How long does motivation last? 24 hours.

After a dinner of two mini-bags of microwaved popcorn (Orville Redenbacher Naturals Italian Herb and Olive Oil – delicious!) and 1/2 bottle of Pinot Noir, I woke up this morning with the best of intentions. Rousing Boyfriend at 7 AM, we set off to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center. I’ve wanted to go all winter, and thought this would be a nice outing for us that a) didn’t involve eating b) required more physical activity than watching House or The Office.

But alas, this plan was not meant to be. Last week Boyfriend overslept and then his subway car got stuck at the station one stop from his work. Thinking quickly, he decided to get off and run the four blocks (read: 2/10 mile) to his office. In running the distance it probably takes me to cross the starting line at a big marathon, he managed to develop some combination of achilles tendonitis and plantar fasciitis. It flared up on our way to the rink, and while Boyfriend tried to insist that he’d be fine and that skating would be probably be fine, I pointed out that he could barely walk and kating would probably only be worse.

Instead, he took me to brunch – at Popover Cafe. I’m not sure if I’ve written much about Popover Cafe before, but it is the best brunch in New York. You get delicious popovers with strawberry butter and apple butter as your appetizers, and it’s incredible. I tried to be at least somewhat conscious of our challenge, and ordered the Health Watch Egg White Omelette (“With jarlsburg cheese, diced fresh tomato, scallion, fresh basil & lightly sautéed mushrooms served with a low-fat chicken and apple sausage”), but I couldn’t resist getting the roasted rosemary potatoes with it, and dousing my popover in the strawberry butter. So much for motivation, though I have a niggling feeling Chia somehow paid Boyfriend off to entice me with such delightfulness.

I slunk out of Popover Cafe practically with my tail between my legs. I had organized a great weight loss challenge and only managed to stick to it for about 24 hours before caving… and now you all would get to find out my most embarrassing moment (trust me, it’s bad, and I really would rather not share it on the blog). My stomach was bloated and I felt a little sick from the grease I had so easily inhaled. Boyfriend went home, I went home, and I was on my own to figure out what to do. I had two choices:
1) Say screw it and spend the day eating my leftover Christmas cookies and making more treats. Boyfriend would love me for this one, as inevitably I’d come to my senses and he’d get all of them.
2) Work out hardcore and eat well the rest of the day to make up for it.

Believe it or not, I chose option 2! After lazing around for a half hour, I did 40 minutes of workout DVDs (the leg and butt segments of 30 Minute Fitness and Tank Top Arms, Bikini Belly, Boy Shorts Bottom). The best part was near the end of Boy Shorts Bottom when I tried to pick up my ten pound weights for bridges, and had a lot of trouble picking them up to put them on my stomach for added resistance. Looks like my arm routine yesterday was a success!

Later tonight, I’m hitting the gym to use the machines to get my legs and butt even more, and if I don’t get together with Boyfriend tonight, the plan is to watch a movie and play the drinking game… but do leg lefts instead of drinking. Absolut-ly fit, I tell you! While I didn’t have time today to go for a run, tomorrow is supposed to be 60 degrees, so I’m thinking an early morning long run will finish off the attack on my leg muscles.

For the ten days, I’m opting for a three day cycle of core, arms/chest, and legs, which means tomorrow I’m mainly going to be concentrating on my core. That’s going to be interesting considering right now my abs are so sore from Thursday night’s routine that the only way for me to get up from lying down is to roll over onto my stomach and push myself up with my arms. I’m hoping by tomorrow my stomach muscles will be functional again, as I fully expect that my arms will be out of commission and that method of getting up will no longer work.