Well, this week has been a disaster.

Of epic proportions.

Between no sleep and too much work and feeling yucky and no time, the excuses flowed like the liters of water I was supposed to drink but didn't.

I managed to sneak in a few decent workouts, and I spent an hour or so walking dogs at the dog shelter this weekend, so it wasn't a total wash. But I'm holding steady at my weight-loss plateau, and this week doesn't promise to be much better. We're going to visit the in-laws this weekend, and my mother-in-law (much as I love her) doesn't tend to tailor her cooking based on calories.

I'm taking comfort in the fact that I'm not gaining anything back, and that tomorrow is another day (and next week is another week). :) No self-flagellation!

So instead of continuing to gripe, I'll instead share two of my favorite recipes from CookingLight.com, a site on which I rely heavily for finding food that is tasty and easy to make, and that won't make my backside look like the broadside of a barn.

I make both of these dishes often; they both taste GREAT and don't seem like "diet food" whatsoever. Which is key, because otherwise I wouldn't eat them. And, they're super-easy, which is essential for kitchen-challenged me.

(Side note: At first glance, the chicken seems like it calls for a ton of ingredients, but at least 75% of them are common spices you probably already have. It's sooo easy. And only 321 calories per serving! Oh, and the potatoes are only 170 calories. LOVE.)

Spicy, Honey-Brushed Chicken Thighs (or Breasts)

Ingredients

2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
8 skinless, boneless chicken thighs
Cooking spray
6 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons cider vinegar

Preparation

1. Preheat broiler.
2. Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat. Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.
3. Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well. Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over. Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Makes 4 servings

New Potatoes with Roasted Garlic Vinaigrette

Ingredients

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
7 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 pounds small red potatoes, quartered
3 tablespoons minced chives
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, garlic, and potatoes in a roasting pan or jelly-roll pan; toss well to coat. Bake at 400° for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until tender, stirring after 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes.
3. Squeeze garlic cloves to extract pulp. Discard skins. Combine garlic pulp, remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper, chives, vinegar, and mustard in a large bowl; stir well with a whisk. Add potatoes to bowl; toss well to coat.

Makes 8 servings

What haunts me at 6 a.m.

Week One, complete!

This is my elliptical screen. It stares me in the face every time I work out.

It's starting to haunt my dreams.

For the last month or so, I've been trying to do this "Hills" program as much as possible. (Not to be confused with The Hills; although I'm pretty sure I could get a decent workout smacking Heidi Montag in the face, watching her fake lips rattle around and then kicking her in the shins, which are probably also fake.) I go for 30 minutes, and the difficulty goes from 2 to 6 to 10 to 2, over and over and over. And to make sure I'm not totally slacking, I set speed limits for myself at each level. It seriously kicks my butt.

I do try to change up my workout as much as I can. We have a ridiculous amount of workout equipment in our basement, so it's pretty easy to switch it up when I'm so inclined.

At last count, we have:

• An elliptical
• An exercise bike (with iPod port; handy since neither of us has an iPod)
• A weight bench with barbell and removable weights
• A rowing machine (that works pretty well, considering I paid $7 for it)
• A free-standing heavy bag and boxing gloves (a very healthy way to work out feelings of wanting to punch your spouse, not that that EVER happens to me)
• Exercise bands (with accompanying DVD)
• A Bender Ball*
• A step (you know, in case I want to make up my own step aerobics routine)
• Free weights (fives, eights and fifteens)
• Approximately 500 workout DVDs (everything from Pilates to yoga to Jane Fonda-style aerobics from the '80s)

*As a side note, according to this, the Bender Ball is 408% more effective than a regular-sized exercise ball. I find that both random and suspect. Exactly how do you arrive at such a humongus and yet specific percentage? I want to see some research data.

So, with all that crap in our basement, losing weight should be a breeze! You would think.

In all fairness, I've done much better this week. Monday through Thursday I dutifully woke up early and worked out 30-60 minutes each day, Friday I skipped because I got zero sleep the night before, Saturday I walked dogs for a few hours at the dog shelter, and Sunday I skipped because, well, I wanted to.

I broke through my latest plateau, albeit only by a pound and a half. But I still feel pretty darn good about this week. I'm not gaining anything back, and I'm viewing this week as a springboard to hopefully really making a dent in that plateau next week.

Now if I can just get a handle on my carb obsession. I'm assuming this has something to do with my body's natural instinct to pack on padding just in case I get stranded in a snowbank and am forced to live off my body fat until a team of sled dogs can come rescue me. Right? Did I not mention I live in Little House on the Prairie? Oh, fine. I just like bread. And crackers. And Goldfish. Stupid tasty little things, marrying crackers and cheese in a tiny smiling fish shape. Maybe this week I'll see if they go well with apples.

Wait, did you mean 30 days in a ROW?

OK. Confession time.

This was probably the worst time ever for me to begin the 30-Day Fitness Challenge.

Between work and other time commitments, I've been getting almost no sleep, and as a result have not been able to tear myself out of bed in the morning more than five minutes before I have to start getting ready for work.

I've been busy every day over the past two weekends. I have a tendency to over-extend myself; I have a hard time telling people "no."

Too busy. Too stressed. No time. No sleep.

I am the queen of excuses.

I was lamenting said lack of time to my husband today, whining about how much I have to do, and how little time I have, and, consequently, how I have NO time to work out.

He--quite correctly--pointed out that no one is forcing me to do ANY of these things (well, except go to work, but that's just because they pay me), and I have no one to blame but myself for being overextended, and maybe I should get over myself because everyone is busy, and, in the end, I'm just making excuses.

Crap. I really hate it when he makes sense. (I kicked him in the shin anyway, just to keep him from getting a big head.)

Historically, this has been my problem when I start a "program" of working out and eating better: I do great for awhile, then I have some kind of life hiccup that prevents me from working out for a few days, and instead of dusting myself off and starting again, I allow it to completely derail me. It makes absolutely no sense, and yet. Here I am. Again.

I decided to publicly announce my intention to join this challenge in an attempt to motivate myself to do better. To be more consistent. To STOP making excuses. At this point, I've officially been participating in this challenge for seven days. Of those seven days, I've worked out...three times.

I'm writing this on Sunday night. I've had a pretty productive weekend, which is making me feel better about the week ahead. (I'm finding that my state of mind has EVERYTHING to do whether or not I work out. Everything.)

So rather than get all discouraged by my lackluster performance thus far, I'm going to try something different.

I'm going to start over.

I'm calling today my first day. Maybe this is cheating. (Let's face it; it probably is.) But as long as I'm working out and trying to do better, that's all that counts, right?

I really hope so. Because I'm finding that I need this accountability, and your support, a lot more than I thought I would.

Jumping on the 30-day Challenge bandwagon!

I think I may have mentioned in an earlier post that I've recently (as in the last five months or so) lost a decent amount of weight. I say "decent" because, frankly, I have a fair amount I still want to lose.

And as I said yesterday, life of late has not exactly lent itself to motivate me to work out.

So I decided I needed a little kick in the pants.

My issue: I hate talking about losing weight. I don't mind at all when others do, but for some reason, it has historically lessened my resolve to stick with it when I talk incessantly about what I'm doing, and how it's going, etc. I have no idea why this is -- I'm sure there's some deep-seated psychological reason I'm just not aware of.

However.

I've hit something of a wall lately. I've had good progress so far in my overall weight loss, but in the last month, my weight has stayed relatively the same. I'm happy I haven't gained anything, but I'd like to bust through this latest plateau. I've tried changing up my workouts, and I'm not willing to starve myself, so...

Kick in the pants.

So. Taking the lead from Wrestling Kitties/Weighty Issues, I am now starting my own 30-day challenge. I'm hoping this will motivate me to really stick with it, try new things, drag myself out of bed even when it's just sooooooo cozy in there...

The goal, in line with WS/WI, is to work out at least 6 days a week for about 30 minutes and at least once a week for about an hour. So far, it's going pretty good:

• Sunday: Walked/jogged with dogs at the dog shelter for two hours
• Monday: Shoveled snow for 30 minutes (ugh)
• Tuesday: Elliptical for 30 minutes and toning-type exercises for 15 minutes

I say all this today when, this morning, I slept in. Until almost 7:30. Which gave me zero time to work out before I had to start working. So I'll either be working out this afternoon or making up the time another day this week. (It's making me a little tired just thinking about that.)

BUT. I will do it. I am in it to win it. I think this will be a great motivator, and I think it'll be good for me to break my self-inflicted "wall of silence" about weight loss.

So... Viva la revolution! (of weight loss)