Is This a Bake Sale?

What a difference a day makes.  This morning was almost 20 degrees cooler than yesterday morning. So much better for walking. I actually was a bit cold the first mile...had to walk faster to warm up :)

Saw this scary viper on the street.  Upon further inspection I was able to identify it as the relatively harmless Midwestern Rubber Snake.

I hope these skid marks were not absolutely necessary.  People drive a bit nutty through residential areas and hopefully someone's child was not a risk.  My limited knowledge of skid marks makes me think someone pealed out of the turn and squealed their tires. Just a theory.

My husband has signed up for a triathlon in August. So, I think we will be changing up our workout routine a little. Just for fun I am going to "train" with him. I will probably ride my bike for 2-3 miles and then do a 2 mile walk. I would like to do the triathlon too, but I want to do well. In the past, I have considered doing it thinking I would just be happy to finish. Having put some serious effort into my fitness, I don't think I would be satisfied with just finishing.  At this time, I would have to walk the whole run part (4 miles) and I am not sure my buns can handle 12 miles on the bike. Don't even get me started on my swimming :)  I am going to enjoy the "training" process and cheer my husband on at the race. And maybe next year...

Today turned out to be an eating out day for me. We have a new person in our office and we all decided to go out to lunch with her. It was fun. I ended up getting the salad special - Fire Roasted Corn with peppers and onions on lettuce, topped with feta and bacon. It came with a creamy balsamic dressing, but I decided not to use it because the corn salad created a sort of dressing. I ate about half and did my best to estimate calories - I think I was pretty fair.

After work I met my sister at a local evening farmer's market. For the record farmer's markets are starting to look more and more like bake sales.  I tried not to make direct eye contact with all the goodies. But I do love to bake and was very curious about what people were selling. Cookies, quick breads, pies...it all looked good but I resisted.

There were plenty of veggies, but I didn't end up buying any of them either. I am having a bit of a veggie situation at home already ;)  In fact, I had my sister come by the house on her way home to take some tomatoes and cucumbers.

Then for dinner my husband and I went to our favorite Mexican place. He LOVES their Arroz con Pollo. I had actually figured up the calories the last time we went and entered it into MyFitnessPal.  We split an order and got some extra veggies on the side.

I have thought quite a bit about eating out. Since there isn't always a reliable way to calculate the calories of a restaurant dish I need to find another solution. I still want to go out to eat. Sometimes, a girl just doesn't want to cook :)  If my husband and I split a dish that we would have normally eaten ourselves, I am satisfied that I have made a significant improvement.

How do you handle eating out?

On the Levee

View up-river.

There is something awesome about the Mighty Mississippi running through my world! We decided to do our morning workout on the levee overlooking the river and the lock and dam.  We loved the view, but that path stretching out before you is actually a bit daunting. This particular stretch is about a mile and a half.

Lock and dam.  We saw a few barges waiting and one going through.  I wonder how long it takes to complete the process.

Millie ran with my husband I had her during the cool down walk at the end. She is loving our adventures!

In the final stretch.  

Ready to head home.

This morning I walked two miles then my cool down. My miles were around 16 minutes each.  I think I was distracted by the scenery.  And of course I stopped to take a few pictures :) I didn't want to end up any slower than that. Now that I know I can do 15 minute miles I do feel obligated to be sure I am pushing myself to do my best and get better. Tomorrow we are doing a 6 mile walk to gauge our readiness for next Saturday's 10K race. I thought I better save a little something for that.

I feel very good about my pace for the 2-3 miles that we normally walk in a session.  I am eager to see how maintaining my pace works out.  If I can tough out at least half the race at a 15 minute pace I think I will be pretty happy overall.  Unless I have to crawl the other three miles!!

We had a really nice birthday dinner for my mother-in-law last night.  I have been looking forward to eating out for two weeks. We went to an Italian place that we have been to a couple of times before. They have the most delicious toasted ravioli and fettuccine alfredo combo. My husband and I made plans in advance to split the meal and enjoy something decadent. It worked out well. I felt like I had plenty of something I really enjoyed. And the best part I stayed within my calories for the day...the very high end using some extra earned by exercise, but within my calories. I was proud of us :)

Eating Out Challenge

This made me laugh.  I got up this morning a little before 5a to use the bathroom.  Then Millie started fussing that she wanted to go outside. I closed our bedroom door and took Millie outside.  Our dachshund (Zommie) was still in the bedroom.  Apparently she woke up my husband because she had been left behind.  While I am outside I see the light come on and go off in the room where Millie sleeps.  I figure my husband was just checking if I took her out.  I am outside waiting for Millie to do her business and I notice the bedroom light on and staying on.  I come back into the house to find my husband fully dressed and putting on is running shoes.  Turns out he woke up and found Millie and I gone.  He thought we went walking without him and was hurrying to catch up to us.  Funny how just a couple weeks of a routine and that is the first thought in his mind.  Not "Anna took the dog out to go potty," but "oh no they left to walk without me!!" Since he was already up and dressed we decided to head on out for a walk/run.  So much for sleeping in on a Saturday :)

The walk was mostly uneventful except for one scary moment.  I came around a curve and saw a big black dog sitting next to a driveway. It was just staring at me as though getting ready to pounce.  I moved Millie and I to the other side of the street and kept walking keeping alert.  Then the moment when I realized the big black dog was really just a car seat sitting next to someone's driveway.  Silly me!  It made me laugh though when I pointed it out to my husband the next time by and he said he thought the same thing his first time by.  Silly us!

Okay, I was super excited yesterday about how well I did at the restaurant.  Today was tougher.  My niece is looking for a wedding reception venue and we ate lunch at one she is considering.  I had a crab cake sandwich with sweet potato fries.  I will say it was very good...not just okay food that you eat cause it is in front of you...I enjoyed it. I did my best to log the calories in myfitnesspal - it cost me 820 calories. It is so hard to know calories on things you don't make for yourself.  If is is a chain restaurant you can usually find calories online.  I did plan ahead and eat light at lunch and planned a light dinner.  However, my in-laws invited us to dinner at our favorite Mexican place...how do you resist that??  We did make a plan though.  We split one of our favorite dishes Arroz con Pollo.  They make it will lots of veggies.  Again we did our best to calculate the ingredients and logged it.

Also since I didn't know we were eating dinner out I accepted a coconut cookie from a cute little cookie shop - my niece's fiance bought us each a cookie.  Seriously a few weeks ago I would have left with way more than one...they were only 70 cents and smelled insane.  Everyone else ate theirs right away (and I am NOT judging) but I decided to bring mine home and share it with my husband.  My thought was to save the treat for the end of the day and enjoy it.  My husband decided not to split is with me.  I split it in half and had him "hide" the other half for tomorrow.  Full disclosure...this was a big cookie, so half was probably the equivalent of a normal size cookie.  I ate it slowly and savored every bite. 

Not the best day, but I will give myself a little credit for being so cognizant of what I was eating and making better choices.  I will not let the need for perfection stand in my way...sometimes good is enough.  Including extra calories earned for walking today...I have 54 calories left of my allowance.  Going to bed before I decide to eat them...