Tag Archives: Pumpkin

Squish goes the water bottle and a new friend.

I woke up this morning ready for a run at the track!  I set my water bottle at the edge of the track, put on my tunes and headed around.  I was feeling great, I have to say.  I decided to go 4 miles today.

I had just finished up 3 miles and was going to stop for a drink because I was thirsty, but then a song came on that I wanted to run with and not break stride.  I am sure you know what I mean.

As I rounded a lap, I see a maintenance truck pulling into the track.  I kind of laughed and thought – “look out water bottle.”  Well, wouldn’t you know he drove right over it and stopped *on* it.  I was coming around the bend and he hops out the truck.  I’m all “You just ran over my water bottle!!”  He looked at me really funny.  I think I scared him (you know, sweaty yelling lady running towards him and all that).  I went over and my bottle was wedged under the tire.  I pulled and pulled and got it out, but it was all smooshed.  Keep in mind that I lost one bottle with my bike.  This was my spare.  It was bright blue.  I don’t know how he missed it.  Good thing I did not have my phone or camera with it!!  So, no drink for Lori.  I just did the other half mile so I could get the complete 4 and grouched my way home.  Can the universe just leave me alone for a little while?  I’m tired of people messing with my stuff….

I had a hankering for some waffling when I got home!

These came out super crispy.  I think I left them in the iron longer, but tasty!

Busy, busy at both jobs today.  Pixie has been very needy since we got back.  This is me trying to work and she just comes over and does this:

I kept pushing her just off my lap to the side, but she kept stretching back onto it.  Maybe she thought I wouldn’t notice or something.  Cute.

Lunch break consisted of pumpkin mixed with yogurt and cereal.  Looks boring, but I assure you that it was tasty.

I was so absorbed in work that the time flew by.  John made me a latte, which I paired with a couple squares of Lindt.

After more work, it was time to go out and pick up my new friend.  I decided upon the Fuji Absolute performance hybrid (after going through my check list).

Welcome to the family new bike!

24 gears, trigger shift, light frame.  When I got on this one yesterday, I knew it was the one for me, but I tried others to make sure and then slept on it.  It was on sale, too.  Had a fitting for the bike with my clip shoes on and I was ready to go.  We then picked up a helmet, a new lock, a new computer, and a water bottle (see above) so I can go to the gym tomorrow.  Still need some more stuff, but at least I can ride again!  It’s going to take getting used to, so I can’t dilly dally with the charity ride creeping up on me.  John has not found one that he likes yet.  It is a little hard at this time of year to find bikes.  Luckily for me, there were a lot of women’s bikes in stock.

I was *hangry* at this point and would have liked to have eaten out, but not after dropping a chunk of change on all this stuff.  We got home and John grilled up chicken while I cooked brussel sprouts.

Served along side a pluot.  It was so good because I was hungry!  I still have to work tonight.  Lots to do and need to earn that money! LOL.  I wish I had time to go for a spin, but that will have to wait.  I will talk about the bike in a little more detail as well.

Gotta get a snack ready for my evening work.  See you on the flip side!

Back to the grind

We are now home safe and sound. Sunday was a snack eating day with chocolate and bread and crackers. I woke up pretty puffy feeling this morning! Up too early as Pixie was pushing on the bedroom door at 5:30. I got up and moved into the spare room so she wouldn’t wake up John and she curled up on me and we fell back asleep. (FYI – she does not come in the bedroom as it is John’s 1 allergy free room). I ended up sleeping in a little bit later this morning and didn’t get up until 7:30.

I was debating whether to jog the 2 miles to the gym or drive, but I wasn’t sure I wanted a total of 4 miles with a weight workout, plus it was kind of rainy, so driving it was.

I hopped on the stationary bike when I got there for 10 minutes, which actually just pissed me off, so probably not a good idea in hindsight LOL! Then I did weights:

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell squat 3 sets of 10 with 45# bar (full squat) Lower body
Dumbbell Pullover 3 set of 10 with at 25# DB Back
Decline Sit Ups 3 sets of 10 Abs
Alternating side lunge 3 sets of 10 (each leg) holding 15# DBs Lower body
Dumbbell chest fly 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 10 at 110# Calves
Reverse lateral raise 3 sets of 10 with 12# DBs (24# total) Shoulders
Kickbacks 3 sets of 10 with 15# DBs (30# total) Triceps

I thought about more biking or treadmilling, but I just wasn’t into it at all. So I went home and had a comforting breakfast.

Pumpkin cream of wheat sweetened with a bit of molasses and topped with pecans and crystallized ginger.   I do believe my pumpkin stash is going to make it!

I took a vacation day from job #1 today, but still worked job #2. I am going to have to stick with both for a while longer to pay for the new bike, so good thing I didn’t quit job #1 yet!

After doing the work available, I had some lunch.  We need to grocery shop!  I did find a cucumber in the veggie drawer, so paired that with tuna and crackers.

I have narrowed down my choices on bikes. After discussion with the bike people about how we ride, the type of bike I am looking for is a performance hybrid.  Because we do some riding on gravel surfaces and some rough road sides, a true road bike is out.  A commuter/comfort hybrid is out because of the distances that we ride. That puts our needs at a performance hybrid designed for longer rides where you sit more forward and not so upright.

The brands we are considering right now are Giant, Fuji, and Cannondale and a few others. I have looked at the Giant, which I liked, and today after lunch I went  to test “drive” the Fuji, a Raleigh and a Haro.  Have a lot of decisions to make!  I did go ahead and get my pedals.  I still have the bike shoes (obviously), but the clip pedals went bye-bye.  $80 down the drain there and only 3 months old.   I’ll put a post together about choosing a bike and hopefully get that done tomorrow.  A lot goes into a decision like this.

Came back from bike testing to have a latte and a piece of yummy pain de bluets that we purchased at a market before we left Montreal yesterday.

It came from this market – how delicious!

I’ve been working on the cookbook, and I hope to have it finished up over the weekend?  Eeep!

Dinner time was a round up.  I had baked some rye bread and threw a sweet potato in the oven while that was going.  I paired that with an omelet with laughing cow and sauteed broccoli.

I usually microwave my sweet potatoes for time reasons, but the taste of an oven baked sweet is sooooo good.

Tired kitty today:

Not sure from what because she really doesn’t do anything….

Stocked up on groceries tonight!  I bought some canning jars as I am participating in a jam swap next month.   Should be fun as I have never preserved jam before.   I just make it and eat it LOL!

After getting back I tested out the new rye bread:

It came out really good!  I am not sure I would have ever thought to pair peanut butter on rye, but it was good.

Tonight is more working and polishing up the cookbook.  Oh – and Football!!!!!

Question: How do you cook your sweet potatoes?

Bagels and biking x2

You know it’s Sunday when you see bagels and biking in the title!  Here is  a picture of my trusty bike:

Nothing special.  Just an old Schwinn hybrid type that I got used about 5 years ago for $140.   You don’t need anything special to ride 100 miles 😉 , although it would be easier with a road bike.  I made myself a little protein drink and we headed to Panera.  We went a circuitous route today to add a few miles.  Met my mom joined us for bagels today!

Yum.  This was after 11 miles and I was quite ready to eat.

Then we headed home.  Total round trip was 19.5 miles, and average speed of 13.3.  Not too shabby for a breakfast ride 😀

Hit the ground running typing at work today.  I think a lot of MTs have just left job #1 company (or got fired) as there has been a backlog of work and they are hiring now.  That’s what happens when morale is down.  Maybe I will be one of those people soon (the leaving, not the fired, hopefully).

Lunch break!  Pumpkin and vanilla greek yogurt with Uncle Sam’s cereal in it.

Plus one of the last pears I have.  No more in stores, so I will have to put aside that favorite for a bit.

Do you want to see something really crazy?  In the comments from yesterday’s race is someone who did the same race as I did (AJH).  Read her recap post and check out the picture of her at the finish.  The man in the green shirt right next to her is John!  How about that for a coincidence??  Kinda spooky….

Latte in the afternoon.

I am drinking this sitting in front of the fan LOL!

Pixie just doesn’t know how to do her job.  She is supposed to scare the squirrels off of this bird feeder, and all she does is watch them.  That squirrel could care less!

Now that the Starlings seem to have moved on, the woodpecker is back, too!

I was pretty hungry for dinner.  Luckily John had cooked up some chicken earlier, so you know what I had to have!

Plus some strawberries on the side:

Lucky for you, I used up the last of the BBQ sauce and the salad mix, so I will have to come up with some different dinners this week :mrgreen:

I decided on a double dip ride again today.  Wanted to bike for a bit more tonight, so that meant yogurt!  I asked John how his yogurt was:

I guess his goal is to ham it up in every picture now,even though he knows they are going to end up on the internets.

I had pistachio yogurt, one of my very favorites!

Anyone have any good suggestions for an anti-wrinkle cream?  Seriously.

Total bike mileage today was 32 miles.  I so love my bike….  Just in case you are curious, today’s calories tallied up to 1710 (give or take a few).  I was surprised that it was that low, actually.  Big reason is because I didn’t nibble.  Funny how that works, isn’t it??

Off to foam roll and stretch!

Riding and curry chicken salad.

Another hot day on tap today!  Since it was about 90 degrees today, I decided to bike this morning to get in some exercise before it got too hot.  I had a protein drink and hit the trails.  My legs felt somewhat tired.  I think the heat just saps out so much energy.  Not to mention that I felt like puffer fish this morning from it 😀

Some beautiful morning views on the trail.

It was already about 60 degrees at 7am, and just a nice morning to ride.  I did 16 miles today.  On rides this this, I just go out and back with no breaks other than stopping for traffic and a drink.  Came back ready to eat!

I made some pumpkin custard cream of wheat.  Normally I sweeten this with a little brown sugar when cooking, but with the no-sugar rule for the next couple days, I decided to sweeten with some prune puree.

This was just some prunes I soaked in hot water and blended up until smooth.  Kind of tastes like raisins, although prunes always feel kind of elderly to me :mrgreen:   Marisa did this with dates, and I might give that a try as well.

Busy work day today and lunch time came quick.  I made a chicken curry salad.  I am so in love with 4-5 ingredient meals.

This was:

  • 2.5 ounces of cooked chicken, chopped
  • 1 tbsp (15 g) of reduced fat mayo
  • 1/2 of an apple, chopped
  • 1/4 tsp curry powder
  • 1 tbsp of sliced almonds.

Mix all together and top on greens!  It’s delicious.  You know this would be BBQ normally, but no refined sugar again!  Of course, you can all see that I won’t be doing this forever.  Not gonna give up the BBQ sauce 😀

After lunch, it was back to the dentist for me for the filling repair and the new filling.

Me in the chair and kinda nervous.  (Fran – this is for you).

I laughed when I saw how nervous I looked! I am a total wuss with pain.

Again, I love my dentist!  He asked me if it was alright if he gave me some novacaine.  So polite 😀   No pain at all for the drilling.  Sometimes it is the fear of pain that is worse than the pain itself, you know?

After the feeling came back in my mouth, it was latte time! Snack with the latte:

I am pleased that these have lasted since Friday LOL!

I got a chance to do the stuffed pepper for dinner.

It’s basically just ground beef, brown rice, and tomato sauce stuffed into the pepper.  I grated a little cheese on it and baked.

I really liked the filling, but I didn’t care for the pepper that much, so I only ate about 1/3 of it.  I really liked the filling on the brussel sprouts, though!

Still good on the no refined sugar front.  Looking back, I don’t have a lot of sugary stuff regularly other than fluff, honey, chocolate, frozen yogurt, and nut butter.  I had to make some unsweetened peanut butter today, because I miss that!  I don’t know if it is cheating to make something like a fruit puree or not.  But, my challenge and my rules, right? :mrgreen:  I found myself wanting frozen yogurt today because of the heat, but that will have to wait!

I admire those of you giving up the caffeine.  Like Miz – I could never do that!  I did for several days before my mammogram last fall and was not a happy camper.  Guess this shows where my true heart-of-hearts addiction really is.

Speaking of addictions – it’s bagel day tomorrow!  Note I said reduced bread this week, not no bread 😉

Question:  Are you affected by heat or do you love it?

Liftin’ love

Chilly night last night, but I think we avoided the frost. Cold May so far! I biked to the gym after bundling up… brrrrr….. The gym was surprisingly busy today. I was unable to do my chin ups because somebody camped out in the squat cage and by the time he finished, I was near the end and couldn’t do any 😀

Exercise Set/rep/weight Muscle worked
Barbell  deadlift 3 sets of 10 at 55# Lower body
Dumbbell flat chest fly 3 sets of 10 with 20# DBs (40# total) Chest
Straight arm pull down 3 sets of 15 at 40# Back
Horizontal Wood chop 3 sets of 10 (each side) 20# Abs
Stationary Lunges 3 sets of 8 each leg (body weight) Legs
Upright row 3 sets of 10 with 30# bar Shoulders
Kickbacks 3 sets of 15 with 12# DBs (24# total) Triceps
Incline Hammer Curl 3 sets of 6 with 15# DBs (30# total) Biceps
Seated calf raise 3 sets of 15 with 15# DBs (30# total) Calves
Close grip lat pulldown 3 sets of 12 at 50# Back

I just added an extra upper body move to replace the chin ups. Not happy with the stationary lunges. I could do one side fine, the other side I needed to support my weight because of leg weakness. Think I will still leave the split leg stuff for a while still.  Good strength workout today.

Then I biked home.  Took it easy on cardio today with 60 miles of biking under my belt from the weekend.  Trying to listen to my body!

Fall inspired breakfast, for whatever reason!  Cream of wheat cooked with 1.5 tsp of molasses, pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 cup of pumpkin.  Topped with 5 toasted pecans and crystalized ginger.

Very tasty.

This week starts MT appreciation week.  I received this from my employer:

I think I would rather have a raise :D.  I sort of got a kick out of this, because it almost is like saying we will work for peanuts with the little elephant.  I doubt anybody in management thought this way, but it is how my mind works…..  Sometimes I really wish I could talk more about my job because there is a lot of interesting stuff that goes on, but HIPPA regulations prohibit that, and I am not into that fine that would be levied.

Lunch break!

The last can of tuna for a while.  I mean it this time. LOL!  I’ll have to get omega 3s elsewhere….

Then there was snack time with my latte.  More of these on sale.

For as cold as it started today, we sure warmed up in a hurry to the upper 70s!  I finished up work and took a walk.  Then came back to John getting the grill hot.  He cooked up chicken for me – yay!  I sauteed brussel sprouts and cut up some left over sweet potato in there.  Pretty good.

A fairly uneventful day.  Evening snack while watching more of the Tour of California tonight, rain and all.  Plus a snack!

Tomorrow is a giveway – so stay tuned!  Looks kinda like this:

I might attempt some running tomorrow if the outlook seems good….

The broken glass theory.

Hello blogland!  I had a nice night’s sleep last night and woke up hungry! Still no running for me, and I wanted to wait to bike later, so I made up some brekkie.  I was still on a Cream of Wheat thing today, so I made them pumpkin custard oat style.  Topped with 5 toasted pecans and some jam.

This bowl was so filling and huge, and only about 275 calories for the whole thing!  Love it when life works out like that 😀

I was thinking about it being 5 weeks ago today when I did my last run.  I will be honest and say that I really don’t miss running all that much.  I more miss the idea of running.  I miss the calorie burn and the good workout feeling when finishing.  Of course, I miss being able to actually run, because not doing it means something is still wrong.  So – that’s all in the open now LOL!

Fast and furious and work today.  Lunch break:

Lots o’ fiber in this bowl!

Miz Fit made a comment on my post yesterday about showing that I broke a glass.  I thought a little bit about why I actually put that on the blog.  It was more of an attempt to show that my life is far from perfect and that a lot of little things go wrong.  I get asked if I am really as happy as I seem, and I would say that I am.  Annoyingly so, from John’s perspective, I’m sure  :mrgreen: .  I read a ton of blogs, or at least they are in my reader.  I know that sometimes when I read blogs, I wonder if that is really how their life is.  Sometimes people come across as so (to me) perfect or incredibly lucky.  Sometimes it looks that way on the surface to me, but I sense there is something lying underneath that isn’t right.  That could always just be me seeing that when it isn’t really there, either, but I am pretty intuitive with people. Other times you can really tell a blogger is very real.

It’s also a reminder that blogs are just a snippet of someone’s life.  Obviously unless there is a webcam, one couldn’t possibly put their whole life on the internet, and who would want to, really?? (Or more importantly, who would want to watch??)  So our opinions of someone’s life are just based on what we are allowed to see.

Anyhoo, I finished up work early.  Clap your hands for productivity!!  It was 56 degrees out, so I decided on a bike ride.  I fueled up with a Kind bar.

These seriously are really good.  I wish I did not know that.  This was also my first real ride with the new bike clips!

I did 19.6 miles today with an average pace of 12 mph.  Feeling good!  I like the clips.  It took some getting used to starting and stopping.  Each time I had to stop I kept saying to myself, “Don’t forget your clips!”  Okay, I actually said it out loud, too….. I was totally paranoid that I was going to forget and just fall over.  The hardest part is reclipping into the pedal after getting going again because it spins around (since I have the dual pedal).  On the longer sections of the path, I just practiced clipping and unclipping while riding to get the hang of it.  I do realize now that I moved my legs around a lot before.  Especially my feet.  Now they stay in place and I am more efficient (I think).  Cool.  I need to adjust them a little, though.

I was hungry when I got back, bottom’s up!

Protein drink and helmet hair – awesome combo 😀

Then some good foam rolling and stretching.  I was also pretty chilled at this point.  56 degrees isn’t really cold, but when you get sweaty in that temp, it’s easy to get chilled.  I decided I needed to incorporate hot sauce into dinner somehow to warm up.  :mrgreen:

I sliced a cooked chicken piece in half and heated it up, then spread it with laughing cow and the hot sauce.  This was very good!  I wish the laughing cow melted a bit better, but still tasty.

New visitor at the feeder:

Such impudence!

We are off for some coffee tonight, since neither of us had a latte today.  The day wouldn’t be complete without it!

Question:  Do you use a blog reader or do you just bookmark sites?

Navigating my way…

I can’t believe my weekend is almost over already.  I guess that is because I worked a little yesterday.  I slept pretty well last night, which was quite a relief, but woke up around 4 am with excruciating pain in my knee.  I think I like the numbness better.  It was past pain pill time, so I took one and fell back asleep.  This is just bizarre how the pain moves around from hip to thigh to knee.  Nerves are just an amazing thing in the body.  Sorry to keep talking about this, but I have never had an injury journey like this, so I am sort of feeling my way around.

I was feeling like something different for breakfast – so I made a pumpkin 1-minute muffin.  It took me forever moving around.  Only I could turn the 1-minute muffin into a 10-minute muffin. 🙄

It was worth it, though.  Topped with light cream cheese mixed with a bit of powdered sugar.  Soooo good!  This also filled me up until lunch, too.  It was awesome.  Or maybe my appetite is catching up to my activity (or lack thereof).

After breakfast, John took me to the indoor farmer’s market.  It’s smaller when it is indoors, but very charming.

My pics didn’t come out all that well.  There were hydroponic greens there, and lots of root veggies.  We picked up some apples and some parsnips!  I was all excited for a new veggie.  Is that a little sad?

We also stopped and got a new grill.  Our grill completely disintegrated into powder – and I am not joking – so we got a portable gas one.  I’ll get pics sometime after we set it up.  Walking with crutches is so slow, so all this took most of the morning.

Lunchtime and John wanted to try the parsnips, too.  He chopped them up and pan sauteed them in some coconut oil.  I made an egg white puff to go along with.

The parsnips were good!  They are kind of like a cross between a carrot and a potato.  I have a fun recipe to try with them, which I’ll probably do tomorrow.

I am pretty sleepy today.  Think it is the pain pills, but also just the fatigue of injury.  I am so glad I have all this upper body strength to use the crutches with.  Chin ups are good for something!

John has been busy cooking today.  He made a low fat protein brownie variation, which he brought out a sample of with my latte:

I’ll see if I can get the recipe from him.  Not low calorie, though.

I was so jealous, because John then went out for a bike ride.  Wahhhhh!!!  Although he made up for it by scoping out a store and bringing me some of this!

Pumpkin!!!  My stash was getting low, so I was all kinds of happy to see these cans 😀

Dinner time was a stir fry.  We had some cooked rice, so I combined that with broccoli and chicken and a little sesame oil.

So good.   I wandered outside to look at my garden.  I have some early tulips blooming now:

I think some of the perennials did not make it through the winter, so I might have some fun finding replacements this year!

I had a sweet urge, so I had a date.  Soft medjool dates.  These are like candy.  Expensive, but so worth it!  One with nut butter, one without.

Not much else on tap for the evening other than being slow.  I am so not used to doing anything slow for very long, so it is a good exercise in patience for me.  John was saying taking an extended break from exercise isn’t always a bad thing, so I am trying to view it like that.

Question:  Do you eat dates?

Narcotics and chocolate and coffee, oh my!

Hello from cloud 9 everybody!

I convinced John to make me some pumpkin custard oats for breakfast, and he just doubled the batch and shared with me.  Yay – I got him to eat more superfoods!

I got in to see the doctor this morning.  The pain had lessened enough so I can get around some, but my knee is numb and my thigh is really painful still.  I asked John to take a picture of me in the parking lot on my crutches.

First time in my life ever on crutches.  So, here is the deal on my injury:  I herniated a disk in my back.  When I twisted around, I pulled/popped the disk, which compressed the sciatic nerve.  That’s why the pain started in my back and gradually moved down into my leg and my knee, and which is causing the numbness there.  Fun, fun.  So, this is going to take a lot longer to recover since it is more than just a muscle pull.  I can progress activities as tolerated, and the doctor gave me some Vicodin and Flexeril.   😯 😯   I refused the prednisone.  Former fatty does *not* want to take a steroid, thankyouverymuch.  I would never re-lose that weight.

Of course, I do have to say that I have some real fear here about not being active.  I have to be so very careful about what I am eating because I am burning so few calories not moving around.  I made my way downstairs for the first time in a couple days, and the first thing I see is an open bag of chocolate chips on the counter.  Of course I hobbled over and snagged some like the addict I am.  John had to put them back up high again.  Who knows what he was eating downstairs when I couldn’t get down there :mrgreen:

I know that I am not going to wake up 100 pounds heavier.  I know that.  My rational mind knows that.  But the fear is there, you know?

I actually was able to make my own lunch today!  I kept it simple and somewhat random.  Tortilla with some Nuttzo and jam as my sandwich.

I really like the Nuttzo, I have to say.  It’s pricey, but quite good.  It took me forever to make this while leaning on my crutches, and then I had to have John come carry my plate for me.  I cannot tell you how hard this is for a fiercely independent woman….

I have been working some today to make up for Wednesday, but it is a relaxed kind of working.  Those are good days, don’t you agree?  Especially when a snack arrives for me:

Caffeine and chocolate!

200 calorie snack, which is just about perfect.  And really is perfect taste wise 😀

I also wanted to again thank every one you from the bottom of my heart for all your comments and emails the last couple days.  I was bowled over by them, truly.  I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life, virtually and physically!

Dinner time came, and I was able to work on my salad bowl.  I haven’t had a BBQ chicken salad in awhile!

After dinner, I was feeling pretty good what with the meds and all, so we went out to pick up some food for Pixie and make a pit stop:

This is the reduced fat berry coffee cake at Starbies.  It’s pretty good.  It was so great to get out of the house, too, although I am pretty slow. 😀

Here’s to a good night’s sleep!

Question:  Have you ever had sciatica symptoms?

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

The letter P!

Happy Monday to all!  I woke up a little later today again because of the time change.  No one was at my gym either, maybe because it was still a little dark when I got there.  That just seems too early, even though it was near 7.  I jogged a mile on the hamster wheel to warm up, then moved some heavy stuff:   P is for Power!

  • Pull up:  0 (see below)
  • Chin ups:  2 sets of 4, 1 set of 3 (see below)
  • Barbell deadlift/row combo 3 sets of 8 at 65#

Superset:

  • Stationary lunge:  3 sets of 8 with 35# plate
  • Pushups:  3 sets of 10.

Superset:

  • Dumbbell Pliet squat: 1 set of 10 with 35# DB, 2 sets of 10 with 40# DB
  • 1-point dumbbell row:  3 sets of 8 with 20# DBs.
  • Planks: 1.5 minute hold, then two 1-minute hold
  • YTWL:  3 sets of 4 (each letter) with 10# DBs

Giant set:

  • Cable woodchop:  3 sets of 10 at 40#
  • Bicep curl with EZ curl bar:  3 sets of 10 at 30#
  • Overhead triceps extension:  3 sets of 10 with 10# DBs.

Yay!  It felt great 😀  I attempted a pull up just for kicks.  That was quite amusing, I have to say.  I dangled like a fish on a hook before giving up.  I moved to chin ups, but I went back to the way I did them before from a box with bent arms instead of dead hang and that is why I was able to do more.  I am getting stronger.

I was ready for breakfast and started the day with the letter P for pumpkin!  Pumpkin custard oats, to be exact.

Yum!  Work started off slow today.  That is always annoying because it means I have to work later into the evening to make my line commitments.  It’s not like a job where I go and work for 8 hours no matter how busy or slow it is.  If there are no files, I don’t get paid.  The not so glamorous side of working at home.  P as in Pfffffftttt…..

Lunch was an egg puff (just scrambled in the microwave) on a tortilla with laughing cow and hot sauce.  I am so into the hot sauce.

And on the side? P is for Plum!  This is called a lemon plum.  It’s yellow on the inside and has a lemon shape to it:

Interesting.  More sweet, as I find plums to usually have a tart side to them.

Afternoon snack – P is for protein!  I remember when Starbucks offered a protein shot with lattes, so I asked John to put 1/2 a scoop of protein powder in the milk when he steamed it.  He used chocolate PP and it looks like this:

It kind of was like a mocha.  This baby packed in 21 grams of protein!  I think I would use plain next time (which we don’t have on hand at this moment).  I am not used to sweet lattes, so this was a little odd for me to drink.  I know you are all probably proteined out, but I need to up my protein for snacks (meals are fine).

Dinner time.  I love how with daylight savings, dinner pictures have plenty of natural light.  Behold my plate:

Stir fry with chicken, broccoli, and sweet Potatoes!  This was excellent.  And these strawberries are like candy, seriously.  (There may have been some P for Peanuts snacked upon while cooking, too)

Does anyone else think it’s earlier than it really is at night now?  I keep getting surprised when I look at the clock and see how late it actually is.

Getting settled in for my evening snack.  P is for Pomegranate!

A couple squares of the new Hershey’s Extra Dark with Pomegranate.  Yum, yum.

The last P for today? P as in Publish post!  😀

A 10% off coupon is available to my Open Sky shop – just use the code THANKS when you check out for 10% off your order from my shop or any shop!