Trouble with the Curvy

Last night I finally got over myself and worked out at home. I copied all the exercises from the 30 day shred and worked out with my music on. It wasn't bad. I feel the soreness today that tells me I pushed myself and I am going to do it again tonight. I did find that I need to tailor my playlist to fit the rhythm of the exercises though because the music has a significant effect on my workout threshold level. If the song is more uptempo I am more uptempo. If it falls off into a ballad halfway through the song (IE Rumor Has It by Adele)  I fall off. I was doing "butt kicks" (PS my favorite) after doing lunges (ps NOT my favorite) and it came to the part in the song when she breaks it down and it gets really slow. My feet followed the song and I was no longer kicking my own butt. It is liek my body is taking cues from the music. I think that is really a thing... The other difficulty is not having the visual cues to move on to another exercise so I need to create some aud

I have had a particularly awesome Monday. Those are a special thing. It followed a great weekend too. Lots of fun and sadly a little too much food. It's alright though because March is going to be a better month. While I won't be going to my regular Zumba because it turns out the terrible instructor is there every Monday and Wednesday through March. Absurd I know but I have options. There is another class with the other instructor I do really like at a different location. I think I'll try that and I've written down the Jillian Michaels routine so I can do it at home. I read a quote over the weekend that said "If it is important to you, you'll find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse." It hit home because it seems like every time I settle into a groove I suddenly find a huge fatal flaw in it and I give it up. If I am determined to be a spaz case and refuse to shower outside my own home, boycott the terrible Zumba teacher, and refuse to walk in the Wint

I had a boyfriend once that was a little nutty about fitness and weight gain and loss. One of the things I always remember him talking about was how bad high fructose corn syrup is for the body. I remember checking food labels because he refused to eat anything with HFCS in it. After we broke up I honestly didn't really give it another thought because, at the time, there wasn't conclusive evidence that it really was any worse for you than regular sugar. This was 2006. Flash forward to 2010 and scientists discovered that maybe it really IS worse than sugar. Flash forward to 2014 and suddenly I am thinking about it again. The article I found describing the studies  seems to suggest that they did, in fact, prove that HFCS causes rats to gain more weight than those that had the same calorie intake in sugar compared to HFCS. It doesn't discuss why this is but the ex was a physicist and I remember him talking about the molecular structure of the sucrose vs fructose and how it h

I don't have a great idea on what to write about. I still feel a little emotionally exhausted but I'm not eating my troubles away so that is a great thing. My jeans are starting to feel baggy though so I'm excited to go get some new jeans that show off my new tighter rear end... I really really miss my walks. I noticed the sun came up earlier today and I can't wait until the snow is pretty much gone so I can get back to my route. I am struggling to find a workout routine that fits into my life like the walks did. I like to get up early to do it and get it out of the way. The great thing about walking is that I can do it out of the house and come home to shower. I really don't like working out in front of people. Nancy has been great in inviting me to her house to do the Jillian workouts but it is so hard to get up there to do it after work. I'm sure she'd be up for doing it in the morning but the travel time makes such a big difference in my sleep schedule

I feel like I have been in a time warp vortex for a week. So where have I been? No where good.... Last Sunday and Monday I felt like crap. Sore throat, coughing up crap, body aches, and everything else that comes with a fun winter time cold. After resting all day Sunday and working from home in my sweatpants on Monday I started to feel like a human again. I settled in to watch some TV with Ben and about halfway through the show my cell rang. It was my Mom and she didn't have good news. My Grampy Larry embarked on his big fishing trip in the sky on February 10th, 2014. I don't even know where to start in telling you what kind of a person he was. What I remember best was his laugh. As my brother put it "Gramp was a jokster." He had this gleeful laugh that was infectious and always seemed a little mischievous. He was such a hard worker too. He worked from the time he was 16 to help feed his Mom and his siblings and then continued to work hard as a skidder operator in

Dear Mother Nature, Phew! I am writing a lot of letters this week. Earlier this week I wrote a letter to Jillian Michaels and I realized last night I couldn't go without writing one to you too. While Ms. Michaels is really great at giving me a killer 20 minute workout, she doesn't hold a candle to you when it comes to Trainer of the Universe Award. She has her jumping jacks and her squats and her burpees (and according to Amy Luce "Yoga") but you... you have SNOW. She likes to trick us into thinking it is easy because it is only 20 minutes. You trick me into thinking the shoveling will be easier because it is "light." HA! What a joke. You made me sweat so much my waterproof mascara ran! Your workout was an hour long (Thanks to Ben or it would have been 2 hours!) and it was a full body workout. I thought Jillian made me sore but my arms, abs, back, legs, ... well every muscle in my body is sore from your workout. I am pretty confident that you and Jilli

Dear Jillian Michaels, Let me be honest and upfront right off the bat. I have never been much of a Biggest Loser fan but I know you from the show and know you're notorious for being a hard ass. Literally your ass is like a rock and metaphorically you're a workout dictator. Until last night I have never really given you much thought as I continued my own weight loss journey. Why? Frankly, you scared me. In fact, you still do. Last night I completed my first "Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred workout." Thanks to you, walking up and down the stairs today was pretty hilarious because my thighs feel they weigh 50 lbs heavier than they used to when I try to use them. Nancy and I tried Zumba first (you remember Nancy right? You're old friends by now...). It just wasn't working for us. 20 minutes felt like a warm up and I didn't even break a sweat. So then we popped in your DVD and Nancy asked "do you want to start with level 1?"  "Sure,&q