And on and on.

Yesterday I did a lower-body weight circuit that I know kicks my butt! I was so sore when I was done, but in a different kind of way than with weight training.

Bodyweight squat with leg raise 10-15 (some sets I did total, some sets I did per leg)
Jump squat 10-15
Lateral lunges 10-15
Russian hops 10-15 (I did 10 total -- they're like jump lunges, but you try to get as little "air time" as possible when switching feet, so it ends up feeling like the world's worst isometric hold)
Curtsy lunges 10-15

Rest a minute, then repeat. Do the circuit a total of 5 times for a half-hour workout.

I aimed for only 10 of each exercise, and for the Russian hops, I'll just have to build up to that. I was ON FIRE when I was done. I finished with a wall squat, which should have been 60 seconds but where making it to 30 felt like an eternity. I never concentrated so hard on each second! My last move was this thing called a Bam-Bam (not sure why), where either on a stability ball or on the bed, you lay on your stomach with your legs behind you and lift both legs behind you simultaneously. It simulates the Butt Blaster machine, or cable kickbacks, but you're working against the force of gravity. Give it a bit of a hold at the top, move your legs in and out to work your glutes, and after 15 reps, try and see if you can get your legs in the air with good form!

I tried to do walking as my cardio yesterday, but I found out when I got to work that I was on phone watch for the afternoon. That meant no walk during lunch, and when I got off, it was already 4pm. So I had my husband bring my workout gear to the gym and did a little bit on the Stairstepper (boooooooooooring -- not recommended) and then finished on the elliptical. Hubby forgot to bring shoes, so I ended up doing the workout in my ballet flats and my feet were never so miserable! Yuck!

But, I did walk to the gym, and when I was done I walked to the NEX to see if they had any cute cheap cropped leggings -- they did, for $8. I wish they had them in dark gray, but all I could find was black. No biggie. Then I walked to my car and drove home, where we had leftover turkey meatloaf.

I've been trying to eat a little less this week in preparation for a nice dinner out tomorrow. It's been pretty good overall. Here's what I had, both days essentially the same:

Breakfast: two slices bacon, scrambled eggs and whites, half a banana with a tbsp. Sunbutter.
Snack: small apple and 100 calorie almonds
Lunch: roast beef rolled around broccoli slaw and spicy mayo, pumpkin soup
Snack 2: strawberries and homemade roast beef
Dinner: yesterday was leftover meatloaf and broccoli, today was a turkey burger salad on spinach with tomato, onion, and mayo mixed with cranberry balsamic vinegar.
Dessert: two pieces of dark chocolate orange.
Tea with a tsp. of coconut oil before bed yesterday. I will skip it today because I got REALLY CRANKY with my husband a little bit ago, went, I think I just need food, had a whole banana with 3 tbsp. Sunbutter, and felt immediately better and fully satiated for the evening. That brought today's calories to only 1762. That also brought my willpower up to "totally doable" for eating light tomorrow.

Today I parked at the hall and walked to the gym for command pt. We just did a warm-up and then did cardio on our own, so I did a half hour on the bike, doing 10 minutes at a level 11 (okay, 5 minutes at 11 and then alternating the other five between level 10 and 11 -- my legs were pooped), and then did intervals of 3 minutes off, 1 minute at level 12. I felt pretty fried when I was done, and that's probably part of the reason I wanted the stinkin' banana! Then I walked back to the band hall to shower and get ready for the day.

I was kept pretty busy for the rest of the day, helping the education officer make study guides (studying built into my work, too!) and rehearsing some of our pops ensemble music. Then I walked to the commissary to pick up a few last-minute items, and since they didn't have everything I needed, I walked back to my car and drove to Stop-n-Shop, where they had a better selection.

I thought of something cool about all my walking: I'm going to save myself gas on stupid, unnecessary little jaunts around the base. Seriously, if it takes less than 5 minutes to walk to the commissary, I should just do that instead of hopping into the car and taking it over. That's just dumb.

Then that made me think how nice it would be if I had a bike that fits me, because wouldn't it have been awesome to make the short jaunt over to Stop-n-Shop on that instead of in my car? It's like the more of this slow activity I'm getting, the more my body seems to crave it. I feel like I want to be in motion constantly! I'm thinking of looking at my Netflix account tonight to see what kinds of workout videos are available -- maybe they have something dance related? That would be fun!

Tomorrow hubby and I are going out to dinner, and we're going to walk. He didn't sound thrilled about that. He says the walk there is fine, it's coming back that would stink. I basically said "Get over it."

In the meantime, I'm thinking about how I should make myself study (maybe I'll read a few chapters of the music books instead of "hard core" studying) while I let a few foods simmer.

Currently cooking: something I just dubbed the ABC soup. Amazing Beta-Carotene Curry soup. I was going to buy some organic soups at the commissary (oh wait, the commissary doesn't sell organic anything here...) or at Stop-n-Shop (amazing how much crap even organic soups have in them), but since that was a failure and I didn't have a recipe, I decided to make a soup dedicated to all things orange. So, I used my big can of pumpkin puree, heated up some frozen carrots, heated up some frozen butternut squash, heated up some peppers and onion blend, heated up some frozen chopped kale, processed each of them into a puree (as best as I could), tossed it into a CrockPot with a cup of my homemade chicken stock and a whole box of organic vegetable stock, tossed in a whole jar of red curry paste, and set that thing to cook on low for 6 hours. It's kinda chunky, kinda spicy (that curry paste did more than I expected given the amount of soup), and so ridiculously healthy it's not even funny. Talk about getting my veggies on!

Next, I'll have to make a sorrel soup... finally. It'll involve ham hocks. How does someone who doesn't eat dairy get calcium in their diet? Broth made out of real bones. Like the chicken stock that I used, made from a whole chicken that I cooked. Bones.

The other thing that is cooking is a Clean Eating mango BBQ sauce. It's also so healthy it's disgusting. I sauteed onion, garlic, and a whole mango in some coconut oil, then added two cans of no-salt-added diced tomatoes, one small can of tomato paste, some Stevia and some honey, half a cup of blackstrap molasses (yeah, this sauce definitely smells like molasses, so maybe not blackstrap if you're not a fan of that flavor -- I am), 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce (who on Earth came up with how to pronounce that word?), and 2 tbsp. lemon juice. It smells awesome, or at least I did, told hubby to come smell it, and he said,

"Wow, that smells good.... Like... that smells really good." That's a lot coming from him. I can't wait to use it on a pork tenderloin on Thursday, in the CrockPot, for some amazing mango BBQ pulled pork. Om-nom-nom!

Blackstrap molasses. Can you imagine how many freaking minerals are now in my BBQ sauce?! Holy cow!

Oh, and my blackberry jerky is soooo good! It's good jerky, got a bit of sweetness to it, and then because I put some chipotle chili powder in the marinade, it kicks you gently after you're done chewing. Yum.

The best part: whole foods, alternative ways to get the benefits of more produce in my diet, and fewer preservatives and crap.

I think I'm hooked. Sometimes I think I don't have a hobby, but I do. I actually really like to cook! For real!