There's always tomorrow

Monday was a tough day for me as expressed regarding my ski pant situation. I was so down on myself that I was concerned it was going to start a downward spiral into the gloomy depths of cheese and inactivity. HELL NO! I woke Tuesday ready to go-- I can't let stupid ski pants ruin my progress. Ruin my forward momentum. As I sit in the Atlanta airport I can look back on yesterday and be proud. I worked out with my trainer, had some acupuncture work done and feel GREAT. I've got big workout plans for tomorrow, Friday and Saturday-- 2 of which will involve SKI's and some nice hiking. While I'm on the road the food can always get a bit iffy but I'm committed to being smart this trip. Next week I head to LA to get trained for my Poster Child responsibility and I believe it's going to involve some SERIOUS fitness tests...I'm actually a little excited, along with a lot of nervous. Ok...here's hoping to get out of ATL before the storm hit.

stupid stupid ski pants

my ski pants are too small. i mean, they will pull on but they are super tight. and considering we have a snow event this weekend I figured i would buy some new ones in 1 size larger...even if they will be too big in no time (fingers crossed). they arrived today. and were equally tight. i cried.
what an emotional journey this whole thing is. i refuse to be uncomfortable for 2 days on the slopes so i ordered the next size up. i cried again. but that's all ok i imagine-- i'll have good days and bad days on this journey. to keep my motivation high i'm reminded of my skinnier days. here's a picture of me posing with my favorite celebrity ever about 30 pounds ago.

Oh so confused.

Last week at this time I weighed 214 lbs. This week, 210. I have absolutely no idea why I lost 4 lbs in a week. Here's what I did:
Sunday: Light workout, lots of drinking for Falcons game, ate relatively well, walked everywhere I went, drank lots of water.
Monday: Walked to find my car from the day before (my workout), veged out on couch with Netflix remainder of day, lots of water, decent food, no booze.
Tuesday: Flew to Tampa, lots of water, walked/ran for 30 minutes, ate at BERNS--- Fish, mashed potatoes, cheese plate, french onion soup, 1 martini, 2 glasses of wine, bite or 3 of dessert.
Wednesday: Ate way too much healthy food-- DM meeting. Sat around a table all day in meetings with hummus and what not just begging me to eat it. No workout other than a crazy ass run through the airport to make my plane. Had dinner at 11:30 PM in hotel, no booze.
Thursday: AM workout, decent food throughout day, light dinner, event Thursday night-- on feet until midnight working, few drinks afterwards, in bed by 1:30-- no late night food.
Friday: Fly back to ATL, pretty good food day, intense workout with trainer with 30 minutes additional cardio, no booze, good nights sleep.
Saturday: Intense hike, household chores, some heavy lifting in terms of furniture, lots of veggies for dinner, no booze, good nights sleep.
Sunday: 210 lbs.
The consistents this week were: I MOVED every day...whether it was intense workouts or not. I drank a shit ton of water every day. I limited my booze (except Sunday), I didn't eat late night (except for dinner on Wednesday and it was all protein).
Just looking at my weight chart to the right you can see an up and down, up and down type of thing going on...wonder what it would be like to just LOSE weight rather than go on this crazy roller coaster.

Food and PT

I have the most amazing Personal Trainer-- Brandy at Exhale Spa. She kicks my ass so freaking hard that I have not worked out with her yet where I wasn't questioning if death was imminent. She also helps me really focus which is huge for me. Here's a picture of her doing something I'll be doing in no time...

Also my friend Kacey was telling me about her new diet regimen that involves what seems to be some super smart choices. Big breakfast packed with protein, healthy snack, relatively large lunch, healthy snack and then no carbs after 3:00 PM, with dinner being the smallest meal of the day. Her trainer also told her that cardio is much more effective in the morning opposed to the evening and that she only needs 3 sessions of 20 minute cardio per week (heart rate over 140 entire time) and then 3 sessions of strength training each week-- and no more than 7 drinks a week. She's looking and feeling great so there maybe something to her plan. I think I'm just going to have to figure out what works best for my body and also understand that what works may change as my body and routines change as well. That's what I got for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm going to keep pretty chill and get some stuff done around the place and start PACKING for my upcoming move across town. House with a yard here I come!

Encouragement, Traveling and Sleep

I can't believe it's been more than a few days since I've written. I've been traveling this week for work and can't seem to quite get in a rhythm...but the good thing is that I've made working out a priority this week when I was on the road a snagged a workout in both Tampa and Charlotte and an impromptu workout in the ATL airport when I OJ'ed through that bitch to make a flight. Seriously...my cardio ability was severely challenged. When I finally got on the plan the dude sitting next to me turned on the air for me and got me some water :)
Last night I got to hang out with Stephanie Craig who was the SEBU Poster Child last year and she was so motivational about my upcoming journey. She let me know a little bit about my upcoming trip to California-- it's apparently going to be challenging to say the least. BUT...I know I can do just about anything I put my mind to.
Today I'm going to fly home and head straight to the acupuncturist...still keeping this odd dude around for a bit longer and then to a personal training session...talk about a way to start off the weekend. Alright...more to come in the next post about my friend Kacey's eating plan that her trainer put her on.

Lance Armstrong and weight gain

I hate Lance Armstrong. Well, that's too personal. I think Lance Armstrong is a total douche. A few years ago my friend who was an Olympic athlete at the time told me that it was well known in the high performance community that Lance was dirty and every since then I've never believed a word that he said. In fact, I have a lengthy twitter relationship with Lance that if researched is humorous. What I'm wondering right now is who the hell is this man paying to be his publicist? He has the opportunity of a lifetime to come clean and then turn the tables completely onto the sport of cycling-- that is just as dirty as Lance is and make positive changes moving forward for the sport. But I don't see that happening any time soon. A few years ago when I was working for Nissan and they wanted to be the "official car" of Team Radio Shack I begged the manager of this project to put a "doping" clause into the contract. I knew that this is how this whole dealio was going to end because I had inside information but they wouldn't think of it. STUPID STUPID STUPID.

Just wanted to get all of that off my chest.

In other news. I gained a stupid pound this week and ate well, worked out crazy hard and drank a shit ton of water. Not quite sure how this whole thing works but damn-- not the best feeling. BUT...I will not let myself get down. I'm heading to the park for a walk with Ashley prior to the Falcons game so there's that...#RiseUP.

Near Death

This morning I worked out with my awesome personal trainer Brandy at Exhale Spa and I'm not sure how but I'm still alive. As I'm still recovering from surgery I told her that I couldn't lift super heavy weight and that it might be a good idea to focus on cardio and next thing I know I'm running stairs lifting a medicine ball over my head, Jumping from hoop to hoop, doing jacks with weights and jumping lunges. I truly thought I might die. A couple things to note here...the power of positive thinking is one of them. As soon as I get down on myself or tell myself I can't do something I'm finished. I mean done. Near tears. BUT, if I can stay positive-- keep pushing happy thoughts into my brain, I'm golden. A few times this morning I got down on myself but then I just re-focused and started thinking about why I'm on this journey. I'm on this journey for myself. For my health. So I won't fall victim to my family traits of diabetes, sleep apnea, and heart problems. I'm on this journey for my friends (Wells and all of yall), I'm on this journey for my peers to show them that anything can be done if you work hard enough.

To show  you how hard I worked...here's a picture of my red face AFTER a 20 minute cold shower....