<p>“But, a muffin is healthy, right?”- If it makes you happy, then they are. Whatever makes you happy, at least have some positive effect…LOL</p>
<p>Snow day! Not sure what I will do. Maybe ride on the bike trainer at home. This is good for keeping me from swimming and letting the pec heal, however.</p>
<p>A filet mignion grilled to perfection makes me much happier than any muffin or donut! :)</p>
<p>MOfWC, glad that both you and kitty made the trip safely! Oh the things we do for our kids. :D</p>
<p>No other food makes me as happy as chocolate, every day, many times a day… well maybe ice cream also, but it has to be certain kind. Meat is OK, lots of work chewing it though…and it has to be perfect, I agree with it. If the blood is not dripping from my piece, most likely I will not enjoy it.</p>
<p>Of course you hate treadmills, Miami! You said you hate refrigerators, and treadmills aren’t nearly as lovable!</p>
<p>~ 3 1/2 mile rolling hills run. 41 degrees, bright and sunny.</p>
<p>I like a decent breakfast too. Usually I have an egg and a half a high-fiber English muffin. Sometimes a slice of bacon. If I have oatmeal I’m starving by 10 am. I think I could do yogurt and fruit, but I tend to make that snack food.</p>
<p>I do all of them: eggs, Canadian bacon, half a Fiber One muffin, some Greek yogurt with fresh berries. Can’t snack on the job, so I jam it all in before work. :)</p>
<p>Egg, chicken sausage, berries, half an English muffin, tea.</p>
<p>Well looks like if we all go to breakfast together sometime we need to make sure they have high fiber, high protein breakfast sandwiches on the menu!!! And a plate of CHOCOLATE donuts for Miami!!! :)</p>
<p>Gym day. Foam roller, fast walk on the track , 2 miles on the treadmill. Felt good, wanted to go more, but didn’t want to push the hip.</p>
<p>^Smart move, abasket! Sometimes, going easy and slower will do more good in the long run. I learned it the hard way, and it took me a while to actually learn from my mistakes.</p>
<p>It’s tough to hold back. But I know the variety and gradual return is the right thing to do.</p>
<p>Water aerobics day. I mentioned to our instructor that I had researched water running and had found an instructor in the Chicago area to teach me; she said our pool is not deep enough for it; our pool is only 5’ at its deepest and 3’5" at the shallow, so that option has been thrown out the window. She has been taught to do water running and shared this with me, with her knowledge of it. Oh, well.</p>
<p>I’ve shared this breakfast recipe that I have every morning on other threads, but will repeat it here for those who might be interested: in a large coffee mug, scramble one egg with a splash of milk; add a heaping 1/3 cup of uncooked oatmeal, 1 t. brown sugar, and cinnamon to taste (I add a lot, probably almost a whole teaspoon); mix all together well; add a handful (this will depend since we all have different sized hands, but I’m guessing around 1/3 cup is average) of blueberries and fold in. Bake in microwave for two minutes; flip out onto a plate and eat. I usually have a Greek yogurt with this. My cleaning lady says she loves to clean my microwave because it always has such a strong smell of cinnamon. </p>
<p>With this breakfast regimen every day, I’m getting plenty of protein from the egg and Greek yogurt; the blueberries have great anti-oxidant qualities, as well as fiber; the oatmeal is good for the fiber, and the cinnamon is good for you, too. One of these days I’m going to try to make it with Stevia instead of the brown sugar and see if I can tell the difference.</p>
<p>Ugh, I couldn’t sleep last night, then had to make a trip down to Boston to pick up my daughter’s student visa for studying abroad in Spain. How anybody lives in Boston, I will never understand! I know, I know, you just don’t DRIVE there and it’s all hunky-dory. Anyway, I’m exhausted, but I need to run now. I will run, I will run, I will run…</p>
<p>Nice little hike. Explored Pawtuckaway State Park, which is only about 45 minutes away. It has three little mountains and a bunch of pretty hiking trails. </p>
<p>11 degrees. First time out in weather that cold, so I wanted something short and sweet. I did a loop up and over a small mountain with a fire tower on top to climb for a nice view. 2.75 miles including one missed turn. 2 hours and 20 minutes out in the cold. I had a backpack full of clothes, but guessed right. </p>
<p>Wore power stretch fleece tights under softshell hiking pants and was toasty. Up top, I wore a mid-weight zip neck baselayer and a thin synthetic insulation puffy jacket. That was perfect. Cold when stopped, a little warm when moving. When I stopped, I put on my fancy down hoody on top of all of it.</p>
<p>I looked like a real geek/ninja with a full-face powerstretch balaclava, but being able to cover the nose for a bit makes a big difference when it’s that cold!</p>
<p>I’ve been struggling to keep my hands warm on winter hikes. I think cold hands are the inevitable consequence of nearing “middle age”. Even ski mittens are marginal when out for several hours in these temperatures, so I finally broke down and got some serious [expedition</a> down mittens](<a href=“Marmot 8000 Meter Mitt - YouTube”>Marmot 8000 Meter Mitt - YouTube). Way overkill for the young guns (and a pain to wrestle through the hiking pole straps), but my fingers were completely toasty the whole time. That’s a first.</p>
<p>I left the snowshoes in the car and wore MicroSpikes, although there was enough snow that the snowshoes would have been OK. Fortunately, the snow was enough to cover most of the glare ice, so no slipping and sliding. Just slow walking as the trails weren’t really packed down from last weekend’s snow. </p>
<p>Amazingly, I saw three other hikers out this afternoon. It was actually quite pleasant. I could have stayed out for another couple of hours as I really wasn’t cold when I made it back to the car. Good to know that 11 degrees isn’t too bad.</p>
<p>Great to get a little fresh air. I’ll definitely be exploring more of this park. There are many different loops ranging from 2 to 7 miles with interesting terrain. A section of the park I didnt’ make it too today is a popular rock climbing/ice climbing destination, so I’ll have to check that out. That’s a nice five mile loop over a different small mountain. I didn’t know if I had five miles in me at 11 degrees and I didn’t want to end up frozen 2.5 miles from the car.</p>
<p>After days of feeling miserable, I finally got myself out to do a 2.3 mile walk. Great weather in San Francisco; it is 61 degrees! Don’t want to go back to Boston.</p>
<p>I almost always have scrambled eggs (1egg and 1 egg white) for breakfast. I prepare them in a tiny amount of EVOO. If I have time, I’ll saut</p>
<p>iDad, sounds like a successful outing. 
I have a 550 fill down parka that is nice and toasty, oh so warm. When I read reviews of it, for best uses one person had marked running. Now much as I enjoy wearing this jacket, I have trouble envisioning running in it. It goes down to my knees, just about. I realize it would be great in a colder climate, but running? Do people in colder climates do their running wearing long parkas?</p>
<p>Deborah- NO! No long parkas. I only started wearing puffer jackets to run this winter. I like it!</p>
<p>The problem with cold weather is that you need radically different clothing for stopped versus running or hiking uphill. What would be warm enough while stopped would leave you drenched in sweat while moving. Not good.</p>
<p>All I wore today was a [zip</a> neck baselayer shirt](<a href=“http://cdn3.coresites.mpora.com/bikemagic_new/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/0381_1103.jpg]zip”>http://cdn3.coresites.mpora.com/bikemagic_new/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/0381_1103.jpg) and a very thin [url=<a href=“http://www.omcgear.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/M/s/MsMarmotBaffinJacketBlueOcean.jpg]jacket[/url”>http://www.omcgear.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/M/s/MsMarmotBaffinJacketBlueOcean.jpg]jacket[/url</a>] – about the same weight as the zip out lining of a ski parka. At 20 degrees, I would have just worn a thin fleece, but I figured (correctly) that I would need a little more. It’s crazy to think that would be enough warmth – you’d be shivering if you wore just that to walk to the mailbox, but once you are moving and huffin and puffin a little, it’s plenty warm.</p>
![http://cdn3.coresites.mpora.com/bikemagic_new/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/0381_1103.jpg]zip](http://cdn3.coresites.mpora.com/bikemagic_new/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/0381_1103.jpg%5Dzip){kind=link}
![http://www.omcgear.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/M/s/MsMarmotBaffinJacketBlueOcean.jpg]jacket[/url](http://www.omcgear.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/1500x/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/M/s/MsMarmotBaffinJacketBlueOcean.jpg%5Djacket%5B/url){kind=link}
<p>Even my lightweight down hoody would have been too warm while moving (it’s much warmer than this jacket I was wearing), but it was perfect to layer as a third layer when I was stopped at the top of the hill, drinking some coffee and munching on some cashews.</p>
<p>I see people hiking in full winter parkas. I don’t know how they do it. I would boil. Heavy fleeces are pretty popular around here.</p>
<p>Thanks, MOWC and iDad. I’m glad to know I wasn’t completely off!</p>