Just Been SUPER slammed this week.

With school and stuff. And this weekend is going to be super crazy too, as I'll be spending it in the bottom of a quarry.

I feel good, but to be honest, I really do sleep better after an hour with Tony.

Well, here is to starting up again where I left off on Monday!

(No pilates, no yoga this week!) :(

This Must Be Harvet Time For Blog Giveaways!

Chocolate Covered Katie is giving away a covetable spiralizer or magic bullet... AND participating in a fundraiser called Operation Chocolate Covered Kindness.

Click around her (awesome) website to help her raise some funds! :D

She also is making me want to make little cashew fudge babies.

In exercise-related news, I did Arms and Shoulder instead of what was actually scheduled... but it's still the third week of my last phase. I'm so excited!

Wow.

I just realized, tomorrow starts my second to last active week of (this round of) p90X.

Holy Crap!

Oh, and I DID do KenPo on Saturday!

To bed with me.

Ice Cream

I'd never call myself a vegan, but between my personal taste in "daily meals" (I like them lite, filling, and in huge portions), finances (low), aversion to cooking meat (high), and allergy to dairy (much lamented), love of vegetable and fruit (much enjoyed), and (embarrassingly moderate) distrust of the FDA's ability/willingness to regulate meat, I pretty much eat that way by default.

Like many people who actually are legitimately vegan, I don't find that I miss a lot. Sometimes I go in for cheese, but for the most part it doesn't occur to me to crave them, because it hurts me.

All that being said, I still went in for a scoop of vanilla ice cream with "bumble berry pie" at the Blues Traveler concert. I escaped unscathed, but I do sorta miss vanilla ice cream as a counterpoint to apple pie.

...but soy based vanilla ice creams tend not to do it for me. Maybe it's just my neurosis, but soy ice creams have sort of a waxy, oily, thing going on, which I do not love. It's forgivable in some flavors -like chocolate- but vanilla takes a hit.

So when Gena at Choosing Raw had a post about vegan, coconut-based ice cream in NYC.... AND a Ice-Cream give away, you know I was all about it.

Everyone go check it out.

Phase Three, Day Twelve

I've been working out, but I've been having motivation problems. Exercise really helps my mood, but push-ups are the absolute last thing I want to do when I'm overwhelmed (school) or sad (family stuff)

Yesterday I did Back & Biceps almost entirely with the 10lb weight. That's progress! But at the same time I felt a little silly... if I could do it with 8lbs of COURSE I can do it with just 2lbs more! I think I'll stick with 10lbs for the rest of the week and then switch the weight out to 15lbs. Then I can start exercises with 15lbs and drop down to eight as I need it. I'm satisfied with that. I also did pilates. That class is really starting to annoy me with stupid assignments. Now I have to track all my calories for the week, right after I got into the habit of not doing that!

Today I'm supposed to do Core Synergistics. I really sorta don't want to. :-/ Next time I do this program, I'm definitely switching something out for that!

PS: That lady up top is the opposite of how I feel right now. But I like her and her 90's style so up she went. There is good news in my life though... I'm sleeping better and waking up before my 7am alarm!

UPDATE: Well, I couldn't face up to Core Synergistics today, so I did Legs and Back instead!

Day I Couldn't Care Less

Woke up on the right side of the bed... but been super grumpy since then.

Did my yoga.

Off to SCUBA. Till 11pm. I just want to get into bed with the Notorious EMP. I don't want to do anything else.

Ugh.

Phase Three, Day Nine

Gimped through KenPo today... my energy was fine but I was mentally out of it.

Ate really a lot of sugar, but 90% of it was in date, apple, and agave nectar form...

Finally took my yoga class!

Now busy at work looking at jobs to finance my so-called future life, or no special presents from the Notorious EMP for me!

Trouble Soup!

Just to catch up, I did whatever it was I was supposed to do Friday, KenPo on Saturday, slept in on Sunday... and then... felt oddly sick.

I'm not sure why. Sometimes on the weekends I feel a little woozy, and I've been attributing this to that I'm not usually on my regular sleep/wake/eat schedule. Last night, this culminated in my being in bed by 8-ish, with a plastic bag next to me in case I had to puke. Sorry for the overshare. That was weird.

This morning I didn't feel much better, so I decided to just play it safe and stay in. I did do the Chest, Shoulders and Triceps video, which was really really hard. I took it easy, with lots of breaks and got through it ok, though my arms feel pretty "bloated" all-ready.

Should I have been P90X-ing while under the weather? I don't know. I don't think it would make me any ill-er, though I definitely was suffering from something.

Blah.

Also, my wishlist of material possessions:

1) A bathrobe
2) warm slippers
3) a spiralizer

Day Five, Phase Three

Whew!

Just did Core Synergistics... which I skipped yoga for, oddly enough. Well, not so odd... I slept in for an extra 45 minutes... so sue me!

I'm going to try to do a little yoga when I get home this afternoon.

Day Four, Phase Three

Move over, El Mejor Pistolero, because the new love of my life is this:Ok, so that's a damn dirty lie- how could smokey miso tofu replace a man who is refining the process of making steel-cut oats overnight in a crock-pot? It can't, of course, but as with every good lie there is an element of truth, and that is that smokey miso tofu is my favorite thing to have for lunch. I've had it pretty much every school day for two weeks. The wonderful incredible recipe is here at the wonderful VeganYumYum blog. I'm looking forward to getting the VeganYumYum cookbook in my next round of cookbook purchases.

In case anyone was wondering, I enjoy my miso tofu on a thin whole0wheat bun with Trader Joe's ailoli mustard, a slice of soy-pepper jack cheese, spinach, and some avocado if I have it kicking around.

In case anyone else was wondering, other items on my cook-book list are:
Raw Food Real World, Living Raw Food, Vegan Comfort Food, The Thirty Minute Vegan, The Voluptuous Vegan, and How to Eat, which has nothing to do with vegan/raw food whatsoever!

Otherwise, I'm pretty pooped today because of the usual rumblings and tumblings from my upstairs neighbors keeping me up all night. The most maddening thing about it is that they aren't even DOING anything. They are just living a normal life up there. I know because I can hear every footfall. I need to get a white-noise maker or something. I'd like to get a little more high tech a solution than just sleeping with a pillow over my head. Which I do.



Oh. I almost forgot.

The OTHER reason I'm tired is that I actually got up at 7am today (hooray!) and did Shoulders and Arms (hooray)! Other good news is that I'm definitely ready for heavier weights, for that video anyhow. I've been using 8lb weights for most of it, and though it used to be a struggle, it really isn't anymore. The Notorious EMP has a pair of ten lbs hanging around his house for me... I'm looking forward to giving those a try.

As if P90X wasn't enough, I also had a pilates class at ten. As if P90X and pilates weren't enough, I also have a (light) yoga class after work that I'm really actually looking forward to.

I miss yoga when I don't make it to the studio. Sure, theoretically I can do it with a video, but that's still untested since I've never actually done it. Though I do have access to yoga DVDs.

I'm just set in my ways, ok?

Another thing I want to do is to find time (somehow, probably not that often though to be frank) to start jogging, and to find a way to jog that dose not result in horrible shin splints. One of my roommates is a runner, and her immediate suggestion was to not run in hiking boots. Well. Maybe I'll give that a try if it is at all nice this weekend.

I know I used to squeeze the elliptical into my day, but for the life of me I can't imagine how. It's going to work out that phase three is going to end right around the end of my semester, so I'm thinking there will be a lot of yoga, elliptical, and (finally!) rock climbing this winter before I get back into the P90X saddle with Tony and The Kids.

An All The Pushups in the Whole World

Yesterday contained an unprecedented number of push ups in the history of my life.

First, in pilates I did about 6 or 8 wide push ups on my knees. I count these as officially the first push ups in my life because I went all the way down and all the way up. Whoa!

Then I did Chest and Back for the first time. It was pretty much a horrible nightmare, since it contained about 75,000 varietals of horrible push-ups. I did my best for all of them, and managed to gimp through the whole thing. I wasn't able to go all the way down to the floor, but I did what I could and I know it worked because I am sore from my bra-band to my armpits: a nice rectangle of stiffness.

I took a serious recovery week. I did yoga a few times, and a little pilates, but for the most part I studied for midterms, worked on school projects, dealt with a minor cold and a draining (no pun intended) period. Betcha thought I gave up! I didn't! I just didn't write anything here! Ha! Psych*!

Some other good news is that I weight myself on El Mejor Pistolero's scale and according to it, I went down to 150 and change from 155 and change. And that was after the delicious crock-pot meat dinner the night before. Yay! More significantly, my pants fit nice and style-less-ly lose, which is how I like them till I have the money and motivation to buy pants that fit appropriately. And, yes, I can wear my "tight" pants too!

So, mad props** to p90x! Maybe I'll get a t-shirt. Actually, maybe I'll get it to celebrate when I can do a pull-up. I love getting shirts of stuff I've done (or like, such as Dogfish Head beer, especially Chicory Stout). We all remember the trapeze shirt fiasco. :).

Today I'm skipping yoga... don't ask me why that seemed like a good idea this morning, because it doesn't seem like one now, but I'm going to to KenPo and maybe some "PM Yoga" from Netflix. Since my exercise/sleep schedule is so wonky lately I've been having a hard time falling asleep before 1am, which of course makes getting up at 7am to exercise sort of not gonna happen.

Anyway, all of this is to say that I'm on phase three, and super excited about it.

TTFN***!

(*-*** I actually used to say those things un-ironically.)

Whew!

So I've finally finished phase two!

That's right! My long-over-due recovery week starts tomorrow, and I really need it. This weekend, I did nothing but hibernate with El Mejor Pistolero. Literally. I'd wake up around 11, make "breakfast" and then go back to sleep till 2pm.

Anyway, I'm eating well (except for the wine explosion on Friday... haha) and I'm really loving the P90X, and starting to see the results I was looking for*. I'm definitely going to do it again after I finish, though I'll probably sub out a little more, life when I start rock-climbing. I also want to get an butt-working video, silly as it sounds, and do it on one of the days when I'm supposed to do Cardio/Plyo (I know that its nothing like cardio, but I cant do all the jumping in my condo!). On an unrelated note, I also want to get a yoga video I really like so that I can do yoga on the weekends too.

...Which brings me to one of my two big announcements:

I did yoga FIVE days this week.

You read that right... FIVE times! That's a record for me! Woohoo!

The other big announcement is that I won a VitaMix on ebay. Hoooorrrrraaaaayyyy!

Ok, folks, that's all for now!

*P.S.
Learn more about stronglady Joan Rhodes here.

The Triumphant Return

This is just a quick post to note that I've been keeping up with the P90X as scheduled (well, mostly... I haven't had the heart to do that nightmarish Chest/Shoulders/Tri, especially today since I have ANOTHER calculus midterm- yikes) and my yoga (three days so far since Monday, and I'm going tonight, so it looks like in min good shape for FIVE yoga classes this week... maybe even six if I can haul myself out of bed Saturday morning!).

The sad news is that between feeling under the weather and tutoring for this test I'm missing both my pilates classes, and have generally been too crazy busy to run on the elliptical. I haven't been carrying my water bottle around though, so I've been drinking less fluids. Boo.

My eating is still great though... and I've introduced KALE into my diet. Yum! I'm also remembering to eat my vitamins (got to put in a VitaCost order soon) with breakfast, and am aggressively pursuing a VitaMix on ebay.

Also: I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, and it happened last week, but... I went to trapeze with one of my best friends, La Abogada, and it was great! (Well, she liked doing something new, anyway, and she did great!)

Lost track again...

...but did yoga today!

Also: got Kale.

I've been doing pretty good this week, honestly!

I've done a workout pretty much every day (except for saturday), I've been eating pretty well and feeling better overall (no more sickies). I think I'm still kind of worn down from school-related stress though.

I don't know if I'm going to get todays core workout done: to be honest I'm so tired right now I kind of think I'd like to go back to sleep and miss pilates.

Hmm....

Phase Two, Week Two (Redo), Day Five

Today started off bad.

I couldn't get to sleep because Things Kept Going Bump in the Night, and in my rush to make the bus I forgot my wallet, so I wound up missing that and the yoga class I'd intended to go to.

Boo.

The good news is that I knocked out Shoulder and Arms. Really, I was supposed to do Chest and Shoulders, but I was NOT in the mood for that kind of torture. Frankly, I'm pretty psyched with the benefits I'm seeing with Shoulders and Arms. I'm not in a big hurry to build up my chest!

Ok: time for a protein shake and to get going!

Easing In

Ok.

I'm getting there.

Somehow when I get off track, I get WAY off track, and its always a bit of a process to get back on. From an outside standard I've been fairly active... again, not P90X "bringing it" active but hardly sedentary. Even the week I did "nothing" I still did pilates and yoga. My eating habits were healthy. I forgot my vitamins in the morning. I stopped drinking as much water but drank a lot of orange juice, which I refuse to believe is a terrible thing.

I went to trapeze a few times!

But now that I'm weaning myself back I'm already feeling better, sleeping better, and in my humble estimation, looking better. Maybe getting off track* was what I needed at that point to avoid burning out on the program.

*And to be fair to myself, I was super stressed and fighting off a cold!

So, today, I did pilates and trapeze. I did not take my vitamins but did take an Emergen-C, which has a bunch of good stuff in it if I do say so myself.

I'm going to have to tweak my method of keeping track though... I'm going to call this the Week Two of Phase Two Redo, and go from there.

Glad to be back, folks... and good night!

At Last!

Tony and I took some time apart, but we are back together now, and I think things are going to be ok!

We did Core yesterday, and we just finished KenPo. Thats all for now though... I have too many things to do and no car to do them with, which means I have to carry things in my hands and make multiple trips. How annoying is that?

Ok, time for breakfast!

Frustration Station

This wasn't intended to be a personal blog at all. Several of my Women's Studies classmates have insisted that "the personal is the political*" but at this point I'd have to sat "the personal is the physical," because the Loan Monster has re-reared its ugly head and the stress I'm experiencing has thrown off my P90X. Not that I'm doing nothing, mind you... on Thursday I did trapeze class, on Friday I was on the elliptical for half and hour, and over the weekend The Notorious EMP and I celebrated our two year anniversary by taking short hikes around West Virginia.

I haven't been doing P90X, but I haven't been doing nothing.

So, this week I'm going to do a do-over. We shall just erase time, and sally forth as if this week just hadn't happened. Hopefully I'll be able to approach this with high energy, because I need to expel some pent-up anxiety and was *actually* beginning to see some results before the biscuits got to me!

*(but mostly, they were using it to try and make their sex lives seem for important, instead of in the original, more legitimate contextual meaning of the phrase)

Today...

...was difficult.

I call a re-do of this week.

I DID, however, finally make a catch in trapeze though!

D:1, W:3, P:2

Pretty tired today, I must say. Also studying up for a finance test.

Did Pilates today, had to skip yoga due to study-time, gym was packed so didn't do elliptical, but walked home with my backpack. It took an hour and 15 minutes and was (according to mapquest) 3.7 miles, which means that I walked just under 3 miles per hour. Well, what do ya know! And carrying textbook too! This is especially good news because it means I didn't go over my calorie goal as much as I thought.

This is kind of how I get with DailyPlate. The good news is that its less like a calorie obsession and more like a calorie bingo. It also motivates me to do things like randomly job, since that will bring down my net cals, or to have ONE cup of kettle corn, rather then THREE.

So far, so good.

Of course, now I'm hungry again!

Eatins' and Doins'

Post Rasin Bran	1.00	190	1g	0mg	300mg	46g	19g	8g	4g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 Cup Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Almond Breeze Almond Milk	1.00	88	5g	0mg	20mg	10g	1g	7g	1g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 cup Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Chocolate Shake	0.666666666667	275	9g	5mg	295mg	24g	8g	2g	32g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Optional: When did you eat this meal? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Trader Joe's Original Soymilk	1.00	80	3g	0mg	170mg	13g	6g	1g	7g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 8 fl oz
CytoSport Muscle Milk Light	1.00	195	6g	5mg	125mg	11g	2g	1g	25g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 2 scoops (50g)
Arnold Select Sandwich Thins	1.00	100	1g	0mg	230mg	21g	2g	6g	5g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 roll Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Clif Mojo Bar, Mountain Mix	0.33	59	3g	0mg	73mg	7g	4g	1g	3g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 Bar (45g) Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Steak Burger	1.00	240	16g	70mg	65mg	0g	0g	0g	22g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 patty Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Honest Tea Heavenly Honey Green	2.00	70	0g	0mg	10mg	19g	19g	0g	0g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 8 fl oz. Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Annies Salad	1	144	13g	0mg	344mg	3g	1g	2g	2g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Optional: When did you eat this meal? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Spinach	1.00	7	0g	0mg	24mg	1g	0g	1g	1g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 cup (30g)
Red Pepper	0.25	6	0g	0mg	0mg	1g	0g	1g	0g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 middle size (105 g)
Tomato	0.25	1	0g	0mg	0mg	0g	0g	0g	0g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 Slice of tomato (1/4 of tomato)
Annie's Naturals Goddess Dressing	1.00	130	13g	0mg	320mg	1g	1g	0g	1g	x
	^ Total consumed: servings cups tablespoons teaspoons Serving size: 2 Tbsp
Kettle Corn	0.66	79	1g	0mg	0mg	1g	0g	0g	0g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 3 cups Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Bananna Bananna	1.00	110	0g	0mg	0mg	29g	21g	4g	1g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 bananna, 126 g Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Hershey's Chocolate Syrup	1.00	100	0g	0mg	15mg	24g	20g	1g	1g	x
	^ Total consumed: servings cups tablespoons teaspoons Serving size: 2 tbsp (39g) Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Squash Soup	1.00	200	5g	18mg	270mg	32g	0g	3g	6g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 bowl Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Whole Wheat Couscous	1.00	150	1g	0mg	5mg	30g	1g	2g	4g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1/4 cup Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Trader Joe's Vegetable Masala Burger	1.00	120	8g	0mg	360mg	12g	1g	1g	2g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 burger Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Honey	1.00	60	0g	0mg	0mg	17g	16g	0g	0g	x
	^ Servings consumed: Serving size: 1 tbsp Optional: When did you eat this? - select mealtime - breakfast morning snack lunch afternoon snack dinner evening snack midnight snack pre-workout post-workout Unclassified or more specifically -- 12am 1am 2am 3am 4am 5am 6am 7am 8am 9am 10am 11am 12pm 1pm 2pm 3pm 4pm 5pm 6pm 7pm 8pm 9pm 10pm 11pm
Fitness	Minutes	Calories Burned						Distance	Heart Rate
Pilates	45.0	-183.0								x
Minutes of this exercise: Distance: miles km Heart Rate:
Walk: 3 mph (20 min/mi)	75.0	-393.0