Push Yourself . . . You Can Do It!

Yesterday morning as I started out on my walk I forgot I wanted to stop by Panera on the way to work to accessorize my birthday treats for the office.  So it was a quick, just over a mile walk, but I remembered that it’s all about #wycwyc – a mile is still a mile!  It was gorgeous yesterday morning – 64 degrees, no humidity – I was wishing I had left myself more time to walk.

Back in the day it wasn’t unusual for me to have TWO bagels at breakfast.  I’d get an everything bagel and then a cinnamon crunch bagel for “dessert.”  Huh, no wonder I used to be 210 pounds!  I love bagels, but they are a once in a while treat.  I can’t remember the last time I had one.  My secret is that I pull out almost all of the “guts” of the bagel so I am left with a two ounce bagel.  I made my usual egg white/ham/spinach/cheese eggs and it was a delicious bagel sammie for under 400 calories.

I am so happy to have something to do at work!  I probably have another two weeks on this project which will take me right up to when I go on vacation to Virginia.  Jacob is so excited – he’s only been to Illinois and Wisconsin as an adult – when he was a kid he went to California, but he was 10.  After trying to figure out airfares, etc., I finally realized that it would be more cost effective if we drove and Hannah could not be happier – she loves a road trip and will probably drive 80% of the time.

My co-worker who I normally walk with had to run some errands so it was just me on my walk.  I decided to push myself.  Map My Run will tell you your pace after each mile.  So I told myself whatever that pace was I was going to try to go faster the next mile and the mile after that.

I took a completely different path yesterday.  AT&T has a giant campus not too far from my office and they have paved walkways and it was weird that I didn’t encounter a single other person – it was gorgeous.

Check it out!  My first mile was 15:46, my second was 15:28 and my third mile??? 14:42!!  I was nearly jogging I was walking so fast, but I found some really fast paced songs on Spotify and just walked to the beat – not bad to walk 3 miles in 46 minutes!  I figure if I am working out I need to get my “money’s worth” and I felt like I got a good workout in pushing myself pretty hard.  You never know until you try!

I ended up having frozen Cincinnati chili for lunch yesterday.  I will post the recipe for the banana muffins later this week – I never took a picture of them, but they were a hit at work.  Since I baked the night before last I hadn’t put anything together for my lunch, so I ended up adding baby spinach and red cabbage and Gouda cheese on top – I loved the crunch and freshness of the spinach and cabbage on top.

I had every intention of going to the gym after work, but I got stuck at work for an extra 30 minutes, and I wanted to try this method of cooking steak, and just decided to head home.  While my coals were getting hot I did lots of squats and lunges – #wycwyc!

I follow a bunch of people who LOVE to grill on Instagram.  Meat porn at it’s best.  I saw a couple days ago someone grilled their steaks right on the coals.  Huh.  It was called “caveman style” cooking and I was immediately intrigued.   Notes:  you have to use natural charcoal – I use Grove’s hardwood charcoal, and you can’t use lighter fluid obviously because your steaks would taste like ass. 

So it was an interesting way to cook the beef, but I made two rookie mistakes – not enough charcoal and I didn’t let the coals get as hot as they could have been.  I did end up cooking them in my cast iron skillet in the house for an extra two minutes a side, but I’ll definitely try it again.

I brushed the steaks with a touch of melted butter and squeezed a bit of lemon over the top.  If Jacob could have eaten the bones, I think he would have – two big thumbs up from him!

I only ate half my steak, the other half will morph into my breakfast panini this morning.  I really, really like beef and we asked Hannah to try just a little bit of it, but she basically said “I don’t get it.”  That’s okay – more meat for me and Jacob!

I still got a lot of steps in yesterday even without my night time workout:

I actually slept in a bit this morning so no walk for me – no worries, it’s going to be another nice day – overcast and 70 degrees – perfect walking weather at lunch!   Make it a great day!