Dance Off the Inches: Fat Burning Belly Dance

A few weeks ago I was wandering around Walmart and I found this dvd. A few friends and I were talking about trying a belly dancing class, so I decided to pick this dvd up and give it a try. I've been rather busy lately and haven't really done any exercise dvd's of late for one reason or another, but today I finally decided to try this one. I got through the warm-up, but then I decided I needed to do the step-guide because I was having trouble with the first dance. Wow! By the end of the step guide, I was really sweating! I ended up having to stop because my glucose level was getting a bit too low for my liking.

I'm really looking forward to trying the actual dances (hopefully with my friends!) I really liked the instructor, Kili Marti; she really knew her stuff. She broke down the steps so that I was able to follow her really easily (although I had a bit of problems when I brought my arms into the mix!). I had a fun half-hour, and I'm looking forward to using this dvd again!

I'm Back!

I'm back from my trip! I had a ton of fun!!! I also spent a LOT of money!!!!

Overall, I was also rather active. All the hotels I stayed at were right by the malls I went to, so I did a lot of walking. Then, for the last night, we stayed in Canal Park, so I did even MORE walking! (And I took lots of pictures!) I even ate not too badly (but I did drink way too much!) I had some really great salads, and even tried pickerel (walleye) tacos!!!!

So now I'm back home, and it's time to eat more normally! (But I'll have to try making some of those salads myself!!!)

Minneapolis!

Well, early tomorrow morning I am off to Minneapolis for a few days. I should be back sometime on Tuesday. This of course means I will be missing my update for the week, which in my opinion is alright. This week has been horrible! I ate out all week! I tried to do okay, but I guess I didn't try hard enough...plus, things won't be any better if I will be out of town all weekend....

But (and I may have mentioned this in my last post), when I get home I will be going back to eating the GI way. Hopefully that will help get me back on track! Then I'll just have to work on exercising a bit....

Week 8 Update

Okay, this past week I didn't really do anything. I played a bit of DDR, and walked to work one day, but the weather has been so crummy that I haven't felt like doing anything. I have also eaten atrociously....as I have once again been celebrating.

It was my birthday on Friday, so I had a sushi making party. The sushi was fine...but there was A LOT of candy for candy sushi.....

Then Sunday was Father's Day (Happy Belated Father's Day to all the fathers out there!) So we had a bbq, and ate sausage....and drank....then ate chips while playing rumoli....

So last week was bad. And this coming weekend won't be much better - I'm travelling to Minneapolis, and will probably eat atrociously again. Plus I'm going out like every night this week...

But I did have some good news this week: my brother was doing a sun awareness clinic care of the Superstore's Pharmacy. There, they took a picture of your face, then were able to show how much sun damage you have. It turns out I have very little on my face! (Just a bit on my nose, which is apparently very common).

But when I get home from my trip, I am planning on eating the GI way once again. So hopefully that will help me discipline myself a bit better! I just have to work on getting back into exercising, so that's the goal for this week!

No More Excuses!

I got a great suggestion from a newsletter I subscribe to (the Buzz from Bikini Bootcamp): "Monday Mantra: No More Excuses
Let's face it — adopting a healthy lifestyle can be challenging at times (like when the person in the cube next to you is scarfing down French fries), and making excuses as to why you should eat that last slice of sausage pizza is easy to do: "it's the last slice and I didn't want it to go to waste," or "I was in a rush, and besides, it was a small slice."
You catch our drift.
However, excuses can sabotage your progress. Instead of making up another excuse for that candy bar, grab your journal and write down all of the excuses you make in order to eat something you shouldn't. Keep your journal handy because you'll likely come up with new ones over the course of your plan. After you've written down your excuses, alongside each one, list a way to combat the excuse. For instance, if your excuse for your morning McDonald's run is that you don't have time to prepare a healthy breakfast, then next to that excuse, write, "Get up 30 minutes earlier" or "Prepare a bowl of fruit the night before."
Sure, you might still make excuses every now and then, but when you look back at your journal, you'll see how easily you can overcome those excuses and come up with solutions that will get you back on track to a healthier you!"
(for the Bikini Bootcamp website, go to http://www.amansala.com/index.html)

So I was thinking that instead of using a journal, I could write them down in this blog. I might use it as a weekly feature, sort of like my Monday Weekly Updates - I'll decide that later. But stay tuned!

Week 7 Update

Well, the good news is that I have been pretty active this last week. On Monday was the last pilates class. Tuesday was gardening, then a big long bike ride to RONS Virtual World and back - easily an hour and a half to two hour bike ride. (That one caused some problems with my glucose level - I wasn't expecting to go bike riding, so I did too much insulin at suppertime. I ended up having to drink two full cans of regular pop, and stop for something to eat along the way. But I made it!) Wednesday was 15 minutes of yoga. I didn't really do anything Thursday or Friday, but then on Saturday I biked to Chapters and back (about an hour bike ride). Then yesterday I walked around Kakabeka Falls a bit. So I wasn't active every day, but I did get a little something in most days.

The bad news is that I'm still not quite eating properly. I did a lot better (I had a movie night and ate mainly cherries and snap peas) but still not great (Boston Pizza yesterday - I got a medium pizza and have been living off of pizza ever since). I think my main problem is portions (like at Boston Pizza I ate far too much pizza, even though I had over half of it wrapped up to come home).

But still, it's a start. My weight has dropped by a pound, so that's a good thing. So now, for this coming week, I think my main goal is to be at least a bit active every day. I'll deal with eating habits once I'm more active. (But of course I'll still try to be more healthy - luckily I love my cherries!)

Bike Ride = Happy

This evening started out kind of sad....everyone was busy, and my friend that I normally hang out with is out of town forever....I think it was really depressing because today was the first day that I really felt it (a kind of do-nothing night that is perfect for video games). So I was extremely proud of myself that I managed to kind of shake off my depression and go for a bike ride! I think I biked for a total of about 1 hour, with a stop at Chapters just for somewhere to go to. By the time I was biking home, I felt a lot happier. I even stopped at the store to buy some more yogurt-covered raisins (I randomly decided to start buying them last week and I'm glad I did! They're yummy, and definitely better for you than some other snack foods! Nutritional information can be found at: http://www.calorieking.com/foods/calories-in-candy-yogurt-coated-raisins-vanilla-sun-maid_f-Y2lkPTMwMTQ2JmJpZD0xJmZpZD02ODE0MyZwYXI9.html)

Gardening!

Ok, I have a little garden in the back yard. We have a two-tiered garden, and I get the bottom tier, and my father gets the top. He promised to clean his garden up a bit this year (he's been growing wildflowers, but they've really gotten out of control!) and I am hoping to have a bit more time to care for my garden.

So I was thinking that I can post pictures of the garden as I go. Today I spent 40 minutes cleaning my tier up - I have decided to start pretty much from scratch, only leaving my button flowers (I think that's what they're called) and my tiger lilies. I'm going to take pictures of the garden so I'll know what I planted for next year (I'm pretty sure I got rid of some pansies in my weeding frenzy, but I wasn't sure if they were pansies or daisies. I wanted to get rid of the daisies because they grow too tall for my garden). I'll post pictures here of what it looks like!

On a side note, as I said, I gardened for 40 minutes. My blood sugar was about 5.4 before I ate lunch, then I went outside and started weeding. Well, I finished and came in and I was 3.9! So I am reasonably sure this was exercise of some sort! Next time I'll have to do less insulin before going out!

Pilates is FINISHED!!!!!

Yes, Pilates is finally over!!!!!!!!! I am incredibly happy! It has been a major struggle to go these last few weeks - the weather is improving, and I am sick of the instructor! Thankfully, I don't have to worry anymore because I'm done!!!!!!

I have 3 major complaints with the instructor:

1. She didn't really show us any of the moves until the last couple of weeks. That doesn't really help the beginners of the class (aka us) who have no idea what we're doing.

2. It was often hard to understand what the heck she was talking about. This wasn't helped by the fact that she rarely demonstrated the moves for us.

3. She was lazy. There were at least 3 times when the hall the class was in was dirty and had chairs and tables in the way. She only helped clean up the first time. After that, it was the class' warmup. The second time she swept a bit after the cleaning was done, and only because people were complaining. The final time (today) she actually referred to it as our warmup, then disappeared until everything was taken care of! WTF? We were paying her to make sure the hall was ready for the class! Shouldn't she have gotten there 5 minutes before we did to make sure the hall was ready for pilates?

Needless to say, I will definietely not be taking another class with her again!

So to celebrate, the four of us had a drink on our deck. I know, not great for my attempt to buckle down with my eating habits. But at least we actually went to the class before busting out the booze!!!!

Week 6 Update

Ok, I am getting extremely mad at Blogger - I have just lost two drafts of this post in the last 5 minutes! Grrrr!!!!!!!!!

So anyway, I am at about the half way point, and I will definitely be abandoning my arbitrary date of June 30th. I weighed myself this morning and I am up to 192lbs thanks to my month of celebrating. I started off celebrating my thesis being finished, and ended May celebrating my graduation! So I REALLY need to buckle down and stop celebrating! (On a side note, even my Hemoglobin A1C rose a fair bit thanks to my month of celebrations).

This past week wasn't a total loss though - I was a bit more active than I have been of late. My knee is also feeling a bit better, so that has helped. Monday was pilates, then on both Tuesday and Thursday, I was called into work so I biked (it was a library that is rather close to my house.). Wednesday was a 45ish minute walk, and Saturday was some DDR. Sure, the bike rides weren't terribly far, but they were at least something! So I need to continue with this trend and work out a bit more (I'm hoping to do at least a little something everyday - but it's been tough as I have days where I just feel exhausted); it appears to be just my eating habits that need major revising!

So as to my exercise goal, I am abandoning June 30th as the date. I am just going to have to work on things until I eventually get down to a more healthy weight (I am still thinking 160-165 lbs, even though the Self happy weight calculator says I should go down to about 152-153lbs); I am hoping that by the end of summer I will be at a better weight. Then I will just have to worry about maintaining my healthy weight come the new school year; hopefully by next summer I'll be able to buy myself a sexy new swim suit (like a bikini for the first time ever!!!)

For the Self Healthy Weight Calculator, go to http://www.self.com/fitness/nutrition/calculators/happyWeight