Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Happy Positive Thinking Day!

Well I am back from Jamaica mon'! Ohhh what a time I had! I spent six..count 'em...6 days on the beach in Montego Bay! Mannn oh mannnnn did I need that!

My sister joined me and we stayed at a small hotel a little ways from what is known as the Hip Strip and took a cab back and forth! It worked well and I needed the break!

I kept up with the workouts by power walking this massive hill at 6am every morning! The hill was just crazy! The first day I did 5 reps, the second day 6, the other 7, which was my max! The last day my cousin was there and we went walking maybe a mile or so down the road and back. Aside from that plenty of swimming and just soaking up the sun! Loved it!

I went to visit family and finally hit the Bob Marley museum! Longgg time coming! 

All week I just had the overwhelming feeling of gratitude. I was so grateful for the experience! Some people will never see Jamaica and all its beauty! Some people never see their family members that are older or ill! Some people never have a chance to talk with their grandparents and hear their morning prayers (yes I was ease dropping she is 94 and has out lived her husband and two of her children and still had joy and peace I wanna know what they be talking about!) 

Life is so short and we take so many things for granted! I really am grateful for having such strong genes! I am grateful for God's traveling mercies that got me from one country to another and back again! How many people have things happen along their journeys both near and far? I was grateful that my new guy friend came and got me from the airport :-) even though we had a lil communicate snaff foo and he had to move heaven and earth and his parents lol and avoid a 9/11 road closure to get me and then take me 60 plus miles out of his way and did so with a smile :-)  Grateful....

Anyway I came back feeling really grateful and positive about moving on with my healthy lifestyle meaning my workouts and weight loss even though I came back and the scale was only 1 pound less! I was sure I lost like 10 pounds lol Oh well!! I started to think about how to get myself on track and I took some action steps

1) I logged on Weight Watchers! First time in like months!
2) I texted my Personal Trainer to confirm our Monday workout
3) I went grocery shopping
4) I bought good nutritious food
5) I opened my WW points calculator and calculated the points of everything I picked up
6) Had a great workout
7) Committed to reworking my vision board
8) Watched a great video John's Personal story about weight loss 
9) I walked up & down 138 steps today
10) I will write out my weekly workouts tomorrow

I wasn't perfect in fact yesterday I was moving so fast I left to go teach and left my salad and yogurt and I had a marketing research thing to go to so I was ill prepared! I got lost so I was running too late to grab something on the go and my dinner consisted of a small bag of chips and a handful of Hersey kisses they had in the building. :-/ Not good but it could have been worst. I went on WW and journaled it all and brought two bags to work with salads, yogurts, and protein shakes.

I still broke down and had a bag of chips from the vending machine after I tore my purse and desk up looking for change like a crackhead only to find out they were 8 points!!! That was a small bag! But on the positive side I am having dinner now since I am at work late (WW lasagna) so when I teach tonight I am not tempted to had fast food or junk food.

I can be candid with you all and say I tend to be a very positive person in all aspects of my life but its been a challenge to stay positive in two areas my weight loss and my dating life. I don't know why its been such a challenge but I've been making steps towards accepting the fact that good things are in store for me in both arenas and its a process but I know it all starts in my mind and I am getting there. I posted this quote earlier

"A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes." ~Mohandas Gandhi

Lo and behold I find out that today is Positive Thinking Day! 

Positive Thinking Day - September 13th - is a day to celebrate the benefits of positive thinking.  We believe that by helping people change their thoughts we can make a lasting and positive difference in this world. 

What better day to recommit to staying positive and focused on, and grateful for the good things I have and all that is in store!

I will have loads of pics posted soon!!

Stay positive!

MoBay 2011

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Welcome September!


Where did the summer go? I can't believe its September! How terrible to see time fly on one hand but how exciting it is to welcome a new month! I need a fresh start! I just feel so ill prepared to proceed! LOL

Well the scale has been creeping back up slowly. I gained 6 pounds in like 2 weeks WTH?! I can be honest and say I have been busy and eating out and eating pretty much anything I want. I have not journaled and I have been sporadic at best with my workouts. The one thing I always say is my body is obedient if I get it together it'll come off but when I let loose its a free for all and the pounds come back with a vengeance. This summer my initial goal was to lose weight but it became apparent too much was going on and my focus wasn't where it needed to be so I am putting on the brakes! Summer is over back to business.

Today was a good day 1 I went on My Fitness Pal and logged in my food and I have four goals for September:

#1- Lose 5 pounds
#2- Exercise every day (even if it isn't hardcore 3 back to back workouts just some form of intentional exercise!)
#3- Drink 60 oz of water daily
#4- Plan my meals!

And I think these are doable. And not to make excuses but its been a stressful month some serious tragedies to people near and dear to me, an Earthquake in DC while I was a work, Hurricane Irene (thank God it was only a lot of rain for me and I didn't lose power or anything), I am teaching three classes, some work related drama, and it just been a lot. Food has always been my go to stress reliever and that is a habit I need to work on breaking one meal at a time. Some days I won some days I lost.

I am where I was May 16 when I went to my Doctor so that puts me at 23 pounds vs. 17 to goal and I am not ok with that but I just have that as a starting point to work with this fall. Still a long way from where I was January 2009 so I'll keep pushing.

On the dating front things are going well with the guy I mentioned meeting at the Beres Hammond concert. Its only been *gulp* less than a month but we have a really nice connection/vibe. I am glad I cleaned my dating slate a few weeks before even though it was just to take a mental break from dating all together but I guess God has something else in mind. We've been on 5 dates in 20 days that's bananas lol but I like it! So the story is to be continued!

Today's exercise is as follows: Eddie for Spin class. Period!

Friday: I am seeing (we'll call him the Beres Fan or BF for short) Cardio & weights at the Gym

Saturday: swimming & walking

That's all for now! I will share my new vision board soon!