TWO HOURS!

I just went to the gym for two hours.

TWO HOURS!!!!

I don't think I've ever done that.

This morning, I got up early and took Lucky (aka hubby) to the train station for 6:30am. He's going for some extra training today for work in the big city. I came home and immediately re-tucked myself back into bed. I have been so tired lately. Not sure why. I could have slept until noon, but I didn't.  Instead I got out of bed yet again at 9:45am. I had planned to go to yoga this morning and although I wasn't really feeling like it, I was determined to follow through anyway.

Yoga was interesting. It wasn't like any other yoga class I've gone to. There were no sun salutations. There was no major savasana at the end. We did not use bolsters or straps or have blankets.  After all, this yoga class was at Goodlife, rather than a posh yoga studio.  At first, I wasn't sure about it, and I don't think I was the only one. One person left shortly after we started. Regardless though, I stuck to it, and still enjoyed it. The stretches are helpful for my hips and that's all that really matters. I will go again.

After yoga, instead of coming home, I decided to attend another class. A class called Sh'BAM!
I'm not sure about you, but I've never heard of Sh'BAM before. I first noticed it when looking on the gym's class exercise board. It's labelled as 'moderate' intensity so I thought I'd give it a try. Zumba is also labelled moderate.

Sh'BAM was great. I had a lot of fun and was pretty whipped when it was finished.  My first impression is that Sh'BAM is actually very similar to Zumba.  It's also a combo of dancing and aerobics combined, presented in a fun modern way. I think the only real difference between Zumba and Sh'BAM is the music. Now don't quote me, as I'm new to both, but Zumba seems more imbedded in salsa music with a few other songs thrown in, where Sh'BAM has more pop and hip hop music with a little bit of salsa. One is just as great as the other, which is why I'm surprised Sh'BAM isn't more popular. Each Zumba class I take is packed, where as today's Sha'BAM class there were only eight of us. It's kinda a shame. At the same time as I say that though I liked the fact the class wasn't packed so I had more space to dance! This girl has two left feet half the time, so I need my space!

Since my return home I have been updating this blog. I finally uploaded the remaining salad photos for my #100daysofSALAD challenge that I completed on November 1st. You can see them here. I also started a new tab for my next challenge - #100daysofSOUP. Stayed tuned for this. I'm pretty excited about it. It's a perfect challenge for this time of year. Feel free to join in on the fun!!! My hope is to make low fat vegetarian soups and share them with all of you (including WW PointsPlus points for my fellow weight watchers). I plan to start in mid-december when I return home from my vacation. I'd start it now,  but I fear I'd wouldn't be able to meet the challenge when in Jamaica. Now, I do realize that they likely will have soup at the resort, but the question is, would it be vegetarian? I'm not sure. After all, it's hard enough getting a vegetarian soup at Tim Hortons or Subway! As a result, to play it safe, I'll start when I return home. It should be fun.

Planning

Well... My plan to track hasn't been going so well for the last three days. I've been completely off program. Thanksgiving tends to do that to people. Saturday we had hubby's family over and then Sunday we went out for dinner with my parents. They then came back to our place for pie. I've ate a lot of pie these last three days. Thankfully it's all gone now. I don't regret my decisions to eat what I wanted this past weekend, but I know it's now time to get back to tracking. I have been more tired than normal lately and I know it has to do with my carb and sugar filled meals I've been eating. So today I will count points and continue on with my journey. I expect a gain come Sunday but hopefully if I stay on point for the next five days, it might not be as bad as I think it could be. 

Besides getting back on track with counting points, I also have realized I need a better plan when it comes to exercise. You see, as I lose weight my daily WW point limit goes down. I've already dropped two points from when I started. It's exciting to drop points, but scary as well. I sometimes have a hard time staying within my daily limit and end up using some of my weekly points. It's totally allowed, but I don't like having to use them like that. The only way I can avoid that is to gain points with exercise. I need to start doing this now. It's time. If I don't get into a routine now, it will only be harder later. I struggle right now with 37 points a day at times, if I get to my weight loss goal and only have  25 points, I'll be starving! I need exercise points!! 

As a result, I created a plan. I made an exercise calendar. Firstly,  I looked into yoga. I've been thinking and talking about going back to the studio for awhile now, so last night I sighed up for a new beginner class. It will run for 6 weeks starting on Monday October 27th. I then looked into Zumba and found one offered on Wednesday nights. As I work shift work I'll only be able to do two a month for now, but it's a start. I then looked into aquafit and found times I can enjoy doing that too. I wrote it all out, now I just have to execute it! 

I love this new plan and I think I should be able to do it without any issues. I just have to fight the laziness. Like many others, when I'm tired all I want to do is, well.... nothing. Doing nothing got me fat. It's time to start doing something! I picked exercises that I think will be okay for my back and hips as they are still giving me issues. My hope is that with more stretching and strengthening and muscle building I'll only improve.  Each time I do the exercise I wrote out on my calendar, I will give myself a check mark. 

At the end of the month I'll add them up. Wish me luck!  

Yoga attempted

Hahaha.... Oh how I wish I had someone to tape me doing yoga this afternoon, it would have made your day. 

You see, my tenant has 130 episodes of yoga taped on our PVR. No seriously, 130!! 

I thought since there were so many episodes I'd try one. 

Now, I have done yoga before. I've actually completed level 1-3 at my local yoga studio, but that was over a year ago. 

When I hit play on this tape, I think the most ab work my belly got was from laughing. Yes, there were "beginner to crazy" models doing poses, but a lot of poses were new to me and the pace was fast. 

I tried this pose and ended up crying from laughter as my belly wiggled... In my face! 

Oh man, lol... Too funny. 

I think in the future I'll stick to the studio. 

Since I only ended up doing the video for about 15 or so minutes, I spend another 15 or so minutes vacuuming. I live in a multi-level townhouse so vacuuming my stairs can be a workout. This time I ended up braking a sweat so I'm counting it as one. 

What did you do to move more today? 

Chaturanga Dandasana

Thank you yoga for once again teaching me the importance of love, peace and balance, while also reminding me of the fact my arms are still limp pieces of spaghetti. Homework for this week, practice chaturanga dandasana -- daily. Even if it kills me.

Eat, Pray, Love

Today was a great day. It started out with a 45min massage, followed by a great walk with friends and ended with a free yoga class down at the waterfront.

It was wonderful.

Yesterday was pretty awesome too. I had a lunch date with a friend and swam in her parent's backyard pool. And I do mean swim. I did the egg beater, front crawl etc, etc........ it was great despite developing a sunburn (which made for an interesting massage this morning!).

Going forward, my friend and I are going to try doing lane swimming together. I'm a bit nervous about it (as I'm pretty slow), but I do enjoy swimming, so I thought why not give it a try? -- again. I also am going to try to get out and walk more with my other friends..... so who knows, I might not need that gym membership after all. At least not until snow hits the ground again.

On the whole my mood has been good. I'm attempting to 'free my mind' and negative thoughts and deflect any negative energy or worries. It's not easy at times, but for the most part I'm doing pretty good. I'm still disappointed in outcomes of certain things, but I must remember that God has plans for me. I wish he would tell me what the heck those plans were already, but I guess I'll just continue doing what I'm doing and hopefully one day I'll know.

Right now I'm trying to find balance in my life. I'm trying to remain centred, happy, proud and most importantly at peace.

I'm eating (healthy mind you)

I'm praying

and I'm loving...

Okay well...two out of three ain't bad. Mind you I may not have romance love in my life right now *sigh*, but I sure do have friendship love, family love and even fur baby love!  That's pretty damn good I'd say.

I must say I do love the memoir Eat, Pray, Love and just bought the movie (I read the book years ago, but I'll probably read it again very soon). I was excited when I recently found out though there was a follow up to her Eat, Pray, Love.  It's called Committed.  Although I think I probably will find that I connect more to the old 'I'm a mess, I need to find myself' Liz rather than the new 'in a relationship' Liz,  I do hope I find it just as wonderful and can learn more lessons from her going forward.

Anyway, have a good weekend everyone! I'll have more to share on my return!

Namaste

It sure felt great to say 'namaste' again tonight. It has been far too long. I had forgotten how great it makes me feel. How whole. How centred, How relaxed.

It was wonderful to get back into the studio and start practicing again. I'm so thankful that they had room in their intro class for me (since I only signed up two days ago and the first class was tonight).

I decided to take the studio's  "intro to yoga" four week class this time. Although I've done drop in classes in the past,  I thought if I was going to get back into it this time, I better start from the beginning. Learn the positions properly. Learn the background of yoga  and go from there.

I loved it.

Yoga is definitely my kind of exercise and this time I plan to stick with it!

Being kind to myself

I'm still here. Amazing isn't it? ;-) The best part is so is my motivation!

The last few days have been a bit busy with family stuff, but I did manage to get out for a walk today. I do have to rest and nap as I prep for work tonight, but because it's a gorgeous 28C (82F) day here in southern ontario I didn't want to waste it entirely.  I ended up walking an hour on the route, that in the past I have run. Even though I didn't run it this time, my high pace walk got my heart rate to 114 bpm and sweating like a beast, so my mission was still accomplished. My mission you ask? Well...

Burning f*ing calories of course!

....and lets face it. My fast walk probably is as fast as my slow run right about now!

Other than that, I've been reading this  new book I picked up at Chapters the other day. I decided not to go with the 17 day diet book, but instead I'm reading "the kind diet" by Alicia Silverstone.
I'm not saying I'm going vegan or anything, but I feel this diet is better geared to a vegetarian and that is what I am....so here goes nothing. I'm yet again learning about the benefits of complex carbs, grains, beans and vegetables I can't really even pronounce the name of. Hopefully this time it will stick and I'll be making great healthy meals in no time, rather than running to the local drive thru which always seems to be my fall back when being 'bad'. Oh how I LOVE french fries! Let me tell you though. Much like the rest of my love life *sigh* They don't love me! As a result I gave them up entirely just like meat poultry, fish, coffee and pop about a month ago. Hopefully I can keep it up like I have with the rest.

Anyway, more on the exercise front. I also am looking at joining a gym. Something I haven't done in years. There is a small one across the road from me that I might try. It's called Anytime Fitness. A friend's husband goes there for only $30/month, so if I can get  a deal like that....I'm in! I've realized that if I'm going to continue with my running, I have to do it indoors. I use the (crazy) changing weather patterns of Southern Ontario too often as an excuse. This way I could still workout no matter what.

In the meantime though, I've decided to start doing yoga again! I just signed up for a beginner four week yoga class that starts on wednesday! I'm very excited to get back at it. I'm also going to attend their free class they offer down at the local waterfront on friday evenings.  It should be lovely.

So I'm feeling good and staying focused. Yes, I could be doing even more, but for now I'm happy where I am at and that's all that matters. I've just turned 32 and by 33 I hope to be around the same weight, energy and self confidence level that I was when I was 23. I'm giving myself a year to lose my unwanted pounds. I can do it peeps. I know I can. I just need to stay focused and not get derailed by life.

Me @ 23 in Ghana, West Africa having the time of my life
Weight at about 170lbs (I'm 5'11" remember)

Cheese

Tonight I ate vegetarian lasagna.

This was a bad idea for two reasons. Unlike the Amy's brand I told you about,  this lasagna was.....

1. 1/8 slice for 6 points , but who really measures when scooping out tasty pasta from a huge pan? I sure the hell don't. *sigh*
2. COATED in cheese

I'm lactose intolerant people!!!!!

What was I thinking? Oh right...... I wasn't.....again.

Sure, sure I took my lactose pills before I ate followed by my beano pills (oh joy), but still I am sitting here feeling like a helium balloon that needs to be popped. I'm VERY uncomfortable. I'm sooooo bloated. So much so that the gas pains are radiating up my arm to my shoulder. I know...I'm a freak!

On top of that, the lactose pills I take completely plug me up. So not only am I feeling bloated, but now I'm constipated too. To help with that little issue, I then have to take doses of  senokot to help me go to the little girl's room. This means MORE pills (I've tried prunes etc...peeps, it doesn't work for this gal).

Oh man.... *sigh* ......why oh why, didn't I learn yesterday when I had the first stupid (larger than I hate to admit) portion of this cheese-o-plugness? Yup, you got it.... I have ate this stupid stuff two days in a row. Hey...I did say it was a huge pan! Yesterday the belly cooperated...somewhat.....today...not so much.

Annnnnyyyyyyway...now I have a day and a half to get this bloating and constipation thing under control before weigh-in on thursday. Right now, the scale isn't loving me at all. I feel a disappointing WI coming my way.

Damn you cheese....

YOU ARE SO NOT WORTH IT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!

update: Yoga Day 4 completed at 4:00pm when I woke up. I just did one video from youtube today as my belly and mind aren't really feeling it.

Yoga challenge - Day 3 done and it's only 5AM!

Guess who practiced yoga at 3am? Me, that's who!!!

Usually on my break at work I'm a couch potato. My brain and  body are tired and I just want to tune out for awhile.

Tonight was different.

Tonight, I decided that I would get in my 3rd yoga session of the 7 day Yoga challenge while at work. I thought who cares if I'm wearing jean capri pants! I'm going to do this dammit!  So with determination seeping through my veins I ended up signing into the computer in the lounge, bringing up the internet,  entered youtube into the browser and searched for some beginner videos.

I did not turn on the TV.

(okay well....at least not until my yoga was over!).

Thankfully it was a pretty easy search to find yoga on youtube. There are MANY yoga videos there.

I decided to try these ones out.....

Yoga for beginners - part 1
Yoga for beginners - part 2
Yoga for beginners - part 3
Yoga an evening practice

This is the type of yoga I'm use to. These yoga sessions are truly for beginners. They still strengthen, but you travel through the moves at a slower pace and get use to being in the different poses. I loved it. Thanks youtube I couldn't have done it tonight without you!

The four videos combined had me practicing for roughly 38 minutes. Not too shabby I'd say.

Food wise I've done okay so far.  I'm eating veggies and fruit galore, and even had a slice of vegetarian lasanga. I'm still hungry though. Sadly it seems to be one of those nights where that stupid orange WW monster is bugging me ALL THE TIME! I just ate some cucumbers which usually help fill me up, but not tonight. My stomach is still growling. So annoying I tell you.   I know I haven't drank the amount of water I normally would though and this is probably why.  I need to buy lemons. I recently realized....

water with lemon - I drink litre upon litres of H20
water without lemon - my water intake sucks the big one.

Lemon is a must if I'm going to be drinking water. I just don't like water without it. Not unless I'm freak'in hot and I'm sweaty and it's after a run. On a normal work day.... I need lemon in my water! Not only does it make my water taste WAY better, a bonus is it's good for me too!

You can check out the benefits of lemon in water...here, and here!

Day 2 - yoga challenge done!

Today I slept in until about 2:30pm in prep for my night shift tonight. Only three more to go. Thank goodness!  After I woke, I had a little breakfast of one free range, omega-3 brown egg, with 1/4cup whites and some toast. I then downloaded my next free 20 minute yoga session from Yogadownloads.

This time I decided to try their free "Jivamukti Yoga" class. I had no idea what jivamukti yoga was so thought, what the hell...lets find out!

According to a The Secrets of Yoga website, they define this type of yoga as.....

• 
  
  one of  the nine internationally recognized styles of Hatha Yoga.
  

• 
  
  The name Jivamukti means “liberation while living.” It is taken from the Sanskrit term "Jivanmuktih" which is used to describe the state of enlightenment or God realization. Jiva means “individual soul” and mukti means “liberation”.

The video itself states Jivemukti yoga has 5 tenets

1. Practice of non-violence, compassion or caring -- ie. ethical vegetarianism,  animal rights, and protection of the environment (right up my alley!).
2. yoga of devotion -- ie. leading a practice of service
3. meditation -- ie. Seated or moving meditation of being present in the moment
4. sound or vibration or energy - ie. chanting, sharing poses, listening to uplifting music
5. yoga scripture

Annnnyyyyway.....

Very cool yoga with of course poses where my belly fat got in the way from doing them 100% correctly...ugh..... I did the best I could though and that's all that matters! Day two - complete!  

On a side note.....Recently I've realized that I haven't been really sharing the art of vegetarian cuisine very well. Sorry about that. I suck. It's just life (and these darn shifts) has gotten in the way of me 'cooking'. Instead of cooking from scratch, I've been reheating from frozen. Once again...ugh.....

When I decided to become a veggie head back in March, I realized that a lot of the brand name frozen entrees I use to eat (that were low cal) didn't really target the veggie market. Most had chicken in them. As a result, I recently tried a few Amy's brand organic entrees which I found in the organic section of my local gorcery store. I have to say they are pretty good. A tad expensive, but good.  Of course they don't taste as awesome as homemade, but for a lazy girl that has recently needed quick and easy healthy meals to take to work,  these are spot on.

A run and yoga - say what?

Blogging truly does keep me accountable. I said I was going to run today on a previous post and because I said that (and I didn't want to let you down, or myself down), I did it!

I'm pleased to report that after seeing the movie Inception, I came home and ran as I planned at around 9pm. What a difference from my last run. It felt fantastic. It's 22C outside, but actually feels that way too! No humidity tonight and because of that, I did not feel like I was going to die this time. Thank you Jesus!  I felt great actually and my pace is improving. I can feel it! I'm so pleased. I'm less discouraged, and I'm motivated to push forward. I will be a runner gosh darn it. One way or another, I will be.

After my run, I came home and knew I had to do some yoga. Over on Lynn's blog The Next Chapter she has decided to host a challenge and I signed up for it.  The Challenge? Seven days of full on yoga. Wooohoooo!!!! Are we on the same page or what?!  Just a few days ago I was telling my coworkers and best friend that I need to get back into practicing yoga. I fell in love with it back in January and then a few months later stopped. I have no idea why really, but I did....ugh....story of my life.

 I went to the website that Lynn recommended and did my first free (key word - free!!!!) 20min yoga session. The session I did is called Yoga for Weight loss. Kind of a no brainer to pick that one, don't you think? It was a great 20 minute session. I uploaded it on my little laptop. Put my laptop in between my cat's beds on the bench at the end of my bed and did the session in my bedroom. I have yet to get a yoga mat, but really I didn't need one.  My carpet was fine.  Some poses were hard for me. I'm out of practice, out of shape and had never done some of the poses before.  I managed though and now feel stronger and more relaxed all at the same time!  


One tip though...... 

If you are doing yoga at home and you have cats....you might want to lock them out of the room when you practice. Emily my eldest kitty thought it would be a great idea to purrrr like a crazy cat and lick me while I was doing my breathing exercises at the start of the session! Cute? Absolutely, but she didn't really help me get into the zone if you know what I mean! 

Jiggle Jiggle

Last night I got in Week 3, Run 2 of the C25K.  The last 60 seconds, of the last three minute run was tough, but I did it!  I ran on the road this time, and can I just tell you, I felt super runner cool! I was thinking "oh yeah, who's the runner now?" but as soon as I thought that, it was time to walk. This lead me to mosey onto the sidewalk. I still think people would wonder what the hell a girl was walking on the road for if I stayed there.  I really shouldn't give a damn what people are thinking, but I'm not there yet.  It was a gorgeous day yesterday. The sun was shinning which of course brought out my shadow. Oh my dear shadow. How I wish I didn't see you! ugh....jiggle, jiggle jiggle. My mouth dropped. I instantly wanted to quit so I didn't have to see that nasty shadow,  but then I realized  that wouldn't help the situation in the long run now would it? After all I want that jiggly ass to be one firm bottom in the coming weeks and running is going to help me get it.

I'm NOT looking forward to week 4 (the first 5 minute run). I'm going to do the last run of week 3 and if I don't feel I'm ready I might repeat week 3 over again. We'll see. Usually after the third run I'm ready to go on to the next week, but jumping from 3 minutes to 5 is HUGE! Okay, well maybe not for you marathon runners, but for this girl it is just crazy. What happen to the 4 minute mark? I like the number 4!

This morning I woke up early and went and volunteered. I groomed a few horses, wash and braided some tails for the first time (I think I was more wet than the tails!) and of course picked up some poop! Oh glorious poop. How my life revolves around you. I had a great time as always though and look forward to going back. I was just informed they have bought a new horse named "Suzy" who will be their lesson horse, so who knows....I might be riding soon! I've wanted to get back into riding and maybe now is my chance!

After coming home and having another black bean burger. I completed day three of my EA Sport Active 30 day Challenge. It was a pretty fast and easy upper body workout today. Regardless,  I know I'll be feeling it tomorrow.

Tonight I'm going to a dinner union meeting and then to yoga with a friend. We're going to try out vinyasa. I honestly have no idea what I'm in for, but here's hoping I'll be able to move tomorrow!

Operation January to June is still alive and well.

Operation January to June is still alive and well.

On sunday after I posted I did get outside for that walk. I went alone and couldn't find my ipod so I walked in silence and reflected and relax. I walked for an hour and enjoyed it. I really should have worn long johns though!!! BURRRRRRR. I got home and my legs were BRIGHT red. It seriously looked like I had  a sunburn (or I became a lobster), but no, no...it was called frostbite and windburn! I should have taken a picture. Brutal! I did enjoy the walk though for the most part. My hips are still giving me problems. I find I walk for about 30min and after that my hips get really sore. Does anyone else experience this? I thought the fact I'm stretching out the hip muscles more with yoga, it would help, but I didn't really notice a difference except they don't hurt as much the next day. Hummm....hopefully in time when I build more muscle and flexibility, I'll be better, but for now I continue to just push through the pain.

Tonight after working a 12 hour shift I went to my spinning and ball class at the Rec Centre.  That's right ladies and gents, I went and worked out after work!!! How crazy is that? I left the house at 6:15am and got home at 9:45pm. Long ass day, but a good one! I was so proud of myself for going. I do have to be honest and say I was hemming and hawing about attending. I was pretty tired, but after some wonderful encouragement from some coworkers and thinking I didn't want to fail  and have to mark down on my calendar that I didn't go, I decided to. After all, Me + Spinning = HOT ASS BODY, so really it should have been a no brainer!

A few of my colleagues are really into yoga like I am starting to be (going tomorrow - Yay!). One showed me this new place that I didn't know about in Toronto. This is when I wish I lived in the city. The classes are only $7.00. I pay $16.00!!!!! I am thinking of checking it out...but wonder if it's worth the gas to get there and who knows if I'd have to pay for parking.  He says it's a pretty good yoga studio - very authentic. It sounds like he has or does go often so now I'm like...dude, I don't want you seeing me do yoga!  I told him to tell me when he goes, so I don't go at those times...lol....with love of course. He said he'd give me two weeks. Dear lord....  I don't think I'd want anyone seeing me work out right now, let alone a dude...and a hot one at that! No thank you, but man...$7.00 is CHEAP! So we'll see. I might check it out on a weekend when the commute isn't bad driving in and out of the City. Tomorrow though, it's back to the one I know and love near where I live.

In other news, I'm very excited that I'm going to Body Blitz again in March. Two other colleagues and I are going. I soooooo love this place. It's so relaxing and just a great way to spend an afternoon! I'm not sure what treatment I'm going to get, but regardless, I know it's going to be fantastic!!!!!