First, my computer is working. Kevin saved the day (Thanks Kevin!) by disconnecting and reconnecting the cables to the hard drive. Whew!

Second, Zander has been an AWESOME kid since we got back from Dillon. Really helpful, super sweet, cooperative… it’s been great. Zevan – not so much.

Third, my food choices have been TERRIBLE. I went on a carb binge – sugar, bread, etc, etc… It has not been pretty.

Finally, I’ve done a decent job with my workouts.

Day 10, Tuesday, I did Back and Abs. It was late in the day, and I almost missed the workout, but I got it done! Since I did Ab Ripper X the day before, I did not do it again that day. Since my family was visiting and no one was interested in going climbing with me, I didn’t climb in the evening.

Day 11, Wednesday – we went on a 90 minute hike around Garden of the Gods in the morning. After lunch I took the boys to Art Sports for open gym. When my brother and his family left town, I left the boys with my mom and spent 2 hours cleaning/doing laundry to get our house liveable again. Then I put in a hour of work on top of all that just to get all the fires put out. With the hike, housecleaning, and work I was far too exhausted to even think about doing Yoga X. So I didn’t. And I didn’t do Ab Ripper X either.

Day 12, Thursday – after fixing the boys breakfast, I worked for 2 hours… THEN I finally popped in the DVD for Shoulders and Arms. Ah… my favorite one. This time I used dumbbells instead of the bands and got a tougher workout. I followed up with Ab Ripper X. Now I’m back on schedule. Then we headed to the park for playdate.

That evening, I actually went climbing to make up for missing it on Tuesday night. Ow. Shoulders and Arms the same day as climbing – it was not a pretty sight. Normally I am a solid 5.10 climber, but last night I only climbed one route at 5.10 — the rest were 5.9, 5.9+, and I think one 5.10- Yowza. Now I know it was a good idea to swap those workout days. If only I was actually on that schedule.

After climbing, we went to Shuga’s and I indulged myself. The Brazilian Shrimp Soup and Chicken Curry salad were good choices, but the almond butter cake and almond kiss drink were not.

That brings us to today.

Day 13, Friday. This morning I did Kenpo X first thing! There were a few pauses in getting the boys breakfast, but I did the workout in its entirety. Love it! I had a quick bowl of Oatmeal Crisp with walnuts and Craisins. For lunch, I brought an Amy’s vegetarian lasagna to Doug’s parents house to eat while the boys ate McDonalds.

In the afternoon, I had a protein bar snack and a handful of yogurt raisins. And Doug just went out with Zander to pick up some Yakitori chicken and Miso soup for my dinner. Definitely getting back on track.

I’m simply not going to be strictly by the P90X nutrition book – all that denial gets me primed for a binge, as I experienced. So, I’m going to go for a balance of BETTER choices and live with that. My focus is on getting more protein, more protein, more protein and staying within my calories.

EARTH HOUR
Saturday, March 29, 2008
8 p.m. regardless of your time zone.

Sign up for Earth Hour with me by visiting http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up and join the movement.

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!

Oh boy. It’s been quite the weekend. Food wise, I’m well within my calories, but again, less than optimal choices.

On Sunday, I went far too long between meals.

SUNDAY:
BREAKFAST: Protein shake
SNACK: None
LUNCH: None
SNACK: (Late lunch): Beef & Broccoli with rice and mango
DINNER: Beefsteak with rice
DESSERT: Coldstone (Cake Batter with Kit Kats)

After my late lunch/snack, I FINALLY found time to do my workout. I did Chest and Back – again it was brutal. I’m glad I don’t have to do that again for another week.

Doug left for home on Sunday because he had to go into work on Monday. The boys and I stayed an extra night to hang out with the family. After dinner, I pre-packed our stuff since we had to check out in the morning.

Monday morning, I woke up and realized that I had forgotten to do my Ab Ripper X workout the night before. So, I popped in the DVD, and did it. Afterwards, I thought, welll, might as well do plyometrics while I’m already sweaty. So while everyone else was packing, I did Plyometrics in the living room of the condo. Whew! Crazy stuff.

After my workout, I made myself a quick protein shake, grabbed a shower and then joined in on the packing and cleaning in order to check out by 10 AM. We finished just as the cleaning person arrived, and then took the boys out to go sledding again before we left the mountains.

Zander and Ashton were the only ones interested in sledding, so my mom sat with Zevan in the van while my dad and I took the 2 boys to the sledding hill. It was fun, and much sunnier, warmer and less windy weather than the first time. After about 45 minutes, they had had enough, and we went back to the car.

By this time, it was lunch time, I missed my snack, and was STARVING. We headed into Dillon and stopped at Burger King for lunch. I had a whopper (half the bun), onion rings and diet coke. I know, I know, it was oh so bad, but it was oh so delicious.

Then it was back into the car for the long drive back home.

When I got home, I unpacked, started laundry and then turned on the computer to catch up after being off line the entire weekend.

Except my computer told me that it was unable to find the hard drive. I have seen that message before, so I turned it off, and restarted it. Same error message. Crap.

More starting and restarting. No luck. Crap. Crap. CRAP.

I’m trying not to panic, but it’s hard not to. EVERYTHING is on that computer. My last back up was about 3 weeks ago, so of course I’m nervous.

Okay, I’ve got a million things to do, I’ll just wait until Kimmie and Kevin get here to have them take a look.

So now more laundry, more cleaning, and I have to run some errands. I have Zander, Zevan and Ash with me. How can I get them in the car?

“Anyone want some ice cream???” “Me!” “I do!” “Me, I do!”

So, we head out to Dairy Queen. And I buy them ice cream. But none for me. I have a protein bar instead.

While they eat their ice cream, I stop at the ATM to deposit some checks from clients. Then we go over to the car wash so I can get the mountain snow dirt off of my car. The boys enjoyed me squirting them through the windows.

And now we’re home. And I’m hungrily waiting for my mom’s sinigang (Filipino beef stew) while everyone else will be eating something from Chipotle or Noodles & Co.

And I’m typing from my laptop because my PC still can’t find the hard drive. Sigh.

Okay, my diet is suffering, suffering, suffering… I totally should have waited until after this weekend to start this program.

So let’s get the confession out of the way.

Last night – I was hoping to have some steak, but my dad – who is studying to be a deacon – reminded me that it was Good Friday and should not eat meat. (I’m a lapsed Catholic). They all ordered pizza and I somehow kept the resolve to not eat it. Instead I ate a plain omelette with tomatoes and a 1/3 cup of rice. Unfortunately, I did have some chips & salsa… and then, late at night, my sister made rice krispie treats… and then I ate way too many rice krispie treats.

This morning, I had sausages, tomatoes and rice for breakfast. Then it was Stretch X – which took about 30-40 minutes longer than it should have because we were watching my kids, and my 2 nephews. 4 boys – 5, 3, 3, and 2 years old. Craziness and mayhem.

Then we took the boys sledding. It was cold and windy, but they all had a great time. Zevan was ready to leave and had a tiny tantrum, but shortly afterwards, we were all ready to get warm.

My parents took the little guys, and Doug, the boys and I went out to lunch at Ruby Tuesday. I didn’t get to order my favorite Ruby Minis with fries and salad bar. Instead I ordered a steak and the salad bar. And no Starbucks for me.
Snack today – pumpkin seeds.

For dinner, my mom made her famous beef & broccoli. I had
1 1/2 servings with rice and banana.

Calorically, I’m doing okay, but my choices have been less than optimum. I’m sure I won’t have a loss this week, and I’m not entirely sure there won’t be a gain.

Last night was spa night with the girls. There was less than optimal food involved…there was cheese, bread, roasted garlic, cream cheese, wheat thins, carrots, strawberries…half a glass of pomegranate italian sode and a pint of beer! I was able to abstain from sweets like cookies, so that was a small victory.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled P90X program.

No time to do a long run today – I’m headed out of town for Easter weekend for a family reunion. So, I got to do the entire Kenpo X workout – oh yeah! I have studied martial arts on and off over the years, and a big fan of Tae Bo. So, Kenpo X was really fun and a great workout for me.

POST WORKOUT: Smoothie (same as yesterday with 1 1/2 scoops of protein powder)
BREAKFAST: Oatmeal with 1/4 scoop protein powder, 1/2 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tbsp craisins (the protein powder made it taste funny – I probably won’t do that again)
SNACK: Pumpkin seeds

Now I’ve got to pack up for the trip. I’m bringing food with me and my workout DVDs for Sunday/Monday. Again, food will be an issue, but I promise to not totally over do it.

Don’t know if I can get online while I’m gone…

This morning was probably my favorite work out yet. Not just because there were not pull ups, but that definitely made it more appealing. I love working biceps and shoulders. My triceps need a lot of work. It was good, I need to get some heavy weights or a more resistant band for some of the exercises.

Ab ripper X was, of course, brutal. I always collapse in a heap after just 30 reps of the last exercise, Mason Twists… YOW!

I went to the grocery store and bought a lot of protein.

Cans of chicken, frozen shrimp, steak, coconut crusted tilapia, and a frozen Amy’s Bowl. And I picked up a tub of egg white vanilla protein powder.

NUTRITION thus far:
BREAKFAST: 1 boiled egg
PRE-WORKOUT: 1 banana
POST-WORKOUT: Smoothie! 1 scoop protein powder, 8 frozen strawberries, 1 tbs cashew butter, 12 oz water – DELICIOUS!
LUNCH: Protein Bar
SNACK: Chicken Salad 1 with Celery

I’m off to spa night with the girls. There will probably be a little bit of less than optimum eating, but I’m going to do my best to keep it to a minimum.

I need to admit that I *just* ate an oatmeal raisin cookie along with a handful of walnuts…

I know my calories are too low today, but I don’t have good choices around…

However, here’s some good news – I’m down 0.4 lbs from last week!

Week 8
Starting weight: 137.8
Last week’s weight: 133.0
Current weight: 132.6
Goal Weight: 125.0

Overall loss: 5.2
Lbs to go: 7.6