Manly Man

Ryan and his friends have an ongoing list of things a guy can’t do and still manage to look like a manly man. Today I witnessed a good one to add to his list: A guy cannot walk a yorkie or a maltese and look like a manly man.

Puppies!

While on my walk with Sadie, I saw a guy walking not only a fluffly little maltese, but he had one of those leash dividers and was also walking a yorkie. So long masculinity! 🙂

Just in case you’re curious, here’s Ryan’s ongoing list of things guys cannot do without looking like a girly-man:

1. Put on chapstick
2. Wear a fanny pack
3. Take a step aerobics class
4. Drink out of a straw
5. Ride on the back of a motorcycle or a scooter (especially when driven by another man)
6. Drive a Smart Car
7. Drive a bug
8. Drink a drink with an umbrella in it 

Can you think of any more?

Sadie and I worked up quite an appetite on our evening walk and I was ready to warm up with a delicious dinner of crock pot chicken tacos by the time we got back to our apartment.

Fortunately Ryan walked in about 10 minutes after us (he had to work late) and we each fixed ourselves a plate of tacos… one hard shell and one soft shell.

Taco, Taco

Ole!

One More Time...

Delish!

Now I’m off to split an ice cream Snickers bar with my love-ah! 🙂 They’re so stinkin’ delicious.

Managing Mindless Eating

My work’s fridge has several containers of Einstein Bros. Bagels schmear (aka cream cheese) leftover from a bagel breakfast last week, so I took full advantage of the remaining goods and spread a thick layer on a multi-grain sandwich thin for lunch today.

I added several slices of zucchini that I roasted with garlic salt last night to round out my sandwich.

Zucchini and Cream Cheese Sandwich

Roasted Zucchini

On the side I nibbled on steamed broccoli and sugar-free Jello. YUM!

Wednesday's Lunch

Ways to Stop Mindless Eating

I think we’re all victims of eating mindlessly. How many times have you finished a meal and thought to yourself, “Whoa, where did that go!?”

I read such an interesting article on Jessie’s blog (Graze With Me) that she posted from Prevention magazine and wanted to share the little tips and tricks from the article regarding how to stop mindless eating:

1. Create Stop Signs: Portion out a snack on a plate or in a plastic bag and leave the rest in the kitchen, so when you’ve finished your portion, you’re “done.”
   
2. Ignore the Health Halo: Bypass claims hailing products as “low fat” and head straight to the package’s nutritional information for the important information.
3. Fixate on Fullness: Most people will stop eating or slow down when a bowl is almost empty or when most of the food on their plate is gone. Don’t rely on the amount of food left on your plate to signal when you’re full. Instead, listen to your body’s cues.
4. Leave the Mess: Unless you can see the damage, you’re not going to remember how much you ate–and you’ll eat more. Simply leaving the shells from the peanuts you ate  in a bowl in front of you can serve as a reminder of how much you’ve already consumed.
5. Hide Your Treats: Keep small amounts of your favorite treats in the house, but hide them out of sight and out of easy reach–in an opaque container on a high shelf, at the back of the pantry, or in a distant room.
6. Pour Smarter: We tend to perceive objects that are tall as larger than short, squat ones. That means you’re more likely to fill a low, wide juice glass to the brim but stop about halfway for the tall highball glass, even if they hold the same amount of liquid. So replace any short, wide glasses with tall, slim ones.
7. Know Where You Overeat: You may be more influenced by where you are (at the movies), what you’re doing (sitting in the dark, watching an engrossing flick), and what the people you’re with are doing (also chomping away) than by the taste and quality of the food in front of you or your own hunger.
8. Serve Small: Stick to serving bowls that hold just 4 to 6 cups of food. And scale down everything else: Portion out the food with a tablespoon rather than a much-larger serving spoon and switch to salad plates in place of Frisbee-size dinnerware.
9. Rate the Taste: Imagine you’re a restaurant reviewer and critically examine the flavor of whatever you are eating. If you don’t care for the dish, don’t finish it.
10. Keep Snacks Simple: Use variety to your advantage. Keep seven or eight different kinds of fruits and veggies in the house rather than three or four. Look for prepackaged produce that offers variety. But when it comes to high-cal, high-fat treats, keep choices to a minimum.

Which tip do you think would most benefit you?

I really like the “serve small” tip (# 8), and often serve myself dinner on a salad plate or my oatmeal in a smaller ice cream bowl. I love feeling like I am digging into a plate of overflowing food and this is a great way to achieve that without breaking the calorie bank.

“Exercise Gives You Endorphins”

“Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.”

Elle Woods knows what she’s talkin’ about!

I woke up this morning feeling sleepy and blah. On my way to the gym I thought “I really don’t feel like working out today” a couple of times.

I repeated my motivating exercise mantra “I’ve never regretted a work out,” and headed off to BodyPump. Before I knew it, I was in the groove and feeling happier. Gotta love those endorphins!

After BodyPump, I did 25 minutes of light cardio while reading the latest issue of Oxygen magazine.

Breakfast

Today’s breakfast gets two thumbs up!

After last night’s eggplant lasagna, we have a big ol’ tub of ricotta cheese that we need to plow through before it goes bad.

When I popped open the lid on the ricotta cheese container, Sadie went into instant begging mode.

Cheese, Please

After giving her a couple spoonfuls, I scooped out about a quarter of a cup of ricotta cheese before adding a bit of Splenda and cinnamon to make it s a lil’ sweeter.

I spread the mixture on top of two toasted waffles before topping them with syrup.

Cinnamon Ricotta Waffles

Loved this breakfast!!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday. 😀