The long and winding road to fitness, day 81

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Wow..this was a long day.  We went in to work at 5 am to try to get some work done before it got too busy.  Oh, did I mention, this was my day off?  But I told my boss I’d come in for a few hours.  I had to cancel my hair appointment that I had scheduled for 10 this morning, but I was able to do some of the things I needed to do this afternoon.  I left work at around 11:30, so it still felt like I had the day off…well, except for that getting up in the middle of the night thing…  I was able to finish what I went in to do though, so one task complete, a million more to go…

I managed to eat pretty well today and walked, biked, did lower body strength training and stretching.  I stopped at the grocery store after I finished everything else and picked up some healthy food…spinach, peaches, sweet potatoes, cottage cheese (I think I’m on a cottage cheese kick right now), skim milk, whole wheat bagel thins, popcorn, turkey chili (with the cooler temps, I thought chili sounded good) and some Crystal Light raspberry green tea on the go things…little individual packets that you mix with water…pretty good.  I thought that would be a good alternative to diet Pepsi or other drinks at work.

I couldn’t believe it, today it only got up to about 64 degrees after nearly 100 on Saturday…crazy!  One thing about colder weather, I like making soup.  I make a pretty good vegetable soup in the crock pot…oh, and a minestrone that is delish.  Something to think about in the next few days.

Do you change how you eat when fall arrives?

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The long and winding road to fitness, day 55

I did a little cooking today…had some adventures with zucchini…found a way to make fried zucchini (and probably other veggies would work as well, mushrooms, eggplant, green tomatoes)in the oven with no oil…yea me!!

I walked for about half an hour this morning…unfortunately that’s all the exercise I managed to get in.  I’m a little disappointed with the amount of exercise I’ve put in while I’ve been on vacation. I really meant to do a lot more than I’ve done.   It’s  been nice walking at sunrise every day, the sky has been gorgeous.

Today I didn’t  get much done around the house.  There are so many things I want to do, but I couldn’t seem to get motivated to do any of them.  I’m not even really sure where the day went…oh well, is that so terrible when you’re on vacation?  I fooled around on the computer (how do you like my new background color?  the very pale grey/green rather than the bright green?  I’m playing around with the look of my blog…let me know what you think, what suggestions you have for me…).  I read for a while…and snuggled with Spooky while I was reading…she loves that.

My eating today was decent…had that oven fried zucchini for lunch along with a slice of zucchini bread.  Dinner was a couple of pieces of focaccia and a glass of milk.  I also had oj and half a banana today, peanut butter on frozen waffles with skim milk for breakfast.  As far as calories are concerned, I did fine.  But I know I could have eaten more fruit and veggies.  Tomorrow is grocery shopping day (very early in the morning) so I’ll come back with some fresh produce…that should help me take in a few more servings each day.

I may not come home with all of that, but I want to have a little variety for when I go back to work.  How does vegetarian taco salad sound?

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Coffee blunders

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I came downstairs this morning, all excited because I was going to use my new coffee maker for the first time today and get to try out my new chocolate truffle coffee.  So I got out my handy-dandy box cutter (hmm…where did I get that?  don’t tell on me, please) and cut open the box.  I pulled everything out, looked it over, looked like everything was in good shape, had been packed well, no missing or broken parts…good so far.  I start reading the instructions, thank goodness at least part of them were written in English!!

It doesn’t take me long to realize that I don’t have coffee filters…shoot, shoot, shoot.  Okay, I’m not one to allow a little thing like that to keep me from seeing this through.  Hmm…I wonder, can I just use a paper towel in place of a filter, just for today?  I have the Seventh Generation ones that are unbleached, which I’m thinking is a good thing, I don’t think you really want to add bleach to your morning cup of coffee, right?  So, okay, get it wet and kind of mold it to the filter basket, that should work.

I read the instructions on the package of coffee, says to use 3 T for 4 cups of coffee.  Since I don’t think I want it as strong as most normal coffee drinkers would like, I’ll just use a little less.  Dump it in the filter, pour in the water.  Well, that doesn’t quite seem right.  Ohhhh, the water goes in the water reservoir, not the filter basket.  Alright, clean it up and start again.  Okay, now we’re cooking…uh…perking…

It’s done, pour a cup, add some Truvia and some milk…taste…add more Truvia and milk…taste…hmm…not quite what I was hoping for.  Okay, try Simone’s suggestion.  Pour some skim milk in a container with a lid, then shake the daylights out of it.  Take the lid off…cool, it really is foamy…

Now, what did Simone say to do next?  Pour some coffee in the cup, I think…however, the cup is already pretty full of this foamy, frothy milk mixture.  So just add a little coffee and some Truvia…stir gently…taste…add more Truvia..stir…taste…okay, not too bad. 

 

Whew, that was a lot of work for something that’s just alright…this may take a little more experimentation…any suggestions for coffee that doesn’t taste so much like coffee?  Or how to prepare it so that I sip it and just say, “Ahh…”?

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