Gotta move it, move it Friday, Nov 9 2012

Eat less + move more = lose weight, right?

That’s what I’ve always thought and been told. It’s a simple concept to understand and follow.

What baffles me (and I am guilty of this) is that people think that they can eat less, NOT move more and still lose weight.

Guess what? IT DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY (Yes, even myself, it doesn’t work that way).

I hear people complain about how they haven’t lost weight, how they are using a calorie counting app and going way over their calorie limits, about how they aren’t exercising and not losing weight.

I am guilty of the last one. Yes, I will admit that I really need to lose weight. One, for health reason. Two, so I can feel better. Three, I don’t have money to buy new (a.k.a. bigger) clothes right now, or do I want to.

The word ‘diet’ really bothers me. I prefer to think of it as a lifestyle change. Diet, to me, says that you will only be on it for a short period of time then gain it all (and more) back. What good is that for you? You need to eat healthy, smaller portions and move more. I tell people that all the time and they look at me like I’m crazy. I’ve heard, ‘Walking up the stairs counts as exercise, right?’

NO, NO IT DOESN’T! If you want to lose weight, eat smart and MOVE MORE.

Get up earlier in the morning and go for a run or come home from work and go for a walk, if it’s  neither deathly hot and humid or freezing cold. If either, do it indoors. Just move more. Dance around your apartment, clean, have sex. All of those things burn calories. Whatever you do, make sure you are having fun doing it. Working out doesn’t work if you aren’t having fun and really want to do it.

Let’s move more!

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Wine and Love v28 Thursday, Mar 8 2012

It’s Wine and Love time!!!

W(h)ine:

* Money….don’t make enough of it, never have enough of it lol

* Diet and exercise have not been going so well

Love:

* I bought both of these prompts from Doni and am so excited. Got my first prompts this week!! Can’t wait to see more. You should buy them (and use this links in here- I get money from each sale)!

* I made this awesome meal this week that I will hopefully blog about this weekend (including pictures!)

* Check out the Habibi Hips performance at Bellydance Superstars Club Bellydance:

* I blogged about my ongoing struggle with depression and cutting

* Had a great meeting with Madre Annie <3

* I have a lot of great things to look forward to next week: PJ and I’s 1 year anniversary, seeing the play Chicago, CRAWFISH!, Patty in the Park and a BBQ for the season finale of The Walking Dead with friends and family

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My boobs aren’t even…. Monday, Jan 23 2012

….and neither are yours. Yeah, I said. I see my boobs at least twice a day. I noticed that one is lower than the other and the other is a little bigger. That’s normal. It happens. They are not suppose to be perfect. Though a majority of women do not see it that way.

They see themselves as flawed, not perfect, always wanting to live up to society “standards” and caving to media pressure.

Growing up, I knew that I was not going to be a skinny girl. I was never going to wear low slung jeans and baby doll t-shirts. In the third grade, I was told to use my “big butt” to pop a balloon. In the 5th grade, I was given the nicknames “Thunder Thighs” and “Shewoman”.

I watched my mom struggle with her weight my entire life. About 3 years ago, she had the gastric bypass surgery. At the time, I wasn’t really sure how I felt about it. Part of me was really scared that was going to happen to me.

I had to go shopping for a pair of jeans this past weekend because all of mine where falling apart. I loath shopping. Always have. I walked into the dressing room, feeling the anxiety already, knowing that I would face the truth very soon. I tried on a pair of jeans. I took them off and just stared at myself in the mirror. My could feel the tears starting to form, my eyes getting red, ready to cry buckets. Instead, I held back the tears and tried on a bigger pair of jeans. I ended up getting the second pair I tried on and a cute cardigan.

All I kept thinking was how could I let this happen to my body? Granted, for the last 2 1/2 months I have been out of work and looking for a job. I didn’t exercise like I said I was, and I didn’t eat very well. I am part of this wonderful project. My goal for this month was to drink more water (my original goal was to give up refined sugar- still a goal, just not this month). I don’t think I have been doing as well as I had hoped. I’m just going to keep trying.

I really want to add exercise and healthy eating back into my life. I miss being active. Last week, belly dance started. I have a class on Monday nights and 3 classes on Thursday night (the first one being Zumba). After Thursday, I just knew that something had to change.

So, here is to REBUILDING, starting with me.

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Changes Monday, Dec 5 2011

I guess I should get something out the way first. In case you don’t know, I no longer have a job. Two weeks ago, I started at a Dr.’s office as the administrative assistant. I thought it was going to be a stable position. A job! I was called into the office this past Friday afternoon and told that it just wasn’t working out and she felt, in the long run, I wouldn’t be able to handle the front on my own. It was only two weeks. To be honest, I didn’t really enjoy the job. I just didn’t want to let anyone down. There was very little training (I left still not knowing how to make an appointment), but I went and did I best I could. I gave it a shot. I know that she did what she felt was right. That is okay. It just really makes me wonder, though. I’ve lost three jobs this year. That really does something to a persons head. I just can’t help but think that there is something wrong with me. Am I that bad of a person that people don’t want me? I know I am being silly but still. I just can’t help but wonder.

Now that the job news is out of the way, on to something more awesome.
I am part of another amazing project. Slated to begin next year, 12 Changes in 2012 was set in motion by these amazing ladies: Stephany and Katherine. The basic concept is making little changes over times helps them stick. Doing something for a month helps it become habit then you add something else to it, making that become habit. You have this awesome support group to help when you need encouragement and support. We have 4 weeks until 2012. We have to come up with about 9 things (more if you can) that you want to change in 2012.
Here is my list (so far):
1. Exercise for an hour (or more) a day with a designated rest day
2. Reduce/eliminate processed sugar from my diet
3. Meditate for a least 15 minutes a day
4. Read for 30 min.-1 hr. a day
5. Eat healthier
6. Blog 2-3 times a week
7. Hand write more letters
8. Paint my nails
9. Wash my face every night
10. Clean the house once a week
11. Organize my mess
12. Engage in my life more

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Weighing on my mind Monday, Aug 22 2011

I write about this a lot but it is something that I struggle with. My journey with weight loss began when I was little. I watched my mom struggle with weight my whole life, including now. She would diet and lose a lot of weight only to put it back on again. She would eat whatever my sister and I were eating. She use to work at an ice cream shop when we were little so we has ice cream cakes for birthdays and special occasions. She loves to bake and makes sweets. There was never a shortage of sweets in our house growing up. There still isn’t, and my sister and I no longer live there. A few years ago, my mom had gastric bypass surgery. It was really hard to watch her go through that. The reason she said she had the surgery was because she just couldn’t lose the weight, no matter what she did. To me, it seems that she is not as happy today than before she had the surgery. She seems to hurt all the time. It’s really hard for me to watch and not be able to do anything.

My dad was in Army for about 10 years. He was fit. Ran all the time, ate right, the whole nine. He would wear those sweat suits to go running in. Those things are just nasty lol. I remember him coming home from however many mile runs just drenched in sweat. His job in the Army was to work on thanks. One day he was getting off of one and hurt his back. Long story short, he has surgery which messed him up even more and now is 100 percent medically discharged from the military. He has been through a lot since then. He can’t do even half of what he use to do. He’s had multiple back surgeries and might have to have both of his knees replaced (please pray that doesn’t happen). He sits in his recliner all day and watches TV or plays on the computer. It makes me sad to know that he is the way is because of the Army.

Now enter me. I was the chubby kid growing up. In the third grade, my class had this fun day and one of our activities was a balloon pop race. It was my turn. I grab the balloon from the person running full speed at me. I take off, racing to the chair at the end of the room. I get down there, put the balloon on the chair and proceed to sit on it. Okay, that didn’t work. I them take to jumping up and down on it. That is when it happened. Some stupid little boy yelled “Use your big butt”. I popped the balloon but was never the same after that. In the fifth grade, my nickname was ‘thunder thighs’. It just continued from there. I really do enjoy working out and eating healthy, ya know, stuff that’s good for you. This past Lent, my friend and I decided to go on the South Beach diet. Even though the first few weeks were hard (no sugar, no carbs), I really did enjoy it. I liked learning how to eat healthy again. I enjoyed working out every day. Then Easter hit. And things went downhill. I look at myself in the mirror and see all the weight I lost, put back on and then some. I work an office job so that means I sit down a lot. I don’t move as much as I use too. I wish there was some way that I could get my butt out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to go exercise. I don’t like exercising in the evening (never did, I’m a morning person). I just want to get back to me and not this blob of a human being.

Any advice? Suggestions? How do you deal with health and fitness?

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Fitness talk Monday, Jun 20 2011

Here I sit, at work on a Monday afternoon, a lot on my mind.

Friday afternoon on Twitter, a friend asked if anyone had fitness goals for the summer. I immediately responded that I need to/would like to loose 30-40 pounds.A few others responded with how much they would like to loose or just maintain. He then asked me if I was taking steps toward my goal. In short, no. I need a kick in the butt.

For Lent, my roommate and I decided to go on the South Beach Diet. She wanted to loose weight and I knew I needed to as well. Things were going great. I was following the diet and exercising every day. This was also when I had a job that let me come in at 11. That allowed me time to wake up, exercise, shower, eat breakfast and get to work. I was really enjoying eating right and exercising. I felt better all around. Then I lost my job. Still, I moved forward, exercising and trying to eat right, while looking for a new job.

Enter Easter. We had lots of food. I get a temp job, which I am still at (cross your fingers that they keep me!), and this is where it all goes blah. I get up around 5:30/5:45 every weekday morning. I walk Broly and get ready for work. PJ and I carpool. He has to be at work earlier than I do so we leave the apartment around 6:30, picking up breakfast on the way. I drop him off at work then head to the office. I spend most of my days in front of a computer screen. I have no problem with this. It allows me to have freedom while still working. We have lunch together at 11, where we try to eat healthy, mainly Subway, if not something from home. We get off of work at 5 and head home, either picking something up or trying to see what we have around the house.

We were doing so well with meal planning and grocery shopping. We would plan on Saturday afternoons and go grocery shopping. We would have crock pot meals on Sunday and enough left over to only have to cook a few nights a week. We would save one day where we would go eat out. Meal planning and grocery shopping take A LOT OF TIME. People don’t tell you this when you start. They should. I felt like we were spending an entire weekend afternoon planning meals for the week. Is it really suppose to take that long? Oh, and coupons. I would like to be able to coupon. We just don’t have the time. How do people fit it all in.

Anyway, I sort of got off track. Back to where I was suppose to be going with this. New job= learning how to fit exercise and eating right back into my life. A few people I know have mentioned that they are doing Crossfit. I saw a video of it on YouTube and it seems like something I would be interested in, because I’m a beast in the gym (at least I think so). I’m super hard on myself in every aspect of my life, including exercise. We have a fitness center in our apartment complex so I’m not sure about joining a gym. I would love get back to eating right and exercising and feeling great.That is my main goal right now.

Any advice and/or suggestions?

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