What's a nice femme like me doing in a place like this? Sharing the joys, agonies and sheer craziness of getting in shape after 40 ...
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Bye Bye For Now
After some soul searching, I'm sad to report I'm "closing" this blog for now.
I have so much going on with school, getting my license, my family, etc. that I don't have enough hours in the day to keep everything going. I'm hoping once I have my license and am established at the salon, I'll have a more regular routine ... but that's just not possible at the moment. My posts take a long time to write and it's time I don't have right now.
Keep the fitness flame lit and I shall return ... someday :)
Yep, I know I've been MIA again. But I have been frantically busy, getting ready to file to take my state boards on (or about) September 19 ... 12 hours a day, sometimes six days a week at school. The tales and saga of Femme Fitness Fever will have to wait until then!
Yikes ... time has just been slipping by. It was Bootcamp weekend again, and I'm pooped. But supper is in the oven and my daughter is actually peacefully watching TV, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to catch up.
My mother works from home for a company called LiveOps ... they are what is called a "distributed call center," meaning they act as the order center for companies who don't want to invest in building a call center of their own, or are just too small to do so. Most of the companies who have infomercials you see on TV - Ronco, Beachbody, Video Professor, etc. - use LiveOps as their call center. My mother is a sales agent and works from the comfort of her own home, whenever she wants, as many hours as she wants. The money is actually fairly decent and you sure can't beat the commute.
The reason I brought this up - she gets a major discount on many of the products LiveOps takes orders for, especially a lot of the exercise programs you see featured in infomercials. One of them is one that has intrigued me for a long time - the Six Week Body Makeover by Michael Thurmond. I could never justify spending $160 for his program, or even $120 when prices came down recently. But when I found out Mom could get it for 36 bucks ... well, curiosity won out and I asked her to order it for me. She did, and then told me it was an early birthday present, so Happy Birthday to me. I love my Mom :)
The biggest reason I've been curious: on the infomercial, they feature a lot of people who have lost big pounds, like 80-100 or more. Most of the programs you see always have these started-out-pretty-thin chicks who become downright bones after the program - "oh, gosh ... I was a size 10, but I lost 20 lbs. and now I'm a size two!" Feh. I'm interested in the kids who were pushing 250-300 plus, but are now in a normal weight range for their height and have made extraordinary progress.
I got the program and put it together ... and have a wealth of information to share, some good and some I consider not-so-good. It will be little by little, because I never seem to have a lot of time at one sitting, but I promise I will break it down piece by piece as quickly as I can.
Nothing Like Indulging on Someone Else's Vacation ... LOL
My friend who was visiting from out of town left today ... we had a great few days filled with probably a bit too much food of the not-so-healthy variety. But all in all, I didn't do that horribly bad, so I won't worry about it. I'll just throw in a few extra training days in the next week and maybe an extra day of lifting to balance it all out.
We've been doing so much running around since Saturday, Katie and I are going to stay home today and chill out. I have some cleaning to do, but I think we'll hang out in the backyard and maybe go swimming later on, Florida rainy season permitting. It has been dangerously dry here for the last six months and our rainy season has finally seemed to kick in over the last week, so I'll take anything we can get. I'm not doing any cardio today (although I probably should), so I'll work out in the backyard to get some exercise in.
I'll post again in a few days when I'm more awake :)
Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeeee, Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Well, it's actually tomorrow, but I firmly believe in the concept of a "birthday week", not just one day ;)
I did 50 minutes of upper body weights today, followed by 30 minutes of cardio ... and then I cleaned my house for six hours straight. I'm thinking I got in a pretty good workout today, LOL.
Strutt and I are having company this weekend for a BBQ on Sunday, which just so happens to be my free day ... yahooooooooo!!! I'm going to forego going out for my birthday for dinner, which is what we usually do ... I know I'm going to have fun and eat this weekend, so I don't feel bad about it. In my family, we usually wait until the weekend to celebrate birthdays anyway. Besides, Strutt is getting me my very favorite birthday cake for the BBQ ... white cake with strawberry filling and whipped cream icing. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ...
Today, I had a protein drink after my workout, followed by scrambled egg whites, oatmeal and a half of a small banana. Lunch was roasted chicken on whole wheat bread with mustard, and I had a handful of walnuts for snack this afternoon. I don't know what I'm going to do about dinner yet, but I'll figure something out!
I don't usually go to school on weekends, but I'm enrolled in an advanced cosmetology program called "Bootcamp" that started yesterday ... an intensive, 150-hour advanced cosmetology course I opted to take when I first signed up for school. The course is taught by a man named Michael Della Penna, who is a world-famous stylist, competition champion (he has won close to two dozen US and European championships) and a trainer for the USA Teams in the World Hairdressing Championships. It is a privilege and an honor to be able to study with this gentleman, and this credential on my resume will do big, big things for my career. If the grueling workload doesn't kill me first, LOL.
I've realized something recently. Over the course of the past 18 months, I've worked on changing my lifestyle and habits to live a better, more fit life. I hit some roadblocks when I got hurt, but I've finally gotten into the "no start date, no end date" realm of fitness now ... where I have committed to balancing my nutrition every day for the rest of my life with no more "dieting." And I have to tell you ... it's like a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders, to not have to worry about sticking to a "diet" anymore.
Even though I'm still in a weight loss cycle, I don't feel the least bit deprived. If a special occasion comes up - like company comes into town and we want to go to the beach for a pile of fried seafood, etc. on a day that's not my "free day" - then I enjoy myself in moderation with everyone else without guilt ... but then I get into "training mode" for the next couple of days to balance it all out and it works out perfectly. I've told my friends that once you get into this and it becomes your lifestyle, your head is so free of all the "diet clutter" that used to rattle around in there that you feel completely empowered and no longer a slave to the world of diets. I'm steadily losing weight, which is coming off healthfully, happily and - because I'm not worried about an "end date" - without any pressure at all. I honestly believe I'm now having much better success than most people because of it.
Here is what my recent nutrition plan looks like. I'm eating small meals six times a day and my seven-day eating plan is structured like this:
Two days (Monday, Thursday) - eat like I'm training (oatmeal, egg whites, grilled chicken, fish, sweet potatoes, green veggies, salad only)
Two days (Tuesday, Saturday) - eat clean but not as restrictive as the training diet (add limited amounts of whole grains, low-sugar fruits, low-fat milk, nuts)
Two days ( Wednesday, Friday) - eat clean all day, but allow one small treat during the course of the day (maybe a piece of chocolate after a meal or a small bowl of ice cream with crushed walnuts in the evening)
One day (Sunday) - Go Crazy Day ... anything goes and all bets are off!
So far, mixing it up like this is really helping to keep my metabolism moving and not allowing my body to find a particular set point. Plus, it gives me something to look forward to and doesn't make the training days seems so strict.
As long as it's working, I think this is the way to go :)
Well, talk about neglect. I can't believe I haven't been here in 10 months. What a 10 months it has been, too. There is no way I'm going to catch up in one post, if that's even possible.
Reader's Digest Condensed Version: I continued on my fitness quest and, as of December 2006, had lost a total of 62 lbs. Then, two weeks before Christmas, the unthinkable happened. I severely sprained my left quad and ... wasn't able to work out again until the middle of May 2007. It was a very bad sprain and the quad is one of the hardest to heal anyhow because of our dependence on it. Average healing time is 14 weeks - mine took almost 24.
During that 5-1/2 months, I gained back 33 lbs. of what I had lost. My eating habits went to hell and I missed a lot of time off school. Since mid-May, I'm thankful to say I am back at school, back on the bandwagon, and have lost almost half of what I gained in that time. So, my total pounds lost are about 45 - just about where I was when I last posted on this blog.
School is still fabulous and I'm still loving the field of cosmetology. I'm a senior now, which means I can do everything from cut to color ... my focus now is getting the total hours and services required to sit for my state boards. Florida requires 1,200 hours of study and I think I'm somewhere around the 900 hour mark. It's been fun, but very challenging, although I seem to have quite the knack for this hair thing. I already have a list of clients who want to go with me to my salon when I graduate ... and yes, I already have a job waiting for me :)
I go to school three days a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday - and I'm off on Tuesdays and Thursdays because of child care schedules. Strutt went to work for The Home Depot as a Certified Nursery Consultant in January, and we arrange our schedules so someone is always home with Katie (who is now 2-1/2 years old, btw!!!). Our good and dear friend, Tish, watches her on Mondays so I can get some extra hours in ... what sucks is that Strutt and I don't have a day off together, just most evenings, but that's okay. We know it will all pay off in the long run, especially when I'm a world-famous stylist, LOL.
I really need to catch back up with the blog. I've learned some new interesting things about health and fitness that I want to record here, plus re-reading it after so long a hiatus shows me how my journey has progressed. Great stuff for me. So, I won't be able to post every day, but I can at least make a weekly or bi-weekly visit on my days off. Time for the rubber to hit the road again.
Tiffany is a hair stylist and curly hair expert who also has a serious culinary background in recipe development and testing. She lives with her partner of 16 years, Grillmaster D, and their nine-year-old daughter, the Princess, in Gulfport, FL.
