When In Doubt - Grapevine!!

It was raining this morning, and in keeping with the spirit of mixing up my workouts, I decided to try out the aerobics section of my Denise Austin Personal Training System DVD. (Yes, that is Jane Fonda, but since she was the first aerobicizer, I figured I'd put her picture up.)

Anyway, the workout started off fine with some marching in place and high steps, but then she moved into this very confusing routine of chasse/kick-step, charleston, "rainbow arms" and kept changing the routine just as I'd gotten used to it.  So, I decided I'd let Denise and her girls do their thing, and I'd do mine. So I grape-vined my little heart out, mixing it up with some heel taps, some kicks, some knee lifts, different arm combinations, jogging in place, a shimmy here and there, the works.  And you know what? I got an awesome workout. My heart rate was up, I was sweating and I felt great. 

After the 25 minutes of aerobics, I did the low intensity arms and lower body, which were still a great workout despite being called "low intensity." It just meant that the arm work was done in the chair or lying down, and the lower body was done on the ground with leg lifts and bridge pose and hamstring curls.  I skipped the abs because I was out of time, but will do those when I get home. 

Now my stomach is growling like crazy. I had 2 small eggs and a bit of avocado in a tortilla for breakfast.  And for lunch I have some carrot sticks, and a steak/farro/curry mixture.  It is a sort of "empty out all the remnants in the fridge for lunch" sort of day. But I might have to eat my lunch right now. Or at least part of it. I wish I had some yogurt.  Or peanut butter with my carrot sticks.

Dinner At Dad's

Last night was dinner at my dad's, a weekly tradition. The menu was: roast pork, Brussels sprouts in yummy sauce, broccoli, asparagus (which I didn't eat) and this egg noodle dish he makes that has butter and asiago cheese and I think bacon fat, too, and caramelized onions and then he cooks it so it sort of burns on the bottom of the pan and gets all crunchy. It is something I would never cook for myself at home, so it is nice to have a little when I go there. He had set out large dinner plates for us to eat off of, but I like to eat out of small bowls so I got one of those instead.

Oh, and a few pieces of whole wheat baguette with chicken liver pate. It sounds gross but it is so good. I think that has bacon fat in it, too. My dad loves to cook with bacon fat, which you could never tell by looking at him - he is very wiry and weighs less than I do. I think when we are not there he eats mostly bean sprouts and carrots.

Even though I had done my arm workout for the day, my small nephew's favorite activity to be held in someone's lap, so that he is standing and can jump up and down. A rather sturdy 4 mo. weighs quite a bit, especially after 15 minutes of that activity, so I think I got 2 arm workouts in yesterday.

Dessert was, as always, homemade ice cream. Last nights flavor was chocolate. The servings are less than a 1/4 cup I think, maybe right around there. They are served in tiny glasses, with tiny demi tasse spoons which make you savor every bite.

I had brought my Bento lunch jar to show to people, and it ended up being the perfect thing to put a few leftovers in for lunch today.

As for the result of the Denise Austin workout yesterday, the following muscle groups have that lovely ache: shoulders, triceps, abdominals, hamstrings, glutes, and upper back. You can even rent it from Netflix.

Hmm, maybe renting fitness videos from Netflix would be a good way to mix things up. I could try belly dancing then kickboxing then some of the Elle Glam Fitness DVDs....well maybe not those last ones.

I'm having my coffee, thinking about breakfast and hoping that it's not really raining out.

Diet Girl & Denise Austin Save The Day!

If you have not had the pleasure of reading The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl, set some time aside to do so. She is a hysterical Aussie living in Scotland. She lost literally half her weight, and gained an adorable Scottish Companion in the process. Since you probably don't have time to read all 3 years right now, just go and read Feats of Strength and Stupidity. Trust me.

I did my Denise Austin - 50 minutes of arms, lower body, abs and stretching. Just when you want to start swearing at her and wanting to give her the finger for making you do more hammer curls, she shouts some more encouragement at you and says "Let me see that beautiful smiling face!" or "It's hard, but it's worth it, because you are worth it!" How can you not feel better after that? I certainly feel much better. And at some point in the future you will see my triceps busting out of the back of my arms.

Then I had my 2 eggs for breakfast, when I was finally hungry at 9:30, and some raisins. Lunch is curry, carrots & peanut butter. It was also going to include some seaweed salad I got at the Kam Man Asian Grocery last night, but it looked weird so I just put it back in the fridge.

I'll post some photos later of the cute little bento container I got.

Missing My Morning Motivation

I just went to have more coffee, and found that I had already finished the coffee. That is very sad. It is almost 8 a.m. and I have not had breakfast, nor have I walked. And I don't want to walk. I'm tired of my route. And I don't want breakfast.

What the heck is going on? 

This calls for desperate measures. 

This calls for Denise Austin:  

30 minutes of her sugary sweet voice and retro aerobic moves will help me get my verve back. And I'll be getting a "great rear view!"