Ants on a Log

I have bought more celery in the past couple weeks than I have bought in the previous three years of our marriage.  My husband has rediscovered his love of Ants on a Log.

I can't imagine I have gotten this far in life without having them, but can't honestly remember eating them. (I am not much of a celery fan. I believe it is the combination of cooked celery and tomatoes that ruin most vegetable soups for me. )

I was home early from work Friday and waiting for a call from the mechanic about my car. So the perfect storm - change of routine and waiting for potentially expensive news.  I needed a snack...salty, sweet, both?  I decided to give Ants on a Log a try today.

Did I overdo the raisins a bit?  Well, it was a lot of ants.  But in my defense raisins are yummy :)

Did I feel a little virtuous because I was eating celery?  Well, yes I did.  However, I do realize that if you put peanut butter and raisins on it, it does change celery's near calorie free goodness.  The portion I had was 192 calories (12 for the celery, 90 for the raisins and 90 for the peanut butter).   My husband uses the PB2 instead of peanut butter which saves him calories, but he loads them up with even more raisins than I did. 

The verdict?  Worth a try, but I don't believe this is the snack for me.  They tasted okay - I liked the sweet and salty.  The crunch factor was very good.  Overall, it is not the lowest calorie snack and frankly, I still want more - hold the celery.

I believe sometimes you need to just have something you are craving.  Would I have done just as well to have a couple little mini Snickers (sweet and salty) for half the calories?  Or for the same calories I would have preferred slicing an apple and dipping it in peanut butter.

Part of this whole journey is finding what works for you.  There are so many ideas out there.  Experiment.  I suspect our success will come after plenty of trial and error.

This morning I found myself home alone again.  I was not motivated to clean house (even though my in-laws are coming over tonight) so I decided to go for a walk instead.  I ended up walking 5 miles.  Since next weekend we are doing a 10K, I wanted to do closer to that distance than my normal 3 mile walks.  Overall, it went pretty well. I would have liked to have walked faster than I did, but I have a tough time pushing myself hard when I am on my own...need to work on that.

I started by doing my triple loop route that would be about 4 miles.  I ended up taking a side trip off of one of the loops.  That lead me to the interestate overpass about 2 miles from my house.  It is a weird feeling to be standing over interstate traffic.  

 

This area makes me a little said.  It used to be a nice little neighborhood, until it was bought out and demolished for the interstate right of way.

 

I see a lonely little fire hydrant out there in the grass.

Headed back over the overpass and on home.

I am trying not to covet my neighbor's tree.  I am reminding myself that I can enjoy its beauty and not have to rake all those beautiful leaves when they fall.  While I was walking a couple of older ladies were standing by a pile of leaves.  One was leaning on a rake.  She asked if I wanted a rake, but then said I looked too tired already :(  Another lady who was raking her leaves called out to me "girl, you are killing it" the second time I passed.  That made me feel good :) 

I hope you are all out doing something fun today and enjoying those bodies you are working so hard to improve :)