Hollywood

Late last night, I got home from a whirlwind trip to Hollywood! I went to visit my good friend, Seth Santoro, and to celebrate the release of his new book, How I Learned to Smile From The Inside! I flew down Tuesday afternoon, then flew back Wednesday night. Tuesday night was spent at Vintage Enoteca, an awesome little wine bar, where Seth had a book signing. They have the most amazing deviled eggs. I know what you're thinking, "Deviled eggs? That's what you're going to rave about?!?!?" Seriously, they're to DIE for! I may or may not have had four of them. They also put out this amazing cheese platter. Yeah, cheese is my weakness. Yikes! I decided that I wasn't going to worry about weight loss while I was on vacation. I didn't even bring any shakes with me!

The next day, I slept in, for what felt like the first time in years. lol I had a banana for breakfast, then went to take some pictures of the Hollywood sign for my daughter, who is in love with everything Hollywood and celebrities. I had originally planned on taking a hike up Runyon Canyon and taking the pictures from there, because I had heard and read that that was the best view in all of the city, but when I drove there, there wasn't a single parking spot within at least a mile of the entrance. I swear everyone, their tennis partner and their mother's dog was there. It was CRAZY! It's definitely on my to do list for the next time I'm there. So, instead I drove up Beachwood Dr. and got some pictures from there.

After that, I met up with Seth for lunch at the mall in Century City. That food court was AWESOME! I had some bao from "Take a Bao" It was delicious! I had the Spicy Sesame Citrus Chicken and Pomegranate Beef on wheat.

Next came some time just driving around the area, taking it all in. I have to say, I absolutely fell in love with Beverly Hills. Big surprise, right? Anyone who knows me really well knows that I HATE HATE HATE cities. Seriously, I hate them. They make me anxious. They're too crowded, have too many one way streets, the people are rude...I just hate them. Not the case AT ALL for Beverly Hills! I was driving down Santa Monica Blvd and there was one way that you could take for through traffic and one way for local access. I decided to take the local access. Oh my goodness, it is SO cute! It has a walking downtown that I'm absolutely in love with. When I have a vacation home, it's definitely going to be in Beverly Hills!

Finally, I made my way to Hollywood Blvd and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There weren't any particular stars that I was interested in, but I always get my children souvenirs when I go on a trip, so I figured there was no better place for that than Hollywood Blvd! I wasn't disappointed!

I drove back to Burbank, dropped off my car at the rental place (they had upgraded me to a Chevy Camero! I felt so silly driving that thing! I'm much more of a minivan type of person!) and then caught my flight back home. Not before having a chicken and pesto panini and some sushi at the airport. Airport sushi...scary!

I weighed myself this morning and I was only up two pounds! Not too bad for not worrying about it while I was away!

Up and Down and Up and Down

Yesterday was weigh day. Up a pound from last week. UGH! It's not like I'm surprised, just disappointed in myself. I seem to be getting things back in control, but am still having trouble with snacking. I made myself a nice lunch of salad and chicken the other day, ate that...then ate a piece of pizza that my family was having. I told my husband I didn't want a berry sundae from Costco, then ate almost half of his. I had a shake this morning, then ate two graham crackers (little devil pieces of carby goodness!). I think you get the idea. I keep making justifications, "I'm eating it in the morning, so I have all day to burn it off," "It's just one, I'll just eat a smaller piece of chicken to make up for it," "I'm usually under my calories anyways, I'll just consider this a snack..." and so on and so forth. NO MORE EXCUSES! I just need to buckle down and do it. My weight isn't going anywhere. My inches aren't going anywhere. I'm stuck and it's entirely of my own doing. I can't say I'm on a plateau because that would suggest I'm doing everything right and just not losing weight. I'm just not doing things right at the moment.

I'm happy to say that I'm no longer sore from my workout with my personal trainer. Of course, that was almost a week ago, so I would hope so! lol My goal is to release SIX pounds this week. I'm aiming high, hoping that will keep me accountable. That will put me in ONEDERLAND! Forget the graham crackers and cookie this morning. (What, I didn't mention the cookie? Oh wait...cookies. Ugh.)

Back to the gym today. Back in the saddle. Goodbye six pounds. Goodbye 200's!

New Personal Trainer!

I don't know about you, but when I meet someone new, I automatically want to know more about them. This used to entail actually *gasp* talking to people! Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, you don't even have to talk to someone to get to know them! How awesome! haha! So, naturally, after meeting my trainer, I took his card and put the internet to good use. (Isn't that what it's made for? Stalking people and funny cat videos?) Would you believe I cannot find anything about him online? No Facebook profile, no Linked In profile, no ZabaSearch information. NOTHING! Who doesn't have an online presence? So, naturally, this leads me to believe that he is either a super spy, or in the witness protection program. I'm cool with that. From now on, I'm just going to refer to him as my super spy!

So anyways, on Wednesday, I went to meet with my super spy for the first time. I really liked my old personal trainer. She was awesome. I absolutely LOVE this one. With my first, I didn't really feel like our personalities meshed well. With this one, we just clicked. We did the usual stretching out before hand and he showed me a way to work with my sciatic nerve to hopefully help it not bug me too much (those of you that have been pregnant before may know of the pain I'm talking about...horrible lower back pain that leads to shooting pains down your leg.) It started when I was pregnant with Caitlin and I have suffered with it ever since. Hopefully this will help. On a side note, even before this stretch, I figured out that going on the elliptical REALLY helped with that. After one of my workouts, my back was KILLING me. It hurt to walk. The next day, after about five minutes on the elliptical, the pain was gone! At the end of that day's workout, I went on an ab machine and quickly realized that was the machine that was causing the problems. Five minutes on the elliptical and the pain was once again nonexistent! How awesome is that? The elliptical I use at the gym is the Octane Pro3700. I don't know if the other ellipticals would help with my pain or not. I haven't used them. So, back to my super spy...we did a bunch of stuff with TRX (by the way, I totally want one of these for my house!) and some stuff with the cable machines. The cable machines still intimidate me, but the trainers seem to really like them. I was glad that we worked with the TRX as the gym has a Body Web class that I've been wanting to take, but I wasn't sure if I could do it. I think I can! Lots of squats and lunges later and our session was over.

Fast forward to yesterday (the day after meeting with my super spy). I can barely move! Every muscle in my body aches! I want to cry as I walk down the stairs. HOLY MOLEY! Seriously, it was bad. Some would say it was a good kind of hurt. I just say it hurt! I still went to the gym. My super spy was working and I'm pretty sure he laughed at me when I hobbled into the gym. He came over to me when I was on the bike and asked how I was doing. I told him that I could barely move. He told me that was a good thing and that the best way to deal with that was to do some more squats and lunges. I may or may not have sworn at him. lol

Wednesday was my last session. I've talked to my husband and he has agreed that as soon as we have the money, I can purchase eight more sessions. They're pretty expensive, but I think they're totally worth it. I would never push myself as hard as my trainer does and I have a LOT less faith in myself than he does! Thank goodness one of us thinks I can do it!

Back to it!

It has been FIVE DAYS since I had been to the gym! I was cleansing two days, then had lunch with friends one day, then had my son's birthday party, then had church and a family dinner and before I knew it, FIVE DAYS had passed! Not good! So, I drank an E+ Energy Shot this morning and got to it! An hour on the recumbent bike (15 miles) a mile on the elliptical (Anderson Cooper Live started, so I stopped the elliptical and hopped on the bike in front of the TV LOL), 3 sets of 20 reps at "3" on the leg presses (and realized I need to do a lot more weight than that) 3 sets of 20 reps at "3" on the leg curl machine (seemed like a good weight for that machine) 1 set of 20 reps at "2" on the leg extension machine (WAY too much weight!) and 2 sets of 20 reps at "1" (MUCH better!) I'm guessing that the numbers are multiples of ten? So, 3 would be 30 pounds? Purely speculation, though.

My personal trainer is no longer working at the gym I go to. :( She texted me the day before we were supposed to have a session and told me she was no longer working there, and sorry for the short notice. Bummer! So, I went and got a new trainer today. I meet with him on Wednesday! He seems nice enough. I guess I'll know more come Wednesday. Wednesday will be my last session before having to decide if I want to continue or not. I would LOVE to continue with a personal trainer, but I just don't think I'm going to be able to afford it. :(

In a couple of weeks, I'm going down to Hollywood to visit my good friend, Seth, and celebrate his book release! I'm SO excited! I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to afford to go, but flight prices went down considerably, so I booked a flight! I hope he has a blender, because I'm not planning on checking a bag, which means I can't bring a blender with me. :( I'm staying with him, so at least I'm not at the mercy of a hotel when it comes to finding stuff to make my shake! I'll probably bring a blender bottle just in case he doesn't have a blender. He is a bachelor, after all!

I'm still having a terrible time when it comes to food. I just can't get my snacking under control. I've gained NINE pounds in the past couple of weeks! I'd say I have no idea how that could possibly happen, but I'd be lying. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with Easter candy, birthday cake, chips, soda, hamburgers, etc. Ugh.

Get with the program, woman!

I have totally been sabotaging my weight loss efforts recently. I just can't seem to get it through my head that I need to stop eating crap and start eating better! Every morning, I tell myself that I'm going to eat "clean" today. Every day, I totally fail. Today, I told myself, "This is eat! Clean eating today!" I had an IsaLean Shake for breakfast, IsaPro and Want More Energy after my workout, salmon and spinach for lunch...then two Choco Tacos. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?! I was doing SO well! What the heck?!?!?! Why am I doing this to myself? I'm SO close to losing that 100 pounds that I have as my next goal. SO CLOSE!!! I EASILY would have hit it by now if I would just stop eating crap!!! STOP IT ALREADY!!!

The Choco Tacos are gone now. (Can you believe I ate two of them at lunch with the justification of, "I need to eat both so they'll all be gone and I won't be tempted anymore.") There will be NO MORE in my freezer! I NEED to get back on track!

When I first started on my weekly phone calls, the guy in charge of the calls, Larry, told us that he had coached many people into the 100 pound club. He then warned that there had been people who came within a couple of pounds of 100 and then just stopped...stopped getting on the phone calls, stopped losing weight, stopped using Isagenix. He said he's not sure exactly why, but he thinks that it must be some sort of mental thing...that you just don't think you can lose 100 pounds, or you don't think you're worthy of losing 100 pounds, or you're just afraid of succeeding...whatever the case is, sometimes there is just some sort of mental block that doesn't want you to lose 100 lbs. I don't think that's the case with me, but I'm really struggling.

The past two days were deep cleanse days. Two days of cleansing. It's always been easy for me in the past. Last night, I ate. It was the first time I didn't complete a deep cleanse. I told myself that I was making the conscious decision to eat dinner with my family because it was the Blue and Gold dinner for my son's Cub Scout pack and I wanted to eat dinner with my family, rather than just sit there and drink water. I told myself that since I was making that choice consiously, it was okay. It wasn't worth it. Then I came home and HID and ate two Choco Tacos. (See, those things are EVIL!) Seriously, I HID and ate ice cream?!?!?! I've never HIDDEN to eat. NEVER. I hear about people doing that because they don't want people to see them eat. I thought it was ridiculous. Then, I did it. I wanted to cry. I just don't know what's going on, but I know it has to stop!

I'm THAT mom...and more NSV's!

I swore I would never be that mom. We all know them. They're the ones that come to pick their kids up from school in yoga pants and tank tops. The ones who look like they must have just been at the gym, but their hair and makeup are perfect, so you think that maybe they are just actually wearing workout clothes all day, or are doing it for show to make it look like they're the type of stay at home mom that exercises while their kids are at school. They're usually cute and little, so they probably do, but I like to assume they're actually sitting in front of their soap operas all day, lounging around, just waiting to pick their kid up from school, looking like they were just at the gym.

Well, I'm kinda that mom now. I've work yoga pants to school to pick my youngest up from Kindergarten TWICE now! *hides head in shame* I also wore yoga pants to Whole Foods last night. I know, I KNOW!!!! Don't be that mom!!! At least my hair and makeup aren't perfect, and my bright red face shows that I actually WAS just at the gym! Well, except for at Whole Foods last night. I was planning on going to the gym AFTER that, so I was in yoga pants, with nice hair and makeup. :( Plus, I at least have the decency to throw a sweater on over my workout top, so it doesn't look like I'm trying too hard to look like I was just at the gym. Maybe I should stop being judgmental and just start assuming that those moms aren't actually wearing those clothes for show. Nah...what fun would that be?

Two new non scale victories for me! (Well, technically three, but I'm lumping two of them together into one) The first happened last night. My legs were sore from my workout, so I was rubbing them. Then I noticed something odd...there was this thing in front of my shin. It was hard, so I knew it wasn't fat, but it was soft enough that I knew it wasn't bone. I told my husband that I had a weird bump in front of my shin. He came over to feel it and got a good laugh out of telling me it's a MUSCLE!! OMG, I HAVE A MUSCLE IN FRONT OF MY SHIN! Now, all of you may have already known that, but I had no clue. I've certainly never felt it before! Then, I was massaging my quads and squealed, "DRAKE DRAKE DRAKE COME HERE!!!!!!" Before he could get to me, I ran over to him and told him, "FEEL THIS!" You can actually feel my quads! He had been in our closet at the time, which you have to walk through our bathroom to get to and when I saw myself in the mirror, I squealed again, "OH MY GOODNESS! I have DEFINITION!!! YOU CAN SEE MY QUADS WHEN I'M JUST STANDING HERE!!!!!!" Seriously...I've been married and had six kids, and this ranks right up there with one of the best moments of my life.

My next NSV was this morning. The kids were leaving for school and the dog ran out the front door. Usually, he just comes right back inside. This morning, he decided freedom was just too tempting and took off running down the street. I chased him down the street. He is FAST! Of course, he didn't have his collar on this morning because he has a scratch on his neck I'm trying to let heal, so I couldn't just grab him by his collar. He ran around in the middle of the streets for a while. Thank goodness we live close to the school and there was a crossing guard at the corner who stopped all traffic for us as I chased him in the middle of the street. He then ran into the school and ran around the school for a good five minutes. He finally stopped to smell a bush and I was able to come up behind him, pick him up and carry him home. (All 70 pounds of him!) All this, barefoot and in my pajamas. Lovely. When I got home, huffing and puffing, I realized that just a couple of months ago, and maybe even just a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have been able to do that. There's no way I could have chased him, full speed, even just down the street, let alone up and down the street, around the block, into the school, and around the school. THEN carried 70 pounds of dog home two blocks. NO WAY! I would have had to rely on the kids getting him, or an adult at the school grabbing him long enough that I could catch up to him, then I would have had to hold him while I sent one of the kids home to get his collar and leash. Now that I think about it, I probably wouldn't have gone after him at all. I probably would have woken my husband up and told him to go after the dog! I did it. I ran after him. I kept up with him. I caught him. I carried him home. I did that!

Non Scale Victories

I'm a tad bit obsessed with the scale. We have a love/hate relationship. It loves to torture me. I hate it with a firey passion. I'm supposed to weigh in once a week. I weigh about five times a day. The scale pretty much runs my life. I eat/sleep/drink/breathe the number that flashes up at me. If I'm wearing clothes when I get on, I try to estimate how much my clothing weighs. If I just drank water, I think to myself, "I just had three cups of water. That's 24 ounces. That's a pound and a half. That means I actually weigh XXX. That's STILL three pounds more than I was yesterday!" When I weigh before I go to bed, I mentally calculate how much weight I need to lose while I sleep to be lighter than I was that morning. It's an ongoing battle. My personal trainer said something to me the other day that makes a lot of sense, but I still can't stay off of the scale. She said that weighing yourself can cause you to gain weight, or at least stay the same. She said that when you weigh yourself and it's not a number you're happy with, your body immediately releases cortisol because of the stress. Cortisol causes a spike in blood sugar, weakens the immune system, and can suppress fat loss.

So, today I've decided to start focusing on non scale victories (from hereon out, to be referred to as NSV's). Today's NSV? I did an hour and a half of cardio and didn't feel sick to my stomach when I was done! 10 miles on the recumbent bike, 30 flights of stairs on the stair machine and 1 mile on the elliptical. Another NSV (that happened a little while ago), was being able to cross my legs for the first time in a long time. That was awesome! 

On a completely unrelated note, one of my very good friends (who I was paired up with as a penpal in sixth grade when we lived across the country from each other) wrote a book! You should go check it out and order it! I received two copies of it today! How I Learned to Smile From The Inside

More NSV's to come tomorrow, I'm sure!