TGIF

The title says it all: thank goodness it's Friday.  This week has worn me out: I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that I started an über intense workout regime, or maybe the fact that I started school after a week off, or maybe the fact that I feel like I haven't sat down since I got back to Des Moines a week ago.  I don't know.

It was another late morning for me: 6:30.  Normally this wouldn't have been too bad, but I had totally forgotten that my meal plan was messed up since I didn't cook dinner on Wednesday and therefore didn't have any leftovers for lunch today.  I panicked.  I had no idea what to pack.  I'm pretty sure my lunchbox Sticks bag looked like Hy-Vee exploded in it.  Seriously.

For breakfast, I whipped up another Halle Berry smoothie and sipped on it throughout the morning, counting it as breakfast and my morning snack.  (It's two servings, so this was legit.)  I've had some questions about what exactly is in an HB smoothie, so here you go:

• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup frozen berries
• 3/4 cup oatmeal
• 2 teaspoons vanilla protein powder (I just dump in a scoop)
• 3 ice cubes
• Chia seeds (added by yours truly, not the Abs Diet)

I also had two cups of coffee, which severely limited my water intake for the day.  Oops.

For lunch, I dug through my kitchen bag to come up with a whole wheat English muffin and omega-3-enriched peanut butter.  Oh, and two Lifesavers mints.

After school, I ate an apple and a hard-boiled egg while I helped some kiddos with their final essays and chatted with my colleagues.

I hit up boot camp today, and it turns out that no one really likes to work out on Fridays.  I swear, a third of the class showed up.  Interesting.  It only lasted about 30 minutes today.  We warmed up with jump-roping, high knees, butt kicks, squats, forward jumps, side-to-side jumps, and a few stretches.  We then went into stations.  The first station was AMRAP (as many reps as possible): four burpees, eight sumo squats with a 20-pound kettlebell, 16 split-squat-jumps, and 32 Russian twists with a 15-pound kettlebell.  I finished three sets in whatever time they gave us (it felt like forever, but I'm sure it was like three minutes).  The second station was kickboxing.  We had four sets on the bag and four sets off.  The off-the-bag sets included triceps dips, pull-ups, windshield-wiper abs, and jump squats.  We finished the workout all together with a 30-20-10 activity: we did 30 seconds each of pulsing squats, push-ups, and flutter kicks, then 20 seconds of all three, and finally ten seconds of all three.

Here is my one complaint about Max Life: kickboxing.  Overall, I like this program better than Farrell's.  However, I like Farrell's kickboxing more.  On Tuesday, we worked out our left side really hard - which, I'm assuming, is why I could barely straighten my left arm.  I assumed that today we would work out our right side really hard - but, no.  I feel uneven (granted, I'm a bit OCD, but that's besides the point).  Also, the combinations they have us putting on the bag are super awkward.

Oh well.

After the workout, I inhaled a serving of celery sticks and decided to hit up Target before heading home. (I am so the girl that goes out in public looking like a hot, sweaty mess.  And I don't care one bit.)

I then whipped up dinner:

"Penne and the Jets," courtesy of - you guessed it - the Abs Diet.  Yum, yum, yum.  The recipe called for chickpeas, but unfortunately, I used them all in the chili.  So, my Penne and the Jets included spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta cheese, parsley, basil, and whole-wheat penne.  I also had a side of Romaine with a smidge of light Caesar dressing.

Unfortunately, since I didn't have the chickpeas, I was really lacking in protein.  I was hungry again almost immediately after eating the whole plate.  Ugh.

Also, I was craving sweets - like, bad.  So question: how do you curb your sweet tooth on a diet?  I feel like I always want dessert after I eat dinner, and I have no idea why.  That's never been a staple of my diet, so I feel like it's super strange that I'm craving it hardcore right now.

And since my tummy is still growling, I'm going to go whip up another Virgin Cabo Daiquiri, watch a little CSI, and then head to bed: I have an early morning workout!

Ciao!