Motivation Monday: The GoGo Life.

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Lauren

Disclaimer, I am about 8 years old than most of these girls on this video, and while I probably will never be able to chase my dreams of being a “professional” gogo, I am okay with hitting up a few more festivals before I hit 35 and maybe put that part of my life in my history, but who knows? There are women in their 70’s who do bodybuilding competitions, why the hell couldn’t I do freaking dancing in my 30’s right? This video, in particular, was inspiring:

Love MsEasy, and her frankness and honesty, and I wish she could coach me! Now, as I have mentioned already, even if I were in Denver, I probably have missed the boat on becoming a professional performer (maybe not with hooping, but I would need to improve drastically), but even so, it would just be so amazing to get to do an event like Electric Daisy Carnival, but I do not have much in the way of videos from performances and I would need to get an audition video out. The only problem is that, as my body is right now, I feel uncomfortable dancing around scantily clad, as one would expect from a dancer, and thus the clean eating and preparation for that. If I could just lose 20 pounds, that would go along way to making myself feel more confident with performing. I don’t want to give up on a dream, so I want to be even more focused and determined to get to where I need to be with this weight. That is why I need to SWEAT EVERY DAY (see what I did there) and just make sure all my eating habits are super balanced, gosh it is difficult but it really isn’t if you have a goal that is bigger than yourself.

Another great way to get toned is through hoopdancing, another one of my passions. Just doing some youtube surfing, I found these great tips on how to improve, and thought I would share:

I hope having the phsysique that is desired for gogo dancing will be enough to keep me motivated. It might be a judgemental, there is just no room for flabbiness within that art. Dancing really is brutal, and I really need to evaluate my ability to be visually appealing for this particular type of performance. Any go go tips would be greatly appreciated, too. Stay sweaty!

Cardio eyes bigger than cardio mouth

Posted on January 29, 2013 by Lauren

If I seem more sporadic and distracted (than usual) this week, it is because I have been super stressed about Miss Lucy. She has been a wonderful blessing, but unfortunately she has had some health difficulties. She went in to get a lump removed yesterday and has been recovering since then. Thankfully, with familial support, I haven’t had to bear all of the financial burden, even though I would be more than happy to, if necessary. Poor Lucy, I just want to get back doing our run/walks. Last night she was very ornary in sleeping in the bed, she would lean against me and take the whole side of the bed which was cute, but I woke up several times trying to not be too physical with her and the stitches, but also reclaiming my part of the bed. Today I am exhausted, which is fine because Sunday I hit it pretty hard. I did the Plyometric Circuit Cardio workout from Insanity, walked Lucy for about 2 miles and then went to Gentle Yoga (would have collapsed had I did anything else)

I wanted to restart the Insanity plan on Monday, but it felt like all of my major muscle groups were ripped to pieces. That is a good thing, right? Well yeah, but not so much for motivation. My plan which I wasn’t going to share, was to start in February. However, I still have the 5k to train, so I needed to factor that in. Well, let me digress and explain the tile. In the 80’s and early 90’s, my mom would take me to the grocery store to the salad bar and it basically was all you can eat, but based on the weight of the food. I would always get way more than I could eat because it all looked so tasty, especially the croutons! She would reply, “looks like your eyes were bigger than your mouth”. Well, when I look at the below pictured plan, I feel the way about my ability to work out even on rest days. Yes, let me repeat that, rest days, so really this is the major flaw. I will be honest with myself enough to realize that I won’t want to and shouldn’t work out every single day. Maybe some people can, but it does not seem sustainable. I am not sure when I will do the running days, but definitely need to reschedule them, my guess was MWF but if I make an insanity workout but not c25k, or if I make a c25k and not an insanity workout, I won’t sweat it, besides I actually have an additional month besides this one to get prepared for it. It taught me a good lesson, though, don’t let your eyes (ego) be better than your mouth (ability/desire)

Monday Motivation – makeup!

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Lauren

Day 19 or 20 (unsure of when I started) of my commitment to cosmetics. Today getting out of bed at even 8am was really tough. Drinking matcha tea has been a component to my beauty ritual, plus I hear that stuff is good for wrinkles. Win win! Here is your loveliness with her makeup done up:

trying my best to be a morning person.

Having that boost of confidence of doing your hair and looking nicer than usual has really helped me be motivated for other things such as daily walking and/or going to the gym, even has inspired me to keep a cleaner house! It is amazing how keeping one small habit going for the magical 21 days can cascade into other behaviors that are positive and healthy. It makes sense though, why other less than desirable habits (smoking, drinking, eating fast food) can create a trap of yuckiness. Not to get into a kooky “The Secret” rambling, but it does seem that good behaviors and intentions attract good feelings, and most likely good outcomes. Well, maybe like retail, in life “you get what you pay for”. Sounds hoakey, but I think it is true.

Speaking of bad behaviors, my activity levels for Saturday were about 13k steps and yesterday was 14k! However I was feeling a bit stressed out regarding some news I got last week, and also just generally hungry (probably running a severe deficit from all those steps) so there is the binging extravaganza: one ginormous honey bun (600 calories, OMG), oreo cakesters, penguino, and oreo brownsers. Wonder, if the clerk at the gas station thought I was stoned, hah! At least I am back down to 127, which is still a one pound loss from when I originally started MFP in 2010, just wish I was back down to 119 like I was this past summer, hopefully I will be “bikini ready” again this year, but who really cares about bikinis besides college girls on spring break? Correction, no matter if you are 16 or 61, you still care about bikins. If I make it to be 61, I hope I still look good in a bikini. Not sure how that rambling came about, but yay bikinis.

Hopefully I will have some good news tomorrow, just been a crazy week, and I would like there to be a good resolution, don’t want to divulge too much, just because I don’t want to cause any alarm in anyone who may read this who knows me IRL (if that even exists). I can’t do anything but hope for the best, right?

Workout WINsday – how to workout after work !

Posted on December 12, 2012 by Lauren

Oof, just slammed three breakfast tacos from taco cabana down my throat. Had intended on going to the apartment gym this morning but instead watched the news and got breakfast, oops. Kinda scared of the nutritional information for them from MyFitnessPal, not such a pal today, more like buzzkill. No real worries, because I plan to burn all of the calories off after work, which leads me to my topic today. I would like to review ways I have found that I have been successful in going to the gym after work. Keep in mind, I don’t have children, so this may not work for everyone’s schedule, but it has helped me in getting myself sweaty.

Pack your stuff the night before

This is similar to those who say that you should do this for the morning workout. Around 9:30-10:30, I will get each outfit for work and for working out and at least put it near my gym bag so I have everything packed. Working out after work is just easier to me because you don’t have to end up packing all the extra stuff like towels, brushes, and/or makeup that you would if you were going straight from the gym to work. Some fancier places provide towels, but mine doesn’t, so I go the easy route and opt for the evening, but it makes it even easier when you have all of your stuff ready to go before your work day is even started.
http://instagram.com/p/REWqTqhZRF/

Put your gym bag on your desk as a reminder

This is one that I discovered serendipitously. I had planned on going after work once and I ended up grabbing both of my purse and my gym bag. I kinda just started doing it. My bag isn’t huge, but it stick out, and much to all of your surprise it isn’t hot pink. Anyway, some people use Google calendar, I use a big bag on my desk as a reminder. It reminds me of that expression, “out of sight, out of mind”. The gym bag on the desk is a constant visual cue to myself that this task needs to be done, so therefore I do it.

Don’t go home

Despite having mini-facility in my apartment, I have a gym membership. Having a destination makes the experience a little bit more enjoyable, plus there is a better variety of strength and cardio machines than a residential place can offer. One of the traps that I get into however, is coming home. I could easily walk to the gym, but laziness will take over, and lookie there I am in an X-Files Marathon now! Yes, I am unrepentant couch potato, and if you put me in that environment, I will do what comes naturally and vegetate for hours. The remedy, stay away, just avoid that environment. As humans, we get into habits, the cues will always be there, but you have to change the response. Well, if I am going to be a couch potato, it will be after I get my workout completed. You don’t want to reward sitting all day with more sitting, so at least break it up with some workout time!

Eat something to stave off thoughts of dinner

This one is difficult, but I have learned that I will usually eat too little for lunch, and be compelled like a zombie to go grab something to eat or come home, which breaks my resolve as indicated above. So, with my schedule, I will typically have something to eat right before work ends, just so that I am not tempted to come home or worse, go to a fast food place and undo my good intentions.

Have a plan.

Finally, I think this is the key to staying consistent. Right now, I haven’t been too heavy on weight lifting (yes, I am well aware of the pun), but I have been doing the c25k runnning/walking plan and this has been helpful in staying committed with the other items listed. I don’t have to workout 7 days a week, but why not, really? The recommended activity for adults is 150 minutes a week and that is at least 30 minutes a day. I try to get up and move around just at my office because of the new warnings about sitting, but exercise is so beneficial. Fitspo is one thing, but really the mental well being means more than any picture of six pack abs, but getting into the habit can be a challenge. I am telling you, though, once you do you will never quit!

Of brunch and cardio…

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Lauren

Call it separation anxiety, or just plain desperation, but this gal right here could use a pick-me-up. Feeling oddly depressed even though I walked about 5 miles (around 75 minutes) on the treadmill this morning and most of the apartment is clean. It is just a thing. I post a lot of meaningless status updates and tweets, and it feels like I am screaming into a vacuum, mostly because of the lack of interactivity. Not only that, since my bf is not with me due to the holidays, I have been mostly been sitting here alone without any human interaction. Yes, poor fucking me, give me attention, my life is soooo hard. Sarcasm, aside, I do feel isolated, and it is super stupid because I spent most of Friday hanging out with my stepsister, so really I can’t even go two whole days by myself. Is that a problem? Brunch was heavenly though, among the goodies was three different types of quiches, bacon and sausage, goat cheese log, veggies and hummus, french toast casserole – yep 2 sticks of butter – and of course mimosas (maybe a little too many, but I didn’t drive anywhere)

http://instagr.am/p/SYQgEOhZZo/

Bonus, I had the e-cigarette, nicotine sans smoking, so I could socially “smoke” without having to really put my lungs in danger. But yeah, mostly I am concerned about the caloric consequences of all that I consumed. It isn’t surprising, after all isn’t expected that you gorge just a bit during this holiday? Strangely enough, I ate so many appetizers during Thursday during the day, that when we finally ate at 5:00 pm, my appetite wasn’t primed for overindulgence of the actual feast. It was yummy, and I actually contributed green bean casserole, my favorite after dressing of the Thanksgiving gluttony.

So tomorrow, back on the fitness horse, if you could even say I was on it during these past few months. Ugh, have to do something, I cannot exactly pinpoint why I am so depressed either, which makes it even that much more infuriating, if it was something I knew I could fix I would probably just take care of it, but it is just a general feeling of helplessness and despair, also that lovely isolation from everyone in my life, gotta love that, too. Okay, enough whining, hopefully there will be a brighter day tomorrow.

It’s the freakin weekend

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Lauren

Haven’t posted in a few days just from a bit of the self-inflicted emotional turmoil I have put myself through just going through anxiety and stress from that. I prefer not to post when I am in such a craptastic mood, especially with the crying and whatnot. Oh, the crying. Regardless, I am fine, the world is fine, and even though the bottom of my torso feels like someone is wringing it out like a dirty towel (I could get grosser with that metaphor, but I won’t, you’re welcome) everything is going swimmingly and it’s Friday! Currently sipping on some Keurig cup coffee, we have various flavors, but I decided on the dark chocolate combined with the caramel vanilla cream. The caramel does have a bit of an aftertaste, but with the dark chocolate mixed with it, you can barely notice it.

Girl look at that body. Actually don’t because I am super bloated. Anyway, before melting down yesterday and Wednesday, I went to the gym for kickboxing and yoga on Tuesday, and it was pretty cool. The asanas were pretty good in the class, though I must say it was a lot more relaxed than I am used to. Imagine that, people go to yoga not to torture themselves psychologically and physically, what a concept!!! Okay, yeah, it was not hot, in fact it was pretty COLD, so that took getting used to, and not really sure about the ladies talking during the beginning, but I must remind myself to chill out and that not everyone is such an elitist about their practice.

So Tuesday night, I did go to kickboxing as mentioned and it was pretty fun as well. The choreography is always challenging, but it doesn’t feel like I am endlessly trudging on the treadmill/elliptical which is a nice break from what I usually do. My favorite thing about the kickboxing was that it was part of Chalene Johnsons’s Turbokick brand, which includes interval bursts that serve as a HIIT training so it is not just steady state the whole time, and people tell me that this is important.

Diet, diet, die-it. So, unfortunately, been really off the wagon in terms of sugar, grains, and basically any un-Whole30 approved items. For shame! Well, in my humble opinion, not really. The reason I say that is because I don’t feel terrible, and I cut back on the unhealthy behaviors (except for the past few days), and I do have healthy behaviors such as eating fruits, vegetables, and getting some sort of movement every single day. Thus, I will consider off-roading, as they say, a Win. Today’s Healthy Choice, was pretty good, though I do understand why the plastic tray was separated (I don’t heat the plastic, because who knows how really good for you that is). At any rate, the water from the frozen veg seeped a bit into the pasta mixture while cooking it in a bowl. A recommendation would be to use two smaller bowls to keep the items apart, and then you can drain the vegetable mixture and your final plating of it, would not have the watery pasta (lol edit, pasty, really, really?). It wasn’t horrible, but I can see how it would be undesirable.

310 calories, 45 carbohydrates, and 580 mg of sodium, but super tasty!

So, in trying to redeem myself for the past few days, I will try to make this weekend a healthy one, and I already can check the schedule for classes I may want to take, hooray! I think it will be a good one, it has to be a good one. Here is some music to get us started:

Thorsday

Posted on September 6, 2012 by Lauren

Destroyed breakfast today, not terribly proud, but it was weird. Normally I would feel disgustingly bloated and guilty for eating all of the beans and potatoes, but strangely enough, the food seemed to be just right for my appetite this morning. Could have been due to the fact that I did like 80 minutes of cardio and power yoga yesterday. Yes, hump day was a bit overkill, but the good news is that despite my dietary indiscretions I am back in the hundred-teens in terms of poundage, just barely. My comfortable level would be under 115, but that would mean I definitely don’t need to be eating like I did this morning. Coincidentally, after breakfast, I stumbled on this article by Tara Stiles regarding exercising “aggressively” which leads to overeating. While, I agree there is such a thing as emotional eating and appetite increase caused by coritsol from over-exercising, I am willing to bet that a lot of the caloric mis-steps we make from exercising stem from the fact that we are just freaking hungry from all the calories burned. There are tons of articles that I could link to that suggest that when we exercise, our fat cells are sneaky little assholes that want to preserve themselves, so our metabolism, yes that stuff, gets ramped up actually causing a spike in appetite. Okay, don’t believe me? here, here, and here, and if you are really feeling froggy, just Google the terms, exercise metabolism appetite. It really almost seems like a Sysphian struggle with the diet and fitness industry. It is like they want you to eat their special fuel be it in diet shakes, protein powders or empty sugars, just enough to power you through a workout so that you can kill yourself just enough for a one or two pound weight loss., and then probably splurge again because you are so hungry. Guess what? You don’t really half to kill yourself to lose that, just cut about 500 calories, and really that isn’t that much if you track your food. Mainly I just don’t want to feel like this all the time:

adapted from: Hyperbole and a half

Too much pansy-ass cardio yesterday, even if it was sprinkled with push-ups. Today’s plan of attack is some heavy lifting, STRONG LIKE THOR! The treadmill is boring, but at least I have an iPad and cable, to distract myself. I am having the goldilocks syndrome of weight lifting. The 5 pound dumbells I have at home are too small, but the 15 pound weights at the clubhouse are too heavy. I may have to set aside my cheapness and buy a pair of 8 and 10 pound weights to really get a challenge, and not do my workouts half-assed. Good lord, I ate like 2 hours ago, and I really just want to smash a snickers in my face hole. THOR HUNGRY!

To my credit, though, when I do walk on the treadmill, I put the incline at 4.0 or even higher. It may be a myth that doing this will give you a toned tushy, but any behavior that will potential feed my ego I will certainly engage in. Squatember is a dream that is slowly dying. Maybe on the ides, I will pick it up again. Does anyone else feel more comfortable in starting things on the month’s beginning. I know that seems to be the best time to do a challenge, as we all know that it takes about 4 weeks for a habit to sink it. Months are so arbitrary, maybe the ides are a better idea for me, or even just starting at a week. Readers: When starting a challenge, when do you feel it is best to start. Weekly? If so, do you start Sunday or Monday? Do you think it is better to start a monthly challenge on the 1st or 15th of a month? Feel free to leave your comments and share your experiences.

Whole 30 – Day 31

Posted on August 31, 2012 by Lauren

Good morning, early birdies. Who has two thumbs and is drinking coffee with coffeemate and a teaspoon of sugar? This gal! My god, have you learned nothing?? Nope, I feel so good that I surprisingly have zero cravings for fast food (right now) and I feel like I could easily integrate being gluten free. I have a little bit of anxiety about a “paleo” muffin I consumed and not made by me while on the Whole 30, however, as I noticed most of the muffin recipes do contain honey. But, you know, if I was not concerned about the possibility of added sugars in the cured meats I ate, then why should I stress about something like that. Regardless, I feel like this right now:

Oh and just because Hyper Crush is rockin’ so much bass (I can’t even feel my face):

I really want to reward myself. Not so much with food, but perhaps a year membership to Planet Fitness. They are kinda ghetto, though, no classes or any amenities, but a crapload better than the gym in the apartment clubhouse, plus there is a Groupon today. Perhaps, I should more focus on my goals with the yoga, though. I can understand why people like to go somewhere to workout, though. In my not so distant youth, I would often go to the bar just to get out of my apartment, needless to say that this can get a bit expensive. But definitely can’t afford that anymore, so my since of wanderlust needs to be quenched with something, because even though we do have a workout area, it just feels like a mini adventure, plus I would feel smug as hell to be mayor of a fitness establishment on Foursquare. How very dorky! So, what is everyone’s experience with PF? I would only be getting the $10 (technically it would be $8.25) do you think that it is worth it? Since I have a few days to decide, I will do some further contemplation on it and decide what I will do. If they offer free wifi in the gym, it will be hard to say no, I can tell you that.

So, results results results. Happy to report that my waistline is about 25″ and that I weighed in at 117 this morning! Okay, so last time I weighed in about 2 weeks ago, I was around 119. Really only a net loss of about 2 pounds, but I am going to defer to this article in defense of such a low number. I was talking about the program and already I feel like an ambassador to It Starts With Food, recommended that my coworker at least check it out from the public library (I bought it before I realized that it was available for free) I can’t pinpoint what exactly is making my feel better, but certainly the combination has affected me. The diet plus yoga has done something, and maybe the cardio and strength are not the biggest priorities (why the hell did I call my blog fitorama, then?) but I manage to squeeze in 10k steps and that is a daunting accomplishment in itself. Well, as Drake would say, “it’s far from over”:

Whole 30 – Day 24

Posted on August 24, 2012 by Lauren

Drunken yoga, well not really, but this is the third time in a row that I have had lightheadedness and diziness in my practice. One likely culprit is that I like to drink coffee before I go and I believe the heat combined with the activity combined with the dehydration from coffee and having not had any water for 9 hours made me feel pretty crappy. So, next week, even though it will be difficult, I will hold off on the coffee pre-yoga, and just wait until work for my caffeine jolt. Unfortunately, I even think Yerba (yucky) Matte has this same effect on me. So, it is time to switch out the coffee for water. To my cred, been pretty diligent with my workouts from Jackie Warner. To the best of my memory, Weekly Wrap-up:

Sunday: Chest, biceps, Abs – cardio intervals
Monday: legs, shoulders, abs – cardio intervals
Tuesday: Back, triceps, abs – cardio intervals
Wednesday: High Intensity Interval training
Thursday: Full body circuit training (all muscle groups)

Everyday this week except for yesterday, I have gone to practice, and mostly I have been walking at an incline on the treadmill to get the rest of the 10k steps. First world problem alert, first world problem alert: it bums me out that the WiFi at the gym isn’t working properly on my tablet anymore. I would much rather read an article or e-book than watch TV. Towards autumn, I will more likely be out at dusk getting my walks, and hopefully I will be able to take them with a Jack Russel terrier!

It is a good thing that I am doing so much activity, too, because last night I had an monster hunger attack eating probably more but we will only post it as half a cup of walnuts (350 calories, yikes!!) and an extra banana right before bed, just so I can store all that sugar as fat, yee-haw. It was definitely a binge, a healthy binge, but a binge, nonetheless. I suspect that it could be some feminine hormones afoot. But, back to coffee, because no one wants to read about my cycle, I have finally found a beverage that I can drink without any creamer which would help me save some calories. If you are not one for the taste of coffee sans creamer, try the Medium Roast Starbucks Keurig cups. Moving on to the lunches, I have been staying pretty sugar-free during the day by sticking to pre-cooked food, enter chicken and asparagus four ways:

Yesterday, no picture but it was the chicken and asparagus with no side. All of the meals are pretty satisfying, good mixture of carbohydrate, protein, and fat and towards the end of the day I don’t feel as if I am about to die of starvatio, so that is a plus. Tomorrow marks another milestone for me, so stay tuned!