Weekly Workout Thread 12th March till 18th March

[Mara]

bee i think TGIF has their nutritional info online so you can google TGIF fajtas and then check it out. or chowbaby.com or dailyplate.com might have them.

DJ i haven't tried the chocolate ones...hehe. i'm more a coffee ice cream person than chocolate but if a great vahlrona gelato was put in front of me, oh i'd make do.

Lorelei glad to hear that the toe didn't present too many problems...too bad the dinner was disappointing!

AG i guess the PH fit n'delicious already come with light cheese and yes when I was in college I used to just order veggie pizzas with 'light on the cheese' and they would actually do it. Of course since then they have come light years with options, so it's pretty cool actually! Did you see I found the AC Rocco pizzas? I am excited for us to try that for dinner this week.

Sharon, car show sounds fun!! Greg loves going to those types of things.

Breakfast today was scrambled egg whites with a bit of monterey jack, salt and pepper, and a 100 cal high fiber english muffin with smart balance and low-sugar smuckers jam. Yum!

 

[NYCsparkle]

well i just finished my most intense workout of the month!!!! shoveling ice and snow for 45 minutes...and you 80 degree people just go to the gym..lol..i felt muscles working in my arms, back, obliques, legs, and thighs.....i''m gonna be sore tomorrow...well at least i fit in my workout for the day. anyone else on the east coast get in a good shovel workout? this snow was a heavy snow due to the sleet which made shoveling that much harder.

 

[Mara]

aww NYC...i know it''s kind of crazy!! today is another 75ish day. i actually got quite the tan sitting on the patio yesterday afternoon, hehee. but they say we''ll get rain this week at some point.

we talk about moving east sometimes to a cheaper area, but it''s days like that i am like uhhh why??

greg says ''yeah just think about that when we pay the mortgage''...hehe. but that''s okay cuz he''s going out for a nice long run today and it will just remind him why he loves it here too. hehe.

my ankle is feeling a little better, actually i think it''s more the muscle running from the left of my left leg up from my ankle than my ANKLE persay. so i might do some massaging along that area, but i think i might just go to the gym for 30 min and do the elliptical which seems easier on it than doing a pounding walk kinda thing. and maybe we''ll go for a light walk tonite after dinner since we are having dinner a little earlier tonite. i don''t want to make it worse but i don''t want to not use it either because it doesn''t HURT hurt, it just twinges a little. so we''ll see. but i''m definitely doing something today (lol nyc re just going to the gym).

 

[KimberlyH]

Happy Saturday workout friends! So I decided to take the day off from working out as I have been having muscle cramps in my chest, a la Dee Jay, for the past two weeks and they were really bad this morning. I went shopping instead! I needed some nicer work shirts and I also bought a new pair of shoes. Nothing too thrilling, just utilitarian items, but it was still fun.

John and I decided to go out to dinner tonight. We''re gonig to head to Coronado and wander around and then have an early meal at whatever place appeals to us. There''s a fantastic Mexican restaurant and a few other really good places, I''m sure something will strike our fancy. I''m really looking foward to it. Especially since I missed lunch while shopping so I''ve only had oatmeal, almonds and a 70 cal yogurt to eat today.

Have a great Saturday afternoon/evening all!

 

[Mara]

ooh kimberly shopping sounds fun. i always love a good jaunt around the stores, hehe. esp when suddenly all the clothes look so cute on you!! we LOVE good mexican too, have fun.

so i went to the gym after an appt and did 37 mins on the elliptical and burned 340 cals. so that worked out nicely for a mini workout today. i'm going to get outside in a few and do a little gardening and get some sun time. we are dogsitting our friend's jack russell who portia LOVES (they kind of grew up together) so she's having a blast with our doggie visitor. i'll take them for a short, leisurely walk later this afternoon.

i realized that i think my ankle hurting is actually somewhat related to a tendon/muscle running down my outer thigh and down my calf. it tends to get sore and it looks like it's leading right to where my ankle is hurting. i think i need a massage and some heat on it. so i will do that later as well. my massage therapist told me last time i complained about this outer thigh muscle that i probably favor my left leg more due to an old knee injury i had on my right knee years ago. she was saying i probably have favored the left leg for years but it's only now showing up since i am so much more active and physical. so i just have to be careful about that and also stretch out that muscle as much as possible which i do typically...but i guess now i just have to do it more esp with my increased workouts this last week.

so after the workout i hit up the store and got another sugar free angel food cake (this is so perfect for small low-cal snacking when i just want something a little sweet...and it lasted 2 weeks last time and didn't get hard!), some fresh grapes and strawberries (they are so good right now out here), bananas, the mint choco chip slow churned, some more crunchy corn bran (i love this stuff, 5g fiber and 90 cals per 3/4c and it reminds me of childhood...love it!) and then some fresh eggs and some 'center cut' bacon (noticed that this new much-less-fatty version only has 50 cals for 2 slices, perfect!) for breakfast tomorrow morning, and a few other goodies.

oh and i had a craving for rice crispies which actually is a great snack at 120 cals for 1 1/4cups so i poured a serving of that, sliced some strawberries and put some TJ frozen blueberries in there w/ff milk. YUMMY.

we're having burgers tonite at our fave fresh burger place, their fries and burgers are to die for. i just get a regular cheeseburger and we share a basket of fries with ranch for dipping, yummy. and a root beer for moi and beer for greg. then i think later tonite we are going for a walk since dinner is a little earlier so we'll have some nice time together. and some slow churned!

hope everyone is having a wonderful saturday, have GREAT evenings!!

 

[nejarb]

gosh, being sick sucks! i''ve been coughing up disgusting things in unnatural colors, almost like i have bronchitis or something. it''s getting better though.

i''m getting my calories during the day under control, like keeping my breakfast/lunch/snack cals under 800 so that by the time i get to dinner i can have 800-900 cals and not worry about it too much. the low fat nutrigrain eggos are awesome, thanks for the suggestion mara. and also, since i''ve been sick, i haven''t wanted to drink as much, so i''ve gone from like 1.5 av drinks a night to more like .5 av.

i figure if i can keep up these habits i''ve developed recently--drinking less and staying under 800 cals before dinner, then once i start really exercising again (not just walking 20 min a day), i should see more results. i''m going to give it one more day and then go to the Y on monday morning. also, i got some emergenC packs and hopefully i won''t get sick after my trip to atlanta next weekend!

oh, mara what is that syrup you rave about? i wasn''t able to find any low-sugar syrup sub type thing at my local WF, but i did get some smuckers at reg grocery store. it''s really good, but it has nutrisweet and a bunch of other chemicals in it, and i''m almost out but i hesitate to buy more of it. maybe i can order that natural stuff on amazon?

 

[nejarb]

okay, i just googled "natural syrup maple flavor" and joseph''s syrup on amazon came up. that sounds right, and the reviews are good. but do i really want 7 bottles? i guess at 20 bucks w/ free shipping that''s not too bad. and maybe i can give some away. as if people don''t already think i''m weird enough...please take some of my all natural sugar free maple syrup! no, i promise it''s REALLY good, i''m just giving it away because i had to order 7 bottles! i could only buy it in bulk on amazon b/c WF doesn''t have it...i learned about it from mara online...um...a diamond forum. just take it!

 

[AmberGretchen]

Mara - I did see you found the AC LaRocco - I''m really interested to hear what you guys think of it for dinner. It was definitely a huge hit at our house.

DH and I had a really fun afternoon today, walking all around downtown SF. He got himself a nice dress shirt at Thomas Pink and so then he indulged me and wandered around Tiffany with me - there was a really nice saleslady there who was shocked I was thinking of upgrading my ring (which is so funny because its not large AT ALL by PS standards, which I guess is what I''m used to, also my two friends who are engaged have pretty big diamonds as well). But interestingly, I didn''t care for a 2.44 ct Tiffany solitaire with my wedding band - I really wanted to like it, but it sort of looked like it was eating my hand. I adore that look on so many other PSers, but I guess it just isn''t for me. However, when she pulled out a three-stone with a 2.01 ct RB center and proportional pear sides, I was in heaven

. So I guess I know what I''ll be getting (AFTER we finally buy a house and DH gets his new car...sigh...)

DH also let me play at the makeup counters at Bloomie''s - I''m such a makeup whore.

Then we went out for tapas, which was a super-yummy splurge. I had a green salad and we shared a fabulous cheese plate (I LOVE Spanish cheeses

), and I had some fantastic sangria (which I was pleasantly surprised when I came home and discovered its actually relatively low-cal), and the kicker an amazing warm molten center chocolate cake with real whipped cream

So I''m feeling pleasantly full but not disgusting, and amazed that even with all of that for dinner, I still came in at about 1500 cals for the day!!

 

[Rod]

Happy St Patties Day Team PS!

We were (past tense) really good today until tonight. We had a normal healthy fruit bowl for breakfast. We had a good, healthy lunch. Then we went to the gym and had a really good workout. And of course there was a Starbucks coffee break in between.

Then tonight, we were invited to friends house for a traditional St. Patricks day dinner of corned beef and cabbage. So, I simply pigged out. I mean, it was like I hadn't had food in a couple months. In addition to the corned beef, cabbage, potato, and carrots, they had this Irish bread, which was sort of dessert like with raisins and sugar on top and I had two pieces of that. I had like five servings of the corned beef. Then, our host had made a homemade carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting and I had a huge piece of that. Oh, and I had a beer on top of everything else.

I'm thinking I had about two days worth of calories in one dinner. I did enjoy it though!!!

Tomorrow, I'll do extra pennance for my caloric sins at the gym.

NYCsparkle: I'm glad my workout was in a gym and did not involve ice or snow. It's too cold for me here in NC., but at least we weren't sidelined by frozen stuff.

And yes Mara, you'll need to think about whether you would feel a bigger house and lower cost of living is worth the trade you'd have to make for giving up such a terrific San Francisco climate???

So sorry to hear your sick Nejarb. I hope you get better real soon!

In case anyone's wondering, we're still heading home. We sat down this morning and figured out we could survive without jobs for at least a year before we'd possibly be in trouble. With that, we decided to put things in motion and give our 30 day notice on the apartment the first of April, and if Charlie wasn't heading to Buffalo to visit his family Easter weekend and hadn't already purchased his flight (non-refundable non-changeable) we'd be heading home like the first of April, but we'll have to wait until he get's back from visiting his family. At least we'll be back by mid April and that's the prettiest time of the year in Tampa anyway!!

I hope everyone had a nice Saturday!!

 

[Mara]

got our burger fix tonite, this place we go to is our fave...they have the best burgers ever. i just got a regular cheeseburger with cheddar and i ate the entire thing minus a little bun edges. they also put a ton of onion, lol mmmm!! and their fries are divine...we share a basket with ranch for dipping. i had a root beer, it was yummy but tasted a little foreign, hehee. we totally enjoyed our dinner and saturdays are 1/2 price burgers so it's a total bargain as well, hehe. and it wasn't that crowded which we were jazzed about, guess everyone was at the irish pubs!

came home and let our food digest a bit then went for a 1m walk and ended up at the store getting a few things. then i had some slow churned mint choco chip with a chocolate mint wafer cookie, yummy. i swear every time i eat a slow churned new flavor i am freshly amazed at how far these things have come..i remember trying some way back when it first came out (5 years ago?) and it was like cardboard. the ones they are producing now are literally for me just as good as the 'real' thing...and even if i got a little crazy and had 3 servings it would still be better than something from some local shop!

so this afternoon i was channel surfing on tivo and found this interesting show...it was like an infomercial but it was being done like a seminar so i watched it. it was called fiber35 and basically the jist was 'eat 35g of fiber per day and lose weight and keep it off'. so of course being the fiber whore i am, i wanted to see what it was all about. the gal was actually spot on with a lot of her advice. the whole 'buy me' thing was her book with recipes and tips and this and that. but the seminar itself was pretty educational! she went through the whole fiber makes your body feel fuller, takes longer to digest, she talked about low vs high density foods (volumetrics) aka you can eat more of X than Y and feel more full and eat less calories.

she also said that the reason that they advocate eating smaller meals more often is because of this (and i never really thought about it but it makes sense!)...when you eat something, your body raises it's metabolism in order to work on digestion. it can raise the metabolism as much as 30% and it can stay elevated for up to 3 hours. so basically if you are eating every 3-4 hours, then your body's metabolism is never really lower and resting. so it's an effective way to keep your metabolism higher more of the time. whereas if you ate 3 big meals 6 hours apart, you'd have these periods of hours where your body is not doing anything and the metabolism is resting. i already eat smaller meals more often so i was like yay that's cool.

also, drinking water apparently raises your metabolism as well, drink 16oz of water and within 10 minutes the metabolism raises up to 30% and can stay there for up to an hour. kinda interesting. also your body needs lots of water anyway to process fiber.

the whole fiber thing was kind of long, but the jist is that fiber is good for you and you should try to get about 35g per day. and nowadays that is not that hard, esp as more and more companies add fiber into things that don't naturally have it (aka la tortilla factory tortillas are 9g fiber for small and 13g for large; the thomas 100 cal english muffins have 5g fiber; the hostess cupcakes have 5g of fiber, etc). also she talked about (and this is a little TMI but here it is) the fact that it has been proven that you can actually excrete extra calories in your stool due to eating enough fiber. supposedly 7 cals per gram of fiber is put out of your body and not processed as calories. so that's 7x35 is 245 cals per day you could be eating but not processing, so like 245 'free' kinda calories. she was saying 'if you just changed that one thing and ate 35g of fiber per day, and changed nothing else about your eating habits or exercise habits etc...you can lose 2 lbs a month, so 25lbs a year'. i thought that was interesting. plus fiber helps move foods more quickly and efficiently through your body which also helps your body detoxify on a daily basis etc. anyhow she also talked about how people should work out as well as changing eating habits (because basically if you just start getting more fiber you probably ARE eating more healthily as many foods that have fiber are better for you to begin with), but how fiber can really just change things for you on a long term basis. you eat LESS because you feel more full and fuller longer, you eat more of the right things typically, just to get your fiber, and you end up having a healthier digestive system, excrete additional calories, and detoxify etc.

i already eat a lot of fiber, pretty much about 30ishg a day and sometimes more, but it was interesting to watch the show, hehe.

amber i love sangria, white actually. and it made me laugh when you said 'all that for dinner'...when we go get tapas i think we eat about 3x that, hehee. but i am a food whore so i love tasting different things and tapas is right up my alley. there is this place locally to us as well as that is cuban and they have the best white sangria as well. mmm!!

nejarb hope you feel better soon. oh i noticed online that TJ's has a reduced sugar preserves line so maybe you can use one of those instead of the smuckers? i noticed that some of the smuckers had nutrisweet but i got one that has splenda, and it's still smuckers. so i dunno...but maybe see if you can find the TJ brand. oh and yes josephs is the brand i love...why do you have to buy 7 bottles? whole foods has it. anyway, the one thing about it, is it has malitol in it, which is some sort of natural sweetener...it tastes the most like real syrup but it does cause some gas. so i don't use that much of it...and that day i am a little more gassy than usual (sorry TMI but figured i'd warn you). however i have tried other syrups and this one is by far the best for me. so i use it anyway and just take a GasX. hehee.

ETA...Rod haha we don't live in a wonderful 'San Francisco climate'...SF's climate is not the best in my opinion. we live inland more, in the suburbs in san jose. it's much much warmer here!!! i don't think i would ever want to live in SF...we have driven up during the summer countless times and had it be horrible and gloomy and like 60 when it's 85 or 90 where we are. some days are beautiful in SF but honestly i am such a sun sucker i need for it to be hot most of the time. but yeah...the jist is the same, do we want to move? we don't know. hehe.

 

[nejarb]

mara, i couldn''t find the joseph''s at my local wf. and so i got smuckers sugar free syrup but i just don''t like all the chemicals in it. so i ordered some josephs online last night, but i had to order 7 bottles. i guess i should''ve ordered some gas-x too!

 

[basil]

Hey all,

I haven''t caught up on the thread yet, but I thought I''d at least check in. I haven''t done so well on the exercising so far on vacation. On Friday, we had a snowstorm, then yesterday it poured rain all day long. Ugh. My eating was also pretty bad Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, we went out to a seafood restaurant to celebrate our anniversary. We got an appetizer sampler of coconut shrimp, scallops wrapped in bacon, and fried calamari. For dinner I had a sesame crusted seared tuna, with mini lobster wontons, and half of Fiance''s ginger panko crusted salmon. Then of course we had dessert - I had an apple pie in puff pastry with ice cream and he had a huge slice of really dark chocolate cake. We took about half of each of our meals and 3/4 of our desserts home, but when I calculated it out, I had still eaten like 1800 cals in that one meal. Oh, and I forgot to mention the 400 cal martini. But it was SO worth it.

On Friday we went out with my parents to this little hole-in-the-wall fish fry/Greek restaurant. Fiance got the fish and chips, which is like my favorite dish ever, so I decided to be light and got the chicken souvlaki. I only ate about half of the pita it came with, and a tiny amount of the dressing with the salad, but then I ate a bunch of bites of Fiance''s fish. Ended up going over on calories that day too. Again, worth it!

Yesterday was better, and today I did get to go out for a 30 minute walk even though it was only 20 degrees out. I think Fiance and I are going to try to go to the gym tomorrow, if we can work out a way for me to "borrow" my dad''s card. Hehe.

On the positive side, I went to try on wedding dresses yesterday and one other bride said to me "oh, you have such nice shoulders!" I''ve been working really hard on my arms, so it feels good to have that positive reinforcement. Plus, I found out that the dress I liked online looks really really good on me. Yeay!

Anyway, I had cheerios/fiberone/strawberries for breakfast this morning, and I''ll have some sort of snack in a little bit. We''re having late lunch/early supper at my cousin''s house today, and she''s making roasted chicken and a bunch of veggies since she''s on a low-carb diet, so it should be fairly healthy. Then maybe I''ll have some ice cream and a brownie later on

 

[Ellen]

Rod, congrats on making a decision. I can just imagine how excited you must be!

And YUMMO on the carrot cake.

 

[KimberlyH]

Happy Sunday everyone!

So we ended up doing about 3.5 miles of walking in Coronado yesterday, which was awesome. And then we had dinner and this adorable little cafe we''d never been to before. John had monkfish and I had a NY steak, prepared perfectly with onions and mushrooms on top. I ate about 1/2 my mashed potatoes and some veggies. We split a piece of apple caramel pie for dessert. It was a perfect size, we each got about 6 bites and didn''t feel too full when we finished.

Mara, glad you had a yummy dinner!

Nejarb, sounds like your on the right track!

Rod, I''m glad you had a great dinner. Even more glad you''re all settled in regards to returning to Tampa.

Basil, isn''t it fun to get compliments? I''m sure you look great!

 

[Dee*Jay]

Yesterday after my hour on the bike I was super motivated to be good, but that went right out the window as soon as I got to my client''s open house. They were practically force feeding me and the wife had made everything herself so I felt like I should try a bit of each thing and tell her how wonderful it was. It didn''t help that I sacraficed lunch in lieu of bra shopping (totally worth it accoring to the HH''s assessment of my purchases, LOL!) so I was starving when I got there. And last night we went to dinner at a marvelous new place. EVERYTHING was fabulous and we all ate too much.

Today I am being GOOD. Oatmeal for breakfast, taking yogurt, grapes and a 100 cal pack of cookies to eat during/after my open house, and the HH is making the chicken casserole that he didn''t make on Friday night.

My plan is to work out today but I might have overdone it by working out a little to heartily the past three days in a row because I had tightness in my chest again starting last night and even still. Hopefully some Aleve will do the trick because I''m going to be out to dinner again on Monday and Tuesday nights and I would like to get some sort of activity in today, even if it''s just a walk on the treadmill.

Mara and nejarb, hope you''re feeling better soon!

 

[Mara]

happy sunday everyone!!

kimberly, sounds like you guys had a yummy dinner and nice evening out! DJ, take care of that chest. basil, good to see you checking in...don''t worry about eating on your vacation !! and a tip, if you have a gym near you like a 24 hour fitness, they do day passes for like $10 or whatever. so you can go in there and work out as well. i am already planning on where to do this when we go for our east coast visit since we''ll be gone like 9 days. so i''ll have to scope out places online to get a workout in as well as some walking. if i can just work out about 4 days out of the 9, i will be very happy! rod, congrats for making a decision, i think it is definitely the best for you guys. and you''ll totally find work within a year i would imagine...so it''s good you have that buffer.

breakfast this morning was 2 eggs over medium, 2 pieces of bacon, 2 pieces of multigrain toast with smart balance and raspberry jam (used the regular one since i noticed that the serving was 1tblsp for 50 cals and i use more like a teaspoon) with diced potatoes and onions. but i wasn''t really feeling the potatoes today so i hardly had any.

today is another pretty day here, but i guess we are expecting rain on mon and tues (or tues, wed, can''t remember)...so we''ll enjoy today for sure just in case! greg has some stuff to do in the garage and i am going to the gym at some point. then we are having our neighbors over for dinner later, greg wants to do a rubbed tri tip, so we''ll grill that and then i think have steamed cauliflower and lemon oven roasted potatoes along with it. and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert. (by the way random but noticed that the sugar free AFC has 5g fiber per serving, woo hoo).

took a nice hot bath last nite and have been trying to stretch out more and more often...my ankle feels much better but my legs are kind of stiff. so hopefully a workout today will loosen them up again. i might do like 20 min on the bike first just to do something different and then finish up on the elliptical, we''ll see. and we''ll probably take another walk tonite as well. so far this week i have burned 3100 calories in walking and gym workouts which is pretty cool...after today i should be at about 3750 as my total for the week! i kind of like pushing my body a little harder than it''s used to but hopefully it doesn''t get too mad and poop out, lol. i *am* 32 now after all (as the gym guys like to remind me...''for your age''...) haha.

 

[KimberlyH]

Had a terrific workout this afternoon. Burned 600 calories in just over 60 minutes and it felt great!

Chicken casserole for dinner and a relaxing night before taking off tomorrow.

Hope everyone is having a terrific Sunday!

 

[Mara]

my gym session today consisted of 22 minutes on the bike and then 57 minutes on the elliptical...total burned was 660 cals...whee. the bike is kind of useless in terms of burning calories, haha. but it allowed me to kind of warm up slowly and then do my elliptical workout. i felt pretty good towards the end (this is ALWAYS the case...it''s so odd, aka the last 15 minutes are typically much easier for me), so i just kept adding minutes. 600 was my goal today so i surpassed it.

with our shortie walk tonite, i''ll have burned about 3950 calories this week. that is definitely a record for me. it''s mostly gym sessions, but also included walking daily, and extra walks on days i worked out, as well as 2 1 hour sessions of gardening (conservatively estimated). i averaged a little bit more on food calories this week because i was working out harder, so while last week averaged i think 1750 per day, this week is more like 1900. but even with the extra calories i ate, i still am about 1000 extra calories burned over last week. so i''m definitely still way ahead which is kind of fun. at least i''m putting my spare time to good physical use hehe.

at the gym i saw some recipes in an oprah catalog that i wanted to try so instead of the roasted lemon potatoes tonit,e we''re having mashed potatoes with celery root and creamy yogurt, and i was going to make a maple panna cotta for dessert, until i saw that i have to chill it for 5 hours, and dinner is in 3 hours so that''s not really working...but if i make it NOW i might be able to get 5 hours of chilling in. but on the other hand i don''t really want to stress out....so we might just do the angel food cake with berries and whipped cream for dessert like initially planned. or i can do mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches with thin mint chocolate wafers and double churned ice cream, those are a huge hit with guests typically because they are small and finger food. for pre-dinner nibbles i got a few specialty cheeses and have an apple which i''ll cut up and serve with multigrain crackers.

the panna cotta however looks so yummy and is actually really healthy as it''s made with low fat buttermilk, like 175 cals per serving even with berries and some syrup. so i might make it for us this week and experiment so that next time we entertain i know what works. and i LOVE panna cotta at restaurants so it''d be fab to make it at home and not have it be a ton of cals.

anyhow hope everyone is having a fabulous sunday...enjoy!!

 

[Rod]

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Today was just a terrific day. I''m so much more at ease over having made the decision. And my workout at the gym was just explosive. Typically, when I stressed, I have to protect my lower back because that''s where stress goes. And if I hurt my back, I''m not even able to walk upright. So, being relaxed let''s me work out harder and I surely did that. Of course after last nights foodgasm, I had to be careful with calories today. So, I started with a bowl of fruit, soup and salad for lunch, then the workout which on the elliptical side was one in which I traveled 7.49 miles and burned 547 calories in 35 minutes. I was just ''smokin'' the machine!! For dinner, we had a nice healthy salad and of course 3 pieces of Lindt Dark Chocolate.

Out of the blue our next door neighbor from out conod in Tampa called tonight. She said she was just thinking about us and when I told her we were coming home, I had to move the phone away from my ear as she shouted hooray. We did really get along well with her and it was really sad leaving her all alone on our floor.

Anyway, today was a might fine day for me. I''m so ready to go home I can''t stand it. I know there is still a level of uncertainty, but the uncertainty of being there versus here pales in comparison.

I hope you all had a great Sunday and are looking forward to a wonderful week!!

 

[mrssalvo]

Hi all, I have to go back and read everyone''s reply''s but hope everyone had a nice weekend. I''m out of town so my normal/crazy lack of routine is out the window. I will be doing lots of playing outside with the kids and walking this week though. My in-laws are healthy eaters so I shouldn''t get into too much trouble on the food front except for tuesday when i''m downtown chicago and will be tempted by all the yummy food and then deep dish pizza for dinner. We will be walking all day so hopefully I''ll burn all the calories I''m going to eat. I did pack extra larabars and fiberone bars to try and keep hunger at bay b/c that''s when I''ll eat junk b/c I''m starving and it''s fast and easy.

i hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

 

[katebar]

Date: 3/18/2007 8:08:08 PM
Author: Rod
Happy Sunday Everyone!

of course 3 pieces of Lindt Dark Chocolate.

Rod I love that fact you have 3 pieces of the Lindt Dark Chocolate so do I

. Do you have the 70% or the 80%? I can''t come at the 80% but the 70% is just the right combo of bitter sweet for me. I have one pices at 4 with a cup of green tea and 2 pieces at night with a cup of Orange Pekoe.
I think i worked out that the 3 piecs = 70 calories I happy with that + all the bendfits associated wit Dark Chocolate

 

[Rod]

Date: 3/18/2007 10:16:02 PM
Author: katebar

Date: 3/18/2007 8:08:08 PM
Author: Rod
Happy Sunday Everyone!

of course 3 pieces of Lindt Dark Chocolate.

Rod I love that fact you have 3 pieces of the Lindt Dark Chocolate so do I

. Do you have the 70% or the 80%? I can''t come at the 80% but the 70% is just the right combo of bitter sweet for me. I have one pices at 4 with a cup of green tea and 2 pieces at night with a cup of Orange Pekoe.
I think i worked out that the 3 piecs = 70 calories I happy with that + all the bendfits associated wit Dark Chocolate

Hey katebar........I have the 70%. I tried the 80%, but I''m afraid it was WAY too bitter for me too. The 70% is just perfect. Not too bitter, not too sweet. I don''t mean to rain on your parade, but I''m afraid your calorie count is a bit off. Three squares of Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate is 165 calories. Still, a good heart healthy treat. And I do it almost every day (Friday night''s I don''t as I treat myself to Panera Tart Cherry Scone at about double the calories and fat grams!).

 

[Mara]

lots of walking and yummy food sounds great mrs salvo!!

rod, happy to hear that your mind is at ease now...maybe now you can just enjoy the rest of your time in raleigh...as a life experience!

our neighbors came for dinner tonite, they are renting the townhouse next to ours and we have talked about dinner before (they have been there a few months) but last week they came to a concert of greg's and we had a chance to really connect with them so we invited them for dinner this wkd. they are really cool, in our age range, with similar kind of backgrounds to ours and personalities (and they also love great food!)...she is 3 months pregnant as well with their first baby. it was a great time, they have so many stories. so we are going over for dinner to their house next weekend. we love finding couples that we click with so i told greg that i hope they don't move away anytime soon now that we are finally getting to know them! hehe.

for starters tonite i put together a small cheese platter that had dill havarti, meunster, and point reyes bleu cheese with sliced apple and pear, and multigrain crackers. gotta love cheese. for dinner, i made the tri-tip with a montreal steak, garlic salt, and creole rub and greg grilled it, turned out great. it started out being 2.5 lbs but i think it shrunk down to about 1.5lbs since for the 4 of us it was basically gone and none of us had large portions at all (i had 3 thin slices). tri-tip is very low in cals (170 for 3oz cooked) and it's one of my fave meats taste wise esp with a rub, so we always love grilling it. i also found this awesome recipe for mashed potatoes with celery root (literally a root!) and yogurt, i also added some butter, and for the yogurt i used the 0% fage. it turned out GREAT...lots of compliments. and i thought i made like 6ish servings but it turned out we had a fair amount leftover even with the boys eating large portions, so we'll have them for dinner tomorrow night with some fish and carrots. i also steamed cauliflower and brushed it with butter and some salt and it was yummy, i love cauliflower with a bit of butter and salt.

then for dessert i actually got creative. earlier i was like gosh i really want to make something, but i am not sure what and i was also limited on time. i really wanted to make this bread pudding that i found earlier today, but i didn't want to spend 350 cals on dessert tonite. so i had thought maybe a mousse but the ones i had were too high cal for what they were. then i thought the angel food cake was the easiest so i should just do that (found a great creme anglaise sauce to use in the future with strawberries). but then i got an IDEA...so i googled pot de creme and calories and found this awesome recipe that uses cocoa, fat free milk, eggs, splenda and sugar to make a pot de creme. and it only needed 2 hours to chill. i LOVE pot de creme at restaurants and the prep didn't seem too hard, and i had all the ingredients, and the kicker was that the calories were low so i said what the heck lets try it.

and it turned out GREAT!!! total hit with everyone, everyone ate theirs and practically licked the ramekins haha. and it was pretty easy to make overall, just a bit of prep and maintenance on the cooking. i will post it in the recipe thread. the best part was that it was super chocolatey with 'great texture' (according to greg)...i put some fat free whip on it with some chocolate shavings for max presentation, and the whole thing was only 150 cals for aabout a 5oz ramekin portion!! i love finds like that...i want to make it again very soon. then we cut up a few of our precious hoarded truffles and shared those with coffee as well. the best part was the whole dinner including the cheese starters and desserts was only about 1000 cals total. gotta love healthier-yet-decadent-feeling cooking at home. hehe.

anyhow, hope everyone had a wonderful weekend, tomorrow is a new week! we didn't go for our walk tonite so my calories for the week was 3850, still the highest i think i have ever done. and i feel good, my leg and ankle basically feel normal again, yay! so tomorrow i plan to get out for a walk before the rain comes...!

 

[katebar]

Date: 3/18/2007 10:41:57 PM
Author: Rod

Hey katebar........I have the 70%. I tried the 80%, but I''m afraid it was WAY too bitter for me too. The 70% is just perfect. Not too bitter, not too sweet. I don''t mean to rain on your parade, but I''m afraid your calorie count is a bit off. Three squares of Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate is 165 calories. Still, a good heart healthy treat. And I do it almost every day (Friday night''s I don''t as I treat myself to Panera Tart Cherry Scone at about double the calories and fat grams!).

Oh crap Rod Just rechecked our Aussie site Calorieking.com.au and they are saying 158 calories for 3 squares so I guess that is sort of win situation as I down 7 calories on your calculation

.
anyhoo I still heart the the Lindlt treats and it sure does satisfy the choc cravings.
Once you get used to the bitter sweet taste I could never go back to any ordinary chocolate! accept Haighs chocolate frogs and I think only Travellinggal know what I''m talking about

.