2015 - Let the Journey Begin.

Refurbishing Life.

A year full of goals leaves me feeling excited, anxious, sometimes overwhelmed, and definitely eager to get started! After watching THE GAME last night, watching The Ohio State Buckeyes accomplish what they accomplished this year (loss of QB #1, loss of QB#2 the game before the Big 10 Championship and winning the Big 10, Playoffs and National Champs with QB#3 and an amazing Buckeye team), I feel l have NO excuses to not at least try to accomplish mine. I mean I don’t have Mark May bashing me so I’ve got that going for me, right?!? It’s time to quit talking and start acting, and I am laying it on the line so you all can hold me accountable! *I reserve the right to tweak this, only to keep reality in check. LoL. So, here we go ...

THE GOALS

1. Finish my book. I have this nagging voice in my head – it’s Stephen King. “How serious are you about writing?”
2. Blog weekly (perhaps more frequently – we’ll see where the year takes us) – to keep you all updated and myself in check.
3. To be ahead of schedule with my freelance workload.
4. Lose 26 lbs. (that is a hard one for me to publicize) - and you will notice the countdown to the top right of my posts!
5. To be a better wife and mom.
6. To change my family’s eating habits.
7. To be debt free by year’s end.

THE PLAN

1. I am going to start with a weekly plan and see where that takes me.
2. Focus will be the key this year. There are so many distractions in life; I need to learn how to block them and get movin’!
3. Write daily - I mean the book will never get finished if not!
4. My Fitness Pal – keep track of everything to tell me where I am – mostly how I am eating. Okay, let’s call a spade, I know how I am eating, that is why I am here. The goal is to hold myself accountable by looking at what I eat daily.
5. Workout, run, etc. Start big or start small, but START!
6. Reward myself. Whether big or small, it will keep me going.

THE RESULTS

Coming soon … Visit me often!

June 30, 2013

And welcome back into my life, Paul Manfre.  I remember now why I hate your guts!  Ok, in all seriousness, I love Paul like a brother, and his wife Milissa like a sister, so I do have free reign to curse him.  I have trained with them both for over ten years although absent the past few-as you may have gathered.

So Paul informs me last week that he has added online training to his services.  Yay!  I thought...until I did it last night.  THAT IS WHEN I remembered hating him on occasion.  The memories rushed back, flooded my head as if the Hoover Dam had broken.  My point was proven again last night as he virtually kicked my butt.  Who could have thought I could have gotten this sore online?!?  But I did.  Thank you Paul.  Great workout!  It SUCKED, but I can tell it did its job.  LOL.

And Paul has shown up just in time because my husband informed me yesterday that, "it's time.  I have given you a week head start so now I am going to get serious."  REALLY?  Yes, I will let you know when he actually starts working out.  The worst part about this all is that the bleep, bleep, bleep has lost more weight than me.  He has done NOTHING.  I know all of you women out there feel my pain!  Well, I am not letting that get me down.  At this point, I want to get in shape, lose weight and feel confident in my clothes, not to mention my swim suit!  So he can sit ...and play with the remote...and lose his little pounds by doing nothing; I will continue to work hard, sweat buckets, suffer in soreness, watch what I eat and lose my own weight.  Uugghh!

The good news:  I slept really really good.  ;-)

June 26, 2013

Well, I dug deep...very...very deep.  I walked around the house for a good hour trying to talk myself into working out.  FINALLY!  I am ready to work out.  I hear the dogs barking, go downstairs to find that they were barking at Sammy, our beagle, who escaped the house-AGAIN.  A part of me thought, let's hurry and find the little rascal because I am finally ready to workout.  THE OTHER PART OF ME thought, if this takes awhile, I probably won't have time to workout.  Whew-I finally found a legit (in my mind) excuse to not have to workout tonight.

So we found the dog, in a pretty timely manner considering.  Back at the house, my daughter says, "Well, there's your workout."  Yes!  She's right, I thought.  +
No, not enough to get me into a swimming suit.  Uuggghhh.  Back to the drawing board.  I went into our workout room and paced.  Finally I could taste the metal between my teeth.  I bit the bullet and started P90X.  My kids (5 and 8) started it with me so I was somewhat distracted from the pain I was about to endure.  Two and a half minutes into the warm-up, Tony Horton was talking about the fact that it was indeed a warm-up; and my daughter dropped her arms and said, "This is only a warm-up?"  To which my son says, "I thought we were working out!"  I didn't have the heart to tell them that there was actually sixty six and a half minutes of hell still to come.

My kids hung for awhile, clearly doing their own version of P90X.  They seemed to be having more fun than I was with my version.  Perhaps I too should do their version, I thought for a minute.  But as they dropped, one by one, from their version, I figured I would stick with mine and go for the results!

So I did it!  Sixty nine minutes with Tony Horton.  Come to find out, there are apparently several types of push-ups that I am not able to do.  Who knew there were several types of push-ups?  Since it was my first night, I opted against the decline push-ups so I could save my blood for the rest of my body that was going to desperately need it.  And I feel somewhat proud of the fact that I am a strong athletic woman, but I seriously need to work on my coordination when it comes to the - well, I don't even know what they were called.  What I know is that my body DID NOT move in the direction demonstrated on the screen.  Oh well, I worked out; and that was a huge step tonight.

Now, I sleep.

June 25, 2013

I caved.  I didn't want to; I even felt a little guilty, but I had a bad morning with my kids.  I cried.  I felt guilty.  I ate FRIED PICKLES.  There, I said it.  They were the best thing I had ever eaten.  Had the option of fried strawberries or fried tofu been an option perhaps I would have chosen one, but it wasn't.

As far as my workout goes, I am T.I.R.E.D.  Everything about me is tired tonight.  I'd like to think I am going to get a second wind, but it just ain't happenin'!  I am ok with it because I know it is not because I am quitting.  I just need a rest and will be right back at it tomorrow!

Must sleep.

June 24, 2013

PROLOGUE.  During a hot Sunday afternoon, my husband, Rodney, tells me that he is sick of being overweight and has decided that we are going to start working out and start doing our Body By Vi shakes again.  I am not sure where him wanting to lose weight brings me into the pic; however, I figure that eventually I will be swimsuit bound so I play along.  Later, as I discuss my workout room with some friends, Rod chimes in saying that I won't use it anyway, blah, blah, blah.  (He's a talker so I take him with a grain of salt)  However, he goes on to say that we are going to do it "Rod's way," and since he is overweight (his words), I am not sure exactly what that is-but it exists in his mind.  So one thing leads to another and the workout challenge is on.

MONDAY.  I woke up feeling like I was going to vomit.  No idea where it came from, perhaps my fear of starting this whole workout thing again, but there it was.  Crap, I think.  I cannot use the "I'm sick" excuse on the first day of our challenge!  I lay in bed, eyes closed, trying to coerce myself into working out when I hear Rod jump into the shower.  There is no way that little punk worked out, I think.  Ok so I convince myself that it is ok-I am going to workout tonight.

A few hours later while on the phone with Rod, I say, "what happened to your workout?"  I admit, I got complete and utter pleasure out of his morning defeat.  So anyway, he says that he slept through the alarm.  I proceeded to inform him that if that is the "Rod Way,"  he will surely continue to be "overweight."  "I don't think the Rod Way will work for me."  He laughed it off, but I feel a checkmate coming on!

First workout down!  I consider this to be the hardest-the first step to my weight loss recovery.  It felt soooooo great to workout again.  I did cardio and boxed, and it was the most refreshing feeling; I cannot believe I put it off this long.  When I was finished, I ran to my computer so I could update the fan club!  Yeah, ok, run I did not, it was more of a soggy limp, I admit.  I opened my computer, tried to use the mouse....and my hands were shaking.  At some point during my workout, a feeble, unsteady being took over my body.  My hands trembled; I couldn't type.  How could this be?  I felt refreshed and strong...  I resorted to sitting, drinking water and letting my body adjust to the shock that it had just been re-introduced to-the new reality of it's future unearthed.  I slept REALLY REALLY well.  Day one check!

June 23, 2013

Third time's a charm....they say.  My last couple of blogs, over a year ago, indicated that I wasn't giving up.  UUGGGHHH.  I did.  I appear to suck at this game!  My husband, however, challenged me today...in front of witnesses....he tried to call me out.  Well, he's no spring chicken so I am taking his challenge.  He can stop drinking pop and lose more weight than me, he says.  He had me type up a spreadsheet and we are starting our shakes tomorrow; he has a plan, he says.  I can beat him at this challenge if I dig deep to find the willpower that I have apparently concealed, all too well I might add, somewhere within.  PLUS, it would be a bonus to fit into my wedding dress on my 40th birthday this year!  So I encourage you to follow this time as there should be humor, suffering, humiliation and additional emotions that one of the two of us will most likely discover.  Happy following!

January 10th, 2012

Oh my glutes!  I am definitely feeling the 1000 rep workout that I did the other night, and I am NOT complaining.  I hated every minute of it; however, I am loving the pain...work muscles work.

Still no pop to report-10 days and counting!!!  I have decided that next week, I get down and dirty with the food.  I am going to try a program that one of my friend's swears by, and she has the results to show it so there must be some truth to it.  Haven't seen her lately, but I hear she looks amazing!  I am just not sure how far my will power will go on the food side...  It's amazing how the mind can mess with you-mine thinks it's just one big funny game.

Well, until my workout tonight, I have nothing else to report.

Stay healthy!