Day 15

Today was a marked improvement over yesterday's massive block o' aerobics. I had Pryme Tyme sculpt and water aerobics early in the morning, and both felt pretty good. We did an interesting series of exercises in water aerobics using water-soaked towels for our equipment; you can get a hell of a lot of resistance going dragging one of those around underwater. Then we sprinted to Benton for my haircut, where I basically told Danny to, "do whatever." He cut it fairly short, but left enough length for me to play with it.


See? Not too shabby! And even though I'm a few weeks overdue for color, the reds still show up really nicely. It's exciting - I couldn't have pulled off quite so short a look two weeks ago, and it's really gratifying to see my face has slimmed down enough that I can manage it.

My afternoon workouts were a free cardio at CCC and some free yoga on my new mat, here at home. The free yoga was nice, although tough since I hadn't gotten time to make a playlist quite yet. I tried just using the "Memoirs of a Geisha" soundtrack, which was alternately soothing and tense; not quite right for yoga. I found an excellent solution, though - an iPhone app that lets you set a time limit and walks you through a yoga routine, telling you what pose to take, how to take it, and when to switch. It even plays mellow, ambient music throughout. I'm pretty psyched to try it out!

Food today was amazing - we made oven "fried" chicken fingers for lunch, with a cup of the broccoli-cheddar pepper soup. The soup is amazing, particularly for diet food; I can't imagine making it with the full-fat stuff, it'd be too rich! It's a South Beach recipe, even, so it's completely diet-approved. Here's the recipe, for anyone interested:

• 1 lb frozen broccoli
• 1 1/2 can chicken broth
• 1/2 can Rotel
• 4-5 ounces of low-fat Velveeta

Place the veggies, tomatoes, and broth in a large pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 40 minutes. Add the cheese and let it melt as you stir it. Mash up veggies or leave them whole. (For those of you who prefer a creamier soup, finish it up by putting it in a food processor and puree it - makes for a wonderful, smooth finish!)

Dinner was my free meal of the week - U.S. Pizza. I had a big green salad with mozzarella and black olives, and two-and-a-half pieces of thin-crust sausage pizza. It was even better than the Mexican food last week! Totally worth the wait. I even wore my "skinny" jeans, the ones that used to leave a big ol' red mark across my belly because I had to suck in so far to make them remotely fit ... and they hugged my hips perfectly! I love weight loss :)

As tired as I am this evening, it's a completely different kind of tired than I was yesterday. Yesterday, I felt sort of used up by the end of the day, like my body had nothing left to contribute. Today, I'm tired, but at the same time I feel really good, really satisfied. I worked myself hard enough to make a difference, but not to the point of physical collapse I was teetering on last night. Good thing, too - tomorrow we're planning to walk Pinnacle's base trail, and to beat the heat and humidity we've gotta be at the trailhead by 7 am.

I feel like there was more I was meant to write about, but I'm so zoned out ... whatever it was, it'll come back to me. G'night all!