Breakfast meal prep

I finally made these delicious breakfast muffins last night.

I've seen various recipes for them on cooking blogs and on Pinterest but never made the time to actually cook my own. So last night I made some & I must say they turned out really good. I mixed up 7 eggs with a little milk & poured a little bit of the mixture in the bottom of each muffin cup & set the rest of the mixture to the side for later. I placed a few pieces of fresh spinach on top of the egg mixture & then proceeded to chop up some onion, green bell pepper and a tomato.

I took out some breakfast turkey sausage & fried up about half of the tube. I also fried up the onions,peppers & tomato. Once all that was cooked I put a couple spoonfuls of it on top of the spinach. Then I poured the rest of the egg mixture over top of everything & baked it for 25 minutes at 350°.

I brought an extra one into the office. My coworker seemed to approve too. I will definitely be making & packing these little yummy creations for my weekly breakfasts.

Lego's, meal prep & a Facebook free weekend

Well I survived a Facebook free weekend & overall it was nice. The only bad part of my weekend was having to stay at home on both days. The Hubs was supposed to work on my car Saturday & by 3pm he said it was too late in the day to start. That was kind of annoying because most of the day was wasted indoors when I could have actually done something else.

Well it wasn't a total waste because while inside the house I was able to spy on my little guy who was busy at work creating a Lego battlefield. I love watching him use his imagination and create things. It's funny because I stood behind the door just listening to him talking to himself, pretending that he was in the middle of this epic battle. Before opening the door, I ran down stairs & grabbed my camera to take some pictures of what he made.

He said it was a war with the boat guys verses the Storm Troopers.

the boat guys

Sunday Hubs woke up early and spent the entire day fixing my car. I offered to help but he said no thanks & that I would only be in the way- LOL. I love that man! 

random picture of this Toad outside that I almost stepped on

I spent the morning watching some cooking show which gave me the idea to make it a food prep day. I pulled out some boneless chicken and a couple pieces of frozen salmon. I seasoned the salmon with blackened old bay & the chicken with Mrs. Dash. I wrapped each of them up in individual aluminum foil packs & baked them. I also roasted a pan full of some bell peppers, potatoes, carrots & mushrooms. I just sprinkled them with minced garlic, salt & pepper & cooked them with some coconut oil. I was definitely in a cooking mood because I also made a casserole of macaroni & cheese and a casserole of spinach quiche. I finished with cooking and clean up after 4pm. I was so ready to sit down but I was so happy to have most of my lunches packed and ready for the week. I think I am going to try and make this a regular thing. Notice the word "try"

Adios, Sayonara, Auf Wiedersehen Facebook

A few posts back (here) I talked about taking a break & disconnecting from Facebook for awhile. 

Well I finally deactivated my Facebook account & right now I feel like something has been stripped away from me but at the same time I feel good about it. My plan is go to a week or maybe even longer. I do not want to continue my habit of logging onto Facebook everyday with my phone. I think about all the time I waste looking on Facebook when I could be using that time by doing something more productive like spending it with my little guy. Instead he sees his Mommy constantly looking on her phone. This is NOT the image I want him to remember growing up. 

 

I saw this ^ picture online and it's what made me finally deactivate my account. I still have my Instagram & my blog so I am technically not completely disconnected.

 

Perfect weather for the fastest double digit ride

I am so loving these cooler temperatures, if only it would stay this way until next Spring. Wouldn't that be nice?

Well last night I was able to meet up at the bike shop for their Tuesday evening group ride. The last 2 weeks I was unable to make it. Due to the sun setting earlier in the evenings, they changed the start time from 7pm to 6pm. I brought my cycling clothes with me to work so that all I had to do was change at the office and head straight to the shop. With the crazy rush hour traffic going home, there was no way I would have had enough time to go home & change. I got there at 5:30 which left me plenty of time to eat my banana & to pump air into my bike tires.

notice the guys lovely pink mustache socks 

My goal for the ride was to try and stay in the front of the pack or at least the middle section. The first few miles I was managing a decent pace but I knew I had to pick it up just before the half way point (7.5 miles). The route takes you around the Manassas Airport and everytime we get there I always seem to fall to the back of the pack. This is because there is a very, very slight elevation gain that stretches for about a mile. It doesn't appear that you are going up "hill" because it looks totally flat, but you will definitely feel it. Ask your legs -haha! I started to feel myself falling back & I knew I had to pick up the pace, Holy cow I was dying!! but I managed to stay up with the guys.

on our way to the airport 

this is the stretch where I usually fall behind but not this time

We ended the ride just after 7pm when the sun was going down. My watch showed a little over 14 miles & my average speed was 16.4 mph. I was totally doing the happy dance!!! That is the fastest I've averaged in a double digit distance ride.

On the exercise front, things have been going fairly well. I ran 2 miles on the treadmiill on Monday and another 2 miles this afternoon.

 

I had the office gym all to myself so I was able to take a post run picture without looking like a dork. But the picture turned out quite blurry because I was so paranoid that someone would walk in on me while taking it- LOL

Ironman Maryland 2014

I signed up to volunteer for the inaugural Ironman Maryland awhile back. The race was on Saturday so my morning started out nice and early. I had to get up and be out of the house by 7:20am so that I could meet up with some friends in Springfield. The race was held in Cambridge, MD & our commute would be about 1 hour & 53 minutes according to Google. Our volunteer shift did not start until noon but we wanted to leave extra early to beat any traffic and to get there early enough to get a bite to eat &check the place out.

Thankfully there was very little traffic on the bridge. I do not remember what we paid the last time we crossed it (2008?) but it now costs $6 yuck! but it's not as bad as the $13 it cost to cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

We got to Cambridge with a little under 3 hours to spare.

We had to walk a few miles to get to our check in area. It was nice to walk and see some of the historic sites.

so many cute houses

We arrived to our check in station at Great Marsh Park. This park is located off of the Choptank River & this was where the bike and run transition areas were.

 

As soon as we got to our area and I really wished I had brought a hat with me because we were going to be in direct sunlight ALL day. The only thing I had were my sunglasses & sunscreen. 

hundreds of athlete bags lined in rows by number 

It was a bit confusing at first but we quickly formed a system that worked. A volunteer would stand between our area and bike dismount area & as soon as an athlete would get off the bike & he was able to read their number, he would yell out their number to us so we could get their bag in time for the hand off .

our first customer for the day 

Funny how empty the bike area was when we first got there.

about 2 1/2 hours later...

each person was given an Ironman Finisher bike seat cover

We finished up just after 5pm. We decided to go to the finish line area on our way back to the car. I am amazed at some of the athletes. I took this picture of Margaret (at least that is what the people cheering her on were calling her) who had to be at least 60 years old. It completely blows my mind that she swam 2.4 miles, rode her bike 112 miles and was in the middle of running 26.2 miles to finish. My body hurts just reading what I typed. Kudos to her! 

rock on Margaret !

I was also able to snap some "interesting" looking spectator pictures - LOL!

I would like to check out more of Cambridge & maybe a day spent in Annapolis in the future. A relaxing weekend getaway may be in store for me & the hubs. Such a pretty place.

Slowly inching closer to the motivation train

Yesterday was day 3 of exercise for me this week & I am feeling like I have so much more energy. Amazing how just a little bit of daily exercise can do that.

After work, I went out on a 15 mile bike ride. I planned on going on a 10 mile ride but ended up doing 15. It's been so nice this week with the cooler temperatures & I have no clue why I haven't taken advantage of it until now. Last night it was a bit warmer & you could feel the slight rise in humidity but even with that, it was still a beautiful evening to ride. I started out going at my normal speed for the first few miles but then I decided to try and pick up the pace. I planned on turning around after 5 miles to make it an even 10 mile ride but I felt like going a for a few more miles. I wanted the ride to average out to at least 15 mph so I picked up the pace after mile 7. When I got back to the parking lot I was quite happy to see my total ride speed averaged out to 15.4 mph.

Now if only I could maintain 17 mph like I did for the last 5 miles throughout the entire ride. I would be doing my own little the happy dance in the parking lot. One day it will happen. I just need to lighten the load (aka LOSE WEIGHT).

I ran into these lovely friends when I got back to my car. They were getting ready to head out on their 3 mile run. They snapped this picture of me and posted it next to their group pre run photo in our running club.

I cringed when I saw this pcture of me posted on our running group page this morning but this is a good reminder of why I need to exercise and eat right. I REFUSE to buy bigger jeans. SCREW THAT!!

Thinking about taking break

Before I recap my yesterday "events", I wanted to post this picture of my morning visitor. I was startled when I opened my front door to find Mr. Toad hanging out on my glass storm door. I opened the glass door and closed it behind me. He didn't move an inch, so I wished him a nice day and left for work.

Yesterday was day 2 of my exercise "re-start". I was able to squeeze in 20 minutes on the elliptical trainer during my lunch hour, A coworker and I planned on going on a 2 mile walk later that afternoon but at the last minute she said she couldn't get out of her office to go. I was actually glad because the back of my knee was midly sore anyway.

After work I went to Walmart to pick up a graph paper notebook for my son. While I was there, I decided to pick up a few healthy food items and $120 later I was hating that I even went into the place. I really need to stick to a handwritten list of items before going shopping because everytime I go without one I end up spending way more then needed. Crazy how much food costs!

When I was waiting in line at the checkout I was browsing Facebook and was thinking to myself that I should just deactivate my account for awhile. Sorry but some of the things that people post are just stupid & ridiculous and after awhile it just gets to be draining. At times, I feel like I am constantly checking the newsfeed. It reminds me of a cigarette smoking habit that is so hard to quit.  I am not saying that all people post nonsense but I have noticed that when I do take a break away from Facebook I feel so much better. Sounds funny but it's nice and refreshing. 

trying to get back in the game

Yesterday I finally got my stuff together and managed to do a 2 mile run on the treadmill at my work gym. It was not pretty & my legs felt like big cinder blocks but afterwards I definitely was giving myself some high fives for actually doing it!

post run pic

Hmm... it's really ridiculous that my spare tire gut still shows despite sucking it in while I took this post run pic. I need to look back at this picture as a reminder whenever I re-lose the weight I have gained back.

Baby steps...

My pace is definitely a looooooong way from the 9-9:45 min/mile that it was earlier this year but this is due to not consistently running. Re-gaining the 20+lbs doesn't help matters much either.

Today I plan on going on a long walk during my lunch hour & hopefully I will be able to squeeze in a bike ride after work this evening.

Truckeroo, Guardian of the Galaxy & another bike ride

Here we are again on Monday. Well after yesterdays "woe is me, cry me a river, boo hoo" post about being fat and in Lazyville, I actually packed some workout clothes to take with me to work this morning. I plan on trying to make some time to exercise this afternoon at my work gym or immediately after work. Hopefully I will be able to "sneak" away from my cubicle.

I also want to blog about my weekend which went by entirely too fast. On Friday I got a text from "J" asking if I wanted to check out Truckeroo. We were told about this event a few months ago from our friend M before she moved away to Texas. Truckeroo is a monthly food truck festival & it's located next to Nationals Park on Half & M Street. It takes place in this area that's cordoned off with empty shipping cargo containers. I guess whoever designed it was going for an industrial look.

a stones throw behind the cornhole container is Nationals Park

It has a dozen or more food trucks selling all kinds of different foods and desserts.

It was quite interesting to see all the different trucks. As soon as, I saw the lobster truck I knew that is what I was having. I LOVE lobster!

waiting in line behind these guys for lobster 

The line was long but not nearly as long as the line for the TaKorean (Korean bbq taco's) truck. It cost me $15 for the sandwich and another $8 for can of Redds Apple Ale. Yeah $23 for a sandwich and beer is a bit high but I must say it was a delicious meal.

Maine Lobster roll 

love this stuff so yummy

J decided to get a cajun shrimp wrap at Doug the Food Dude's truck.

After finishing our food we walked around for a bit and checked out the other trucks. We debated on getting desert and after seeing the long line at the cupcake truck we decided to pass.

It was getting dark and chilly and neither of us brought a jacket so before leaving we made our way over to the other end to check out the band that was playing. Overall it was fun evening. 

Saturday afternoon my little guy and I went to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Although I wasn't excited when he insisted that this was what he wanted to watch, I am glad I gave in to his demands begging because it was a really good movie. 

I love this little guy. He's growing up so fast. 

I ended my weekend with a leisurly 10 mile bike ride with J. It was such a beautiful day to be outside. I love this kind of weather. Oddly enough there were not many bikers or runners on the path. I am guessing that everyone was inside watching the football game. We did see a guy and his kid riding a tandem bike.

  After 8 miles we stopped at a small nursery that is just off the path. 

They had all kinds of plants and a small table with some vegetables & fruits. 

they had some huge tomatoes 

We each had an apple before riding the last 2 miles.

amazing how a small apple can be such a refreshing treat

 We got back on the path and I had to stop to take a picture of these interesting looking bushes.