<p>^^^BB, is that code for staying inside and drinking?? :)</p>
<p>We live near an Anheiser-Bush plant and they have beautiful grounds and they have the Clydesdales here. You can go for a tour and a free beer or soft-drink. Their grounds are huge so you could take quite a walk there.</p>
<p>12 degrees 5 miles this morning. 38 mile week. It didn’t feel as bad this morning. I got out before the wind picked up and it was sunny. Still cold as …, and I let my HR get too high. I think the real cold days mess with your heart rate and your perception of effort (felt hard). </p>
<p>I’m liking the Beer Trail idea. :)</p>
<p>Ya’ll runners are something else. I have zero desire to go out and walk when it’s this cold. Whick is probably a good thing because I need two days of recovery after a week of these workouts. </p>
<p>It was a really good week. I really “got it” with the two deadlifts and the two squats, but I also bumped the weight up and did 36 reps more “explosively”. Combine that with the upper body stuff aiming towards chinups and I’m just sore.</p>
<p>Who knew? The Romanian single leg dead lift is THE exercise for standing on one leg and putting your sock on. Same move.</p>
<p>My “healthy” chili is almost gone so now I’ve got an 8 quart pot full of Paul Prudhomme’s South Miami Cuban Stew on the stove. Kinda like a beef stew/soup, but with beef, cubed ham, and chorizo sausage. A ton of veggies. And, cuban spices. I’ll load up the freezer with that. I’m going to have to dust off that cookbook and explore some of the other soups. Everything I’ve ever cooked from it – for example, the New England clam chowder – is the best I’ve ever eaten.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Seasoned America (9780688052829): Paul Prudhomme: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Chef-Paul-Prudhommes-Seasoned-America/dp/0688052827]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Chef-Paul-Prudhommes-Seasoned-America/dp/0688052827)</p>
<p>It’s 23 degrees out there and sunny today!</p>
<p>Well, I’m not running out there.</p>
<p>iDad- Why don’t you start a mail order soup business?</p>
<p>I had zero desire to get out and run, but somehow once I get out there I (usually) don’t hate it and even have brief moments when I am glad I’m out there. Today I got to the top of a hill and could look out at the snow covered fields and it was pretty. I even took off the outer layer of mittens. That said, I am SO ready for spring. I promise I won’t complain about the heat this summer.</p>
<p>I enjoyed our 72 degree day yesterday. I think we are going through a warm patch and I plan to enjoy it while it lasts.
I am pretty frustrated with my exercise routine. I am still doing PT for my hip and lower back.Stress fracture in the pars. Both the Dr and the PT have told me it is a slow recovery but I am frustrated. It is getting better and bam I had a few days last week that were a setback and I had to dial back the exercise again. They have also both stressed that I need to only exercise till the point I begin feeling it in the lower back and to stop. Very difficult to do.
Yesterday I did get in a good long hilly walk with little pain. Also hit the tennis ball for 40 minutes pretty hard. I am going to try to do the same again today. Hopefully I don’t have a setback.
My biggest problem is when I exercise less I want carbs. I know it is mental.
I am glad to see all of you keeping up with your exercising. Gives me inspiration. I do remind myself that I am in the best shape I have been in years. Reminding myself that last year my clothes were tight and I couldn’t make it up many of the hills in my neighborhood. My jeans feel good and I am encouraged to keep it that way.</p>
<p>It’s pretty enough here today (bright blue sky) to almost be tempting, but I’d fall and bust my neck. Everything is frozen solid and the patches of pavement that look clear are most treacherous. I got my outdoor time shoveling yesterday.</p>
<p>Not bad. I did the calorie totals for my South Miami Cuban Stew. It made 8 quarts or 32 cups. I figure each serving is 2 cups.</p>
<p>With the following ingredients, Live Strong calculates the recipe to come out to 424 calories per 2 cup serving.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If anyone wants to make it, I quadrupled the frozen peas to 2 cups up from 1/2 cup just because I like veggies.</p>
<p>Also, the official recipe calls for one 15 ounce can of tomato sauce and one 28 ounce can of Italian Plum tomatoes (chopped). I used some I had in the fridge and then opened the can of ground italian tomatoes by mistake, but it worked out fine. Ground or chopped whole tomatoes end up the same after an hour of simmering!</p>
<p>Also, I doubled the amount of chorizo sausage because the package I bought was a pound instead of the half pound the recipe called for and I had no use for a half pound of chorizo sausage in the fridge, waiting to be thrown out months from now. You could also use the portuguese version, chourico.</p>
<p>Paul Prudhomme has a very elaborate scheme of browning this and that in stages, adding some veggies and spice mix early, browning til a crust forms on the bottom of the pot, then adding more, to layer the flavors. Maybe there’s something to his madness or maybe he’s just crazy. Or, you can just simplify it and cook it like you would any other beef stew:</p>
<p>Make the spice mixture. Cube the beef and rub in a couple tablespoons of the spice mix. Brown the beef and remove. Dice the ham steaks into 1/2 inch dice and thin slice the sausage. Brown the ham and sausage and remove. Sautee the diced veggies and diced potatoes with the remaining seasoning until they stick. Add alll the ingredients back into the pot with the liquids and tomatoes and simmer for an hour or more. The frozen peas go in just at the end for about five minutes. As with most stews, it’s better the second night.</p>
<p>I’ve never seen the gym as crowded as it was this morning. I guess it’s a combination of New Year’s Resolutions and the freezing cold weather. Oh – and everyone wanting to get their workout in before the football games begin.</p>
<p>Someone up-thread mentioned that dreadmills are callibrated differently. Boy, I’ll say. At my gym in CT, where I went this morning, I could run non-stop easily for 20 minutes. At my gym in NJ, which I’m less and less impressed by, I can only run about five minutes at a time. Even though the incline alleges that it’s flat, I feel strongly like I’m running up-hill. I thought about bringing my level with me but I thought that might look at bit anal. Or ****y.</p>
<p>I’m also annoyed with my NJ gym because the women’s steam room has been “temporarily out of service” for about six months. I have no intention of ever using it, but it really annoys me that they don’t keep their equipment in order.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>We are probably nearing the point of the last gasp for the New Year’s Resolutioners. Sore knees. What have you. I’m guessing the gyms start getting back to normal in February.</p>
<hr>
<p>Speaking of lame January exercisers, I got done with my plank intervals on Friday and couldn’t find my interval timer for the next exercise. I hadn’t left a four square foot spot and it was nowhere to be found. After five minutes of looking, I finally remembered that I clipped it to my shirt collar! DOH.</p>
<p>Then, I knocked over my water glass with the barbell getting ready for the overhead squat. Had to stop and wipe up a glass of water all over the ping pong table. DOH.</p>
<p>I’m lucky I didn’t drop a weight on my foot.</p>
<p>Hey…good to hear from you here arabrab!!! Sorry your wrist is bad! 
Try a recumbent bike…you don’t have to hold on to anything! </p>
<p>mousegray…Way to keep it up for 21 days!!! No way could I do that! I started just doing exercise and didn’t lose ANY weight. I really had to pay attention to the calories and track everything. It does work</p>
<p>Soup: This Crock Pot Vegetarian Chili is VERY good!</p>
<p>Serves 4| Hands-On Time: 20m | Total Time: 4hr 20m </p>
<p>Ingredients</p>
<p>· 1 medium red onion, chopped</p>
<p>· 1 green or red bell pepper, chopped</p>
<p>· 4 garlic cloves, chopped</p>
<p>· 1 tablespoon chili powder</p>
<p>· 1 tablespoon ground cumin</p>
<p>· 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder</p>
<p>· 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon</p>
<p>· kosher salt and black pepper</p>
<p>· 1 28-ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes ( I used half of the tomatoes and 1 can of Original Rotel…I LOVE spicy!)</p>
<p>· 1 15.5-ounce can black beans, rinsed</p>
<p>· 1 15.5-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed</p>
<p>. 1 can pinto beans</p>
<p>· 1 medium sweet potato (about 8 ounces), peeled and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces</p>
<p>· sour cream, sliced scallions, sliced radishes, and tortilla chips, for serving</p>
<p>Directions</p>
<ol>
<li><p>In a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine the onion, bell pepper, garlic, chili powder, cumin, cocoa, cinnamon, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper. Add the tomatoes (and their liquid), beans, sweet potato, and 1 cup water.</p></li>
<li><p>Cover and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender and the chili has thickened, on low for 7 to 8 hours (total time is 8 hours, 20 minutes) or on high for 4 to 5 hours.</p></li>
<li><p>Serve the chili with the sour cream, scallions, radishes, and tortilla chips.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>About losing weight slowly: I think part of what is hard is that it does take a while to know that you are losing. My goal is 0.5 pounds per week, and I have achieved that and maybe a little better over the past six months. But the scale does not really help on a day-to-day or even week-to-week basis. Today the scale says exactly what it said last Sunday, and in between it has been up and down by several pounds. So I have learned to be sort of a disinterested data collector, writing down my weight each morning but trying not to get too happy or discouraged because only by looking at the long-term trend can I see that I am making progress.</p>
<p>“^^^BB, is that code for staying inside and drinking??”</p>
<p>Nope. 
There is a long trail that goes for miles and miles from Seattle all the way to Microsoft. “The Beer Trail” is what we call the 2-mile part from the little town near our neck of the woods/local UW campus to the Red Hook Brewery. The food at the Forecasters’ Pub is not that bad, and the beer is refreshing, so once a month or so, weather permitting, we go for a walk on the trail, have lunch or snacks and some beer, then walk back to the car.</p>
<p>Today H biked while I ran 5 miles (it took me 44 minutes). It is now time to play with our lead toys. I swear DH’s Chinese-made kettle bell is made of some depleted uranium alloy - it is suspiciously small for its 35-lb weight.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yep. If you are going to use weigh-ins as a motivator, you can’t get caught up in the daily fluctuations. If I were doing it again, I would have my weight spreadsheet calculate a running 7-day average and chart that. You don’t get the big drops, but it really smooths out the noise and makes the loses more consistent and predictable. But, nothing beats thermometer jeans.</p>
<p>Jack LaLanne, dead at 96. Diet and movement. That’s pretty good.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I bet it starts to look a little bigger after about a dozen one arm kettle ball swings!</p>
<p>I had a second day off today – well, except for two sets of 6 each on the assisted pull ups and chin ups. I’m also playing around with some assisted single-leg squats. Stand on a stool on one leg, squat down and up, but holding on to the TRX strap supporting some weight.</p>
<p>I’ve finally stopped being sore from last week, so it’s back to NROL 4 ABS workouts tomorrow. My fav: split squats, deadlifts, push ups and inverted rows. Where’s my BenGay?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ha, honestly, if I can do it, you can too, NorthMinn! I admit I’m glad it’s over though. I really didn’t like not having my regular morning (I like quiet mornings with my coffee and my work), so am planning to change the exercising to the late afternoons before i start dinner. One advantage was that I would get it out of the way and there would be no more of the hemming and hawing, but I’m feeling more confident that I can stick with it now. I found, for one thing, that I actually like the treadmill! Came as a complete surprise to me.</p>
<p>I’m also resigned to watching what I eat because I not only did not lose weight these last 21 days, I actually gained 4 lbs. Interestingly, I did lose an inch in my waist so I’m telling myself that I gained muscle. Anyway, I’m feeling inspired by my newfound stick-to-it abilities to continue.</p>
<p>idad, I persuaded H to try the free trial of the iPod guy and he liked it! Has done it twice!! He is ordering the whole series now. Went and bought one of those ipod thingies to attach it to your upper arm or wherever (what do you use btw?). Now I’m going to work on getting him to buy some exercise shoes. He is actually working out in his fuzzy bedroom slippers! (It’s a pretty funny sight, actually.)</p>
<p>What is an interval timer? And is there any other <em>stuff</em> you recommend? Did I mention how thrilled I am?</p>
<p>Very good friend fell and hit her head today. Had major brain surgery and is in ICU. OMG! I just want to EAT!!! comfort food is my thing. Please send prayers for my friend.</p>