For Sale

Yesterday I posted this picture on Instagram:

I have since posted a photo home tour and the flyer for the sale of our home on Facebook.  I have been flooded with texts, comments, and messages asking why we are selling and where we are going, so I thought I thought I would just take care of answering those questions here.

First, I would like to clarify that in no way are we selling because we HAVE TO.  We are not under financial strain.  In fact, our financial position is the best it's been since we moved into the home we built from the ground up.  Given the recent market history and the fact that a lot of people have had to short sale or foreclose their home, that's where people's minds automatically go.  Fortunately for us, that is not the case.

It just so happens that the market in our area right now is really good.  And since we have been in our home for just over 3.5 years with a low interest rate, we are in a position to increase our financial position even more by selling our home.  After all, equity is just money on paper...

This was by no means an easy decision, as we have been discussing it for quite a while now.  WE love, LOVE, love this house.  We watched this house go from a piece of paper, to a foundation, to our first home together.  We chose the color of the walls and cupboards, the size of the tile, selected the slab of granite for our counter tops.  JB proposed to me in this house.  We had our rehearsal dinner in this house.  My bridesmaids and I got ready on our wedding day in this house.  We learned how to live together here and make decisions for our future together here, which has led us to where we are now.  We have discussed our goals, plans, dreams, etc.  And in the end, taking all factors into consideration, this is a great opportunity for us prepare for whatever opportunities may come our way (professional, recreational, or otherwise).

There are some that may think that we are moving backwards in the social progression of marriage -> home -> babies -> retirement, but that is subjective, and JB and I don't feel that way.  We feel like we have the opportunity to reset and rediscover our passions and future plans.  Some people think that this amazing home we have now is never going to come around again.  But maybe something better will?

The other question I have been getting a lot is "Where are you going?".  We currently don't have any plans to leave the area as we are both still employed here, our families are here, and we love the community we live in.  Based on our research, we should be able to rent something suitable in the same area for $500-$800 less per month.  You read that right.  How do you deny that fact?  Lower rent, lower utilities, and debt free?

Sign. Me.Up.

Now we just need someone to buy the house....

Fitness Friday: Crossfit Update

Crossfit Anywhere posted my last Fitness Friday post on their facebook page and quite a few people a the gym told me they read it. Pretty excited about that! If I gained any new readers from that, hello and thanks for reading!! In that post, I also promised an update. Let's start with my workout journal:

The CFA website has an awesome component that allows you to make a profile and track your progress and make notes. My journal snapshot doesn't have a description of the workout, but I have the ability to click on it and see the actual workout and how I did. I didn't post my first couple of weeks becauses I was still in the on-ramp process and wasn't doing the WODs.

A couple of weeks ago, JB and I were able to attend the Open WOD 13.4 to watch some of the CFA folks attempt to qualify for regionals. My coach was oh-so-kind as to put my name on the board to particpate. Obviously I wasn't trying to qualify as I was not even doing RX weights (95# RX for females, I was doing 55#)but it was still pretty cool to do a WOD in that environment with a lot more people around cheering you on. I was on the fence about participating that day, but my adrenaline had been raging since the drive over. Blair's parents were on-site participating and photographing and I was actually in some of the shots.

I just said I did it, I never said I looked good doing it.

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I went in this past Saturday and did my InBody test. The InBody is a machine that tests body composition using a very minor electric current (trust me, you don't feel anything during the test, except maybe shame when you see your results). According to the website, it measures the following;

Intracellular Water, Extracelluar Water, Protein, Osseous/Non-Osseous Minerals, Body Fat Mass, Skeletal Muscle Mass, Soft Lean mass, Fat free mass, Body Mass Index (BMI), Percent Body Fat, Waist-Hip Ratio (WHR), Segmental Muscle Mass, Segmental Muscle Mass Ratio, Edema index, Segmental Edema index, Section area of intestinal fat (growth curve for children under 18-year old), Nutritional Assessment (protein, minerals, fat, edema level), Body symmetry, Physical Strength, Health Diagnosis, Suggested Weight, Suggested Weight Control, Suggested Fat Control, Suggested Muscle Control, Fitness Score, Obesity Degree, Body Cell Mass (BCM), Bone Mineral Content (BMC), Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), Arm Circumference (AC), Arm Muscle Circumference (AMC).  Provides Segmental Impedance values at multiple frequencies, 30 individual impedance measurement values (1, 5, 50, 250, 500, 1000 kHz at each arm, leg, and the trunk) and also Reactance values at 5, 50, 250, kHz at each arm, leg, and the trunk).

Did you get all that?  Mine looks a little something like this:

I know, sorry for the terrible picture, but you get the idea. I was told to come in not having had anything to eat or drink for the two hours prior to measurement, not having worked out, and having done "my biznass" for the day. I wasn't really surprised by my weight, but I was disappointed in my body fat percentage. I'm glad to see that my extremeties are pretty evenly distributed though.

Silver lining, folks.

The point of doing this is to set a baseline so I can see the progress I am achieving. I have no doubt that the numbers will be better a month from now, and the month after that. I need to take before pictures as well, as those are always the best progress indicator.

Happy Friday!!

Fitness Friday - I Drank The Kool-Aid

I am now a member of the Crossfit cult community....

I don't know if I have ever addressed my feelings about this on le blog, but I have always been a little apprehensive.  Knowing what I have learned through my husband, who is a corrective exercise specialist, there is a lot to be done wrong in the world of crossfit.

As with any "fad" or "new craze" out there, there are people that jump on the bandwagon to get a piece of the pie.  Where there are people obsessed with a product or service, there is plenty of money to be made.  Depending how you go about it, opening up your own Crossfit gym, or Box, doesn't take a ton of start-up capital.  Some people start theirs in their garage.  All you need is a certification and a group of people to sell your service to.  Unfortunately with a lesser business model in crossfit, the owner isn't the one that gets hurt.  It's usually the client.

Done the right way, Crossfit can be awesome and empower you to feel confidence in finding a strength you never knew you had and doing things you never dreamed possible.  Done the wrong way, it can cause injury.  Improper form and over-use without rest/recovery/release can cause the body to break down, which puts you even further from the goal you initially set out to achieve.

I went to high school with Blair.  Take a moment to click on the link and see how awesome he is. 

You're welcome.

Quite the physical specimen and also a really nice guy.  After he came back from college overseas, I suggested he look into getting a job with my husband, enhancing the future of fitness professionals.  He also decided to open his own Crossfit gym which happened to be on my way to/from work.  His approach to Crossfit is phenomenal.  JB and I went to the open house and I was really excited to come check it out once it opened.

But then I got scared.

I have major anxiety about going into gyms alone.  Doing most things alone, really.  But especially gyms.  If you have been reading my blog for any length of time this may come as a shock to you.  I hate people thinking I don't know what I am doing, and even worse, ACTUALLY not knowing what I am doing.  Instead of realizing that everyone there is focusing on their own workouts and fitness goals, for some reason I always think they have nothing better to do than observe and judge my every move...

The next couple of years passed and I never went in to work out at the gym.  See, people who do Crossfit are seen as elite athletes in my (and most people's) book(s).  The olympic lifting mixed with serious metabolic conditioning is not something any old Joe Schmoe can just power through on his first run.  It was always something that intrigued me though.  The competetive part of it speaks to me.  I am always striving to be a better version of myself, and if I happen to be better than some other people in my class, well, good for me.  I also hated knowing that I would go in knowing no one, and there would already be a camaraderie amongst the members. 

The problem is, you have to start somewhere, which means you have to actually START.  Knowing the issues that can arise from a poorly trained coach and a poorly laid out program, I didn't just want to join a random Box. 

And you know me and my Groupon/Living Social deals.

Blair had now expanded to three gyms and had a promo running for the one closest to my house, so I bought it.  I tried like hell to get a buddy to join me and no one would.  Not a single soul.  Bitches.  I knew I needed to wait out the other people that had bought the deal as I didn't want to deal with the crowds these things tend to bring in.  But mostly, I was stalling.

I stalled until I could stall no more.  I do have a trip to Greece coming, you know?  I spent the months of January and February getting my nutrition back on track and told myself come March 1st, I was going in.  I sent Blair an email to make sure that starting on a Friday wouldn't be a problem and he told me to go for it.  And I did.

I'm pretty sure I sweat more sitting in the car waiting to go into the gym than I did during that first workout.  I got there early and just sat in my car surveying the gym, strategizing my plan of attack.  I noticed that the "front desk" was actually in the back of the gym and I would have to walk across the entire workout floor just to get to someone who could help me sign my waiver to get started.  As the minutes ticked down, I became increasingly more anxious and worked up.  By the time I got in there, I was shaking so bad I could barely fill out the paperwork they gave me.

So ridiculous.

Long story long, I did it.  I got started that night and as each day went by I met another person.  I was still uneasy and anxious as I walked into the gym.  Planning my timing just right so I didn't have to stand around too long before the workout, with a bunch of people I didn't know who all knew each other.  I made it through my five days of "on-ramp", each day learning another lifting technique with proper form, new terminology and movements, and was finally cleared for Level 1; which meant I could work out with the general population who already knew what they were doing.

These people?  These elite athletes?  They are pretty cool people.  Very supportive and kind and welcoming.  I guess when you are all battling a common enemy (the workout), it's easier to join forces and support one another.  Seeing people achieve a new personal record on a lift or master a new skill is something worth celebrating and congratulating.  Knowing how hard it is to get through a particular workout makes you want to cheer that next person on who is trying to finish.  Knowing how overwhelming it can be to be the new person, an outsider, makes you want to introduce yourself to new faces.

Last night I bit the bullet and signed up for the next three months.  I know that I won't be able to achieve what I am hoping for in the next week, or next month for that matter.  I am already stronger and am seeing improvements in different movements.  My dance/gymnastics background has really helped out with balance and my previous experience with personal trainers and weight lifting has come in handy as well.  I love the feeling of achievement I have after a workout, even if it wasn't my best.  I know that I will improve over time.

So for the next three months I will be driving all of my FB friends crazy with my check-ins at Crossfit Anywhere Roseville and using Fitness Friday to check in on my progress.  Next week I will try to post some of my initial stats that I am currently tracking on my phone.

Have you ever done Crossfit?  What did you think? 

Who Has Two Thumbs & A New J-O-B?

Circa Vegas 2006

THIS GIRL!!!!  Holla holla!!

I have been contacted by the same recruiter for different positions throughout the year, but I was content where I was and none of the positions were appealing to me and they were all farther from home.  My commute is already 45 minuites each way, so I was definitely going to be moving closer to home if I was going to leave my current position.

Let me just say that the company I work for is wonderful.  In every class I have taken for business or HR, my current company does everything they say you should do.  As an employee-owned firm, they go to great lengths to over-communicate and maintain transparency in their operations.  They have afforded me many development opportunities over the past 5 years, including paying for my masters degree and assisting my efforts to get SPHR certified.

Obviously there is a reason I entertained a meeting with the recruiter regarding this new position...

This was my second HR related job out of college and although I started as an HR Assistant, I was quickly promoted to the role of HR Manager (Go me!).  With the corporate office being in the middle of the country, I have been merely pushing down the processes and procedures as set forth from the mother ship.  I have not been able to gain much experience or really dive into the many facets of HR and have spent most of the last 5 years dealing with mainly administrative processes as they relate to HR and handling employee relations issues.  I have gained some great knowledge in these areas, but I feel that in order to become a well-rounded HR professional and be able to move forward in my career, I need to get this experience sooner than later.

This new position is still the role of HR Manager, but is for a much smaller company that has not had a separate HR Manager to this date.  They have had someone that wears many different hats, one of them being HR, but now that they are growing, they realize they need to put someone in place that can dive into all of these things and be strictly dedicated to HR.

That person is going to be me!!! 

I am so, so sad to be leaving behind the friends I have made over the past 5 years.  It has taken a long time to build some of these relationships and grow into my role here.  I am going to miss my work neighbors and work besties soooooooooooooooo much!  That being said, I am so excited for this next chapter in my life and career.  I will be hands on in all areas of HR Management and I will be closer to home!

Here's to 2013 and new beginnings!!

Fitness Friday: Pinspiration

It's been a while since I've done a Fitness Friday post, so I thought I would update you on what I have taken to doing in the gym lately.  I follow a lot of blogs and people on pinterest that have a fitness and clean-eating focus, so I have started getting some great workouts from Pinterest.

Via The Lean Gourmet

From Pinterest

For this last one, I got the inspiration from My Mission Impossible, but turned it into my own little circuit.  I did a dynamic warmup for a few minutes to get everything moving and then did the 10 burpees in the beginning to get my heart rate up so I could burn at a higher rate throughout the workout.  I ended up doing a few more reps on some exercises, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I had planned to time myself so I could have a benchmark to test improvement with, but I totally forgot.  I know it was less than 30 minutes though.

For me the key is productivity and efficiency.  Unless I am doing a class at the gym, I don't like to spend more than 30 minutes on my workouts, so I try to maximize that 30 minutes as much as possible.  My friend and I have been meeting at the gym for classes like Zumba and yoga a couple of times a week and then I will use the gym downstairs at work.

It's not much, but it's a great place to avoid my phobia of people judging me and my workouts at the gym.  LOL!  It has a couple of treadmills, a bike, a stair stepper, two ellipticals, some hand weights, and that big circuit machine that you see here which I never use.  Comes in handy because I can work out before I even leave the building so I have a lesser chance of losing my motivation.

What are your fitness tips and tricks?  Do you have a fitness board on Pinterest?  Link it in the comments so I can follow!

Inspire Me: Healthy v:4

I know we are probably in week 6 for this link-up, but due to meetings and trips out of town, I was unable to get my posts together for the last couple of weeks. 

I was visiting friends in SoCal last weekend (a whole post in itself) and I have a Vegas trip next weekend which has led me out on a few shopping excursions lately.  First of all, I SUCK at shopping and fashion, so I already dread going shopping.  And the fact that I am not where I would like to be fitness-wise makes it even more challenging.  Last week I had to buy a new pair of work pants in a bigger size, so that's awesome.  Then I went to Macy's and couldn't find any clothes between teeny-bopper slut and grandma styles.  Where do they hide the "classy, grown-up beezy that likes to still work it" clothing?

Anywho...

Last week's shopping excursion left me feeling less than stellar about myself and last night's encore was no better.  Add to that the fact that I wore a size 6 skirt yesterday that used to look amazing on me, but for the entire day I had it unhooked and unzipped because it was cutting off the circulation to the rest of my body.  No bueno.  I cried the entire ride home and tried to fix my face before I walked in the door because I didn't want hubs to see me like that 2 weeks in a row.  Unfortunately he could tell and then decided to hug me.

Wrong move, sucka.

I basically started sobbing so hard I couldn't breathe and telling him how I have never been this unhappy with my body for this long.  Usually I just start working out and eating right again and I start to feel better, but it's not working.  The entire month of August I worked out at least 4 days a week and was eating right and I don't feel better.  I don't feel tighter.  I'm not seeing changes.  My pants are still uncomfortable.  It's so annoying.  I feel like I'm not doing enough.  I want to maximize my workouts to get the most effort out of the least amount of time, but I just feel like it's not enough.

So I decided that my post today would be about motivation.  I mentioned before that it takes time.  I usually start seeing noticeable changes after about 3 months.  This is a perfect example since I am one month into it and frustrated to meltdown status.  I feel like what I am doing is not working.  It's hard to keep the goal in perspective because all I can think about is the fact that nothing is changing yet.

This time around for me, JB is my motivation.  Being a fitness professional, his insight is actually helpful in these situations.  Guys are known to be fixers.  When girls start freaking out about their body image, guys don't usually know what to do.  The fact that he knows what to do makes the fact that he wants to help fix this situation a lot easier for both of us.

After I had calmed down a bit, he asked me some questions that helped us get to a solution.  I told him some of my concerns regarding foods and my workouts and the gym.  I am going to start logging what I eat, not for calorie purposes, but to see how I feel when I eat them (am I tired, bloated, energetic, etc), and we set a goal to work out 20 times in the remaining 25 days of the month.  Knowing that I am starting up some evening classes again and that I am out of town (and most likely out of commission) for a few days of that tells me that I need to work out twice some days. 

JB and I got up early together this morning and knocked out a good workout and I plan to go to a class at the gym after work or do a body rock workout at home.  This weekend we are going to go shopping and fill up the house with lots of good food and do some food prep on Sunday during football.  The main reason the Live Fit Trainer worked so well for me is that I was consistent.  And because I was consistent with my workouts, I wanted to fuel my body appropriately, so I did the prep work necessary to get that done.  I need to get back to those roots and get it done.  Once I get where I want to be, the once daily body rock workouts will be enough to maintian.  I feel good about the goal for September and love that JB is so supportive.  I feel like my mind is in the right place again and the goal is on the horizon.

How do you keep going when you get frustrated that you aren't seeing results?

Inspire Me: Healthy v:3

Here we are in week 3 of the Inspire Me: Healthy link up.  In week one, I talked about my plans/workout a little bit and showed you some initial photos.  Last week I talked about some of our favorite recipes.  This week I wanted to talk a little bit about my philosophy on eating/weight loss.  I couldn't really figure out how to organize this post, so I just went with bold words.  I'm not saying I am an expert, but in the past 5 or 6 years, I have done a lot of reading and learning on my own (along with the guidance of my hubs who teaches an Advanced Health & Fitness Professionals program at a vocational school) about different things related to health and fitness, so I just thought I would address some of these things here as I have learned/experienced them.

Cardio vs Weights - I have previously posted on this topice here.  Let me put it this way, when you envision yourself at your goal, what do you see?  Most women say they want to be skinny, but in reality, they are picturing themselves with some muscle tone and some kind of tight ab situation.  Take a look at the picture below. 

If you were to do nothing but cardio, you would be on your way to looking like the girl on the right (granted, she probably hasn't eaten anything in the past 3 years, so...take that with a grain of salt). If you were to do weight training with some cardio mixed in, or more high-intensity interval training, you would be on your way to looking more like the girl on the left.  In order to build/keep muscle, you have to continue using it.  It has been discovered that long stints of moderate cardio actually start to deplete your muscle mass, which leads to the look of the girl on the right.  I don't know about you, but I prefer to look strong and toned, like the girl on the left. 

To date, the best results I ever got were from Jamie Eason's Live Fit Trainer on bodybuilding.com.  That program was a good blend of weight training and cardio.  Never once did I "look like a dude" while doing so much weight lifting.  A lot of women are hesitant to lift weights because they think they will start to look big and bulky like a man.  In actuality, women don't have high enough testosterone levels to get that big, so you have nothing to worry about.  Unfortunately it's hard for me and my schedule to devote that much time in the gym, so I switched to the bodyrock workouts, which I am loving so far.

Calorie Counting - This is typically the first thing women start doing in order to lose weight.  After all, the simple equation for weight loss is calories in < calories out.  The problem with this equation is that there isn't enough emphasis on how to calculate the necessary amount of calories in.  Different tools/apps like My Fitness Pal have made this easier in recent years, but overall people are still doing it wrong.  This has a lot to do with the amount of calories you need to maintain your current resting state plus taking into account how much exercising you are doing.  You need to fuel your body appropriately for the work you are making it do, otherwise your body will do things like go into starvation mode which causes it to retain fat because it doesn't know when it will get nutrients again.

Another problem with calorie counting/point systems is that you aren't really focusing on what type of calories you are putting into your body.  200 calories of sugar are going to leave you feeling sluggish and hungry soon after eating it, whereas 200 calories of protein/complex carbohydrates/good fats will keep you satisfied and feeling fuller longer.


via

Fat Doesn't Make You Fat - This is one of the things that frustrates me the most.  People are so focused on low-fat this and non-fat that and pay no attention to the list of ingredients they are taking in.  A rule of thumb that I use is basing my foods on their ingredient list.  If I can't pronounce it, I typically don't eat it.  When you buy fat free foods, unless they are natural foods like fruits and veggies, the processing just takes the place of the fat.  I strongly believe that processed food is responsible for weight gain as opposed to fat intake being the culprit.  If you based your consumption of a food on the amount of fat that was in it, you wouldn't eat avocados, olives, butter, nuts, fish.  Many of those foods are high in fats, but they are good fats (Omega-3).  If you are interested in learning more about good fats vs bad fats, you can look into Omega-3 (good) vs Omega-6 (not as good) fats.  It's mostly about striking a balance between the good vs not as good fats and eating fruits and vegetables.

via

You may have heard before to shop the perimeter of the grocery store.  The perimeter of the grocery store is where you find the whole foods; fruits, veggies, meats, dairy.  The deeper in you go to the aisles, the more processed food gets.  Next time you are there, make a conscious effort to notice what is on each aisle.  If you don't walk by the cookies/crackers/ice cream, you aren't tempted to keep it in your house and then you can't eat it because it's no longer conveniently there.

Sleep - In order for your body to recover from the day (especially if you are working out) and repair itself, you need adequate, quality sleep.  I have read many places that 6 hours is the least amount of sleep you should get each night.  Optimal is 7-8 hours.  I usually get about 7 hours, but could probably use 9.  If you are getting good rest and fueling your body with the proper amount of nutrients, it's virtually impossible to get sick.  Your immune system is functioning at an optimal level which allows it to fight off all the bad guys you encounter.

Instant Results/Quick Fixes - There was a time in my life where I was stupid enough to use diet pills. It was back when they had the good stuff in them, too. I would have breakfast, take a pill, have lunch, take a pill, and then by dinner time I was coming down and I was a major bitch. I definitely saw some results, but I definitely didn't like how my body felt. I am not one of those people who could ever have anorexia. If I go more than 3 hours without eating I get shaky, cranky, headaches, and I just plain can't function. I can't imagine going days at a time on a few crackers here and there. Once I stopped taking those pills, I gained all the weight back and then some. Mostly because I wasn't doing any physical activity to keep it off and also because those things throw your metabolism out of whack and often times when it regulates again, it's slower than it was before. Finding out that little factoid scared me away from using them ever again. You definitely have to put in the work to get where you want to be.

Eating 6 well portioned meals a day keeps your metabolism active and your body in a place where it knows it is going to be fed again, so it works at an optimal level. Your energy level will go up and you won't feel the need to snack on bad foods or stuff yourself at the next meal since it has been 4 or 5 hours since you ate last. I can't remember the last time I needed an afternoon caffeine fix. The 3pm slump is nowhere to be found because my body has all the fuel it needs.

I know it's frustrating when you don't see the results you want at first, but if you keep pushing, you finally realize the results and the high you get from being so proud of yourself for doing it is better than any diet pill, I can assure you.  I saw this the other day and thought it was fitting:

and this one is my favorite:

Now GET TO WORK!  :)

 

Fitness Friday

It's been a while since I have written one of these.  Mostly because it has been a while since I have had any sort of workout routine going on.  I was hitting it hard for a solid 2 months and then classes got crazy and then I started working my second job and was too tired to get up in the morning and working til bed time.  Yes, those sound like excuses, but I believe proper nutrition and needed rest are what help keep you in good shape, so I will take those over running myself down to get mo' fit.

Wanna hear something crazy?  Since I stopped working out in November, I have lost 10 lbs.  Your eyes do not deceive you, my friend, you read that correctly.  TEN.POUNDS.  This would be great if I was obsessed with the scale.  I still only weigh myself at the gym on the same scale, but I have only been weighing myself when I go in to get my hair done.  Yes, the gym has a salon in it, which my friend works at.  So anywho, back to that 10 lbs....

I started to notice a change in my body as soon as I stopped working out.  It was like my body waited to respond to all the work I was doing until after I stopped doing all the work.  I haven't really changed my eating habits since I stopped working out, except for cutting out the extra protein shakes after workouts and I have been able to maintain.  Knowing what little I know about body composition, I knew that if I my body seemed to be staying the same as I was losing weight, it was because I was losing muscle.  I had hubs measure my body fat and sure enough, even though I had lost 10 lbs, I had gained 5% body fat, meaning my muscles were dwindling away.

I refuse to have my body looking it's best during the winter months when it is hiding under all these layers and then plump up just in time for summer, so I need to get back on track.  Luckily, tax season is slowing down and will be over on April 20th, so I can get back to the grind.  Apparently if you don't use your muscles, you lose them.  And from what I have heard, it's harder for women to maintain muscle mass, which means I have to work that much harder.

I do my best to encourage people who are working on their fitness goals to focus on the changes they see in their body instead of the numbers on the scale and to use a different form of measurement than just their weight.  For me, standing at 5'6" and weighing 155 isn't an issue when my body fat is only 20%.  I am currently 146 with a 26% body fat and that tells me there is room for improvement.  Hubs sent me a photo he found online to prove my point:

It will be interesting to see if the number on the scale starts to creep back up as my body fat percentage decreases.  I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Just Another Manic Monday...

Whoooooaaaaa Whooooooaaaaaa!

First off, I want to say hello to all the new faces around here!  It is still crazy to me that people I don't know care so much about what I have to ramble about, but I love you all the same!  Apologies in advance for the less than riveting post you are about to read.  I hope you'll stick around after this...

I have been in a serious blogging funk lately.  In case you haven't noticed I get this super amped up motivation and post every day for a WHOLE WEEK and then nothing for like 2 weeks....or a month...

Whateva, whateva, I do what I want!

To be honest, I am just not feelin' it right now.  I finally let happen what I swore I wouldn't.  I got sucked in and let another blogger get me down.  I have also spent the past couple of weeks reading Christmas recaps and New Year's Resolutions and I barely had the energy to read them, let alone recap my own.  I'm just not feelin' it folks.  I love you all and want to read about your holidays, but since I only get to read like once a week, a thousand recaps and resolutions posts in a row were a bit redundant and overwhelming.  It's pretty obvious why I follow the blogs I do though, because they are all very similar :)

Tax season has begun so I worked all weekend.  Seriously ALL WEEKEND.  7 hours on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday.  So today doesn't even really feel like a Monday.  I have the next couple of weekends off for various reasons, but I am pretty much working all but one weekend in February.  The good thing about a seasonal job is that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel so it doesn't really seem so bad.  Plus, I'm making that money, YA HEARD?  If you know anyone in the Sacramento, CA area that is looking for a tax professional, send them my way!

I know we only had our honeymoon 6 months ago, but I am seriously having vacation withdrawals.  I think it's because we did Europe instead of sitting on the beach with a drink in our hand getting couples massages.  I'm not really complaining about going to Europe, but I am itching for a paradise fix in a bad way!  It doesn't really help that everyone is posting about their winter vacations to tropical destinations and cruises.  It also doesn't help that I don't see anything like that in our near or distant future.  Booooooo!

I have worked out a handful of times since the end of October.  I went from working out 6 days a week, to working out like 6 times in 2 months.  I don't know what it is, but I need to get my mojo back.  I really enjoy being able to head straight home after work, but I don't like feeling like a fitness slacker.  I keep saying I am going to get up and go in the morning, but my get up and go won't get out of bed.  Bitch.

I don't do resolutions, but I do to-do lists, so here's mine:

• Finish wedding and honeymoon recaps before June.  If we have a year to get Thank You cards out, we should have a year to get the recap posts up too.
• Get my fitness mojo back.  Before I know it, it will be bathing suit season.  Luckily my eating habits haven't changed from when I was working out, so I am not packing on the pounds that winter usually brings.
• Remember why I started blogging in the first place, which was to keep friends and family updated on my life and keep a log of memories and milestones.
• Work harder to avoid comparing myself to others.  I can only control myself and my situation, so none of the other stuff matters.

I hope your year is off to a stellar start!!!  Maybe I should use it as a reset button for the ol' bloggy blog.  Let's see what 2012 brings!!

Fitness Friday

As you read this I am probably in San Diego getting mani/pedis with the bride-to-be and getting things ready for the rehearsal dinner tonight.  Well, I guess that is if you are reading this on Friday morning/afternoon.  LOL!

So, Phase 1 of the LiveFit Trainer has come to a close and I am done with my first week of Phase 2.  In order to track my progress during the program, I am only recording my measurements at the end of each 4-week phase.  Here is a side by side of my initial measurements on day one of Phase 1 and my measurements at the close of Phase 1 before starting Phase 2.

You can just pretend that the line on the far right edge of the table exists.  I don't have the patience to go back and fix it now.

I'm not really sure why my neck got bigger, but as you can see, everything else remained the same or shrunk a little.  The entire first month there was no cardio in the program.  For the first couple of weeks I would turn some of my weight training sessions into circuits with 3 minutes of cardio in between every couple of exercises to keep my heart rate up, but once I started increasing the amount of weight I was lifiting, I realized I needed to save my energy between sets for the next set.

Phase 2 continues with the strength training, but starts to add in super sets (doing one set of two different exercises back-to-back before resting) and 30 minutes of moderate cardio 4 times a week.  In order to fit all of this into my schedule, I have started getting up at 5am to fit in my 30 minutes of cardio before work since I already get home after 7pm with my current workouts.  It's going well so far, so hopefully I can keep it up.  The hope in Phase 2 is that adding the cardio and trading in starchy carbs for veggie based carbs will result in super duper fat burning!!!

I think I mentioned before that we started a FB group for other folks in our area (and outside of it, we have someone in DC and someone in Jersey in the group.  We don't discriminate.) and it has really turned out to be a great source of encouragement and accountability.  Some of us have shared stats and pics and we are all talking about our routines, what works for us, and have been sharing recipes with each other.  I am really enjoying the program intself, but this group is what makes it better.

For your "enjoyment", and partially at the suggestion of Monica, here are my progress pics for the end of Phase 1 (No beginning pics, FAIL!):

Note, I cut my hair even shorter.  You like?  Also, I had to laugh because I realized as JB was taking the pics of my back side, I was still cheesin' at the wall.  LOL!!  I'm pretty happy with my upper/lower body progress, but that stubborn trunk is my main focus. 

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!!  I'm off to tend to my MOH duties!!  Stay fit!

What's Your Secret?

A while ago I posted this blog regarding my get fit journey. At the same time, I posted this and other pics on my FB:





This pic is from June of 2009. I was in the best shape I have ever been in my entire life! For some reason, just today, two separate people have commented on these pics on FB even though I posted them well over a year and a half ago. One of them asked me the very question that is the title of this post. Other people I know have asked me the same thing. Especially those that want to start, or are already on, a journey of their own.

My answer is this:

There are no secrets, no magic pills, and no quick fixes on my agenda. The biggest secret is time and dedication. During that time I was working out for an hour a day about 4-6 days a week and eating lean meats/protein, fruits, veggies, and complex carbs (brown rice and whole grains). It took at least 3 months for me to see any sort of progress, but then I kind of noticed it all at once.

When I first started, I didn't have much of an idea of what I was doing. Some cardio machines here, weights there. I started going to the group classes at the gym because all I had to do was show up and they told me what to do. Then I signed up for a boot camp that met three mornings a week. Soon (read 3 months) I looked and felt the best I ever had. I remember when I put on jeans and a clingy top for the first time and didn't feel gross. It was the best feeling! A better feeling was knowing that I had earned it. All of my hard work had gotten me where I was.

As usual, life happens, and over the following months I started to be less diligent about making it to the gym and started indulging more in not so clean eating. Since I don't have a scale at home, I would use my numbers when I would go to the doctor for something, which was extremely inconsistent, but the number was slowly but surely increasing and all of the pants I had to have altered to fit my new size 6 frame a few months before, were starting to get snug again. I was in denial at first, and then I was just lazy. With my 45 minute commute each way, it's hard to get motivated to spend an hour after work at the gym when I just want to get home to JB. Before I knew it a year had passed and my 4-6 times a week at the gym had turned into 2 times a week at the most.

And then...I got engaged.

Shedding for the wedding is no joke. I was having a hard time getting motivated to get my ass back to the grind. We started planning last July and officially got engaged in October and still, by the end of December I had not gotten serious about getting back into shape for the big day.

Then it hit me...

One day I was driving home from work and had a little conversation with myself. I said,

"Self. Let's be real. You have 5 months until your wedding day and you are going to need all of that time to get where you want to be. You know how to do this. You've done it before and you can do it again. You have already cleaned up your eating and it helps that you are too broke to eat out, so now you gotta put in the sweat hours."

And I did. I started the next day and have been going strong since. I'm definitely not stopping until the wedding, but even then, once we get back from our honeymoon, I want to be able to keep it up this time. There is no reason not to, really. No matter what time I get home, JB will be there to spend time with.

So, sorry to disappoint you folks, but there are no secrets here. Get your ass out there and do the work it takes to get where you want to be. Make the right choices about what you are putting in your body (and the research to figure out what those are). Put in your fitness time by doing something you enjoy. Try new things. I find that groupon deals are the best way to find new fitness endeavors. And if you are reading this and saying to yourself, "Sure, easy for her to say, she's already thin." or "Yeah, says the girl who is getting ready to marry a trainer." It's BS. Excuses, excuses. I had to start from scratch and educate myself on what to eat and what to do and find my own way. YOU CAN DO IT TOO!

Remember, if you take a short cut to get rid of the weight, it will come back as quickly as it disappeared. You have to make the changes to sustain it for a lifetime.

The Book

After my rant about Biggest Loser I had a couple of people asking what book I was referring to that helped educate me on nutrition and get me started on my path to my fitness goal, so here it is:


It has great information about nutrition, recipes using the power foods, and workouts to get you started. I loved it. Hopefully it will help you too.

Biggest Loser is Back! (Rampant Ranting)

JB and I loooooooove Biggest Loser. With him being a fitness professional and me having a newfound interest in fitness and nutrition in recent years, this is like porn for us. Last night I noticed something different though. I used to have so much sympathy for these people, but last night while watching Tuesday nights premiere, I was getting angry.

The first thing I got angry about was the ages of most of these contestants. The fact that 22-27 year olds are that big makes me mad. It makes me mad at their parents for killing them (knowingly or not) from birth to age 18 and it makes me mad at them for not breaking the cycle once they are old enough to make their own choices. It makes me mad at the food industry for promoting foods that are toxic and poisonous. But nothing pissed me off more than the guy who takes 8 different pills for diabetes and shoots himself full of insulin before a meal and then eats a FUCKING PIZZA!!!! I don't know that I cuss on here often because I like to keep this open to all ages, but that's how mad I am about this.

I say to JB, "I know that we are not overweight, but we hear what poeple say and read the information for ourselves that this stuff is killing us. And yes, processed cheese foods, fried foods, and other high fat/high carb/high calorie foods are gawd damn delicious. But we make the choice, as hard as it may be, to avoid those foods most of the time. We haven't seen the effects (aside from a couple of lbs here and there) that these foods can actually have, we have only read about them, and we still make the choices to avoid them. These people choose to kill themselves on a daily basis. I just don't understand."

He reminded me that it's easier for us because we have seen the rewards that these choices can offer. We also believe in ourselves and know that if we set a goal, whether it be muscle gain or weight loss, we can most likely acheive it. We have people around us that believe in us; support systems.

I get that, and that's great for us, but I call bullshit.

YOU are the only one that can make a choice to do something or stop doing something. YOU make the choice to say "I've been good all day, I can stuff my face at dinner." or "Just one twinkie/hostess/ding dong/bag of doritos/plate of orange chicken won't kill me." What's one more? YOU are the only one that can ultimately stop the cycle. We justify our decisions to make ourselves feel better about making what are ultimately bad choices. And they aren't bad because I am judging you for them, they are bad because they are killing you! Whether anyone else thinks you are doing the wrong thing or not, YOU are the one that is going to pay for it.

I honestly don't understand how people can see something truly work for someone and say, "that will never work for me." Why not? How often have you heard someone say "Eat right and exercise. That's all you have to do." and then think , well, I tried that and look where it got me. It doesn't happen overnight. There are no pills, superfoods, special concoctions, magic potions or apparatuses that are going to make anything happen in a few days or weeks. It takes a few months to see major changes and this stupid society that is built on instant gratification never sticks around long enough to see the results. They just give up and go back to McDonald's for another cheeseburger, large fries and DIET coke.

People that are as big as the contestants on TBL think that they need this miracle because they could never do it on their own. But doing it the way they do it isn't all that healthy either. It's a good start, a good foundation. Learning about nutrition and exercise is a great start, but most of these people are so emotionally damaged that they also need psychological help to work through all that so they don't go home and eat their feelings (said in the nicest way possible). I like that they had past contestants help with the visits to the different cities, but not all of the past contestants have been able to maintain the weight they went home with, because they don't have the complete package. And ultimately when they get home and there isn't someone there stocking their pantry and fridge with the good foods and screaming at them in the gym for 8 hours every day, it's not as convenient anymore. My friend's blog touches on self-motivation a bit here.

Some of you might be thinking, this skinny bitch has no idea what she is talking about. Or maybe you think I have something against people that are overweight and think they are all lazy or stupid or something. I can tell you, that is not the case. Everything I have written about above, I have done (okay, I have never been morbidly obese). I used to come home from high school after not having eaten all day and eat 20 pizza rolls in one sitting. Or maybe a can of spaghetti o's and a bag of cheese puffs (NOM). Some Tostitos and queso, that's a meal, right? In the summer I would walk to the nearby McDonald's with my $3.22 and get a #2 (2 cheeseburgers, medium fry, coke) and stuff my face with it before I walked home. Breakfasts consisted of pop tarts and sugary cereals. Delicious, right?

My generation is the original processed generation. Less parenting, more food in cans and boxes, TV dinners. Once I stopped being an active kid/teenager, and had my own paycheck to buy my own insert name of major/minor fast food chain here I did for pretty much every meal. I gained the freshman 15, and dating someone at the time who couldn't gain weight if he tried made me eat worse and feel fatter than I probably looked. I can't say I have a healthy body image even to this day.

But one day, about three years ago, I saw a picture of myself that made me realize that I needed to be healthy. I thought I was doing the right things. I would go to the gym here or there, have a salad when I ate out, some of the things people who are trying to "change their lifestyle" instead of diet, do. I bought a training package, and a couple of books, and I got to work. Most of the books out there are still marketed towards those folks looking for instant gratification, but the one I found actually had great information in it. Not only about what I should be eating, but what those other foods I should be staying away from were actually doing to my body. Knowing these things made my choices easier. It took a while, but I started to notice a change in my body. I thought I had made a lot of progress, and maybe I had, but I still didn't like the way I looked in pictures. So I kept going.

I had to realize that eating out is not going to get me where I want to be. Even if you think you are making a good choice, you can make a better one at home and actually know what you are eating. Alcohol has to go. When you realize how many calories are in a beer or a glass of wine it makes it easier to say "why would I want to have 3 of those? That's an hour of cardio." It's not forever, it's just what you need to realize to attain the goals you have. I'm not saying it's easy to make these choices or that I enjoy going to the gym every day (some days, but not every day). But I also know that I used to be a person that didn't think I could do it. I failed PE in high school because I hated running, for crying out loud. Eventually (2 years later), I got there. And it's a struggle to stay there if you don't have a good foundation.

Educate yourself about the choices you make when you put things in your body. It definitely might change the way you eat without a ton of effort. You just might start to notice a difference. And that might motivate you even more. Change the cycle from a vicious one to a healthy one and out The Biggest Loser out of business.

Wishful Wednesday

I don't usually do these, but it just so happened that this morning on my drive to work I had the same thought I have most mornings:

I wish I could be a housewife/house-GF (note I did not say SAHM...yet)

I know, I think most of us would rather not work if we didn't have to, so I am not alone in this. Some people actually don't know what they would do without going to work every day. When I have had this conversation with others, they can't imagine what they would fill their day with.

Well, I do.

I would rise when my body was ready and well-rested. I would enjoy my coffee and a healthy breakfast while watching the morning news and catching up on facebook and google reader. I would begin daily household chores and depending on necessity, plan the week's meals and prepare a shopping list. I would go to the gym for at least an hour, maybe two. On the way home I would stop by the store with my list and then head home for lunch, or maybe get ready to go have lunch with a friend or family member. I would return home and finsish up any chores and then begin preparing dinner. I would try fabulous healthy recipes and the time needed to make them wouldn't matter because I would have all the time in the world. Dinner would be ready by the time JB walked in the door and after eating and talking about our day, he would help me clean the kitchen and we would settle into our places on the couch for our evening of relaxing together.

That's what I would do. And I would love every minute of it. This may surprise some of you that know me as this independent woman that doesn't need a man to take care of her. But that's not really what is happening in this scenario. Sure he is working to pay our bills, but I am taking care of us the old fashioned way that people have strayed away from. I am keeping myself (because really JB couldn't care less) mentally healthy with a clean house, and physically healthy with daily workouts. I am keeping both of us healthy with our homecooked meals because I have the time to shop and plan and find the bargains that allow us to eat organic and well-grown foods without breaking the bank.

Who says you have to have children to stay home? Sure, it gives you an actual reason to stay home instead of people just thinking you are too lazy or unqualified or unmotivated to go to work. Not to mention, starting the SAH thing before kids will make it easier to adjust spending habits and things of that nature before you have a child. Some people plan for one of the parents to stay home and they save for a long time before they execute their plan, but we will never have enough money...ever. Not in America where everyone is too focused on keeping up with the ______s to realize that success isn't always about how much you have.

Okay, now I'm just rambling. But seriously, if we were in a position to make this happen, I would be all over it in a heartbeat. Until then, we will just focus on making it a priority in case we have a child someday.

2009 Was Oh So Fine!

It would take a whole lot to top 2009 for me personally. This was by far the best year of my life. I didn't want to say anything before it was officially over for fear of having something go terribly wrong before it ended. But we are safely out of the woods and I can scream from the mountain tops. What was so great about 2009? Glad you asked.

January - As midnight struck, JB and I exchanged our first "I love you" in the middle of K Street, in downtown Sacramento....with the rest of the metropolitan area pushing by us. San Diego for JB's birthday and John Legend.

February - I moved back out of my parents' house and in with my two dear college buddies. I no longer lived in BFE and could have JB over more often. We had our first Valentine's Day together, which was spent with me in bed with the stomach flu, forced to watch NBA All-Star Weekend while drifting in and out of consciousness. We celebrated the following weekend with lunch at Melting Pot :)

March - I don't remember anything significant from this month really.

April - Had my first girls only trip to Vegas for Val's bachelorette party, which is always awesome. John and I started talking about moving in together in August. :)))

May - Ry and Val's Wedding

June - Callie's bachelorette party and wedding, Disneyland with April and Baylee, Maren moved back from NYC

July - The boot camp that got me in the best shape I have ever been in, Reno trip with fun friends, signed the purchase agreement for our new home!

August - Moved in together and celebrated our one year milestone (which was a big one for both of us) with a trip back to Vegas where it all started. It still blows my mind that I was 27 before I ever lived with a significant other.

September - One of my best friends foudn love and graduated from respiratory therapy school. I surprised JB with a group outing to the niners game. Oh yeah, and I FINALLY PAID OFF MY CREDIT CARD!

October - Participated in my first trail run, finally finished the coursework for my Masters, and survived, I mean, spent a weekend at a cabin bonding with my family.

November - SYTYCD and Kelly Clarkson shows are about it. Fun girls weekend.

December - My former roomies and dear college friends got engaged! We got the keys to our new home!!! I appreciated the holidays much differently this year and tried to soak in all of the time with my extended family.

Line by line it may not seem that significant to most, but I reached some serious goals and milestones this year. If every year from here on out is half as good as this one, I'll be just fine. And if it's not, I'll survive. I have a feeling 2010 is JB's year, which will make me just as happy.