Weighing heavily...

Ahhhh it feels good to sleep in. Woke up at around 9 a.m. and ate a light breakfast before heading to the gym on Day 3 of my time off.

I have a free BMI assessment waiting for me to claim at my gym, but I am putting it off. First of all, I weight 146.5 today, still above my average for 2012, which was more like 143. The other thing is that since I am only 5'2'' and my muscles are really big, it always tells me I am obese/overweight since it's not designed for athletic builds, but for the average Joe who's not very fit and of average height and weight.

When I was at my lowest weight, 135, I was all skin and bones on top (my thighs are like sprinter's legs so they will never be skinny) and yet my BMI said I was just barely normal weight. That's when I finally realized it's just one tool (an only somewhat reliable one), to be used in combination with the scale and measurements to determine what I feel is "normal" or "healthy". My general feeling is that 138-143 suits me best.

Hairy is making us juices right now. We just tried out our new fryer as well with some rissois (Portuguese breaded dumpling-y things filled with shrimp and a spicy creamy sauce). Yesterday we made cod balls, pasteis de bacalhau, and made tartar sauce with mayo and the homemade ketchup sent with our organic produce basket from a local farm. The 'ketchup' actually tastes more like relish, and made for a delicious accompaniment for the cod balls.

Today's juice consists of apples, spinach, pineapple, avocado, green peppers, cucumber, celery, parsley and lime. So far, only one of the smoothies he's made (following the recipe book by Jason Vale,
The Funky Fresh Juice Book) has been a little, uh, earthy, but the rest of them have been delicious.

Over Christmas, my skin was so awful and I worked it down to the sugar in all the cookies I was eating. I do eat 'bad' food, but not usually really poor quality stuff like the cookies I had been scarfing down for weeks while also not working out. After a week without the cookies and eating tons of veggies and homemade juices, my skin is looking much better.

I should also point out that I came to an official conclusion regarding motivation and exercise: NEVER take more than two days in a row off. This definitely applies to me, but I think it may speak to others as well. I say, if you can manage to fit in even 15-20 minutes of intense exercise in a day, do it. You'll almost never (if ever) regret a workout, but will regret not moving.

A friend said something to me lately that has really motivated me. She is pregnant and is so exhausted that she cannot run. She LOOOOVES running. I like running, not love, but I really want to get back into it. So she told me "when you run, think of me, since I'd love to be able to but can't." Now, when I am on the treadmill just starting to jog and I start to feel tired, I remind myself that I'm so happy to be able to run since my friend can't, my other friends and family find it so hard to get motivated, and my aunt who is very ill cannot even walk anymore. I am doing it because I can, it makes me feel good, it challenges me and it will help me live longer and stronger, I hope anyway.

Okay, I am off to drink some juice and continue organizing my apartment. We got so much done yesterday it feels soooo therapeutic. Lataz.