I am not past legs !

I am really patting myself on the back today . I was in a lot of nasty, achy pain from having thigh muscles that resemble cooked spaghetti and trying to rebuild them. But I used the tapping and pulled from my inner strength ( the thing that allows moms to get up for the millionth time with a sick child for the umteenth night in a row and go forth to a paying job in the morning), and did my exercise. Pulling from that part of me was like revisiting an old friend- one who had saved my life on a few dangerous occasions and pulled me through a 110 pound weight loss almost 20 years ago. She has not been gone, but rather that she seems to have been occupied in other arenas of my life. In either case, it is kind of exciting to get in touch with her again in this way.

Breakfast was pumpkin oats again because I have come to really love the taste, texture and the action of mixing the toppings into my bowl before eating. It feels like playing with food and I love watching the colored parts dissapear. Okay, I will admit I also adored finger painting with my son and i can still be amused for a long time playing with playdough. Oatmeal kind of reminds me of those things. Yesterday's bowl contained olive oil,crasins,ground flax,goji berries, coconut and wheat bran. Green tea, lemon water, an apple and Yo Plus digestive yogert on the side.

School went by pretty quickly and without any real snags, which was good for us both. We have a few more weeks to go before summer, and we are both kind of chomping at the bit to be done. The begining of the school year brings drive, excitement and a sense of intention that lasts all the way till Christmas break. Then from Christmas till Easter there is a nose to the grindstone sort of feel that dissapears like the melting snow with spring break. From spring break till years end it is simply survival it seems. Flip flops, fireflies and swimming pools beckon, and speak louder than algebra, biology or who is buried in Grant's Tomb. Lunch was a turkey burger on Arnold's Thin with a cup of homemade minestrone soup, yo plus, carrot and celery sticks and an Oatmeal to Go bar. I was really hungry and just craving this bar for some reason. Perhaps it was memories of breakfast. I washed it down with a mix of sparkling LeCroix and pommegranate juice.

Dinner was new horizons in mushy food, which suited me just fine ! I made polenta in the crock pot ( for 3 of us I mixed 1 cup of stone ground cornmeal with 5 cups of water and a sprinkle of sea salt) and let it cook on low for 4 hours. Nothing could be easier ! Then I sliced up a pound of mushrooms, a large onion and sauteed them in a little olive oil and then tossed in 3 chicken asiago spinach sausages that had gotten cooked and then frozen.I sliced these into coins and tossed them in the mushroom and onion mix for flavor. I put the polenta in bowls, topped with a tablespoon of parmesagn cheese and 2 tablespoons of reduced fat shredded mozzerella and then the mushroom sausage mix. Serveed it with asparagus spears and lemon water. Very tasty and filling !

Today is a holiday and we are taking a day off from school, but don't plan on taking the day off from exercise. It's last chance workout day for us as tomorrow is weigh in. I am very cucious to see how a week free from coffee and spliting up workouts into morning and evening translates on the scale. I am not sure, as my feelings have been wrong on this so many weeks in a row. If nothing else I do know that i am working to transform my wet noodle leg muscles into something that is actually functional. Tht is a definate good thing !