one day down, 27 to go.

YO.  how was your first monday of 2010?  all you expected and more?  mine was.  definitely all i expected. definitely more.

everyone’s january goals sound great!  thanks for sharing them, i love hearing your goals because it motivates me to do well with my own.  y’all have your sights set high for this month and i know you are all strong enough to succeed at whatever you put your minds to :)

fun to hear your movie treat selections as well! like i mentioned, we saw avatar last night and i believe that it lives up to all the hype!  i really liked it.  i was going to snack on some veggies but decided to have one last popcorn hurrah (i know this girl would be proud!)~i munched on some unbuttered popcorn and sipped on some black tea.

so today was day 1 of my jamaican me bikini ready challenge.  let’s jump right into the details, shall we??

meal 1: egg white scramble+onions+peppers+mushrooms & black coffee @ 8:15 AM

can you believe that the original pancake house considers this two egg whites?  that is a full size plate.  i used to order three egg whites but cut it down to two when i could never finish my breakfast.

since i am cutting back on carbs a bit for the next four weeks, i didn’t order the usual dry wheat toast that i normally do at my monday morning meeting.  the waitress (who knows our orders by heart) was so shocked that i didn’t want the toast.  i had to explain why and she got all amped about it. 

to be totally honest, i didn’t miss the toast.  and, like clockwork, i was hungry three hours later.  that is how i know my portions are spot on.

meal 2: salmon+laughing cow+spinach+peach salsa+flat out @ 11:00 AM

served on a paper towel. extra classy. as you can see i’ve got my contigo water bottle filled up~i believe this was the third round and it was only 11 AM! the bottle holds 24 ounces, so to have 48 ounces down before lunch is pretty good if you ask me.

after lunch my new employee arrived!  i spent the afternoon training.. which i am not that great at, to be honest.  it is hard to teach someone a zillion things that are second nature to you.  bah~i hope she is not too confused!  it is going to be a loooong week of lots of training.

the afternoon slipped away from me and i missed my 2 PM snack time.  i was on the go and so i just grabbed my bag of berries that i had planned to eat with my yogurt.

meal 3: bag ‘o’ berries @ 3:30 PM

 

SO.. the plan was to not eat less than an hour before cardio.. but that didn’t work out.  i ate the berries on my way to the gym and i hate running with a full stomach.. so that is my reasoning on skipping the yogurt.  i knew i needed something but the yogurt/berry combo would have left me too full, so i went with just the berries. kapeesh?

today was cardio + abs as per the plan.

treadmill:

minutes	speed	incline
0-1	3.5	0
1-2	5.0	0
2-3	5.5	0
3-4	6.0	0
4-5	6.5	0
5-6	7.0	0
6-7	7.5	0
7-8	8.0	0
8-9	5.5	.5
9-10	6.0	.5
10-11	6.5	.5
11-12	7.0	.5
12-13	7.5	.5
13-14	8.0	.5
14-15	5.5	1
15-16	6.0	1
16-17	6.5	1
17-18	7.0	1
18-19	7.5	1
19-20	8.0	1
20-21	5.5	1.5
21-22	6.0	1.5
22-23	6.5	1.5
23-24	7.0	1.5
24-25	7.5	1.5
25-26	8.0	1.5
26-27	5.5	1
27-28	6.0	1
28-29	6.5	1
29-30	7.0	1
30-31	7.5	1
31-32	8.0	1
32-33	5.5	.5
33-34	6.0	.5
34-35	6.5	.5

SO. as you can see, i only made it 35 minutes instead of the planned 45.  reasons being?

1. i was too hungry and didn’t have the energy to run anymore
2. i am used to 20 minute HIIT sessions.. i guess i need to build my endurance up to make it 45 minutes.. since that is more than double what i am used to!
3. i have incredibly insane cramps. i think there is a piranha in my uterus chomping at my insides. yes, it hurts that bad.

this was a good test to see where i am at i can also gauge my progress. i am not at all let down that i didn’t make it the full 45 minutes.  had i finished off the 45~ it would have just finished off the .5 incline set and then had one more set that was identical to minutes #2-8. in case you wondered.

i ended up going 3.65 miles in the 35 minutes. i will add it to my mileage page!

something i noticed? i need new music on my shuffle.  i got real bored after 20 minutes and i need to make a new playlist if i am going to be doing 45 minute long cardio sessions!

next up was 15 minutes of abs.. i picked five ab moves and as many as i could of each one for a full minute three times through for a total of three cycles clocking in at 15 minutes total:

• floor crunches
• mountain climbers
• oblique crunches on ball
• reverse crunches on floor
• side plank (30 seconds each side)

by the end of this workout i was drenched in sweat!  i felt so dang good!

i came home feeling weak and hungry so i immediately snagged a reduced fat string cheese (or as susan would say~ a cheese string!)

after inhaling this—i didnt even pull the strings off, i ate it in big bites!—i hit the showers and then got to work on making dinner.

meal 4: faux fettuccini alfredo + chicken spinach fontina meatballs

don’t worry. i am fully aware that my lighting sucks balls.  let’s talk about this DELISH meal!

for the faux noodles, i grated some raw yellow squash & raw zucchini.  i microwaves the “noodles” for 3 minutes.  for the “alfredo sauce” i nuked 2 laughing cow wedges+splash of water+pinch of corn starch+dried basil for a couple minutes.  i tossed the “noodles” and “alfredo sauce” together and then used the microwave once again to heat up four chicken meatballs~ the ones i purchased from costco the other day.

i bought these because they seemed like a quick & easy protein source and the ingredients and nutrition stats did not seem too bad! check it:

i topped the pasta with the four meatballs and then devoured. 

  

toot toot! you guys!  toot my own horn because this was incredible. to the max. plus eleven. it seriously was better than your standard fettuccini alfredo! i loved it and can’t wait to eat it again.. i think it may have to reappear on my menu plan sooner rather than later.

the best part? this took less than ten minutes to make. start to finish. booya. 

now i am sipping on my daily cup of green tea and will be having my chai protein shake in about an hour. 

i will show you how i make the shake in tomorrow’s post!

i will be updating the challenge page after posting this and you can also check out tomorrow’s meal plan if you want!

wow, it is 8 o’clock and i have worked 9 hours, worked out for an hour, showered, gone to the store, eaten 4 meals, blogged AND relaxed with some tea. that has to be some sort of record.  i am going to spend the rest of the night tackling my google reader :)

serious business: marshall applied for his passport awhile back.  they told him he would get it around the second week in january.. which would leave plenty of time before our jamaica departure date of february 5th.  well, he got a letter saying he had to provide further information to verify his identity~ including at least 5 more forms of identification and a whole booklet detailing everywhere he has ever lived, worked and gone to school. um. what?! we leave in 4 weeks! i am beyond stressed about the situation.  we aren’t sure why they are requiring him to do this.. maybe because his name is common or maybe because he is half mexican or maybe because they are just being stricter with passport issuing.  whatever the reason, it sucks! we need to get it resolved QUICK.  hopefully he can dig up enough information and overnight it to the agency (which is in new hampshire!) and then pay EXTRA money to expidite the passport so he gets it in time for the trip.  sigh.  this has been weighing heavily on my mind and i just wanted to share it with you guys and ask you to say a little prayer in hopes that it will all work out! i would die if he couldn’t go to jamaica :(

ok, serious talk over. how about some fun questions?!

Qs~

1. what are some of your favorite songs to listen to while doing cardio? i usually prefer upbeat things like metric, the sounds and matt & kim.

2. have you traveled outside of the country you live in? what countries have you visited? i have been to mexico, great britan, wales, scotland, ireland, switzerland, italy, norway, belgium, france, the czech republic, the netherlands (or is it holland? tina?) and canada (for less than a day.. i got deported.. but that is a story for another day!) and soon to add jamaica to the list. yay for travel.

xo. janetha b.