Thoughts: I woke up around 2:30 am this morning feeling absolutely gross for some reason. Eventually, I figured out that it was probably due to an urgent need to use the bathroom (my water intake was off the charts yesterday) and an equally urgent compulsion to brush my teeth for the second time to get rid of the mega-garlic taste in my mouth from last night’s stuffed green pepper with chicken dinner and peel my dried-out contacts from my eyeballs.

Then, instead of passing right back out, I made the mistake of going to eBay to look at a 40″ long black wig that I’ve been eyeing for Halloween. I then wound up visiting the Clairol website and playing with their re-vamped Try-It-On Studio for about 2 hours to see if I’d look all right in long black hair if I chose to be Flying Snow from “Hero” this Halloween. Final verdict: A center part will make me look short, fat, and hideous, but a side part would be all right.

This all leads up to my morning workout schedule, which had to be flip-flopped since I couldn’t drag my butt out of bed at 6:30 am as planned to get to the gym and do my cardio before tai chi at 7:30. I wound up doing tai chi first, then running for cardio at 8:30. No big deal, except that I had just spent one hour in a knees bent horse stance carefully controlling my every movement for tai chi. I used the same intervals as Tuesday, but my max was only 8.5 mph this morning, and I was sucking significant, gasping wind. I was also kind of congested and snuffly from my pre-mature wake up, and my entire run was spent obsessing about how overheated my feet felt, trying to get my breathing under control, and desperately wishing I’d blown my nose a few times before starting.

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Nutrition (1300-1400 low day)
1: 3×1 omelette with baby carrots and an apple
2: Stuffed bell pepper with chicken and pumpernickel bread
3: Chocolate walnut bar
4: Cottage cheese and strawberries
5: Chicken with broccoli in oyster sauce and brown rice
6: Strawberry chocolate cottage cheese with Kashi GoLean

Supplements:
Multivitamin with iron
Calcium 500 + D
1 T. flax seed oil

Calories eaten and deficit for yesterday = 1826 / -290 (target -337)
Water: 14 cups
Ratios: 43% carb / 44% protein /13% fat

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Workout:
7:30 am tai chi class at Gold’s
8:30 am HIIT cardio–treadmill run

Warm up- 4 mph / 5% incline / 7 minutes
HIIT - 5, 6, 7, and 8 mph / 0% incline / 4 sets
Max - 8.5 mph / 0% incline / 1 minute
Cooldown - 4.5 down to 3 mph / 0% incline / 5 minutes

(optional) 8:30 pm NYC Ballet Workout tape

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The Awful Truth:
1. Didn’t get an unbroken night of sleep. Boo!
2. Decided not to do the ball pilates tape last night and cooked instead.
3. Didn’t do OARS for eDiets challenge, either. Will make it up tomorrow.

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Brownie Points:
1. Prepped enough stuffed green peppers for 4 meals.
2. Didn’t snarf extra cereal, just my planned portion.
3. Made it to tai chi class.
4. Weighed in at 132.6 lbs this morning and 19.6% body fat. Very good BF% stats considering it was morning, and the scale weight is down by about half a pound from last week despite PMS week bloating.

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Short-term Goals:
1. Get more sleep.
2. Fill out 4 week packet by Saturday and send it out.
3. Put in a vacation request slip to use up some days.
4. Pack and mail care package to sister in Boston.
5. Take updated photos for the Great Creatine Experiment!