Working in working out!!!

My summer was spent in a very specific routine. I worked out about 5 days a week, sometimes 6. We made it part of our day, my friend and I. She also happens to be my neighbor, so that made it really easy! The kids loved playing at the day care center in the gym, they called it the "play place." Well school started and we were no longer able to work out together. For the first month I still made working out a priority, getting to the gym about 4 times a week. I had to go when the girls went to bed. As the school year progressed, it became less of a priority. I started eating more "junk" and that made it even easier to not get to the gym. I have gained about 8 lbs from my Mommy low of 146 and have been feeling lazy and soft ;) I am determined to use fitness as a means to improve to optimal... in terms of my numbers. I love to work out (once I am there), I love the way it makes me feel and I love the way it makes me eat. I tend to focus on interval workouts with whole body movements, but sometimes do localized movements as well. So here is my workout of the day:
Elliptical intervals: (hill setting 20 total minutes)
-5 min warm up on level 10
-alternating 1 min intervals between level 10&20
-5 min cool down level 10
 Chest intervals: (3 sets: descending reps 15, 12, 10)
-Bench press with 2 10 lb dumb bells 
-Butterfly press with 2 8lb dumb bells 
-Walking push ups
20 burpees
Lap around track cool down
10 minute detox in the sauna
Day 2 meals
Breakfast: homemade pancake with 2 tbs organic peanut butter
Snack: 1/2 cranberry KIND bar, orange
Lunch: left over dinner from last night, apple and mint chocolate Hail Merry Tart :) (the WHOLE thing)
Dinner: sweet potato, cauliflower, onion, garlic, broccoli chopped in vitamix until rice textured sauteed with many different spices and a little bit of chicken sausage left over from my last grocery trip to Trader Joe's sauteed separately with white cap mushrooms and parsley so that I could use the main mix for the girls' dinner too. (pictured above)
Before workout snack: bowl of oatmeal with a scoop of peanut butter and a little cinnamon

I felt great all day. I needed chocolate so I got a vegan Hail Merry Tart. If you have not tried them DO!!! They are yummy! I couldn't resist and ate the whole thing :) SO WHAT haha. Anyway, I wasn't thrilled about going to the gym after a full day of work, making dinner, laundry etc. But I felt so great after I finished! I may have over done it a tad for my first day back, but right now I feel great. I think the snack really helped, I was feeling very hungry about an hour after dinner so I thought I better eat. I get shaky if I am hungry when I work out. So it seemed to help and now I am satisfied and feel good that I don't want to bake a batch of cookies ;) Day 2 was a success!