The New Regime: Lunges are bastards.

Today's exercise challenge was to do 50 squats and 50 lunges.

I hate hate hate lunges.
My legs hate hate hate lunges.
I think everyone hates hates hates lunges, too.
{And if they don't they're probably bastards, too. Ever-so-sweetly just sayin'.}

In the morning, I did half the squats before Air Climbing and half after, forgetting about the lunges until I read my e-mail after exercising.

About halfway through the day, I got excited to come home and exercise, and then quickly wondered what the hell I was becoming.

I got home and though it was really, really tempting to white flag the evening's exercise because I was famished, I put on my workout clothes and did those damn lunges and Air Climbed again.

Plus, because my short-term memory forgot that we got the 50 squats out of the way this morning, I did 50 more, bring today's squat grand total to 100.
{And who says writers aren't good with math?}

I sent a whiny text to Tiffany saying that her [expletive] lunges will - paraphrasing - never be welcome in my home again, she replied with a previous blog's main point:

No pain,
no gain.

Hmmph. Tell that to my quivering legs!
{But I admit I am feeling pretty bad ass, like I could almost deliver a Sparta kick to somebody's chest ... almost ...}

The New Regime: Challenge No. 2? MET!

I am extremely happy to report that I survived my 100 required sit ups this morning!!

In fact, they were completed before 7:30 a.m.!
I did 50 before and 50 after Air Climbing, and though it did get rough at the end, I pushed through it.

I felt so accomplished and honestly, I carried myself a little taller today because I felt good about myself.

When I looked in the mirror this morning, I already saw what a difference a few days of being mindful of my eating and actually working out made.

I'm finally chiseling away to the Nikki that's been hidden under all this extra baggage for so long.

But instead of using a hammer to pick at it, I'm going all jackhammer on its ass.

And that's kind of my favorite part.

A challenge has been issued.

First, I'd like to let you know that I'm still calling my current diet and exercise goals The New Regime because:

No. 1: I plain just like the name.
No. 2: I've already created a tag for it.

Now that that's been cleared up, my dear friend Tiffany - who I've written about here before and who has always been my "thinspiration" - and I are trying to keep ourselves on track together, despite me living here in NEPA and she out in Pittsburgh.

We are going to do daily calls, e-mails or texts to each other to motivate ourselves and hold ourselves accountable.

One of our goals is to take part in the inaugural Red Cross 5K in March.

Tiff decided today that we need to issue ourselves little challenges to keep us constantly on our toes.

Today's was easy: Drink eight glasses of water.
It's something I do pretty much every day because I love water, so wasn't too much of a stretch for me.

However, that doesn't mean I didn't feel the benefits of really making sure I got my eight in.

I am usually starving beyond belief by the time noon rolls around (and I eat a well-balanced breakfast every day), but today, because I was mindful of continually sipping my water bottle, I ate an hour and a half later because - I can't believe I'm even typing this - I wasn't hungry.

Say what? I'll say it again:
I. Wasn't. Hungry.

Since we both did swimmingly on our challenge, we decided to keep it up tomorrow, and then Tiffany added this wrench: Plus do 100 sit ups.

Are you serious?
I'll die.
I can barely do 40 when I "work abs" without wanting to cry or stop from the sharp, searing pain of working a muscle that is buried under years of bad, bad, bad food!

But I accepted the challenge with determination.

No guts, no glory.
No pain, no gain.

Isn't that what Under Armour-clad gym rats and girls who can wear a sports bra as a top at the gym say?

Do you think I can do it tomorrow?
Stay tuned!

Introducing the 'Books of 2010' segment.

Last night, as I nestled all snug in my Snuggie whilst rereading "The Thorn Birds," I decided I wanted to keep a running tally of the books I've read in the course of the coming 12 months.

I'm calling it, quite whimsically, the "Books of 2010" segment.
{What can I say? My creativity level was pretty high when I came up with it.}

I've always been an avid reader, but sadly, my book reading has been relegated to a few minutes before bed to relax me from my often hectic days. I've also been playing catch up with a bunch of magazines too, which I do also love, but kind of makes my book worm feel kind of dirty.

I would like to change that, broaden my reading horizons - as soon as I finish this tragic, saucy and sordid tale of improper love that makes me swoon.

Plus, it will certainly help me keep my resolution of writing something for me daily if I'm blogging about them! That's called teamwork methinks!

What books do you plan on reading this year, and do you have any recommendations for a fellow book worm?

Eating good is definitely in season.

I was so excited to grocery shop last night - and not only because Mom gave me a $100 gift card to my grocer, which essentially meant this trip was free.
{Sweet!}

No, I was excited because I was going to buy food - good-for-me food.

I stocked up on a plethora of fruits and vegetables - salad, cucumber, avocados (my serious addiction), oranges, broccoli and red peppers, as well as tofu, Lean Cuisine pepperoni pizzas (my very serious addiction) and Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches (my very, very serious addiction).
{I am proud to report that I've yet to eat two of said ice cream sandwiches in one day. Keyword is clearly "YET."}

I felt like I was conquering my fridge.
Like I should put up a flag that said, "I stake this land out for only good things that will keep me on track."

I'm going to make guacamole. Tofu fettuccine Alfredo. Steamed veggies with a few sprays of butter and dry ranch dressing.

I'm going to keep buying these fruits and veggies, changing it up a bit so as not to get bored, and I'm going to not only conquer that fridge of mine, but also my obsession with food.

I do, old typewriter, I do!

Last night, I watched "Starting Out in the Evening," a lovely little film about the relationship between grad student Heather, played intriguingly by Lauren Ambrose, doing her thesis on her favorite author, played by the always amazing Frank Langella.

Langella plays Leonard Schiller, an aging novelist who received accolades early in his career, but now has been struggling with his next book for the past decade. His books are no longer in print and all but forgotten save for Heather.

Leonard sets aside a certain number of hours and days he writes and sticks with them religiously, usually dressed in crisp slacks and button-down shirts (just the way I like my men dressed), and pecks away behind his typewriter.

Long after I watched the movie, I was still haunted by the image of Leonard writing clackity-clack behind an old-school writing utensil such as the typewriter.

I became slightly obsessed with looking at photos on the Interweb of old typewriters today, almost as obsessed as I was with writing.

I've been feeling so inspired to write lately, be it here at Ramblings On, in my journal or in my haiku/tanka notebook. Seeing "Starting Out in the Evening" only fed the fire that needs to come out of my fingers and onto a page.

I wish I could have been one of those literary greats from those days in New York, like Dorothy Parker and her cohorts on the Algonquin Round Table. I'd like to have written, toiled and created behind a rickety typewriter, feeling those round buttons slam against the white pages with words - my words.

I'd like to take that typewriter above, move to a delightful apartment in New York circa the 1920s-1930s and marry it.

We'd live in that apartment together quite happily, I reckon, drinking Manhattans from gold-gilded glassware, maybe smoking ever-so-gracefully from a pearl holder, surrounded by books, books and more books as we wrote and wrote, hoping that someday, an aspiring novelist such as myself would blog about wanting to be like me many, many years later.

Dog-eared resolutions, and others.

And so another year has come to pass.
2009 was a bitch and a half, but I still thought it was a pretty great year.
I met a lot of amazing people, deepened some relationships - and ended some, interviewed some great people, did some fabulous things and really found out what's important in life:

Enjoying every moment, big or small, happy or sad.

Life is too short to pretend to be happy - you have to be happy.
With yourself, with your choices, with the people you surround yourself with if you ever want to make your pursuit of happiness a reality.

For the first time in all the years I've been journaling my resolutions - if you must know, I've been keeping a journal since 1994 and am currently writing in book No. 20 - I think I've made ones that are finally attainable.

Gone is the lose 25 pounds by the time I'm done writing the resolution list out, gone is the pay off credit cards in the same unattainable time span.

Herewith the official, one-day-old Nikki's 2010 Resolutions:

1. To strive to be kinder, gentler and less stressed, to go with the flow, where the wind takes me, etc, etc ...
2. To be healthier, in food intake and exercise output.
3. To continue squirrelling away savings.
4. To write something every day for me, be it in journal, a haiku or tanka, blog or working on novel(s).
(I might even be so bold as to break out a creative writing book that has prompts for every day of the year!)
5. To keep a better, more organized household.

What do you resolve to do for yourself in 2010?