Monday and Increasing Your Calorie Burn

What a shock we started our morning at that the gym again, LOL. I bet many of you are getting tired of hearing about it. I was happy to have burned 600 calories in an hour. What would I do without the trip counter on my Body Bugg? *shakes head* It would drive me crazy if I didn’t know what I was burning at the gym.

When we were leaving I took this picture of the sunrise. I really liked this shot so I wanted to share it with you.

Since it was a cold morning we had a hot bowl of oatmeal for breakfast with our usual add-ins: frozen wild blueberries, cinnamon, powdered ginger, ground flaxseeds and almonds.

Lunch was a bowl of curried tomato soup that was leftover from the soup cooking session on Sunday. I love how the flavor of soup improves as it sits in the refrigerator.

After lunch Dan and I had some things to do out of the house. Since we were out we stopped at the library (to drop off some books) and the health food store because I always need something. We also hit Marshall’s and Costco while we were out. I picked up two more pair of arctic exercise pants at Costco which I was very happy to have this morning.

Here is a cute story. When we were checking out at Costco the woman commented that we had a lot of bananas. Apparently not everyone buys 12 pounds of bananas at once, LOL. When she asked what we do with them I said we make a lot of smoothies but conveniently left out the kale component. ;-) I was giggling on the inside knowing that we don’t appear to be as “granola” (as our chef friend Ian puts it) as we actually are.

When we got home dinner was more soup from yesterday. Since we had the curried tomato for lunch we had the vegetable chowder for dinner.

We also had a quick little salad of mesclun, mango, and chopped walnuts. The dressing was more of the white miso and apple cider vinegar I first tried over the weekend.

It was much later than we had expected by the time we got home, had things put away and finished dinner.

For dessert Dan wanted me to make something which approximated chocolate ice cream. My first attempt turned out pretty well, but it isn’t perfect yet. I will share the specifics with you when it is ready. For those that want to play around with it now here is what I did: in my Vitamix I combined 3 frozen bananas, approximately ½ cup reduced-fat peanut butter, 1 ½ tablespoons cocoa powder, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon powdered ginger and 2 scoops stevia. I also added a splash of water (maybe ¼ cup) to help it blend. The flavor was very good but the texture was too thin. Next time I am going to try adding less water or I may make it earlier in the day and run it through the ice cream machine.

Burning more calories while you exercise:

I have been getting a lot of questions by email about how I am able to burn so many calories in an hour. Using a treadmill on a steep incline seems to have a made a big difference for me. Some time back I read that for every 4 or 5% increase in incline you double your calorie burn. With the body bugg I was able to test this and I can tell you using an incline makes a big difference in calorie burn.

I wrecked my knees thirty years ago running cross country in high school and they haven’t been right ever since. However using the treadmill on an incline doesn’t seem to bother my knees and it results in a good calorie burn so I am going to focus on that until I get bored.

I also use the elliptical, rowing machine, spin bike and stair climber but the treadmill is my preferred machine because I get the best burn. Who knows one of those Nordic Track machines that will go to a 30% incline may be in my future. ;-)

Something else that you need to keep in mind is that your muscle mass makes a difference in how many calories you burn. I don’t mention strength training often but that is another important component of a well-rounded exercise routine. I like to do my strength training at home and find that a heavy set of adjustment dumbbells (mine go from 2.5 to 52.5 lbs each) and heavy exercise bands are more than enough to get a good workout.

Credit Card Theft:

For the second time in a few years someone has gotten a hold of one of our credit card numbers and used it to buy things fraudulently on-line. The first theft was on one of Dan’s Visa cards. This time it was my Amex card. This entire process still perplexes me. Why would merchants sell something to someone whose name isn’t on the card whose address doesn’t match the billing address? Also, how do people get card numbers? Clearly I would make a bad on-line thief.

Amex was great about the problem when we called to ask about the charge. It is being contested with the merchant who wasn’t much help by phone. Amex is sending a replacement card overnight. They really do have great customer service.

Forks Over Knives Screening Tomorrow:

I am really looking forward to the advance screening of the movie tomorrow evening. One of the most encouraging things was that the film sold out in days and there is a waiting list of 150 for the screening. It is incredibly encouraging to me that so many people are interested in this film.

Happy Thoughts:

We had a very good Monday even though it was busy. Here are my happy thoughts now:

• I am happy that the dentist was able to work Dan and me in tomorrow on short notice. We have been so busy we have both been remiss in getting to the dentist. Since I will be downtown tomorrow (that is where our dentist is) it sounds like a great excuse to have lunch together to me. ;-)

• Given our frosty weather it was wonderful to stay inside today after coming home from the gym. I am thankful to have a nice warm house in this weather. Please remember that not everyone is that fortunate and donate to homeless shelters this time of year.

• I was grateful that my knee didn’t give up at the gym this morning though it was acting up the evening before. It would have been embarrassing to hit the floor at the gym. ;-)

• I am also seriously looking forward to the advance showing of the movie tomorrow. It should be great.  I found out this evening Sheila and Troy are going too.  It will be great to have other people to chat to about the film after the screening.

Signing out:

Time for me to call it a night. Talk to you all again tomorrow. I hope everyone had a great Tuesday.