After all the craziness of last week, I feel good that this week has gone relatively smoothly so far. Nothing too insane. Well, besides this morning’s workout. Ha! I still don’t know how I survived it. <--- There’s that exaggeration we talked about.

Good thing I did survive, though. I had a stellar day today! Once I caught my breath this morning, I dropped Makenzie off at school and came home HANGRY and ready for some breakfast. I made myself shower first, then dug into another bowl of pumpkin oats. This time topped with Justin’s Maple Almond Butter that the lovely Janetha got me hooked on  last year.

For the record, I just bought three more cans of pumpkin. I will have pumpkin oats for breakfast for many days into the foreseeable future. Can’t stop. Won’t stop.

Count your lucky stars I’m not a food blogger. Things would get very old around here fast. Besides having another repeat breakfast of pumpkin oats, I also had a repeat lunch.

More English muffin pizzas!!! Best way to use up leftover crushed tomatoes. And you know Makenzie loves them. She told you so herself in her guest WIAW post!

Makenzie opted for apple slices again, but I was feeling a little spice. I went with half a cucumber sliced up and a couple large handfuls of baby carrots to dip in salsa. I adore salsa.

Both of those meals fueled me right through my prime work times and I knocked out a good bit of things I needed to get done. I hope this productive streak lasts!

After work time came play time. An afternoon play date with my friend Ann and her two kids – a friend for Makenzie and a friend for Braedon.

I love play dates and think it’s so important to connect with other moms. Not only does it give the kids social interaction, but it gives you the chance to “talk shop” with someone who understands. Who else would I turn to to discuss overnight potty training woes? Ann helped me feel better about giving up on trying to overnight train Makenzie. We gave it a shot, but it wasn’t worth the stress.

Don’t worry. We also have lives of our own too. We spent a lot of time chatting away about adult things…including her recent trip to Chicago to support her husband in the Chicago Marathon! It makes me want to run it. Mostly because I really, really want to go to Chicago. Maybe I should just book a trip and scratch that whole running 26.2 miles part? Either way, I loved hearing about her trip!

Thanks for the fun afternoon, Ann!

By this point dinner time quickly approached. We had planned on honoring another meat craving of Peter’s with meatloaf, but I forgot to get the ground beef out of the freezer. Oops! So I went with a baked sweet potato, more roasted green beans, and a Morningstar Farms garden veggie burger.

I stole an idea from Courtney and rubbed the sweet potato with a little bit of butter and some Garlic Gold from my Healthy Living Summit sample.

Ohhhh…what a good idea.

If I wasn’t such a cheapskate I would order some for myself in a heartbeat. But I am a cheapskate, so I just savored tonight’s dinner. Just like I plan to savor an early bed time. T minus 2 hours and counting. Later gators!

• Where do you turn to “talk shop” about things like work, motherhood, etc? I would say Peter and good friends, including you all!
• Do you ever forget key things for dinner prep like taking something out of the freezer or picking up something at the store?

I did something crazy this morning. No…make that insane.

Just did Insanity for the first time. That was the hardest workout I think I have done in my life.

October 12, 2011 8:33 am via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@TinaFFF

Tina Reale

Sometimes I like to exaggerate things. Play things up a little bit to entertain myself. Well, I did not exaggerate a single word in that tweet.

I have actually had the Insanity program in my hands for a few months, but always felt too intimidated to give the workouts a shot. I knew I wanted to try them, but always got too scared when push came to shove.

I don’t know what hit me this morning, but I popped the DVD in and picked the Pure Cardio workout. 40 minutes didn’t sound too bad. It didn’t have any crazy words like Max or Circuit in there, which I knew could mean trouble. That 40 minutes was no joke!

source

I was dripping sweat by the end of the warm-up. Not a good sign. When Shaun T paused to stretch a bit after the warm-up to prepare for the madness to come, I laughed. It was one of those laugh or cry moments.

The next 20-25 minutes owned me. Drill after drill after drill after drill. Burpees. High knees. Push-ups. Tuck jumps. And too many things I don’t even remember the names of because all I could hear was my own heavy breathing.

#huffpuff #iwanttodie

At the end, I parked my booty on the floor and stared at the screen in disbelief. Then Peter came downstairs and his eyes lit up at me trying unsuccessfully to catch  my breath and wipe sweat out of my eyes simultaneously.

He gets pleasure from my pain. He even sits and laughs with a big goofy grin as I go through the torture of ice baths after my long runs. Evil. <—Peter

I didn’t care though. My huffing and puffing turned into the biggest smile. I felt accomplished. I put aside fear and went for something I knew would challenge me. I didn’t half-ass the workout, because I knew I would only get out of it what I put into it.

I put a lot into it. It hurt. I thought I would hurl out my heart at some points. I had to pause and catch my breath a few times. But I pushed the limits. And I can’t wait to do it again next week. Yea. Next week. I loved it, but I’m not insane enough to do that madness every day!

• What is the hardest workout you have ever done? Or what is the last way you challenged yourself (fitness wise or otherwise)?