Tag Archives: workout

Cold and Not So Hot

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My volunteering meeting went well – I completed orientation and once my TB test gets cleared on Friday I will be ready to start.  I am trying to get in as many hours as possible before school starts so I will be going pretty much full-time for the next three weeks – Monday through Thursday from 8am to 4pm.

After volunteering I came home and met up with the husband for more local exploration.  We drove out to Erie and walked around the waterfront a little bit.

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We spotted a cute ice-cream stand and I bought a lemon ice.

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I ate about half before handing it off to Adam.

We did more house-fixing when we got home and then headed out for our first Buffalo run!  I ate a Stoneyfield YoKids Banilla yogurt to refuel first.

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We did 2miles around the neighborhood in 20minutes.  I am painfully out of shape, I can’t wait until 2miles don’t kick my butt any more!  I kept my heart rate monitor on through 10minutes of floor work (stretching, 100 abs reps, and 50 arms reps with my 5lb weights) and all total I burnt 344 calories.

When we were done we cooked our first Buffalo dinner!  We made cold avocado soup and sandwiches.

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We used our George Foreman to make the grilled cheese sandwiches, I used 2 slices of reduced fat colby-jack on mine.

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And the soup was a Rachael Ray magazine recipe which I will include for those of you who enjoy cold soup, but it didn’t really float our boats.

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No-Cook Avocado Bisque, serves 4

  • 2 large avocados (we ended up accidentally buying “Slimcados” which have 35% less fat and calories but tasted the same)
  • 2C buttermilk
  • 4 scallions, green and white parts sliced separately
  • grated peel and juice of one lime
  • 16 ice cubes
  • salt
  • 1lb tomatoes, coursely chopped (we used three plum tomatoes)
  1. Put 1 avocado, buttermilk, scallion whites, lime peel and 3/4 of lime juice in the blender.  Blend on low speed and then blend in ice cubes one by one until smooth.
  2. Meanwhile coarsely chop the remaining avocado and then combine with tomatoes, scallion greens, and the rest of the lime juice.
  3. Divide soup among 4 bowls and top with with guac.

We were excited to have leftovers for lunch but after tasting it we are less excited!  I ate about half of my bowl (but my grilled cheese was great!).

Now I’ve got to go because we are watching old episodes of “My So Called Life” that we Netflixed, night!

Do you like cold soup?  I had some kind of cold fruit soup a few years ago that I loved but now I’m not sure if I enjoy it.

Birthday Bikes and Black & Whites

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Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me…..  I have to give Adam credit, I’ve had a really great birthday so far!  It’s hard to believe that I’m 24, I feel like I should still be in college (which I guess is a good thing since I’m planning on redoing my undergraduate!).

We woke up early (for a birthday!) at 8am to take showers and head to the train to Manhattan.  I ate a Cool Mint Clif Bar for breakfast en route. 

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My chosen birthday activity gave me a chance to use my birthday present from my mom and dad – my new heart monitor!  I got the Polar Sport RS100 and I think I’m in love.  Activity # 1– 2 hour bike ride in Central Park.  We rented bikes from the same spot as a couple weeks ago, I can’t believe I didn’t discover this sooner!  The two hours were great, but almost over too soon.  We did a full loop around the park, plus a couple little loops within.  I was so proud of myself – I basically learned how to ride a bike a few weeks ago when my parents were here but this time I wasn’t afraid at all and I even stood up down most of the hills.  The loooong uphill stretches were a little difficult, but fun.  On one of the more difficult hills I started murmuring sweet nothings about the goodness of diet coke so we made a quick pit stop:

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I earned that guy!  When I checked my heart rate monitor after we turned in our bikes here were my stats –

  • 1hour 52minutes
  • 62 average heart rate
  • 647 Calories burnt

I was surprised by how high the calorie burn was but I’m pretty sure it was accurate (you program in your weight/height/age/sex so the only way for it to be off is if your heart rate is off but that seemed pretty spot on).

Activity # 2– reconsume those calories and then some!

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The hour+ wait in line was so worth it!  I ordered a black and white milkshake and it rocked my socks.

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Halfway through I switched with Adam and finished his black and white malt; I love when we prefer each others orders, we are such a good pair!

Shake Shack is one of my favorite spots in the city and I was really pleased to see all of the ways they made an effort to go green –

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Equally exciting were these Prius sponsered solar powered wifi/power spots –

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If I wasn’t moving next week I would definitly bring my laptop there.

On the way home we stopped at Economy Candy because my dad had a candy order he wanted me to mail him before I moved!  We have to make a stop at Trader Joes tonight to complete his package 🙂

Once we got home I did the “Pilates for Dummies” video I Netflixed.  It was about 30minuteslong and a pretty good workout except maybe a little bit too ‘dummied,’ I would have prefered a few more reps.  I also did 5 sets of 10reps of arms exercises with my 5lb weights.

After we shower we are headed to fun activity # 3 – the movies!  See ya later.

What was the most fun bithday activity you have done?  I love, love, loved riding through Central Park.  Throughout the years my parents have surprised me with – rock climbing, parasailing, skydiving, a tattoo, and a flight lesson.  I loved sky-diving but I think the most thrilling were actually the tattoo or the flight lesson.

Wednesday Morning – Friday Morning

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Hello, vacation-style!  I hope everyone is having a good week, the vacay has been nice and relaxing so far.  I’m in a bit of a time crunch today so I’ll try to keep this recap pretty brief.  Just fyi – I only have internet when I go to work with my mommy so I’ll be doing a recap every few days until I get back home.

Wednesday – travel day

Our flight was at 8:15am so we had to get up nice and early.  We had to leave our car in long-term parking so we actually drove to the airport.  Thankfully, Mapquestgot us there in time to get breakfast, of sorts.  There were not many restaurants and those that were there didn’t have full menus.  I ended up with a Wendy’s Maple Baked Frescuit with egg and cheese.

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It actually tasted pretty good; I love the sweet-savory combo so cheese with maple syrup was nice.  And when I looked up the nutritional information online this morning I learned that it only had 390calories.

Being at airports always makes me think about having kids (not that it isn’t on my mind anyways!).  Adam and I have always discussed how important it is to make exercise fun for kids – the more you make movement into a game the better.  Even now, when we come to a moving walkway one of us will ride and the other will walk alongside and we will race!

We had a straight flight, which meant we were at my house before 2pm!  My mom always has a gift waiting for me on the bed.

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I wanted to get right into reading but Adam needed to go to his old doctor to do some forms for medical school so off we went.  I ate a baggie of baby carrots during the ride.

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The husband took forever so my father and I ended up taking a long walk on the boat docks.  I drank a Ting.

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My parents cooked us a great dinner.

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WW pasta with parmesan cheese,

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spinach and tomatoes cooked in toasted sesame oil,

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and broiled salmon.

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I also ate a slice of dry sourdough toast.

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They did a great job, everything was delicious.  Also good was my snack.

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Huge cup of coffee with skim milk,

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and homemade chocolate chip cookies.

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We played Pictionary and cards and by the time we were done I had actually eaten 4 cookies!  My cookie control was down a bit because of booze 🙂

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My favorite drink on earth is oj with cinnamon Stoli.  They actually stopped making this Stoli, my mom and I have 2 of the last bottles available, but it is equally good with Goldschlager. We each had one, yum.

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Thursday – “it’s so hot!”

In spite of not staying up all that late playing games (my dad is pretty intense about bedtime, he is my sleep role model) we could not get going Thursday morning.  I was supposed to get up and work out but that did not happen.  I woke up 3hours later than planned, ate breakfast, and went back to sleep for the rest of the day.  The husband and I think it’s because it was so hot.  At least I did have a great breakfast.

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A small chopped nectarine, half a banana, and ground flax seed.

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Plus a Low Fat Pineapple Chiobani.

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This was the first time I ever saw this flavor and it was awesome, I hope this comes to NY!

After my intense napping session I managed to drag myself to the shower and get gussied.  We ended up eating at the restaurant right near where we got married so Adam and I had to take some pictures!  This spot is exactly where we said our wedding vows –

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We had a fun time, it is hard to believe it’s been so long since December 28th, 2007.  1.5years, we are not even newlyweds anymore!

After some rememberings we headed to dinner, I slept through lunch so I was pretty starving.  I started with a beyond fabulous passionfruit colada,

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and my dad and I split a sandwich and salad for dinner.

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Fire roasted chicken paninni sliced chicken breast, roasted red peppers, sun dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and a garlic and basil ailoi.

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Key Lime Caesar Salad.

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I ate half of everything.  The sandwich was good but a little greasy and I loved the salad, the lime cut through the usual creaminess wonderfully.

After dinner we went home for more board games and cards – Monopoly and Gin Rummy – we are serious nerds about game night!  I drank an iced coffee with skim milk, along with some desserts.

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First, two homemade chocolate chip cookies,

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and even better – Greek Gods Honey Greek Yogurt,

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frozen,

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oh yeah, this was so good!  Freezing Greek Yogurt (I’ve only tried it with flavored but I imagine that plain would be a lot like Pinkberry) turns it into slushy, granita-like goodness, I highly recommend it.

Friday– wake up!

Today, I managed to get my butt out of bed!  I went with my mom to an 8am spin class so we had to get up by 7.  We left extra early because we dropped Adam off at the beach, with a bucket of beer!  I ate this Luna Bar in the car for breakfast.

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The class was 60minutes of spin and floor work.  I don’t know if it was the sugary breakfast, that I was feeling sick yesterday, or that I’m out of shape, but my butt was kicked!  I felt so sick I actually had to sick down and skip the lunges.  I chugged some water and I’ve been sitting so I’m feeling a little better but it sucked at the time.

Now I’m hanging out at my mom’s library, hopefully headed towards some studying.  The husband and I are getting lunch soon so we’ll see what happens.  I will most likely be doing another post on Sunday, hope everyone has a great weekend!

For now, I will leave you with a list of the songs I played while I typed, found on my mom’s i-pod!!!

  • Viva la Vida – Coldplay
  • Single Ladies – Beyonce
  • Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Peas
  • Low – Flo Rida
  • Blame It – Jamie Foxx
  • That’s Not My Name – The Ting Tings

Long Weekend in 500 Words or Less

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Looong car ride Friday night, chips and grilled stuffed chicken burrito at Taco Bell,

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to-go applesauce, yum

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toffee coffee twisted frosty, ugh, should have stopped eating.

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Saturday morning in VA – 35minute run (with hills) with the husband, then 25 minute walk with sister-in-law, hills make me feel powerful.  Sun-protection is gangsta,

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Beer for breakfast,

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turkey sandwich, fruit, broccoli salad,

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dinner at a steak house – frustrated with lack of choices, went all out unhealthy, felt sick.

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Early birthday celebration, cake and ice-cream with caramel, in-laws are so sweet.

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Saturday late night, ate way way too much chex mix, without photographs.

 Sunday morning, 1% chocolate milk, fruit, ww bagel with lowfat strawberry cream cheese, jelly, fancy pb.

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Turkey sandwich (with squeeze cheese) in the car,

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cookies x4,

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snacks,

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dinners seem to go downhill, ie: black and white milkshake, mini chimi appetizer, french fries, sandwich so gross I took only 1 bite.

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P.S. Word count = 152; reflection to come.

What did you do this weekend?

Bus or Car? NY or PA?

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Hello, vacation-style!  We are in PA and we are having family fun time so it will be a quick post.

The husband (due to extreme anecdotal evidence) joked last night that I would wake up at 1 (we had to leave at 1:30) and rush around like a chicken with my head cut off.  However I calmly got in a workout and a study session before we left, go me!  We did the same 2.7mile run that kicked my butt the other day and I got through it a little better.  When we got home I did 2 sets of 10 push-ups on the stairs and some stretching.

After a quick shower I hurried to Starbucks and studied from 10:30 – 1:00.  I got another yummy lowfat egg white feta wrap, with some ice water for re-hydration.

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These wraps are just too tasty.

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Adam picked me up and we made our way to the train, to the bus station, for an hour wait before the three hour bus ride.  We had a ‘picnic’ lunch on the floor of the terminal.

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Iced tea and a sliced Jazz apple Adam packed for me.  I also broke into the snack bag for a Peanut Toffee Buzz Clif Bar.

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I was glad I ate before the trip as seating was pretty cramped.  Husband and I had some interesting conversations to kill the time, we spent more than an hour on coke vs. sprite, blue cheese v. goat cheese, Mexican v. Thai, etc.  I’ve been with my husband for 6.5years so we pretty much know everything about each other but we still love games like that; it’s clear I’m a foodie, all but a 5minute tv show section (which character would you marry? etc) were based around food choices!

My sister-in-law picked us up the bus stop and even had gifts for us when we got home.

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She knows we are stressed about the move situation so she gave me some relaxation tools, thank you!

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Our only choices for dinner were take out so I tried to go as healthy as possible with Zoup.  I did a side soup side salad that came with a side of bread.

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I choose chicken fajita soup and cibatta bread but the highlight was my build-your-own salad,

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romaine and spring mix base, cucumber, black olives, pepperochinis, roasted red peppers, dill and balsamic vinegar on the side.

We are hanging at home tonight and then being low-key until it is time to drive to VA tomorrow, check ya later!

Tell me your favorites –

  1. soda?  cherry coke zero
  2. cheese? brie or blue cheese
  3. cupcake place? sugar sweet sunshine, in SoHo
  4. milkshake flavor? black and white
  5. thing to eat of all time? I can’t narrow it down beyond four: roasted Brussels sprouts, oven baked yam fries, baby carrots, and Pad See Eiw

Nooners

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My alarm clock didn’t go off this morning and Adam and I slept in until noon!  It is clear that we are on summer vacay?  As exciting as our late start was, it pushed the whole day back and made everything rushed (still worth it though, it was a happy mistake!).  Art imitates life, and this post will be a little rushed as well.  [Note – as I reread to proofread this post it actually is pretty long, ya me]

After getting out of bed (at noon!) I made some Buffalo business calls and then hurried to Starbucks to meet a former coworker for a study date.  I did brunch from Starbucks, a reduced fat breakfast sandwich with egg whites and turkey bacon.

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This wasn’t bad (and it wasn’t expensive, less than $4) but it wasn’t as good as the wrap from the other day.  I had it with a grandeunsweetened iced coffee with skim milk.

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Ms. N and I studied from 1:30 – 4:30; she is taking the MCAT soon so she’s doing sciences as well.

After my study date I met the husband for some errands and a walk (2.2miles roundtrip) to Atlantic Center.  We had to spend outside of our budget, pulling out the credit card instead of our weekly $200, but there were some items I’ve needed for forever –

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– bras, underwear, and yoga mats!  I have a very unattractive habit of sticking my hand down the front of my top to pull at my uncomfortable older bras so Adam was more than happy to get me some new ones!  I’ve never owned a yoga mat (I got two b/c the cheap ones were so cheap it made more sense to buy two and layer) before but my floorworkfrom the 10minute strength challenge is killing my knee and back bones!

After we walked home I tucked into a Yoplait Fat Free pineapple upsidedown cake yogurt.

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Then I did my packing for tomorrow, we are not leaving the house until after 1pm tomorrow and I am so proud of myself that I packed today – in college I would have flights home for which the car service would pick me up at 5am and I wouldn’t start packing until 4:50am!  All total we have more than 18hours (via bus and car) on the road this weekend so I had to pack reading materials and snacks for the husband and myself.

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I also half-wrapped my niece’s 4th birthday gift –

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We got her two Raggedy Anne books with a Raggedy Anne doll and some candy hearts (one of the books is about how she gets her candy heart).  My brother-in-law makes a big fuss about how “books are for suckers” so I’ve gotten his daughter a book for every single present we’ve given her!  We always do a book and an accompanying doll and it’s become a good tradition.

We are pretty much out of food so I had the world’s lamest dinner, a cup of CambellsChicken and Egg Noodle soup withsome oyster crackers from when I had soup at a restaurant a month or so ago (I thought of you when I took them Sarah!).

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The soup was pretty terrible, it had a strong, strange herb flavor so I ended up adding Saltines too to help cover the flavor.

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While I ate I worked on some applications for Buffalo things.  After dinner I took a walk with the husband to drop off the mail, I was still a little hungry from my small dinner but the walk helped subdue my stomach.

I couldn’t commit to 10minutes of strength training but I took breaks while writing this post and completed 100reps of arm exercises with my 5lb weights and held one 60second plank.

FYI – This will be my last post until tomorrow evening, we are going on a short vacation!  We are leaving tomorrow to visit Adam’s sister in PA and then traveling with her to VA to meet up with all the rest of the in-laws.  It’s a pretty quick trip, we come home Monday, but it should be fun.  I’ll see you when we get there!

What kind of gifts do you give to youngin’s?  I’ve become a big fan of the book/doll combo, it encourages reading and the doll is more meaningful when connected with a favorite story.  I’ve given our niece The Hungry Caterpillar with a stuffed caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do You See? with a teddy bear, and more.

Round is a Shape

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The plan this morning was to go for a run with Adam.  We slept in a little later than planned and didn’t get out the door until 9:30 so I ate a bite of this Cliff Mojo Dipped Bar just to have something in my stomach.

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The bite of bar was fantastic, the run?  Not so much.  My sports bra was bugging me and my shorts were falling down so I couldn’t get into a rythm.  It was brutal anyway though.  We did 2.7miles through Prospect Park and it was slow and painful, even with several walk breaks.

After I dragged myself home I did my 10minutes of strength training.  I decided to forgo legwork today and instead focused on arms, abs, and stretching.  All total I did 50reps of arms (with my 5lb weights) and 100reps of abs.

Today will be full of errands and studying but I’ll be back later.  Have a good day 🙂

What was the last activity that kicked your butt?

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

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Hi again, Merry Monday everyone!  Post-post (that prefix use made me smile) I spent the morning helping Adam fill out some scholarship applications.  I also took care of some general business around the house room.  The thing I am most looking forward to in the move is having more than one room; sleeping, eating, and working in the same place end up making the work space feel hard to work in and the sleep space hard to sleep in.

I also did 10minutes of strength training.  I’ve decided to do Caitlin and Kath‘s 10minute challenge, so I’ll be doing (at minimum) 10minutes of strength training every day.  The fact that this 10minute set (click the link to their sites to see it) made me sweat is all the more incentive to turn it into a routine.

After my shower we rounded up some coupons and headed to the grocery store.

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Between keeping the coupons Key Foods prints at the register, getting offers through the blog, and tearing coupons from magazines, we have saved some good $ this year.  One of the hardest things about next year will be working part time (and right now I don’t even know where I will be able to find a job) and living on Adam’s med school loans, there will be a big lack of cash flow.  We have already begun to budget though, we made a list of all of our monthly expenses, though right now we can only estimate some of them.  For now, the plan is to have $200 a week (that’s $100 a piece) for food and fun.  Monthly expenses like rent, internet, etc will be paid by credit card (we always pay on time and I like the miles) and things like textbooks and prescription drugs will not be taken out of our weekly cash.  But everything else – groceries, movies, magazines – will have to come out of that $200.  Parts of it sound rough but I am looking forward to the challenge.  I will acknowledge that both of our families have very generously offered to help us with some expenses, I’m not going to begin to pretend that I know what it’s like to be a family that actually struggles.  What does your family do to budget?

After the grocery I went all fancy and utilized my Easy Mac for lunch.

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I went *extra fancy* and added 2 chopped hotdogs to it.

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Check out the impressive nutritional stats on these TJ’s Spicy Jalopeno Chicken Sausages:

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Together they made a tasty treat.

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I was feeling snazzy with my classy lunch so I used a pretty bowl.

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And I way spiced it up; it addition to jalopeno sausages I added red pepper flakes and Chipotle Tabasco, look  at that spice!

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I kept the hot party in my mouth to a dull roar by drinking milk on the side.

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It’s pink because I used my last CIB (sugar free strawberry) packet it it, who-woo I can finally open my fun package 🙂

After that husband and I went up to the city for my doctor’s appointment.  After a long waiting room visit and a quick office visit we took a long walk around Times Square.  The thing I’m most sad about with the move will be walking away from how much we get to walk here in nyc.

I have a very low-key evening planned but it does include making dinner, I’ll be back with that lata!