"Middle of Nowhere" by Hot Hot Heat

Another song from my past.  Came out in 2005, which is when I graduated high school.  And it played tonight at Skinnyfit.  The musical tastes of one of the coaches is similar to me from 5-10 years ago, and I thoroughly enjoy it.  Tonight, we did a "Deck of Death" where each suit in a deck of cards represents a different movement, and the number indicates how many reps we have to do.  Sounds tough, right?  The thing is, it was a brand new deck, and not shuffled very well.  Also, it was originally presented with a 30:00 cap with a "then..." afterward, which turned out to be, THE REST OF THE DECK!  Movements as follows...

spades-squats
hearts-burpees
diamonds-push ups
clubs-sit ups
face cards =10
aces=400m run
jokers=200m farmer walks

Holy hell!  It was the longest almost 40:00 I've experienced in a while!  Doing the math, we did a total of (2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+10+10+10) 84 of each movement x4 =334 total reps!  Yowza.  And because it wasn't shuffled well, we ran into this frequently, "2 push ups! 3 push ups! 4 push ups! 8 push ups!"  I generally one of the last three to finish most of the movements.  Thankfully, I catch up a little on squats, and I was given a scale of running 200m after the first one.  Which, I probably didn't need, but it was appreciated.  It was fun not to think though, and to have someone else be in charge.  I think Matt had a little too much fun with it, though.  He looked way too happy. :o)  Another day, another successful workout.  Getting closer to my goals, even though my scale stays about the same.  I still feel like I am making progress in gaining muscle, strength, agility, and endurance.  And I feel as if I am getting long-term results. 

My eating habits have continued to be good.  Gave the rest of my Halloween candy I got in Disney world to my friend's daughter.  Now I can't bring myself to take candy from a child.  I hope.  Literally, today, I had to verbally coach myself out loud to drive past the fast food restaurants when I was going between buildings for work.  I have only had one infraction on the fast food front in 3 weeks.  Which doesn't sound like a lot, but honestly, there were weeks I ate fast food 5x.  Completely in secret.  In my car.  Shamefully.  

Those days are over, but I won't forget them.  I also want to share this Buzzfeed list about fast food, because I have been torn about what kind of "diet" to follow, and I have determined that the first and most important thing to do is to eat as few processed foods as possible.  Paired with eating whole foods (a base of fruits, vegetables, lean meat), followed by only a little dairy, occasional whole grain, and rarely sugar.  Plus, I still find myself craving Wendy's for some reason.  Baby steps, right!?

I have found a good substitute for the crunchy and salty instead of potato chips, tortilla chips, and pretzels (plantain chips, terra or root vegetable chips, nut crackers), the crunchy in general [sidenote:if you know me personally, you would know that I LOVE crunchy foods] (raw almonds and cashews), pasta (I go without or use spaghetti squash or other vegetable pasta stand ins), ice cream (which I don't eat often anyway, but I have turned to buying Almond Dream dessert products; can be expensive, but yummo.  Also, if it's expensive, I will buy it less.  I don't want to buy crappy junk food.  I want the good stuff to splurge on), and I have pretty much eliminated dairy except for cheese, the occasional sour cream, and a McDonald's soft serve (which I already only eat a couple of times a year).  Eating less cereal has been hard to do, but I'm not looking to cut out all grains.  Just mostly.  My last major feat is finding a good bread, and I am eager to try this paleo bread.  I no longer get uncontrollable hunger pangs and binge eat on junk, and I really enjoy the clean feeling of the food I am eating.  Each day is a struggle, but it is getting easier and easier.