September 28, 2012

SparkPeople Bootcamp Update!

Last week I blogged about my new SparkPeople 28 Day Bootcamp video:

I’ve really enjoyed the video.  I think this workout is great for beginners. Each exercise has three different levels and an instructor demonstrating each exercise. I’ve been “following” the boot camp plan but I’ve added on more workouts from the video or rocking my elliptical.  If you’re a fitness newbie, a 22 minute workout (6 minute warm-up  12 minute workout, and 4 minute cool-down  would be perfect but I am definitely not a fitness newbie (though I’m not quite in as badass shape as I used to be).   What I really like about this workout video is all the different options:

  • Warm-up (6 min): decent warm-up, I always do the warm-up
  • Cardio burst (12 min): excellent for beginners. I always skip straight to doing the advanced move without doing the build up (for example: instead of tapping my feet to the side one at a time, then adding arms, then doing a jumping jack, I just do the jumping jack)
  • Short cardio sculpt (12 min): roughly a minute of strength, a minute of cardio.  This is a pretty awesome, short workout.  Most of the strength moves incorporate squats and lunges so you are doing strength and cardio.  My legs and shoulders get sore (in a good way) from this workout.
  • Tone & Burn (20 min): this is my favorite workout.  It’s different from other 20 minute workouts but it is incredibly challenging.  Your shoulders will be screaming at the end of this workout.
  • Total body challenge (30 min.): kettlebell inspired workout.  I did this one using my kettlebell (for most of the workout) and you get an awesome workout.  I’m a huge fan using kettlebells and 30 minutes is the perfect length for a kettlebell workout.
  • Cool down (4 min): I don’t always do the cool-down but this one is a good cool-down without being boring.  So I’ll do it when I have time (I know I shouldn’t skip cool-down but I’m bad).

Overall I highly recommend this workout DVD to any beginners or immediate level fitness buffs looking to spice up a workout routine.  If you are an advanced exerciser, this DVD is not for you.  Like most strength workouts, I also recommend using different weights.  I mainly used five pound weights but could easily add a pound or two on some exercises.   I do use my three pound weights for some of the shoulder exercises because my technique gets sloppy if I use the five.  I switched between my ten pound kettlebell and five pound weights for the total body challenge.  One of my favorite routines is to do the warm-up, cardio burst, short cardio sculpt, tone & burn, and cool-down (this is a pretty kickass workout).  And yet I am still smiling after getting my ass kicked, does this mean I am a masochist?

                                                                                  Pre-bootcamp                                                                Post bootcamp

Posted in Workout | 3 Comments »

September 27, 2012

Who’s Going To Build Me My Own Arc De Triomphe?

Seriously, I kinda feel like Napoleaon and I kinda feel like I need an Arc De Triomphe.

Okay that’s not the most flattering picture of my face but I’m not a photoshop genius.

At my office, someone brings in snacks every Wednesday.  Four people take turns (once a month) for four months then we switch people. Yesterday I needed to provide wonderful snacks to my hungry co-workers.  After examining the budgeted limit ($25 for 30ish people), I ruled out buying bulk bagels, donuts, etc from restaurants because it’s expensive so I hit up Wal-mart.  I decided to purchase mini bagels (pretzel, whole wheat, and plain), mini blueberry muffins, mini chocolate doughnut holes, butter, and cream cheese.  Like a good girl, I watched my co-workers eat all my delicious food while I enjoyed my delivered breakfast and lunch.  Towards the later afternoon, I could NOT stop obsessing about those stupid doughnut holes. It’s the time of the month where chocolate becomes medication.  Finally I gave in and ate the two remaining doughnut holes.

ARGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH was my immediate reaction.  I instantly started berating myself for being weak and reaffirming that I will never lose weight.  I made myself feel like sh*t.  So I started looking at the remaining bagels and muffins which I quickly moved into the kitchen for the rest of the office.  On my way home, I just wanted to binge ie the whole I’ve already ruined my *diet* so why not just keep going.  So I kept bribing myself:

  • You can binge but you have to workout first
  • You can binge but you have to shower and do your hair first
  • You can binge but you need to drink two glasses of water first
  • You can binge but you need to read first

And after the reading, the desire to binge dissipated.  I ate my dinner when I got hungry, went to bed, and woke up feeling ah-mazing!  Though I’ve talked myself out of binges, I’ve never eaten an extra 200 calories (yes, I checked the nutritional content) and kept myself from bingeing.  Normally, I’m a once you pop, the fun don’t stop kinda gal.  But this time, I stopped and I learned a lesson.  I learned that I’m not dieting or restricting.  I’m learning how to eat again.  Maybe I didn’t physically need those doughnuts but emotionally, I kinda did and ya know what, occasionally that’s okay.  I ate my two doughnut holes and stopped.  I got my fill (even though I initially wanted more).  Even when I stop abusing food as a emotional crutch, there will be times I overeat from a variety of reasons or eat two extra doughnut holes: this is “normal” eating not perfect never eating outside of my meal plan.  Life’s frankly too short to not eat chocolate (enjoy it).  

 

Posted in Musing, Random Food, Victory | 4 Comments »

September 25, 2012

How To Beat The Blahs

I’ve been having a hard time working up motivation to blog or read blogs or spend time on the internet when I get home.  After being on a computer all day at work, I don’t exactly want to come home and spend more time on the computer.  Plus my days are longer because my commute sucks.  Literally, if you live in the Washington DC metro area, you know how I-66 is hell on earth.  And because of all of this, the blahs are starting to retake control of my life which means I slowly start to fall apart towards junk food and my couch.  Plus the company messed up my food on Friday which means that I didn’t any of my prepared food this weekend which freaked me out.  So I spent most of Saturday sleeping, unable to motivate myself to do anything.  I forced myself out of bed on Sunday and fight the blahs.  I decided to make Fall 2012 goals to keep me motivated working towards my healthy place:

Fall 2012 Goals 

  1. Stop bingeing: this will always top my goals list for forever
  2. Open my Etsy store: I’ve made tons of jewelry and people keep offering money for my jewelry (including a toll booth collector) so I want to open an Etsy store to try to earn some extra money
  3. Finish refinishing my vanity: I’ve refinished it once before and I hated out it turned out.  So I’m going to redo it.
  4. Be more social: I have a tendency to be anti-social but I am going to force myself to spend more time off my couch and being with friends.
  5. Do yoga at least once per week: I feel so much better when I do yoga on a regular basis and unfortunately I know that I wouldn’t do it every day right now but I can aim for once a week.
  6. Exercise at least five days per week: Surprisingly I have not a problem with working out but I want to keep up my working out motivation.
  7. Do something creative at least three times a week:  Creativity is very important to me whether it’s art journaling, beading, stamping, scrapbooking, etc so I need to keep it consistent in my life.
  8. Read at least one book every two week: I love to read and I get tons of books at the library.  I need to stop watching Netflix and start reading.
  9. One new activity/learning experience each month: My friend and I have decided that we need to start learning new things and doing different activities.  Our goals are to find a new activity at least once a month.
  10. Learn how to knit:  I’ve never been good a knitting but my friend is pretty decent so I’m going to get her to teach me.

I’m fairly excited about my fall goals.  Now some of these goals might transition into winter but it feels good to have a motivation guide.  I’m just going to keep this page of my art journal open so I can look at it (easily) when I’m lacking motivation.  When I’m lacking that motivation to change my life, I end up with the blahs and I don’t want to waste my life in the blahs.

Do you have any fall goals? 

Posted in books, crafting, Musing, Workout, yoga | 8 Comments »

September 20, 2012

Let’s get Physical!

One thing I’ve been consistent about (despite my lingering tendencies to binge) is exercise.  Purchasing my personal mini elliptical has been the best decision I’ve made in recent months.  It also makes getting up at 4am to exercise before work much easier (that and season 4 of Drop Dead Diva on my DVR).   But I really want to get fit again.  I miss running 6 miles then doing Body Pump.  I miss being asked to take the Body Step training so I could become an instructor (seriously, becoming a Body Step instructor is my fitness goal). Right now, I’m too terrified to take a step class because I think I would embarrass myself because I am too out of shape.

Sad and out of shape face (though my eye shadow has stayed on for 14 hours despite a 6 mile walk)

And I love doing all my workout videos:

But I have serious workout video ADD.  I get bored even when Jillian Michaels is kicking my ass (which she always does).  So when I went to Target the other day I decided to check out the workout videos (I’m kind of a workout DVD and self help book junkie).  When I stumbled  upon this DVD:

Sparkpeople 28 Day Bootcamp

First, I love Sparkpeople!  I’ve joined other calorie counting/fitness tracking websites but Sparkpeople is my favorite.  I love the tons of articles about health, fitness, motivation, etc.  You can even blog!  Even though my food is being tracked via my meal delivery program, I wanted to track my food to help (hopefully) reduce the binges and I wanted to track my workouts to make sure I’m working out enough.  Second, I’ve been thinking about purchasing this DVD for a couple for a couple of months but have never committed.  Mainly because I’ve bought enough workout DVDs that I disliked and only attempted the workout a couple of times.  But in the grand scheme of things, what’s $12.99 towards improving my health.  So I bought the DVD and started the 28 day bootcamp plan.

The first day workout was 22 minutes (including a 6 minute warmup and 4 minute cooldown).  Now, I’m not going to lie, I barely broke a sweat.  I was kind of disappointed so I decided to add another segment (aka the 20 minutes Tone and Burn).  Oh my goodness did I get my booty kicked.  I love combining cardio and strength (ie lots of squats and lunges with arm exercises).  For one of the last exercises, Coach Nicole had us do a one arm shoulder press while doing a curtsy followed by a side kick (holy balance).  After I finished the Tone and Burn I was glad that I had bought this DVD.  I plan on following the bootcamp plan while adding extra exercises on easier days.  I really enjoying having a plan because it keeps me on track and keeps me exercising (including my 4am wakeup call tomorrow morning).

Do you enjoy having a workout schedule?  Or do you like to take it one day at a time?

Here’s a goofy picture to make up for my sad face!

Posted in Workout | 4 Comments »

September 19, 2012

Weekend Review

I know it’s already hump day but I was sick Monday and Tuesday with little energy to blog.  So I did lots of sleeping.  But I had a fantastic weekend with a new friend and old friends.

Friday night I met Alex (from The Run Within) for coffee (err…we just talked..no coffee) and then watched Vegucated at Tranquil Space.

 

Source

I had a blast hanging out with Alex.  I can’t wait till we can get together again!

Saturday morning, I drove a bajillion miles to Virginia Beach to see my sorority sister April, her husband, and daughter (who just turned 2).  April has been one of my friends who has been there through thick and thin.  She’s seen me at my worse and she’s seen me at my best.  After a rough year (giving birth while her husband was deployed), April is in her happy place with a great husband, adorable daughter in a lovely house and fantastic job.  I was glad to get see her adult life in Virginia Beach.  But even though, we’ve both grown up, we (mainly me) likes to goof around:

I look quite sexy with a mustache.

And even though I dragged all my packaged meals down to her house, we decided to go out to dinner in Williamsburg (sans baby and husband) for girl time.  April really wanted me to try this restaurant called Food For Thought.

First our waitress brought us a bread basket.  Unfortunately, none of the bread was vegan.

But that’s okay because I was saving room for the hummus platter.

Honestly, I am a hummus snob but this is some of the best hummus I have ever eaten.  I wanted to order 3000000 servings of the hummus to take home and live on for the rest of the year.  Plus they served veggies with the hummus, most restaurants only serve pita.

For dinner, I order the ultimate vegetarian and veganized it:

Spaghetti squash with a vegan basil pesto

Now I wasn’t super hungry after all that hummus but the spaghetti squash was so delicious I might have eaten it all.  Though I really didn’t touch the rice because I’m not the biggest rice fan.  April ordered the crab cake and steak after politely asking me if I would be upset if she ordered meat…which doesn’t (except veal: veal really offends me).

We left with full bellies and headed back to April’s house to sleep.  However, we woke up nice and early to take the baby on a nice walk through April’s housing community.  It’s a beautiful community with a walking trail and millions of ponds.  I felt so grownup walking with a baby in the stroller and discussing our favorite houses.

We dropped the baby off, got pedicures/manicures, and I headed home.  I had a fantastic weekend filled with lovely friends and delicious food.  I wish I hadn’t fallen ill after work on Monday but now I’m riding high thinking of my great weekend and I can’t wait to do it all again soon!

Posted in Random Food, Restaurant Review, Workout | 1 Comment »

September 12, 2012

A Beautiful Life

One of my friends and I were talking today about our lives.  Even though we are both 26, we still feel unsettled as if we’re waiting for life start.  We dream of traveling and going to NYC fashion week and finding God as a ashram in India a la Elizabeth Gilbert and taking sick days to go to Turkish baths.  Finally I said “I just want a beautiful life”.  And my clever friend replied “But Sarah you already have a beautiful life“.  She listed in detail all the beautiful parts of my life: my family, my friends, my career, my apartment, my success.  In a sudden moment of clarity I realized that I had all the ingredients for a beautiful life but I wasn’t mixing them together.  I had sat them on the counter and started waiting for the butter to soften (aka symbolizing me losing weight).  It’s amazing how easily we are distracted by the parts of our life that seem incomplete and miss the beautiful parts that encompass the majority of our lives.

All my life I’ve felt so close to living this charmed and beautiful life I’ve dreamed about since I was a little girl.  I just needed a better job, a better boyfriend (or a boyfriend at all), those pair of shoes, this purse, lose 60lbs, takes tons of beautiful pictures on Instagram (follow me @lovelyfleur86 if you are so inclined), etc.  But when I got each of those items, I still needed more, I still wanted more.

Obligatory Instagram pictures!

Perhaps my perpetual desire to fill my life with beautiful things keeps me motivated, keeps me working hard, and prevents me from falling by the wayside.  But in reality I think the constant wants emphasized by a lot of “I wish” leaves me feeling bitter and exhausted from chasing something  I will never catch.  It’s one thing to make goals, it’s another thing to be so consumed by desire that you’re never satisfied with the beauty surrounding you.  Perhaps a degree of gratitude and recognition for all the wonderful things in your life help you become satisfied with your life.  And just because you’re satisfied with your life, doesn’t mean there isn’t any room to grow or set goals or change your life.  Being grateful and recognizing the beauty in your life, makes you beautiful and as long as you are beautiful, your life will be beautiful.  

Posted in Musing, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

September 10, 2012

How Not To React

This past weekend one of my best friends came to visit me!  It’s been almost two years since I’ve seen her and I looked like this:

I was really proud of my damn collarbones.

And I can’t lie, I was nervous.  I never thought that my friend would ever judge me.  Not only does she read my blog but I had also told her what had been going on with me (a while ago).  But still I was stressed out and had a moment of panic when trying to decide what to wear (and seriously just because I’m plus size doesn’t mean I want to wear a tent).  In college and during our post-college visits, I’d drag her ass to the gym and we’d go tanning and shopping and spend hours indulging in makeup.  We were the hott girls and I was stressed out because I wan’t the same girl that I had been and I’ve let that fact control my life for the past almost two years.

This is one of my favorite pictures of us.

Of course, once she arrived we started talking like we had never been separated.  I stopped caring and reverted back to the old Sarah who would sing the score from the South Park movie with one of her best friends while stripping down to her bra.  We had a great time hiding inside from the thunderstorms, talking about our lives, and making future plans to see each other again.  After she left Sunday afternoon, I ran errands and picked up the rest of my birthday presents from my parent’s house.   I got home and decided (in my normal restrictive behavior) to wait to eat dinner despite the fact I was hungry.  Instead, I made the ridiculous decision to make chocolate chip cookies to take into work to fatten up my current co-workers (one of my co-workers had worked with me at a previous job and had been asking when I was going to feed everyone).  I donned one of my cute aprons and grabbed my camera.  I was determined that I would take lots of pictures and write a cute blog with some clever line about needing to use the tempting chocolate chips.  So after whipping up the dough, I tasted a small sample (something I never used to do but after several batches of poor cookies, I always sample) but I didn’t stop.  Instead I ate several large spoonfuls of cookie dough.

Disgusted I tossed the bowl in the sink and filled it with water.  I went into the bathroom, brushed my teeth, hopped in the shower, and started to cry.  After seeing my friend, I was reminded of the thin girl I had been.  And now I was fat and pathetic.  After my shower, I threw away my prepared dinner and sat around all evening feeling sorry for myself (something I’n quite good at).  I went to bed too late (and hungry) and woke up too early this morning to work out before work.  Despite my four hours of sleep, I was able to calm down and relax into my body.  Looking back, I realized that I completely overreacted and I shouldn’t have thrown away my dinner (the dough is a different story because I might have eaten it).  Instead I should have take a step back, recognized that several spoonfuls of dough wasn’t going to kill me.  I could have stopped and remembered that I might not be that skinny but I still am that same girl in those pictures.  Occasionally we need to stop and take a step back from the overwhelming emotions that seem to control our decisions.  Staying present in those moments is important to recovery as is accepting oneself without any emphasis on one’s physical being.  The trick is to remember that all you need is one moment to stop and breath.

So I refuse to allow a few hours of self doubt and pity to ruin an otherwise fantastic weekend.  And next time I lose my sh*t around vegan chocolate chip cookie dough, I’ll take a moment before I freak out and realize that vegan chocolate chip cookie dough isn’t the source of my all problems.

Posted in Musing, Random Food | 1 Comment »

September 9, 2012

Can We Please Stop?

Can we please stop judging other people’s eating habits?  

Can we please stop judging other people’s life decisions**?

Can we please stop refusing to understand that different people walk different paths in life?

Can we please stop believing that just because our “way” has worked for us doesn’t mean that it will work for everyone else?

Can we please stop defining ourselves by our weight or size of our pants?

Can we please stop assuming that people don’t know what’s healthy and what’s not?

Can we please stop forgetting that we don’t know other people’s stories?

Can we please stop telling overweight people to eat less and move more?

Can we please stop telling skinny people to eat a sandwich?

Can we please stop, take a deep breath, open our hearts, and learn to treat everyone (including ourselves) with compassion?

 

*Inspired by my comments/interactions on this post.

**Assuming this person isn’t committing murder, rape, etc.

 

 

Posted in Musing | 2 Comments »

September 6, 2012

Mini Victories

Even after a good beading session yesterday, I still woke up feeling anxious and stressed out for no reason.  I found myself at home: anxious, tired, frustrated, and wanting to lose myself in any junk food I could find.  But after a weekend of indulgences, wanting to lose weight, and a determination to stop bingeing, I spent all afternoon making pros/cons list of eating.

Pro: immediate relief of anxiety, junk food tastes good.

Con: perpetual guilt, weight gain, more anxiety, junk food is expensive, already spent a lot of money on a meal plan.

Clearly there are WAY more cons than pros to bingeing (and I didn’t even list them all).  But that idea of immediate relief is incredibly tempting.  Somehow I managed to get through the afternoon by hiding in bed with a good book and pretending to meditate.  Finally around 6pm, the urge to eat something had become incredibly overwhelming (I would like to add that I wasn’t physically hungry).    As I wandered towards my wallet and keys so I could pop downstairs to the store in my apartment, I stopped, took a deep breath, and turned around.  I threw on my sneakers, a sports bra or two (hey the girls need support), and jumped on my mini elliptical.  An hour later, I finished my workout feeling amazing and sweaty.  I had watched the first part of The Great Gatsby while I worked out and it made me feel a lot better because everyone in that movie is way more messed up than me (schadenfreude at its finest).  So the lovely combination of elliptical and The Great Gatsby  killed any desire to binge.

I’ve rarely fought off binges.  Most of the time if I don’t binge it’s because I’ve had no desire to binge.  Unfortunately the urge to binge is probably similar to a smoker craving a cigarette.  It is incredibly overwhelming and most of the time I give in.  But this time I didn’t.  This time I fought back and beat the binge.  Who knows what will happen next time I want to binge?  But I know: I won today.

Speaking of food, the meal plan has been going well.  I’ve been really enjoying all my meals except for this weird fruit ambrosia thing for breakfast this morning.

Honestly, I am really enjoying this meal plan.  Most of the food is delicious and I’m eating foods that I would never make for myself.  I’m thinking this meal plan is really going to help me beat the binge beast (and my elliptical and the GG).

Any mini victories this week?

Posted in Diets To Go, Workout | 6 Comments »

September 5, 2012

Beading Away Stress

I’ve been feeling a bit anxious lately.  It could be my new age or it could be my eating wasn’t that great this past weekend.  It could be that I’m just a naturally anxious person or it could be a combination of all three.  Despite working out everyday and eating my meal plan, I’m still feeling slightly twitchy.  And even though I love buying shoes, I can’t buy shoes every time I feel anxious or stressed because I’m not that rich.  Bill Gates might not even be that rich.  I needed to do something that didn’t involve eating or shopping or more working out so I busted out my creative thinking cap and started working on some beading projects.

Honestly if someone would pay me to be a professional crafter, I’d quit my job in a heart beat and become the next Martha Stewart (without the whole prison thing).   Fortunately my grandmother and mother are huge crafters so they’ve helped me get addicted to beading and stamping and I’ve picked up a few creative habits on my own (scrapbooking, art journaling, etc).  Beading, however, is one of the easiest creative endeavors to start and work on during the hectic work week.  You don’t have to haul out a bunch of paper and stamps and markers and glue, etc.  All you need is a few tools, some beads, wire, and the desire to create wearable art.  Lately I’ve been a huge fan of beading weaving which involves thread, beads, and needles.  I just finished a bracelet tonight that I created using the bead weaving technique:

Seriously taking pictures of jewelry is difficult!  Or I’m just a poor photographer.

I had actually started this bracelet when I was in middle of no-where Michigan but didn’t buy enough beads!  Fortunately my mother brought me the beads I needed after she returned from middle of no-where Michigan.  It is actually a fairly simple bracelet once you have a general idea of the beading pattern.

I also decided to do some stringing.  Stringing involves stringing beads on wire and using annoying things called crimps which are little barriers to beads sliding off the wire.  Unfortunately, I’m not always skilled with crimps so I had to take apart the necklace I had strung in order to restring the necklace and hopefully get the crimps right this time.  I can’t wait to finish this necklace because it’s classy and perfect for layering multiple necklaces.

This time I’ll get the crimps right so I hopefully don’t have to restring the beads…again.  Second time’s the charm right?

Honestly I really recommend developing some sort of craft or creative endeavor that interests you.  It’s one of the best stress busters.  Creativity is an important part of humanity and exploring your creative side is a great way to handle the monotony of the stereotypical 9-5 work day.  I’m feeling much less anxious (though those feelings of anxiety can hit when I’m trying to do those silly crimps) and I’m excited to wear my new bracelet.

How do you feel about crafting and being creative?

Posted in crafting, Musing | 3 Comments »

« Older Entries  |  
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 38 other followers