Exercise, Eat, Weigh

I managed to get myself out of bed for a walk with my niece again yesterday morning. I had left my other walking shoes at work, so I had to drag out this poor damaged pair. This is what happens when you have naughty puppies. Your laces get eaten and you have to wear mismatched laces. You can't really tell, but the shoe with the pink laces has one of the eyes chewed off, but I didn't really notice it once they were laced up. She is a lucky puppy because these are my good shoes and honestly the most expensive pair I have ever owned.

I left my house about 5:20 a.m. and walked to my niece's house. It was very dark. By the time, we walked and returned from her house, I was excited to see this much light. I actually think the picture makes it seem lighter than it really was. You can still see lamp posts and the headlights coming down the road.

A few days ago I found some ground chicken on sale and bought two packages. I use ground turkey pretty frequently, but I think I prefer the flavor of chicken. I made a batch of meatballs with the first package (the other went in the freezer). To the chicken, I added shredded zucchini, panko, onion powder, garlic power, salt and pepper to the meat.

Each meatball was 31 calories according to my calculation. They were so delicious when they came out of the oven I decided to have a couple for breakfast - good protein and a little veggie.
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Yesterday, I used the last of the meatballs to make a meatball "sandwich" at work. It turned out pretty well. I used some arrabbiata sauce I had picked up at Aldi's. It is similar to a marinara with the addition of red chili peppers. It had a little heat! The cheese is Swiss...not exactly Italian, but it was good. To be honest I could have done fine without the cheese and saved some calories. Live and learn.

One nice thing I do enjoy about eating away from home - there is a lot less pressure to share! Silly pups, you are just going to take the fruit and spit it out somewhere for me to find later!

After the craziness of the weekend and my laziness on Monday, I am a little behind in my 30 Day Ironman. So I pushed myself yesterday. I did the walk in the morning. Then after work I made myself do a bike ride. I confess, I am just not enjoying biking for exercise.  But I am determined to see the challenge through. Then I think I will be back to riding for fun :)  Eventually, I just want biking to be a fun part of my active lifestyle. One of my friends just bought a pretty cruiser and I am eager to ride with her.

Though I went into it with a pretty poor attitude it ended up being a decent ride. Thanks in great part to this guy. He rode with me at the beginning and end. We crossed paths a several times in the middle. The time passes much more quickly when I am not out there lapping and lapping by myself. I also employed my trick of riding each of the three loops in the neighborhood twice to keep from having to do one a zillion times  I ended up riding 7.1 miles!!! I kept telling myself the longer the rides the fewer I will have to do :)  83.8 miles to go! I was a little bummed when I realized that even at a 7 mile/ride pace that is still 12 more rides in 19 days - yikes!

And now the moment of truth. I started the week well - I was the picture of healthy eating. Then came the weekend! We went out to dinner Friday night, Saturday at trivia night I ate snacks like I have a hole in my neck (I don't) and Sunday we ordered pizza. Of course, since I wasn't doing well anyway I ate more little things during the day that I am sure add up to something embarrassing. I got myself back together on Monday so here I am Wednesday morning down .8 pounds. Whew!

Please remind me this weekend - it does not help my ultimate goal to work hard during the week and let the weekends become a feeding frenzy.