Glass half full or half empty?

As you can see, I did my updated bathing suit pictures. My hour glass figure is coming back and the back fat is gone! My belly and thighs still need a lot of work, but I've come a long way compared to Thing 1 and Thing 2

I'm at the half way point of the Waist Watchers competition. This last week the pounds have been coming off quickly! How did I celebrate? I ate a bowl of Capn' Crunch, a 6 inch Italian BMT from Subway, and a can of Dr. Pepper. No, I don't recommend celebrating this way. This is another one of those do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do times. I'll work it off later today, I promise!

I'm still following the Sexy Meal Plan (formerly the Dreaded Meal Plan) as closely as possible (ok, except for today). Last night I had a spoonful of my yummy mashed potatoes and 2 spoonfuls of long grain wild rice and a salad. I've added salads back in and am allowing myself 1 tablespoon of salad dressing. I either use Vidalia Onion or Light Italian. I top it with 1/3 of a can of plain tuna and it fills me up without any sides.

I think doing the Core Rhythms DVD every day has helped a lot. I put more into it each time I watch it and sweat more, too. I just ordered another dance DVD so we'll see how much I like it. After I try it, I'll let you know. It's Crunch Go Go dancing so it should be fun! Another thing that has helped is my iPod. It has become a permanent attachment to my head. I listen to it pretty much all day and dance around like the big dork that I am while I do dishes, laundry, and pick up around the house. Some of you remember me referring to this as Club Clean. I LOVE Club Clean! I get exercise, my house gets cleaned, AND I have a blast doing it.

I should be strength training more though. I can't seem to put cardio and strength training together. When I train, I hate cardio. When I do cardio, I hate training. Wall squats with my stability ball aren't too bad so I try to do those. While I'm waiting for dinner to cook, I'll do counter pushups. Carson wanted to play Wii bowling the other night so I played with him. The problem is that he's only 5 and has a short attention span. He spends more time setting the game up and insisting that we each play a guest as well as ourselves, than he does playing. He'll bowl a few times then tell me he's tired. This worked to my advantage though. I took Carson's remote and did alternating lunges with each turn. That was two days ago and my rear is still sore!

So as of this morning, I weighed 121.8. Yay! I think getting to Douglas's goal for me is totally doable. I have until May 6th to lose 11.8 pounds. Seeing as I've lost 18.2 pounds since the middle of January, 11.8 pounds doesn't seem so much. But what's that saying? The last five pounds are the hardest? Well, I'll let you know if that's true in 6.8 pounds.

Slacker Fattie Tip – Find something you love to do and incorporate it into an exercise. I've also started sitting on my stability ball while I chat with the 9 to 5 Ladies (with my iPod on of course) and bouncing/boogieing while typing. I finally found a way to sit on my butt and exercise!

Sexy Meal Plan Tip – here's another recipe from fitnessmagazine.com:

Wheat Germ Carrot Muffins (oh, so yummy!)
They're 226 calories each so drink a glass of water with one and that's your breakfast for the day.

Ingredients:
* Nonstick cooking spray
* 1 cup golden raisins or dried currants
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/3 cup toasted wheat germ
* 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 beaten egg
* 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
* 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
* 1/4 cup cooking oil
* 1 cup shredded carrot

Directions:
Lightly coat twelve 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with cooking spray; set aside. In a small bowl pour boiling water over raisins to cover; set aside.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of flour mixture.

In a small bowl combine the egg, buttermilk, brown sugar, and oil. Add the egg mixture all at once to flour mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Drain raisins. Gently fold raisins and carrot into batter.

Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full.
Bake in a 400° oven about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes. Remove from muffin cups. Serve warm.