Mmm McDonald's coffee is delicious this morning, but simply not doing it for me. Nothing will help me except some quality sleep, which I'm not sure I'll get for another week or so.

I didn't mention it on my blog because I just didn't feel like explaining and getting into it (because for one, I was a little upset about it), but Brady, my first born (read: one of my Chihuahuas) went under the knife Tuesday to remove a big bladder stone that was causing him to pee blood. What's funny is that this has been going on for 10 months. My family vet flushed out his urethra back in October because of some small crystals he saw on X-ray....well, apparently he missed one and it grew...and grew....and Brady then needed surgery to get it removed. I was worried about him going under, but knew recovery would be worse on us both.


I hate that he can't run and jump around. It's been 3 days and I'm exhausted from waking up throughout the night to make sure he's OK and/or not licking at his stitches, so they'll heal. Poor baby. He's resilient, however. Great guy :)

Insanity Week 3 Update:
This week has taken its toll on my body. I've followed my Insanity schedule, but have started feeling weak during the workouts, especially in my legs.

I have freakin' dead legs. Feels like dragging lead around during a workout. It's horrible. Stress definitely puts a beating on your body, even when you don't realize it. I'm also going to add some more calories into my diet- The scale hasn't budged at ALL and I refuse to fail this week. 1 pound is my goal.

Hoping tonight's workout will be better.....and I hope I can catch up on some rest this weekend.

I spend a lot of time on E-bay scouring the site for good deals on out of stock clothing or something I don't wanna pay full price for. As I have nothing better to talk about, here are some recent purchases:






Are you a e-bay freak? What do you usually bid on?

Oh, Britney. Only you (and I guess Lady Gaga) can parade around stage wearing numerous leotards and get away with it. Although- some of those leotards this year were dumb. 

Vlog is below. Please excuse my no-make-up sleepy face and nasty workout hair. LOL! I look like an alien!! Oh, well. I'm happy.

Have a great weekend- thanks for all of you who continue to encourage me through this workout program :) If you have questions about Insanity, please ask.

Seriously, if all I'm REALLY craving is some frozen yogurt, I think I'd doing pretty good...and if I just stick with adding fruit to it, it'll be even better....but I can't make that promise, ok?

Hey hey hey!

Today...is Sunday. Today...is the day I completed one full week of the Insanity workout. Whew. It was tough, but worth it and I'm pleased enough to keep going. I was going to make a vlog, but I'm just too tired to do that, so here are a few points I want to make after my first week:

#1. The workouts are a challenge and sometimes quite the bitch, but I saw MAJOR improvements from myself in the SAME workouts from the start of the week to the end of the week. You do the same 4 or 5 workouts over and over each month, so you end up doing some of the same workouts maybe twice a week. I'm able to do more of the moves and stay in it longer- can't wait to see how I'm doing with them at the end of the month.


#2: My HRM is still telling me I'm only averaging a heart rate of about 147 each workout, meaning I'm burning about 300-330 calories for roughly 36 minutes. My forerunner is made for running outdoors so I plug the numbers into a formula online. These numbers discourage me a bit, but I keep in mind that I'm also burning more calories AFTER my workout (from all the intervals) and I'm still getting used to the workouts.


#3: My eating has been great! I could probably even eat a bit more- funny how trying to eat MORE good calories is now a struggle for me.

#4: I want some frozen yogurt....

Friday night I made rice-less sushi. SO GOOD! I could eat the seaweed sheets on their own...Yeah, that's weird and true.

In the seaweed I used sauteed cauliflower to take the place of the rice, added crab meat and avocado, and rolled.


Fashion: The Limited is having a 40% sale everything that ends TODAY, people! I scored two basic items I so needed:

Hello out there! Anyone get on Blogger on the weekends?

Sometimes I wonder if everyone takes a break from reading and writing blogs, staying busy with other fun stuff. Seeing as how I'm a bit of a homebody some weekends, I usually read blogs, but rarely ever write them, until recently.

It's been awhile since I've mentioned by dear love, Anthropologie. Frankly, their stuff lately sucks. ha! Just not doing it for me.  There are a few things on my wishlist that I'm still stalking, however. I scour ebay daily to see if I can find a good deal on the tops and dresses I long for, but are out of stock.

I called customer service this morning and inquired about stores with certain items I was looking for. The girl on the other end was ABSOLUTELY sweet and so helpful and gave me number after number of the stores that were carrying the item in my size.

She informed me that they update their stocks on Sunday, so the items may or may NOT be in the store, but it was worth a shot! Out of 4 items I was looking for, I snagged TWO!

These are older items, so I know it's nothing exciting, but it is for me ESPECIALLY THE PRICES!!

I scored BOTH for $40! can you believe that? Neither of the two stores charged me for shipping. It's so worth the detective work to hunt down the loot you're looking for with Anthro!


Insanity Workout Update: My rest day was supposed to be tomorrow, but seeing as how I went to the midnight showing of HP and was exhausted and couldn't motivate myself to do anything but lay around today- I switched the days...


Tomorrow I'll be rocking Plyo Cardio Circuit. This is the workout from Day 2 earlier this week- we'll see how much I've improved in these few days. haha :)


Hope you all have a great weekend! Insanity Weekly Vlog coming Sunday!

Day 5 is complete. Pure Cardio, you are outta here. From what I've read from others, this one is straight through cardio work- no intervals like the rest of the workouts- and therefore much harder. Yeah, it was, like alllll the others, tough, but not quite as scary as I expected.


I'm really frustrated at the amount of calories I'm NOT burning. I completely understand that because I can't finish every move that I won't burn as much as I should be in the given amount of time...but gheesh. I know, I know...it's only 5 days into the program.

Val, or anyone else who's done Insanity- did you monitor your average heart rate/caloric burn and notice it went up as you got stronger and progressed through every week?

Anyone going to the midnight showing of Harry Potter tonight? I AM! I'm a huge fan, yes I am. It's officially the end of an era with this last movie. So sad. The books, I never get sick of. And yes, I have work in the morning. I plan on napping my ass off later.

All I can say is that I was hurting yesterday afternoon. All day, frankly. I did, somehow manage to do the workout half-assly. I burned around 300 calories still, in 36 minutes.

I completed Day 4: Cardio Recovery this morning and it was SO easy. It was more muslce work, no cardio. I almost felt guilty because my heart rate wasn't up very high. Sure, the squats and lunges hurt, but what about burning those calories?? I guess I'm used to P90X. The break from the high intensity cardio was a VERY nice change of pace, however.
In the future, maybe I'll replace this day with a strength workout from P90X instead. I felt very unchallenged...for this week, it's OK :)
Here's a lovely video from Day 3's workout. The warm-up is KILLER! KILLER! And you do this warm-up in every. single. video. Ughhh.

If you've followed my blog for awhile you may have seen on the sidebar, under "Currently Reading", that I was reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett for about 6 months (if not longer. I like to underguesstimate).
I finished the book last week. It was a stuggle. For all you readers out there, please pick your jaw up from the floor. It's true- it wasn't my favorite book.

#1: I liked it. It just wasn't the best book I ever read. I liked the characters and the subject, but it wasn't a "couldn't put down" for me.

#2: Also, keep in mind that I received this book from a friend when it FIRST came out. She really liked the book, but made a good point after I told her it was just "OK." She said that if she had read the book AFTER it received so much hype and talk, she probably would have had other expectations as well. So true. That's what I get for being a reading slacker.

#3: I still want to see the movie which comes out in August- I love Emma Stone and think she's going to play a GREAT Skeeter. :)

Q: Did anyone out there NOT like the book as much as everyone else did?

This morning for my breakfast I had my very first Shakeology Chocolate Shake. It was delicious, indeed. It's consistency is, obviously, much thicker than a protein shake because of all the nutrients and other "good-for-you" stuff! So glad I decided to incoporate it into my food menu.

P.S. Insanity is kicking my butt. I had to get out of bed last night to stumble into the bathroom and slather Bengay all over my feet (yes. feet) and my hamstrings. *sigh* I don't know how the hell I'm going to power through today's workout, but I am. Update to follow.....

OHMIGOD. Y'all. Like I told my peeps on my facebook status just now...if yesterday's Insanity Fit Test deserved a "holy crap" today's workout DEFINITELY deserves a HOLY. SHIT!

It was HARD! HARD!..FREAKING-A HARD!

I only burned about 322 calories in 35 minutes (this isn't including the cool down. Total length of the workout is about 41 minutes.), but I was SWEATING buckets and breathing hard.

I couldn't push myself to do all the moves and I can only improve from here. Can you IMAGINE how many calories I'll be burning once I can actually Do all the moves?

I didn't videotape today's workout. Frankly, I didn't have the energy to push record. lol. I'll record this workout next week when it pops back up in rotation because you have GOT to see this one. Makes me wonder what tomorrow has in store....

Let's talk Insanity meal plan....

The meal plan is pretty realistic and attainable. For all you low-carbers doing Insanity (I'm looking at MYSELF), re-think that...because you'll need those precious carbs for fuel. The diet is balanced and can be tweaked to your needs. After reading through each of the meal options for each of the 5 meals you eat, it's clear that I already know what I should be eating. I'm on the right track. I actually need to ADD more calories....SAY whaaattt?!

The basic meal plan is 1,500 calories. That's a LOT of food to me, honestly. When I'm trying to lose weight I try to keep my calories around 1,200-1,300, but...this IS Insanity. It's TOUGH. I'm going to try to follow the meal plans as closely as possible and tweak some things once I've done a few weeks of the program- at least I won't feel super guilty for adding more carbs into my meals ;)

Here was today's menu:

Meal 1: 3 pieces of Turkey Bacon + 2 Boiled Eggs (NOT in the meal guide, but its hard for me to stray from this easy breakfast meal. I like having that protein in the morning. CAN'T wait for the Shakeology I ordered to get to me!)

Meal 2: 1 cup Greek Yogurt, 1 tsp honey, half an apple sliced (From the guide)

Meal 3: High Protein Salmon Patty, 1 cup roasted broccoli, 1/3 brown rice (NOT in guide, but close to other meal options they give you.)

Meal 4: 3 pieces Turkey Bacon on an Arnold's Thin Whole Wheat bread, mustard and tomatoes. 1/2 Apple slices and Almond Butter (In the guide it says to eat a pear and add lettuce to the sandwich. Also, the bun isn't supposed to be an Arnold's THIN, but...ah well.)

Meal 5: Mediterranean Salmon with Spinach- Possibly a little something else later.

I haven't calculated the calories, but hopefully I'm close to 1,500.

I just think its important to stick to what you feel comfortable eating. I would love to follow the guide EXACTLY, but...I don't like pears and I'd rather have turkey over chicken, etc. etc. As long as I'm getting around the same amount of calories and eating goods foods, I'll be happy.

I can feel that I'm definitely going to need to add a bit more carbs after today's workout.

I'll post another vlog on Sunday- that'll be the one week mark. Wish me freaking luck. Anyone wanna join in and do this with me?? :)


You can read the online meal guide here. Enjoy and see you tomorrow....if I can move...

Allow me to preface this video by telling you that it was tough. I looked a hot mess afterwards when I conducted my post-workout interview and I don't care. I love that it made me sweat- and sweating in makeup is a turn-off for me, so...yeah. Oh, and yeah. That's a Britney song in the video. BOO YA!!

Without further ado....

Dear morning commuters on the road with me:

There really is NO need to ride my ass. Also, there's no need to try to pass me like a wild banchee just to get one car's length ahead of me. Seriously. No reason.

You're probably going to work, am I right? And frankly, there's no reason to ride MY ass because YOU are running late. Also....it's work. Are you going to get your wrist slapped with a ruler because you're late? probably not.

Just stop. Thank you.

- Jenny

Guess what came in the mail yesterday?!?! Yesssss.......Insanity! It was like Christmas for me!

My way of changing my bedroom look is gradually buying new shit to toss on my bed or place on my night stand...with no rhyme or reason. Then, over time, it slowly morphs into new colors and a new look. If you remember before, this is what my bed and shower curtain looked like:
I do still really love that print. On my guest bed blow-up mattress, I had a grey duvet from West Elm. I didn't realize how soft and comfy it actually was- I wanted to sleep under it everynight!! So, I switched them. With a new duvet I had to buy new color coordinating items. Enter West Elm, once again....

*side table lamp
*gold pillowcases
*white, flower accent pillow
*grey striped shower curtain
*grey bathroom rug

I'm happy with it. I just love grey and yellow/gold together. I love grey period! Do you redecorate your rooms/switch things around occasionally?

Last night, I wanted to make this Paleo diet recipe I found, that looked like it would fit into my low carb eating. It's called "Primal Enchilada's." Cute name. haha!

Here are a few photos from the dish (I don't know about you, but I think that looks devilishly un-healthy. It's not.):

I can't find the website I eventually found the recipe on- it was a pain to actually find one written out and correct. The only thing I was leery about was all that cheese...but I made sure not to go overboard...even though, that's exactly what it looks like I did.

You may be curious to know that the tortilla's are actually an egg/egg white and skim milk "crepe." Yup. No real tortillas were used in this Paleo friendly dish.
Hope you all have a great long weekend-