Thursday, October 19, 2017

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend

Well the weather in Seattle has officially turned to rain and wind storms.

It's been very cold, dark, windy and rainy and more is to come! Hopefully it will ease up for Halloween night. As much as the rain is welcome, I don't enjoy wearing rainboots. I prefer the normal drizzle we get, and it allows me to wear my uggs!

Turned 33 yesterday. Cool.

The hard thing about not living close to where you grew up, is definitely holidays and birthdays. Not just for me, either. For the kids as well. Yesterday, although I got lots of texts and birthday messages via soical media, it was a very lonely day. Luckily I was at work in the morning at the Y (Admin Lead work) and I LOVE my job. So that was nice, and even then only a few people knew it was my birthday so it was nice to not make it s big deal at a new job. But lonely, rainy lunch and afternoon. Then work again, prepping and coaching my Lose to Win group. Picked up take out sushi, and got home after 8pm.

It was nice coming home to the family singing me happy birthday though.

But heres the difference and through my OWN fault. If I lived near my family and friends, I would have seen  SOMEONE, outside of my 4yrs old son possibly for lunch, or a quick coffee. I don't mean the (appreciated) gifts or fancy outings(which I do also enjoy) but the in person visits. Being gone for so long, that when I have a visitor, it means a lot. So I'm an adult, I can get over this stuff. But for my kids, it;s different.

I am hesitant to plan birthday parties for them up here because I fear no one will show up. It's not that I don't trust that they are capable of having a lot of friends, but as we all know, Parents control the schedule and the plan. If you don't know the parents well (which, how am I suppose to know them when I never see them!) there is a 40% chance of them coming. So the kids haven't had a real birthday party in a couple years.

I've stuck to traveling to California and having them celebrate with their family over spending $300 on a bouncing place and inviting all of their school friends. I do feel like the kids would prefer to play with their friends(no offense to family, but if you're not a 4yrs old to 8yrs old...) and I feel bad. But its the reality is that I can't get the excited for an event, that I'm not confident will happen. Nor do I want to spend all that money to rent out a place and only 2 kids show up!! How sad would that be for the kids!

So I have been trying to plan something with just one family. Easier to plan, easier for the kids and the parents. If you've been wondering "why haven't I gotten an invite for the kids party?" or "Did she throw they a party?" for last year, the answer is no, I didn't. I made a mild effort. 98% of the people couldn't make it, so I scratched it. Life happens! We definitely can't make it to all the invited we get and its understandable!

However, school gets out for Elyse June 22, so I may actually let her have a real party with school friends this year. We will see!!!

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

work work work work work

So, I can't pick up where I left off, because that was OVER a year and a lot has changed since! (and who's life doesn't change a lot over a year?)

But I like to try to return to this because I know that those of you that read it are close to me, and sometimes people I don't get the opportunity to update all that often.

Few things to catch up on since June of 2016:

Health and Fitness Career: I think last I posted, I was fully into Beachbody and trying out all of their fun variety of programs, teaching for Fit4mom : Stroller Strides and Body Back.

Now,  although I do still teach for Fit4mom as a contractor(thats the only way), I also work at the nearby YMCA.

The Y growing up, I always thought were these run down buildings and gyms that did help for the homeless. There are 13 in the Seattle area and most of them are recently remodeled or brand new. They are awesome people to work for as they do work for the community but can still be more than a "gym". It's a safe place to hang out, their kids care is wonderful and all of the staff make an effort to know your name!

I started on as a sub last year, and in Feb 2017, got my own Tuesday Morning Strength Training class. Typically a pretty full class, but I was replacing an instructor that was ready to let the class go to someone else. This instructor has a huge following and I am blessed to have been slotted into a class that already had a big group! All I have to do it keep the class big!

However, in the mean time, I also spend many months studying for my Personal Training certification from National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) certification and passed on my first try! (this caused me to start growing grey hairs....)

Trained in Zumba, Zumba Gold and STRONG by Zumba(SBZ) which is now my FAVORITE class to teach. I am currently a sub for SBZ for the last 4 months for an instructor who had surgery. She will be returning next month. I am sad to give the class up.

I also got a brand new Bootcamp class! This has been tough but taking on any new class is. I'm still in the "proving myself" phase with these members. But so far, so good!

I also trained as a health coach for a class called Lose to Win. More of a facilitator and accountability coach, but its effective and helpful for the members!

Lastly, I am an Admin Lead at the Y. Its a small temp position but could lead to bigger things down the road. So heres my week (and don't forget all the pick up and drop offs and dance and soccer lessons sprinkled in!)

Monday - Bootcamp, Admin, Body Back
Tuesday - Strength Training, SBZ
Wednesday - Admin, Lose to win
Thursday - Body Back (every other week)
Friday - Stroller Strides
Saturday Body Back

My week has gotten pretty full!

Why am I starting up this blog? Well, with Fit4mom, I signed an agreement that I wouldn't work for anything similar in the area for 2 years after I quit. Basically putting any fitness knowledge I have out of date. When I had signed it originally, I had no plans to really further my career in this field. But as my kids grew out of Stroller Strides and it was getting hard and hard to make it all work without a childcare facility or anyone to rely on, I was convinced I was good enough to teach at a gym.

When I got the job as a sub at the Y so quickly, I was shocked and tried to leave Fit4mom, but decided on a "breather" instead. I didn't teach there for 2-3 months. My franchise owner told me it was okay with her if I worked at both places as long as I didn't offer any kind of program that was similar to what Fit4mom offered(no prenatal, no stroller fitness classes). But also, to not advertise or persuade our current members in anyway, to leave Fit4mom and come to the Y. As they are in the same territory.  I thought it was fair terms, and I will always have a soft spot for Fit4mom as they are responsible for my love of fitness and weight loss.

However, due to those terms, I can not be open on my own facebook page about what I'm doing or how I'm feeling about ANYTHING at the Y, because I worry I will be crossing lines or violating those terms. So I post mostly only pictures and only on instagram. Which is unfortunate for those that don't care about where I work, but care about what i'm doing. (because you are my friend or family)

I thought, maybe blogging would help that outlet a little! Yea, I have a long list of other things I should be doing besides this.... but I need an outlet, just like a need to log a certain number of couch hours a week. (Champagne problems?) With all my friends mostly moved away, I have filled up my time with family and work and not a huge social outlet. So, even if no one is listening, (besides Cole)...


Thursday, June 9, 2016

The Budding Ballerina



Oh my goodness, a post that isn't all about me!!!!



So my daughter, my first born lil preemie baby.... She has impressed me so much over the years. I know they say girls mature faster than boys, but she feels mature even for her age. But she's also tall for her age so she looks like she's 7 yrs old rather and 4. She shows so much compassion and tolerance for her little brother and friends in school that other friends don't get along with. (which kind of sounds like me when I was little. I would always become friends with the new kid, which is why I am still close friends with some of them!)

Recently she lost her first and second tooth. Both where painless on her side. It's possible they wiggled out early because she is a thumb sucker, however, it's not incredibly uncommon for kids her age to lose their first teeth either. Anyhow, she's working on it and we've found a way to help her.

Moving on, she starting taking pre-ballet this month. I kind of forgot that most dance studios take the summer off from classes and are usually only available during the school year. But our rec center had a one month class available, for dirt cheap too!!! Elyse has been asking and asking to do ballet. I had been really hesitant since when we put her in a dance class before, she was all over the place. Then again, she was 2. Now she is 4, about to be 5 and her listening skills have improved tremendously. 

She currently finished 2 weeks, (2 classes) and is in love with it. (yea, a former dancer's dream come true right?)We were watching the So You Think You Can Dance episode from this season, which is about kids, and a ballerina came on and Elyse says "She's a ballerina!! I'm a ballerina!" I did have to break it to her that she's a pre-ballerina, but she was still very excited about it. In the first episode, there was a very tall dancer. She is 13 and 5'10. This gave me hope that even though Elyse is tall, she could still be a ballerina if she wanted to!


So here I am, looking up classes to nurture her desire to dance. However, as one girl said on SYTYCD, "Dance is expensive!" we will have to see how much we can do for her!

I asked her last night, "what do you want to be when you grow up?" I excepted her to say "mermaid" or "princess" or "jedi". She said "Ice skating Ballerina".  Might need Sharon Emo to train her on that!


Friday, June 3, 2016

The life of the Less Caffeinated



Some thing I have been sticking to since my 3 Day Cleanse is that I have been sticking to drinking less caffeine. I love coffee. I mean, LOVE the way it tastes and smells and everything about it. However, I have been having such trouble losing weight and getting my body the way I would like it. So, its time for a change!!

2.5 years ago, when this whole "I need to change my eating and (lack of) fitness habits" started, I gave up soda. I would only have soda at restaurants or parties or in a mixed cocktail before anyways. I didn't really keep soda in the house out of habit. My mom never really let us have sodas in the house growing up.


So now, I still only have soda on the rarest of occasions. I've maybe had 1 soda in all of 2016.  With that I want to start with reducing my caffeine intake. My kids are kids, not babies, which means they sleep through the night and can occasionally entertain themselves and are less and less reliant on me. Which leads me to believe, I don't NEED a full cup of coffee, everyday. I've been having decaf or teas. This is why I say "less caffeine" and not "giving up caffeine".  There is still caffeine in decaf, and there is also caffeine in some teas, such as green tea, or black tea.

So far so good. Since I had to go through the first days in the 3 day cleanse anyways, which were the worst. I would hate to let myself get back in the habit of having caffeine just to attempt to cut it out again.

Also, in the beginning of the year I gave myself a goal of 1000 miles in a year. Thats 1000 walking or running miles. Lets say with the end of June being my half way, and I should only 500 miles left to go from there... I'm VERY behind. With that in mind, I have been trying to catch up a little and started running again.

Running this week has reminded me why I've stopped. I have been walking/running a lot this week and besides all the mileage that came with it, I also revamped my plantar fasciitis, have insane sports bra rash and blisters all over my foot. Yay!!!

I will be going back to long fast walks for awhile trying to catch up!!!

Saturday, May 28, 2016

3 Day Refresh - Day 3 and 4

Hello from Day 2 post refresh!!!

Yesterday got away from me so I am posting a day late!

Day 3 - It was easier than the previous days, but hard at the end of the day. Being so close to the finish and yet not being finished. I was feeling an awesome allergy attack come on that morning, so I refrained from exercise except the regular scheduled kid chasing, house cleaning and teaching that evening. I did great in the morning without coffee, and for the first time, I actually thought the taste of shakeology was good! I would even stretch it to say delicious!

I have not be a fan of the taste of Shakeology. However, I am a sweet tooth kind of person and I always forget, it's not really a dessert! But I've grown to really enjoy it now. (I'm currently drinking their new cafe latte flavor and really enjoy it!) Through the 3 day refresh I was drinking the chocolate vegan. I didn't mind it at all. My husband was not a fan. However, I prefer it over the regular chocolate shakeology.

So day 3 went well, I stuck to the plan, I didn't have any carb cheats. Then at the end of the day, I was talking to my husband on his way home from work and I say "I want pizza" as a vent. He says "I've had a bad day. I'm okay with that." " well needless to say, we both caved and had pizza that night". I'm done with feeling guilty about my cheat meals. Guilt leads to stress, and stress leads to weight gain. So I just accept that I love food, and I love the taste of unhealthy foods. Just need to have them a lot less and in moderation!

However, I weighted myself before I consumed the delicious slice of heaven and as it turns out, I lost a total of 3lbs on the 3 day refresh. I understand that it may not seem like much but for where I am at on my weight loss journey, any loss is a win for me! Since I have hit my plateau, It has been incredibly difficult to lose anything. I've stuck with programs, changed them up and my eating is 90% better than it was even 6 months ago when I hit the plateau. I indulge on rare occasions (date nights, vacations, mom nights out) but these are not regular events. I work out daily, and by work out I mean I sweat a waterfall coming down my face, and continue to challenge myself with new workouts.

The 3 day refresh was one of them.

Review: Will I buy 3 day refresh again?  - Likely not. Unless I gain a lot of my weight back, I don't feel that I needed to spend the $50+ dollars for the shakes and fiber sweep. I feel like if I wanted to cleanse myself like that again, I would use the knowledge I got from it (3 shakes a days as meals, no caffeine, dairy, carbs. Add a fiber drink like psyllium husk, eat fruit, veggie and healthy fats and stick to it). Also, I have a hard time, as most people do, being completely restricted. Even for 24 hrs. Obviously, I added a few things off the menu and maybe my results could have been bigger. But in the grand scheme of it all, 3 days will not give you permanent weight loss. What I did get out of it was more than "results".

What I did get out of the program is getting my head back in the healthy eating game. Which leads me to day 4.

Day 4 or Day 1 post refresh: on day 3 I was thinking "Im going to make myself a REAL breakfast tomorrow. Eggs with spinach and mushrooms and its gonna be amazing!" Well I woke up and decided, I wanted to make better choices as I have been, but even better. So I stuck to my shakeology, happily had a salad for lunch. I am just in a better state of what foods are good for my end result. I am back into being motivated and staying on track! Woo hoo!! Even today, post refresh day 5, I went and enjoyed a cup of coffee. 5 min later, I got the jitters. FROM COFFEE!!!DRIP COFFEE!! I've never been one to feel the effects of coffee. Now I do!

On Monday I will be starting Master's Hammer and Chisel. Now that I've completed 21 Day Fix and 21 Day Fix extreme, I'm ready for a new workout! I will still be doing Bikini Body Guide 2.0 as well because I do believe an hour workout will help me out! We will see where it takes me!


Thursday, May 26, 2016

3 Day Refresh - Day 2

Ok Day 2 has come and gone. Whew!!

Definitely Day 2 has been the hardest. Day 1, it was a hard adjustment but I was still excited about it.

Day 2, most of the day I was thinking... omg.... one more day of this!?

Day 3 (today) - I've woken up feeling sick with a cold or allergies which I don't think is related to this program. But will discuss that tomorrow.

So Day 2, I spent most of the day home trying to avoid eating out and sticking to the plan. I didn't exercise at all which is unusual for me. I took Elyse to school, Alistair to a playdate at the park, picked Elyse up, and did household work (cleaning, laundry, more cleaning, cooking, tutoring Elyse, more cleaning)

Side note: the more your kids are home, the more your house becomes a disaster.

This kept me pretty busy and it was actually really nice to slow down for a day, pay attention to the kids and the house and put working out and getting errands done aside. It was amazing. It was like being a new mom again when you are basically stuck at home because you're exhausted and you're just trying to get through the day with your child and the easiest (in a life that isn't easy at all) thing is to stay home, on the couch, ready to care for your child at any moment. Except, now I have 2 and they are kids and can cover my 3100 sq ft house floor with toys in 30min.

Anyways, I was tired, but not as tired as day 1, and I wasn't hungry, but I wanted something to crunch/snack on. So again, I went to my pita chips mid afternoon, and may have snuck in a few stale pieces of chex cereal that my kids left out. But all in all, I would say I was about 90% stuck to the program. I had all their shakes and no coffee, and drank my water, etc.

As of today, I have lost a total of 1.7 lbs. So, likely its water weight, but at least the scale is going in the right direction!!!


Wednesday, May 25, 2016

3 Day Refresh Day 1














I didn't post yesterday because I felt like I needed to get through the whole day before I could give my review!



So Day 1: Started out with  8oz of water which I warmed and added lemon juice to. Then on to Vegan Chocolate Shakeology and half a banana. I assume I was suppose to blend them together, but that sounded like more work. 



After taking a 3 mile walk with the kids I had a tea break and drank my fiber sweep. Tea was good, fiber sweep, not so much. I chugged than down as fast as possible.


After some time at the playground we went home for lunch. Lunch was their Vanilla Shake with the other half of the banana, 10 baby carrots and hummus. The shake was also not very tasty :(

After a grooling afternoon of chasing the kids around the house and trying to stay awake, it was finally dinner. Dinner was another gross shake and instead of going with one of the recipes in the book, I had a cup of carrot and ginger bisque. It did the job. 


Although I was about 98% sticking to the plan, I had a mid afternoon freakout about how sluggish I was feeling and has a few pita chips to mentally get me through the rest of my day. As a sahm, I feel like I have to have my guard up 24/7 and I also have to teach a Body Back and Fit4Baby class in the evening. I was a little embarrassed to say,  I still showed up to class tired and likely not in the best shape. 

I do feel that the sluggish feeling came more from the caffeine withdrawal than the food. Also, being on any kind of "cleanse" is a bit of a mental game for me. I binge eat the night before, then through the entire "cleanse" all I can think about is everything I can't have! It's almost worse! 

All in all, day one went by much more successfully than expected. When I got home from teaching all I wanted was to eat and was able to refrain.  I am not as hungry as I thought I would be today, but I am becoming a hermit because I don't want to leave the house and be tempted to make a bad decision. It's only 3 days! I can do this! I did not wake up feeling any thinner or lose a lot of weight (lost a pound) and that was a little discouraging with all the effort I've put in to NOT eat things. But thats okay!

Its nearing the end of day 2, and I'm in the same boat as yesterday. Tired, and all I can think about is a Togo's hot pastrami sandwich. Thankfully washington doesn't have a Togo's for me to go to, but I look forward to having one in July (which feels so far away) Hopefully I will have better results on the scale or with how I feel tomorrow!