February 26th 2013

-----Author's Note----

The following and all proceeding entries have an air of melancholy and defeatist. They are full of excuses, and were written by a depressed me. More recently I've taken control of my mood and I CHOOSE to be positive from now on. I will leave the previous entries published so that I can remember where I came from and where I don't want to go again. (There were some good days, but not many.) 

I'm not feeling like spending a whole lot of time at my computer today; so I've copy/pasted what I wrote in my teambeachbody.com blog: 

Day 2 - Rockin Body
Yesterday was my first day of Rockin Body. I'm fortunate enough to have a fiance who's willing and able to eat healthy with me. To stand with me against the bad eating habits of the rest of the people that live in this house. It was a little rough sometime after lunch, but we survived. We sat down two days ago and created a meal plan for the week, using both the Rockin Body and Turbofire recipes I have for inspiration. Though, anything that felt like it was a diet and not real life was edited to fit into a reality we can handle. I am having my shakes in the morning, and he's having the breakfasts that we chose from the books. I like my shakes, but when we have breakfast together, I'm already a little jealous of the food. Just because I'm a foodie, and he's a good cook. In the next couple of weeks though, our schedules will change, and we won't be eating breakfast or lunch together except on the weekends anymore. We'll work it out though.
As far as the Rockin Body programs go: it's only day two, but I am really enjoying them. Once upon a time, I was a dancer. This is taking me back. I'm also finding that I'm ready and willing to do more than just the scheduled classes for the day. Because of this, I've also been following the Hip Hop abs schedule as well. I hope I don't peter out and give up on doing extra. I love to dance, and barely any of this feels like work. Even now, writing this, I'm wanting to do some more. I know my body can handle it. But I'll wait until tomorrow.

February 19th 2013

-----Author's Note----

The following and all proceeding entries have an air of melancholy and defeatist. They are full of excuses, and were written by a depressed me. More recently I've taken control of my mood and I CHOOSE to be positive from now on. I will leave the previous entries published so that I can remember where I came from and where I don't want to go again. (There were some good days, but not many.) 

So; I've decided to take the BeachBody Challenge. It's definitely not cheap, nor is it exactly in our budget. But since we're spending so much of my tax return money on it, I need to make sure it's worth it. I've talked it out with each of the household members, and set a time, each day, that I have set aside for me to exercise. I've let everyone know that I may not be able to eat with everyone at their odd meal times. I'm doing my best to make sure that everyone knows that I'm trying to take this seriously, and they should too. It was fairly disappointing for me to get standoffish and short, emotionless responses from my beach body coach, but then again; she's just a person, and I may be reading into it too much. Regardless, I'm undeterred from my mission. On Monday (or whenever my programs get here) I will be starting my challenge. I opted for getting a new program, because I want to dance. I also want something that's not as repetitive as the NYC ballet workout. I also find that after a few weeks of the Turbo Fire program anymore, I get angry at it, and stop enjoying it. I did, however, enjoy Turbo Fire for several months the first go-round, and did see some actual results. After watching and re-watching all of the info-videos for all of the "dancy" options I was presented with, I decided against the Brazil Butt Lift. It just didn't appeal to me. I did however, opt for both the Rockin Body program and the Hip Hop Abs challenge pack. Rockin Body was only $20, and the Hip Hop Abs came with the Shakeology at a discount. And I like Shakeology. I had Shakeology when I got results with Turbo Fire. But instead of the single serve variety pack, I opted for just the greenberry bag. Between the two of them, I liked that one best, and I'm still wary of the tropical one. This weekend, we'll have to go grocery shopping, and get foods I can eat with the program. I'm really really excited about starting this! It gives me a super excuse to eat like I actually want to; Healthy, and at decent hours. I'll start Monday, or whenever my package arrives. I think I already said that. Since I'm going to take the challenge, I'll probably be posting regular updates of my progress. Squee! The only bad thing: if this does work, I will not fit in the bridesmaids dress I just paid for. But if that's my only problem... I'm out of problems.

February 13th, 2013

Well, yesterday's experiment was half bust. I cannot yet say if the deodorant itself doesn't work, but my reusing the deodorant tube thing didn't really work out. It solidified alright, just like I thought it would. But then it didn't turn up. So I cannot dispense it. So it's a solid tube of deodorant that I can't get to. GAH! I suppose I can remelt it and either figure out a way to get the tube to work, or put it in something else. I'll probably try to get the tube to work. That is, if I didn't break the turning mechanism when I was trying to force it up. I'll have to think it through a bit before I try anything. Unless of course someone has any suggestions, that'd be spectacular.

Pre-Feta Cheese

Today's "Holistic" experiment was also a bust, so I had to turn to my personal "old" way of removing my nail polish. I also wasn't able to exercise today because I've run out of body wash... I suppose I could use a bar of soap, I'm pretty sure I still have some Dove bars around here somewhere... Anywho; Despite all my fails today, I'm still in a rather upbeat mood. This morning, I successfully made myself a "perfect" omelet. You may be thinking: What does she mean perfect? I mean; The egg poured in a perfect circle, which I was able to flip without breaking or messing up too badly, and I was able to fold without breaking it either. Also; I was able to create this omelet from the random bits that we actually do have in the kitchen still. I found a can of black olives, some salami, and provolone cheese, as well as minced garlic. Along with the two eggs and some milk, I figured it would make a pretty good omelet. I was only half right. After biting into it, I realized it needed something to even out the salami. I texted Puese and told him how I wished we had some Feta. Then I opened the fridge, and lo' we had some feta! It's a miracle. I sprinkled some of that on top, and it was really really good. Probably didn't need the provolone cheese on there, but I couldn't remove it after it was melted. Mmmmm... Omelet...

>Mix together 2 eggs with a little bit of milk, about half a tablespoon to a tablespoon's worth, with some minced garlic, about a teaspoon. 
>Pour into already heated non-stick pan. Cook at med-low heat until the pan side is cooked. (I'd tell you what that is, but this was my first successful omelet, I'm no expert. It's usually hit or miss for me). 
>Flip the egg over with a spatula of your choice. (I use a slotted turner). 
>Add the salami and some sliced olives to one half of the egg. (I used two jumbo olives cut thin and three slices of salami, enough to cover the egg in one layer.) 
>Either add the feta to the middle or save it for the topping. 
>Fold the empty half of the egg over the other half with the salami and olives on it. 
>Add the feta if you hadn't added it yet, and some more olives if you'd like to the top. 
>Move to a plate and enjoy. 

Ceeyena Inspired: Super Easy At Home Deodorant.

Today's holistic adventure was in deodorant. It turned out really really easy to make, I hope it works really well to compensate for all the hard work I didn't do. 

The post about how I made it can be viewed HERE on my creative blog.

I Quit... Kinda

On some level I knew it wasn't going to work out. On that same level is where I've always known the reasons why. If you hadn't noticed, I stopped logging in daily posts. I did make it a bit longer than I thought I would, and just because the logging stopped happening, doesn't mean I've given up. It means I hate keeping a log. Since I was a smaller child, people would give me special books for journaling, or diaries to keep all of my special thoughts in. For me, I was never one to want/desire to write in these. If I feel the need to write something down, I'll work out those thoughts and most likely never go back to them again. Keeping track of my daily routine or whatnot in a specific place has never been a thing for me. Likewise, keeping a log of anything is equally unexciting. I feel that it's, not necessarily a waste of time, but not the best use of time. It is, regardless, time consuming. I did the team beach body thing for a while, but it was too much to log in to the site, choose the exercise I was going to do, start it, finish it, log it, blah blah blah. If I'm pressed for time, I'm not going to take the time to do that, I'll get distracted and not do it. I also did the My Fitness Pal thing, same thing. Inputting all of the foods I've eaten every day is annoying. I don't want to do that for the same reason that I NEVER count calories, or measure my food out per serving size. It's tedious, boring, and unrealistic.
I do understand the usefulness of all of these things, and I appreciate them if they work. But if I'm not enjoying something, all it becomes is miserable work. I don't want to be miserable. I want to live life. I want to be happy and enjoy my own skin. The reason I started THIS blog was to explore exactly how I can do that. How can I be happy and healthy. Not miserable. It started to not be about that, so I quit. I just stopped logging. Then I found time to exercise, and I enjoyed it. There was no pressure on me to make sure I wrote it down, and "gloat" about it. There's no pressure for me to have to do it at the same time each day, unless I choose to.
All that said: lately I have been able to exercise on a more regular basis. Though, that's more of an irregular basis. When the living room is free, and I've eaten, I move the coffee table put in the Shakeology 30 DVD, and exercise while the gettin's good. If I wait, I loose my chance. And like I said, I've been enjoying it. Yes, I want my pants to fit appropriately. No, I don't want to be the super fat Bridesmaid in my friend's wedding. No, I don't want to be a super fat bride. I do want to feel healthy, and be happy. That is what it all comes down to. That is paramount, that is what's most important.