Day 1 - Let the Battle Begin!

Today was the official start of the 30 in 30 challenge, and I had myself all psyched up and ready to go last night. My plan had been to get up at 6:30, jump straight in the shower, and then knock off my to-do list by noon. Unfortunately, Bertha had other ideas.

2 A.M. found me lying in bed, listening to the thunder and the rain and wondering why, after feeling lethargic all day, I suddenly couldn't sleep. I finally dozed off at around 3, which meant there was no dragging my fat butt out of bed until 9.

That, in and of itself, was a small victory; I'd normally call the day a loss and lounge around in my PJs until my husband got home. But gosh darnit, this was the first day of the challenge, and I was going to show Bertha who was boss. So I crawled out of bed, grabbed my workout clothes, and headed into the bathroom.

Now, we live out in the country, and we have a *little* spider problem. After several close encounters in the shower, we've learned to do a quick once over before stripping down and stepping in, just to make sure we'll be the only bathers. I'd gotten kind of lazy with that, actually; I haven't seen a spider bigger than a pea in weeks, so I don't check as thoroughly as I used to. In fact, I was so used to *not* seeing anything that the flash of something dark on the shower curtain liner didn't really register until I'd already leaned in to turn on the water. When it clicked that there might have been something there, I shook the shower curtain just to be sure.

I really, really wish I had the picture to show you this monster; I took one, of course, but the sd card wasn't in the camera and I didn't realize it until the thing was dead and shriveled.

You'll have to use your imaginations, instead. You know those pretty, wide containers that Bath and Body Works products come in? The ones with the oval bottoms? The spider that fell off of my shower curtain and into the tub was the same size as that oval bottom. No lie. To my undying credit, I did *not* scream like a little girl...though it was a very close thing.

Instead, I grabbed the closest chemical on hand (scrubbing bubbles) and tried to drown the sucker with it. When it was apparent that wasn't working (by its scurrying TOWARD ME) I ran into the other room and grabbed the Raid. I thought it was dead after that, and was hunting something to scoop it out with when it moved again. We repeated the cycle a couple of times - me "killing" it with spray and looking for something to get it out with; it waiting until it thought I was gone to try and run away - until it finally curled up on itself and moved no more. Shriveled up, it was the size of a quarter.

I, being the wimp I am, decided against a shower this morning. Bertha tried to tell me that, since I wasn't taking a shower, I couldn't put on clean exercise clothes, and without those clothes, I couldn't exercise. Her solution was to spend the entire day in bed playing Frontierville.

But I'm trying to kill Bertha, so taking her advice is no longer high on my list of priorities. Instead, I told her that I was going to be alone all day, with only me to smell myself, so what did it matter? I got dressed, ignored her protests, and did my 10 minute kickboxing session.

Things went a lot more smoothly after that. I did end up inflicting my stink on a poor Jehovah's Witness who came to the door, but she was nice about it. I ate three healthy meals and indulged in a piece of homemade cinnamon bread for dessert without going over any of my ranges, and I did all three exercise sessions. Take that, Bertha!

Day 1 Stats:

Nutrition

Calories - 1403
Carbs - 210
Fat - 24
Protein - 68

Exercise

Minutes - 62
Calories burned - 523