weight loss

Zum-bad to the Bone!

/ foodsweatandbeers / 23 Comments

Hey hey y’all!

I’m feeling absolutely FAN-tastic after a killer workout at the gym. I was so stoked for today’s Zumba class because my favorite instructor was back from summer “break” (aka her son or daughter was on a swim team during the EXACT time of my Tuesday zumba classes.) I love her because she just jumps right into things, stays high energy the whole time, and mixes up the music.  In fact, today we did an awesome track to, of all things, a country song!

It involved a lotta belt buckle holding, and a lotta kicks but, most importantly, a lotta shaking it. I get the feeling that my instructor might be a little bit of a country girl herself… There’s a twang in her voice and she held onto that “belt buckle” a little too well to not be….

In fact, she kind of reminds me of some sort of hybrid between:

Kristin Chenoweth's looks and Southern cuteness

Erin Heatherton's shaped (yet still feminine) abs

Beyonce's Bootylicious moves!

It’s truly the perfect storm of Zumba. Her abs are so toned that it makes you wanna do any of the moves she does in hopes to get em, and her moves are so fun you forget when you even started.

Oh, did I mention it’s a killer workout?

756 sexy calories burned

She also tossed in an arms-only track to Justin Timberlake’s “Carry Out” that left my arms shakey.

After having not exercised in two days (and one of them was mostly spent feeling sorry for myself), it was so crucial to get right back into it.  I feel like a new woman. Only sweatier.

I guess it’d only make sense to shower, really complete the process of “new woman”ification.

Do you Zumba?

I Zumba on the reg, but honestly I tend to use it as a “gimme” workout… except with this instructor.  And even though I have a super cute Zumba shirt, I’m not a zumba-holic…. but I saw one girl today wearing a Zumba tank top, a Zumba skirt, and Zumba SHOES!

Ready to take it to the next level? ZUMBA SHOES!

In case you’re in the market for these bad boys, check out McCarley Fitness aka the first website I found that offers them.

Do you have special outfits you wear for particular workouts?

I’d never wear my Zumba shirt to a BodyPump.  Faux pas, I think.

 

Microwaves vs. Crockpots: A Weight Watchers Metaphor

/ foodsweatandbeers / 9 Comments

Good evening, y’all!!

Today, after work, I took a rest day, as I knew I would.  I spent some time at the grocery store, and came out with a KILLER haul due to sales and bogos.  25 dollhairs for all of this:

Hooray Grocery Goodies!

Well, actually, the box of wine glasses/glass of wine on the left was simply what I was drinking post-grocery store.  I did some cleaning, I drank some vino, and I watched some X-Men and continued to feel like a superhero. It was a true success.

For dinner, we had tacos. Well, I had some taco salad and the beau nibbled some true tacos.  It was a SEXY looking meal.

Delightful!

In the salad:

  • Spinach base
  • 1 roma tomato
  • 1/2 green pepper
  • 1/2 avocado
  • spicy turkey mix
  • salsa
  • low fat mexi-mix cheese!

It was simply the best.

Tonight, I was thinking back on a post I read back in my tumblr days.  The idea was on weightloss and how folks are either microwaves or crockpots.  This post, by the Active Artist, (real name: Alex) basically talked about how different folks lose weight incredibly fast (microwaves) or slow and steady (crockpots).  Please read the post to see his opinion (I don’t wanna sum it up wrong) but here’s my response.

I love this analogy.  I’ve recently been talking a lot about weight loss to my mother, who started my journey with me last March, but fell off the wagon with grad school, five kids, a husband, and a veryyyy busy life to handle. She was asking me questions about losing the weight I did, and how I did it so fast.  However, I just looked back at some old posts and maybe have an addition to this metaphor.

In March, I started my goal to lose weight. By August 12th, I was 181.5, down over 30 lbs.  However, at my last weigh-in I was 172.  This is about 9 lbs since August, which just a month shy of a year ago. So while I lost the initial 30 lbs in what seemed like no time, the last 20 that I’m trying to work on have been like inchworms they’re leaving so slowly.

Part of it may have to do with moving in with someone, and adjusting my eating habits to another person. Part of it may have to do with this newfound freedom of looking good in clothes and feeling great despite not losing every week, because I am eating what I want (admittedly, what I want is often grilled chicken, veggies, salads, etc), and feeling sexy.  But the thing is, I know I can do better.  So here’s my addition:

I think I’m a microwave. A trusty dependable one that’s worked your whole life, only one day, it’s not working. And so your food’s not cooking at all, and you’re confused. Only the thing is, it’s going to end up being something stupid, like it’s not actually plugged into the wall socket.

All I need to do is find that damn plug, and plug back into my weight loss. That, I think, will give my system the jump-start it needs.

And, if you’re not sure, I have mixed feelings about microwaves.

Thanks for reading, I know it was text-heavy.

How about you?  Are you a microwave or a crock pot?

Are you trying to lose weight or are you happy where you are?

Wake-Up Call

/ foodsweatandbeers / 24 Comments

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Wow.  So once, going through pictures and trying to find the one of me doing yoga at all, I found this one.  Taken in Las Vegas, right as I was coming off of a summer of sloth following a wicked lame pre-summer foot break that incapacitated me, right outta college graduation, the caption on facebook of this was “My dream wedding.”

I think, in my mind, the joke was not only “wow, she just got married in the middle of the day, in vegas, in a full wedding gown, and is playing penny slots” but “and also, she is fat.”

However, reflecting on this picture (this was probably the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life) I am blown away by my own appearance.  Because, after losing almost 50 lbs, I look at this and think “there are two people in this picture that are overweight, not just one.”

Talk about your belated wake up call…

I have to say, this isn’t a post to call anyone fat (even though I did just say that I considered both people in this image overweight), more to evaluate the change in my thought process.  Because honestly, while I was happy as a clam that weekend, I can’t help but think I’d have had such a better time if I were my current weight.  And while I didn’t THINK I was overweight at all at this time in my life, it’s like…. wow.  Now that I see it having lost the weight, I can’t believe I just allowed myself to have all those extra pounds on my body.  I remember once, at a UNC football game, I was loudly cheering for my team, waving my pom poms around like a locopop (GO HEELS!!! TAR HEEL BORN AND TAR HEEL BRED!!) when a random viewer at the game mentioned, off hand to her friend, that I should “calm my fat ass down because it was jiggling in [her] face”.  That hurt.  That hurt, so friggin’ much (I’d say another f word, but I’m unsure if wordpress monitors these supah hard.)  I think that was the first time I thought to myself, “Wow.  This whole ‘being overweight’ thing is miserable, horrible, and people mock you for it.”  At the time, I was a happy, fun-loving UNC student, who got hit on a lot (just saying, for a while, that’s how I measured my self-worth) and looked sexy in clothes (in my opinion at the time.)  How the HELL could some girl call me a fat ass?  Well, now, looking back, I see it, and I believe I might think the same thing about old me now a-days.  That’s harsh, right?  Jeez.  But I’m… just being honest. (Andre 3000, 2003).

The change is monumental. And my life has just changed so much.

I think about my health, my weight, my diet, my fitness…. so much. Like, constantly.  Everything I put in my mouth, everything that comes out of me (TMI? whatevz), everything I do with my body, every activity I plan…

I was talking with my beau about how, despite the fact that we’ve both lost over 25 lbs since we initially decided to get healthified, we think about our weight/fitness more than we ever did when we had those extra lbs on our body.  I guess it’s just part of adapting your awareness regarding your body.

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Ocean City, New Jersey.  It’s my home away from home, and my favorite place on the face of this planet.  And once, 2 years ago, my grandma mentioned to my mother how terrible I looked on the beach.  It’s stuff like that which make me so so happy to have decided to make the change, not because of her, not because of what anyone has ever said, but because I knew that if I wanted to live a long/healthy life, I couldn’t continue living the way that I was. And because of the changes I’ve made, I’ll be able to spend time indulging in my favorite treats, while enjoying my mornings being more active than I used to be.  It’s all about balance and, as evident by that earlier picture, I’m all about balance (except for the fact that my balance is HORRIBLE due to breaking both my feet at different points in my life.  I’m basically on a constant teeter totter.)

To sum it up: I’m so excited for this weekend.  And I won’t feel guilty about anything I do.  I will go to the gym tomorrow, I will enjoy strolling/powerwalking on the boards the rest of the days, and I know that I won’t look back on pictures from this weekend and think negative thoughts about myself.

It’s all because of a little wake-up call.

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Have you ever had a wake-up call to health?  Regardless of your answer, what boosted you into a healthy lifestyle?

Do you wish that you could snuggle with me?  (duh.)

Savoring Every Bite

/ foodsweatandbeers / 4 Comments

So, the focus of this post will be on the first two aspects of my name: Food, and sweat. I think it would only be reasonable to keep the beers as their own post, for organization and also for the sake of bloggers/blogettes who hate beers (though I think, if you give them a chance, they could grow on you…)

Today, in each of my meals, it became abundantly clear.  I am, and will ALWAYS BE, a member of the clean plates club.

We went to Bandido’s Cafe in Durham, the one true love of my Mexican craving belly. I had pipe dreams of taking a picture of my meal before I consumed it.  Unfortunately for all you lovers of food pictures, our waitress decided that after we got chips and salsa, we were probably no longer hungry, so by the time our meals came to the table, my mind was on one thing, and one thing only.

The bottom of this plate.

Moments later, as the rest of the table oogled our coworkers new baby (who is adorable) and pushed beans and enchilada bits around their plates, I was completely finished. My plate resembled almost to a T the one pictured above (only with less food on it). I got the Racy Rodriguez, my go-to lunch combo, with a blackbean enchilada, soft chicken taco (of which I tossed the tortilla after two bites) and a side of blackbeans. Oh, and my arm’s weight in chips salsa. I savored every bite, taking little ones, in order to enjoy it all.

It was no surprise, then, when I was at the gym and had finished a rocking Ab Sculpt and Body Pump class, that my WIW (weigh-in Wednesday) was no different than last week (174). That being said, it was a great workout, and I felt killer afterwards.

The Ab Sculpt class at O2 Fitness features a different set of workouts every week that just focus on your core (abs, lower back, obliques, etc). I have to admit, I just started going to this class whenever I can, and I LOVE getting that little jolt in before Body Pump, and my abs always feel rocked.  Body Pump, once a foreign term to me, seems to be ALL OVER the health/fitness blog world, so some of you may not be familiar with it.  However, for all you newbies (especially y’all who are interested in trying it) let me say, it’s the one class that has changed the shape of my body more than any other.  Today’s class was a mix up of different releases, and went in a pretty standard order (warmup, squats, chest, back, triceps, biceps, lunges, and abs). We nixed the shoulder track because the other class had to come in, but I felt like rocked nonetheless.

I came home to roast a few veggies that I’d picked up at the Farmer’s Market (zucch, red onions, some squash I never got the name of, and eggplant).

Pre-roasting!

And added them to three skewers of shrimp from Tar-jay (aka Super Target), to make this GLORIOUS concoction:

Hiding under the shrimp, you can spot MANY veggies... right?

DeLISH! I pulled the shrimp off the skewers to eat them, mixed it all up with veggies, and ate it all, one or two pieces at a time. I’m big on cutting my pieces into little bites to prolong the pleasure of the eating experience (that almost sounded sexual… I’m not mad.) The beau had a pepperoni Freschetta, which tasted looked bomb.com. (I may have snuck a few nibbles of pepperoni,  shhh…) Let’s just say that, other than the tails of the shrimp (you can’t eat them, right?) there is NOTHING leftover. No matter what it is, bowl or plate, I will leave it clean as a whistle.

Tomorrow is Thursday (Rebecca Black, 2011) and my VERY favorite weekday.  Early morning Body Attack express class, work post-shower, maybe a little trip to the mall, and GLASS NIGHT! (basically a happy hour that I host where we consume craft beer and appetizers and talk beer with friends and strangers.)  I bet I’ll clean my glass, too.

PERSONALLY if I don’t set aside leftovers even BEFORE I eat a meal, I will eat every last bite on the plate. It’s just in my nature… as the eldest of 5 kids in a family of 7 (and 2 dogs… and a REALLY hungry turtle) I always felt like eating meals was a sort of… competition or race. and by GOD, I was going to win.

How about you? Do you clean your plates? Or are you a big fan of leftovers?

Welcome to the Jungle

/ foodsweatandbeers / 5 Comments

Every day is the first day of the rest of your life, right?

Well today’s the first day of this, my newest internet endeavor.  After reading hours upon hours of the words of my peers, women and men who I admire immensely, that helped inspire my own journey into a healthier lifestyle, I felt moved to start a more official blog of my own.  In March 2010, I began tumbling, which has also been a key to tracking my food intake, exercise, and Weight Watching. Almost a year and a half later, I’ve lost 40 lbs, changed my entire outlook on day to day life, and added a hearty dose of health/fitness bloggers to my day-to-day readathon in the early hours of my morning. It’s my hope to add something to this blogging community, something I can be proud of come August 19th when I hit the streets of Philthy-delphia (aka my old stomping grounds) for the 3rd Annual Healthy Living Summit, an event I used to be satisfied with reading about.

That being said, I’m not a runner. I’m not a health nut, nor am I a nutritionist, and I’m not quite a foodie (though I think I’m getting there…) I’m a hungry young professional living in the Research Triangle of North Carolina with a general enthusiasm for fitness, adventure, and (the newest addition to my list of hobbies) craft beer.

I’d love to use this blog as an outlet to pick up my writing, a passion I used to have as a young’n, and track my health, fitness, food, and beers that have piqued my interest.

Feel free to give me a read, follow along, and maybe (if I’m lucky) I’ll help someone else find the chutzpah to change their lives for the MUCH better.