Day 1 -- Billy Blanks Jump Start Cardio

Well, it's the end of Day 1, and I survived, although certainly not perfectly (see my eating log below).

The day began with no alarm clock, so everybody got up late, including me, at 7 a.m. That is not enough time for me to get the older girls off to school and do a workout, so I decided to wait until the little one goes to school.

Stephen informs me he's working from home today, which means an inevitable trip to McDonald's. Ugh. I am standing there staring blankly at the breakfast menu, wondering how in the world this can fit into my diet. I've just (yesterday!) started an article about how much the dollar menu actually costs you in terms of waistline expenditures, and I'm dreading having to write down somewhere that I went to a fast food joint.

At any rate, I choose the lesser of many evils, and opt for the Egg McMuffin without cheese. That costs me 280 calories, which isn't bad for McDonald's. Probably the worst thing I did was drink half a Diet Coke. If you haven't drank diet soda for awhile, it tastes like I would imagine battery acid tasting. Yuck. One of the best things I've done diet-wise in the last few weeks is stop drinking regular soda, but I get a hankering for a soda now and again, so I'm choosing diet when I must.

I get home and don't want to hit the workout with my McMuffin still digesting, so I clean the older girls' room (think "The Day After") for 90 minutes, and then finally bite the bullet. I'm a wuss, so I put in Billy Blanks' Tae Bo Amped DVD -- it comes with four of them -- the easiest one, "Jump Start Cardio." Billy is extremely likeable, and I'm fairly familiar with this workout, so I'm taking it easy on myself to start out (thus, the wuss).

It's been about a month since I've done the Tae Bo Amped workout, and someone has been playing with my amplifier. The amplifier is a 3-lb. bar that comes with the workout package, and it has three settings on it. A month ago, it worked perfectly. Today, it does not.

The amplifier keeps opening and closing on me, and I find this extremely distracting. I nickname it "the irritator." My new tennis shoes are no help, either, and I just cleaned the fake wood floor yesterday, so I'm sliding all over the place, trying to keep the bar in the correct position and not knock myself out with it.

At any rate, I survived and actually got a pretty good workout. I just love Billy Blanks, because he screws up and just keeps going anyway. That's endearing to me, because I am screwing up right along with him, and he's smiling, so it must be okay.

I felt pretty good the rest of the day, and I wonder if I'll be sore tomorrow. Since I'm also trying to stick to a good diet, see my eating log below.

Thanks for tuning in. If you have any good home DVD's you use that you could recommend, please let me know. I'm off, but I'll be back here tomorrow, same Bat time, same Bat channel. And don't forget, "Biggest Loser" is on tonight! Go Danny!
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Eating Journal:

Tuesday, 12-1-09:

9:30 a.m.
Egg McMuffin without cheese – 280
½ small diet coke – 00
Subtotal: 280

11:00 a.m.
2 small pretzels – 20
1 glass water – 00
Subtotal: 20

12 p.m.
1 bowl salad – 50
2 tbsp low fat vinaigrette dressing – 45
8 melba toast crackers – 100
2 tbsp garlic
Subtotal: 265


4:15 p.m.

BBQ chicken wrap from McDonald’s (UGH) – 260
Bottle water – 0
hummus – 70
Subtotal: 260

6:30 p.m.

Quesadilla made out of:
2 corn tortillas – 110
½ cup fat free refried beans – 80
2 tbsp light sour cream – 40
2 tbsp salsa – 10
Cut up lettuce – 5
2 glasses water – 0
Subtotal: 230

6:45 p.m.
Yogurt raisins (small box) – 120
Few strawberries – 30
Subtotal: 150

9:30 p.m.
2 sugar-free popsicles (while watching Biggest Loser) -- 30

Total Daily Calories: 1,235