A Long Ramble

Hi guys!  Not a lot of important stuff to report.  But I’ve got a bunch of pics to share.  Here’s  my one interesting thing I noticed in the past few days.   There was way too many snack foods at that two day conference (what’s new–it was put on by nurses.)  And I indulged in way too many snack foods. The second day I tried to avoid it by taking my own ‘healthy’ snack foods.  I ate them AND the other snacks.   Aaaaargh.  But then I just went back to eating as normal (I mean  healthy good foods)  the next couple of days.  And I even ate a little lighter than usual.  I didn’t really crave cookies or sweets, even though I ate two cookies each day at the conference.  I have been noticing that there is something very mysterious about cookies and other sweets.  I don’t know if its in your brain or in your teeth, but the MINUTE  it is gone, I IMMEDIATELY want more.  I have to chew gum or something to ‘break the spell.’  However, I am not finding that I am craving sweets the next day or over the next week like I used to.  I actually crave veggies if I have a low veggie day.

Yesterday started out with a bowl of classic custard oats–straight up.  I mix a little quinoa with the steel cut oats, and cook as normal.  Add in the egg whites, some cinnamon and splenda, and mix in raisins and walnuts.  This is the very best way to have custard oats.  And I was surprised that it lasted me until lunch time.  Which was a marvelous beet salad.  No pics for those of you who have beet sensitivities.  I have to say, it is a complete mystery to me how anybody could not LOVE beets.   I feel like trying to convince you all to try them.  But I won’t.   More beets for me!

Classic Custard Oats

Sophie is not supposed to get in my lap when I am eating.  But she is a very stubborn little girl.  This is her trying to be cute so I will let her stay on my lap.

"You know you love me."

"Who could resist such a face?"

I finally got to the gym yesterday afternoon.  Seems like I did my usual type of workout, but man oh man was I sore today.  I’m guessing its the tabata interval that I did.  I do squats with a forward swing of a dumbbell on the way back up.  I increased the dumbbell to 10 pounds yesterday.

Dinner last night was the last of the fried rice along with a bowl of very ripe strawberries.  That is the first time in a long time that I have only eaten breakfast, lunch, and dinner without snacks  in between.  I did have my new favorite dessert of greek yogurt with a sprinkling of muesli, walnuts, and chocolate chips.  Me and Noah got in two good walks, but I just found out that the camera was on ‘movie mode’ when I took those pictures.  Oh well.

So this morning, I started out with a fabulous protein pancake.  Classic.  I put walnuts in the pancake batter, and use my mashed banana cubes with a teaspoon of maple syrup to top them.  (You all know about my mashed banana cubes, right?  Let your bananas get really ripe, then peel and mash them with a potato masher.  Pour the mashed bananas in ice cube trays and freeze.  Each cube is about 1/2 a banana.)

Me and Noah headed out for a long walk.  But like I said, I was REALLY feeling tired.  Poor Noah.  That is the slowest ‘walk nice’ he has ever had to do.  We made it 3 miles, but it took an HOUR AND A HALF!   That did include some obedience training, some picture taking, and some ‘stick work,’ but still.   That was some slow walking.  It was really funny near the end.  Noah was getting tired too.  And there was a moment where we just stopped and looked at each other like,  ‘I am so DONE with this walk.’  Cracked me up.

Stick number one:

Stick number two:

All the way home on that long walk I was thinking about what I wanted to eat AND what would fuel my body the best.  I came up with this bowl of pineapple, sprinkled with walnuts, granola, and coconut.  Pretty good!  I also ate a little slice of ham for some protein.

Lunch was a remake of  the little fat cheese-filled tortillas with a bit of enchilada sauce, and a lot of plain old salad.  Told you I craved veggies!  I put a little Trader Joe’s low-fat cilantro salad dressing on the salad–pretty good!  (The tortilla thingie is under there somewhere.)

I had to get a little work done on my new car  while it was still under warranty–just got it in under the wire!  So after I picked it up I went over to Starbuck’s for a coffee with a couple of my lobars amdsome magazine reading–yumm.

I was too tired to take Noah for his second walk, so I just threw his toy for him for a while, then I decided to brush him, and then I got a little burst of energy and went ahead and gave him his bath.  He is the only dog I have ever bathed in four quadrants!

Fluffy Noah!

I did end up taking Noah for a short walk while dinner was cooking.

Roasted cauliflower and a strawberry banana smoothie!

I’ll end with an action shot of Mr. Monk doing what he does best.

And that is what I should be doing.  So I will bid you a fond adieu and head for the bed.  Gotta work tomorrow.  Happy Father’s Day to Ron (the only  father I know who reads this blog!)

P.S.    Ooooh!  Guess what I got at a yard sale for $2?  A dehydrator!  I’ve been wanting to try one.  I think.  Now I can’t remember what I was so hot to trot about.  Anyone have a dehydrator?  Anyone have any ideas what to do with it?