Two hours of cardio with only 1/2 a cup of oats eaten in the whole day. Of course, there was a protein shake, egg whites, fish, more egg whites, more fish, broccoli, gum, egg whites, gum, gum, and more gum taken in as well, but 1/2 a cup of oats. Let me reiterate that: 1/2 a cup of oats. That was separated into two servings...a 1/4 cup each. Do you know how many spoonfuls you can get out of a 1/4 cup of cooked oats? I try to get as many as I can by using the tiniest teaspoon I can find in the silverware drawer, but it never fails. The moment I tell myself to slow down, savor every morsel of piping hot, cinnamony, Splenda-sweetened oatmeal, I end up devouring it in two minutes flat. I think that by using a small spoon, I'll take small bites. Wrong! The oatmeal is piled high, shoveled into the mouth, and the spoon returned to the bowl for more. You should see the pout on my face when there isn't more. Then the finger dips into the bowl, scraping the edges in a most unladylike fashion, and shoved into my mouth as I begin wondering when my next carb meal will be.

Ahhh...the joys of extremely low carb days. Can you feel the sarcasm gripping you through the computer screen?

Needless to say, I was brain dead today. I had to get updates to JT, and I just couldn't think of a creative sentence to save my life. I had a 1/3 of a cup of blueberries with my egg whites after my 60-minute session of walking five minutes and then running five minutes, so on and so forth. But those blueberries are just teasers. Imagine being able to smell the leather of a new Corvette (feel free to insert a visual of whatever your dream car is), sit in the driver's seat, put the car into reverse, and back it out of a parking lot . . . and then be told to get out. Yeah, well, that's what the blueberries do to me. They just tease and say, "Ah ha! You thought you'd get to enjoy something sweet and tasty. But there are only fourteen of us, and we don't last long!" Grrrrr!

You know the dieting has reached the difficult point when your chewable vitamin C's are the yummiest things you've ever put in your mouth and you return to the cupboard to get another one...and another one...and another one. And after you've eaten about four or five of the little buggers, you remember, "Oh yeah, excess vitamin C acts as a diuretic." I'm not supposed to be doing anything that would cause my body to drop water right now because it could screw things up for when I really do need to drop the water. So now, I have to restrain myself and only take one sweet, little chewable vitamin C after each workout (about 1,000 mg a day). Do you know these things come in watermelon, pina colada, lime, and lemon flavors. Not just the orange?! That's exciting news to me because I tend to despise orange candies: Starbursts, Skittles, chocolate candies filled with orange creme. I hate orange juice (unless it's Sunny Delite). I like oranges themselves, but not the juice. Yes, I know. I'm weird. What else is new?

Tomorrow, my carbs increase, but then they're knocked right back down again...really low. Here's the good news, though. My quads are beginning to show separation. They still have a few weeks to go, which is actually quite convenient because Junior Nationals is a few weeks away. But I'm pleased overall. I'm right on track!

Tomorrow night, I'll be shooting with Ricardo again. An outdoor shoot. I think I already said this, and if I did, I apologize. It's the brain dead, low-carb syndrome acting up. If I didn't say it, well, now you know! Lol! We moved the shoot back an hour so I could fit in my workouts and get my meals together. It helps when the photographers are very understanding about all of this bodybuilding stuff.

Well, I'm off to eat one last meal of protein. I think I'll have fish. I seem to be craving it. Sad. Very sad indeed. I should be craving cheeseburgers or pancakes or Lay's potato chips or a bag full of chocolates or my usual delicacy: a spoonful of peanut butter dipped into a spoonful of Smucker's fudge and shoved into my mouth for an explosion of chocolate and peanut butter. On second thought, that all sounds reeeeaalllly good! I think I need a few moments to myself right now....

Jodi