5.50am: cardio session + abs
Session: 10 x 1 min hard efforts (1 min easy spin) bike intervals on wind trainer; 1min mountain climbers & squat thrusts with medicine balls; abs – 3 exercises x 3 sets; stretches
Time: 53.26min
AHR: 133; MHR: 221
Cals: 304
Operation Marshmallow to Muscle is officially underway. The soft squishy middle needs to go, or at least morph into something less soft and squishy. Muscles hopefully will be revealed.
So it’s goodbye…temporarily…to chocolate, magnum icecreams, sponge cake with jam and cream, and all the other tasty delights I have been…ahem…indulging in lately. Hey, it was Mother’s Day after all! But for the next 12 weeks, unless it’s on my nutrition plan it’s not part of my food consumption.
For the past few months I have enjoyed the luxury of not having to get up really early in the morning to exercise but instead I have been running at lunchtime or after work. Well, things are about to change…well not about to, they have! This morning I was up on my bike on the windtrainer at 5.50am doing a session of 40mins which included 10 x 1 min hard intervals. It’s been a while since I’ve been on my bike so yesterday afternoon I had to dust off the cobwebs and brush out the leaves that were caught up in the spokes. Mr CJ sprayed the bike with insect repellent so I didn’t experience any nasty creepy crawly surprises this morning.
Last night I prepared today’s lunch and cooked a couple of chicken breasts in preparation for tonight’s meal (chicken noodle soup). I diarised my exercise commitments for the week and then I breathed deeply. I can do this! I have a secret weapon for night times which are my downfall when it comes to snacking and when I tend to hover around the pantry and fridge. This secret weapon will be revealed all in good time. 
This morning I weighed myself (gulp), took measurements (bigger gulp) and a ‘before’ photo (omigawd). However, these stats and the photo will remain private – a girl has to retain some mystery.
So the bike intervals were done – hot and sweaty work and 10 intervals seemed to take forever. This was followed by 1 minute of mountain climbers and then 1 minute of squat thrusts with the medicine ball. Can I just put it out there now that I hate mountain climbers with a passion. In fact, they are up there with burpees as things I don’t love at all. Anyway I started the mountain climbers at speed (stupid, stupid, stupid) and promptly died about 30 seconds in. How could it possibly be that only 30 secs have gone by? I did some more at a slightly slower pace. Still 20 secs to go. @#$%! Another one…or…two…or…three…done.quite.slowly…because I could hardly move at this stage! Ok, now let’s do some squat thrusts. Awesome! With a heavy medicine ball. Double awesome! Squat…now…what?! Stand up raising the heavy (did I mention this?) ball above my head. Do this for a minute. I cannot believe how out of practice and out of shape I am. Running certainly does not prepare one for this. Trust me on that.
Okay, now I can lie down. Thank goodness. Yes, yes, I know…it’s not rest time, its abs time. Three sets of three different abs exercises. I watch the video for each ab exercise intently and then try to mimic the action. Somehow I don’t think my efforts quite replicate Mish’s graceful actions but hey, it’s close (ok I look like a dying bug), and you know what, right now close enough is good enough.
Finally it’s time for stretches. Now this bit I like and I can feel the stretches doing me good. I confess I don’t do these stretches often enough so I will religiously do them as part of my program *cross my heart*. When the program says ’stretch’ I will stretch.
This afternoon I hit a brick wall figuratively speaking – yep, the dreaded mid-afternoon slump. I was almost face planting the keyboard. I’m blaming it on the early morning cardio session. I resorted to a caffeine kick (black coffee) as well as some afternoon tea (a designated, Mish-approved snack). Hopefully this is only a temporary state and I will soon get used to the early morning exercise sessions.
One day down; 83 days to go…
This morning’s breakfast – apple & ricotta toast
I can see a light at the end of the tunnel – this pre-Christmas mayhem will soon be over! But in the meantime it’s a case of navigate the car parks and then brave the crowds at shopping centres to find that elusive present. In my case, its been very bloody elusive! And thank god for gift wrapping services at the centres! They have been my saviour today!
Well, at work anyway – we still have a way to go at home. Work colleagues in my area had set up and decorated the Christmas tree and have hung tinsel and baubles around our bay. It was also a Christmassy afternoon tea today as it was the last day that all of us would be together until after Christmas. Hence why I was baking blueberry brownies last night. Others had done the same so there was blueberry cheesecake (mmm I love cheesecake), peppermint slice, dips and chips and other nibblies. Our boss had bought us each a small gift which was sweet of her. I do seem to have this reputation for chocolate (I have no idea where they get that idea!!!) and received two blocks of 70% dark chocolate plus a bag of chocolate eggs. 
And I needed to bake something for tomorrow’s afternoon tea so this was my opportunity. It’s a really easy recipe and most of the ingredients can be found in the pantry and fridge. I only needed to buy some more blueberries and a block of dark chocolate. I know, as hard as it is to believe, I didn’t have any dark chocolate in the house! And even better, it’s a really quick and easy recipe that doesn’t require lots of time or bowls or utensils – so a perfect weekday recipe. The only part that did cause me some angst was the length of time for baking – the instructions explicitly stated that it was to be cooked in a 180 degrees celsius oven for no more than 25 minutes – there is nothing worse than overcooked brownies – dry and crumbly is the death of a good brownie. I prefer the fudgy type of brownie so for the last 5-10 minutes I was constantly checking to ensure it wasn’t becoming too firm.
