Hey Guys. Today was just like the title said, Nothing to brag about. I haven’t worked out since Monday, and I’ve been eating sooo bad. Breakfast was okay, I had a Fiber One granola bar, lunch was fried rice and the best crab rangoon from a Thai restaurant downtown. Somehow 2 giant cookies managed to sneak in, or was it three? Ugh, I feel so fat. For dinner I went to one of those run of mill award banquets with my Dad’s job. You know, with the round table chairs too close together and long winded speakers. The creme brulee was deliciously fantastic and I’m sure artery clogging all at the same time. It was however, actually entertaining, at the begining when about 50 protesters crashed the party. They went up on the stage and chanted ‘We Want Jobs!, Give Us Jobs’, through a megaphone. Most of us thought it was a skit, and a part of the program, until they turned the stage lights out, and security ushered them off the stage. Only in America!…On another note, I can however, proudly say, I’m sticking to my ban from soda. I haven’t had one in forever. I still crave one from time to time, but I try to focus on the big picture instead of my immediate desire for a caffeine jolt. It’s so funny, when I tell people I just recently quit drinking soda, they all shriek back in horror and say “WHY????” You would think told people I started doing illegal drugs or something the complete opposite of what I’m really doing (getting healthy). Today at work, one lady told me she was a Coke addict and can easily drink 12 cans a day! I told her about the ingredient they put in there that’s also used to make the fireworks whistle. Hopefully it will influence her as much as it influenced me. Knowledge is power. Note to Self: Just because the cookies and the creme brulee were Free, it doesn’t mean you had to eat it.
Hello my name is Carli, and I’m a soda addict! The first step is admitting it right? I already have enough addictions (food and shopping) and now I get to add soda to list. Ugh, I can’t believe it. I knew I liked soda, and I knew I drank it pretty much every day, but I didn’t realize I was addicted to it. Not until those ladies called it liquid Satan in their book and I continued to drink it. I thought I was safe and I proudly declared, “I drink diet.” But nope, diet soda is just as bad, if not worse with all of its cancer causing agents. It was such a wake up call. So I decided hey, I’ll just quit drinking that crap, no big deal right? Day 1 being clean and sober was Sunday, no problem, I even drank water with dinner. But yesterday whew! It was awful. I had a headache, I was grouchy and sluggish and irritable. I said no way can this be from not drinking soda. So I Googled caffeine withdrawal, and found that my issues, among others were side effects that occur when you stop drinking coffee and soda. I was still in disbelief, so what did I do? I drank a soda after lunch. My headache went away and I was more alert and awake. That’s when it really became real, I’m addicted to caffeine. I also read online that caffeine addiction is one of the most acceptable forms of addiction in our society. The mandtory morning cup of coffee has become common place for many people. I felt this was something I have to conquer. Roni (my blogging & running role model) only drinks water, and my Mom quit drinking soda a couple years ago. My Mama said her doctor told her to stop drinking soda to alleviate her knee pain. When I asked her yesterday, she said it worked, her knee doesn’t hurt anymore! I had no clue that was why she stopped drinking “liquid Satan.” Anyway, I went the gym after work. I forgot my knee brace (which maybe I won’t need any more since I’m kicking the soda habit.) I went up to the track and put on my Week 3 podcast. The first half wasn’t too bad at all, and I laughed that I actually put the 80’s hit “Push It” by Salt N Pepa 
on the play list. One of the ladies who were walking around the track, slapped me a high five during one of my running intervals, and later told me she was doing the couch to 5K plan. Of course I had to let her know where she could find a much cooler podcast than the one she was listening to. The last half of the routine was a little lot harder, I kept saying “talk to me, Miss Carli, tell me it’s time to walk.” Then finally it was over. I took a 10 minute break and then hit the eliptical hard and heavy for 15 minutes. Moving on to Day 2 of Week 3.
What Did Carli Eat Today? NO SODA! Yay!
B- Fiber One Muffin & Low Fat Yogurt
L- Tortilla Soup & Side Salad
S- Apple
D- Weight Watcher Smart One Pizza (not nearly as good as the Lean Cuisine Pizza) and ½ cup of Kashi 7 Whole Grain Pilaf. 
I used to laugh at people who ate food that looked like bird seed, now I’m one of them. I boiled the pilaf in fat free chicken broth instead of water for flavor, and mixed in some salsa when it was done. It was kind of like Spanish Rice. It was very filling.
For breakfast this morning, I said “Oh, I’ll have smoothie that I bought from the grocery store yesterday.” It was delicious, but it was also 6 WW pts. (For those who may not know WW points are just calories made easy, the more points=more calories) I can make a smoothie at home for 4 points with fat-free yogurt, a little fat-free milk and ice. Anyway, when I got to work, the ladies asked me to go grab breakfast with them. Sure I thought, I can do this. I went down to the cafeteria with big hopes and dreams. I got a breakfast sandwich on whole wheat bread, egg white only and turkey with cheese, and proudly told the chef to, “hold the butter!” I thought I was jammin’ , I mean it couldn’t be more than 4 or 5 points right? WRONG, Miss chef lady put 2 pieces of cheese; my breakfast sandwich add up to a whopping 12 points! I almost passed out when I got back to my desk and added up the totals. 18 points on breakfast, and this is only my 1st day. Imagine if I had gotten what I really wanted Texas toast, whole eggs and toasty butter… Lunch was much better, when I as invited out to Ruby Tuesdays, I gave a FIRM “No, thanks.” I ate the soup I make last night, and a Lean Cuisine BBQ Chicken Pizza. And check this out, I found a 1 pt Hostess Cinnamon Streusel Cake! As my Hollywood aunt says “Shut the Bus!” Cake for 1 point? You might see these lil things way too often under What Did Carli eat today…..
Agh! I hate rain. I’m fighting off the last little remnants of my cold, and here in St. Louis, we’ve been experiencing rain of Biblical proportions. I’m going to start looking for the ark in a minute…. Since it was so yuck outside and I’m still waiting for my fingerprints to come back from the FBI so that I can start my new gig, I decided to work out from home. Last week, I probably should not have asked the background screening guy “If an alarm would go off if I was crazed criminal on the run?” He gave me a strange look and said “No, they have to send the prints to the FBI first, and they would notify them.” My inappropriate question might be what’s holding up this employement screening process. But I was just curious you know, about how it all worked…Anyway, today I decided to work out to exercise DVDs in my living room. I did “Sit & Get Fit 
” and Mel B’s Totally Fit
. Sit and Get Fit was for seniors, it had some good moves and stretches, but was super boring with no music. I was on the phone with my sisters during most of it. I got a good laugh when both of them asked me who was the weird old guy in my house they heard through the phone. Then they got a laugh when told them it was an old guy wearing slippers doing chair exercises 
Mel B’s video was cool and the arm exercises were a killer. I couldn’t do all of it, it’s definitely not a DVD for beginners. She’s got a banging body! It makes you want to keep going hoping that one day you might come close to looking like that.
I know everyone hates being sick, but I really just hate it! I woke up at like 3AM with snot running and throat hurting, *sniffle* it’s just gross. I took some expired Nyquil and tried to go back to sleep. When I got out of bed this morning I still felt pretty yuck. My friend was nice enough to swing by in the rain to bring me some Dayquil
. I was just praying that I got better because I knew I had to teach the fitness class tonight at church tonight. During the day, I did a little bit of reading and researching and I found some pictures in SELF magazine with this cute little dancer from whatever that celebrity dance show is called. She had some ballet dance moves in there, and I thought how unique, I’ll add them to my church class routine. I like to do moves that are different and fun to keep the people entertained.
