Any given Tuesday

OK folks, my plan for today's post is to keep it short and sweet -- but there's just no telling where we will end up once I start.

February 1, 2011

For my breakfast I made an Almond Roca shake -- YUMMM!!! It was a simple recipe:

2 Scoops Chocolate Protein Powder
2 Oz Torani Sugar-Free Almond Roca Syrup
6 Oz H2o
9 Ice Cubes 

Blended it all together, and it was super delicious. Good thing too, as the new tightness of my band caused me to take 90 minutes to finish it (It use to take about 25 mins). I shudder to think what adjusting to the new fill would be like if I still had to gag down the shakes, so even more reason to be happy with the fact that I FINALLY love of my shakes.

Had a meeting today with Britton's High School Counselor to make sure he is on track to meet both his goals of graduating and to get into college (He wants to attend University of Hawaii, Hilo). Even though he is only a freshman, he needs to start making his plan. He is making good progress, but his course load over the next 2 years is going to be tough. I have confidence in him though -- I know he can do it. The counselor suggested to try to tour the campus while we're over there, so I put a call into the campus when I got home & am waiting to hear back as to whether or not it's a go.

For lunch I finished off the poke I made last night for dinner. I can't wait to get home to Hawaii for the real stuff though. It went down easy, but didn't keep me satisfied long enough that I didn't require an afternoon snack. I think I may just not be eating enough at a time. Again, I am in a whole new learning process with what and how much I can have as I adjust to the new fluid level of the band. So, if I need a snack, I have a snack, and making healthy snack choices, makes snacking guilt free.

Today's snack consisted of :

1/3 Cup Wasabi Peas

It took me much longer to eat them now that pre-surgery, but that's because I now eat them one at a time -- instead of one handful at a time. They even kinda taste a little different than i remember (maybe because I'm really tasting them now).

I chose to have another protein shake for dinner instead of solid food. Not because I had to, but because I finally went out and bought some unsweetened frozen pineapple and wanted to see what the "Lava Flow" shake tasted like with the substitution of pineapple. It was good, but I think I prefer it with the berries. Not due to the flavor, but because the frozen pineapples thawed too fast, so I ended up adding a lot of ice and having to drink a lot more just to finish. (turned out to be about 1 1/2 of my blender bottles full and the bottle holds 28oz, so . . .) I'm thinking about filling ice cube trays with the Torani and freezing them to make flavored ice cubes -- when I do, I will fill you in on how that works out for me. Until then, here is the recipe I tried:

2 Scoops Strawberry Protein Powder
1 oz Torani Sugar-Free Strawberry Syrup
1 oz Torani Sugar-Free Coconut Syrup
1 cup Frozen Pineapple Chunks
6 oz H2O
LOTS of Ice

While blending everything together I had to keep adding ice cubes, so I really have NO idea how many I ended up using?! But if you try this recipe, I would say as many as you need to suit your desired consistency.

Exercise today: With my newly discovered departure from the plateau I was on, I found that I had to hike a little faster to produce the same results. (Very little, but still faster -- went from hiking on the treadmill at a 3 miles per hour pace to a 3.1 miles per hour pace). With the speed change, I still burned 425 calories by the end of my workout. I have decided when my membership fee runs out at the end of this month I am going to change gyms. I am currently working out at a physical therapy gym, and am starting to feel like I need to change to a gym that can offer more options. I was staying for the pool, but I haven't used it since surgery (because I couldn't for the 1st two months due to the stitches/healing process and now it's just to darn cold!).

So I met with the owner of a new gym here in town (New gym = New top of the line equipment) and their equipment is ultra cool! So I am going to switch on March 1st. I also had a conversation with my friend Cathy who wants to start walking & hiking on actual hills, so when I return from Hawaii, we're gonna start that too.