too busy to do the 4th one.  I actually did do a GF sandwich bread, but I never took pictures or did a post on it.

2. Keep going with Couch to 5K. I did into week 8.  It was just feeling wrong.  I was hating it and how it was hurting me.  It really bothered me that I used to run and now it doesn’t work for me. I realized, though, that I don’t need to run. I just don’t need to do it when there are a lot of other things that don’t hurt me.  It doesn’t make me any less of an athlete.

3. Volunteer for something or join a book club/something like that.  I went to the orientation to start literacy tutoring.  The rest of the track will happen in November, so good to go.

4. Celebrate 15 years of marriage on the 28th. Done and done!

5. Do Pilates 2 times a week.  Sqeeeeaaaakkkk!  Did you hear that? I just barely eked in 2 times a week with it. LOL.

Not a bad month.  I now have to think of some things for October.

Are you ready for a latte? I was!

Please ignore the bowl of chocolate chips and pretzels.  I am not sure what that is doing there… really…  😳

Dinner time we might my parents to take my mother out for her birthday.  Happy birthday Mom!!

We went to the Anvil.

My pictures were horrible in here as it was very dark inside, although quite a  neat place. It is a building from the 1840s.

No garden pictures today as my busy butt just didn’t get out there to take any pictures this week!  My mums will be in full bloom next week, so you can all look forward to that, as will I.

I will return with a recap Sunday night of our champagne breakfast cruise (rain and all, most likely) to celebrate our anniversary.

Question: How was your September?

August Wrap Up and the return of Bagel Wednesday!

Where the h-e-double-hockeysticks did summer go?? 😯  I can’t believe I am doing the monthly wrap up post already.

John asked me to get him up when I got up so we could get an early start on the day because we both have a lot to do today.  I requested no whining when I did so.   It was a gorgeous morning, nice and cool.  We headed out on the path, which was so quiet in the early morning.  We actually saw 3 deer on the path! They bolted before I could get a picture, though.  I said to John, “See how nice it is to get up this early?”.  His answer, “No.”  😈

After 6 miles, we arrived at our destination.

Check out the temperature before 8 am:

I had a wheat bagel with cream cheese and a cuppa joe!

The weird thing? Chewing the bagel.  I have not had any bread product in 3 weeks and there is no other food that has the chew of crusty bread or bagels.

I’m happy now. 😀

So let’s review goals, shall we?  I had 2 goals for this month.

1. Begin C25K.  In progress.  This is a 9 week program, so obviously I am not finished.  I am uncertain as to whether I will finish the program.  The run intervals have been short and I notice little niggling things with my leg, but I have completed the first 4 weeks without incident.

2. Go grain-free for 21 days. I did it!  I might have ingested some accidental grain products, like when I had a few marshmallows (corn syrup), but other than that I did stellar.  And you know what?  It was not that hard.  The hardest thing was eating out.  And let me tell you – going grain free is a lot harder than going gluten free!  Corn is in everything.  Everything!

I did find out some interesting things about me going grain free.  It eliminated pretty much all my cravings for bread products and for sweets.  Not that I didn’t eat sweets, but it really curbed my penchant for over snacking.  Which is a good thing. When I did snack, it tended to be on nuts pretty much.  I ate a *lot* of nuts.  Sometimes fruit as well (especially dried pineapple :mrgreen: ).

I also found I didn’t need grains to get in my fiber.  I averaged 25 to 30 grams of fiber a day. Coconut flour, flax,nuts, and fruits and veggies gave me what I needed.

Was the food I ate boring for 3 weeks? You tell me.

And now, the part I know you all reaaalllly wanted to know.  Did I lose any weight? Yes.  I did.  In those 3 weeks I lost 6.5 pounds.  😯  Now, I do  take 2 pounds of that with a grain of salt because I weighed myself after a long bike ride, which always results in a couple of pounds of water retention.  So even if it was 4.5 pounds, that is an enormous amount of weight for me to lose in 3 weeks!

I have decided I am going to keep grains lower in my diet for the time being because to not have the cravings for food is really so, so nice. It pretty much took care of PMS cravings as well. They were minimal at best.  I am definitely using this strategy for the holidays and letting the grains I eat during that time be the treats and such.

I am so pleased that the no-grain challenge did exactly what it was supposed to do, which was to get me on a better choice path because I was veering off it a little bit. Weight loss was a bonus.

Now I have to come up with some new challenges for September!

August Goals

Fresh new month, albeit a hot and humid start to the month.  Time for some goals!

First, let me show you a graph of my bike mileage. I use Daily Mile to track my workouts.  Here is how I accumulated 505 miles during July:

Of course, the graph cuts off the first couple of days of the month, but you get the picture.  Imagine if I had biked every single day?  Other than going completely insane, it would just be too much.

So, no biking today to start the month off 😀  I did make a good breakfast after a short walk:

1 minute muffin with blueberry sauce.  Classic, full of fiber and antioxidants.  I shall live forever!

So this month I have 2 goals and 2 goals only.

Goal 1: As I alluded to a touch yesterday, the scale is at a standstill now.  I had said a couple months ago that I was serious about taking off the last bit of weight that I have.  Well, it seems to be so very hard for me to get into weight loss mode and stay there versus maintenance mode.  I am not walking the talk, so to speak.  It’s just hard to get that mojo kick started.  So to do that I am actually following a plan.  Normally I don’t do a set plan or things like that as I tend to walk to my own drummer, but I need a big time shakeup.

I had gotten a book out of the library last week called the Perfect 10 Diet.  Upon reading it, this doctor believes a lot of the things that I think are true in eating.  No processed foods, coconut oil is good for you, don’t eat refined grains, don’t be afraid of eggs, whole grains are better, don’t be afraid of fat.  I like that.  Isn’t is always good when someone agrees with you? 😉

Anyhoo, he has a 3 stage eating program, and I am going to follow the first stage (3 weeks) of that, which is to eliminate all grains.  That’s a biggie for me with my love of bagels and oats.  Note – this is *not* low carb.  I will still be eating about 40% of my calories in carbs, but they will come from diary, fruits, and veggies and lentils.  It’s just for 3 weeks and then the whole grains will come back in, but I think I just need to give me some kind of goal to work for.

I am not of the mindset that I will drop a bunch of weight or anything.  That never happens for me.  It’s just that little things are creeping back too much and I need to focus on doing what is good for me and my body. Not that I am not totally awesome as I am, but it’s always good to give tough love to oneself when needed.

So that is going to happen for the last 3 months of August, or starting next Monday. I promise I won’t binge on bagels prior to that LOL.  Should be interesting.

Before getting on with goal #2, how about a lunch break?

Shrimps and some mango! The store had mango spears and they looked yummy.  I hate carving up my own mango with its weird pit, so I was all over these.

On to Goal 2:  I am going to start the Couch to 5K program again! Many of you know that I still have the numbness in my knee and calf from the herniated disk last year (takingforeverthankyouverymuch).  Well, after months and months of no change, from the end of June through July – it got noticeably better.  At first, I wasn’t sure, but then it definitely was much better.  I don’t have all of the feeling back, but a lot of it.  That makes me want to try running again.  I am going to cool my jets with it by doing the C25k program, though, which also will be good to get me off the bike!  I need more cross training other than weights.

Interesting, eh?  It only took about 15 months to start seeing improvement in that numbness.  Of course, if I start running and the numbness comes back, it will be a very short lived goal.  We shall see.

Snack time:

Balance Bar.  This is the new Cinnamon Roll flavor and I hate to say that it is really good.  I just sometimes don’t want to know when things are good, know what I mean?

I ended up nibbling during the afternoon.  Feeling very cravey today.  Can I make up that word?

Poor John is really sick now.  It was a delayed onset of that cold and he is pretty miserable.  He is tucked into bed with the AC on.  Nothing worse than a summer cold.

I cooked up some dinner and ate alone, which was weird.  Summer burger time!

Evening snack — some sugared almonds that John brought me from Trader Joe’s during his trip to buy me off.  He knows my weakness and exploits it.

I’ll have to say bye to these starting next Monday!

Question: Any big plans for August?

July Wrap Up and 44 mile cupcake ride

Since today is the last day of July, it is time for the monthly wrap up of my goals, so you have to read through that before you get to cupcakes 😀

Here are my goals and how I did last month.

  • Stretching –I was supposed to stretch 3 times a week.  I give myself a C on this one.  I just forget!  I can’t believe how hard it is to remember to do stretching, because it does feel good.
  • 400 miles on my bike – Not only did I do 400 miles, but I did 505!  I was shocked.  I did not ride every single day, either.  It helped doing an 88 mile day and a 100 mile day, though.  I did ride in the rain a little (88 mile day), but I did not ride a lot when it was super hot.
  • No caffeine for a week. I did it!  It actually wasn’t that bad.  I found also that it did not have much of an effect on me other than feeling a little tired the first couple days.  This is not an experiment I will do again any time soon, though.
  • Walking 3 times during the day – I did okay with this.  Some days I just walked twice because I either forgot 😳  or it was too durn hot to go out in the afternoon.  This is something I need to stick with doing.

A decent month.  I do find that I get overly ensconced in work and forget the walking, which I really need to work on.  On the scale front – no budgie. That stops now. I’ll talk about that with a little tough love tomorrow.

Now on to the part you all are waiting for – the ride!  John was feeling pretty well and up for a long ride, so we decided to go. It was just a gorgeous day on Saturday.  A little warm, but that’s okay.  A little windy, too – not so okay, but what are you going to do, right?

Kelly asked whether we take our bikes somewhere first to ride.  The answer is no.  We start every ride from home and either go north or south.  The only time we took our bikes was for the farm tour ride a couple weeks ago.

We decided to head down to Saratoga after lunch for a cupcake ride. We rode a nice tailwind on the way down.  After 11 miles, we took a water break. I puffy heart my insulated camelbak!

Hooray for shade!  I love this side road because there is hardly any traffic and it is nice and shaded.

It is right near a state park, too.

Then we booked on down to Saratoga for another 11 miles.  It went so fast because of the tailwind.  Not to mention I was rocking out the pace making.  My legs felt awesome with 2 days rest.  I told John I was kicking ass and taking names today!  Average speed of 14.5 miles per hour on the way down.

At mile 22, we reached the Bread  Basket:

It’s a cute little place.

They sell a lot of bread (you think?)

And cupcakes.  I had a carrot cake one with a big iced coffee:

It’s so cute!

It was a gut bomb, though. Very dense carrot cake. The frosting was cream cheese frosting, but that was not overly sweet, which is a good thing.

After eating that, we crossed the street to walk around Congress Park.  They have an old carousel that you can ride:

The park has kind of a Greek and Roman theme to it.

Lots of fountains and marble.

This statue was part of a Palladian circle or something like that.  It’s supposed to be Pan.

I find him mildly creepy and I think I might have nightmares after writing this post.

There also was an abundance of cuteness:

Seems like a late clutch for ducklings, but so cute!

I just wanted to pick the up and cuddle them, but I don’t think the mother would have been too happy with that!

That let our cupcakes settle some and it was time to head back.  This was into the wind for most of the ride back.  My legs were feeling so good that I took up most of the front riding.  We stopped at mile 34 for a breather.

And some refreshment!

I was pretty hot by this point, too.  That extra work of going against the wind and being in the sun, plus warm temps.  Phew!  We then booked the rest of the way home.  Still managed a really good pace for the ride home, wind and all.  Rest days do so much for leg strength, they really do!  So take them. 😀

Sweaty lady:

No sunburn thanks to liberal slathering of sunscreen a couple of times.

Ride stats:

Total miles: 44.8

Ride time: 3 hours 10 minutes

Average speed: 14.1 mph

25.4 top speed

Calories burned: 1420

Cupcakes consumed: 1 large.

After the ride – beautiful cold seltzer water!

Don’t you just want to dive into that glass?

Question:  How was your July?

What’s Blooming and July Goals

Another new month and another set of goals!

I took a quick walk around the block this morning while coffee brewed before I came in to make breakfast.

Banana custard oats topped with peanut flour (a little runny…oops) and some strawberry jam.

It sure feels like Friday, doesn’t it?  Work was really busy, though, and I think that is because other MTs are on vacation now!

Had a nice porch lunch today.  1-minute muffin and the reddest plum ever!  It looks like a beet, don’t you think?

And now for everyone’s favorite part of the week. Here is this week’s garden blooms:

The clematis is starting now.

It is a monster that grows up the porch.  It will reach the roof of the porch by the end of the summer.

This is a pot of Black-eyed Susans waiting to go to my mother’s garden.  I pulled most of mine as they got totally out of control last year.

Allysum that is in a pot with my geraniums.

My first marigolds of the season!  I did not have marigolds last year and thought I would give them a whirl again.

These are the french marigolds that aren’t so orange.

The liatris is almost there.  I love the plant and how cool it always looks.

And day lilies!  Lots and lots of day lilies:

These are over 4 feet tall! 😯

And the butterfly weed is opening  up.

Come and get it butterflies!

I enjoyed a latte today while Pixie snored next to me.

Along with some Kashi GoLean that I was snacking on.

All enjoyed while planning my new monthly projects!

  • Stretching – Since this was one of my yearly goals and I have been quite the slacker in this department, I am going to focus on it.  3 times a week I will make sure I dedicate to a good stretching session.
  • 400 miles on my bike – I rode 362 miles on the bike in June.  I know I can cross the 400 mile mark, especially with gearing up for our 100-mile ride.
  • No caffeine for a week. Seriously? WTH am I thinking?  I will give it a try.  It doesn’t seem to affect my sleep, but I will just make sure.  John said he may take a vacation that week. :mrgreen:   I don’t know what week that will be, but I might try to get it over with early.
  • Walking 3 times during the day – Thinking more about moving during the day since it is just too hard to try to do while I am working.  I am going to do a 10 minute around-the-block walk in the mid morning, at lunch, and mid afternoon. That will give me an extra 30 minutes of exercise a day outside of what I normally do. That shouldn’t affect my productivity too much.

I won’t mention weight loss because that is ongoing, but I will update at the end of the month.

I baked up some brown rice, even though pizza was a thought to have…  And served with with sauteed broccoli and chicken sausage.

I managed to snack on cashews while dinner was cooking, too.  I am having some snack issues the last couple of days.  Sigh.

Well, I am off for a ride tonight, as I am working towards 400 miles LOL!  Better get a move on.

Question:  Any plans for the holiday weekend?

June Wrap Up and mid-year check in

Wow – the last day of June.  Sometimes it scares me how fast time goes by.  I had a busy month!  Time to see how I did on my monthly goals.

1. Enjoy turning 43! Done!

2. Go no TV for one week. We did this and it wasn’t bad at all!  TV is actually kind of an afterthought for me.  However, this wasn’t during football season, so that would have been a whole ‘nother story.

3. Operation Sleep.  I bought a sleep mask, did some HTP.  I have magnesium on the way.  Maybe making some progress?  I will have to continue with this one.

4.  I am finally really ready to progress on losing this last bit of weight that I have talked about for the last 2 years.  Sigh… it is slow going.  It is hard getting back into stringing together many losing weight days instead of how you maintain with lower days and higher days.  It is working, though.  It’s just hard to be patient.

5. Sitting less for work.  This was hard to do.  I found it is very uncomfortable to stand and type because I use a foot pedal and it keeps my hips shifted off center.  Not so sure that is good for me.  I like the ball, but I still have to sit very still, so not sure I get much out of it.  I think I am better off sitting on the ball if I am watching TV or on the internet at night when I can roll it around while sitting on it.

Now checking in on the yearly goals just for fun, since we are halfway through the year (again, where does the time go??)  It was good to go back and read my ‘to-do’ list.  I had forgotten about some of them. 😯

Fitness:

–  100 mile bike ride this year.  In progress towards

– Maybe do a half marathon/duathlon in May/Definitely a few 5K races. Nope.  Now that I am not running anymore, those goals are shot.

– Keep stretching. Needed a reminder on this.  I forgot about it!

– Lose some weight. Yeah, whatever, see above. LOL!  It’s very slow.

– More cooking and food recipes on the blog. Not sure how I am doing on this one, but I am posting recipes.

Misc:

–Work on my classical guitar this year.  I am rocking this one!  I’ve been practicing almost every single day and actually am getting better!

– Possibly install a half bath in our laundry room. Done!

– Earn more money.  Well, that happened since I went through the whole losing one job and getting a raise with the other.  That actually worked out really well, as long as nothing changes.

– Just try to be a better person in general. Work in progress

Not bad so far,  now I have a little better focus on things again.

Stay tuned tomorrow for July goals and What’s blooming!

Question:  How was your June?

June Goals and tire issue solved!

It’s Bagel Wednesday! Even though we didn’t bike there, we did still get there on 2 wheels:

I had my usual wheat bagel.

It was over toasted on one side.  Must have gotten stuck in the toaster or something.

Another hot day on tap today with storms a brewing.

Pixie says – somebody please turn on the fan!!

So the goals for June.  It’s my birthday month, so there has to be lots of fun in there!

1.  So that’s the first goal then.  Enjoy turning 43! That will happen this weekend.

2. Go no TV for one week. Starting the first full week of June.  John wanted to do this, so I am joining him. Who wants to join us for this one?  No TV.  No netflix movies on the computer either.  I can read the news on the internet. Should I made that an official challenge to anyone who wants to join?

3. Operation Sleep.  I must work on finding some way to get more sleep. I am going to get a sleep mask to start and see how that works, plus I am getting some supplements like 5HTP and magnesium.

4.  I am finally really ready to progress on losing this last bit of weight that I have talked about for the last 2 years.  Now I am ready.  Of course, it will take longer than a month, but I am going to really keep control of nibbling and eat good nutritious foods (except on long ride days LOL).

5. Sitting less for work.  As a transcriptionist, I sit very still during the day.  That is a lot of sitting! I am going to experiment this month with my work station to try to do some work standing or sitting on an exercise ball.  My goal is to work up to 3 hours of my workday in the new position.

Okay – those sound good to me!  So does lunch:

I ate this lunch on the porch today.  I got the mail hand delivered to my by the mail carrier as well since I was out there.  That is nice service 😀

After lunch, I headed to Inside Edge to see about my bike tire.  Back at the end of April, I ran over a beer bottle and got a flat.  I pulled out the chunk of glass, but what I didn’t know was that a tiny sliver was left behind.  After putting several hundred miles on the bike, that little sliver of glass worked its way through to the inside of the tire.  The shop guys turned the tire inside out and felt where the shard was coming through and pulled it out.  it was about this size – “O””.  Tiny, but razor sharp.  That was poking a hole into each tube.  Nice to know it wasn’t serious like the rim or needing a whole new tire.  I’ll be on the road again soon enough!  They didn’t charge me, either, but I did buy another tube.

Nice afternoon latte today:

Made with almond milk today.  Actually the unsweetened vanilla almond milk.  I like this stuff.

Work still amazingly busy.  I will have to work at night a bit because of taking some time to go to the bike shop today.  Love that job flexibility!

Dinner time and since it is hot, we wanted something easy.  Eggs always fit that bill.  I just scrambled them and put a laughing cow on top.

Plus french cut green beans sauteed in coconut oil.  How about that for a change up?

I got my new tube in and put the tire on my bike all by myself after dinner.  It took me a good half hour to do, too! Good skill to know.

I am going for a short solo ride tonight.  Not too far in case I have a problem, but I just want to get in a little trip 😀  Work can wait until I get back.

Question: Do you have any goals/non-goals for June?

May Wrap Up and curse of the tires.

Can you believe May is over already? We also seemed to have leaped right into July with this weather! Since I had no bike tube, I had to drive to the gym this morning. The bike stores were closed yesterday and places like Target don’t sell the type of tire I need (presta valve).

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squats 3 sets of 10 at 65# Lower Body
Straight Arm Lat Pull down 3 set of 10 at 50# Back
Horizontal Wood Chop 3 sets of 12 (each side) at 20# Core
Calf Raise 3 sets of 12 at 110# Calves
Low Back Extension 3 sets of 12 at 80# Low Back
Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 8 at 55# Chest
Nose Breakers 3 sets of 12 with 20# bar Triceps
Good Mornings 3 sets of 10 at 55# Hammies and low back
Biceps Curl 3 sets of 10 with 25# EZ Curl bar Biceps
Bent Lateral Raise 3 sets of 10 with 12# DBs (24# total) Shoulders

Nice workout today.  I am seriously thinking of bringing the workouts home.  I looked at some stuff at Dick’s yesterday to price that versus being in the gym. Then it was to home. Already warm out, too!

Breakfast was 30 grams of oats cooked with a small banana.

Topped with peanut flour, which I got a little too liquidy.  Ooops.

I thought today would be slow the day after a holiday, but it was busy right out of the gate.  Yay!  That meant I wouldn’t work at night and could sneak in a yogurt ride (provided I got a replacement tire).

So, as per tradition around here, here is a roundup of my May goals and how I did:

1.  Weight loss/fat loss. I gained a couple pounds.  Not good.  That was after 2 months of not using a scale.  I will be weighing myself more often now.  Not every day, but more often.  I think I still need that tool, which is okay.

2. Go vegetarian for 1 week!  Success! I made it through the week pretty easily.  Much easier than going wheat free.  I made some yummy dishes like cheese souffle, too.  Not interested in being a full-time veggie, though.

3. Finish our half bath/pantry. Yay!  Done and we are happily using it now.  We need to have a renovation party now.

4. Scrub down the house.  Been cleaning the house, particularly in the last week.  Feels so much better and no more renovation dust on everything.  I even scrubbed the kitchen floor on my hands and knees which I don’t think I have done since we moved here 4+ years ago. It looks like new.

5. Do another round of 28-day Body Shapeover.  I have the book out, but I have not started it yet.  I realized with dropping down to 2 days a week and all the biking that I can’t do the program officially.  Not sure what to do here.

6.  Bring back some no-added sugar days once or twice a week. I did these periodically, although I could have done more.

Decent month, although I will say the weight thing bothers me.  Using pants for me doesn’t quite work.  I think I have a wide span of weight before I actually notice it in my clothing.  Guess what is going to be on June’s list of goals tomorrow? :mrgreen:

Hot weather means cool lunch today.  I used up some of the BBQ chicken from last night for my usual salad meal.

This chicken was sooo good! We got thighs and I do love the dark meat.  It just has so much more flavor.

While I was working, John biked to the bike store and picked up new tubes and spares for us.  Hooray!  While he was gone, I had an iced latte:

Plus half of a new Zone bar flavor.

Cashew pretzel flavor.  I got a free sample bar in the mail.  It is quite tasty. I don’t eat the bars as much as I used to, but John is pretty much an addict still. 😀

Dinner time included some wonderful blueberries!  Plus shrimp and broccoli sauteed in coconut oil.

I seriously wonder if I could do an all fruit diet for a few days.  It would be so refreshing in the hot weather!

I was all excited because my tube was replaced on my bike and that meant a yogurt ride!  Got the tube in and pumped up the tire.  All looked great!  I went out before John because I wanted to get some extra miles in and meet him for yogurt.  He gave me a half hour start.

I was so happy to be riding again.  It felt great and I was making good time.  Then at 3.5 miles into the ride, I started to feel that funny shimmy and then I could feel every bump again.  Seriously? Yes – the tire was flat – AGAIN!!!!  This is the third flat in 2 days.  WTF????

I texted John and let him know.  I was going to replace the tube with my spare and keep going, but something is obviously wrong with the tire for there to be this many issues.  Maybe a piece of glass is stuck in the well or something.  I was then getting eaten alive my mosquitoes, so I told John just to come get me.  I was a little pissed, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me from getting yogurt!

This is oriental ginger flavor.  It reminds me of 7-Up a little bit.  I kind of like it.  I am so not happy about this tire situation.  Going to get a new wheel cover tomorrow at the shop and see what happens then.  I so need a cupcake ride this weekend – with no flat tires!

April Wrap Up and May Goals.

First off, just a note to say that maybe a new era of peace could come.  We can always hope, right?

I woke up this morning and biked to the gym.  After a week off, it felt quite nice to go there and I was very refreshed.

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Stiff Legged Deadlift 3 sets of 12 at 55# Lower body
Face Pull 3 sets of 12 at 30# Shoulders
Dumbbell Pull Over 3 sets of 10 with 20# DB Back
Barbell Bench Press 3 sets of 1 at 55# Chest
Seated Calf raise 3 sets of 12 at 140# Calves
Rope Crunch 3 sets of 15 at 30# Core
Alternating Forward Lunges 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Lower Body
Lower Back Extension 3 sets of 12 at 80# Low Back
Nosebreakers 3 sets of 10 with 25# bar Triceps

Then I headed home for breakfast! Protein pancakes today just for a different shape.

Gosh I love this breakfast.  No matter if it is in waffle form or pancake form.

Okay, because of the weekend, I am going to do a mash up of the wrap up and new goals for April and May.

April Goals and how they went:

1.  I am going to shoot for some weight loss. I have to say I do not know how I did as I have not weighed myself all month.  My pants fit the same, so unlikely that I lost anything.  I am not sure when I will step on the scale again.

2. I am going to reduce as much wheat in my diet as possible. This was really hard to do.  Good thing I do not have celiac.  Sometimes I just forgot, and other times I found wheat in things after the fact.  I really did learn that eating wheat does cause cravings for me.

3.  I want to try a bit of meditation this month. Fail!!  I did not enjoy this at all, so I stopped.  I find that just having quiet time reading or weeding in my garden much more pleasing than trying to meditate.  And you know what? I am totally okay with that.

4.  I am going to work my way through recipes from Nourishing Traditions book by Sally Fallon. I did the soaked grains, crispy nuts, and I have made a sourdough starter.

5.  More biking. Yeah baby! 263 cycling miles for the month of April! Increased from 150 in March.

6.  I am going to clean up the blog some.  Kind of lame.  I worked on the recipes a bit, but we just have had a lot going on and I wasn’t able to sit down and do much with it.

So, kind of middling on the goals last month with the exception of biking.  Goals for may coming up after lunch.  Which was cheesy scrambled eggs and broccoli!

Classically simple. You are going to be seeing a lot of eggs this week, btw.  (See below).

Now time for my goals for May:

1.  Weight loss/fat loss. Continue with paying a lot of attention to what I am eating and see if I can get my pants looser, whether by pounds or body composition.  Again, I don’t know when I will step on the scale again.

2. Go vegetarian for 1 week!  In fact, it started today. You all know how I love my protein.  This will be a real challenge as I don’t eat tofu or veggie burgers or beans.  You will be seeing a lot of eggs, that’s for sure :mrgreen:

3. Finish our half bath/pantry. No matter whether it’s finished or not, it will be done by the end of May LOL!  We are very close now.  Just need the doors, to install the sink, window trim, and to caulk the tile.  I think I will wait to show anymore pictures until it is just finished.  It is making me very happy right now, though.

4. Scrub down the house.  With the remodel, everything else has gone down the tubes as far as clutter and cleanliness.  There really is not an excuse for that other than just being a little lazy.

5. Do another round of 28-day Body Shapeover.  I need to get the book out again to do so.

6.  Bring back some no-added sugar days once or twice a week. These are just good for me to do to keep focused.

So, hopefully May’s goals will be a little more fruitful than April’s! 😉

I had a latte in the afternoon with some protein powder to amp up my protein for the day.

Busted out all my work by dinner time plus a little extra, which was nice. Gotta start socking away money for Disney trip in January.

For dinner I made a recreation of a lentil/rice/caramelized onion dish the easy way.  Yesterday I had caramelized some onions to have on hand to add to dishes this week.  I also had a can of lentils. Normally I cook dry lentils, but the cans were on sale.  Into a saute pan went 1/2 cup cooked brown rice, 1/4 cup lentils, and some caramelized onions.  5 minute dinner:

This was really good, too.  You might be seeing this again during vegetarian week.

Doing some work on the reno tonight and having a pumpkin snack.  Turns out not only is today veggie day #1, but also a no-added sugar day!

Question: How was your April?

Meditation for the unfocused

Okay, so one of my goals this month is to do some meditation.  But how to achieve this when my mind will skip through the tulips or invent stories or hash over the daily ‘stuff’ when I try?  That is why I don’t do meditation.  My mind is just too busy.

Now many sites and books on meditation say to think of a word or picture in your mind and meditate on that.  Well, my mind goes on one of those wikipedia hopping things.  You know how you will start with the word and then that makes you think of something funny from the other day, and then last week how this happened, and oh crap did I make that bill payment online ? Yeah – that’s from my head.

The solution I am going to try and invite anyone else who has trouble with the errant thoughts is meditating with an object.  I guess this is sort of like turning on a TV in front of a child -where they  stop whatever they are doing and become laser (vapidly) focused on the tube.

For a newbie like me, I need a concrete object to focus on in my hot little hands.  This object can be anything, but it should be something that you like to look at, and probably something you can hold in your hands for an extended period of time.  Some have suggested a piece of fruit. For me it can’t be food, because I would likely  eat it on accident.

This is the object I chose.

This is heavy handmade glass bowl which I quite like to look at.

This is my plan to start with meditation.

  • Find a quiet part of the house.  Not the bedroom, because I will probably just lay down and get tired. Sitting rather than lying down.
  • Try for a consistent time.  I am going with the evening so that work and exercise is finished and that won’t distract me thinking it needs to get done.
  • Keep the lights on, again so I don’t get tired.
  • Concentrate on my object, turning it over in my hands and studying it.  I am going to remind myself to focus on the object and not let my mind wander.
  • I am not putting a timer on or anything for meditating.  I am just going to do it for short periods of time that I feel comfortable without falling asleep or getting irritated (which usually happens for some reason).
  • I will do this a few times a week.  More if I feel like it, but I am not pressuring myself to zen out.

Note – I am not focusing so much on my breathing because I actually breathe quite well.  Since I was a musician for many years, focused breathing was something I practiced and is a habit that is very easy for me to do.  I guess at least that is one less hurdle to go over.  I would suggest that others practice breathing while concentrating on the object.

So.  We shall see where this leads over the month.

source

Anyone else going to give this a try?