Beating my body into submission...

Ok in an effort to stay current I wanted to talk about the last few days. Well when I last left you all I was feeling good and on track. And for the record I still am. I have had some really great workouts in fact I have worked out everyday since Saturday! Including last night when I had 2 Junior League meetings to go to! I know right?! And let me just say a word about my Junior League of Baltimore leadership team! I put it out there that I HAD to go to the gym last night and before I got started on my presentation the President said and I know you have to get to the gym so we will not keep you too long!

I don’t get the warm and fuzzies over a lot of things but I must admit that I really felt…supported… by that statement. I have been in other settings where my workout schedule or my food choices were…well dealt with differently and I had to actually pause and be grateful for that. I gave my report, got some great feedback, had some wine…and got outta there! The benefit is there is a Lynne Bricks gym at the corner but I opted to drive to the one closer to my home because I didn’t want to stay downtown too late. Well I ended up calling them and they stayed open till 9:30pm which was news to me because I never workout at night! It was about 8pm and I made it there by 8:30pm and there were like 3 or 4 other women there. Needless to say I had my choice of workout equipment but I quickly avoided the Stairbeast lol and opted for Lippy (aka The Elliptical!)

WOW what a new day it is when Lippy is the lesser of two evils lol

Anyhow I did 35 minutes and took my tired butt home!

This is that tipping point in my set point. I can feel it. I am craving all kinds of crazy things like cupcakes… and as the devil would have it who do I spot yesterday when I was catching my late bus! Pinky the Curbside Cupcake truck! I mean seriously! I haven’t seen that damn pink truck in like 50 years ok like 5 months and of allll days it comes creeping and to MY bus stop?!? *kissing my teeth* And my bus was late!

But I resisted temptation!  Ok and the bus came… :-) LOL

Anyhoo I am back to training with Charles starting tomorrow! I mentioned in passing he closed his gym L So in an effort to keep his clients on the healthy path he worked out a free 30 day gym membership with my other gym (yes I have only 2 gyms it was 3 but Krav Maga is on hold for the moment) Anyhoo he is teaching his Chizel it class on Mondays and Wednesday at one location and Monday evenings at the other. So on Monday I did A "2 A Day!" Yes 2 workouts in one day! Whew! I think that will be my Monday norm from now on.

I am burning lots of calories at least according to my old heart rate monitor! My new one seems to clock almost half as many. Yes one day I wore them both. I don’t know what to do! I think one is too low and one may be too high! What’s a girl to do! The rule of thumb for Weight Watcher is 100 calories for 10 minutes so in 60 minutes on average the average size person would burn 600 calories. Everything has a margin of error so I guess the best thing to do is stay within my calories and workout consistently and it will pay off!

I have been logging into My Fitness Pal every day for 45 days now! Yeaaahhh me and I have been more active on boards and in groups. I was telling someone last night that I have to really immerse myself in the weight loss culture to stay focused. Birds of a feather I guess. So that’s what I have been doing.

But my body and mind are totally conspiring against me! I woke up yesterday morning craving steak! I don’t even like steak! I ended up having breakfast vs my normal Atkins protein shake and I had a fried bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich and do you know when I counted up the calories HALF of the sandwich (which is what I had) was almost 500 calories! I used to eat them like almost daily! Gheeshhh that’s just breakfast!

I know I am not one of those people who can say she doesn’t know WHY she gained weight or stayed heavy for so long. I like to eat! I enjoy food, fat, greasy, rich, flavorful foods! I just have to make better choices! Or like yesterday not have as much. First bite, 25th bite same thing except the calories.

Like last night after the gym it took EVERYTHING in me not to stop for a cookies and cream milk shake! Mind you the Chick-fila milk shake is like 800 calories! I had to speed by the shopping center! To make matters worst I guess I just didn’t realize how many fast food or other food places there are on my way home from the gym! I had to drive by all of these:

Wendy’s

Burger King

Popeye’s

Subway

BoneFish

Qdoba

Famous Dave’s

Noodle & Company

Outback

Five Guys

2 Italian Restaurants

At least three Chinese Restaurants

And I know I am forgetting a few! I only live like 7 miles from my gym and 3 miles are nothing but houses oh and a cornfield! That’s crazy! Right?!

So I did break and stop for a small bag of sour cream and onion chips and as my luck would have it I am wearing my gym clothes of course and it was a tshirt I got from a fitness event that says on the front “Don’t Just Exist” so the clerk goes “Ok I won’t just exist then but ughh what does the back say…”

In my head I said “NEWMAN” Here I am coming from the gym at almost 9 pm at night stopping off for chips wearing a shirt that says “Don’t Just Exist” on the back reads “Be Fit”

#EpicFail

So needless to say I turned around... and I turned red… and said “Ha well ignore the junk I am buying now ha ha ha!” So without judgement he proceeds to tell me about his new apartment and they have a gym and the first day he could only run less than a mile and he went again yesterday and was about to do 2.8 miles! So I said “That’s great! In no time you’ll be ready for the half marathon!” He smiled and I walked out with my sour cream and onion shame!

I mean ONLY ME! It’ll be good for the book though lol

Anyyyhoooowww I am dragging energy wise b/c I am still behind on taking my iron pills and I am feeling it today. I guess with all the working out and calories cutting and another natural thing the body does is it makes you feel more sluggish and tired as it tries to hold on to dear life to the stored fat cells. So I gotta push through and take my darn iron pills!

Well no real weight loss updates YET! But at least I have been consistent within a pound or two so hoping for a break through shortly! J

I am headed to the gym tonight for spinning and I am debating going to the Beres Hammond concert. I am debating going becauseee I don't want to run into "Beres Fan" b/c more than likely he will be there. Oh we had it out one last time and for real this time I am done. No hard feelings but its just not what I want and vice versa. I am ok with that. I'll have more dating updates in a few weeks! For now all is quiet and well. *Exhaling*

Be back soon!

Keep Calm and Love The Life You Live!

That's the motto!

Well I have been a bad bad blogger... I apologize but life has...all together now...been sooo busy!!! Right! What is new!? Well I have millions of updates MILLIONS but I will narrow it down to three!

FIRST! My 37th Birthday was AWESOMMEEEEE!!!! I am SOOOOOO grateful for my life and not just the fun times but literally for my life. The end of 2011 up until..well last week I have experienced a lot of death family members, friends, sorors. Some as young as 32 some as seasoned as in their 80s. I really can’t tell you how sobering it is for me to lose all these people back to back to back. I've been to more funerals in the last 6 months than in my entire life!

Its just renewed my belief in celebrating life and living my best life ever. So in keeping with that I picked an adventure themed birthday weekend which included white water rafting! I am awesome! Yup I said it!

Wisp Resort so peaceful!

View from our room!

My Birthday Goodie bag for my guests :-)

The girls!

I along with some friends and my Bobbie Christina went to Deep Creek, Maryland on the Saturday before my birthday and stayed at the Wisp Resort in McHenry. The Whitewater rafting took place at Adventure Sports Center International.  From Baltimore its less than 2 hours and it is a picturesque trip. The five of us road along our merry way and got there in no time! I had a whole itinerary planned out (which none of them read by the way!) and we were going to do the ski lift and hike back down but it didn’t look operational and to be honest the five of us are busy career women and I think we were so taken by the beauty of the place we just went to the restaurant and opted to enjoy the beautiful scenery and each other’s company! We even skipped dinner got to bed at a decent time because we... ok I... went on youtube looking for whitewater rafting videos and I was getting a lil scared lol But it was too late to punk out now!


I came up wit the idea from a friend who went a few years ago and I thought what a great idea but at my highest weight I couldn’t really imagine doing that so set it as a goal threw it up on a vision board and when I began this blog I thought of all the things I could do with this new body and I posted a few on the poll and I am checking each item off  1) Hot Yoga – √ 2) Indoor rock climbing-√ 3) hiking-√, anddd now white water rafting-√

Here are a few pictures! And as my life would have it I was the ONLY one to end up in the dang gone water lol The 15 minute this is what to do if you fall out the boat message basically was “Keep Calm” so when I saw the Keep Calm & Love the Life You Live poster it seemed like a perfect fit! :-)

 I had a blast!!!  It was a great getaway and I would do it again in a second! I actually won two free white water rafting passes at my Sorors’s nonprofit’s annual fundraiser Hand in Hand Baltimore! As my life would have it I lost the certificates :-( I called the and even though they couldn't find it in the system they let me book the trip anyway! Of course I found it last week so I plan to scan and email the kind woman who believed me! The ASCI set up is great and our guide was awesome! I have been convinced to start a travel blog so I will put more details there on how it all works, cost, etc. In the meantime here are some pictures!

Anddd we're off!

See how I am no where to be found?!?

#2 Non stop eating-Conference recap

Last week I had a two day conference in Baltimore! It was awesome! Ok the conference was just ok but the commute was awesome! I was back to my 20 minute door to door commute what a difference that made in my life! I love my job but the commute is horrible because I spend a good 3.5 hours four days a week just getting to and from work! On a good day. If it rains forget it! Anyway I used the extra time to hit the gym and pack snacks I was so prepared for the carb loaded stuff they had there! I was proud of myself!

One thing I noticed was I eat nonstop. Literally. ALL. DAY. It stood out because we were sitting in rows and while others were taking notes or texting nonstop I kept eating nonstop!  lol Now the items were low cal or healthy items I accounted for point wise but it just made me realize when I am NOT mindful of what I am eating that is how the calories add up so quickly!  I work with someone who is very very thin and I guess because I am always looking at food and weight/sizes I notice she eats non stop all day too but its like shredded wheat and carrots. :-/ Boo! When I really get into something work wise I eat non stop and I don’t usually pay attention to what it is.

I know this was true in law school and I know that contributed to my weight gain because of the stress. I don’t know the take away other than I understand I use food for stress and as I work on reducing that I need to be mindful of what I am snacking on. Stick with zero point fruits and veggies or be mindful of the portions of the other types of snacks I keep around. I went shopping for stuff because I didn’t want to be at the mercy of the vending machines and that worked well.

Conference stash didnt have half of it but better safe than sorry!

#3  The Set Point and Switching Up workouts – Percor and Stairmaster

I was watching Discovery health and they had a special about obesity and the effects of the body and they began discussing the Set Point Theory and it reminded me of the fact that I can’t do what others do and lose weight. My set point is higher and my body will fight me to keep it there out of self preservation. My body doesn’t know that I am still overweight. I went back and did more research again and it was a good reminder that while my set point may be higher than what I want I can beat my body into submission. It sounds cruel and abusive however it is what must be done. That was why Charles was so critical when I lost weight in 2009-2010 he kept switching up my workouts. My body had to keep guessing and building muscle helps to speed up my metabolism which is key in re-setting your body’s set point.

I posted something on the article that basically said this information was liberating to me because I spent a lot of time beating myself up about not having enough self control and motivation to lose weight but its deeper than that its biological. Knowledge is power. So I am jumping out of my box while Charles is in transition (he is closing his gym this month) so I tired some new machines and my goodness is my body responding. I feel good. Stronger. Leaner. I set a goal earlier this year to lose 44 pounds by the end of the year I am already 10 pounds in! Leaving 33 to go! More info on Setpoint can be found. As I said on the board it goes under the file of life isnt fair but its good to know. I wont lose 5 pounds in a week like others b/c my body will crave high calorie/fat food to feel safe at its set point so I have to ride it out and workout hard. Or don't! My choice.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/326795-how-to-change-your-body-weight-set-point/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/256965-how-to-lower-weight-set-point/

Da Beast!

I have also been obsessive over my calories/points because a piece of cheesecake will add 5 pounds to me while my body is fighting to get back at its higher weight and in someone else it will have no impact. So as I have been out and about traveling, partying, and socializing I am being overly critical of portions and options. I lost 2.4 after July 4^th that’s a huge victory! I had bites of a few things and didn’t over do it. Same at my Aunt’s 75^th birthday dinner which was held at Pine Bar & Grill in the Bronx. The food was great but the portions were huge! A few bites and pushed the plates away! It helped that my dress was so cute and I didn’t want anything poking out that shouldn’t be ;-) But honestly the first bite and the 25^th are the same except the calories.

On my way to my Aunt's 75th Bday dinner!

The beautiful birthday girl a two time brain cancer suvivor! She's amazing! 75 years young!

My fave Doc and Cuz all the way from JA!

My Cuz cuz (aka second cousin!)

White Sangria!

Pine Bar & Grill very nice! The BX!

I had another birthday for Soror and the restaurant's portions are crazy huge I went in knowing I would take food home and it’s a 2 for 1 dinner and lunch the next day. Blue Dolphin is great though! Just not diet friendly without self control :-)

All in all life is good! My workouts are back on track. I am glad I am not someone who hates working out I do get a great sense of self satisfaction when I compete a workout!  

My heart rate monitor has been key! I stopped using the new one it was low balling me! I think my old one with the new strap may be a lil high but its closer to the online calculators so I am going with that. My goal isn’t to eat any of them anyway so its all good!

Oh I also joined Black Girls Run Baltimore! I will do another post on that! I heard about it from Mimi and she has a workout blog I have mentioned before Again not a huge fan of walking or running but it works! It’s a cool group and some of my friends 10+ years joined me last Saturday to do it! It was about a 5 miler! Whew~!

The pink BGR  pom pom I am legit now!

Last week I went to the Baltimore Farmer’s Market and got some great stuff! I spent like $25 and good tons of veggies and fruits! They taste so clean and pure! Love it! I know I still owe yall a Farmer’s Market post and I will get it done soon promise!! Last week was their 35^th Anniversary so there were a lot of people including the Mayor who is looking gooodddd and thinnnnn! I saw her in Annapolis at a sorority event and I was so shocked I gave her a high 5! It was good to see she was still holding on tight to her results! Awesome!

That's all for now! Ok a few more pics from the shenanigans over the past few weeks!

  

 Remember!!!

Keep Calm and Love The Life You Live!

At the July 4th Baltimore NPHC Day Party

SkeePhi- Rho Xi Omega's event with the Alphas

Vegas baby!!!!

Birthday Cigars! Yes I am GROWN!

My Birthday Happy Hour!

My chapter Sorors!



Life is good!
:-)
If you are keeping track I am back to being 75 pounds down! :-)
That's like the size of a 1st or 2nd grader! I didnt really appreicate that last time so I need to celebrate!