Yesterday morning I decided to make another batch of my lemon poppy seed granola, this time adding not only the zest of on one lemon, but adding the juice of one lemon to the mix.  While this made it a bit more lemony, my co-worker suggested adding lemon extract, and I may give that a go.

Breakfast was a Chobani yogurt with some granola on the side.  I love, love, having big chunks of granola.  I shared this with a few people at work and they loved it too.  Changing lives, one batch of granola at a time.

Tony thinks I am doing to much by working out at lunch and doing Insanity at night.  But I have to say, other than a couple 5k’s, my lunch workouts are just really moving and a chance to get away from my desk – the stair master, walking, swimming.

I am as shocked as anyone that I’ve made it to Day 10 of Insanity.  I would have thought I’d given up by now.  But you know what?  I feel great.  I am not sore.  My knees feel good.  I think its all the stretching that’s been helping.  In any event, I wanted to see if I could kick it up a notch on my treadmill 5k.

Shelley and I are the same type of runner.  It takes us a while to get in the groove and to let our mind shut up from telling us to stop when we no our bodies can go forward.   My strategy was to start out at a 12:00 minute mile pace, and when I felt comfortable with that, every couple minutes I would bump up the pace.

I was watching The Chew, that show is growing on me actually.  Mario Batali actually made a frittata that looked pretty amazing.  Can’t even get away from food while I am exercising!

I try not to look down at my time until the commercials, and when I saw at around 30 minutes that I was close to a PR, I bumped up the pace so that the last .2 tenths of my run I was running at a 7:42 pace to finish at . . .

33:11!!!!

I couldn’t believe it.  I shaved nearly a minute of my latest PR of 34:02.  And I weigh 172 pounds people.  Can you imagine how fast I will go when I am 145?!!  I ended up walking for a cool down to make it a 45 minute workout.

I had somewhat of a haphazard meal plan this week.  I basically wrote down “ideas” instead of a concrete meal plan.  When I looked down to see what I was making for my boss and I at lunch I realized I had broccoli soup on our lunch menu.

It was 7:00 a.m. and I hadn’t made it yet.  No worries!  This is a super quick soup that came together literally in 20 minutes.

Broccoli Potato Soup

• makes 4 servings (about 1.5 cups each)
• 176 calories, 2 fat, 32 carbs, 5.7 fiber and 8.8 protein

Ingredients:

• 1 large carrot, chopped
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 large potato (mine was 1 pound!) skin on, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (I used jarred)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup of FF half and half
• 1 head of broccoli chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• good pinch of crushed red pepper

Since I used jarred garlic, I added 2 teaspoons of the garlic, plus 2 teaspoons of the garlic water to a stock pot.  I added the carrots and celery, and let those cook about 5 minutes.  I added the flour, cooked an additional minute, then added all the rest of the ingredients except the milk, turned the heat to medium low and put a lid on the pot and let it cook for 15 minutes.

By then, all the veggies were cooked and I used my stick blender to puree.  Off the heat I stirred in the milk and let it cool slightly before putting it in a container for work.

I ended up making a ham and seriously sharp Cabot cheddar cheese panini on the side, grated a bit of the cheddar on top of my soup and had some fruit on the side.

By late afternoon it was getting really stormy.  There were tornado watches, predictions for high winds and possible hail.  Tony called to see if I could get out of work a bit early – he said most of the people that died in Oklahoma were in their cars and had no where else to go.

I ended up leaving 15 minutes early, and got home just in time.  It was super windy, thundering, lightening.

It lasted about 30 minutes, but then most of it went south of us.  We had a few more storms later in the evening, but they were quick and moved on.

I had forgotten to take out chicken wings from the freezer for dinner, and while I could have whipped up a pizza or tacos, Tony jumped in and suggested we go out to eat.  Um, maybe he didn’t want pizza or tacos?!

We went to a place we haven’t been to in nearly 8 years.  Our last experience there was awful.  My food never came out, the owner tried to argue that my food took the longest so she wanted to serve the rest of the food first so as not to get cold.  What restaurant doesn’t serve all the plates together??!

So even though this place is literally a few miles from our house, we declared this restaurant dead to us, and we never went back.  A few weeks ago though, we got a flyer that said “new owners – check out our salad bar and ribs!”

Tony loves a good salad bar.  So we took a leap of faith and went there for dinner.  One of the first things on the menu that jumped out at me?  Liver and onions!  Both Tony’s parents and my Mom would be all over that.  Mom, I should take you there next time you visit!

Every entrée comes with soup of the day, salad bar and choice of potato.  I got the chicken noodle soup – good, but a bit salty for me.  Tony got the cream of mushroom and really liked it.

And for my entrée I got a grilled chicken breast in a light lemon sauce with grilled mixed vegetables.  I ordered a baked potato, but just brought that home to make a breakfast hash later.  I knew I still had Day 10 of Insanity to do when I got home, so didn’t want to overdo it.  And even though my eyes saw Pinot Grigio on the wine list, my mouth said “unsweetened iced tea.”  #winning!  Tony got the chopped steak and it was really good too.  We will definitely go back!

It was starting to get stormy again when we got back home, so we had to have our desktop computer turned off.  I used our laptop and that worked out just fine.  I love that our grill is in the background of this picture.

Just because its cardio recovery, doesn’t mean this is easy, but it is a nice break and I am not dripping sweat by the end, but I can feel just about every muscle.

Stats for the Day:

• 45 minute treadmill at lunch – 33:11 5k PR
• 38 minute Day 10 Insanity – Cardio Recovery
• 1752 calories, 58 fat, 224 carbs, 27 fiber and 94 protein
• 51% calories from carbs, 30% from fat and 19% from protein
• no alcohol

Right now I am finishing a batch of Chobani flax seed pancakes – a new version so if it turns out I’ll post the recipe tomorrow.  And I am going out to lunch today!  One of my co-workers and I are going out to lunch, we hardly ever go out since I go to the gym, so I am looking forward to it.

Make it a great day!