It happened in Sun Valley

No, it actually happened in Greenville; I'm sure no one cares. I did not cringe yesterday when I had my coffee with just cream. Seriously. I drank it ALL and didn't make the face you'd make after you swallow vomit burps (not even once). I don't want to jinx myself, but I feel good and I am pretty sure my taste buds are changing for the better.
The "sweet" part of my diet has consisted of fruit...fruit...and, yes, fruit. Sometimes, I get bored with my dates and grapes sometimes, so I will do this:

Yeah, making smiley faces out of fruit while I should be working seems about right. But I digress. All of this fiber is making my bowels more regular than usual (I could care less if this is information about me you didn't want to know) and I never have to worry about my sweet snack being wrapped up in the goodness/harmfulness of gluten.
I can share that sad times have come between my scale and me: I haven't lost any more weight. Honestly, I wasn't going forward with this 40-days of no sugar shit for weight loss, but I was sad to see the number hadn't moved in a week. 
There is some good (and impressive) news though: I'm pleased to report that I have not slipped up at all...not even once. I take desserts home and freeze them, I've been saying "no" to cookies (which is SOOOOOO hard), and I have even gone as far as to bring something sweet with me when I travel for work so I am not tempted while I aimlessly drive around the country. Do you want to pat me on the back yet? No? Well, I'm sorry...but that's all I've got for now.
Soon, I will face the greatest challenge of Lent to date. In a week, my office is hosting a wonderful dinner for some counseling friends from around the country. I arranged the menu. The dinner is going to be delicious and semi-healthy (as healthy as you can get from campus catering services). Then there's the desserts: fully loaded cheesecake bar AND a self-serve coffee station, complete with 10 different flavored syrups, rock sugar sticks, flavored creams, and whipped cream. Holy shit...I am going to be in serious trouble!!! I'm planning on taking some of the cheesecake home in Tupperware containers (umm, yes, I am TOTALLY that person. Face it, they will only throw it out anyway so I may as well take it home and eat the crap out of it on Easter Sunday). The coffee? Ugh. I don't know! THIS. BLOWS.
Well, one of 2 things will happen after Lent is over: I will either 1) taste sugar again and say, "EEWWW! Sugar is gross!" and vow to eat it only in very limited quantities or 2) taste sugar again, remember how delicious it is, shut myself in my house for 30 years consuming every sugary morsel I can get my grubby little hands on, look in the mirror one day, realize I have turned into the mama on "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", go into a diabetic sugar coma, and die knowing full well that Randy had to burn down our house (with me inside of it) because I was too chubby for him to get me out.
How have your Lenten promises been going? Is your quarter jar full yet? That is why I didn't give up swearing again this year. Last year I did, and I was broke 2 weeks in!

National " " Day.

Do you know what day yesterday was? I will give you a hint:

That's right. National Cheesecake Day. I celebrated the right way, by indulging myself with a piece of the world's greatest cheesecake, made proudly by my mother in law. I don't know what her secret is...I mean, she gave the recipe to me. I have made it several times. Randy has made it several times. It does not taste the same as hers. Everytime she makes this treat, it is creamy and sweet...SIMPLY DELICIOUS!

I will celebrate most of those silly holidays: national smiling day, national wear a hat day, national act like a pirate day, (and my personal favorite) national hug day. These kinds of days. Want to learn more? Want to participate in national pancake day or national have a British accent day? Check out this great link:

Nom, nom, nom

Today was a fun day. I woke up a little later than usual (8am! Yeah!), taught a great exercise class and then spent the rest of the day prepping for a surprise party for my mother in law.

In case you need some fitness today, here's the routine I did with my class this morning: kettle bell tabata. If you don't know what tabata style fitness is, check out this link. We performed the following exercises for 8 rounds, each round was 20 seconds of extra hard work, followed by a 10 second rest. After each round was performed, we moved on to the next exercise. Today, we did stationary swings, walking overhead lunges, push ups, walking squat swings, goblet squats, wood choppers, full sit ups holding a kettle bell and then (finally!) fly chest press. Whew! It was a workout for sure!

The cake I am making is from an old copy of Midwest Living magazine. I hope it turns out alright. It is a butter cake with crumb topping and a yummy chocolate drizzle on top of all that. Have I mentioned I love to eat? Have I also mentioned I am gluten intolerant? Such a predicament when surrounded my delicious sweets. To eat or not to eat?? More like, to have diarrhea or not have diarrhea?? You have to ask yourself these important questions.

I like when I make items around the house because I usually have a little helper named Milly Phillips waiting by my side. She sits in the chair, listening to me tell Randy about my plan for cooking, gives me this look, and then she Velcros herself to my side.

I feel like all I did today was eat. Hummus, chips, cheese, eggs, cucumbers, squash...the list goes on. Sad part is, I am still hungry. Perhaps I should eat a real meal instead of a bunch of snacks. Hmm, fortunately, it is almost dinner time :)

Source: 

www.tabatatraining.org (link included in website)