Sunday

Sunday is usually my cooking and cleaning day. Today I made a batch of the Gourmet Nutrition peanut butter banana post-workout bars (these are so good, TOO good!) (Skwigg calls them poo bars because they look like turds) (TASTY turds!) and these tasty South Beach diet egg cups. I used turkey bacon, 4 whole omega eggs and 4 eggwhites, full-fat cheddar cheese instead of reduced fat (barf) and divided the mixture into 8 cups instead of 6. They are good, very very good, with decent (and PN compliant!) nutritional stats. I eat 2 cups as a mini-meal.


Egg Cups

Makes 6 cups

Ingredients
4 ounces turkey sausage or crumbled turkey bacon
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
5 large eggs
1 can (12 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded, reduced-fat Cheddar cheese

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 6-cup nonstick muffin pan with cooking spray, or line with paper baking cups. In a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, cook the sausage, pepper, and onion for 5 minutes or until the sausage is no longer pink. Spoon the mixture into a bowl and cool slightly. Stir in the eggs and mushrooms. Evenly divide the mixture among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle with the cheese. Bake for 20 minutes or until the egg is set.

Nutritional Information:
140 calories
9 g total fat (3 g sat)
195 mg cholesterol
4 g carbohydrate
12 g protein
1 g fiber
400 mg sodium

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I finally did Drill Max in it's entirety this morning. Normally I just do the 40-minute "Cardio Blast" premix option, which kicks my ass every time. This morning I felt ambitious and decided to brave the whole 70-minute workout. HOLY SHIT. Check out the breakdown here. It's tough stuff. I can't wait to do it again next Sunday.

F-f-f-FRIDAY!

Yeah boy-ee! Right on. Guess what? I'm in the 130's now, weight-wise. WHOOt! The scale read 139.5 and dammit, I'm never going back to the 140's ever again. I'm 4.5 pounds from my fat loss goal. Right on. Yeah boy-ee! (Oh so annoying.) AND, I must add, that I weighed 139.5 with my clothes AND workout shoes on, and there was a band aid on my toe and I do believe I was wearing mascara that day, so that probably adds like half a pound, right? Heh, right. Right on! Yeah boy-ee!

(Ethan had me up this morning at like 3:30 a.m. He cried and cried and when I brought him into bed with us he acted like it was 3:30 in the afternoon. I've been up ever since, and not even a powerful and mighty Grande plain black brew from Starbucks could snap me out of my fuzzy state of mind. Anyway, that may or may not explain the random outbursts above. I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday! More later...)

(Maybe...)

(You know how it goes...)

Freebies!

One of my favorite fitness bloggers Maggie recently wrote a post about Precision Nutrition, titled "Fitness on a Budget Part 1: The Poor Man’s (or Woman’s) Precision Nutrition Plan." It contains lots of great tips and links, so go check it out!

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Holy shit! Skwigg (another one of my fave bloggers) posted a free link to the 4 Week Turbulence Training Bodyweight Workout on her blog! It's like Christmas for health and fitness enthusiasts alike!

Sunday...

We went to Whole Foods late yesterday afternoon because I decided that I really wanted a slice of their cheesecake and D wanted to pick up something to grill for dinner. We went through the huge meat department oooing and ahhhing at all the possibilities, me still on my anti-red meat kick.

Me: CHICKEN.

D: BEEF!

Me: Mmm, chicken.

D: Mmm, BEEF!

Me: Did you SEE that movie? I can't stomach it!

D, to the WF meat specialist a few feet away: Pardon me, madam... (ok, he didn't really say that, it was more like Hey, lady... because he is oh so charming...) Are you able to tell me and my wife how these animals died and how they were treated while alive?

Meat Lady: Certainly! We have a strict policy about only selling humanely treated animals. Most of our selections are free range, and the cows are put up in the cow equivalent of a penthouse suite where they have room service twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. They are then lead unsuspectingly to a quick, virtually painless death and are not traumatized beforehand in any way....

She went on to talk about how for their pork products, the piglets are kept with their mothers rather than separated, and it was at that point that I mentally stuck my fingers in my ears and shouted lalalalalalalalala I CAN'T HEAR YOU!, all the while nodding my head intensely. Which, I DO care, I just can't handle the truth. Just hearing her say the word piglet (Wilbur!) (Babe!) made me scratch bacon off my list of yummy foods.

I went to their website and sure enough, they have wonderful policies in place that make me feel much better about eating meat. I wanted to explain all that before telling you that I had the most delicious pepper-crusted sirloin steak ever for dinner last night. Happy, humanely treated animals really do taste better. Anyway, I think I'm going to only purchase meat from Whole Foods from now on because they actually care about animal welfare. That's really important to me. I definitely won't be buying this shirt anytime soon, but I'm not giving up red meat afterall. I'm just going to be super picky about where I buy it.

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From a comment on my last post:

I'm curious, but does PN require you to measure and count everything and are you working out 2 hours a day? That eat every 3 hours never worked for me and I'm finding as I get older I can't pound myself with the extra cardio.

Sort of and no. I weigh/measure things like nuts, oil and nut butter (doesn't that sound perverted? Nut butter? Heh.) because they are high in calories, delicous and very easy to overdo. It's really not necessary, though. You need to learn what proper portion sizes are, but that's true for any diet plan, and I think it's good for people to measure things out from time to time to see what a true serving is. Otherwise eyeballing your food is fine. No need to carry around a set of measuring cups and spoons or anything.

And no, oh holy hell no, I hardly have time to put on make-up in the morning, let alone work out 2 hours a day. That sounds like hell to me, a real recipe for burn-out and disaster. Working out that much can actually work against you metabolically, and it increases your risk for injury as well. I do 20-40 minute cardio sessions 3-4 times a week, and weight training for 60-75 minutes twice a week. The trick is to make every single minute count so that no time is wasted. At my gym there are always people on the cardio machines puttering away for 60+ minutes but barely breaking a sweat. I come in, push myself as hard as I can (you have to DIG DEEP!), and leave 20 minutes later soaked in sweat and red-faced while the other slow and steady cardio bunnies have another 40 minutes to go. If you push yourself and use high-intensity interval training, you can get a lot done in very little time.

As for eating every 2-3 hours, the science behind it makes total sense to me, but even if it had no effect on fatloss I would continue to do it. I have energy through the roof because I'm constantly nourishing my body, and as someone who JUST.LOVES.TO.EAT, it's perfect. The trick there is making sure you're not eating 5 or 6 giant "normal" sized meals each day, but 5 or 6 balanced mini-meals of around 200-300 calories each instead. I can't imagine eating any other way. My mom is naturally a grazer and I've always thought that was pretty cool. :)

Saturday...

I watched Fast Food Nation last night. D thought it was "slow" and scratched his head at the end, but I totally got the message as the movie brought up some interesting points that I don't think I would have considered on my own. And honestly, the cow killing scene at the very end sent me into a fit of uncontrollable tears. At this point I'm not sure I'll ever eat red meat again, and I'm swearing off fast food altogether. I haven't had it anyway in a long while, and now I am utterly and completely turned off. The movie was a dramatization of what does and could go on behind the scenes of any good ol' American fast food chain. It brings up everything from the way the animals are treated to contaminated meat to immigrant workers at the meat processing plants to marketing to environmental issues. The list goes on and on and I had a very, VERY bad taste in my mouth at the end. And I was a snotty mess from the cow thing. It really was awful. I don't know why I love cows so much. They certainly are delicious but if THAT'S the way they live their lives and that's the way they die, I'm not so sure a little taste sensation on my end is worth it. Plus I'm partial to cow-loving because E is nuts about them. (What does a cow say? Mooooooooooooo!) I'll stick with chicken and eggs and cottage cheese, thanks. Of course, this brings up how chickens are treated and to go free range or not to go free range, and on and on and on. You can't win. Please don't tell me any chicken horror stories. At least wait a few days. I went grocery shopping this morning with a list I created yesterday afternoon. I scratched "steak" off the list.

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The entire family is fighting off some funk. E had a slight fever this morning and D has been hacking and coughing and weezing so much that I almost want to pack him up and send him to a hotel until he is OVER IT ALREADY. He's already been sleeping on the couch for the last week. I think we both prefer that sleeping arrangement now and I'm actually starting to understand why my aunt and uncle have separate rooms. That is the smartest idea I have ever heard of. Separate rooms. I'll take mine with a deadbolt, please.

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My family is coming to visit in 3 weeks and I don't know if I can wait. I really think my head might explode before they arrive. Mom? Larry? Nowell and Robin? I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU GUYS! HURRY, PLEASE HURRY! DRIVE AS FAST AS YOU CAN! I MISS YOU SO! (I might lick them when they get here because they all taste so sweet.)

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I'm down another pound, which means that after almost 9 weeks of Precision Nutrition I have lost 8.5 pounds. I am so very happy with my progress so far. I'm in size 8 bottoms (and they are loose!) and M tops. I was a size 12/XL when I began PN. My fatloss goal is to wear a size 6 and weigh around 135 pounds. That's a great, maintainable weight for my height and build (5'5"). I'm so close! Not only am I shedding fat at a safe and steady rate, I'm also keeping all my hard-earned muscle and perhaps even building some, too. But the best part is that I'm loving my food and enjoying training hard and it's all very balanced and wonderful. I am a fit person. I lead a healthy, fitness oriented lifestyle and I love it, and I am so proud to say that. Balance, meet Sara. Sara, meet Balance. (Hey there! Where ya been all my life?)

Friday Night...

...E is asleep and D is out running errands. The t.v. is off. Our house is quiet. There is absolutely nothing good on television. Nada. It's all crap. I'm starting to think that TiVo is a big fat waste of time. If I really want to watch something I will watch it when it airs. I don't love t.v. enough to have two must-see shows come on at the same time, and if I don't have the time to watch it when it airs I probably won't have time to watch it later, whatever it may be. Right now our saved show list consists of a few Cathe workouts from FitTv, a ton of skate and car shows, several episodes of The Office, Scrubs and Lil' Bush, and the rest is Blue's Clues, the Backyardigans or SpongeBob Square Pants. I guess the best thing about having a DVR is that you can magically pull SpongeBob out of your ass when your kid is throwing the tantrum of all tantrums and you're at the end of your rope. That's definitely a plus.

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Though our trip to Texas that was supposed to happen this weekend (sob!) (it was cancelled due to a certain someone's boss being a total and complete donkey ass) (waaa!) I still took Monday off from work. And I'll most certainly be dropping E off at daycare per the usual routine. Then I will have 8 or so hours of time to do whatever the hell I want. Today I ditched the office after lunch and went and got a manicure. I now have short, bright red nails and they look fabulous. Who knew? I'm not a girly girl, but there's something very Marilyn about this color (it's OPI's Big Apple Red) and it makes my t-shirt, flip flop wearing self almost glamorous. (G, L, A, M... O, R, OUS... we're flyin' first class, up in the sky. Poppin' champagne...) Christ. That fucking song always gets stuck in my head. I like Fergie, especially since she peed her pants on stage, but damn. She got me love drunk off her hump... her hump her hump, her hump her hump her HUMP!

(Gah!)

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In other news, one of my bosses has been blasting the same Flava Flav song over and over and over again. Actually, that's pretty cool. I must say, I'm kinda sorta maybe moving up just a little bit at my job, and it's nice. There's a bright side. Everyone at the office has fantastic taste in music. There was one time when boss#2 played that hideous, make-me-wanna-gouge-my-eyes-out Barbie Girl song, but only for a split second because I started to have a nervous breakdown. Do you know what song I'm talking about? One time in middle school my favorite radio station in Texas played it twenty seven times in a row, or something ridiculous. I get the shakes and start rocking back and forth with my knees tucked to my chest if I hear it.

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See why I don't post much anymore? I have nothing to say. My gawd, life is boring but that's a good thing. Who wants drama anyway? NOT ME.

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Ethan. My gawd people! He's just... amazing. Brilliant! A kickass, spunky, energetic and fun little kid. He says HEY MAMA and COLOR COLOR COLOR! (which is his all time favorite thing to do... you should have seen how hard he tripped over those bath crayons... you mean we get to color in the bathtub? For REAL?) He says please and thank you and bless you and WHERE DID IT GO? That's a new one. WHERE'D IT GO? and he'll shrug and throw his arms up like what the hell? It's so freaking cute. He can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and The Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald. His newest word is coaster. Coaster! What 19-month old says COASTER? A genius one, that's who. Anyway, he continues to blow my freaking mind almost every minute of every day. On Wednesday he got a POOR on his chart at daycare for behavior for the very first time and I couldn't believe it! The teachers said him and some other tots were picking on the new kid that can't walk yet. Apparently Ethan was trying to ride him like a horse. This horrified me, but made Drew beam with pride. OF COURSE. I felt better after learning that he wasn't the only one doing it, but dude... I guess I didn't realize that kids bullied each other at such a young age. On a more angelic note Ethan LOVES to help me clean up. We sing the clean up! clean up! everybody, everywhere! song and he's all about putting things back where they belong. Which is AWESOME. He has my permission to kick every new kid's ass if he continues to be such a big helper at home. Take that aggression out at school, son, bloody their noses! But don't let me find a crayon on the floor...

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I've been on Precision Nutrition for 8 weeks now, and I've made some amazing, seemingly effortless progress. Not that it doesn't take dedication and planning and hard work, but the no calorie counting thing makes it a total breeze for me. There's a PN Challenge going on, the last day to register is this Monday, July 16. I'm in, and you should be too! The winner gets a free year's worth of groceries. You can read all about it here. Oh, and good luck, because I AM TOTALLY GOING TO WIN. (wink, wink)

Texas...

I hate Texas. I really do. When I think of Texas I think of dead grass, exhaust, SUVs and fast food on every corner. But when I think of Texas I also think about my family: my mom, 3 sisters and 2 brothers, grandparents... the full list. We were supposed to go to Texas for a long weekend next week, but our trip was pretty much ruined by D's douchebag of a boss. I could go alone but the thought of driving for over 7 hours with Ethan, WHO IS NEARLY 19 MONTHS OLD, is absolutely terrifying. I'm 99.9% sure that I'd drive us right off a bridge after, oh, an hour and a half or so, because drowning in my car would be more enjoyable than traveling that long with a screaming toddler. Ethan can barely stand to sit in his carseat when we drive the 20 minutes to the grocery store each Saturday, nevermind for hours at a time.

Since we moved to Louisiana I guess I've seen most of my family pretty regularly. My sis Emily and her fiance Zack have come to stay with us a few times, and my mom and the crew have been here twice. I suppose you could say that we see them every 3 months. For as close a family as we are and were, that's not nearly often enough. What's more, the fact that my mom doesn't get to see Ethan on a regular basis makes me want to stab myself. It is SO important to me that he grow up knowing her... fortunately when she visits us or we visit her, Ethan takes to her like white on rice in a heartbeat. He loves my mom, Aunt Emily too, and could care less what I think when they're around. I love it. I'm pretty sure they love that too. It's nice, and I want it to happen every weekend, not 4 times a year. Anyway, I'm pretty upset that we won't be going to see them. I'm really very sad. I feel empty inside. THERE IS NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN FAMILY. My gawd, I demand that you all stop reading my blog this instant and instead run to the phone and call your mom, sister, brother, aunt, grandma... tell them that you care. And if you live close to each other, take advantage of it. Go drink some gah-damn tea together or something. Anything!

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We got Ethan some bath crayons today. That was and will be the highlight of my entire weekend. Waa.

The 4th...

From the Sarah Silverman show:

(Getting an AIDS test)

Nurse: How many sexual partners have you had?
Sarah: (scribbles a number on a sheet of paper and hands to nurse)
Nurse: There are two numbers here.
Sarah: Yeah, that one's for the front door.
Nurse: They're the exact same number.
Sarah: Yeah, I'm OCD like that.

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Ha! And Happy 4th of July, no matter where you are. (If you're in the states, please try not to blow yourself up! Or anyone else!)