Food and Exercise report - 11/7/09

I started off the day with homemade pumpkin pancakes. I had tried these before and I liked them, but found them less pumpkin flavored than I would have liked. This time, I used the whole can of pumpkin (~1.75 cups) rather than the recommended 1 cup. Much more pumpkin-y and to my liking. I also made cranberry syrup for the first time. I googled around for recipes and ended up just doing my own thing which was a hybrid of many of them. I used a bottle of maple syrup, about 2/3 bag of fresh cranberry, about half the syrup bottle full of water, a bit of OJ, and some brown sugar. I think something to make the syrup spicier would have been good -- perhaps next time I will add some ground ginger and some crushed cardamom pods. I had some milk too. Nice start to the day. Believe it or not I only ate two pancakes exactly as the picture shows. They were SO GOOD and I could have easily lost it, but I did not. I like this camera accountability idea.

Today I decided to go hiking because the weather was gorgeous -- it was in the seventies and perfect. I got a late start and so I had a snack around 1 PM. A delicious honeycrisp apple. Yum.

For lunch, I had a 6" Subway seafood sensation (my favorite sub), Doritos, and a Diet Coke. I also bought some grapes and the lady at Subway was nice enough to wash them for me. (The nearest Subway to my house is in Walmart). I asked for extra veggies on the sub, for what that's worth.

A bit about the exercise. I went here and it will have its own separate post eventually, but there was a very telling sign at the top of the trail that said "Glory Hole, about 1/2 mi+ hike down" and someone penciled in "about 2 mile hike back". So true. Very steep descent/ascent which was a good workout. Work those glutes! (Note that on days that the Razorbacks play football at home, the gym is close leaving that option out.)

I got back to Fayetteville around 6. I really thought about going to get BBQ but I decided I would cook instead. I was at a loss for inspiration, but eventually decided to whip up some beans and weenies.

There is nothing redeeming nutritionally about beans and weenies and tater tots for dinner. I realize this. However, I did add an onion not only for taste but also for a veggie. Also I used Hebrew National 97% free dogs. They only have 40 calories/dog. Can you believe that?! Not health food by any means, but at least it's better than the standard beans and weenies. Also, I only ate half the stuff I made rather than all of it like I wanted to and like I definitely did in the past. In fact, after eating half and waiting it out 10 minutes I was still hungry and my stomach was growling like whoa. I wanted to eat some carrots but it turned out that I did not have any (sad!). I am annoyed I did not do anything in the veggie department for dinner.

For dinner, I had strawberries and whipped cream. I had about 2/3 a box of the berries and then mixed in the rest of the FF whipped cream I had remaining in the can from yesterday.

All in all, not a bad food day. Way better in the fruits and veggies department than yesterday, though there is still room for improvement for sure. Most notably, I need more veggies. Also, although the cranberries probably count for a little, it's probably best not to get my fruit from syrup in the future :)