Raining bad times.

The thundering weather in Austin sets up a good metaphor for the bullshit that has been happening to me lately. So, as much as I wanted to, the mini-vacay was just not in the cards because of some unforeseen medical bills, so that sucked. On top of that, my phone decided to be an ass and stop working, my hope is that it is just the battery and that I can get it replaced soon. So the consequences of that have been that I have had to put my GymPact on hold, because there has been no way of checking in via RunKeeper or through the GPS. Sucks, I really liked having that accountability. In general, I have been pretty depressed, too. I have to have hope that this is the end of bad things and better things will start happening, but then again it has been a long stretch of bad. 

Weight has been pretty stable at 126-127, but then again I have been eating mostly beans, veggies, and rice (I was able to basically feed two people for like 5 days on $15, crazy huh?) I know like weight loss, life has a way of working out, if you make the right choices, but being stressed out all the times certainly doesn’t create the right environment to make those. I made it 15 days smoke free, and this past Saturday I relented “socially” to indulge in those awful things. The cognitive dissonance doesn’t work on me, I know they are terrible, fatal, and it is not likely that science will help me grow a new lung. Yet, give me a mint julep (my way of celebrating the Kentucky Derby) and a bloody Mary and those concerns just melt away. Pathetic. Stop doing stupid shit, Lauren. Self-destruction isn’t cute anymore. Ugh, can someone cheer me up, please.

 

Day Twenty-One

Today will conclude a week of the Whole30. This morning I was going to get lunch groceries,  but the store was not open until 8 am, and it was 7:30 when I arrived. I used to have problems with businesses not staying open late enough, now I have problems with them not opening early enough. I just can’t sync my schedule with the rest of the world. It is nice being at work earlier than everyone else, though, it really gives me a chance to get my thoughts together before being distracted by anyone else.  But, yeah, planning is good, but if there is anything that I learned from “Workforce Training and Development” it is that even this is not a fail-safe, you really need a contingency plan if something does not go right in your project, in this case my project was getting together lunches. It is not a big deal though, I arrived to work so dang early that I can easily just go get something at 11:30 today and even with the lunch break, I won’t be here too late.

Eggs this morning finished by coffee and you guessed it, coconut milk, no sugar! I feel pretty damn good right now, my left outer glute is kinda sore, but I think it is because I hooped for nearly an hour last night. Also, dancing! The circuit trianing/HIIT workouts are effective, but it just seems like they are not as fun as just moving in a playful creative manner. I want this journey to be something that I can enjoy but also getting the extra credit of having a healthy body. The FB was screaming and its digital flower flourished from the calories. I think the hooping motion with the hips and the weight of the hoop made it cheat a little bit and counted every rotation as a step, but how can you really say it is cheating, when I was moving? Yes, still moving even if I am not nailing down the drills of some drill sergeant (I am looking at you Lisa, from BodyRock). As long as I can get my food that I need, I will be much better off psychologically and physically.

Need to get my workouts transferred over to the iPad from the DVD’s I have, so I can join this decade with technology. In my arsenal, I have the following workouts:

• Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred

• Hoopnotica Fitness Hoopdance Hula Hoop DVD Level 3 (Intermediate)

• Workout: One-On-One Training with Jackie

• Hoopnotica: Hoopdance Workout Level 4 – DVD

• Personal Training with Jackie: Power Circuit Training

• Hoopdance Evolution: Intermediate Volume 1

• The Hoop Dance Workout

• Shakra’s Industrial Strength Dance Workout – Tribal Bellydance, World Fusion

  – kinda expected the music to be a little louder and more stomping on this one, little bit disappointed!

But anyway, those are my tools to get a home workout, really really have zero excuses for not working out. I have tons of free resources and stuff I have purchased, but as we all know, just purchasing a DVD or a diet book will not make you thinner or in shape. You really just have to put the work in. Shopping is fun, but it is not the same as doing. My guess is that it is another one of those compulsive behaviors that humans love so that even if you never use the damn thing (guilty!) you have have that same neurological response as if you actually did. It is like that idea of telling people your goals feels the same of actually accomplishing them, so you are less likely to actually do them. If you notice, I try not to say things that I am going to do rather I say things that I have actually done, I would rather be retroactively accountable, and just tell you, oh by the way, I did this yesterday and it rocked. Anyway, it feels good accomplishing things and being able to document this experience, need to get back to the thing that makes buying these fitness DVD’s possible, WORK.. Have a sweaty day!

Day Eighteen

Going strong into my w30 plan. I feel that I may not be as insulin resistant as I thought mainly because the cravings, while intense, are not unmanageable. Also keeping the sugar in check, by burning off the fruit with kickboxing class. More connections are being made between the different activities I have been involved, for example in today’s side-kicking, I realized I could get deeper into the kick by shifting my torso more parallel to the ground. This was something I learned in yoga with the standing bow pose. Not to but totally am but not really caring that I sound like a hippy, but it really is all integrative. Maybe it is a paradigm shift, but probably not, conventional wisdom says we should eat right and exercise and I am doing just that. Of course, CW says eat grains and legumes but I am skipping that. Fooooood:

Canned salmon: looks nasty, smells worse, but doesn’t taste bad. Not thrilled about the crunchy cartilage that’s apparently edible, but as long as I don’t eat this everyday, I shouldn’t go insane from mercury poisoning. Note to self, you bought like 8 of these, don’t eat them every day this week!

 

Supper as we say in the sawth, Okay, Paula Dean..lulz anyway it consisted of fresher ingredients: carrots, onion, chicken, cilantro, evoo, and spices. Infinitely better taste than thawed out watery frozen vegetables. The extra effort of chopping is worth the actual taste of food rather than warmed up mush. It is nice to be able to enjoy food

Yoga milestone, but more on that in tomorrow’s post!

Day Ten

I am not sure why but after my Metal class, I have gotten in a great mood. Sipping on coffee, right now, but honestly it is just out of habit. All the yawning and stretching must have really woken me up. Early riser at 6:15 this morning, I completed my workout:

1) Ninja Jump Tuck 5 High Knees [7,6]

2) 2 Dive Bombers Plank Drunk Chicken [4,3]

3) 4 opposite knee to elbow, 2 alligator, 2 straight on [x, 2]

4) 2 pop up push-ups,  5 squat jumps [4,3]

5) Reverse Pull-ups One leg out switch legs after 5 using the Equalizer alternating side crunches instead [15, 20]

6) 4 Sumo Squats 4 Switch Lunges [5,3]

Kinda sloppy because I don’t have their same equipment, next time I will watch it all the way through first and figure out substitutions as I go along. Feeling like I have let my group fitness be abandoned, but I still have until August 19th to take 17 classes, so just have to get a bit more organized and get back on the ball with my to-do lists. Earth 60 was challenging, but the one thing I noticed is that there was music being played which I guess is cool, but I rather enjoy the silent focus of the other classes, not sure if maybe the heat being a bit turned down or the time of the day but I did not feel as present as I did with the Fire and Metal class (oh go on and admit that you just like them because they are called Fire and Metal). Heh heh heh, jokes aside,  even though they both had elements of Vinyasa, the symmetry and activation of the Metal made it feel hotter like a Fire class and thus letting me suffer enjoy the process a bit more. Sunday, they offer a Water class, may have to try this just to say that I have done them all.  The instructor says I should give Wood another try because it will strengthen my practice in the other courses, okay Jody, challenge accepted. Again, no affiliation with any of the things I discuss, in fact if they didn’t have  a low cost solution, i.e.: groupon, living social, or FREE, I wouldn’t have tried them at all.  Actually, the yoga place offers a $29 per month tuition with limited class schedules, but gives you access to all the different elemental focuses, and I think that is super cool.

Down to 121.8 this morning. Okay, so looking on the scale everyday is pretty psychologically unhealthy (especially when the numbers don’t reflect your effort) , but you can’t help but acknowledge it as a motivational tool. Losing weight is for the most part a game, if you play it correctly you will win. Of course, there are things you can’t control like water retention if you accidentally eat too much salt, but really, if you move more, eat less of the crap and eat more of the good stuff, you really can succeed. Maybe yoga is the catalyst for eating better, less stress = less stress eating, but whatever I have been doing, it has been working and I am so grateful to share my journey, also grateful that I can push myself to its limits. My smile is radiant, and my life is wonderful, and this weekend is going to kick so much ass. Happy to share with everyone who I can.

Day Nine

After a wrenching of emotions, the saga continues.  Focus Pocus, the brain fog clouds the way of any concentration these days. More poses, very sweaty, little motivation other than this blog, however. I keep hoping that one day I will wake up one day excited about working out, but you are doing well just getting me out of bed at 6am. As it turns out, walking 10k steps requires a lot more than just walking around the work building every day once an hour. It really takes an effort to get over 5 miles. I did it yesterday just in the morning by walking around the apartment complex I don’t know how many times, and ultimately I got 15,000 steps by the end of the day. Yay for me!

Plenty of hydration, diet has kinda sucked. Not eating enough calories, but what is new. Not much insight into that, really. Day 2 or 3 without having a diet coke. No smoking. Eating lots of yogurt, which reminds me that I haven’t had a proper lunch today. Could be the cause of this mysterious cloudy mind.  Sleep has been easy. Experts say you should have an electronic curfew, but what if you actually like going to sleep with the TV on, I find the antics of Micheal Scott and Dwight Shrute to be a charming way to drift to sleepyville, yes, zzzzzz, indeed.

I have no affiliation with BodyRock, but I have been following this as a plan pretty rigorously, hey the price is right!  One of the hosts, Lisa, posted a video on her fanpage about being consistent with your diet and workout plans. It really is simple but it requires a habit shift. I have been doing a lot more with yoga and walking, but for these workouts it is just a matter of wanting or not wanting to. Again, I can’t really say that I want to, but I want to write, and other than this journey, things are just not that exciting for me, so this is something that maybe people will want to listen to or maybe not, either way, typing along like an exercise machine!

Today’s BR workout was pretty boss, could not seem to really get as high as I wanted on the jumps. Here are my scores:

1) Surfer kick out 2 jump squats 2 tuck jumps [4, 2,2]

2) 5 Mountain Climbers 5 Star Jumps [3, 2,2]

3) 2 Forward Lunges 2 squat and press 2 upright rows (no sandbag) [6, 3,3]

4) 2 pushups come up to a burpee 1 tuck jump [2., 2, 3]

Every day I am getting better.