Steady As She Goes...

Awe snap. It's 10:30 at night and I just started typing. I sort of lost track of my day today. It happens.

First of all, I enjoyed ten ridiculously fabulous hours of sleep last night. (insert happy song here). I haven't slept this many hours in weeks! Months even! I felt like a new woman when I woke up.

I celebrated with a cup of Dulche De Leche coffee and a tasty, sweet little treat.

BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 10:30am.

I thinly sliced a braeburn apple, sprinkled it with Splenda and cinnamon and then microwaved it for 2 minutes until the apples became warm and tender.


I place them into a wheat flat out which I smeared with a wedge of light Swiss Laughing Cow Cheese.


I sliced it into 3 pieces and devoured it. It was ridiculous. I felt like I was having dessert for breakfast.


WORKOUT!

I met Ann at the gym at noon to delicately murder my legs, a$$ and get as sweaty as humanly possible without passing out. I love Saturday workouts! It's when I feel like I have the most time to really give it my all!

Speaking of giving it my all, I have decided to give running another try. Figures right? I openly blog about NOT being a runner ALL the time and blame my right leg (injured when I was 9, I had a broken femur and didn't walk for over 6 months) as the reason for not running. Well, I've thought about it. How can I know for SURE that I can't run without trying? Why do I assume that I'm not capable without making sure? Not every runner is a perfectly built running machine! I by no means LOVE it or ENJOY it. As with all things exercise related, you just have to DO IT! So today, I did it. Steady as she goes my friends. Steady as she goes.

Treadmill Warmup
5 min. at 3.2 speed and a 1.5 min. run at 5.0 speed (this is fast for me, I'm 5.2 if I stand on my tiptoes)
Leg Extension (cable)
100lb x 10
90lb x 15
90lb x 15
80lb x 15
Seated Leg Curl (cable)
100lb x 10
90lb x 15
90lb x 15
80lb x 15
Reclined Leg Press (plate loaded)
140lb x 15
160lb x 15
180lb x 15
Outer Thigh Machine (cable)
85lb x 20
85lb x 20
85lb x 20
Inner Thigh Machine (cable)
75lb x 20
75lb x 20
65lb x 20
Conventional Deadlifts (straight bar)
45lb x 15
65lb x 15
65lb x 15
Squats
Body Weight x 15 (3 sets)
Treadmill
10 minutes total, 0.7 miles,
1 minute intervals of 3.2 walking and 5.0 running (not bad, not bad at all)
Elliptical Cross Trainer
20 minutes, 1.78 miles
2 minute intervals at levels 6 & 8

Total time at gym = 1:40
Max HR = 180 (running, weeeeeee)
Average HR = 139
Total Calories Burned = 806

After the gym I took my sweaty self to visit the Babushka Family for lunch. I was seriously starving!

LUNCH (meal #2) at 2:00pm.

I had a super tasty salad with spinach + radishes + green peppers + artichoke hearts + sugar snap peas + green onions + sunflower seeds + Morning Star Farms black bean burger + spray butter.


Enjoyed with a cup of mint green tea. I'm going try to go back to one cup of coffee a day. WISH ME LUCK!


SNACK (meal #3) at 4:00pm.

We were playing some GRUELING sessions of Yahtzee and Sorry and all the competition made me hungry again. I remedied this with yogurt perfection.

Plain Dannon Greek yogurt + kiwi + strawberry + papaya + cinnamon.


We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting. The folks are a bit worried about their flight home to Hungary which is happening in the very near future. I'm sure you've all heard about the volcano that erupted in Iceland. Well, as luck would have it, flights to and from Europe are being cancelled left and right. I hope it works out for them and they get to go home. To be honest, I'm pretty pissed off about the whole situation. I mean SERIOUSLY, they waited 25+ years to go back. What are the odds of this happening right NOW!? BAH! Send some well wishes their way would ya? Some magical voodoo!

When I got home I unwound in a nice warm bath. So warm in fact that I felt like I was having a heat stroke when I got out. Good grief. I laid under the ceiling fan for almost 15 minutes trying to cool myself down. After my "steamy" adventure, Nick and relaxed on the couch and watched One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. I've only seen bits and pieces of it and finally decided to watch the whole thing. What a great movie! Loved it!!

SNACK (meal #4) at 8:30pm.

I also snacked one some pretzels during the movie and a packet of cocoa covered almonds. I forgot to take pictures though. I was too consumed with the movie. :-O

DINNER (meal #5) at 10:15pm.

It was late by the time the movie ended and I was NOT in the mood for cooking. I dug DEEP in my freezer and found my very last container of vegetarian chili. Dinner has been SOLVED!

I topped it with fat free shredded cheddar cheese and enjoyed it with low fat blue corn tortilla chips. A perfectly dippable dinner. YUM!


I'm going to call it a night now my lovelies. I'm going to enjoy a bit more quality R&R with the Mr. and then get lost in my fluffy bed. Have a great night!!

HUGS!!!
Ildie

My Inner Grandmother.

The sun is slowly setting on this glorious Sunday and I'm currently sipping on coffee in my pajamas. Yes, I realize that frolicking in my pajamas at 7:15 in the evening makes me lame but I'm finding it hard to care. I call moments like this "connecting with my inner grandmother". HA! My weekend has been full of fun and I can't think of a better way to end it. I'm curled up on the couch, my coffee is delicious, my laptop is by my side and the sun is peeking through the blinds making my room glow in orange happiness. Ahhhh. Lovely!

Let's recap last nights art show. I made a TRAGIC mistake and left my cameras memory card at home. I could only take 10 pictures before my camera was full. LAMETOWN! Nonetheless the place was hoppin and it was great to see all of our friends. A few of them were taking pictures as well so maybe I can give you a more "photographic recap" in the future. For now, the below is all I have to offer. Sadly the best art they had was not photographed.


There were talks of going to the bar across the street after the show was over. However, the discount piercings they were offering had the place so PACKED that they had several customers left after 11:00 that were still "waiting on their turn". Needless to say the bar never happened. We improvised and just hung out with everyone in the back break room instead. I passed on the beers like a good little girl. I had plenty of "liquid fun" on Friday night. We got home at about 1:00am and I went straight to bed. I was beat!
_______________________________________________
Sunday....

BREAKFAST (meal #1) at 9:20am.

I woke up at 9:00 with oatmeal on the brain. I'm pretty sure I dreamed about it. I immediately went to work on some stove top goodness. I cooked it slow and low until it reached a nice, thick and creamy consistency. It took about 15 minutes or so.

• 1/2 cup old fashioned oats
• 1/4 wheat bran
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze
• 1 cup water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• dash apple pie spice
• Splenda
• pinch salt

I topped it with 1 tbs ground flax, 2 tbs sugar free strawberry jam, 1 tbs Better N' Peanut Butter and more cinnamon. It was perfect!


I followed up breakfast with some supplements. I've been doing GREAT with them (Ginseng, Centrum, Fish Oil and Calcium). I haven't missed a single day in over two weeks. However, I had to stop taking the Ginkgo Biloba. It was making me nauseous and I had chronic headaches. :(


I spent the rest of my morning being lazy. That's what Sundays are for right?

LUNCH (meal #2) at 2:00pm.

I visited Mama and Papa Babushka's house at 2:00 for lunch as usual. I sauteed broccoli, mushrooms, cabbage, carrots and onions in soy, teriyaki, Thai chili paste, Thai chili sauce and red pepper flakes till nice and tender. I also seared a turkey cheddar sausage in a pan and boiled some edamame. Lunch was GLORIOUS!


We spent the afternoon chatting and playing Yahtzee. It was so nice and relaxing. AND THEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED! My Mama busted out my FAVORITE Hungarian desert. Kremes!!! It's a puff pastry, powder sugar covered, custard cream pie full of delicious brilliance!! Resistance was pointless. I caved and ate every single rich and decadent morsel. I only have it once a year, if that. AHHHH. IT WAS SOOOOOOO GOOOOOD!

SNACK (meal #3) at 4:30pm. KREMES!!!!!!!


The rest of my day was very relaxing. I got home at about 5:30 and basically did absolutely nothing for several hours. It was perfect in every way possible. I made some coffee and hung out in my PJ's, on the couch with the Mr. We watched It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia for like 3 hours straight. I love that show. I also love lazy Sundays!

DINNER (meal #4) at 9:30pm.

The plan was to have a very LIGHT dinner because of my Hungarian pastry party. However, I was starving by the time 9:30 rolled around. A full and substantial dinner was absolutely necessary. I was definitely having an indulgent day. It happens!

I dug around and found some vegetarian cocoa chili in the freezer. I jazzed it up with some fat free cheddar cheese, sour cream and fresh avocado. I also had some low fat blue corn tortilla chips on the side. It was so good!


Time for some more R&R. I can't seem to get enough of it today.

ONLY 40 DAYS UNTIL VACATION!

XOXO
Ildie

Scared without even knowing it!

This morning started out as any other regular day. I rolled out of bed way later then I should have. And get this, my toilet seat broke and snapped in two and PINCHED my ass.... That woke me right up! UGH! I couldn't help but laugh though! I have the worst luck sometimes.


I got dressed, prettied up, packed up breakfast, lunch, a snack and my gym bag and was out the door. Guess what I saw falling. THE WHITE DEATH that some people lovingly call "snow"! UGH! Disgusting!!! At least it was the pretty kind of snow. The ONLY kind I can somewhat handle! Small little frozen flakes gliding gently and slowly. Dancing in the breeze. However pretty they may be though, I still only like snow in ONE place... A snow globe! HA!


So off to work I went, on the usual highway route doing the usual speeds and was at work in less then 15 minutes. In a sleep deprived daze I read some emails, sorted through some paper work and then decided to go have breakfast with a nice big cup of caffeine crack. I get back to my desk and an email pops up. It's from a coworker and the subject line just said "Driving". OH SNAP! It said that he saw several accidents and cars that slid off the road on the way to work this morning due to icy spots. I immediately became nauseated! I did 60-65 all the way to work on BALD crappy tires because I had no idea there were slick spots everywhere. About an hour later Nick sends me an instant message asking me how my drive was? We take the same highway to work and he hit slick spots as soon as he got on and could barely control his car. He turned around and went back home to put his winter tires on and didn't even make it in to work today! He has a brand new all wheel drive Mitsubishi! WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE LOL? It's a freaking miracle I made it in to work without sliding I tell you. A MIRACLE! I should have been FREAKING OUT and SCARED while driving and I didn't even know it. EEEEEEK!

Moving on..... Breakfast was delicious!

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1 cup coffee (I needed more crack)
• 1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder (stirred in at the end)
• 1 banana, sliced
• dash cinnamon
• dash pumpkin pie spice
• splenda to taste
• a little sprinkle of chai seeds

The coffee tasted so good too. Probably because I was not only tired, but FREEZING! I hate the office on Monday mornings. It takes hours for the building to warm up!


By the way, the arm is feeling "okay". It's sore and swollen but by no means as tender as it was last night when I DESPERATELY TRIED TO SLEEP but couldn't!! It was a long night for sure, which is why I'm so exhausted today.

Lunch consisted of a turkey wrap with spring mix lettuce, tomatoes and spicy brown mustard.


On the side I had a golden delicious apple, the rest of the tomato and some red pepper slices. Good stuff!


On our break today I ran to Home Depot to buy the obviously MUCH needed new toilet seat. HA! Yeah, it wasn't a very exciting lunch. :)

For my afternoon snack I enjoyed some red grapes and raw almonds. I love this combo!


The gym session today was not what it should have been but I gave it my best. My arm prohibited me from doing the usual back exercises so we hopped on the ellipticals instead and did a VIGOROUS 30 minute uphill session. Man!! That thing had me sweating and breathing hard in no time. It was a good workout though and I burned 330 calories. YEAH!

When I got home Nick immediately installed the new toilet seat. YAY! I took a nice, long and relaxing bath. I think it just made me more sleepy though. I checked the mail after my bath and look what was waiting for me.... YAY! The lovely people at 18Rabbits sent me four granola bars to sample. They look and sound delicious! I can't want to try them.


I was still feeling a bit chilled so I made a quick cup of snickerdoodle coffee with cream, fat free whip and a dash of cinnamon. Mm, it warmed me right up.


I wasn't up for cooking tonight so I grabbed the last of the leftover chili from last week out of the freezer. They tasted just as good as they did last week. YUM! I topped my bowl with some fat free cheddar cheese and a scoop of plain Oikos yogurt.


I also enjoyed a serving of chips on the side. I received some coupons from the lovely people at Food Should Taste Good about two weeks ago and I finally picked up a few bags to try. Tonight I tried The Works variety.


I liked them. They were crunchy, flavorful and tasted really good with the chili. I give them a VERY solid 8 out 10!

Now I'm going to cuddle with the Mr. and this little furry fellow.

Goodnight!