Brie Fit

99.9% of the time, as you guys know, I pack my lunch for work.  Today, a few co-workers and I decided to detour out for lunch, so I tossed my bag in the fridge for tomorrow.  And boy, am I glad I did!

We went to Sahara for Mediterranean food and it was simply the best $8 lunch I can remember in a long time.

For $7.95, I ordered their grilled chicken and hummus plate, which also came with two small, pillowy bits of heaven pitas.  I don’t know how to accurately describe this other than that it was perfect.  The chicken was not greasy, but seasoned well with lemon and garlic and good olive oil, and the hummus was incredibly creamy with just a little bit of a tahini kick to it.   I ate all the chicken and pitas and about a third of the hummus (though I wanted to faceplant in it, I restrained).

Anyway, I can’t wait to go back and try the rest of their menu.  So. Freaking. Good.

Also, apparently today was “comment on my weight” day at work. 

Conversation the First

Coworker A: Have you lost weight recently?

Brie: Oh, yeah, thanks, about 12 pounds this year.

Coworker A: (concernedly) You can really tell in your face.  Are you stressed?  Are you okay? 

Brie: Oh, no, it was intentional. 

Conversation the Second

Coworker A: Brie is such an athlete.  I doubt she needs to do stuff like Zumba!

Brie: Oh, hahaha.  I don’t really consider myself an athlete!

Coworker B: But you’re always heading to the gym after work!  Have you always been athletic?

Brie: Oh, no.  I used to be pretty seriously obese, though.  I gained a lot of weight in law school and then lost it my last year!

Coworker A: I cannot believe you used to be big.  No way.  You ran a marathon!  You had to have been athletic in college.  Uh-uh.

Brie:  (whips out iPhone and loads the following picture on Facebook, passes it around)

Coworker B: Whoa, you really used to be a chunk-a-lunk.

Coworker A: Oh wow, yeah, what a difference.

…and scene.

I don’t really mind talking about my weight, weight loss (and gain) and fitness in public.  (Exhibit A: points at blog)  So, conversation the first didn’t really bother me, other than that I interpreted it to mean that my weight loss this year is becoming apparent (yay!) but that I look stressed as hell (which I am).

But the second conversation, especially the “chunk-a-lunk” comment, kind of stung. 

I was really surprised that that made me feel so bad!  It’s a 3.5 year old picture, for pete’s sake.  I guess I’m still protective of Fat Brie in a lot of ways?  I’m not her anymore, but she was kind of the seedling of who I am now and I don’t want her to get hurt. 

/armchair psychology 

Moving on.  Pre-workout snack.

Ran 4 miles after work.

Then, praise the Lord, we finally (I THINK—I’m probably jinxing it just by saying it) found something Southie would eat that we didn’t have to forcibly shove in her mouth—stinky, cheap, crappy grocery store dry food.  Who would have thought?  (I suppose I crave junk food when I’m sick, too, so it makes sense.)   She didn’t gorge herself like I would have liked, but she ate a meaningful serving of it.  I am crossing my fingers this sticks.

Dinner was leftover tortilla soup and corn muffins.

I wasn’t really feeling the soup so I left some in the bowl.

Deets:

Do you ever talk about weight issues at work?  Have you ever gotten any hurtful comments?

If I haven’t already mentioned 43253980 times how much I love having Mondays off all summer…let me do it again.  It’s seriously wonderful. 

Milhouse, Buckley, and Southpaw all agree.

Southie is staying pretty stable.  She ate a few bites of wet cat food and a few licks of specially-formulated cat milk on her own today, and has been drinking water.  I’d obviously prefer for her to be wolfing down bowls of food, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Last night we had a visitor in our yard.

It’s kind of crazy how many deer there are just wandering in our neighborhood.  I’m terrified I’ll hit one with my car!  We see them all. the. time.

Anyway.  I slept until 10:45 today and only got out of bed out of shame.  Otherwise I totally would have rolled over and slept until noon.

I had a small bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and milk for breakfast.

My car was desperately in need of an oil change, so I headed over to get that done.  I dropped my car off and hit the nearby trail for a run rather than sit around and wait in the grungy waiting room!

It was a gorgeous day, but I still have some residual…fluids…in my head and chest from my cold last week, and I wound up puking/spitting vigorously several times.  So, it wasn’t exactly a banner run for me, but, whatever, three very hilly miles in the books.

I arrived home to a fun surprise—the 6 month supply of Click Protein Powder I won on SkinnyRunner’s blog!

3 containers each of Vanilla Latte and Mocha flavors.  Yum!

Nothing really sounded appealing, so I had kind of a random lunch.

Two dinner rolls, a big yogurt mess with strawberries and banana, and a smoothie made with the Click Mocha powder, milk, and ice.

I really liked the smoothie!  However, I will caution you that it’s very coffee-y.  I know when I see things labeled “mocha,” I assume they’re mostly chocolate with a hint of coffee, but this is definitely a strong coffee flavor with a hint of chocolate.  I really enjoyed it, though, once I adjusted my expectations, and I might consider switching out my morning cup of coffee with this!

Last night I made a slightly modified version of Skinny Taste mac and cheese that we re-heated tonight with hot dogs.  Classy!

Sparkpeople has a fancy new look.   I like.

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In other news, I’m feeling vain.  Swimming and lifting more has not only tipped the scales (more days than not, anyway) into the 150s (finally!), but my upper body is pretty awesome-looking, too.  Albeit pasty.

Missourians love their guns, and I’m no exception.  Schwing!

Back to the grind tomorrow. 

Do you like to sleep in or are you an early bird?

I feel like I’m growing complacent with weight loss. 

And I don’t know that I really care.

This is a pretty happy weight for me.  I don’t want to gain weight, but I could stay at 160-162 for the rest of my life and feel pretty great about that.  

I would like to lose another 5-10 pounds, but I think at this point, mentally, I’m shifting from “must. lose. weight. every. week” to “I’m okay with losing a fraction of a pound a month.”  As long as the scale trends downward a bit (or, at least, not up) from month to month, I feel pretty set.  I’m in no rush here—I’m strong, I’m healthy, my clothes are loose, and I’m happy.

Maybe I’ll start thinking up post titles again.

Breakfast was the usual.  For lunch I had some fancy organic spaghetti-os.  I didn’t really grocery shop in a coherent state of mind last week, so we’re running low on some stuff.  Also: Fage and a banana.

After work, you guys…I swam again! 

AND I GOT BETTER!

I did what any 20-something would do before trying something new today—I watched videos of swimming technique on YouTube.   And I reread all your comments.

I was nervous that the pool would be busier than it was Monday…and it was.  However, I swam in the slow lane with a girl in a string bikini, so I figured she wasn’t too hardcore and it was fine.

Things that were better today:

1. I wet my hair before shoving it in the swim cap.  Helpful.
2. Breathing!  I figured out that I do much better if I breathe both out and in through my mouth, rather than trying to breathe in through my mouth, out through my nose. 
3. My “rhythm”—I think I’ve got something down.  I’m pretty sure I was exhaling for three strokes, and breathing in for one, and it worked well.
4. I showered at the gym, which was much more convenient than driving the half hour home all chlorine-y still.

Things that still sucked:

1. My goggles.  They actually popped off my face in the middle of one lap, and continued fogging.  They didn’t fill with water AS much this time because I tightened them, but they sucked.  I’m going to spring for a pair of Speedo Vanquishers like you all recommended. 
2. My nose.  I’m still sucking water in it occasionally, which gets suck in my throat and makes me choke.

I finished my workout with four straight laps/100 yards of freestyle without stopping!  Maybe next week I will start the Zero to One Mile program. Anyhow, I’m super proud that it did seem much easier today.  I think once I work out a few things, I may even like swimming!  I’m confident I can do this.

My new motto is “just keep swimming.”

Dinner:

Finished off the BBQ pork I made in the crockpot a few weeks ago, the rest of the asparagus, and some instant loaded mashed potatoes sent to me by My Blog Spark. 

Also, I’m officially aboard the asparagus train.  I just squeezed a little lemon on it and it was awesome.  I’ll definitely be getting some more this weekend at the store!

Got any exciting plans for Easter (or did you, for Passover)? 

Thanks for all your comments last night!  It’s obvious that I’m a little frustrated, BUT I need to remember that slow and steady is the way to go.  I think the most useful advice was just to calm down and remember how far I’ve come.  I don’t have a lot to lose, so it will take awhile.

Several people suggested I experiment with cutting carbs, which is honestly something I don’t think I’m willing to do.  I’m happy enough at my current weight, and in the past, when I’ve attempted to hit the magic 40-30-30 carbs-protein-fat range, I drove myself nuts.   I currently hit about a 50-25-25 balance naturally, and feel pretty good about that.  Plus, since I’m running a half marathon on Saturday, I think I kind of need them.

The scale is going down.  Super duper slowly, but it’s going down in the aggregate.  I have a feeling that starting up CrossFit is going to shake up my routine, and I’m going to increase my calories a bit  for the rest of the week in preparation for Saturday’s race. 

And?  Something is obviously going right, because the non-scale victories keep coming.  Today I noticed that I can’t wear two pairs of my work pants with flats anymore because they’ve gotten so long!   I also think I may need to get my wedding and engagement rings sized eventually, because they feel really big, too.  So that’s nice.

Kashi Toasted Berry Crumble tastes like Crunch Berries.  I love it.

For lunch, I satisfied a craving I’ve had for awhile for a PB&J sandwich on REAL bread, not a sandwich thin.  I had some baby carrots, a mini cheese, and pineapple with yogurt on the side.

The carrots were sad and bland without hummus, so I sprinkled them with a little balsamic vinegar I found in my desk and they were much better.  (What?  You don’t keep tiny bottles of vinegar in your desk?)

My afternoon snack was kind of random.  Around 3 pm, I had some pecans:

Then I went to a 3:30 meeting, and at 4 I had some grapes:

Man, I love grapes.  I’m so excited for summer berry and melon season to be here already!

After work, I did a 10 minute warm-up on the arc trainer and 35 minutes of upper body weights.  I’m keeping away from the lower body stuff until after race day.  I was planning on doing some more cardio afterwards, but I have a pretty bad headache so I just headed home.

Dinner was a childhood throwback: leftover mac and cheese with a hot dog and side salad.

(Tomorrow is produce delivery day!  Hooray!)

Anyway.  Bubbles has decided he really likes napping on purses and bags lately.  He snoozed on my nice leather bag all weekend, and now that it’s the work week, he’s stowing away.

He’s such a precious little cat.  I love him!

I’m getting really excited and nervous for Saturday.  I feel like this is the first half I’m actually going to attempt to race and not just finish.  I am going to cling to that 2:10:00 pacer for dear life!

I’m off to nurse my headache.

What foods did you eat a lot as a kid?  PB&J and hot dogs and mac and cheese were my favorites (and still are)!

So, it was nice breaking through that plateau for all of a day.  W. T. F.

Whatever.  You’ve been warned, I’m crampy and edgy today.

Cereal for breakfast.

Lunch was questionably stale carrots and hummus, pineapple with yogurt and Kashi, and turkey and cheddar on a sandwich thin.

I am not a huge deli meat fan (it’s so slimy and smells like farts), but I thought it might be a nice change and it was on sale.  So I stuck this in our office’s toaster oven to dry it out a bit, and that helped.

I like nuts. 

After work exercise was a speedy-ish three miles.  People always ask me how to make the treadmill interesting, and my answer is always intervals!  They don’t have to be big changes, but altering the speed a little bit every quarter of a mile gives me small, intermediate goals to work towards.

I increased the speed one click up every quarter mile for the first 1.5 miles, starting at 6.2 (9:40 pace) and ending at 6.7 (8:53 pace), and then spending the next 1.5 miles clicking back down at a similar rate.  It was almost like running up a speed hill…plateauing at 8:53 for half a mile…and then riding it back down.

I felt strong, for the most part.  The last half mile was bad because I was feeling super crampy, but that can’t be helped.  Also, the guy on my left smelled like taco seasoning, and the guy on my right had a juicy, loud cough, which was nasty.

Dinner was Skinny Taste mac and cheese and baked chicken nuggets.

Both winners!

Anyway, guys?  I’m kind of confused.

I know how weight loss works—calories in, calories out.  But something ain’t working these days.

Sparkpeople suggests that, to lose 1 pound a week, I should eat 1,430-1,780 calories/day, if I burn an estimated 2300 calories per week.

Livestrong and BMR/the Harris-Benedict Equation suggest that, to lose 1 pound a week, at a moderate activity level, I should eat 1,883 calories.

The Fat 2 Fit Podcast calculators suggest that I should eat 2,319 calories per day and lose very slowly.

I guess I don’t quite know where to land.

If I eat on Sparkpeople’s low end of 1430 calories/day, I will be cranky and my running will suffer, but I will lose weight.

If I eat on Sparkpeople’s high end in the 1700ish calorie range, my running will be great, but I’m not losing weight right now, even though by all calculations, I should be.

I’m tempted to just take the rest of this week and, for shits and giggles, go up to, say, 2100-2200 calories a day, monitor my weight closely, and see what the hell happens.  If it goes up significantly, obviously that’s not what I want, and I’ll rein it in.

I guess it’s just easier to experiment going up rather than down.  In a way, I feel like it’s kind of a cop-out…like, “oh, what the hell, let’s just eat more.”  But on the other hand…I can’t imagine seriously experimenting with going down the the 1400 calorie/day range, because I know that can’t be a permanent lifestyle, you know?  I would be miserable and my workouts would suffer.

Go up?  Go down?  Stick with what I’m doing? WTF?

…to announce two very exciting things.

1. 

160.2!  160.2!

(AND?  That photo was totally a recreation, at 11:38 am, after I’d eaten breakfast already.)

Did I bust through my plateau?  Maybe, just maybe?

I *almost* didn’t weigh myself this morning.  Yesterday was indulgent.  First, I slept until 11 am, and then, since I skipped breakfast, I ate a giant, runger-fueled brunch at noon.

A two-egg omelet with cheese, toast with PB, and pineapple and yogurt topped with Kashi.

And then, because I had a dire need for chocolate, I made Kier’s Ooey Gooey Single Serving Chocolate Brownies for Tim and I.  (Except I’m not cool enough to have stuff like almond milk in our house, so we used regular milk, and it worked)

And man, those were fan-freaking-tastic, and I may have to make them for dessert again tonight.  (I calculated…one serving=260 calories, which really is excellent for how awesome it is.)

Then, for dinner, well, I was owed a steak dinner because I set a friend of Tim’s up on a blind date (that turned into a few more dates, but never went further—oh well).  We went to The Majestic, which is kind of a quintessential Kansas City place: lots of steak and jazz.

I didn’t take pictures, but I consumed a cup of potato soup (that contained TWO different kinds of bacon), a 6 ounce filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes, some butter-drenched veggies and three glasses of wine.  The steak and wine and soup were awesome—the potatoes and veggies were just okay. 

Tangent: I used to really hate Kansas City, but now I really like it.  There’s something deeply satisfying about being able to drive downtown on a Saturday night, park for free, walk into a nice restaurant with live jazz without a reservation, and enjoy a great meal at a price that doesn’t even come close to what you’d pay in Chicago or New York.  I’m happy with our decision to stay here for the time being.

ANYWAY, my point is that I almost didn’t weigh myself this morning, but I’m glad I did.

Apropos of the weight loss, this weekend I finally started noticing that my clothes are starting to seriously look big.  I’m wearing a pair of jeans I haven’t worn in probably a year and a half comfortably now since my latest go-to pair is suddenly giving me saggy diaper butt…and this morning, for church, the cardigan I picked out was way looser than I remembered it ever being before.   So…that’s nice, too.

2.  Remember how I was in a slump, and you all were like “buy a Groupon and try something new!” and I was like, “Yeah, well, KC Groupons are usually for the opposite side of town and not at all convenient?”

Surprise!

My in-real-life bestie Lindsey (who blogs about her Cross-Fitting and primal/paleo eating lifestyle!) has been encouraging me to try CrossFit lately, and it’s definitely sounded like something I would like.  I mean, come on—quick, intense workouts that involve lots of lifting heavy things and throwing and natural body movements?  My kind of thing.

So when this popped up today I immediately bought it.

And then I felt a little guilty, because we are trying to save money and I’ve kind of forgotten about that for the last week and spent more than I should, and I have a perfectly adequate gym membership.

But…what’s done is done, and I am looking forward to trying this out after my half next week. My spring “racing season,” so to speak, will be over, and I think I’ll really like a new challenge.

Although I admit that I’m totally intimidated and also a little bit irritated that their website kind of implies that all runners are stupid and lazy.  But whatever.

Anyhow, it’s been an exciting morning today, although I kind of feel like injecting Midol directly into my bloodstream and have had zero desire to menu plan for this week and am thus whining at Tim “What do you waaaant for dinnnner?” repeatedly.

What should I make for dinner?  I took out boneless skinless chicken breasts, but am clueless beyond that.

I’m tired from working 8 am to 7 pm, no lunch break today.  So instead of blogging pretty pictures of my meals, here’s the highlight reel:

• Breakfast—a delicious NEW cereal I love and will blog about some other time
• Lunch #1—cantaloupe before going to a reception thing so I didn’t eat mindlessly (this was reception two of three today—lots of receiving going on)
• Lunch #2—spinach salad, mini whole wheat bagel with Laughing Cow cheese, yogurt mess, 1/8 of a danish from said reception
• Snack—banana with peanut butter
• Dinner #1—a few light apps at ANOTHER reception—a small slice of pizza bread, two tiny bites of steak on a skewer, 3 sweet potato chips, tiny pecan pie tartlet
• Dinner #2—homemade pizza

Not perfect, but the damage could have been worse.  Here’s what I wanted to eat today, but didn’t:

• blueberry muffin the size of my head at reception #1
• juice at reception #1
• M&Ms from co-worker’s dispenser
• chips at reception #2
• chocolate chip cookie at reception #2
• about 3-4 more trips to the app buffet at reception #3
• wine and beer at reception #3 (I had water)

So, while not perfect, not bad considering the mass amounts of temptation and social eating that was available to me today.  I’m proud.

Gonna go eat dinner #2 and then hit the grocery store…back to work bright and early tomorrow!

What did you pass up today in the name of healthy living?

Up, but down.  Hmm.

Yesterday, on my drive to work, it was snowing.  But today it’s perfectly sunny and spring has sprung!  Go figure. 

I’m not one of those people that really minds winter.  I like snow, and sweaters, and having an excuse to stay inside all day.  But now that it’s sunny and we have more daylight, I remember why people like it so much!  I feel like I have more energy, I’m less stressed, and my workout today was awesome because I knew it wouldn’t be pitch dark on my way home. 

I was itching for a run today after work, but tomorrow’s supposed to be even nicer out, and I wanted to rest my shin a bit.  I can’t wait!

Warning: today’s eats were of the highly processed variety.  Our produce box comes tomorrow, so the pickins are slim around here right now!

Breakfast was the usual.

For lunch…well, last week, I was at the grocery store, and at the end of my trip by the freezer stuff.  And I thought, “Well, crap, I haven’t gotten anything new for lunch like I wanted to.”  And then these caught my eye. 

Seeing as how I like both bacon and sandwiches, I went for it.  The nutritional stats aren’t bad, either—obviously, high in sodium, but 210 calories, 14 grams of protein…I’ll take it.

(Yeah, I know I could make my own.  But that would require buying four separate ingredients, three of which I wouldn’t normally buy, so I deemed these more cost effective—the box was $4.09, I think?)

I had a sandwich, yogurt and fruit, a mini cheese, and sliced cantaloupe and grapes for lunch.  I can’t wait for summer fruits to be in season!   The cantaloupe wasn’t perfect, but I’m craving fruits other than citrus and apples after the winter.

For lunch, I had a snack pack of trail mix from Trader Joe’s—I think there were almonds, walnuts, peanuts, macadamia nuts, and raisins in here?

It was pretty bland.  The best part of the trail mix is always the chocolate, right?  This is clearly missing that element.

After work, I hit up the gym for a weights circuit a la Susan. 

I did:

• 10 minutes of warm-up on the bike

Superset 1

• 3 X 24 walking lunges w/ shoulder press using 15 pound weights
• 3 X 12 single-leg deadlifts (40 pounds total)
• 3 X 12 diagonal woodchops using…uh, the red medicine ball.  Not sure how much it weighs.
• 5 minutes on bike

Superset 2

• 2 X 12 squats with bicep curl (20 pounds total)
• 2 X 12 upright row with 35 lb bar
• 5 minutes on bike

Superset 3

• 2 X 24 Smith machine split squats at bar+50 lbs
• 2 X 12 Tricep extension at 20 lbs
• 2 X 12 incline push-ups
• 5 minutes on bike

For a total of 55 minutes, 430 calories burned.  It was fantastic!

Dinner was ugly but delicious: enchiladas that I pre-made on Sunday.  Good times.

I’m thrilled—we seem to have come up with some good leads with rescue organizations for Bubbles.  Hopefully soon he will be with his forever family!

(And no—that family isn’t us.  We are at animal capacity right now and can’t handle any more than our three beasts in the long term.)

Tim got an XBox Kinect for his birthday, so I’m off to play!

Is it spring yet where you are?  What’s your favorite part of spring?

Huh.  I was sure I’d gain today since OMG my legs are like two big columns of crampy soreness.  Go figure.

You guys, I am just done with this week.  I am exhausted, mentally and physically, and I just want to crawl in bed all weekend and watch TV.  If we had a TV in our bedroom.  Which we don’t.  But anyway.  We have friends coming tomorrow night, and I’m excited to see them, and I’m sure we’ll have fun, but man.  I’m just spent.  And today was one of those days where little annoying things went wrong at every turn.  Sigh.

Surprise, surprise:

I’m liking eating breakfast at work.  It means I eat at 8 am, not 7 am, and don’t get as hungry by lunchtime at noon, which makes me far less tempted to snack when I’m not supposed to.  Plus, I can snooze an extra ten minutes!

Lunch was another boring mishmash: carrots and hummus, cheese, mini bagel with cream cheese, Greek yogurt with berries.

I wasn’t quite satisfied after lunch, so I measured a half a tablespoon of peanut butter and licked it straight out of the measuring spoon.  In my office, with the door open.

Climbing the corporate ladder step by step, baby.

I had another Luna Protein bar for a snack.  Dudes, I apologize for my boring food this week.  I’ll try harder next week. 

It is blurry because my boss walked in while taking the picture.

Like I said.  Climbing the corporate ladder.

Dinner also looks disgusting, but was delicious.

Chicken+salsa+corn+cream cheese in the crockpot, over brown rice with a little cheese.

No gym today.  I am lucky I can walk.  I had to lower myself onto the toilet in the handicapped stall using hand rails today.  I think the last two weeks have caught up with me: half marathon PLUS really hard 5K PLUS hard tempo run PLUS long run PLUS first weights session in awhile PLUS intervals…in the last ten days.    My body is telling me to chill!

So today and tomorrow are rest days.

Until I race again.  On Saturday.  Ha!

The end of the day was particularly stressful:

• I picked Bubs up from his neutering.  He is a very chill cat, but was not pleased to be in the car and kept digging in his carrier.
• Then the main highway I use to get home was totally closed, so I had to half-ass a random detour.
• Then, the side road to get to our house was closed, so I had to improvise again.
• Then, our shower broke this morning, so the handyman came, and we had no water.
• This caused all animals in our house to behave like little shitheads.
• I tried to take our recycling out but our bin was missing.
• Then, there was a jar of black bean dip IN THE SINK.  WTF?
• Then the handyman left.  And he left muddy boot prints all over our white bath mat.  Screw you very much, shitbird.
• Then I realized Bubs had knocked over his food and water and gotten the bathroom all messy.
• Then I realized we have guests showing up tomorrow, and our house is a nightmare.

I THINK I have things under control now.  I think.   But my grasp on sanity is tenuous. 

TGI(almost)F.

What’s your favorite weekend relaxation activity?

In honor of Fat Tuesday, I lost weight.  You’re welcome!

I have been reading about this King Cake stuff on the internet and it sounds good.  I’ve never had it.  In Chicago, the thing to do was to have paczki this time of year.  And celebrate Pulaski Day.  I’m not Polish, but, uh, cream-filled donuts and a day off school?  Yes please!

Anyway, whatever the hell King Cake is, it sounds good and I would like some, please.

The theme of today has been runger.  I’ve fought it off, but it’s made me miserable and hungry and man, did this day drag.  Yeah, I only ran two miles last night, but let me tell you—those were absolute MAX EFFORT, just might puke miles.  On less fuel than I’m used to.

Cereal for breakfast.  Soup, salad, yogurt, orange, mini cheese for lunch.

I definitely like to eat the bulk of my calories (Monday through Friday, at least) at lunch.  Otherwise I’m sluggish and prone to stupid mindless snacking the rest of the day.

For my afternoon snack, I went back to my bar drawer.  I didn’t get enough fruit at the store this week for afternoon snacks, I guess, but this combination was pretty genius.

I love Clif Kids bars.  Yum.

After work, I went to the gym.  I intended to lift, but man, I wasn’t feeling it.  I warmed up a bit, did some squats, shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, and and rows, and every set was thinking “this sucks this sucks this sucks.”  Then, since Leah and I had been talking about it on Twitter, I did the Body Weight Matrix from The New Rules of Lifting for Women (24 squats, 24 lunges, 24 jumping lunges, 24 jumping squats) in 2:14, and then I did 10 minutes of HIIT on the elliptical.

It was a sucky workout, but more and more I’m accepting the fact that for every awesome workout or race (see, e.g., the Disney Princess Half and/or yesterday) there is one that just sucks (see, e.g, my last 5K and/or today).  It’s the good ones that keep you going through the bad ones.

Dinner was leftovers from Sunday.

Bubbles update: we haven’t heard back from any of the shelters or rescues we’ve contacted about taking him in or fostering him.  He is getting neutered on Thursday, and seems a little overwhelmed with the rest of our animal brood.  There haven’t been any serious issues, but I think he’s feeling a little bit judged and there’s been some hissing (from him AND our cats).  Poor guy.   He’s still living in our guest bathroom most of the time, and we’re working on integrating him slowly so he can get some freedom.

I can tell he’s feeling better, though, since the vet got rid of his ear mites.  He’s more curious and active, and not scratching or sneezing anymore.  (We’re still looking for a rescue for him, though!)

Sparkpeople summaries:

I can’t believe tomorrow’s only Wednesday.  It feels like it should at LEAST be Thursday!  Ugh.

The winner of my Multigrain Cheerios giveaway is…

Nancy!  Congrats, Nancy…e-mail me your address at thefitbride at gmail dot com and we’ll get that out to you ASAP.

What’s your favorite non-American treat?