I always loved how my kids’ teachers in preschool would differentiate the weekend or holidays as “stay home days.” Today was a stay home day which was a blessing because it was so frigid outside and because my youngest was feeling under the weather. Tomorrow, the oldest already has a two-hour delay. I’m sure the youngest’s school will call with a similar delay, but wait until 6 a.m.–and I’ll lie awake 30 more minutes before having to climb from bed to prep for work.

Speaking of prep, today I did some food prepping with more to come.

When you send your husband to the store hungry, the likelihood of him coming home with something ridiculously awesome is pretty good. When he’s restricted on what he is allowed to purchase and eat, however, you will see less sweets/carbohydrates and more protein in the form of MEAT. This trip did not disappoint. He came home toting a couple of turkey legs that would have made the local Renaissance Fair proud.

We enjoyed having a big pot of soup at our disposal last week, so I thought I would put the turkey legs to use in another vegetable soup creation. Easy peasy.

I found a recipe online as a baseline for roasting the turkey legs in the oven. I improvised a little by replacing the celery with onion [as some of the comments had suggested] and using Penzeys Sunny Paris seasoning on the legs. Once the meat was prepared, I removed it from the bones and put it into a crockpot that was already heating turkey broth, vegetable broth and two bags of frozen vegetables. By the time I came home from the gym, the soup was rocking and rolling and ready to eat.

Speaking of the gym, we had another tough workout today. 

We had a choice of what to pick as our workout and it was one of those choices where you knew no matter what you picked, you would probably have wished you had picked something else.

I selected the Fran [21-15-9 thrusters and pull-ups] and the Stephen [30-25-20-15-10-5 sit-ups; Supermans; knees-to-elbows; and straight-legged leg lifts]. After all the work my muscles did yesterday, the pull-ups were my first indication that I might take a little longer working my way through than usual. Once I made it through the first two sets of the Stephen, I decided to do the last 50 of each exercise rather than breaking it down into the smaller numbers. I know there is probably a very good reason not to do that, but at some point, I would rather lie on the floor and do 50 sit-ups than hop up and run off to something else. Lazy. I know.

I just made a half dozen egg muffins for heat and eat goodness. My husband will be taking them to work with him and I will too tomorrow. This time, we put in some breakfast sausage, onions and red peppers. The sautéed vegetables make such a nice addition to those muffins! I almost don’t miss cheese. Almost.

Aside from the loosening pants, I have noticed [and my Fitbit confirms] that I have been sleeping like a log. My skin is also clearing up–which is nice given I’m closing in on another birthday and who needs blotchy skin in their 40’s?!

I’m really lucky to have found such a great group of people to join in meeting fitness goals. It has made a HUGE difference and it’s been fun to loop new people into the fray and see them reach their goals too.

Another week on tap…should be exciting!