Yep, our car of nearly 12 years has officially died.  Turns out it needs a whole new transmission, but with 145,000 miles on it, it’s not worth getting it fixed.  Tony is going to be checking out some cars for me – luckily we have the car rental for a full week so we don’t have to rush into anything.   I just didn’t expect to buy two new cars within weeks of each other!  Such is life, right?

The first rental car I got had the check engine light on, so I traded it in on my way to work.  The switch was seamless, and to apologize they upgraded my car so this week I am driving the Nissan Rogue.  It’s nice – its like a car/SUV.

Alright you guys – I flew to close to the sun on this parfait combination.  I was out of my homemade granola, but I had some Kellogg’s vanilla cherry yogurt in our kitchen cabinet at work.  My yogurt flavor?  Passion Fruit+kiwi+apple+cherry+vanilla=tastes like ass.  Way too many flavors going on here – I need to remember “keep it simple stupid.”

I actually don’t mind this granola by itself – this one comes in at 343 calories, 4 fat, 63 carbs, 5 fiber and 21 protein.

I had to work right through lunch.  We had a document that needed to be filed and I’d much rather work through lunch than have to stay late.  We finished it at ten minutes to five!  The day flew by.  Lunch was leftover Chinese from the weekend – on the bottom you can’t see is 3/4 cup pork fried rice with 3/4 of a cup of beef and broccoli – I kicked it up with some sriracha.   LUnch comes in at 521 calories, 22 fat, 48 carbs, 5 fiber and 31 protein.

Yep – more Mexican!  Although when I downloaded my pictures I thought “I probably could have added a vegetable on the side.”  Not sure iceburg lettuce constitutes a vegetable.

I chopped up some of the flank steak, mixed it with a bit of Mexican rice and about 1/4 cup of my baja fresh salsa.  Added a bit of cheese and then . . . pan fried it in a bit of oil.  I loves me some crunchy tacos!   Because I fried these, (I ended up eating 2 1/2) – dinner comes in at 560 calories, 34 fat, 18 carbs, 5 fiber and 40 protein.

My plate:

OMG, I made the best granola last night.  I will post my recipe tomorrow, but I have Nicole’s granola recipe as my inspiration.  I finally got the clumps of granola I have been trying to create!  You will have to stop by tomorrow for the recipe.  The best part?  I made it with sugar free pancake syrup, only 1/3 cup of brown sugar for the whole recipe and light coconut milk!

Tony was watching an episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumble.  Matt Long was a firefighter that was working the day of 9/11 in New York.  After seeing so many of his friends die, he vowed to stay as healthy as possible and became a pretty accomplished triathlete.  Until he was run over by a bus.  The bus literally had him pinned underneath, and the hit was so forceful, his bicycle seat actually impaled him up to his intestines.

His pelvis was separated from his skeleton, they gave him a 1% chance of even living, and had to replace the blood in his body 4 times before they were able to control the bleeding.  His one leg is now 1 inches shorter than the other.

But 40 surgeries later, he ended up doing the Ironman Triathlon and actually came in 2 minutes before the required deadline of 17 hours.  That’s a 2 1/4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a marathon.  How is that for some inspiration?

I couldn’t find the full video – but here is a snippet of that video – make it a great day!  If you google Matt Long triathlete on you tube, you can find some inspirational videos, as he is now a motivational speaker.  You can read more about him here – he’s also written a book.

With all the leftover Mexican fiesta food from our Memorial Day feast, you are going to see lots of Mexican food leftovers this week.   I am not complaining one bit.

Breakfast was two breakfast tacos – 2 corn tortillas, 2 eggs, some sauteed peppers, 2 tablespoons of refried beans on the bottom, some salsa, lettuce and a bit of cheese.  Breakfast comes in at 421 calories, 19 fat, 38 carbs, 8.5 fiber and 25 protein.

I had every intention of riding my bike yesterday at lunch – but Hannah surprised me for lunch!  We went to The Lucky Monk right by my office.  Best pizza and burgers around.  Our favorite pizza?  The baby spinach pizza with fresh shaved parmesan, ricotta cheese and mozzarella and extra virgin olive oil. 

Hannah doesn’t like red sauce all that much.  If I make her my homemade pizza, she might have a total of two tablespoons sauce total on her pizza.  Our one fatal flaw at lunch?  The Upsell.  It’s Server 101.  I should know, I have been a server for approximately 10 years of my life.

Say a customer asks you for a glass of merlot.  If they don’t specify a brand or house wine, you automatically have the bartender pour the most expensive glass of merlot – I’ve been known to sell $15 glasses of wine vs. the $6 house wines.  I know, it’s not nice, but the bigger the check the bigger the tip.

The server said that they had unsweetened ginger peach tea – I was in!  I should have known it was bottled tea.  While our pizza cost $9.95 – our two teas?  Cost $10!  Hannah paid though – so thanks Hannah!  I normally wouldn’t bring back my drink from a restaurant, but for $5 bucks, you know I did!  But it was delicious.   I put in spinach pizza in fatsecret.com  – it told me two slices were 580 calories, 22 fat, 597 carbs, 3 fiber and 20 protein – sound about right?

I had two errands to run after work to pick up a prescription for Tony and drop off the office mail at the post office.  I get in my car, turn the car on and . . . it would not go in reverse.  I mean, at all.  I could rev the engine, but it was not going backwards.  I could put it in drive, 1 and 2 gear, but there was no room to go forward.

So I had to call Tony – we couldn’t even push it back in neutral.  So we called a tow truck and were able to get to the car rental place before they closed.  Whew!  Thanks for coming to my rescue Tony!

Only one tiny little problem.  Since Tony was out he picked up his prescription while I went to the post office.  I come back to the car, turn it on and hear this loud whirring sound, and I look down and see a little picture of a wrench and the service light is on.   I immediately called the car rental place, but they were literally closing when we left.  So I have to exchange it on my way to work this morning.

For the record, Tony asked that I not touch or driver our new car.

By the time we got home it was about 6:50, so I quickly threw together burgers and I had sweet potato fries on the side.  Dinner comes in at 555 calories, 26 fat, 57 carbs, 3 fiber and 20 protein. 

By the time 9:00 rolled around, I went to stand up and my left heel was killing me.  I haven’t done my 30 day classical stretch since last Friday, and I haven’t been wearing my inserts.  Recipe for disaster.  I did one 30 minute stretch last night, but I need to wear my inserts and do the stretch every day to alleviate the heel pain.

So not the healthiest set of meals – definitely lack on the fruit and veggie department, but I’ll pick it up.

Stats of Tuesday:

• 1556 calories, 68 fat, 165 carbs, 17 fiber and 71 protein
• 43% of calories from carbs, 39% from fat, 18% from protein
• 30 minute stretch
• average blood sugar 137

I have Erica to thank today for our Inspirational Diet motivation for the day.  (I hope this is the one she was talking about!).   Make it a great day.  And I’ll try not to have any cars towed today.

I think I could really get used to four day weekends.  It’s enough time to get all your chores done and feel like you can relax before heading back to work.

On Friday I met with a personal trainer at my gym.  Um, turns out that all they wanted to do was “sell” me the personal trainer program.  The minimum purchase was $99 for three sessions, but she pointed out that since my goal is to lose 30 pounds the best option for me was their 36 session plan, which only cost $1100!  No thanks.

I ended up getting my 50 minute treadmill workout done though.  And that was the end of my structured exercise for the weekend.

I am normally not a list maker, but I did want to get several things accomplished over the weekend.

• call insurance about my glucose test strips
• put old cabinets that have been in our basement for years unused on freecycle.org
• pick up contacts
• check for summer clothes in the attic
• clean house
• clean basement area by downstairs fridge
• reorganize kitchen stuff (i.e., casserole dishes, pots, pans, etc.)
• wash windows and screens

I am happy to say that I accomplished everything but picking up my contacts – they closed by the time I got there.  Not bad!  I don’t mind cleaning, but I have to be in the mood for it, and luckily Friday was the day.  It had been a while since I wiped down the baseboards, wiped down the ceiling fans, move the furniture to vacuum, etc.

I guess the only good thing about a small house is that it only took me 3 hours to do everything.

We did a lot of grilling over the weekend:

  Pork roast on Friday Night.

BBQ Chicken Thighs on Saturday Night:

Don’t underestimate the deliciousness of hot sauce on corn!

Tony made me breakfast:

We ordered out for Chinese Sunday night – beef and broccoli with pork bbq fried rice – no onions.

Long time readers know I don’t bake very much, other than bread and pizza.   Strawberries were on sale so I knew I would be making some sort of dessert for Memorial Day.  I found this recipe and I am so happy – this dessert was stunning!  Although I have to say that it was 50/50 on liking the basil in the ice cream.  I think it made the dessert!

My strawberries were really sweet so I only added 1 tablespoon to the whole bottom layer.  And who knew ritz crackers, brown sugar and almonds would make such a great topping?!

I actually made this on Sunday and just left it out and served it room temperature.  Love how juicy the strawberries got after this came out of the oven.

I’ll definitely make this one again!  We had my Mom, SIL, nephew and his girlfriend over.  We decided on a taco fiesta!  Marinated flank steak and chicken – I also made crockpot refried beans, a black bean and corn salad and had way too much food – but my policy has always been “better to have too much than not enough.”

It was the perfect ending to a nice long weekend.  I did have my WI yesterday – guess what’s back?

Yep, I gained a pound this past week.  I can attribute it to not working out Saturday, Sunday and Monday – as well as some few extra licks and tastes since I didn’t blog over the weekend.  It’s all good – I’ll get back on track.   And thanks for the dozen people who emailed me to ask if I was okay since I didn’t blog since Friday – I appreciate your concern, but just needed to unplug.

So here is today’s Inspirational Diet video – make it a great day!  

I swear, sometimes if my head wasn’t already stuck on the top of my head, I’d forget to bring it with me!  I forgot to pick a winner from last weeks giveaway!

My manners are awful. 😀   So the winner of the Do Life Visor goes to:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: 0 Max:  25 Result: 24

24.  Brianne @ Cupcakes & Kale Chips onMay 18, 2012 at 3:21 am said:Edit

Your burrito sounds so good, though I prefer eggs for dinner. I may have to give this a try.

Congrats Brianne!  Send me an email at mybizzykitchen@gmail.com with your mailing address.

This is going to be a super quick post – I leave in 10 minutes to meet a personal trainer!  Erica had the bright idea that my gym might have a free initial evaluation, and they do!

I went to the fitness center before work yesterday – did the same routine as Tuesday, except this time I did each machine 3 reps of 15.  It took me 45 minutes to get through them all.

I forgot my camera so my breakfast and lunch pics are courtesy of my smart phone.  Breakfast was a breakfast burrito – 2 tablespoons refried beans, 1 flour tortilla, 1 egg with spinach and a piece of bacon with fuji apples on the side.

I have this blog to thank for my lunch – so good!  I had leftover steak and wasn’t sure what to do with it – this thai steak salad is delicious – they only thing I added to the sauce was some sriracha.  I also used shirataki tofu noodles.  I thought it would be weird eating those cold, but it was delicious!  That’s how Mary’s version turned out.

This was my version:

It was light and refreshing.  I also did a 50 minute walk/run before lunch – it was hot out – near 90, but luckily it was breezy.  Just wish my face didn’t get so red!

I know, the wallpaper in my office bathroom is still super creepy.

Dinner was quick – Tony and I split a steak, I made mashed potatoes and grilled up some zucchini.  I love grilled zucchini – I like it when it’s still a bit crunchy on the sides but soft in the middle.  Kinda like me.

Does anyone else have today off?  I am running late – I’ll post an inspirational video later on today – make it a great day!

Note to self:  If you don’t go to bed until 12:00 a.m., you will never get up in time to go to the gym the next day.  I hate when I stay up too late on a work night!

Note taken.

I did have time to do my 30 minute Classical Stretch – this one was called “feet and knees” and I swear at least 20 minutes was in the plie position – my quads were really burning by the end!  But my Achilles heel felt amazing afterwards. 

I hit the ground running when I got to work – didn’t even have time for a picture, but turns out you’ve seen my breakfast parfait before.

It was a gorgeous day – 70 degrees, sunny skies.  I ended up biking for only 45 minutes – my quads were not happy with the bike ride after the stretches!  So much so that half way through the ride I had to get off my bike and stretch in the grass.  Yep, I am klassy like that.

Don’t you love how my fingernail is in the shot!  This made me laugh when I saw it.

Lunch was a turkey wrap on lavish bread – 2 ounces of turkey, 3/4 ounce swiss cheese, 1 tablespoon buffalo wild wing sauce, baby spinach.  All wrapped up in a nice little package.  With carrot fries and watermelon and strawberries on the side.  A delicious lunch!

The dip is fat free Greek dressing – it’s Maplewood Farms brand and really tasty.

But by mid-afternoon, I was starving.  My bosses chip stash kept calling me “Eat me Biz – you know you love honey mustard pretzels!”  But I had a better idea – I had an apple with a teaspoon of peanut butter and that did the trick.   I actually thought of my inspirational video yesterday – on how the runner must have trained hard to get to where he was – thank you inspiration!

And Debbi – this picture is for you, to let you know that I do keep hot sauce at my desk at all times.

You can tell that the weather is getting summer like because my dinner plate looks just like a summer cook out – cheddar brat, corn on the cob and some of my leftover crock pot baked beans.  The corn was just okay.  And for the record, that’s not too much mustard.

Now our inspiration video today – just be warned that you may need a piece of kleenex nearby, and you might not want to watch this at work.  Tony and I first saw this a couple years ago, and I am pretty sure both our eyes were weepy by the end.

It’s long – in two videos, but it is worth the watch!

 

Tony and I thank our lucky stars that both our kids were healthy growing up!

Stats for Wednesday:

• 1310 calories, 1524 calories after eating 1/4 cup of peanuts while watching t.v.
• 39 fat, 180 carbs, 23 fiber and 70 protein
• 30 minutes stretch before work
• 45 minute bike ride
• average blood sugar 143

Make it a great day!  I am off to the gym.