Chocolate For Breakfast, Swagbucks, & Emails

How's that for a title? Can you tell this post is going to be ALL over the place today? I've been meaning to tell you guys a bunch of things for the past couple weeks. Then I sit down to write a post and my brain goes in a completely different direction.

Did you know your breakfast can start with chocolate? Yeah neither did I, until I found this bad boy.

I threw one of these randomly into my cart last week.Yessssss, it is a winner. I don't remember the nutritional stats too close, but I remember glancing at them and they weren't too bad at all.

Now it is a bit on the sweet side for breakfast, but as a healthy dessert at night I love these. The yogurt is so creamy and the chocolate tastes like fudge mixed all together. Good job Stonyfield!

Does anyone else use Swagbucks? I discovered it 6 years ago and love it!

First Workout Post Injury

On Tuesday I received the clear from the doctor for exercise again!!!!!! Wooooohoooo.

Can you tell how excited I was?!?!? No more leg brace.

So right after that appointment I went straight to the park for my first post injury exercise.
I ended up covering around 3 miles in 45 minutes. During the first mile I jogged for a minute or two just to see how it would feel. Well, it probably wasn't the best idea because my knee hurt when I was running. So I guess I will have to ease back into my running intervals on my walks.

But those 3 miles felt so good. It felt wonderful just to get my heart rate up again and actually really sweat!

Give Me All The Apples

It's been awhile since I've shared a full day of eats and well, yesterday there was so much good food. Let's get right into it shall we? It is What I Ate Wednesday and everything.

Breakfast started off with a big bowl of oats. You're shocked right?! ;)

Lunch was breakfast style again. I've been loving the corn tortillas I bought last week and have been making little wraps everyday with them.

Yesterday was two eggs over easy with turkey bacon. I love when the eggs are super drippy, so good that way.

On the side an apple the size of my head!

Hidden Menus

One thing I've never understood about restaurants is having a hidden menu. The only thing it does do is create hype that there is another, even sometimes healthier menu. But there is a ton of customers that don't even know it exists.

I've learned about Panera's hidden menu about a year ago and have never ordered off of it. I didn't think the employees would even know what I was talking about or be able to know the full ingredients in those items.

Hidden menus just seem like poor advertising to me. The items are on the hidden menu aren't that popular apparently or else they would be added to the regular menu if they were so popular with consumers.

The other night I ran into Panera to pick up a salad and spotted a sign now advertising the four items on the hidden menu. I don't get it, I'm confused? Isn't it a hidden menu for a reason...

Anyway I decided to try the Mediterranean chicken salad. The strange part was it was the same price as the regular salads but came with no chips :(

It was really good though. There was a ton of chicken, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, bacon, fresh lemon, and olive oil for the dressing.

So I'm curious how you all feel about hidden menus? Do you ever order off them?

Mattituck Getaway

The weekend in NY was a gorgeous one. It was perfect weather for a little getaway to Mattituck Troy and I had planned.

Both us stayed over at a family friend's house with my mom and her boyfriend. Isn't the backyard beautiful? The house is in the middle of nowhere in the woods. It even took us awhile to find it because road is a tiny dirt street leading way back to the house.

We sat for awhile Friday night enjoying the sunset in the gazebo. In the summer everyone goes kayaking on the sound right there.

They were saying hardly anyone ever uses it or sits there but it was the perfect spot to watch the boats going by.

Fun Fact: My mom's boyfriend built it.

The house is an old farmhouse style where everything is wood. Doesn't it look like it should be a bed and breakfast?

Happy Fall

Happy first day of fall!

Since I'm out and about partaking in many fall festivities, here's a look into some of my favorite things about the fall season.

1. Obviously the first one is pumpkin EVERYTHING. From baked goods, breads, coffees, and candles, you can find pumpkin in pretty much anything!

2. Cozy sweaters are back in my life again! My least favorite season is summer and I hate wearing shorts. I love layers and winter clothes much better.

3. Pumpkin picking is one of my favorite things to do in October. Troy and I love carving them into all crazy designs instead of the usual jack o lantern faces.

A look back at last year's pumpkins. I decided to try mine free hand.

Physical Therapy Win

My second physical therapy appointment was a success!

The first was? Not so much, it felt more like a waste of time and money. All they did was poke and probe my knee asking if it hurt. Then for 15 minutes they put on those electric shock things. Let me tell you, it does not in any way/shape/form feel like a massage. Nope.

So you can see I was a little weary about going back. But this time was SO much better. We only did those shock things for 10 minutes. Then all single leg strength exercises.

Woof. I was feelin' it by the end. After having no leg workouts since June, holy crap, my right quad was burning.

And to finish we did 5 whole minutes on the exercise bike with absolutely no pain.

No pain = a big success! It's slow progress, but still progress.

And since we talk about food usually around these parts, my breakfast smoothie yesterday was a good one. Since I'm a huge fan of yogurt in my smoothies, when I saw Melissa's peanut butter yogurt smoothie, I knew I had to try it.