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.

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!)

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!

Really Got To Figure Out What Day It Is

Twenty four?

FINALLY did core synergistics... AND went to my pilates class today too. I was kicking around the notion of going to yoga too, because I really like the idea of going three times a week, but I got caught up in cooking and this is supposed to be "recovery" week, after all. Maybe I'll do a relaxing PM yoga video tonight and call it good.

I've become quite the nibbler since school started.
Breakfast (about 8:30am): green drink, 2 cups almond milk, raisin bran
After Pilates (about 11am): Cherry Lara bar
After Math class (about 12:20): baby green salad with strawberries and raspberry vinaigrette dressing
During Intl Business (about 1:30): box of raisins
On way home (about 2:07): fuji apple
On way back from supermarket (about 3:45): 1/2 an avocado
At home (about 4:30): one bean/garlic/onion/soy cheese/tofu/salsa burrito on whole wheat bun

I cant really decide if this is a lot or a little. I mean, most of this was not especially caloric... green drink is 30 cals, the almond milk totalled 260, and the raisin bran was about 190.

Livestrong.com calls this all about 1251 calories. Tragically, it doesn't give me a way to calculate core synergistics, and the pilates class today was a little short, but I worked up a good sweat in each so I'm doing well.

I've never been much of a nibbler but my school schedule doesn't give me too much of a choice. I eat one of my little snacks whenever I start to get hungry, and I've cut most caffeine out of my diet. That hasn't been a conscious decision mind you, its just sort of happened with waking up early and exercising first thing.

Oh, add 1/2 a srip of button candy to that list.

Dinner will be a bowl of lentil soup. If I'm feeling adventurouse I'll add in some miso.

Right now though the lentils are bubbling in the crock pot, both my roomies are out for the evening and I am going to have a nice soak in the tub with my finance text and the "cuban mojito" bath ball the Notorious EMP brought me from Cape May.

Day Fifteen

Man, I feel like poop. Really.

But I did it.

Barely.

Unrelated: The National Museum of the American Indian totally rocks, plus has amazing architecture* and a pretty surprising food court**.

*(architecture)

The museum has an exterior cladding of Kasota dolomitic limestone from Minnesota, giving the building the appearance of a stratified stone mass that has been carved by wind and water; additional building materials include American-mist granite, bronze, copper, maple, adzed cedar, adzed alder and imperial plaster

Acrylic prisms facing true south catch the sun’s rays and reflect a spectacular light spectrum onto the interior of the Potomac, animating the space and serving as one of the most visible design elements relating to the sun and light; This light show changes every day and is at its height from 11 a.m.–2 p.m.

**(food court)

The cafe offers a menu that change quarterly for each of the five geographic regions
covering the entire Western Hemisphere: Northern Woodlands, South America, Northwest Coast, Meso America and Great Plains. The menus include items such as maple brined turkey with cranberry relish (Northern Woodlands), chicken tamale in a corn husk with peanut sauce (South America), cedar planked fire-roasted juniper salmon platter (Northwest Coast), yellow corn or soft flour tortilla tacos with carne (Meso America) and the crowd-pleasing Indian taco—buffalo chili on fry bread topped with onions, lettuce, tomato and cheese (Great Plains). The menus feature traditionally prepared dishes along with conventional items infused with Native ingredients, often bought directly from tribal companies or co-ops.

Breakfast: amazing greens smoothie with almond milk, half cup fiber cereal/almond milk, 1/2 shaved ice
Lunch: hot dog
Snack: cup lentil soup, 1/2 cup mashed red potato

Day...something... eight?

Did the core synergistics. Eat like a fairly normal person... ie: not walking around chomping pieces of NY pizza and chicken parm cutlets all day long.

I don't know if its the workout or what but I'm really, really, pooped and looking forward to getting back to DC tomorrow.

Good news: Can go a little deeper with the push-ups.
Better news: Got a 90 on my final!!! :)

I'm really starting to think I can do this!!!

Motivation:

Day One

So I just finished the first video of the lean phase (core synergistics) and all I can say is that I feel like a 98 lb weakling. I could barely carry my tea to my room without spilling it, and I'll have you know that in addition to being fairly active, I am the northeastern tea-to-bedroom carrying champion of the east-coast. I am duly humbled.

I started P90X for a few reasons.

One -and I'm not necessarily proud that this is my number one reason- is that I just gained a few pounds since I got off my birth control and I'd like to un-gain them.

Two- the boyfriend (hereafter referred to El Mejor Pistolero or the Notorious EMP, mostly because it gives me a chuckle) completed the regular version this spring to really amazing results.

Three- in general, I want to be faster, harder, stronger.

Four- and by which I mean number one, I want to get into top shape because next year I want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. I shit you not. I am graduating college this year after multi-year diversions, roundabouts, tangents and transfers, and that is going to be my last debt-accruing hurrah before I settle down to a life of employed respectability.

(OR a month on the Appalachian Trail, which I honestly think is more hardcore then Kilimanjaro, but I've always wanted to see Africa.)

Hopefully, keeping a daily blog will help keep me motivated.

I'm not exactly a couch potato. During the school year I typically go to hot yoga (vinyassa) between two and four times a week, belly dance classes once or twice, and walk just about as much as you would expect and impatient ex-New Yorker to walk around a city with depressingly idiosyncratic transportation (that would be DC). This summer I've gotten a bit off track with the yoga I'm sad to say... and the belly dancing...

...and also gotten overly fond of mojitos and Dogfish Head.

...to say nothing of my life long love affair with hamburgers.

On the food front, I'm on too much of a time/financial budget to really commit to the P90x lean diet so instead I'm going to rely on my old standby from my hippie days, which is gorging on lowish-carb vegan food six days a week and then giant low carb meat meals about once a week. I know that this in appalling diet to virtually anybody who uses their food to construct their self identity but hell, I'm the one eating it.

I leave you with an image of future me: