There's a First Time for Burpees

I feel like every post I make, from the first to the fifty-first, I am constantly learning about my body and am constantly changing. I remember when I fulfilled the laws of the Couch to 5k and didn't take a walk break at the wrong time. I remember running my first 5k ever without stopping to walk. I remember when I used to want Wendy's and McDonald's. I remember when I couldn't get three meals out of one restaurant dinner.

I've done things this week I never knew I hadn't done before. Things that exist but maybe not supported in one's plane of understanding. You know fire is hot but you haven't been burned alive. You've enjoyed a cup of coffee, but never while sky diving.

This week was special. And Saturday morning after the glittery dust settled over a fabulous couple of days, I weighed less than when I started. This is because the body I knew, the one that still had 20 pounds to lose, 40 pounds to lose... the one who had at least one fast food meal every week... the semi-healthy person who came out of a daily vitamin D supplement... that body has been replaced by a well oiled machine. I have invisible smoke stacks and I pushed billions of molecules of steam into the air above me. I know strength that I've never had before.

This week's fitness journal happened like this:

Monday: Ripped in 30, Week 3, Day 4

Tuesday: Ripped in 30, Week 3, Day 5

Wednesday: Ripped in 30, Week 3, Day 6

Thursday: Bridge to 10k, Week 2, Day 3 – 5.31 Miles

Friday: REST

Saturday: Ripped in 30, Week 4, Day 1

Sunday: Ripped in 30, Week 4, Day 2

I added an extra day of Week 3 because I had to push so hard to get through Week 3 at first. Then, by the time I'd done it 6 times, I rocked at it. And Week 3 turned out to be my favorite week. Week 4, now that I've done it twice, it's hard. I burned more calories this morning than I did doing it yesterday. Whatever it is about Week 4, I end up burping about half way through. This morning I had a cup of coffee beforehand and super super SUPER regretted that decision. Tasting coffee flavored stomach liquid during the second circuit. Thought I was going to puke.

There's just a lot of jumping in this one. Hops and jumping jacks with kicks... BURPEES without the push up. Maybe because there's forty other kinds of push ups. But I'd never done a burpee before. So that was new.

My run on Thursday happened because I had the day off... because on Thursday I went on a fantastic overnight trip with my handsome gentleman for my birthday! So I got up early, the rain was pouring and the temperature was 61. And then the rain stopped and the sun lit up the few clouds that were out. And I took on a run in SHORTS on the last day of January in New Hampshire. Seriously. My legs were the color of bright, white paper. And as I wrapped around the corner of Bridge and Elm Streets, I hit a face full of wind that would last another mile. As I ran past the store fronts with their big, plate-glass windows... I noticed that my quads and hamstrings are INSANE!!!!! Now that I have more core strength, I find that I'm running a lot less with my legs and much more with my lower abs and hips. Much easier on my calves, which have had the tendency to cramp up a little.

Now that I'm in Week 4 of Ripped in 30, I'm starting to think about what I want to conquer next. I have the DVDs for the BeachBody workout, ChaLEAN Extreme. It's a 90-day program of weight lifting and I spent some time last night reading through the books that come with it. It's a little intimidating because I'm so new to being able to do stuff like this. I also have 30 Day Shred and I think that's going to be on the docket next. Then I'll take on the 90-days. Make my goals attainable because that's how I roll.

But in the bottom of the ChaLEAN Extreme box is a body-fat caliper... so I just had to check it out. And according to the reading I got (10mm) and my age bracket, I fall at around 20% body fat now. I really don't know what that means... but according to the little chart that puts me right on the border between “ideal” and “lean.” Wowza.

So... FOOD! What did I eat this week? So glad you asked. My diary was a little FUBAR this week because of my trip on Thursday. Didn't track the whole time, but I'll talk about what I ate. I do remember because it was all so tasty delicious. And I was sharing it with someone awesome.

Monday:

1^st Breakfast: Protein Shake

2^nd Breakfast: Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal

Lunch: Buffalo Shrimp Salad with Soup

Dinner: Fish, Hominy and Peas

Snacks: Chobani Bites; Raspberry

Tuesday:

1^st Breakfast: Protein Shake

2^nd Breakfast: Vitatop with Peanut Butter and Banana

Lunch: Salmon Caesar Salad

Dinner: Amy's Veggie Chili with Portabella and Green Pepper

Snacks: Chobani Bites (Pineapple) and Green Grapes

Wednesday:

1^st Breakfast: Protein Shake

2^nd Breakfast: Peanut Butter Oatmeal with an Apple

Lunch: Salmon Salad with Salsa and Croutons

Dinner: Fried Egg over Portabello Mushroom and Bacon

Snacks: Chobani Bites (Raspberry) and Green Grapes

Thursday:

1^st Breakfast: Protein Shake and a Spoonful of Peanut Butter

2^nd Breakfast: Frosted Mini-Wheats and Milk

Lunch: Buffalo Chicken Caesar Salad

Dinner: Shrimp Tempura Roll (shared!) and ½ of my Seafood Alfredo and a delicious glass of wine.

Snacks: None

Friday:

1^st Breakfast: Golden Grahams and Milk

2^nd Breakfast: Mediterranean Omelette with Home Fries and Wheat Toast

Lunch: Protein Shake

Dinner: Last of my seafood alfredo leftovers!

Snacks: None

Saturday:

1^st Breakfast: Protein Shake

2^nd Breakfast: Frosted Mini-Wheats and Milk

Lunch: Fish with Peas

Dinner: Veggie Sushi

Snacks: Frozen Banana Milkshake

Today I made another batch of tasty Banana Pancakes like I made last week. This time I butter-and-syruped those bad boys and they were great. Tried a little different technique as well... as I took them off the griddle, I placed them on paper towels to keep them from getting too soggy. These have some serious condensation when they come off the heat.

Earlier in the week I decided to make some Buffalo Shrimp and throw that into a salad. It was delicious. I baked the shrimp... and when I bought the shrimp from the college kid behind the counter he told me that if you cook them with the shells on, it holds in the flavor. I, however, have a problem with handling things... so where he might worry about the flavor, I have to worry about whether or not I'm going to EAT it later. So I peel the shrimp first and then while they are in the oven (that takes about 10 minutes by the way, 375 to 400 or so) I can forget what it was like to have their slimy little bodies all over my fingers.

I have issues that I have to live with...

I tried to have less bananas this week. They're a pretty sugary fruit and I eat a lot of them, so thought I'd take a short break. So I made some cinnamon apples in the microwave to have over top of my oatmeal at work. It was super easy (and super messy in my microwave) and here's what went down:

You will need...

1 apple of your choice. I'm a Gala lady myself.

1 tsp of cinnamon

Peel the apple and then cut into bite-sized pieces. I used my corer/slicer thing and then cut each of the slices into 4 pieces.

In a coffee mug, put just a splash of water and your apples in. Microwave for 5 minutes at 60% power. You'll want to place a small saucer over the mug as well as put the mug either on a plate or a stack of paper towels. After your first 5 minutes, stir mixture. Microwave another 3-5 minutes at 60% power... this is the section where it will boil over. Just go with it.

Once cooked, drain off the liquid, mix in the cinnamon and let it cool. You can eat it right like this if you like hot cinnamon apples. It's really good over frozen yogurt. But I cooled mine and popped it in the fridge to enjoy over my oatmeal the next morning. Just nuked it a few seconds to get the cold off and boom. Oatmealicious.

And sure, Quaker makes an Apples and Cinnamon Instant Oatmeal that you can eat. And it's less calories than mine... less “sugar” too. But mine has twice the fiber... and is super huge and filling. So it's whatever you want. You need fiber. It's important. And tasty.

Aaaaand MILKSHAKE!

There's a sad story behind this milkshake. It's food related, so I'll talk about it. I went to the grocery. I actually went a little over my budget, but that's okay because I had cleaned out my fridge (cleaned via throwing away stuff and wiping it down with vinegar) so I had the space for some extras. Anyway, it was a terrible trip. I had been going to the “rich” part of town to the grocery and I guess I was spoiled. Went back to the grocery closer to my house and it was a crowded, annoying romp. And the girl at the check out thought it was fun to literally throw my bananas down the belt to the bagger so hard they became unhinged from each other. And then she put her finger through the plastic of my pork roast. I told her to keep the pork roast. And I was super excited to have that over salads...

But anyway... she tried to blame it on my pineapple. I call bullshit on that one.

There's a McDonald's in the parking lot and so I got in line to have an unsweetened tea. The same parking lot must mean the employees share the same set of brain cells, because the line wasn't exactly moving. Finally I get up to paying and they actually have my tea waiting there, that's how crazy the food window was... (in the morning once they made me sit there while they made other food and all I got was a tea... yea... they're sharp there). Anyhow... I got all my heavy groceries upstairs to my place... fought with the back door that is broken because of the crazy wind we had recently... and just as I get my door open. Crash. Splash. An entire large iced tea hit the floor.

Told myself not to cry, but that didn't work and I cursed like a sailor as I kicked off my ice-filled ballet flats. I just wanted a tasty iced tea. Was that seriously too much to ask for?

I got the floor toweled off and my pants changed. And I wanted a milkshake. So I cracked open the almond milk that I had just brought home, pulled the frozen banana out of the fridge, and added a Tbsp of powdered peanut butter (pb2). Yum.

I used the straw from my iced tea. And every bit of this thing was delicious. Tasted a lot like bananas and vanilla, couldn't taste the peanut butter too much. And the best part is it was a whole tall glass of milkshake for 200 calories. A small Wendy's chocolate Frosty Shake is 580 calories and 93 grams of sugar. Mine was still super high in sugar... 28 grams of sugar in mine. That's my entire day's worth of sugar if I work out... so that's still sad. But if I'd used skim milk it would have been less.

The more I think about it... I might get a lovely sensation from a lot of healthy things if I had more straws around the house.

Try not to eat too much today during the Super Bowl. I doubt I'll be watching the game, but I do have some cauliflower and I'm going to try that Buffalo Cauliflower recipe I keep seeing on Pinterest. Buffalo Cauliflower dipped in Ranch... uuuuhhh. Is it dinner time yet??