Before my physical therapy session (I’m done!) this morning, I gobbled down some oatmeal too quickly to photograph it.  I ate about an hour earlier than I’m used to eating, so I had a snack when I came back, which I don’t usually have. I had coffee and a Luna protein bar. It was good, but maybe a little too sugary. I’m currently chugging water in hopes of flushing the allergies out of my nose.

Don’t forget to e-mail me today and let me know how you did on last week’s goals and what your goals for next week are!

I had a Junior League meeting tonight at Tiffany’s, and I had a piece of pizza and Tiff’s yummy salad…minus the walnuts for me, because I’m allergic. I wouldn’t say I feel guilty, per se, when I eat something like pizza, but I definitely think twice about it afterwards.

Tomorrow is another day. (Which will start with some oatmeal.)

I almost forgot! This little blog here turns one today!

I’ve done the navel-gazing posts at major holidays and milestones in this journey, so I’ll just say this: thanks for reading! I’ve learned a lot about myself and others in this past year, and I love everything this blog has taught me.

Thanks for reading!

Also, happy birthday Steph!!!! (You may know her as startinganewlife.tumblr.com, but I knew her back when I drove her around in my Jeep when we were in high school, blasting Baby Got Back and eating Wendy’s! We’ve both come a long way since then, and I’m proud of you, little one!)

After my workout, I was starving, so I made a ginormous salad with chicken, guacamole, a bit of goat cheese, arugula and some bell peppers. I had a sweet potato on the side for some extra carb action.

Before my workout, I made my first Green Monster! I drank it far too quickly to even think about photographing it. I threw in: about a cup of spinach, a banana,  some strawberries and mango.

Joel says that bananas are among the least-good fruits for you because of the high carb content.

If eating bananas is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

I’ve been working out with Meghan and Joel with New York Sports Club’s 2fit deal, but we couldn’t find a time that worked for everyone this week, so I worked out alone with Joel today. Each and every muscle fiber in my body (except my tongue, which was doing overtime work complaining…oops) felt like jelly. Every single thing I tried to do, from burpees + jumping up on a step (yeah, you thought burpees were hard? Add a jump!) to a simple row felt even more difficult than my first workout with him last year. I’m training for a half-marathon! I did a hard spin class last night! I should be able to handle this, right?

Joel asked me to do tricep dips on the side of a weight bench, and I finally just blurted out “Why is everything so hard? I mean, I can handle hard, but my muscle are just jelly right now. Your workouts are usually manageably challenging, but this one feels impossible.” He asked what I’d done since I saw him last, and I told him the StairMaster, running 9.25 miles and a hard spin class.

“No wonder you’re having such a hard time — those are hard workouts!” he said. And it had been a while since I’d done strength training before starting to work out with him again last week. I told him that basically the reason I started working out with him again was because I still wasn’t sure how to do strength training on my own. He showed me the XpressLine, and we went through how much weight I should put on each machine. I’m going to do it twice a week and work out with him once a week. I’m hoping all of this will make me feel comfortable enough to attempt other strength workouts on my own in a few weeks.

Also: MUST. DO. YOGA.

Also: I’m sure the booze and fried food had nothing to do with this. Or the brownie I nabbed at Whole Foods last night.

Back to the oatmeal this morning. I discovered yesterday that my beloved wrap has 39 percent of the recommended daily value of sodium (and, um, making my own oatmeal is cheaper anyway), so it has been moved back to “just once in a while.”

I think they might have changed the recipe — I thought it used to be more like 30 percent, which is still ridiculous, but less close to half of the sodium you should be having in one day!

I’ve been on this health kick for a bit over a year now. I do enjoy working out now, but still, there are only so many times a girl can hop on the eilliptical/Stairmaster/bike/AMT trainer without getting bored.

That’s a big reason why I started running. I could get outside, I could challenge myself in races of all different lengths. But I don’t want to run too much either, because I don’t want any overuse injuries.

So when I got a free pass to Soul Cycle in my Winter Ball goodie bag, I was psyched to try it out. I’d read about it on Mary’s blog, and I was both intrigued and intimidated. But it was free, so it was worth a try.

There’s spin, and then there’s Soul Cycle.

It’s billed as a full-body workout, and it definitely lived up to that.

They gave me rental spin shoes to use on the bike (it’s not an option), and the spin shoes definitely make a difference. I have spin shoes in my closet that I’ve never used, and I’m definitely thinking of finding some clips and busting out my shoes the next time I take a spin class. The shoes definitely enhance the experience, helping you focus on the up-and-down motion on the bike without worrying about keeping your feet in the pedals.

I went to the 7:30 class at their UES location with Kalla, and it was all kinds of awesome. The music was a bit too R&B for me, but it was otherwise amazing. She had us shaking our moneymakers from side-to-side when we were in third position and doing a butt bump backwards when we were doing our jumps — it felt like I was totally rocking out on the bike. Towards the end, she had us pick up one-pound weights and do a bunch of arm exercises - bicep curls, tricep extensions, shoulder presses. By the end, I was absolutely drenched in sweat - and I am not usually a very sweaty person, even when I’ve completely kicked my own ass.

But at $32 per class, it’s not cheap. At all. (Maybe that’s why I hadn’t tried it before!) I’d do it every once in a while to really mix things up, but I don’t see it becoming a part of my regular routine. I hear there’s an all-Madonna class; THAT, I would definitely try!

After hitting up a Soul Cycle spin class (full review later!) this evening, I met up with Lacey (who had also just completed an ass-kicking workout!) for a bite to eat. We went to Land Thai, on the Upper East Side. Luckily, it wasn’t super-fancy and they were totally cool with the two sweaty, famished girls who walked in. I started with some spring rolls and then had some kind of tofu with a ginger sauce and brown rice. (iPhone pic because my memory card is currently in my computer.) P.S. As I write this on the subway, I am pretty sure the MTA worker sitting next to me is boozin’ from a Thermos.

Just a few shots from today.