Part of this complete breakfast.

I've been trying to mix up my breakfasts this week and am also on an egg kick again. That said, this was today's morning fuel:



Diced up half of a leftover baked sweet potato, threw in the pan with some fresh salsa, sprinkled with a bit of shredded cheddar and topped with a fried egg.



One of the best breakfasts I've had in a while! It was hard to eat this one slowly. The textures. The spice. The subtle sweetness from the potato... Mmm! Need to pick up a few more taters so I can repeat this. I wanted to serve some grilled corn tortillas on the side, but totally spaced it, hence needing to make it again.

Even though this was a great meal, I was still a little hungry afterward, so I finished up the last of some honeydew and topped it with some thawed strawberries:



Crisp, cool and sweet. Love.

In fitness news, I did some strength training this morning, á la Jari Love. Despite my disappointment with her Body Rock DVD, I still had yet to try the weight & abs portion of the workout, so I decided to give it a shot. This portion really is the better half of the DVD. It's only about 30 minutes too, which I appreciated.

This certainly isn't the best of Jari's strength/resistance workouts, but I still felt like my muscles got worked over pretty good. I liked how she reverted back to some isometric moves, typical of some of her older DVDs, but also included some new [killer] shoulder exercises that I had never done before.

She also had a great deadlift circuit, so I quickly swapped out my weights for heavier ones so I could get more of a challenge. If I had to make a list of my favorite exercises, deadlifts would be pretty high up. It's the perfect move for working your arms, back, abs and hamstrings, all at once.

There were also plenty of weighted squats, bicep curls and chest presses. The abs portion was basically a mix of different crunches, including the bicycle variety. It was pretty much all upper-ab work though; not too much focus on lower abs. Fine with me though; my upper abs need all the help they can get these days.

Glad I gave the rest of this DVD another shot! Gotta love variety. I felt like my overall calorie burn was still lacking though, so I did a one mile run before hitting the shower.

I think tomorrow will be another gym day with a new treadmill program. I also have a workout from Fitness magazine that I saved a month or so ago and still haven't tried yet. Looks like a good strength routine. Might save that for Saturday.

Three-day weekend is almost here! No travel plans, so I'm looking forward to lounging like nobody's business. This week's been tough at times.

Rush, as in not enough time, not the band.

I really need to go back to packing my lunches and snacks the night before. The past few mornings have been too rushed and it makes me cranky. Buh. Oh well. Nothing a little Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth can't cure. Music Tangent: I wasn't a big fan of Sonic Youth before (didn't hate them, just kinda neutral). Doug on the other hand LOVES them. Between hearing him play their albums all the time and seeing them in concert last year, I must say, they've totally grown on me.

Let's back up to last night's dinner, shall we? I had a couple of ideas on what to make, but I also had a Buy One Get One Free coupon to Noodles & Company, so off we went.



I got a small order of Bangkok Curry with a grilled chicken breast on top. Added a few drops of Sriracha and I was good to go.

But y'know what I'm really excited to share? DESSERT:



What is this, you ask? Well, my inner Fat Kid took a Deep Chocolate vitatop, a tablespoon of marshmallow cremé and sprinkled on about a teaspoon of reduced-fat unsweetened coconut. The result? A mother-frickin' Sno-Ball. Only much better, in my opinion. I do enjoy me some original Sno-Balls from time to time, but I get sick of them after a few bites because there just seems to be too much marshmallow and not enough cake (is there ever really enough cake in anything though?). Well problem solved, with my version. And the vitatop has chocolate chips in it, so um, helloooo?! Heaven, for the most part.

Moving on to this morning's breakfast:



A bowl of I-Don't-Know-What and a slice of Great Harvest Cinnamon Chip toast.



Ok, so here's what I mixed together:

• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 cup egg substitute
• 1/4 cup fat-free cottage cheese
• 1 tbsp ground flax
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• cinnamon
• splenda
• splash of vanilla extract

I microwaved it for 2:30 and let it cool for a bit. It was good, but maybe could have used a tablespoon or so of flour? I don't know. I just wanted a little bit of oats, but with extra sources of protein, so that's what I ended up with. I guess you could call it Stuffed French Toast in a Bowl? Whatevs. If I want to go for the French Toast effect though, I think next time I need to drizzle some syrup on top. Maybe that's what was missing...

And another shot of the toast, because it made my soul smile:



Quick 'n' Dirty Review of Jari Love's Get Extremely Ripped DVD: Love it! Another great strength & resistance workout. There's definitely not any cardio moves in this one which kinda bummed me out at first, but since it's based around high reps with no breaks in between, my heart rate and sweat output stayed steady the whole time.

It's well over an hour and does move slower than the Get Extremely Ripped! 1000 DVD, but overall, I still enjoyed it. Using the step makes a HUGE difference! Especially when doing stuff like reverse lunges and side squats. Good lord. I had to step off of it occasionally because my quads were on fire.

After the first two workouts (each 30 minutes each), I did the push-ups and plank interval, but skipped the abs routine because I was running out of time and needed to start getting ready for work. Plus, after the ab work I've been doing on the Jackie Warner DVD this week, I was sooo not in the mood for more abs.

Tons of squats, lunges, bicep curls, shoulder presses, rows, tricep kick backs & extensions. Some of the pulsing squat moves killed me, but I could feel my butt and abs working overtime, so I couldn't complain. And you pretty much keep dumbbells in your hands the whole time, so my lifting gloves came in handy for a better, less sweaty grip.

After being disappointed with her Body Rock! DVD the other morning, I'm glad this one met my expectations.

My shoulders and rump cheeks are officially killing me now though, so I don't think I will follow through with my original plan of doing the Jackie Warner DVD again tomorrow. I think I'm just gonna do a 2 mile run (maybe) and call it a day. I know I said last week that I didn't want to break my runs down into smaller distances over the course of more days, but this week, it seems like a better fit.

That's all for today. I think I'm gonna skip lunch and snack photos today since they're basically the same as yesterday, more or less.

Booo! Get off the stage!

This Monday morning hasn't left the best taste in my mouth, but I'm trying to stick to the positive thinking. I've been trying to do that a lot lately... Sometimes I'm successful, and sometimes, not so much.

To start my workout this morning, I tried Jari Love's latest Body Rock DVD. Booooo. I'm sad to say I was not instantly stoked by this one. And really, that's my fault for knowing that it included dance routines (not a fan) and buying it anyway.

The first half is cardio moves led by Jari and her team (mostly knee ups and versions of jumping jacks done at ridiculous speeds) alternated with various dance moves led by some chick named Angie. So annoying. Salsa crap. "Jazz" crap. The only one I found tolerable was the Hip-hop routine because it was the least complicated and incorporated descent resistance and cardio. I was actually looking forward to the disco routine, but that was pretty crap too.

For the record, I can dance. I don't claim to be the best, but I's gots rhythm and I'm not afraid to swing my hips or, if necessary, thrust my pelvis. But dance-based workout routines, where you're expected to learn and master the moves in a couple of minutes? No thank you. I think I was more optimistic about the idea of dancing when I bought the DVD, but now, meh.

I was disappointed with the editing too. During the dance segments, the camera would cut off right above the dancers' knees, so I couldn't fucking see how or when to be kicking and/or stepping and to which sides.

And when it was time to switch back to Jari's cardio moves, the screen just cuts to them immediately, where everyone is already doing the moves at a fast pace; no introduction whatsoever.

After the first half hour (more like 24-25 minutes), Jari leads you into a cooldown stretch before moving on to the next segment, weights & abs. At this point, I turned off the DVD and went into my workout room to run 3 miles on the treadmill and get a real cardio workout. Since I had done Jackie Warner's Power Circuit DVD the day before, I wanted a break from strength & resistance. I'll go back and give the Weight & Abs routine a shot later, as some of the Amazon reviews agree that that's the better half of the DVD anyway.

I still have two other new [older] Jari DVDs to try, so hopefully those will be more in line with her usual format. Also, quick side note: I'm starting to love the Jackie Warner DVD btw, despite how sore it makes me... It's a lot better now that I know how fast you're expected to follow along.

After my let down of a workout, I was disappointed to learn that no, our campus was not in fact on any kind of snow delay, so I had to walk to work in the crummy weather. But it's not the first time and certainly not the last, so I'm over it.

On to breakfast...

Since I was in a bit of a crap mood, I almost bailed on taking pictures today, but finally decided I should since I wasn't having my usual bowl of oats. GASP!



Two turkey sausage links, pumpkin/egg "soufflé" and a banana.

Over the weekend, I pretty much ate all carbs (and didn't drink enough water), so today, I'm cutting back a bit ("bit" is the keyword here, people) on starchy foods where I can.





Basically, I microwaved 1/4 cup egg substitute, 1/4 cup canned pumpkin, splenda, cinnamon & nutmeg. The nutmeg almost ruined this dish! I don't know what possessed me to add it to an egg-based mix (I usually just add it to oats and sometimes, spinach), but I did and I regretted it immediately. Oh well. Next time? Cinnamon = good, nutmeg = bad.



I added a drizzle of sugar-free maple syrup to help out the flavor a bit and it did.



I was gonna skip the banana as part of the "less starch" approach, but it was ripe and calling my name.

Morning snack:



1/2 cup 0% Fage yogurt with 1/4 cup pineapple chunks. Packet of Barney Butter on the side (LOVE these portion-control packets!)

That's all for now. Lunch and afternoon snack post to follow later this afternoon. Hope everyone is having a good morning!