Foodie revisited

I said it before. I'll say it again. I. Love. Food.

Mostly, I love all the stuff that's bad for me, but I enjoy salads and fruits & vegetables, too. 

That being said, I was a BAD girl on vacation. Having never visited California before, I wanted to take in as many of the new foods as I could. I knew I'd work it all off either climbing the hills in SF or working out (if I didn't feel I got the exercise I needed during the day).

When I got into San Francisco Friday night, the first thing we did was go to In n' Out (Damn you, Harry Snyder!). Upon the recommendation from one of my followers (ahem, totally calling you out, @MichaelTimmons!), I ordered the #1 with animal-style fries and a chocolate shake. This thing was AMAZING. The burgers are all made fresh, as are the fries. The shake was to die for and I appreciated every artery-clogging bite of my meal. YUM. MY!

That night, Tracy, DawnL and I sat around and had some wine. This wine was the sweetest, most flavorful wine I've ever tasted. (Shameless plug for Fantasia from Castello di Amorosa in Napa.) Again - definitely not on the diet. But oh so good!

On Friday, Tara, Tracy and I headed to the Wharf. We bypassed the Ben & Jerry's shop and the pretzel & cotton candy stand (much to my dismay), but had a delicious dinner at the Pier Market. While I should've probably avoided the creamy chowder, I didn't. I did however avoid the fish and chips (save for a couple small bites Tracy shared with me - that stuff was amazing!). I had the New England clam chowder and a salad instead (and a delicious cocktail). I won't think about the number of empty calories in any of it.

Fortunately, this dietary wrist-slit was counteracted by the miles we walked around at the Wharf and up and down Lombard Street that day. I don't feel too guilty about it. I also didn't buy anything at Ghiradelli Square, so there's that. (Does the single square of chocolate they gave us as a sample count? I don't think so.) 

We joined DawnL later that night for dinner at The Silk Road. I skipped the liquor and had water instead (go me!). They brought us a killer appetizer of flat bread and some Mediterranean salsa thing (balsamic vinegar & olive oil based. Need I say more?).

For dinner, I debated between the ravioli and the lamb shank. Committed to trying new things, I opted for the lamb. I wasn't disappointed. It was DELICIOUS! It was served in a unique tomato sauce, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. 

Saturday brought me a few handfuls of movie popcorn (shameless plug for MacGruber. Go see it!) and some Sour Patch Kids. It also brought me a corndog late in the afternoon from Dairy Queen (hey, I bypassed the Blizzard. Gimme some credit.) and another late night visit to In n' Out. I skipped the cheese on my double burger and ate my fries with just the special sauce instead of animal-style. Obviously I should've skipped the whole damn place, but I did all right with what I could. We rounded out the night at home with some more wine (Yes, I drank the entire bottle of Moscato while I was there, so sue me).

Sunday, I had lunch with an old classmate and we went to Pasta Pomodoro. I ordered the Conchiglie Gamberi and like everything else this weekend, it wasn't healthy. It was pasta shells with asparagus, tomatoes and shrimp with a cream & shrimp stock sauce. De. Lish.

Sunday night we finished out our weekend with a decandent dinner at Bruno's on Fillmore. The girls opted for cheesy garlic bread, but I chose the calamari at our waiter's suggestion. It was good, but nothing special. The lasagna and salad, though. HOLY COW! Good stuff!!!

What's the point of this (very tempting) blog? The point is, you can be human. You can have a weekend of selfish indulgence. You can "cheat" from time to time. Just don't make a habit of it. I put on 3-4lbs this weekend, but I'll work it back off. I have realistic expectations of myself and I'm willing to deal with the consequences of my actions. A weekend like this will mean more time on the treadmill, but it was worth it. I got to try new things and not worry about the shouldn't do's.

The numbers don't lie

It's easy sometimes when you're as big as I am to look at yourself in the mirror and not see a big difference in progress. Over the last year I've seen my sizes go down, but until just now, I hadn't realized just how much weight/inches I've lost total.

To put it in perspective:

Since last May, I've maintained a 20lb weight loss. I was up to 37lbs down at one point, but slacked off and gained 17lbs back. (NOT happy about this, btw.) I've lost 3" off my bust, 2" off my chest, 6" off my waist and 4" off my hips. My legs are as solid as solid gets, so I've only lost an inch off my thighs and a half inch off my calves. My biceps are becoming more defined, though. I've lost 2" off of those (goodbye fat, hello muscle!). My neck has fluctuated an inch one way or another all year long.

I could very easily complain about those 17lbs gained or the fact that I've plateaued, but instead, I choose to celebrate how far I've come. I still have a long way to go, but I'm confident I will get there. I didn't get to this size overnight and I won't lose it overnight, either. I'm okay with that...even for as frustrated as I get.

People (myself included) put a lot of emphasis on actual pounds lost or gained, but we have to remember that it's not all about pounds. It's inches, too. How do your clothes fit? Do your ankles feel puffy? Can you see your collarbone? One of my first goals last year wasn't to get into a smaller sized dress. It was to be able to buckle the strap on a pair of sexy-ass shoes I'd gotten the year before for my birthday. Sure enough, my first goal met was getting into those shoes. It's not about the weight, girls. It's about overall health & fitness.

I'm kicking ass, I feel good and that's what counts!

Sooooo....Tabata?

So as it stands, I haven't lost a pound since my last weigh-in, a week ago Saturday. Obviously I'm disappointed by this, but I'm gonna stick with this tabata thing for a while. I've got some travel coming up, which will interfere with my workout schedule and diet, so I'm trying to keep an open mind and make sure that I'm giving this new workout the right amount of time to start working. If, after a month, I don't see a difference in weight and/or inches, then I'll reevaluate then.

Until then, as it stands, I'm still hovering at 245.

sigh

What a Marshmallow!

My favorite line in "New Moon" is when Jacob calls Mike a "marshmallow." It just makes me giggle.

But he's right. Mike was a marshmallow.

My point?

So am I.

I've been sitting here pity partying about not losing any weight, not dropping any sizes, not losing any inches. Wah, wah, wah. *insert one of my typical eyerolls here*

Here's the thing. I'm pussing out on my workouts. That's the only thing I can come up with. I've been a complete marshmallow and I haven't pushed myself as hard as I can on my workouts. I've been focused on doing X number of reps in an X amount of time. When I get a little winded, I slow down or I cut my reps. When I get sick of drinking water, I switch to herbal tea. When I want a Coke, I have one.

What the hell?

Yeah, cuz that will work well for losing weight.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going to push myself harder, push myself longer, dig deeper for what I know is there. I've lost focus and I can't do that anymore.

I bought a new pair of capris the other day. I went up a size. Screw that noise. I'm not going to get fatter. Period. Ain't happening.

What about you? Are you a marshmallow? Are you pushing yourself hard enough?

Day three on the "new" workout

I did Tabata on Saturday and again Sunday. I wouldn't recommend this because your body needs a day of rest between cardio workouts. I did it because I'd gotten off schedule (I am scheduled to do cardio 3x a week and weights twice a week) and tried to get caught back up. I also wanted to teach @projectdance how to do Tabata because she was interested in spicing up her workout. (She agrees that its the easiest/hardest workout she's ever done. Easiest because it only takes 4 minutes. Hardest because it kicks. your. ass.)

Sunday, I overdid some yardwork and ended up pulling a shoulder muscle and I've been feeling pretty miserable, trying to baby it a little bit until it heals. So today, I took it easy on the shoulder weights, but I did some circuit training as well as 100's and some crunches on the inclined bench. I rounded out my workout with a tan, which is my little mini-reward after every workout.

So far, I'm feeling good about this change in my workout. The Tabata was easier the second day and I suspect it will continue to get better, which is great, but my biggest hope is that it kickstarts my metabolism into gear again. We'll see how it goes!

Ahh, Tabata

Tabata (tah-BAH-tuh) is another type of high intensity interval training. If you've read my other blogs, you know what my typical workouts consist of. Baffled at my metabolic issues, I've been trying to think of things I can do to kick it into gear. When I did some research on HIIT training, Tabata came up. I hadn't heard of it before, so I clicked on a couple links and it intrigued me. I watched a video of someone doing it and was impressed.

The basic gist of Tabata is four minutes of intervals. 20 seconds hard core, 10 seconds rest, repeating 8 times. (It didn't mention it on the sites I read, but I strongly recommend 5 min warm-ups and cool-downs, too). It's very similiar to the HIIT I've been doing, but on a much small, much more intense scale. In this video you can see first-hand that it's not an easy workout. I figured it was worth a shot and might shake up my metabolism a little bit. If today's workout was any indication, I'm right.

I did my 5 min warm up on the treadmill, then switched to the elliptical. I set the resistance at about 15 and pounded it as hard as my legs would go for 20 seconds. I slowed to a walking pace for 10 seconds. By 3 minutes in, I couldn't breathe and my legs burned so bad I wanted to die. But with ONE minute left, I knew I could push through the pain and keep going. With a 15 minute HIIT workout, after 3 minutes, you've still got a lot of reps left and even those twelve minutes can seem like forever, even if it is done at 30 second intervals.

I finished the entire four minutes and stepped off the machine to get the sanitizer and I thought I was gonna collapse. My legs were (and still, two hours later) Jell-O. My heart rate topped out at 177 (not smart, btw. I shouldn't have let it get that high) and it took me 30 minutes to get back to my normal resting heart rate of 75-80.

I feel like I actually did something today rather than just pranced along on the treadmill. I'm hoping this is what my body needs. I'll keep you posted.

Today's weigh-in - 245
We'll see where I'm at this time next week. :)

Basal Metabolic Rate & all that junk

Yesterday, I went to my doctor for my re-exam. (This is a test done every twelve weeks or so to see how my body is holding adjustments and maintaining overall health.) We discussed the whole veggie cleanse thing. He was disappointed that it didn't work as he'd hoped (to kickstart/shock my metabolism into gear). I asked him if it even had enough time to work since I only did a day and a half of it. He said, "Yes, it should've shocked it. But it didn't. And we need to figure out why."

So he did some searching in my chart to see if we'd done a basal metabolic test. This is a test that determines what calorie intake I would need to have to maintain weight by doing nothing more than laying in bed. We did do a BMT in early spring 2008. My rate was 1550-1570. This means, if I'm not doing anything else, I should maintain my weight by taking in 1550-1570 calories a day. I'm *not* taking in that few amount, although I should be. I'm usually roughly between 1700-2000 calories a day. Even so, with the amount of physical activity I'm doing, I should *still* be losing weight, even if slowly and I'm not - I lose 5lbs, I gain 5lbs. This particular BMT was done in 2008, so we're doing another test on the 25th to get a more accurate reading. We'll also do a Ragland's test, to see if my adrenal system is functioning correctly. (You can Google these to find out what they are.)

I asked him how we can get my metabolic rate to go up because I just can't (i.e. "won't") survive on 1500 calories or less. He said to just continue doing what I'm doing by working out. The higher the lean tissue mass I have, the higher that metabolic rate will be. Seems easy enough and makes sense, but he and I are still concerned as to why my metabolism seemed to work fine last summer and now is back to working like this. (Hence the reason we're testing on the 25th.)

Until then, I'm not freaking out. I'm not changing anything. Gonna keep busting ass at the gym and eating healthy. Still drinking hoards of water. Not much else I can do until we know what I'm dealing with. If it turns out that there is a problem with my thyroid or adrenal system, there are supplements I can take and things I can do dietary- and exercise-wise that will help correct it.

Just wanted to give an update for those who were wondering what all the talk was about my basal metabolic rate.

Keep Keepin' On!

Ok, so I started doing 100's today. Those suckers are TOUGH! Up to this point, I'd been doing sit-ups, which were going well, but I didn't feel the burn in my upper abs like I wanted. I was afraid I wasn't working them. I'll sure do it with the 100's!

I was going to start kicking up my reps on HIIT from 6 to 8 this week, but it didn't happen. We'll start that tomorrow. I'm doing better now on the 6's, so that'll help. Might even do more about upping my metab, so yay!

I've been doing well on what I'm eating. I think I've said before, I don't really deny myself cravings. I just limit them. Instead of buying a king-sized candy bar when I'm craving chocolate, I get a small one or a bag of miniatures. I know how much harder it is on the treadmill when I work out, so I don't eat the whole bag like I used to. Same with soda. I have cut soda out of my diet...relatively speaking. But every once in a while, I get a really bad Coke craving, so I indulge. I don't buy a case of soda & drink it in three days like I used to, but I'll buy a 20 oz bottle once in a great while. The last soda I had was a week ago. Before that, it was almost a month. That's BIG for me.

I see a lot of people trying to lose weight right now. Many of my followers are doing it for the NKOTB cruise and/or the summer (non)tour. Some are doing it for health, some are doing it for vanity, some are doing it for swimsuit season, some are doing it to lower stress. Whatever the reason, GOOD FOR YOU!!! It's tough to make changes to your life like this. Any changes you're making are great!

So to those making these changes, KEEP KEEPIN' ON!!!

Today was a good day!

I've been a member of Sparkpeople.com for several years now and haven't lived up to the goals I've set for myself on there. The site is fantastic, but it also holds you accountable. Some days I just don't wanna hear I screwed up. I don't want to see that I went 500 calories over my allotted intake, so if I don't plug in my food for the day, then I don't know that I went over. And if I didn't see that I went over, then it's like I didn't go over. Yeeeeeaaaaaah. There's logic & common sense for ya, right?

Anyway...I have been trying to get to the bottom of my shitty metabolism or at least see if its shitty metabolism or just my own denial rearing its ugly head again. The last few blogs have touched on that, I think.

Since I'm trying to figure out what's going wrong and where, I've been trying to do better about logging what I eat, what I do for my workout, etc so I can track exactly what's going on.

Today?

Today was the first day in THREE years that I didn't go over on ANY of my nutrition goals for the day. Some days I'll be fine on calories, fat & carbs, but be waaaaaay under on protein. Other days I might be okay on everything but fat or carbs. It's tough to get a good mix of where I should be. Today, though...I made it.

I'm pretty proud of myself!!

General Training and My Typical Workout

From everything I've read and researched about High Intensity Interval Training, it is based on a "work smarter, not harder" mentality. The body doesn't need to work out for hours on end. You don't need to work every muscle, every day. In fact, it's recommended to alternate cardio & weight-training every other day so your body has time to heal itself between workouts. Make sure to stretch, warm-up and cool-down before and after every workout, regardless of what you're doing. This can prevent injury, increase blood-flow and help flush toxins from your body that can harbor sickness and disease.

Weight training will help you build muscle. The stronger the muscles, the more quickly and easily you will burn excess fat. Cardio training will help strengthen your heart & lungs and increase blood flow throughout your body. (The links will show you the numerous benefits of each type of training and their effects on your body & overall health. You can Google them both for more links to various articles online.)

All gyms should offer you a session where a trainer will show you how to work the machines. Many gyms will also offer a personalized training session where you learn how to monitor your resting heart rate and figure out what machines are best for you based on your fitness goals. They can also help you determine what your maximum heart rate should be so you don't overdo it. Some gyms charge for this consultation. Others don't. The YMCA is where I learned what works best for my body and the service was included in my membership. If you don't know for sure what your gym offers, ASK! And even if it is a small fee to have a trainer help you get started, it's well worth the money spent. You can avoid injury and wasted time & money by knowing what you should be doing to meet your goals. 

While the links are posted to the left, I thought I'd break down my workout for you. This is NOT meant to set any example of what you should do. That should be determined by you and your trainer. This is simply an explanation of what my trainer and I figured out for me.

Sun/Tue/Thurs

• Stretch - 10 minutes - warm up the muscles.
• HIIT on the treadmill (including warm-up & cool-down)  - described below
• Stretch - 10 minutes - cool down the muscles 

Mon/Wed

• Stretch - 10 minutes - warm up the muscles
• Circuit Weight Training - Upper & lower body muscle groups: This includes several machines that work upper back, shoulder, chest, arms, abs, thigh, calf, butt and lower back muscles. 
• Stretch - 10 minutes - cool down the muscles

I do crunches/sit-ups every day, whether I'm at the gym or not, seven days a week. At home, I tuck my feet under the edge of  the couch and do between 40 and 50 full sit-ups, taking a minute or so between reps of 10. At the gym, I use a bench with a 30-45° incline and I do crunches. Because of the incline, I do fewer of them for now - usually cranking out about 20-30 - again, doing reps and taking breaks. I do ab-work daily because the majority of my excess weight is in my belly and the leaner the muscles in those areas, the more quickly and easily I will burn fat in that area. 

As far as my HIIT goes (an example of the first week doing this training):

0:00-5:00     3.0 mph - a slow, but steady walking pace

5:00-5:30     5.0 mph - a slow, but steady jogging pace

5:30-6:00     3.0 mph

6:00-6:30     5.2 mph

6:30-7:00     3.0 mph

7:00-7:30     5.4 mph

7:30-8:00     3.0 mph

8:00-8:30     5.4 mph

8:30-9:00     3.0 mph

9:00-9:30     5.2 mph

9:30-10:00   3.0 mph

10:00-10:30 5.0 mph

10:30-15:30 2.4 mph

The highlighted time frames are my "sprints." (Granted, this isn't a sprint for most people, but when you're carrying around 80 extra pounds on legs with a 26" inseam, it sure as hell feels like one. With time, that pace will increase.) When I first started this workout, I had 30 second sprints with a minute and a half in between to ease off and catch my breath. Then, as time went on, I decreased the time to a minute between them, now, thirty seconds between them. Starting tomorrow, I will increase the number of sprints I do from the 6 I do now up to 8 sprints, then 10 the following week or two, then 12 after that. Once I'm consistently doing twelve 30-second sprints without as much difficulty, I'll increase my pace and spread out my stride so my legs are opening more and I'm covering more distance (which will make my pace not seem as difficult. It will work those legs muscles, however and increase the cardio workout I'm getting). 

Over time, this workout (like all workouts) will put you at a plateau. For those unfamiliar with that, it's where what you're doing just doesn't seem to be working much anymore. You can do several things to change that:

1. Increase your pace
2. Increase your incline
3. Spread your stride farther so your legs are opening more
4. Wear ankle or wrist weights
5. Change machines (you can do HIIT on a stationary bike and an elliptical, too)

It is vitally important to make sure you're well-hydrated before and after a workout. If you feel thirsty after you work out or you find that you're not sweating much, you're dehydrated. You need water. Not coffee. Not milk. Not soda (not even diet). Not Gatorade or Vitamin Water. PLAIN WATER. Bottled, filtered, tap, from the fountain...whatever it takes to get the water in your system, do it. Not only will it keep your body functioning correctly, it will help flush toxins out of your body that build up during a work out. Between proper stretching & hydration, you shouldn't be sore after a workout, even if you're new to doing it.

 Hope this blog helps explain a little better what I do when I'm in the gym and how you can maximize your workout. :)

**DISCLAIMERS**

If at ANY point in your workout, you feel pain, STOP immediately. Don't push yourself thinking it's just a spasm or a pulled muscle. You could severely injure yourself. For instance, this week, instead of taking today off, I took Wednesday off. My knee was out of joint and I was in some pain. The day off helped my body heal itself. The only reason I didn't go to my doctor to have him take a look at it is because I know my body and I knew what I'd done to get myself in that situation. I don't recommend this for you. If you hurt, it's for a reason and you need to find out what that reason is. It's always a good idea to have your doctor check things out for you before you start working out for the first time or before you continue your workout after an injury.

As always, I am not a health or fitness professional. If your trainer is telling you something different from what you read here, follow their instructions. They know you personally. I don't. I'm simply relaying what works best for my body.

Your average random Saturday

I'm thrilled to see the new followers I have for this blog! I never expected anyone outside my close circle of friends to take an interest in what I was doing, so I'm pleasantly surprised at the turn this has taken. I know I owe some of that appreciation to Sherri (you rock, girl!). Welcome aboard!

Today, I returned to the gym. I usually take Friday's off simply because of my husband's work schedule and our distance from the gym. We've got one car and he works about an 18 hour day on Fridays, so it's tough for me to get anywhere.

I talked to my friend RiceChex last night who discussed the whole veggie cleanse fiasco with me. She asked me what else I could do to kick my metabolism into gear since the cleanse didn't turn out as planned. She reminded me that last year I had more dedication to my workouts than I've had this year. I hadn't really seen it, but after she brought it up, I knew she was right (don't tell her that. I'll never hear the end of it.). So I committed to doing the gym five days a week. Typically I go around 10pm because the family is in bed and @ProjectDance and I can go together and work out. The days I typically take off are Fridays and Saturdays. I think a steady commitment to the gym will help. The newly acquired info about my water intake should help, too.

I'm not doing any low-fat, high-fiber special things with my diet, though I do plan on trying to ease up on the carbs a bit and lowering my fat intake. I'm also going to try to monitor my food through SparkPeople.com like I was before. I always do better if I can see exactly what's going into my body and what I'm expending energy-wise.

I head to Chicago in 40 days to see NKOTB. I'd hoped to have been at my goal weight (165) before that time came, but considering I've still got about 80lbs to go and I've been stagnant for this long, I don't see that happening. But, I can get to a smaller goal by then and I'm committing to that now. By June 4th. I want to be under 220lbs. Based on the changes I'm making and the experience I've had in the past, I believe this is completely attainable with hard work.

I need your help, though. I need accountability from you all. Encouragement & accountability, both.

Can you help me?

Veggie Cleanse - day 2 - a.k.a: Fail Day

I. Wanna. Die.

No, seriously.

I chose carrots today. Healthy veggie, right? I love carrots, so it shouldn't be an issue. I dragged out a bag of baby carrots and munched on probably a pound of them total. Weird thing was, I still had hunger pangs. Common sense told me to eat more or drink water, which I did. This didn't help, so I called my doctor. He said I could have some lean protein to help with the hunger. I had about 6oz of canned tuna. It distracted the hunger pangs.

In their place, however are pretty bad stomach cramps. So I called my doctor again. He said that the carrots have probably absorbed the excess water in my system and are sitting there in my intestines like a big lump.

Fantastic.

He suggested switching to peas or celery and upping my water intake. Said not to do any more protein. Just stick with the new veggie and more water. I tried the celery and drank two bottles of water almost instantly. I still have cramps. This thing SUCKS.

I know y'all hate the F word, but fuck this.

I can't do this. I like veggies, don't get me wrong, but I can't take this.

The stomach cramps and cravings aside, I'm ready to murder people. I got behind someone doing 59 in a 65 speed zone last night and was ready to run them off the road. Homicidal doesn't even begin to cover the mood swings I'm going through.

Enough's enough. I'm not this strong. And I'm certain there aren't enough alibis or English-speaking nonextradition countries out there to hide my ass when I go postal.

Metabolism? You're on your own, buddy. This bitch needs food.

I miss sugar.

I don't get a sweet tooth, per se. I like chocolate and candy as much as the next girl, but it's not the cravings I get (my cravings are salty, crunchy snacks). But when I committed to losing weight and becoming healthier, I knew sugar was something I was going to have to say goodbye to, or at least not visit it as frequently as I had been.

That left me with very few options. There are, of course, the artificial sweeteners, but if you've read any of my blogs, you know how I feel about those. They're dangerous and I don't trust them not to kill me - or at the very least, make my jiggly bits shrivel up and fall off.

I'm a pop drinker. Have been since the womb. I miss it. I'm also a sweet tea drinker, but without sugar to sweeten it, I knew those days were over, too. Not to mention, the caffeine in both beverages act as a diuretic and would affect how much MORE water I'd need to drink. When I'm already supposed to be taking in between 120-140oz a day, every ounce counts. I wasn't willing to risk it.

When I went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and discussed my water intake, I talked to him about how BORING all this damn water was. He suggested trying these little packets of fruit flavored sweetener called Stevita, kind of like Crystal Light (without the death. WOO!). So I took a cherry flavored packet with me. I dumped it in a bottle of water and holy buckets, I'm hooked! It's advertised as being as sweet as sugar, but I think it's actually sweeter.

Since I love my tea, I looked for alternative options. I discovered that Tazo Passion Tea (one of my favorite drinks from Starbucks) is herbal and totally caffeine free. Combine that with Stevia and I knew I could have it. Granted, pure water is the best way to get my water intake, but I knew I'd grow discouraged quickly if I didn't come up with other options. So, between the Tazo w/Stevia and the water with Stevita, I may actually get through this thing!!

I haven't tried Stevia yet in baking or cooking, but I'm anxious to try that, too. If anybody has any tried & true recipes, please let me know!

Dear Sherri,

Dear Sherri,

Thanks, Girl.

You're killin' me!

You realize of course, people are going to read this blog and expect some hugely inspirational messages or helpful diet tips. They're going to imagine in their heads that I'm some fatty-turned-Barbie with all the answers.

When they don't get those things, I'm sending them back to you, k??

Love,
Melly (*who's just a slowly converting fatty on day two of a vegetable cleanse and, as a result, is snarkier than her usual self and is sitting in complete awe and disbelief that Sherri-Friggin'-Shepherd just called her out on Twitter)

Veggie cleanse - day 1

This. Sucks.

I've eaten three bags of lima beans today. I put them in a saucepan with a little diced onion (it's the ONE "cheat" I did) and some water. Salt, pepper, Lawry's & garlic powder for some flavor. It's not ham and cornbread, but it'll do.

It's almost 11pm. I've made it thirteen hours. At this point, I'm not thinking of the four days I still have left. I'm going minute by minute. Hour by hour.

I *might* make it til midnight.

I did work out. Kicked ass. 20 min HIIT & 10 mins stretching.

All I want is a fucking cheeseburger.