Quick Update!

I don't have much time, but I wanted to share the results of my progress report! It's been a little over two months, and here's the tally so far:

I've lost 14 lbs, 7" from my waist, 5" from my hips, 1.5" from each thigh, 1" from calves and from forearms, and 1.5" from biceps. I can see and feel muscles instead of fluff, and I can make it through an entire workout without puking! That's an hour of intense weight and cardio training!! I'm up to 3 days a week at the studio, and I'm walking/running at least 2 additional days per week to try and prepare for the Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving, and the Armadillo Dash 5K in March. My goal is to be able to run the 5K in March.

This crap is hard, but it works!

Still around...

It's amazing to me how life gets so busy sometimes! So much has been going on, and while I normally get to work about an hour early on Mondays and Wednesdays, there hasn't been much time to devote to updating my poor little blog!
Things are going really well - I'm still working out on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and I've added a third day - Fridays are my "Power and Peace" class days. I thought it would be more of a struggle to get up and be there at 6 a.m., but two weeks in, it hasn't been so difficult. The real incentive has been the "Peace" part - 30 minutes of yoga. I've never done a yoga class before, just a few dvd workouts and my Yoga for Dummies video, so I'm enjoying this class immensely! We'll have a full hour of yoga this Friday because Sharon's going to be out of town, and I'm excited about it!
The eating clean thing is going rather well. It's tough towards the end of the pay period when you get down to eggs, bread, and peanut butter, but I've figured out how to be creative and stretch those groceries - and make some decent-tasting meals! I made a soup last night that really surprised me - and April said she liked it, so... It's awesome what you can do with a can of crushed tomatoes, an onion, and some garlic, haha!
I've signed up to do the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day with the Fleming Clan in Houston! KK and I are going to walk/jog the 5K while the rest of the hardcore athletes knock out the 10K. I'm really excited about it and have started my "training" sessions with my favorite running buddy - Sabrah!
It's been 7 weeks since I decided to kick my butt into shape, so I've re-measured and weighed and all that torturous stuff. Here are my losses to date:

I have lost:
1" from my calves
.5" from my thigh (but have increased the muscle substantially from all the lunges we do!)
3.5" from my hips
1" from my bicep
1" from my forearm
-AND-
6" - that's SIX INCHES from my waist!!!!!

Weight-wise, I'm almost 11 lbs down. Everything is starting to tone up and smooth down, I can feel muscles where I couldn't really feel them before, and Sharon says she is starting to see some definition in my arms. I'm feeling sooo good!

Changes...

I think something is wrong with me. I think I just signed myself up for a 6 a.m. workout with my trainer, followed by a 6:30 a.m. yoga session. Power and Peace, it's called. I don't know how powerful or peaceful I'll feel rolling out of the bed at 5 a.m., but I'm gonna go for it! It'll be on Friday mornings, which will give me 3 days in the studio per week, along with my Tuesday lesson on Tokio, and walking at least two days a week with my pups and friends. I'm so gonna be ready for this cruise in January!

I'm really starting to see results from all this hard work, though. I haven't lost a size, or even a considerable amount of weight yet (holding at -5lbs so far), but I feel great, my stamina and energy level is so much higher, and I'm stronger! As I build muscle, I know the pounds will start disappearing, but honestly, I can't wait to start seeing that huge number on the scale get smaller! I have lost the following:

1 inch from my calves

1/2 inch from my thigh

1 1/2 inch from my hips

2 1/4 inch from my waist

2 1/4 inch from my ribs

1 inch from my upper arm (bicep)

1 inch from my forearm

AND

5.4 lbs (and gaining so much muscle!!)

Please do not put these inches into the lost and found should you run across them. I do not want them back. :)

More details on the events of the past week coming soon, along with some pics of Julie and Kate's visit to TX last weekend. Here's a teaser...

Wow! What a week!

I thought I'd have some time to come back and actually compose a nice, long, detailed blog, but all I've had time for in the past week has been short little Twitter updates! It's been busy!! I'm so excited; Julie and Kate will be here on Friday for the weekend. And then I'm flying to GA next weekend to visit them! Kate doesn't know that I'm coming, so it's going to be so much fun surprising her when we pick her up from school. :)

We went to a show in Shreveport last weekend - and it was pretty rough. Audrey (my boss) caught a nasty stomach virus on Thursday, so she couldn't do much of anything on Friday. Ashley (our other employee) and I loaded the trailer and Audrey and I took off about 3 pm. We made it to the showgrounds about 8 and dropped the trailer off, went for some dinner, and checked ourselves into our beds at the hotel! It was soooo hot and humid on Saturday, and I did the bulk of the work since the boss was still feeling pretty yucky. Unloading the racks/bins/stuff from the trailer, setting up the tents, hammering stakes into the rock hard ground... By 3 pm, we were completely exhausted! We packed it up and went to the hotel and got showers and naps. By seven or so, we were feeling human again, so we went to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant - Posado's. Yummy. I had decided that Saturday would be my official "cheat night" and I was so excited about ordering a nice, greasy, deep fried chimichanga. The waitress came over and Audrey ordered, and I placed mine. We chatted for a while, and were happy to see our food come out so quickly! The waitress put my plate in front of me, and what was on it did not resemble chimichangas at all!! I looked at Audrey and asked, "did I order chimichangas?? Or did I say Chalupas??" She laughed and said "you said chalupas!" And they were fabulous - and not nearly as much of a cheat as I'd planned! Haha!

Packing up at the end of the show on Sunday was pretty strenuous, and I wore myself out, but what I noticed was that I wasn't nearly as exhausted as usual, and recovered much more quickly than before. All this hard work seems to be paying off!

I missed my training session on Monday morning. We didn't get home from Shreveport until Midnight, and I was sooo tired. Sharon understood, and I slept in, and then went to Mom's for KK's birthday party/Labor Day extravaganza! It was fun!! We grilled kabobs, goofed off, and watched some great episodes of Ghost Hunters!

Tuesday was okay, we unloaded the trailer and scrambled to get all the orders from over the weekend processed. I was planning to go watch Sarah ride Tokio since I couldn't afford to take a lesson this week, but traffic was insane on the way home! Apparently, power went out in parts of College Station, and traffic lights were being 4-way stops, and there was also a pretty bad wreck in the general vicinity. It took me 2 hours to get home from Hearne! (Usually a 30 minute drive!) I stayed home, cooked myself a little dinner, and spent some quality time with my couch, my dogs, and my tv!

My workout this morning was really great! I noticed while I was warming up on the elliptical that I was going faster than usual! And talking while going!! Sharon was excited about that as well. We worked hard in the 30 minutes - upper body, lower body, and lots of core-strengthening. I'm starting to enjoy the work now that it doesn't make me nauseous, haha!

I started keeping track of my food intake, weight, body measurements, and lots of other details on a website called fitday.com. It's fantastic! I highly recommend it. It gives you really cool pie charts (no, not baked goods - graphs and stuff), and just really is a great tool for monitoring your progress. I took measurements today and found that I've lost an inch from my waist and almost 2 inches from my hips!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is now time to go home. I'm soo hungry, and I have a new book with yummy recipes thanks to Sharon, so I'm going to see what I can concoct tonight. And then I'm going to sit down and watch So You Think You Can Dance. :)

A cool quote from my desk calendar:

"We did not change as we grew older; we just became more clearly ourselves." -Lynn Hall

Wow, it's been a busy week so far! And it'll only get busier...

I just booked my ticket to Georgia!! Woo hoo!! I'll leave on Friday the 18th and come back on Monday the 21st. I'm so excited! Can't wait to see Julie's house and Kate's school! Oh, and of course, Julie and Kate. :) I just wish my favorite Bro-in-law was gonna be around. Work stinks.

The weekend was good; KK and Gary came up on Saturday, and KK hung out at the barn with me while I rode Tokio. She took some good pics! I'll post a few soon. It was a good ride - I'm starting to put all the pieces together, but it's very difficult. My lesson last night was good, though, and I realized that I'd been trying to use entirely too much leg. Which I was really excited about because that means that I don't have to work quite as hard!

My workout this morning was great - worked upper body today, and will work lower body tomorrow. Sarah started with Sharon this morning, and I'm so excited to have someone I can compare stories of soreness with, haha!!

Gotta go to Barnes and Noble tonight to get my book for our family Beth Moore study - we're going to do the one about the Tabernacle (I can never remember the name, lol). I'm really excited about it.

Ok, have to go to work now. Longer and more detailed blog later!!

An Eat Clean Diet success story!

This particular story was extremely inspiring for me. She had many of the issues I face! Definitely motivating!!

Success Stories - Stacey Haley - The Eat-Clean Diet

Shared via AddThis

Friday!!

It's been a busy week, and I'm really excited that we don't have a show this weekend! Our schedule gets fairly frantic in September and October, so I'm going to enjoy my last weekend of relaxation for a while.

The last couple of days have been pretty good! I woke up yesterday morning and stretched and realized that my hamstrings felt like someone had beaten them with a crowbar! Sitting down isn't a problem, but trying to get out of a chair is a bit difficult. Now I know what those dead lifts are designed to do! Glutes are a bit sore today, but everything else feels okay!

I'm going to spend some quality time with the new man in my life this weekend - Tokio's Mom is out of town, so I'm going to be attempting to exercise him for her. It will be great for me to see if I can put together what we've been working on without my coach there to whisper "thumbs on top, carry your hands, sit on your pockets, shoulders back, chest up, more inside leg, make him look to the left (right), half halt, half halt..." :) See, I can do it!! KK is coming up on Saturday to do a photo shoot for us, so maybe we'll have some good shots to post.

I'm hoping to take Sabrah out to Lake Bryan this weekend with my friend Leslie for a lovely little jaunt. I ordered a neat book called "The Power of Positive Dog Training" and am looking forward to working with my pups, especially Sabrah, using the methods described in this book. We're hoping to start our agility classes in September provided that they mesh with my work schedule.

Off to finish up the afternoon here at work! Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do a little blogging this weekend; otherwise look for another looong post on Monday!

Busy 24 hours!

I woke up this morning feeling pretty rough. I had a really hard time falling asleep last night even though I was totally exhausted - my body was very very sore. Finally about a quarter to two, I got up and downed 800mg of ibuprofin - and sweet relief came shortly after! Unfortunately, I had to wake up. :)

I was afraid that my workout this morning was going to be extremely difficult, but I was surprised at what I was capable of (for the second time in 24 hours!) and progressed through my warmup, more squats with arm weights against the xball on the wall, and some complicated plank/lunge/step up moves on the step block. We then moved to free weights and worked my upper body (chest and back) with presses and upright rows, then finished off the set with dead lifts to strenghen the lower back. (Breathe and repeat) I really enjoyed this morning! I made it through the entire 30 minutes without feeling sick at all! Yay!! I'm truly amazed at how quickly I'm improving in stamina. I didn't fall asleep in my chair this morning, at least!

As I mentioned before, this morning was the second time I'd surprised myself in 24 hours; the first surprise was last night during my lesson on Tokio with Sarah. I was pretty sore in my quads and in my posterior regions, so I fully expected to fatigue quickly and asked that we work on the stuff that would require the most effort and strength right away. Well we did, and I never fatigued!! I finished my lesson on a very high note, and still felt capable of doing more!

We worked last night on using half halts at the trot to balance and create throughness in his back, and I had some really nice quarter and half circles! Dad was there to video, so I'm hoping that he caught some of those moments for me to see. He asked me one time why we ride horses like that - seeing as how it's so difficult to learn to put all the pieces together. My answer at the time was that it was the communication with the animal, the experience of the ride, and the challenge of learning to do it all correctly. My answer to that same question last night would have been simply "because it feels like I'm floating." :) I'm starting to understand how to put myself and the horse together, hold it together in a non-forceful way, and sense what minor changes to make to maintain it for more than 3 strides. My last two lessons have been tremendous breakthroughs for me!

I really want to thank all my sweet family and friends for the words of encouragement you've sent me after reading yesterday's post. Tiff, Aunt Janet, Mom, KK, Sarah, Sharon, Katie, Julie, Patty, and Leslie - your support is essential to me, and I hope that I can repay you for it in some small way.

Also, Congratulations to some of my very favorite people are in order!! First, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Mason Russell Blalock and congrats to Mom and Dad, Jessica and Kyle! And a huge Hey!!! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! congrats to Gared and Shawna who got engaged!!!!!!! I'm sooooo very happy for you all! Jessica and Kyle - I can't wait to meet the little man, and Shawna, cruise? Soon? Please? Yay!!!

Summary of the first week of the New Me!

This lovely picture is to demonstrate how I currently feel about the "place" I've been in for the last few years. Don't get me wrong - I don't have a bad life, at all whatsoever! I just haven't been living it to the fullest. I've decided to commit to making my next thirty years (sounds like a Tim McGraw song) be fun, fulfilling, adventurous, and healthy! So, I'll get this party started by sharing my "List".

I started my List about the time that Julie, Kate, and Dusty moved to New York, but really got serious about accomplishing stuff on it about a month ago (with the exception of the dressage lessons) I've put an asterisk by the ones that I've begun!

6 month Hobby/Activity/Intrest-to-be-Cultivated list:

Pay car off**!!*!*!*!* (done!)

Dressage Lessons* (every Tuesday evening with the best trainer in the world - Sarah Denham!)

Working out with personal trainer* (Mon and Wed mornings at *ugh* 8 am with the other best trainer in the world - Sharon Johnson!)

Start cooking/experimenting with recipes* (Eating Clean means I have to actually cook, and I'm finding that I love it!)

Photography (begun research on cameras)

New Laptop (Dusty and I are researching, and I'll prob. buy in the next couple of months)

Sabrah - obedience/agility classes (start in September)

Trip to see Julie/Kate/Dusty (also next month)

Dressage Schooling Show (Sometime this fall)

Cruise (planning for January/early Feb)

Iphone

Take Western Regional Dental Hygiene Board, get Texas License (next exam is in the Spring)Savings!!

12 month list:

Ireland trip

Hiking/other outdoor adventurous trips

Find me a man!

More frequent trips to MS

I also would love to find a church to attend and get involved with, but it seems that my weekends are generally booked through the rest of the year between working shows and going out of town. So if I can't do that, I intend to start working my way through some Bible Studies like Beth Moore and so on. That falls in my 6 month list as well! Gotta make a trip to the Christian Bookstore. :)

I will also be chronicling my workouts, riding lessons, and new recipes that I come up with. Here's a summary of the last week:

Workouts:

I started with Sharon on Wednesday morning, bright and early, at 8 a.m. I made the mistake of not eating breakfast before I got there (didn't allow enough time to do it), so it was a tough workout for me. I started with 5 mins on the elliptical, then moved to a circuit of walking lunges with a 4 lb medicine ball (rotating to alternate sides with each lunge), leg presses, assisted pull-ups, a HUGE step block, some tricep curls and then rows. After 3 sets, we finished with some yoga stretches, which were great, but my stupid belly kept getting in the way. It's starting to get the picture that it's GOING DOWN, MAN. ;) I left the studio and went on to work, got there an hour early, and spent the entire hour sitting in my chair recovering, and finally was able to eat a little breakfast. And boy, was I tired that night! BUT, I did manage to go to Kroger and stock up on supplies for my new way of eating. I spent about $110, but those groceries have fed me (and April a few times) all week long - 3 meals a day plus 2 energy booster "snacks", and I have the basics in my pantry to keep it up.

Yesterday morning (again, ugh, 8 a.m.) was better in the sense that I had made time to eat before, and had much more energy! I was definitely more prepared, and started with my 5 min warmup on the elliptical (with a little bit of arm resistance added in), then more walking lunges with the medicine ball. Next we did squats against the wall with an exercise ball behind my back and hand weights to press up as I came up. Then on the leg press. After 3 sets, I was wiped!! I got to work an hour early again, and fell asleep in my chair for about 20 minutes, haha! I'm pretty sore in my quads, hamstrings, and glutes today, but yay! My lesson tonight is going to be kinda tough, I think. Hello, my dear friend Advil...

Speaking of meals, I came up with a few yummy recipes that I think will become staples for me. Wednesday night, I made a salad with Romaine lettuce, baby spinach, whole wheat rotini pasta, cucumber slices, shredded mozzerella cheese, and a chicken breast that I had um, sauteed? in olive oil, salt and pepper, onion, and a little garlic powder. Very yummy! Thursday night, I made my own southwestern eggroll/burrito thingy - whole wheat tortilla, black beans and corn, brown rice, chicken, and shredded (organic 2%) cheese, seasoned with my own blend of "southwest" seasoning. I put the burrito in the oven to crisp and melt the cheese, and voila! (or ole!) Last night, I made another salad - inspired by the Apple Crunch salad at O'Charleys. It was the Romaine/Baby Spinach blend with garbanzo beans, whole wheat rotini, Gala apple slices, pecans, shredded (organic 2%) mozzerella, cucumbers, and chicken that I'd george-foreman'd with soy sauce. I added a yummy dressing on the side (made from low-fat plain yogurt and orange juice concentrate), and had a really delicious Asian-y tasting dinner. All of these meals I've made have resulted in lots of leftovers, and I have been combining the elements for my lunches every day. For breakfast, I have been eating low-fat vanilla yogurt with fresh raspberries, a slice of toast with peanut butter, and a glass of milk, or raisin bran with a side of yogurt or all-natural applesauce. I'm eating really well! And feeling even better!!! For the basics on my new eating philosophy, check out the Eat Clean Diet, and also Clean Eating Magazine.

Riding Lessons:

Last week, I tried out my new butt spray. Sounds like a personal problem, I know, but it's the most amazing thing ever! :) It's basically spray-on glue that gives you a little more stick in the saddle. For a big mover like Tokio, it's a necessity. Sarah bought some, tried it, and immediately called me to recommend that I bring a can home for myself! I applied a little to the inside of my half chaps, and a light dusting of my seat, and my ride last Monday was one of the best I've had! In addition to being able to keep my lower leg in place more easily, I was able to sit the canter more effectively, and even make changes to my position (thumbs on top, elbows glued to my sides) while still maintaining impulsion (the gas pedal). We also worked on effective half-halts (and I finally grasped the concept of what they really are and what they actually do) and canter departs (moving from a nice, forward, on-the-bit walk directly into the canter without losing contact, position, or my sanity). Tokio is absolutely awesome, a gentleman, and a total saint for putting up with me, and teaching me so much! And I can't say enough about what a wonderful instructor Sarah is - she's supportive, encouraging, and entertaining, and even if it's just the most minor thing, she enthusiastically praises and compliments each little breakthrough. I've ridden all my life, but have never felt such a sense of accomplishment as I do at the end of a lesson on Tokio.

Apparently, I haven't put enough peppermints in the machine yet...

Test Run

Hi! I decided I'd try out the blog thing, since it seems to be all the rage these days. We'll see how it goes! More updates with pics and such to come...