You’d think I’d get used to Chicago winters, but I never do. The cold air smacks me in the face when I open my back door and I think what Tony would be saying right about now “why the fuck do we live here?!”
That’s how cold it was when I left the house yesterday morning. By 12:30 when I left for the gym it had gotten up to a balmy 4 degrees! I had to stop and pick up Diet Coke for my office – there are a couple people that are completely addicted to it, and I remembered that we were out. I ended up getting my breakfast at the store – fresh fruit from the salad bar and a Jimmy Dean Lean Turkey breakfast bowl. I actually really love these and my store had them on sale 5/$10.
This is my second week of BiteSizeFitness strength. Although I only did about half of the workouts last week because of the holiday. Chest was on tap. I went to youtube, looked up the exercises I couldn’t remember how to do and was good to go.
So I get to the decline dumbbell fly. No problem. Except when I got on the decline bench, my feet actually weren’t holding on that well and well, gravity took over and I just kind of slid all the way off the bench. There were a couple high school kids in there because they don’t start back until Wednesday, and I am sure that they were looking at me thinking “what the hell is that old woman doing?!” It was all I could do not to bust out laughing! Those exercises took me 25 minutes, then I finished with 1.25 miles on the treadmill before heading back to the office. Kym, I had that whole section to myself!
I ended up picking up stuff at the salad bar to have with one of my leftover lasagna roll ups. So good! That’s probably the most vegetables I’ve had at one time in a long time!
I ended up finishing up my cardio after work. Sadly, before I started my blood sugar was only 161, so after walking 40 minutes, I could feel my blood sugar start to drop and had to get off at 2.45 miles – couldn’t even get to the extra .5 to get an even 2.5 miles. Well, it was my blood sugar and I had to poo too – and after work it’s very crowded and I didn’t need to poop my pants. 
When I was at the store I got some great meat deals – I think I may have to stop at the Jewel in Barrington on Mondays from now on – check it out – reduced for sale AND buy one get one free! I got three pecan crusted pork chops for $2.03 – and four pecan crusted chicken breasts for $2.17. Plus six Italian sausages for $2.99 – and the steaks I got for Jacob and I were only $4.49 for two!
Chobani emailed me a couple weeks ago and told me about their #MadeWithCobani project and asked if I wanted to participate. I could come up with any recipe using Chobani as the main ingredient. You all know how much I love Chobani. I decided to make a side dish to go along with our dinner last night.
Hannah loves mac n cheese. But just like me, she and Jacob are trying to eat better and they joined the Y near our house – the young adult membership was only $24.99 a month and no registration fee. They swam yesterday and they are going back to the gym today. I cooked up steak for Jacob and I – I ate half of mine and will eat the other half in my breakfast sammie this morning. Hannah had one of the pecan crusted chicken breasts and actually ate it – she’s not much of a meat eater.
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:104]
It was creamy, cheesy and so delicious. Hannah and Jacob gave it two big thumbs up! So I have to realize that my new stove is way more efficient than my old stove. Usually if I used my cast iron grill pan on my old stove, I literally had to have the burner on as high as it would go, and it would take a good 5-7 minutes to heat up. Um, I don’t need to do that with this stove – I pretty much smoked us out of the kitchen and Hannah had to open windows and get the fan out to get the smoke out – oh, and it was only 4 degrees outside – oops!
I actually like how my routine is. Since I workout after work, I get home between 6:30 and 6:45. We eat around 7:30 and I am full and satisfied and am not looking for something to eat at 9:30 like I normally would when we ate dinner at six. I forgot my fitbit yesterday, but I have no doubt I would have met my 10,000 steps. Normally that would piss me off that I forgot it, but in the whole grand scheme of things, who cares.
I am off to brush off my car and heat it up. We got about 4 inches of snow last night and right now it’s –3 degrees, but with the wind chill it feels like –16. Boo. Make it a great day!
Just pinned this one! My kids would love it!!
Have you tried manually adding on steps to your FitBit? It’s possible to do that though the smart phone app or fitbit.com. If you forget to wear your FitBit, it’s possible to add an “Activity” for that day, such as a 30 minute walk, and the app/web site will guesstimate the number of steps and add that to your overall total.
What? I didn’t know you could do that! I’ll have to try that – thank you!
That Mac & Cheese looks awesome! Love the use of the 50% in there, a great way to cut the calories and fat!
I was helping my MIL cook over the holidays, and she reads the step to me “make a rouge”. Crack me up! I was like no, that is what you put on your face. She is the famous for her mispronunciations,
That mac & cheese looks so good!!!
I love that you are doing double workouts – a great way to break it up and a nice change for the evenings!!! Awesome about Hannah and Jacob starting to work out – love it!!!
Wow–$25/month is great for a gym with a pool! (I’m so not looped in to gym prices these days since I work out mainly at home.)
I should give Chobani plain another shot–I love their fruit on the bottom yogurts, but I prefer another brand for cooking because I can get it in the full fat version.
Funny I had the same thought this morning: who cares, I’m doing this for me! Reason: I have such a hard time to get out the door in the morning for a run. And it’s not even cold here. I looked up what -4 is and I can honestly say I have never experienced such cold in my life. We are hitting 53 Fahrenheit next weekend, can you believe it?
I love your new workout routine and the fact that the 3 of you are eating healthier, you are such an inspiration.
So to “honor” that I promise you I will do my morning runs as of next week, no excuses.
I’m glad you are getting into a routine. It’s so important! I was off of grad school for two weeks and I completely screwed my sleep schedule up! Normally, I work all day, come home and make supper, clean, help B with homework, and then when he goes to bed, I go to bed, because I have to get up at 2 or 3AM! That’s the only quiet time I have to work on homework before B is up and ready for his day. It’s insane but I only have 15.5 weeks left so I think I can manage it a bit longer. 🙂
It’s been awhile since I’ve used Chobani instead of sour cream. Should probably make that swap and save myself some calories!
You always crack me up when I read your posts! The cheesy Chobani sounds yummy, great idea! I wish that I could send you some warm Georgia weather. I hate the cold, too!!
Keep it up, you never now how you are encouraging others. 🙂
also, do you have a my coke rewards account? I buy for my work and use the codes off the cases to redeem free pictures and coupons and what not. If you have the time of course…
MMMMmmmmm I could almost hear those steaks sizzel on the grill and oh the yummy smell they were making. Looks like you got a good sale on the meats too!!
Master Chef Jr. is on right now……what a great show and some talented 8-13 year olds!!! Goodness, they are making things I have never even attempted.
I love the way your life is going….must be all those prayers going up for you and God showing His love for you.
Well, thanks to you I am craving that Mac and cheese! That dish looks absolutely delicious, my mouth is watering right now. Good food makes me happy, pure and simple. Well that and warm weather. Spring will be welcome!
I think winters are just getting harder to deal with as we get older. I am turning into a hibernator!
Sadly, the only thing I am thinking about right now is ice cream…..I am around MPLS. where it too is freezing frigid cold. Negative temps and Negative wind chills…..how can I be craving ice cream???
oh well it is what it is….
Great job with the workouts!
Stay warm! I’m getting cold just thinking of those temps…
Happy to hear you avoided injury at the gym. I don’t like it when the teenagers are there. They have such attitudes and are inconsiderate. My daughter always ask me when we are there if she was like that at that age. I just smile and say ” you are still alive aren’t you?” Can you tell I have no patience for people who don’t respect others? You found some spectacular deals on groceries. Are you sure Hannah wasn’t switched at birth??? No meat and she likes onions 🙂 My kind of girl!
Your new routine sounds great! Also, you food looks good. I’m going to try the Jimmy Dean lean sausage bowl. Every now and then you need something like that to make your routine a bit more tasty.
great deals on the groceries. I bought one of those egg bowls yesterday too. On sale at Target for 2.49 and I had a 55 cents coupon. I like them, but can only eat half. I used to eat an entire one and a bagel. LOL. I wish I liked greek yogurt. I can only handle it in tatziki sauce or a smoothie.
I love how you incorporate Chobani in so many recipes. I’ve never considered using it in my mac and cheese; now I will have to try it.
I miss macaroni and cheese. That looks good. I bet I could make it with something else though. Maybe a cheezy rice and broccoli?
I like your attitude about forgetting the fitbit. Sometimes you have to say “who cares??” I was doing this December challenge with planks, pushups, squats, and crunches, and then got sick. Didn’t finish the very last day. Ah well, so what.
This morning I had major plans to get up and work out to a video at home (you know, a DVD, but I still call them videos, because I’m a dinosaur!) But my husband came to tell me the alarm went off at 5 am (I was on the couch from midnight on, my back was bugging me). I said “thanks” and went back to sleep. I ended up rolling out of the couch at 6 am, and did a 20 minute workout from 6:13 to 6:33.
DVDs are kind of loud and end up waking the kids half the time I think.
This time of year I avoid the germs at the gym on the equipment and weight room. I would swim, but it’s that time of the month, so no thanks. All these little rules I have.
I love it – you exercised without your Fitbit, and it still counted! Your new routine sounds like it’s working well for you and it seems like with the three of you on a healthy kick, there’s a lot of support all around. By springtime, you’ll all be skinny-minnies! 🙂
Ugh – hope that cold weather and snow aren’t on their way here (near Boston)! It was 13 this morning when my son had to go out for the bus – and it was 5 minutes late! At least he took a hat! 🙂 That dinner looks delicious, I need to eat more steak! Nice job with the workouts. I have a goal of reaching 10,000 steps a day by the end of the month – still have to get my fitbit working. And I’ve started using a standing desk for work. Boy were my feet tired by the end of the day yesterday. 😉 Hope you have a good day!
Bookmarked! I plan to make this next week- looks so good! Stay toasty over there! your comments about pooping at the gym made me laugh out loud 🙂