Category Archives: Health

A Day Of Being Vegan (or What Do I Actually Eat On The Cleanse)

Posted on February 3, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve had lots of people ask me what exactly I eat (or what I’m allowed to eat) while I’m on this cleanse. While I do share pictures online of some foods that I’m enjoying, I figured I would break it down meal by meal.

This breakdown doesn’t include the tonics or detox drinks I’m having. Those are spread throughout the day. At the phase I’m in now, I have a detox drink when I wake up, a liver tonic between breakfast and lunch, another detox drink 2 hours after lunch, another liver tonic about 90 minutes after my last detox drink, and my bowel tonic about 2 hours after dinner. I mix all the drinks and tonics with orange juice, so that’s something I’m consuming over the course of the day that I’m not including on this meal breakdown.

For breakfast, we are supposed to have fresh fruit of smoothies. While I’m getting much better about being lazy in the kitchen, I don’t want to bother with making a smoothie in the morning. It’s too much effort for what I want. My old breakfast was toast with peanut butter. I’m not a huge breakfast person normally and while I’m being careful on the cleanse, I’m keeping that pattern.

Most days, I just eat a banana for breakfast. After having my detox drink in the morning, I’m pretty full so a banana is perfect. Sometimes I get a little fancier with my fruit.

I really like cantaloupe and strawberries and when I find some good ones, I love to add them to my breakfasts. But lately the selection is pretty bad, so I’m just eating my bananas.

For lunch, it’s supposed to be something that is not cooked (I like this since normally I am preparing lunch between working with clients on the phone or on chat for my box office job). I started out making broccoli slaw salads, but I quickly tired of broccoli slaw. Now, I’m eating either an apple with cashew butter and a little salad or a big salad.

I’m not a big lettuce person (I try and unless it’s got some sort of dairy on it I just don’t love lettuce), so my salads are pretty much tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, avocado, and walnuts. Then I top it with balsamic vinegar (I use good vinegar so I don’t feel the need to add oil). I also eat some dried apricots with my lunch most days. I forgot how much I love them and they add a perfect sweet touch to my lunches.

On days that I work out, I eat a small handful of cashews before going to my workout to add little extra protein and energy. I really need it on my workout days and even though I’m not supposed to snack on this plan, I have to do what allows me to work out and not feel sick and light-headed.

Dinners are a cooked meal. I’m eating a lot of rice and beans bowls. I think of them almost as my own version of Chipotle (which I love!).

Most dinners have sautéed onions, zucchini, and squash. Sometimes I add mushrooms or red peppers to the mix. I just sauté them down in the pan with a tiny spray of Pam (no oil). I cook them until they are pretty brown (I don’t mind them if they are overcooked). Then I put them onto a bowl of brown rice and black beans. Most of the time, I top this with avocado.

Last night, I tried a new dinner (it wasn’t the prettiest thing so I didn’t take photos). Potatoes are allowed on this plan, but when I made a baked potato earlier in the cleanse I didn’t like it. I’m used to using greek yogurt with some spices as a sour cream substitute and I missed that. So last night, I diced up a potato and cooked it in the microwave for about 4 minutes to soften the pieces up. Then I added the almost cooked potato to a pan with an entire sweet onion in it. I cooked it down until the potatoes were nice and browned and the onions were almost caramelized. It was so yummy and reminded me of hash browns!

That’s pretty much my meal breakdown! It’s a little boring and I’m figuring out how I will start adding things back into my diet in about 2 weeks (I think dairy will come first). But as you can see, I’m not starving or just drinking shakes on this plan. It is all “real” food and I’m eating quite a bit to make sure my calories don’t dip too low.

A lot of what I’m eating now will continue to be meals for me. I’m finding out that the amounts that I’m eating are working for me and while I want to add some things back (mainly dairy and eggs), I don’t feel deprived. It’s so funny how this cleanse has changed my mindset on what my body really needs to have each day. Things that I thought I had to keep in my diet (like my toast in the morning so my stomach didn’t get too upset) are no longer important to me.

One of the reasons that people go on this cleanse is to get clarity in their life (weight loss is just a bonus). I’m getting to see the results that this clarity brings to me and it’s really awesome!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged cleanse, diet, food, meal planning, recipe

Can 4 Workout A Week Be My New Normal? (or Pushing Myself Beyond)

Posted on February 2, 2015 | 2 comments

I did another 4 workout week this week. Part of the reason is because I want to maximize my results on the cleanse, but the other reason is because the 4th workout in a week isn’t feeling like it used to.

When I did my first 4th workout in a week, I was beyond exhausted. I didn’t know if that was because it was a 4th workout of if it was because I did workouts 2 days in a row. I know now that it was probably because doing a 4th workout was pushing myself. But as I’ve been adding a 4th workout more and more, it’s not feeling so bad anymore.

This is going to help me reach my goal of 175 workouts this year, but it’s more than that now. I know that if I want to accelerate and continue having results, I need to push myself more and more. And there’s only so much more I can push myself within the class. I have to add in more workouts.

Monday’s workout was a morning one. I’m going to have to do morning workouts the next few Mondays due to scheduling issues. It’s definitely a different feeling working out in the morning compared to in the afternoon. I don’t know which one is easier, but I do prefer my afternoon ones. Probably because that’s what I’m used to.

On both Monday and Wednesday, I had the same problem during my workout. My vision started to get dark and I had to break for a moment to feel normal again. I don’t believe that that is entirely the fault of the cleanse since I’ve had this issue before working out. It just hasn’t happened recently. It does scare me a little, but I know that all the coaches just want me to work out at my own pace and if I need to take a breather, it’s ok.

Friday was a tornado class, which means that we rotate from treadmill to weights to rower a lot. This time, there were 15 rotations (5 at each section). While it’s tiring to keep switching up so much, these are becoming my favorite workouts. By the time that I’m tired of being on the treadmill, it’s time to switch. I also seem to burn the most calories in those classes because there really aren’t any breaks.

Saturday was a run/row day which is also one of my favorite workouts. The only thing I didn’t love with this particular workout was all the treadmill sections were at an “all-out” pace. For power walkers like me, this means 15% incline. I don’t like not having breaks on the treadmill from such a high incline. My only breaks were when I walked over to the rower (and I guess technically on the rower as well).

But all things considered, I did some serious butt-kicking this week. As my dad put it on the phone to me the other night, it’s incredible how far I’ve come in a year. Even compared to my first Orangetheory workout, where I couldn’t really walk for a few days after. Now, just over 100 workouts later (yes, I tracked them), I’m thinking that 4 workouts in a week could really become my new every week plan.

I love that I’m finally feeling like my transformation is happening. It’s not stagnant anymore. I’m really moving forward and not only do I feel a difference, I think I can see a difference now.

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged Orangetheory, progress, strength training, transformation, workout

Almost Halfway Through The Cleanse (or Bring On The Tonics And Detox Drinks!)

Posted on January 30, 2015 | 1 comment

The second week of Nykki’s Cleanse is definitely more intense than the first week. When you are not doing the 28 day group cleanse, the cleanse is only 14 days. So the 2nd and 3rd weeks are the “real” cleanse while the 1st and 4th weeks are transition weeks.

Starting on the first day of the 2nd week, I incorporated the tonics into my schedule. There are 2 tonics for the cleanse. A liver tonic that you take in the morning and afternoon and a bowel tonic that you take at night. Both of these can be mixed with either water or juice. Since I was pretty sure that the tonics weren’t going to taste delicious, I chose to mix them with orange juice.

I basically do the tonics as a shot and hold my nose so I don’t taste them. The liver tonic tastes better than the bowel tonic, so I’m grateful that I only have to take the bowel tonic once a day.

To be totally honest, the taste of the tonics are so strong, that I questioned if I could really do them for the full 14 days. But I sucked it up and I’m so glad that I did!

I don’t know if it’s the tonics, the clean eating, or a combination of both; but my skin is looking so much better than it has in a long time! Also, before I started the cleanse, people said that while on it you experience mental clarity. At first, I was a little skeptical about that, but doing this has really cleared by head and allowed me to focus on what I need. A lot of the voices in my head (or the voice of my stomach in my head) are gone. I’m not thinking about what’s for dinner or what treat I can have. I’m focused on the here and now.

If you read that last paragraph and thought that I must be crazy, I don’t blame you. Reading people talk like that before I started this made me think that they must be crazy. But I’m shocked that it’s true!

The tonics are still not my favorite thing to drink, but they’ve become bearable and I’m getting through them.

The next thing that was added to my schedule this week was the detox drink.

This was added in the middle of the week and I drink it once right now first thing in the morning. Again, it can be mixed with water or juice. Since I don’t want it to taste bad, I’m mixing it with juice (I’m getting more sugar in my diet than I’m used to, but it’s “good” sugar and I’m staying in my calorie range).

The first time I drank this, I was super nervous. But it was actually delicious! The psyllium husks have no taste at all and the bentonite either has no taste or the orange juice covers it up nicely!

For right now, I’m only doing the detox drink once a day, but soon it will be upped to twice a day. But I’m not worried about that (at least not yet).

Overall, I’m super happy how week 2 went on the cleanse. I’m not really feeling hungry and most of my cravings are gone. The only craving I really have left is for more protein, but I know that that will be the first thing that I add back into my diet. As far as other foods that I used to eat, I’m now thinking twice about a lot of them. I have lots of food stored in my fridge and freezer that I’m questioning if I want to keep in the house anymore. Like bread for example. I used to eat toast every morning, but now I think I’ll be fine with fruit and eggs. No toast needed. So I might toss out the bread that I have in the freezer. This doesn’t mean that I won’t eat bread again. It just means that I don’t think I need/want to keep it in my house.

But a fridge/freezer clean out hasn’t happened yet. I think I’m going to work on that next week. For now, I’m just so happy that this cleanse came into my life and I chose to take advantage of the opportunity!

Quick Update: Because so many of you contacted me about Nykki’s Cleanse, Nykki decided to do a sale today and tomorrow (so ending on January 31st) for all readers of Finding My Inner Bombshell! Just go to the website, pick your cleanse, and enter the promo code: BOMBSHELL . That will get you $50 off! I hope you guys get the cleanse and have as amazing of an experience as I’ve had so far!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged cleanse, craving, detox, food, weight loss

My Fit Foods (or Looking At Some Post Cleanse Options)

Posted on January 29, 2015 | 3 comments

Now that I’m almost half way through the cleanse, I’m starting to think about what I’m going to be eating post-cleanse. While I’m going to do a small splurge, I do want to maintain a healthier lifestyle and keeping the majority of my diet fruits and vegetables.

So when I was invited to My Fit Foods in West Hollywood for a tour and hear more about their plan, I jumped at the chance!

This particular location of My Fit Foods (they have several locations in a couple of different states) is pretty close to my house and I’ve passed it when driving around town probably a few hundred times (I guess I pass it twice a week on average). But this was the first time that I ventured inside.

I was greeted right away by Chelsey who is one of the nutrition coaches at the West Hollywood location. She told me how My Fit Foods was started by a personal trainer who wanted to make sure that his clients were going to see results from the work that they did inside the gym and outside the gym. So he created My Fit Foods to help his clients eat right and get the right balance of nutrients to help them maximize their workouts (and their results!).

My Fit Foods is a meal service that has options for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. People can pre-order several days worth of food or they can come into the store and buy what they need and want.

Everything that they have is fully cooked (no need to heat it up unless you want your meal to be hot) and they have lots of dietary restrictions that they can accommodate (like gluten-free, dairy free, vegetarian, Paleo, and low-sodium). And the food is good in your fridge for 4-5 days, so you can have several days of meals in your fridge and ready to go.

Chelsey explained that when most people get started at My Fit Foods, they take part in their 21 day challenge. In the 21 day challenge, you get paired up with a nutritional coach like Chelsey and they create a meal plan for you. These plans can be customized to your tastes and dietary restrictions. I got a change to check out some of the 21 day plans, and they look amazing! They have lots of different food options for each meal (all the dinners look super incredible and delicious so I can’t pick a favorite!). During the 21 day challenge, you come into My Fit Foods about twice a week and they have all the foods that you need for the coming days ready for you to take home!

It’s so simple for people to follow! I’ve done a meal delivery service before in college and for the first few days it was awesome. But because the service had so few options, after a few days, my meals were repeating themselves! I quickly got tired of the same few things rotating through. But when I looked at the 21 day challenge menu, while you might get some things twice within the 21 days, there is enough variety available to not repeat things every week!

After customers complete the 21 day challenge, most of them continue to order their foods from My Fit Foods. They can create their own meal plan or have guidance from a nutritional coach. But it is completely customizable and you do not have to order all of your meals from them if you know that there are a few days where you don’t need dinner (for example).

And for people who just need an occasional meal (so you don’t get delivery food that you regret), you can walk right into a My Fit Foods and pick up a single meal. They even have microwaves and tables there so you can eat inside if you don’t want to bring it home (or if you are having it as a lunch and don’t want to eat at work).

Finally, Chelsey showed me some of the supplements that they have available. I’m learning more and more about supplements now that I’m doing the cleanse, and what I think is awesome about the ones at My Fit Foods is that they are packets that contain everything you need (no need to purchase 5 or 6 different bottles).

It was so awesome to get to go into My Fit Foods and sit down with Chelsey to learn all about it. They are definitely going on my list of good and fast choices that I can make if I’m not able to cook for myself. It’s so much better for me to run in there and grab a lunch than for me to get some fast food. And I need to be looking at smarter choices from now on if I want to continue the path that I’m going on. And it looks like My Fit Foods will fit into that plan perfectly!

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged food, health issues, meal planning, meals, weight loss

Working Out While Cleansing (or Being Easy On Myself)

Posted on January 26, 2015 | Comments Off

This past week of workouts were the first workouts I did while on the cleanse. Even though I am eating (and I’m working on keeping my calories up), I’m eating significantly less protein than I’m used to.

On normal days, that is a small annoyance but I can deal with it. But on workout days, I’m discovering how important protein is for me.

Going into Monday’s workout, I was pretty nervous. I just tried to focus on my fancy new shoes. Before going to the workout, I decided to take a quick picture of my new shoes along with the 2 pairs that I’ve gone through recently (I’m not sure why I never got rid of my old shoes).

I knew that the workout was going to feel tough to me, even if I was taking it easier than I usually do. So I decided not to focus at all on my heart rate monitor and just pay attention to how my body was feeling. And it was pretty rough. I was tired a lot faster than I’m used to and I got some issues with dizziness when transitioning from seated or laying down exercises to standing ones. But I got through the workout and focused on how to better prepare myself for the next one.

One Wednesday, even though snacks aren’t allowed on the cleanse, I added a snack pre-workout. I need the extra energy and calories to help me get through the intense workouts that I’m doing. And I noticed a difference. I was still tired and a little dizzy from time to time, but it was much less and I recovered a lot quicker.

By Friday, I was finally starting to figure out what my food needs to be like during the cleanse on workout days, so I was doing even better. My heart rate doesn’t get as high as it did before, but I can’t be mad at myself for that. Again, I’m just focusing on getting through my workouts and doing the best that I can for that day.

And I finally got off the waitlist for the Saturday workout! So in my first week of cleansing, I did 4 workouts! I know that’s a little crazy. And Saturday’s workout was possibly one of the toughest ones I’ve ever done. We were all put into groups of 3 and then there was a set workout for our group to get through for the entire class. There were no breaks or switching blocks. We just went from one thing to another for the entire class. I was having some serious trouble completing the workout for the last 10 minutes, but I pushed myself through it and managed to have not only an awesome workout but one of my higher calorie burns (which meant that I had to add some extra food to my lunch and dinner).

It is definitely not easy to workout this hard when my protein levels are so low. There really isn’t a way to increase that too much while I’m cleansing, but I did buy some protein powder that fits into the cleanse rules that I can drink if I need to. I don’t like protein powders because they remind me so much of the RFO Diet, but hopefully I can drink this stuff quickly if I need it and not have to think about it too much.

I’ve currently got myself signed up for another 4 workout week this week. I’m not 100% sure I’ll be able to do Saturday, but I’d rather be signed up for it and then cancel than to be on the waitlist and maybe not get in. Even though things are tough for me, I keep reminding myself that change isn’t easy and this is all for the better. I’m not doing anything that will hurt me and that in less than 3 weeks I can add animal products (and therefore more protein) back into my diet.

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Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, cleanse, detox, Orangetheory, struggle, workout

Week One On The Cleanse (or Temporarily Vegan)

Posted on January 23, 2015 | 3 comments

Today is the last day of the first week of Nykki’s Cleanse. This first week was all about eating good, healthy, clean foods. The tonics and other cleansing supplements will be starting tomorrow (I’m a little nervous on how my body will react, but super excited too!).

The food plan for each day this week was pretty much the same. And the foods that we can eat each day are the same. Basically, the “allowed” foods are fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, beans, and whole grains like brown rice and quinoa (no processed whole grains like bread allowed). Any meat, dairy, processed foods, salt, and canned foods aren’t allowed.

So basically I’m vegan right now. I’ve gone vegetarian briefly in the past and I know that it’s not right for me. This is the first time that I will be vegan for a decent amount of time (28 days). And while I know that after the cleanse I will add animal products back into my diet (I’m really missing egg whites and greek yogurt right now), I’m intrigued to see how my body reacts with them.

I hate to admit this, but I’m a little boring in my food choices right now. I’m eating very similar things every breakfast, similar things every lunch, and similar things every dinner. But that’s what I’ve gotten used to with bulk cooking and I’m fine with that.

But even though my meals are similar from day-to-day, I’m loving them because by eliminating so many foods from my diet I’ve been spending this past week rediscovering foods that I love. And in some cases, I’m learning how to cook them on my own for the first time!

My meals have been looking pretty beautiful this week.

I’m also rediscovering how much food I really need to eat each day. It’s ok to be hungry sometimes and I have to teach myself that. I’m eating less than I have, and while I have moments of hunger sometimes, I’m not feeling sick or lightheaded really.

I’m also learning how to not snack. Snacking is something that I’ve had issues with in the past. And more recently, I’ve been eating a snack right after work on the days that I workout. Those snacks are usually pretty small and healthy (like a banana), but sometimes I eat more than that. And while it hasn’t affected my workouts, it does affect the total calorie count for my day. I can’t completely eliminate snacking pre-workout (I need the energy and calories especially now when my protein intake is lower than it has been in the past), but I’m trying to limit those snacks. And I’m avoiding snacks altogether on days that I don’t workout. I’m getting enough calories in for the day (even though it’s lower than normal) and I don’t need them.

One of the most helpful things that I’ve found with this cleanse is that Nykki has set up a private FB group for all of us who are doing this 28 day program. We can share how we are feeling and share recipes and ideas with each other. I’ve talked on here in the past about how much I love having a community around me when I’m working on my weight loss, and the FB group has been perfect.

I haven’t technically had any slip ups yet. I did sample about a teaspoon of ice cream at the Local Ice event (my friend who was there guessed that it was less than a teaspoon). But beyond that, I have been following all of the instructions exactly as they were written.

And I’m sure that you are all wondering about my weight loss this week. Yes, I have lost weight. I don’t share specific numbers on here but I will share with you what my goal is. Technically, this is my goal for the national weight loss challenge at Orangetheory, but that is only 2 more weeks than the 28 day cleanse. I want to lose 10% of my weight. There are tons of articles about how losing 10% of your body weight does so much good for you. And I like that goal. And so far, the amount that I have lost on the cleanse makes it seem like that goal will be achieved.

I’m starting week 2 tomorrow. Weeks 2 and 3 are the most intense weeks that include a few detox drinks and tonics. I’ll update you again next Friday to let you know how it goes!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Weight Loss

Tagged cleanse, cooking, detox, food, weight loss

Speedy Shoes (or Props To Zappos For Saving My Workout)

Posted on January 21, 2015 | Comments Off

When my shoes died during my workout last week, my first thought was that I needed to get my new shoes before my workout on Monday. I have certain shoes by Merrell that I love and I know that they are always available on Zappos.

I’ve been a big fan of Zappos for a while. My very first order with them went pretty badly (the shoes were lost and never found). But their customer service was so amazing! They sent new shoes to me overnight and upgrading my Zappos membership to VIP status for life! Any company that goes that above and beyond is awesome in my book.

By the time I was able to order new shoes, it was about 7pm on Friday. And with Monday being a holiday, I had no idea if my free next business day shipping would get my shoes to me on time.

I ended up contacting them directly to see if there was anything else I could do (or pay) to get them to me by Monday. The representative I spoke to said that there wasn’t really much that could be done. The next day guarantee is only for orders placed by 1pm. But they were looking at where my shoes were coming from and where they were being delivered and thought that there was a chance I would get the shoes on Monday (I didn’t know that UPS delivered on holidays).

When I got my shipping tracking information, it said that the shoes were supposed to arrive Monday by 3pm. I have to leave for my workouts by 3:30pm, so it was going to cut it close.

All day on Monday I was on high alert. And around 1pm, the UPS guy came to my door and dropped this off!

I put the shoes on right away to try to break them in a little before my workout. And while they weren’t super comfortable right away, they were so much better to wear than the broken shoes.

Yes, this entire post is about how much I love Zappos. But I’ve learned that when you find companies that are awesome, you really want to share it with the world.

So thank you Zappos for rushing my shoes to me so my workout wouldn’t be affected by busted shoes. Now I just need to order a backup pair of shoes so when these break I can have new ones waiting for me in my closet.

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Health, Saving, Shopping

Tagged customer service, shoes, workout

Going To The Limit (or How To Work Out With A Broken Shoe)

Posted on January 19, 2015 | 1 comment

The past week of workouts have been insanely tough! I only got 3 workouts in for the week, even though I wanted 4. Since everyone wants to get into better shape in the new year, it’s been crazy crowded. I have to schedule my classes weeks in advance to make sure that I can get in. And when I didn’t do that for last Saturday, I wasn’t able to work out. Sadly, it looks like I might have the same issue Saturday, but I’m working on it.

Anyway, back to the workout recaps!

Monday’s workout wasn’t horrible, but what got to me was the Monday Challenge. First of all, I was the only person in the entire class to do the challenge after class ended. That made me a bit scared and intimidated, but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from doing it.

The challenge was a mini Dri-Tri. So it was .08 miles on the treadmill (I don’t remember what incline it was at, but it was high) to start. Then, 20 burpees. Burpees are still a killer for me and not only do they hurt my hips, I get really dizzy doing them. After I finished the burpees (I had to take a few breathing breaks to do them all), it was a 100 meter row on the rowing machine.

My time was over 3 minutes and I was nowhere near getting on the top 5 board. But I completed it and that’s what I have to remember.

Wednesday was another crazy day where I was doing insane incline work on the treadmill. Since I have issues getting my speed up, to get my heart rate up higher I have to add on more incline than I used to. I’m getting to the point where for most of the push paces I can do the walk at 10% incline. When the push pace is for 3 minutes, that’s when it’s a bit tough for me. But considering that I used to do all my push paces at 6%, it’s a massive improvement. I’m hoping that soon I can start increasing my speed without pain, but until then, it’s nice to know that I can still push myself on the treadmill with incline.

Friday was one of those days for me where the workout was so tough that I didn’t believe that I could really do it all. The treadmill portion was a 21 minute block (many classes have 7 or 8 minute blocks and then you switch between cardio and strength a few times to get all the blocks in). It was a treadmill block that was mainly push paces. And for some reason, my heart rate didn’t want to go up to where it needed to be, so I had to keep pushing myself more and more.

Then, when we did the strength portion, I had what I could have considered a set-back. While I was doing running man on the ground (it’s a move similar to mountain climbers), my foot slid out from underneath me. I thought that maybe the floor was just slick, but I couldn’t get my footing again. I just powered through and for the rest of the workout, I had a crazy tough time doing the running man.

When we were stretching, I took a look at my shoe and realized that a chunk of the bottom of my shoe (where all the grippy things are) was flapping in the air. I had taken off pretty much all the grips off of the bottom of my shoe during the workout!

This photo gives you an idea of the damage, but the blue rubber on my shoe was also coming off.

I can’t believe I worked out for about 10 minutes with a busted shoe! And I can’t believe that when it happened I just pretty much ignored it.

After class, I showed the trainer what had happened and she cracked up. She wanted a picture of the fact that her workout busted my shoe and then she posted that along with a picture of the 2 of us online and named me the MVP of class (each trainer gets to name an MVP for each of their classes now).

As soon as I got home, I ordered some new shoes online. They are supposed to get here today before my workout, but if they don’t I’ll have to figure out something to do with my broken shoe. I’ve got an emergency pair of sneakers, but they are a little busted too.

Now that I’m on the cleanse, my workouts this week are making me pretty nervous. I’m going to do the best that I can and understand that I might not be able to push myself like I usually do. I’ll let you all know how it goes next week!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Shopping, Weight Loss

Tagged challenge, Orangetheory, shoes, workout

Starting The Year With A Lot Of Transformation (or Who Will I Be By Next Year?)

Posted on January 15, 2015 | 4 comments

I’ve been doing a lot of transformational work in the beginning of this year. I wasn’t expecting this all to happen at the beginning of the year (that’s a little cliché for me), but the timing of it all just happened to all be in January.

The first transformational thing I have been working on is increasing my workout days. This was something that was planned in my goals for 2015. Now I’m just making sure that I’m doing what I set out to do. I’m tracking all my workouts in a simple calendar checklist app, and I’m on pace to meet my monthly goal right now (it’s way too easy to think that I’m on pace to meet my yearly goal).

The only minor setback I’ve encountered is that there are so many people who want to go to Orangetheory now that if I don’t set up my classes over a week in advance, I run the risk of being put on the waitlist! That happened to me for this Saturday. I wanted to add the noon workout to my schedule and asked if I could get in that class when I was working out on Monday. The class was booked and there was only 1 spot left on the waitlist! I’m still on the waitlist now and hopefully I can get into the class. If not, I’ll have to add another workout to next week.

I’m also starting another Orangetheory Weight Loss Challenge this week. It starts on Friday and this time, it’s a national weight loss challenge so there will be people from all the Orangetheorys around the country participating. There is a lot of money for the winners, but I’m just going into it thinking of it as a personal challenge. I looked at how much weight some of the past winners have lost and for me to equal that I would have to lose weight at a very unhealthy rate for me. Some of the winners had lost over 25% of their starting weight! That’s just not realistic for me.

Then, continuing on my cooking trend, I’ve got my 4 week cleanse coming up. I just got the materials for it and while most of it seems very simple for me to do (lots of fruits and veggies), part of the cleanse is to spend the 4 weeks cutting out dairy, meat, and processed food like bread. I can probably cut dairy without missing it at all. But I’ve gotten very used to having peanut butter on toast for breakfasts and having chicken or pork with my dinner. Fortunately, the cleanse comes with a bunch of recipe ideas so I will be taking advantage of those (and posting my favorites on here!).

Then yesterday, I saw a bunch of my friends posting on various social media sites about the Money Love Challenge. I checked it out and within minutes of reading what it is all about, I signed up. It’s a free 21 day challenge (it started yesterday so it’s not too late to sign up) to help get in control of your financial situation.

This is something that I totally need in my life. Every year I say that I’m going to get rid of more and more of my credit card debt. While I’ve brought it down, it’s not nearly as low as I’d like it to be already. And I want to see how much I can bring it down in 2015. Hopefully by doing this challenge, I will be inspired to find ways to accomplish that goal.

This is a lot of change at one time, but all of these things pretty much came organically to me and I chose to do them. I’m excited to see what the next few weeks and months bring to me!

4 Comments

Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Saving, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged cooking, credit card, debt, food, money, transformation, weight loss

Learning From My Screeners (or Maybe My Pain Isn’t So Bad)

Posted on January 14, 2015 | 1 comment

I’ve been spending a bunch of time lately watching my screeners for the SAG Awards. A majority of them have been digital screeners so I’m watching them either on my Apple TV or on my iPad.

I’ve been lucky that my day job has a lot of downtime. There are a bunch of days where my work setup looks like this:

I’ve got my computer running all my work websites and my iPad next to it playing my screener. I have to pause the movie whenever a customer calls or starts a chat, but I’ve been watching a movie a day the last few days.

Obviously, all the movies are amazing otherwise they wouldn’t be nominated for the SAG Awards. And some of them are hitting me a little harder than others.

I watched “Cake” with Jennifer Aniston yesterday. Without getting too much into the story, it’s about a woman who is living with chronic pain.

I have always considered myself someone who deals with more pain than the average person. I don’t think I would ever say that I have chronic pain, but a majority of the time I have to take at least one painkiller to get through the day. Before my hip surgery, I was maxing out on two different types of painkillers every day and I was still in very intense pain.

Even though I know that the actors were pretending to have this sort of pain, it really made me realize how lucky I am that my pain isn’t worse. I hurt a lot, but I can still walk around pretty much every day (there are a few rare days where it’s difficult for me to get out of bed or off the couch). I’m able to work out even though on the treadmill I have to take breaks every so often to take a break from the pain.

Watching the movie has also motivated me to be a bit more proactive in seeing what other things I can do to put off the next few surgeries that I need. I’ve already done well by not doing activities that make my situation worse and have gone well past my surgeon’s guess that I would have needed my next surgery by 2009. I also haven’t shown signs of arthritis yet which my surgeon thought I would have by now.

I haven’t scheduled my appointments to meet with new surgeons yet, but I will be doing that in the next week or two. And when I spoke to my dad about this, he advised me to go in with an open mind. The original plan for me was created in 2006. A lot has changed medically in that time and while I will still most likely need a hip replacement on my right side one day (being bone on bone will cause that to be an issue eventually), maybe there are new things I can try to prevent me from needing the same surgeries on my left side.

Seriously, all this motivation and new perspective came from watching a movie.

1 Comment

Posted in Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged awards, hip issues, movies, SAG-AFTRA

Category Archives: Health

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Learning From My Screeners (or Maybe My Pain Isn’t So Bad)

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