First off, let me say McDonald's french fries are the best finger lickin' thing I've eaten all week.... YUM! It really hit the spot for lunch today. Don't worry, I do have a bit of damage control in place: the fries came with a grilled chicken sandwich w/light mayo and a Diet Coke. Nothin' but horrible, high GL carbs for lunch, hahaha. Oh well, gotta cheat sometimes.

Hubby and I joined a gym late last week. I live in a small town with, until recently, two gyms: Curves and some crappy downtown gym where it's always 80+ °F and extremely humid (indoor pool) and has crappy old equipment. A new gym called Snap Fitness opened last week with all new equipment. The best part about Snap is the brand-new Matrix Elliptical machines!!! I've been dying to get on a good elliptical since the New Year. No one in town had an elliptical with the arm/hand grips, if you can believe that. You only moved your feet, and they didn't even have heart rate monitor grips. I have a hard time believing it myself. What kind of self-respecting gym doesn't have a decent elliptical machine, right?

So I've been abusing my elliptical privileges the last few days, LOL. It's by far my favorite machine ever. The extra workout has made me a very hungry woman! So, I couldn't resist the fries today. I'll probably have to up my calorie intake if I continue to work out at this rate.

Here's something noteworthy / interesting: When I worked out a lot when I was 23 years old, I would jump on the elliptical and go for an hour at 180+ BPM heart rate. Now, almost 30 years old, my heart rate is hovering around 135 BPM at the same speed, and feels like 180 BPM used to feel. ???? So I strapped on my polar heart rate monitor and wore it all day yesterday. I noticed that my resting heart rate is also lower than it used to be (60-ish vs. 70-ish). I can't figure out if this is due to aging, being out of shape, or if the opposite could be true; I know super-fit people generally have lower heart rates. I think if I got on the elliptical and aimed for 180 BPM I would keel over dead, ha!

These are symptoms of a higher level of fitness, so GOOD FOR YOU!

And don't feel bad, I had McD's saturday night... and I may just have dipped the double cheeseburger into tostito's salsa con queso...

Thanks for the recipe, Dave!



I would say better fitness. I used to go to bed when I was fatter and I could hear my heartrate kind of fast in my ear as I laid it against the pillow. Now, it seems so slow 50-55 bpm, that the first time I noticed it, I thought maybe I was dying!

Hahah!!

I don't eat at McDonald's any more. When I saw SuperSize me, I was so grossed out that I literally have never eaten there again, and I really don't even remember the last time I ate fast food. My splurges are usually at nice restaurants or home cookin'!!

I've always thought I had a little rabbit heart. When I used to jog it would get up into the 200s, but I wouldn't feel like I was maxing myself out. It's just strange that it's so much slower now. I'm still not convinced it's because I'm in better shape, since I've practically done nothing these last few years. Maybe I have the resistance set at something less than I used to? But, then again, that doesn't account for the lower resting heart rate. Maybe the extra 70 lbs was working for me, ha!!

Gosh, I eat there at least once a week, but it's usually limited to a salad with grilled chicken and low-cal dressing. I watched the documentary too, but it wasn't enough to convince me to never eat there again. Plus, the guy was getting just the worst stuff on the menu every time he went there. The majority of the responsibility for the obesity epidemic lies squarely on the shoulders of the consumer - you just can't eat crap all the time and then blame it on the restaurant, and you can't blame the restaurant for selling it either, when it's the best selling stuff!!

Plus, every other fast food restaurant is just as bad as McD's.

Well, I usually can rationalize out stuff like SuperSize me and just continue on without it affecting me at all. But I kinda let this one make its mark on me. I also expanded it to most fast food places. It's kinda like how at a haunted house, I can take my mind out of it and not be even a little scared, but if I let my mind go and get caught up in it, I can get kinda scared and have a good time with it. Does that make any sense at all? Haha. Plus I figure it's better to avoid those places anyways.

IMO every other fast food restaurant is as bad or worse health-wise, but at least tastes better. I'll vouch for those fries as being pretty tasty. There's gotta be cocaine or something in them.

Good on ya for getting back in to working out, Angie! I was wondering when that piece of the puzzle was going to fall into place--since you pretty much have the macro-angle nailed already and for a good chunk of time now.

As for MkDik's and the like, I'm in the same boat as Rachel; if I'm going to enjoy myself it's with a damned high culinary bar in place, be it of my own hand, at a good rest. or at a friend's place. I am blessed to have many kick-ass cooky friends 'n family members in my life.

I'm not an advocate of the burger-and-fries meal every day, obviously, but there are lots of healthy choices at most fast food restaurants now-a-days, and that's quite handy for someone like me that doesn't particularly enjoy cooking. Even Taco Hell (oops, I mean Bell) has pretty decent stuff on the menu now!

I have been walking twice a day, doesn't that count?

I did join Curves last year and was pretty bummed out when jogging in place for 30 minutes rendered my ankles completely useless for a week. I did promise to start working out when I first started posting on Traineo - I just wanted to lose a little weight to help the ol' joints first. Even now my left knee has been feeling a little weird today. I have a very bad feeling that when I get older my knees are going to have some major issues.

Ahh, I had forgotten about the walking which certainly counts, but as you well know can't really compare to dripping in sweat after pushing the envelope fantastic with the ole musclies workin' hard.

I love my elliptical, (especially in this rainy-ass country!); just today I had it on max tension using my legs only, (ten-speed-style) for 1 minute intervals. The sweat was running down my nose and I was huffin' like a dog in the summer after each minute, but I LOVED it.

When I think back to when I first started on that machine I really have to marvel at the progress, as back then I'd have the tension on 2 or 3, (out of 8), and moving along to fairly slow bpm music on top of it, which would leave me in much the same state of drain.

There's nothing quite like workin' up a bonified state of ravenousness eh?

Dinner tonight was sublime: steamed scallops over whole wheat spaghetti in a soy cream/grana padano/garlic sauce with yellow cherry tomatoes 'n chopped parsley, accompanied by a nice chilled glass of rose'. MOST APPRECIATED.

Sounds delicious!

It WAS, (there was loud swearing between bites even! ; ), and the best part, well, no, not the BEST part, but the fact that the whole thing took under 15 minutes to whip up was great. I'll definately be making that dish AGAIN.

Minu,

Got a recipe to share sounds delicious and I loovveee scallops!

Angie I gotta agree with Minu and Rachael as well.

If I'm gonna over indulge I want a fine dining on the side! And a nice white wine (bad experience ten years ago that involved too much red wine and a couple cigars v- haven't touch either since).

I can buy 10 Big Macs for the price of one "fine" meal. I'm too cheap for fine dining!

Well, suffice it to say that this meal wasn't a bank breaker, so for Kathy and anyone else interested, here's how it went down, before it went down:

300 grams frozen scallops, (fresh would be preferred, whatever you like)
400 grams whole wheat spag.
1/3 cup soy cream
1/3 cup grated grana padano cheese
10 yellow (they're sweeter), cherry T's, (halved)
1 tablespoon dried garlic, (feel free to use fresh, I was just in a rush)
chopped parsley, (though fresh basil would rock more I reckon)
salt 'n peppa to taste

Steam the scallops in a collander in the same pot as the cooking pasta, (both took the same time; convenient).

Drain and toss with above ingredients, stirring over heat for a few minutes so it all infuses and heats up nice like--adding the parsley and tomatoes last so they keep their colors and shape.

Serves 2.

That's it, easy as pie.

Bon Ap!