Day 30 of 90

Today's Workout: Workout 6

I suppose today was a fairly normal day for me.  I woke up fed the baby, made coffee and breakfasts for the kids and myself, lunch for Isaac, everyone dressed and booted Isaac out the door for school.  Went down to try my luck at Workout 6 for the first time.  I very much like.  For some reason, I seem to prefer working my back and glutes and biceps and abs.  While it is still very challenging, I feel  I have greater success with it.

One crazy move that I cannot believe I pulled off was Plank Rows.  This is where I am holding heavy (7lb) weights in each hand while in a plank, and I alternate pulling my arms back into rows.  The trick is to keep my hips as stable as possible.  Second killer was the triple threat.  So-called because it's three moves right after the other that works the upper abs, lower abs and obliques.  It starts lying on the ground with heavy weights (7lb) in each hand over head, and a pull into a full sit-up.  I found this move most difficult as the weight was so heavy it was hard to get my arms up off the ground.

There were no overly intense cardio sequences here, except the Running Man is back from Cardio 1.  Those get my heart-a-racin'.

I have a bit of anxiety for my Cardio 2 tomorrow.  It's the workout that I will be doing 8 times in the next 29 days, and cardio has always been a difficulty of mine.

In terms of meals, it was a bit of an off-day since I'm feeling a bit haggard.  The kids have all had a cough and sore throat and drippy nose, and unfortunately it was just a matter of time before I got it.  So in addition to those symptoms, I've also got a headache.  When I feel tired and achy and sick, I just want to lay around and eat comfort foods.  So I tried very hard to keep my food in check.  The downfall occurred twice today, but in the grand scheme of things were not too bad.

For breakfast, I had an Oatmeal Chocolate Chip muffin with two cups of coffee (2% milk in each).  This is standard fare for me!  In the meal plan, JM suggested the oats with apple, but I find it difficult to cook breakfast in the mornings, and love warm muffins.

Lunch was new for me - Shrimp with Watermelon Salad and Roasted Garlic Beets.  Both were tasty, and I was certainly surprised by the salad.  I was expecting it to have lettuce to fill it up, but no.  The entire base of the salad consisted of the watermelon.  Since I could not find watermelon at my local grocer, I substituted honeydew.  I replugged the recipe into MFP to recalculate total cals and it came in a bit under what JM's said.  So I went with hers.  One thing with this recipe, is that it takes a long time.  About an hour and fifteen minutes or an hour and a half, which is a lot of time to spend making a lunch.  The shrimp in the salad takes about twenty minutes, and then the recipe recommends chilling it for 1/2 hour in the fridge.  The beets get roasted for about 45 minutes, then after they cool, they are peeled and chopped.  Needless to say, I waited a good five minutes before starting to peel and it was too hot... I need to give more time next time but I was so hungry!  I did manage to put one serving aside, so next time a meal calls for it, I can simply thaw and serve.

William enjoying his mac n cheese!

Shrimp and Watermelon Salad with Roasted Garlic Beets (370 cals)

As a side note, if I go too long between meals, it is near impossible for me to get my cravings under check.  I will not be satisfied until I stuff myself full of something carbilicious and sweet.  That happened to me today, as I had breakfast at 8am, but lunch wasn't ready until just after 2.  So I needed my snack much sooner.

For snack, I had another Oatmeal Chocolate Chip muffin. It is great for a chocolate fix but is high in cals (about 280 for each muffin).  It wasn't enough for me so I grabbed my last Frozen Chocolate Banana Pop.  Those are also very very good for chocolate fixes.  And after this I was still craving, so I drank more water.

Here is a picture of my fresh basil and parsley pots!

In terms of water, I usually get my 8 glasses in during the day, and I don't drink any milk or fruit juices.  Whenever I feel hungry I try to satisfy that crave with water, which often works.

Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry with Mushrooms and Brown Rice (399 cals)

After my super snack (which came in at about 410 cals) I had dinner - Beef and Broccoli Stir-Fry with Shiitake Mushrooms and Brown Rice.  I modified by using Cremini mushrooms instead of Shiitake.  It is a very satisfying meal and can be cooked in just 30 minutes, so is very reasonable for a weeknight meal.  Total cals without the brown rice is about 399.

Then, because W was so good, I brought him two organic creme-filled cookies (like an orea, one chocolate and one vanilla)... and I took three for myself, that's another 150 cals, but I could have eaten a dozen, so three is really quite good.  And I will be going to bed early tonight.

Sweet dreams to all.

Peach