90%

Guess who's walking? Well, I wouldn't call it walking, not yet anyway. Guess who's taking several unassisted steps from one parent to the other, looks like a drunken frat boy with vertigo in the act and then claps and squeals with pride after collapsing into said parent's arms? Little Ethan, that's who. If you said Drew you were close, good guess. I fear we've created a monster. Ethan thinks walking to and fro is a game, one that does not require him to put any real effort into keeping his balance. This could be dangerous later on, but for now I'll just enjoy the sheer hilarity that is my baby boy stumbling back and forth across our living room floor. He just looks so stumpy, so awkward, I can't help but crack up every time. Ethan laughs along with me, high as can be on nothing but life (and perhaps that shot of vodka I added to his apple juice earlier). Ah, the joys of parenting. Sure you never get to leave the house alone, but why would you want to when there's free entertainment tugging at your pant leg 24/7? The glass is most definitely half full. And it's full of Merlot!

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I've joined up on the Pinkdumbbells.com site and am participating in this month's 90% Nutrition Challenge. It's a great way to have some online support (chicks only!) from a great group of girls. Based on John Berardi's Precision Nutrition program, the goal is to eat clean 90% of the time. If you're following a Body For LIFE style program that consists of 5 or 6 small meals each day, that would mean you get 3-4 cheat meals each week. Examples of acceptable cheat meals are (from Maggie's blog, a pinkdumbbells.com administrator):

a) personal size pizza at Donato’s
b) 1 c. rice with 1 c. Chinese take out food
c) regular on-plan dinner with bowl of ice cream for dessert
d) Chipotle barbacoa beef bowl

but not:

- entire large pizza with the works
- 4 plates at a Chinese buffet
- Entire 1/2 gallon carton of Ben and Jerry’s
- 3 Chipotle burritos with extra cheese, sour cream, and guacamole plus chips and bladder buster Coke

I could certainly stand to downsize my cheat meals. I don't quite think a plate of homemade lasagna, buttered peas, two bowls of salad with olive oil dressing, 3 slivers of garlic bread, 2 large glasses of wine and then a King-sized Zero bar with a glass of skim milk can be classified as ONE cheat. (That's what I ate Tuesday night, and it was gooo-ooo-oood.) So, my goal is to decrease my cheat portions but maybe have 3 or 4 of them in a week. Logic says that this will prevent me from wanting to eat an entire plate of lasagna in the future, but who knows. Sometimes a girl needs to feel full, ya know? Anyway, I've joined up and am sticking to plan. It starts today, so that means that I can't slather myself in hot wing sauce and blue cheese dressing and go slip 'n' sliding down the driveway on SuperBowl Sunday, but that's ok. I'll have one plate of only the foods that I really want, enjoy it and be done with it. Then I'll cheat again on my birthday, which is next Wednesday. (I nearly fell on my head when I glanced at a calendar yesterday and realized that, uh, my birthday was in a week. I had to breathe into a paper bag for a few minutes, but now I'm ok.)

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Leaner Legs & CTX Upper Body

I did the LL workout for the first time on Monday and the CTX Upper Body workout this morning. Man. MAN. They are both brutal. Leaner Legs is a moderate weight, hi(ish) rep leg and ab workout that left my legs begging for mercy. I was a quivering, sweaty, red-faced mess when it was over and I couldn't believe how sore I was the next day. She moves quickly from one exercise to the next, barely allowing for any rest between sets and instead using active recovery, i.e. calf raises immediately following a killer set of deadlifts, or deadlifts right after static lunges, etc. It's a nice change of pace after doing four weeks of Pure Strength. This workout also includes hover squats (aka sit and stands), step ups (leg presses), plie squats, single leg lunges (with rear leg up on a high step), standard squats and a killer ab routine. I was quite impressed. CTX Upper Body is an hour long upper body workout that nearly killed me today. I love it! Again, she moves quickly from one exercise to the next and each body part was worked until I simply could not go on and was creatively cursing at the television. I'm excited to do this series for another 3 weeks.

I need a good recipe for cook-ahead dinners next week. Any suggestions? Something that makes 4 servings and keeps well in the fridge. We should start a recipe blog... anyone interested?