Who is this chick?

Seriously, who is she? Because she certainly isn't me. At least not the me that I've known virtually my whole life. This chick, well, she does things like: cleans her house on the weekends and in the evenings after work, cooks dinner nearly every night, keeps up with her kids' laundry, bakes zucchini bread from scratch, and - probably most importantly - exercises on a regular basis!

The only thing that clues me in that this chick is still me is her complete and total inability to not go out for lunch everyday during the work week and eat things like: Taco Bell, Qdoba, Firehouse Subs, Wendy's, and Chick Fil A. Yeah.. there is that part.

So remember when I told you guys a few weeks ago that I'd picked up this book called The French Don't Diet Plan? Well, the beginning really had me... and it even made me want to take a trip to France. But then I completely lost interest. I got through most of the important parts - the cutting out fake foods (processed chemical-filled crap - y'know, like TACO BELL), the eating smaller portions, the mindful eating, returning to the family table, the activity vs exercise... but then... I kind of got bored. I am going to finish it, but it's just taking me a while.

So last week I worked out 3 times. In a row. Wednesday I did workout A from Phase 1 of The Female Body Breakthrough, Thursday I went for a walk/run, and Fri I did workout B from Body Breakthrough. Then Saturday and Sunday.. well.. I kind of did a bunch of nothing. Aside from cleaning my house (which I totally forgot to log into MyFitnessPal, btw). I guess that's where that whole activity vs exercise thing comes in. I was still active, I just didn't actively exercise. I had intended to go for a walk/run Saturday afternoon but then ARMAGEDDON happened... and by armageddon I mean ridiculous thunderstorms. Sunday I had a bunch of errands to run and also realized I was still super sore from my Friday workout, as well as the 4 hours of standing/dancing at my buddy Derek's AWESOME cd release party (go Derek, woo!). I reminded myself that not exercising is just as important as the exercise when it comes to strength training and decided not to give myself a mental guilt trip all day long.

So now, here we are, on Monday. Things with the kids were a little crazy this afternoon/evening. I usually do my strength training stuff after the baby goes to bed and while our big-kid is doing his bathtime/before-bed-quiet-time, around 7pm. That worked out pretty well last week. Well, tonight 8:15pm rolled around and I still hadn't exercised. I had just gotten our eldest (James) to bed and marched myself to the basement to kick butt on another round of workout A.

It. Was. Awesome.

I pushed myself tonight and I usually have a rough time doing that (read: I'm a big baby). It probably helped that the hubby and I got into a little tiff earlier today and were giving each other some awesome silent treatment (all has been resolved now, but it had to wait until after my workout lol). Anger is apparently the best motivation for me! I was so proud of myself for pounding out this workout even though it had gotten really late and I had been feeling kind of wishy-washy about it earlier in the day. I'm excited to see what kind of results I'll see next time I do measurements. I'm pretty convinced I'm going to continue to see the scale move upwards or stay steady over the next few weeks, so I'm trying really hard not to let that bum me out.

I had blogged a few months back about feeling like I wasn't at a high enough fitness level to whole-heartedly attempt this Body Breakthrough program (tried to link to the post, but I couldn't find it - yay no blog organization!).. and honestly I can't really tell you what motivated me to give it another shot. But I'm sure glad I did. It's making me feel really awesome. Shortly after giving up the Body Breakthrough program I also talked about trying to shed some of my weight before working on the toning portion of my fitness/weight loss. I think, for me, that was a really good idea. I got my eating/calories under control, saw that I could lose weight steadily (albeit very very slooowwwly) by controlling my diet, and realized that adding a good solid routine on top of that might really boost my results.

Here's hoping anyway.

Now to talk a little bit about how I'm a bad spouse and a bad friend:

a) my friend Courtney asked last week if I wanted to try to do somewhat regular walks in the evenings during the week. Um, DUH. Yes! I would love that! Well, every single one we've tried to schedule, life has come in and interrupted on my end. No wonder no one wants to be my workout buddy. I suck at being a workout buddy. Courtney, I am super sorry and I promise we WILL get at least ONE damn walk in this week! If my basement wasn't completely cluttered save for the 8x8 cleared square where I attempt to lift weights, I would invite you to lift weights with me. Maybe I should make my next weekend clean-up project my basement!

b) I still still still have yet to put a workout/eating program together for Mike. Worst. Spouse. Ever. Instead of giving him workout assignments, I found motivation to do my own workouts. By myself. Because I'm an ass. I love you, baby, and I will do this!! Make me do it for you!! (Ha, look at me talking to him like he actually reads my blog.. psht.)

Now for some food logs:

Nevermind. MyFitnessPal is being completely buggy today. Will try to remember to post tomorrow!