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Monday, September 15, 2014

Non-scale Victories!

I haven't posted because I have felt I don't have much to post about. I am doing my DDPYoga 3-4 times a week and going to a yoga class at the gym in my apartment complex on Mondays and Wednesdays. I keep going because I know I will feel better, and I truly am. But most days nothing exciting happens that I feel the need to blog about.

Then there's how tired I am after work. That is another gripe entirely though.

In this last week, and especially today, I have had some awesome non-scale victories that I wanted to share! The first is I found a new website to order clothes from you can not only order off the rack but have customized (either by size or style/length) for a minimal charge. The best part is they go from size 0-36W for ALL of their styles. I am in desperate need of new work clothes. Between being on a strict budget for several years and the chemicals from work eating away at my wardrobe, I couldn't put it off any longer. So, a long story short, when I took my measurements to have my clothes custom made I found I had lost 9" between my waist, hips and thighs! I was ecstatic! I knew my clothes were more loose, but I thought it was because the fabric was stretching and dying. Nope! I'm shrinking!

Then tonight in my yoga class I was suddenly able to do two positions I haven't been able to before. The first is a simple pose, you sit on the floor with one leg extended straight in front of you and the other pulled up so your foot is resting on your inner thigh. You lean over and try to gently hold your foot. When I started DDPYoga in July I was INCHES from even touching my foot. Last week I was barely brushing my toes with my fingers.

Tonight I HELD my foot around the middle. No grunting. No straining. I just leaned over and was able to grasp it. The grin on my yoga teacher's face was awesome. I can only imagine what mine was like.

The other is a style of squat. You stand on your tip toes and go into a squat. As you reach the bottom you spread your knees and place your elbows on the insides of your knees. It challenges your balance like you wouldn't believe. I have barely been able to start to squat much less get anywhere close to putting my elbows near my knees. Tonight I gracefully sank into the full squat. Elbows on the insides of my knees. My butt resting on my heels. AND I DIDN'T FALL ON MY BUTT!!!!

The scale isn't moving much, but that's ok. I am feeling differences in my clothes. Seeing and feeling muscles I haven't had in a long time. The other night while getting ready for bed I was brushing my hair and noticed the muscles in my shoulders. It was a moment of, "Oh! Hello deltoids! Nice to see you again. Where have you been hiding?" So I think I am exchanging fat for muscle.

My muscles aren't cramping like they used to.

My back spasms have almost stopped. They only happen on really stressful days (either due to work or traffic).

I am feeling more energetic.

Overall I am happy with where things are going right now. There's still a lot to work on. My eating habits especially. Although considering how I used to be, I am not going to tear myself down now. I have come a long long ways.

Enough rambling for now. I will post pictures soon. Thanks for reading. Good night.

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Back in the groove

Aside from packing and lifting moving boxes I haven't really worked out since mid-July. Now that the move is done it feels good to be getting back in the groove and finding a new normal. Today I went upstairs to the little gym in our new apartment complex and started the couch to 5K again. I am doing the Hot Chocolate Run again in Denver this year and need to get back to where I can at least walk/run it again. I really like the view from our gym too. Love mountain views.




I also started doing my DDPYoga again. I can sure tell I haven't done it in a while. My body has been aching and hurting. I didn't realize how much good it had been doing me. There have also been notices posted around for free classes in our workout area from a local gym that is free with our rent. Mondays and Wednesday is a yoga class at 6:30pm. I am going to give that a shot this week as well. See how I like the teacher and all that. I'm excited about it.

Overall I am really happy at the moment. Even though we are in a temporary apartment while we wait some repairs to be completed on ours, I really like the new complex. It is hard living out of boxes and not knowing where everything is packed, but we are making it work.

As for staying focused on my workouts and just getting healthier I had some big motivation in July. My Dad was in the hospital with an infection in his leg. I don't know how much of it is or isn't related to his diabetes, but it was kind of a wake up call for me. I know how bad diabetes is. It runs in the family and my best friend died from complications of it. But it hadn't hit home just how devastating it can be. Dealing with infections and weakened immune systems is not fun. I am doubly determined to get the weight off so I don't have to face this disease myself....or at least for a VERY long time.

That's it for now. I will hopefully be posting more as things settle in and I start working on other projects to post about. Such as my jewellery and other crafts...not just working out. While I don't want weight loss to be the sole focus of my life and have that be all that I talk about, but I know it will be. I need to make my health and happiness a priority. So along with my weight loss will be the things that make me happy. Being crafty, being nerdy, and being me.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Goal Setting

In starting DDP yoga I have listened to Diamond Dallas Page's e-book, "Own Your Life" several times now. One of the biggest things he talks about to achieving ANY dream, but especially focusing on weight loss, is goal setting. This is nothing new to me. Setting goals is how you know you want to get stuff done. However, I hadn't thought about it until he put it like this. "You have to know where if you ever hope to get there." Goals are a roadmap that tell us how far we have to go, and show us how far we have come. Taking pictures and measurements along the way help remind us of how far we have come when we have had a bad day. Or realizing that for the first time in years (yes, years) I can touch the ground with my hands almost completely flat on the floor. Anyways, I figured I should write down my goals and put them out there. If I don't write them down then they aren't real. At least that is how it is working in my mind.

There is a small rule for my goals. They have to follow SMACKDOWN. Nope, not listening to a former wrestler at all. But here is what it stands for:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Compatible
Keep it going - do it like a ritual
Do it
Own it
Write it down
NOW

Short Term Goals

1) Lose 30 pounds
2) Run a mile without walking
3) Eat 3 servings of fruits and veggies a day
4) Try a "meatless Monday"

Medium Term Goals

1) Lose 75 pounds
2) Be able to get into the first part of crow pose - my knees to my elbows and start balancing


3) Run a 5K without stopping to walk.

Long Term Goals

1) Goal weight of 160 pounds. I am being flexible with this and seeing where I am happy at.
2) Be able to do a supported headstand


I will be updating my goal list as I go. Revising/editing some goals. Adding new ones. Marking dates as they are completed.

I have decided to not put a timeline on these, especially the ones that pertain to weight loss goals. I stress myself out enough without adding a timeline in to it. And some months are great, others aren't. And I don't want to feel like if I have a bad month that I have screwed up my timeline and have failed. Basically I am wanting to set myself up to succeed, not fail.

Thanks for reading.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Time To Try Something New

Life and stress have been taking their toll on me. I am ashamed to say I have gained back all that I lost prior to my wedding plus some. I have been trying to find inspiration and my way in general the last few months. I have been feeling lost in general and not just in regards to my weight. Pretty much every day, if not several times per day, I would watch one particular YouTube video. It went viral a while back, and I loved it. I still find it so inspirational.

I keep telling myself that if Arthur could do it, I could. I have had so much trouble finding time to get to the gym. After taking my husband to work since we have one car, working, picking him up and dealing with traffic I was spent for the day. I didn't want to drive back across town to go to my preferred gym location and swim. The location I go to is the only one that has a pool. So something needed to change.

One night after watching Arthur's video I decided to start reading more about DDP Yoga. I like yoga anyways and something lower impact would be good for me. Well a few weeks back and bit the bullet. I bought one of the combo packs to try and see how it goes. Marshall has even said he is willing to give it a shot.

It has been a week and I have worked out every day so far. The workouts are awesome. I think the longest one is 40 minutes. Most are around 25-35 minutes. It is very easy for me to work that in to my day. And while I am not a wrestling fan and all that, I like DDP's style. Do whatever you can and just keep trying. You will get better and stronger and be able to do more. And I am!

I am getting into positions easier, holding them deeper, having better balance and getting my hear rate into the zone easier with each work out.

On the TeamDDP website they encourage you to take beginning photos just to show yourself how far you have come. I have taken them and at some point I may share them here. I don't know. I am ashamed and embarrassed to look at them. But it is motivation for me to make myself healthier.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Time to get a little Steampunky!!

For once I am writing a post that does not involve my weight loss battle/struggle! *gasp shock horror* I know it is shocking!

I just haven't felt like writing a whole lot lately. I am still doing what I can day to day on the weight thing, but life is happy and I don't feel like writing about a lot of it. However, since the goal of this blog was to...well...blog. I figured it was about time I started blogging about the geeky things that make me happy, like it says in the description of my blog.

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In March my husband and I are going to the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle, Washington. To say that we are excited would be a gross understatement! We get to go someplace new, eat lots of awesome food, be nerds, dress up, and meet other nerdy people. Personally I am the most excited to meet Cary Elwes and get his autograph and hopefully a picture with him. If you don't know who that is, shame on you! But to make it easy, his most famous role is that of Westley/Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride. Yep. I'm giddy and geeking out.

If you want to see the line-up of what's going on, you can check it out here: http://www.emeraldcitycomicon.com/

Along with all of the typical meet-n-greets, vendor rooms, and panels is the opportunity to gawk at the people in costume. Well, we have decided to wear the steampunk costumes that we wore to a friend's birthday party to the ECCC. We are working on some upgrades and additions to our costumes. There will be new clothing items (corset for me, pants and vest for Marshall) and new accessories. I am going to be making jewelry, getting a parasol or fan, and possibly some opera glasses. Marshall is getting new weapons, goggles, and a walking stick.

Yesterday we went on a great hunt for things to use and modify for our purposes in updating the costumes. We hit the Habitat for Humanity Restore, Goodwill, and a couple other local thrift stores to find old Nerf guns. We are going to take them apart, spray paint them, and put them back together. I was also looking for things that could easily be turned into medals for Marshall to wear and jewelry for me. We got a pretty good haul yesterday.


I think we spent about $8 total on the guns! On eBay the Nerf guns go for $5 and up. The Maverick on the bottom right goes upwards of $10 each! We started using this tutorial on how to paint guns to look more Steampunk. We started trying to sand off the logos and other writing with sandpaper last night, but it was going to take forever. This morning we went to Harbor Freight and bought a rotary tool. I KNEW better, but I wanted to go cheap on the rotary tool, but you get what you pay for. We spent $9 on a wannabe Dremel and it sucked. If you put the least bit of pressure on the bit while it was on, it would stop. Oh well. We got through what we needed and we will buy a real Dremel tool later.

We ended up not using the white gun, or the tiny green up in the upper right. They were water pistols and the green one was exceptionally cheap. When the former owners donated the white gun, they didn't empty the water out. I will just say that there was a very impressive and disgusting experiment growing in that gun when I opened it up. EW!


 At one of the antique/flea markets in town I was lucky enough to find this lot. They are a bunch of old stop watches. A couple of them still work, well kind of. Most of the gears have been taken from some of them, but others are still ripe for me to tear apart if I want to. I think I will leave them mostly together though. It is hard to find these bigger watch pieces at a decent price. I am planning on using some of the faces to seal some gears and other items in resin. They will make excellent focal pieces for a pendant.

As for gears, I am not too worried about that. Marshall bought me a lot of 100g of watch parts on eBay and those arrived in the mail today too. Lots of little pieces and smaller watch faces. I was ecstatic last night.

We also scored some old medals, Captains' bars, and a locket. The medals are not quite what we are wanting (one is for volleyball and the other music), but the ribbons we plan on reusing and using as a pattern to make our own medals. Marshall is building his character's back story as a former western lawman and we thought the bars would work well with the story. As for the locket, I just love lockets. I always have. It will work with my costume. If it doesn't, I have another locket! ;)


 I will update as I can when we get pieces in or completed. I am so excited to be going!