Hello Hello and Happy 2013!!

It's been a while since I've been up here but I haven't had much to discuss. Today is my break through back into fitness!

I got the Insanity workout and I hope you are all excited to come along for the ride. It's 60 days of intense work out and I am terrified. Hopefully by the 2nd week in March I will be back to my comfortable fitness level and I can stop ignoring Cover Boy's ridiculous invites to do triathlons and tough mudders! I was winded from the fit test yesterday so there is a lot of work to be done. 

The way Insanity is set up is that you do a fit test on your first day and then every 15 days after to measure your progress. You work out for 40 intense minutes each day and have Sunday's off for rest. 

Workout:

I tell people who give me their excuses for not working out that the hardest part of working out is getting to the gym or out on the road for a run but I still get amazed by how working out really is 90% mental. I fell asleep on the couch last night so I never adjusted my alarm to be an hour earlier than normal. For some reason I just woke up at 6:45am and my first thought was, "I should really just get up and do this now but I'm so comfortable, uggggghhh" then I went back and forth in my mind about if I could really fit it in between work and my 7:30pm plans up in Lincoln. Finally I just thought, "no, it's now or never because I know I'll choose my social life over exercise if I run out of time!" I popped out of bed and grabbed my sneakers and within 5 minutes I was working out and by 10 minutes I was dripping in sweat. I got the job done, made breakfast, took a shower, and was at work by 9am.

Meals: 

Right after the fit test last night I grilled up a frozen Salmon burger that I had bought a few weeks ago and never craved. But I knew that it was better than a bowl of frosted flakes after a workout so I just did it. I also had some whole wheat and quinoa minute rice that I heated that up and seasoned with Mrs. Dash. It wasn't the best meal but it got the job done and in only 11 minutes. 

After my work out this morning I had an egg and cheese sandwich on a Thomas' Sandwich Thin. I usually don't eat breakfast so to add this into my day I wanted to start small with something filling. 

For lunch I brought 10 pre cooked small shrimp with the minute rice and steamed broccoli. I put it together at work and it was actually pretty good. I had a 12 oz. diet coke but I plan for that to be my only soda for the day. My co-worker had some Trader Joe's pomegranate white tea so around 2pm I took a tea break away from email to catch up on some other office work.

After work co-workers and I headed up to Lincoln for Karaoke night. I got a salad with dressing on the side and grilled chicken. I drank water the whole night (this made karaoke very funny to watch).

Since I did my work out with water and continued to hydrate I had drank 32 oz. of water before 9am! I continued to drink water through the day and had 64 oz. by the end of the work day. My mini goal has been to drink 8 8-oz. glasses of water each day (62 oz. total) and my large goal is to drink 96 oz. (2 16-oz. in the morning, 2 16-oz. at work, 2 16-oz. after work). 

Mini Goals:

I am hoping to get into the Paleo diet after spending some time with Cover Boy and The Surgeon General. However I don't want to be wasteful and throw out all of my food since it's not "unhealthy" it's just not on the Paleo menu. So Paleo will slowly work it's way into my kitchen as I get rid of the other items.

I got a Crock Pot for Christmas so I think my first Crock-Pot meal and first Paleo meal is going to be the Just Plain Chili recipe that I found on the Paleo Plan website (http://www.paleoplan.com/2009/12-31/just-plain-chili/)

• Ingredients:
• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbs olive or coconut oil
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 3 Tbs cumin, or to taste
• 1-1/2 Tbs chili powder, or to taste
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes

Instructions

1. Light coals in grill. While coals are setting (30-45 minutes), form ground beef into large patties.
2. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed soup pot, and add freshly ground black pepper.
3. Add bell pepper and saute 5-7 minutes. Turn heat off and stir in minced garlic.
4. Grill patties over coals until medium rare, no more than 5 minutes on each side.
5. Turn heat on high under soup pot, and place patties in with garlic, oil, and pepper mixture.
6. Break up patties into small pieces with spatula and brown meat thoroughly. Add tomatoes.
7. Mash and break up tomatoes with spatula.
8. Add enough water to cover all ingredients, reduce heat to low, and let simmer 2 hours or more.