Jumping on the Shred Wagon

I have absolutely no excuse now not to get in shape. Not working, kids old enough to not hurt themselves at least for the 20 minutes a day I hope to work out. I love the Wii Fit, but frankly it's not going to push me, so I've been sucked in by the twitter shredheads and bloggers. I can even do the 30 day shred level 1 and 2 free with Comcast OnDemand. Actually, there are a ton of workouts, and the kids and I tried a couple dance ones at their request, but they bored quickly and I was afraid I'd fall down.

I think I need to get my kids some of their own weights so they don't grab mine, but otherwise I'm set. I've done the 20 minutes set a total of about 5 times (over the course of 8 days), the first time with cans since I couldn't find my weights. What was really funny was I gave Donovan two small cans of mandarin oranges, and he spent the second 10 minutes asking me to "please open the can for him, please, it's okay to take a little break" after I told him Jillian said no breaks. He also keeps asking why the girls wear shirts "up to here."

I think this before picture still counts, doubt my body has changed at all since I started.

Ready, Set, Cleanse

Yes, I am ready to start a cleanse/diet/exercise plan of some sort. I am really tired, literally, of not being able to keep up with the athletes in my family. I've even been getting more sleep, not working late every night. I really hate dieting, a lot of it due to being the chubbiest one in the family, which my mom never let me forget. Ironically I am now the smallest, but while I want to fit better in my clothes and spend a new clothing gift certificate on stuff that doesn't look like maternity wear, my goal here really is more energy.

I've just entered my fourth decade, yikes, and I'm loving my hair, got new makeup, and am ready for the body to follow. Working with young pretty fashionable women just gives me that much more motivation. As one co-worker (the person you would totally want to shop with, honest without being mean) said - "you don't need to lose weight, just tone up." I cried for hours (not really) but she's half right.

So here's my plan, which I'm writing down to help me stick to it. 21 days of "cleansing", which I'm only slightly embarrassed to say was inspired by dooce's cleanse, in turn inspired by Oprah. I can't afford (and would probably not read) the book, so I'm making up my own. My last real diet was eliminating all sugar and sticking to a diabetic plan for about 5 months while pregnant, so I think I can do this.

For 21 days I'm going to do my best to eat vegan (which I've never, ever tried and doubt I would again), minimize white flour and rice (pretty much do that now), eliminate sugar (probably the hardest for me) and alcohol, but not caffeine. I'm not going to put my family on this, I mean they are outside running around pretty much every single day, but I am curious how many vegan meals I can serve before they notice. I figure, they can not eat garbanzo beans as easily as not eating chicken. I am also going to work out in some form 4-5 days a week. My goal is to find a yoga or kickboxing gym, but with a bank account at zero that's on hold and my company gym will have to do. I suck at pushing myself so eventually I'll need something else.

I'll try to post the best of the vegan recipes I make, but that may be few and far between. I tried cooking for a vegan once, made this fabulous stuffed artichoke with walnuts, eliminated the cheese for him, which made this dish oh so much better. I personally might cheat and buy soy cheese, which for some reason does not seem to be vegan.

Day 1:

Breakfast: Orange and coffee with soy milk

Lunch: Salad with lots of beans for protein

Ending with this photo for no apparent reason.

Karate Studio or Timeshare?

Some of us bloggers joked around about the possibility that we'd show up to the recent SV Moms Disney party to find them trying to sell us a timeshare. As you can read, that sure didn't happen. On the other hand, the last place I expected a "timeshare sales job" was at a Karate studio. In my never ending quest to get in shape, I've decided to search for an evening kick-boxing workout, since the morning hunt never worked out.

Turns out there are two studios right near me with 7:30 classes, so I decided to check them out. One didn't have actual kick-boxing, but he said Taekwondo may work for what I want (get in shape, lose weight, gain strength, added bonus the ability to kick some loser's a$%). Maybe I should have suspected something when he didn't just say "nope, sorry no kick-boxing" but I do try to keep an open mind. We scheduled a personal trial, I got my reminder call, which of course meant I had to book on out of work since it was an hour earlier than I'd thought. Since I was still a few minutes early, I thought I'd check out the kids class going on, since, as I told the women who came out to greet me, I do have to kids whom I'd eventually like to enroll in some sort of martial arts.

That was my big mistake. I swear, she would not even tell me the prices unless "my husband was there" much less give me my little lesson. She must really know my husband, as he's way more of a sucker for good deals than me. It's what they use for timeshare sales, they need you both there. She had a bunch of questions about the kids, and even when she ventured into terms like "family package" or "two kid discount" she caught herself, "but I want to give you the full information when your husband is here." It's actually an perfect setup for my kids, since the free trial period includes a uniform, 20 minute private lesson, and two weeks free. Since my son takes at least three classes to get comfortable trying something new, that works out well. But, and it's a big but, we don't want to enroll them until they're at least 6, which is a year from now. And I was there for me, not my kids. I learned absolutely nothing about the adult classes, and I called up the other place, who'll give me a weeks worth of kick-boxing classes free, and didn't even ask about kids.

This place is so darn close that I'll keep them on my list, and may even take the kids to their free class on Tuesday. The one I signed up for as it was easier to do that and call later to cancel than refuse. Think they'll turn away two adorable Power Ranger wannabes if "my husband" doesn't show up?

Cross-posted at Silicon Valley Moms Blog.