Quite a Fishy Day

There was something fishy about Monday. I don’t mean something was suspicious or strange, but something was literally fishy.

8:03 AM: I sit down at my desk and smell fish. Where the heck is that smell coming from? I look around for fish scraps from a previous lunch (though I haven’t brought leftover fish in a month, at least) but find nothing. Maybe it’s my imagination.

9:42 AM: Holy sh*t I still smell it! Is it my feet? I wear the same shoes almost every day (without socks) so it’s quite possible. I slip off my $20 Kohl’s flat teeny-bopper work shoe and take a sniff. It definitely did not smell like roses, but it didn’t really smell like fish either. Still, I deduce this fishy stench must be feet.

12:05 PM: I arrive at Target during lunch and pick up some Odor Eaters foot spray. I felt slightly embarrassed buying this stuff, but the checkout lady was about 90 years old, and that could have been hairspray for all she knew. I could have picked up some condoms, laxatives, super-absorbent tampons, and some Hanes-Her-Way granny panties and it would not have phased her, I’m sure.

12:18 PM: I hop in my Honda Element and start spraying away. This stuff gets everywhere when you spray it, including my eyeballs, but I was OK with that as it would just ensure that the fish smell would be gone.

12:31 PM: I arrive back at work and head to my tiny, dull, office. Mother f***** I still smell fish!!! What kind of sh** is this? What’s wrong with me?? What did I do to deserve this?? I start smelling EVERYTHING. My desk, my drawers, my feet (again), the walls of my office, my clothes… and then it hit me. I’ve been taking fish oil supplements as part of my turbulence training program, and some mornings I stick the caplets in my pocket and swallow them when I get into work. So, what happens when you forget about fish oil caplets in your pocket? Let me tell you what happens: You do your laundry with fish oil in your pants pocket, then your entire load of laundry smells like anchovy city!

I was relieved to finally figure this one out, as I was worried I had some sort of fish stench condition. I dealt with it the rest of the day (as well as my coworkers), and I changed clothes immediately upon returning home.

Tuesday morning I Febreezed the sh*t out of my clothes for the day, and that did help. However, when I changed into my riding gear for the Taco Tuesday ride, I soon recalled that I did not Febreeze my jersey or shorts, so I reeked of fish AGAIN. GREAT. The sad thing is that I hate doing laundry so much that I will most likely deal with fish odors all week rather than do another load of laundry. I pity myself sometimes.

I'm Addicted!

Boy do I suck at this blog business. One blog a month seems to be it for me. Anyway, this week I decided to kick a habit. A not-so-sweet habit. For a few years I've been using Splenda in my coffee and in my cottage cheese and fruit, and I recently decided that I didn't want to consume anything fake anymore (most of the time anyway). So no more Splenda for me. So far it's been tough. Since I don't use sugar, nor will I use artificial sweeteners now, that leaves me with Stevia. My god this is nasty stuff. I will continue to use it for another few weeks and hope to just get used to the taste. Normally I look forward to my Jose's Vanilla Bean coffee from Costco each morning, but the last couple days I've been sort of afraid of my coffee. I can't find the language to describe Stevia's odd taste, but it just isn't good. Why do I continue to drink coffee? Well, because I'm addicted to it. If I don't get my fix, I will be irritable, I'll get wicked headaches, and I'll become a monster of a person. Seriously. I have a problem. One day I'd like to kick the coffee habit, but I'm not ready yet. One thing at a time!

Back to Black

So I picked up the Amy Winehouse album, Back to Black, and I love it! The two first songs, "Rehab" and "You Know I'm No Good" are my favorites. She's definitely drugged out and crazy, but she can really sing!

As for working out this week, I have not. I decided to take a couple days to get other things done instead, such as work on my two online summer courses, run errands, and get a massage. The massage was my favorite. I'll probably get back to the gym today, but I'm taking a break from TT this week. I'll still do some bodyweight stuff, but next week is when I'll start with the 2K3 workout, since I just finished the 4 week advanced workout.

I was sad to learn that Bo Diddley died this week. I got to meet him once, about 8 years ago, and he made me wish he was my long lost, black grandpa. He was truly a rock n' roll pioneer and legend, but he never got the full recognition for his music. I regret not getting a picture with him.

Finals, Cones, and Cankles

As I was making my breakfast this morning (or reheating my eggs, rather) there was a knock on the front door. It was a nice Latino man asking if that was my car parked out front. Why yes it was. Well he wanted to warn me that there was going to be some street pavin' going on so I might want to move it. I told him I'd be gone in 10 mins and he said something to the effect of "I think eets OK" so I continued with reheating my eggs. Luckily I had just enough time to pack up my sh.. ummm.. stuff and escape. I had to move around some cones and red tape, but I escaped the neighborhood successfully. My heart goes out to the people stuck at home today who were unable to move their cars in time. I wonder if that's a valid excuse to not go to work. I warned Jason about the street closure (he gets lots of beauty sleep), but he said he's be fine. He'll ride his Vespa on the sidewalk if need be. Super.

Today I have 2 finals to take: advanced business communications and operations management. Both will suck, but I'll do fine I think. I also get to go see a friend at the Physical Therapy & Sports Rehab center at school because my cankle is still hurting from my sprain back in December. Yes that's right CANKLE. It's no longer an ankle.

RIP left ankle, 1982-2007

We had some good times, me and that ankle. Hopefully there will be a resurrection or reincarnation of some sort.

Is it Summer Yet?

Today I have to give a presentation for my business communications class. I hate doing these things, but it's a group project and thankfully my portion is fairly short. I hope none of us screw up too badly though. I tend to draw blanks and I get that pounding heart when my section is approaching. I can't wait for this crap to be overwith!

On a brighter note, I can feel myself getting stronger and leaner. I started the "Original" TT workout yesterday, and I like it! Aside from a warm-up and warm-up superset, there are only two main supersets. The second superset is reverse lunges and 1-arm shoulder presses. I liked this combo! I was really sweatin' towards the end. Then I did my 20 mins of intervals and I was ready to hurl! But in a good way! ;) I've been getting better and better at pushing myself HARD for these, and I think it's helping me A LOT. I know I have a lot of endurance and can go for hours and hours at a moderately high pace, but I need more explosive power and short-bursts to really make a difference. I can finally feel that happening. And this is after just one month!

My nutrition has been pretty stellar. I bought a TON of fruits and veggies to eat this week and surprisingly they are almost gone! I'll through them all by the end of the week. My Trader Joe's cart was quite colorful: apples, oranges, tomatoes, blackberries, strawberries, onions, mushrooms, broccoli, asparagus, artichoke, kiwis, spinach, carrots, bananas, cucumber, and holy cow that's a lot of produce. When you're shooting for 10+ servings a day, that's what it takes! Yesterday's food intake went like this:

Breakfast: Omellete with 1 Omega-3 egg, egg whites, spinach, onion, tomato, mushrooms, and olives; and an orange
Snack: lowfat cottage cheese, blackberries, walnuts
Lunch: spinach salad with pecans, feta cheese, cucumber, strawberries, carrots, raspberry vinaigrette dressing
Snack: protein shake w/ water; apple; almonds
PW drink: choco-milk
Dinner: Top sirloin; asparagus; edamame; and a little low-fat/low-sugar ice cream :)

After dinner I made "chicken & chickpeas" for lunch today, along with some broccoli. I felt good at the end of the day, but all that cooking was a bit time consuming. I don't mind too much though because I didn't feel like studying and I could still watch Family Guy while I was in the kitchen. :D

Meso-Ecto-Metamorphosis

So today is Day 1 of the TT Transformation Challenge. I made an appointment to get my body comp done at school last night, and I was pleased to find out I was 11.9% bodyfat! That's not bad for a femme. I was also intrigued because I thought at 12%, I'd have already lost the flab on my hips and thighs, but there's still some there. I then realized that these are typically the trouble spots for women so it would be the last fat to go.


If the body comp is accurate, I have approximately 16.3 lbs of fat. I'm estimating that a loss of 6 of those pounds should put me right where I want to be. I'll have enough fat to be healthy, but enough gone to make me lighter and lookin' good!


The personal trainer guy that gave me the body comp was sort of shocked at my readout. He said he never sees girls (or women) who have such low bf and 65% water (5% above the recommended upper threshhold). He even said the more water you are, the more accurate the results. Wow.


So that leaves me thinking that if I lose 6 pounds in the next 12 weeks, .5 pounds per week, I'd probably be at about 9% body fat.


This should be quite an adventure :)


I picked up a newspaper during lunch so I can get my Day 1 photos tonight. I had to go to 2 separate newspaper machines since the first one stole my 50 cents. Aaarrggghh!!

24-Hour Fitness needs more swiss balls!

I am so ready to be done with school! Today I have a "mock" presentation to give for Advanced Business Comm., and next Tuesday is the real thing. I still have editing to do on the group paper and another report due next week about ISO standards for Management. Not to mention various Statistics assignments and lots of studying for finals.

I've been working out really consistently and eating very well. Part of my goal is to eat 10+ fruits and veggies every day, and so far so good (except for weekends). This is what I had yesterday:

M1: Veg omelette - egg beaters + 1 whole Omega-3 egg, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, and an orange
M2: Cottage cheese, strawberries, ground flax seed
M3: Salad - lean pork cutlet w/ Rosemary, spinach leaves, pecans, strawberries, feta cheese, shredded carrots, raspberry vinaigrette dressing
M4: protein "shake" (just powder and water), apple, almonds
---- TT Intermediate Workout B plus intervals; skipped PW drink but had a small oatmeal cookie when I got home ----
M5: Hazelnut-crusted salmon, brussell sprouts, half a medium sweet potato
M6: Protein "shake", mixed nuts
BED TIME!

I think I'm on track for the most part. I decided to cut out starches except after working out. Before, I was eating oatmeal everyday and some kind of grain or starch with lunch. I want to see if I make better progress by replacing those carbs with fruits and veggies. So far so good!

I'm also taking 2 fish oil capsules with each main meal (1, 3, and 5). I couldn't decide if I should take them with dinner last night since I had salmon, so I had them with M6 instead.

So this is my 4th week of TT and it's going great. Ironically, the biggest challenges have been external ones and somewhat out of my control.

Examples: First, since my workouts are after work, the gym is super crowded. I have to hunt for a swiss ball and pounce like a cat on the first available one I see. The good ones are always taken so sometimes I wind up stuck with an old, crusty ball that is really too small for what I need it for. But I have to make do!

Second, I can only get the DBs I need about 50% of the time. For most of my squats I warm up with 20 lb. DBs, then use 25 lb. for my regular supersets. Sometimes I wind up using one or the other for both, or a 22.5 or even 27.5 lbers.

Other than that, weekends don't quite go as planned, but they are not too bad. We eat out a lot on the weekends, but I can usually find something decent wherever we go.

Next week I get to start my "Advanced" Original TT workout and I'm excited! I love having all my workouts preplanned so I don't have to guess anymore. It's awesome!

One more thing - the TT Transformation contest begins Thursday, May 1 and goes through August 23. I'm going to enter. I'm going to try and get to the new Rec center at school and see if I can get a body comp done on the official start date. I wish I had done this when I actually started the program, but oh well. I'll still see a lot of changes -- I'm sure of it. :)