Stress-eating extravaganza!

Finals. Stress. German chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. Need I say more?

Auditions!

I used to obsess over what, if any, workout DVDs I should buy. I hated the thought of buying a bad DVD. And then, I realized that every town in the U.S. has a handy way to try out new workouts: the public library.

I've tried yoga DVDs, Self DVDs, etc. Some have been great and I've gone on to purchase them, some of them have been...well, extremely odd. Recently, I tried Crunch's Yoga-Pilates "super slim down" DVD with Ellen Barret. I really like it, as I'm still recovering from some foot problems. It's a nice combination of yoga and pilates.

No wonder I like it so much!

I have a favorite drink, one that I fall back on whenever I'm out. I love amaretto sours. I find them tart and sweet and refreshing, and there's nothing better to have as a cocktail. I usually indulge when I've had a really hard day (like today) or when someone else is picking up the tab on a special occasion (rare).

When I came back to school from the happy hour, replete with satisfaction from having my favorite drink, I entered it on fitday.com. Well, I tried to anyway. But fitday only has info for a whiskey sour. I tried google, and got widely varying responses. But the sad fact is that an amaretto sour is loaded with calories. As with every drink, the calories vary depending on the bartender. I was sitting at a table, not watching the bartender, so I have no idea how he made it.

A little of my glow from having what I wanted is gone, but not all. I'll simply save the amaretto sours for special days, and from now on, I definitely will not be having more than one!

Spicing things up with circuits

Sometimes, I get bored with the same old, same old, so I'll start throwing strength and cardio workouts together in strange combinations. When I belonged to a real gym, I would do cardio circuits, too.

If you subscribe to Self or Fitness, they'll occasionally suggest doing one or two minute bursts of cardio in between the strength moves. It burns more calories, effectively turning your strength workout into a cardio workout, too. This time, I did 45 minutes of Taebo, but every 3 minutes I'd stop the tape and do a move from the Self Challenge strength workout for this month. It stretched my workout to a little over an hour, which meant that I kept my heart rate up for that long.

These are particularly fun to do outside with a friend or two. You can set up stations along a track: push-ups, crunches, lunges, etc. You run a 1/4, do an exercise, etc. Some people set them up as relays.

New incentive: workout gear!

A few summers ago, I dearly wanted a pair of retro-looking PE shorts from Athleta. Athleta isn't carrying them anymore, but I did find these from Hind. I've decided that they will be my reward once I've hit 143 pounds again. They're a bit of an incentive in themselves--any woman in her right mind would want her legs looking amazing in those!

What was old is new again

Dealing with an injury is no fun. Trying to crosstrain on a limited budget and a broken bike is also no fun. Finding your old TaeBo tapes in the closet and deciding to mix it up a little? Kinda fun. Fun that hurts a bit the next day.

I used to do TaeBo with my friends in college. It has been about 3 years since I've really used them--I used to be able to the advanced tape all the way through, go me!--and I only did 30 minutes of Advanced Tape 1 last night. But it was difficult, I sweated, and it was something different than using the exercise bike.

I really need to find a cheap way to replace my bike's tires. A friend of mine works for REI so I think I'll ask her for advice.

Time to go stretch out--every time I sit for more than 10 minutes, my muscles get a little bit more sore!

Habits

I find that a lot of people think, "I'll lose the weight, and then I can do..." They rarely acknowledge the fact that once you lose the weight, you have to keep it off. That means keeping up with a healthy diet and exercise. This is the main reason that "diets" like Jenny Craig or Atkins don't work for very long (unless you want to keep eating prepared frozen meals or a ridiculous amount of fat and meat).

I think that the answer is finding the things that you are willing and able to do for the rest of your life. While looking for ideas on how to finally manage to workout in the mornings, I found this article on how to add habits to your life. Some excerpts:

To create a new habit there a only a few steps and these are steps we all
possess the firepower to do.
1. You have to decide on what you want to be a habit. It is important that you be as specific as possible. A habit of drinking more water is problematic whereas a habit of drinking 6 glasses a day is easier to install.
2. You have to set up triggers to help you remember the action at the time you want to do it.
3. Once you have remembered you have to be able to motivate yourself to act.

Regression and progress

I'm ashamed to say that I hit a bit of a snag recently. I hurt my feet--damn you, plantar fasciitis--and found myself snacking on chocolate chips when I couldn't find anything else to assuage my chocolate cravings. Sigh. I took some time off the cardio but kept on doing some yoga and Self Challenge workouts just to keep from becoming solid blubber.

I did try a brand new recipe from Self, though, and it was a winner! The chicken confetti pasta salad from CookingLight was not so great and I will not be posting that. But the shrimp, pea and potato gnocchi from Self truly is fabulous. I think it's the simplicity of it, plus how the rosemary smells when you throw everything into the oil.

From Self via Scott Conant's New Italian Cooking
Makes 4 servings.
3/4 lb large shrimp (about 30 pieces), peeled and deveined
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary (I used dried)
1 tsp chopped fresh parsley (again, dried)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
3 cups frozen potato gnocchi (I used a box, all I could find)
1/4 cup fresh peas
1 tbsp thinly sliced green onion (forgot this but didn't make a difference)

Toss shrimp with 1 tbsp oil, rosemary, parsley, red pepper flakes, and garlic and refrigerate 3 hours (or if you're scatterbrained like me, 30 minutes)
Bring 8 cups well-salted water to a boil; add gnocchi. Drain when gnocchi float (about 5 minutes), reserving 1/4 cup liquid.
Combine remaining 1 tbsp oil with shrimp, peas and green onion in a large sauté pan over high heat; season with salt and pepper. Add gnocchi and pasta liquid and cook until shrimp are pink and just cooked through, about 5 minutes. Serve warm.

Nutritional analysis per serving 332 calories, 8.7 g fat (1.2 g saturated fat), 39.9 g carbohydrates, 23.8 g protein, 4.2 g fiber

I'm reading The Skinny: How to Fit into Your Little Black Dress Forever currently. It's too soon to write a real review, but I like the basic ideas. They're not telling me to eat a percentage of this or a percentage of that, which is GREAT. Basically, it seems to be about awareness, which is the heart of creating healthy habits.