Thursday, May 26, 2011

An "Ah-Ha" Moment...

So I had an "ah-ha" moment last night while the hubby and I were watching the Biggest Loser (eating delivery pizza & chicken wings BTW - yum!) - yes, I know it was a day late, I worked on Tuesday night, so we watched it on the DVR last night. But before I get to my breakthrough moment AND before you scold me about my food choices - I woke up this morning LIGHTER than I was yesterday! haha! I was 177lbs this morning after eating whatever I wanted yesterday (which also included a DQ blizzard because it was 88+ degrees outside!!)! haha!

Now - on to "ah-ha" moment! After my vegan adventures in February, I've been struggling for a few months with cutting weight since I re-integrated Omnivore foods back into my diet. I keep telling myself - I've dropped weight before (on a non-vegan diet)....WHY am I struggling SO much to drop weight now? Why can't I keep myself on track? Why do I SO easily cheat on nutrition (exercise isn't an issue for me)??? Well yesterday I think I got my answer....

Its BECAUSE I've dropped weight before! Its BECAUSE I'm maintaining a loss of 40lbs consistently. Its BECAUSE I know what I'm capable of when it comes to weight loss!

Okay - now I'm sure you're going WTF is wrong with this girl??? But hear me out for a sec -

I realized last night while watching Hannah and Olivia (both amazing women) on the BL that their ability to keep pushing forward was BECAUSE they are in uncharted territory. Everything is new and unknown to them. I've already gone through these challenges and learned to overcome them - I know what that feels like...so now its just routine for me - where is the mystery and excitement that those 2 women have that I seem to be lacking??? I am adventurous, fearless and gutsy in almost every other aspect of my life - why is dropping weight so monotonous and routine and virtually impossible???

I really think that since I've already dropped so much weight and gone through this for SO long, my brain will now allow me to rationalize cheat meals (or sometimes cheat weeks). Its the mindset of "oh I really don't have THAT much farther to go (around 16lbs)" and "I've already worked SO hard, one splurge won't make a difference" of my favorite "my body seems to be maintaining or sometimes loosing when I eat crap food, so its okay to eat crap food occasionally, especially if I've been 'good' all week". I really think the mentality of "I've already maintained a weight loss of over 40 pounds for over a year and a half" is becoming destructive to my further weight loss efforts.

So what in the world am I going to do to fix this - I'm thinking that it will be easier to hold myself accountable if I change my thinking and "fix" my brain to think differently. I can't really change much about my fitness levels...they are exactly where they need to be and I physically don't have the time or energy to take on more (I'm teaching fitness classes 5 days a week plus working a 40 hr/week job AND trying to have a small social life with hubby and friends!). I know how to eat right - I've done it before. So my "Diet Ninja of Destruction" is all mental at this point.

So what if I use some ninja tactics myself and I choose to NOT attack the obvious??? What if I shift my thinking from "this should be easy, I've done it before" to "I'm starting at square one" and "This is the beginning of a new phase"?? Maybe I'll be more motivated to stay on track because I CAN'T use the excuses of "I'm already close" or "I am already a size 6 maybe I should be happy where I'm at". THIS will be my starting point. All negative connotations aside (because I *AM* extremely proud of how far I've come) - if I make this my "rock bottom" then I can only go up from here. I think if I view this as starting over fresh I'll be more motivated to really push to reach my goals. I know that this is a long winded "ah-ha" moment and I'm sure that makes no sense to anyone but myself, but once again - that's how my brain works

When I look at my progress in the long term - of course I will see the entire journey from almost 220 pounds down to whatever my happy weight is....but for now, I am going to view this as an entirely new journey with entirely new struggles and challenges. I won't change anything OTHER than my mentality - I know HOW to eat well and I exercise ALL the time - at this point I really think its my brain that needs fixing. I need to get excited again about the appeal of seeing my abs, not jiggling during Zumba class (except in the areas that are *supposed* to!), being able to rock a bikini at a moment's notice and feeling comfortable in ALL aspects of my life...and that is truly unknown territory for me. The ultimate goal of dropping weight is NOW to push myself farther than I ever have before mentally and I think the physical changes will come with it. Changing the mind prior to changing the body....this is the appeal and this is the mystery for me.

Thanks for reading my long-winded and totally random thought process about mental issues and "Diet Ninjas of Destruction".

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Topic of the Day: Karma

So - I'm tremendously bored at work today..and my coworkers are all bored with me...so we're talking about awesome stuff..so here's the topic of the afternoon:

When you see karma in action - do you feel a little bit of joy that there truly is some justice in the world?? I truly believe that people who work hard get what they deserve (which is everything they've wanted) - and those that are lazy & rely on other people will also get what they work for (which is nothing)

Karma Pictures, Images and Photos

Like the dude who brags about how perfect his marriage is ALL the time (to the point where its annoying) when he is secretly staying with a wife who regularly cheats on him

Like you know a woman who relies only on beauty (i.e. makeup & hairdye) because she can't use her brain to save her life and has no real friends because she is a b*tch to everyone around her - and all of a sudden she has a funky growth on her face that no amount of makeup can hide and no real friends to help her through her "crisis"

The person who does everything the same way every time expecting different results

The person who was tailgaiting you, almost causing a wreck & speeding being pulled over & getting a ticket

The person who was irresponsible with money all of a sudden realizing that everything revolves around credit

You get my drift....



I personally know that when karma b*tch slaps those in the face that have wronged me - I definitely have a moment of inner joy. I talked to a long time friend this week who informed me that karma is definitely coming full circle to people who (sorry to say) deserve it. Considering I'm working my tail off to accomplish my goals, its nice to know that karma does exist in this world

Update...

OY - okay...where have I been....what have I been doing....

Well, we haven't had a chance to go shopping yet - life has been crazy busy. So I've been eating out of restaurants the past few days. Sodium has been higher than I want it to be, but I've been pushing the fluids and my weight was down to 178lbs this morning - so I seem to be maintaining at least.

Zumba workouts have been continuing to go well and tonight is the first night of my new summer schedule (meaning no classes on Wednesday or Saturday mornings anymore) - so I actually have a NIGHT OFF!!! Holy cow!!! I might go out on a date night with the hubby.

I am not really worrying too much about nutrition right now. We are both going on our nutrition plan in early June - so between now and then, maintenance is key. I've done it for 3 months, I can do it for another week! haha!

I went and tried on bridesmaids dresses yesterday and was stoked to fit into a Size 10 according to David's Bridal....considering the dresses are usually 1-2 sizes bigger than your typical street size, I was happy - especially since the only reason I couldn't wear the 8 was because my boobs were too big! haha! It was a cute dress, but I'm going to look around in some other places as well. I got a swatch of the colors she wants, so now I can look anywhere! Woot!

In other news, I've been walking on my breaks and feeling pretty good. Even if I'm not hitting my Bugg burns of 2600 each day, I'm making sure to come as close to my 10,000 steps as I can on a daily basis. Not quite back into the spark of running again. My legs have been super tired from my Zumba craziness this weekend and my calves are really tight. I'm going to roll them out on a foam roller this afternoon when I get home to see if that helps things improve!

In other news - I'm toying with the idea of just stopping the photo-nutrition blog...I'm not doing it consistently enough to justify it and it takes FOREVER to post a blog. With how busy life is right now, I don't have the spare time to keep this up to date, the food blog up to date, Spark up to date, FB updated PLUS everything else I have to do on a daily basis. I think cutting out the food pics will make things easier and then I can keep track of general nutrition trends in this journal.

I think that's about it for me. I'm counting down the hours until the weekend...I ended up with an extended mini-vacation. I have some extra time this weekend with nothing planned, so I'm going to use the time to prepare some new songs for Zumba class. There's some new songs that I have been wanting to throw into my playlist, so now's the time to catch up on them and get things rolling!

Hope you all have a happy Wednesday!!! Only 12 more work hours until my weekend (but no one is actually counting right???) haha!

Monday, May 23, 2011

D-Day, Zumba Queens & Vicious Circles....

Hey everyone! So I survived the weekend - nutrition was awful but I'm getting back on track today (kind of - explanation will come later). I burned a ton of calories this weekend and there's no way I ate over maintenance, but I'm up due to excess water weight. Which leads me to the vicious circle comments - my weekends are totally messing me up. I can only seem to get back to around 176-175lbs before I have another night out and my weight shoots back up. I really need about 3-4 weeks with no eating out in order to feel like I'm making some progress!

I was really hoping that the 5 day vegan 2 day Omni schedule was going to work for me, but I haven't seen a lot of progress on it. I am a pro at dropping water weight - then I'm sitting pretty right around 175lbs for the rest of the week. I'm thinking that I need to perhaps make it 6 days vegan 1 day Omni for a few weeks and see how it goes. The hubby and I have some extra motivation to start dropping some inches (note - I said INCHES - not pounds! haha!) - we are both in the wedding parties of some friends who are getting married in September. All of us will be working out and keeping nutrition in line together - so we have a little under 4 months to get looking awesome.

I'm toying with a few different options for this. I'm contemplating sticking with 100% vegan for 6-8 weeks (since I saw a 12lb loss the last time I went for 4 weeks) to drop the weight and then do a slow reintegration of some omni foods/cut for the remaining 6-8 weeks prior to the wedding (with the occasional indulgence day in there somewhere). I think this will work out well for me - as long as my hubby doesn't go crazy because of it (me eating vegan has always been harder on me than it has for him). He will be on his own eating plan (which will be more paleo than anything else) so he will have his food to worry about and I will have mine. Since we are working opposite schedules, its easier to have each of us be responsible for our own meals and I think this will work out well!

SO - now after venting about my vicious circles & figuring out new nutrition plans - this past weekend was D-Day....dance debut at the new dance/Zumba studio! It was super fun, and I was SUPER tired at the end of the day! I burned over 3,900 calories, walked 21,035 steps and had over 5 hours of workout activity time according to my Bugg - I was totally wiped out! AND I still don't feel 100% recovered yet. Because I am still a little tired, I am still skipping the running at work. Priority is having energy for Zumba classes - so running is on hold until my energy levels are back up where they need to be!

Okay - now that the "blog" part is done - here's some pics from the Grand Opening this weekend. My buddy was there taking some awesome promo photos (which is why some of them look so artsy! haha! He was using a fisheye lens for some of them too!)Horozontal red/white stripes aren't the most flattering on me (it reminded me of "where's waldo?") but it was the uniform that all the instructors had to wear - so it wasn't a biggie.

Me dancing around before the opening started:
PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucket

Getting ready to lead my songs:
Photobucket

Dancing - I messed up once, but oh well! haha! It was fun and that's what matters
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket
Photobucket

Me dancing (later in the evening) with my friend's daughter - she is 4 and totally a future Zumba Queen!
Photobucket

I think that's it for now. Nutrition is kind of off today because we haven't had time to go grocery shopping. Hopefully we'll be able to go soon! In the meantime, we're trying to keep it as healthy as possible until we are able to stock up the kitchen with healthy foods!

Have a great day everyone!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Recovery Days Are Nice...

...even though my recovery days still include a 600 calorie workout! haha! Had Zumba last night at Curves and had a blast as always! The shoes did GREAT!!! This weekend is the Grand Opening at Baila! It should be super fun! I'm looking forward to it for sure! My "uniform" is red, black & white - which will totally match with my new shoes...totally stoked!

I have been really lazy otherwise though. I haven't ran at work in 3 days...my body just felt worn out and I didn't want to succomb to overtraining, so I stopped running this week and feel TONS better. Hopefully I can pick back up with running on Monday. Also, yesterday I said f*ck it with nutrition and ate what I wanted....oddly enough, I still ended at a deficit! haha! I ate chicken nachos, chocolate pudding, Snickers Peanut Butter Squared (so good!), a grilled cheese sandwich and dinner was 2 crunchy tacos and green chile cheese fries! It was super yummy and all in all came to about 2,415 calories (and I burned around 2,600).

After all that food and sodium, I'm right at 176lbs this morning - which is awesome. Today is an "off" day as well. Its date night tonight and I'm not really worried about what I'll eat so far and then hopefully tomorrow will be better - but we'll have to see. As I posted yesterday, I'm just trying to survive the weekend. Once the hubby is on board, this will be SO much easier!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Awaiting The Weekend....

As I talked about in my food journal...its been one of *those* weeks. I woke up with a f*ck it all mood today and its not really going away. Nutrition is within calories today - but definitely not as healthy as I could be. I haven't been sleeping well this week (which probably adds to the F*ck it mentality) - and so I haven't been running while I've been at work for the past 2 days (at least I haven't ran today yet - not sure if I will or not). Zumba classes are going well. I'm getting good burns & having fun with them.

Yesterday, I got myself some new shoes for Zumba designed for dancers that are AMAZING! I danced with them on the rubber floors last night and for the first time ever, my joints didn't hurt after class!! They have SO much support - its crazy!!! My feet felt really awesome in them! I am SOLD! AND they were cheaper than my Zigs!! Woot - plus, who can deny the awesomeness of the red, black & silver design??? I also got 2 new fitness/dancing sports bras for a killer deal that are super cute! Hopefully I can get pics of those soon!

Photobucket

So - as I stated earlier, I'm being lazy today...no running has happened yet (and it probably won't today - I really think my body needs the rest) - so instead of running on my break today, I hid in the gym and snapped some pics. Its been a while since I've taken any, so I figured I was overdue. I'm happy because I'm seeing some changes, but I feel pudgy right now. I'm having a crappy day and I let stress eating control me (sort of - read the food blog for more details)

So - here's my boredom in pics - with whatever random caption I felt like adding...

I am starting to see some oblique shadows! Not too shabby for a "pudgy" day under flourescent lighting
Photobucket

My hair is getting longer....yay! And it looks "styled" when I haven't really done anything to it - kudos for great haircuts!
Photobucket

Its rainy outside...I'm glad I wore a hoodie today!
Photobucket Photobucket

I am bored....is it Friday yet???
Photobucket

I think that's it - I'm just trying to survive this week....hopefully I can make it!!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

OMG my Day Just Got SO Much Better!!!

So I just got an email - I was officially accepted into the After School program for my city!!! OMG I am SO excited! I get to create a Zumbatomic program for all 10 public schools in my city for ALL of next year!! Holy cow!!! I am super stoked!!!! *does happy dance*

The contract won't be finalized for a few more weeks, but its pretty much official as of now! I am so excited for this opportunity!! I can't wait to get started!!!! I'm already registered for the Zumbatomic license program in June and now I'm super stoked about it!!!

Things are finally starting to take off!! I couldn't be happier right now!!! I really want to Zumba, but my coworkers might find it a little strange.....

Happy Tuesday (at least its not Monday anymore!)

Hey everyone - happy Tuesday!!!

So I had my first Zumba class at Baila! last night and it went really well! We had around 10+ people there and considering its not even technically open yet - I think that's a great turn-out!!! I wore my Converse because I had issues with my shoes on the floor - it was a perfect amount of tread, but they were rubbing on my feet and I almost got blisters! OY - not good! So what does this mean - yet again, I need to go buy a pair of shoes for Zumba....at this rate, I'll have a different pair of shoes for each location I teach at!!

I didn't have time to nap before class like I wanted to, but I did my absolute best to get sleep last night - but for some reason I couldn't fall asleep again (too excited from successful Zumba class I think). I slept soundly, but for not long enough - which led to my body being a little more tired than usual this morning and my brain is a little foggy today. During my usual morning run, I found I was struggling more than I usually do (and only running at a pace of 5.5MPH, so its not like I was exceeding what my body is used to). I couldn't shut my brain off and just relax. I also discovered I can't listen to Zumba music and run - it just doesn't work because I want to dance! haha! So I'm going to see if I can nap this afternoon before Zumba and hopefully it will help me feel better.

Since I'm hypothyroid, I know that being tired often comes with the territory - so naps are my best friends sometimes. Hopefully some afternoon rest will help me feel a little more rested - but first I'm going on a mission to buy different shoes for Zumba! Tonight is Zumba at Curves, which is always super fun! I'm looking forward to it and its always a great workout. I might wear my weighted gloves tonight to help get some additional upper body strength training - but I don't want to push it if I still feel fatigued....hmmm....we'll have to see....

Total Miles Ran in 2011: 32 Miles
Total Calories Burned "Running From My Issues": 4,816 Calories GONE!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Can it be the weekend again???

Mondays are evil - they are just rough for me! I always feel like I need a weekend to recover from my weekend! I didn't sleep well at all last night and I'm feeling it. I got in a good run on the treadmill on my first break, which boosted my energy levels - so I'm happy about that. Caffiene has been my friend all day and I'm hoping to squeeze a nap in before Zumba class at Baila! tonight.

My demo class at Baila! on Saturday was amazing! I loved it!! It was super fun and it made me much more confident about starting my class there today! Everyone was having so much fun that when the class was over - people wanted to keep going, so we just put on more music and kept dancing for another 30 mins! Woot! Had some new people come to my Rhino's classes this weekend too, so I'm hoping that those classes start picking up again!

I think that's about it - not much else to talk about right now. Sleep deprivation causes me to not want to ramble....sillyness will ensue! Just a quick update from me! Maybe I'll have more to blog about tomorrow :-D

Total Miles Ran in 2011: 31 Miles
Total Calories Burned "Running From My Issues": 4,661 Calories GONE!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Happy Friday the 13th!!!

So I personally LOVE Friday the 13th's - they always seem to be good days for me! I'm in an awesome mood and can't wait for the work day to be over! This morning, woke up to around 176lbs again, but sodium has been high the past 2 days so I'm thinking that I really might be lower than that. We'll have to see what happens this weekend when I add in my "cheat" meals to the equation.

Today is a non-Zumba day, so I allowed myself to get in some more running on the treadmill. I have already knocked out 2.38 miles (so I'm at a solid number again! haha!) and burned 360 calories - and its only 11am! Woot! I would like to try to get in one more easy mile on my last break so that I make sure my cardio and burns are covered for the day. Plus, I find that when I don't really care about speed or pace my runs are super fun and effortless - I just go and go and go! haha!

So the hubby said something yesterday that got me thinking a little bit. At first I wasn't sure how to react to it - but after thinking about it for a while I think I've figured it out. He said yesterday that he is starting to see more of the "old" me coming out. When I asked him what he meant by this he said "the old you never cared about calories or anything like that"....at first I thought, does he want me to get fat again??? How am I supposed to respond to that??? Sure, the "old" me ate more freely, but she also had a lot of issues that the "new" me doesn't have. "Old" me lacked self confidence (thus the not giving a sh*t about what I ate). "Old" me rarely set goals for herself and rarely pushed herself to accomplish anything. Why would he want this person to come back??

Even though "new" me is a little neurotic about calories sometimes, I'm really trying to get better about it. Eating vegan allows for me to eat a little more freely than when I'm not (as I don't have to worry about excess calories from fats in dairy and meats). I am happier this way - simply because I feel better. I don't have to worry about counting calories so much - I really only do it to match up with my Bugg - to make sure I'm not eating too much or too little.

Its definitely something to ponder - I guess I never really realized how much my verbalization of my nutritional frustrations impacted others. Perhaps instead of bitching about it, I just need to do it (I've been working on improving this for a while now). Since the vegan investigation, I've realized this is the lifestyle for me - but I'd never ask my hubby to put up with a full time vegan. I came up with the 5/2 split to make us both happier. This is really the first week I've stuck with it, so I'm hoping it goes well.

I really want to be that carefree woman again - but without all the issues. I want to be a healthier, happier version of that carefree person....its taking time....but its coming...I'm doing new things every day that I never thought I could do (more updates on that later! haha!) I love seeing myself change and become a better person

Anyways - that's enough ramblings for me - I'll update later with any additional runs I get in on my breaks and what not. Also - it seems like my blogs from yesterday are missing...so I'm hoping that they'll magically come back *prays to the blogger gods* - but if not I'm sorry if it seems like I missed a day in there...I promise I didn't!

Hope you all have a happy Friday the 13th!!!

Total Miles Ran in 2011: 30 Miles
Total Calories Burned "Running From My Issues": 4,506 Calories GONE!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

YAY for being back on track!!!

Alrighty peeps - yesterday was Day 1 of my Detox, Day 2 of being back on track and I know I'm doing something right - I'm back down to 176 as of this morning! ALL of the extra weight I gained last week is GONE! Woot! My body feels fabulous! Dropping 6 pounds in 2 days is crazy but I'm feeling amazing!! Having that "woosh" feeling is fabulous - having it TWICE in two days is so killer!!! I'm feeling awesome again today and look forward to what the next few days might bring!!

I'm trying to keep my fluids up again today, but I'm just really not as thirsty as I was yesterday (perhaps I'm recovered from the excess sodium??). I had Zumba at Curves last night and had a blast (as always!). Looking forward to Zumba again tonight & tomorrow and then its Friday! Woot! I love the fact that weeks go by faster when I have my Zumba classes!!

Saturday is shaping up to be super busy for me! Have Zumba at Curves at 930, Zumba at Rhino's at 1130, Kickboxing at Rhino's at 130 and then an Intro to Zumba class at Baila! at 4!! OY! My burn is going to be HUGE that day! haha! I'm going to do my best to pack food to get through the day - but if I need to eat out just to keep myself going, I won't be too upset!

Got in another mile run earlier today on the treadmill and loved it! Started out slowly (around a 5.5) but then my feet just wanted to go faster! So I upped it to 6.5 and stayed there until I was done! Played some great music (Sick Puppies & Cascada to be exact) and rocked out the mile in 9:42 - so not too shabby at all!

I think I've figured out that on Zumba days my body can easily handle 1 mile runs earlier in the day - but any more than that will exhaust me a little too much. This also ensures that I'm right around my 2600 cal burn for the day - which is always a good thing! PLUS - I get my extra energy (positive or negative) OUT early in the morning and then am very zen for the rest of the day! haha!

So I'll be sticking with the morning runs and then taking it easy for the rest of my breaks at work on days that I have Zumba - just so I don't overdo it. I want to get stronger & faster, but I don't want to hurt myself or over-train myself...so its a fine line to balance it all!

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Total Miles Ran in 2011: 26.62 Miles (I will run that extra 0.38 miles soon - just so its an even number again! haha!)
Total Calories Burned "Running From My Issues": 3,996 Calories GONE!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Happy Tuesday!

Hey there! So I'm back on track! Wahoo!! I kept everything Vegan yesterday and feel amazing! I dropped 4 pounds of water weight overnight! Yippee!! It felt nice to be back down to 178lbs this morning when yesterday I was 182.2lbs! That 4 pounds definitely makes a difference! I feel leaner and lighter already!

On top of keeping things vegan - I picked up an all natural detox/cleanse 7 day pack that I started today too. I think its a good thing to occasionally flush toxins out of our systems and I am long overdue for it. I started it this morning and am looking forward to seeing how it works. Its nothing drastic or unhealthy (you all know I'd NEVER do anything like that!). Its maintaining my normal diet while increasing natural anti-oxidants to improve liver function while reducing the body's tendency to hold on to water and excess toxins. Hopefully it goes well! I'm looking forward to it!

Anyways, the hubby and I went to see "Thor" last night and we LOVED it!! It was a great movie and I have a total girl crush on Chris Hemsworth now! haha! I was REALLY good at the movie theater too! They had fat free frozen yogurt at the theater and I almost got some (there was a pomegranate flavor that was super tempting!) but I didn't!! I stuck with a Coke Zero and was good!

Just for funsies - here's some Thor Man-Candy! haha!
Chris Hemsworth Thor 1 Pictures, Images and Photos
Thor Pictures, Images and Photos
I got in a nice mile run this morning. It felt good to be back on the treadmill - I haven't ran since last week's 5K adventure and I was starting to miss it. Tonight is Zumba at Curves and I'm excited as always! Those classes are always super fun! My tattoos are almost completely healed and I should be back to normal by tomorrow (still have some peeling on my tribal but it should be done later today or tomorrow morning). It will be nice to not have a healing back for a little while - it seems like I'm always in a healing phase for the past few weeks so the break will be nice.

I think that's about it for me. I'm a little concerned about my Bugg - its been having some trouble staying synched with my Digi Display and today it seems like it disconnected from my arm for a while (even though it was on). I'm going to clean it tonight when I get home, but if it keeps up I might have to break down and buy a new one in the next few weeks! Oh well - its no biggie if I do - since I'm already an Apex customer they are cheaper to buy new directly through them, I'll just be sad if this one stops working.

Total Miles Ran in 2011: 25.62 Miles (I'd forgotten to update with my runs from last Wednesday)
Total Calories Burned "Running From My Issues": 3,846 Calories GONE!

Monday, May 9, 2011

I am BACK!!

So today is a fresh start after the crappy week I had last week. After my massive amounts of food eaten this weekend - I woke up to a squishy 182.2lbs this morning. At the beginning of the week I was hanging around 176lbs, so being up around 6 pounds of water, excess food & bloat weight isn't really too bad considering everything I've eaten this week. I'm back on track nutritionally today (been taking pics to prove it!) and drinking lots of fluids so far - so hopefully the water weight will fall off today or tomorrow.

Anyways, I snapped some pics this morning just to see how I'm doing visually. I am a little thicker in my side pics - but that's expected from 6lbs of bloat. Other than that, I'm actually not too upset with the way I look. I never really looked terribly overweight when I was in the low 180's before the Vegan Investigation and I think I look around the same now. I really think this is more about how I "feel" more than how I look. I'm tired of feeling slow, fat & squishy and want to feel strong & lean again. Hopefully I'll be back there in a few days! *fingers crossed*

PhotobucketPhotobucket

PhotobucketPhotobucket

Photobucket

I'm actually tempted to do one of those 7 day detox/cleanse things - my body just feels SO crappy right now, so any jumpstart would be appreciated. There's a few that don't require any adjustment to a healthy nutrition and just work with your body naturally....I might have to see if I can find it in a store. There's one that's all natural, vegetarian & vegan friendly - but I'm having a hell of a time finding it in a store. I tried looking yesterday and just found a bunch of crappy fat burners & supplements that just aren't healthy, so I refuse to buy them.

Tattoos are almost completely healed and so I'm moving a lot better. These ones are smaller than the last pieces I had done, so the healing process was much easier!

In other news, my classes at the Rio Rancho studio start next Monday at 530 - I'm really looking forward to it! It should be super fun!! The grand opening is still scheduled for the 21st and I am totally starting to become neurotic about it. Once I am fully healed from the tattoo in between my shoulders and can wear a normal sports bra again - I'll be hitting the training hard. I want to make sure that I've got everything I need to lead a successful class - which I already do, just wanna make sure of it, ya know???

Since I don't have a class tonight, the hubby and I might go on an impromptu date night - we both wanna see "Thor" haha! Other than that - things are kinda boring. I've sent off my Business Proposal for the Zumbatomic classes in town...hopefully going to hear back on the approval for it soon. I am going to sign up for the licensing class today so no matter what I will be ready for it.

I think that's it...just trying to catch up on everything I've missed over the past week.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Evil Week Is Finally Over!!!!

Hey everyone! I'm sorry I've been scarce recently - life was just super busy this week. I don't have a lot of time to blog (as I have to get up early for class tomorrow) but I wanted to give you all an update letting you know that I'm still alive!!! haha!

So - here's my quick recap of the week:

- had mandatory 3 day training for my job, which resulted in crappy sleep, funky schedules, really poor nutrition and lack of regular workouts

- managed to get in a 5K run on Wednesday AND set a new PR of 30:30! Next time around, I'm aiming for that sub-30 mark!

- I miss my Zumba classes so much I actually started having dreams about them (on Wednesday night) - I really need my fun fabulous workouts!!! Thankfully tomorrow I'll be back at it!!!

- weight is up and I have to not be upset about it - with schedules being crappy, I wasn't able to go grocery shopping until today so I've been eating out of restaurants ALL week - thus the evil water weight is back and I've been feeling fat all week! GIR!

- haven't even thought about keeping up with my photo/nutrition blog - access to computers all week was minimal. Tomorrow & Sunday look grim as we have birthdays and Mother's Day - so I've purchased food and plan on 100% on track nutrition (meaning strictly vegan until this water weight is gone!) as of Monday. There's no point in stressing about everything I've eaten this week (and the food I will have access to in the next 2 days). All I can do is try to keep moving and start over on Monday.

- brighter news, I traded my artist for some ink time - so I used it to touch up my tattoos that were looking faded on my back. My star (in between my shoulders) was pushing 8 years old and my tribal on my lower back was over 10 years old - so they desperately needed a little lovin'. I got them both touched up/re-done today and they look fabulous! The star looks the same - so I'm not going to bother posting pics of that one, but the tribal needed some adjustments made to it. It was off center just a slight bit and needed to be slightly modified to look balanced with my back piece, so with the original design & new pieces around it in mind, this is what we came up with:
Photobucket

I really think it looks more balanced while keeping true to the original design yet complimenting the piece around it - so I'm thrilled!! I'm planning on getting one more smaller piece soon as well, but that one will have to wait a few more weeks.

So - in a nutshell, week was hell, nutrition was awful, sleep was crappy, got a few workouts in - but nothing major, I miss my Zumba classes, I got tattooed (again) and love it (as always) and plan on another piece soon, and back on track on Monday as this weekend is already shot.

That's about it! I really miss all of you and promise that I'm not ignoring anyone! I will catch up in a few days when I get some time to relax!!!

Monday, May 2, 2011

My Weekend....

....was dismal for nutrition at best!! haha!! With the hubby starting his new shift at work today, I wanted to spend some quality time with him this past weekend - so we went out on a few dates and had a blast...and I didn't care what I ate!

I had some great workouts on Saturday - and I ran my kickboxers through a higher intensity butt kicking on Saturday, after which my lower back was all jacked up. I was walking really stiff yesterday and I've been using lots of Icy/Hot on it and using my foam roller as much as possible. I was worried that I'd pulled something, but after stretching & massaging it I've decided that it was just DOMS in my back. I used muscles in kickboxing that I haven't used in a while and it just made me super sore only on my back. I ran a mile today already on the treadmill and it feels much better (but I've got my Icy/Hot around just in case)

This morning - woke up and weight was 179lbs of pure water weight/bloat - can't really complain too much considering that I didn't really care what I ate this weekend. Didn't track my food on Spark - didn't really care. Got caught up on the bootcamp workouts online today since I missed a few this weekend.

Tonight I have Zumba class at Curves - since I had to cancel tomorrow & Thursday due to my "mandatory training" at work. I've been toying with the idea of taking the next 3 days as rest days - but then another part of me is screaming at myself for wanting to be so lazy! haha! I might take 1 day of rest and then workout the other two - or vice versa. Not sure yet. We'll see what happens and how I'm feeling.

That's about it for me - haven't synched my Bugg up in a few days, so not sure what my total burns are (but really don't care too much since I'm starting over as of today). I'm finding that I'm not really hungry today (probably from all the crap I ate this weekend) - so today might be a practice in IF...we'll see...I'll only be eating later today if I get hungry.

Total Miles Ran in 2011: 21 Miles
Total Calories Burned "Running From My Issues": 3126 Calories GONE!