Category Archives: Health

Getting Fly (or Spinning With Bloggers)

Posted on May 13, 2014 | 1 comment

As part of being more in the blogging community, I’m trying to get more involved with blogger events. Fortunately, one of the Facebook groups I joined is just for blogger events in Southern California.

One of the first events I saw posted was for a spin class with Biggest Loser trainer Brett Hoebel. Even though I have issues with the show “The Biggest Loser“, I’m still a fan and totally wanted to work out with one of the trainers from the show (he was on season 11).

I signed up for the class and did some more research into it.

The class was held at Flywheel, which is a SoulCycle competitor. Flywheel was created by someone who used to work for SoulCycle, so there is a bit of a rivalry there. When I did some google research, there were some pretty nasty posts saying how much SoulCycle stunk and how amazing Flywheel is. That made me a little weary about going to a new studio, but I was totally willing to give it a try.

According to the Flywheel website, all classes include free shoes, towel, and water. So I didn’t bring anything with me (it felt pretty weird!). The class was held in Larchmont, which was a bit of a drive for me.

Once I walked inside, the first thing I noticed was how nice and open the lobby was.

I signed my release form and got my Flywheel shoes.

It did feel weird using spin shoes other than my own. I like my shoes and the clip on the shoes is in a different place (my legs felt weird while spinning because the clip was on the ball of my foot instead of the toe like on my shoes).

I asked at the front desk for the free water, but they explained to me that the free water was in the form of a drinking fountain. The bottles of water were $2. I explained to the person at the desk how on the website they promote the fact that they have free water for every class (and say how bad it is that SoulCycle charges $2 for a bottle if you need one), so she gave me a free bottle of water. I think that that was kind of misleading advertising, but it was my fault for not thinking to bring my own water.

Before the class started, Brett came out to greet us all. It was very cool to meet him, and of course I had to get a picture with him.

We also took a big group picture with all the bloggers and Brett.

Brett explained how the class would work and we headed inside.

The setup inside the studio is different from SoulCycle. The bikes are done stadium seating. Everyone is supposed to have a great view of the instructor. I had a great view of Brett’s upper body, but his legs were blocked by the laptop doing the soundtrack (I used the mirror to see how fast his legs were going so I could try to keep up).

Another thing that was different was in SoulCycle, we focus on riding as a pack and staying on the beat of the music. Flywheel is very competitive. Every bike has a computer on it and it takes your RPM and the torque being used and gives you a score. And every so often, the top ten scores for the class are shown on a flatscreen tv.

I tried really hard to keep up, but between the clips on the shoes being in a different spot and the fact that this was my first spin class where I didn’t get a cushioned bike seat, I was hurting. I did my best, but I never came close to ranking in the top ten on the tv.

I also kept almost laughing at how similar things were to SoulCycle. There were a lot of the same moves (but they had different names). And the stretching segment was done in the exact same order as my SoulCycle class. But I guess that’s what you get when the creator of this studio used to work for the other.

Overall, I’d say this class was a bit harder than SoulCycle. It was a much faster class and there is very little focus on upper body work. Also, it felt more like a competition than a dance party.

I had a great time in the class, but it did reinforce that SoulCycle is the place for me. There’s nothing wrong with Flywheel. I’d totally recommend it, especially to my very competitive friends. But it’s just not for me.

After class was done, we were all given a gift bag full of awesome goodies by Kind Snacks, Vega, and Quest.

I actually ate my Quest bar on the drive home and it was amazing! I usually don’t like protein bars, but this was really yummy! I’m looking into ordering some to keep on hand.

I’m so glad that I joined in for this event. I got to try another amazing spin class, meet an awesome trainer, and connected with a ton of new bloggers!

1 Comment

Posted in Fitness, Food, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged blogging, shoes, SoulCycle, spin class, The Biggest Loser

I’ve Got Some Follow Through (or I Said I’d Do It So I Did)

Posted on April 11, 2014 | Comments Off

Yesterday, I mentioned that I needed to start scheduling things to do after my work day so I would get out of my house. I also mentioned that I needed to get back to SoulCycle.

Want to take a wild guess what my after work thing was yesterday evening?

Yup, I went to an after work spin class.

I’ve actually never taking a spin class after working. I’ve done one in the middle of a split shift once. But other than that, every spin class I’ve gone to was either before work or on a non-work day. And I’ll say, an early evening class is very different from a morning class.

I had to be pretty careful with how I ate during the day. I wanted to have enough energy for class, but I don’t like to work out if I feel full. I thought that I had planned a decent meal day for me, but I learned that I need to eat something a little closer to class time. Yesterday, I had a serving of chocolate milk about 90 minutes before class. That’s what I normally have before going to a morning class as well. But I was starving during the class.

None of the instructors that I usually go to teach at the studio during the times I was looking (I went to a 5:30pm class), so I had to try someone new. This instructor’s name was David, and it really was a great class.

It was super hard, but I’m wondering if part of that was my crazy hunger and my hip pain. I did managed to stand up on the bike for about 90 seconds during a hill section, but besides that I stayed seated for the class. I did also do all the arm work with 2 pound weights. I know it doesn’t sound like much, but trust me, they get heavy! I started with 1 pound weights and doubling the weight has made things tougher (but I think I’m getting stronger too).

The best thing about SoulCycle for me is since it’s only 45 minutes, time seems to fly by (and I’m aware that if you hate working out that sounds crazy but it’s true). And I got a pretty good calorie burn for my workout as well.

I have a bunch of stuff going on this weekend (including returning to my old job) so I’m not too sure if I’ll make it to spin class this weekend. If I do, it will be another odd time for me. I like my usual Saturday afternoon class with Heather, but this Saturday I’m working during that time.

But at least I have another instructor that I’m comfortable with and if I’m not working evenings back at my old job, I can probably fit this class in more regularly.

Comments Off on I’ve Got Some Follow Through (or I Said I’d Do It So I Did)

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health

Tagged calories, job, SoulCycle, spin class, workout

Hollywood Half 5K (or Not Starting Off My 2014 5Ks In The Best Way)

Posted on April 7, 2014 | Comments Off

My first 5K of the year was this past Saturday. I had been looking forward to this for a while, but it ended up not being so great.

It started out on Thursday when I went to go pick up my bib number. I didn’t get my number for last year’s race because my friend Kate was doing the 5K as well and got both of our packets for us. So I didn’t know quite what to expect at the expo. Well, it was crazy! It took me about an hour to find parking, and once I got inside, there were so many vendor booths. I’m used to just going to a place where you pick up your number and that’s pretty much all that’s there. But this place had a ton of people inside and so many things for sale. I tried to get my number and shirt quickly and head out (I had parked at a meter and didn’t pay for a lot of time). Of course, as soon as I got back in my car, I had to get a selfie with my race number.

On Friday night, I tried to go to bed early and I set multiple alarms to make sure I would get up in time.

Fortunately, I woke up about 2 minutes before the first alarm, so that was pretty awesome. I hate waking up to the jarring sound of an alarm clock! I had a little bit of chocolate milk before leaving (I found that that’s easy enough on my stomach and I need to have a little something so I could take my painkillers) and I headed out the door.

Getting to the recommended parking lot wasn’t so great. They actually ended up blocking off the street right before you could turn into the lot. But I followed some other cars, made a couple of legally questionable u-turns, and was finally able to make it into the parking lot (I have no idea why they told us to park there if you couldn’t legally drive into the lot).

I got to the start line at about 5am. The race was set to start at 6 and it was very clear on the website that nobody was allowed to start after 6:15 so I wanted to make sure I was there nice and early.

I hung out around the start line for a bit.

And then I saw a friend of mine (who is also a blogger) who was going to be a course angel for the 1/2 marathon.

As a course angel, she raced to mile 9 and they stayed there and cheered on all the runners as they passed her. Then, after the last runner went by, she continued running her race.

After chatting with my friend for a minute, I realized that it was 5:40 and I should head back to my corral. I somehow moved up a couple of corrals compared to last year, but since I figured there might be runners behind me, I made sure I was on the very side (so I would be out of the way).

6am came, and nothing seemed to happen. For the next 20 minutes, my corral never moved forward. We had no idea if the race had even started. All that standing around was starting to hurt me, but I tried not to focus on that.

Finally, we started to move up. At 6:30am, we still hadn’t started yet.

That was my best attempt of getting a picture of my watch (saying 6:29) and showing how far away we still were from the start line. We finally started around 6:35am and as soon as we got going, I realized that the course had been changed.

Last year the course was out and back (although the start and finish line were not in the same place). According to the website a few days before the race, that’s exactly what the race was supposed to be this year.

But as soon as we started, we turned a corner and walked down a side street (it was a slight downhill incline so we had to do the uphill to go back to Hollywood Blvd.). We ended up doing a couple of those side streets and all of them had at least a little elevation.

I was definitely not happy about this. Right when I started, my right hip (the one that has already had one surgery on it) started to hurt. The elevation changes did not help at all. But I pushed through. It was not a pretty race for me at all. I did enjoy some of the cool costumes, though. This one was the absolute best.

I crossed the finish line in 1:03.36. That’s about 6 minutes slower than what I was doing toward the end of last year. While I was happy that I finished, I was pretty pissed that I was over the 1 hour mark again.

But I was very happy to get my medal and loved that it was a new color this year.

After the race, I took the subway back to the start line (so I could get my car) and starting chatting with a few of the other racers. A bunch of people were unhappy about the side streets and their elevation changes. And people thought the race seemed long this year.

I went home and looked to see if the new course had been put on the website, and it had through Map My Run.

This is almost what we did (except it’s missing 1 of the side streets we had to walk up and back on ). Even with it missing the street, it’s still longer than a 5K. With that missing street added on, I bet it was closer to 3.3 miles. That would help to explain my longer time.

While it wasn’t my best race, I still did it. I’m not doing as many 5Ks this year, so I’m being pretty selective about which races I sign up for. Right now, I’m unsure if I’ll do this one again next year. I’ll probably end up signing up for it because it is a fun event and people there are pretty nice.

My next 5K is a charity walk for the March of Dimes. And today happens to be the 5 year anniversary of Heather and Mike Spohr’s daughter, Maddie, passing away. I’m walking in memory of Maddie for this 5K and I’m hoping to raise some money for this event. If any of you could donate anything, I know that it would go a long way. And if you are in the LA area and want to join us, please feel free to join the team. All that information is on this link.

Comments Off on Hollywood Half 5K (or Not Starting Off My 2014 5Ks In The Best Way)

Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged 5K, charity, hip, hip issues, Hollywood, March of Dimes, race

The End, Kind Of (or My Mom Is Seriously A Rockstar!)

Posted on March 18, 2014 | Comments Off

Yesterday was my mom’s last radiation appointment. Technically, she is officially done with all the treatments that her doctor prescribed to her to beat breast cancer. I say technically because she is in a drug trial right now and still has to finish that, but it wasn’t part of the original treatment plan.

I can’t believe that my mom is done. It seems like it’s been forever and super quick at the same time. Since July, she’s gone through a mastectomy, 2 different types of chemo, and a full course of radiation. And through it all, she’s kicked so much butt.

She never let any of her treatments get her down or set her back in any way. She’s gone through having our beloved dog get cancer (and having to put him down), getting a new puppy (who passed away suddenly), and raising another puppy. That’s more than most people could handle, even without cancer. But she has really been the rock of the family through all of that.

This has been long journey for our family, and there are still some things that are a bit uncertain. We haven’t gone through the genetic testing yet, so I’m not sure what my future looks like in terms of my chances of getting breast or ovarian cancer. We are going to do this, we just having had the chance yet (although my mom and I have both taken an online class required by my mom’s hospital to start the testing).

Also, I’ve learned that there’s no way to know if someone is completely cancer free after breast cancer. There’s not really a test for it. All they can do it be extra vigilant with monitoring my mom. But I really thought before all of this that there was some blood work or something that you could do to prove you don’t have cancer anymore. You can’t do that with breast cancer.

I really do wish that there was some way to guarantee that my mom beat this. Although there really isn’t a question in my mind that she did, I still want some proof and not just a gut feeling. It sucks that that isn’t possible.

But instead of focusing on that, we are going to focus on how awesome my mom is. Yesterday after her final radiation, she went out to lunch with friends. I don’t know what other celebrations she has scheduled soon, but in month I know how I will be celebrating with her.

My mom, my dad, and I are going to be going to Disneyland for 2 days (and staying overnight in one of the Disneyland hotels) to celebrate the end of her treatments. My mom is a Disneyland person like me, but I don’t think my dad has gone to the theme park for maybe 15 years. He has no idea what he is getting himself into by going to the parks with me and my mom. But in my opinion, going to the happiest place on earth seems like the perfect place to celebrate. That’s coming up in a month.

I also wanted to say thank you to all of you reading this. Throughout this journey, many of you have shared your own journeys with me. You’ve said prayers for my family and kept us in your thoughts. There’s no question in my mind that your thoughts and prayers helped my mom do so well in all of her treatments. I know that some of you know me in real life, but for those of you who don’t, I’m so touched that you took time out of your life to think about my mom. It means the world to me that you did that (and I’m sure my mom would thank you too).

This isn’t exactly the end of the journey for breast cancer in my family, but it’s the end of a major part of it. As more things happen, I’ll update you all. If I have to go through genetic testing, I will share all of that with you (and be completely open and honest).

Here’s to my mom: the ultimate cancer ass-kicking rockstar!

Comments Off on The End, Kind Of (or My Mom Is Seriously A Rockstar!)

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged breast cancer, cancer, chemo, mom

Baby Steps Progress (or Surprising Myself)

Posted on March 17, 2014 | Comments Off

I don’t feel like I’ve made a ton of progress in spin class lately. I’m still sitting down for the entire class. I had previously discussed trying to stand up (or ride out of the saddle) with my hip surgeon, and his advice was simple. If it hurts after the workout, that’s good. If it hurts while I’m doing the workout, that’s bad.

And since day 1, it has hurt whenever I tried to ride out of the saddle in class. Every so often, I’ll try to ride out of the saddle to see if somehow it doesn’t hurt (at least in the bad way). And it never seems to be only good pain.

This past Saturday I went to Heather’s class (I love that since I’m not at my old job anymore I can go to her lunchtime class on Saturday!). It was a great class and I was sweating like crazy. It was exactly what I needed.

In the past, I’ve always tried to ride out of the saddle when there is very little resistance on the bike. I’m not sure why, but that’s always what I’ve done. And every time I’ve tried, I can stay up for a couple of seconds before I feel the bad pain (which is basically my hip locking up and feeling like the bones are grinding).

But this past Saturday, I decided to try riding out of the saddle while we were in the hill portion of class. This meant that there was a lot of resistance on the wheel and that we were not pedaling as fast.

And I was actually able to stay up for about half a song! It was tough, but it didn’t start hurting until about half way through the hill section. I was able to stay up and even do some of the moves (we were sitting down for 2 counts and then standing up for 2 counts).

After half of the song, the bad pain started again, so I sat down. But this was still the most that I’ve ridden out of the saddle for any spin class I’ve taken!

It’s tough to be super excited over this since I only rode out of the saddle for about 90 seconds and a majority of the 45 minute class is supposed to be out of the saddle, but I’m trying to be happy. Maybe the next class I take I can ride out of the saddle for a majority of the hill section. And one day, I’ll be able to ride out of the saddle for 45 seconds when there is no resistance on the bike.

These are baby steps. And they will take a while to add up to what seems like progress. But I’m trying to stay optimistic that this will snowball into faster and faster progress and one day I will look back at the time that I had to sit down for an entire spin class as something in the past.

Comments Off on Baby Steps Progress (or Surprising Myself)

Posted in Celebrations, Fitness, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged bike, progress, SoulCycle, spin class

Biggest Loser Finale (or I Wish I Didn’t Have To Write About This)

Posted on February 6, 2014 | Comments Off

On Tuesday evening, the finale for the most recent season of “The Biggest Loser” aired. This is the season that had the contestants that I saw at my birthday spin class. I’ve already written about how the show is a guilty pleasure of mine and that I have issues with how weight loss is shown on the show. But now I feel like I need to write about the reactions to the finale.

In case you aren’t too familiar with the show, the finale is a live event (or at least live for the east coast). Everyone who was eliminated prior to the finale weighs in for the at-home prize. The contestant with the highest percentage of weight loss wins. Then the finalists come out and the finalist with the highest percentage of weight loss wins $250,000.

When the finalists came out, the two men who were finalists looked a little thin, but that’s to be expected when they try to be at their lowest weight to win. Then the girl finalist, Rachel, came out. And you could hear gasps coming from the audience.

(photo courtesy of US Magazine)

I thought she looked pretty thin. Her legs were muscular, but her arms and face seemed very very skinny. When she weighed in, her weight was 105 pounds (she’s 5’4″). She lost about 60% of her body weight in about 8 months.

Immediately people were posting various sites online that Rachel must be anorexic now. People seemed shocked by her appearance. And two of the trainers on the show looked pretty surprised in the live show and later released a statement that they would not comment on her weight since they weren’t her trainers during the show.

It seems like people are finally seeing some of the problems that I’ve noticed with “The Biggest Loser” years ago. When you reward people for the highest percentage of weight loss, people do drastic things to make sure they win in the finale. Historically, the contestants gain weight back after the finale because they are extremely dehydrated (to make sure there is no water weight causing them to lose the weigh in). Many contestants gain back a lot of the weight they lost because the show is not realistic. And when you lose weight with a finish line in mind, you aren’t looking at it as a lifestyle but a temporary situation.

I know that last one for sure. When I did the RFO diet the first time, it was in preparation for my hip surgery. I knew that the less I weighed, the easier my recovery would be from surgery. And since I was about 90 pounds lighter going into surgery, I did have a very easy recovery. But after surgery, I didn’t have the same motivation any more to lose weight. And I gained a lot of it back. I did the RFO diet again, but again looked at it as a temporary situation (you have to when you aren’t eating any real food). And I gained it back again.

The other thing that makes me pretty mad at “The Biggest Loser” is the fact that many, if not all, of the contestants are at high risk for starting anorexic or bulimic behaviors. It’s a pretty safe guess that most of the contestants are going in to the show with an eating disorder. Probably the same eating disorder that I have, a binge eating disorder. When I was in therapy for my eating disorder, the biggest thing that I remembered is that I will always be at a high risk for another eating disorder because I have a history of having one. I’m also at high risk for another addiction of any type.

When you take away the food from a food addict (which is similar to a binge eater), they have to find their addiction somewhere else. You can see this a lot in people who have had weight loss surgery. When you can’t turn to your comfort item, you find something else that gives you comfort. And if it isn’t comfort that you are seeking, it’s order or control. And anorexia or bulimia gives you a sense of control (even if it’s a false sense).

I’m sorry for the rant, but I’ve been holding this in for a while when watching “The Biggest Loser”. And it seems like many people are now seeing things the same way that I do. I don’t know if they will change “The Biggest Loser” now due to all this backlash, but personally I would love to see them focus on body fat percentage instead of weight. Or maybe on inches lost. But sadly, seeing someone drop 155 pounds still makes good tv.

But at least now, some people will think about it a bit differently.

Comments Off on Biggest Loser Finale (or I Wish I Didn’t Have To Write About This)

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

Tagged binge eating, competition, eating disorder, reality tv, The Biggest Loser, TV, weight loss

Time For A Celebration! (or A Pie Date)

Posted on January 30, 2014 | Comments Off

Yesterday marked my mom’s final day of chemo. Not just the final day of a type of chemo. The end of all chemo treatments!

Even though my mom still has radiation to go, the end of chemo is something that everyone in my family has been counting down to. It seems like it’s taken forever and taken no time at all at the same time.

I told my mom that she should celebrate with the nurses at the chemo room. She was already ahead of me and told me that she was going to make a carrot cake for everyone. And I promised to celebrate for her in LA.

A few days ago, it was National Pie Day. My pie friend, Emily invited me out to pie but I had to work a crazy shift that day. So I suggested we get pie to celebrate the end of chemo. We went to Marie Calendars (where we always go for pie) and my friend Kate joined us too.

The way we always get pie is each person gets a slice and then we share the slices among the group. So we got 3 slices: cream cheese, chocolate, and razzleberry.

I know the pie doesn’t look pretty since we cut each slice up to share, but it was still delicious!

It was a nice lunch outing. We spent a lot of time catching up on life and I updated my friends on my job situation. One of the advantages of being laid off is having time to see people I haven’t seen in forever and having a relaxing visit with then.

And of course, we thought about how awesome my mom is. Through all of the chemo, she’s rarely complained. The only times I really remember her saying a thing negative is when I called to ask how she was and she’d tell me that she was having a bit of joint pain. But the pain didn’t get her down. She’s been busy training Tucker and making sure that he is becoming a well-behaved and polite dog (he’s totally getting there). She’s played tennis every week and her record has way more wins than losses.

Even though radiation is an unknown and we don’t know if it will be easy or tough on my mom, I don’t question for a second that she won’t still be kicking butt and doing all of her usual things every day.

The final countdown of my mom’s treatment has begun and I can’t wait until we can really celebrate the end of this.

Comments Off on Time For A Celebration! (or A Pie Date)

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged breast cancer, cancer, chemo, mom, pie

An Interesting Start To My Unemployment (or Trying To Always Look At The Positives)

Posted on January 28, 2014 | Comments Off

My first official day of unemployment was pretty weird. But this required a bit of going back to say what’s been going on the past few days.

On Thursday this past week, we all found out at work that there is a chance that we will not be returning for the next season. While it wasn’t completely unexpected news, it was still surprising. On Friday, I started to feel a bit off. I joked to my boss that my body was rejecting the idea of the job ending forever. I didn’t feel sick, but I didn’t feel right. Saturday I was doing worse. My stomach was killing me. I took some painkillers but it wasn’t helping. Saturday evening I made a stop to a drugstore to get some medicine my dad recommended before working a show shift. I still felt pretty off, but I made it through the 2 hour shift.

Sunday, I was miserable. I had told my parents all my symptoms (I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before but my mom is a retired pediatric nurse and my dad is a retired OB/GYN), and they said if I didn’t get better by the next day, I should call the advice nurse at my hospital and see if I could get a prescription for some antibiotics. Monday was just as bad as Sunday. I called the advice nurse at the hospital and unfortunately they couldn’t give me a prescription over the phone. I ended up going to urgent care and spending about 3 hours at the hospital.

I’m feeling almost completely better now (antibiotics really are the best!). But all through yesterday I kept on thinking that even though I was in pretty bad pain and not really able to do anything, at least I didn’t have to work.

At the hospital, the doctor who saw me offered to write me a note to turn into work (I guess some jobs require doctor’s notes?). I said I didn’t need one since I was out of work. The doctor felt so bad that I lost my job and had to deal with urgent care all within the same day. I told her that it was ok since I would rather be sick at home than at work. She couldn’t believe I was being positive and having a good attitude about it.

I wasn’t going to have a bad attitude about getting sick. This is so minor compared to what many people have to deal with. In the waiting room at urgent care, I was pretty much the healthiest one there (I wore a face mask because so many people had colds or flu-like symptoms). And while I’m not entirely grateful that I’m out of work, I know it could be worse. I do still have some work at my old job and there’s a small chance that they will need us back next season (I’m not depending on that).

I know that I’ve been working hard on focusing on positivity in the past, and I think this weekend proved that it’s starting to pay off and I’m becoming a much more positive person in general in life.

Comments Off on An Interesting Start To My Unemployment (or Trying To Always Look At The Positives)

Posted in Health, Tough Stuff

Tagged doctor, health issues, positivity, sick, unemployment

400 Posts (or Wow, That’s A Lot Of Writing!)

Posted on January 24, 2014 | Comments Off

Today marks my 400th post on Finding My Inner Bombshell! I remember when I started writing I wondered how long I could keep doing this. Now, it’s a part of my day that I look forward to!

I’ve mentioned in the past how this blog is almost like therapy for me. I’ve gotten so much out of it that I would probably still do this even if nobody read it (but please keep reading it because I love the feedback and stories I hear from you all!). Writing on here has also helped my relationship with my family and friends. There have been many things that I never would have the courage to share with them if I had to say it out loud. But writing it helps to disconnect it from me and make it seem less personal.

In the last 400 posts, I’ve done a lot of things. So I thought I’d share some of the highlights of my first 399 posts.

The scariest (and best) thing I’ve ever put on here was in the beginning when I wrote about my eating disorder and credit card debt. I was so terrified to put that out into the world. I’ve hidden both of those things for many years and even some of my close family had no idea (or if they did, it’s because they guessed it and not because I ever told them). But after writing that post, it was like there was a weight lifted off my shoulders. And people started sharing their stories about money issues or eating disorders. I had no idea so many people had the same problems as me. By sharing my story, I discovered I wasn’t alone.

Another tough post to write was when I wrote about my mom being diagnosed with breast cancer. I knew about the cancer for a few weeks before I was allowed to share her story. I felt like I was faking it on the blog because I couldn’t be completely honest. But sharing that story again has made me feel less alone. Many people have shared their stories with family members dealing with cancer. When my mom was diagnosed, I started to research joining a support group. I never found one that I connected with. Then once I shared on here, I realized that my support group was on the blog. And I hope that I can support others in the future who are going through the same thing. And just to update you on my mom, she’s still kicking butt and only has 1 more chemo treatment to go before starting radiation (the final treatment step)!

The most positive thing that has happened since starting the blog was discovering SoulCycle. I never thought I would connect with exercise this way. But it’s happened and I’m definitely obsessed (this entire list is totally true for me). Celebrating a year doing the same exercise is a first for me, and I’m already looking forward to my next SoulCycle milestone (maybe taking 50 classes?).

I wish I could make some predictions to what the next 400 posts will bring. But honestly, when I started this 400 posts ago, I had no idea that it would become what it is today.

Thank you all for reading and following my journey so far. I just know that the journey will only continue to get better and there are amazing things ahead for me.

Comments Off on 400 Posts (or Wow, That’s A Lot Of Writing!)

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

Tagged blogging, breast cancer, cancer, debt, eating disorder, exercise, milestone, SoulCycle

Going With The Flow (or When Craziness Happens, Sometimes You Can’t Do Anything)

Posted on January 23, 2014 | Comments Off

Tuesday was seriously just a crazy day. I don’t know how all the weird stuff seemed to happen in one day, but it did.

First of all, as a bunch of you probably noticed, the blog was going crazy. Posts that were very old kept getting tweeted or posted on Facebook without me doing anything. And whenever I tried to fix that, my blog went down and I couldn’t see any of my sharing settings. I’m sure some of you were annoyed by that, and I’m sorry. I’m working with my hosting service (BlueHost) to try to fix everything right now. Some of it has been fixed, but I’m not sure about the random posting of old posts. I appreciate your patience in all of this. Plus, if you are new to the blog, this is a perfect chance to catch up on some old posts!

Then there was the craziness at work. I hadn’t really been at work since Friday (working at the show on Sunday doesn’t count because I was only in my office to grab my name tag). I was starting to finally feel better (although still not completely able to breathe through my nose). And after being at work for about an hour, I started to feel sick and like my brain was foggy. It was really weird.

My boss was looking weird too. I asked him how he was feeling and he mentioned that he was feeling fine until getting to work. It’s really strange that both of us started to have symptoms again when we got into work. Neither of us have any idea what is causing this (and it doesn’t seem to be affected any of my other co-workers). I think maybe the cleaning people came in and used a lot of chemical cleaners by my desk and I was being bothered by fumes or something. It was really just weird and made my work day a bit difficult.

I did finally start to feel a bit better closer to the end of the shift, but by that time we had opened all the doors and windows just in case it was some sort of fumes that was making us feel sick.

Dealing with trying to fix my blog (from my iPhone at work) and feeling like I was coming down with my cold again really did make Tuesday a weird and crazy day. I hope that all the craziness was on one day so that the rest of my week goes easily.

We are winding down the season at work. My boss told us that there is a small chance that we are shutting down at the end of this week, but it’s still up in the air. More likely, we will work through the end of the month and then have our time off. I’m still trying to plan for that time off right now so I’m nice and busy, but since I’m still unsure about the start date of the time off, I can only really plan for the second half of my unemployment. But hopefully soon I’ll know what day is the last day and I can start booking my calendar with lots of fun stuff!

Comments Off on Going With The Flow (or When Craziness Happens, Sometimes You Can’t Do Anything)

Posted in Health, Work

Tagged blogging, cold, job, problems, sick

Category Archives: Health

Getting Fly (or Spinning With Bloggers)

Like this:

I’ve Got Some Follow Through (or I Said I’d Do It So I Did)

Like this:

Hollywood Half 5K (or Not Starting Off My 2014 5Ks In The Best Way)

Like this:

The End, Kind Of (or My Mom Is Seriously A Rockstar!)

Like this:

Baby Steps Progress (or Surprising Myself)

Like this:

Biggest Loser Finale (or I Wish I Didn’t Have To Write About This)

Like this:

Time For A Celebration! (or A Pie Date)

Like this:

An Interesting Start To My Unemployment (or Trying To Always Look At The Positives)

Like this:

400 Posts (or Wow, That’s A Lot Of Writing!)

Like this:

Going With The Flow (or When Craziness Happens, Sometimes You Can’t Do Anything)

Like this:

Follow me on Twitter

Like Me On Facebook

Follow Me On Instagram

thejenlevin

Recent Posts

Archives

Category Archives: Health

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Share this:

Like this:

You Might Also Like

Connect With Me!

Subscribe To Finding My Inner Bombshell!

Follow me on Twitter

Follow Me On Instagram

thejenlevin

Recent Posts

Archives