May 14, 2013
by lili_ana
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Countdown to summer begins now

Countdown to Jamaica!! 3 weeks to go and I’m super ready! This weekend we went to my parents for the first time. It’s always a little nerve racking but I gotta say it was perfect. It really put a smile on my face to see my love and my parents together, talking and laughing. What more could a girl ask for? Anyways, I couldn’t be more proud of my love. He’s smart, kind, ethical, driven, handy, loving and respectful. When I look at him he just puts a smile on my face. I love him exactly as he is.

Well there you have it, I’m just a girl in love counting down to what will surely be an unforgettable vacation.

May 11, 2013
by lili_ana
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yogini in training

Tried a new yoga place today! That’s actually very adventurous for me. When it comes to yoga, I tend to stick with what I know and love: Ashtanga! In the last few months I have spent a lot of time with my love and on his side of town and have neglected my yoga habit. His neighbor owns a Pilates/yoga studio so I figured it was time to branch out and explore nearby options. That’s precisely what I did this morning! It was a small studio and I was one of three students. It was a far cry from my usual spot in pretty much every way, except of course it was filled with warm, happy and sweet people who embrace the spirit of yoga.
My first practice in at least 2 months reminded me of why exactly I should keep up with my yoga practice. I’m stronger, fitter, thinner than I was when I last practiced. All amazing things, however, not to go too “honey badger” on you but my yoga mat doesn’t care about that! In fact, of all the things that caused me discomfort today, my hands were the worse offenders! I guess all those lovely calluses I developed on the base of my palms from all my years of down dogs had a chance to recover, leaving me with burning sensations. Fortunately for me this was not Ashtanga! We didn’t hold poses as long which allowed my hands recover periodically.

At this point I don’t know if I will be back honestly, because I am a bit of a purist. I love the consistency of the Ashtanga practice, the sequence, the way I feel sweet relief when my butt touches the floor after all those standing poses, and witnessing every millimeter of progress I make. One thing i noticed today was that my pigeon pose is way better than before. Must be all those hip openers I have been doing. ~wink wink~

I did enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I impressed with my camel pose. :) Love me some backbends! In any case, I will probably try to do some at home yoga to keep me working on my practice. Namaste!

May 6, 2013
by lili_ana
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a dogs life

Sorry for the spacey and sporadic updates these last few weeks. It’s been a mixture of having too much going on and not having enough going on. Let me explain…

A few weeks back we had a few issues with integrating the dogs together. My dog got bit and after a few days at the vet with some drains and some home care, wound flushing etc. she was on the mend. Then, she got bit again. Repeat. Suffice to say, I was a bit of a stressed out mess. Now, don’t get me wrong we haven’t performed a miracle that’s suddenly bonded our dogs and made them one big happy family. I wish it were that easy. But, we’ve started implementing some boundaries and limitations with the dogs and for the time being left my dog out of the equation so she could mend in peace. Unfortunately, she is a little bit of a spazz and the nervousness just spawns the fear which makes her an easy target with the other dogs. I of course, have also been nervous which doesn’t make things better for anyone. So for the time being, Chloe is on vacation at her home away from home. I’m lucky to have a family friend who loves her and is always happy to care for her. We are working on getting the dogs accustomed to regular walks. I got really frustrated initially, I think because I was still mad at them or at least one of them for biting my little muffin or mostly because they were content to drag me around like I was the one on the leash. Thankfully things have gotten better. The other day I walked both furry monsters a feat that would have been unthinkable a week earlier.

I’m still working on my fear of the dogs fighting. It makes me nervous still. So for now… keeping my dog at the vacation home til I feel better about it.

In other news, we are headed to Jamaica this summer! I’m completely psyched to spend a week with my love. It will be a great escape from the work projects and house projects that occupy our time. A week of soaking up the sun, and drinking Red Stripe and eating all the yummy food will certainly be the bright spot of my summer. I can’t wait to eat some brown stew chicken, jerk chicken, beef patties… pretty much everything I didn’t eat the last time I was in Jamaica. (I was a vegetarian last time I went!) The only other time I have been was on a pit stop for a cruise, and honestly I didn’t enjoy myself very much.

Jamaica is literally just over a month away! It will be here before I even know it! Yippee!!

 

April 16, 2013
by lili_ana
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sweet voices

I found this couple on pinterest. They make great music.

It doesn’t hurt that they are in love and married. I’m a sucker for a good love story.

April 11, 2013
by lili_ana
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eating more, losing more?

The contest has been over for a few days now and I’m enjoying complex carbs again and the pressure is off to lose weight by a ‘deadline’ etc. I have had very interesting, if not straight out confusing, results since going back to ‘normal’. (Normal being strictly a calorie deficit meal plan, not low carbing) I have managed to lose 4lbs in the last few (2) days, dropping, get this, 1% in body fat. Now, I know it can be defeating to weigh yourself daily and I normally don’t. I just wanted to see how it was going now that I was back to eating carbs again. I’m pleasantly surprised. At this rate I will make my mini goal of losing these last 15 lbs by my birthday in June. Wish me luck!

It’s not all sunshine of course, now I need to buy new bras because things are getting quite ridiculous.  In any case, I’m still very happy to see it all go and to see the results of my hard work. I know so often people give up because they don’t see the results fast enough, or because they stall/plateau. I’m not there yet as I still have a good ways to go to my goal. However, I came across an article the other day that talked about this very thing. It’s good to know ahead of time that the closer I get to my goal the harder it will be to trim down because the body naturally wants to hold on to fat. Back in the day it was necessary for survival! Now, not so much!

I should have taken some before/after pictures.  I guess it’s not too late now. Even if I have already made a 30lbs loss in 3 months, I still have plenty to go for a decent before and after picture! Let’s see if I am brave enough to post them here…!

April 3, 2013
by lili_ana
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gains? losses? what do you call it?

The  biggest loser contest at work is winding down. With just a week left to go I thought I’d finally write a post about my progress so far. Mind you, I don’t have an update from start to finish besides a total of pounds lost. The main reason for this is that I started without a trainer, and without measurements.

I started working out officially the second week of January, so January 7th. Four months later, I am 22 lbs lighter. Yay right? That’s plenty of reason to celebrate. In mid-February I decided to join up with a personal trainer from the gym, despite the fact that I was already doing quite well on my own and with the help of my sweetie. I guess somewhere, I still thought that working with a trainer would help me get “there” faster. I have continued to lose weight, and make strength gains, but no faster than what I was doing alone. The only added benefit seems to be that I now have some measurements to compare and even these I don’t trust completely because my ‘before’ and ‘after’ measurements were not done by the same person and so, some of them seem ‘off’. That being said, I’ll stick to the highlight reel and focus on my losses, er gains?.

Body fat:  -2%

Weight:  -22lbs

Neck:  - 1.5 inches

Shoulders:  -6 inches

Hips:  - 2 inches

Thighs:  -2 and -3 inches

 

The measurements for chest, waist, calf and biceps are all off. Primarily because of placement and because the first guy measured my biceps while flexed, which makes no sense. The reality is that I have gone down a size in my shirts, and when measured for bras, I am sadly, smaller there too. Clothes fit more roomily than before and that seems to be the best indication of progress, not to mention that it’s motivating considering the lbs are not coming off 5 at a time like they did in the beginning. I take this to mean that my body is adapting well to the workout and diet and that it is working very systematically to transform me in a healthy and maintainable way.

People are noticing too, which is nice and confirms what I already know, hard work pays off.

This is just the beginning for me. Even though the work coincided with the contest at work, it’s definitely not stopping there for me.

April 2, 2013
by lili_ana
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no warning signs

I don’t know why I am still surprised by my beloved. How many more ways could he possibly have of blowing my mind? Sometimes, when I suggest things, or discuss fears I have, fears that he doesn’t seem to share, I wonder if it doesn’t in some way appear like my relationships prior to ours were the equivalent of dating a feral cat or being raised by wolves. There really are no comparisons. I am loved. Of that I am sure. Maybe it’s the ease of things I love, which both fascinates and frightens me. It takes practice to appreciate things in the present and not worry about losing them or things changing. It takes even more effort to remember that ‘fear’ is just the past trying to make its way into the present somehow.  When I think of living together I instantly remember feeling bad every time I’ve done it before. But I seem to also forget how my gut told me not to each and every time. And now, now my gut has no warning signs. We fit in a way that continues to surprise me. Most important for me, is that I don’t lose my sense of self. That’s the journey that I’m on, especially on this so called “year of magical thinking.” I did say I was going to embrace life and be open to things that come my way and here it is, staring me in the face, this love and this person I had nearly stopped dreaming of because I had practically given up on them. It’s different and precious to me and I’m afraid of messing it up some how. I guess that’s the truth right there.

March 29, 2013
by lili_ana
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books are my friend

How should I sum up the week? I spent it with my nieces mostly, celebrating the eldest’s birthday at Disney World. I didn’t think I’d be ok to spend 14 hours walking but with sufficient breaks I did ok, not to mention how much she LOVED having me there with her.

I managed to read 2 books, The Silver Linings Playbook and The Hunger Games, the latter of which I saw the movie. Now I want to watch it again. I’m surprised what a good job they did of making the movie closely resemble the book.  It took me one day to finish the first book, and a little over that for the Hunger Games.  Oddly enough these are both books where Jennifer Lawrence has gone on to play the lead female character in the film adaptation. Which is fine by me, I think she’s awesome. I keep finding memes of her on pinterest and I’m convinced we’d be friends in real life. If the temp is right, I see no need to wear pants if you are just going to be at home anyway! You go girl!

The silly thing about the reading I finished this week is that neither of those books was on my reading list from like months ago. Which isn’t a bad thing… in fact it’s quite good. I had been doing quite a bit of self-help, self-improvement reading which I love and I’m always down for that, but it’s nice to feel so content that mindless reading is once again on the table. :-) This could also be a result of canceling cable last month… I can’t quite say.

As far as other news, I got measured last week. I have been meaning to write a little post about my gains in the gym but never seem to find myself with my measurements and a computer in the same place. I will try to do that possibly this weekend… but more likely next week. I’m finally at that stage of working out where people keep commenting on how much weight of lost, which is ironic. In total yes, about 21 lbs, but I have been slower to lose lbs in the last few weeks. I guess this means my body composition is changing noticably, or that working from home so often makes those times when i do actually show up in the office a sort of “reveal day”. Either way, I don’t care if people notice. I notice and I feel great.

Have a great weekend interwebz!