Holy crap, you guys. I love the internet.
30 Day Shred
That's a link to the ENTIRE Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD that somebody in China put up on the internet. Levels 1, 2, and 3, the whole shebang. I know I've been wanting to try but didn't have the cash to put down for it. Who wants to do it for a week with me? Anybody? :D
Also, I've added a few links to my Exercise page. Check it out!
EDIT:
Just finished level 1. Nearly threw up, can hardly type because arms so weak. Took me 40 minutes for the 20 minute circuit, kept having to stop and catch my breath. Burned 472 calories.
In love.
Showing posts with label Click that link. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Click that link. Show all posts
5.25.2011
4.17.2011
Checkin In (Ugh)
I'm so annoyed with myself.
On Friday I was eating great. Oatmeal with blueberries and honey for breakfast, a wannabe burrito bowl with brown rice, shredded chicken, black beans, and hot sauce with an apple. And then I had my first shift at my new job (which I love!) as a host/server at one of my favorite restaurants in town. It's a really laid back kind of place and the people that work there are great. The customers even aren't that annoying. So I worked for a couple hours and by the time I got off I was really hungry. I was determined to be healthy, even turning down some free food (this is the place with those delicious falafels - yeah, I got a job there. Let's talk about how great a decision that might turn out to be). And then I walk in the door to find my boyfriend had ordered pepperoni pizza, breadsticks, and cookies from my favorite pizza place! Ugh.
At first I decided to just have one slice of pizza. I even let my boyfriend eat my cookie. I was okay, until the leftover pizza continued to sit on the coffee table. Then I started to eat it just because it was there. That's one of my worst habits - eating food just because it happens to be in front of me. So I had two more slices and two breadsticks with cheese sauce. Ugh.
I went to bed without having exercised. Sigh. So Friday was a bust.
Yesterday I wanted to do better. My boyfriend made farina for breakfast (cream of wheat, I think), which I love, so I had some. He made it with skim milk though, that was nice of him. : ) Later I was kind of panicking about what I was going to eat. We're low on fresh veggies and the only fruit we had was a little cubed pineapple and some apples. I realized I definitely need to do more meal planning so I have enough stuff around to make meals with.
So then I remembered that we had a ton of frozen vegetables, leftover queso fresco from burrito bowls a couple days ago and some leftover tortillas. I made a veggie quesadilla and did half an hour of yoga (burned 125 calories). I had to go to CVS to get something, and ended up getting a candy bar, one of those king size Twix with the four little bars inside. I ate it almost without even tasting it. I had such a bad chocolate craving, and when I left for work and parked downtown, I looked through my purse and found a kit kat bar! I have no idea where it came from. But I ate it, too. (I was wondering why, then remembered it's TOM time) Then I went to work. I think my shift last night could definitely have qualified as a workout. Half the restaurant is upstairs, so of course I was running around all night seating people and cleaning tables. My heart rate was definitely elevated, haha.
After work I went home. I was in a good mood. I had put a lot of cheese on my quesadilla earlier (definitely a little too much) and wanted something else cheesy. I really just love cheese. But, I remembered I hadn't had any fruit yet and that there was pineapple in the fridge. So I ate that, and then a friend called and invited me to a shindig at their place. I was super excited to go, because I pretty much never go out and I haven't gotten to see those particular friends in a while. Of course I had a few drinks, stayed the night, and came home this morning to farina, bacon, and eggs. Can you tell my boyfriend likes to cook breakfast? :D
So Saturday was still pretty bad, what with the chocolate and booze calories and obvious lack of nutrients. I've already had a full, fatty breakfast today but I am planning a healthy dinner of salmon, roasted broccoli, and baked french fries.
Aside from the drinks last night, I've been doing good about drinking just water. And just in case you're interested, Thursday night I did jogging intervals around the track by my house for 40 minutes (including a warm up and cool down) and burned 472 calories according to my heart rate monitor. So I've burned about 600 calories in the last four days. Definitely need to be moving more. And need to be doing more meal planning, too.
The end of the semester is so close. Just a few short weeks away, and I'll be a graduate. It's kind of weird to think about. I'm almost sad - I really love learning and there are so many interesting new classes being offered next semester. I have to start making some serious decision about my career path, and I'm feeling extremely uncertain about everything. I'm glad I have this challenge to keep me focused on something.
Until we meet again, here's a link to an article about how a nutrition professor lost weight eating little more than Little Debbie cakes. Very interesting.
The "Twinkie Diet"
On Friday I was eating great. Oatmeal with blueberries and honey for breakfast, a wannabe burrito bowl with brown rice, shredded chicken, black beans, and hot sauce with an apple. And then I had my first shift at my new job (which I love!) as a host/server at one of my favorite restaurants in town. It's a really laid back kind of place and the people that work there are great. The customers even aren't that annoying. So I worked for a couple hours and by the time I got off I was really hungry. I was determined to be healthy, even turning down some free food (this is the place with those delicious falafels - yeah, I got a job there. Let's talk about how great a decision that might turn out to be). And then I walk in the door to find my boyfriend had ordered pepperoni pizza, breadsticks, and cookies from my favorite pizza place! Ugh.
At first I decided to just have one slice of pizza. I even let my boyfriend eat my cookie. I was okay, until the leftover pizza continued to sit on the coffee table. Then I started to eat it just because it was there. That's one of my worst habits - eating food just because it happens to be in front of me. So I had two more slices and two breadsticks with cheese sauce. Ugh.
I went to bed without having exercised. Sigh. So Friday was a bust.
Yesterday I wanted to do better. My boyfriend made farina for breakfast (cream of wheat, I think), which I love, so I had some. He made it with skim milk though, that was nice of him. : ) Later I was kind of panicking about what I was going to eat. We're low on fresh veggies and the only fruit we had was a little cubed pineapple and some apples. I realized I definitely need to do more meal planning so I have enough stuff around to make meals with.
So then I remembered that we had a ton of frozen vegetables, leftover queso fresco from burrito bowls a couple days ago and some leftover tortillas. I made a veggie quesadilla and did half an hour of yoga (burned 125 calories). I had to go to CVS to get something, and ended up getting a candy bar, one of those king size Twix with the four little bars inside. I ate it almost without even tasting it. I had such a bad chocolate craving, and when I left for work and parked downtown, I looked through my purse and found a kit kat bar! I have no idea where it came from. But I ate it, too. (I was wondering why, then remembered it's TOM time) Then I went to work. I think my shift last night could definitely have qualified as a workout. Half the restaurant is upstairs, so of course I was running around all night seating people and cleaning tables. My heart rate was definitely elevated, haha.
After work I went home. I was in a good mood. I had put a lot of cheese on my quesadilla earlier (definitely a little too much) and wanted something else cheesy. I really just love cheese. But, I remembered I hadn't had any fruit yet and that there was pineapple in the fridge. So I ate that, and then a friend called and invited me to a shindig at their place. I was super excited to go, because I pretty much never go out and I haven't gotten to see those particular friends in a while. Of course I had a few drinks, stayed the night, and came home this morning to farina, bacon, and eggs. Can you tell my boyfriend likes to cook breakfast? :D
So Saturday was still pretty bad, what with the chocolate and booze calories and obvious lack of nutrients. I've already had a full, fatty breakfast today but I am planning a healthy dinner of salmon, roasted broccoli, and baked french fries.
Aside from the drinks last night, I've been doing good about drinking just water. And just in case you're interested, Thursday night I did jogging intervals around the track by my house for 40 minutes (including a warm up and cool down) and burned 472 calories according to my heart rate monitor. So I've burned about 600 calories in the last four days. Definitely need to be moving more. And need to be doing more meal planning, too.
The end of the semester is so close. Just a few short weeks away, and I'll be a graduate. It's kind of weird to think about. I'm almost sad - I really love learning and there are so many interesting new classes being offered next semester. I have to start making some serious decision about my career path, and I'm feeling extremely uncertain about everything. I'm glad I have this challenge to keep me focused on something.
Until we meet again, here's a link to an article about how a nutrition professor lost weight eating little more than Little Debbie cakes. Very interesting.
The "Twinkie Diet"
4.13.2011
And so it begins...the Summer Lovin' Challenge
Gooooood morning, lovely ladies! Since I last checked, I have a new follower for a total of 8! Hello hello, I hope like my little blog. : )
Today marks the beginning of Alexia's Summer Lovin' Challenge, a two-part, eight-week, healthy-habit-establishing endeavour sure to rock my socks off! Er, well it would...if I ever wore socks... Anyway, there's two parts to this post, so read it when you're home from work/class and have all the time in the world to listen to me! Teehee.
Part One: The Plan
So here's my plan for this thing. I'm not using a caloric cap (how will she ever lose weight?! you may be asking). Instead, I'm focusing on eating the right amount of properly portioned servings of healthy foods. Fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein, and a little dairy thrown in for kicks.
Sidenote: If you have no idea what a proper portion size is, like me a few months ago, check out Mayo Clinic's website. They have a literal asston of information on healthy living and active lifestyles.
The Food: A while back, I did one of their free assessments that tells you what you should be eating to lose weight and gives you a personalized food pyramid. Swanky! My food pyramid says that I should be eating 3 servings of fruit, 4 servings of veggies, 4 servings of carbs, 3 servings of protein/dairy, 3 servings healthy fats, and up to 75 calories in sweets.
The Treat: I know that it's pretty much impossible to do anything 100%, 100% of the time. I also know that I need a treat every once in a while to keep myself from going off track (aka, running away from it as fast as I can). I just got a job, HALLELUJAH, at one of my favorite restaurants in town. They serve Greek and American food, and have the best.damn.falafels I have ever had. So, once a week, I'm going to treat myself to a falafel sandwich. If I've been really, really good that week I might even have some fries. If that doesn't sound like much of a treat to you, you have no idea how good these things are. I would much rather have one of these falafels than ice cream, or even chocolate! I'll be looking forward to it every week, that's for sure.
The Beverage: Only water or tea. No soda, sugary iced tea, or sugary fruit juices. I may have a glass of skim milk every once in a while or some Crystal Lighty kind of thing, but mostly it's gonna be water. Water, agua, H20.
The Exercise: My goal is to do something that makes me sweat for thirty minutes each day. That's a great healthy habit to establish. This exercise could be running, biking, yoga, walking at a fast pace, practicing bellydance, or doing a strength/cardio circuit. Just gotta get my sweat on.
The Evaluation: I'm going to record each day how I've progressed toward my goals in my handy daily planner. Every Wednesday, I'm going to recap the week and determine whether or not I get fries with my falafel. Let's say if I have 6-7 perfect days out of 7, I get fries. If I have 3-6 perfect days, I just get the falafel. If I have less than 3 perfect days, I don't even get the falafel. That would be a sad week indeed. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Also, I'm not going to be doing weigh-ins every week. I find that if I do stuff like that, I get way too focused on the scale. I want to establish healthy habits that will lead to a healthy weight, not the other way around. I will post my starting weight and will weigh at the end of each phase to see how I did. However, I will take and post body measurements each week. Then I can see where the weight is coming off.
Part Two: The Starting Stats
We're all starting somewhere, right? This morning I weighed myself (after waking and peeing, before eating), took my starting measurements, and "before" pictures.
Starting Weight: 208. This is actually what I weighed when I started my first blog in January of last year. I'd be sad, but I weighed 216 last summer. At least I'm not there anymore.
I know what 208 feels like. But to be honest, I never thought it looked like this...
Starting Pictures:
So I'll take new pictures at the end of the Challenge. Hopefully ones I'm not shocked to look at. : /
Starting Measurements: Taken in inches, by myself. I'm not worrying about accuracy, I took a Bioanthropology class last semester that taught me how to take proper anthropometric measurements.
Mid-Upper Arm: 13.75
Bust: 43.5
Chest (like bra band): 37.5
Waist: 39.5
Hips: 46
Butt: 44.5
Thigh: 24.5
Annnd now I've made myself late for class, so I gotta cut this short. But I am having a fruit smoothie for breakfast - two servings of fruit down! See you tomorrow!
Today marks the beginning of Alexia's Summer Lovin' Challenge, a two-part, eight-week, healthy-habit-establishing endeavour sure to rock my socks off! Er, well it would...if I ever wore socks... Anyway, there's two parts to this post, so read it when you're home from work/class and have all the time in the world to listen to me! Teehee.
Part One: The Plan
So here's my plan for this thing. I'm not using a caloric cap (how will she ever lose weight?! you may be asking). Instead, I'm focusing on eating the right amount of properly portioned servings of healthy foods. Fruits, veggies, whole grains, lean protein, and a little dairy thrown in for kicks.
Sidenote: If you have no idea what a proper portion size is, like me a few months ago, check out Mayo Clinic's website. They have a literal asston of information on healthy living and active lifestyles.
The Food: A while back, I did one of their free assessments that tells you what you should be eating to lose weight and gives you a personalized food pyramid. Swanky! My food pyramid says that I should be eating 3 servings of fruit, 4 servings of veggies, 4 servings of carbs, 3 servings of protein/dairy, 3 servings healthy fats, and up to 75 calories in sweets.
The Treat: I know that it's pretty much impossible to do anything 100%, 100% of the time. I also know that I need a treat every once in a while to keep myself from going off track (aka, running away from it as fast as I can). I just got a job, HALLELUJAH, at one of my favorite restaurants in town. They serve Greek and American food, and have the best.damn.falafels I have ever had. So, once a week, I'm going to treat myself to a falafel sandwich. If I've been really, really good that week I might even have some fries. If that doesn't sound like much of a treat to you, you have no idea how good these things are. I would much rather have one of these falafels than ice cream, or even chocolate! I'll be looking forward to it every week, that's for sure.
The Beverage: Only water or tea. No soda, sugary iced tea, or sugary fruit juices. I may have a glass of skim milk every once in a while or some Crystal Lighty kind of thing, but mostly it's gonna be water. Water, agua, H20.
The Exercise: My goal is to do something that makes me sweat for thirty minutes each day. That's a great healthy habit to establish. This exercise could be running, biking, yoga, walking at a fast pace, practicing bellydance, or doing a strength/cardio circuit. Just gotta get my sweat on.
The Evaluation: I'm going to record each day how I've progressed toward my goals in my handy daily planner. Every Wednesday, I'm going to recap the week and determine whether or not I get fries with my falafel. Let's say if I have 6-7 perfect days out of 7, I get fries. If I have 3-6 perfect days, I just get the falafel. If I have less than 3 perfect days, I don't even get the falafel. That would be a sad week indeed. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.
Also, I'm not going to be doing weigh-ins every week. I find that if I do stuff like that, I get way too focused on the scale. I want to establish healthy habits that will lead to a healthy weight, not the other way around. I will post my starting weight and will weigh at the end of each phase to see how I did. However, I will take and post body measurements each week. Then I can see where the weight is coming off.
Part Two: The Starting Stats
We're all starting somewhere, right? This morning I weighed myself (after waking and peeing, before eating), took my starting measurements, and "before" pictures.
Starting Weight: 208. This is actually what I weighed when I started my first blog in January of last year. I'd be sad, but I weighed 216 last summer. At least I'm not there anymore.
I know what 208 feels like. But to be honest, I never thought it looked like this...
Starting Pictures:
Starting Measurements: Taken in inches, by myself. I'm not worrying about accuracy, I took a Bioanthropology class last semester that taught me how to take proper anthropometric measurements.
Mid-Upper Arm: 13.75
Bust: 43.5
Chest (like bra band): 37.5
Waist: 39.5
Hips: 46
Butt: 44.5
Thigh: 24.5
Annnd now I've made myself late for class, so I gotta cut this short. But I am having a fruit smoothie for breakfast - two servings of fruit down! See you tomorrow!
4.11.2011
The Summer Lovin' Challenge / The Puppet Master
So, my dear and lovely readers, hello! There are seven of you now! When I saw it the other day I nearly fainted. SEVEN people in the world want to hear what I have to say. I love it. A big hello to the newbies, and I hope I don't let you down.
That being said, let's talk about the Summer Lovin' Challenge, the brainchild of the beautiful and engaging Alexia over at Dimple Snatcher. Alexia blogs about healthy, balanced living (no wonder I like her so much...) and has been a great inspiration to me in my times of difficulty. I believe we started blogging around the same time, and have both come to the conclusion that the numbers game just doesn't work - that weight loss is, as she puts it, a "byproduct of healthy living". You can read about her philosophy here.
So the Summer Lovin' Challenge is an eight-week beast in which we are all vowing to establish healthy habits. We are starting on Wednesday (yes, in two days) and will update about our challenge progress every Wednesday for four weeks, evaluate our progress and make the necessary changes, and then continue for another four weeks. Click the Summer Lovin' Challenge link to read the details (and follow Dimple Snatcher!) and then get on board!
I'm thrilled about this, kids. It could not have come at a more perfect time. This past week has been rough for me. I don't know if my boyfriend reads this or not...but I'm going to go ahead and explain things anyway. A few months ago, we decided we would break up at the end of summer. I was okay with it as we were both on the same page. I thought I knew what I wanted, and a long distance relationship certainly wasn't a part of it. But then after all that shit with my mom went down, I realized how important our relationship has been to me. How important he has been to my happiness. But, I can't stay in Indiana. I have the opportunity to get out, and for my own sake I have to take it. Even so, I decided I wanted to do the long distance thing. We've done it before and always made it through okay. I suggested it, and he said no. I completely understand and respect the reasons why he doesn't want to, but still...now that all I want is to stay together and he wants to call it quits, I've been experiencing some emotional backlash. It has, of course, been making me eat terribly.
And you know, it's funny. I always think I have things settled in what I like to believe is my reasonable and sane mind, so I never connect emotional pain with overeating while I'm overeating. It's only after I feel tired and sick after days of eating the worst food that I finally see why it started: because I'm hurting. And sometimes, when you just have to tough it out and feel the hurt until it just stops hurting, those are the times I really struggle with making healthy changes. The pain is there, just out of sight, controlling me - a puppet master manipulating the self-unaware marionette of bad decisions that I become.
So my most important personal goal for the Summer Lovin' Challenge is awareness, current and preemptive. Current awareness in that I want to be aware of each piece of food I put in my mouth, how it will make me feel physically, how it will make me feel emotionally. Preemptive awareness in being mindful of the things I've learned this year: that I will eat, no matter what, when inside I feel like crying; that doubting my power over my choices only empowers my self-doubt; that I deserve my love and attention just as much as anyone else. To let those unhealthy habits be present in my mind when my hand brings food to my mouth so that current awareness can kick in and do the rest.
That's all for me today- I've got lots of homework to get to - but I hope you guys will all get over to Dimple Snatcher and join the Summer Lovin' Challenge! Do it now!
That being said, let's talk about the Summer Lovin' Challenge, the brainchild of the beautiful and engaging Alexia over at Dimple Snatcher. Alexia blogs about healthy, balanced living (no wonder I like her so much...) and has been a great inspiration to me in my times of difficulty. I believe we started blogging around the same time, and have both come to the conclusion that the numbers game just doesn't work - that weight loss is, as she puts it, a "byproduct of healthy living". You can read about her philosophy here.
So the Summer Lovin' Challenge is an eight-week beast in which we are all vowing to establish healthy habits. We are starting on Wednesday (yes, in two days) and will update about our challenge progress every Wednesday for four weeks, evaluate our progress and make the necessary changes, and then continue for another four weeks. Click the Summer Lovin' Challenge link to read the details (and follow Dimple Snatcher!) and then get on board!
I'm thrilled about this, kids. It could not have come at a more perfect time. This past week has been rough for me. I don't know if my boyfriend reads this or not...but I'm going to go ahead and explain things anyway. A few months ago, we decided we would break up at the end of summer. I was okay with it as we were both on the same page. I thought I knew what I wanted, and a long distance relationship certainly wasn't a part of it. But then after all that shit with my mom went down, I realized how important our relationship has been to me. How important he has been to my happiness. But, I can't stay in Indiana. I have the opportunity to get out, and for my own sake I have to take it. Even so, I decided I wanted to do the long distance thing. We've done it before and always made it through okay. I suggested it, and he said no. I completely understand and respect the reasons why he doesn't want to, but still...now that all I want is to stay together and he wants to call it quits, I've been experiencing some emotional backlash. It has, of course, been making me eat terribly.
And you know, it's funny. I always think I have things settled in what I like to believe is my reasonable and sane mind, so I never connect emotional pain with overeating while I'm overeating. It's only after I feel tired and sick after days of eating the worst food that I finally see why it started: because I'm hurting. And sometimes, when you just have to tough it out and feel the hurt until it just stops hurting, those are the times I really struggle with making healthy changes. The pain is there, just out of sight, controlling me - a puppet master manipulating the self-unaware marionette of bad decisions that I become.
So my most important personal goal for the Summer Lovin' Challenge is awareness, current and preemptive. Current awareness in that I want to be aware of each piece of food I put in my mouth, how it will make me feel physically, how it will make me feel emotionally. Preemptive awareness in being mindful of the things I've learned this year: that I will eat, no matter what, when inside I feel like crying; that doubting my power over my choices only empowers my self-doubt; that I deserve my love and attention just as much as anyone else. To let those unhealthy habits be present in my mind when my hand brings food to my mouth so that current awareness can kick in and do the rest.
That's all for me today- I've got lots of homework to get to - but I hope you guys will all get over to Dimple Snatcher and join the Summer Lovin' Challenge! Do it now!
4.05.2011
I can't move...
...because I RAN A MILE yesterday! In parts, admittedly, BUT HOLY CRAP A WHOLE MILE. I did the first half a mile straight through before I had to stop and walk (remember that bra/breathing/knee problem thing? yeah). And then I would walk at a fast pace for a song or so then run two tenths of a mile, walk again, run again, walk again, run again. I was on the treadmill for a total of 35 minutes. I have no idea how many calories I burned, but to be honest I really don't care. I'm just so damn proud of myself. I can't wait until I'm able to do a mile straight through. And then two miles! And then maybe a 5K, *squee*! I have never, ever been able to run a mile. I remember being humiliated in middle school because they made us do it and I was the last kid off the track and walked most of it. It took me over fifteen minutes or something ridiculous like that. Now I obviously am much slower than that now (I was running at just under 5mph last night) but I can't wait to get stronger and faster and be able to run longer distances. I'd say "HA, I TOLD you I'd be a runner", but you guys never doubted me. I only ever doubted myself. Well I am no longer giving power to my doubt, as Honore de Balzac would be thrilled to know.
I'm also proud of myself because of why I went running. For some reason in the middle of the afternoon yesterday I just got really depressed. I had accidentally eaten a lot of chocolate and candy yesterday without realizing it. I was angry with myself, and then the weird sudden depression on top of it was really making me feel like crap. I was tired, had to do laundry, and just wanted to crawl into bed and hide from knowing I'd have to post about it here. But instead, I changed my attitude. Remember how I said attitude is everything? I thought to myself "You feel like crap. You want to go to bed. Instead, go run a mile. Don't let your mistaken preconceptions stop you. The only thing stopping you is you. Go run a mile. You can do it!"
And I did it. And I feel great. Today, I've been so pumped up by my success last night that I have eaten healthy all day because I wanted to, not because I thought I needed to. I had a small bowl of cereal for breakfast, carrots with dressing and grapes as lunch, turkey and cheese roll-up as a snack, steamed salmon and broccoli with a cheesy baked potato for dinner, and two cookies for dessert. I'll probably have a banana as a snack later. By my count that's a serving of whole grains, three servings of dairy, two servings of protein, three servings of veggies, and three servings of fruit (I had two cups of grapes).
I did yoga when I woke up this morning and if I wasn't so sore from running I'd go for a walk. But today I'm going to take a short break from the exercise, plan out my day tomorrow, and relax knowing that I am awesome and capable of doing anything, making whatever changes I want to.
I feel so damn good.
PS: Can anybody give me good suggestions for running socks? Mine gave me blisters last night. :(
I'm also proud of myself because of why I went running. For some reason in the middle of the afternoon yesterday I just got really depressed. I had accidentally eaten a lot of chocolate and candy yesterday without realizing it. I was angry with myself, and then the weird sudden depression on top of it was really making me feel like crap. I was tired, had to do laundry, and just wanted to crawl into bed and hide from knowing I'd have to post about it here. But instead, I changed my attitude. Remember how I said attitude is everything? I thought to myself "You feel like crap. You want to go to bed. Instead, go run a mile. Don't let your mistaken preconceptions stop you. The only thing stopping you is you. Go run a mile. You can do it!"
And I did it. And I feel great. Today, I've been so pumped up by my success last night that I have eaten healthy all day because I wanted to, not because I thought I needed to. I had a small bowl of cereal for breakfast, carrots with dressing and grapes as lunch, turkey and cheese roll-up as a snack, steamed salmon and broccoli with a cheesy baked potato for dinner, and two cookies for dessert. I'll probably have a banana as a snack later. By my count that's a serving of whole grains, three servings of dairy, two servings of protein, three servings of veggies, and three servings of fruit (I had two cups of grapes).
I did yoga when I woke up this morning and if I wasn't so sore from running I'd go for a walk. But today I'm going to take a short break from the exercise, plan out my day tomorrow, and relax knowing that I am awesome and capable of doing anything, making whatever changes I want to.
I feel so damn good.
PS: Can anybody give me good suggestions for running socks? Mine gave me blisters last night. :(
4.04.2011
Namaste
Ahh, finally...the post where I get to rave about how much I love to do yoga!
I had my first experience with yoga the summer after I graduated high school, when I worked outdoors at a public gardens and arboretum. During the second part of the summer, the staff all paid a certain amount to have a yoga teacher come out to the arboretum and do classes outside near one of the ponds (so beautiful!). It was won.der.ful. I quickly noticed that my back didn't hurt nearly as bad from being stooped over pulling weeds on the days that I had yoga class in the morning. It made me feel happier, less stressed, and left me open to face the challenges of the day with a positive attitude.
I've really come to believe that attitude is everything in life, from getting through a stressful week of schoolwork to finding the motivation to keep working out and eating right. If I wake up in the morning and think, "I feel fat, it's gonna be hard to get my fruit and veggies in today, my back hurts, I have no time to workout" then I'm going to start the day with good intentions, perhaps eating a healthy breakfast, but eventually I'll end up giving in to the negativity and eating bagels, cookies, and go out to eat for dinner at place with no healthy options. At the end of the day, I'll feel even worse than when I woke up, and the same thing will probably happen the next day. But if I get up in the morning and think "I may have gained weight but I can work on that, I'll do my best to eat well, my back hurts but a little yoga would help, I don't have much time but could go for a walk between classes", then I guarantee you I'm going to have a successful, healthy day and the next day I will be proud of my choices and attitude and have a second healthy day to boot.
By making my body feel good and helping my mind to be calm, yoga improves my attitude. Plus, all I need to do it is my yoga mat! I just got a new one for Christmas from Gaiam. If you're new to yoga, I highly recommend you pay the money to attend a beginner's yoga class. I've taken two now, and having a live instructor is invaluable when it comes to learning the correct alignment for the poses. If you don't, you could really hurt yourself. If you really can't afford it, then go to my favorite website, Yogatic. Esther, a Dutch woman living in Ireland, posts free, excellent yoga videos there. She recently released a beginner DVD, but it's priced in Euros and I have no idea what shipping to the States would cost. In any case, just use her search bar to find some videos labeled "beginner" or something like that. She also has great and thorough written explanations of individual poses with pictures. Look through her site, I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do. In fact, I did 40 minutes of yoga this morning (10 more than my goal of 30 minutes of movement per day!). These are the videos I did in the order I did them:
First, the Warm Up for Yoga
Then, this Flow with Jessica Hatchett which is centered around Downward Facing Dog pose
After that, this Yoga for Opening the Hips
To finish, I did some of my favorite poses to relieve lower back pain, which I experience a lot. I also did some calming, restorative poses just to relax at the end.
That was a few hours ago. Now, I feel calm and uplifted. My limbs feel long and well-stretched, and there's no tension in my hips. I don't feel stiff or sore. I am definitely going to make an effort to do at least a few minutes of yoga every day. It's better to do a little every day than a full sequence only a few days a week. At least, that's what I've noticed is better for me.
By the way, if anybody tells you that yoga won't help you lose weight, they are absolutely wrong. It's not a cure-all, but I think we're all smart enough to realize that exercise of any kind has to be in addition to healthy eating and overall mindfulness of our state of mind. But yoga can definitely help you reach your goals. A couple years ago I managed to lose about twelve pounds (the most I've ever lost to date), and I did it mostly through eating well and doing yoga. You just have to look for sequences that have you constantly moving or really testing your muscles, like the sequence with Jessica Hatchett above. That video had me dripping so much sweat onto my mat I had to get a towel, no joke. But maybe I'm just sweaty, haha. :P
Anyway, check out that site! Try some yoga! If you do it right, meaning that you feel your body's limitations and only go so far into the poses as you can handle, you'll love it. The best thing about yoga is that you can always improve. You can always stretch a little deeper or hold a pose a little longer, and everything can be modified if the flexibility for the standard pose just isn't there for you (for example, in the warm up video when Esther has you extend your leg straight up in the air, stretching it with a belt or scarf, I always have to do the modification where I bend the other knee to help my leg straighten out - my hamstrings are ungodly tight right now).
I hope you liked this post. Let me know if you're a yoga lover like me! Namaste!
I had my first experience with yoga the summer after I graduated high school, when I worked outdoors at a public gardens and arboretum. During the second part of the summer, the staff all paid a certain amount to have a yoga teacher come out to the arboretum and do classes outside near one of the ponds (so beautiful!). It was won.der.ful. I quickly noticed that my back didn't hurt nearly as bad from being stooped over pulling weeds on the days that I had yoga class in the morning. It made me feel happier, less stressed, and left me open to face the challenges of the day with a positive attitude.
I've really come to believe that attitude is everything in life, from getting through a stressful week of schoolwork to finding the motivation to keep working out and eating right. If I wake up in the morning and think, "I feel fat, it's gonna be hard to get my fruit and veggies in today, my back hurts, I have no time to workout" then I'm going to start the day with good intentions, perhaps eating a healthy breakfast, but eventually I'll end up giving in to the negativity and eating bagels, cookies, and go out to eat for dinner at place with no healthy options. At the end of the day, I'll feel even worse than when I woke up, and the same thing will probably happen the next day. But if I get up in the morning and think "I may have gained weight but I can work on that, I'll do my best to eat well, my back hurts but a little yoga would help, I don't have much time but could go for a walk between classes", then I guarantee you I'm going to have a successful, healthy day and the next day I will be proud of my choices and attitude and have a second healthy day to boot.
By making my body feel good and helping my mind to be calm, yoga improves my attitude. Plus, all I need to do it is my yoga mat! I just got a new one for Christmas from Gaiam. If you're new to yoga, I highly recommend you pay the money to attend a beginner's yoga class. I've taken two now, and having a live instructor is invaluable when it comes to learning the correct alignment for the poses. If you don't, you could really hurt yourself. If you really can't afford it, then go to my favorite website, Yogatic. Esther, a Dutch woman living in Ireland, posts free, excellent yoga videos there. She recently released a beginner DVD, but it's priced in Euros and I have no idea what shipping to the States would cost. In any case, just use her search bar to find some videos labeled "beginner" or something like that. She also has great and thorough written explanations of individual poses with pictures. Look through her site, I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do. In fact, I did 40 minutes of yoga this morning (10 more than my goal of 30 minutes of movement per day!). These are the videos I did in the order I did them:
First, the Warm Up for Yoga
Then, this Flow with Jessica Hatchett which is centered around Downward Facing Dog pose
After that, this Yoga for Opening the Hips
To finish, I did some of my favorite poses to relieve lower back pain, which I experience a lot. I also did some calming, restorative poses just to relax at the end.
That was a few hours ago. Now, I feel calm and uplifted. My limbs feel long and well-stretched, and there's no tension in my hips. I don't feel stiff or sore. I am definitely going to make an effort to do at least a few minutes of yoga every day. It's better to do a little every day than a full sequence only a few days a week. At least, that's what I've noticed is better for me.
By the way, if anybody tells you that yoga won't help you lose weight, they are absolutely wrong. It's not a cure-all, but I think we're all smart enough to realize that exercise of any kind has to be in addition to healthy eating and overall mindfulness of our state of mind. But yoga can definitely help you reach your goals. A couple years ago I managed to lose about twelve pounds (the most I've ever lost to date), and I did it mostly through eating well and doing yoga. You just have to look for sequences that have you constantly moving or really testing your muscles, like the sequence with Jessica Hatchett above. That video had me dripping so much sweat onto my mat I had to get a towel, no joke. But maybe I'm just sweaty, haha. :P
Anyway, check out that site! Try some yoga! If you do it right, meaning that you feel your body's limitations and only go so far into the poses as you can handle, you'll love it. The best thing about yoga is that you can always improve. You can always stretch a little deeper or hold a pose a little longer, and everything can be modified if the flexibility for the standard pose just isn't there for you (for example, in the warm up video when Esther has you extend your leg straight up in the air, stretching it with a belt or scarf, I always have to do the modification where I bend the other knee to help my leg straighten out - my hamstrings are ungodly tight right now).
I hope you liked this post. Let me know if you're a yoga lover like me! Namaste!
4.01.2011
from Honore de Balzac
“When you doubt your power, you give power to your doubt.” ~Honore de Balzac
I'm on twitter, and I follow this page called Tiny Buddha. Almost everyday, my own personal little Buddha sends inspirational quotes and ways to make life better to my phone. I love it! I thought this quote was particularly timely today. A few posts ago I discussed how we all have the power to change our lives for the better. On this healthy journey, we should never doubt that we are always in control of what goes in our mouths and our hearts. I definitely struggle with this. Maybe I should get this quote tatttooed backward on my forehead so I can read it in the mirror every morning. :P
By the way, if you want to follow me on Twitter my username is MissRaqsSharqi (raqs sharqi is more or less the Arabic term for bellydance, which I hope to get back to this summer!).
3.27.2011
I Like to Move It Move It
Hi friends! I just wanted to post a quick little update about my super awesome day! It was beautiful outside today, although a bit chilly for my taste, and I wanted to make sure I went out and enjoyed the lovely weather. So, first I had a deeeelicious breakfast of half a Pink Lady apple (to which I have become addicted thanks to the fabulous miss Bitch Cakes), edamame hummus from Kroger on a piece of whole wheat toast, and a tasty egg fried in cooking spray.
It was so good I might eat the same thing tomorrow! I like to slice my apples up really, really thin for two reasons. One, I have really sensitive teeth and I can't just bite into a whole apple. We also keep our fruit in the fridge because we get fruit flies badly, so the thinner I slice an apple the faster it can warm up to room temperature and not hurt my teeth. Second, I have to spend more time chewing, which makes me feel more full. Since apples are already filling, it's like double bang for my buck - er, chew.
After breakfast I went and took my new bike out (hope to get a good picture soon to show you guys), but it was so windy and still chilly that I was only out for fifteen minutes. Also, I went to the gym yesterday like I said I would and rode the stationary bike for 40 minutes, so my quads were waaay more sore than I realized and more than fifteen minutes of bike time this morning just wasn't going to happen, haha. Instead, I took my bike back home and went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful day. I went without my iPod and walked around a track nearby my apartment. Next time I think I might take my iPod. The track and its park is located between two of the busiest streets in town (I'll have to snap a picture next time so you can see what I mean) and after awhile I got tired of just listening to cars whizz by. It was nice to clear my head, though. So I walked to the track, did three laps around it (each lap it .59 miles), and walked back for a total of around two miles. I walk pretty slowly, though, so between my bike time and my walk I was moving for an hour and a half today! I think that's pretty awesome. : )
Another awesome thing is that my friend Katie has agreed to be my fitness buddy! I really love the blogging community, but sometimes I miss having that real-life support and I've been hoping somebody would become my fitness buddy here in town. Katie said that she wants to start working on her fitness again (she's a rugby player and used to be much stronger, but lately hasn't been playing much I guess), and since she has already graduated and can't use my university gym, we'll have to find creative non-gym ways to get exercise. I think that's great because I'm graduating soon and will need to work out at home, and I want to get a good out-of-the-gym routine down that I can carry into summertime.
Now that I'm finally not sick, I can't even tell you how great it feels to move and sweat again. I'm actually looking forward to exercising every day, even if just a little bit. I want to focus on moving for at least half an hour every day (not counting walking to and from class during the week) and finding things that I like to do. I want to build a routine that allows my extra weight to come off while I'm enjoying myself, instead of focusing on losing X amount of pounds in Y time so that I can eventually enjoy myself in the future. I know I'll be going on many more long walks - Katie and I have one planned for tomorrow, actually - and I want to build my set of fitness equipment at home. I already have 5, 8, and 10 pound dumbbells. I think my next additions will be a jump rope and some resistance bands.
So, I'm off to bed hoping tomorrow will be another beautiful day filled with tasty food and happy exercise. Hasta luego, amigos! : )
It was so good I might eat the same thing tomorrow! I like to slice my apples up really, really thin for two reasons. One, I have really sensitive teeth and I can't just bite into a whole apple. We also keep our fruit in the fridge because we get fruit flies badly, so the thinner I slice an apple the faster it can warm up to room temperature and not hurt my teeth. Second, I have to spend more time chewing, which makes me feel more full. Since apples are already filling, it's like double bang for my buck - er, chew.
After breakfast I went and took my new bike out (hope to get a good picture soon to show you guys), but it was so windy and still chilly that I was only out for fifteen minutes. Also, I went to the gym yesterday like I said I would and rode the stationary bike for 40 minutes, so my quads were waaay more sore than I realized and more than fifteen minutes of bike time this morning just wasn't going to happen, haha. Instead, I took my bike back home and went for a walk to enjoy the beautiful day. I went without my iPod and walked around a track nearby my apartment. Next time I think I might take my iPod. The track and its park is located between two of the busiest streets in town (I'll have to snap a picture next time so you can see what I mean) and after awhile I got tired of just listening to cars whizz by. It was nice to clear my head, though. So I walked to the track, did three laps around it (each lap it .59 miles), and walked back for a total of around two miles. I walk pretty slowly, though, so between my bike time and my walk I was moving for an hour and a half today! I think that's pretty awesome. : )
Another awesome thing is that my friend Katie has agreed to be my fitness buddy! I really love the blogging community, but sometimes I miss having that real-life support and I've been hoping somebody would become my fitness buddy here in town. Katie said that she wants to start working on her fitness again (she's a rugby player and used to be much stronger, but lately hasn't been playing much I guess), and since she has already graduated and can't use my university gym, we'll have to find creative non-gym ways to get exercise. I think that's great because I'm graduating soon and will need to work out at home, and I want to get a good out-of-the-gym routine down that I can carry into summertime.
Now that I'm finally not sick, I can't even tell you how great it feels to move and sweat again. I'm actually looking forward to exercising every day, even if just a little bit. I want to focus on moving for at least half an hour every day (not counting walking to and from class during the week) and finding things that I like to do. I want to build a routine that allows my extra weight to come off while I'm enjoying myself, instead of focusing on losing X amount of pounds in Y time so that I can eventually enjoy myself in the future. I know I'll be going on many more long walks - Katie and I have one planned for tomorrow, actually - and I want to build my set of fitness equipment at home. I already have 5, 8, and 10 pound dumbbells. I think my next additions will be a jump rope and some resistance bands.
So, I'm off to bed hoping tomorrow will be another beautiful day filled with tasty food and happy exercise. Hasta luego, amigos! : )
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