Holiday Season 2013 and New Years resolutions

Well, sorry for the delay in writing, I got preoccupied by the Holidays, and family fun and dancing. I did want to tell you what I have been up to. I did 3 days of a 7 day cleanse and lost 8 lbs. I only gained back 2. So I was really happy about that. I haven't seen the scale go in the right direction in a really long time. I told my mom about it and she tried and didn't lose anything, so maybe it only works that well when you've been eating crap for a while.

I found this cleanse on Pinterest with this picture. 

Here are the first three days:

Day One All fruits except bananas. Your first day will consist of all the fruits you want. It is strongly suggested that you consume lots of melons the first day. Especially watermelon and a loupe. If you limit your fruit consumption to melons, your chances of losing three lbs. on first day are very good.

Day Two All vegetables. You are encouraged to eat until you are stuffed with all the raw or cooked vegetables of your choice. There is no limit on the amount or type. For your complex carbohydrate, you will start day two with a large baked potato for breakfast. You may top the potato with one pat of butter.

Day Three A mixture of fruits and vegetables of your choice. Any amount, any quantity. No bananas yet. No potatoes today.

On the fruit day, I drank a green smoothie for breakfast, then for lunch I had some watermelon which I ate all off and I got some cantaloupe, which I snacked on for the rest of the afternoon, thus keeping my hunger at bay. I also had some apple slices. I figure, fruit is good, I could probably do a fruit day once a week. And now that the holidays are over, I plan on starting that again.

You also need to be drinking enough water. I take a big jug of water with me to work and most of the time I have it all gone by the time I go home. Makes it kind of awkward on the way home if there is a lot of traffic, because then by the time I get home, I have to dance a jig on my way to the bathroom because my bladder is beyond full.

As for this new year that's starting, I'm going to write down my goals here. I'm not going to set a goal of how much weight I want to loose, because that never works for me. Instead, I'm going to write the goals that I think will help me get there. I'd like to focus on three different aspects. Physical, emotional, and spiritual.

Goals:
Physical:
Start doing Yoga regularly, as well as pilotes. I love Yoga when I do it, so setting this goal will help me get motivated to do it more. As for pilotes, I hate it, but there is no denying the benefits.

Emotional:
Start Meditating, I've signed up for a web based class to get me started. My sister in law is good friends with a meditation expert, and hooked me up. Here is her website if you are interested in getting started as well:
http://www.treeoflifekundaliniyoga.com/webinarsclasses.html

And Spiritual:
I'd like to start reading my scriptures more and praying everyday. This is stuff I should be doing everyday anyways, but it slips my mind and I forget to do it. So I want to make a concerted effort to do it. I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, some people call us Mormons. So I'm really lucky that I have not only the Bible to read but the Book of Mormon as well which is another Testament of Jesus Christ.

So these are my goals. I will keep updating on how they are going.

Frustration and new game plan

So last week I worked my butt off. I walked or ran sprints on my lunch break every day, I worked out with my friend, I went to zumba, I went running on Saturday and then I did another hour and a half of Just Dance XBox Kinect game. I worked as hard as I've ever worked, and I have nothing to show for it. Not one single pound. I'm annoyed. What do I have to do? I tried to be really careful with my diet last week too.

So one of my friends came over last night to visit, and she's been dieting and actually losing weight, so I asked her what she was doing. She said she has an 8 hour window for her to eat. And she's trying to eat low carbs, low meat, and high fruits and veggies. And she is seeing success. So I think I'm going to see if I can get myself to try it. I'll keep you posted.

In other news, My husband and I are going to a dance convention this weekend. We West Coast Swing dance and there is a huge community that does this same specific dance, and we love it and sometimes go to events. We compete in the "Jack and Jill" competitions, which is basically you get a random partner and the competition is to see if you can lead and follow well. There are different levels, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Champion, and All Stars. I'm still in Novice since I haven't been competing that long, and Jeremy is in Intermediate. It's a ton of fun. So that's what we will be doing Friday through Sunday.

Update on my weekly goals

So last week, I walked every lunch break. Goal accomplished. This week my goal was to start running sprints. I ended up walking on Monday because it was still too hot outside to run. So I started my sprints on Tuesday, and I did them again on Wednesday, and let's just say that I can definitely feel it.

Tuesday I also worked out with my friend and we did a 20 minute kickboxing cardio workout. Wednesday after work I went to Zumba class. Turns out I was the only one there besides the teacher. Weird. But still a great workout.

Today I am giving myself permission to take a break and just do my mile walk at lunch. Then I'll be doing a ball workout with my friend after work, then we usually go for another mile walk after. So I'm definitely moving.

If I don't see any results next week when I go to weigh and measure myself, I am seriously going to consider quitting.

Goal Accomplished

I accomplished my main goal for the week. Mainly that I walked every day on my lunch break at least a mile, usually a bit more. I'm really happy and proud of myself. Let's keep this up.

Still Optimistic

So this last week I had bought a Corebody Reformer off of Ebay. I've been interested in this piece of equipment since I saw an advertisement for it. I then looked to see how much it costs. (Whistle), It was a little pricey for my taste. Brand new it can set you back about $250. So I looked at all the reviews I could find, thinking that if this works, I could justify the cost. I ended up buying a slightly used one on Ebay for about $170.

The two main critiques I've found on all these reviews is that it's too hard to balance on and that there isn't enough padding when you have to sit on it.

I've used it three times now, and I find there to be enough padding, barely. And yes it's hard to balance on, but not impossible. So far I'm really liking it. Here's what it looks like.


So aside from using that three times in the last week, I've also worked out on my regular Tues/Thurs with my friend, and I'm trying to make an effort to go for a mile walk on my lunch break as often as possible. My goal this week is to do it all 5 work days. So far I'm on track, and that makes me feel even more motivated.

My goal after this week, since the weather is cooling down, is that I want to start doing this 30 minute sprint workout that I read about. I'll do this on my lunch break instead of walking. Basically you sprint for 30 seconds and then walk or recover for 90 seconds. I'm kind of nervous/excited to try it. Excited because I want to see if it does what it claims to, and nervous because I hate running and I know this is going to hurt with how out of shape I'm in.

Wish me luck!

My weekend wrap up

I can't say I got everything done that I wanted to this weekend, but I can say that I accomplished more than I usually do. Typically if I can get to the grocery store and get to church in one weekend, I'm doing good. But since I've been scheduling things in my calendar, I'm actually getting some things done.

The only thing I'm not happy about is that I didn't workout at all. But at least Saturday, I don't think I stopped moving. I had to take my old table and chairs to good will, then I went grocery shopping. Then I took my sister in law out for lunch for her birthday and after we decided to go shopping at the mall. It was a lot of fun, but I didn't schedule enough time for it, so I was running behind the rest of the day.

Saturday night we had a ward potluck, and I planned on making a couple things to take. Well, my marshmellow brownie cupcakes were a failure, and I didn't have time to make the other thing I wanted, so I had to just make regular brownies and they weren't even that good. Lame. The pot luck was fun though, I tried "Ice Blocking" which I never had done before. I had the little 10 year old girls show me how to do it. Let's just say, that it would hurt less if there was more grass. It was fun but I only made it down 2/3rds of the hill before I completely fell off, losing a shoe and having my feet fly over my head. It was quite entertaining.

Saturday night when I got home I got started on the 5 loads of laundry I needed to do. Let me explain something about laundry. We live on the third floor of a 3 story apartment complex. And the laundry room is on the first floor on the opposite side of the building. So it's really quite a pain to do laundry, so I wait till I have a ton and just do it all at once.

While I was waiting for the laundry, I was cleaning my bathtub. And let's just say that my bathtub needed it in the worst way. But I can now say it pretty much sparkles with clean.

Sunday I went to church, came home put the rest of my laundry away, ate lunch, made the dessert to take to my in laws (which I do every Sunday). I had wanted to be able to tackle the bathroom floor but I didn't get to that. I wanted to get some breakfast sandwiches made for the freezer, but I didn't get to that either. I wanted to clean my kitchen, didn't get to that. But I can't say that I'm unhappy with my weekend, because I did get a lot of stuff done. Well, there's always room for improvement. So I hope to have even more progress to report next week.

Good week

So I wanted to give an update, I feel really good about this week. Monday night as mentioned, I had a dance lesson with my husband. But Tuesday I got down to business. I didn't do my 4 minute workout, but I did go for a walk on my lunch break and using an app on my phone called RunKeeper, it measured how far I walked. I walked 1.37 miles. Then I after work, I went to my friends house and we did our workout. I had gotten a new DVD, it has a great 20 minute workout and then some 10 minute bonus workouts to target specific areas. Like arms, abs and lower body. We did the 20 minute workout and then the arms and abs and it was HARD. I could only do the moves for a small part of the time, but I felt my triceps for a couple days, which makes me happy. Then my friends daughter Dominique and I did some stretches and it felt pretty good.

Wednesday, you should be proud of me, I started doing my 4 minute workout in the morning again. Then walked the same walk at lunch and then after work, I went to Zumba class.

Thursday, 4 minute workout in the morning, walk at lunch and workout with my friend. We did the same 20 minute workout but we did some different arms. FitSugar.com has some great 10 minute workouts. Here's one that we do fairly often to work on our arms.

This morning, I woke up and did my 4 minutes. I plan on doing my walk and I put Yoga on my schedule for tonight.

Another thing I've done, which worked really well last night is on my planner in my phone, I planned out my evening. How long to cook dinner and eat it, when to do dishes, when to relax. It actually worked so well I've planned the rest of the week that way. Let's just say my calendar is looking pretty full now, but I'm excited to see if it helps.

So tonight, after I make and eat dinner, but before I do the dishes, I am taking my measurements, that I never took last week, and maybe taking a "before" picture. Hopefully this is it, hopefully I have the motivation to do something about my life. Wish me luck!!

Best laid plans...

You know what they say about making plans, well life happens. At least that's what happened to me. I did my 4 minute workout for two days and then I got sick. Coughing, sneezing and lots of phlegm involved. Not fun. Also last night was so hot I couldn't sleep, and by the time I was ready to fall asleep I started coughing. I think I got around 3 or 4 hours. I need a nap, but that's not going to happen. Maybe I can take one on my lunch break. I hate to do that because I wanted to walk around my 1.3 mile long block on my lunch break, but I don't know if I'll be able to function if I don't take a nap. We'll see.

I have a dance lesson at 7 with my husband, but I suffer from Vertigo, and it gets worse when I'm tired, but I'll power through.

No more lazy!

Today, I'm at work. As I am every Monday through Friday. But when I get home, here's the plan. I'm going to weigh myself and take my measurements. I haven't done that in a really long time, and I've gained 10 lbs since then, so it's not going to be pretty. But I'm determined.

With traffic I get home between 5:30 pm and 6 pm. (On really bad days 6:30 pm, yuck!) And when I do get home, I'm so tired and in need to decompress I usually don't get anything done at all. Plus I'm lazy which really doesn't help the situation.

Monday I usually go home after work. Then we either have a dance lesson or a church activity night, or something.

Now Tuesdays and Thursdays I go over to my friends house which is much closer to my work, and we workout together. We've been doing this for about a year and a half and I've seen no results as yet, but she's fun and enjoy hanging out with her and her family.

Wednesday I usually get home from work, and at 7 pm I go to a zumba class. It's like a 2 minute walk from my house so there's no excuse not to go.

Friday, the goal is to go dancing. But a lot of the time we are just too tired from the week and just stay at home. This is another good opportunity to do something, that I don't take up because I'm tired and lazy. Isn't it frustrating?

So I'm going to set some goals. Obviously I can't seem to set weight loss goals, but I can set exercising goals.

I found this on Pinterest. It's a 4 minute "Tabata" type workout: 30 second Burpies, 10 seconds rest, 30 second Mountain climbers, 10 second rest, 30 high knees, 10 second rest, 30 jumping jacks. Repeat twice. I got this great app on my phone it's called A HIIT Interval. You can program different workouts on it and it beeps at you when it's time to change activities. Here is where I got the idea.

I am going to start doing this every morning. I did it for about 2 weeks last February and it was great. Then I once again got lazy. But no more. Tonight I measure, tomorrow I start this. I'll also do my regular workout with my friend.

It's been so hot here lately that all we've been able to do is go for a 2 mile walk and then I get in the pool with her 20 year old daughter who I'm also friends with. We usually try to do a workout video as well as a walk. Hopefully the weather will cool off soon.

Anyways, once I get this going, I'll add some more to my trying to be healthy plate.

August 30th 2013

I needed to start this journal/blog to help hold myself accountable for my choices. I am 33 years old, I got married almost 3 years ago and have since gained about 50 pounds. I'm not really happy about this, and probably anyone would feel the same. I use to teach ballroom dancing which I'm sure helped me keep my figure, and when I got married it was too hard to maintain the schedule. He worked 8-5 and I worked 1-10. Not really conclusive to a healthy relationship.

So I quit my job and stayed home for a while, looking for a new job. I eventually found one as an administrative assistant. Very different work environments. I now sit at a desk 8 plus hours a day. At the beginning of 2012, my friend and I decided to start working out together. I was already at about 160 lbs at this time and thought that if I started working out, the weight would come off. We worked out for 2 days a week when we started. Then about a month and a half later, I sprained the crap out of my foot. I was pretty useless for several months. And my friend Liz was in a car accident, she was rear ended. Her neck was pretty messed up and she was pretty useless for several months as well, then eventually she decided to have surgery on her neck and was again laid up for several more months.

During this time I was pretty good at maintaining my weight, couldn't lose anything to save my life, but at least I wasn't gaining, right? Well one day I got on the scale and somehow I had gained another 12 lbs. This sucks. And as of January 2013, Liz and I have exercised 3 times a week together, as well as one day I go to a zumba class. My husband and I go dancing every so often and we started taking a regular dance lesson last June. So it's not like I'm inactive.

You may think, she just needs to eat better, but the problem is, I am. I was drinking a green smoothie for breakfast everyday. I was trying to eat more fruit. I have never liked eating veggies, but I eat them because I know they are good for me. I don't eat them all the time and I think that could be a problem. I have come to the conclusion that I need to be smarter about my health. I'm just not sure quite how to go about it.

And to top off all that nonsense, my husband and I have officially started trying to get pregnant. I had wanted to be in shape before we started trying because I've read that it is much easier for your body to rebound if it was in shape before hand. Well I got tired of waiting. So with my fat fat body, we are trying.

I think that this blog is going to be a journal of what I am doing to get healthy. So last night was Thursday, my friend Liz and I went for a walk (about a mile). We usually do a video and a walk but it was just way too hot. Has been for the last two weeks. So then her daughter and I got in the pool. I really tried to keep the exercise going, I ran in place for about 10 minutes then treaded water, then did some pull ups off the diving board. We had fun with one of their dogs too. Demon, the husky. He likes to swim with us. So I was pretty active all things considered.

Today is Friday and my husband and I plan on going dancing tonight so hopefully that will give me a decent workout.