Gyming It

Back in March, E and I decided that it was about time I joined back up with the gym. I feel like the gym is one of those things you really have to be ready to commit to and actually want to go to or you never will. I used to go religiously almost 10 years ago and even had a personal trainer I met with twice a week. I was on a strict no carb diet and was at my absolute trimmest, but I only went for about two years until I left for college. Then I had no time for anything lol.

Now, I have both the time and the motivation and I'm hoping to get healthier and possibly trimmer in the long run. I've been going six days a week, Monday through Saturday, and taking a mixture of Body Works, a body sculpting class, and Zumba.

I wish my gym looked like this. It definitely doesn't.

Zumba has turned out to be a great deal more fun than I was expecting. I knew it was popular, but for some reason I wasn't sure if I'd like it. I've now taken it with a handful of different instructors, and a good teacher makes all the difference. My favorite instructor has a more dance oriented style that feels really hip and fun,  I love taking her class twice a week. I take classes with another instructor as well, but I am not as big a fan of her style and music choice. You can dance to pretty much anything with a good beat, but it helps if you like what you're dancing to. It's basically a crapton of cardio and strength training in the form of squats, many many squats.

The Bodyworks class is more of a necessity than the Zumba class. It also involves a great deal of cardio, but adds weight lifting and other things in as well.  Squats, lunges, bicycling, push ups, sit ups, running, steps etc. I always feel like my ass has been kicked after that class, but it is paying off. In the beginning I could manage one girly push up and used the 2.5lb weights with great difficulty. That doesn't sound like a lot, but believe me, when you have to do a set of 300, it Hurts. I can now manage about 50 girly push ups in the middle of the work out, and recently did an entire class with 5lb weights. I thought my arms might fall off, but I was able to get it done :)

This is a tiny fraction of one of my classes, doing one of our songs after class. 

During class, that room is PACKED.

My one hang up for working out is that I haven't stepped on a scale yet and have no intention of doing so any time soon. I really want working out to be something I do regardless of what the scale says, and if I make it about the numbers I feel like I'll get disappointed and lose my motivation. Right now, that motivation is being healthy, having fun, and getting into better shape for having a baby. I don't need numbers on a scale for that :)

New Years 2013

I've been meaning to post something commemorating the New Year, but I've been too busy enjoying it to formulate something coherent. 2013 is looking so exciting, especially for our good friends, who have new babies coming, new apartments, and all sorts of exciting changes. Hopefully 2013 will hold exciting things for E and I as well, a new job would be especially welcome for me.

Thus far, our New Years resolutions are to...

• Get healthy! We're going to eventually try and start up our Insanity program a second time, hopefully with better results for me this time. In the meantime, we need to get back in shape so we can actually do the Insanity work outs.
• Continue not drinking soda, it was my New Years resolution last year and I managed to stick to it! I generally replace it with iced tea or water, which doesn't feel like a chore since I love iced tea.
• Find a job? Maybe? Hopefully? Please?
• Work on our family and relationship. I feel like we really found our rhythm this past year as a married couple and I want to continue building and strengthening (and maybe expanding?) our little family.
• Continue setting strict monthly savings goals to try and build up our nest egg for a family/house/life
• Have an even better year than last year was :)

Right now our new get healthy plan includes two hikes a week at a nearby canyon,  little treadmill sessions on some of the other days, a shake or eggs for breakfast, and something healthy for lunch. I'm not sure if we'll be able to stick to it long term, especially with E working so much, but it's not too ambitious so I feel pretty good about it.

Milou having a great time in a big grassy field halfway through our walk

This week we've had two lovely canyon walks with the pups and one session on the treadmill, since we started a little late. I'm really not a fan of our treadmill since it's old and tends to overheat/die/stop randomly in the middle of work outs, but I'm hoping to keep it up anyway.

Tintin joined us for our second hike and loved it just as much as Milou

I'm really looking forward to what this year has in store for us. I'm crossing my fingers and toes, squeezing my eyes tight and jumping in to 2013, planning and wishing and hoping for good things.

Happy New Year

Insanity: Day 23

Today was day 23 and E and I are still getting our rears kicked by Insanity. I feel like our endurance has increased, E's more so than mine, but it's still tough to complete each work out without wanting to die. Thankfully we get a recovery week next week where we'll be doing a gentler work out that I'm very much looking forward to.

(Source)

My biggest hurdles are probably the push ups and the jumping, which comprises at least 50% of Insanity. Even at my most physically fit, push ups have never been my strong suit and Insanity calls for standard push ups, moving push ups, push up jacks, v push ups, and weird knees bent, crunched up push ups. I've been trying to substitute them with girly push ups, push ups using a piece of furniture, or holding a high plank position while E bobs up and down all glisteny and manly. 

The jumping isn't actually hard to do, but I've got pretty bad plantar fasciitis and usually wear orthotics in all my shoes. I've been experimenting with different shoe/orthotic combinations for working out and somewhere along the way picked the wrong pair of shoes for a couple days. Now my muscles and tendons are all inflamed and ticked off and every landing feels like I'm jamming steel stakes into my arches. It hasn't been fun and I can't stop the program to give my feet a rest.  I'm hoping they get adjusted on their own over the recovery week or E is going to keep giving me grief over my crappy performance.

Insanity: Day 2

Oh boy are we in for some serious pain. The first day was a "Fit Test" where you keep track of how many reps you can complete of each exercise, while taking dinky little 30 second breaks. I found out that I cannot do push ups, which comprise a significant part of the work out, and thus am attempting to do them like a little girl.

Except mine look less like exercise, and more like I'm trying to hump the floor. Rawr.

We found out today that there's even more push ups, in addition to jogging, jumping jacks, basketball shoot moves, ski jumps, football feat and these horrible suicide somethings were you jog in place, do four push ups, then jump backwards and forwards while your hands are still on the floor in the push up, and repeat. E was dripping sweat and bright red by the end of the work out, and I still felt like I was flailing on the floor propositioning it for bad sex.

Side to side floor hops. I think we do these tomorrow.

I'm really hoping that I don't look this pathetic when I need to repeat this work out next week. Regardless, we're committed! 2 days down, 58 to go!

On an unrelated note, I was supposed to pay for my classes today, but since they've cut my financial aid E and I decided to drop them. This means that I need to get my act together and figure out which grad program I want to go to.  Since I have pretty much no idea and don't want to waste tens of thousands of dollars just to get a degree, I'm wondering if a hypnotist might be able to make up my mind for me...

Aloha Insanity

Apparently, out of nowhere, E and I are going on a Hawaiian vacation this year! It actually fell into place so perfectly that I'm still not convinced it's going to happen.  Plus, we essentially owe the entire trip to E's mother and his father.

Coral Reef I will hopefully be snorkeling at

E's father's family owns a timeshare on Honolulu that his father and uncle usually visit once a year. This year, his father called us up and asked if we wanted to go with him and his wife for 7 days. They have a two bedroom suite so we'd each have a room and E was actually off work that week. He said the accommodations would be covered, we'd just need to find a way to get there. While this was a wonderful offer, plane tickets were about $1200 which was just outside of waythefuckoutside of our price range.

Random Island View

Now earlier this year, E's mother had repeatedly mentioned that she wanted to go to Hawaii. When we heard from his father, we knew we'd need to call and discuss with his mom. Right off the bat, she says she has credit card miles for the plane tickets there. Score! Then she proposed that we spend a week with her and a week with his father. A few inquiries later and bam, she had booked her friend's 10 person house on Kauai for 10 days, giving us the flexibility to stay a few extra days with her, or for E's father to stay there for a couple days while we stayed on Honolulu.

Kauai Waterfall

E's father had his plane tickets all set up, so E's mom went ahead and booked seats for her and her longtime boyfriend R to go. E and I were kind of hesitant since we're still waiting to hear about E's job interview so we hung back for as long as possible until the plane was almost completely full and we had to book. Luckily, we got seats together (after some stupid seat upgrade charges. Apparently window seats and aisle seats are $40 extra??) on the same flight in as his mom so we can carpool together. Our return flight leaves at about the same time as his father's, so we should be able to get a ride to the airport with him too. I was going to book the inter-island flight but decided against it so we'd have the flexibility to change dates if we wanted.

Sunset!

With all this excitingness going on, it hit E and  I pretty hard that we are incredibly out of shape. Actually, I'm incredibly out of shape, E is looking pretty damn good since his job is really physical. It was clear that we'd need to do something, so in a moment of insanity (ha) we signed ourselves up for the insanity fitness program! We start tomorrow and I'm psyched to see if it's as hard and impossible as it looks. E wants to tone up while I would like to lose roughly a million pounds so I don't look completely pregnant in a bathing suit. I'm a little nervous since the weight loss plan calls for 1900 calories a day (what on earth will we be doing that allows you to eat 1900 calories and lose weight??) but we're determined to do at least the full 60 days.

Insanity ahhh!

We're going to need some serious fortitude to get through this, but I'm hoping it pays off so I can look like one of these people in the end, except I'm a lot chubbier than they are so I'd settle for a decently flat stomach and some trimmer thighs. A girl has got to be realistic.

This could be me! OR more realistically, E!

Wish us luck! We're really going to need it to get in shape for this trip!

Idiling Or Inching Forward?

Somehow it's already the middle of June, which means I've had no job for the last two and a half months. Unemployment is a colossal pain in the butt, but I'm glad it's there since E's work can be really slow and it has definitely helped carry us. To certify, I apply to at least three jobs a week, although really I'm applying for everything I can get my hands on.  No offers yet, but I'm well qualified for everything I apply to so I'm hoping something comes through soon.

In the meantime, I'm looking at some online MPH programs and and E and I are discussing expanding our family in the future. While we would never have a child without the ability to support it, we've been thinking I might have more time to parent a baby if I'm going to school online full time vs working full time. E's schedule is fairly weird and flexible, with a lot of nights and weekends, so he'd probably get to be present great deal as well. There's a lot to consider, mostly financially, since we would otherwise love to be parents, but we're starting to work it out more seriously.

Wouldn't I look even cuter with a sibling?

To possibly prepare for having kids in the next few years, E and I are attempting to get healthier (again). This means losing the copious amount of weight I we have gained since the wedding and exercising like I we used to before I was working full time. We've been hitting up the treadmill and cutting out white stuff like bread, pasta, and sugar, although I'm not going as hard core as I did before the wedding. If I cut them out completely, the weight practically falls off, but comes right back as soon as I smell a piece of bread. I'm hoping for something a little more sustainable this time and while I haven't gone anywhere near a scale yet, I'm pretty sure it's working.

On the same topic, we bought a bottle of prenatals and I've been trying to take them to increase my vitamin levels. The first week was just fine, but during the second week I found them really disagreeing with my stomach. I'm not sure if I didn't eat enough food with them, or if they just have an ingredient that makes me want to hurl, but it's a really good thing I didn't take them while actually pregnant because oh boy would that have been bad. I've been trying the Nature Made brand with DHA ala Costco, but I might be in the market for a new one, maybe from Whole Foods or Trader Joes. I have plenty of time to pick a good one before I really need to take it, but I'd like to make it part of my daily routine sooner rather than later. Any suggestions for a good brand?

Weight Loss Check In: 12 days

So today is day 12 and ironically I've lost 12 pounds. That puts me at 1 pound per day as long as I don't eat any bread/pasta/sugar and exercise six days a week. I'd like to make it seven but something always happens at least once a week that prevents me from getting that seventh day.

It's really exciting to see the numbers go down closer to my pre-holiday weight but I wish I could see the change physically. I'm not obese, I don't have oodles of weight to lose and yet 12 pounds isn't really visible. I know it's often hard to see changes in yourself,  but even my family would guess the loss to be around 5 pounds, 8 if you ask E. I don't think I have blinders on, I think it legitimately doesn't show!

Clearly I need to work harder at this weight loss thing if it's going to make a difference!

Still on Track

Okay, so it's day three of my "OMFG I Need To Lose Weight" mission and I have successfully exercised and dieted every day. That would be more impressive it if was more than 2.5 days but I'll take my victories where I can. Thus far the daily schedule goes something like this:

1. Wake up
2. 62 minutes on the treadmill at 10 incline. This is 3.35 miles and 520 calories.
3. Die
4. Lift some weights
5. Die
6. Stuff myself with vegetables and protein

In my experience working out should get easier each time you do it but thus far it's gotten harder each time. It's probably because I'm not taking a day off in between but I don't have time to not exercise! 15 minutes in I'm sweaty, 30 minutes in I'm ready to stop, 45 minutes in and I'm pushing through okay and 50 minutes in my legs are going to fall off. At the end I want to collapse into a puddle but force myself to lift some weights though I'm not sure it's helping. At least I've lost 2 pounds so far which is good progress!

The First REAL Dress Fitting....Or Not...

So today was my first real dress fitting, where I was supposed to try on something more than a satin pattern. I brought my sister, brought my spanx, and brought my shoes. Everything was shaping up to make for a great appointment except one thing.

The F word.
Fat.

My dress maker took one look at me and asked me if I was at the absolute skinniest I planned on being. That was a big fat (pun intended) no. Before March 26th I plan on losing a hell of a lot more weight than the measly six pounds I've lost. I haven't been on my diet. I'd like to lose another 30 pounds. Either way, she refused to cut my dress. The fabric was shipped in from Spain and if she starts cutting now at this measurement and I lose weight, none of the lines on my dress will be right.

So, my fat has officially prevented me from taking a step towards the wedding. She's given me one month to work my ass off and get down as low as I possibly can. This means I essentially have to go back on my diet, NO CARBS, and work out on the treadmill for an hour every day. I should also be using the shake weight I bought in addition to the dumbbells we have everyday.

Damn I hate being fat.

Back on the (Weight loss) Wagon Again

It is my absolute greatest pleasure to tell you all that I have lost four pounds since Monday! Hooray! I'm officially back on the weight loss wagon. With exactly 100 days left until the wedding, I have only 26 more pounds to go until I'm back down to my February weight, and then another 10 after that to reach my goal weight! The hardest part is probably reminding myself that this stuff takes a really long time, and there's no magical program that will make me drop 40 pounds in two weeks. This tiny success does reaffirm what I know about my body though, for me working out for one entire year and eating normally would not equal the amount of weight I lose by only dieting for three months. Stupid girly genetics!

(Source)

In less exciting news, I have my last final exam of the semester today so wish me luck! I going to stop blogging now and go study the absolutely riveting topics of personality disorders and schizophrenia. 

Wedding Diet: Derailed

Well I set up a bunch of dated posts to keep track of my weight loss and haven't been able to post any of them. Our best man came into town to visit and even though he's on a diet too,  we have an engrained tradition of visiting a different restaurant every night. The byproduct of 9 days of eating out, sometimes multiple times a day, is too terrible for me to examine and I have not gone anywhere near the bathroom scale.

Then, as soon as he left, I came down with the stomach flu and am pretty sure I lost 10 pounds in one day. For fear of stepping on the scale and seeing the same number as before I spent a day hugging my trash can, meaning that I had in fact gained 10 pounds and my day of puking was secretly hiding that, I haven't gone anywhere near the scale.

To add to everything, the food you're allowed to eat when you're sick doesn't exactly inspire weight loss. You have no idea how many calories and carbs are hiding in those tiny little saltine crackers. And chicken soup has a surprising amount of fat in it. I thought of changing things up but made the mistake of trying to eat a baked potato last night so I'm going back to my crackers and soup.

Since this is clearly a message from my stomach that it's time to get back on my diet, I promise to get back on the diet as soon as I can keep my food in my stomach.

Wedding Diet: Day 8

Well the first week or so of wedding dieting has been a mixture of successes and failures. I really, REALLY should have gone shopping first because there was almost nothing on diet to eat in the house which made starting the diet almost impossible.  Normally when I'm going to start a diet I pack the house full of fruit, vegetables, rice cakes, lunch meat, sliced cheese, low calorie popsicles, yogurt, nuts and a variety of easy to grab snacks. Instead, my house is packed full of bread, pasta, cookies, hot chocolate, no fruit, no veggies, popcorn and hot dogs. Oh boy. Most days I've managed to stay mostly on diet while other days like yesterday end up with me eating 4 tacos for lunch and two corn quesadillas for dinner. It wasn't even that I wanted Mexican food, it was just the only thing left in the house that my family ended up having. This is a big difference for me since I normally diet all or nothing, I've never had a diet where I "cheated" before.

So, one week in, I have lost a whopping 1-2 pounds. Depressing, no? I know it's on track with healthy weight loss, but after working all week to scrounge up edible food I wish there was a bigger result. The last time I started a diet for my friends wedding I had lost almost 7 pounds in a week and a bit. Seeing only 1-2 missing pounds feels like a failure even though it's technically progress. I'm going to try and go shopping to make things a bit easier on myself. I should also probably stop eating popcorn, but in my defense it's only because I've been watching all the Harry Potters in preparation for the seventh movie coming out tonight.

(Source)

Wish me better luck for the next seven days! 

A Weighty Matter

I really struggled with whether or not to post this, especially with pictures. I don't normally share my chubby pictures but in the interest of honesty and other people who might also be struggling to stay slim, I decided to go ahead and bare it all.

I've been a bigger person then average my whole life. Even born three weeks early, I was well over 7 pounds and assuming babies gain 2 or 3 pounds in the last few weeks I would have been one big kid. I doubled my birth weight quickly and was on the higher end of the growth chart throughout my childhood, usually running a couple sizes ahead of my age in height and in weight. Up until puberty I was all muscle and bone, but after 12 I started to get hips, thighs, boobs, and a belly. Since then, my genetics have been working against me to hoard every calorie I consume and stash it away in my fat cells, even when I'm eating healthy foods.